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Entomomania is a compulsive fascination with which type of creatures? | List of manias
A-
Ablutomania- Compulsion to wash or clean.
Agromania- Unreasonable desire for solitude or solitudinous wandering. Morbid desire to live in solitude or in the country.
Alcoholomania- Abnormal craving for intoxicants. (Personal note: this, I believe, is different than alcoholism in that alcoholism is a state of being and it is alcoholomania that leads to that state.)
Ailuromania- Intense enthusiasm for cats.
Anthromania- Inordinate interest in flowers.
Arithmomania- Craze for numbers and counting.
Automania- Compulsion toward solitude.
Bibliomania- Obsession with the collecting of books.
Bromomania- Mental disorder caused by chronic misuse of bromides.
Callomania- Belief in one's own beauty; a delusion of the insane.
Camphoromania- Abnormal craving for camphor (a gum obtained from an evergreen tree native to China and Japan).
Choreomania- Dancing mania. Seen in the Middle Ages.
Choromania- Dance mania, a form of chorea.
Cleptomania- Kleptomania. Impulsive stealing in which the motive is not related to the intrinsic value of the stolen article. There is often deep regret following the act.
Cocainomania- Intense desire for cocaine and its effects.
Cresomania- Hallucination of possessing great wealth.
Croesomania- Hallucination of possessing great wealth.
Cacodemonomania- Inordinate obsession with demonic possession.
Cheromania- Compulsion toward gaiety.
Chrematomania- Obsessive desire for money.
Coprolalomania- Obsession with foul speech.
Cynomania- Intense enthusiasm for dogs.
Dacnomania- An irrational impulse to kill.
Dipsomania- A morbid and uncontrollable craving for alcoholic beverages.
Drapetomania- Insane impulse to wander from home.
Dromomania- Insane impulse to wander.
Ecdemomania- Wanderlust; abnormal desire to wander.
Egomania- Abnormal self-esteem and self-interest.
Enomania- Craving for alcoholic beverages.
Enosimania- A mental state characterized by excessive and irrational terror.
Entheomania- Religious insanity.
Ergasiomania- An abnormal desire to be busy at work.
Erotomania- Pathological exaggeration of sexual behavior.
Erythromania- Uncontrolled blushing.
Esthesiomania- Insanity with sensory hallucinations and perverted moral sensibilities.
Etheromania- Addiction to use of ether.
Eleutheromania- Irresistible craving for freedom.
Entomomania- Inordinate fascination with insects.
Eremiomania- Irresistible craving for stillness.
Ergomania- Obsessive zeal for work.
K-
Kleptomania- Impulsive stealing, the motive not being in the intrinsic value of the article to the patient. In almost all cases, the individual has enough money to pay for the stolen goods. The stealing is done without prior planning and without the assistance of others. There is increased tension prior to the theft and a sense of gratification while committing the act.
Kathisomania- Uncontrollable compulsion to sit.
Logomania- Repetitious, continuous, and excessive flow of speech seen in monomania.
Letheomania- Obsessive fascination with narcotics.
Macromania- 1. Megalomania, q.v. 2. The delusion that the affected individual or his or her parts or surroundings are extremely large.
Megalomania- A psychosis characterized by ideas of personal exaltation and delusions of grandeur.
Methomania- Pathological craving for intoxicating drinks or other intoxicants.
Monomania- Mental illness characterized by distortion of thought processes concerning a single subject or idea.
Musicomania- Insane love of music.
Melomania- Excessive fascination with music.
Mythomania- Irresistible impulse toward exaggeration and lying.
Necromania- 1. Abnormal interest in dead bodies or in death. 2. Mania with desire for death.
Nostomania- Nostalgia verging on insanity.
Nudomania- Abnormal desire to be nude.
Nymphomania- Abnormal excessive sexual desire in a female.
Nesomania- Intense fascination with islands.
Noctimania- Intense fascination with night.
Oikomania- Nervous disorder induced by unhappy home surroundings.
Oniomania- A psychoneurotic urge to spend money.
Onomatomania- A mental derangement characterized by an abnormal impulse to dwell upon or repeat certain words by attaching significance to their imagined hidden meanings or by trying frantically to recall a particular word.
Onychotillomania- A neurotic tendency to pick the nails.
Opiomania- Insane craving for opium or its derivatives.
Opsomania- Craving for some special article of food.
Ochlomania- Intense obsession with crowds.
Oinomania- Inordinate fascination with wine.
Ophidiomania- Excessive interest in reptiles.
Ornithomania- Inordinate fascination with birds.
Paramania- A type of emotional disturbance in which the individual derives pleasure from complaining.
Paratereseomania- Insane desire to investigate new scenes and subjects.
Peotillomania- A nervous habit or tic consisting of constant pulling at the penis.
Pharmacomania- Abnormal desire for giving or taking medicines.
Phonomania- Insanity characterized by tendency to commit murder.
Photomania- 1. A psychosis produced by prolonged exposure to intense light. 2. A psychotic desire for light.
Planomania- Morbid desire to wander and to be free of social restraints.
Plutomania- Delusion that one is very rich.
Poriomania- Morbid desire to wander from home.
Posiomania- Addiction to alcoholic drinks.
Pyromania- Fire madness; mania for setting fires or seeing them.
Parousiamania- Obsessive zeal for the second coming of Christ.
Phagomania- 1. Irresistible craving for food. 2. Obsessive interest in eating.
Phaneromania- Uncontrollable impulse to pick at a spot or growth on one's body.
Phonomania- Obsession with noise or sound.
Satyromania- Satyriasis, q.v. (Excessive, and often uncontrollable, sexual drive in men.)
Sebastomania- Religious insanity.
Sitiomania- Periodic abnormal appetite or craving for food.
Sitomania- 1. Periodic abnormal craving for food. 2. Periodic abnormality of appetite.
Sophomania- Unrealistic belief in one's own wisdom.
Syphilomania- Morbid fear of syphilis or inference that one is suffering with it.
Scribomania- Obsessive zeal for writing.
Siderodromomania- Intense fascination with railroad travel.
T-
Thanatomania- Condition of homicidal or suicidal mania.
Theomania- Religious insanity; esp. That in which the patient thinks he is a deity or has divine inspiration.
Tomomania- 1. Tendency of a surgeon to resort to unnecessary surgical operations. 2. Abnormal desire to be operated upon.
Toxicomania- Abnormal craving for narcotics, intoxicants, or poisons.
Trichokryptomania- Abnormal desire to break off the hair or beard with the fingernail.
Trichorrexomania- The abnormal habit of breaking off the hair with the fingernails.
Tristimania- Melancholia.
Thalassomania- Intense fascination with the sea.
Timbromania- Inordinate enthusiasm for postage stamps.
Trichomania- Intense fascination with hair.
| Insect |
Tahir Square is in which North African city? | List of manias
A-
Ablutomania- Compulsion to wash or clean.
Agromania- Unreasonable desire for solitude or solitudinous wandering. Morbid desire to live in solitude or in the country.
Alcoholomania- Abnormal craving for intoxicants. (Personal note: this, I believe, is different than alcoholism in that alcoholism is a state of being and it is alcoholomania that leads to that state.)
Ailuromania- Intense enthusiasm for cats.
Anthromania- Inordinate interest in flowers.
Arithmomania- Craze for numbers and counting.
Automania- Compulsion toward solitude.
Bibliomania- Obsession with the collecting of books.
Bromomania- Mental disorder caused by chronic misuse of bromides.
Callomania- Belief in one's own beauty; a delusion of the insane.
Camphoromania- Abnormal craving for camphor (a gum obtained from an evergreen tree native to China and Japan).
Choreomania- Dancing mania. Seen in the Middle Ages.
Choromania- Dance mania, a form of chorea.
Cleptomania- Kleptomania. Impulsive stealing in which the motive is not related to the intrinsic value of the stolen article. There is often deep regret following the act.
Cocainomania- Intense desire for cocaine and its effects.
Cresomania- Hallucination of possessing great wealth.
Croesomania- Hallucination of possessing great wealth.
Cacodemonomania- Inordinate obsession with demonic possession.
Cheromania- Compulsion toward gaiety.
Chrematomania- Obsessive desire for money.
Coprolalomania- Obsession with foul speech.
Cynomania- Intense enthusiasm for dogs.
Dacnomania- An irrational impulse to kill.
Dipsomania- A morbid and uncontrollable craving for alcoholic beverages.
Drapetomania- Insane impulse to wander from home.
Dromomania- Insane impulse to wander.
Ecdemomania- Wanderlust; abnormal desire to wander.
Egomania- Abnormal self-esteem and self-interest.
Enomania- Craving for alcoholic beverages.
Enosimania- A mental state characterized by excessive and irrational terror.
Entheomania- Religious insanity.
Ergasiomania- An abnormal desire to be busy at work.
Erotomania- Pathological exaggeration of sexual behavior.
Erythromania- Uncontrolled blushing.
Esthesiomania- Insanity with sensory hallucinations and perverted moral sensibilities.
Etheromania- Addiction to use of ether.
Eleutheromania- Irresistible craving for freedom.
Entomomania- Inordinate fascination with insects.
Eremiomania- Irresistible craving for stillness.
Ergomania- Obsessive zeal for work.
K-
Kleptomania- Impulsive stealing, the motive not being in the intrinsic value of the article to the patient. In almost all cases, the individual has enough money to pay for the stolen goods. The stealing is done without prior planning and without the assistance of others. There is increased tension prior to the theft and a sense of gratification while committing the act.
Kathisomania- Uncontrollable compulsion to sit.
Logomania- Repetitious, continuous, and excessive flow of speech seen in monomania.
Letheomania- Obsessive fascination with narcotics.
Macromania- 1. Megalomania, q.v. 2. The delusion that the affected individual or his or her parts or surroundings are extremely large.
Megalomania- A psychosis characterized by ideas of personal exaltation and delusions of grandeur.
Methomania- Pathological craving for intoxicating drinks or other intoxicants.
Monomania- Mental illness characterized by distortion of thought processes concerning a single subject or idea.
Musicomania- Insane love of music.
Melomania- Excessive fascination with music.
Mythomania- Irresistible impulse toward exaggeration and lying.
Necromania- 1. Abnormal interest in dead bodies or in death. 2. Mania with desire for death.
Nostomania- Nostalgia verging on insanity.
Nudomania- Abnormal desire to be nude.
Nymphomania- Abnormal excessive sexual desire in a female.
Nesomania- Intense fascination with islands.
Noctimania- Intense fascination with night.
Oikomania- Nervous disorder induced by unhappy home surroundings.
Oniomania- A psychoneurotic urge to spend money.
Onomatomania- A mental derangement characterized by an abnormal impulse to dwell upon or repeat certain words by attaching significance to their imagined hidden meanings or by trying frantically to recall a particular word.
Onychotillomania- A neurotic tendency to pick the nails.
Opiomania- Insane craving for opium or its derivatives.
Opsomania- Craving for some special article of food.
Ochlomania- Intense obsession with crowds.
Oinomania- Inordinate fascination with wine.
Ophidiomania- Excessive interest in reptiles.
Ornithomania- Inordinate fascination with birds.
Paramania- A type of emotional disturbance in which the individual derives pleasure from complaining.
Paratereseomania- Insane desire to investigate new scenes and subjects.
Peotillomania- A nervous habit or tic consisting of constant pulling at the penis.
Pharmacomania- Abnormal desire for giving or taking medicines.
Phonomania- Insanity characterized by tendency to commit murder.
Photomania- 1. A psychosis produced by prolonged exposure to intense light. 2. A psychotic desire for light.
Planomania- Morbid desire to wander and to be free of social restraints.
Plutomania- Delusion that one is very rich.
Poriomania- Morbid desire to wander from home.
Posiomania- Addiction to alcoholic drinks.
Pyromania- Fire madness; mania for setting fires or seeing them.
Parousiamania- Obsessive zeal for the second coming of Christ.
Phagomania- 1. Irresistible craving for food. 2. Obsessive interest in eating.
Phaneromania- Uncontrollable impulse to pick at a spot or growth on one's body.
Phonomania- Obsession with noise or sound.
Satyromania- Satyriasis, q.v. (Excessive, and often uncontrollable, sexual drive in men.)
Sebastomania- Religious insanity.
Sitiomania- Periodic abnormal appetite or craving for food.
Sitomania- 1. Periodic abnormal craving for food. 2. Periodic abnormality of appetite.
Sophomania- Unrealistic belief in one's own wisdom.
Syphilomania- Morbid fear of syphilis or inference that one is suffering with it.
Scribomania- Obsessive zeal for writing.
Siderodromomania- Intense fascination with railroad travel.
T-
Thanatomania- Condition of homicidal or suicidal mania.
Theomania- Religious insanity; esp. That in which the patient thinks he is a deity or has divine inspiration.
Tomomania- 1. Tendency of a surgeon to resort to unnecessary surgical operations. 2. Abnormal desire to be operated upon.
Toxicomania- Abnormal craving for narcotics, intoxicants, or poisons.
Trichokryptomania- Abnormal desire to break off the hair or beard with the fingernail.
Trichorrexomania- The abnormal habit of breaking off the hair with the fingernails.
Tristimania- Melancholia.
Thalassomania- Intense fascination with the sea.
Timbromania- Inordinate enthusiasm for postage stamps.
Trichomania- Intense fascination with hair.
| i don't know |
What is the name of the absent-minded inventor in the 1968 film ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’? | Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) - Cast, Ratings, Awards
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) Children and Fantasy | G | 2 hours and 36 minutes | December 18, 1968 (USA)
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Producer: Albert R. Broccoli
While truant from school, young siblings Jeremy and Jemima meet the beautiful Truly Scrumptious (Sally Ann Howes), who falls for their widowed father, Caractacus Potts (Dick Van Dyke), and his various oddball inventions, including the family's noisy rebuilt car, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. One day at the beach, Caractacus tells Truly and the children a fanciful fable about the villainous Baron Bomburst (Gert Frobe) and his evil designs on the Potts family car.
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| Caractacus Pott |
Which chemical element does ‘Li’ represent in the Periodic Table? | Film locations for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
See the village of Turville in Went The Day Well?
Schloss Neuschwanstein is, not surprisingly, featured in Luchino Visconti ’s 1972 Ludwig, his epic film about the life of the troubled monarch
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang film location: Baron Bomburst’s Vulgarian castle: Schloss Neuschwanstein, Germany
Photograph: iStockphoto / manfredxy
When Ian Fleming wasn’t dreaming up missions for 007, he kicked back and relaxed with this children’s story about the eccentric inventor who transforms a clapped-out racing car into a magical toy. In-joke spotters will have twigged that George Coggins, the original owner of of the dilapidated racer, is James Bond’s Q, the late Desmond Llewellyn .
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang film location: the home of inventor Caractacus Potts: Cobstone Windmill, Turville, Buckinghamshire
The windmill home of Caractacus Potts ( Dick Van Dyke ) is Cobstone Windmill, at Cadmore End on the B482 about four miles west of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire .
Cobstone Mill was built around 1816, overlooking the village of Turville (it’s often called Turville Windmill).
Until 1873 it remained a working mill but, after being damaged by fire, it lay derelict. It was restored cosmetically for the film, and a few years later restored completely (even getting a swimming pool) as a home for actress Hayley Mills and husband, director Roy Boulting . They no longer live there, but it’s still a private home.
The house of Truly Scrumptious ( Sally Anne Howes ) is Heatherden Hall, at the heart of the Pinewood Studios lot at Iver Heath, also in Buckinghamshire . Being so convenient, the mansion is a familiar screen presence in Pinewood based films – which include James Bond and Carry On productions.
It seems the car has pretty miraculous powers already. When Potts drives Truly and the kids down to the beach from Cadmore End, they end up by the sea at Cape Taillat, near Saint-Tropez in the South of France .
The airship of Baron Bomburst ( Gert Frobe ) hovers over the hillside near the village of Turville, just southwest of Cadmore End. Turville itself is a regular location, seen as ‘Bramley End’ in the excellent wartime thriller Went The Day Well? and more recently as the village in which Peter Sarsgaard pulls a scam in 2009’s Oscar nominated An Education .
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang film location: the Vulgarian town square: Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany
Photograph: iStockphoto / SteffiL
Followed by the magical car, the balloon flies off to the child-hating kingdom of ‘Vulgaria’. The town square, where creepy Childcatcher ( Robert Helpmann ) and the cavalry (with horses from the famous stud farm near Munich) search for the kiddies, is Rothenburg ob der Tauber , in Bavaria.
Rothenburg was economically devastated by the Thirty Years War and, being hidden away from major commercial routes, has never been modernised. In the long run, this has turned out to be a boon and the town is now something of a tourist trap. A perfectly preserved 17th century wonder, it’s about 45 miles west of Nuremberg toward Stuttgart, in Bavaria. There’s the briefest glimpse of Rothenburg as the house of Gregorovitch in Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part I .
Baron Bomburst’s Vulgarian castle, subliminally familiar as the model for Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty castle, is Ludwig II’s marvelously kitsch fantasy of Schloss Neuschwanstein , in Germany , about 150 miles to the south of Rothenburg.
Built between 1870 and Ludwig’s mysterious death in 1886, not by an architect but by a theatrical set designer (one C Jank, who was responsible for designing the original production of Richard Wagner’s Tannhauser) high above the Schwansee and the Alpsee. There are guided tours (there’s a bus service from Schwangau, about a mile away), but t’s a popular destination and in summer can get mighty packed. Entrance tickets can only be bought at the Ticketcenter Hohenschwangau in the village of Hohenschwangau, below the castle. You can reach the village by train from Munich.
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Reggie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica were members of which fictional band? | The Archies | Archie Comics Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia
Template:About Template:Infobox musical artist
The Archies are a garage band founded by Archie Andrews , Reggie Mantle , and Jughead Jones , a group of fictional adolescent characters of the Archie universe, in the context of the animated TV series, The Archie Show . The group is also known for their real world success, through a virtual band .
The fictional band's music was recorded by session musicians featuring Ron Dante on vocals and released as a series of singles and albums. Their most successful song, " Sugar, Sugar ", became one of the biggest hits of the bubblegum pop genre that flourished from 1968 to 1972. [1]
Contents
Hot Dog : mascot / conductor
The Archies are sometimes jokingly compared to The Doors , as they also had no bass player. However, there is some controversy as to whether Reggie played bass or not. In most drawings, his guitar looks identical to Archie's, making him the band's second (or co-lead) guitarist. However, a number of drawings (including the one above) clearly show Reggie's instrument to have four tuning keys, the most common bass design. Six-string bass guitars do exist, however, and the Archies' recordings regularly featured a bass player. In more than one comic strip, Reggie is described as playing bass (however, this is not necessarily canon , as storylines and hobbies/activities in the Archie world change from story to story). Finally, in the liner notes for 2008's The Archies Christmas Album, Reggie is listed as the bass guitarist.
One distribution mode for the Archies' music was cereal boxes: a cardboard record was embossed directly into the back of a box such that the record could be cut out and played on a turntable (although their music was also available on standard issue LPs and 45s). Though the group no longer appears in animation, they are still frequently used in stories published by Archie Comics .
Other cartoon groups
Edit
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, animated series often featured musical groups that were fictional or sometimes based on real life musicians. This dates at least as far back as 1965 with The Beatles , but the Archies helped popularize the concept. Most of these groups played bubblegum pop . Several were also teenage detectives, influenced by Scooby Doo . These groups included The Groovie Goolies , The Hardy Boys , Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids , The Banana Splits (actually live action with actors in animal costumes and dubbed speaking voices), The Cattanooga Cats , The Chan Clan , and The Neptunes . Animated versions of The Jackson 5ive , the Osmond Brothers , the Partridge Family , and The Brady Bunch also existed. Archie Comics ' own creation Josie and the Pussycats was successful both as an animated series and as a comic book (and later a live action motion picture ), but The Bingoes and The Madhouse Glads lacked its popularity and never appeared in animation. Two modern examples of the "cartoon rock group" could include the British band, Gorillaz —a musical project created in 1998 by British musician Damon Albarn and British cartoonist Jamie Hewlett, and Dethklok , a fictional death metal band created by Brendon Small .
Production
Edit
A set of studio musicians were assembled by Don Kirshner in 1968 to perform various songs. The most famous is " Sugar, Sugar ", written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim , which went to #1 on the pop chart in 1969, sold over six million copies, and was awarded a gold disc . [2] In Billboard 's Hot 100 , it was ranked as the number one song of that year, the only time a fictional band has ever claimed Billboard's annual Hot 100 top spot. Other Top 40 songs recorded by The Archies include "Who's Your Baby?" (U.S. #40), "Bang-Shang-A-Lang" (U.S. #22), and "Jingle Jangle" (U.S. #10). "Jingle Jangle" also sold over one million copies, garnering a second gold disc award. [2]
Male vocals for the fictional Archies group were provided by The Cuff Links ' lead singer Ron Dante and female duet vocals were provided by Toni Wine . Wine, who was only paid for the recording session and quit the group when the song became a huge hit, was succeeded in 1970 by Donna Marie, who in turn was replaced on the final recordings by Merle Miller. The only Archies song not to feature Ron Dante on lead was 1971's "Love Is Living In You", sung by Richie Adams. The last single, released 1972, was "Strangers in the Morning"; its B-side song was "Plum Crazy".
Jeff Barry , Andy Kim , Ellie Greenwich , Susan Morse , Joey Levine , Maeretha Stewart , Bobby Bloom and Lesley Miller contributed background vocals at various times, with Barry contributing his trademark bass voice (portrayed as being sung by Jughead in the cartoon) on cuts such as "Jingle Jangle", "Rock 'n' Roll Music", "A Summer Prayer For Peace" (which hit number one in South Africa and Scandinavia in 1971), and "You Little Angel, You". Musicians on Archies records included guitarist Hugh McCracken , bassists Chuck Rainey and Joey Macho, keyboard player Ron Frangipane, and drummers Buddy Saltzman and Gary Chester .
The Archies' records were initially released on the Calendar Records label, but the name was shortly thereafter changed to Kirshner Records.
The sound engineer was Fred Weinberg, who was Jeff Barry's and Andy Kim's favorite, and who also recorded Barry's and Kim's other hits "Be My Baby", "Baby I Love You", and "Rock Me Gently". Fred Weinberg is an award-winning composer and producer in his own right. However, the music for The U.S. of Archie TV show which aired in 1974, was produced by Jackie Mills, a Hollywood producer, who also produced Bobby Sherman and the Brady Kids . The vocalist for these shows was Tom McKenzie, who also sang on some Groovie Goolie segments, and was a regular member of the popular singing group, the Doodletown Pipers.
Although the verses of Jingle Jangle are supposedly sung by either Betty or Veronica (the only two female members of the fictional group), in reality, it was not performed by any female vocalist, rather it was Dante using a falsetto voice. [3]
Dante returned for a 2008 Archies album, The Archies Christmas Party, with singers Danielle van Zyl and Kelly-Lynn . [4]
Discography
Edit
Music from the show was not only released on LP, but also sometimes on the backs of cereal boxes. (Note: There are also many songs which were released only as part of broadcasts of their numerous TV series—not on singles or albums. Template:Issue The style of music from series to series tended to evolve as popular music tastes changed.)
Albums
Feelin' So Good (S.K.O.O.B.Y.-D.O.O.) / Melody Hill / Rock 'n' Roll Music / Kissin' / Don't Touch My Guitar / Circle of Blue / Sugar, Sugar / You Little Angel, You / Bicycles, Roller Skates and You / Hot Dog / Inside Out - Upside Down / Love Light
Jingle Jangle (1969)
Jingle Jangle / Everything's Alright / She's Putting Me Thru Changes / Justine / Whoopee Tie Ai A / Nursery Rhyme / Get on the Line / You Know I Love You / Senorita Rita / Look Before You Leap / Sugar and Spice / Archie's Party
Sunshine (1970)
Sunshine / Who's Gonna Love Me / Mr. Factory / Love and Rock and Roll Music / Over and Over / Waldo P. Emerson Jones / A Summer Prayer for Peace / Dance Dance Dance / Comes the Sun / Suddenly Susan / One Big Family / It's the Summertime
The Archies Greatest Hits (1970)
Sugar, Sugar / Jingle Jangle / Get on the Line / Sunshine / Bang-Shang-A-Lang / Who's Your Baby? / Feelin' So Good (S.K.O.O.B.Y. D.O.O.) / Over and Over / Seventeen Ain't Young / Waldo P. Emerson Jones / Everything's Alright
This Is Love (1971)
This is Love / Don't Need No Bad Girl / Should Anybody Ask / Easy Guy / Maybe I'm Wrong / What Goes On / Carousel Man / Hold On to Lovin' / This is the Night / Little Green Jacket / Together We Two / Throw a Little Love My Way
The Archies Christmas Album (2008)
Here Comes Santa Claus / Up on the Housetop / Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree / Holly Jolly Christmas / Jingle Bell Rock / I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus / Run Rudolph Run / Santa Claus is Coming to Town / Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas / Sleigh Ride / Archies Christmas Party / Christmas in Riverdale
The Archies (1977 RCA Special Products DVL 2-0221 / Laurie House LH-8016)
A: Archie's Theme (Everything's Archie) / Sugar, Sugar / Sunshine / Bicycles, Roller Skates and You / Ride, Ride, Ride
B: Jingle Jangle / Don't Touch My Guitar / Kissin' / Who's Your Baby? / Everything's Alright
C: Sugar and Spice / Archie's Party / You Make Me Wanna Dance / Feelin' So Good ( S.K.O.O.B.Y.D.O.O.) / Rock & Roll Music
D: Bang-Shang-A-Lang / Boys and Girls / Senorita Rita / Seventeen Ain't Young / Waldo P. Emerson Jones
Singles
| The Archies |
Which country is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest and Cambodia to the southwest? | GCD :: Issue :: Everything's Archie! #F4493
Everything's Archie! #F4493
color cover; black & white interior
Dimensions:
mass market paperback (4 1/4" x 6 7/8"; 10.9 cm x 17.3 cm)
Paper Stock:
Archie / cover / 1 page (report information)
Pencils:
Visit to a Small Panic (Table of Contents)
The Archies / comic story / 6 pages (report information)
Script:
humor; teen
Characters:
Archie Andrews; Jughead Jones; Betty Cooper; Veronica Lodge; Reggie Mantle; Lou Scheimer; Norm Prescott; Hal Sutherland
Synopsis:
The Archies visit Filmation, the animation studio that produces their Saturday morning cartoon. The producers and director are astonished to find that the real Archies are crazier than the TV cartoon versions.
Reprints:
from Everything's Archie (Archie, 1969 series) #1 (May 1969)
Indexer Notes
Filmation producers Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott, and their primary director Hal Sutherland, are caricatured here; Harry Lucey uses a more realistic drawing style for the real people than he does for the regulars.
When reprinted in Archie Double Digest (Archie, 2011 series) #260, writing is credited to George Gladir.
The Music Man (Table of Contents)
The Archies / comic story / 6 pages (report information)
Script:
| i don't know |
Regicide is the killing of who? | Regicide - definition of regicide by The Free Dictionary
Regicide - definition of regicide by The Free Dictionary
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/regicide
1. The killing of a king.
2. One who kills a king.
[Latin rēx, rēg-, king; see reg- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots + -cide .]
reg′i·cid′al (-sīd′l) adj.
regicide
1. the killing of a king
2. a person who kills a king
[C16: from Latin rēx king + -cide]
ˌregiˈcidal adj
1. the killing of a king.
2. a person who kills a king or is responsible for his death.
[1540–50; < Latin rēg-, s. of rēx king + -i- + -cide ]
reg`i•cid′al, adj.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
regicide - someone who commits regicide; the killer of a king
killer , slayer - someone who causes the death of a person or animal
2.
regicide - the act of killing a king
murder , slaying , execution - unlawful premeditated killing of a human being by a human being
Translations
n (= act) → Königsmord m; (= person) → Königsmörder(in) m(f)
regicide
[ˈrɛdʒɪˌsaɪd] n (frm) (crime) → regicidio ; (person) → regicida m/f
Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content .
Link to this page:
I am not speaking of regicide, I am speaking about ideas.
Yes: ideas of robbery, murder, and regicide," again interjected an ironical voice.
Why revolutions fail..
It meant, however, that the advocates of that communal political ideology which the author terms "civic republicanism" were cautious about the r-word with all its connotations of regicide in the case of the French and English Revolutions and fratricidal strife in the American.
BrickWarriors Publishing's "Riddle of Regicide," Being Turned Into Lego
I have tried to visit Britain on the eve of every general election since the end of the Thatcher era (by Tory regicide, not the ballot box) in November 1990 in search of insights to help me trade sterling, gilts and UK equities.
Copyright © 2003-2017 Farlex, Inc
Disclaimer
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.
| Monarch |
Basque, Aranese and Galician are all languages spoken in which European country? | Regicides - definition of Regicides by The Free Dictionary
Regicides - definition of Regicides by The Free Dictionary
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Regicides
1. The killing of a king.
2. One who kills a king.
[Latin rēx, rēg-, king; see reg- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots + -cide .]
reg′i·cid′al (-sīd′l) adj.
regicide
1. the killing of a king
2. a person who kills a king
[C16: from Latin rēx king + -cide]
ˌregiˈcidal adj
1. the killing of a king.
2. a person who kills a king or is responsible for his death.
[1540–50; < Latin rēg-, s. of rēx king + -i- + -cide ]
reg`i•cid′al, adj.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
regicide - someone who commits regicide; the killer of a king
killer , slayer - someone who causes the death of a person or animal
2.
regicide - the act of killing a king
murder , slaying , execution - unlawful premeditated killing of a human being by a human being
Translations
n (= act) → Königsmord m; (= person) → Königsmörder(in) m(f)
regicide
[ˈrɛdʒɪˌsaɪd] n (frm) (crime) → regicidio ; (person) → regicida m/f
Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content .
Link to this page:
I am not speaking of regicide, I am speaking about ideas.
Yes: ideas of robbery, murder, and regicide," again interjected an ironical voice.
View in context
Our intention was to tell the story of one fictional Russian oligarch with a very personal kind of biography and history that was not trying to, at a stroke, say 'here's what all wealthy Russians are like', anymore than, having played Macbeth in the theatre, the Scots are up in arms at being portrayed as murderers and regicides.
It was unlikely you'd have a film career of any kind when I started out... IN THE HOTSEAT Sir Kenneth Branagh is one of the UK's most esteemed actors and directors. The 53-year-old Belfast-born star of theatre, film and television talks about his latest movie project - thriller Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Our intention was to tell the story of one fictional Russian oligarch with a very personal kind of biography and history that was not trying to, at a stroke, say 'here's what all wealthy Russians are like', anymore than, hs aving played Macbeth in the theatre, the Scots are up in arms at being portrayed as murderers and regicides.
| i don't know |
What is the name of the light porous form of solidified lava used a skin abrasive? | Pumice: Solidified Frothy Lava | Rashid's Blog
Pumice: Solidified Frothy Lava
Posted on February 10, 2012 by Rashid Faridi
Pumice is an igneous rocks which formed when lava cooled quickly above ground. Little pockets of air can be seen in the rock . This rock is so light, that many pumice rocks actually float in water. Pumice is actually a kind of glass unike other rocks which are mixture of minerals. Because this rock is so light, it is used quite often as a decorative landscape stone.
By origin, Pumice is a is a solidified frothy lava typically created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano . It is formed when lava and water are mixed. This unusual formation is due to the simultaneous actions of rapid cooling and rapid release of pressure. This release of pressure creates bubbles by lowering the solubility of gases (including water and CO2) dissolved in the lava, causing the gases to rapidly exsolve (like the bubbles of CO2 that appear when a carbonated drink is opened). The simultaneous cooling and pressure release freezes the bubbles in the matrix.
Economic Uses
Pumice is used extensively to make lightweight concrete or insulative low-density breeze blocks. When used as an additive for cement, a fine-grained version of pumice called pozzolan is mixed with lime to form a light-weight, smooth, plaster-like concrete. This form of concrete was used in Roman times. Roman engineers used it to build the huge dome of the Pantheon and as construction material for many aqueducts.
It is also used as an abrasive, especially in polishes, pencil erasers, cosmetic exfoliants, and the production of stone-washed jeans. “Pumice stones” are often used in beauty salons during the pedicure process to remove dry and excess skin from the bottom of the foot as well as to remove calluses. It was also used in ancient Greek and Roman times to remove excess hair. Finely ground pumice is added to some toothpastes and heavy-duty hand cleaners (such as Lava soap) as a mild abrasive. Pumice is also used as a growing substrate for growing horticultural crops.Its porous nature makes it a natural for filters.
In some aspects Pumice is like scoriain that both are frothy, lightweight volcanic rocks, but the bubbles in pumice are small
and regular and its composition is more felsic than scoria’s.Scoria differs from pumice in being denser. Pumice is glassy and scoria is lava with microscopic crystals.
Pumice differs from obsidian in that obsidian is all glass and lacks the extensive vesicles of pumice. Most pumice is acidic/felsic in composition associated with rhyolite since those lavas tend to have more volatiles, but intermediate and basic varieties are known to occur. Scoria is a much heavier ropey volcanic rock with larger but less prolific vesicles than pumice.
Pumice Islands
Some ocean volcanoes have produced what are known as pumice rafts, which are actual floating mini islands made of rock. These pumice islands can be there for years floating along the ocean currents. Some may have been responsible for the distribution of island hopping animals and plants of the Pacific Ocean. Some pumice islands were found with plants actually growing on them.
Links and Sources:
| Pumice |
A surgeon would perform brachioplasty on which part of the body? | Types of volcanic rock | Sciencelearn Hub
Types of volcanic rock
Rocks are not all the same. Some are heavy, some are light. Others are dark, while some can be almost pure white. Even igneous rocks that are all formed from magma in the Earth’s mantle can look very different.
Igneous rocks
Rocks are broadly classified into three groups – igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic . Igneous rocks are formed from magma in the Earth’s mantle. They generally don’t contain fossils, don’t react with acids, don’t usually contain obvious layers, can be made of different minerals, sometimes have holes or bubbles and may be glassy in appearance. Volcanologists look for these igneous rocks so that they can learn more about where these rocks have come from and whether they were formed during a volcanic eruption.
Geologists use the visual appearance of the rock as an initial clue to its composition but will then verify their ideas using specialised techniques. For example, scientists at The University of Auckland use an electron microprobe to measure the exact quantities of silica , iron , magnesium and many other chemicals that are in rock samples they collect. This information helps them to classify the rock and may give them direct clues about the volcano and the eruption that formed the rock.
Lava solidifies to rock
New Zealand has 3 main types of volcanoes, and each has been formed from a different type of magma. Once the lava has erupted, it cools and solidifies into rock:
Basalt magma often forms shield volcanoes.
Andesite magma often forms cone volcanoes.
Rhyolite magma often forms calderas . Depending on how much gas the magma contains, it can also form cone volcanoes.
Basalt
Image: Columnar basalt
The Earth’s crust is mainly basalt rock. It is a heavy, dark, grainy rock. Basalt is associated with great rock columns that are found in many places around the Earth, for example, the Organ Pipes in Dunedin or the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland.
Basalt magma is formed at high temperatures (around 1,200ºC). When it comes out of the volcano, it is hot and liquid. It contains very little silica (less than 50%) and a lot of magnesium and iron, which makes the rock look dark.
The Auckland volcanic field has erupted this type of hot, runny iron-rich lava, and the landscape is dotted with mountains made from basalt and scoria (a red-coloured rock that contains large amounts of iron-rich minerals). Both rock types are excavated for building materials and landscaping.
Andesite
Image: Andesite
Andesites are lighter coloured than basalt because they contain less iron and more silica (50–60%). Some scoria rocks fall within the andesite classification because of their chemical composition.
Magma that contains andesite is generally around 800–1,000ºC and forms steep-sided cone volcanoes (stratovolcanoes). Mount Ngāuruhoe is an example of an andesite volcano.
Rhyolite
Image: Pumice
Rhyolite is light-coloured or white – this is a clue that the rock contains a lot of silica (more than 70%) and not much iron or magnesium.
Rhyolitic magmas are associated with low temperatures (750–850ºC) and are often thick, which means gases can’t escape. Some rhyolitic rocks are quite light, for example, pumice , which may still have evidence of the bubbles of gas trapped as the rock solidified.
Nature of Science
Classification helps scientists organise things into groups. In rock classification, such grouping can help geologists see patterns and perhaps explain the reasons for rocks looking similar.
Metadata
| i don't know |
Which is the longest motorway in Britain? | CBRD » Motorway Database » M6
Main Images Timeline Exit List
Where would we be without the M6? Nowhere at all. It's Britain's longest motorway and carries (in total, over its whole length) more traffic than any other. Part of it was also Britain's first.
The first motorway in Britain was the Preston Bypass, which was then incorporated into the M6 when construction was continued. Today it's found between junction 29 and M55 junction 1. The M6 contains all kinds of ground-breaking sections: the section along the Lake District has won awards for enhancing the landscape, for example. In a more mundane area and the section between Shap and Tebay is the only one in Britain to have an unconnected local road running down the central reservation.
Opened in 2003, the M6 Toll bypasses Birmingham, and is Britain's first toll road. Recently completed is the A74 upgrade, which extended the M6 right up to the border, connecting to the A74(M) . The A74(M) and M74 were, when they were built, going to be renumbered as M6, creating a motorway over 350 miles long linking the M1 (and thus London) to Glasgow. That looks highly unlikely now.
However, the fact that the link between the two motorways was made at all is a cause for celebration, and it's fitting that it was on 5 December 2008 that the a new section opened — the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Preston Bypass.
Factfile
| M6 |
Who captained the England rugby union team in the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand? | CBRD » British Roads FAQ
British Roads FAQ
Links
You are here: Home » British Roads FAQ
As you would expect, these are the most Frequently Asked Questions where British Roads are concerned. It started off as somewhere to put answers to questions I got asked a lot, and grew into this formidable document. It's now been adopted as the official FAQ for SABRE , the Society for All British and Irish Road Enthusiasts. If the answer you want's not in here, or if you think I've missed one out, you can either ask me or pose your question to the kindly folk of SABRE who are bound to know the answer.
The FAQ is updated irregularly and erratically. Contributors are listed in no particular order at the end of this page. This system is about as organised as the roads themselves.
Other Sources of Information
CBRD has other pages explaining arcane technical terms. Try the Dictionary for a definition of words and phrases found in this FAQ and in the wider world of roads.
1.1 Who owns and runs the roads?
This is a surprisingly difficult question. There is a simple answer and a complicated answer.
The simple answer is that the public own and run them. Roads exist for the use of the public and are maintained by various government bodies at public expense. Roads in Great Britain can be divided into two categories for this purpose: trunk roads and non-trunk roads. Trunk roads (see 2.6 What is a 'trunk road'? ) are nationally important routes, which are maintained by the national highway authority of each country (for example, the Highways Agency in England). All other public roads are maintained by local authorities — usually a city or county council. Roads in Northern Ireland are all maintained by the Northern Ireland Roads Service.
The complex answer is that roads — or more properly public highways — cannot easily be said to be owned by anyone. Often the land on which they exist actually belongs to whoever owns the adjacent land, and theoretically, rather like a path across a field, the land is theirs even if the right of way is superimposed on top of it. If the right of way were ever to be removed, or the road were ever torn up, the land would revert to its historical owner. However, a public highway is extremely difficult to get rid of and for all practical purposes the land between its boundary fences is treated as though it is owned by the authority that maintains it.
Land for new roads that were built more recently (from the early 20th century), and did not evolve from ancient pathways and tracks, is bought from the landowner by compulsory purchase before construction begins, and is then owned, outright, by the Crown.
1.2 What are the roads like?
The British road network provides dense coverage of the whole country and is, by international standards, well developed and well maintained. It arguably has suffered from a lack of long-term planning and consistent investment.
Nearly all public roads were surfaced in the early part of the 20th century, and the country has a good coverage of purpose-built high speed roads, built from the 1950s onwards. New-build roads are subject to very high design standards. Older roads are generally well maintained and surfaced, but are rarely widened or re-aligned (particularly when compared to other countries in Western Europe) and often their courses have been unchanged for centuries.
1.3 How are the roads funded?
For trunk roads (see 2.6 What is a 'trunk road'? ), Central Government pays 100% of the maintenance costs. For roads maintained by local authorities, Central Government will pay 50% of the costs for A-roads and 30% for B-roads, with the remaining cost of maintaining these (and the entire cost of maintaining unclassified roads) met by the local authority itself.
1.4 How safe are the roads?
The UK generally has very safe roads and, compared to other countries, is among the safest places in the world to travel by road.
Motorways are the safest type of road, accounting for only 3-6% of all those killed or injured while carrying a large proportion of all road traffic. In total about 2,500 people die in road accidents every year and another 26,000 are seriously injured.
In 2013 there were 1,770 deaths on the UK's roads, which corresponds to 28 deaths per million of population. By that measure, in Europe in 2013, only Sweden had fewer deaths.
2. Classification and Numbering
2.1 How are the roads classified?
Classification refers to the allocation of numbers to British roads. Numbers are allocated on a national basis and within Great Britain each number is unique (except in certain places where a number has been duplicated by mistake). Northern Ireland has its own system which exists entirely separately.
There are three tiers of classification in both GB and NI: motorways, A-roads and B-roads. Motorways are grade-separated expressways and have 1, 2 or 3-digit numbers prefixed with 'M' or suffixed '(M)'. A-roads are the other major routes; they vary from motorway-standard to narrow local roads, and have 1, 2, 3 or 4-digit numbers prefixed with 'A'. B-roads are local routes and have 3 or 4-digit numbers prefixed with 'B'.
2.2 How are the roads numbered?
Road numbering in detail
You can read about road numbers, and the process of allocating numbers, in more detail in the Road Numbers article.
2.2.1 How are A- and B- roads numbered?
Numbering for these roads is based on nine zones which cover the mainland of Britain, numbered 1 to 9. All the roads that start in a given zone take the first digit of their route number from the number of the zone (so roads in the 5-zone include A511, B5203, etc). The zones are defined by the roads A1 to A9 and the coastline. Click the diagram to view a larger version.
These single-digit A-roads radiate from London and Edinburgh, which can be referred to as the 'hubs' of the network. A1 to A6 radiate clockwise from London; A7 to A9 from Edinburgh. The two systems align in the Scottish Borders. Each zone takes its number from the single-digit A-road on its anticlockwise edge. The exception is in Kent where the boundary between zones 1 and 2 is the river Thames and not the A2. This is to prevent a small isolated section of zone 1 falling along the bank of the river. See also 2.4 What happens when a road crosses a zone boundary? .
See 8 Contributors for copyright information on the map.
2.2.2 How are motorways numbered?
Motorways in England and Wales use their own numbering system. The principle is the same as for A- and B- roads (see 2.2.1 How are A- and B- roads numbered? ), the main difference being that in England and Wales the single-digit motorways M1 to M6 serve as zone boundaries. The different placing of the A5 and M5 means that the motorway zones look quite different to the A- and B- road zones, with zone 4 being a landlocked box in the Midlands.
In Scotland, motorways simply assume the number of the A-road they replace. In practice it is often hard to distinguish this from a zone-based system because Scotland's single-digit motorways form the same zone boundaries as its A-roads.
2.3 How are new roads allocated numbers?
New A- and B-roads can be assigned any available number within their zone. Since most two- and three-digit numbers are already taken in most zones, this usually means allocating a four-digit number. In the earliest years of road numbering, new numbers were strictly sequential, but now a "memorable" number will often be chosen — in general this means one with lots of zeroes or with multiple digits the same. On certain occasions a shorter number has been freed up through renumbering and is used: the present A14 and A42 were numbered in this way.
New motorways are very rare but when they do appear, they tend to be granted a new two-digit number. In most zones there are still plenty of numbers free.
It appears that there is no longer a reliable central list of road numbers and as a result numbers are sometimes duplicated or allocated in the incorrect zone.
