ENGLISH How does Franklin\'s drama reflect the historical period in which it was
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Question
ENGLISH
How does Franklin's drama reflect the historical period in which it was written?
and the Gout”
by Benjamin Franklin
[1] FRANKLIN: Eh! Oh! What have I done to merit these cruel sufferings?
[2] GOUT: Many things; you have ate and drank too freely, and too much indulged those legs of yours in their indolence.
[3] FRANKLIN: Who is it that accuses me?
[4] GOUT: It is I, even I, the Gout.
[5] FRANKLIN: What! my enemy in person?
[6] GOUT: No, not your enemy.
[7] FRANKLIN: I repeat it, my enemy; for you would not only torment my body to death, but ruin my good name; you reproach me as a glutton and a tippler; now all the world, that knows me, will allow that I am neither the one nor the other.
[8] GOUT: The world may think as it pleases; it is always very complaisant to itself, and sometimes to its friends; but I very well know that the quantity of meat and drink proper for a man, who takes a reasonable degree of exercise, would be too much for another, who never takes any.
[9] FRANKLIN: I take—eh! oh!—as much exercise—eh!—as I can, Madam Gout. You know my sedentary state, and on that account, it would seem, Madam Gout, as if you might spare me a little, seeing it is not altogether my own fault.
[10] GOUT: If your situation in life is a sedentary one, your amusements, your recreations, at least, should be active. You ought to walk or ride; or, if the weather prevents that, play at billiards. But let us examine your course of life. While the mornings are long, and you have leisure to go abroad, what do you do? Why, instead of gaining an appetite for breakfast, by salutary exercise, you amuse yourself with books, pamphlets, or newspapers, which commonly are not worth the reading. Yet you eat an inordinate breakfast, four dishes of tea, with cream, and one or two buttered toasts, with slices of hung beef, which I fancy are not things the most easily digested. Immediately afterwards you sit down to write at your desk, or converse with persons who apply to you on business. Thus the time passes till one, without any kind of bodily exercise. But all this I could pardon, in regard, as you say, to your sedentary condition. But what is your practice after dinner? Walking in the beautiful gardens of those friends with whom you have dined would be the choice of men of sense; yours is to be fixed down to chess, where you are found engaged for two or three hours!
[11] FRANKLIN: Oh! Ehhh!—It is not fair to say I take no exercise, when I do very often, going out to dine and returning in my carriage.
[12] GOUT: That, of all imaginable exercises, is the most slight and insignificant, if you allude to the motion of a carriage suspended on springs. By observing the degree of heat obtained by different kinds of motion, we may form an estimate of the quantity of exercise given by each. Thus, for example, if you turn out to walk in winter with cold feet, in an hour's time you will be in a glow all over; ride on horseback, the same effect will scarcely be perceived by four hours' round trotting; but if you loll in a carriage, such as you have mentioned, you may travel all day and gladly enter the last inn to warm your feet by a fire. Flatter yourself then no longer, that half an hour's airing in your carriage deserves the name of exercise.
[13] FRANKLIN: How can you so cruelly sport with my torments?
[14] GOUT: Sport! I am very serious. I have here a list of offenses against your own health distinctly written, and can justify every stroke inflicted on you.
[15] FRANKLIN: Proceed. I am all attention.
[16] GOUT: Do you remember how often you have promised yourself, the following morning, a walk in the grove of Boulogne, in the garden de la Muette, or in your own garden, and have violated your promise, alleging, at one time, it was too cold, at another too warm, too windy, too moist, or what else you pleased; when in truth it was too nothing, but your insuperable love of ease?
[17] FRANKLIN: That I confess may have happened occasionally, probably ten times in a year.
[18] GOUT: Your confession is very far short of the truth; the gross amount is one hundred and ninety-nine times.
[19] FRANKLIN: I am convinced now of the justness of Poor Richard's remark, that “Our debts and our sins are always greater than we think for.”
[20] GOUT: So it is. You philosophers are sages in your maxims, and fools in your conduct.
[21] FRANKLIN: What then would you have me do with my carriage?
[22] GOUT: Burn it if you choose; you would at least get heat out of it once in this way; or, if you dislike that proposal, here's another for you; observe the poor peasants, who work in the vineyards and grounds about the villages of Passy, Auteuil, Chaillot, etc.; you may find every day among these deserving creatures, four or five old men and women, bent and perhaps crippled by weight of years, and too long and too great labor. After a most fatiguing day, these people have to trudge a mile or two to their smoky huts. Order your coachman to set them down. This is an act that will be good for your soul; and, at the same time, after your visit to the Brillons, if you return on foot, that will be good for your body.
[23] FRANKLIN: Oh! Oh!—for Heaven's sake leave me! I promise faithfully never more to play at chess, but to take exercise daily, and live temperately.
[24] GOUT: I know you too well. You promise fair; but, after a few months of good health, you will return to your old habits; your fine promises will be forgotten like the forms of the last year's clouds. Let us then finish the account, and I will go. But I leave you with an assurance of visiting you again at a proper time and place; for my object is your good, and you are sensible now that I am your real friend.
"Dialogue Between Franklin and the Gout," Benjamin Franklin, October 22, 1780
How does Franklin's drama reflect the historical period in which it was written?
Explanation / Answer
A, It incorporates rational thinking, which was common among Age of Enlightenment writers.
Benjamin Franklin belonged to the age of American enlightenment in the period 1714 - 1818 . This was a time when scientific reasoning and critical thinking was applied to science, religion, politics.
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