The Bloodless Revolution: Radical Vegetarians and the Discovery of India

762 Pages·2012·10.68 MB·English

by  Tristram Stuart

THE BLOODLESS REVOLUTION
Radical Vegetarians and the Discovery of India
TRISTRAM STUART
DEDICATION
To my father
SIMON STUART
(1930–2002)
CONTENTS
COVER
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
INTRODUCTION
I: GRASS ROOTS
1 Bushell’s Bushel, Bacon’s Bacon and The Great Instauration
2 John Robins: The Shakers’ God
3 Roger Crab: Levelling the Food Chain
4 Pythagoras and the Sages of India
5 ‘This proud and troublesome Thing, called Man’: Thomas Tryon, the Brahmin
of Britain
6 John Evelyn: Salvation in a Salad
7 The Kabbala Stripped Naked
8 Men Should be Friends even to Brute Beasts: Isaac Newton and the Origins of
Pagan Theology
9 Atheists, Deists and the Turkish Spy
II: MEATLESS MEDICINE
10 Dieting with Dr Descartes
11 Tooth and Nail: Pierre Gassendi and the Human Appendix
12 The Mitre and the Microscope: Philippe Hecquet’s Catholic Fast Food
13 Dr Cheyne’s Sensible Diet
14 Clarissa’s Calories
15 Rousseau and the Bosoms of Nature
16 The Counter-Vegetarian Mascot: Pope’s Happy Lamb
17 Antonio Cocchi and the Cure for Scurvy
18 The Sparing Diet: Scotland’s Vegetarian Dynasty
III: ROMANTIC DINNERS
19 Diet and Diplomacy: Eating Beef in the Land of the Holy Cow
20 John Zephaniah Holwell: Voltaire’s Hindu Prophet
21 The Cry of Nature: Killing in the Name of Animal Rights in the French
Revolution
22 The Marquis de Valady faces the Guillotine
23 Bloodless Brothers
24 John ‘Walking’ Stewart and the Utility of Death
25 To Kill a Cat: Joseph Ritson’s Politics of Atheism
26 Shelley and the Return to Nature
27 The Malthusian Tragedy: Feeding the World
EPILOGUE
ABBREVIATIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NOTES
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
SECTION ONE
Studio of Jan Brueghel the Elder, ‘Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden’,
Flemish, early 17th century. Leeds Museums and Galleries (Lotherton Hall) UK/
The Bridgeman Art Library, London (ref: LMG 142825)
Frans Snyders, ‘The Butcher’s Shop’ c.1640– 50. Pushkin Museum, Moscow,
Russia/The Bridgeman Art Library, London (ref: XIR 47570)
Jan Brueghel the Elder & Peter Paul Rubens, ‘Adam and Eve in Paradise’,
c.1615. Mauritshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands/The Bridgeman Art Library
(ref: BAL 7152)
David Teniers the Younger, ‘In the Kitchen’, 1669. Noortman, Maastricht, The
Netherlands/The Bridgeman Art Library, London (ref: NOR 61586)
Frontispiece of Christopher Plantin ed. ‘Biblia Sacra, Hebraice, Chaldaice,
Grace & Latine’, Antwerp, 1569. The British Library, London
Ivory Cabinet, showing Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Sri Lanka, late
17th century. V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London (ref: CT62950)
Iskandar meeting the Brahmans, India, 1719. From the latter half of a manuscript
of Firdawsi’s ‘Shahnama’. The British Library, London (ref: Add. 18804, f.117v)
‘Maître François’ (illuminator), ‘Alexander the Great meeting the Indian
‘‘gymnosophists’’, or naked philosophers’. From St Augustine, ‘La Cité de
Dieu’, Books I-X, Paris. 1475– 1480. Koninklijke Bibliotheek National Library
of the Netherlands, Den Haag, Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum (ref:
MMW, 10 A 11, f. 93v)
Bhairavi Ragini, First Wife of Bhairava Raga, Folio from a Ragamala (Garland
of Melodies), Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, India, 1685– 1690. Los Angeles
County Museum of Art (Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Museum
Associates Purchase. Photo © 2006 Museum Associates/LACMA
Banyans and Brahmins, from Jan Huygen van Linschoten, ‘Itinerario’, 1596. The
Brenthurst Library, Johannesburg, South Africa. Photograph by Clive Hassall
‘Indian huts’ from Jan Huygen van Linschoten, ‘Itinerario’, 1596. The
Brenthurst Library, Johannesburg, South Africa. Photograph by Clive Hassall
John Evelyn’s ‘pietre dure’ cabinet showing Orpheus charming the beasts by
Domenico Bennotti & Francesco Ffanelli, 1644– 50. V&A Images/Victoria and