2.4 What happens when a road crosses a zone boundary?
It takes its number from the furthest anticlockwise zone it enters. Examples include the A406 (London North Circular Road) which starts in the 4-zone but continues around London passing through the 5, 6 and 1 zones.
2.5 When were the roads classified, and who by?
In 1914, William Rees Jeffreys, the Secretary of the Road Board, set about commissioning the traffic surveys that would later allow the road network to be classified. The initial purpose of this work was to identify a hierarchy of roads in order to prioritise funding for maintenance. The proposals included assigning reference numbers to the roads so that they could be identified. This work was quickly halted by the start of the First World War. Sir Henry Maybury restarted the work in 1920 as Director-General of Roads in the brand new Ministry of Transport, having been Chief Engineer of the Road Board when the original surveys were started. Under the MOT it was realised that the numbers would be useful for navigation and the decision was taken to make them public. Provisional numbers were allocated within a year, and the final numbering scheme arrived in 1922-23. It is essentially the same system we use today.
2.6 What is a 'trunk road'?
"Trunk road" is a legal term that describes any road or section of road under the control of central government or one of its executive agencies (such as the Highways Agency in England). They were first established by the Trunk Road Act of 1936. They are distinct from primary routes (see 2.7 What is a 'primary route'? ) and from the colloquial meaning of the term, which refers to any major road. Any type of road may be designated a trunk road, but generally only motorways and A-roads will be trunk.
2.7 What is a 'primary route'?
Primary routes are distinct from 'trunk roads'. They are any roads that link the 'primary destinations', a fixed list of "places of traffic importance", meaning large towns, cities, and important bridges and tunnels. The routes between them will follow whichever A-roads or motorways are best to get between these locations. They exist as an aid to navigation, with green road signs and usually green colouring on maps (see 3.4.3 Green signs ). The primary route network is overlaid on the system of road numbering and primary routes often do not correspond to a single numbered route: an A-road can therefore gain and lose primary status several times along its route.
3. Signing and Directions
3.1 Where can I find information on the road signing system?
Basic signing conventions and common examples are found in the Highway Code . For the full set see "Know Your Traffic Signs" (published by the HMSO, £3.99). Diagrams of the whole lot plus all the rules and regulations that apply to them all are held in the official document, TSRGD (Traffic Sign Rules and General Directions) which is available online here . Scroll down the page for links to diagrams of each sign.
Some road signs, which are made to non-standard designs, are referred to as "non-prescribed". They are authorised on a limited basis by the Department for Transport.
3.2 Who puts up the signs?
Whoever maintains the road — either a national organisation or a local authority.
The AA and RAC, the two principal motoring clubs, were permitted to erect their own permanent road signs, to government standards, until the early 1960s. Today they still have the ability to erect temporary event signposting, which can often be seen around the country — yellow for the AA and blue for the RAC.
3.3 Who designs the signs?
Road signs in detail
The history of our current system of road signs is explored in the article War to Worboys .
There are set designs for each sign which were initially set in the 1960s by the Worboys Committee. The typeface and many of the symbols and pictograms were designed by noted graphic artists Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert. More graphic design details can be found at Public Lettering , and the Articles section of CBRD includes an article on the development of current road signs.
3.4 Colour coding on directional signs
3.4.1 How does the colour coding work?
Directional signs on different classes of road use several distinct background colours to allow motorists to easily tell between different types of road and information. The overall background colour of the sign indicates the class of the road or type of sign. Panels of other colours (see 3.4.8 What is patching? ) may then be overlaid on that to indicate the class of other roads or to indicate different types of information.
3.4.2 Blue signs
Blue signs with white text and white borders are found on motorways, where all direction signing uses this colour scheme.
On non-motorway roads, the same colour scheme is occasionally used for signs bearing miscellaneous written information (such as advance warnings of weight restrictions). They are also used for direction signs for pedestrians and cyclists (which are always accompanied by a pedestrian or cycle symbol).
3.4.3 Green signs
Primary A-roads (see 2.7 What is a 'primary route'? ) use green-backed signs, with white borders and text, and route numbers highlighted in gold. Green signs with white text but yellow borders are occasionally seen marking emergency services access points to places like airports and stadiums.
3.4.4 White signs
Signs with a white background are used on non-primary roads, with black text and black borders. Until 1994 there was an additional set that used black text and blue borders for 'local' directions, which were used on all types of road, but these are now being phased out.
White signs also exist with other colour combinations. Those with black text and red borders, for example, are used for directions to Ministry of Defence sites.
Devonshire County Council has a unique system to signpost its minor routes. White signs with no border and all-capitals black text indicate the most minor routes suitable for local traffic; white signs with brown borders and mixed-case black text indicate roads suitable for light traffic; white signs with blue borders and mixed-case black text (the same as those phased out elsewhere since 1994) indicate roads suitable for general traffic.
3.4.5 Yellow signs
Temporary signs, such as diversion routes or direction signs through roadworks, have black text on a yellow background. In the late 2000s black-on-yellow signs were erected in a small number of locations on motorways to draw attention to unusual junction layouts, but this is not standard practice and technically is not permitted.
3.4.6 Brown signs
Tourist attractions are signed using brown-backed signs with white text and borders. Most also include a small pictogram to represent the attraction (a silhouette of an elephant for directions to a zoo, or of a football for directions to a stadium, for example).
3.4.7 Black signs
Directions for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) appear in white on black, usually with a pictogram of a lorry to make clear who the sign applies to.
3.4.8 What are patches and panels?
In 1994 the TSRGD (see 3.1 Where can I find information on the road signing system? ) was revised and the "Guildford Rules" were introduced. The rules created panels, the biggest update to direction signs in thirty years. The practice allows signs of one type to incorporate the colour conventions for other types of route, in order to more clearly show the types of route at a junction.
For example, a green primary route sign could have a white panel with black text for a side road that is non-primary. Panels of any colour can be applied to directional signs, and the effect when used properly is to clearly denote the standard and type of road well in advance. It also, sadly, has the potential to create over-complicated signs if used improperly (see right).
This innovation extended the existing system of "patches". Patches existed before the Guildford Rules, and allowed a route number for a higher class of road to appear on non-primary direction signs on a green background. The creation of panels extended this to colour-code whole blocks of text according to the type of road they represented.
The main exception to the application of Guildford Rules is on the mainline of motorways, where signs remain white-on-blue in all circumstances, though patching does appear where a motorway sliproad or mainline is about to terminate on non-motorway roads.
3.5 Shapes of signs
The shapes and, in many cases, symbols on British traffic signs were based on the various versions of the Geneva Convention which define standard international road signs. The standard was adopted after the Worboys Committee looked at a variety of systems, including American yellow diamonds.
3.5.1 Triangular signs
Triangular signs are used as warnings, advising the road user about junctions ahead, road conditions and other hazards. A black symbol appears on a white equilateral triangle (pointing upwards) with a thick red border. The usual warning that a road does not have priority at a junction reads "Give Way" and is an inverted triangle.
3.5.2 Circular signs
Sometimes referred to as "roundels", circular signs give orders. White circles with thick red borders and black symbols give negative instructions — things you must NOT do. Blue circles with thin white borders and white symbols give positive instructions — things you MUST do.
3.5.3 Rectangular signs
Written information is relayed using rectangular signs. These come in many different colours and sizes. See 3.4 Colour coding for more information.
3.5.4 Why do signs have rounded corners?
Partly this is done for aesthetic reasons, but also because it is less dangerous for engineers fitting them. The New York State Department of Transport changed its policy to using rounded corners instead of squared ones after a number of complaints from its workforce.
3.6 Fonts on signs
3.6.1 What font is used?
There are two alphabets used on all road signs, which are "Transport Medium" and "Transport Heavy". These are differently weighted versions of the same letterforms; "Transport Medium" has a thinner stroke width and is used for light text on a dark background, while "Transport Heavy" has a thicker stroke width and is used for dark text on light backgrounds. Both were adapted from the existing typeface "Akzidenz-Grotesk" by graphic artist Jock Kinneir in the early 1960s.
Kinneir also designed a third typeface to complete the set, called "Transport Light", which was intended for use on internally lit signs. It was never adopted.
Not all signs use the Transport alphabets, usually as the result of a design mistake. North Yorkshire County Council sometimes use a generic Helvetica or Univers font (which looks very ugly indeed) and the Welsh Office used to have a fondness for Arial, though none of these imaginative substitutes are permitted.
3.6.2 What is the taller font used on motorway signs?
Both motorway and all-purpose road signs use the same "Transport" alphabets (see 3.6.1 What font is used? ) for most of the sign text. However, because Motorway signage was developed separately, a different style is used for the road numbers on motorways. It appears to be taller and thinner than other letters.
This different lettering is called "Motorway Permanent", and only contains the numbers 0-9, plus the other characters N, E, S and W (for cardinal directions); A, B and M (for road numbers); plus parantheses and the ampersand (&). As of summer 2007, the Department for Transport has modified Motorway Permanent to allow the road number "M6 Toll" to be written, meaning three new letters have been drawn up. The word appears as one single entity, "Toll", not as three separate letters. Existing signs on the M6 Toll had "Toll" written in Transport Medium (see above). The new lettering will be used whenever signs on the motorway are replaced.
M6 Toll, rendered in Motorway Permanent
There is also a heavier version of the alphabet called "Motorway Temporary", used for black-on-yellow temporary motorway signs. It has not been adapted to include the word "Toll", though it is not clear why this is so. Motorway Permanent was, like the Transport alphabets, developed by Jock Kinneir. Some sources claim this was done by modifying an existing typeface called Commercial Grotesque, but this has been difficult to confirm.
Technically, while Motorway appears taller than Transport, it is technically the same size. The characters stick out of the top and bottom of the line, while the width of each character is the same as the corresponding character in Transport.
3.6.3 What other countries use the font?
Both the "Transport" alphabets (see 3.6.1 What font is used? ) and "Motorway Permanent" (see 3.6.2 What is the taller font used on motorway signs? ) have been appropriated for use by other countries. You can see Transport on non-motorway signs in Spain (in a modified form even heavier than Transport Heavy), all road signs in Iceland and Ireland (both using only Transport Heavy), and some signs in Italy (which also uses a condensed version — the two often appear on the same sign and together look quite unpleasant). Malaysia seems to have adopted Transport in recent years.
Egypt and China both use Transport on road signs for the English translations of place names and instructions, and Greece sometimes uses a Worboys-reminiscent signage system complete with Transport font, but doesn't remain loyal to one particular typeface.
Ireland and Portugal also use the "Motorway Permanent" alphabet, Ireland on motorways and Portugal on all roads.
3.7 Old signs
3.7.1 What did the old-style signs look like?
Pre-1963 directional signs were black on white at all times, with direction arrows often sticking out of the side or top of the white panel — leading to very odd sign shapes. In urban areas they frequently had a coloured backing panel, yellow for main roads and blue for local directions. Older versions were cast, with the lettering standing out from the surface; later ones were produced like modern signs, with vinyl overlays on sheet metal.
Non-directional signs had a black on white panel with a pictogram and text describing the hazard or instruction. The top of the pole was surmounted with a cut-out shape signifying the type of sign — a hollow red triangle for warnings, a solid red disc for restrictions, etc.
These signs are frequently referred to as pre-Worboys signs, a term that encompasses all road signage prior to the Worboys report and the introduction of the modern road sign system in 1963.
The Photo Gallery includes a large set of pictures of Old Signs with numerous examples.
Image courtesy of Tony.
3.7.2 What font did they use?
It was an all-capitals font, sans-serif and quite similar to a narrower version of the American FHWA fonts. It appears to have been simply called "MOT".
3.7.3 Where can I see examples?
Surprisingly, these old signs — though officially phased out from 1963 — are still all over the place. Surefire places to spot them are the North York Moors, Yorkshire Dales and the Scottish borders. There are a few in every major city — with definite sightings in Bristol and Birmingham for example — and taking any little-used country backroad gives you a fair chance of seeing one. Directional signs are more common since they are more similar to modern signs and can safely be left in place. The example above at question 3.7.1 was taken in London's West End, though almost all examples of these signs in central London have been replaced since about 2010.
3.7.4 Why are they still around?
While they were originally programmed for complete removal by 1970, many are still standing, despite repeated demands from central government over the years that they are removed. Several local authorities apparently have a policy of maintaining them as much as is possible — North Yorkshire County Council for one — and very often the ones that are left are on roads of such little importance that it isn't worth replacing them.
3.7.5 How were motorways originally signed?
Motorways had white-on-blue signs from the start, and used the Transport and Motorway alphabets (see 3.6.1 What font is used? and 3.6.2 What is the taller font used on motorway signs? ). The most interesting difference is to the standard exit signage.
Modern designs have a vertical arrow for the motorway mainline, with a straight arrow leaving the mainline at about 60 degrees to indicate the exit. The originals had the exit curving away to the left, and the mainline arrow was angled to the right by about ten degrees. It's for this reason that modern-day road enthusiasts have affectionately termed them "wonky signs". Up until the late 1980s these signs could be seen on rural sections of M6 (especially the old Lancaster Bypass section) and on southern sections of the M1. It is now thought that none are left.
These original motorway signs are often referred to as Anderson signs, after the Anderson Committee which was responsible for formalising their design in the 1950s.
3.8 Specific questions about signing and directions
3.8.1 What do the black and yellow shape symbols found on direction signs mean?
Diversion routes in detail
You can read a full article on Emergency Diversion Routes and their black-and-yellow symbols.
Some direction signs have small coloured shapes patched on — a circle, square, diamond or triangle — in black and yellow. These are used to mark diversion routes, most commonly for diversions around motorway closures, but they can also be used to get around height or weight limits.
In the event of a motorway being closed, "trigger signs" are placed to instruct drivers to follow a certain shape in order to rejoin the motorway at the next junction.
There are a range of different shapes to allow diversions for traffic travelling in different directions and on different motorways to cross without conflicting. Often the symbols are stuck haphazardly onto existing signage.
4. Motorways
Wesley Johnston has full details at the Northern Ireland Roads Site .
5. Other Roads
5.1 Specific questions about the non-motorway road network
5.1.1 What's so bad about the Hanger Lane Gyratory?
Otherwise known as "Malfunction Junction", the Hanger Lane Gyratory is the interchange where London's North Circular Road (A406) crosses Western Avenue (A40). It was rebuilt in its current form in the 1970s to eliminate the flat signalised junction that preceded it. Essentially, it is a simple roundabout interchange but it is seriously restricted for space and its capacity is not adequate for the situation. It regularly backs up in all directions which is quite an achievement to say that the A40 doesn't even touch the roundabout itself.
5.1.2 What's wrong with the A42's number?
For complex historical reasons best explained in 5.1.3 Where was the original A42? , the A42 presently lies between Measham (near Tamworth) and Nottingham. The problem with this is that is is completely out of the correct numbering zone, and by all rights should begin with a 5. It isn't unusual for a road to be entirely out of zone, but usually this is because of gradual renumbering which erased the section of the road connecting it to its rightful zone, whereas the A42 was dropped directly into the wrong zone and no portion of it in its present alignment has ever been in the 4-zone.
5.1.3 Where was the original A42?
When roads were first numbered, the A42 was a major road from the A4 at Reading, through Oxford and up to Birmingham. It was renumbered very early on so that the A34 trunk road could be extended over its route and onwards to Manchester. The remaining part from Reading to Oxford was changed too, and is now the A329 and A4074. For a long time the number was unallocated.
In the 1970s the M42 was built, presumably numbered so it wouldn't be associated with another road anywhere else. When the 1980s extension towards Nottingham was built, it was designated an all-purpose road, not a motorway, and fortunately the A42 number was available to match its motorway counterpart.
5.1.4 Why is part of the A30 called the A303?
No section of the A30 is called the A303. Parts of the A30 from the M3 to Honiton are, however, of a very low standard, and long-distance traffic is directed onto the A303 instead. Originally, the A30 formed the main route from London to Penzance on its own, but as traffic increased and the road had to be improved, the routing of the A303 was picked as superior for whatever reason and this road was improved instead where it ran parallel. As a result, the A30 is a non-primary locally maintained road through the section where the A303 runs parallel, whereas the A303 is a national trunk road.
5.1.5 What happened to the road numbers around Cambridge, and where did the A604 go?
Large-scale renumbering of the roads around Cambridge means the city's road numbers have changed completely since 1990. The A604 has been completely wiped from the map, both at Cambridge and everywhere else it once ran. In brief, this is due to the A14, which has obliterated the need for the A45 and A604 in the area by trying to do both their jobs (though, between the M11 and A1 at least, it isn't doing very well at this).
5.1.6 Which is the shortest A or B road?
The simplest answer is that nobody knows. SABRE has been attempting to catalogue all the numbered roads in the UK since early 2002, but has yet to produce a definitive answer to this question. From their research it is also known that the Department for Transport no longer keeps an accurate and up to date record of all classified roads; in fact, even in its current state as a work in progress, SABRE's listing is alsmost certainly the more accurate and up to date of the two. Despite this, because the very shortest roads are extremely difficult to spot on maps, and because they almost never appear on signs, SABRE can never be sure it has found them all. Probably the shortest one found so far is all of 105 metres long.
5.1.7 Where is the greatest vertical separation between two carriageways of the same road?
On some dual carriageway roads, particularly in hilly terrain, the opposing directions of traffic might find themselves split across two levels, with one carriageway higher than the other. The M5 south of Bristol has a famous section like this, running for several miles with about 9m (30 ft) vertical difference between the northbound and southbound carriageways, as it passes through the Gordano Valley.
The greatest difference is actually in a much less mountainous area. It is believed to be on the A282, which forms the link between the two ends of the M25 east of London. Northbound traffic is carried in twin two-lane tunnels under the river, while southbound traffic crosses over the water on a four-lane cable-stayed bridge. There is the entire depth of the River Thames, plus space above it for shipping clearance, between the two opposing directions of travel.
5.1.8. What are bar code signs for?
On some trunk roads (and former trunk roads) small signs placed parallel to the kerb are mounted after junctions. They are a disused system for accurately tracking the location of maintenance vehicles. Mark Thorne writes:
During the 1990s, the Transport Research Laboratory were carrying out trials of condition surveys of the roads using lasers, cameras etc. and they needed a simple method of locating where they were on the road network. They could measure the lengths of road by means of the equipment on the vehicle carrying out the survey, resetting the chainage (length) at known points as they drove over the 2 white dots (known as Node Points) you see at the start & end of slip roads, centre of junctions etc.
These days GPS is used to locate the survey data to a great degree of accuracy, typically to the nearest centimetre.
5.2 Central London
5.2.1 What's so complicated about central London's roads?
Heated debates on the SABRE forums started when someone asked where the roads go in Central London. Theoretically the A-roads A1-A6 radiate from London to form zone boundaries for road numbering purposes, but what exactly happens where they all theoretically meet is not simple. The following is a breakdown of where each road goes and where the zone boundaries go. Other important roads are also here. Descriptions start from the North or South Circulars.
5.2.2 The route of the A1
The Great North Road runs from London to Edinburgh. It enters from the North, along Falloden Way, Lyttleton Road, Aylmer Road, Archway Road, Holloway Road, Upper Street, Goswell Road, Aldersgate Street to end infront of St Paul's Cathedral on Newgate Street, which is A40 to the west and unclassified to the east.
5.2.3 The route of the A2
Enters along Shooters Hill Road, Blackheath Hill, Blackheath Road, New Cross Road, Old Kent Road and Great Dover Street to end on the A3 Borough High Street
5.2.4 The route of the A3
Common North Side, Long Road, Clapham High Street, Clapham Road, Kennington Park Road, Borough High Street, London Bridge to end at Monument. North of this point, the road is the A10.
5.2.5 The route of the A4
Cedars Road, Ellesmere Road, Hogarth Lane, Great West Road, Talgarth Road, West Cromwell Road, Cromwell Road, Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, Piccadilly, Pall Mall, Strand, Fleet Street, Ludgate Hill, Cannon Street to end at Monument with the A3 and A10.
5.2.6 The route of the A5
Edgware Road, Cricklewood Broadway, Shoot Up Hill, Kilburn High Road, Maida Vale, and Edgware Road to end on the A40 Bayswater Road at Marble Arch.
5.2.7 The route of the A6
The A6 doesn't, and never has, actually reached London. Historically it started on the A1 at High Barnet, where the A1081 forks off the A1000 today. The construction of the M25 meant that it was cropped short and now starts even further north at Luton.
5.2.8 The route of the A40
Western Avenue, Westway, Notting Hill Gate, Bayswater Road (from here forming the 1/5 zone boundary), Oxford Street, High Holborn, Newgate Street to end at St. Paul's Cathedral along with the A1.
5.2.9 The route of the Inner Ring Road
Within the Inner Ring Road, no other road numbers are signed, which is why the above was so fiercely debated. It takes on a lot of numbers in its erratic route around the city's streets (and it is literally city streets too, not purpose-built road).
6. Technical Terms
An explanation of most technical terms used by road enthusiasts can be found in the CBRD Dictionary . Explanations of these terms are no longer held in this FAQ.
7. More Information
7.1 Other roads websites
Other websites about British roads can be found in the first section of the Links page. Outside Britain some sites are found on the Links page, but a much better resource is AAroads who have links to the international roads community.
7.2 Discussion forums and newsgroups
The single biggest forum for the discussion of UK Roads is the SABRE Forum , part of the SABRE website . These boards are the central part of the Society for All British Road Enthusiasts (SABRE), and indeed this FAQ list has been adopted as their official FAQ. Other UK forums are the Usenet newsgroups uk.transport and uk.rec.driving , though both these tend to be concerned with wider motoring and political issues. Internationally the most active roads group is misc.transport.road (MTR), though international discussion is frequently drowned out by American voices here.
8. Contributors
I afraid I haven't kept a full record of those who have contributed and so the following is sadly a partial listing. Many thanks to those listed below and anyone else who has lent a hand.
Harry Strong, Chris Armitage, David McMahon, Ian Carr, Chris McKenna, Martin Radford, Terry March, Brian Freeman, Wesley Johnston, Tristram Grevatt, Peter Courtenay, Andrew Jackson, Alan Williams, Nick Booth, Ian Duff, Toby Speight, Jonathan Winkler, Simon Hollins, Ben, Patrick, Tony Baker, Jon B, Phil Baines, Richard Bullock, David D Miller, Tim Lidbetter, Ben Smithurst, Paul Martin, Guy Barry, Paul Berry, Simon M4Man, Adrian "Dadge", and of course the ever-knowledgeable members of SABRE.
Maps showing zone boundaries above: Reproduced from Ordnance Survey map data by permission of the Ordnance Survey © Crown copyright 2001.
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In astronomy, ‘The Big Dipper’ is another name for which constellation? | Astronomy for Kids - The Big Dipper
A map of Ursa Major.
The Big Dipper and Ursa Major
Since the Big Dipper is part of the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear), it is technically not a constellation. It's what is called an asterism, which is the name given to interesting star patterns that are easily recognizable, but not one of the "official" constellations.
Be that as it may, the Big Dipper is probably one of the first objects in the sky that we learn to find and identify. It's distinctive position at the top of the summer night sky and the graceful curve of its handle make it easy for almost anyone to find.
The link at right will take you to a map of the Ursa Major constellation where you will see where the Big Dipper is in relation to the actual constellation.
Map of the Big Dipper
A map of the Big Dipper.
The Big Dipper and its Companions
The Big Dipper is very impressive all by itself, but it also is very close to a number of other very interesting sights. Included in these sights, and noted on the map at right, are the Pinwheel galaxy and the Whirlpool galaxy. If you have a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope, you should be able to find these galaxies using the map we have provided. When you find them, they will usually look like a small smudge of light instead of the sharp well-defined light that you are used to seeing when you look at a star.
There are also several double stars in the Big Dipper, which you should be able to see using a small telescope. All in all, the Big Dipper is a very interesting place indeed.
Big Dipper and Polaris
A map of the Big Dipper and Polaris.
A Compass in the Sky
As you spend more time watching the sky, you will learn that the stars in one constellation can help lead you to other sky landmarks. The Big Dipper is no exception as you can use two of the stars in its "cup" to find the North Star and you can use the arc of its handle to find the giant red star Arcturus.
As the Big Dipper rotates around our north sky "pole", in what is caled a "circumpolar" orbit, two of the stars in its bowl can always ppoint the way to Polaris, the North Star. Although Polaris is not often at exactly North on a compass, it's fairly close and can help you get your directions when you are outside at night.
Terence Dickinson's book "Nightwatch", which we have a link to on the main Constellations page, has many examples of using constellations and their stars to find your way around the night sky. We recommend it highly.
Follow the Drinking Gourd
In the United States, during the nineteenth century, African-Americans that were being held as slaves in the south made very practical use of the Big Dipper's consistent northern sky location. The Big Dipper was also known as the Drinking Gourd and slaves trying to make their way to freedom used it as a guidepost to find their way North and escape the bonds of slavery.
The lyrics of folk song "Follow the Drinking Gourd" served as guide to help them find their way north and its chorus reminded them to always follow the Drinking Gourd, or Big Dipper.
When Can I See the Big Dipper?
The very best time to look at the Big Dipper is in the middle of the summer, when it is easily found on any clear night in the northernmost part of the night sky. Once you are outside, look in the northern sky and try to find it handle. The arc of the handle will stand out and once you have found the handle, finding the bowl is easy. Once you have found the entire Big Dipper, use the charts we have to find Polaris and Arcturus. You will be surprised at how easy it is.
Find Out More About the Big Dipper
| Big Dipper |
Which World War II battle was officially known as ‘The Ardennes Offensive’? | Big-Dipper – One Minute Astronomer
by Brian Ventrudo
The Big Dipper is perhaps the most famous and easy to find star group in the northern skies. While it’s not a constellation itself, the Big Dipper makes up the brightest section of the large and sprawling constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. There’s much to see for stargazers in and around the Big Dipper. Let’s take a look…
The stars of the Big Dipper include, from handle-tip to bowl: Alkaid, Mizar, Alioth, Megrez, Phad, Dubhe, and Merak (see image below). The dipper shape is a coincidence, but most of these stars (save for Alkaid and Dubhe), along with a few others, are moving together through space to a point in the constellation Sagittarius. The stars form a “moving group”, a loose association of stars once part of a star cluster but no longer gravitationally bound to one another. This so-called Ursa Major Moving Group is also recorded in Per Collinder’s list of star groups as Collinder 285.
********** Highly Recommended **********
Do you suffer from light-polluted city skies? The FREE Urban Astronomer’s Survival Guide will help you! Discover how to see even faint nebulae and galaxies, even from the center of a big city. It’s enough for a lifetime of viewing! Click here to learn more…
The stars of the Big Dipper and Ursa Major (click to enlarge)
The Big Dipper, or the “Plough” as it’s called in Great Britain, makes up the body and tail of Ursa Major, one of Ptolemy’s original 48 constellations from the 2nd century A.D. The bear’s head is marked by the star Muscida, the forepaws by Talitha, and the rear paws by Tania Borealis and Tania Australis.
Greek, Hebrew, and some native American cultures all see this constellation as a bear. According to Iroquois legend, the bowl of the Big Dipper is a giant bear and the stars of the handle are three warriors chasing it. As the constellation is low in the autumn evening sky, legend explains the hunters had injured the bear and its blood turned the leaves of the trees to red.
Greek legend holds the bear is the poor Callisto, a beautiful nymph who caught the eye of Zeus. His wife Hera turned Callisto into a bear and sent her into the forest. Thinking she was a fearsome beast, Callisto’s son Arcas almost killed her. To prevent this tragedy, Zeus cast them both into the sky.
Ursa Major is circumpolar for much of the northern hemisphere, which means it never sets below the horizon. But it’s highest in the sky in the evening hours from March through early July. In the southern hemisphere, at least from South Africa and Australia, you can just glimpse the star Alkaid in the tip of the handle of the Dipper in late May on the northern horizon. From southern parts of New Zealand, alas, the Dipper is never seen.
The Big Dipper is an excellent base of operations for finding other stars in the northern hemisphere. Draw an imaginary line from Merak through Dubhe out of the cup of the dipper and continue through 5x their separation to find Polaris, the North Star.
Or draw an imaginary arc along the handle of the Dipper and extend the arc around the sky. This leads you to the very bright star Arcturus in the constellation Boötes. Continue to reach Spica in Virgo. Remember: “Arc to Arcturus and Speed on to Spica.”
Or follow the other two stars in the cup of the dipper, Megrez and Phecda, down below the cup to get to Regulus, the brightest star in Leo.
For advanced stargazers, Ursa Major is awash in galaxies. We’ve met the superb pair M81 and M82 before. Other Messier objects include the harder-to-find Owl Nebula (M97) and the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101). Dozens more fainter galaxies await the experienced stargazer with a bigger telescope…
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How many days are in a Leap Year? | How Many Days Are in a Year? - PUMAS
View PUMAS Example
How Many Days Are in a Year?
Background: The true length of a year on Earth is 365.2422 days, or about 365.25 days. We keep our calendar in sync with the seasons by having most years 365 days long but making just under 1/4 of all years 366-day "leap" years.
Exercise: Design a reasonable calendar for an imaginary planet. Your calendar will consist of a pattern of 366-day "leap" years and 365-day regular years that approximates your planet's average number of days per year.
Grade Level: High School (9-12)
Subject Keywords: Leap year, Year, Calendar, Error analysis, Successive approximations, Fractions
Author(s): Evan M. Manning
| three hundred and sixty six |
In England and Wales, what is the date of the legal birthday for someone born on 29th February? | Number of days in 2014 - between January 1st, 2014 and January 1st, 2015
›› Date difference from Jan 1, 2014 to Jan 1, 2015
The total number of days between Wednesday, January 1st, 2014 and Thursday, January 1st, 2015 is
365 days
.
This is equal to 1 year.
This does not include the end date, so it's accurate if you're measuring your age in days, or the total days between the start and end date. But if you want the duration of an event that includes both the starting date and the ending date, then it would actually be
366 days
.
If you're counting workdays or weekends, there are 261 weekdays and 104 weekend days.
If you include the end date of Jan 1, 2015 which is a Thursday, then there would be 262 weekdays and 104 weekend days including both the starting Wednesday and the ending Thursday.
365 days is equal to 52 weeks and 1 day.
The total time span from 2014-01-01 to 2015-01-01 is 8,760 hours .
This is equivalent to 525,600 minutes .
You can also convert 365 days to 31,536,000 seconds .
›› January, 2014 calendar
January 1st, 2015 is a Thursday. It is the 1st day of the year, and in the 1st week of the year (assuming each week starts on a Sunday), or the 1st quarter of the year. There are 31 days in this month. 2015 is not a leap year, so there are 365 days in this year. The short form for this date is 1/1/2015.
›› Enter dates
Enter two dates below to find the number of days between them. For best results, avoid entering years before 1753. Examples include 1980-05-31 or Jun 13, 1980. You can also type words like today or yesterday, or use the American format, 1/17/2017.
Number of days between:
I'm feeling lucky, show me a random date difference .
›› Date calculator
This site provides an online date calculator to help you find the difference in the number of days between any two calendar dates. Simply enter the start and end date to calculate the duration of any event. You can also use this tool to determine how many days have passed since your birthday, or measure the amount of time until your baby's due date. The calculations use the Gregorian calendar , which was created in 1582 and later adopted in 1752 by Britain and the eastern part of what is now the United States. For best results, use dates after 1752 or verify any data if you are doing genealogy research. Historical calendars have many variations, including the ancient Roman calendar and the Julian calendar. Leap years are used to match the calendar year with the astronomical year. If you're trying to figure out the date that occurs in X days from today, switch to the Days From Now calculator instead.
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In which Gilbert and Sullivan opera does Frederic only count his Leap Year birthdays, so his apprenticeship would not end until he is in his eighties? | The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera’s official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well-received by both audiences and critics.[1] Its London debut was on 3 April 1880, at the Opera Comique, where it ran for a very successful 363 performances, having already been playing successfully for over three months in New York.
The story concerns Frederic, who, having completed his 21st year, is released from his apprenticeship to a band of tender-hearted pirates. He meets Mabel, the daughter of Major-General Stanley, and the two young people fall instantly in love. Frederic finds out, however, that he was born on February 29, and so, technically, he only has a birthday each leap year. His apprenticeship indentures state that he remains apprenticed to the pirates until his 21st birthday, and so he must serve for another 63 years.[2] Mabel agrees to wait for him faithfully.
Pirates was the fifth Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration and introduced the much-parodied Major-General’s Song. The opera was performed for a century by the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company in Britain and many other opera companies and repertory companies worldwide.
It has received several modernised productions, including Joseph Papp’s 1981 production on Broadway, which ran for 787 performances, winning the Tony Award for Best Revival and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical, and spawned many imitations. Pirates remains popular today, taking its place along with The Mikado and H.M.S. Pinafore as one of the most frequently played Gilbert and Sullivan operas
Background
The Pirates of Penzance was the only Gilbert and Sullivan opera to have its official premiere in the United States. At the time, American law offered no copyright protection to foreigners. After their previous opera, H.M.S. Pinafore, was a hit in London, over a hundred American companies quickly mounted unauthorised productions, often taking considerable liberties with the text and paying no royalties to the creators.[3] Gilbert and Sullivan hoped to forestall further “copyright piracy” by mounting the first production of their next opera in America, before others could copy it, and by delaying publication of the score and libretto.[4] They succeeded in keeping for themselves the direct profits of the first production of the opera by opening the production themselves on Broadway, prior to the London production. They also operated U.S. touring companies.[3] However, Gilbert, Sullivan, and their producer, Richard D’Oyly Carte, failed in their efforts over the next decade, to control the American performance copyrights over their operas.[5]
Genesis
After the success of Pinafore, Gilbert was eager to get started on the next opera, and he began working on the libretto in December 1878.[6] He re-used several elements of his 1870 one-act piece, Our Island Home, which had introduced a pirate “chief”, Captain Bang. Bang was mistakenly apprenticed to a pirate band as a child by his deaf nursemaid. Also, Bang, like Frederic, had never seen a woman before and was affected by a keen a sense of duty, as an apprenticed pirate, until the passage of his twenty-first birthday freed him from his articles of indenture.[7] George Bernard Shaw wrote that Gilbert, who had earlier adapted Offenbach’s Les brigands, drew on that work also for his new libretto.[8] The composition of the music for Pirates was unusual, in that Sullivan wrote the music for the acts in reverse, intending to bring the completed Act II with him to New York, with Act I existing only in sketches. When he arrived in New York, however, he found that he had left the sketches behind, and he had to reconstruct the first act from memory.[9]
Poster for the copyright performance at PaigntonGilbert told a correspondent many years later that Sullivan was unable to recall his setting of the entrance of the women’s chorus, so they substituted the chorus “Climbing over rocky mountain” from their earlier opera, Thespis.[10] Sullivan’s manuscript for Pirates contains pages removed from a Thespis score, with the vocal parts altered from their original context as a four-part chorus. Some scholars (e.g. Tillett and Spencer, 2000) have offered evidence that Gilbert and Sullivan had planned all along to re-use “Climbing over rocky mountain,” and perhaps other parts of Thespis, noting that the presence of the unpublished Thespis score in New York, when there were no plans to revive it, might not have been accidental. On 10 December 1879, Sullivan wrote a letter to his mother about the new opera, upon which he was hard at work in New York. “I think it will be a great success, for it is exquisitely funny, and the music is strikingly tuneful and catching.”
The work’s title is a multi-layered joke. On the one hand, Penzance was a docile seaside resort in 1879, and not the place where one would expect to encounter pirates.[11] On the other hand, the title was also a jab at the theatrical pirates who had staged unlicensed productions of H.M.S. Pinafore in America.[12] To secure British copyright, a D’Oyly Carte touring company gave a perfunctory performance of Pirates the afternoon before the New York premiere, at the Royal Bijou Theatre in Paignton, Devon, organised by Helen Lenoir (who would later marry Richard D’Oyly Carte). The cast, which was performing Pinafore in the evenings in Torquay, travelled to nearby Paignton for the matinee, where they read their parts from scripts carried onto the stage, making do with whatever costumes they had on hand.[13]
Production and Aftermath
Pirates opened on 31 December 1879 in New York and was an immediate hit. On 2 January 1880, Sullivan wrote, in another letter to his mother from New York, “The libretto is ingenious, clever, wonderfully funny in parts, and sometimes brilliant in dialogue – beautifully written for music, as is all Gilbert does. … The music is infinitely superior in every way to the Pinafore – ‘tunier’ and more developed, of a higher class altogether. I think that in time it will be very popular.”[14] Sullivan’s prediction was correct. After a strong run in New York and several American tours, Pirates opened in London on 3 April 1880, running for 363 performances there.[15] It remains one of the most popular G&S works.[16][17] The critics’ notices were generally excellent in both New York and London.[18][19]
The character of Major-General Stanley was widely taken to be a caricature of the popular general, Sir Garnet Wolseley. The biographer Michael Ainger, however, doubts that Gilbert intended a caricature of Wolseley, identifying instead General Henry Turner, uncle of Gilbert’s wife, as the pattern for the “modern Major-General”. Gilbert disliked Turner, who, unlike the progressive Wolseley, was of the old school of officers. Nevertheless, in the original London production, George Grossmith imitated Wolseley’s mannerisms and appearance, particularly his large moustache, and the audience recognised the allusion. Wolseley himself, according to his biographer, took no offence at the caricature[20] and sometimes sang “I am the very model of a modern Major-General” for the private amusement of his family and friends.[21]
Act I
On the coast of Cornwall, at the time of Queen Victoria’s reign, Frederic, a young man with a strong sense of duty, celebrates, amidst the pirates, the completion of his twenty-first year and the apparent end of his apprenticeship (“Pour, oh pour the pirate sherry”). The pirates’ maid of all work, Ruth, appears and reveals that, as Frederic’s nursemaid long ago (“When Frederic was a little lad”), she had made a mistake “through being hard of hearing”: she had misheard Frederic’s father’s instructions and apprenticed him to a pirate, instead of to a ship’s pilot.
Marion Hood: “Yes, ’tis Mabel!”Frederic has never seen any woman other than Ruth, and he believes her to be beautiful. The pirates know better and suggest that Frederic take Ruth with him when he returns to civilisation. Frederic announces that, although it pains him to do so, such is his sense of duty that, once free from his apprenticeship, he will be forced to devote himself to their extermination. He points out that they are not very successful pirates, since, being orphans themselves, they allow their prey to go free if they too are orphans. Frederic notes that word of this has got about, so captured ships’ companies routinely claim to be orphans. Frederic invites the pirates to give up piracy and go with him, so that he need not destroy them, but the Pirate King notes that, compared with respectability, piracy is comparatively honest (“Oh! better far to live and die”). The pirates depart, leaving Frederic and Ruth. Frederic sees a group of beautiful young girls approaching the pirate lair, and realises that Ruth lied to him about her appearance (“Oh false one! You have deceived me!”). Sending Ruth away, Frederic hides before the girls arrive.
George Power, the original Frederic in LondonThe girls burst exuberantly upon the secluded spot (“Climbing over rocky mountain”). Frederic reveals himself (“Stop, ladies, pray!”) and appeals to them to help him reform (“Oh! is there not one maiden breast?”). One of them, Mabel, responds to his plea, and chides her sisters for their lack of charity (“Oh sisters deaf to pity’s name for shame!”). She sings to him (“Poor wand’ring one”), and Frederic and Mabel quickly fall in love. The other girls contemplate whether to eavesdrop or to leave the new couple alone (“What ought we to do?”), and eventually decide to “talk about the weather,” although they steal a glance or two at the affectionate couple (“How beautifully blue the sky”).
Frederic warns the girls of the pirates nearby (“Stay, we must not lose our senses”), but before they can flee, the pirates arrive and capture all the girls, intending to marry them (“Here’s a first rate opportunity”). Mabel warns the pirates that the girls’ father is a Major-General (“Hold, monsters!”), who soon arrives and introduces himself (“I am the very model of a modern Major-General”). He appeals to the pirates not to take his daughters, leaving him to face his old age alone. Having heard of the famous Pirates of Penzance, he pretends that he is an orphan to elicit their sympathy (“Oh, men of dark and dismal fate”). The soft-hearted pirates are sympathetic and release the girls (“Hail, Poetry!”), making Major-General Stanley and his daughters honorary members of their band (“Pray observe the magnanimity”).
Act II
The Major-General sits in a ruined chapel on his estate, surrounded by his daughters. His conscience is tortured by the lie that he told the pirates, and the girls attempt to console him (“Oh dry the glist’ning tear”). The Sergeant of Police and his corps arrive to announce their readiness to go forth to arrest the pirates (“When the foeman bares his steel”). The girls loudly express their admiration of the police for facing likely slaughter at the hands of fierce and merciless foes. The police are unnerved by this, and remain around (to the Major-General’s frustration) but finally leave.
“Have mercy on us!”Left alone, Frederic, who is to lead the group, pauses to reflect on his opportunity to atone for a life of piracy (“Now for the pirate’s lair”), at which point he encounters Ruth and the Pirate King. It has occurred to them that his apprenticeship was worded so as to bind him to them until his twenty-first birthday – and, because that birthday happens to be on 29 February (in a leap year), it means that technically only five birthdays have passed (“When you had left our pirate fold”), and he will not reach his twenty-first birthday until he is in his eighties. Frederic is convinced by this logic that he must rejoin the pirates, and thus he sees it as his duty to inform the Pirate King of the Major-General’s deception. The outraged outlaw declares that their “revenge will be swift and terrible” (“Away, away, my heart’s on fire”).
Frederic meets Mabel (“All is prepared”), and she pleads with him to stay (“Stay Frederic, stay”), but he explains that he must fulfil his duty to the pirates until his 21st birthday in 1940. He promises to return then and claim her. They agree to be faithful to each other until then, though to Mabel “It seems so long” (“Oh here is love and here is truth”), and Frederic departs. Mabel steels herself (“No, I’ll be brave”) and tells the police that they must go alone to face the pirates. They muse that an outlaw might be just like any other man, and it is a shame to deprive him of “that liberty which is so dear to all” (“When a felon’s not engaged in his employment”). The police hide on hearing the approach of the pirates (“A rollicking band of pirates we”), who have stolen onto the grounds, meaning to avenge themselves for the Major-General’s lie (“With cat-like tread”).
The police and the pirates prepare for the fight (“Hush, hush! not a word”). Just then, the Major-General appears, sleepless with guilt, and the pirates also hide, while General Stanley listens to the soothing sighing of the breeze (“Sighing softly to the river”). The girls come looking for him (“Now what is this and what is that”). The pirates leap to the attack, and the police rush to the defence; but the police are easily defeated, and the Pirate King urges the captured Major-General to prepare for death. The Sergeant plays his trump card, demanding that the pirates yield “in Queen Victoria’s name”; the pirates, overcome with loyalty to their Queen, do so. Ruth appears and reveals that the orphan pirates are in fact “all noblemen who have gone wrong”. The Major-General is impressed by this and all is forgiven. Frederic and Mabel are reunited, and the Major-General is happy to marry his daughters to the noble pirates after all.
