Isaac Watts

The Elephant Man - Recites "False Greatness" by Isaac Watts - Poem Animation

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• published: 08 May 2015
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Here's a virtual movie of Joseph Merrick The Elephant Man reciting his slightly adapted version of the poem "False Greatness" by Isaac Watts. Joseph Merrick and Isaac Watts Joseph has become famous for quoting from a poem called 'False Greatness," by English hymn writer, Isaac Watts. At first the whole poem was thought to be by Joseph. 'Tis true my form is something odd But blaming me is blaming God Could I create myself anew I would not fail in pleasing you. If I could reach from pole to pole Or grasp the ocean with my span I would be measured by the soul The mind's the standard of the man."" Then, in their book, "The True History of the Elephant Man," Michael Howell & Peter Ford figured out that Joseph had borrowed from "False Greatness" and changed the wording slightly to suit his strong sense of self-dignity. Well, it turns out that Joseph probably did write the first four lines himself. I've discovered that they don't appear in "False Greatness" at all! Isaac Watts, like Joseph, was a small man in delicate health most of his life but he had a fiery spirit, and started a revolution in church music. He was sick of hearing the same old psalms every week, so he wrote hundreds of new hymns that we still sing today, like "Joy to the World" and "O God Our Help in Ages Past." Here's Isaac Watts' version of the lines from "False Greatness": Were I so tall to reach the pole, Or grasp the ocean with my span, I must be measur’d by my soul The mind’s the stan­dard of the man This is powerful poem expressed Joseph Merrick's thoughts on self worth and the superficiality of physical beauty. Joseph Carey Merrick (5 August 1862 – 11 April 1890), sometimes incorrectly referred to as John Merrick, was an English man with severe deformities who was exhibited as a human curiosity named the Elephant Man. He became well known in London society after he went to live at the London Hospital. Merrick was born in Leicester, Leicestershire and began to develop abnormally during the first few years of his life. His skin appeared thick and lumpy, he developed enlarged lips, and a bony lump grew on his forehead. One of his arms and both of his feet became enlarged and at some point during his childhood he fell and damaged his hip, resulting in permanent lameness. When he was 10, his mother died, and his father soon remarried. Merrick left school at 13 and had difficulty finding employment. Rejected by his father and stepmother, he left home. In late 1879, Merrick, aged 17, entered the Leicester Union Workhouse. In 1884, after four years in the workhouse, Merrick contacted a showman named Sam Torr and proposed that Torr should exhibit him. Torr agreed and arranged for a group of men to manage Merrick, whom they named the Elephant Man. After touring the East Midlands, Merrick traveled to London to be exhibited in a penny gaff shop on Whitechapel Road which was rented by showman Tom Norman. Norman's shop, directly across the street from the London Hospital, was visited by a surgeon named Frederick Treves, who invited Merrick to be examined and photographed. Soon after Merrick's visits to the hospital, Tom Norman's shop was closed by the police, and Merrick's managers sent him to tour in Europe. In Belgium, Merrick was robbed by his road manager and abandoned in Brussels. He eventually made his way back to London; unable to communicate, he was found by the police to have Dr. Treves's card on him. Treves came and took Merrick back to the London Hospital. Although his condition was incurable, Merrick was allowed to stay at the hospital for the remainder of his life. Treves visited him daily, and the pair developed quite a close friendship. Merrick also received visits from the wealthy ladies and gentlemen of London society, including Alexandra, Princess of Wales. Aged 27, Merrick died on 11 April 1890. The official cause of death was asphyxia, although Treves, who dissected the body, said that Merrick had died of a dislocated neck. He believed that Merrick—who had to sleep sitting up because of the weight of his head—had been attempting to sleep lying down, to "be like other people". The exact cause of Merrick's deformities is unclear. The dominant theory throughout much of the 20th century was that Merrick suffered from neurofibromatosis type I. In 1986, a new theory emerged that he had Proteus syndrome. In 2001, it was proposed that Merrick had suffered from a combination of neurofibromatosis type I and Proteus syndrome. DNA tests conducted on his hair and bones have proven inconclusive. Kind Regards Jim Clark All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2015