Work record

The Diverting History of John Gilpin

William Cowper

1782 · 18th Century · Poetry · English

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Abstract

Written: 1782; published anonymously November 1782
Setting: Late eighteenth-century London; London, Edmonton and Ware, England
Author: William Cowper
Country: Kingdom of Great Britain
Language: English
Genre: Comic ballad
Form: Quatrains in ballad metre
Recommended: Grades 3–8 (Comic ballad; read aloud.)

Background. During one of the poet's dark spells, his friend Lady Austen told him a tale remembered from her childhood. He lay awake laughing and wrote it in verse the next day.

Content. After twenty years without a holiday, a cloth merchant's wife arranges an anniversary outing north of London. He follows the coach on a borrowed mount that promptly gallops off with him. Bystanders think he is racing; his hat, wig and wine bottles go flying. Carried past the inn to the horse's home town and then all the way back, he reaches his own door safe at last.

Form. Swift quatrains in ballad metre ending in a mock-loyal toast.

Themes. Good-humoured endurance, small vanities, marriage, and the comedy of plans undone.

Reception. An actor's recitations made it a London sensation in 1785, and it has delighted children ever since. The comedy follows a real road out of the City of London through the villages of Islington and Edmonton to the market town of Ware in Hertfordshire, past turnpikes, inns and staring crowds, so that the runaway horse gives a lively picture of Georgian roadside life.

For students. Wonderful for read-aloud in grades 3-5 and for comparison with Tam o' Shanter in older grades.

Main characters

John Gilpin: Linen-draper on a runaway horse
Mrs Gilpin: His wife
The calender: His friend at Ware

Summary

The Diverting History of John Gilpin, subtitled Showing How He Went Farther Than He Intended, and Came Safe Home Again, is a comic ballad that Cowper wrote in 1782 after his friend Lady Austen told him the story to cheer him from depression. John Gilpin is a London linen-draper, a citizen of credit and renown and a train-band captain. His wife reminds him that in twenty years of marriage they have never taken a holiday, and she proposes that on their wedding anniversary the family should ride out to the Bell inn at Edmonton. She, her sister and the children will go in a hired chaise, and John will follow on a borrowed horse. Careful with money, Mrs Gilpin brings her own wine in two stone bottles, which John hangs from his belt. Once on the road the horse breaks into a gallop. Gilpin loses his hat and wig, his cloak flies out behind him, and the bottles swing and smash. The townspeople cheer, thinking he is racing for a wager, and the turnpike men fling open the gates. Gilpin flies past the Bell at Edmonton, where his wife calls in vain from the balcony, and the horse carries him ten miles on to Ware, to the house of the friend who owns it. The friend lends him a new hat and wig, but when Gilpin turns for home the horse bolts again, back past Edmonton and all the way to London, with a crowd shouting behind him. Gilpin arrives home safe, having had a longer ride than he planned. The poem ends with a mock toast to the king and to Gilpin. Printed anonymously in a newspaper, the ballad became a national sensation when the actor John Henderson recited it in London in 1785. It is gentle, swift and wholly innocent, and it shows the playful side of a poet often remembered for his sorrows.

Virtues in this work

Fortitude: Gilpin keeps his seat and good temper through every mishap.
Temperance: The family's thrift and modest pleasures.

Plot or Argument

The plan
Mrs Gilpin proposes an anniversary trip to the Bell at Edmonton.
The bolt
Gilpin's borrowed horse runs away; hat, wig and bottles fly.
To Ware
He flies past Edmonton to Ware, where his friend lends him a hat and wig.
Home again
The horse bolts back to London with a crowd in chase; Gilpin arrives safe.

Characters

John Gilpin, hero
A cautious London linen-draper.
Mrs Gilpin, wife
His thrifty, managing wife.
The calender, friend
Gilpin's friend at Ware who owns the horse.
The horse, runaway
The borrowed horse that will not stop.

