MUNDUS ALTER ET IDEM
by Bishop Joseph Hall
The composition L'Hospidale de Pazzi Incurabili by Garzoni had an extraordinary success, in a certain sense even superior than his Piazza Universale. It was translated in French, German and English in a few years and taken as model of structural reference by the seventeenth-century culture. Among the different works inspired by this one (however we must not forget that Garzoni knew without doubt The Ship of Fools by Sebastian Brant, Basle, 1494, from which he was conditioned) it results important to our studies the Mundus Alter et Idem by Jospeh Hall composed in Latin language in 1605.
Hall was an Elizabethan satirical poet and author of moral and theological poems in Jacobinical age. He became Anglican bishop of Exeter in 1627 and of Norwich in 1641. His quoted work was considered not only a writing of pleasant literature but also a text of moral and civil engagement.
The first edition was published in London for Humphrey Lownes (even if the reported city is Frankfurt) and in that occasion Hall signed with the pseudonym of Mercurius Britannicus: MVNDVS ALTER ET IDEM / Sive / Terra Australis ante / hac semper incognita longis / itineribus peregrini Aca: / demici nuperrime / lustrata / Auth: Mercurio Britannico. / FRANCOFVRTI APVD / Haeredes Ascanij de Rinialme.
Belonging to the Puritanism the most fundamentalist the layout of the work is probably due to the deep necessity of Hall to engage in controversy with the English Jesuits, and in the Book III it is particularly sour and prickly against the Pope and the Roman clergy, a criticism at the present effected through the pretence of a society distant in space, as it can be deduced by the title of the work. At the same time the writing has utopian values whereas the trip of Hall to the search of the Eutopia, good place, is expressed through a trip toward the Outopia, nonexistent place, but the search of a happy, even if imaginary land, won't lead to positive results.
Mercurius after two years of navigation in the southern seas lands to the earth of Crapulia: in some provinces people are all irascible and lunatic, or are horrid and deformed, dedicated to sins, the schools are taverns where is taught the science of to drink and to eat; elsewhere, where a democratic regime of women is in force, it is only learned to command and not to obey, men work, women stay and look at them, the first ones get up and the seconds sleep. From his imaginary tale it can be deduced that the author believed that the world was not to be changed, since the utopian one would have been worse.
Skipping the most philosophical aspects to come back to the theme of tarots, it is necessary to follow the trip of Mercurius who, reached Orgilia (1), dukedom of Moronia Aspera, arid earth, sandy, sterile, meets just irascible people, furious, hot tempered, governed by the Duke of Courroux (2), a very cruel tyrant.
“None of these men ventures anywhere except when loaded down with weapons, so that even he who may have few clothes will, nevertheless, not be without all sorts of arms. That man, no less than if he had been hired as Mars's porter, carries a musket on his right arm, a cudgel to on his left, a sword on one side, a dagger on the other, and a bow and a quiver on his back wherever he travels. Anyone who meets him going along the road, unless he yield the road a long way off, must prepare himself for battle, or death is inevitable. It is a rare trip without a wound or even a murder; and once someone kills a person he tears him to pieces most ravenously, for the citizens always feed on raw flesh, usually human, which they reckon among the most splendid of feasts, and they intoxicate themselves with the drained-off blood. There are no laws there: by force and by arms are all things decided. An injury suffered is either revenged or endured. Only this one rule governs, obtained from ancient law: "Conquer and enjoy".
Dueling is permitted either to seek revenge, or to recover what is yours, or to seize what is someone else's. But if more than two assemble and join in the struggle, whoever remains alive is bound over into the Duke's custody. It is evident that this is an astute decree from the Duke, since it opportunely guards against the seeds of conspiracies, and under this pretext he procures better food for his table. The Duke's seat is called Tarochium (3), a vast city but completely made of wood, for the tyrant would permit it to be constructed from no other material, lest it be impossible to have it burned at his whim when the citizens have offended.
No one lives here, except blacksmiths, executioners, and butchers in whose shops hang the legs of men, no differently than the legs of swine or cattle hang with us. To this city flows the torrential River Zornus (4), which they say runs even in the middle of winter, emanating heat like a mineral spring and giving off ill-smelling vapors”. (Book Three: Moronia. Chapter 5: Orgilia, the Second Province of Moronia Aspera. Verses 6-34)
By what is written it results evident that Jospeh Hall calling Tarochium the ducal Centre of Orgilia loaned the meaning of “crazy of tarot” that Garzoni in his Discourse XIII of The Hospital of Incurable Madmen had given to those people who go “taroccando bestially with their brain”, that means those who, playing with their own brain as with tarot cards, suddenly burst into flames because of anger.
The passage by Hall has besides a precise comparison in the real life of players, who everyday went in tavern with weapons and who often quarrelled among them until frequent killings, one of the many motives for which gambling was condemned by the Church.
Notes
1 - Orgilia: earth of "orgies", in the sense of chaos. 2 - Dux de Courroux, from the French despise, scorn. 3 - Tarochium: city where “crazy of tarot”, that is by angry people live. 4 - Zornus: from the German “Der Zorn”, that is anger, wrath.