Albert Museum, London (ref: CT64605)
School of Jan Brueghel the Elder, ‘Orpheus charming the animals’, Flemish,
c.1600– 10. Galleria Borghese, Rome. Alinari Archives/Corbis
SECTION TWO
Joseph Highmore, ‘The Harlowe Family’ from the illustrations of Samuel
Richardson’s Clarissa, 1747– 8. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon
Collection, USA/The Bridgeman Art Library, London (ref: YBA 156350)
Jean Baptiste Greuze, ‘Girl weeping over her Dead Canary’, c.1765. National
Gallery of Scotland/The Bridgeman Art Library, London (ref: NGS 230482)
Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun, ‘Self Portrait in a Straw Hat’, 1782. The National
Gallery, London
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, ‘The Milkmaid’, before 1784. Louvre, Paris/The
Bridgeman Art Library, London (ref: XIR 90016)
Frontispiece of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ‘Discours sur l’Origine et les
Fondemens de l’Inegalité ’, Marc Michel, Amsterdam, 1755. The British
Library, London
Jean Baptiste Greuze, ‘The White Hat’, by c.1780. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/
The Bridgeman Art Library, London (ref: BST 216007)
Attributed to Marie Victoire Lemoine, ‘Young Woman with a Dog’, c.1796
Bucharest National Museum of Arts/AKG Images, London
Jean Laurent Mosnier, ‘The Young Mother’, c.1770– 80. Musée Municipal,
Macon, France/The Bridgeman Art Library, London (ref: XIR 180450)
Eugene Delacroix, ‘Liberty Leading the People’, 1830. Louvre, Paris/The
Bridgeman Art Library, London (ref: XIR 3692)
C.J. Grant, ‘Singular effects of the universal pills on a green grocer!’ From
‘Grant’s Oddities’, London, 1841, plate 8. The Wellcome Trust Medical
Photographic Library (ref: V0011125)
‘The Mansion of Bliss. A New Game for the Amusement of Youth’, William
Darton, London, 1822. V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London (ref:
CT26924)
The Old Fort, Playhouse and Holwell’s Monument, Calcutta, from Thomas
Daniell, ‘Views of Calcutta’, 1786. The British Library, London (ref: P88, 88)
Attributed to Johann Zoffany, ‘Portrait of John Zephaniah Holwell’, 1765. Hood
Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire (ref: P.961.244)
Marquis de Valady (1766– 1793) and his wife, daughter of the Comte de
Vaudreuil.
Courtesy of Christian de Chefdebien
SECTION THREE
Akbar ordering the slaughter to cease, from Abul Fazl’s ‘Akbarnama’, Mughal,
c.1590. Johnson Album 8, no 4. V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum,
London (ref: I.S.2– 1896)
King Solomon and the animals, from the ‘Iyar-i-Danish’ c.1595. Chester Beatty
Library, Dublin (ref: CBL In. 4.74)
Majnun and the hunter, from an illustrated ‘Silsilat al-Zahab’, Akbar’s court,
India, 1613. Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (ref: CBL In. 8.61)
Top-cover of pen box, signed by Manohar, India, Deccan, late 17th century.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B.
Polsky Fund, 2002 (2002.416 ab)
Jewel casket, detail of lady holding tree, attributed to Rahim Deccani. Deccan
(or probably Golconda) or Kashmir, India, c.1660. V&A Images/Victoria and
Albert Museum, London (ref: CT104143)
Jewel casket, detail of seated European, attributed to Rahim Deccani. Deccan (or
probably Golconda) or Kashmir, India, c.1660. V&A Images/Victoria and Albert
Museum, London (ref: CT104144)
The ‘pietre dure’ Orpheus on Shah Jahan’s Throne in the Hall of Public
Audiences in the Red Fort, New Delhi, India, by Ebba Koch. Akademische
Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt, Graz, Austria, 1988
Todi Ragini, Second Wife of Hindol Raga, Folio from a ‘Ragamala’ (Garland of
Melodies), Jaipur, India, c.1750. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Nasli and
Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Museum Associates Purchase. Photo © 2006
Museum Associates/LACMA
Detail of an illustrated vijnaptipatra, by Ustad Salivahana, AD 1610. Courtesy of
Shri Jitendra Shah, Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology, Navrangpur,
Gujarat, India.
