Mischief is essentially a form of misbehaviour, and its practitioners are generally met with punishment and reproach rather than praise, at least when they are caught. But there is something curious about this.

Apparently, this was eventually paid up, and the head was returned.Īpocryphal or not, such tales of mischief are amusing, and apt to elicit in us a certain kind of sympathy. Legend has it that Bentham’s real head was stolen by some students from King’s College London as a prank against their University College rivals, and a ransom demanded for returning it. Meanwhile, his preserved head is elsewhere – his friends thought it looked too grotesque for display, and commissioned the waxwork one instead. Stranger still is that a waxwork head sits on its shoulders, where Bentham’s own head should be, as per his will. One of the stranger sights on the University College London campus is the clothed skeleton of the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham.

from William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (Act III, Scene II) Now let it work, mischief, thou art afoot.

Innocent mischief