Musical Numbers
Overture (includes “With cat-like tread”, “Ah, leave me not to pine”, “Pray observe the magnanimity”, “When you had left our pirate fold”, “Climbing over rocky mountain”, and “How beautifully blue the sky”)
Act I
Drawing of Richard Temple as the Pirate King 1. “Pour, oh pour, the pirate sherry” (Samuel and Chorus of Pirates)
2. “When Fred’ric was a little lad” (Ruth)
3. “Oh, better far to live and die …I am a pirate king!” (Pirate King and Chorus of Pirates)
4. “Oh! false one, you have deceiv’d me” (Frederic and Ruth)
5. “Climbing over rocky mountain” (Chorus of Girls)
6. “Stop, ladies, pray” (Edith, Kate, Frederic, and Chorus of Girls)
7. “Oh, is there not one maiden breast?” (Frederic and Chorus of Girls)
8. “Poor wand’ring one” (Mabel and Chorus of Girls)
9. “What ought we to do?” (Edith, Kate, and Chorus of Girls)
10. “How beautifully blue the sky” (Mabel, Frederic, and Chorus of Girls)
11. “Stay, we must not lose our senses” … “Here’s a first-rate opportunity to get married with impunity” (Frederic and Chorus of Girls and Pirates)
12. “Hold, monsters” (Mabel, Major-General, Samuel, and Chorus)
13. “I am the very model of a modern Major-General” (Major-General and Chorus)
14. Finale Act I (Mabel, Kate, Edith, Ruth, Frederic, Samuel, King, Major-General, and Chorus) “Oh, men of dark and dismal fate”
“I’m telling a terrible story”
“Hail, Poetry”
“Oh, happy day, with joyous glee”
“Pray observe the magnanimity”
15. “Oh, dry the glist’ning tear” (Mabel and Chorus of Girls)
16. “Then, Frederic, let your escort lion-hearted” (Frederic and Major-General)
17. “When the foeman bares his steel” (Mabel, Edith, Sergeant, and Chorus of Policemen and Girls)
18. “Now for the pirates’ lair!” (Frederic, Ruth, and King)
19. “When you had left our pirate fold” (“A paradox”) (Ruth, Frederic, and King)
20. “Away, away! My heart’s on fire!” (Ruth, Frederic, and King)
21. “All is prepar’d; your gallant crew await you” (Mabel and Frederic)
22. “Stay, Fred’ric, stay” … “Oh, here is love, and here is truth” (Mabel and Frederic)
23. “No, I’ll be brave” … “Though in body and in mind” (Reprise of “When the foeman bares his steel”) (Mabel, Sergeant, and Chorus of Police)
23a. “Sergeant, approach!” (Mabel, Sergeant of Police, and Chorus of Police)
24. “When a felon’s not engaged in his employment” (Sergeant and Chorus of Police)
25. “A rollicking band of pirates we” (Sergeant and Chorus of Pirates and Police)
26. “With cat-like tread, upon our prey we steal” (Samuel and Chorus of Pirates and Police)
27. “Hush, hush, not a word!” (Frederic, King, Major-General, and Chorus of Police and Pirates)
28. Finale, Act II (Ensemble) “Sighing softly to the river”
“Now what is this, and what is that?”
“Frederic here! Oh, joy! Oh, rapture!”
“With base deceit you worked upon our feelings!”
“You/We triumph now”
“Away with them, and place them at the bar!”
“Poor wandering ones!”
Critical Reception
The notices from critics were generally excellent in both New York and London in 1880.[23] In New York, the Herald and the Tribune both dedicated considerable space to their reviews. The Herald took the view that “the new work is in every respect superior to the Pinafore, the text more humorous, the music more elegant and more elaborate.”[24] The Tribune called it “a brilliant and complete success”, commenting, “The humor of the Pirates is richer, but more recondite. It demands a closer attention to the words [but] there are great stores of wit and drollery … which will well repay exploration. … The music is fresh, bright, elegant and merry, and much of it belongs to a higher order of art than the most popular of the tunes of Pinafore.”[25] The New York Times also praised the work, writing, “it would be impossible for a confirmed misanthrope to refrain from merriment over it”, though the paper doubted if Pirates could repeat the prodigious success of Pinafore.[18]
After the London premiere, the critical consensus, led by the theatrical newspaper The Era, was that the new work marked a distinct advance on Gilbert and Sullivan’s earlier works.[19] The Pall Mall Gazette said, “Of Mr. Sullivan’s music we must speak in detail on some other occasion. Suffice it for the present to say that in the new style which he has marked out for himself it is the best he has written.”[26] The Graphic wrote, “That no composer can meet the requirements of Mr. Gilbert like Mr. Sullivan, and vice versa, is a fact universally admitted. One might fancy that verse and music were of simultaneous growth, so closely and firmly are they interwoven. Away from this consideration, the score of The Pirates of Penzance is one upon which Mr. Sullivan must have bestowed earnest consideration, for independently of its constant flow of melody, it is written throughout for voices and instruments with infinite care, and the issue is a cabinet miniature of exquisitely defined proportions. … That the Pirates is a clear advance upon its precursors, from Trial by Jury to H.M.S. Pinafore, cannot be denied; it contains more variety, marked character, careful workmanship, and is in fact a more finished artistic achievement … a brilliant success.”[27]
There were a few dissenting comments: The Manchester Guardian thought both author and composer had drawn on the works of their predecessors: “Mr. Gilbert … seems to have borrowed an idea from Sheridan’s The Critic; Mr. Sullivan’s music is sprightly, tuneful and full of ‘go’, although it is certainly lacking in originality.”[28] The Sporting Times noted, “It doesn’t appear to have struck any of the critics yet that the central idea in The Pirates of Penzance is taken from Our Island Home, which was played by the German Reeds some ten years ago.”[29] The Times thought Gilbert’s wit outran his dramatic invention, and Sullivan’s music was not quite as good as that of The Sorcerer, which the Times critic called a masterpiece.[30]
Musical Analysis
The overture to The Pirates of Penzance was composed by Sullivan and his musical assistant Alfred Cellier. It follows the pattern of most Savoy opera overtures: a lively opening (the melody of “With cat-like tread”), a slow middle section (“Ah, leave me not to pine alone”), and a concluding allegro in a compressed sonata form, in which the themes of “How beautifully blue the sky” and “A paradox, a paradox” are combined.[31]
Parody
The score parodies several composers, most conspicuously Verdi. “Come, friends, who plough the sea” and “You triumph now” are burlesques of Il trovatore,[32] and one of the best-known choral passages from the finale to Act I, “Hail Poetry”, is, according to the Sullivan scholar, Arthur Jacobs, a burlesque of the prayer scene, “La Vergine degli Angeli”, in Verdi’s La forza del destino.[33] However, another musicologist, Nicholas Temperley, writes, “The choral outburst ‘Hail, Poetry’ in The Pirates of Penzance would need very little alteration to turn it into a Mozart string quartet.”[34] Another well-known parody number from the work is the song for coloratura, “Poor wand’ring one”, which is generally thought to burlesque Gounod’s waltz-songs,[35] though the music critic of The Times called it “mock-Donizetti”.[36] In a scene in Act II, Mabel addresses the police, who chant their response in the manner of an Anglican church service.[37]
Sullivan even managed to parody two composers at once. The critic Rodney Milnes describes the Major-General’s Act II song, “Sighing softly to the river”, “as plainly inspired by – and indeed worthy of – Sullivan’s hero Schubert”,[38] and Amanda Holden speaks of the song’s “Schubertian water-rippling accompaniment”, but adds that it simultaneously spoofs Verdi’s Il trovatore, with the soloist unaware of a concealed male chorus singing behind him.[39]
Patter, Counterpoint, and Vocal Writing
Writing about patter songs, Bernard Shaw, in his capacity as a music critic, praised “the time-honored lilt which Sir Arthur Sullivan, following the example of Mozart and Rossini, chose for the lists of accomplishments of the Major-General in The Pirates or the Colonel in Patience.”[40]
This opera contains two well-known examples of Sullivan’s characteristic combination of two seemingly disparate melodies. Jacobs suggests that Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust, a great favourite in Sullivan’s formative years, may have been the model for Sullivan’s trademark contrapuntal mingling of the rapid prattle of the women’s chorus in Act I (“How beautifully blue the sky”) in 2/4 time with the lovers’ duet in waltz time. Jacobs writes that “the whole number [shifts] with Schubertian ease from B to G and back again.”[16] In Act II, a double chorus combines the policemen’s dogged tune, “When the foeman bares his steel” and the soaring line for the women, “Go, ye heroes, go to glory”.[41] In adapting the four-part chorus “Climbing over rocky mountain” from Thespis for re-use in Pirates, Sullivan took less trouble: he wrote only a single vocal line, suitable for soprano voices.[42] Despite this, the number ends with another example of Sullivan’s counterpoint, with the chorus singing the second melody of the piece (“Let us gaily tread the measure”) while the orchestra plays the first (“Climbing over rocky mountain”).[43]
Sullivan set a particular vocal challenge for the soprano who portrays Mabel. The Sullivan scholar Gervase Hughes writes, “Mabel … must be a coloratura because of ‘Poor wand’ring one!’, yet ‘Dear father, why leave your bed’ demands steady beauty of tone throughout the octave F to F, and ‘Ah, leave me not to pine’ goes a third lower still.”[44]
In The Music of Arthur Sullivan (1959), Hughes quotes four extracts from Pirates, saying that if hearing each out of context one might attribute it to Schubert, Mendelssohn, Gounod or Bizet respectively, “yet on learning the truth one would kick oneself for not having recognised Sullivan’s touch in all four.” Hughes concludes by quoting the introductory bars of “When a felon’s not engaged in his employment”, adding, “There could never be any doubt as to who wrote that, and it is as English as our wonderful police themselves.”[45]
Versions
Because the work was premiered in three different places, there are more variations in the early libretto and score of The Pirates of Penzance than in other Gilbert and Sullivan works. Songs sent from New York to the D’Oyly Carte touring company in England for the Paignton premiere were then altered or omitted during Broadway rehearsals. Gilbert and Sullivan trimmed the work for the London premiere, and Gilbert made further alterations up to and including the 1908 Savoy revival. For example, early versions depicted the Pirate King as the servant of the pirate band,[46] and the words of the opening chorus were, “Pour, O King, the pirate sherry”.[47] In the original New York production the revelation by Ruth that the pirates are “all noblemen who have gone wrong” prompted the following exchange (recalling a famous passage in H.M.S. Pinafore):
GENERAL, POLICE & GIRLS: What, all noblemen?
KING & PIRATES: Yes, all noblemen!
GENERAL, POLICE & GIRLS: What, all?
KING: Well, nearly all!
ALL: . . . They are nearly all noblemen who have gone wrong.
Then give three cheers, both loud and strong,
For the twenty noblemen who have gone wrong….
In the original London production, this exchange was shortened to the following:
GIRLS: Oh spare them! They are all noblemen who have gone wrong.
GENERAL: What, all noblemen?
KING: Well, nearly all!
Gilbert deleted the exchange in the 1900 revival, and the Chappell vocal score was revised accordingly. For the 1908 revival Gilbert had the pirates yielding “in good King Edward’s name”.[46] Despite Helen Carte’s repeated urging, Gilbert did not prepare an authorised version of the libretti of the Savoy operas.[48]
In its 1989 production, the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company restored one of the original versions of the finale, which finishes with a variation of “I am the very model of a modern major-general”, rather than with the customary reprise of “Poor wand’ring one”,[49] but in later revivals, it reverted to the more familiar text.[38]
Production History
From the beginning, The Pirates of Penzance has been one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular comic operas. After its unique “triple opening” in 1879–80, it was revived in London in 1888, in 1900, and for the Savoy repertory season of 1908–09. In the British provinces, the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company toured it almost continuously from 1880–1884, and again in 1888. It re-entered the touring repertory in 1893, and was never again absent through to the company’s closure in 1982.[50]
In America, after the New York opening on New Year’s Eve, 1879, Richard D’Oyly Carte launched four companies that covered the United States on tours that lasted through the following summer.[51] Gilbert and Sullivan themselves trained each of the touring companies through January and early February 1880, and each company’s first performance – whether it was in Philadelphia, Newark, or Buffalo – was conducted by the composer. In Australia, its first authorised performance was on 19 March 1881 at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, produced by J. C. Williamson. There was still no international copyright law in 1880, and the first unauthorised New York production was given by the Boston Ideal Opera Company at Booth’s Theatre in September of that year. The first non-D’Oyly Carte professional production in a country that had been subject to Gilbert’s copyright (other than Williamsons’ authorised productions) was in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, in September 1961. In 1979, the Torbay branch of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society presented a centenary tribute to the world premiere performance of Pirates in Paignton, with a production at the Palace Avenue Theatre (situated a few metres from the former Bijou Theatre).
New York has seen over forty major revivals since the premiere.[52] As discussed below, Joseph Papp’s 1980–83 Pirates on Broadway gave a boost to the opera’s popularity. Professional and amateur productions of the opera continue with frequency. For example, the Chicago Lyric Opera and English National Opera staged the work in 2004,[53] and in 2007, the New York City Opera and Opera Australia both mounted new productions.[54][55]
27 March 1909
43
Second Savoy repertory season; played with five other operas. (Closing date shown is of the entire season.)
Joseph Papp’s Pirates
In 1980, Joseph Papp and the Public Theater of New York City brought a new production of Pirates, directed by Wilford Leach and choreographed by Graciela Daniele, to the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, one of the series of annual Shakespeare in the Park summer events. The show played for 10 previews and 35 performances. It then transferred to Broadway, opening on 8 January 1981 for a run of 20 previews and 787 performances at the Uris and Minskoff Theatres. This take on Pirates earned enthusiastic reviews[72] and several Tony Awards, including a Tony Award for Best Revival and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical.
Compared with traditional productions of the opera, Papp’s Pirates featured a more swashbuckling Pirate King and Frederic, and a broader, more musical comedy style of humour. It did not significantly change the libretto, but it used an adapted orchestration and made a number of key changes and other minor changes in the score. The “Matter Patter” trio from Ruddigore and “Sorry her lot” from H.M.S. Pinafore were interpolated into the show. The production also restored Gilbert and Sullivan’s original New York ending, with a reprise of the Major-General’s song in the Act II finale.
Linda Ronstadt starred as Mabel, Rex Smith as Frederic, Kevin Kline as the Pirate King, Patricia Routledge as Ruth (replaced by Estelle Parsons for the Broadway transfer), George Rose as the Major-General, and Tony Azito as the Sergeant of Police. Notable replacements during the Broadway run included Pam Dawber, Karla DeVito and Maureen McGovern as Mabel; Robby Benson, Patrick Cassidy and Peter Noone as Frederic; James Belushi, Gary Sandy, Wally Kurth, and Treat Williams as the Pirate King; David Garrison as the Sergeant; George S. Irving as the Major-General; and Kaye Ballard as Ruth. The national tour of the production featured Barry Bostwick as the Pirate King, Jo Anne Worley as Ruth, Clive Revill as the Major-General, Dawber as Mabel, Paxton Whitehead as the Sergeant, and Andy Gibb as Frederic.
1984 Australian ProductionThe production opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, on 26 May 1982 to generally warm reviews for a run of 601 performances. Notable among the cast were George Cole and Ronald Fraser as the Major-General; Michael Praed and Noone as Frederic; Tim Curry, Timothy Bentinck, Oliver Tobias and Paul Nicholas as the Pirate King; Chris Langham as the Sergeant of Police; Pamela Stephenson as Mabel; Annie Ross as Ruth; Bonnie Langford as Kate; and Louise Gold as Isabel.
The Australian production opened in Melbourne in January 1984, opening the new Victorian Arts Centre, directed by John Feraro. It starred Jon English as the Pirate King, Simon Gallaher as Frederic,[73] June Bronhill as Ruth, David Atkins as the Sergeant of Police and Marina Prior as Mabel. The six week limited season was followed by an Australian national tour from 1984 to 1986 and another come-back tour with same cast in the mid 1990s.[citation needed] In 1985, Pirates opened the new Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane, setting attendance records that were not surpassed until many years later by The Phantom of the Opera.
The Papp production was turned into a film in 1983, with the original Broadway principal cast reprising their roles, except that Angela Lansbury replaced Estelle Parsons as Ruth. The minor roles used British actors miming to their Broadway counterparts. The film has been shown occasionally on television. Another film based loosely on the opera and inspired by the success of the Papp version, The Pirate Movie, was released during the Broadway run.[74]
Opera Australia’s 2007 touring production of Pirates, with Anthony Warlow as the Pirate King The Papp production design has been widely imitated in other modern productions of Pirates, even where traditional orchestration and standard score are used. Many modern productions are also influenced by the popular Disney film franchise Pirates of the Caribbean, combining aspects of the Papp production with the Disney design concepts. Not all of these revivals have generated the same enthusiasm as Papp’s 1980s productions. A 1999 UK touring production received this critique: “No doubt when Papp first staged this show in New York and London it had some quality of cheek or chutzpah or pizzazz or irony or something that accounted for its success. But all that’s left now … is a crass Broadway-style musical arrangement ground out by a seven-piece band, and the worst kind of smutty send-up of a historic piece of art.[75]
Recordings
The Pirates of Penzance has been recorded many times, and the critical consensus is that it has fared well on record.[76] The first complete recording of the score was in 1921, under the direction of Rupert D’Oyly Carte, but with established recording singers rather than D’Oyly Carte Opera Company performers.[77] In 1929, The Gramophone said of a new set with a mainly D’Oyly Carte cast, “This new recording represents the high-water mark so far as Gilbert and Sullivan opera is concerned. In each of the previous Savoy albums there have been occasional lapses which prevented one from awarding them unqualified praise; but with the Pirates it is happily otherwise; from first to last, and in every bar, a simply delightful production.”[78] Of later recordings by the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, the 1968 recording (with complete dialogue) is highly regarded: The online Gilbert and Sullivan Discography says, “This recording is one of the best D’Oyly Carte sets of all time, and certainly the best Pirates”,[79] and the Penguin Guide to Opera on Compact Disc also recommends it.[80] So too does the Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music, alongside the 1993 Mackerras recording.[81] The opera critic Alan Blyth recommended the D’Oyly Carte recording of 1990: “a performance full of the kind of life that can only come from the experience of stage performances”.[82] The online Discography site also mentions the 1981 Papp recording as “excellent”, despite its inauthentic 1980 re-orchestrations that “changed some of the timbres so as to appeal to a rock-oriented public”.[83] Of the available commercial videos, the Discography site considers the Brent Walker better than the Papp version.[84]
1929 D’Oyly Carte – Conductor: Malcolm Sargent[85]
1957 D’Oyly Carte – New Symphony Orchestra of London; Conductor: Isidore Godfrey[86]
1961 Sargent/Glyndebourne – Pro Arte Orchestra, Glyndebourne Festival Chorus; Conductor: Sir Malcolm Sargent[87]
1968 D’Oyly Carte (with dialogue) – Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Conductor: Isidore Godfrey[88]
1981; 1983 Papp’s Pirates (with dialogue) – Director: Wilford Leach; Musical Director: William Elliott; Choreographer: Graciela Daniele[89]
1982 Brent Walker Productions (with dialogue) – Ambrosian Opera Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra; Conductor: Alexander Faris; Stage Director: Michael Geliot[90]
1990 New D’Oyly Carte – Conductor: John Pryce-Jones[91]
1993 Mackerras/Telarc – Orchestra and Chorus of the Welsh National Opera; Conductor: Sir Charles Mackerras[92]
1994 Essgee Entertainment (video adaptation) – Director and Choreographer: Craig Schaefer; Orchestrator and Conductor: Kevin Hocking; Additional Lyrics: Melvyn Morrow[93]
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Cultural Impact
Major-General’s Song
Pirates is one of the most frequently referenced works of Gilbert and Sullivan. The Major-General’s Song, in particular, is frequently parodied, pastiched and used in advertising. Parody versions have been used in political commentary as well as entertainment media.[94] Its challenging patter has proved interesting to comics, notable examples being Tom Lehrer’s song “The Elements” and David Hyde Pierce’s monologue, as host of Saturday Night Live.[95]
Pastiche examples include the Animaniacs version, “I am the very model of a cartoon individual”, in the episode “H.M.S. Yakko”;[96] the Doctor Who audio, Doctor Who and the Pirates, “I am the very model of a Gallifreyan buccaneer”;[97] the Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip version in the episode “The Cold Open” (2006), where the cast performs “We’ll be the very model of a modern network TV show”;[98][99] and the Mass Effect 2 video game version, where the character Mordin Solus sings: “I am the very model of a scientist Salarian”.[100] The song is also pastiched in the computer-animated series ReBoot, which ended its third season with a recap of the season set to the song’s tune and in the Scrubs episode “My Musical” (Season 6, Episode 6), where Dr. Cox sings a version of the song about why he hates J.D.[101]
The song is often used in film and on television, unchanged in many instances, as a character’s audition piece, or seen in a “school play” scene. Examples include a VeggieTales episode entitled “The Wonderful World of Auto-Tainment!”; the Frasier episode “Fathers and Sons”; The Simpsons episode “Deep Space Homer”; and the Mad About You episode “Moody Blues”, where Paul directs a charity production of Penzance starring his father, Burt, as the Major-General. In The Muppet Show (season 3, episode 52)[102] guest host, comedienne Gilda Radner, sings the song with a 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) talking carrot (Parodying the pilot/pirate confusion in Pirates, Radner had requested a 6-foot-tall (1.8 m) talking parrot, but was misheard). In an episode of Home Improvement, Al Borland begins to sing the song when tricked into thinking he is in a soundproof booth. In the Babylon 5 episode “Atonement”, Marcus Cole uses the song to drive Dr Stephen Franklin crazy on a long journey to Mars.
Film and Television
Other film references to Pirates include Kate and Leopold, where there are multiple references, including a scene where Leopold sings “I Am The Very Model of A Modern Major General” while accompanying himself on the piano; and in Pretty Woman, Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) covers a social gaffe by prostitute Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts), who comments that the opera La Traviata was so good that she almost “peed [her] pants”, by saying that she had said that she liked it almost as much as The Pirates of Penzance”. In Walt Disney’s cartoon Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (2004), there is a performance of Pirates that becomes the setting for the climactic battle between the Musketeers and Captain Pete. Pirates songs sung in the cartoon are “With cat-like tread”, “Poor wand’ring one”, “Climbing over rocky mountain” and the Major General’s song. “Poor wand’ring one” was used in the movie An American Tail.[103] The soundtrack of the 1992 film The Hand That Rocks the Cradle includes”Poor Wand’ring One” and “Oh Dry the Glistening Tear”.[104]
Television references, in addition to those mentioned above, included the series The West Wing, where Pirates and other Gilbert and Sullivan operas are mentioned in several episodes, especially by Deputy Communications Director, Sam Seaborn, who was recording secretary of his school’s Gilbert and Sullivan society. In Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a poster from Pirates hangs on Matt Albie’s office wall. Both TV series were created by Aaron Sorkin. In the pilot episode of the 2008 CBS series Flashpoint, a police officer and his partner sing the policeman’s song. In an Assy McGee episode entitled “Pegfinger”, Detective Sanchez’s wife is a member of a community theater that performs the opera. In Family Guy episode “Peter’s Got Woods”, Brian Griffin sings “Sighing Softly”, with Peter Griffin’s assistance.
Other References
Other notable instances of references to Pirates include a New York Times article on 29 February 1940, memorializing that Frederic was finally out of his indentures.[105] Six years previously, the arms granted to the municipal borough of Penzance in 1934 contain a pirate dressed in Gilbert’s original costuming, and Penzance had a rugby team called the Penzance Pirates, which is now called the Cornish Pirates. In 1980, Isaac Asimov wrote a short story called “The Year of the Action”, concerning whether the action of Pirates took place on 1 March 1873, or 1 March 1877 (depending on whether Gilbert took into account the fact that 1900 was not a leap year).[106]
The chorus of “With cat-like tread”, which begins “Come, friends, who plough the sea,” which was used in the popular American song, “Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here,” popularised by Fred Astaire. This song is also part of the soundtrack, along with other Gilbert and Sullivan songs, in the 1981 film, Chariots of Fire. The song was also pastiched in an episode of Animaniacs in a song about surfing a whale. The show is also referred to in the popular video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, in which a casino is called “Pirates in Men’s Pants”, a crude play on the title of the opera.
Adaptations
Di Yam Gazlonim, a Yiddish adaptation of Pirates by Al Grand[99] that continues to be performed in North America. The 2006 production at the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene was nominated for the 2007 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival. The Montreal Express wrote in 2009, “Grand’s adaptation is a delightfully whimsical treatment”.[107]
The Parson’s Pirates by Opera della Luna
The Pirate Movie
Pirates! Or, Gilbert And Sullivan Plunder’d (2006), is a musical comedy set on a Caribbean island, involving a voodoo curse that makes the pirates “landsick”. It was first presented 1 November 2006 at Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut, then in 2007 at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey, and in 2009 at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, Massachusetts. Other Gilbert and Sullivan numbers, such as the Nightmare song from Iolanthe are interpolated.[108][109]
Pirates of Penzance – The Ballet!
Essgee Entertainment produced an adapted version of Pirates in 1994 in Australia and New Zealand.[110] Their producer, Simon Gallaher (Frederic in the Australian Papp production), produced another adaptation of Pirates that toured Australia from 2001 to 2003[citation needed]
The Pirates of Penzance (1983 film), a film version of Papp’s Broadway production.
Several television adaptations of the opera have been made, beginning in 1939[111]
Recent all-male versions of the opera include a long-running adaption by Sasha Regan at the Union Theatre in 2009, which transferred to Wilton’s Music Hall in London in 2010.[112]
References
1. Helga Perry (27 November 2000). “Information from the Savoyoperas.org website”. Savoy Operas. Retrieved 25 July 2009.
2. This figure assumes that Gilbert was ignoring the fact that there was no leap year in 1900. Otherwise, the action of the play would take place in 1873 instead of 1877, and the figure would be 67 years. See Bradley (1996), p. 244
3. Prestige, Colin. “D’Oyly Carte and the Pirates”, a paper presented at the International Conference of G&S held at the University of Kansas, May 1970
4. “Article about international copyright pirating, focusing on Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte’s efforts”. Edward Samuels . Retrieved 25 July 2009.
5. “The Twilight of the Opera Pirates: A Prehistory of the Right of Public Performance for Musical Compositions”. SSRN – Social Science Research Network . 0. Retrieved 25 July 2009.
6. Ainger, p. 166
7. Our Island Home . Libretto at The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 2 July 2010
8. Shaw (Vol. 1), p. 784. He quotes a relevant line from Gilbert’s adaptation: “Marry my daughter to an honest man! NEVER!”
9. Ainger, p. 177
10. Ainger, p. 179
11. From medieval times and in later centuries, however, Penzance was subject to frequent raiding by Turkish pirates, according to Canon Diggens Archive 1910.
12. Dexter, Gary. “Title Deed: How the Book Got its Name”. The Telegraph , 7 July 2010
13. Ainger, pp. 180–81
14. Jacobs, p. 133
15. Bradley (1982), pp. 86–87
16. Jacobs, Arthur. “Sullivan, Sir Arthur.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online , accessed 30 June 2010 (subscription required)
17. Smith, Tim. “A consistent Pirates of Penzance”, The Baltimore Sun , July 16, 2009
18. “Amusements; Fifth-Avenue Theatre”. The New York Times , 1 January 1880, p. 5
19. “Opera Comique”, The Era, 11 April 1880 p. 5
20. See Ainger, pp. 181-82, and Kochanski, Halik. Sir Garnet Wolseley: Victorian hero, p. 73, London, Hambledon Press , 1999. ISBN 1-85285-188-0
21. Bradley (1982), p. 118
22. In the first night version of the libretto, the Sergeant of Police was named Edward, and the Pirate King was named Richard and was titled “A Pirate Chief”. See Allen (1975), p. 112
23. The London theatrical newspaper The Era even gave the ad hoc performance in Paignton a good review: see “Gilbert and Sullivan’s New Opera”, The Era, 4 January 1880, p. 5
24. “The Pirates of Penzance”, The Daily News, 15 January 1880, p. 6
25. “The Pirates of Penzance”. New York Tribune , 1 January 1880, accessed 27 August 2010
26. “The Pirates of Penzance”, The Pall Mall Gazette, 6 April 1880, p. 12
27. “Music”, The Graphic, 10 April 1880, p. 371
28. “From Our London Correspondent”, The Manchester Guardian, 5 April 1880, p. 4
29. The Sporting Times, 10 April 1880, p. 1
30. The Times, 5 April 1880, p. 4
31. Hughes, p. 134
32. Hulme, David Russell. “The Pirates of Penzance”. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online , accessed 30 June 2010 (subscription required)
33. Jacobs, p. 135
34. Temperley, Nicholas. “Mozart’s Influence on English Music”. Music & Letters, October 1961, pp. 307–18, Oxford University Press , accessed 1 July 2010 (subscription required)
35. Hughes, p. 151
36. “Guthrie’s Irreverent Pirates”, The Times, 16 February 1962, p. 15
37. Maddocks, Fiona. “These pirates have real swagger”. Evening Standard , 20 February 2008, accessed 2 July 2010
38. “Putting the Jolly in Roger”, The Times, 26 April 2001
39. Holden, p. 402
40. Shaw (Vol. 2) p. 492
41. Hughes, p. 80
42. Hughes, p. 88
43. Rees, pp. 62-63 suggests that in the original Thespis version, for male as well as female voices, the men would have sung the first theme while the women sang the second.
44. Hughes, pp. 92-93
45. Hughes, pp. 50–51
46. Bradley (1982) pp. 90–159
47. Anderson W. R. Changes in the ” Pirates”. The Gramophone , June 1950, p. 14
48. Bradley (1982), p. 7
49. See Bradley (1982), pp. 158–59
50. Rollins and Witts, pp. 11, 18, 22, 35 et passim
51. Bradley (1982), p. 86
52. Hischak, Thomas “Pirates of Penzance, The”, The Oxford Companion to the American Musical. Oxford University Press 2009. Oxford Reference Online, accessed 2 July 2010 (subscription required)
53. Hall, George. “Leave the laughs to us, you swabs!” The Independent , 12 December 2004, accessed 30 June 2010
54. Gates, Anita. “The Happy Return of the Pirate King and His Loyal Swashbucklers”. The New York Times , 26 November 2006, accessed 30 June 2010
55. Posted by Michael (28 June 2007). “Review of Opera Australia production”. On Stage (and Walls) Melbourne. Retrieved 25 July 2009.
56. The first performance was by invitation only. The official opening was on 26 December 1884. The Times announcement, 20 December 1884, p. 8
57-72 Rollins and Witts, p.7/11/15/18/22/28/30/42/132/148/160/170/175/183
72. Rich, Frank. “Stage: Pirates of Penzance on Broadway”. The New York Times , 9 January 1981, accessed 2 July 2010
73. “Information about Simon Gallaher”. Essgee.com . Retrieved 25 July 2009.
74. Shepherd, Marc. “ The G&S Operas on Film “. A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 3 September 2008, accessed 2 July 2010
75. McMillan, Joyce. “Sinking a Victorian classic – The Pirates of Penzance”, The Scotsman, 31 October 2001 p. 11
76. Lamb, Andrew. “The Pirates of Penzance”, Gramophone , November 1993, p. 162
77. Rollins and Witts, p. x
78. The Gramophone, September 1929, p. 25
79. Shepherd, Marc . “The 1968 D’Oyly Carte Pirates”. A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 7 September 2008, accessed 20 August 2009
80. March (1993), pp. 437-38
81. March (2007), p. 1338
82. Blyth, p. 109
83. Shepherd, Marc. “ Papp’s Pirates (1980)”. A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 7 September 2008, accessed 20 August 2009
84. Shepherd, Marc . List and assessments of recordings of the opera. A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 9 July 2009, accessed 20 August 2009
85. Shepherd, Marc. “ The 1929 D’Oyly Carte Pirates “, A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 29 March 2009, accessed 20 August 2009
86. Shepherd, Marc. “The 1957 D’Oyly Carte Pirates “, A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 23 December 2003, accessed 20 August 2009
87. Shepherd, Marc. “ The Sargent/EMI Pirates (1961)”, A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 12 July 2009, accessed 20 August 2009
88. Shepherd, Marc. “ The 1968 D’Oyly Carte Pirates “, A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 7 September 2008, accessed 20 August 2009
89. Shepherd, Marc. “ Papp’s Pirates (1980) “, A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 7 September 2008, accessed 20 August 2009
90. Shepherd, Marc. “ The Brent Walker Pirates (1982) “, A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 13 April 2009, accessed 20 August 2009
91. Shepherd, Marc. “ The New D’Oyly Carte Pirates (1990)”, A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 2 December 2001, accessed 20 August 2009
92. Shepherd, Marc. “ The Mackerras/Telarc Pirates (1993)”, A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 7 September 2008, accessed 20 August 2009
93. Shepherd, Marc. “ The Essgee Pirates (1994) “, A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 9 July 2009, accessed 20 August 2009
94. Hinkle, A. Barton. “Hinkle: The Attorney General’s Song”. Richmond Times-Dispatch , 10 May 2010
95. “David Hyde Pierce’s Monologue”, SNL Transcripts , accessed 15 February 2010
96. “ Animaniacs – Cartoon Individual”, YouTube video, accessed 15 February 2010
97. “ Doctor Who Gallifreyan Buccaneer”, YouTube video of Dr. Who clips shown over the song, accessed 15 February 2010. Other songs, from Pirates, Pinafore and Ruddigore, are also parodied in the recording
98. “The Cold Open” at hulu.com , song starts at 40:00; Accessed 15 February 2010
99. Schillinger, Liesl: “Dress British, Sing Yiddish” The New York Times , 22 October 2006
100. “Mass Effect 2 Mordin Singing”. YouTube . 23 January 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-HgVM6JSIY. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
101. “Scrubs: My Musical: Dr. Cox Rant Song”, YouTube , song starts at 0:40; Accessed 15 February 2010
102. “link” Information on Muppet Show from”. TV.com. Retrieved 25 July 2009.
103. “Soundtrack for An American Tail (1986)”. IMDB database , accessed April 22, 2010
104. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle soundtrack”. IMDB database , accessed 21 June 2010
105. “Frederic Goes Free”, The New York Times , 29 February 1940, p. 18
106. Description of the story , which appears in Banquets of the Black Widowers (1984)
107. “The Pirates of Penzance… in Yiddish?”, Montreal Express , 25 May 2009
108. Saltzman, Simon: CurtainUp New Jersey Review 2007 CurtainUp , Retrieved 13 June 2009
109. Nesti, Robert: “Pirates! (Or, Gilbert and Sullivan Plunder’d)” EDGE , 8 June 2009
110. “Information about Essgee Entertainment’s ”Pirates””. Simon Gallaher.
111. List of television and film adaptations
112. Church, Michael. “The Pirates of Penzance, Wilton’s Music Hall, London”. The Independent , 14 April 2010
| The Pirates of Penzance |
English actor Joss Ackland was born on 29th February in which year? | The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Secrets Of A Savoyard, by Henry A. Lytton.
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Secrets of a Savoyard, by Henry A. Lytton This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license Title: The Secrets of a Savoyard Author: Henry A. Lytton Release Date: April 6, 2012 [EBook #39392] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECRETS OF A SAVOYARD *** Produced by Moti Ben-Ari, Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
(After assisting at the first night of the new Gilbert-and-Sullivan revival.)
You may boast of your Georgian birds of song
And say that never was stuff so strong,
That its note of genius simply mocks
At yester-century's feeble crocks,
And floods the Musical Comedy stage
With the dazzling art of a peerless age.
But for delicate grace and dainty wit,
For words and melody closely knit,
Your best purveyors of mirth and joy
Were never in sight of the old Savoy;
They never began to compete, poor dears,
With Gilbert-and-Sullivan's Gondoliers.
For me, as an out-of-date Victorian,
Prehistoric and dinosaurian,
I hardly feel that I dare reflect
On the art of the day with disrespect;
But if anyone asks me, "Who'll survive—
The living dead, or the dead alive?
Which of the two will be last to go—
The Gondoliers or the latest show?"
I wouldn't give much for the latter's chance;
That is the view that I advance,
Trusting the public to bear me out
(The good from the bad they're quick to sever);
"Of this I nurse no manner of doubt,
No probable, possible shadow of doubt,
No possible doubt whatever."—O. S.
(Reprinted by kind permission of the proprietors of "Punch," and of Sir Owen Seaman.)
By
AN ADMIRER OF HIS ART.
Sincerely indeed do I offer my good wishes to my old friend, Henry A. Lytton, on his giving to the world this most interesting book, "The Secrets of a Savoyard."
Lytton represents a distinct type on our musical comedy stage. No other artiste, I think, has quite that gift of wit which makes one not merely a happier, but a better, man for coming under its spell. Its touch is so true and refined and delightful. Somehow we see in him the mirror of ourselves, our whimsicalities, and our little conceits, and could ever a man captivate us so deliciously with the ironies of life or yet chide us so well with a sigh?
Certainly it was fortunate both to him and to us that circumstances, in the romantic manner this book itself describes, first turned his early steps towards Gilbert and Sullivan, and thus opened a career that was to make him one of the greatest, as he is now the last, of the Savoyards. Like the natural humorist he is, he could be and has been a success in ordinary musical comedy r�les, but it is in these wonderful operas that he was bound to find just his right sphere. Lytton in Gilbert and Sullivan is the "true embodiment of everything that is excellent." He was made for these parts, just as they might have been made for him, and no man could have carried into the outer world more of the wholesome charm of the characters he depicts on the stage. He himself tells us on these pages how his own outlook on life has been coloured by his long association with these beautiful plays.
So closely, [10] indeed, is he identified in the public mind with the wistful figure of Jack Point, or the highly susceptible Lord Chancellor, or the agile Ko-Ko that the thousands of Gilbert and Sullivan worshippers who crowd the theatres know all too little of the man behind the motley, the real Henry A. Lytton. For that reason I want to speak less about the great actor whom the multitude knows and more about the manner of man that he is to those, relatively few in numbers, whose privilege it is to own his personal friendship.
Lytton's outstanding quality is his modesty. No "star" could have been less spoilt by the flatteries of success or by those wonderful receptions he receives night after night. Something of the eager, impetuous boy still lingers in the heart of him, and he loves the society of kindred souls who have some good story to tell and then cap it with a better one. But all the while he lives for the operas. Even now, after playing in them for twenty-five years, he is constantly asking himself whether this bit of action, this inflection of the voice, this minor detail of make-up, is right. Can it be improved in keeping with the spirit of genuine artistry? So severe a self-critic is he that he will take nothing for granted nor allow his work to become slipshod because of its very familiarity. If ever there was an enthusiast—and there is much in this book to show that he is as great an enthusiast in private life as he is while in front of the footlights—it is Harry Lytton.
The great enthusiasm of his life is Gilbert and Sullivan. Nobody who reads these reminiscences will have any doubt about that, for it shows itself on every page, and it is such an infectious enthusiasm that even we who love the operas already find ourselves loving them more, and agreeing with Lytton that they must not be tampered with and brought "up-to-date." From Sir William Gilbert's own lips he heard just what the [11] playwright wanted in every detail, and both by his own acting and by his help to younger colleagues on the stage he has worthily and faithfully upheld the traditions of the Savoy. I have been told more than once by members of the company how, when they have felt disheartened for some reason or other, he would come along with some cheery word, some little bit of advice and encouragement that would make all the difference to them. Often and often he has brightened up the dreary work of rehearsals by his buoyant humour and all-compelling good spirits.
What a happy family must be a company that is led by one who is so entirely free from vanity and petty jealousy and whose one aim is to help the performance along! Lytton is bound to have that aim because of his intense loyalty to the operas themselves, but how much springs as well from that inherent kindness of his, which, with that complete lack of affectation, makes him so truly one of Nature's gentlemen. "Each for all and all for each" was the motto of the heart-breaking Commonwealth days, of which he tells us such a pathetic human story here, and it seems to remain his motto now that he has climbed to the top of his profession as a principal of the D'Oyly Carte Company.
Lytton's acting always seems to me in such perfect "poise." It is so refined and spontaneous. Each point receives its full measure, and yet is so free of exaggeration or "clowning." He is, that is to say, an artiste to his finger-tips, and no real artiste, even when he is a humorist, has any place for buffoonery. Like the Gilbert and Sullivan operas themselves, he is always so clean and wholesome and pleasant. The clearness of his enunciation is a gift in itself, and his dancing reminds us of the time when all our dancing was so charming and graceful, and thus so different to what it is to-day. And then his versatility! Could one imagine a contrast so remarkable [12] as that between his characterisation of the ugly, repulsive King Gama in "Princess Ida" and the infinitely lovable Jack Point in the "Yeoman of the Guard"? Or between his studies of the engaging and more than candid Lord Chancellor in "Iolanthe" and that pretentious humbug Bunthorne in "Patience"? Or between the endless diversions of his frolicsome Ko-Ko in "The Mikado" and the gay perplexities of the sedate old General Stanley in "The Pirates of Penzance"?
So one might continue to speak of his quite remarkable gallery of portraits, both in these operas and apart from them, and one might search one's memory in vain for a part which was not a gem of natural and clever characterisation, rich in humour and unerring in its sympathetic artistry.
Yet no r�le of his, I think, stands out with such fascination in the minds of most of us as does dear Jack Point, the nimble-witted Merryman. The poor strolling player, with his honest heart breaking beneath the tinsel of folly, is a figure intensely human and intensely appealing, and no less so because of the mingling romance and pathos with which it is played. If Lytton had given us only this part, if he had shown us only in this case how deftly he can win both our laughter and tears, he would have achieved something that would be treasured amongst the tenderest, most fragrant memories of the modern stage.
Long may he remain to delight us in these enchanting operas of the Savoy! By them English comic opera has had an infinite lustre added to it—a lustre that will never be dimmed—and no less surely do the operas themselves owe a little of their evergreen freshness and spirit to the art of Henry A. Lytton.
THE SECRETS OF A SAVOYARD.
I.
YOUTH AND ROMANCE.
Apologia—Early Misfortunes of Management—Stage Debut in Schoolboy Dramatics—St. Mark's, Chelsea—The School's Champion Pugilist—The Sale of Jam-Rolls—Student Days with W. H. Trood—An Artist of Parts—A Fateful Night at the Theatre—The Schoolboy and the Actress—A Firm Hand With a Rival—Three Months' Truancy—Our Marriage and Our Honeymoon in a Hansom—The Dominie and the Married Man—First Engagement with D'Oyly Carte—Dilemma of a Sister and Brother.
Eight-and-thirty years on the stage!
Looking back over so long a period, memory runs riot with a thousand remembrances of dark days and brighter, and of times of hardship which, in their own way, were not devoid of happiness. It has been my good fortune to own many valued friendships, and it is to my friends that the credit or the guilt, as it may happen to be, of inspiring me to begin this venture belongs. Not once, but many times, I have been asked "Why don't you write your reminiscences, Lytton?" The late Lord Fisher strongly urged me to write them when I paid my last visit to his home a few months before he passed to the Great Beyond. So great was my respect for Lord Fisher, one of the noblest Englishmen of our age, that I felt bound to adopt his suggestion, and it is thus partly in homage to his sterling qualities and gifts that I begin now to reveal these "Secrets of a Savoyard." This much let me say at the very beginning. Naught that is [14] written here will be "set down in malice." Searchers for those too numerous chronicles of scandal will look here for spicy tit-bits in vain. For what it is worth this is the record of one who has lived a happy life, whose vocation it has been to minister to the public's enjoyment, and whose outlook has inevitably been happily coloured by such a long association with the gladsome operas of the old Savoy.
I cannot say that my love of the footlights was inherited, but at least it began to show itself at a very early age. One of my earliest recollections is concerned with a little diversion at the village home of my guardian. No doubt my older readers will remember the old gallanty shows which were in vogue some forty or fifty years ago. Explained briefly, these were contrived by use of a number of cardboard figures which, with the aid of a candle, were reflected on to a white sheet, and which could be manipulated to provide one's audience with a rather primitive form of enjoyment. Well, I do not recall where I had been to get the idea, but I decided to have a gallanty show at the bottom of the garden, and to invite the public's patronage. This ranks as my first venture in managerial responsibility. I rigged up a tent—a small and jerry-built contrivance it was—and an announcement of the forthcoming entertainment in my bold schoolboy's hand was pasted on to the outer wall of the garden. The charges for admission were original. Stalls were to be purchased with an apple, lesser seats with a handful of chocolates or nuts, while a few sweets would secure admission to the pit. The boys of the village, having read the notice, turned up and paid their nuts and sweets in accordance [15] with the advertised tariff, but the sad fact has to be related that the show did not please them at all, and by summarily pulling up the pole they brought the tent and the entertainment to grief. In other words, I "got the bird." Nor can I say that was the end of the tragedy. Under threats I had to repay all that the box-office had taken, and as most of the lads claimed more than they had actually given, the stock of nuts and sweets was insufficient to meet the liabilities. So in the cause of art I found myself thus early in life in bankruptcy! My partner in the enterprise proved to be a broken reed, for when the roughs of the village got busy he showed a clean pair of heels and left me alone with the mob and the wreckage.
