In the celebrated old poem of the _General Satire of Scotland_,
attributed by most authorities to Dunbar, and which, from some
circumstances adverted to in the course of it, is supposed by Sibbald
and Chalmers to have been written in 1504 (seven years after the first
introduction of syphilis), the author deplores the extent to which the
disease had by that time already spread in Scotland, observing—
“Sic losing sarkis, so mony Glengoir markis,
Within this land was nevir hard nor sene.”[609]
In several of the notices which I have just quoted, the new disease,
syphilis, is alluded to under the names of “Gor,” “Gore,” “Grandgore,”
etc. Few maladies have been loaded with a more varied and more extensive
nomenclature. The terms in question, “Gore” and “Grandgore,” are of
French origin, and are old names corresponding to pox and great
pox—“verole” and “grand verole.” In the earlier periods of the history
of syphilis they were terms commonly employed by the French themselves
to designate the affection. To quote one confirmatory sentence from
Astruc (p. 1166), the disease “Gore et Grandgore a Gallis initio vocata
erat.” John le Maire, in his celebrated poem on syphilis, published in
1520, gives this as one of the designations of the disease used at that
time by the commonalty:—
“La nommoit Gorre ou la verole grosse,
Qui n’espargnoit ne couronne ne crosse.”[610]
Old Rabelais, whose _Gargantua_ and _Pantagruel_ are perfect
repositories of the low and licentious French words of the era at which
syphilis first appeared, uses the term Grandgore as a synonym for
syphilis; and in his wild allegorical style he makes the poor and
widowed poet, Rammagrobis, take this grandgore to bed for his second
wife. The term Grandgore seems to have been applied to the disease in
Scotland for a long time after its introduction. For example, the
author of the _Historie of the Kennedys_ quotes a letter written in the
latter part of the sixteenth century by the Laird of Colzean to the
Laird of Bargany, whose “neise was laich,” maliciously suggesting to him
that yet he might lose “sum uther joynt of the Glengoir, as ye did the
brig of your neise.”[611] Still later, or in 1600, the Kirk-Session of
Glasgow requested the magistrates “to consult the chirurgeons how the
infectious distemper of Glengore could be removed from the city.”[612]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account