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The Bickerstaff Paper

Decent Essays

The Bickerstaff papers begins sometime in 1708, were an almanac, almanac at the time were arguably the most popular forms of literature. What the almanacs did was predict future events by Astrologers, usually the upcoming year. The Bickerstaff papers were, in my opinion, the most difficult to comprehend and interepert. Nevertheless, after careful reading and obtaining background information in lecture, we can begin to notice just how humorous it is. Isaac Bickerstaff was the alias of Jonathan Swift. Swift being frustrated that Partridge’s attacks upon the church, decided he would attempt to not only mock but also discredit the Astrologer. Therefore, eventually forcing Partridge to no longer publish his almanac. Furthermore, what makes these papers so amusing is the fact that Swift or Bickerstaff, in this case, made an almanac of himself. Where he predicted the death of Partridge. Predicting the exact time and place of his passing. The prediction was that Partridge would die at exactly 11 p.m. on March 29th of that year. This prediction shocked most Londoners. As a result of the fall out. Partridge immediately replied with his own almanac. Claiming Bickerstaff was spouting nonsense and that the end of March would …show more content…

This led to Partridge being enraged to no end. Thus he published another pamphlet, in which he claimed that he was still among the living and that Bickerstaff was a liar. Bickerstaff responded calmly that that Partridge was in fact dead, since no man on this earth could have possibly written such erroneous predictions and claims that were present in his previous almanac. In addition, Bickerstaff claimed that Partridge’s own wife admitted that her husband had “neither life nor soul”, therefore he was in fact

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