Parr notes insightfully that Ferris's travel stunt occurred just two years after the destruction of the Spanish Armada. The chapter then explores Richard Ferris's dangerous exploit of rowing a small boat to Bristol. He argues that the revellers were playfully re-enacting the auspicious return of an Elizabethan explorer. Parr describes this escapade as a 'nautical fantasy' recalling the 'ship of fools' imagery (p.37). Parr first analyses the Christmas revels of 1594–95 that transformed Gray's Inn into the Prince of Purpoole's fantastical kingdom, and featured the Prince and his followers sailing down the Thames. With no European equivalent, such travel stunts enable Parr to define the notion of English eccentricity.Ĭhapter 2 explains how mad voyages shaped the early modern imagination. In Chapter 1, Parr argues that the sudden appearance of the 'travel stunt' in late sixteenth-century England was a response to 'increased mobility, opportunity and enterprise' in the New World (p. Anthony Parr's fascinating book investigates an early modern trend for outrageous journeys.
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