Biography Quote by Mike Jay

“We think of 1789 as the date of the French Revolution, and the storming of the Bastille as its defining event. Yet as late…

— Mike Jay

“The Air Loom, for all its florid craziness, can be seen to have a function and a rationale: as a miraculous, if temporary, fix…

— Mike Jay

“As a pauper, the obvious destination for James Tilly Matthews was the Bethlem Hospital, already long known in popular slang as Bedlam. The principal…

— Mike Jay

“The French army had crowned a campaign of extraordinary successes by defeating the Austrians at Jemappes and pressing on to occupy a large swathe…

— Mike Jay

“Haslam leaves us in no doubt what we are supposed to make of Matthews' mental world: this is gibberish and nothing more.”

— Mike Jay

“But, mad or sane, Matthews was a man of no ordinary persistence. He was not prepared to renounce the peace plan, any more than…

— Mike Jay

“Come the revolution, however, mesmerism was reconceived once more. From its beginnings many had seen it as an aristocratic fad: Mesmer (by this stage…

— Mike Jay

“To look back before 1800 is to enter another world, one where the number of institutions for the mad was a tiny fraction of…

— Mike Jay

“Many had suspected that the political disasters of the past few years had a hidden cause. The bloodiness of the French mob rule was…

— Mike Jay

“Up to this point, it was rare for the mad to be distinguished from the poor, the homeless, the indigent, beggars, vagabonds, petty criminals…

— Mike Jay

“Matthews' shout of treason in the House was no random outburst of lunacy, but the last act in an astonishing adventure: one that might…

— Mike Jay

“If history is written by the victors, conspiracy theory is typically written by the losers, and there were few greater losers in the revolution…

— Mike Jay

“It was Matthews, of course, for whom the verdict was the greatest disaster. Not only had he failed to escape from Bedlam, but the…

— Mike Jay

“At Bow Street Magistrates' Court the essential facts were established. The man's name was James Tilly Matthews. He was a pauper of the south…

— Mike Jay

“James Tilly Matthews was not a prophet. He was a gifted, perhaps fragile individual who suffered intensely, and for little if any reward.”

— Mike Jay