Seeing that this is an actor's narrative, I ought to place on record at once that my first appearance on any stage was in schoolboy dramatics in connection with St. Mark's College, Chelsea. Of St Mark's I shall have much to say. I played the title r�le in "Boots at the Swan." Except that I enjoyed being the cheeky little hotel "Boots" and fancied myself not a little in my striped waistcoat and green apron, I don't remember whether my performance was held to be successful or not, but unconsciously the experience did give me a mental twist towards the stage.
St. Mark's was regarded in those times—and I am glad to know is still regarded—as an excellent school for young gentlemen. But certainly my name was never numbered amongst the brightest educational products of that academy. What claim I had to fame was in an entirely different sphere. I was the school's champion pugilist! In those days I simply revelled in fighting. [16] A day without a scrap was a day hardly worth living. Occasionally the older lads thought it good sport to tell the new-comers what an unholy terror they would be up against when they met Lytton. In most cases this was said with such vivid embellishments that the youngsters got a heart-sinking feeling. But there was one lad who was more adroit. He argued that it was all very well for the school champion to fight surrounded by and cheered on by his friends, but that this must put the challenger at a distinct disadvantage. He also considered that no harm would be done if he measured up this much-boomed light-weight before the time came for him to stand up publicly as his antagonist. Luring me, therefore, into a quiet corner one day, he commanded me in so many words to "put 'em up." Now while it is the privilege of a champion to name his own time and conditions, it really was too much to tolerate the pretensions of such an impudent upstart. So we set to in earnest, and very speedily the new boy was giving me some of his best—a straight left timed to the moment—and it needed only two such lefts to make me oblivious of time altogether. Certainly he succeeded in instilling into my mind a decided respect for his prowess.
Not being too richly endowed with pocket money, I conceived the idea that to set up in business as the school pastrycook would serve a "long-felt want." Strictly cash terms were demanded. Each day I bought a number of rolls at ½d. each and a pot of jam for 4½d. With these I retailed slices of most appetising bread and jam at a penny a time and made an excellent profit. If the truth must be told the smaller boys got no more [17] than a smear of jam on their bread and the bigger boys rather more than their share, but on the average it worked out fairly well, and the juniors had sufficient discretion not to complain.
Yr. Sincerely
Henry A Lytton
[18] If I had any bent in those days—apart from fighting and selling jam rolls—it was in the direction of painting. For water-colour sketches I had a certain aptitude, and painting remains one of my hobbies, taking only second place to my enthusiasm for golf. For tuition I went to W. H. Trood at his studio in Chelsea. Trood in his time was an artist of parts. He had a fine sense of composition and painted many beautiful pictures. If he had not been deaf and dumb he would have made a great actor, for his gift of facial expression was extraordinary. Clubmen are familiar with a well-known set of five action photographs representing a convivial card-player who has gone "nap." Trood was the subject of those photographs.
For some time I attended St. Mark's during the day and went to the studio each evening. I realised very early that there was no money in painting and that it was of little use as a profession. We students were a merry band, and though we had little money, we made the most of what we had to spend. Our studio was only a garret, and it was a common thing for each of us to buy a tough steak for no more than fourpence, grill it with a fork over the meagre fire, and make it serve as our one substantial meal for many hours. It was a Bohemian existence and I have remained a Bohemian ever since.
Trood and I were more than master and pupil. We were, if not brothers, then at least uncle and nephew. From time to time we contrived to visit the theatre, for although he could not hear, he loved to study the colour effects on the stage, and had an uncanny talent for following the course of the plot. And one of these nights out was destined to be most fateful for me in my future career. We had gone together into the gallery at the Avenue Theatre (now the Playhouse). The attraction was a French opera-bouffe called "Olivette." And I must confess that my susceptible heart was at once smitten with the charms of a young lady who was playing one of the subsidiary parts. From that moment the play to me was not the thing. Eyes and thoughts were concentrated on that slim, winsome little figure, and I remember that at school the following day the sale of jam rolls was pushed with redoubled vigour in order that I might have the wherewithal to go to the theatre and see my charmer again.
I am getting on delicate ground, but the story is well worth the telling. It was clear I could not go on worshipping my fair divinity afar from the "gods." We must make each other's acquaintance. So to Miss Louie Henri I addressed a most courteous note, paying her some exquisite compliments, and inviting her to meet her unknown admirer at the stage door after the performance one night. And my invitation was accepted. I ought to mention here that I was then scarcely seventeen years of age. Louie Henri, as it afterwards transpired, was the same.
Well, I bedecked myself in my best and marched off in good time to the trysting place at the stage door. I spent my last sou on a fine box of chocolates. Nothing I could do was to be left undone to make the conquest complete. But first there came a surprise. Another [19] St. Mark's boy was at the stage door already. He, too, had a box of chocolates, and it was bigger than mine.
"Who are those for?" I demanded. The tone of my voice must have been forbidding I already had my suspicions.
"Louie Henri," answered the lad. Seemingly he thought it wise to be truthful.
I had a rival! Crises of this kind have to be met with vigour and thoroughness.
"Give them to me," I insisted, "and hook it." The command was terrible in its severity. More than that, I was not the school's champion light-weight for nothing. The rival almost threw the chocolates into my hands and vanished like lightning. When Louie came out there I was with a double load of offerings! She was sensibly impressed.
From time to time further delightful meetings took place. Luckily the jam roll trade was flourishing, and so it was seldom the youthful swain met his lady-love empty-handed. Only once did the rival attempt to steal a march on me again. I discovered him loitering round the stage door, but when he saw my fists in a business-like attitude, he apparently realised that discretion was the better part of valour and bolted into the night. All of which proves anew that "faint heart never won fair lady."
Louie and I got on famously together, and although we were but children it was not long before we had decided to become engaged. The course of true love was complicated by the fact that while I was at St. Mark's in the daytime she at night had to play her part in "Olivette." So it occurred to me that the only [20] thing was to give up school. I accordingly wrote a letter, in my guardian's name, saying that I was being taken away from St. Mark's for a three-months' holiday, and posted it to the headmaster at Chelsea. Then followed the rapture of sweetheart days. Our pleasures were few—there were no funds for more than an occasional ride on a 'bus—but into the intimacies of those blissful times there is no need to enter.
We were married late in 1883 at St. Mary's, Kensington. Louie and I certainly never realised the responsibilities of married life, and love's young dream was not spoiled by anxious reflections about the problem of ways and means, as may be gathered from the fact that our funds were exhausted on the very day of the marriage. I remember that, after the fees at church had been paid, the cash at our disposal amounted to eighteen-pence. The question then was how far this would take us in the matter of a honeymoon. Strolling into Kensington Gardens we decided that we would spend it on the thrills of a ride in a hansom-cab, and the driver was instructed to take us as far as he could for eighteen-pence. The journey was not at all long. I rather think that if the cabby had known the romantic and adventurous couple he had picked up as fares he would have been sport enough to give us a more generous trip.
Our plan of action after this honeymoon in a hansom had already been decided upon. My wife went to the theatre for the evening performance. I, on my part, had arranged to go back to school and put the best face on things that was possible. During my absence, of course, it had become known that my guardian's letter was a deception and that my three months [21] care-free existence was truancy. Where I had been the headmaster did not know. What I had done he knew even less. But the delinquency was one which, in the interest of school discipline, had to be visited with extreme severity. The Dominie took me before the class and commenced to use the birch with well-applied vigour.
When at the mature age of seventeen one is made a public exhibition of one can have a very acute sense of injured dignity. The rod descended heavily.
"Stop it!" I shouted. "You can't thrash me like this. Do you know what you are doing? You're thrashing a married man!"
"You a married man! You lie!" The birching, bad as it had been, was redoubled in intensity. The master declared that he would teach me a lesson for lying.
"But I am a married man," I yelled. "I was married yesterday."
But even the dawn of truth meant no reprieve. The explanation put the offence in a still more lurid light. It was bad enough to tell a lie, but a good deal worse to get married, and the headmaster whacked me all the more severely as an awful example to the rest of the boys.
Following the thrashing, I enjoyed a fleeting notoriety in the eyes of my school mates, who crowded round to see the interesting matrimonial specimen. "Look who's married!" they shouted. "What's it like?" I'm afraid at the moment that, smarting under the rod, the joys of married life seemed to me to be, as Mark Twain would say, "greatly exaggerated." And [22] worse was to come. Next day the master, considering my knowledge of life made me too black a reprobate to remain in his school any longer, terminated my career as a pupil. For a married man to be in one of the lower classes was too much of an absurdity.
Here was a pretty how-d'ye-do! A bridegroom in sad disgrace, and finding himself on the day after his marriage with no work, no prospects, no anything! Louie it was who came to the rescue. "Princess Ida" had just been produced at the Savoy, and she had been engaged for chorus work in the company which was being sent out on a provincial tour, commencing at Glasgow. My wife contrived to see Mr. Carte, and she faithfully followed the strategy that had been decided upon. Seeing that theatrical managers were understood to dislike married couples in companies on tour, she was to ask him whether he would engage her brother for the tour, pointing out that he had a good voice and was "fairly good looking." The upshot was that I was commanded to wait on Mr. Carte. Later in life I came to know him well and to receive many a kindness from him, but this first interview remains in my mind to this day, because it was destined to put my foot on the first rung of the theatrical ladder.
"Not much of a voice," was the conductor's comment—not a very flattering compliment, by the way, to one who had been for a long time solo boy in the choir of St. Philip's, Kensington. "Never mind," replied Mr. Carte; "he will do as understudy for David Fisher as King Gama." And as chorister and understudy I was engaged. Each of us was to have �2 a week, and in view of our circumstances the money was [23] not merely welcome, but princely. Our troubles seemed to have vanished for ever.
One of our difficulties was that, having entered the company as brother and sister, that pretty fiction had to be kept up, and for a devoted newly-married couple that was not very easy. For a brother my attentiveness was almost amusing. The r�le was also sometimes embarrassing. Louie's charms quickly captivated a member of the company who afterwards rose very high in the profession—it would hardly be fair to give his identity away!—and one night he gave me a broad hint that my dutiful watchfulness was carried too far. "Leave her to me," he whispered, affably. When I told him I had promised mother I would not leave her, or some such story, a compromise was arranged whereby after the show, when we were going home, I should drop back and give him the opportunity for playing the "gallant." To have refused would have aroused suspicions that might have led to the discovery of our secret. So like Jack Point, I had to walk behind while the other fellow escorted my bride and paid her pretty compliments. It seemed less of a joke at the time than it does to-day.
Naturally, the little bubble was bound to explode before long, and it exploded when everything seemed to be going splendidly. It happened when one of the assistant managers, who also admired my wife, somehow induced us to invite him to visit our "digs."
"Nice rooms, these," he commented, taking them in at a glance. "What do you pay?"
"Only sixteen shillings? Three rooms for sixteen shillings!"
"No! Only two——." The fatal slip! Truth at last had to out.
We told him that we had been afraid that, if we had said we were man and wife, we should not have got the engagement, and we were in too much of a dilemma to be sticklers for accuracy. Our "marriage lines" were then and there produced.
"Well," said the manager, "you are remarkably alike; no wonder you easily passed for brother and sister." That, in fact, was true. Our marriage, he went on to tell us, would not have been a handicap in the D'Oyly Carte Company. Most managers, he said, did not care for husband and wife to travel together, but that was not the case with Mr. D'Oyly Carte.
The news quickly spread through the company, and on every hand we received congratulations. Only one of our colleagues considered that he had a grievance. He was the usurper who had insisted that I should allow him to escort my alleged sister from the theatre to our lodgings. "What a fool you've made of me," he complained. "Why I was going to propose! I did think she would make such a nice little wife!"
Long after this it was Mr. Carte's custom, when making enquiries as to my wife, to say dryly, "And how's your sister, Lytton?" Similarly, whenever he spoke to my wife, there was invariably a twinkle in his eye whenever he asked after the welfare and whereabouts of her "brother."
HENRY A. LYTTON AT THE AGE OF TWENTY.
II.
VAGABONDAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH.
�. s. d. on Tour—The Search for Independence—The Old Showman of Shepherd's Bush—Not the "Carte" I Wanted—The Commonwealth—Our Repertory and Our Creditors—"Well, Mr. Bundle"—A Thirsty Situation and a Melodramatic Finale—A Stammerer's Story—Comradeship in Adversity—Roaming the Country—Back in London and the Search for Work—Diverse Occupations and Little Pay—A Savoy Engagement at Last—Understudy to Grossmith—A Real Opportunity.
The "Princess Ida" tour, as I have said, opened at Glasgow. It ran for about a year, with enthusiasm and success wherever the company played, though unluckily for me, my services as understudy were never required. The D'Oyly Carte companies then, as now, were always a happy family, the members of which were always helpful to one another and always remarkably free from those petty jealousies that distinguish some ranks of the profession.
Looking back on those romantic times, my wife and I often marvel how, with all our inexperience in housekeeping, our slender finances withstood the strain of our extravagance. Whenever we moved on to a new town we had the usual fears as to what sort of a landlady we were to get. In these times landladies do not always look on actors as their legitimate "prey." But then they were extortioners, though there were, of course, some pleasant exceptions. I remember, for instance, that in some places we were charged 5s. a week for [26] potatoes, and in others only 6d. On the whole, on that tour, we must have been in luck. Notwithstanding that we had lived fairly well—and we did indulge odd tastes for luxuries—we found that at the end of the 52 weeks' engagement we had saved �52.
Following the "Princess Ida" tour, we were sent out into the provinces again with other productions, and in this way we served under the Gilbert and Sullivan banner for the best part of two years. But they were not continuous engagements. From time to time we would find ourselves idle and our tiny resources steadily dwindling. Luckily, during this period we always managed to secure a fresh engagement before we had spent our last sovereign, though we were hardly as fortunate in the dark days that were coming.
I remember receiving at this time the advice of a dear old friend, a Mr. Chevasse, of Wolverhampton. "The turning-point in your career," he said to me, "will come when you have got 'independence.'" "What," I asked him, "do you mean by that?" "Get �100 in the bank," was his answer, "and in your case that will bring the sense of independence. It will put you on a different footing with everyone you meet, and you will know that at last you are beginning to shape your career yourself. Save everything you can. Save a shilling a week, or two shillings a week, but save whatever happens." And he was right. Later, when I had that �100 stored away, I found myself in a position that enabled me to assert my claim for principal parts, and I was sent out into the provinces to take three leading r�les—Ko-Ko, Jack Point, and Sir Joseph Porter. [27]
But this is anticipating my story. Before that time came there were dark days to pass through, days when we did not know where the next meal would come from, and days when we tramped the country as strolling players, footsore and weary. When our modest savings had been exhausted during one prolonged period of "resting," I remember being driven by sheer necessity to apply for an engagement at the booth of an old showman at Shepherd's Bush. I had to do something. So I walked up to the showman, who was standing outside the tent in a prosperous-looking coat with an astrakhan collar, and asked him for a job. What did I want to be? I wanted, I told him, to be an actor, and would play anything from melodrama to low comedy.
"All right," said the showman. "Go over there and wash that cart!"
I went "over there" and started the washing. But it was no use. Sorry as things were with us, I just could not come down to that, and off I bolted. That was not the sort of "Carte" I wanted.
Our next venture was very interesting. It brought us no fame, precious little money, a great deal of hardship, and yet a host of pleasant remembrances to look back upon in the brighter days. "We were seven" and one and all down on our luck. Failing to obtain any engagements in town, we decided to band ourselves together as fellow-unfortunates, and to seek what fortune there was as entertainers in the villages and small towns of Surrey. It was to be a Commonwealth. Whatever profits there were made were to be divided equally. One week this division enabled us to [28] take 7s. 10d. each! That was the record. What ill-success our efforts had was certainly not due to any want of "booming." The services of a bill-poster were obviously prohibitive. So at the dead of night we used to put our night-shirts over our clothes to save these from damage, creep out into the streets with our paste-bucket and brush, and fix our playbills to any convenient hoarding or building. It had to be done in double-quick time, but we had spied out the land beforehand, and generally we made sure that our notices were pasted where they would prominently catch the public eye.
Our repertory consisted of a striking drama entitled "All for Her," a touching comedy called "Masters and Servants," and an operetta known as "Tom Tug the Waterman." In addition, we did songs and dances, and as it happened these were the best feature of the programme. We had no capital available to spend on dresses and scenery. What we did was to take some ramshackle hall or barn, and then to make a brave show with our posters, though the printer was often lucky if he got more than free tickets for all his family to see our performance. Generally our creditors considered that, as there was small chance of getting any money from us, they might as well have an evening out for nothing. Our costumes were improvised from our ordinary attire. The men figured as society swells by using white paper to represent spats or by tucking in their waistcoats and using more white paper to indicate that they were in immaculate "evening dress." As to scenery all we had was our own crude drawings in crayons and pencil.
We presented our plays by what is known as "winging." [29] By that I mean that only one manuscript copy of the play was usually available, and each player had to get an idea of the lines which he or she had to speak after each entrance, though the actual words used on the stage were mainly extemporised. "Winging," even when one has theatrical experience behind one, is not at all easy. I know that in "Tom Tug" I dreaded the very thought of having to go on and make what should have been a long speech designed to give the audience a more or less intelligent idea of the plot. I was so uncertain about it that I took the book on with me in the hope of getting furtive glimpses at it as we went along.
"Well, Mr. Bundle," I began.
"Well?" Mr. Bundle responded.
"Well?"
"Well."
The next "Well" did not come from the stage; it came from the audience. "Well?" it yelled, accompanied, so to speak, by a tremendous note of interrogation. "Well?" it echoed again. "Say something, can't you?"
This was too much. In confusion I rushed off the stage. Even that was not all. I should, as I have said, have outlined the course of the story, but not only did I not do this but in my confusion I left behind me the book of words on which we were all depending. From the others in the wings there came anguished whispers. "Where's the book?" "You've left the book on the table!" So I had to put the best face on things and walk on to get it. But the audience had had enough [30] of me that night. "Get off" they shouted—and I did.
"Tom Tug" was also once the occasion of a painful fiasco. Instead of dashing on to the stage where my wife was playing the part of a simple fisher-girl, and greeting her like the jolly sailor-man I was with a boisterous "Here I am my darling," I found myself, standing behind her in such a state of stage-fright that I was absolutely "dried up." I could not utter a word. I simply stood behind her limp, speechless and motionless, and no amount of prompting would induce me to go on with the wooing. So there was nothing for it but to ring down the curtain, and for the rest of the evening we had songs and dances, with which we made amends.
"All for Her" was a drama of a desert island that should have melted hearts of stone. We were all dying of thirst (at least, according to the plot). Nowhere on that desert island was water to be found. They sent me out to explore for it while they rolled about the stage moaning and groaning in agony. During my absence from the stage I sat near a fire-bucket in the wings. Then came my cue to reappear.
I staggered on famished and weary. The quest had been in vain. "Not a drop," I croaked in a parched, dry voice; "not a drop of water anywhere."
"Liar!" screamed the audience in unison. Our audiences, as you will have gathered, were often critical folk who could sit with dry eyes through our most anguishing scenes. It transpired that while I was sitting near that fire-bucket the bottom of my Arab cloak had dipped into the water and there it was dripping, [31] dripping, dripping right across the stage! The dramatic situation was absolutely spoilt.
The company included, besides my wife and myself, a young actress named Emmeline Huxley, who after these hard times with us went to America and there undoubtedly "made good." Then there was a "character" whom we called "'Oppy." He was the general utility man who acted as conductor and orchestra rolled into one, and then went behind the scenes to play the cornet, to act as stage adviser, or at a pinch to take a small part. He was an enthusiast who was here, there and everywhere. "'Oppy," in addition to having a wall eye and a club foot, had a decided impediment in his speech, but, strangely enough, he was entirely unconscious of this disability. For that reason we often used to induce him to tell his story of the lady who sang "Home, Sweet Home."
This story is bound to lose some of its effect when put into cold print. As "'Oppy" told it the humour was irresistible. "Sh-sh-she wan-wan-ted to go on the sta-sta-sta-stage," he used to say, "and the man-an-an-ager he sa-a-a-aid to her, 'Wh-wh-wh-what can you sing?' And she said, 'Ho-ho-ho-home, Sw-we-we-we-weet Ho-ho-home,' And he told her to sing-sing-sing it. And (here he could not keep a straight face over the poor lady's misfortunes) she-she-she couldn't sing-sing-sing it for-for-for stam-stam-stam-stam-stam-mering."
Never did "'Oppy" tell this story, of the ridiculousness of the telling of which he seemed entirely unconscious, without his hearers exploding with laughter. "Wh-what makes you all lau-lau-laugh so?" he used [32] to ask, incredulously. "You lau-lau-lau-lau-laugh altogether to-to-to-too hearty. It's a good-good-good yarn, but I'm dam-dam-dam-damned if it's as fun-fun-fun-funny as that."
Once he received an unexpected windfall in the shape of a postal order from a relative for two or three shillings. "Come and have a little dinner with me to morrow," he said to me and my wife. "I know you're hungry." When we arrived we found his plate was already on the table and empty. He apologised profoundly. He had been too hungry to wait for us and had already eaten his dinner. So while my wife and I each enjoyed a chop—the first square meal we had had for many a day—he sat by and kept us entertained. Splendid fellow! Little did we guess that as he did so he was suffering the pangs of hunger accentuated by the sight of our satisfaction. Next day the landlady confided to us the fact that as our friend's windfall had been insufficient to provide chops and vegetables for three, he had smeared his plate with the gravy from the chops we were to have, and then made us believe that he had satisfied his hunger already.
What became of him later on I have never discovered. I only know that I have tried hard to find him in order that that noble act of self-denial might be in some generous manner repaid. Neither inquiries nor advertisements, however, have ever revealed his whereabouts to me, and it may be that already this honest fellow has gone to receive his reward. God rest his soul!
Then there was Arthur Hendon. If ever a Christian lived it was that sterling fellow. Time after time in those heart-aching days we were on the verge of despair. [33] Luck was dead out. Life was a misery. But Hendon, though he was as sore of heart and as hungry as the rest of us, was always ready with some cheery word, some act of kindness, some "goodness done by stealth." Louie and I were rather small in size, and often as we tramped from one place to another he carried one of us in turn in his arms. For we had little food, and were tired, footsore and "beat." And he, too, was "done." Only his great heart sustained him in those terrible times as our "captain courageous."
The Commonwealth venture lasted for about three months altogether. As I have shown it was one continual struggle against adversity and poverty. For some time we were located at Aldershot. Our show ran as a rule from six to eleven o'clock, and for want of better amusement the soldiers gave us a fair amount of patronage at threepence a head. If we did not please them they did not hesitate to fling the dregs of their pint pots on to the stage. One night we felt ourselves highly honoured by the presence of a number of military officers at our performance. "All for Her," I am glad to say, went without a hitch on that gala occasion. Our "theatre" was an outhouse owned by a publican, who was very considerate towards us in the matter of rent, because he found that our presence meant good business for his bar-parlour receipts.
From Aldershot we went on to Farnham, and from there to other hamlets where we believed there was an audience, however uncouth and untutored, to be gathered together. Eventually we reached Guildford. By then matters were getting desperate. The Mayor or some other local public man heard of our plight. He drove [34] out to where we were playing, witnessed part of our performance, and engaged us to sing at a garden-party. I remember that, exhausted as we were, gratitude enabled us to give of our very best as the only return we could make for his kindness. He told us it was a great pity that such clever people should be living a precarious existence in the country villages, and offered to pay our train fares to London in addition to the fee for the engagement we had fulfilled. This generosity we accepted with alacrity. The next morning we were back in town again—each to follow his or her different way. So ended the vagabondage of the Commonwealth. It was an experience which none of us was ever likely to forget.
Once more in London it would be idle to say that our troubles had disappeared. It meant the dreary search again for employment. Mr. D'Oyly Carte had no immediate vacancies. Other managers had nothing more to offer than promises. Lucky is the actor—if he ever exists—who throughout his career has been free from this compulsory idleness. During this period I had to turn my hand to all sorts of things. Once I called at a draper's shop and secured casual work as a bill distributor. I had to go from door to door in a certain select part of Kensington. I remember I looked at those gilded walls and those red-carpeted stairs with a good deal of envy. Later on I was destined to visit some of those very houses and walk up those same red-carpeted stairs as a guest—those very houses at which to earn an odd shilling or so to buy bread I had delivered those bills! Yes; and there was one house at which I called in those humble days where they abruptly opened the door, showed me a ferocious-looking dog [35] with the most business-like teeth, and significantly commanded me to "get off—and quick!" I had done nothing wrong, and my body and my heart were aching. Years afterwards I became a breeder of bulldogs—about that you shall hear later on—and sold one of them to those very people. And, as if in poetic justice, that bulldog bit them!
My training under Trood was turned to advantage during these empty days. A fashion had just set in for plaques. I painted some scores of these terra-cotta miniatures, and although it was not remunerative work, it served to put bare necessities into the pantry. We were living about that time in Stamford Street, off the Waterloo Road, and in those days it was a terrible neighbourhood where one's sleep was often disturbed by cries of "murder" and "police." Our baby's cradle was a travelling basket—we could not afford anything better. I remember, in connection with those plaques, that in after years I was dining at the house of a well-known writer and critic, and he showed me with keen admiration two beautiful plaques, which, he said, had been won by Miss Jessie Bond in a raffle at the Savoy. She had made a present of them to him. "Yes," I commented, "and I painted them." He was kind enough to say that that enhanced their value to him considerably.
For a time I went into a works where they made dies for armorial bearings. Here I had to do a good deal of tracing, and the work was fairly interesting. I drew five shillings the first week—hardly an imposing stipend for a family man—but the second week it was ten shillings and the third twenty shillings. Singing at [36] occasional smoking concerts and running errands supplemented this money very acceptably. The job at the die-sinkers might have continued, but the foreman wanted me to clean the floors in addition to doing my artistic work, and at that my dignity revolted. I left.
Some months went by in this flitting from one job into another, but it is useless to attempt a full catalogue of my versatility, for it is neither impressive nor very inspiring. During all this hand-to-mouth existence I was calling on theatrical managers. Slender as the rewards which the stage had thus far given me were—just a meagre livelihood and precious little encouragement—the call to return to it remained insistent and strong. Sooner or later I was bound to return, and whether it were to be to good fortune or ill, the very hope buoyed me up. I had worried Mr. Carte with ceaseless importunity. Every week at least I went round to try and see him on the off-chance of an engagement. And at last there came the turn of the tide.
It happened on the eve of the first London production of "Ruddigore." Concerning this new opera, the producers had for good reasons maintained an air of secrecy, and the unfolding of the mystery was thus awaited with more than usual public curiosity. It was the talk of the town and the subject of many skittish references in the newspapers. Calling once again at Mr. Carte's office, I caught him, after a long wait, just leaving his room and hurrying along a corridor. Without more ado I button-holed him and asked him once again for an engagement. Mr. Carte was not a man who liked that sort of conduct. "You should not interrupt me like this," he said, in a tone that betrayed his annoyance. [37] "You ought to send up your name." Explaining that I had done so and had been told he was out of town, I repeated my plea for an engagement. Hurrying on his way Mr. Carte told me to go down to the stage. Success had come at last! When Mr. Carte sent a man to the stage that man became ipso facto a member of the company. Later the news came through that Mr. Carte had chosen me as understudy to Mr. George Grossmith as Robin Oakapple. This was indeed a slice of good fortune. Understudy to Mr. George Grossmith!
"Ruddigore" was produced for the first time on Tuesday, the 22nd January, 1887, at the Savoy. Towards the end of that week Grossmith was taken seriously ill with peritonitis. By an effort he was able to continue playing until the Saturday. Then he collapsed and was taken home for a serious operation. Upon the Monday morning I was told I was to play his part—and play it that very night.
Chosen to step into the shoes of the great George Grossmith! Faced with such an ordeal to-day I verily believe I should shirk it. But then, the audacity of youth was to carry me through. The supreme chance had come. At all costs it had to be grasped.
III.
CLIMBING THE LADDER.
The "Ruddigore" Success—Congratulations from everyone—My First Meeting with Grossmith—Gilbert's Advice to a beginner—Irving's wonderful Acting and its Effect—Speaking to the Man in the Gallery—The Mystery of Jack Point—How My Tragic Ending Was Introduced—Gilbert's Approval—A Memorable Hanley Compliment—Laughter I ought not to have had—Bunthorne's Fall—Accidents, Happy and Otherwise—Ko-Ko's Mobile Toe—Not a Mechanical Trick—The Myth of the Poor Old Man of Seventy—Still Youthful in Spirit and Years.
The Savoy Theatre had its usual large and fashionable audience on that Monday night when I was to play my first big principal part either in or out of London. What my sensations were it would be hard to describe. Nervous I certainly was, and in the front of the house my wife was sitting wondering, wondering whether the stage-fright fiasco in "All for Her" was going to be repeated in this critical performance of "Ruddigore." Both of us knew that here was my great opportunity. If I won the future was assured. If I lost——! I knew the dialogue, and I knew the songs, but during the previous week there had been all too little chance for me to study Grossmith's conception of the part from the "wings."
Then my cue came and I went on. The silence of the audience was deathly. They gave me not the slightest welcome. The great Grossmith, the lion comique of his day, was not playing! Oakapple was being taken by an unknown stripling! No wonder [39] they were disappointed and chilling. First I had a few lines to speak, and then I had a beautiful little duet with Miss Leonora Braham, who was playing Rose Maybud. And when that duet, "Poor Little Man" was over, and we had responded to the calls for an encore, all my tremors and hesitation had gone. I knew things were all right. With every number the audience grew more and more hearty. The applause when the curtain fell was to me unforgettable. It betokened a triumph.
Behind the scenes the principals and the choristers almost mobbed me with congratulations. Up in my dressing-room there were many further compliments. Sir (then Mr.) William Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan came to see me together. I heard afterwards that they had been very anxious about the performance. Gilbert, as he shook me by the hand, declared "To-night there is no need for the Lyttons to turn in their graves." Mr. Carte, though always a man of few words, gave me to understand that he realised that his confidence in me had not been misplaced. Cellier, who had occupied the conductor's seat, told me that "From to-night you will never look back." He and I remained fast friends for life.
The second act was no less successful. Since then I have come to know how wonderful receptions can be, but never did applause fall more gratefully than when as a young man under the first ordeal of a terrible test, I was making that first appearance at the Savoy. Late as it is, I should like to thank any who were there and who read these lines for that sympathy and encouragement. It gave me confidence in myself and helped [40] me along. For every young artist who comes for the first time before the footlights, may I bespeak always the same kindly feeling? It does mean so much. The Press, to whom my debt has always been great, also said many nice things about that performance. "Carte and Company, it must be admitted," said one leading paper, "are wonderful people for finding out hitherto unexploited talent."
Although George Grossmith was at first not expected to live, he made an amazingly rapid recovery, and in about three weeks he was able to resume his part in "Ruddigore." One of the first things he did was to send for me. "Gee-Gee," as the older generation remembers, was in his day a veritable prince of comedians, and in the theatre he was always paid the deference due to a prince. Outside his dressing-room a factotum was always on duty. None dare think of entering without permission. Thus, when I, a mere member of the chorus, was summoned there into the great man's presence, it was regarded by the company as an event, and everyone wanted to know what it was like! Grossmith told me he had heard of my success, gave me a signed copy of his photograph as a memento, and thus laid the foundation of a friendship that was destined to grow very intimate during the coming years.
Grossmith was a man of brilliant accomplishments, and as an artiste in facial expression and in wistful fancy, perhaps we have not seen his equal. Shortly after he left the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, he went on tour with a repertory of charming songs he had himself composed, and in that venture he made a good deal of money. For a reason theatre-goers will understand—the desire to avoid becoming a pale imitation of a man playing the same part as oneself—I was never a spectator "in front" when he was in the cast at the Savoy.
THE LATE SIR WILLIAM S. GILBERT.
Connected [41] with my "Ruddigore" success I was proud to become the recipient from Gilbert of a gold-mounted walking-stick that is still one of my most treasured possessions, and the letter accompanying this gift it may be well to reproduce:—
39, Harrington Gardens,
W. S. Gilbert.
H. A. Henri, Esq.
Let me explain here that, in consequence of the "brother and sister" deception, when I joined the D'Oyly Carte organisation just after my marriage, I adopted my wife's name and was known as H. A. Henri during the early part of my career. It was on Gilbert's own suggestion that I made the change.
It was true, as Gilbert said, that I had no adequate rehearsal when I was bidden to step at short notice into George Grossmith's shoes, but during the next few weeks it was my good fortune to be under the playwright's personal coaching. Subsequently I shall [42] have to tell many reminiscences of Gilbert, who in after years gave me the privilege of being both his friend and confidant, but at this moment I want to refer to advice he gave me while "putting me through my paces" in "Ruddigore." In my anxiety I was rather hurrying the speech I was supposed to address to the picture gallery of my ancestors. He pulled me up.
"Let me tell you something, young man," he began. "That speech, 'Oh! my forefathers!' is now a short speech, but originally it consisted of three pages of closely-written manuscript. I condensed and condensed. Every word I could I removed until it was of the length you find it to-day. Each word that is left serves some purpose—there is not one word too many. So when you know that it took me three months to perfect that one speech, I am sure you will not hurry it. Try to remember that throughout your career in these operas." Later on he also gave me this sound counsel, "Always leave a little to the audience's imagination. Leave it to them to see and enjoy the point of a joke. I am sure you are intelligent," he went on to say, "but believe me, there are many in the audience who are more intelligent than you!"
Now, if an actor in these operas has to be careful of one thing above everything else, it is that of avoiding forcing a point. Gilbert's wit is so neat and so beautifully phrased that it would be utterly spoilt by buffoonery. The lines must be declaimed in deadly seriousness just as if the actor believes absolutely in the fanciful and extravagant thing he is saying. I can think of no better illustration of this than the scene in "Iolanthe" where Strephon rejects recourse to the [43] Chancery Court and says his code of conduct is regulated only by "Nature's Acts of Parliament." The Lord Chancellor then talks about the absurdity of "an affidavit from a thunderstorm or a few words on oath from a heavy shower." What a typical Gilbertian fancy! Well, you know how the "comic" man would say that, how he would whip up his coat collar and shiver at the suggestion of rain, and how he would do his poor best to make it sound and look "funny." And the result would be that he would kill the wittiness of the lines by burlesque. The Lord Chancellor says the words as if he believed an affidavit from a thunderstorm was at least a possibility, and the suggestion that he does think it possible makes the very idea, in the audience's mind, more whimsical still. Imagine, again, in "Patience" how the entire point would be lost if Bunthorne acted as if he himself saw the absurdity of his poem "Oh! Hollow, Hollow, Hollow!" Grosvenor, in the same opera, is intensely serious when he laments sadly that his fatal beauty stands between him and happiness. If he were not, the delightful drollery of the piece would, of course, be destroyed.
Gilbert, by the way, gave me two other hints which should be useful to those just beginning their careers in the theatre, and they are hints which even older actors may study with profit. He held that it was most important that the artiste who was speaking and the artiste who was being addressed should always be well to the front of the stage. "If you are too far back," he said to me, "you not only lose grip over the audience, but you also lose the power of clear and effective speech." Then there is that old trouble—nearly [44] every novice is conscious of it—as to what one should do with one's hands when on the stage. Somehow they do seem so much in the way, and one does feel one ought to do something with them, though what that something should be is always a problem. I mentioned this matter to Gilbert. "Cut them off at the wrists, Lytton," was his quick reply, "and forget you've got any hands!" Every young professional and young amateur should remember this. So long as one worries about one's hands or one's fingers, one is very liable to be nervous and to do something wrong, and so the only sound rule to follow is to forget them entirely.
For a good reason I am going to digress here to tell a story of Sir Henry Irving. It was my good fortune once to be in the wings at the Lyceum when he was playing Shylock in the "Merchant of Venice." The power of his acting upon me that day was extraordinary. Every word I listened to intently until at last, in the trial scene, he had taken out his knife to cut the pound of flesh. I knew, of course, that he was never really going to cut that pound of flesh, but the sharpening of the knife, the dramatic gleam in the great tragedian's eyes, the tenseness of the whole situation, was all too vivid and all too like reality. I hated the sight of bloodshed, and in the shock of anticipation, I fainted.
When I came round I was in the green room, and a little later, amongst those who came to see me, was Irving himself. I was deadly white, and if the truth must be told, rather ashamed. But Irving was immensely pleased. He took it as a compliment to the force of his acting. Learning that I was a young actor, [45] he declared that my emotionalism was a good omen, and said that my sensitive and highly-strung nature would help me in my work enormously. Then he went on to give me many hints that should be valuable to every aspirant for success on the stage. One hint I have never forgotten. "See to it," he said, "that you always imagine that in the theatre you have a pal who could not afford the stalls, and who is in the back of the pit or the gallery. Let him hear every line you have to say. It will make you finish your words distinctly and correctly."
If it is true, as friends have often told me, that one of the chief merits of my work is the clearness of my elocution in all parts of the house, it is due to the advice given to me in those early days by two of the greatest figures connected with the stage, Gilbert and Irving. Seeing that these operas are now being played by hundreds of amateur societies each year, I want to pass on to those who perform in them this golden rule: Always pitch your voice to reach the man listening from the furthest part of the building. Since Gilbert's death I have often had the feeling that someone is still intently listening to me—someone a long way away!
But now I must proceed with my story. When George Grossmith returned to the cast, I was sent out as a principal in one of the provincial companies, and in this work continued for years. Sometimes we played one opera only on tour—the opera most recently produced in town—and sometimes a number of them in repertory. It was towards the end of 1888 that I first played what is, I need hardly say, the favourite of all my parts, Jack Point, in the "Yeomen of the Guard," [46] the opera which was Gilbert and Sullivan's immediate successor to "Ruddigore." And in connection with this part let us finally clear up a "mystery." It has been a frequent source of enquiry and even controversy in the newspapers.
When at the close of "Yeomen" Elsie is wedded to Fairfax, does Jack Point die of a broken heart, or does he merely swoon away? That question is often asked, and it is a matter on which, of course, the real pathos of the play depends. The facts are these. Gilbert had conceived and written a tragic ending, but Grossmith, who created the part, and for whom in a sense it was written, was essentially the accepted wit and laughter-maker of his day, and thus it had to be arranged that the opera should have a definitely humorous ending. He himself knew and told Gilbert that, however he finished it, the audience would laugh. The London public regarded him as, what in truth he was, a great jester. If he had tried to be serious they would have refused to take him seriously. Whatever Grossmith did the audience would laugh, and the manner in which he did fall down at the end was, indeed, irresistibly funny.
So it came about that while he was playing Jack Point in his way in London I was playing him in my way in the provinces. The first time I introduced my version of the part was at Bath. For some time I had considered how poignant would be the effect if the poor strolling player, robbed of the love of a lady, forsaken by his friends, should gently kiss the edge of her garment, make the sign of his blessing, and then fall over, not senseless, but—dead! I had told the stage manager [47] about my new ending. From time to time he asked me when I was going to do it, and then when at last I did feel inspired to play this tragic d�nouement, what he did was to wire immediately to Mr. Carte: "Lytton impossible for Point. What shall I do?"
I ought to explain that any departure from tradition in the performance of these operas was strictly prohibited by the management. Thus, while I might demur to the implication that my work was impossible, the fact that he should report me to headquarters was only consistent with his duty. But the sequel was hardly what he expected. The very next day Mr. Carte, unknown to me at the time, came down to Bath. He watched the performance and, after the show, the company were assembled on the stage in order that, in accordance with custom, he could express any criticisms or bestow his approval. What happened seemed to me to be characteristic of this great man's remarkable tact. He first told us that he had enjoyed the performance. "For rehearsals to-morrow," he went on, "I shall want Mr. So-and-so, Mr. So-and-so, Miss So-and-so, Miss So-and-so," and several others. The inference was that there were details in their work that needed correcting. Then he turned to me, shook me most warmly by the hand, and just said very cordially, "Good night, Lytton." And then he left. No "Excellent"—that might have let down the stage manager's authority—but at the same time no condemnation. It was all noncommittal, but it suggested to me, as it actually transpired was the case, that he was anything but displeased with my reading.
Gilbert and I, when we had become close friends, [48] often had long talks about this opera, and particularly about my interpretation of the lovable Merryman. I told him what had led me to attempt this conception, and asked him whether he wished me to continue it, or whether it should be modified in any particular way. "No," was his reply; "keep on like that. It is just what I want. Jack Point should die and the end of the opera should be a tragedy."
For the sake of fairness I must mention that a fortnight after I had introduced this version of the part, another popular artiste, who was out with one of the other provincial companies, played the r�le in just the same way. It was entirely a coincidence. Neither of us knew that the other had evolved in his mind precisely the same idea, even down to the minutest details, and still less had either of us seen the other play it.
One little detail in my make-up for this part may be worth recording. Whenever kings or noblemen in the old days were pleased with their jesters they threw them a ring. For that reason I invariably wear a ring when I appear as Jack Point. Simple ornament as it is, it was once owned by Edmund Kean and worn by him on the stage, and another treasured relic of the great tragedian that I possess is a snuff-box, also given to me by my old friend, Charles Brookfield.
One of the finest compliments ever paid to me as an artiste occurred at Hanley. We were playing "Yeomen." Many of our audience that night were a rough lot of fellows, some of whom even sat in their shirt sleeves, but there could be no question but that they were keenly following the play. Everywhere we had been on that tour there had been tremendous calls after the curtain. At Hanley when the curtain fell there was—a dead silence! It was quite uncanny. What had happened? Were they so little moved by the closing scene of the piece that they were going out in indifference or in disgust? Gently we drew the edge of the curtain aside, and there, would you believe it, we saw those honest fellows silently creeping out without even a whisper. He was dead. Jack Point was dead!
THE LATE SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN.
[49]
I changed in silence myself. The effect of the incident had been so extraordinary. And when I went down to the stage door a crowd of these rough men were waiting. Somehow they knew me for Point. "Here he is!" they shouted. "Are you all right, mister, now?" Then, as I walked on, they turned to one another and I overheard one of them say: "He wasn't dead, after all." As they saw the end of the opera they verily believed something had gone wrong. Such a thing in the theatre may possibly be understandable, but that the illusion should have lingered after the curtain had dropped, and even after they had left the theatre and come really to earth in the street, seemed to me extraordinary.
The "Yeomen of the Guard" was staged again the following night, but this time the audience must have been told by their pals that they had actually seen me afterwards, and that it was "only a play." Jack didn't die—not really. It was only "pretended."
That Hanley audience rather overdrew the gravity of things. Some audiences, on the other hand, go to the opposite extreme and they have their biggest laugh when and where I least expect it. I remember once playing the Pirate King in the "Pirates of Penzance," and as a result of a slip (a physical one) I was the sorry figure in [50] one of those incidents which I might catalogue as "laughs I ought not to have got." I had to come in, armed to the teeth, high up on the stage. By some mischance I slipped down the rocks, and encumbered with all those knives, pistols and cutlasses about me it was a pretty bad drop. The audience, of course, thought my undignified entrance a capital joke. I didn't—it hurt. But I turned the mishap to account, first picking up a dagger and putting it between my teeth, then groping round for the other weapons, and all the while cowing my pirate swashbucklers with a vicious look that suggested "Come on at your peril; I'm ready." That incident was not in the book.
Lovers of "Patience" will recall that little diversion where Lady Jane picks up Bunthorne in her arms and carries him off. Well, when Miss Bertha Lewis was playing with me in this scene quite recently, she did something quite unauthorised. She dropped me—it was a terrible crash—and the audience thought it a "scream." In the shelter of the wings I remonstrated with her, pointing out that this was a distinct departure from what Gilbert intended. All the sympathy I got was, "Well, I've dropped you only twice in eight years!" Scarcely an effectual embrocation for bruises!
