A Burlesque Biography1

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From "A Burlesque Biography" by Mark Twain

Two or three persons having at different times intimated that if I
would write an autobiography they would read it when they got leisure,
I yield at last to this frenzied public demand and herewith tender my history.

Does he mean "the persons" are crazy about the idea of "my" writing an autobiography? I think 2 or 3 persons is not enough to use the word "frenzied", I think it should be used when there are many people crazy about something. So I preassumed the arthor want to say the opposite, to be humorous. But the translation version said "frenzied" means something impossible. I'm a bit curious about that.

Ours is a noble house, and stretches a long way back into antiquity.
The earliest ancestor the Twains have any record of was a friend of
the family by the name of Higgins.

The translation said "a friend of the family" means "the ancestor of the Twains". So the article reads smoothly. But when you really want to refer to a friend of somebody. What do you say? The same thing is said? So I can only guess from the context, right?

This was in the eleventh century,
when our people were living in Aberdeen, county of Cork, England.

The translation said Aberdeen is not in Cork, he thinks it's mistyped. But I don't think so. I think it's a humor. Mr. Twain want to show us how vague his family history is.

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Hi translatorcz. Yes, Mr. Twain is being funny. When he calls two or three people "frenzied," he is using what is called hyperbole ("extravagant exaggeration"). The use of this obviously overstated word is meant to point out how UN-frenzied the "public demand" actually is.

When he says that his "earliest ancestor" is a "friend of the family" he is hinting at adultery, that is, a woman of the Twain family becoming pregnant by "Mr. Higgins," who has no business being an ancestor to the Twains.

Aberdeen, County of Cork, England is also an example of Twain's sense of humor. Cork is in Ireland, which the English have long felt ought to be a part of England. So Twain calls it as the English would have it, ignoring the Irish claim to the land. This makes fun of the English, who have long tried to control Ireland and who have never succeeded.

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Quote:

When he says that his "earliest ancestor" is a "friend of the family" he is hinting at adultery.

I don't think so; I think he's just making a nonsense statement. If Higgins was merely a "friend of the family" he can't have been an ancestor, and if he was an ancestor he wasn't merely a "friend of the family".

Quote:

Aberdeen, County of Cork, England is also an example of Twain's sense of humor. Cork is in Ireland, which the English have long felt ought to be a part of England. So Twain calls it as the English would have it, ignoring the Irish claim to the land. This makes fun of the English, who have long tried to control Ireland and who have never succeeded.

I think you're reading something into this passage that isn't there, and missing something that is. The English have never felt that Ireland should be, or in any sense is, "part of England". (Belong to England, yes, but that's quite different.) The joke here is simply that Twain has muddled the three kingdoms of the British Isles together - Aberdeen is in Scotland, Cork in Ireland.

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Thank you very much.

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A Burlesque Biography1

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