# data[].attributes.custom_properties.q2Vl2Gyo
[Content note – death of sibling]

'St Augustine writes in chapter 8 of book 16 of City of God that a few years before his time, in the Orient, there was born a child who was double from the waist up and single from the waist down. There were two heads, two chests, four hands, and the rest of the body was all one: two thighs, two feet, one stomach. Augustine says that because this case was so novel many people went to see him, because he became rather famous. Another similar person was born in Normandy, and in Britain in the time of Henry the Third, though this time in a woman’s form. If you think about it you’ll find it a strange spectacle: two bodies joined in one like a tree with two branches divided from the middle of one trunk.  
 
There were two heads, two mouths, two noses, and all their beautiful faces adorned with everything you’d expect, except below there was the shape of only one person: that is, two legs, two things, one sexual organ, and one sole conduit for excrement. And what was more pitiable was that their wishes and desires were all the more different: one cried while the other laughed, one spoke while the other remained silent, one ate while the other drank. They lived in this manner for some years, and when one died the other carried her dead body for some years afterwards and then also passed away due to the putrefaction of their body.’ 

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.q2Vl2Gyo
[Content note – traumatic scenes of death and violence in war]

'Now the mutilated Pasha drifts atop the waves, and his great head is displayed up high on the sharp tip of a long pike, with a great cry from those watching. You could hardly look at the fighter’s terrifying eyes, his hostile face, oozing with miserable black gore. The expression and full beard of the animal-like face frightens as it swells (it seemed to threaten with its brow as when alive); for one of the officers showed it in warning to the Turks’ 

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Marin Držić, Old Stan or A Fool Fooled [Novela Od Stanca] 

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Marin Držić, Old Stan or A Fool Fooled [Novela Od Stanca] 

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FAIRY: Now pass that greasy paint, so Stan’s cheek we may smear 
And make him shine like saint, that log then bring thou here. 
 
[Fairies blacken Stan’s face and bind his hands, and then they shave off his beard saying:] 
Now be young as before and long live youthful so 
That wife will thee adore; and now with blessings go!  
 
[Then they take his little goat and whatever they find in the saddlebags, 
leaving a few coins to pay for his wares. Then they leave. It dawns on him 
that he has been duped and he jumps on his feet shouting:] 
 
STAN: My goat! God smite thee dead! Oh, help! Canst hear me, ho! 
What fool! I lost my head! The devil spawned this woe! 
No truth in youth, purblind, – my beard too they did shear! 
Who’d think foul thieves to find in city with no peer?! 
They stole my goatling dear! None here? Him apprehend! 
Ah, brothers mine, canst hear? To catch him someone send! 

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Alexandre Exquemelin - De Americaensche Zee-Roovers

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Alexandre Exquemelin - De Americaensche Zee-Roovers

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But being still persuaded, that those unfortunate People came with Design to take again and ruinate the Island, they bound them with Cords, by two and two, or three and three together, and drove them through the Woods, into the open Fields. Being come thus far with them, they ask’d them, What was become of their Leader? they constantly made Answer, He was drown'd in the Shipwrack though they knew it was false. For Ogeron, being unknown to the Spaniards, behav'd himself among them, as an innocent Fool, and in his Actions-mimick'd the Natural so well, that he was not tyed as the rest of his Companions, but let loose, to serve the Divertisement and Laughter of the common Souldiers. These now and then would give him Scraps of Bread, and other Victuals, whereas the rest of the Prisoners had never sufficient to satisfie their hungry Stomachs, their Allowance from the Spaniards, being scarce enough to preserve them alive. 

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Nezim Frakulla - ‘Some Young Fellows Have Now Turned Up’

# data[].attributes.subject
Nezim Frakulla - ‘Some Young Fellows Have Now Turned Up’

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.gvDk0h1M
ca. 1735 | Bejtexhinj (Albanian written in Arabic script)

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.q2Vl2Gyo
Some Young Fellows Have Now Turned Up 

Some young fellows have now turned up, 
Shouting: 'Why don't we be poets?' 
Weep ye trees and weep ye boulders! 
For the gems that they are penning. 

True verse is God's inspiration, 
It's no clotted cream for swilling, 
Worry not, scent of the lily, 
For by force is nought accomplished. 

Pay attention, listen to me, 
Let me tell you, if you're clever, 
That these flowers are not easy, 
They're not flags out in the pastures. 

