Sir John Harington
born 1561
died Nov. 20, 1612, Kelston, Somerset, Eng.
English Elizabethan courtier, translator,
author, and wit who also invented the flush
toilet.
Harington’s father enriched the family by
marrying an illegitimate daughter of Henry VIII;
his second wife was an attendant to the Princess
Elizabeth, who stood as godmother for John.
Educated at Eton, Cambridge, and Lincoln’s Inn,
London, Harington married in 1583. For
translating and circulating among the ladies a
wanton tale from the 16th-century Italian poet
Ariosto, he was banished from court until he
should translate the whole of Ariosto’s epic
poem Orlando Furioso. The translation, published
in 1591, remains one of the finest of the age.
Probably at that time he invented the flush
lavatory (toilet) and installed one for Queen
Elizabeth in her palace at Richmond, Surrey. In
1596, in The Metamorphosis of Ajax (a jakes;
i.e., privy), Harington described his invention
in terms more Rabelaisian than mechanical and
was again banished by Elizabeth. In 1599 he went
on a military expedition to Ireland, winning a
knighthood. His barbed epigrams and wanton
writings gave too much offense, particularly
under James I, to advance him beyond a
reputation as Elizabeth’s “saucy godson.”
