John Harington

English author and translator

• Born: August 4, 1561
• Birthplace: Kelston, Somerset, England
• Died: November 20, 1612
• Place of death: Kelston, Somerset, England

Known primarily as a literary man in the time of Queen Elizabeth I, Harington perhaps succeeded most practically as the inventor of the flush toilet, which he described in considerable detail in a work published in 1596.

Primary field: Plumbing

Primary invention: Flush toilet

Early Life

Sir John Harington was accorded the advantages of being an early Elizabethan gentleman because his father, John Harington of Stepney, married Etheldreda Malte, a prominent person who was actually a natural child of King Henry VIII. Queen Elizabeth I served as his godmother. He thus was able to obtain an education at Eton and King’s College at Cambridge, where he took his degree about 1578. Higher education at that time was based heavily on the acquisition of ancient Greek and Roman culture, but by this time he was exposed to scholars who also had a reputation as Renaissance humanists familiar with the work of learned Frenchmen and Italians of the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries.

Harington earned his master’s degree in 1581 and then took residence at Lincoln’s Inn, where lawyers and prospective lawyers studied and articulated law. In effect, an inn of court such as Lincoln’s Inn also served men like Harington who had only an incipient interest in the law but were interested in extending their learning and establishing helpful contacts with educated men. At his father’s death in 1582, he separated from Lincoln’s Inn. In 1583, he married Mary Rogers, with whom he eventually became the father of eleven children, seven of whom survived him.

Life’s Work

Although it may seem curious to associate Harington’s invention of the flush toilet with his career as a poet and a translator, humanist scholars at the time actually did literary work that could encompass topics such as social ills, religious intolerance, and other issues seemingly remote from the interests of literary men. One of Harington’s interests, cleanliness, he shared with other socially prominent people in a society pervaded by deplorable sanitary conditions. By modern standards, no one in his time washed regularly, garbage and human wastes were routinely emptied into gutters or any handy minor waterway, animals browsed in the streets, and people endured many sorts of environmental pollution. Nevertheless, a gentleman like Harington at least hoped to make his household as sweet smelling as possible. He later displayed his interest in sanitation in his translation of Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum, a work from the twelfth or thirteenth century known as “The Medical Poem of Salerno.”

A Renaissance humanist characteristically hoped to learn from the people, real and legendary, of classical antiquity. Thus, Harington described his invention of the flush toilet in a work that bore the curious title of A New Discourse of a Stale Subject, Called the Metamorphosis of Ajax (1596). Here the word “stale” refers to something that loses freshness or is uninteresting. Humanists also liked to argue that some seemingly uninteresting things might turn out to be interesting after all. Substantively, “stale” can also refer to urine. This play on words, even in a serious discussion, was a common rhetorical device in Harington’s time. The reference to Ajax connects the activity of toilet manufacture with the Greek warrior who in the Trojan War was insulted by Odysseus and according to post-Homeric legend went off in a fit of anger to a field in which he slew himself. From the grasses that grew from his blood a young man, needing to wipe himself, took advantage of the grasses. To express his respect to Ajax, he built a fine privy and dedicated it to him. Thus, the English word “jakes” is still used to refer to a privy. The American word “john,” named for Harington, refers to a toilet.

In some respects, Harington undercut the seriousness of his invention by writing in a somewhat joking style that doubtless led many readers to undervalue it. Partly, this habit is explained by the fact that Harington enjoyed a reputation as a wag; partly, it was attributable to an attitude toward style found in many Renaissance writers. To take one famous example, Sir Philip Sidney also could assume a jocular style or added bantering details that might deceive an audience unfamiliar with his situation, which was in many respects like Harington’s. Both were Elizabethan courtiers, and as such they were supposed to cultivate an attitude that had been described for them by an Italian diplomat named Baldesar Castiglione in his book Il cortegiano, published in 1528. Translated into English in 1561, it is usually known today as The Book of the Courtier. The courtier must cultivate sprezzatura, which can be translated “nonchalance.” A literary work should appear to have been done without effort and almost without thought. Sidney wrote an essay that he referred to as a “pitiful defence of poor poetry” and as an “ink-wasting toy of mine.” It is actually one of the great works of literary criticism, and Sidney’s self-criticisms cannot be taken seriously.

When the work at hand is a manual on how to make a toilet, Harington obviously needed plenty of sprezzatura. He would have read Il cortegiano in the original Italian, which he understood well, his best-known literary work today being his translation in nearly 33,000 lines of Ludovico Ariosto’s famous romance Orlando furioso, published five years before Harington’s A New Discourse of a Stale Subject.

Scholars today know Harington best for works that are today classified as literary. He, like Sidney, wrote an apology (a defense) of poetry as an introduction to his translation of Orlando furioso, and a considerable number of his letters and poems have survived. Because he was working in an era dominated by William Shakespeare and many other eminent writers, his writings have largely been ignored.

After the queen’s death in 1602, Harington made efforts to win the favor of the court but did not receive the promotion he sought. He became ill in May of 1612 and died in Kelston that November.

Impact

For centuries, Harington’s device had no traceable impact. Some people presumably did not share Harington’s daintiness about smells; others surely doubted that the advantages of a water-driven system of coping with human wastes justified systematic efforts to bring about this change. The great majority of people lived in small communities or on farms, and such wastes were easily enough disposed of. However, a general unfamiliarity with the literary habits of a man like Harington probably also curtailed the spread of information about his invention.

As a result, the impact of Harington’s toilet was very limited until later needs and improvements made it a practical device for people who did not employ servants to assist them in fulfilling their personal needs. Not until the eighteenth century were there any patents for toilets. In the 1770’s, several men made contributions. Alexander Cummings developed the S-trap between bowl and trap, Samuel Prosser patented a plunger closet, and Joseph Brahmah devised a valve for the flushing system that worked on a hinge. This was a predecessor to the ballcock that is still often used today.

A series of refinements in the design of the flushing closet from the 1850’s to the 1890’s made the flush toilet a possession for many householders. The growth of large and densely packed cities in the later nineteenth century made safe and efficient plumbing systems necessary, and increasingly the toilet became a practicable addition to well-appointed households. The toilet that Harington devised did not replace the old privy, and for three centuries it did not become a common feature of life in European or American homes.

Bibliography

Donne, Elizabeth Story, ed. Sir John Harington’s “A New Discourse of a Stale Subject, Called the Metamorphosis of Ajax.” New York: Columbia University Press, 1962. This modern edition of Harington’s work contains his description of his invention.

Hughey, Ruth, ed. John Harington of Stepney: Tudor Gentleman—His Life and Work. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1971. Harington of Stepney was the father of the toilet inventor. Hughey’s introductory essay makes clear how Harington the inventor was able to be a queen’s godson and gain the education and support necessary to facilitate his familiarity with books in other languages, which guided him in practical as well as literary books.

Krebs, Robert E. Scientific Development and Misconceptions Through the Ages: A Reference Guide. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999. This book, recommended for students and general readers, explains the part played by Harington and by later inventors who refined his invention.

Landau, Elaine. The History of Everyday Life. Minneapolis, Minn.: Twenty-First Century Books, 2005. Written for young readers, this book offers details about the use of the toilet by Queen Elizabeth I and by Harington himself.