You can't understand a writer, 
You don't know what he is saying, 
Yet you sit there, trying to tell me 
What it's like to be a poet. 

God! their verse, where has it come from? 
I must say, it is quite silly, 
Oh Nezim, praise be upon you 
For the jewelled words you've spoken. 

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Jacob Frances – Against Women who Learn Torah 

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Jacob Frances – Against Women who Learn Torah 

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Frances, Jacob. “Against Women who Learn Torah” in “Five Polemics Concerning Women.” The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, translated by Raymond P. Scheindlin, https://www.posenlibrary.com/entry/five-polemics-concerning-women. 

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To teach the Torah to a woman is 
To throw a precious gem into the flames, 
To set a diamond in a frame of tin, 
To build a palace in a wilderness. 
.........................................................
A woman learned in theology 
Is like a black slave married to a lord. 
To get the Torah’s vast expanse into her mind 
Would be to try to get a ship inside a well. 
...........................................................
Her thoughts are only on concupiscence; 
Her learning’s limited to procreation. 
Yes, in a woman’s mouth, the Torah wails 
And utters many sighs and lamentations. 

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.2_vRJp7I
Keating, Geoffrey. The General History of Ireland. Translated by Dermo’d Oconnor, 1723. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/bub_gb_xHZUAAAAYAAJ. 

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The Reason why this great Hero called for the Brains of his Adversary, in Proof of his Courage, was in Compliance with a remarkable Custom in those Times; that whenever a Champion overcame his Adversary in single Combat, he took out his Brains, and mixing them with Lime, he made a round Ball, which, by drying in the Sun, became exceeding solid and hard, and was always produced in publick Meetings and Conventions as an honourable Distinction, and a Trophy of experienced Valour, and certain Victory. 

[...]

The Ball of Brains made a Contusion in the Head of Connor; .... The Wound however was in a short Time cured by the Care and Skill of this Surgeon; but it had that Effect: upon the Brain, that upon the lead Passion or Heat of the Spirits, it was in Danger of breaking out again, and a Relapse might be attended with very fatal Consequences : Fighnin therefore thought it his Duty to represent the Truth of the Cafe to Connor, and advised him, in a submissive Manner, to avoid all immoderate Exercise, that might disorder or put his Blood into a Ferment, particularly not to ride hard, or be incontinent any Way, but to keep his Spirits cool and in a proper Motion. 

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Montaigne, Michel de. “Of Books.” Essays of Michel de Montaigne, edited by William Carew Hazlitt, translated by Charles Cotton, Reeves and Turner, 1877. Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3600/3600-h/3600-h.htm#link2HCH0067. 

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I do not bite my nails about the difficulties I meet with in my reading; after a charge or two, I give them over. Should I insist upon them, I should both lose myself and time; for I have an impatient understanding, that must be satisfied at first: what I do not discern at once is by persistence rendered more obscure. I do nothing without gaiety; continuation and a too obstinate endeavour, darkens, stupefies, and tires my judgment. My sight is confounded and dissipated with poring; I must withdraw it, and refer my discovery to new attempts; just as, to judge rightly of the lustre of scarlet, we are taught to pass the eye lightly over it, and again to run it over at several sudden and reiterated glances. If one book do not please me, I take another; and I never meddle with any, but at such times as I am weary of doing nothing. I care not much for new ones, because the old seem fuller and stronger; neither do I converse much with Greek authors, because my judgment cannot do its work with imperfect intelligence of the material.

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Montesquieu, Lettres Persanes ed. P. Vernière (Paris: Garnier, 1975), p. 168 

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From Letter number 78, from Rica to Usbek, sent from Paris.  

‘Here there is a house where they put the fools. One might think that it would be the largest house in town. No! The cure is pretty small given the size of the ill. Without doubt, the French, greatly disparaged by their neighbours, enclose a few fools in a house in order to give the impression that those outside the house are not foolish’. 

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Rhys Prichard - 'Advice to the Drunkard'

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Rhys Prichard - 'Advice to the Drunkard'

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Prichard, Rhys. The Welshman’s Candle, or, The Divine Poems of Mr. Rees Prichard, Sometime Vicar of Landovery, in Carmarthenshire. Translated by William Evans, 1771. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/welshmanso00pric. 