When we were doing "Ruddigore" in Birmingham, some years ago, I broke my ankle in the dance with which the first curtain fell. Somehow I finished the performance, but when I went up to my dressing-room to change I fainted. When I came to I found that my foot had swollen enormously, that the top boot I was wearing had burst, and that they were doing their best to cut it away. The speediest medical aid to be found was that [51] of a veterinary surgeon, and although the pain was awful it was nothing like the feeling of doom when I overheard him saying, "He may not walk again!" Luckily his fears were altogether unfounded, but although the accident has not affected my dancing, the ankle has never been quite right to this day.
Once, in the "Yeomen," I kicked one of the posts near the executioner's block. It dislocated my toe, but what a happy accident it was I did not realise until some weeks later, when we were playing "The Mikado," and when I was doing the dance in the "Flowers that Bloom in the Spring," I trod upon a tin-tack, and instinctively drew my toe away, as it were, from the pain. From the audience there came a tremendous roar of laughter. For a moment I could not understand it at all. Looking down, however, I was amazed to find that big toe upright, almost at right angles to the rest of the foot. With my fan I pressed it down—then raised it again. This provoked so much merriment among the audience that I did it a second time, and a third. All this time the theatre was convulsed. I confess that to myself it seemed jolly funny. Here, indeed, was a quaint discovery.
This "toe" business has ever since been one of Ko-Ko's greatest mirth-provokers in the "Flowers that Bloom in the Spring." The explanation of its origin shows that it is not a trick mechanical toe nor, as some people suppose, that it is done with a piece of string. The fact is simply that the toe is double-jointed.
Now that I have made a brief reference to dancing, I think it may be well to correct a legend which has grown up about my age, and which usually turns up [52] when we have been encored a first or a second time for a dance or some boisterous number, especially in "Iolanthe" or "The Mikado." "Isn't it a shame?" I know some dear kind friends say, "making him do it again. Poor old man! He's well over seventy." Others declare, "Isn't he a marvel for sixty-five?" Well, if a man is as old as he feels, then my age must still be in the thirties, and certainly there is no intention on my part of retiring just yet. But if we have to go by the calendar, and if it is necessary that there should be "no possible shadow of doubt" in the future as to my age, I had better put on record the fact that I was born in London on January 3rd, 1867. The rest, a small matter of arithmetic, may be left to you. At all events I am still some distance from the patriarchal span.
The stage is a wonderful tonic in keeping one healthy and strong. Not once, but many times, I have gone to the theatre in the evening suffering from neuralgia, but the moment my cue comes the pain has entirely disappeared. No sooner, worse luck, have I finished for the night than it has returned!
IV.
LEADERS OF THE SAVOY.
Memories of Gilbert—His instinct for stagecraft—Stories of rehearsals—Jack Point's unanswered conundrum—The craze for the Up-to-Date—Gilbert's experiments on a miniature stage—Nanki-Poo's address—The Japanese colony at Knightsbridge—The geniality of Sullivan—A magician of the orchestra—The cause of an unhappy separation—Only a carpet—Impressions of D'Oyly Carte—Merited rebukes and generous praise—D'Oyly Carte and I rehearse a love scene—A wonderful business woman—Mrs. Carte's part in the Savoy successes—Our leader to-day.
Sir William Gilbert I shall always regard as a pattern of the fine old English gentleman. Of that breed we have only too few survivors to-day. Some who know him superficially have pictured him as a martinet, but while this may have been true of him under the stress of his theatrical work, it fails to do justice to the innate gentleness and courtesy which were his great and distinguishing qualities. Upright and honourable himself, one could never imagine that he could ever do a mean, ungenerous action to anyone, nor had any man a truer genius for friendship.
Gilbert, it is true, had sometimes a satirical tongue, but these little shafts of ridicule of his seldom left any sting. The bons mots credited to him are innumerable, but while many may be authentic there are others that are legendary. He was a devoted lover of the classics, and to this may be attributed his command of such beautiful English. Nimble-witted as he was, he would spend days in shaping and re-shaping some witty [54] fancy into phrases that satisfied his meticulous taste, and days and weeks would be given to polishing and re-polishing some lyrical gem. But when a new opera was due for rehearsal, the libretto was all finished and copied, and everything was in readiness.
Few men have had so rare an instinct for stagecraft. Few men could approach him in such perfect technique of the footlights. Up at Grim's Dyke, his beautiful home near Harrow, he had a wonderful miniature stage at which he would work arranging just where every character should enter, where he or she should stand or move after this number and that, and when and where eventually he or she should disappear. For each character he had a coloured block, and there were similar devices, of course, for the chorus. Thus, when he came down for rehearsals, he had everything in his mind's eye already, and he insisted that every detail should be carried out just as he had planned. "Your first entrance will be here," he would say, "and your second entrance there. 'Spurn not the nobly born' will be sung by Tolloller just there, and while he sings it Mountararat will stand there, Phyllis there," and so on.
When the company had become familiar with the broader outlines of the piece, he would concentrate attention upon the effects upon the audience that could be attained only by the aid of facial expression, gesture and ensemble arrangement. Not only did he lay down his wishes, but he insisted that they must be implicitly obeyed, and a principal who had not reached perfection in the part he was taking would be coached again and again. I remember once that, in one of [55] those moods of weariness and dullness that occasionally steal over one at rehearsals, I did not grasp something he had been telling me, and I was indiscreet enough to blurt out, "But I haven't done that before, Sir William." "No," was his reply, "but I have." The rebuke to my dullness went home! It was Durward Lely, I think, whom he told once to sit down "in a pensive fashion." Lely thereupon unmindfully sat down rather heavily—and disturbed an elaborate piece of scenery. "No! No!" was Gilbert's comment, "I said pensively, not ex-pensively." That quickness of wit was very typical.
George Grossmith once suggested that the introduction of certain business would make the audience laugh. Gilbert was quite unsympathetic. "Yes!" he responded in his dryest vein, "but so they would if you sat down on a pork pie!" Grossmith it was, too, who had become so wearied practising a certain gesture that I heard him declare he "had rehearsed this confounded business until I feel a perfect fool." "Ah! so now we can talk on equal terms" was the playwright's instant retort. And the next moment he administered another rebuke. "I beg your pardon," said the comedian, rather bored, in reference to some instructions he had not quite understood. "I accept the apology," was the reply. "Now let's get on with the rehearsal."
You will remember that in "The Yeomen" poor Jack Point puts his riddle, "Why is a cook's brainpan like an overwound clock?" The Lieutenant interposes abruptly with "A truce to this fooling," and the poor Merry-man saunters off exclaiming "Just my luck: my best conundrum wasted." Like many in the audience, I have often wondered what the answer to [56] that conundrum is, and one day I put a question about it to Gilbert. With a smile he said he couldn't tell me then, but he would leave me the answer in his will. I'm sorry to say that it was not found there—maybe because there was really no answer to the riddle, or perhaps because he had forgotten to bequeath to the world this interesting legacy.
Sir William not only studied the entrances and exits beforehand, but he came with clear-cut ideas as to the colour schemes which would produce the best effect in the scenery, laid down the methods with which the lighting was to be handled, and arranged that no heavy dresses had to be worn by those who had dances to perform. No alterations of any kind could be made without his authority, and thus it comes about that the operas as presented to-day are just as he left them, without the change of a word, and long may they so remain!
I ought, perhaps, to answer criticisms which are often laid against me when, as Ko-Ko in "The Mikado," I do not follow the text by saying that Nanki-Poo's address is "Knightsbridge." I admit I substitute the name of some locality more familiar to the audience before whom we are playing. Well, it is not generally known that Knightsbridge is named in the opera because, just before it was written, a small Japanese colony had settled in that inner suburb of London, and a very great deal of curiosity the appearance of those little people in their native costumes aroused in the Metropolis. Gilbert, therefore, in his search for "local colour" for his forthcoming opera, had not to travel to Tokio, but found it almost on his own doorstep near his home, then in South Kensington. A Japanese male-dancer and a Geisha, moreover, were allowed to come from the colony to teach the company how to run or dance in tiny steps with their toes turned in, how to spread or snap their fans to indicate annoyance or delight, and how to arrange their hair and line their faces in order to introduce the Oriental touch into their "make-up." This realism was very effective, and it had a great deal to do with the instantaneous success of what is still regarded as the Gilbert and Sullivan masterpiece.
THE LATE MR. RICHARD D'OYLY CARTE.
But [57] to return to the point about Knightsbridge. When "The Mikado" was produced at the Savoy, the significance of the reference to a London audience was obvious and amusing enough, but it was a different matter when the opera was sent into the provinces. Gilbert accordingly gave instructions that the place was to be localised, and there was and always is something very diverting to, say, a Liverpool audience in the unexpected announcement that Nanki-Poo, the great Mikado's son, is living at "Wigan." In the case of Manchester it might be "Oldham" or in that of Birmingham "Small Heath." What I want to make clear is that, so far from any liberty being taken on my part, this little variation is fully authorised, and it is the only instance of the kind in the whole of the operas.
Sir Arthur Sullivan I knew least of the famous triumvirate at the Savoy. I was under him, of course, at rehearsals, and we had pleasant little talks from time to time, but my relations with him were neither so frequent nor so intimate as they were with the other [58] two partners. We had a mutual friend in Francois Cellier, about whose work as conductor I shall have more to say, and it was through him that I learned much about the fine personal and musical qualities of the composer.
Certainly Sullivan was a great man, intensely devoted to his art, and fame and fortune never spoilt a man less. A warm-hearted Irishman, he was always ready to do a good turn for anyone, and it was wonderful how the geniality of his nature was never clouded by almost life-long physical suffering. Sullivan lived and died a bachelor, and I believe there was never a more affectionate tie than that which existed between him and his mother, a very witty old lady, and one who took an exceptional pride in her son's accomplishments. Nor is it generally known that he took upon himself all the obligations for the welfare and upbringing of his dead brother's family. It was to Herbert Sullivan, his favourite nephew, that his fortune was bequeathed.
Of Sullivan the musician I cannot very well speak. I have already owned that I have little real musical knowledge. But at the same time he always seemed to me to be something of a magician. Not only could he play an instrument, but he knew exactly what any instrument could be made to do to introduce some delightful, quaint effect into the general orchestral design. "No! No!" he would say at a rehearsal to the double bass, "I don't want it like that. I want a lazy, drawn-out sound like this." And, taking the bow in his fingers, he would produce some deliciously droll effect from the strings. "Oh, no! not that way," he would say to the flutes, and a flute being handed [59] up to him, he would show how the notes on the score were to be made lightsome and caressing. Then it would be the turn of the violins.
At the earlier rehearsals it was often difficult for the principals to get the tune of their songs. The stumbling block was the trickiness of rhythm which was one of the composer's greatest gifts. Now, although I cannot read a line of music, my sense of rhythm has always been very strong, and this has helped me enormously both in my songs and my dancing. Once when Sir Arthur was rehearsing us, and we simply could not get our songs right, I asked him to "la la" the rhythm to me, and I then got the measure so well that he exclaimed "That's splendid Lytton. If you're not a musician, I wish there were others, too, who were not."
One story about Sullivan—I admit it is not a new one—well deserves telling. Standing one night at the back of the dress-circle, he commenced in a contemplative fashion to hum the melody of a song that was being rendered on the stage. "Look here," declared a sensitive old gentleman, turning round sharply to the composer, "I've paid my money to hear Sullivan's music—not yours." And whenever Sir Arthur told this story against himself he always confessed that he well deserved the rebuke.
Gilbert and Sullivan were collaborators for exactly twenty-five years. It was in 1871 that they wrote "Thespis," a very funny little piece of its kind that was produced at the Gaiety, and it was this success that induced Mr. Richard D'Oyly Carte to invite them to associate again in the writing of a curtain-raiser destined to be known as "Trial by Jury." From that time until [60] 1889 they worked in double harness without a break, and it was in that latter year, after the most successful production of "The Gondoliers" that there came the unfortunate "separation." It lasted four years. When, in 1893, the two men re-united their talents, they gave us that delightfully funny play, "Utopia Limited." But with "The Grand Duke" in 1896—and the superstitious will not overlook that this was the thirteenth piece they had written together—the curtain finally came down upon the partnership.
It may be expected of me that I should say something about the cause of the famous "separation." It is a matter I should prefer to ignore, partly because the consequences of it were so very unfortunate to the cause of dramatic and musical art, and partly because the reason of it was trivial to a degree. Slight "tiffs" there may have been between the two from time to time—that was inevitable under the strain of rehearsals—but these minor differences were mended within a day or a night. What caused the rift was—would you believe it?—a carpet! This Mr. Carte, who under the contract was responsible for furnishings, had bought for �140, as a means of adding to the comfort, as he believed, of the patrons of the Savoy. Seeing this item in the accounts, Mr. Gilbert objected to it as a sheer waste of money, arguing that it would not bring an extra sixpence into the exchequer. The dispute was a mere "breeze" to begin with, but Gilbert and Carte had each a will of his own, and soon the "breeze" had developed into a "gale." And that miserable carpet led at last to the break-up of the partnership.
Sullivan, whether he agreed with the purchase or not, [61] did his best to put an end to the quarrel, but as in the end he had to adhere to one side or the other, he linked himself with Mr. Carte. This, then, was the sole cause of the breach, and by none was it more regretted than by the principals. Gilbert, I know, felt this severance from his old friend very acutely, though in our many talks in after years he was always inclined to be a little reticent as to this subject. Sullivan, too, though he went on composing, was not at all fortunate in his choice of lyrical writers, none of whom had the deftness and quaint turn of fancy of the playwright with whom he had worked so long and so successfully.
Before I leave Sullivan, I think students of music will be interested to hear what Cellier once told me as to the composer's methods in writing his beautiful songs. With Gilbert's words before him, he set out first to decide, not what should be the tune, but the rhythm. It was this method of finding exactly what metre best suited the sentiment of the lyric that gave his music such originality. Later, having decided what the rhythm should be, he went on to sketch out the melody, but it was seldom that he set to work on the orchestration until the rehearsals were well under way. In the meanwhile the principals practised their songs to an accompaniment which he vamped on the pianoforte. Sullivan, who could score very quickly, had a mind running riot with musical ideas, and he could always pick out the idea for a given number that fitted it like the proverbial glove. "I have a song to sing O!" he regarded, I have been told, as the most difficult conundrum Gilbert ever set him, and musicians tell me that, in sheer constructive ingenuity, it is one [62] of the cleverest numbers in the "Yeomen of the Guard."
Now I must turn to Mr. D'Oyly Carte. From time to time in this book I have given indications as to the manner of man that he was, but although much is known about his capacity as a business manager, the world knows very little indeed of his kindly generosity. It was impossible, of course, for him to take into the company every poor actor who was down on his luck, but certain it is that he never sent him empty away. Seldom did he leave his office without seeing that his pockets were well laden with sovereigns. Out in the Strand, as he knew, there would be some waif of our profession waiting for him, always sure that under cover of a handshake, Mr. Carte would press a golden coin upon him with a cheery "see you get yourself a good lunch," or "a good supper."
Mr. Carte, as I have said before, was a man of few words and of a rather taciturn humour, but it would be wrong to think that he was not fond of his joke. First, however, let me tell the story of a small youthful folly of mine, in "The Mikado." It happened in the second act where Ko-Ko, Pooh Bah and Pitti Sing are prostrate on the floor in the presence of the Emperor. We three had to do our well-known "roll-over" act in which I, like Pitti Sing herself, had to bear the weight of the 20-stone of dear old Fred Billington. Well, an imp of mischief led me one night to conceal a bladder under my costume, and when Fred rolled over it exploded with a terrible "bang." Billington had the fright of his life. "What's happened Harry?" he whispered anxiously, his nose still to the floor, "What have I done?" [63]
I am afraid that in those days I had an incurable weakness for practical joking. One night I went for dinner into a well-known hotel in the Strand. Soon after I had entered the restaurant I was roughly grasped by one would-be diner, who was obviously in a very bad temper, and who demanded to know why no one had been to take the order for himself and his guests. Well, if I was to be mistaken for a waiter, it would be just as well to play the part. "Pardon, monsieur!" I exclaimed, dropping at once into a most deferential attitude, and immediately getting ready to write down his order on the back of a menu-card that was handy. The diner, still in the worst of humours, recited the courses he had selected. "And wine, monsieur?" I asked. Yes, he wanted wine as well, and that order also was faithfully booked. Then I went to the far end of the room to join my own party of friends. What combustible heat the diner developed when he found that his wishes were still unattended to, and what verbal avalanche the real waiter had to endure when he had to ask that the order should be repeated, are matters upon which no light can be thrown—by myself! But to return to the story of the "explosion" in "The Mikado."
My little bit of devilment was duly reported to the management. Mr. Carte summoned me before him and looked very grave. Unauthorised diversions of this kind would never do—and certainly not when perpetrated by a leading principal. "I think it is about time you stopped your schoolboy pranks," was his rebuke.
But a different side of Mr. Carte was seen in connection [64] with a certain incident at the Savoy. The point to remember is that it had reference to something that did not involve any liberties with the performance, and this fact put it, in his eyes, in an entirely different category. We had in the company a man who was always telling tales about the rest to the stage manager. So one night some of us got hold of him, ducked his head in a bucket of dirty water, and kept it there as long as we dare. Naturally he reported us, and in due course we were summoned to attend and explain our conduct to Mr. Carte. We were bidden to enter his room one by one. I, as one of the ring-leaders, was the first to go in. "This is very serious," said Mr. Carte, but having heard my explanation of the incident, and still looking exceedingly severe, he warned me that "this sort of thing must not happen again." Then, as a smile stole over his face, he added "All the same I might have done it myself!"
With that he told me, when I went out of the room, to put one hand on my temple and, with the other stretched out in the air, to exclaim "Oh! it's terrible—terrible." What the effect of this melodramatic posture was on those anxiously waiting outside may well be imagined. It could only mean instant dismissal for all of us. Then Mr. Carte had another culprit before him, and having formally rebuked him, commanded him to make his exit in much the same way. It was an excellent joke—except for those at the end of the queue.
It was Mr. D'Oyly Carte, by the way, who once did me the compliment of saying, "My dear Lytton, you have given me the finest performance I have ever seen of any part on any stage." Strange as it may seem to-day, the r�le which I was playing then, and which drew those most cordial words from one whose praise was always so measured and restrained, was that of Shadbolt in the 1897 London revivals of "The Yeomen of the Guard." It was impossible for a small man to play the part just as the big men had played it, and so my interpretation of it was that of a creeping, cringing little dwarf who in manner, in method and in mood was not unlike Uriah Heep. This seemed to me to be consistent with the historical figure from which the part was drawn. Gilbert, it is not generally known, took him from a wicked, wizened little wretch who, in the sixteenth century, so legend says, haunted the Tower when an execution was due, and offered the unhappy felon a handful of dust, which was, he said, "a powder that will save you from pain." For reward he claimed the victim's valuables.
MR. RUPERT D'OYLY CARTE.
When, [65] by the way, Mr. Carte told me that mine was the best performance he had ever seen on any stage, I was so flattered by the compliment that I asked him if he would write his opinion down for me, and he readily promised to do so. Within a day or two I received a letter containing those words over his signature, and it remains amongst my treasured possessions. Only once did I know him to be guilty of forgetfulness, and that was when, meeting me in London, he said: "Oh! I think I can offer you an engagement, Lytton." I had to point out to him that I was actually playing in one of his companies. We were, I think, at Greenwich at the time, and I was making a flying visit to London.
Mr. Carte was a great stage manager. He could take [66] in the details of a scene with one sweep of his eagle eye and say unerringly just what was wrong. Shortly before I was leaving town for a provincial tour he noticed that Ko-Ko's love scene with Katisha might be improved, and so we went together for an extra rehearsal into the pit bar at the Savoy. Mr. Carte said he would be Katisha and I, of course, was to be Ko-Ko. Now, to make love to a bearded man, and a man who was one's manager into the bargain, was rather a task but we both entered heartily into the spirit of the thing. "Just act as you would if you were on the stage," was his advice, "though you needn't actually kiss me, you know!" For this scene we had an audience of one. Little Rupert D'Oyly Carte was there, and before the rehearsal commenced I lifted him on to the bar counter, where he sat and simply held his sides with laughter watching me making earnest love to his father! I imagine he remembers that incident still.
That "eye" for stagecraft, which in Mr. Richard D'Oyly Carte amounted to genius, has been inherited in a quite remarkable degree by his son, Mr. Rupert D'Oyly Carte. He, too, has the gift of taking in the details of a scene at a glance, and knowing instinctively just what must be corrected in order to make the colours blend most effectively, the action move most perfectly, and the stage arrangement generally to be in balance and proportion. I need not say that in all this he most faithfully observes all the traditions which have stood so well the test of time.
So far I have given in this chapter my random reminiscences of the chief three figures—the triumvirate, as I have called them—at the Savoy. But there was also [67] a fourth, and it would be a grave omission were I not to mention one who, in my judgment, was as wonderful as any of them. I refer to Miss Helen Lenoir, who, after acting for some years as private secretary to Mr. Carte, became his wife. There was hardly a department of this great enterprise which did not benefit, little though the wider public knew it, from Mrs. Carte's remarkable genius. It was not alone that hers was the woman's hand that lent an added tastefulness to the dressing of the productions. She was a born business woman with an outstanding gift for organisation. No financial statement was too intricate for her, and no contract too abstruse. Once, when I had to put one of her letters to me before my legal adviser, though not, I need hardly say, with any litigious intent, he declared firmly "this letter must have been written by a solicitor." He would not admit that any woman could draw up a document so cleverly guarded with qualifications.
Mrs. Carte, besides her natural business talent, had fine artistic taste and was a sound judge, too, of the capabilities of those who came to the theatre in search of engagements. The New York productions of the operas were often placed in her charge. Naturally enough, the American managers did not welcome the "invasion" any too heartily, and her responsibilities over there must have been a supreme test of her tact and powers of organisation. Yet the success of these transatlantic ventures could not be gainsaid.
When her husband died Mrs. Carte took the reins of management entirely into her keeping, and it was one of her most remarkable achievements that, notwithstanding [68] constant pain and declining health, this wonderful woman should have carried the operas through a period when, owing to the natural reaction of time, they were suffering a temporary eclipse. Long before she died in 1913 they had entered upon a new lease of life, and to-day we find them once more on the flood tide of prosperity, loved alike by those who are loyal to their favourites of other days and no less by those of the younger generation who have been captivated by all their joyous charm of wit and melody.
Our leader to-day is Mr. Rupert D'Oyly Carte. Of him I find it difficult to speak, as is bound to be the case when one is working in constant association with one who has the same cause at heart, and sharing with him the earnest intention that the great tradition of these operas shall be worthily and faithfully upheld. Upon Rupert D'Oyly Carte's shoulders has fallen the mantle of a splendid heritage. Speaking as the oldest member of his company, and no less as one who may claim also to be a friend, I can assure him that the happy family of artistes who serve under his banner, and who play in these pieces night by night with all the more zest because they love them for their own freshness and grace, will always do their part under him in keeping alight the "sacred lamp" of real English comedy that was first kindled into undying fires within the portals of the Savoy.
V.
ADVENTURES IN TWO HEMISPHERES.
Actors in real life—Reminiscences of my American visit—A thrill in Sing-Sing—The detective and the crook—Outwitting the Pirates—In "The Gondoliers" in New York—A cutting Press critique—Orchestral afflictions—Our best audiences—Enthusiasm in Ireland and a short-lived interruption—Exciting fire experiences—Too realistic thunder and lightning—"Hell's Full."
"Lytton," said a well-known man of affairs to me, "we are all actors. You are an actor. I am an actor. Come with me to a meeting at which I am to make a speech and I will show you a real-life drama truer than ever you will see or hear on the stage. The audience would kill me if they dare. They would rend me limb from limb. And yet in half-an-hour—mark my words, in half-an-hour!—they will be shaking me by the hand and everything will be ending happily."
We were in Holborn at the time and we took a short cab-ride into the City. My friend had to meet the shareholders of a company which he had promoted and which had not been prospering. No sooner had he entered the meeting room than he was met with a hostile reception. Epithets of an unequivocally abusive kind were flung at him from every side. Men shook their fists in his face. When he reached the platform the demonstration was redoubled, and at first he was not allowed to speak. Solidly he stood his ground waiting for the storm to subside. Eventually they did allow him to speak, and first to a crescendo and then to a [70] diminuendo of interruption he told them how the failure of things could not be his fault at all, how he was ready to stand by the venture to the very end, how he would guarantee to pay them all their money back with interest, and how he would work the flesh off his bones to put the company right.
Here, indeed, was real drama—and at a company meeting. Here was a man fighting for his commercial existence, and by the force of wits, sheer self-confidence and personal magnetism gradually winning. Just after the meeting closed a number of those infuriated shareholders were on the platform shaking him by the hand and telling him what a fine fellow he was. Towards the end of his speech I had seen him look at his watch and flash a significant glance in my direction. "Well," he said, when he rejoined me, quite calm and collected, "I did it under half-an-hour—in fact, with just a minute to spare."
It is an incident like this which proves that histrionics is no theatrical monopoly. I once met another actor in real life—this time in America. I had gone to New York to do the Duke in "The Gondoliers." Amongst the many delightful people I met there was General Sickles. Sickles was a "character," and also a man of influence. Only a few weeks before he had met Captain Shaw, the chief of the London Fire Brigade, whom Gilbert has immortalised in the Queen's beautiful song in "Iolanthe." Shaw had argued with the General that America's fire-fighting methods were not as speedy as they were in England.
"Oh! aren't they?" was the reply. "Come and see." Forthwith the General, who was not a fire chief [71] himself, but who had been Sheriff of New York and was thus a powerful individual, ordered out the New York Fire Brigade. No sooner had a button been touched than the harness automatically fell on the horses, the men came flying down a pole right on to the engine, and in so many seconds the brigade was ready. Long since, of course, all these methods have been adopted in this country, and I believe I am right in saying that the improvement followed this visit of Captain Shaw to the United States. I myself saw a turn-out of the brigade and thought their swiftness astonishing.
It was General Sickles who introduced me to Mr. Burke, a famous New York detective of his day, who took me on a most interesting tour of Sing-Sing Prison. He persuaded me to sit in the electric chair, and having put the copper band round my head and adjusted the rest of the apparatus, he took a big switch in his hand and said, "I've simply got to press this and you're electrocuted—dead in a jiffy!" I'll own up I did not share his affection for his plaything. The experience was not at all pleasant.
Burke, as an additional thrill, asked me if I should like to meet a notorious bank robber, whom I will call Captain S. It was arranged that the three of us should have dinner together. Captain S., the other real-life actor referred to, was at that time enjoying a spell of liberty, and to me it was amazing how cordial was the friendship between the great detective and the great "crook." When "business" was afoot it was a battle of wits, with the bank robber bringing off some tremendous haul and the detective hot on his tracks to bring him to justice, and probably it was because each had so much [72] respect for the other's talents that socially they could be such excellent pals.
"Yes, Burke," I heard Captain S. say, "you've 'lagged' me before this and I expect you'll do it again." I found him a delightful companion, with a fund of good stories, and he played the violin for us most beautifully.
Captain S. told us how he planned one of his earlier exploits. It was his custom to pose as an English philanthropist, who was almost eccentric in his liberality and who made himself persona grata in society. Even the most suspicious would have been disarmed by one so benevolent both in manner and in appearance. In this particular case, having decided on the bank he intended to rob, he took a flat over the building. One part of the day was spent in preparing his gang for the coup and the other part in performing kindly acts of charity. "I really felt sorry," he told us, "when the time had come to do the trick. I had been spending a lot of money and thoroughly enjoying myself. Luckily, we had found that, although the bank had steel walls and a steel floor, it had just an ordinary ceiling. That, of course, helped us enormously, and we got away with a regular pile. I left a note on the counter: 'You must blame the designer of the bank for this, not me.'"
I have not yet explained the circumstances that took me to America. Shortly after "The Gondoliers" had been produced in London it was put on in the States. No sooner had any new Savoy opera been successfully launched in London than preparations were pushed forward for its production on the other side of the Atlantic. This, in point of fact, was done as a precaution. Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte had learnt the need of that by bitter experience in their earlier ventures, which had been exploited by "pirates." These nimble gentlemen, having secured a rough idea of the new opera that was being produced in London, lost no time in bringing out a miserable travesty of it under the identical title that it was given at the Savoy. Thus not only did they trade on the reputation of these operas, but they were able to prevent the genuine production being given under its own title, inasmuch as this would have transgressed the law of copyright. So the "pirates" had to be forestalled by an immediate staging of the real operas, and in some cases these were put on in America simultaneously with, and in one case actually before, the productions in England.
THE LATE MRS. RICHARD D'OYLY CARTE.
[73]
"The Gondoliers" in America was not a success. Mr. Carte, who was there at the time, tried to mend matters by completely re-casting the play. I was in York, and I received a cable "Come to New York." It was never my custom to question my manager's requests. Whenever he commanded I was ready to obey. So from York to New York I travelled by the first available steamer and was soon playing the Duke of Plaza-Toro. During my first interview with Mr. Carte after my arrival there occurred an incident characteristic of the great manager. "Lytton," he said, producing his note-book, "I believe you owe me �50." I admitted it—the loan had been for a small speculation. "Well," was his reply, striking his pen through the item, "that debt is paid." It was in this way that he chose to show his appreciation of my action in responding to his summons immediately.
What I remember most about "The Gondoliers" [74] was the simply uproarious laughter with which the audience greeted the line in the Grand Inquisitor's song, "And Dukes were three a penny." It was quite different to the smiles with which the phrase is received in England. The significance of their merriment was the fact that no fewer than seven men had taken the part of the Duke of Plaza-Toro! I myself was there as the seventh! A Press critic, having drawn attention to this rather prolific succession, proceeded to place the seven in the order of merit—at least, as it appeared to his judgment. He gave six of the names in his order of preference in ordinary type, and then came a wide gap of space, followed by the last name in the minutest type. While I do not remember where I stood I do know that mine was not the name in such conspicuous inconspicuousness!
Speaking of Press criticisms, which in this country are almost invariably fair and judicious, it was my curious experience once to go into a barber's shop in a small town in which we were playing and to find the wielder of the razor very keen about discussing the operas. He then urged me to be sure to buy a copy of the Mudford Gazette. "I've said something very nice about you," he said. I looked perplexed. "Oh! I'm the musical critic, you know," explained the worthy Figaro.
Our "properties" in the small towns were sometimes a little primitive. Once in "The Gondoliers" our gondola was made of an egg-box on a couple of rollers, and we had to wade ashore. This was at Queenstown, where there was a strike, and we could not get all our baggage from the liner that had brought us from [75] America. But often the chief affliction was the orchestra. I remember one violinist whose efforts were woeful. "You can't play your instrument," the conductor told him at last in exasperation. "Neither would you if your hands were swollen with hard work like mine," was his retort. "This job doesn't pay me. I just come here in the evening." It transpired that he was a bricklayer. At another place the musicianship of one instrumentalist was truly appalling. "How long have you been playing?" asked the conductor. "Thirty years man and boy," was the response. "It is thirty years too long," was the retort.
From time to time I am asked where our best audiences are found. Really it is hard to say. Except for one big city—and why not there it is impossible to explain—the company has a wonderful reception everywhere. The Savoy audiences in the old days, of course, were like no other audiences, and it was something to remember to be at a "first night." Long before the orchestra was due to commence—with Sullivan there to conduct it, as he usually was also at the fiftieth, the hundredth and other "milestone" performances—it was customary for many of the songs and choruses from the older operas to be sung by the "gods." And wonderful singers they were.
The London audiences of to-day are also splendid. Our welcome in the 1920 season was a memorable experience. Gilbert and Sullivan operas depend for their freshness and their spirit far more on the audience than do any of the ordinary plays, and as it happens this enthusiasm on both sides is seldom wanting. Yet now and then we find an audience that is cold and quiet at [76] the beginning and then works up to fever-heat as the opera proceeds, whereas on the other hand there is the audience that begins really too well and towards the end has simply worn itself out, being too exhausted to let itself go.
The North, if not so demonstrative as the South, is always wonderfully responsive to the spirit of the witty dialogue and the sparkling songs, and two cities in which it is always a pleasure to play are Manchester and Liverpool. And those who declare that the Scots cannot see a joke would be disabused if they were to be at the D'Oyly Carte seasons at Glasgow and Edinburgh. Our visits there are always successful. But if I had to decide this matter on a national basis I should certainly bestow the palm on Ireland.
Nowhere are there truer lovers of Gilbert and Sullivan than the Irish. It may be that Gilbert's fantastic wit is the wit they best understand, and it may be, too, that their hearts are warmed by the "plaintive song" of their fellow countryman, Sullivan. Whatever the cause, we have no better receptions anywhere. One feature of our Dublin and Belfast audiences is, oddly enough, shared with those at Oxford and Cambridge. They do not merely clap, but openly cheer again and again, throwing all conventional decorum away. And when the Irish are determined to have encores—no matter how many for a particular piece—there is no denying them.
What we have found in the Emerald Isle—even during the unhappy times during and after the war—was that they kept their pleasures and their politics in watertight compartments. Sinn Feiners they might be outside the theatre, but inside it they are determined to [77] enjoy themselves, as an interrupter found on one of our latest visits, when he tried to protest against the song, "When Britain Really Ruled the Waves." "No politics here," shouted someone from the stalls, and the audience agreeing very heartily with this sentiment the protestor subsided into silence.
Looking back on the reference earlier in this chapter to fire brigades, I am reminded that I have more than once been on the stage at times when events have occurred which might have had terrible results, though my success as a panic-fighter is a distinction I would rather have foregone. One incident of this kind was at Eastbourne when we did "Haddon Hall." It will be remembered that in one part there are indications of an oncoming storm of thunder and lightning. Nowadays the authorities take care that effects of this kind are contrived with absolute safety to all concerned, but in those times the lightning was produced by a man in the wings taking pinches of explosive powder out of a canister, throwing these on a candle flame, and so securing a vivid flash over the darkening stage. Well, our man had done this so often that he had grown contemptuous of danger, and this time he took such an ample helping of the powder that the flash caught the canister, and there was a tremendous explosion. The canister went right through the stage and embedded itself in the ground.
In "Haddon Hall" I was McCrankie, dressed in a kilt and playing the bagpipes when the explosion occurred. It plunged both stage and auditorium into darkness. I could hear the injured stage-hand groaning near the wings. Somehow I managed to grope my way [78] to the man, pick him up in my arms, and carry him to one of the exits from the stage. I remember that a number of the chorus ladies, who could not find the door in the darkness, were clawing the walls of the scenery, for in their panic that was the only way they thought they could make their escape. The strange thing was that the door was not a yard away.
Still dressed as a kilted Scot, I carried the injured man into the street, and already a crowd had gathered in the belief that there had been a terrible disaster. If not as serious as that, it had been quite bad enough, and it was a miracle that there had not actually been a calamity. In one of the boxes was one of those hardy playgoers who attended our shows night after night. We had nicknamed him "Festive." The concussion had lifted him out of his seat on to the floor. He complained that the thunder had been far too realistic!
Fortunately we were able to go on with the performance, though many of us were suffering from nerves very badly. The stage hand had been speedily taken to hospital with serious injuries. It was typical of Mr. Carte's kindness that, although the man had been guilty of a very grave fault, he did not dismiss him from his service, but on his recovery made him a messenger and afterwards gave him a pension.
Early in my career as a D'Oyly Carte principal on the provincial tours, we had a fire on the stage at the Lyceum, Edinburgh. It was the week before Henry Irving was due there to give his first production of "Faust." I remember that because we had his great organ behind the stage. Our piece that night was "Ruddigore" and while I was singing one of my numbers [79] I became aware that something was amiss. It proved to be an outbreak of fire in the sky borders over the stage, and small smouldering fragments were falling around me in a manner that was entirely unpleasant. The steps at the back also caught fire, and it was a lucky thing that, the piece being then a new one, the audience should have taken it as a bit of realism added to the ghost scene. Otherwise nothing could have avoided a panic.
I remember the stage manager shouting to me from the wings "Keep singing, keep singing." It was not easy, I can assure you, to keep on with a humorous number in circumstances like those, and with sparks dropping over one's head, but I did keep on with the song until they decided to ring down the curtain. Then I was told to run upstairs to warn the girls, whose dressing-rooms were near the flies. Now, as a young man I had made a reputation for myself as a practical joker, and one of my favourite antics was to tell this person or that, quite untruly, "You're wanted on the stage." Thus, when I rushed up to sound the real alarm, it was treated as a cry of "wolf." I banged the doors and entreated them to come out, but it was not until the smoke began to creep into the rooms that the girls knew positively that there was a fire, and promptly scurried for safety. Fortunately the outbreak was speedily subdued and the performance proceeded.
A minor incident of this kind may be worth mentioning. We were in "Erminie" at the Comedy, and at the close of one of the acts the chorus, the ladies dressed as fisher girls and holding lighted candles, were singing a concerted "Good Night." Suddenly I noticed that [80] one of the girls who was not paying much attention to her work had let the candle ignite the mob cap she was wearing. If the flame had reached her wig—and wigs in those days were cleaned with spirit—she must have been seriously burnt. So I ran up and tore off her cap, only to be rewarded with a haughty, "How dare you!" Later, when she realised what her danger had been, her apology and thanks were profuse.
It may not, I think, be amiss if to these combustible reminiscences is added just one more story, though in a much lighter vein. It occurred in "The Sorcerer." John Wellington Wells, the "dealer in magic and spells," disappears at last into the nether regions, as it were, through the trap-door in the stage. One night the trap, having dropped a foot or so, refused to move any further, and there was I, enveloped in smoke and brimstone, poised between earth and elsewhere. So all I could do was to jump back on to the boards, make a grimace at the refractory trap-door, and go off by the ordinary exit. "Hell's full!" shouted an irreverent voice from the "gods." The joke, I know, was not a new one, for legend has it that a similar incident occurred during a performance of "Faust." Whether it did or not I do know that it occurred in that performance of "The Sorcerer."
A. LYTTON
VI.
PARTS I HAVE PLAYED.
List of my Gilbert and Sullivan R�les—Parts in Other Comedies—Excursions into Vaudeville—A Human Shuttlecock—When Gilbert Appeared before the Footlights—Essays as a playwright—A Burlesque of Shakespeare—Embarrassing Invitations—A Jester's Hidden Remorse—My Life's Helpmate.
It is my melancholy distinction to be the last of the Savoyards. Numbers of my old comrades, of course, are playing elsewhere or living in their well-earned retirement, but I alone remain actively in Gilbert and Sullivan. In all I have played thirty parts in the operas—no other artiste connected with them has ever played so many—and it may interest my innumerable known and unknown friends if I "put them on my list." In the following table I give incidentally the date of the original production of the comedies in London.
"Trial by Jury" (1875)
"The Grand Duke" (1896)
The Grand Duke.
My connection with the D'Oyly Carte company falls into three periods. The first of these was in 1884 and 1885, when I went on tour for twelve months with "Princess Ida," to be followed by the heart-breaking time I have recounted in the "Vagabondage of the Commonwealth." Then, in 1887, I rejoined it to win my first success as George Grossmith's understudy in "Ruddigore." That period was destined to continue almost without interruption until 1901. For most of this time I was touring in the provinces, though I was in London for many of the revivals, as well as for several of the plays not by Gilbert and Sullivan produced by Mr. D'Oyly Carte. Eventually this latter enterprise was brought to an end by the death of Sir Arthur Sullivan in 1900, and by that of Mr. Carte himself four months later in 1901. London saw the Gilbert and Sullivan works no more until 1906, though the suburban theatres were sometimes visited by the provincial company, which in the country kept alight the flickering torch that was to burn once more with all its accustomed brightness.
Shortly after my old chief had passed away, I closed my second period with the company in order to throw in my lot with the musical comedy stage, and it was my good fortune to play leading comedy parts under several successful managements. Looking back on those years, I regard them as amongst the most prosperous and happy in my career, and yet it is no affectation to say that all other parts seemed shallow and superficial when one [83] has played so long in Gilbert and Sullivan. Shall I say I was anxious to return to them? In a sense that would be true. Certainly the yearning was there—if not the opportunity. Then, in 1909, Sir William Gilbert earnestly invited me to rejoin the company, and I relinquished a very profitable engagement in order to play once more the parts I loved so well. Thus began my third period with the operas. This period has still to be finished.
Sir William, I ought to say, was at this time an ageing man, and he had retired with a comfortable fortune. Grim's Dyke and its beautiful grounds gave him all the enjoyment he wanted, and to the end he had the solace and companionship of his devoted wife, Lady Gilbert. He died in 1911. Following a visit to town, he had gone to bathe in the lake in his grounds, and had a heart seizure whilst swimming. He was rescued from the water and carried to his room, but there life was found to be extinct. The curtain had fallen.
But to proceed. I propose to give a list of the comedies in which I played between 1901 and 1909. Lacking a good memory for dates, I cannot guarantee at all that the order in which they appear is correct, though approximately this may be the case:—
Comedy.
Captain Flapper
D'Oyly Carte.
In the opinion of many friends, my best piece of pure character acting was that as Pat Murphy, the piper in "The Emerald Isle." Without a doubt it was a fine part. I had to be blind, and in contrast to the manner in which most blind characters were played at that time, my eyes were wide open and rigid. From the moment I entered I riveted my gaze tragically on one particular spot, and my eyes never moved, no matter who spoke or however dramatic the point. Naturally the strain was tremendous. Then, at last, Pat's colleen lover began to have suspicions that he was not really blind—that the idle good-for-nothing fellow was shamming. And when Pat admitted it, the subterfuge had been kept up so long that, both to those on the stage and to the audience, the effect was marvellous to a degree. I loved playing the piper and speaking the brogue. "The Emerald Isle," as is now generally known, was the last work that Sir Arthur Sullivan composed, and on his lamented death the music was completed by my gifted friend, Edward German. I remember that when, later on, the piece was taken to Dublin, we had doubts as to whether [85] anything in it might offend the susceptibilities of the good people of the "disthressful counthree." Strangely enough, no objection of any kind was raised until the jig in the second act, and as it was believed that this was not done correctly and that the girls were lifting their heels too high, the dance was greeted with an outburst of booing. This was quelled by the lusty voice at the back of the pit. "Shame on ye," he shouted. "Can't ye be aisy out of respect for the dead?" And another voice: "Eh, an' Sullivan an Oirishman too, so he was!" The appeal was magical. The interruption died away and the performance proceeded.
"The Earl and the Girl," the most successful of all the musical comedies in which I appeared and the one which gave me my biggest real comedy part, ran for one year at the Adelphi, and then for a further year at the Lyric. When it was withdrawn I secured the permission of the management to use "My Cosy Corner," the most tuneful of all its musical numbers, as a scena on the music-halls, and with my corps of Cosy Corner Girls it was a decided success.
One other venture of mine on the music-halls was in conjunction with Connie Ediss when we had both completed an engagement at the Gaiety. "United Service," in which we figured together, ran for fourteen weeks at the Pavilion, and it provided me with one of the best salaries I ever drew. The idea of this piece was a contrast in courtships. First we would imitate a stately old colonel paying his addresses to an exquisite lady, and then a ranker making love to the cook, with an idiom appropriate to life "below-stairs." Eighteen changes of dress had to be made by each of us, and the [86] fun waxed fast and furious when the colonel commenced pouring his courtly phrases into the ears of the cook, and when, by a similar deliberate mishap, the soldier in his most ardent vernacular declared his passion for m'lady.
Connie Ediss and I might have done as well with a successor to "United Service." But the theatre, she said, "called her back," and accordingly we went our separate ways in "legitimate."