Lessons

Laughing at ourselves
Gilpin keeps his dignity even as everything goes wrong. Humour can be kind.
- Which moment is funniest?
- Is Gilpin foolish or brave?
- Why do we enjoy stories of plans gone wrong?
Related across the library
- The Art of War, Ch. X.25 (Terrain)
  Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death Sun Tzu's paternal model of command, immediately qualified by a warning against indulgence that leaves soldiers like spoilt children.
- The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Chapter XI. Disdain—contempt—disgust-Guilt—pride
  In the accompanying Plate VI figs and Mr Rejlander has successfully acted the gesture of shrugging the shoulders Englishmen are much less demonstrative than the men of most other European nations and they shrug their shoulders far less frequently and energetically than Frenchmen or Italians do The gesture varies in all degrees from the complex movement just described to only a momentary and scarcely perceptible raising of both shoulders or as I have noticed in a lady sitting in an arm-chair to the mere turning s...
- History of Animals, Lesson: Inquiry begins with collecting differences
  Inquiry begins with collecting differences. Historia means an organised gathering of facts. Aristotle insists on first establishing what is the case about animals, their parts and habits, before explaining why, and he keeps that task separate from his causal treatises. Students learn that careful description is not inferior to theory but its necessary foundation.
- The Golden Ass, Lesson: Salvation may be sincere and comic
  Salvation may be sincere and comic. The Isiac ending offers real deliverance but keeps traces of satire and cost. Apuleius refuses a purely simple conversion story.
- Romeo and Juliet, Lesson: Hatred inherited
  Hatred inherited. No one in Verona remembers why the Capulets and Montagues are enemies, yet servants bite their thumbs and kinsmen draw swords. Mercutio, who belongs to neither house, dies cursing both. The play shows how a quarrel passed from parents to children consumes the very children it was meant to defend.
Thrift and holidays
Mrs Gilpin is careful with money, and that care causes some of the trouble.
- What does Mrs Gilpin bring and why?
- Is thrift a virtue here?
- What does the poem say about marriage?
Related across the library
- The Taming of the Shrew, Induction, Scene 2
  Seeing too much sadness hath congeal’d your blood, And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy The Lord's servants tell Sly that his doctors have ordered a merry comedy for his health, introducing the play that follows.
- The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Chapter XI. Disdain—contempt—disgust-Guilt—pride
  In the accompanying Plate VI figs and Mr Rejlander has successfully acted the gesture of shrugging the shoulders Englishmen are much less demonstrative than the men of most other European nations and they shrug their shoulders far less frequently and energetically than Frenchmen or Italians do The gesture varies in all degrees from the complex movement just described to only a momentary and scarcely perceptible raising of both shoulders or as I have noticed in a lady sitting in an arm-chair to the mere turning s...
- The Trumpet of the Swan, Lesson: Paying what you owe
  Paying what you owe. The cob takes the trumpet for love of his son, but it is still a theft, and both father and son know it. Louis works at camp, in Boston and in Philadelphia until he has enough to repay the storekeeper and the broken window.
- The Art of the Commonplace, Lesson: Art of the Commonplace: order and disorder
  Art of the Commonplace: order and disorder. The Art of the Commonplace makes order visible by showing what damages it. essay by essay, Berry challenges abstraction by returning arguments to farms, watersheds, tables, tools, neighbors, and inherited obligations
- The Master and Margarita, Lesson: Art survives oppression
  Art survives oppression. The burned manuscript is restored, and the novel itself survived its author's lifetime of censorship. Bulgakov asserts that true art cannot be destroyed by persecution.
Comic ballad form
Quick stanzas and rhymes carry the story at a gallop.
- Count the beats in a stanza.
- How does rhythm match the horse?
- Write the next stanza yourself.
Related across the library
- The Golden Ass, Lesson: Salvation may be sincere and comic
  Salvation may be sincere and comic. The Isiac ending offers real deliverance but keeps traces of satire and cost. Apuleius refuses a purely simple conversion story.
- Frog and Toad Are Friends, "The Story"
  Frog, feeling unwell, is put to bed by Toad, who exhausts himself trying to think of a story; Frog then cares for Toad.
- The Art of War, Ch. XI.23–28
  Troops in desperate straits lose fear and fight to the death; Sun Tzu describes soldiers weeping on the day of battle and then fighting with the courage of legendary heroes.
- My Father's Dragon, Lesson: Kindness to the helpless
  Kindness to the helpless. Elmer's adventure begins with kindness to a wet old cat that nobody else cares about, and it ends with rescuing a baby dragon whom the animals beat and overwork. The story teaches that noticing someone who is suffering is the first step to helping.
- The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Chapter XI. Disdain—contempt—disgust-Guilt—pride
  In the accompanying Plate VI figs and Mr Rejlander has successfully acted the gesture of shrugging the shoulders Englishmen are much less demonstrative than the men of most other European nations and they shrug their shoulders far less frequently and energetically than Frenchmen or Italians do The gesture varies in all degrees from the complex movement just described to only a momentary and scarcely perceptible raising of both shoulders or as I have noticed in a lady sitting in an arm-chair to the mere turning s...

Context

Written in 1782 at Olney after Lady Austen told the tale, which she had heard as a child, to lift Cowper's spirits. The train-band was the London citizen militia.

Composition

Printed anonymously in the Public Advertiser in November 1782; reprinted with The Task in 1785.

Reception

Recited to London audiences by the actor John Henderson in 1785, it became a craze and has been a children's favourite ever since, famously illustrated by Randolph Caldecott.

Family Satire Folly Travel Journey Animals

Comparisons

Tam o’ Shanter
Burns's comic ballad of a wild ride.
Paul Revere's Ride
Another famous horseback poem, heroic rather than comic.
The Task
Cowper's serious poem published with Gilpin.

