Tag: william Shakespeare

Historical atlas of Spanish stage

Messrs Corea and King have probably by now forgiven some youthful stumbles and my funk trombone career is about to be relaunched, so I’ve started taking a slightly greater interest in stages. There are lots of interesting ones round here, but I like the ones on this Cordoba University site (via Libro de notas) even…

A Spanish codpiece

I just read Beth Marie Kosir’s interesting paper on the British codpiece and thought I’d have a quick look through some Spanish stuff. The Hispanic bragueta (I guess it comes from the French braguette, which is actually not a combination of baguette and bragas, “knickers”) seems to have been used first (in the late 15th…

“Whoreson Villepin”

Vincent Pinte, commenting at Technologies du Langage, suggests that the “de” between the “Dominique” and the “Villepin” that denominate France’s deranged and disastrous prime minister need not necessarily evidence noble origins. Apparently–I certainly wouldn’t know–medieval prostitutes customarily used only one name, their first, and were subsequently assigned surnames on the basis of their location, eg…

Richard and the lion’s heart: the truth

So Richard Cœur-de-Lion owed his name to bravery in battle? Hmmm, because Robert Chambers‘ 1869 Book of Days, pillaging a medieval romance, tells a different tale. As we join proceedings, Richard is languishing in the nick (again! but it’s German this time) for having beaten up a pub musician, killed the son of the king…

Sounds to kill Jews by

“Then the monsignor left the altar and told us that we could start killing the Jews.”

‘k Ben niet bang

Dezelfde lui die zaten te zeiken over mijn muzikale smaak zijn weer bezig. Nu zou het onverantwoord zijn om ‘s nachts door tarantulagebied te wandelen met 15 Zweedse studentes. Wat een onzin. In zijn 1976 proefschrift, Dodendans: arachnia, Eurodisco en bierdrinken, werd door F Vollenbroek overtuigend getoond dat 93,4% van volwassen tarantula’s behoorlijk tot zeer…