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.gvDk0h1M
first half of the 17th century (translation: 1771) | Welsh

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.q2Vl2Gyo
from “Advice to the DRUNKARD” 

20  

Approach the fire, thy shins its heat shall feel —  

Approach thou pitch, it will thy garments stain — 

Approach a serpent, it will sting thy heel — 

Approach strong liquor, it will turn thy brain, 

21 

Flee from a serpent, lest it sting thy heel — 

Flee from the plague, lest it strike thee dead — 

Flee from the fire, left thou it's force shou'dst feel —  

Flee from strong liquor, lest it turn thy head. 

22  

Of all the slaves, wherewith this world is stor'd,  

The worst is he, who is his belly's slave : 

For, whist he lives, he'll seek no other Lord,  

Oe’r him supreme authority to have. 

23  

The drunkard to the tavern goes, possess'd  

Of sense, of strength, and all his pow'rs of mind:  

He enters in a man, goes out a beast, 

Spues like a dog, and grunts like any fiend. 

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William Wager - The Longer Thou Livest, The More Fool Thou Art

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William Wager - The Longer Thou Livest, The More Fool Thou Art

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Wager, William. The Longer Thou Livest, the More Fool Thou Art. ‘The Longer Thou Livest’ and ‘Enough Is as Good as a Feast’, edited by R. Mark Benbow, University of Nebraska Press, 1967, pp. 1–78. 

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DISCIPLINE: 
Lo you hear? what a patron this is. 
Think you that he is not past grace? 

EXERCITATION: 
Yet I say, he that hath wit to do this,  
May turn to virtue also in space. 

PIETY: 
Come hither. I pray thee tell me but one thing,  
How intendest thou to live another day? 

MOROS: 
How? truly, make merry, dance and sing, 
Set cock-a-hoop, and play care away. 

PIETY: 
Seeing that you have none other respect 
But your life’s days in folly to spend, 
Discipline must you now and then correct. 
That unto wisdom you may yourself bend. 

MOROS: 
Correct, quoth he? why, shall I be beaten? 
My father will not suffer that, I trow. 

DISCIPLINE: 
You begin to be scabby and worm-eaten;  
It is time salt upon you to strow. 
Sirrah, do you see what I have here? 
The wise man willeth an ass to have a scourge; 
You have learned folly many a year, 
From the same now I must you purge. 
You that have the wit to mock and t scorn, 
What wit you have to wisdom I will see. 
Upon your sides this scourge shall be worn 
Except you will speake rightly after me: 
I will love and fear God above all. 

MOROS: 
(say after him) 
I will love and fear God above all. 

DISCIPLINE: 
He might vouchsafe to give me sapience. 

MOROS: 
He might vouchsafe to give me sapience. 

DISCIPLINE: 
I shall not cease on his holy name to call. 

MOROS: 
I shall not cease on his holy name to call. 

DISCIPLINE: 
That he will open mine intelligence. 

MOROS: 
That he will open mine intelligence. 

DISCIPLINE: 
Well said. 

MOROS: 
Well said. 

DISCIPLINE: 
Say the same verses alone together 
Like as you said them after me. 

MOROS: 
Say the same verses alone together 
Like as you said them after me. 

PIETY: 
His meaning you do not consider; 
Alone you mst say the verses as they be. 

MOROS: 
His meaning you do not consider; 
Alone you mst say the verses as they be. 

EXERCITATION: 
You may say no more as he did say. 
He did but teach you your words wisely to frame. 

MOROS: 
You may say no more as he did say. 
He did but teach you your words wisely to frame. 

DISCIPLINE: 
With an ungracious fool we spend the day; 
He turneth all to a mock and a game. 

MOROS: 
With an ungracious fool we spend the day; 
He turneth all to a mock and a game. 

DISCIPLINE: 
Vexation, they say, giveth intelligence; 
Another while I will prove you with my scourge. 

MOROS: 
Vexation, they say, giveth intelligence; 
Another while I will prove you with my scourge. 

PIETY: 
This heady foolishness and negligence 
With correction away we must purge. 

MOROS: 
This heady foolishness and negligence 
With correction away we must purge. 

EXERCITATION: 
We will hold him while you do him beat. 
Lay on, Discipline, and do not spare. 

MOROS: 
I trow I shall make all three of you to sweat. 
Come one for one, and for you all I do not care. 
(Hold him and beat him.) 
Body of God! alas, my arse, out! out! no more. 
Cry you mercy, a vengeance take you! 
For God’s sake leave, mine arse is sore. 
I will say as you will have me say now. 