Illustration from the ‘Lalitavistara’ by the Buddhist Scribe Amrtananda:
commissioned by Captain Knox, an officer of the East India. Company’s army,
resident in Nepal in 1803– 4. The British Library, London (ref: I.O. SAN 688)
James Fraser, ‘A street scene in the village of Raniya’, 1816– 20. The British
Library, London (ref: Add.Or.4057)
James Gillray, ‘French Liberty and British Slavery’, London, c.1789. The British
Library, London/The Bridgeman Art Library, London (ref: BL 22564)
James Gillray, ‘Consequences of a Successful French Invasion or We teach de
English Republicans to work’, London, c.1798. The Warden and Scholars of
New College, Oxford/The Bridgeman Art Library, London (ref: NCO 190453)
James Gillray, ‘Temperance enjoying a frugal meal’ (Charlotte Sophia of
Mecklenburg-Strelitz; King George III), 1792. The National Portrait Gallery,
London (ref: NPG D12461)
James Gillray, ‘A voluptuary under the horrors of Digestion’ (King George IV),
1792. The National Portrait Gallery, London (ref: NPG D12460)
James Gillray, ‘New morality …’, London, 1798. The National Portrait Gallery,
London (ref: NPG D13093)
Edward Hicks, ‘The Peaceable Kingdom’, c.1840– 5. Brooklyn Museum of Art,
New York/The Bridgeman Art Library, London (ref: TBM 84503)
INTEGRATED
Thomas Bushell, the Superlative Prodigall, from Thomas Bushell, ‘The First
Part of Youth Errors’ (London, 1628). The British Library, London
Golden Age, from ‘Ovid’s Metamorphoses’ (London, 1732). The British
Library, London (ref: 11375.aa.23)
Ranters and Shakers, from George Hall ‘The Declaration of John Robins, the
false Prophet, otherwise called the Shakers God’ (London, 1651). The British
Library, London
A naked rout of Ranters, from John Collins ‘Strange Newes from Newgate’
(London, 1650/1). The British Library, London (ref: E.622.3)
Naked Adamites, from Obadiah Couchman, ‘The Adamites Sermon’ (F. Cowles:
London, 1641). The British Library, London
Roger Crab’s horoscope consultation with William Lilly, ‘de Revelatione’. The
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, England. (ref: MS Ashmole 427 f. 51v)
Roger Crab, ‘The English Hermite’ (London, 1655). The National Portrait
Gallery, London (NPG D2220)
Illuminated letter S, from Roger Crab, ‘The English Hermite’ (London, 1655), p.
2. The British Library, London (ref: G.1024.E.826.1)
Jan van Grevenbroeck, Marco Polo in Tartar Attire. Museo Correr, Venice/ The
Bridgeman Art Library, London (ref: XIR 34703)
Indian cow worship, from the frontispiece of Thomas Herbert, ‘A Relation of
Some Yeares Travaile, Begunne Anno 1626 Into Afrique … and some parts of
the Orientall Indies’ (William Stansby: London, 1634). The British Library,
London
Brahmin with cow, from Frontispiece of Henry Lord, ‘A Display of two
forraigne sects in the East Indies’ (London, 1630). The British Library, London
(ref: 147.a.20)
Horoscope of the Nativity of Thomas Tryon’s daughter, from John Gadbury,
‘Collectio Geniturarum’ (London, 1661/2), p. 195. The British Library, London
Robert White, Portrait of Thomas Tryon after unknown artist. From Thomas
Tryon, ‘The Knowledge Of A Man’s Self ’ (T. Bennet: London, 1703). The
National Portrait Gallery, London (ref: NPG D8242)
Naked Adamites, from Bernard Picart, ‘Ceremonies et Coutumes Religieuses de
Tous Les Peuples Du Monde ( J.F. Bernard: Amsterdam, 1736). The British