Quotes

Frequently cited

“John Gilpin was a citizen Of credit and renown,”

— William Cowper, The Diverting History of John Gilpin, Stanza 1 (Gutenberg #3698: The Task, and Other Poems (Cassell's National Library, 1899)).Quote card

Metaphysics, Book IV (Gamma), Part 2
'Healthy' is said of what preserves health, produces it, is a symptom of it, or is capable of it; 'medical' is said of what possesses or serves the medical art.
History of Animals, Book VIII, Ch. I, §1
For almost all animals present traces of their moral dispositions, though these distinctions are most remarkable in man The opening of Aristotle's account of the habits and characters of animals.
The Tyger, Stanza 6 (Lines 23-24)
What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? The final lines repeat the opening question with dare in place of could, turning ability into audacity.
Metaphysics, Book IV (Gamma), Part 2
So, too, there are many senses in which a thing is said to be, but all refer to one starting-point After showing that 'healthy' and 'medical' are said in many ways with reference to health and the medical art, Aristotle applies the pattern to 'being', which refers to substance.
Parts of Animals, Book III, Part 1
For nature never makes anything superfluous or in vain Stated while explaining why animals with tusks lack horns; a short form of Aristotle's teleological rule.

“A train-band captain eke was he Of famous London town.”

— William Cowper, The Diverting History of John Gilpin, Stanza 1 (Gutenberg #3698: The Task, and Other Poems (Cassell's National Library, 1899)).Quote card

Griswold v. Connecticut, Medical lens
Griswold matters to the history of medical ethics and law because a physician was criminally convicted for advising patients, and the Court held that a doctor could assert his patients' constitutional rights. The opinions debate the boundaries between professional medical advice protected as speech, medical conduct subject to state law, and the privacy of the patient relationship. The record contains no clinical content.
Ex parte Milligan, Full Text
District Attorney of the United States for Indiana appeared and by the agreement of counsel the application was submitted to the court The opinions of the judges of the Circuit Court were opposed on three questions which are certified to the Supreme Court st On the facts stated in said petition and exhibits ought a writ of habeas corpus to be issued d On the facts stated in said petition and exhibits ought the said Lambdin P Milligan to be discharged from custody as in said petition prayed d Whether upon the fac...
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris), Full Text
with rubbish ribbons rags feathers from tufts of plumes drops of wax from the torches crumbs of the public feast A goodly number of bourgeois are sauntering as we say here and there turning over with their feet the extinct brands of the bonfire going into raptures in front of the Pillar House over the memory of the fine hangings of the day before and to-day staring at the nails that secured them a last pleasure The venders of cider and beer are rolling their barrels among the groups Some busy passers-by come and...
The Misanthrope and Other Plays, Medical lens
Molière is the great satirist of seventeenth-century medicine. The Imaginary Invalid opens with Argan totting up his apothecary's bills for enemas and purges, and portrays doctors who bleed, purge and quote Latin authorities while refusing new ideas: the younger Diafoirus boasts of opposing the circulation of the blood. Its final ceremony, a mock doctoral graduation in macaronic Latin, ridicules the Paris Faculty of Medicine. A Doctor in Spite of Himself shows that confidence and jargon can pass for medical know...
Karl Marx and the Close of His System, Introduction
principles can be very prettily put forward in the General Sections of a book but whether they really possess the convincing power ascribed to them by their author can only be ascertained when in the construction of the system they are brought face to face with all the facts in detail And in the history of science it has not seldom happened that a promising and imposing first volume has never been followed by a second just because under the author's own more searching scrutiny the new principles had not been abl...

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

The careful planning of the trip.
The two stone bottles of wine.
The crowd that thinks he is racing.
Gilpin's wife calling from the balcony.
The mock toast at the very end.

Key terms and names

Linen-draper: A shopkeeper selling cloth and linens.
Train-band: The citizen militia of London.
Chaise: A light carriage for travelling.
Calender: A tradesman who presses cloth between rollers.
Ballad stanza: Four lines alternating four and three beats, rhyming abcb.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension Why does the family plan a trip?
Comprehension Where does the horse carry Gilpin?
Interpretation Why do the townspeople cheer him?
Interpretation How does Cowper make Gilpin funny but likeable?
Interpretation What does the subtitle tell us about the ending?
Big Question Why do people need holidays and laughter?

Faith Connections

Proverbs 17:22 (Scripture)
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: the ballad was written to cheer a depressed poet.
Ecclesiastes 3:4 (Scripture)
A time to weep, and a time to laugh.
Christian joy (Great Conversation)
Cowper, a deeply devout man, shows that innocent humour belongs in a Christian life.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: A cautious citizen plans a modest holiday; a runaway horse turns it into a wild ride far beyond his plans; he comes safe home, and the comedy celebrates good humour in mishap.

Rhetorical device: hyperbole. Gilpin's flying cloak, the scattering crowds and the ten-mile gallop are comically exaggerated.

Debate: Resolved: that Gilpin is the hero of his own story.

Memory Work

John Gilpin was a citizen Of credit and renown,
Stanza 1. The memorable opening.

A train-band captain eke was he Of famous London town.
Stanza 1. The comic second half of stanza 1.

Writing Prompts

Essay: How does Cowper use rhythm and repetition to make the ride comic?

Comparison with Tam o’ Shanter: Compare the wild rides of Gilpin and Tam.

Creative Prompts

Classroom
Perform the ballad with sound effects for the horse and crowd.
Fiction
Tell the story from the horse's point of view.
Poetry
Write a ballad about a family outing that goes wrong.