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Venice, Metropolitan City of Venice, Italy

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Tarabotti, Arcangela. Paternal Tyranny. Edited and translated by Letizia Panizza, University of Chicago Press, 2004. 

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published posthumously in 1654 | Italian

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from BOOK ONE 

IF WOMEN ARE FICKLE, WHY FORCE THEM TO BE CONSTANT?  

God does not wish to interfere with or oppose the will of His creatures; indeed, He permits us all to dispose of our wills as we please. It is male foolhardiness that grants itself the right to violate women’s free wills and then regale them with unjust invectives against their “ﬁckleness” and “inconstancy.” If wise King Solomon afﬁrms that we are all as ﬁckle as leaves and more unstable than the wind —although he himself displays a fragility greater than glass!—why do you cruel men wish to sentence women irrevocably and unjustly to perpetual imprisonment, tied down by indelible sacraments with the knots of oaths made on sacred altar stones under pain of ecclesiastical censure and excommunication? At this point one needs the voices of all Catholic and secular writers, of moderns and ancients, and of believers and heretics to join with mine in describing fully men’s profound madness. They are the ones in need of a new Astolfo who would ascend beyond the clouds to the moon in search of their wits! 

And just how, if you please, can these extreme opposites be matched together: natural ﬁckleness and an immutable state of life, shifting sense of purpose and ﬁrm commitment, inconstancy of mind and a ﬁxed dwelling place in a convent? And that not through their own choice but through another’s determination, imposed on those bodies and souls that you say have inconstancy as their proper attribute. How is it, you cruel men— I am tempted to say butchers— can assign dwellings to women, and conﬁned ones at that, which they may never change? It is further presumption to imagine that you can rein in the varied sentiments of a sex that— if one is to believe what you say— draws its unstable temperament from the maternal womb and that is therefore deemed, as if by natural inheritance, to have inconstancy at the heart of all things amorous as well as furious. But fathers, too, should recall that when they gave life to their offspring, they also passed on their own defects, as men are much more ﬁckle in their sentiments than women. 

(pp. 56-57) 

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Margaret Cavendish, ‘Of Small Creatures, Such As We Call Fairies’

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Margaret Cavendish, ‘Of Small Creatures, Such As We Call Fairies’

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Who knows, but in the Brain may dwell
Little small Fairies; who can tell?
And by their several actions they may make
Those forms and figures, we for fancy take.
And when we sleep, those Visions, dreams we call,
By their industry may be raised all;
And all the objects, which through senses get,
Within the Brain they may in order set.
And some pack up, as Merchants do each thing,
Which out sometimes may to the Memory bring.
Thus, besides our own imaginations,
Fairies in our brain beget inventions.
If so, the eye's the sea they traffic in,
And on salt watery tears their ship doth swim.
But if a tear doth break, as it doth fall,
Or wiped away, they may a shipwreck call.
When from the stomach vapours do arise,
Fly up into the Head (as to the skies)
And as storms use, their houses down may blow,
Which, by their fall, the Head may dizzy grow.
And when those houses they build up again,
With knocking hard they put the Head to pain.
When they dig deep, perchance the Tooth may ache,
And from a Tooth a Quarry-bone may take;
Which like to stone, may build their house withal:
If much took out, the tooth may rotten fall.
Those that dwell near the ears are very cool,
For they are both the South and Northern Pole.
The eyes the Sun and Moon, which give them light,
When open, day, when shut, it is dark night.

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Anton Wilhelm Amo, On the Impassivity of the Human Mind

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Anton Wilhelm Amo, On the Impassivity of the Human Mind

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.q2Vl2Gyo
 ‘The human mind belongs to the genus of spirits…a spirit is any purely active, immaterial substance which is always in itself understanding and operating spontaneously and intentionally on account of a determinate end of which it is conscious.’

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‘Yea, as a further discovery of the strong delusions whereby this woman is possessed, doth she pretend to have seen the Lord in a Vision, in the Voice to bid her sell what she had, and follow him, which accordingly she did, selling all she had, save only one bed, but could not be in quiet till she had sold that likewise; with the money she (as she was wished) fed the hungry, and clothed the naked, save a small part of it which she kept, and which she spent shortly after.’

