the Best Footnote Ever

[angevin2]

From Polemo-Middinia, an odd macaronic Latin-Scots poem by William Drummond of Hawthornden, who apparently got up to some odd things when he wasn't transcribing the drunken ramblings of Ben Jonson. I'm not sure who the editor/translator is.

Sea-sutor obstupuit, summique in margine saxi

Comments

[rymenhild]

Is that verb really shyttavit?

Now I want to decline it. Shyttavi, shyttavisti, shyttavit.

[angevin2]

*giggles*

A lot of this poem consists of bits of English/Scots being treated as though they were Latin -- shyttavit is of course an example of that. It's quite hilarious; I tried to find a copy of it online, but the only one I could find was a scan of an old edition which replaces the naughtier bits of it with asterisks. I may post a link to it later, and fill in the gaps...

[elettaria]

Equivalent of Franglais, you mean? We need to start speaking this.

Could we see the scanned version anyway? The asterisks alone should be hilarious.

[angevin2]

Okay, I'll post it -- I just need to hunt down the asterisked bits in my copy of the poem, so that I can include them in the post. :)

[ladyshrew]

Well, I'm sure there's *somebody* out there who has. ;-)

Shyttavit. hahaha.

[angevin2]

True that! I do love the image of someone reading this poem and saying "You know, that is what bird crap sounds like when it hits the ocean!" ;)

[elettaria]

How on earth did someone find out, anyway? Were they out in a small boat when a bird crapped right next to it?

[ladyshrew]

::giggles madly::

I'ma run around saying "Shyttavit" now. ;-)

[elettaria]

I contest the status of footnote as "best footnote ever". Look at this one:

ROSALIND: I will be more jealous of thee than a Barbary cock-pigeon over his hen,

137 Barbary cock-pigeon Barb pigeons were thought to have been introduced from Barbary (northern Africa) and their place of origin suggested Muslim watchfulness over wives. In The Illustrated Book of Pigeons (ed. L. Wright, 1874-6), Robert Fulton remarks, "It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that [Shakespeare] was at heart, if not in practice, a fancier, his intimate knowledge of them [i.e. pigeons], comes out in so many ways" (p.7) causing Furness to expostulate, "Is there left in the world any human trade, profession or pursuit wherein Shakespeare is not claimed as a fellow-craftsman? Did any of us ever think we should live to see him hailed as a 'pigeon-fancier'?"

From the Oxford World's Classics As You Like It (Oxford & New York 1993) pp.192-3, IV.1.137.

Fabulous find, hon. "Shyttavit", forsooth.

[angevin2]

Okay, I concede the point. As funny as empirical bird-crap evidence is, the idea that Shakespeare had intimate knowledge of pigeons is much funnier. ;)

[elettaria]

I adore that icon of yours, it's so utterly me. I don't even have a TV, as it happens.

Yours probably does beat mine, especially for inventive use of Latin, but I couldn't resist. I mean, "the best footnote ever" is just begging to be challenged.

[cataptromancer]

"wingasque flappavit" is hilarious...

[angevin2]

I think my favorite thing in the poem, though, is the line "O qualis hurlie burlie fuit!" I may have to start using that.

Thanks!

[dakiwiboid]

Macaronic verse rocks! I'm tempted to add shyttavit to my vocabulary, now.