Ink and Incapability

“Ink and Incapability”
Blackadder episode
Prince George and Samuel Johnson
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode –
Guest stars	Robbie Coltrane
Written by	Ben Elton, Richard Curtis
Original airdate	24/09/1987
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Dish and Dishonesty" "Nob and Nobility"
List of Blackadder episodes

Ink and Incapability is the second episode of the third series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder.

Plot

Samuel Johnson (played by Robbie Coltrane) seeks Prince George's patronage for his new book, A Dictionary of the English Language. George does not grasp the purpose of the Dictionary ("I know what English words mean! I SPEAK English! You must be a bit of a thicko...") but Blackadder persuades him. Blackadder is somewhat scathing about Dr Johnson's work, however, and spends most of his time inventing and using new words in front of the Doctor in order to convince him that the work is incomplete. Confusion over Baldrick's fire-starting methods leads them to believe the book has been burned. Blackadder attempts to find out where a copy is kept so Baldrick can steal it. Johnson announces there is no copy (Johnson: "Making a copy is like fitting wheels to a tomato, time consuming and completely unnecessary.") Blackadder, Baldrick and the Prince attempt to recreate the Dictionary before Johnson discovers the tragedy (Blackadder: "Have you got 'C'?" Baldrick: "Yes. 'C: A big blue wobbly thing that mermaids live in.' "). Ultimately the error is discovered, but it is revealed that Baldrick did not burn the dictionary but Blackadder's manuscript: "Edmund, a Butler's Tale", written under the pen-name "Gertrude Perkins". Dr. Johnson departs in a fit of anger which is brought on when Baldrick causes Johnson to realise the dictionary is missing the word "sausage" after Johnson reads Baldrick's novel: "There once was a lovely little sausage called Baldrick and he lived happily ever after". Blackadder also discovers it is missing the word "aardvark" (a word he had considerable trouble defining while trying to recreate the dictionary). The episode ends with Baldrick lighting a fire and this time burning the actual dictionary.

Historical references and inaccuracies

• Well-known poets Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge appear in this episode, hanging round Mrs. Miggins's coffee shop and lamenting their drug addiction, tuberculosis and other woes. They are billed in the credits as "romantic junkie poets."
• Samuel Johnson actually published his dictionary in 1755, seven years before the Prince was born. Johnson died in 1784, 25 years before Prince George became Regent. Likewise, Byron, Shelley and Coleridge, though contemporaries of each other and the Prince, would never have met Johnson.
• The word a is described by Blackadder as an impersonal pronoun. It is in fact an indefinite article, which he none-the-less "defines" as "doesn't really mean anything".
• In the episode, a reference is made to Thomas More about the fact that he was burned alive. This is incorrect, as he was beheaded, not burned.
• While explaining his pseudonym to Baldrick, Blackadder claims that Ann Radcliffe, Jane Austen and Dorothy Wordsworth are men, and the only female writer in England is James Boswell.

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