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Thomas Bluett, Some Memories of the Life of Job the son of Solomon the High Priest of Boonda in Africa

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Thomas Bluett, Some Memories of the Life of Job the son of Solomon the High Priest of Boonda in Africa

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.q2Vl2Gyo
‘His Memory was extraordinary; for when he was fifteen Years old he could say the whole Qur’an by heart, and while he was here in England he wrote three Copies of it without the Assistance of any other Copy, and without so much as looking to one of those three when he wrote the others. he would often laugh at me when he heard me say I had forgot any Thing, and he told me he hardly ever forgot any Thing in his life, and wondered that any other body should’

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‘And there was at that time a bear cub, or rather to judge from his appearance a boy, around 13 years old, from Lithuania. Marcyan Ogiński, setting up his bear-traps, had the beaters chase this boy into the nets; they captured him alive though with much harm to the hunters as the bears defended him fiercely. One large female bear defended him most strongly: it was clear she was his mother. As soon as the hunters felled her, they seized the boy. Everything about him was human: he had no bear-claws on his hands and feet but human nails. The only difference between him and a human being was the long hair like a bear’s which covered his entire body even his face; only his eyes shone out…. The boy was incapable of speaking or behaving in a human way, only in an animal way.  
The queen, at that time, gave him her pear peel, sugaring it. With great eagerness, he put this in his mouth: but tasting it, he spat it into his hand and hurled this slobbery peel right between the queen’s eyes. The king began to laugh cruelly. The queen said something in French; the king laughed even harder. Ludwika [the queen], left the table in rage.’ 

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John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

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John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

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‘Sometimes, again, when I have been preaching, I have been violently assaulted with thoughts of blasphemy, and strongly tempted to speak such words with my mouth before the congregation. I have also at times, even when I have begun to speak the word with great clearness, evidence, and liberty of speech, yet before that opportunity ended, I have been so blinded and so estranged from the things I have been saying, and also so restricted in my speech as to my utterance before the people, it was as if I had not known or remembered what I have been about; or as if my head had been in a bag all the time of my exercise.’

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For the hares, he sprinkled onions on the path, 
which made them cry terribly.  
The tears in their eyes froze blue-blind. 
Tom plucked hares by day, he plucked them at night. 

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Emund Gripenhielm, The Instruction of a King

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Emund Gripenhielm, The Instruction of a King

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The cause that His Royal Majesty’s reading is somewhat late […] seems to be H. R. M’s own disposition of mind, which is by nature somewhat heated, quick and lively, and he often mixes thoughts with one another, and anticipates them over each other, whereby there is some hindrance in the task that he has at hand, no matter how much diligence is used in both mild and serious remonstrations to remove this. All of which is an infallible mark, that H. M. after reading, begins the word with the last letter and sometimes with the middle; upon which one hopes that time will have a good effect: for in such a case, no matter how much industry and care is heeded by the teacher, he is still only the servant of nature, not its master.’

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Avvakum Petrovitch, The Life of Archpriest Avvakum, Written By Himself

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Avvakum Petrovitch, The Life of Archpriest Avvakum, Written By Himself

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.q2Vl2Gyo
'I walked over toward the doors and flopped down on my side: "You can sit, but I'll lie down", I said to them. So they laughed, "This archpriest's a fool! And he doesn't respect the patriarchs!" And I said to them, "We are fools for Christ's sake! Ye are honourable, but we are despised! Ye are strong but we are weak!"'….They led me away in chains'

...

'Fëdor, our dear departed, after staying with me awhile, he came before the Tsar again in a church, and there that blessed fool started in with his silly pranks. And the Tsar, being angered, ordered him sent to the Čudovskij Monastery. There Pavel the Archimandrite [head of the monastery] put him in irons, but by God's will the chains on his legs fell to pieces, before witnesses. And he, our light, our dear departed, he crawled into the hot oven in the bakery after the break was taken out and he sat there, his bare backside against its bottom, and gathered the crumbs and ate them. So the monks were in terror, and they told the Archimandrite, who is now the Metropolitan Pavel. And he acquainted the Tsar with this, and the Tsar came to the monastery and ordered him set free in honor. And again he came back to me'

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Hannah Allen, A Narrative of God’s Gracious Dealings with the Choice Christian Mrs. Hannah Allen, also known as Satan: His Methods and Malice Baffled

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Hannah Allen, A Narrative of God’s Gracious Dealings with the Choice Christian Mrs. Hannah Allen, also known as Satan: His Methods and Malice Baffled

