I know the judge was called the beak, maybe Gordon is being called a Crop as some type of take off that.
Pretty funny. Thomas Erskine was a prominent lawyer who defended Gordon against a charge of high treason.
Sounds like a ribald, archaic Dr. Seuss.
Some other homework answers.
1) Crop presumably means the same as in to crop a picture -- what George Gordon was about to have done to part of him.
2) Cod is scrotum, as in codpiece. It backed the penis both spatially and figuratively, because it too was nervous.
3) Thomas Erskine was, in addition to the above, Gordon's cousin, apparently.
4) If you try to find out what "Akerman's synagogue" by googling that phrase, the first hit is...this post!
I don't get it. "What befel poor Crop's Penis on the late circumcision?" Crop is capitalized because it's a noun.
I guess now I'm the primary source for Akerman's Synagogue. Haha. I have found an association with a Mr Akerman and George Gordon in an account of his trial, and I also know that the Chief Rabbi in London refused to convert him (I think he converted in Birmingham; I am guessing this is where Akerman's Synagogue was), it's just that I didn't research the post yet! Thanks for the info about Erskine and the rest.
funny
hilarious
Hyfterical ;)
absolute riot!
--mivami
I meant that GG was being called "Crop" because he was about to crop his P-----
Also, S., the term "P---" is apparently a stand-in for a monosyllabic word, judging from the meter of the poem. A further clue as to what that word might be is given in the fourth poetic line on p. 22. Funny that this word was considered unprintable, while "pifs" was OK.
You can see that the term P---- stands in for diffent slang terms. One must be "prick," for example.
As for "pifs," the word famously appears in the King James Version.
Maybe Crop a picture -- juxtaposed with the term Croppy, used at the time to insult the Catholics whose new rights the Gordon Riots were trying to suppress?
Do you know anything about the book itself? The names of the authors don't sound Jewish. I'm imaging the song as a public house drinking song sung by Christians. Fascinating.
It's not a Jewish book. It's just a book of humorous songs. The song (parody, really) is mildly (although some might feel vehemently) anti-Jewish; the real target seems to be George Gordon, the rabble-rousing anti-Catholic British lord who surprised the heck out of everybody, choosing an option which was utterly incomprehensible in 18th century Europe, and converted to Judaism. His sanity was questioned, not only because of his prior erratic behavior, but also because of his conversion.
Meg, thanks for that suggestion.
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