The Author of Origin of April-Day and Its Sources

Abstract

THE Lady’s Magazine; or, Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex (1791, XXII) contains a short story entitled ORIGIN of APRIL-DAY. This story is scattered with Japanese names, in an obvious attempt to suffuse it with an ‘Oriental’ atmosphere. Source hunting will help make it clear if the short story is an original or a translation; will help establish the derivation and meaning of each of the Japanese names; and will enable better understanding of how they are used to create the far-eastern flavour of the short story. It is to be noted that the Japanese names are intermingled with non-Japanese names. The Japanese names (except for Japan itself) are Chiekock, Inocamosamma, Camosamma, Fusinogamma, Ciongock, Saykock, ‘Namu Amida, Isum, Ongasauwara-sinano, I’Scamma and I’Sintsia.1 These names are also found in Arnoldus Montanus’s famous syncretic work, Gedenkwaerdige Gesantschappen der Oost-Indische Maatschappy in’t Vereenigde Nederland, aan de Kaisaren van Japan (1669).2 The German version of this work, Denckwürdige Gesandtschafften, was published in the same year, followed in 1670 by its English translation Atlas Japannensis: Beign Remarkable Addessses by Way of Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Emperor of Japan3 and its French version Ambassades Mémorables (1680). The Japanese names employed in its various versions are the same except for some slight differences in spelling. For example, the Japanese names used in Gedenkwaerdige Gesantschappen are Chiekock, Chiekok, Juocamosamma, Fusinojammma, Ciongock, Saykock, Namu Amida, Ysum, Ongas-sauwara Sinano, Tsiamma, and Sintsia, while the Japanese names in Atlas Japannensis are Chiekok, Chikoko, Ivocomasamma, Fusinojamma, Ciongok, Saycock, Saykok, Namu Amida, Yzum, Ongasauwara Sinano, Tsiamma, and Sintsia. This evidence makes it reasonable to assume that the short story in The Lady’s Magazine is indebted to Montanus.