Mary and the Rabbit Dream by Noémi Kiss-Deáki

Author:Noémi Kiss-Deáki
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Coach House Books

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Two of the distinguished physicians escorting Mary Toft to London, namely, St. André and Sir Manningham, are especially eager to showcase the fact that they are the ones that, in fact, are taking Mary to London and Roger Lacy’s bagnio, for everyone to witness and touch. And from this very bagnio, where Mary

Toft will now reside, all the wildly circulating news and rumours will be set right. From this very bagnio, all the wildly circulating news and rumours will be brought down to earth.

The third distinguished physician is Mr. Ahlers. Mr. Ahlers is the third distinguished physician to escort Mary to the bagnio, but he is disenchanted, endlessly disgusted, and, by now, he wishes to wash his hands of the whole matter, figuratively and literally speaking. He can’t do this yet, but will be able to do so once his pamphlet is published. This won’t do much to save him, but it will spare him the ire of certain artists who will later depict his colleagues as ridiculous and laughable. In short, Mr. Ahlers is not eager to take credit.

St. André is eager to take credit. St. André writes letters to distinguished people right away. In them he announces that ‘I have brought the Woman from Guilford to the bagnio in Leicester.’ He also writes to the same people: ‘You may if you Please have the opportunity of seeing her deliver’d Wednesday morning.’

It is a bold claim. It is one of many bold claims St. André makes. Because, increasingly now, he doesn’t want to keep the miracle to himself. That game is lost. He can’t keep the strange and wondrous case of Mary Toft to himself anymore, so now, instead, he has become invested in sharing it, sharing it as much as possible. And he wants to share it in such a way that it might give St. André something of a miraculous glimmer. The miracle doctor. The miracle physician.

The miracle physician delivering miracles, true miracles of Nature.

Little does St. André know that the only portrait of him surviving in history will be a satirical one, a satirical engraving depicting St. André looking very sad indeed, disappointed, even, not to say crushed, as if a child robbed of ice cream, and under it, the title of the portrait, the title that will accompany it throughout history, a title that will say:

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