# data[].attributes.custom_properties.q2Vl2Gyo
‘One night, I said there was a great clap of Thunder like the shot of a Piece of Ordnance, came down directly over my Bed; and that the same night, a while after, I heard like the voice of two Young Men singing in the Yard, over against my Chamber; which I said were Devils in the likeness of Men, singing for joy that they had overcome me; and in the morning as I was going to rise, that Scripture in the 10th. of Heb. and the last words of the 26th. Verse, was suggested to me from Heaven (as I thought) There remains no more Sacrifice for sin; And this delusion remained with me as an Oracle all along; that by this miracle of the Thunder, and the Voice and the Scripture, God revealed to me that I was Damned: When my Aunt asked me, Do you think God would work a Miracle to convince you that you are rejected? it is contrary to the manner of God's proceedings; we do not read of such a thing in all the Scripture. My Answer was, Therefore my condition is unparalell'd, there was never such an one since God made any Creature either Angels or Men, nor never will be to the end of the world... 


In the time I was at my Brother's, I had strange apprehensions that the Lights that were in Neighbouring houses were apparitions of Devils, and that those Lights were of their making; and if I heard the voice of People talk or read in other houses, I would not be perswaded but that it was Devils like Men, talking of me, and mocking at my former reading, because I proved such an Hypocrite.’ 

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Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen. The Adventurous Simplicissimus: Beiing the Description of the Life of a Strange Vagabond Named Melchior Sternfels von Fuchsham. Translated by William Heinemann, Ballantyne & Company, 1912. Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/33858/33858-h/33858-h.htm#div2_03. 

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HERMIT. What is thy name? 
SIMPLICISSIMUS. My name is "Lad." 
HERMIT. I can see well enough that thou art no girl: but how did thy father and mother call thee? 
SIMPLICISSIMUS. I never had either father or mother. 
HERMIT. Who gave thee then thy shirt? 
SIMPLICISSIMUS. Oho! Why, my mammy. 
HERMIT. What did thy mother call thee? 
SIMPLICISSIMUS. She called me "Lad," ay, and "rogue, silly gaby, and  gallowsbird." 
HERMIT. Who, then, was thy mammy's husband? 
SIMPLICISSIMUS. No one. 
HERMIT. With whom, then, did thy mammy sleep at night? 
SIMPLICISSIMUS. With my dad. 
HERMIT. What did thy dad call thee? 
SIMPLICISSIMUS. He called me "Lad." 
HERMIT. What was his name? 
SIMPLICISSIMUS. His name was Dad. 
HERMIT. What did thy mammy call him? 
SIMPLICISSIMUS. Dad, and sometimes also "Master." 
HERMIT. Did she never call him aught besides? 
SIMPLICISSIMUS. Yea, that did she. 
HERMIT. And what then? 
SIMPLICISSIMUS. "Beast," "coarse brute," "drunken pig," and other the like, when she would scold him. 
HERMIT. Thou beest but an ignorant creature, that knowest not thy parents' name nor thine own. 
SIMPLICISSIMUS. Oho! neither dost thou know it. 

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Efendí, Evliyá. Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in the Seventeenth Century. Translated by Joseph von Hammer, The Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, 1834. Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/53597/pg53597-images.html. 

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If any man have a bad memory which he wishes to improve, he should place himself beneath the Golden Ball suspended in the middle of the cupola, and say the morning prayer seven times ; three times repeat the words Allahumma Yâ kâshifo-l mushkilât Yâ alimu-s-sir va-l khafiyyât (i.e. O God who openest all difficult things and knowest all secret and hidden things), and each time eat seven black grapes, and then whatever he hears will remain fixed in his memory as if engraven on stone. A most noted example of this was Hamdi Chelebi, son of Ak-Shemsu-d-din, who lived in the village of Turbahli Goinuk. He was so foolish and forgetful, that if any one gave him the Selâm he was obliged to write the word Selâm on a piece of paper and read it before he could comprehend that he ought to answer 'Ve aleikum es-selâm.' No doctors could do him any good, so that at last he was completely a prey to forgetfulness, till he went, by Ak-Shemsu-d-din's advice, to Ayâ Sofiyah, where, after saying the requisite prayers, and eating the grapes as prescribed above, beneath the Golden Ball, he was so completely cured of his stupidity, that he began immediately to compose his poem of Yusuf and Zuleikhâ, which he finished in seven months; after which he wrote his Kiyâfet-nâmeh (Treatise on Physiognomy), which is known all over the world as a wonderful poem on the nature of the Sons of Adam. 

