Abecedarians

ABECEDARIANS, a nickname given to certain extreme Anabaptists (q.v.), who regarded the teaching of the Holy Spirit as all that was necessary, and so despised all human learning and even the power of reading the written word (from "A, B, C, D").

A BECKETT, GILBERT ABBOTT English humorous writer, was born in north London on Jan. 9, 1811. He belonged to a family claiming descent from the father of St. Thomas Becket. His elder brother, Sir William a Beckett (1 806 1869), became chief justice of Victoria (Australia). Gilbert Abbott a Beckett was educated at Westminster School, was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1841, and in 1849 became a metropoli tan police magistrate. He edited Figaro in London, and was one of the original staff of Punch and a contributor all his life. He pro duced some so or 6o plays, among them dramatized versions of Dickens's shorter stories in collaboration with Mark Lemon. He died at Boulogne Aug. 3o, 1856.

His eldest

son, GILBERT ARTHUR A BECKETT (1837-1891) was born at Hammersmith on April 7, 1837. On leaving Christ Church, Oxford, he was entered at Lincoln's Inn, but gave his attention chiefly to the drama, producing Diamonds and Hearts at the Hay market in 1867, which was followed by other light comedies. His pieces include numerous burlesques and pantomimes, the libretti of Savonarola (Hamburg, 1884) and of The Canterbury Pilgrims (Drury Lane, 1884) for the music of Dr. (afterwards Sir) C. V. Stanford. The Happy Land (Court Theatre, 1873), a political burlesque of W. S. Gilbert's Wicked World, was written in collab oration with F. L. Tomline. For the last ten years of his life he was on the regular staff of Punch. He died on Oct. 15, 1891.

A younger son, ARTHUR WILLIAM A BECKETT (1844-1909), a well-known journalist and a man of letters, was also on the staff of Punch from 1874-1902, and gave an account of his father and his own reminiscences in The A Becketts of Punch (1903). He died in London on Jan. 14, 1909.

See

also M. H. Spielmann, The History of Punch (1895).