Scatalogic Rites of All Nations: A dissertation upon the employment of excrementitious remedial agents in religion, therapeutics, divination, witchcraft, love-philters, etc., in all parts of the globeBourke, John Gregory
Religion
Scatalogic Rites of All Nations: A dissertation upon the employment of excrementitious remedial agents in religion, therapeutics, divination, witchcraft, love-philters, etc., in all parts of the globe
Bourke, John Gregory
Scatology
Douce quotes the following from a rare “Morality,” entitled, “Le
Condemnation des Banquets:” “Pause pour pisser le fol. Il prengt un
coffinet en lieu de orinal et pisse dedans et tout coule par bas.”
Hobbs, the Tanner of Tamworth, introduced by Heywood in his play of
“King Edward the Fourth,” the hero of the old ballad, furnished his
rooms with urinals suited to his trade. He says to his guests, the King
and Sellinger: “Come, take away, and let’s to bed. Ye shall have clean
sheets, Ned; but they be coarse, good strong hemp, of my daughter’s own
spinning. And I tell thee your chamber-pot must be a fair horn, a badge
of our occupation; for we buy no bending pewter nor breaking earth.”—(“1
King Edward the Fourth,” iii. 2, Heywood, 1600.)
Additional references of the same tenor are to be found in the
“Pilgrims,” Beaumont and Fletcher, ii. 1: “The Scourge of Villanie,”
Marston, 1599, satire 2; and in the following, which does not accord with
Dr. Fletcher’s opinion that such utensils were provided solely for the
female members of the household.
“_Host._ Hostlers, you knaves and commanders, take the horses of
the knights and competitors; your honorable hulks have put into
harbor; they’ll take in fresh water here, and I have provided clean
chamber-pots.”—(“The Merry Devil of Edmonton,” 1608.)
Such vessels were in use in Ireland, where they were called “omar-fuail,”
from _omar_, a vessel, and _fuail_, urine. They must have been employed
from the earliest centuries. “And they (the Sybarites) were the
first people who introduced the custom of bringing chamber-pots into
entertainments” (Athenaus, book xii. cap. 17).
It is not easy to detect any essential difference between the manners of
the people of Iceland, as described by Bleekmans on another page, and
those of the more polished Romans.
Bed-pans were used in France in the earliest days of the fifteenth
century. They are noted in “The Farce of Master Pathelin” (A.D.
1480).—(See “Le Moyen Age Médical,” Dupouy, Paris, 1888, p. 280 _et
seq._, and the translation of the same by Minor, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1890,
p. 82.)
“Maids need no more their silver pisse-pots scour,
...
Presumptuous pisse-pot, how did’st thou offend?
Compelling females on their hams to bend?
To kings and queens we humbly bend the knee,
But queens themselves are forced to stoop to thee.”
(“On Melting down the Plate, or the Piss-Pot’s Farewell,”
State Poems, vol. i. part 2, p. 215, A.D. 1697.)
“What need hath Nature of silver dishes or gold chamber-pots?”
(“The Staple of News,” Ben Jonson, iii. 2; London, 1628.)
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