A History Lesson

 
I'm reliably informed that in ye merrie days of olde Englande you weren't permitted by law to beat your wife with a stick which was wider than your thumb.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Spoilsports     <<ducks>>
 
 
 

you weren't permitted by law to beat your wife

Ahh ok.
Was it wife or children?


@ Bubba: You're welcome. I like to be helpful when I can.


Mike? 

Crg


The real insanity of history is quite a scary thing. Especially on a "local" level. You must remember though that many familys learned and built the better way and improved it and were never included in history. The silent majority.

The origin of "The silent majority" according to Wiki:

The phrase had been in use for much of the 19th century to refer to the dead—the number of living people is less than the number who have died. Phrases such as "gone to a better world", "gone before", and "joined the silent majority" served as euphemisms for "he died".

Of course it was later made famous by Richard Nixon, but he didn't mean dead people.

Luckily, I'm still in the minority.

Hi,

Now that you have read that, you really ought to go back and read some Shakespeare and then read Restoration theater ... where a lot of these things are mentioned in the dialogue as "wit" and "jokes" in conversations.

Very little of Shakespeare and Restoration Theater is actually described as "filler" and many an insult and jokes are centered around many of these bits and pieces. The problem is, of course, that we think of those words with our own minds in this time, and thus a lot of jokes do not make much sense today, but would then!

Tom Stoppard is pretty much the big scholar in this area and he has used much of his cleverness in several of his plays, and of course, the best one is not quite "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" but the one that won a few more Oscars and was called "Shakespeare in Love".

The bath/water thing was much more so for the lower classes than it was for the upper classes, who had a lot more of the luxurious benefits than most people.

One other example that is neat, was actually in the story of Medea, going back to Greek times and Sophocles. The messenger states that the dress was poisoned and that it killed Glauce and eventually Creon ... and that is not necessary and could/should have been understood that a "story" was fabricated so they would prevent some truths from getting on and about. And a "messenger" would be a low class person that would get paid pretty good to say anything that he/she was told, depending on their master and so on.

So, here is the catch ... in those brick castles and buildings, tapestries were hung in the walls to absorb the moisture, and help make the place a bit warmer. All heating was done by candles and oil, many of which usually stood on various metal or brick objects and were often away from the reach of the children so there would be less danger of problems. However, since some of these at night would be on top of a metal stand about anywhere from 2 to 3 or 4 feet tall, the chances of getting one of these turned over and then having a big fire ... could be an issue. So, the story goes by me, since I wrote that poetry play, that Glauce was trying her new dress sent by Medea and that while she whirled around with her beautiful new dress, she knocked over one of these lit lamps ... and since there are carpets all over to keep the place warm ... voommm ... the whole place is on fire and she is burned up and Creon also succumbs trying to save her.

In a way ... there is a lot of history ... that we simply don't look at as if it were real to them ... we look at it as if it was today ... and believe what was said regardless of time and place. And what/how it was said and used was very different from today with heating being a normal function in most places and not as big a peril as it was then.

History is excellent ... and the same thing goes for a lot of music, with the exception that we tend to look at yesterday's music as just music and it not having any depth or concern related to the time and place ... most of which is not true 40 years ago except for pop music and most top ten and top of the pops!

Janet


Almost the interestingest thing I've read for a few days. Thanks!  :-)

Except for THIS?