Ursus’s van

Ursus’s van is both the home and livelihood of Ursus and Homo: a small, weather-beaten dwelling that carries them from market to market and opens into a stage for their performances. Its ingenious fittings make it a vehicle, shelter, workshop, and public platform; its inscriptions give the humble structure a further role as a moving vehicle for Ursus’s social criticism.

Design and fittings

The van is a four-wheeled hut built of light boards, compared to a dove-cot, yet strong enough to travel the roads of Great Britain. Its hauling arrangement reflects the partnership between its occupants: shafts are provided for Homo, while a splinter-bar allows Ursus to pull alongside the wolf when the roads grow rough. In mud, on hills, or among deep ruts, the man and wolf share the labor rather than leaving the burden to one of them.

The structure is fitted for both travel and performance. A glass door at the front opens onto a little balcony from which Ursus addresses a crowd, its character part platform and part pulpit. At the back, a door with a working panel is reached by three hinged steps; at night the entrance can be secured with a bolt and lock. Rain and snow have battered the paint until its original color is difficult to make out, a wear that the narration compares to the changing fortunes of courtiers.

Inside, the van accommodates Ursus’s box of clothing, a lantern, wigs, utensils, and musical instruments. A hole in the roof admits the pipe of a cast-iron stove, set close enough to scorch the wooden box. The stove’s two compartments let Ursus cook chemicals in one and potatoes in the other. His flute and violoncello, along with the equipment for his remedies and performances, make the cramped interior a combined home and workplace. Homo sleeps beneath the van at night, secured by a chain.

A home and a travelling stage

The van enables the pair’s itinerant circuit. They move from one market to the next, crossing from town to town and shire to shire without leaving Great Britain. They pitch wherever circumstances permit: on commons, in woodland clearings, beside roads, near villages and town gates, in market-places, and at public walks. The little house on wheels is therefore not simply a shelter at the end of a journey; it is the practical means by which the journey continues.

When the van stops on a fair green, its front balcony becomes Ursus’s speaking platform. He harangues the gathering while Homo, carrying a bowl in his mouth, makes a collection. The performances earn their livelihood, and the vehicle’s arrangement turns an audience into a source of income: the same structure that protects the pair from the road also makes their work visible to passers-by.

Inscriptions and meaning

A board fixed to the front once displayed a long inscription about the annual loss of gold through friction. Its argument follows the gold as it becomes dust and disperses through the world, then connects wealth with its effects on rich and poor: the rich are made proud, while the poor are rendered brutish. The fading, blurred lettering makes this critique part of the van’s worn exterior, carrying Ursus’s commentary from one gathering to another.

A second inscription is written in charcoal on the ceiling inside, positioned so that passers-by can read it through the little rear window: “URSUS, PHILOSOPHER.” The declaration gives the travelling showman’s home the air of a signboard as well as a dwelling. Together, the two texts make the van more than a piece of equipment: its surfaces advertise Ursus’s identity and expose the moral argument that accompanies his wandering life.