Some reminiscences still remain to be told of my struggling early days on the stage. One of these concerns my brief and boisterous connection with the well-known Harvey Troupe. I was chosen as deputy for their page boy, whom these acrobats threw hither and thither as if he were a human shuttlecock, and a very clever act it was, however uncomfortable for the unfortunate youngster. I scarcely relished the job, but old Harvey told me "All you've to do is to come on the stage; leave the rest to us; we'll pull you through." It was not a case of pulling me through. They literally threw me through. For half-an-hour I was thrown from one to another with lightning speed, and that was about all I knew of the performance. "You did very well," they told me afterwards, "didn't you hear the laughs?" I am afraid I hadn't heard them. I had been conscious only of an appalling giddiness and of feeling bruised and sore. Next day I was black and blue, and unable to perform, but in those hard days, when food was scarce, one had to be ready for anything.
It was about this time in my career that I secured a pantomime engagement at the Prince's, Manchester, though my r�le was merely that of standard-bearer, [87] in the finale, to the "show lady," before whom I walked with a banner inscribed, "St. George and the Dragon." Unfortunately, in my nervousness, I marched on with the reverse side of the banner to the front, and at the sight of this piece of tawdry linen the audience laughed uproariously.
When the Second Demon was absent I was chosen as his understudy, and it seemed to me to be a wonderful honour, because it gave me eight words to speak. I had the comforting feeling of being a big star already. How well I remember those lines:—
Second Demon (sepulchral and sinister): Who calls on me in this unfriendly way?
Fairy Queen (in a piping treble): A greater power than yours; hear and obey!
Coming to a much later date, I include in my list of memorable theatrical occasions the benefit matinee given in the Drury Lane Theatre for Nellie Farren, for many years the bright particular star at the Gaiety. The stage was determined to pay the worthiest tribute it could to the brilliant artiste who, once the idol of her day, was now laid aside by sickness and suffering, and never had such a wonderful programme been presented. King Edward, then Prince of Wales, gave the benefit his gracious patronage, and it was in every way a remarkable success. The D'Oyly Carte contribution to the entertainment was "Trial by Jury." Gilbert himself figured in the scene as the Associate. It was, I believe, his only appearance before the footlights in public, and it was a part in which he had not a line to speak. I played the Foreman. Amongst other benefit performances in which I have taken part were those to Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Dacre and Miss Ellen Terry. We gave [88] "Trial by Jury" on these occasions also, and my part was Counsel.
Speaking of King Edward, I am reminded that when, by going to the Palace Theatre after his accession, His Majesty paid the first visit of any British Sovereign to a music-hall, the occasion coincided with the run there of an operetta of my own, called the "Knights of the Road." It was a Dick Turpin story, for which I had written the lyrics, and the music had been provided by my good friend Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Principal of the Royal Academy of Music. I conceived the idea that pieces of this kind, based on English stories and typically English alike in sentiment and musical setting, might be made an attractive feature on the music-halls, and in point of fact, all that was wrong with the experiment was that it was a little too early. To-day, when the better-class music-halls have attained a remarkable standard of taste, they would be just the thing. Nevertheless, my "Knights of the Road" had a successful career, and it served to give Walter Hyde, now one of our leading operatic tenors, one of his first chances to sing in the Metropolis.
I wrote about eight of these pieces altogether. The libretto and the scores are still in existence, and for better or for worse, they may be produced even yet. One of them is written round the well-known picture, "The Duel in the Snow." This depicts a beautiful woman rushing between the two swords in a duel, and my object was to fill in the dramatic significance of the picture, representing how it came about that the men were fighting in those wintry surroundings for the hand of the lady. [89]
"For one night only" I appeared with the Follies. I was at the Palace in "My Cosy Corner," and Pellissier asked me to come on, garbed as the poet, in their burlesque on Shakespeare. Leaning from my pedestal, I had to reproach them for daring to take such liberties, and we finished up with a boxing match. Our jokes on that occasion were mainly extemporised. Nobody in the audience knew that I was acting deputy, but those in the wings had heard that a conspiracy of some kind was afoot, and they entered heartily into the spirit of the burlesque.
It is far easier, I think, to improvise on the stage than it is away from the footlights, and I well remember my dilemma when I was once invited to an "at home." It was a children's party, and my hostess had told the youngsters that they were going to see Ko-Ko, the "funny man" in "The Mikado." No doubt if I had come in my Oriental costume it would have been less difficult to act up to the part, but it was quite another thing to arrive in an immaculate frock-coat and silk hat, to be escorted at once into the circle of children, and invited then and there to act the clown in the circus with "jibe and joke and quip and crank." For some moments I stood almost tongue-tied. Luckily, as it happened, my hostess handed me a cup of tea, and in my nervousness I dropped it. The children giggled hugely. With that trivial incident the ice was broken.
Enjoyable as it is to meet so many people in the social sphere, our good friends who see us from the auditorium, and then shower their invitations upon us, are at times a little embarrassing. Kind as they undoubtedly are—and we do appreciate the hospitality [90] so readily offered to us wherever we go—they are perhaps forgetful that every week we have to get through seven or eight hard performances. With rehearsals taken into account, we have not over-much leisure for social enjoyment, and certainly no great reserves of energy. A Scotch lady was once most pressing that I should attend a dance she was arranging. Now, much as I love dancing on the stage, I have never had any taste at all for the conventional ball-room dancing, and really how could one have after doing, say, the courtly gavotte in "The Gondoliers?" "I never dance," I told my Scottish friend, "unless I'm paid for it." Evidently she mistook my meaning, for with her invitation to her dance she enclosed me—a cheque for �5. I returned it with my compliments.
From time to time on these social occasions we are prevailed upon to give one or two of our songs from the operas. Songs from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, nevertheless, seldom sound well away from the stage and their familiar surroundings, and long ago most amateur vocalists dropped them from their repertory. I, personally, have found that the most suitable of my numbers for private circles are the Lord Chancellor's "Dream Song"—it is so dramatic that it goes quite well as an unaccompanied recitation—and King Gama's "I can't tell why." Here I must note a remarkable fact. When I am on the stage, I know not only my own lines, but the lines of everyone else, but away from the stage and the atmosphere of the play my otherwise excellent memory is not always so amenable to discipline. Indeed, I can recall an occasion when, at a garden party, I was asked to sing "Tit Willow." I cheerfully undertook [91] to do so, but half-way through I stumbled, and try as I would even with the promptings of obliging friends, I could get no further than the middle of the second verse. And yet on the stage I have sung "Tit Willow" without a fault many thousands of times.
I think I was only once in any danger of forgetting my lines on the stage. It happened in "The Mikado." Behind the scenes, unknown to me, Pooh Bah had fainted, and one of his entrances had to be made by Pish Tush. Well, I was on as Ko-Ko at the time, and the sound of an unexpected voice was so strange, so bewildering, that for a moment it seemed to me that my reason had gone! "Get off! It's Pooh Bah" I whispered, excitedly. Pish Tush managed to give me a hint that something had happened, and we continued our comedy scene, though in my frame of mind this might easily have come to grief!
Speaking of memory, I am reminded that my first recollection in life was that of listening, as a very small child, to a lad playing a quaint little tune on a banjo. I never heard that tune again, but it has ever since remained in my mind, and only a few years ago I was talking about it to a man who had spent nearly all his life in Australia. When we were children we were neighbours in the same village. "Yes," said my long-lost friend, "I was the lad who played that tune on the banjo, and you were lying in a cot in the garden!" Between that incident and our mutual recollection of it nearly fifty eventful years for both of us had passed.
Before I close this chapter of random reminiscences I feel I must pay my tribute to the best, the oldest and [92] the truest of all my friends—my helpmate in life, "Louie Henri." As Albert Chevalier would put it, "We've been together now for (almost) forty years, and it don't seem a day too much." Louie Henri, as I have already told, secured me my first engagement, and from that time to this she has been the intimate sharer in whatever troubles and successes have fallen to me in what is now a long and eventful career. Optimistic as I may be in temperament, there were times when her encouragement meant a great deal, and to my wife I pay this brief tribute (as brief it is bound to be). Our family has consisted of three sons and two daughters. Our two elder sons served during the war in the Royal Air Force, and one of them was lost whilst flying in a night-bombing raid in France. I well remember the time when my boy was first reported missing. With that anxious sorrow weighing on my mind, it was no small trial to keep alive the semblance, at least, of comedy.
Oh, a private buffoon is a light-hearted loon,
If you listen to popular rumour.
Jack Point's song appealed to me with peculiar poignancy during that time of heavy anxiety. But to return to my wife.
Louie Henri, as the older generation well remembers, is able to count herself amongst the distinguished Savoyards. Before she retired she had probably played a greater number of parts—soprano, contralto, and soubrette—than any other lady connected with the company. I am sure it will be of interest if I enumerate here the r�les she has played:—
"Trial by Jury"
"The Grand Duke"
Julia.
Mrs. Lytton, apart from her success as an actress, has always been an accomplished musician, and in that respect I owe much to her for the way in which, during the preparation of my new r�les, she has helped me, "a lame, unmusical dog, over the stile." Our pianoforte at home is the one on which Sir Arthur Sullivan first played over his music for "The Mikado." It is a handsome satinwood grand, designed for Mr. D'Oyly Carte by the late Sir Alma Tadema, R.A., and this most interesting and valuable souvenir was presented to me by Mrs. D'Oyly Carte.
VII.
FRIENDS ON AND OFF THE STAGE.
Lessons to the Prince on the Bagpipes—A Charming and Lovable Personality—Queen Alexandra's Compliment—An Afternoon with Fisher—Stories of the Great Seaman—George Edwardes and His Genius for Stagecraft—His Successes on the Turf—"Honest Frank" Cellier—A Model Conductor—Traditions of the Savoy—Rutland Barrington—An Admiral in Disguise—Fred Billington—A Strange Premonition—Our War-Time Experiences—Caught in the Toils of the Dublin Rebellion.
It was my great privilege and pleasure, when we were at Oxford on one occasion, to be introduced to the Prince of Wales, who was then in residence at Magdalen. Nothing impressed me more than his sunny nature and the wonderful knack he had of putting everybody at their ease immediately. Since then it has been just those qualities which have made him so immensely popular in his tours of the Empire.
Our first meeting was in His Royal Highness's own rooms, where he was accompanied by his tutor, Mr. H. P. Hansell. I remember that as I was speaking to him the members of a college team were brought in to be presented. "Ah!" exclaimed the Prince, "that's the best of being a celebrity, Lytton. I could not draw a muster like this." It was just a little pleasantry, this suggestion that it was myself who was the attraction, but it was an example of his happy knack of putting everybody at their ease immediately. I recall, too, that the Prince at that time was learning the chanter, [95] with which one proceeds to the full glory of playing the bagpipes. Greatly to his surprise, I took the chanter and proceeded to give him a lesson, to which he listened most attentively, and then played a skirl, with which he was delighted. It so happens that, although I am no musician, I do know how to handle the bagpipes, and once a group of Scottish yokels who were listening to me stood open-mouthed with astonishment that such skill should be possessed by a trousered Englishman. This was when I visited my old colleague Durward Lely's place in the Highlands. The Scotties were enjoying a homely dance in a barn, and as the piper had been hard at it and seemed tired, I volunteered to act as his deputy. I don't want to be boastful, but my performance was regarded as a tour de force, at least for a Saxon.
The Prince came to the theatre frequently during our stay, and one night he came round to our dressing-room, where once more one fell irresistibly under the spell of his lovable and attractive personality. He invariably addressed me as "Ko-Ko." The Prince told me then, as he had done on other occasions, how really delightful he thought the operas were, and he said he looked forward to seeing them again and again. Then he asked to be introduced to a member who, in more than one sense, is one of the stalwarts of the choristers, Joe Ruff. Seeing that Joe had been with us so many years, I thought this special "recognition" was particularly happy, and it was a very great pleasure to me to be allowed to introduce my colleague to the Heir-Apparent.
From time to time, both during my connection with D'Oyly Carte and when temporarily away from the [96] company, I have played before Royalty. Especially do I recall a night when Queen Alexandra occupied a box at the Savoy. It was in the "Yeoman of the Guard" revivals and my r�le was Shadbolt. Her Majesty was kind enough to send Sir Arthur Sullivan to my dressing-room to compliment me on the clearness of my enunciation, and I need hardly say how gratifying such praise was to me.
Seldom was "H.M.S. Pinafore" staged during the 1920 season without Lord Fisher coming to chuckle over Gilbert's clever satire on the "ruler of the Queen's Navee." He revelled in that opera. It was not only, I think, that it smacked of the sea, but he loved the gibes at the politicians and the hearty loyalty of the honest salt who, "in spite of all temptation," firmly resolves to "remain an Englishman." It was after he had seen me several times as Sir Joseph Porter that he invited me to bring a few of my colleagues and spend an afternoon with him at his home in London. I reproduce his very typical letter on another page. My recollections of that afternoon are very delightful. Lord Fisher was a wonderful veteran, and it was difficult afterwards to realise that a fortnight later he was stricken down with his last illness, to which he succumbed in the following July.
I remember that we did not have to do much of the talking. Lord Fisher walked up and down, up and down the room as if it were the quarter-deck, and he was telling us all the while such capital stories that we forgot that we, too, were still standing up! Of his yarns there were two that were very typical of the man and his ways.
A LETTER FROM THE LATE LORD FISHER.
"One [97] day," he began, "I was walking through Trafalgar Square, and as I always do, I looked up at the statue of the greatest man that ever lived. Then a woman who was munching a bun came along. 'Here, master,' she said, 'who's 'e?' 'That's Lord Nelson,' I answered. 'Is it?' she returned, 'and who's 'e?' Fancy! Never heard of Nelson! Such ignorance! 'Well,' I said, 'if it had not been for him, that bun would have cost you, not a halfpenny, but fourpence. Good day!' And I walked on. I suppose she thought she had been talking to a lunatic."
Then Lord Fisher spoke of the exertion needed in our dances on the stage. "Energy! Energy! That's what we want," he declared. "Why, I was fed by my mother until I was quite a big baby. I refused to be weaned—I was so determined even in those days! You must have good natural food when you are born. It means everything. It gives you stamina—it makes a man of you."
From that interview I brought away a signed portrait of the great seaman. "I'm an ugly blighter, aren't I?" he reflected, sadly, as he handed it to me, "but I'm good." Candour would have compelled one to admit that he was anything but strikingly handsome, but in that small, intensely sallow face there was, after all, something that was extraordinarily kindly and strong. In that sense his face was the faithful mirror of his character.
"Jackie Fisher's" candour reminds me of a frank admission made to me by a statesman who still wields a leading influence in present-day politics. I think I had better not mention his name, although he is numbered amongst my friends, and he has often [98] been exceedingly kind in his appreciation of my work on the stage. He told me he once met a lady whom he had not seen for several years, and having cordially greeted her, he said, "I'm so delighted to see you, Sybil." That he should have remembered her, and still more, that he should have remembered her first name, pleased the lady immensely. She said she was charmed that he had not forgotten her name. "Oh," responded the statesman, with the best of intentions, "I've a remarkable memory for trifles." The next moment he realised he had committed an awful faux pas. What was more, he saw that he, though a politician, could not explain it away.
Not many people remember now that Mr. George Edwardes, who created the vogue for musical comedies as we now know them, and who made a fortune out of his connection with the Gaiety and Daly's, was in his early days Mr. D'Oyly Carte's manager at the Savoy. When he became a producer his flair for stage effect amounted to genius. He could decide in a moment to make the most revolutionary changes in a production. For instance, I have heard him give orders that the first act should be made the second one and the second the first, because he saw that it would better work up the interest in the play. He would transpose a certain scene from here to there because he knew instinctively that there was its proper place. "I don't like that man singing that song," he said once, just before a new comedy was due to have its first performance, and when even the dress rehearsals were almost complete, "We'll give it to a lady." "But," it was objected, "it's a man's song—a military song." "Never mind," he answered [99] in that familiar drawling voice of his, "we'll dress her in a red coat, and we'll bring the chorus on as soldiers too." And his judgment was absolutely right. That girl's soldier song was the great hit of the piece.
George Edwardes was a generous, kindly-natured man, accessible to everybody, and a splendid companion. Keenly interested as he was in his theatrical ventures, he never made these his sole and only pre-occupation. Upon the Turf, as every sportsman knows, he was a shining light, and many horses from his stables won the biggest prizes of their year. He often invited me to join him at the races, and never failed to tell me the winners—"well, hardly ever." One day he gave me three running. Just then I was arranging to play under his management for a term of three years, and he said those three winners proved that we could make money together both on and off the stage, and that we must sign up the contract, which we did the next day.
One of my closest friends was Francois Cellier, of whom it would be literally true to say that he devoted his life, his talents and all his enthusiasm to the operas at the Savoy. For thirty-five years he served them as conductor, to the exclusion of all the fame he might have won in a wider field, for he was a musician of surpassing accomplishments. He was the younger brother of Alfred Cellier, who was the composer, amongst other delightful comedies, of "Dorothy." Both men were Bohemians, and both of them might have been the architects of their own fortunes if they had put only their own goal in front of them, and pursued it steadily.
Francois Cellier—Honest Frank they called him, and the name suited him well—was a prince of good fellows [100] and a most charming and helpful companion. I can never tell the debt I owe to him for all the advice he gave to me regarding our performances. He knew Gilbert's and Sullivan's ideas to the minutest detail, and, with all his love of the operas, he wanted those ideas carried through exactly on the stage. Even with the audiences he had a magnetic personality. Unlike most conductors, who feel they must allow just as many encores as the audience demands, he could indicate by some strange method to those behind him that an encore would be unreasonable or inconsiderate, and immediately the applause would subside and the play would proceed.
Cellier had his heart and soul in every performance, and what that means is known only to those who work on the stage, and who do sometimes become dull and listless because of their very familiarity with the parts they are playing or because the audience cannot easily be aroused to "concert pitch." What brightness they may give to their acting is of a superficial and mechanical kind that can give them no pleasure. It is at just such times as these that a real conductor is worth his weight in gold. Notwithstanding that he may have seen the piece hundreds of times—and might with reason be more bored than the principals themselves—he comes to each new performance with an enthusiasm which shakes the company out of themselves and makes everything go with a will.
Some conductors I have known have shown so little interest in their work that they did not even attempt to conceal their boredom. This is very unfair to the players. Can anyone expect there to be any spirit in the [101] singing of a chorus when the conductor is just listlessly waving his baton, or when he shows such little respect for the artistes that, during their dialogues, he either yawns sleepily or leans over for a chat with the strings? Cellier was never guilty of that discourtesy. From the time he picked up his baton for the first bar of the overture the "play was the thing." During a chorus you would see him alert and awake and stirring on the company to give their best, and during your own solos or dialogues you would see him listening intently so that, like a friendly critic, he could afterwards praise you for what you had done well or give you hints where there was cause for improvement. It is a great thing to the artistes to see a genial face at the conductor's desk, and the operas go with a great spirit and nerve whenever the conductor, seconded by the orchestra, is doing everything to help us along. Our company's record has been a very fortunate one in this respect.
Everybody who plays in Gilbert and Sullivan makes it a point of honour to do his or her best to preserve what we call the traditions of the Savoy. If I were asked to name the secret of the charm of these operas, I should have to answer that there was not one secret, but many, but that one of the chief is their sense of "repose." Gilbert, like the master playwright he was, would never have two situations running together. If, that is to say, the leading character was going to offer his hand to the heroine, the whole company must look on eagerly and expectantly. It would never do for them to be indifferent and uninterested. Still less would it do for subsidiary characters to do something that might [102] attract the audience's eye to them in some other part of the stage. Everything must be focussed on the central incident, and to this end every member of the company must think first and all the time of the play, and not indulge in those hateful individual touches of "pantomime."
What I mean is best seen in what happens quite frequently in ordinary plays. Nearly every minor actor and actress seems to take, or is allowed to take, licence to put in a little bit of "business" on his or her own account, and so draw kudos to himself or herself by being supposed to be "funny." It is really only "supposed." Generally it is not funny at all, and it mars the effect of the play by making the entire atmosphere restless and perplexed. Eyes are strained here, there and everywhere, and the poor audience in trying to catch this, that and the other point, is probably missing what is the chief point of the play. Well, if refinement is not the keynote of a production, this may possibly not matter so much, but it is certainly foreign to the tranquil atmosphere of Gilbert and Sullivan.
No one, I think, could have done more by his example on the stage to encourage refinement in these operas than my good friend, Rutland Barrington. During his playing career—now at an end, unhappily—he was an artiste to his finger tips. He had also a great asset in his fine presence and personality. Our friendship has been of the closest, and I call to mind an incident when we were at Portsmouth and when there was something important occurring at the Royal Dockyard. "We can't get in without a pass," I said to him, but he only smiled and said that, at all events, we could try. [103] "Watch me," he commanded. Straightening himself up, he walked to the gates as if in the manner born, took the salute from the sentries, and entered the yard. It looked ridiculously easy. So I decided to follow suit. The sentries would not let me through. "Can't come in without a pass," I was told, and let me through they would not on any account, however much I tried to "flatter, cajole and persuade." Barrington always did have "a way with him." I imagine the sentries were impressed by his bearing, or it may be that they had mistaken him for his brother, Admiral Fleet.
This naval reference serves to recall a most interesting story bearing on the subject of "make-up." Now, "make-up" has always been a fascinating study to me, and many kind friends tell me that I have a special gift for it, instancing how completely I transform my appearance for parts so different, for example, as the hunchback King Gama and the martial old General Stanley. Certainly I do spend more time than most actors do over the arts and deceptions of the dressing-room. For King Gama the make-up of the face alone takes an hour, apart from all the physical deformities that have to be contrived when playing this ugly, ungainly character in "Princess Ida." But all this by the way. What I was going to write about was an incident when a worried young naval lieutenant came to see me at the close of our show at the Savoy. He was at the romantic age then, a trifle oblivious to the passing of time when there was a charming lady at his side, and at the theatre he overlooked that by a certain hour he should have been back at the Naval College at Greenwich. Lieutenant X came round to see [104] me in a terrible state. What was he to do? If he went back, he told me, he would be stopped at the gates by the sentries and he would have to give explanations, of which none he could think of would be adequate. If, on the other hand, he did not return there would be a court-martial, and he would be dismissed from the Service. Before him, whichever way he turned, was the blank ruin of his career and he disgraced in the eyes of his family. Well I don't know which of us actually suggested it, but it occurred to us that if only he could be disguised as an Admiral, he might easily get into the college! An Admiral had to keep no strict hours when absent from duty, and if only he could look and act the part, the sentries would let him pass and ask no awkward questions. So in a very few minutes I was busy treating him with all the arts of "make-up." Certainly the addition of a pointed beard made a most effective disguise, and it answered splendidly, for at Greenwich he marched boldly through the gates to the dutiful salutes of the sentries. The situation was saved. For my own part I felt that I had done something to save a career, and as it happens, the romantic young friend of those days is now a real Admiral, and a very well-known and popular one, in his Majesty's Navy.
Numerous are the stories told about my friend and colleague for so many years—Fred Billington. In temperament and character we were entirely opposites, but there was scarcely one disagreement throughout our long companionship, during which we played together almost continuously. He was a Yorkshireman, and before he joined the company, with which he [105] remained for thirty-seven years, he was in the office of the Water Board at Huddersfield. The whole of his stage career was spent with these operas.
It was not everybody who understood Billington. Sometimes he could be uncommonly moody and gruff, and if he did not feel in the mood to talk, he would make it clear that he wanted no introductions to one's own acquaintances. But under the rugged surface he was a fine-hearted fellow, who lived life heartily and lived it well, and nothing pleased him better, apart from a game of golf, than to sit and gossip with those whose society he liked.
One day he invited three of us to a round of golf, and it being a cold morning, he told us that he was ordering "a good beef-steak and kidney pudding." Well, when we had finished the game and returned to the club-house, in came that steaming pudding. Billington looked at it long and earnestly. "It won't do for four," he reflected. Then a pause. "It would make a poor meal for three. There's scarcely enough for two. I'll tell you what. I'll have it—and you three can have chops." And that is just what we did.
Billington had a gift of robust eloquence, and unless one was accustomed to it, the freedom with which it flowed from his tongue was most embarrassing. He was playing a clergyman one day at golf. The cleric, whenever he made a bad shot, invariably relieved his feelings by exclaiming, "Oh, Pickles! Pickles!" Language of this kind in Billington's ears was exceedingly trying, and as if determined to give the parson a lesson, he came out with a string of oaths of the richest and most vivid description. "Thank you very much, [106] Mr. Billington," said the clergyman, smilingly, "thank you very much!" Evidently those were the sort of words which, but for respect for his cloth, he wanted to say!
One day he went out for a match with a bishop. The club officials, knowing how exuberant his language could be, were on tenter-hooks of anxiety all the time they were out, and on their return the secretary hastened to take the episcopal visitor apart. "Mr. Billington, the actor, you know, my lord," he explained. "I hope his language didn't shock you." "Oh, no!" responded the bishop, diplomatically, "he did once call on the Almighty, but otherwise his language was beyond reproach."
Dear old Billington! Earlier in life he had been with the company on a South African tour, and the wide spaces, the ample life and the boundless opportunities of that vast country appealed to him irresistibly. South Africa had a "call" for him, and he had ambitions, when the time came for him to retire, to settle there. That ambition was never realised. Only the night before he died, while we were in our dressing-room, he surprised me with the question, "How would you like to die, Harry?"
From a man so little inclined to brood on the morbid the question was strange. I told him I didn't know. I had never, I told him, thought it out, and didn't intend to, either.
"But if you had to die," he insisted, "how would you prefer to go?"
"Oh! I don't know," I retorted. "Anyhow, we're not going to die just yet."
"Well," was his answer, "if I had my way, it would [107] be a good dinner, a bottle of wine, a good cigar, a good joke, and—pop-off!"
It must have been a premonition. The very next day, while still apparently in perfect health, he left Cambridge to keep a luncheon engagement with Mr. Rupert D'Oyly Carte at the Great Eastern Hotel, London. The intention was that he should be back for the night performance. With the lunch they had a bottle of wine, and afterwards, over cigars, they talked with many a hearty joke in between. Then he went out into the foyer—and collapsed. It was at least good to think that the passing of my dear old friend was free from pain or suffering.
Fred Billington's end must have been hastened by a sequence of events during the war. Strangely enough, when we were at Sheffield, the town was visited by a Zeppelin raid, and there was another raid when we were at Hull, a third when we were at Kennington, and a fourth when we were at Wimbledon. Billington's nerves, naturally enough, were very upset. Wherever we went the Zepps seemed to be after us. "Do you know, Harry," he said, at last, "I believe that bally Kaiser has got our tour." What he meant, of course, was that our list of bookings had got into the hands of the All-Highest, and that he thought, apparently, that if he could wipe out the Gilbert and Sullivan operas he would be able to break the spirit of England. Looked at in that way, the attention paid to us, whether intentional or not, was certainly flattering.
Worse than those raids, however, was the Dublin rebellion, into which we ran at Easter 1916. We should have opened there on the Bank Holiday. In point of [108] fact we did not play one single night. Fred and I were at the Gresham Hotel. The very first day we were not allowed out at all, for we were in the very centre of hostilities, and no one could go into the street except at his peril. Chafing under the restraint, I did at last attempt to venture out, though feeling that there were too many bullets about for things to be healthy. Opposite the Gresham, at the door of the Irish Club, I saw the well-known figure of the Dublin Coroner, Mr. Friery. I rushed across to him, and it was because I spoke to him, I believe, that I was ever able to get back alive. Mr. Friery, with his top hat and frock-coat, was an easily distinguished citizen, and neither the military nor the rebels would have been likely to fire at him deliberately. "You ought never to have come across," he told me, and as it happened, the very same thought had occurred to me.
Conditions in the hotel itself were the reverse of pleasant, what with the noise of the firing outside and bullets shooting through our own windows, though these were shuttered and protected as far as possible. Our food stocks commenced to run low—by the end of the week's siege we had only biscuits and ham—and the strain on the larder was added to by the arrival of scores of visitors who had been turned out of the Metropole Hotel. They had been told to take their valuables with them, and it was remarkable how, in the fright of such an emergency, men would grasp the first thing that came into their hands and leave their real treasures behind. One man rushed over clutching two dirty collars, while another had a bath-towel which he had picked up, it seemed, instead of a dressing-gown. [109] English jockeys who were there for the race week hurried over holding a saddle case.
Our anxieties were increased in the meanwhile by the systematic operations of the military around Eden Quay. One by one the houses were being demolished by shellfire, and in one of the threatened houses, as we knew, were many of the ladies of the company. To get to them was impossible. Luckily for them a sergeant on signalling duty heard their cries, and at once rushed to their help. "Who are you?" he shouted. "What are you doing here?" "We're the D'Oyly Carte," they answered. The D'Oyly Carte name worked like magic. Signalling to the gunners to cease fire, the sergeant hurried them out and through the streets, where sniping was going on at every corner, and took them to a police-station for safety.
All the other members of the company had more or less miraculous escapes. Leicester Tunks, Frederick Hobbs, Leo Sheffield, and several others lost all their luggage, but fortunately none sustained any more serious mishap. From the good people of Dublin we received every possible kindness, but as you will imagine, we were thankful when we heard that there were berths on a boat to take us back to Holyhead.
I have not, of course, told all my experiences of that awful week, though in memory these still linger vividly. But one of the things I remember best of all was a quaint remark of Billington's. Outside there was still the noise of the fighting, and most persistent of all was the crack! crack! crack! of a sniper somewhere near our own building. "Oh! Harry," said poor Fred, in utter weariness, "I do wish that bally wood-pecker would chuck it!"
VIII.
Hobbies of a Savoyard.
Luckless ventures in Theatrical Management—Farces that failed—New outlets for Enthusiasm—Baldness in the poultry run—Captain Corcoran and the crooks—Floricultural topsy-turvydom—The flowers that did not bloom in the Spring—Recreations that remain—Prize Costumes at fancy-dress balls—The big-game shot and the tiger.
Like "Mr. Punch" in another connection, I have a sound piece of advice for those who may ever think of embarking on theatrical management. "Don't!" I say this after bitter experience. It was not only that my gallanty show as a boy ended disastrously. This, of course, was itself a bad omen, and it ought to have taught me that public taste is fickle and that the gamble of theatrical management is surrounded by all kinds of perils. A West-end audience may be just as capricious and as hard to please as my audience of village lads in the garden.
My first real venture, a London one, was at the Criterion Theatre, which with a few others I took on lease from Sir Charles Wyndham, in order to produce "The Wild Rabbit." It was by Mr. George Arliss, who has since given up writing plays in order to act them, and he is now a "star" in America. It was one of those rollicking farces which, one would have thought, would have filled the house every night. I was playing elsewhere at the time, but we got together a really excellent company, amongst whom were the Broughs. [111] But fate was against us from the very beginning. The production coincided with a heat wave, which is bound to be disastrous to all but the best of shows, and one of the facetious complaints of the newspaper critics was that they had to come to the theatre when the temperature was eighty in the shade.
"The Wild Rabbit" survived three weeks only. It drew �34 the first night—and that was the high-water mark in the matter of receipts. One night the box-office took a mere �8. Seeing that the expenses were about �600 a week, it will be understood that the failure was severe and complete, and in most circumstances one lesson of the kind would have been enough. However, a number of friends of mine had secured the rights of "Melnotte," an operatic version of that good old comedy, "The Lady of Lyons." They did not ask me to invest any capital, but they invited me to let them have the use of my name in booking a tour for the provinces, as they themselves were unknown to theatrical managers. Upon that basis an eight weeks' tour was arranged. Gathering together about sixty artistes all told, they rehearsed them and bought all the scenery, and were almost on the eve of the first production of "Melnotte." Then one fine morning there came the thunderbolt. They told me that all the money they had put into the venture had gone! It had gone before the company had even left London. What was to be done? Seemingly their idea was centred in how speedily they could cut their losses and abandon the venture. Such a thing to me was impossible. With my name attached to the tour, a breach of faith with so many provincial managers [112] would have been a serious blow to my reputation, and apart from that, the fact that sixty of my fellow artistes were in danger of being thrown out of work compelled me to take both a moral and a financial obligation on my shoulders and run the show myself. I could only hope for the best and wait patiently for the report of my manager that the tour was flourishing.
That report never came. Every week I had to post a big cheque to cover the deficit on the takings, and every week made it clearer that, although the play itself was a good one, it was a thoroughly bad speculation. Something certainly was amiss. I could not leave London myself, and the only alternative was to offer a friend his railway fare and expenses and ask him to run into the country, see the play and tell me frankly what was amiss. "Harry," said my friend very meaningly, "I've never done you a bad turn. I've seen it—once." Once was enough!
Eight weeks saw the end of "Melnotte." From the first it was a forlorn hope, and in any case it was impossible to run a company successfully unless one could be on the spot to superintend the production. The only satisfaction I had out of it—and I admit it with some feelings of pride—was that of standing by my fellow professionals, and, at whatever cost to myself, "playing the game." I have never made—and never shall be lured to make—another plunge into management. The risks are too great.
Sometimes I am inclined to contrast my bad luck in these business ventures with the good fortune of a friend who once asked me for a loan of �90. He was in humble circumstances then, but he had a little money of his own and his ambition was to buy the licence of a public-house in Holloway. I lent him the cash, and later on he came to repay me, with many thanks for thus giving him his opportunity. Years afterwards we met again. Upon the basis of that little public-house he had built a comfortable fortune, for he was a director of a brewery concern, had a big interest in various industrial undertakings, and eventually became a well-known member of Parliament. "You have been my mascot," he said—and there have been others who for various reasons have said the very same thing!
A. LYTTON
AS
"THE LORD CHANCELLOR" IN "IOLANTHE."
Once [113] I met a "dear friend"—you may know the kind yourself—who was terribly anxious that I should be "in" with him in a rich gold mine in Alaska. He brought some nuggets to show me, and they were so plentiful, he told me, that he had picked these from the top of the ground. Evidently I must have been a particularly credulous person, because he got a good deal of my money, whereas all I got was experience!
Where hobbies are concerned my luck always seems to be appalling. I have had a mania for turning my hands to all sorts of things. It began, I remember, with my determination to commence breeding poultry, and having made up my mind to this, it had to be done very thoroughly. I bought quite a number of chickens and wired them within a very small space. The poor things had nothing like enough room, and they began to get bad tempered, to fight one another, and to pull out their feathers. Further, having pulled out their rivals' feathers and found the oil at the roots very tasty, they set to in earnest, and before long there was not one bird with a feather left in the place. They were [114] all bald! A more miserable collection of freaks you could never imagine. With characteristic humour Dan Leno sent me a bottle of Tatcho for them!
From hens to ducks was not a far cry. So I bought a number of ducks' eggs, hatched them in an incubator, and at last decided that it was time the little wretches had their first swim. I accordingly carried them down to a pond to put them in. Alas! once more for my amateur enthusiasm! The ducklings were too young for that, and they got cramp and died.
Nothing daunted, I turned now to bulldogs, and in order to do things well I bought seven big kennels, complete with iron gates. They would have done credit to a big estate, where breeding is done on up-to-date lines, and were quite out-of-place in my suburban garden at Chiswick. To begin with we could not get the kennels into the garden. For hours they were on the street pavement while we cogitated just how we were going to get them round to the back of the house, and it was only after a police-officer had intervened with an order to remove them forthwith, because they were a nuisance, that we found that if there is a will, there must be a way.
"Captain Corcoran" was the name I gave to my best bulldog, and as he brought me luck, I was glad I had chosen that name from "Pinafore." He was a sturdy fellow, the winner of very many championships, and his progeny have since also carried off valuable prizes. But even my one successful hobby was doomed to be blighted. One day two crafty-looking individuals came to my house and said they wanted to see me about a dog. They were Americans, and they wanted, they told me, to buy "Captain Corcoran." I told them [115] I would not sell him—not at any price. They found it a waste of time to try to fix up a deal. "Well," they said as their parting shot, "we're going to have him, anyhow." Within a day or two police officers called to warn me that two expert dog thieves had taken rooms in the neighbourhood, and I was forced to the conclusion, much as I disliked it, that I must dispose of "Captain Corcoran." Later on I commenced to breed dachshunds and Borzois, but somehow I did not care for the "doggy" people with whom I had to mix, and the end was that I gave up dogs altogether.
Then I determined I would venture into the more tranquil arts of floriculture. I would have my own flower garden, and what was more, everything in it should be done by myself. My wife, shrewd woman, said nothing. It was a case of "leave him alone, and he'll play for hours." From Holland I ordered an immense number of bulbs and put them into the ground. Months went by, but not a sign was there of my hyacinths. I pondered deeply over my manual of useful hints for gardening. Watered them? Yes. Raked the soil? Yes. What was wrong? Certain it was that these flowers never bloomed in the spring!
Eventually, I saw a tiny yellow spike creeping out of the earth, but the colour and nature of it were not "according to plan." At last I called in a gardener. "Oh," he declared, doing his best to soften the blow, "you've planted the bulbs upside down." And so I had! The poor little shoots had to dig down into the soil before they could curve round and creep into the light. Nearly everything in that unfortunate garden had been planted upside down. [116]
Friends of mine chaffed me unmercifully over that topsy-turvy exploit. When they came to my house they would turn all the ornaments upside down. Before I entered the room they would reverse the chairs, the settee and anything they could lay their hands upon, and then they would explain themselves by saying, "We thought you liked things like that, old man. The bulbs you know. We've just heard about the bulbs."
Well, after the failure with the hens, the ducks, and the flowers, there seemed only one other diversion to try, and that was photography. Even that did not survive very long, nor yet did my attempt to cultivate mushrooms in my cellar, a craze that threatened very literally to get the place into bad odour. But there are two recreations to which I still remain faithful, and they, after all, are worth all the rest put together. One is golf and the other painting. Golf is a great game for keeping the actor fit, and his mind clear for his work, and it is very popular in our profession. Now and then, too, a day with the palette and easel is a wonderful pleasure to me, and seldom do I take up the brush without a thought of poor old Trood and his studio at Chelsea.
One diversion at least in which I have had my share of success has been in the fancy dress balls at Covent Garden. Once I took the first prize with a representation of Nelson, the costume of which was copied in every detail from the uniform of the great seaman preserved in Greenwich Museum, and I remember that my entry was signalised by Dan Godfrey's orchestra striking up "'Twas in Trafalgar Bay." Then I took the chief honours with a wonderful bust of Nero, in connection [117] with which I received enormous help from my old friend, the celebrated sculptor, Albert Toft. From my waist downward I was encased in what appeared to be a blood-marble pedestal. My face was whitened, my eyes were closed, and my brow was adorned with the laurel leaf, and when the lights were focussed on my rigid figure and the plaster frame it was acclaimed as a marvellously clever imitation of the statue of the great Roman Emperor. Once again I took the first prize at Covent Garden with the subject of the Knave of Clubs. The costume was a silk one, half black and half white, and on it were fastened the names of all the well-known clubs in London. Even the members of the Beef Steak Club found that their institution had not been overlooked—and that this title appeared on the costume in an appropriate place!
Nowadays, when we are on tour, it is very pleasant to be able to travel by motor-car instead of by train. With my Austin-20 car I have now covered well over 42,000 miles, and probably the only occasion when I deliberately exceeded the speed limit was once outside Plymouth. A doctor with a troublesome car was held up in the roadway. When I drew up and asked whether I could help him, he told me he had been a quarter-of-an-hour trying to get the engine to go, though he was due at a very critical operation some miles away. It was, indeed, a matter of life and death, and in my own car he was very speedily taken to the hospital. It was in the same district, I think, that I gave a "lift" to a man who was footsore and weary, and who said at the end of the journey, "I suppose you won't tell the gov'nor about this, will you?" [118] Evidently he had mistaken me for somebody's chauffeur!
Some years ago, when I was setting out from my home at Chiswick, I was held up by a 'bus bound for Twickenham. It was crowded already, and the conductor had to refuse a poor old woman who wanted to board it, and who was very distressed, because she had a job at Twickenham, "and if I don't get there," she told me, "they'll think I'm too old for work and they won't want me again." The problem was easily solved. I offered to take her where she was going. She had never been in a motor-car before, and in trying to stammer her thanks, she asked me to tell her my name "so that I shall never forget you." So I handed her my card—she certainly did not know anything about me or what was my profession—and went on my way. Judge of my surprise when, soon after the end of the war, I found that that old lady had bequeathed to me the two little rooms and all the furniture that had been her poor, but neat and cosy, home at Hammersmith. Luckily, I heard of a demobilised soldier who, with his wife and child, was urgently in need of a shelter, and it was a great pleasure to me to be able to turn this touching legacy to such good account.
Speaking of hobbies, I don't think I knew a more curious taste than that of an old friend of mine who was a big-game shot and traveller, and who had a miniature zoo of his own at his home at Derby. Once, when the company was playing in that town, he invited me to go and stay the night with him after the performance, and in his library we sat chatting until the early hours of the morning. He told me many graphic stories [119] about his expeditions into strange lands, about the tigers and elephants he had shot, and about his marvellous escapes. One story was about a faithful servant of his, a powerfully-built black, who stood right in front of an infuriated wounded elephant, which trampled on him and killed him, as the poor fellow doubtless knew would be the case, though he was ready to chance all so that his master might be protected. I remember that my friend, having told me this incident, added, "They are the greatest men on God's earth, are these blacks."
"Just half-a-minute," then said the explorer. Listening to those strange adventures in the jungle had already set my nerves on edge, and to be left alone in that dimly-lit room, with everything outside and inside it silent and still, was really uncanny. I heard my host walk along the corridor, open one or two doors, and apparently enter the garden. He had left me alone in that house! In a few moments I heard an unnatural tread in the corridor. Pit-pat, pit-pat! My eyes almost sprang out of my head. Pit-pat, pit-pat. Nearer and nearer it came until at last into the room there sauntered a—tiger! My friend walked in behind it.
"For God's sake take it away," I screamed, drawing my feet up into the chair and expecting every second the beast would pounce, "Take it away!" The tiger was really only a cub, but coming like an apparition into that room, it seemed to be the biggest and most ferocious and most ghastly sight on earth. Large beads of perspiration were on my forehead, my heart was beating itself out of my body, and through my mind flashed the countless sins of my youth. My last hours had [120] come. "Take it away," I yelled, again and again, "it will tear us to pieces."
Now I think of it, the tiger did not really look as if it had much of an appetite, or if it had, the idea of making a tough meal of an actor did not appeal to its palate. The hunter tried to assure me that the beast was "quite all right." It flopped down by his side, and as he stroked it, the cub purred in a manner which, to me at all events, was not at all pleasant. "I know just how long you can keep them," my host explained. "This one will be harmless for another month. Then it will be dangerous. It is quite all right to-night. Come and stroke it!"
Not I! So long as the tiger remained there I kept cringed up in my seat on the other side of the room, and mighty thankful I was when he had taken his strange pet away. I've an old-fashioned notion that a library is not the happiest place for a menagerie. I heard that just a month afterwards the beast did, in fact, turn on the big-game shot, and his arm was terribly ripped. He must have trusted it just a day too long.
A. LYTTON
IX.
GILBERT AND SULLIVAN.
World-wide Fame of the Operas—The Secrets of Their Charm—Sullivan's Music and the Popular Taste—Gilbert and the Englishman—Stage Figures That Are True to National Type—The Germans and "H.M.S. Pinafore"—Characters That Mirror Ourselves—Gilbert's Versatility—Pedigree of the Operas—Practical Hints for Amateurs—The Importance of the First Entrance—Studying the Art of Make-up—A Splendid Heritage of Humour and Song.
The Gilbert and Sullivan public are said to number three millions. Exactly how this figure is arrived at I cannot say, but it is presumed to represent those who make it a point of honour to see the operas whenever they possibly can, who are familiar with all the music and the songs, and who lose no chance of making others as enthusiastic as they are. Literally they are to be found the whole world over—from China to Peru—and the operas are as successful in Australia and America as they are in the United Kingdom. I was told once of an Englishman, exiled in the wilds of China, who had an audience of Celestials listening at his garden gate while he was warbling to himself "Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes!"
