The Bellman and Charles Darwin

"Un veliero: il brigantino H. M. S. Beagle. Lo comanda il bigotto Capitano Robert Fitz Roy. L'anno è il 1831. A bordo, un cervello esplosivo. Con un ritardo di due secoli sulla Fisica, sta per deflagrare il Galileo della Biologia. Le tappe successive: nel 1838 è completata la teoria della selezione naturale. Nel 1859 esce L'origine della specie.
· · Dissolvenza.
· · Quando torna l'immagine, è ancora una nave. Un veliero, naturalmente. Il Beagle riprende il mare? L'anno, è il 1874: Darwin è ancora vivo, vegeto e chiacchierato."

"A sailing ship: the brig H. M. S. Beagle. It is commanded by the bigoted Captain Robert Fitz Roy. The year is 1831. On board, a brain explosion. With a delay of about two centuries of [deterministic] Physics, it is shattered by the the Galileo of Biology. The following stages: In 1838 the theory of natural selection was completed. In 1859 comes the Origin of Species.
· · Fade-over.
· · When it returns into the scene, it is still a ship. A sailing ship, of course. The Beagle took to the sea again? The year is 1874: Darwin is still alive, well and chatty."

If -- and the thing is wildly possible -- the charge of writing nonsense were ever brought against the author of this brief but instructive poem, it would be based, I [Lewis Carroll] feel convinced, on the line (in p.4) “Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes.” In view of this painful possibility, I will not (as I might) appeal indignantly to my other writings as a proof that I am incapable of such a deed: I will not (as I might) point to the strong moral purpose of this poem itself, to the arithmetical principles so cautiously inculcated in it, or to its noble teachings in Natural History -- I will take the more prosaic course of simply explaining how it happened.

369 . . “The method employed I would gladly explain,
370 . . . . While I have it so clear in my head,
371 . . If I had but the time and you had but the brain --
372 . . . . But much yet remains to be said.

373 . . “In one moment I’ve seen what has hitherto been
374 . . . . Enveloped in absolute mystery,
375 . . And without extra charge I will give you at large
376 . . . . A Lesson in Natural History.”

377 . . In his genial way he proceeded to say
378 . . . . (Forgetting all laws of propriety,
379 . . And that giving instruction, without introduction,
380 . . . . Would have caused quite a thrill in Society),

There are some who identify the bearded bellman with Charles Darwin and the crew with the crew of Darwin’s ship Beagle. Martens’ 1934 etching of Darwin’s Beagle landing ashore (Fig 3 left) at the port of Santa Cruz in the Tenerite Island of the Canary islands, has been assembled (Fig 3 right, in modern terms it would be called morphing, I guess;) together with Henry Holiday’s illustration of bellman, banker and beaver that accompanied Caroll’s poem [...]. To be fair, Holiday may have just used Darwin as a model. Other similarities have been noticed, however, [...] between the drawing of a weed and Darwin’s sketch on the tree of life.
Source: caprarius-aquacorn.blogspot.de/2012/09/king-arthur-as-president-of-simple.html

No, not the Canary Islands. And it isn't morphing either. This is morphing: www.ipernity.com/doc/goetzkluge/25442963/in/album/375923

Initially, the Bellman wasn't a Darwin look-alike. However, the Bellman's earlier face turned into another character in another illustration:

- Charles Darwin
- Charles Darwin
- Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)
- Henry Holiday
- Benjamin Jowett
- Henry George Liddell