Remarks on the English by the Indian Kings (essay) by Joseph Addison

Remarks on the English by the Indian Kings

Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison and Richard Steele are the pioneers of English essays. First they started the paper “The Tatler”. After that they began “The Spectator”. Richard Steele was more original, imaginative and sensitive, while Joseph Addison shows charm of style, restraint in expression and elegance in his essays. More over Joseph Addison’s essays show the genial intimacy between the writer and the reader. Later writers like Charles Lamb and Hazlitt followed the style of Addison. Joseph Addison was a keen observer of men and mnners and had a fine sense of humour. In the essay titled “Remarks on the English by the Indian Kings”, he laughs at the false pride of his countrymen about the customs, manners and dresses of their nation. The author imagines that four Indian kings have visited England and he used to accompany them during their visit. After that he was eager to learn their opinion about his country and his people. So he asked one of his friends to contact their landlord, an upholsterer and learn about their manners and conversation. The upholsterer gave Addison’s friend a bundle of papers, which belonged to the King Sa Ga Yean Qua Rash Tow. The papers were translated into English.

The remark of the Indian King about the Church of St Paul in London is very interesting. They thought that the church was created with the earth and produced on the same day with the sun and the moon. The church was on the top of hill. It was a huge rock. The workers used many tools and instruments and made beautiful vaults and caverns and huge pillars are made out of the rock. The pillars looked like huge trees with branches of leaves. When the work was begun, there was some religion among the people and they used to come there to worship. Every seventh day of the week, they come here to worship. But when the king visited these holy houses, he found people had no interest in worship and prayer. A man in black dress was standing above the rest and spoke something. But people did not listen to his sermon and they were talking. Some of them were sleeping.

The Queen of England appointed two men to attend the Indian kings. They acted as interpreters. Soon the kings learned that these two English men were bitter enemies to each other. One interpreter said that England was infested with a dangerous animal called Whigs. They support parliamentary democracy and they don’t like kings.  The other interpreter told the Indian kings that there are some dangerous animals in England. They are called Tories. They don’t like foreigners. Whigs and Tories are two political parties of England. The Whigs support parliamentary democracy while Tories support kingship. Later Whigs changed their name to Liberal party and Tories changed into Conservative party.

The Indian kings learned that English men are very cunning and skillful in handicraft works. Most of the young men are very lazy because they were carried in “little covered rooms” by a couple of porters. Their dress is very uncivilized because they wear the dress upto the neck and bind their bodies with a bundle of dresses. These English people wear huge wigs on their heads and proudly walk along the road. On the other hand the kings decorated their heads with colourful feathers.

The Indian kings were invited to one of their public parks where entertainment was going on. The Indian kings wanted to watch hunting of animals. But they saw a lot of people sitting in a candle lighted room and watching some entertainment.

The Indian kings watched the English women from a distance and they could not talk to them. These women grow their hair long and tie it up in a knot and they use a covering so that other cannot enjoy their beautiful hair. The women look like angels and would be more beautiful than the sun if they did not use the black mark on the face. The spot of the black mark is changed from day to day.

Addison concludes from these observations that people always disapprove of the customs, manners and dresses of other nations because they are not familiar with such strange customs and manners and dresses. People of every nation should know that their customs and manners also have some drawbacks and defects. We should not criticize the customs, manners, dresses and other habits of other nations only because they are not familiar to us.

1.  “On the most rising part of the town there stands a huge house, big enough to contain the whole nation of which I am king”        - 1^st & 2^nd paragraph of the essay.

2. “ But as for those underneath him, instead of paying their worship to the deity of the place, they were, most of them bowing and curtseying to one another and a considerable number of them fast asleep” – 1^st &  2^nd paragraph

3.  “Our other interpreter used to talk very much of a kid of animal called a Tory, that was a great monster as the Whig”   -   1^st and 3^rd paragraph

4. “Instead of those beautiful feathers with which w adorn our heads, they often buy up a monstrous bush of hair, which covers their heads and falls down in a large fleece below the middle of their backs” – 1^st & 4^th paragraph.

5.  “The women look like angels, and would be more beautiful than the sun, were it not for little black spots that are apt to break out in their faces, and sometimes rise in very