Doc Yoder's Notes
An Island in the Moon by William Blake (1784)

Characters

The Men:
Suction the Epicurean
Quid the Cynic
Sipsop the Pythagorean
Etruscan Column the Antiquarian
Inflammable Gass the Windfinder
Obtuse Angle the Mathematician
Steelyard the Lawgiver
Tilly Lally the Siptippidist
Aradobo the Dean of Morocco
Little Scopprell

The Women:
Mrs. Gimblet
Miss Gittipin
Mrs. Nannicantipot
Mrs. Sigtagatist
Gibble Gabble (the wife of Inflammable Gass)
Mrs. Sinagain (NOT formally introduced in Ch. 2)

Chap. 1
An island much like England in its people and language

• Intro Suction the Epicurean (Robert)
  Quid the Cynic (Wm.)
  Sipsop the Pythagorean
• Intro other characters, Etruscan Column, Inflammable Gass, Obtuse Angle, Miss Gimblet, and
  finally Steelyard the Lawgiver
• Argument about Voltaire related to the question of "virtuous cats"

Chap. 2
Snide intro of other characters, simply by name

Chap. 3
Singing and confusion about Phoebus and Pharaoh -- who is actually listening in the conversation?
and who knows what about the Bible or mythology? (might be a good passage to read aloud in class).

Chap. 4

• Continues argument over Pharoah and Phoebus w/ profaning and Pythagorean thrown in
  for good measure
• Shift to argument between Mrs. Nannicantipot and Mrs. Sigtagatist about going to church
  and the theatrics of enthusiastic preachers

Chap. 5
Scene changes to Obtuse Angle"s study, where Obtuse, Scopprell, Aradobo & Tilly Lally are gathered.
"Was Chatterton a Mathematician?" -- sort of Abbott and Costello routine about assumptions
and thinking for oneself ("Whenever you think, you must always think for yourself." "Whenever
I think, I must think myself-- I think I do." [381]: Refers to Decartes?); discussion of
Chatterton is interrupted by the entrance of "all the people in the book" (381)

Chap. 6

• Exeunt all but the philosophers, Then Suction asks "if Pindar was not a better Poet than
  Ghiotto was a Painter."
  Plutarch comes up also. Sipsop's hatred of Plutarch becomes a kind of nightmare vision of surgery.
• Quid sings a song, "When Old Corruption first begun" -- a nightmare allegory of the
  complicity of government and medical research (to which Quid is apparently not sympathetic)
• Sipsop the Pythagorean is apparently a surgeon and Quid's song seems to make him
  regret his work and plan to "leave off"
  -- Cynic's song anticipates later circular narratives (cf. "The Crystal Cabinet") and
  the scenes of torture in the later prophecies

Chap. 7
Sipsop leaves, Quid criticizes Homer ("bombast"), Shakespeare ("too wild") and Milton ("no feelings"),
then takes on Chatterton; then Suction attacks Sir Joshua Reynolds

Chap. 8

• Steelyard is taking "extracts" from Hervey's Meditations and Young's Night Thoughts, but when
  Obtuse Angle asks what he is reading, Steelyard doesn't know; he apparently collects passages
  from literature; Scopprell picks up Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding but
  doesn't recognize it
• Miss Gittipin argues with Steelyard about fashion vs books, and Steelyard bears it
  "more like a saint than a lawgiver" Steelyard comments on strength and women's tongues, and she
  responds with Phebe and Jellicoe, a poem ridiculed by Pope in Peri Bathous
• they're all invited to philosophers' house for merry making

Chap. 9
Drinking party at the philosophers'; lots of songs

• "Lo the Bat with Leathern wing" (Suction; Dr. Johnson and Scipio Africanus)/li>
• "As I walked forth one May morning" (Steelyard; pastoral about a maiden amid violets)
• "Frog went a-wooing" (Miss Gittipin)
• "Hail Matrimony, made of love" (Quid; "English genius for ever!")
  "Matrimony's Golden cage" that "cured all your pains"
• "To be, or not to be / Of great capacity" (Obtuse Angle) includes Newton, Locke,
  Dr. South, Sherlock, and Sutton
  
• "This city & this country has brought forth many mayors" (or "Good English
  hospitality, O then it did not fail!") (Steelyard; on how well the mayors and aldermen
  eat, as opposed to the "hungry poor")

Chap. 10
So in songs do the Islanders pass their time, but then a accident occurs at the home
of Inflammable Gass -- doing experiments (including stereoscopes?), when a jar explodes
letting out the "Pestilence" or "plague" upon the Island

Chap. 11
A party at Steelyard's; lots of songs, including some from Innocence

• "Holy Thursday" (Obtuse Angle)
• "Nurse's Song" (Mrs. Nannicantipot; she says it's her mother's song)
• "Little Boy Lost" (Quid)
• "O I say you Joe, /Throw us the ball" (Tilly Lally; not in Songs, was it ever intended to be?)
• "Leave, O leave me to my sorrows, / Here I'll sit & fade away" (Miss Gittipin)
• "There's Dr. Clash" (Scopprell; sort of childrenšs song, but with more serious innuendo)
• "A crowned king, / On a white horse sitting" (Sipsop; on politics and war)
• PAGES MISSING, but returns mentions "Illuminating the Manuscript"
• ends with discussion of phrenology/faces-like-animals (goat's face; tyger's face), then on abilities and
  envy; "But do you outface them & then strangers will see that you have an opinion" (394-5)