What a wonderful thing it is that plays which are all well over thirty years old should have such a faithful following! Clearly there must be something exceptional about them, some magnetic force that draws the multitudes to them, some elixir that gives to them the freshness of eternal youth. Imitators have tried hard to capture the secret of their sweet simplicity. That [122] they have failed so far to do so is a misfortune. The Savoy operas still stand alone, unchallenged either by any changing in popular taste or by the passage of time, though if there were more of them it would be good for the public that loves such honest, wholesome enjoyment. It would also be good for the stage. What is the secret?
Sullivan's music often reminds me of a beautiful garden. No attempt is there here to picture in bold orchestral strokes the frowning peaks, the expansive landscapes or the scenes of pomp and splendour. The canvas is ever a miniature one. Each melody is comparable to a lily or a daffodil—just as unpretentious and just as charming—while the whole has the fragrance of the flowers that bloom in the spring. We love this music because it soothes and delights. It is not too "intellectual." We appreciate it as a free and easy distraction, just as we appreciate a popular novel, though we may have high-brow moments when we peer into our Darwin and Spencer. Sullivan's greatest virtue was that he wrote music that was "understanded of the people."
British folk, as we know, are easy going. We are a little too inclined to doff the thinking-cap at the first opportunity. Speaking generally, we are not a studious race, and we don't want to be bothered with "problems." Sullivan's music is never in the problem style—the problem of intricate chords and modern progressions—and just as certainly does it avoid the strident atrocities of the modern ragtime type. It is transparent and simple. It sparkles like the stream in the sunshine, and it is always joyous, buoyant and [123] happy. We want more of such music. Give the people more of these delicate melodies—frankly popular as they are, and yet supremely good music—and into their own lives will enter much of the same romantic warmth and content.
All this shows how Sullivan in his music was perfectly and typically British. What about Gilbert? In his way I think he was the same. British audiences, he knew, did not want either abstruse plots or out-and-out farces, but they did like to be indulged with gentle ripples of laughter. They did not care over-much for the incongruous, but they did love rollicking, good-natured burlesque. And Gilbert was a master of burlesque. Endless arrows are released from his bow, but they hit the mark without disfiguring it, for the tips are not dipped in poison. The Briton can laugh with the best when his own weaknesses and foibles are held up to satire. Certain people would go at once into a tantrum. The Germans, as we know, could never understand "H.M.S. Pinafore." They said it was impossible! No doubt to them it was impossible. Gilbert was making play with Britain's proudest possession—her Navy. Well, the Germans could never have produced a Gilbert of their own in any case, but imagine the enormity of the crime if such a one had written a play caricaturing the omnipotent German War Lords and the old German Army!
Whatever the national costume in which the Gilbert characters are dressed, and however remote the age to which these costumes belong, we know at once that the garb is the purest "camouflage." We have met their like in present-day London or Glasgow or Liverpool. [124] What a lot of folk in real life we know with the same little oddities! The Duke of Plaza-Toro, though described as a Spanish grandee, is really very much an Englishman. He sings, too, about the human weakness for small titles and orders, and we know that that is not an exclusive weakness of the Venetians or the Baratarians in "The Gondoliers." The cap can find a head to fit it much nearer home. Then there is the character of Sir Joseph Porter in "Pinafore." No doubt he is an exaggerated political type, but he is not exaggerated, after all, beyond recognition.
"The Yeomen of the Guard" is, of all operas ever written, the one most essentially English. The Elizabethan setting is there, and so is the happy spirit of old Merrie England. Slightly, perhaps, it may be a drama, but it brings to the surface the tears of gentle melancholy only. That also stamps it as typically British. Colonel Fairfax, under the shadow of the executioner's axe, does not strike a dramatic pose and tell us that it is a far, far better thing he is going to do than he has ever done. Not a bit! In effect, he says its rather hard luck, but there it is anyhow, and after all things might be very much worse. A British officer always was ready to face death with a smile. Nor does Jack Point himself, the most lovable of characters, make a parade of his grief. The burning, aching pain is smothered almost to the end beneath the outward jesting, and when his honest heart breaks there is no murmur against the cruelty of fate, nor any cry of vengeance upon the rival who has won Elsie Maynard.
Yes, we British people can often see ourselves in [125] these characters as if in a mirror, and it is probably due to this, together with the exquisite blend of inimitable music and wit, that the popularity of these operas is so strong and enduring. Stage "puppets" as they may be, they do show us a lot about both our virtues and follies, but rather more about our follies, because as a race we are notoriously shy of our praises being sung! They are always ready to own up to their weaknesses in some capital song. So like the self-depreciating British! Like the rest of us, too, they are for ever getting into some dilemma or other, and they disentangle themselves without excitement or flurry. Each point is made without the banging of drums or the sounding of trumpets. Contrast this with Wagner, who makes a terrible fuss about the merest trifle, and works up his orchestration in a manner that might suggest that the heavens were falling. Whether we like our music like this must be a matter of taste and individual discretion. Here in Gilbert and Sullivan at all events we have common sense—for there can be common sense even in the ridiculous—and a tranquilising atmosphere. In a busy, workaday world, with its ceaseless nervous and physical strain, it is surely a grateful attribute, a pleasant diversion between the burdens of one day and those of the next!
Sir William Gilbert, as I have said before, had a master mind as a playwright. Every opera he wrote had a definite and an interesting plot, and a plot which had, moreover, a purpose. "H.M.S. Pinafore," as we know, was a shrewd shaft aimed at some of the absurdities of our political life, though I say this without being in any way a politician myself! In "Patience" he held up to ridicule [126] the �sthetic craze of the 'eighties. With "Iolanthe" we enter the fantastic field, and to me there is always something uncommonly whimsical in the idea that Parliament is ruled by the fairies, who thus must be the real rulers of England. "Princess Ida" was a clever anticipation of the women's movement, though it is well-known that Gilbert took the outlines of the story from Tennyson. Then "The Mikado" transports to the romantic and picturesque land of Japan. "Ruddigore" was intended to be a travesty on the melodramatic stage. Following this came an historical play, designed to show his gifts in a new, more serious and no less successful light. I refer, of course, to "The Yeomen of the Guard." Then "The Gondoliers" carried us to beautiful Venice, whilst last of all were "Utopia Limited," which I trust will soon be revived, and "The Grand Duke." It is remarkable that so wide a range could be covered in one series of plays.
Gilbert, at an O.P. Club dinner in 1906, admitted his "indebtedness to the author of the 'Bab Ballads,' from whom I have so unblushingly cribbed." The diligent student of the ballads and the operas will find many evidences of the development of ideas from the chrysalis to the butterfly stage. I have to thank Mr. Robert Bell for the following notes—confirmed and amplified by Gilbert during his lifetime—on the pedigree of a few of the more popular operas:—
"H.M.S. Pinafore"
"The Fairy Curate," "The Periwinkle Girl."
"Patience"
"The Rival Curates."
"H.M.S. Pinafore," it will be seen, owed more to the ballads than did any of the later operas, and it will be noticed that Captain Corcoran, with his solicitude for his crew and his carefully moderate language, was clearly of the stock of Captain Reece, of "The Mantelpiece," who
"Did all that lay within him to
Promote the comfort of his crew;
A feather bed had every man
Warm slippers and hot-water can,
Brown Windsor from the captain's store,
A valet, too, to every four."
—an example of unselfishness to be compared in the other branch of the Service only with the altruism of "Lieutenant-Colonel Flare." The main theme of the opera—the babies changed in their cradles—was a great favourite with Gilbert. In the ballads it appears in "General John" and "The Baby's Vengeance," which latter poem may have suggested, moreover, certain details in "Ruddigore." The origin of Robin Oakapple's bashfulness may possibly be traced back to "The Married Couple," in which the pair were betrothed in infancy, as also happens in "Princess Ida."
"Iolanthe" has an obvious resemblance to "The Fairy Curate." In both a fairy marries a mortal, with the result in one case of the curate, Georgie, and in the other the Arcadian shepherd, Strephon. Then we are [128] bound to notice how the feud of the two poets in "Patience" is modelled on the emulation of the Rev. Clayton Hooper and the Rev. Hopley Porter in "The Rival Curates." Indeed, the parallel between the ballad and the opera was originally so complete that in the opera the dragoons were curates, and Bunthorne and Grosvenor clergymen! Sir William, however, began to doubt whether it was good taste to hold up the clergy to a certain amount of ridicule, and so he changed the principals into �sthetes, and the curates into dragoons.
Coming to "The Yeomen of the Guard" we find that Wilfred Shadbolt, with his anecdotes of the prison cells and the torture chamber, had a prototype in the jailor in "Annie Protheroe." In both a condemned man is reprieved and enabled to outwit his rival for the love of a lady. "Were I thy Bride" is also a song with an obvious affinity to the ballad, "To Phœbe." So we might continue to trace in the ballads ideas which the playwright turned to the happiest account in the operas. Strangely enough, "The Mikado" is the opera which best keeps its secrets, and one searches the poems in vain for anything in the nature of a "pedigree."
Lucky is the actor or actress who secures an engagement in these operas at the outset of his or her career on the stage. The Savoy tradition which Gilbert and Sullivan founded was, of course, entirely different to anything which had preceded it, and the great feature of this new school was the insistence that was and still is placed on clear enunciation, distinct vocal phrasing, and refinement of manner and gesture. The beginner who is trained on these lines is thus taught the essentials [129] of genuine artistry, and it is also a great advantage to a new-comer that, early in his professional life, he has played in pieces which have such an infectious spirit about them and before audiences that are always so ready with encouragement. By the management itself good work is invariably recognised, and it is always possible, as has happened in my own case, for one to rise from the chorus itself to the principal parts.
Gilbert and Sullivan's works are now given by hundreds of amateur societies all the year round, and often we hear that parties of those who are going to play in them have travelled some distance to see us, and so to gather notes for their own performances. Scattered about these pages are many practical hints for these amateur players. From an "old hand" they may be of some service, not merely because they are drawn from my own long experience, but because many of these points were given me by Gilbert himself and by great actors like Irving. It will be useful, I think, if I now summarise and amplify these suggestions, which are applicable chiefly to those who are to play in these operas, but which in a general way may be helpful to all amateur and young professional performers. Here they are:—
1. Study your part very thoroughly beforehand, and when on the stage forget all about yourself, and live that part entirely. Concentrate all your thoughts upon it, and if it is a whimsical part, see that you get the right atmosphere before you begin.
2. Speak clearly and deliberately. Never forget the man at the back of the gallery, and so long as your enunciation is distinct, your words will reach him [130] without any need for shouting. Special care should be taken to phrase clearly when singing.
3. Be perfectly natural in your actions and gestures. The secret of this is, whether you are actually speaking or not, to wrap yourself up in your part and in the play, and so save yourself from being troubled with self-consciousness.
4. Give your audience credit for humorous perception. Gilbert's wit, in other words, is such that the actor must not force his lines through fear, as it were, that the people in front will otherwise not be intelligent enough to "see the joke." Indeed, the more serious and intense he is in many cases, the more oblivious he pretends to be to the absurdity of what he is saying, the quainter and more delightful is the effect on the other side of the footlights.
5. Exceptional instances apart, the actor who is speaking or being spoken to, or who is singing a song, should stand well to the front of the stage. Not only does this let you make the best use of your voice, but it helps you, what is more important, to rivet the attention of the audience.
6. Keep up a keen personal interest in the play. If you are in the chorus, your job is not solely to help in the singing and to show off a picturesque costume, but to assist in focussing the interest on the central incident. If, on the other hand, you are listless and stare about the theatre, it is bound to rob the whole performance of freshness and spontaneity.
7. The Gilbert and Sullivan atmosphere, as I have said several times elsewhere, is "repose." This is impossible if every member of the company—and even [131] the leading principal himself—indulges in little mannerisms liable to take the audience's eye from the central point.
8. Never forget that a company, so far from being divided into principals and chorus, is really one big family, and success depends on one and all "pulling together." Still less should the principals forget what they owe to the chorus for loyally backing them up, and a little kindly appreciation, a word of encouragement from themselves, as the more experienced players, to those who are anxious to learn, goes a mighty long way.
Now that the old stock companies have become almost things of the past, our amateur operatic societies should be recognised as one of the best recruiting fields for theatrical talent, and it is a fact that from their ranks many great artistes have sprung. I myself have seen numbers of these amateur shows, and in most of them there have been two or three performers who, with work and experience, could take a creditable place on the professional stage. For this reason I am anxious to give them all the advice it is in my power to give. First and foremost, therefore, I should insist that before any words are memorised the part itself must be thoroughly studied, so that one knows exactly what the author intends and just what sort of figure one has to depict. Especially have I made it my aim, on my first entrance in any part, to let the audience see just what the character is, whether a comedian, a tragedian, a lover, a fool, or a "fop." Feel that you are actually one of these, and especially when you make your first entry, and the battle is half won already. You will then have something of what people variously call [132] "magnetism" or "personality" or "atmosphere." This feeling of your part at the first entrance is of vital importance, and as far as you can, you must try to keep it up right through the play.
Take the case of Jack Point. From the moment he enters the audience should know the manner of man that he is and he must win their sympathy immediately. He is a poor strolling player who has been dragged from pillar to post. Footsore and weary though he is, Jack Point is anxious to please the crowd who have roughly chased him and Elsie Maynard in, for if he fails them have they not threatened to duck him in the nearest pond? Jack and Elsie are no ordinary players. In Elizabethan times the street dancer was a familiar character. The Merry-man and his maid, however, tell us that they can sing and dance too, a wonderful accomplishment. All this and more is made clear on their first entry. It should be the same in the interpretation of all the other parts.
When the Duke of Plaza-Toro arrives, he must at once impress the audience that, although impecunious, he still expects the deference due to birth and breeding. Ko-Ko, on the other hand, is a cheap tailor suddenly exalted to the rank of Lord High Executioner, and from his first entrance it is obvious that he was never brought up in the dignified ways of a Court. He tells the gentlemen of Japan that he is "much touched by this reception." Somehow one feels that that speech was written out for him when he received his appointment, that he has since recited it forty times a day, and that now the upstart is trying to make believe it is entirely extempore! Then there is Sir Joseph Porter. [133] Whenever I play this r�le I do my best to cultivate a sense of immense self-importance. I do this, of course, whilst waiting my cue, but the effect of it should be seen on the stage. Bunthorne's first appearance should be done in such a way as to stamp him definitely for what he is—an affected "poseur." The exaggeration may be relaxed a little afterwards—but it must be there at the beginning.
So long as one has studied one's part beforehand, particularly in regard to the nature of the first entry, the memorisation of the words becomes more or less easy. And amateurs ought to realise what a tremendous help to them it would be to practice their own facial "make-up." Generally they leave that to an expert, but if they practised it themselves, they would find it a very fascinating, and certainly an important, branch of the actor's profession. Many and many a time have I taken my pencils and colours, retired to some quiet room at home, and spent an afternoon experimenting in make-up. Notwithstanding that I have never played any Shakespearian characters, I have made up privately for dozens of them, and the practice has helped me in innumerable ways.
For instance, I used to be fond of making up as the hunchback Richard the Third, and I turned these experiments to account when I had to play the r�le of King Gama. Shakespeare's Touchstone also appealed to me, and having made up as this clown so often, I had many useful ideas when I came to do Jack Point. The deathly pallor of the poor jester at the end was contrived from many similar experiments. Setting photographs before me, I would make myself resemble the late Lord [134] Roberts and the late Sir Evelyn Wood, and these were used as a model when I had to be Major-General Stanley. Several visits to the Law Courts gave me valuable hints for the Lord Chancellor. The Duke of Plaza-Toro was studied from an old print of a grandee. Ko-Ko's make up, which was bound to be a difficult one, was the outcome of a good deal of sketching on paper, particularly in regard to the treatment of the lines round the eyes. When Mrs. D'Oyly Carte first saw me as Bunthorne, she exclaimed "How you do remind me of Whistler!" That was a compliment. It was from Whistler, of course, that this r�le was understood to be drawn, and so I was not loath to copy the poet's photograph, even to the white lock in his ample jet-black hair!
Yes, make-up well rewards one for all the time one spends in practising it, and many brother professionals agree with me that the great past-masters of the art were the late Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and the late Wilson Barrett. With them, of course, make-up concerned not merely the face but the figure, and it was wonderful how Tree, to instance only two of his great parts, could adapt himself either to the portly and blustering Falstaff or to the lean and haggard Svengali. And Barrett, though ordinarily stocky of build, could appear at times as a towering, dominating personality. Seeing that these men were big theatrical figures, they were not compelled to sink their identities in the parts they were playing, and yet they were such great artistes that they always did so completely.
I close this book with a simple story of the different operas. This will, I am sure, be read with interest both [135] by those who know them already and by those, the younger generation, who are growing up to know and love them too for what they are—a heritage of pure humour and song of which the nation may well be proud, and to which it will remain faithful as long as the spirit of laughter abides in its heart.
Dear are their melodies to England's heart,
Pure English is the fount from which they flow,
As frank and tender as was English art
In the rich times of Purcell, Arne and Blow;
As English the libretto every whit,
Jests how well polished, whimsies how well said;
True English humour, and true English wit,
Sword-sharp yet kindly, hearty yet well-bred.
Thus have they lasted, and out-last the years.
Being in their fantasy to life so true,
So intermix't with laughter and with tears.
So gay, so wise, so old, and yet so new.
Long may they, living for our children's joy,
Renew the triumphs of the old Savoy!
THE STORIES OF THE OPERAS.
"TRIAL BY JURY."
Produced March 25th, 1875.
Gilbert and Sullivan's fame was really based on a little comic opera called "Thespis." It was produced by John Hollingshead at the Gaiety, and its success was so great that Mr. Richard D'Oyly Carte was induced to invite them to collaborate again in the first of what we now know as the D'Oyly Carte operas, the dramatic cantata, "Trial by Jury." Short and slender as it is, this opera has always been immensely popular, and it still appears regularly in the company's programmes. Gilbert, who had himself followed the law before he transferred his talents to the stage, took as his subject an imaginary breach of promise case between Edwin and Angelina. That it is a faithful picture of a court of law and of those who minister there one would never dare to suggest! But as a very free and clever burlesque even those who follow the vocation of the wig and gown will admit its claims immediately.
When the curtain rises we see the interior of a court of justice, and the barristers, solicitors and jury are already in their places. The Usher, a functionary of the old school, at once proceeds to give some homely and informal advice to the jurymen, telling them to listen to the case with minds free from vulgar prejudice. With that he goes on to try to soften their masculine hearts over the plight of poor Angelina. When the defendant enters the twelve good men and true shake their fists [137] in his face, hail him as a "monster," and bid him "dread our damages." Edwin ventures to suggest that, as they are in the dark as to the merits of his case, these proceedings are strange. He tells how he once rapturously adored the lady, how she then began to bore him intensely, and how at last he became "another's love-sick boy." The jury reflect that they, too, were rather inconstant in their own youthful days, but now that they are older and "shine with a virtue resplendent" they "haven't a scrap of sympathy with the defendant."
The Judge now takes his seat on the bench. The genial soul, as a prelude to the duties of the day, confides how he rose to judicial eminence. For years he searched in vain for briefs, and then he found an easy escape from poverty by marrying a rich attorney's elderly, ugly daughter. He would, his father-in-law said, soon get used to her looks, and in the meanwhile he promised to deluge him with briefs for the "Sessions and Ancient Bailey." By these means he prospered, and then he "threw over that rich attorney's elderly, ugly daughter." And now he is ready to try this present breach of promise of marriage.
Counsel for the plaintiff having taken his place, the jury are sworn well and truly to try the case, which they do by kneeling low down in the box and, with the exception of their upraised hands, quite out of sight. The plaintiff's arrival is heralded by that of a beautiful bevy of bridesmaids. The Judge, having taken a fancy to one of them, pens her a little note, which she kisses rapturously. Yet when he sees the plaintiff, a still brighter vision of loveliness, he orders that the note shall be taken from the bridesmaid and given to her. Judge and jury alike are entranced. Counsel proceeds to open the case, and with bitter reproaches he assails the traitor whose heartless wile victimised his "interesting client," to whom "Camberwell (had) become a bower, Peckham an Arcadian vale." The plaintiff weeps. When she is lead to the witness-box she falls in a faint on to the foreman's shoulders, but upon the Judge inquiring whether she would not rather recline on him, the fair lady jumps on to the bench and sits down fondly by the side of the Judge [138] .
Edwin, regarded by all as an object of villainy, now proceeds to state his case, and can only offer to marry the lady to-day and then marry his new love to-morrow. The Judge suggests that this may be a fair proposition, but counsel holds that, on the other hand, "to marry two at once is burglaree." Angelina, with a view to increasing the damages, now embraces her inconstant lover and calls upon the jury to witness what a loss she has to deplore. Edwin, in the hope in turn of reducing them, declares that at heart he is a ruffian and a bully, and that she could never endure him a day. The Judge suggests that, as the man declares that when tipsy he would thrash her and kick her, the best plan would be for them to make him tipsy and see! Objection is raised to this on every side, and then the man of law, losing his temper and scattering the books hither and thither, declares that as nothing will please them he will marry the lady himself. This solution seems to carry general agreement. The Judge, having claimed her hand, sings:—
"Though homeward as you trudge
You declare my law is fudge,
Yet of beauty I'm a judge."
To which all in court reply, "And a good judge too!"
"THE SORCERER."
Produced November 17th, 1887.
"The Sorcerer" is a merry story of sentimental topsy-turvydom. Cupid could never have performed such mischievous pranks as he did, aided by a magician's love potion, in the pleasant village of Ploverleigh. Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre, a baronet of ancient lineage, has invited the tenantry to his Elizabethan mansion to celebrate the betrothal of his son Alexis, a Grenadier Guardsman, to the lovely Aline. So happy and romantic [139] a union between two old families deserved to be worthily honoured, and a large and lavishly stocked marquee, we notice, has been erected at one side of the garden. Aline herself is rich, the only daughter of the Lady Sangazure, and the seven thousand and thirty-seventh in direct descent, it seems, from Helen of Troy. Nor are there heart-stirrings only in the homes of the great. Early in the opera it transpires that Constance Partlet, the daughter of a humble pew-opener at the Parish Church, has a doting love for the vicar, Dr. Daly. It is a hopeless passion. Not that the vicar, now a bachelor of venerable years, had never felt the throb of romance in his soul, and never recalled the "aching memory of the old, old days." Fondly does he muse over the time when—
"Maidens of the noblest station,
Forsaking even military men,
Would gaze upon me, rapt in admiration—
Ah, me! I was a pale young curate then."
This, indeed, was the time when love and he were well acquainted, as he tells us in a delightful ballad, and when none was better loved that he in all the land! Yet even these dreams of yesteryear fail to awaken in him the desires for a joyous to-morrow. Constance's mother finds him quite unresponsive to her ingenious suggestions, for though he sees the advantage of having a lady installed in the vicarage, he is too old now for his estate to be changed.
Sir Marmaduke and Alexis enter. The honest heart of the father glows at the thought of the marriage, though he confesses that he has little liking for the new kind of love-making, in which couples rush into each other's arms rapturously singing:—
"Oh, my adored one!"
"Ecstatic rapture!"
"Unmingled joy!"
So different, he reflects, to the older and more courtly "Madame, I trust you are in the enjoyment of good health"; "Sir, you are vastly polite, I protest I am mighty well." Even thus did he once pay his addresses to the Lady Sangazure. For once they, too, were lovers! But these reveries are ended by the arrival of Aline, and soon afterwards, to the tuneful salutation of the villagers, [140] the marriage contract is signed and sealed in the presence of Counsel.
Left alone at last with his betrothed, Alexis tells her of his maxim that true love, the source of every earthly joy, should break down all such artificial barriers as rank, wealth, beauty and age. Upon this subject he has lectured in the workhouses, beershops and asylums, and been received with enthusiasm everywhere, though he cannot deny the aloofness as yet of the aristocracy. He is going to take a desperate step to put those noble principles to proof. From London he has summoned the great John Wellington Wells. He belongs to an old-established firm of family sorcerers, who practise all sorts of magics and spells, with their wonderful penny curse as their quick-selling speciality. From the moment he enters it is obvious that this glib-tongued charlatan is a hustling dynamo. Alexis, much to Aline's alarm, commissions him to supply liberal quantities of his patent love philtre in order that, from purely philanthropical motives, as he explains, he may distribute it secretly amongst the villagers. Wells, like the pushful tradesman he is, has the very thing in his pocket. He guarantees that whoever drinks it will fall in love, as a matter of course, with the first lady he meets who has also tasted it, and his affection will be returned immediately. Then follows a melodramatic incantation as the sorcerer deposits the philtre into a gigantic teapot. "Spirits of earth and air, fiends of flame and fire" are summoned "in shoals" to "this dreadful deed inspire." This done Mr. Wells beckons the villagers, and all the party, except the two lovers, join merrily in drinking a toast drawn from the teapot. Quickly it becomes evident from their strange conduct that the charm is working. All rub their eyes, and the curtain falls on the picture of many amorous couples, rich and poor alike, under the spell of the romantic illusion.
The same scene greets us when the second act opens. The couples are strangely assorted—an old man with a girl, an elderly woman with a youth—but all sing and dance to a love that is "the source of all joy to humanity." Constance confesses her rapture for a deaf old Notary. Sir Marmaduke himself walks arm-in-arm with Mrs. [141] Partlet. Dr. Daly is sadly perplexed. The villagers, who had not been addicted to marrying and giving in marriage, have now been coming to him in a body and imploring him to join them in matrimony with little delay. The sentimental old bachelor reflects, moreover, how comely all the maidens are, and sighs that alas! all now are engaged! Meanwhile, Alexis has tried to persuade Aline that they should drink the philtre too, for only thus can they ensure their own undying devotion. She refuses and there is a tiff, but later, to prove that her love for him is true, she does drink the potion, only to be seized by a passionate affection for—Dr. Daly. Nor can the good vicar resist the yearning to reciprocate. Coming to the scene, Alexis is outraged with his lover's perfidy, and at last has very serious doubts about the excellence of his theories and the wisdom of the sorcerer's spell. Dr. Daly, determined to be no man's rival, is ready to quit the country at once and bury his sorrow "in the congenial gloom of a colonial bishopric."
But one of the drollest effects of the enchantment has still to be told. The first man on whom the Lady Sangazure casts her eye after she has succumbed is none other than the notorious John Wellington Wells. In vain does he lie to her that he is already engaged. In vain does he describe a beauteous maiden with bright brown hair who waits for him in the Southern Pacific. She threatens at last to end her sorrows in the family vault, and only then does the sorcerer, as a small reparation for all the emotional disturbance he has created, decide that the acceptance of her hand might not be at all a bad bargain.
In the end the magic scheme becomes so involved that it must be at all costs disentangled. It can be done in only one way. Someone must yield his life to Ahrimanes. Wells agrees to commit this act of self-immolation, and amidst a wreath of fire and brimstone he disappears, melodramatic to the last, through a trap-door in the stage. With his departure the couples re-assort themselves, selecting mates in keeping with their various social stations and ages, and the betrothal festivities resume their merry sway.
"H.M.S. PINAFORE."
[142]
Produced May 25th, 1878.
Certainly "H.M.S. Pinafore" was not a model ship as regards the sense of discipline that exists in the real British Navy. But in every other respect it was a model ship. Captain Corcoran was the commander of its jovial crew, and a very fine commander he was, always indulgent to his men and always ready to address them politely. Swearing on board was a thing almost unknown. Corcoran did say "bother it" now and again, but he tells us that he never used "a big, big d——" at least, "hardly ever." Lustily do the crew "give three cheers and one cheer more for the well-bred captain of the Pinafore."
The opera has the quarter-deck for its setting, and it is related that Gilbert took as his model for this scene the old Victory, which he went to see at Portsmouth. Our first introduction is to the crew, who busily polish the brasswork and splice the rope while they sing in tuneful nautical strains that their "saucy ship's a beauty" and manned by "sober men and true, attentive to their duty." Only one gruff old salt is there amongst them, and we discover him in the ugly, distorted form of Dick Deadeye. He is thoroughly unpopular. Soon the sailors welcome on board Little Buttercup, a Portsmouth bumboat woman who has come to sell her wares, and who is hailed as "the rosiest, the roundest and the reddest beauty in all Spithead." She has certainly some delightful ditties to sing.
One member of the crew is handsome Ralph Rackstraw, who confesses to a passion for Corcoran's pretty daughter, Josephine. The poor fellow is downcast that his ambitions should have soared to such impossible heights. Yet Josephine herself is also sad because of a heart that "hopes but vainly." Corcoran chides her, and tells her how happy she should be when her hand is to be claimed, that very day, by the great Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B., the First Lord of the Admiralty. She confesses [143] that, although she is a proud captain's daughter, she loves a humble sailor on board her father's own ship.
Sir Joseph's stately barge is approaching. He comes attended by a host of his sisters and his cousins and his aunts, a very large and charming family group whom the sailors, instead of standing rigidly at attention, salute with effusive politeness. Sir Joseph, attired in the Court dress of his office, proceeds at once to describe his meteoric rise from an office boy in an attorney's firm to become the "ruler of the Queen's Navee." The story is that of an industrious clerk who, having "served the writs with a smile so bland and copied all the letters in a big round hand" is taken at last into partnership, and eventually becomes an obedient party man in Parliament and a member of the Ministry. For landsmen the moral of it all is summed up in this golden rule:—
"Stick close to your desk and never go to sea
And you all may be rulers of the Queen's Navee."
The First Lord has ideas of his own that the sense of independence in the lower deck must be fully encouraged. The British sailor he holds to be any man's equal, and he insists that Captain Corcoran shall accompany every order of his crew, over whom he has been placed merely by accident of birth, with a courteous "if you please." Then he takes Corcoran into the cabin to teach him another accomplishment—dancing the hornpipe. Josephine meanwhile steals out on to the deck. She meets Ralph Rackstraw, who boldly gambles his all on an immediate protestation of love, only to be refused for his presumption and impetuosity. The poor fellow, before the whole ship's company and without their lifting a hand to restrain him, prepares to blow out his brains, when the girl rushes into his arms. Notwithstanding the evil Dick Deadeye's warning, they arrange to steal ashore at night to be married, and the curtain falls on the crew giving three cheers for the sailor's bride.
When the second act opens the deck is bathed in moonlight. Captain Corcoran is strumming his mandoline and singing a plaintive song—he laments that everything is at sixes and sevens—while gazing at him [144] sentimentally is Little Buttercup. Following a duet between them, Sir Joseph Porter enters to complain that he is disappointed in Josephine, and Corcoran can attribute her reticence only to the exalted rank of so distinguished a suitor as the First Lord of the Admiralty. Corcoran afterwards takes his daughter aside and explains to her that love is a platform on which all ranks meet, little mindful how eloquently he is thus pleading the cause of humble Ralph. When the girl has left Dick Deadeye comes to warn the father of the plan for a midnight elopement. Enveloping himself in a cloak, with a cat-o'-nine-tails in his hand, he awaits developments. Soon the crew steal in on tiptoe, and afterwards the two lovers, ready to escape ashore in the dingy. Captain Corcoran surprises them, but, to his amazement, Ralph Rickshaw openly and defiantly avows his love, while the crew chant his praises as an Englishman:—
"For he might have been a Roosian,
A French, or Turk, or Proosian,
Or perhaps Itali-an.
But in spite of all temptations
To belong to other nations
He remains an Englishman!"
Even for the well-bred skipper this is too much. He explodes with a "big, big d——." Sir Joseph hears the bad language and is horrified. He will hear of no explanations. Captain Corcoran is banished to his cabin in disgrace.
The First Lord is destined to receive still another shock. He hears of the attachment between Josephine and Ralph. The "presumptuous mariner" is ordered to be handcuffed and marched off to the dungeon. But it is after this that we hear the biggest surprise of all—and from the lips of Little Buttercup. She recalls that in the years long ago she practised baby farming, and to her care were committed two infants, "one of low condition, the other a patrician." Unhappily, in a luckless moment she mixed those children up, and the poor baby really was Corcoran and the rich one Ralph Rackstraw. Ralph thereupon enters in a captain's uniform. Corcoran follows him in the dress of a mere able-seaman. Sir Joseph decides that, although love levels rank in many cases, his own marriage with a common sailor's daughter is out of the question, and he resigns himself then and there to his venerable cousin, Hebe. Ralph claims his Josephine, while the fallen Corcoran links his future with that of the bumboat woman, Little Buttercup.
A. LYTTON
"SIR JOSEPH PORTER" IN "H.M.S. PINAFORE."
"THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE."
[145]
Produced April 30th, 1880.
Sheltered in the Cornish coast was the hiding place of a band of tender-hearted pirates. Never was the trade of the skull-and-cross-bones followed by men of such sensitive and compassionate feelings. They made it a point of honour never to attack a weaker party, and whenever they attempted to fight a stronger one they invariably got thrashed. Orphans themselves, they shrank from ever laying a molesting hand on an orphan, and many of the ships they captured had to be released because they were found to be manned entirely by orphans. Little wonder was it that these Pirates of Penzance could not make the grim trade of piracy pay.
The curtain rises on a scene of revelry. Frederic has just completed his pirate apprenticeship and is being hailed as a fully-fledged member of the gang. That he had been indentured with them at all was a mistake. When he was a lad his nurse was told to take and apprentice him to a pilot, and when she discovered her stupid blunder she let him stay with the pirates, and remained with them herself as a maid-of-all-work rather than return to brave the parental fury. Frederic, at all times the slave of duty, has loyally served out his time, but now he announces that not only will he not continue at a trade he detests, but he is going to devote himself heart and soul to his old comrades' extermination. The declaration turns the camp from joy into mourning, but these very scrupulous pirates have to admit that a man must act as his conscience dictates, and they can [146] only crave that the manner of their deaths may be painless and speedy.
Frederic has never seen a woman's face—no other woman's face, at least, but Ruth's, his old nurse, who adores him—and thus there come as a vision of loveliness to him the figures of the many daughters of Major-General Stanley. They have penetrated into the rocky cove during a picnic. Frederic, sensitive about his detested dress, hides from them for a while, but soon he reveals himself and entreats them all to stoop in pity so low is to accept the hand and heart of a pirate. Only one of them, Mabel, is ready to take him for what he is, and the love-making between the two is swift and passionate. It is interrupted by the return of the gang, each member of which seizes a girl and claims her as his bride, and during this lively interlude there arrives old General Stanley. He has lagged behind the rest of the party.
The General, a resplendent figure in his uniform, knows a good deal about the most abstruse and complicated sciences, though he proclaims that he knows no more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery. In this he holds himself to be "the very model of a modern major-general." Completing the candid recital of his attainments and want of them, he inquires what strange deeds are afoot, and he has no liking either for pirates as sons-in-law or for the prospect of being robbed wholesale of his daughters. But where is the way of escape? Luckily the General has heard of these Penzance pirates before, and he wrings their sympathy with the sad news that he, too, is "an orphan boy." For such tender-hearted robbers that is enough. They surrender the girls, and with them all thoughts of matrimonial felicity, and restore the entire party to liberty.
The second act is laid in a ruined chapel at night. General Stanley, surrounded by his daughters, has come to do penance for his lie before the tombs of his ancestors, who are his solely by purchase, for he has owned the estate only a year. Frederic is now to lead an expedition against the pirates. For this perilous mission he has gathered together a squad of police, who march in under their sergeant, all of them very nervous and [147] under misgivings that possibly they may be going to "die in combat gory." Soon after they have left there is a whimsical development. Frederic, alone in the chapel, is visited by the Pirate King and Ruth. Covering him first of all with their pistols, they tell him that they have remembered that he was born on the 29th of February, and that as he thus has a birthday only every four years he is still but five years of age!
Frederic, as we have observed before, has a keen sense of duty. In blank despair he agrees to return to the gang to finish his apprenticeship. Once more a member of the band, he is bound also to disclose the horrible fact that the old soldier has practised on the pirates' credulous simplicity, and that in truth he is no orphan boy. The Pirate King decrees that there shall be a swift and terrible revenge that very night.
When all have left but Mabel, who declares that she will remain faithful to her lover until he has lived his twenty-one leap-years, there re-enter the police. The sergeant laments that the policeman's lot is not a happy one. It is distressing to them to have to be the agents whereby their erring fellow-creatures are deprived of the liberty that everyone prizes.
"When the enterprising burglar's not a-burgling,
When the cut-throat isn't occupied in crime,
He loves to hear the little brook a-gurgling
And listen to the merry village chime.
When the coster's finished jumping on his mother,
He loves to lie a-basking in the sun.
Ah! Take one consideration with another
The policeman's lot is not a happy one."
Sounds are heard that indicate the pirates' approach. The police conceal themselves, and soon the intruders enter, armed with all kinds of burglarious tools, and with a cat-like tread (they say so, at least, though they are singing their loudest). They are interrupted, not by the police, but by the appearance of General Stanley. He has had a sleepless night, the effect of a tortured conscience, and he comes in in a dressing-gown and carrying a light. Soon his daughters also appear in their night-caps. The General is seized and ordered to prepare for death. Frederic, even on Mabel's entreaties, cannot save him, for is he not himself a pirate again? [148]
Eventually the police, having passively watched the situation so long, summon up courage and tackle the pirates, but they are soon overcome. The sergeant, who with the rest of his men is held prostrate under drawn swords, then calls upon the ruffians to surrender in the name of the Queen. The command acts like magic. Loyally the pirates kneel to their captives, for it transpires from Ruth's lips that they are really "no members of the common throng; they are all noblemen who have gone wrong." All ends happily. The Pirates of Penzance promise to return forthwith to their legislative duties in the House of Lords and, in doing so, they are to share their coronets with the beautiful daughters of old General Stanley.
"PATIENCE."
Produced April 23rd, 1881.
There is satire in the very name of this opera. The craze for �stheticism against which it was directed must have placed a strain on the patience of so brilliant an exponent of British commonsense as Sir William Gilbert.
Shortly before the play opens, twenty of the maidens of the village adjoining Castle Bunthorne had fallen in love with the officers of the 35th Heavy Dragoons. But when Reginald Bunthorne, a fleshly poet and a devotee of the �sthetic cult, arrived at the castle, they had fallen out of love with their Dragoons and united with Lady Jane (of uncertain age) in worshipping him. When the curtain rises the "twenty love-sick maidens" are lamenting that Bunthorne is "ice-insensible." Lady Jane tells them that he loves Patience, the village milkmaid, who is seen regarding them with pity. Lady Angela tells Patience that if she has never loved she can never have known true happiness. Patience replies that "the truly happy always seem to have so much on their minds," and "never seem quite well." Lady Jane explains that it is "Not indigestion, but �sthetic transfiguration." Patience informs the ladies that the [149] 35th Dragoon Guards have arrived. Lady Ella declares, "We care nothing for Dragoon Guards." "But," exclaims Patience, "You were all engaged to them." "Our minds have been etherealised, our perceptions exalted," answers Lady Angela, who calls on the others to lift up their voices in morning carol to "Our Reginald."
The 35th Dragoons arrive and the Colonel gives us in song:—
"A receipt for that popular mystery
Known to the world as a Heavy Dragoon."
One of them who arrives later looks miserable, but declares "I'm as cheerful as a poor devil can be, who has the misfortune to be a Duke with a thousand a day." His wretchedness is not relieved by the entrance of Bunthorne, followed by the maidens, who ignore the Dragoons. The Poet pretends to be absorbed in the composition of a poem, but he slyly observes, "I hear plainly all they say, twenty love-sick maidens they." Lady Jane explains to the soldiers that Bunthorne has idealised them. Bunthorne meanwhile is to be seen writhing in the throes of composition. "Finished!" he exclaims and faints in the arms of the Colonel. When he recovers, the love-sick maidens entreat him to read the poem. "Shall I?" he asks. Fiercely the Dragoons shout "No!" but bidding the ladies to "Cling passionately to one another," he recites "Oh, Hollow! Hollow! Hollow!" When the Colonel reminds the ladies that they are engaged to the Dragoons, Lady Saphir says, "It can never be. You are not Empyrean," while Lady Jane sneers at the crudity of their red and yellow uniforms. The Dragoons resent this "insult" to a uniform which has been "as successful in the courts of Venus as in the field of Mars," and lament that "the peripatetics of long-haired �sthetics" should have captured the ladies' fancy. Angrily they return to their camp.
Bunthorne, left "alone and unobserved," confesses to being an "�sthetic sham." "In short," he says, "my medi�valism's affectation, born of a morbid love of admiration." Then Patience enters, and he makes love to her. She repulses him, and tragically he bids her [150] farewell. Lady Angela implores her to "Try, try, try to love." She dilates upon the "Ennobling and unselfish passion" until Patience declares, "I won't go to bed until I'm head over ears in love with somebody." Patience soliloquises, "I had no idea love was a duty. No wonder they all look so unhappy. I'll go at once and fall in love with—" but stops, startled by a figure almost as grotesque as Bunthorne, and exclaims, "A stranger!" The stranger is Archibald Grosvenor, an idyllic poet, who plunges boldly into a declaration of love with his "Prithee pretty maiden, will you marry me." Patience replies, "I do not know you and therefore must decline." He reveals that he was her sweetheart in childhood's days. Grosvenor begs Patience imagine "The horror of his situation, gifted with unrivalled beauty, and madly loved at first sight by every woman he meets." When Patience enquires why he does not disfigure himself to escape such persecution, he replies, "These gifts were given to me for the enjoyment and delectation of my fellow creatures. I am a trustee for beauty." Grosvenor and Patience plight their troth, but as she remembers that love must be unselfish, and that Grosvenor is so beautiful that there can be no unselfishness in loving him, they bid each other "Farewell." Just as they are parting it occurs to Patience that it cannot be selfish for Grosvenor to love her, and he promises, "I'll go on adoring."
Bunthorne, crowned and garlanded with roses, returns accompanied by his solicitor and the ladies. The Dragoons arrive also, and ask Bunthorne why he should be so arrayed. He explains that, heart-broken by Patience's rejection, and on the advice of his solicitor, he has put himself up to be raffled for by his admirers. The Dragoons make a fruitless appeal to the ladies in a song by the Duke. The drawing is about to take place when Patience enters, craves Bunthorne's pardon, and offers to be his bride. When Bunthorne rejoices that this is due to the fact that she loves him fondly, Patience tells him that it is because "A maiden who devotes herself to loving you, is prompted by no selfish view."
This scene leads to a temporary reconciliation between [151] the Dragoons and the ladies, who embrace each other and declare that "Never, oh never, this heart will range from that old, old love again." Then Grosvenor enters. He walks slowly, engrossed in reading. The ladies are strangely fascinated by him and gradually withdraw from the arms of their martial admirers. Lady Angela asks:—
"But who is this, whose god-like grace
Proclaims he comes of noble race."
Grosvenor replies: "I'm a broken-hearted troubadour.... I am �sthetic and poetic." With one voice the ladies cry "Then we love you," and leaving their Dragoons they kneel round Grosvenor, arousing the fury of Bunthorne and the horror not only of the Dragoons, but of Grosvenor himself, who declares that "Again my cursed comeliness spreads hopeless anguish and distress."
The curtain falls on this scene, and when it rises again Lady Jane is discovered soliloquising upon the fickle crew who have deserted Bunthorne and sworn allegiance to Grosvenor. She alone is faithful to Bunthorne. Grosvenor enters, followed by the twenty love-sick maidens, pleading for "A gentle smile." He reads them two decalets, and wearying of their worship, he tells them that his heart is fixed elsewhere, and bids them remember the fable of the magnet and the churn.
Bunthorne and Lady Jane return. The poet is indignant that Grosvenor has cut him out. Lady Jane assures him that she is still faithful, but promises to help him to vanquish his rival, and to achieve this purpose they concert a plan.
