1 thought on “Those bawdy medievals”

  1. It should be noted that many of these illustrations were tucked away in manuscripts not available to the general public until printing. The grossness of such humor accelerated after the Black Death in the 14th century. Printing presses made illustrations available to the common man, usually via woodcuts, which contain some remarkable art. Let me argue positively for the “anal trumpet,” which the poet Alexander Pope mentions in THE DUNCIAD. [paraphrase] “And after the posterior trumpet blown/All dignities were summoned to the throne” [throne can also mean “toilet” but this verse applies to Queen Anne’s court]. I believe that the excessive production of methane in people and animals (most notably cattle) and its corruption of the “carbon footprint” of our environment would be ameliorated by having people and bovines wear such devices (that would automatically lift should the wearer’s bowels be moved in productive manner). Think of the harmonies in our pastures and fields, even in the human workplace. I was once in a bathroom in Des Moines when a fellow let vent his natural gas most sonorously. I asked him, “Can you play ‘Yankee Doodle’ on that thing?” which, after summoning more internal powers, he did. Music can change our lives for the better, even with its most sour notes.

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