William Shakespeare – Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

Organ-grinding tweets for February

More untruths & idle opinions.

“Virginity is an overrated virtue”

Granddad’s Armistice in letters and recollections. Glimpses ante hoc of Cameronians & Royal Scots (52nd Division) in the Eastern Mediterranean and on the Somme; of ambulance trains in Northern France; of 6th Battalion York & Lancaster Regiment (11th Division) during the terminal Hundred Days Offensive to Mons, Belgium; and post hoc of base hospitals, influenza, and an exchange with one Wolfram Sterry regarding his brother Karl. Introducing Kandy the Maltese terrier.

No early photos so far from the steel boxes, so here's grandpa with grandma at Winchester Cathedral in 1972.

The Singing Organ-Grinder’s tweets for September

A rubbish heap in which a Ukrainian nuclear fireman finds romance with Willie Nelson.

August’s tweets from London’s Singing Organ-Grinder

Bit late. Twitter trouble. Apologies for any distress caused. Money-back guarantee applies.

The true origins of an 18th century tomb inscription at Zennor, Penwith, Cornwall

“‘Tis glorious misery to be born a man,” generally taken to refer to a hen-pecked husband, is in fact a misquotation of verse by the 17th century Romford and London poet, Francis Quarles, dealing with human mortality.

London organ-grinder tweets for September 2017

Barrel/street organ stuff.

Napoleon as Harlequin, tumbler, fraudster, monkey (?): Come, come, honest gents, have you ever seen a comedy like that!

Doggerel and the death of democracy

Featuring John Taylor, the Water(man) Poet, Cornelius Cardew, Rick Astley, Luther Vandross, Michael Fassbender and someone else as Macbuff and Macdeath, Bugs Bunny & Friends, and finally John Taylor again.

Title page of John Taylor's Swarm of sectaries, and schismatiques.

Will Kemp Morris-danced from London to Norwich

But unfortunately he probably won’t figure in the results of the Singing Organ-Grinder’s historical explorations into English popular song.

Will Kemp underway from London to Norwich in 1600, with Thomas Slye on pipe and tabor, but without an organ grinder, because the technology wasn't there.

Viktor Orbán 0, Shakespeare 1

Mr Fido, who compensates for a distinct lack of charm with cunning a-plenty, has a piece in the Frankfurter Allgemeine. Called “Are you against peace?”, the customary response to awkward questions of Communist officialdom during the Soviet era and of EU officialdom now, he says that we should be worrying rather less about the future…

Christmas carousels

Impossible automata for my street organ this holiday season. Featuring Georg Büchner, Ignaz Bruder, German Christmas pyramids, dancing Hasidim, Lieutenant Kijé as you’ve probably never seen it, Le Tigre, and a crustacean.