ALPHETA'S LITERARY AGORA

 

 

The "Chess Automaton" and Historic Chess Poetry

Chess scholar IM Dr. Ricardo Calvo kindly sent the following information for publication:


Hannah Flagg Gould published the following poem five times in the editions of her poems from 1832, 1833, 1835, 1836 and 1839. From the last of these, Ken Whyld made a copy which he sent to me. It is an interesting text (the first American woman related to a chess document).

[Note:  Ken Whyld is a chess historian and regular contributor to the "British Chess Magazine" - I have a subscription, and it is an excellent publication that arrives right on schedule to my mailbox by air mail from England. I highly recommend this journal for its coverage of both local British and international chess events. Mr. Whyld and Dr. Calvo are also members of the IGK Group, a group of chess scholars, historians, and high-ranking chess players who assemble bi-annually to explore and discuss the origins of chess and The Game's development throughout history].

Dr. Calvo also provided the following information on Hannah Flagg Gould, which he received from Mr. Whyld:

Hannah Flagg Gould (1789-1865) from Boston, Massachusetts. She attended the performance in Boston of the Turk chess "automaton" created by Kempelen and purchased in 1805 by Maelzel. After the Boston performance, she wrote a poem in the "Saturday Evening Gazette" in the second half of November 1826.There is a reply, also in verse, by Maelzel himself.

Hannah was in the line of her time, like Mary Shelley, fascinated by "Frankenstein". She was the daughter of Benjamin Gould and Grizzel Apthorp Flagg and may have been related to the Boston artist George Whiting Flagg (1816-1897) who in his painting "The chess-players-check mate"(c. 1836) depicted a woman announcing check mate. Our thanks to Dr. Calvo and Mr. Whyld for providing this information to Goddesschess and our affiliate, Chess Goddesses.

Address to the Automaton Chess Player

Of deep research and cogitation,

Of many a head and many a nation,

While all in vain

Have tried their wits to answer whether,

In silver, gold, steel, silk or leather,

Of human parts, or all together,

Consists thy brain!

When first I viewed thine awful face,

Rising above that ample case

Which gives thy cloven foot a place,

Thy double shoe,


I marvelled whether I had seen

Old Nick himself, or a machine,

Or something fixed midway between

The distant two!

A sudden shuddering seized my frame:

With feeling that defies a name,

Of wonder, horror, doubt and shame

The tout ensemble,


I deemed thee formed with power and will;

My hair rose up-my bloodstood still,

And curdled with a fearful chill,

Which made me tremble.


I thought if, e'en within thy glove,

Thy cold and fleshless hand should move

To rest on me, the touch should prove

Far worse than death;


That I should be transformed , and see

Thousands and thousands gaze on me,

A living, moving thing, like thee,

Devoid of breath


When busy, curious, learned and wise

Regard thee with inquiring eyes

To find wherein the mystery lies,

On thy stiff neck,


Turning thy head with grave precision,

Their optic light and mental vision

Alike defying, with decision,

Thou giv'st them"check!"


Some say a little man resides

Between thy narrow, bony sides

And round the world within thee rides;

Absurd the notion!


For what's the human thing would lurk

In thine unfeeling breast, Sir Turk,

Performing thus, thine inward work,

And outward motion?


Some whisper that thou art he, who fell

From Heaven's high courts, down, down, to dwell

In that place of sulphury smell

And lurid flame.
Thy keeper then deserves a pension,

For seeking out this wise invention

To hold thee harmless, in detention,

Close at thy game.


Now, though all Europe has confessed,

That in thy master Maelzel's breast

Hidden, thy secret still must rest,

Yet it were great pity,


With all our intellectual light

That none should view thy nature right,

But thou must leave in fog and night

Our keen-eyed city.


The just confide in me, and show

Or tell, how things within thee go!

Speak in my ear so quick and low

None else shall know it.


But, mark me! If I should discover
Without thine aid, thy secret mover.

With thee for ever all is over,

I'll quickly blow it!

Information on "The Turk" Chess Automaton can be found at the following pages (there are many, I have provided a tiny sample of what I consider the most appropriate)

http://www.cowderoy.com/graphics/ac.htm
http://www.rampling.net/kempelen/

http://www.eapoe.org/works/essays/maelzel.htm