The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical: A Cabinet for the CuriousStauffer, Frank H.
History
The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical: A Cabinet for the Curious
Stauffer, Frank H.
Literary curiosa
Anne Boleyn was remarkably dainty about her gloves. She had a nail which
turned up at the sides, and it was the delight of Queen Catherine to
make her play at cards without her gloves, in order that the deformity
might disgust King Hal.
_Adding Insult to Injury._
This expression has reached us from a fable by Phædrus, a Roman author
who lived in the reign of Augustus Cæsar, and whose writings were first
discovered to modern literature in 1596, at Rheims, in France. The fable
is called "The Bald Man and the Fly," and reads as follows:—
"A fly bit the bare pate of a bald man, who, endeavoring to crush it,
gave himself a heavy blow. Then said the fly, jeeringly, 'You wanted to
avenge the sting of a tiny insect with death. What will you do to
yourself, who have added insult to injury?'"
_St. Anthony's Fire._
St. Anthony's fire is an inflammatory disease which, in the eleventh
century, raged violently in various parts. According to the legend, the
intercession of St. Anthony was prayed for, when it miraculously ceased;
and, therefore, from that time, the complaint has been called St.
Anthony's fire.
_Before Houses were Numbered._
Before houses were numbered it was a common practice with tradesmen not
much known, when they advertised, to mention the color of their next
neighbor's door, balcony or lamp, of which custom the following copy of
a hand-bill presents a curious instance:—
"Next to the _Golden Door_, opposite Great Suffolk street, near Pall
Mall, at the Barber's Pole, liveth a certain person, Robert Barker, who
has found out an excellent method for sweating or fluxing of wiggs; his
prices are 2_s._ 6_d._ for each bob, and 3_s._ for every tye wigg and
pig-tail, ready money."
_Monkish Prayers._
The monks used to say their prayers no less than seven times in
twenty-four hours—
1st. Nocturnal, at cock-crowing (2 o'clock in the morning).
2d. Matins, at 6 o'clock in the morning.
3d. Tierce, at 9 o'clock in the morning.
4th. Sext, at 12 o'clock noon.
5th. None, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
6th. Vespers, at 6 o'clock in the afternoon.
7th. Compline, soon after 7.
Quarles wrote a neat epigram on the subject—
"For all our prayers the Almighty does regard
The judgment of the _balance_, not the _yard_;
He loves not words, but matter; 't is His pleasure
To buy His wares by _weight_, and not by _measure_."
_A Mammoth Feast._
Leland mentions a feast given by the Archbishop of York, at his
installation, in the reign of Edward IV. There were disposed of—300
quarters of wheat, 300 tuns of ale, 100 tuns of wine, 1000 sheep, 104
oxen, 304 calves, 304 swine, 2000 geese, 1000 capons, 400 swans, 104
peacocks, 1500 hot vension pasties, 4000 cold ones, 5000 custards, hot
and cold.
_Gluttony of the Monks._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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