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Simon de Vries, De Groote Historische Oceaan 

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Simon de Vries, De Groote Historische Oceaan 

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De Vries, Simon. De Groote Historische Oceaan. 1683. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/ned-kbn-all-00000887-001. 

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Although—as Lord Ludwigh observed—one may sometimes derive amusement from the deeds of the foolish, simple people, or jesters, there is also no small danger to be feared from them. A certain Silesian prince, having taunted his court jester, was struck dead by him with a brick. (Schickfusii Schlesische Chronick, Bk. 2, Ch. 30, p. 95.) A nobleman in Germany, having once teased his fool a bit too much, made him so angry that he—happening to see a loaded pistol lying nearby—quickly took it and unexpectedly shot his master dead. (Georg Stein, Nutzliche Zeit-vertreiber, Ch. 6, p. 121.) Here the truth of the proverb is demonstrated: It is dangerous to jest with fools. 


(translated by Bridger Bartlett) 

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Cornelis de Bie, ‘Idioot Oft Botterick’ 

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Cornelis de Bie, ‘Idioot Oft Botterick’ 

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de Bie, Cornelis. “Idioot Oft Botterick.” Faems Weer-Galm Der Neder-Duytsche Poësie van Cornelio de Bie Tot Lyer, Uyt Sijnen Tydts over-Schot Vrymoedelijck Voor-Gestelt Op de Domme Waen-Sucht Des Wereldts, Ghenoempt, Werelts Sots-Cap Vol Zedige Moraliteyten En Sinne-Beelden, 1670, p. 283. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/faemsweergalmder00biec/page/n1/mode/2up. 

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THE IDIOT OR BOOR 

He has his brain full of learned secrets  
Which stink up the understanding, and he does not seek to know things. 
Indeed, he knows precisely all that is worth knowing, 
So his knowledge remains a secret for him alone. 
He shall notice all those who are wiser than him 
Because he has not bothered to remember them. 


(translated by Bridger M. Bartlett) 

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Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz, Memoirs of Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz 

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Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz, Memoirs of Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz 

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de Gondi, Jean Francois Paul, Cardinal de Retz. Memoirs of Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz. Translated by Anonymous, L.C. Page and Company, 1899. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/memoirsofjeanfra0001card. 

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Character of M. de La Rochefoucault. 

M. de La Rochefoucault had something so odd in all his conduct that I know not what name to give it. He loved to be engaged in intrigues from a child. He was never capable of conducting any affair, for what reasons I could not conceive; for he had endowments which, in another, would have made amends for imperfections. . . . He had not a long view of what was beyond his reach, nor a quick apprehension of what was within it; but his sound sense, very good in speculation, his good-nature, his engaging and wonderfully easy behaviour, were enough to have made amends more than they did for his want of penetration. He was constantly wavering in his resolution, but what to attribute it to I know not, for it could not come from his fertile imagination, which was lively. Nor can I say it came from his barrenness of thought, for though he did not excel as a man of affairs, yet he had a good fund of sense. The effect of this irresolution is very visible, though we do not know its cause. He never was a warrior, though a true soldier. He never was a courtier, though he had always a good mind to be one. He never was a good party man, though his whole life was engaged in partisanship. He was very timorous and bashful in conversation, and thought he always stood in need of apologies, which, considering that his “Maxims” showed not great regard for virtue, and that his practice was always to get out of affairs with the same hurry as he got into them, makes me conclude that he would have done much better if he had contented himself to have passed, as he might have done, for the politest courtier and the most cultivated gentlemen of his age. 

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Willem Boonen, Memorie-boek van Willem Boonen

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Willem Boonen, Memorie-boek van Willem Boonen

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Citation: Boonen, Willem. Geschiedenis van Leuven. Geschreven in de Jaren 1593 En 1594. Edited by Edward van Even, H. Vanbiesem en A. Fonteyn, 1880. Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren, https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/boon124gesc01_01/colofon.php.

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Present for supper at the guildhall were ... many other nobles, along with the entire regiment of the guild and the overseer, burgomasters, and an entire 9th of the guild. And after the meal, the aforesaid nobles danced with the aforesaid ladies to the violins that were being played excellently there. Also in the afternoon there was a squabble, and the jester or fool of the lord of the guildhall let out a great cry, shouting: ay! ay! ay! and enacting various transgressions, throwing many coins to the populace outside the windows, showering the same in piss, throwing the pot and a sieve on their heads, and likewise throwing a shoulder of roasted meat out the window, too.  

(translated by Bridger M. Bartlett)