Much Cry but Little Wool

Joseph Addison complains that the famous Cries of London are a lot of fuss about nothing.

1711

Queen Anne 1702-1714

Introduction

‘The Cries of London’, the various musical and not-so-musical calls of street vendors in Queen Anne’s capital, were widely regarded with affection and pride. But the endless drumming of tins and kettles left Joseph Addison’s nerves raw, and the medley of slogans and doggerel verses was if anything worse.

by Joseph Addison 1672-1719

VOCAL cries are of a much larger extent, and indeed so full of incongruities and barbarisms, that we appear a distracted city to foreigners,* who do not comprehend the meaning of such enormous outcries. Milk is generally sold in sounds so exceeding shrill, that it often sets our teeth on edge. The Chimney-sweeper sometimes utters himself in the deepest bass, and sometimes in the sharpest treble. The same observation might be made on the Retailers of Small-coal, not to mention broken Glasses or Brick-dust.*

It should be my care to sweeten and mellow the voices of these itinerant tradesmen, before they make their appearance in our streets, as also to accommodate their cries to their respective wares: and to take care in particular, that those may not make the most noise who have the least to sell, which is very observable in the vendors of Card-matches,* to whom I cannot but apply that old proverb of Much Cry but Little Wool.

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‘Distracted’ in the sense of ‘out of one’s mind’, not merely ‘inattentive’. As Lydia told Elizabeth when she thought her wedding to Mr Wickham might be postponed, “I was so afraid, you know, that something would happen to put it off, and then I should have gone quite distracted” (from ‘Pride and Prejudice’, by Jane Austen).

Small coal is fragments of coal left over from the mining process, and used as cheap domestic fuel; broken glass could be recycled in glass-blowing for medicine and scent bottles; brick dust was used as an abrasive for cleaning knives.

Slivers of card dipped in sulphur to form matches.

Précis

Unlike many of his Georgian contemporaries, Joseph Addison had little love for famous Cries of London. He dreaded to imagine what tourists made of the medley of shrieks and shouts, and complained that the worst offenders were those whose wares were of least value; he was left wishing that voice-training was mandatory for them all.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

What effect did Addison believe the cries had on foreign visitors?

Suggestion

He feared they would think Londoners mad.

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

The cries of London were famous. Some people said tourists liked them. Addison disagreed.

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