Then the Duke, the Colonel and the Major appear. They have discarded their uniforms and adopted an �sthetic dress and make-up, and they practise the attitudes which they imagine will appeal to the ladies. When two of these appear, it is evident that the plan is succeeding, for Lady Angela exclaims, "See! The immortal fire has descended upon them." The officers explain they are doing this at some personal inconvenience to show their devotion, and hope that it is not without effect. They are assured that their conversion to the �sthetic art in its highest development has touched the ladies deeply. [152]
In due course the officers and ladies disappear and give place to Grosvenor. Looking at his reflection in a hand mirror, he declares, "Ah! I am a veritable Narcissus." Bunthorne now wanders on, talking to himself, and declaring that he cannot live without admiration. He accuses Grosvenor of monopolising the attentions of the young ladies. Grosvenor assures him that they are the plague of his life, and asks how he can escape from his predicament. Bunthorne orders him completely to change his appearance, so as to appear absolutely commonplace. At first Grosvenor declines, but when Bunthorne threatens to curse him, he yields cheerfully, and Bunthorne rejoices in the prospect that:—
"When I go out of door
Of damozels a score,
And clinging and yearning
Will follow me as before."
Patience enters to find him dancing, and he tells her that, in future, he will be a changed man, having modelled himself upon Grosvenor. She expresses joy, but then recoils from him as she remembers that, as he is now to be utterly free from defect of any kind, her love for him cannot be absolutely unselfish.
Just as Bunthorne is offering to relapse, Grosvenor enters, followed by the ladies and the Dragoons. Grosvenor has assumed an absolutely commonplace appearance. They all dance cheerfully round the stage, and when Bunthorne asks the ladies "What it all means," they tell him that as Grosvenor or "Archibald the All-right cannot be all wrong," and as he has discarded �stheticism, "It proves that �stheticism ought to be discarded." Patience now discovers that she is free to love Grosvenor. Bunthorne is disappointed, but Lady Jane, who is still �sthetic tells him to cheer up, as she will never forsake him. They have scarcely time to embrace before the Colonel announces that the Duke has determined to choose a bride. He selects Lady Jane, greatly to the disgust of Bunthorne, who, finding himself the odd man out, declares, "I shall have to be contented with a tulip or lily."
A. LYTTON
[153]
Produced November 25th, 1882.
Iolanthe was a Fairy—the life and soul of Fairyland. She wrote all the fairy songs and arranged the fairy dances. For twenty-five years Iolanthe has been in banishment. She had transgressed the fairy law by marrying a mortal, and it was only the Queen's love which saved her from death.
When the curtain rises we witness a gathering of fairies, hear them sing one of Iolanthe's songs, and see them trip her measures. They lament her absence and plead for her pardon. Compassion allied to curiosity impels the Queen to recall Iolanthe. For Iolanthe had chosen to dwell at the bottom of a stream, on whose banks we see the fairies disporting themselves. Rising from the pool, clad in water-weeds, Iolanthe receives the Royal pardon. Compassion having been exercised, curiosity demands satisfaction. The Queen enquires why Iolanthe should have chosen to live at the bottom of a stream. Iolanthe then reveals her secret. She has a son who was born shortly after her banishment, and she wished to be near him. The Queen and the other fairies are deeply interested, and just as the Queen is expressing her desire to see the "half-fairy, half-mortal" Arcadian shepherd, Strephon, he dances up to Iolanthe, and with song and pipe urges her to rejoice because "I'm to be married to-day." Iolanthe tells Strephon that she has been pardoned, and presents Strephon to the Queen and to her fairy sisters. "My aunts!" exclaimed Strephon with obvious delight.
Strephon explains the peculiar difficulties consequent on being only half a fairy, and the Queen promises that henceforward the fairies will always be ready to come to his aid should be he in "doubt or danger, peril or perplexitee." Strephon is now joined by Phyllis—a beautiful ward of Chancery and his bride-elect. In the prelude to one of the most delightful love-songs ever written, Phyllis reveals her fear of the consequences which may fall upon Strephon for marrying her without [154] the consent of the Lord Chancellor, and Strephon demonstrates that his fairy ancestry has not freed him from the pangs of jealousy.
We now witness the entrance and march of the peers in their gorgeous robes, to the strains of magnificent music, ending with a chorus which is assumed to embody the traditional attitude of the peers to the people:—
"Bow, bow ye lower middle classes,
Bow, bow ye tradesmen, bow ye masses."
The Lord Chancellor enters at the conclusion of this chorus, and after a song upon his responsibilities as "The constitutional guardian I, of pretty young wards in Chancery," he announces that the business before the House concerns the disposal of the hand of Phyllis, a Ward of Court. All the peers have fallen in love with her and wish the Lord Chancellor to bestow her upon the one whom she may select. The Lord Chancellor confesses to being "singularly attracted by this young person" and laments that his judicial position prevents him from awarding her to himself. Phyllis arrives, and after being proposed to by Lord Tolloller and Lord Mount-Ararat, the whole of the peers invite her acceptance of their coronets and hearts. Phyllis tells them that already "her heart is given." The Lord Chancellor indignantly demands the name of her lover. Before Phyllis can reply, Strephon opportunely enters the "House" and claims "his darling's hand." The peers depart, dignified and stately, with haughty and disdainful glances upon the lovers.
The glee with which Strephon and Phyllis have regarded their departure is suddenly ended by the wrathful "Now, sir!" of the Lord Chancellor, who separates the lovers and bids Phyllis depart. His severe and sarcastic admonitions leave Strephon lamenting. Iolanthe returns to find her son in tears. As she tenderly consoles him, Phyllis stealthily re-enters escorted by the peers. Knowing nothing of her lover's fairy origin, and seeing him embracing one who appears equally young and beautiful as herself, she breaks from the hands of the peers just as Iolanthe and Strephon are parting, and accuses the latter of shameless deceit. Strephon's [155] explanation that "this lady's my mother" is disbelieved by Phyllis and greeted with derision by the peers, who decline to admit that "a maid of seventeen" can be the mother of "a man of four or five-and-twenty."
Believing herself to have been deceived by Strephon, Phyllis now ruefully offers to accept either Tolloller or Mount-Ararat, but doesn't care which. Just as she has placed the noble lords in this quandary, Strephon reappears, and invokes the aid of the Fairy Queen. Instantaneously the fairy band are seen "tripping hither, tripping thither" among the amazed peers, while the slender Lord Chancellor encounters a rude shock when he collides with the massive form of the Queen. Strephon tells his tale of woe, and there follows an amazing and amusing exchange of reproach and ridicule. The infuriated Queen determines to punish the peers. Strephon shall go into Parliament to wreak vengeance on them. The recital of the measures which he is to carry through Parliament alarms the peers, and the first Act ends, after a pretence at defiance, in their vainly suing for mercy.
The second Act of "Iolanthe" is staged in the Palace Yard at Westminster. A solitary sentry is discovered moralising upon the proceedings in "that House." He has observed that if the members have—
"A brain and cerebellum, too,
They've got to leave that brain outside
And vote just as their leaders tell 'em to."
Presently the fairies reappear and rejoice over Strephon's success as a member of Parliament. Then the peers enter and reveal their annoyance with Strephon, whom they describe as "a Parliamentary Pickford—he carries everything." A heated argument ensues between the fairies and the peers. It is ended by a song from Mount-Ararat in praise of the House of Peers, which sparkles with satire on the members of that ancient institution, who make "no pretence to intellectual eminence or scholarship sublime."
Having pleaded in vain that the fairies should prevent Strephon from doing further mischief, they depart in anger, and the Queen enters to find her band gazing wistfully after them. Scenting danger, the Queen calls [156] upon them to subdue this "weakness," Celia retorts that "the weakness is so strong." The Queen replies by protesting that, although she herself is not "insensible to the effect of manly beauty" in the person of the stalwart Guardsman still on sentry-go, she is able to subdue her feelings, though in the famous "Captain Shaw" song which follows she asks:—
"Could thy Brigade
With cold cascade
Quench my great love, I wonder?"
Phyllis now re-appears, seeming very unhappy, and is presently joined by Tolloller and Mount-Ararat, who wrangle as to which shall yield her to the other. Phyllis implores them not to fight for her. "It is not worth while," she declares, and after a moment's reflection they agree that "the sacred ties of friendship are paramount." Following the departure of the trio there enters the Lord Chancellor looking dejected and very miserable. He, too, it will be remembered, had fallen in love with Phyllis, and he now mourns aloud that "love unrequited robs him of his rest." Mount-Ararat and Tolloller join him and express their concern at his woebegone appearance. He explains, and they persuade him to make another application to himself for permission to marry Phyllis. Then Phyllis and Strephon encounter each other in the Palace Square. Taunted by a reference to his "young" mother, Strephon discloses that she is a fairy. This leads to a reconciliation. Iolanthe joins them, and when they ask her to appeal to the Lord Chancellor for his consent to their marriage, she reveals the secret of her life. The Lord Chancellor is her husband! He thinks her dead, and she is bound under penalty of death not to undeceive him. The Lord Chancellor enters exclaiming "Victory! victory!" In the highest spirits he relates how he had wrested from himself permission to marry Phyllis. Then Iolanthe, still hiding her identity, pleads Strephon's cause. When he refuses her plea, she determines to gain happiness for her son even at the cost of her own life. Despite the warning song of her fairy sisters, Iolanthe shocks the Chancellor with the words, "It may not be—I am thy wife."
The [157] Fairy Queen breaks in upon this tragic episode with the threat of Iolanthe's doom, but ere it can be pronounced the Fairy Leila tells the Queen that if Iolanthe must die so must they all, for all have married peers. Bewildered by this dilemma the Fairy Queen is greatly relieved when the Lord Chancellor suggests that instead of the fairy law reading "Every fairy must die who marries a mortal" it should be "Every fairy must die who don't marry a mortal." Accepting the suggestion the Queen finds her own life in peril. She proposes to the stalwart Grenadier still on duty, who gallantly accepts. The peers also agree to exchange the "House of Peers for House of Peris." Wings spring from their shoulders and away they all fly, "Up in the sky, ever so high," where "pleasures come in endless series."
"PRINCESS IDA."
Produced January 5th, 1884.
Princess Ida was the daughter of King Gama, and when but twelve-months' old, she had been betrothed to Prince Hilarion, the two-year-old son of King Hildebrand. The opening scene presents King Hildebrand and his courtiers awaiting the arrival of King Gama and Princess Ida for the celebration of the nuptials in accordance with the marriage contract. Some doubt exists as to whether this will be honoured, for Prince Hilarion has heard that his bride has "forsworn the world." It is presently announced that Gama and his train are approaching. His appearance is preceded by that of three bearded warriors clad in armour, who declare that they are "Sons of Gama Rex," and na�vely add, "Like most sons are we, masculine in sex." They are followed by Gama, who fits in appearance Hildebrand's description of him as "a twisted monster [158] —all awry." In a three-verse song Gama describes his own character in detail, each verse ending:—
"Yet everybody thinks I'm such a disagreeable man
And I can't think why."
Gama proceeds to justify the universal opinion by his venomous remarks to Hildebrand's courtiers, and when Hildebrand demands the reason for Ida's absence, he becomes insulting. Later, he relates that Ida has established and rules a Woman's University in Castle Adamant, from which all males are excluded. Gama tells Hilarion that if he addresses the lady most politely she may deign to look on him. Hildebrand bids Hilarion to go to Castle Adamant and claim Ida as his wife, but adds that if she refuses, his soldiers will "storm the lady." King Gama is detained as hostage, with the warning that "should Hilarion disappear, we will hang you, never fear, most politely, most politely." Gama and his three sons are then marched off to their prison cell.
In the second act, we are transported to Castle Adamant, and behold, in the gardens, Lady Psyche surrounded by girl graduates. Lady Blanche arrives, and reads to them the Princess Ida's list of punishments. One student is expelled for bringing in a set of chessmen, while another is punished for having sketched a perambulator. Then Princess Ida herself enters, and is hailed by the students as a "mighty maiden with a mission." Her address to the students is intended to demonstrate woman's superiority over man. Then Lady Blanche, in announcing a lecture by herself on abstract philosophy, reveals that the exclusion of the male sex from the university has not banished jealousy. Ida and the students enter the castle. Hardly have they gone, when Hilarion, accompanied by Cyril and Florian, are seen climbing the garden wall. They don some collegiate robes which they discover, and are appropriately jocular regarding their transformation into "three lovely undergraduates." Surprised by the entry of Princess Ida, they determine to present themselves as would-be students, and she promises them that "if all you say is true, you'll spend with us a happy, [159] happy time." The Princess leaves them alone, but as she goes Lady Psyche enters unobserved. She overhears their conversation, and is amazed by it, but not more so than Florian when he finds that Lady Psyche is his sister. The men entrust her with their secret. She warns them that discovery may mean death, and sings them a song which sums up the Princess Ida's teaching to the effect that man "at best is only a monkey shaved." Melissa now enters. She learns that the visitors are men and loyally promises secrecy. Whilst they are heartily enjoying themselves Lady Blanche, who is the mother of Melissa, has observed them, and as all five are leaving the gardens, she calls Melissa and taxes her with the facts. Melissa explains the situation, and persuades her mother to assist Hilarion's plan.
In the next scene the Princess Ida and the students are seen at an alfresco luncheon. Cyril becomes tipsy, discloses the secret of the intruders, and scandalises the Princess by singing an "old kissing song":—
"Would you know the kind of maid
Sets my heart aflame—a?"
In her excitement at this revelation the Princess falls into the stream which flows through the gardens. Hilarion rescues her, but this gallant feat does not shake the lady's resolution, and she orders their arrest. As they are marched away Melissa brings news of an armed band without the castle. Speedily Hildebrand, at the head of his soldiers, confronts Ida. The three sons of Gama, still clad in armour, warn her that refusal to yield means death. Hildebrand gives Ida until the next day to "decide to pocket your pride and let Hilarion claim his bride." The curtain falls upon the Princess hurling defiance at Hildebrand.
When the curtain rises for the third time, we discover that the outer walls and courtyard of Castle Adamant are held by Princess Ida's students, who are armed with battle-axes, and who sing of "Death to the invader." The Princess comes attended by Blanche and Psyche, and warns them that "we have to meet stern bearded warriors in fight to-day." She bids them remember that they have to show that they "can meet [160] Man face to face on his own ground, and beat him there." But as she reviews her forces, she meets with disappointment. The lady surgeon declares that, although she has often cut off legs and arms in theory, she won't cut off "real live legs and arms." The armourer explains that the rifles have been left in the armoury "for fear ... they might go off." The band-mistress excuses the absence of the band who "can't come out to-day." Contemptuously, Ida bids them depart. Lamenting the failure of her plan, she is surprised by the arrival of her father, who announces that he is to give a message from Hildebrand, and then return to "black captivity." The message is that, being loth to war with women, Hildebrand wishes Ida to consent to the disposal of her hand being settled by combat between her three brothers and three of Hildebrand's knights. Ida demands of her father what possesses him that he should convey such an offer. Gama replies: "He tortures me with torments worse than death," and in pity she yields to the proposal.
While the girls mount the battlements, Hildebrand and his soldiers enter, and there is a fight between Gama's sons and Hilarion, Cyril and Florian. The latter are victorious. Seeing her brothers lying wounded, Ida cries "Hold—we yield ourselves to you," and resigns the headship of the University to Lady Blanche. Sadly Ida admits the failure of her scheme. She had hoped to band all women together to adjure tyrannic man. To Hildebrand she says that if her scheme had been successful "at my exalted name posterity would bow." Hildebrand retorts, "If you enlist all women in your cause—how is this posterity to be provided?" Ida turns to Hilarion, admitting her error to him, and the opera ends with the company declaring:—
"It were profanity for poor humanity
To treat as vanity the sway of love.
In no locality or principality
Is our mortality its sway above."
A. LYTTON
"KING GAMA" IN "PRINCESS IDA."
"THE MIKADO."
[161]
Produced March 14th, 1885.
Although this opera is entitled "The Mikado" very little is seen of that great potentate, which is quite in accordance with Japanese custom, so vastly different to ours in matters of Royalty. The opera concerns much more closely the adventures of Nanki-Poo, the Mikado's son and heir, who has fled in disguise from the Court to escape from Katisha, an elderly lady whom the Mikado had ordered him to marry within a week or perish.
Immediately after the opening chorus by the gentlemen of Japan the disguised Crown Prince enters. He is labouring under great excitement, and begs for information as to the dwelling of "a gentle maiden, Yum-Yum." One of the Japanese nobles asks, "Who are you?" and he replies in a delightful song—
"A wandering minstrel I,
A thing of shreds and patches,
Of ballads, songs and snatches,
And dreamy lullaby."
In reply to a further question as to his business with the maiden, Nanki-Poo takes the gentlemen of Japan partly into his confidence. He explains that a year before he had fallen in love with Yum-Yum, who returned his affection. As, however, she was betrothed to her guardian Ko-Ko, a cheap tailor, he had left Titipu in despair. Learning that Ko-Ko has been condemned to death for flirting, he now hoped to find Yum-Yum free. Alas! for Nanki-Poo's hopes, they inform him that not only has Ko-Ko been reprieved, but that he has been elevated to the highest rank a citizen can attain, and is now Lord High Executioner. Pish Tush explains that, in order to circumvent the Mikado's decree making flirtation a capital offence, they have appointed Ko-Ko as Lord High Executioner, because, being under sentence of death himself, he cannot cut off anybody else's head until he has cut off his own. [162]
Expressing his sense of the condescension shown to him by Pooh-Bah, that portly personage explains that although "a particularly haughty and exclusive person" who can trace his ancestry back to "a protoplasmic, primordial, atomic globule," he mortifies his family pride. In proof of this he points out that, when all the other high officers of State had resigned because they were too proud to serve under an ex-tailor, he had accepted all their posts (and the salaries attached) at once, so that he is now First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Chief Justice, Commander-in-Chief, Lord High Admiral, Master of the Buckhounds, Groom of the Back Stairs, Archbishop, and Lord Mayor.
Pooh-Bah informs Nanki-Poo that Yum-Yum is arriving from school that very day to be married to Ko-Ko. Ko-Ko enters, preceded by a chorus of nobles, and Pooh-Bah refers Nanki-Poo to him for any further information concerning Yum-Yum. This is Ko-Ko's first public appearance as Lord High Executioner, and after thanking the nobles for their welcome, he promises strict attention to his duties. Happily, he remarks, "there will be no difficulty in finding plenty of people whose loss will be a distinct gain to society at large." He proceeds to mention in a song that he's got "a little list" of possible victims and "they'll none of 'em be missed."
So far the opera has been an exclusively masculine affair, but Yum-Yum now arrives escorted by a bevy of dainty schoolfellows, who sing of their "Wondering what the world can be." This little chorus contains two exquisite verses—
"Is it but a world of trouble
Sadness set to song?
Is its beauty but a bubble,
Bound to break ere long?"
"Are its palaces and pleasures
Fantasies that fade?
And the glory of its treasures
Shadows of a shade?"
Yum-Yum and her bridesmaids, Peep-bo and Pitti Sing, introduce themselves by the delicious trio, "Three Little Maids." Ko-Ko and Pooh-Bah enter, and Yum-Yum reluctantly permits Ko-Ko to kiss her. At this moment, Nanki-Poo arrives and the "three little maids" rush over to him and welcome him with great effusion. Ko-Ko's jealousy is aroused, and he asks to be [163] presented. Right boyishly Nanki-Poo blurts out to Ko-Ko that he loves Yum-Yum. He expects Ko-Ko to be angry, but instead Ko-Ko thanks him for agreeing with him as to the lady's charms. Presently Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum manage to get the Courtyard to themselves. During their t�te-a-t�te Nanki-Poo reveals his secret to Yum-Yum. They are interrupted by the appearance of Ko-Ko and escape in different directions. As Ko-Ko soliloquises upon his beloved, he is interrupted by Pooh-Bah with a letter from the Mikado. This is an intimation that, as no executions have taken place in Titipu for a year, the office of Lord High Executioner will be abolished and the city reduced to the rank of a village unless somebody is beheaded within one month. As this would involve the city in ruin, Ko-Ko declares that he will have to execute someone. Pooh-Bah, pointing out that Ko-Ko himself is under sentence of death, suggests that he should execute himself. This leads to an acrimonious discussion, which is ended by Ko-Ko appointing Pooh-Bah, who is already holding all the other high offices of State, to be Lord High Substitute (for himself as a victim of the headsman). But Pooh-Bah declares "I must set bounds to my insatiable ambition." He draws the line at his own death.
Whilst Ko-Ko is lamenting the position as "simply appalling" he is disturbed by the entrance of Nanki-Poo with a rope in his hands. He has made up his mind to commit suicide because Ko-Ko is going to marry Yum-Yum. Finding "threats, entreaties, prayers all useless" Ko-Ko is struck with a brilliant idea. He suggests that Nanki-Poo should at the end of a month's time "be beheaded handsomely at the hands of the Public Executioner." To this Nanki-Poo agrees on condition that Ko-Ko permits him to marry Yum-Yum. Reluctantly Ko-Ko accepts the condition, and when Pooh-Bah returns to enquire what Ko-Ko has decided to do in regard to an execution, he replies, "Congratulate me! I've found a volunteer." Whilst the townsfolk of Titipu are bantering Nanki-Poo on the prospect of marriage and death, their revelry is interrupted by the arrival of the lady who was the cause of Nanki-Poo's wandering. Katisha discovers Nanki-Poo [164] and calls upon him to "give me my place." When he refuses she would have revealed his identity, but every time she tries to say "He is the son of your Mikado" her voice is drowned by the singing of Nanki-Poo, Yum-Yum and the chorus. Eventually Katisha rushes away threatening furious vengeance.
When the curtain rises again the scene is the garden of Ko-Ko's palace. We see Yum-Yum decked by her bridesmaids for the wedding, while they sing of her loveliness, and Pitti-Sing bids her "Sit with downcast eye; let it brim with dew." Pitti-Sing tells her also that "modesty at marriage tide well becomes a pretty bride," but this admonition seems lost upon a bride who, when her adornment is complete, frankly revels in her beauty. In "The Sun whose rays," a song of entrancing melody, she declares, "I mean to rule the earth as he the sky."
But her rapture is marred by the reminder from Peep-Bo that her bridegroom has only a month to live. Nanki-Poo finds her in tears, and has much difficulty in comforting her, their feelings being aptly expressed in that wonderful madrigal, which although it begins so joyfully with "Brightly dawns our wedding day," yet ends in tears. Ko-Ko now joins the wedding party, and although the sight of Yum-Yum in Nanki-Poo's arms is "simple torture," he insists on remaining so that he may get used to it. When Yum-Yum says it is only for a month, he tells of his discovery that when a married man is beheaded his wife must be buried alive. Naturally, Yum-Yum demurs to a wedding with such a hideous ending to the honeymoon, and Nanki-Poo declares that, as he cannot live without Yum-Yum, he intends to perform the "happy dispatch." Ko-Ko's protest is followed by the entry of Pooh-Bah to announce the approach of the Mikado and his suite. They will arrive in ten minutes. Ko-Ko, believing that the Mikado is coming to see whether his orders regarding an execution have been obeyed, is in great alarm. Nanki-Poo invites Ko-Ko to behead him at once, and Pooh-Bah agitatedly urges Ko-Ko to "chop it off," but he declares that he can't do it. He has "never even killed a blue-bottle." Ko-Ko decides that the making of an affidavit that Nanki-Poo [165] has been executed, witnessed by Pooh-Bah in each of his capacities as Lord Chief Justice, etc., etc., will satisfy the Mikado. Pooh-Bah agrees on condition that he shall be "grossly insulted" with "cash down."
Then as Commissionaire Pooh-Bah is ordered to find Yum-Yum, Ko-Ko orders her to go along with the Archbishop (Pooh-Bah), who will marry her to Nanki-Poo at once. Waving aside all questions, Ko-Ko urges them off just as the procession heralding the Mikado and Katisha enters the garden to the strains of "Miya sama, miya sama." The Mikado extols himself as "a true philanthropist" and declares "my object all sublime, I shall achieve in time; to let the punishment fit the crime." His list of social crimes and the penalties prescribed for each class of offender are equally amusing. Ko-Ko, Pooh-Bah and Pitti-Sing now kneel in the presence, and Ko-Ko informs the Mikado that "the execution has taken place" and hands in the coroner's certificate signed by Pooh-Bah. Then the three proceed to describe an event which had happened only in their imaginations.
The Mikado seems bored, and explains that though all this is very interesting, he has come about a totally different matter. He asks for his son, who is masquerading in Titipu under the name of Nanki-Poo. Ko-Ko and his associates are visibly disturbed, but he stammers out that Nanki-Poo has gone abroad. The Mikado demands his address. "Knightsbridge" is the reply. (At the time this opera was originally produced there was a Japanese colony in Knightsbridge.) Just then Katisha, reading the coroner's certificate, discovers that it contains the name of Nanki-Poo and shrieks her dismay. Pooh-Bah, Ko-Ko, and Pitti-Sing grovel at the Mikado's feet, and apologise abjectly. The Mikado urges them not to distress themselves, and just as they are feeling that it doesn't really matter, the Mikado turns to Katisha with "I forget the punishment for compassing the death of the heir-apparent." The three culprits learn with horror that it is "something humorous, but lingering, with either boiling oil or molten lead in it." The Mikado appoints "after luncheon" for the punishment which "fits their crime." [166]
When the Mikado has departed Ko-Ko and Pooh-Bah decide that Nanki-Poo must "come to life at once." At this moment he and his bride cross the garden—leaving for their honeymoon. Ko-Ko explains that the Mikado wants Nanki-Poo, and Pooh-Bah ironically adds, "So does Katisha." But Nanki Poo fears that, in her anger at his marriage, Katisha will persuade the Mikado to order his execution, thus involving Yum-Yum in a worse fate. He therefore refuses to re-appear until Ko-Ko has persuaded Katisha to marry him. Then "existence will be as welcome as the flowers in spring." As this seems to be the only way of escape, Ko-Ko seeks Katisha. At first she repulses him, but after he has told her in song the story of the little tom-tit that committed suicide because of blighted affection, she relents.
Now the Mikado returns from luncheon, and asks if "the painful preparations have been made." Being assured that they have, he orders the three culprits to be produced. As they again grovel at his feet, Katisha intercedes for mercy. She tells the Mikado that she has just married "this miserable object," indicating Ko-Ko. The Mikado is remarking "But as you have slain the heir-apparent" when Nanki-Poo enters saying "the heir-apparent is not slain." He is heartily welcomed by the Mikado, while Katisha denounces Ko-Ko as a traitor. Ko-Ko then explains everything to the Mikado's satisfaction, and the opera ends with the joyous strains of Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum uniting in "the threatened cloud has passed away and fairly shines the dawning day," whilst the entire company help them—
"With joyous shout and ringing cheer,
Inaugurate our new career."
"RUDDIGORE."
Produced January 22nd, 1887.
In the days of long, long ago there live the wicked Sir Rupert Murgatroyd, baronet of Ruddigore. He spent all his leisure and his wealth in the persecution of [167] witches, and the more fiendish his cruelties, the more he enjoyed the ruthless sport. But there came a day when he was roasting alive an old witch on the village green. The hag uttered a terrible curse both on the baronet and on all his descendants. Every lord of Ruddigore was doomed to commit one crime a day, and if he attempted to avoid it or became satiated with guilt, that very day he should die in awful agony. The prophecy came true. Each heir to the title inherited the curse and came in the end to a fearful death.
Upon this plot Gilbert wrote his clever burlesque on the transpontine drama—the drama of the virtuous peasant girl in the clutches of the bold and bad baronet—and amongst his characters is a tragic figure not unlike Shakespeare's Ophelia. The first scene is laid in the pretty Cornish fishing village of Rederring. This village, by the way, has a quaint institution in the form of a troop of professional bridesmaids, who are bound to be on duty from ten to four o'clock every day, but whose services have of late been in little request. The girls can only hope that they may soon be able to celebrate the betrothal of Rose Maybud, the belle of Rederring, a precise little maid whose every action is regulated by a book of etiquette, written by no less an authority than the wife of a Lord Mayor. Should an utter stranger be allowed to pay her pretty compliments? "Always speak the truth," answers the book. It tells her that "in accepting an offer of marriage, do so with apparent hesitation," and this same guide and monitor declares that, in similar circumstances, "a little show of emotion will not be misplaced." Rose, indeed, has had very many suitors, but as yet her heart is free.
Early in the opera Dame Hannah, who was herself once wooed by the last baronet in disguise, relates the story of the terrible curse on the house of Murgatroyd. She is Rose's aunt, and she talks to the girl about Robin Oakapple, a young man who "combines the manners of a Marquis with the morals of a Methodist." Now, this same Robin Oakapple, we afterwards learn, is himself the real owner of Ruddigore, but ten years ago he so dreaded the thought of becoming the victim of the witch's malediction that he fled from his ancestral home, [168] assumed the style and name of a simple farmer, and lived unsuspected in Rederring. In the belief that he was dead his younger brother succeeded to the baronetcy and all its obligations to a life of infamy. Only two know the secret—Robin's faithful servant, Old Adam, and his sailor foster-brother, Richard Dauntless.
Robin is such a shy fellow that he cannot summon up the pluck to propose to Rose Maybud. She, it seems, would not be unwilling to return his affections if he declared them, and she gives more than a broad hint to her bashful lover in a delightful duet, "Poor Little Man." But Robin has to do his love-making by proxy. Luckily or otherwise, Richard has just returned from the sea, and this hearty British tar sings a rollicking song in the Dibdin manner about how his man-o'-war, the "Tom-Tit," met a little French frigate, and how they had "pity on a poor Parley-voo." When "Ruddigore" was produced, this number gave grave offence to the French people, and there were critics at home who held that it reflected also on the British Navy. The storm, however, never led then and never would lead now to international complications, and what questions of taste there may be in the lyric are soon forgotten in the engaging hornpipe which follows the song.
Richard, who talks in nautical phrases and declares that he always acts strictly as his heart dictates, promises to help Robin in securing the hand of Rose Maybud. He at least is not afflicted with too much diffidence, and Robin himself sings the lines, which have now passed into a proverb, that if in the world you wish to advance "you must stir it and stump it and blow your own trumpet." But Richard, when he sees the girl, acts as his heart dictates and falls in love with her himself, the courtship scene being delightfully quaint. Robin returns to claim his bride, but when he finds that his foster-brother has played him false, he is not loath to praise his good qualities. Yet, in a trio, the fickle Rose, having the choice between a man who owns many acres and a humble sailor, gives herself to Robin Oakapple.
A. LYTTON
AS
"ROBIN OAKAPPLE" IN "RUDDIGORE."
This [169] incident is followed by the appearance of Mad Margaret, a crazy figure in white who lost her reason when she was jilted by the reigning baronet, Sir Despard Murgatroyd. The poor, distracted girl is still seeking for her faithless lover, and as she toys with her flowers she sings a plaintive and haunting ballad "To a garden full of posies." Following this strange scene, there arrive the Bucks and Blades—all wearing the regimental uniforms of Wellington's time, the period to which the opera is supposed to belong—and after them the gloomy Sir Despard. The crowd shrink from him in horror, while he, poor man, tells how he has really the heart of a child, but how a whole picture gallery of ancestors threaten him with death if he hesitates to commit his daily crime. Then Richard re-enters. Either because of his anger that Robin has claimed Rose's hand or because, at whatever cost, he must do as his heart dictates, he makes known to the baronet that his missing brother is none other than Robin Oakapple. When, a little later, the nuptial ceremony of the happy couple is about to begin, the festivities are interrupted by Sir Despard dramatically declaring Robin's real identity, and poor Robin has to forfeit Rose, who once more turns to Richard, and face a fateful existence as Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd.
For the second act the scene moves to the haunted Picture Gallery of Ruddigore Castle. Sir Ruthven, otherwise Robin, now wears the haggard aspect of a guilty rou�, while the once-benevolent Old Adam acts the part of the wicked "confidential adviser of the greatest villain unhung." They discuss a likely crime for the day. It concerns Richard and Rose, who have arrived to ask for the baronet's consent to their marriage, and he retorts by threatening to commit them to a dungeon. This the sailor thwarts by waving a Union Jack. Then Rose prevails upon the wicked relative to relent. Left alone, the unhappy man addresses the portraits of his ancestors, bidding them to remember the time when they themselves welcomed death at last as a means of freedom from a guilty existence, and urging them to let the thought of that repentance "tune your souls to mercy on your poor posterity." The stage darkens for a moment, and then it is seen that the pictures have become animated and that the figures, representing the [170] long line of the accursed race, and garbed magnificently according to the times in which each of the ancestors lived, have stepped from their frames. Sir Roderic, the last of the baronets to die, sings a spectral song about the ghostly revelries by night.
Now the ancestors remind their degenerate successor that it is their duty to see that he commits his daily crimes in conscientious and workmanlike style. They are not impressed with his record of the crimes he has so far committed. "Everybody does that," they tell him, when he declares that he has falsified his income-tax return, and they are also unmoved when he says that, on other days, he forged his own will and disinherited his unborn son. They demand that he must at least carry off a lady, and when he refuses they torture him until, in agony, he has to accept their command. When the ghosts have returned to their frames Old Adam is accordingly ordered to bring a maiden—any maiden will do—from the village.
Once more we meet Sir Despard and Mad Margaret. They are prim of manner, they wear black of formal cut, and in every way their appearances have changed. They are married and conduct a National School. The ex-baronet has become expert at penny readings. Margaret, now a district visitor, has recovered her sanity, though she has occasional lapses. The quaint duet between them is followed by a meeting with Robin, who hears that his record of infamy includes not only the crimes he has committed during the week, but all those perpetrated by Despard during the ten years he reigned at Ruddigore. He decides, even at the cost of his life, to bid his ancestors defiance. But now Old Adam returns, not with a beautiful maiden, but with old Dame Hannah. She is a tiger cat indeed, and despite the baronet's declaration that he is reforming and that his intentions towards her are honourable, she seizes a formidable dagger from one of the armed figures and declares for a fight to the finish. The episode is interrupted by the re-appearance of the ghostly Sir Roderic. What is more, he and Dame Hannah recognise themselves as old lovers, and a whimsical love-scene leads up to a tender little ballad about the "flower and the oak tree." [171]
The end comes swiftly. Robin, accompanied by all the other characters, rushes in to declare his happy discovery. He argues that a baronet can die only by refusing to commit his daily crime, and thus it follows that a refusal to commit a crime is tantamount to suicide, which is in itself a crime. The curse will thus not stand logical analysis! Sir Roderic concurs, and as the natural deduction is that he himself ought never to have died at all, he and Dame Hannah are able at last to bring joy and laughter within the grim walls of Ruddigore. Robin, having found a week as holder of a title ample enough, determines to earn a modest livelihood in agricultural employment, and this time he both claims and keeps the hand of Rose Maybud. Richard, robbed of his intended bride, soon replaces her from amongst the troup of professional bridesmaids, while Despard and Margaret leave to pass a secluded existence in the town of Basingstoke.
"THE YEOMEN OF THE GUARD."
Produced October 3rd, 1888.
Jack Point was a poor strolling player in the days of old Merrie England. With pretty Elsie Maynard he tramped through the towns and villages, and everywhere the two entertained the good folk with their songs and their dances, their quips and their cranks. Jack Point could have been no ordinary jester. Some years before he had been in the service of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and he mortally offended his Grace by his conundrum that the only difference between the two of them was that "whereas his Grace was paid �10,000 a year for being good, poor Jack Point was good—for nothing." "Twas but a harmless jest," the Merry-man sadly reflected, but the Archbishop had him whipped and put in the stocks as a rogue, and Jack Point was in no humour to "take a post again with the dignified clergy." [172]
Then began the vagabondage of the strolling player. Jack and Elsie made but a poor living, though they looked forward to the time when the smiles of fortune, the rewards of honest mirth, would allow them to marry. Certainly Jack Point had a pretty wit, and beneath the motley there beat a true heart of gold, too soon to be broken by tragedy. It was the old, old story of the jester who to the world's eye was a merry and boisterous fellow, though in his inner being he was suffering all the while the tortures of anguish. But list ye now to the story's unfolding!
The curtain rises on a faithful picture of the Tower of London, that picturesque and historic old fortress indissolubly connected with some of the brightest, and the darkest, annals of England. Soon we see the Yeomen of the Guard, clad in their traditional garb and carrying their halberds, and amongst them is old Sergeant Meryll. He has a daughter named Phœbe, whose heart and hand is being sought in vain by the grim and repulsive-looking Wilfred Shadbolt, who links the office of head jailor with the "assistant tormentorship." It is part of this uncouth fellow's duty to twist the thumbscrew and turn the rack to wring confessions from the prisoners. So far from Phœbe being attracted to Shadbolt, her thoughts are turned towards a young and handsome officer, Colonel Fairfax, who lies under sentence of death in the Tower by the evil designs of his kinsman, Sir Charles Poltwhistle, a Secretary of State. Fairfax has been condemned on a charge of sorcery, though his cousin's craft is really to secure the succession to his rich estate, which falls to him if he dies unmarried.
Some hopes linger that the soldier may yet be reprieved. Leonard Meryll, the old sergeant's son, is coming from Windsor that day after the Court has honoured him for his valour in many martial adventures, and it is possible that he may bring with him the order that will save Colonel Fairfax. He does not bring the reprieve. Sergeant Meryll, whose life the condemned man has twice saved, and who would now readily give his own life for him, thereupon schemes a deception. Leonard's future career is to be with the Yeomen of the [173] Guard, but as his arrival is unknown, it is arranged that he shall hide himself for a while and his place be filled by the imprisoned Fairfax. Just after this the Colonel himself comes into view, under an escort commanded by the Lieutenant, and on his way to the Cold Harbour Tower "to await his end in solitude." He treats death lightly—has he not a dozen times faced it in battle?—but he has one strange last request. Could he, as a means of thwarting his relative, be allowed to marry? The lady would be a bride but for an hour, and her legacy would be his dishonoured name and a hundred crowns, and "never was a marriage contracted with so little of evil to the contracting parties." The Lieutenant, who admires the brave fellow, believes that the task of finding him a wife should be easy.
Now we meet Jack Point and Elsie Maynard. Not a little terrified, they are chased in by the crowd, who bid them "banish your timidity and with all rapidity give us quip and quiddity." The choice of the wandering minstrels is their duet, "I have a song to sing, O!" Never was there a more enchanting ditty, and very significantly it tells of a merry-man's love of a maid, and of the humble maid—
"Who loved a lord, and who laughed aloud,
At the moan of the merry-man, moping mum
Whose soul was sad, and whose glance was glum,
Who sipped no sup, and who craved no crumb,
As he sighed for the love of a ladye!"
Scarcely have the crowd finished applauding this offering than the Lieutenant enters, clears the rabble from the green, and inquires the history of Jack and Elsie. Jack tells him of their humble means of livelihood. Elsie is still unmarried, "for though I'm a fool," quoths the jester, "there is a limit to my folly." The Lieutenant then outlines his plan to make her a bride for an hour, and as the bargain seems a sound one and money is scarce, the two agree to the subterfuge, and Elsie is led into the Tower cell, blindfolded, to be wedded to Fairfax. Jack Point meanwhile tries on the officer some of his best conundrums and his incorrigible talent for repartee.
Shortly after this Phœbe wheedles the keys of the [174] prison from Shadbolt, her "sour-faced admirer," and Fairfax is thus restored to liberty in the guise of a Yeoman of the Guard. Fairfax, of course, is taken for Leonard and complimented on his successful campaigns. And then there tolls the bell of St. Peter's. The crowd enter, the executioner's block is brought on, and the masked headsman takes his place. But when the Yeomen go to fetch the prisoner they find that the cell is empty, and that he has escaped. Shadbolt the jailer is arrested, and the people rush off in confusion, leaving Elsie insensible in the arms of her unknown husband, Fairfax. With this the curtain falls.
When it ascends once more on the same scene, the old housekeeper of the Tower, Dame Carruthers, chides the Yeomen on their failure both to keep and to re-capture Fairfax. Then Point and Shadbolt appear in very low spirits. For the Merry-man's dolefulness there is ample cause, and he himself laments how ridiculous it is that "a poor heart-broken man must needs be merry or he will be whipped." Shadbolt, envious of his companion's gifts, confesses to a secret yearning of his own to follow the jester's vocation, and the lugubrious fellow tells how deft and successful are his own delicate shafts of wit in the torture chamber and cells! Jack Point agrees, for a consideration, to teach Shadbolt "the rules that all family fools must observe if they love their profession." The consideration is that the jailor must declare that he shot Fairfax with an arquebus at night as he was attempting to swim over the Thames. The bargain is struck, and in a short time a shot is heard, and the jailor re-enters to declare that the escaped prisoner has been shot and drowned in the river. Fairfax himself has been lamenting that, although free from his fetters grim, he is still bound for good and ill to an unknown bride, a situation that leads up to the first of those delightful quartettes, "Strange Adventure." He meets Elsie, is attracted at once by her beauty, and learns the secret of her perplexity, though how can he proclaim his real self while he is still Leonard Meryll?
It is told us in a tuneful trio that "a man who would woo a fair maid should 'prentice himself to the trade [175] and study all day in methodical way how to flatter, cajole and persuade." Certainly Fairfax knows these arts much better than Point. Before the jester's eyes he begins to fascinate the girl with sweet words and tender caresses, and the utter disillusionment of poor Jack Point, a victim of the fickleness of womankind and outwitted in love, is reflected in that haunting number, "When a wooer goes a wooing." Events now race towards their end—an end that to two at least has all the joyous warmth of romance, but to the one pathetic figure in his motley the blackness of despair. Leonard hastens in with the belated reprieve, and Elsie soon learns with happiness that the gallant Yeoman who has captured her heart is, in truth, her own strangely-wed husband, Fairfax. For her the hardship of the stroller's life has passed. So also has it for the broken Merry-man. Sadly he kneels by the girl who has forsaken his arms for another's, gently fondles and kisses the hem of her dress, bestows on her the sign of his blessing, and in the last tremor of grief falls at her feet—dead!
"THE GONDOLIERS."
Produced December 7th, 1889.
"The Gondoliers" tells of the strange and romantic fortunes of two sturdy Republicans who are called upon jointly to assume the responsibilities of Monarchy. They are Marco and Guiseppe Palmieri, who ordinarily follow the calling of Venetian gondoliers, and who hold staunchly to the doctrine that "all men are equal." Kingship does, indeed, seem rather less abhorrent to their ideas when they are summoned to fill that exalted office themselves, but at the same time they do concede that neither their courtiers nor their menials are their inferiors in any degree. Indeed, when they rise in the scale of social importance they see that their subjects rise too, and perhaps it is not surprising that in this quaint court of Barataria are functionaries basking in the splendour of such titles as the Lord High Coachman and the Lord High Cook. Even in the heart [176] of the most democratic of mankind does the weakness for titles eternally linger!
It is in Venice, with a picturesque canal in the background, that the opera begins. The girls, their arms laden with roses white and roses red, are waiting for the most handsome and popular of all the gondolieri, who are coming to choose their brides from amongst this comely throng. So that, amidst such a bevy of loveliness, fate itself may select whom their partners shall be, the brothers decide to be blindfolded and to undertake to marry whichever two girls they catch. In this way Gianetta is claimed by Marco and Tessa by Guiseppe. And both were the very girls they wanted! Singing and dancing like the lightsome, joyous people they are, the couples hasten to the altar without more ado.
A Spanish grandee, the Duke of Plaza-Toro, now arrives by gondola with his Duchess and his daughter, Casilda. With them are their suite—the drummer-lad Luiz. The Duke is a celebrated, cultivated, underrated nobleman of impecunious estate, shabby in attire but unquestionably gentle in breeding. He laments that his entry into the town has not been as imposing as his station requires, but the halberdiers and the band are mercenary people, and their services were not available without pre-payment in cash. Luiz is sent to announce the arrival of the ducal party to the Grand Inquisitor. While he is absent the Duke and Duchess tell their daughter the reason of their visit to Venice. She was married when only six months old to the infant heir to the Baratarian Throne. For State reasons the secret could not be told her before, and it seems that when her husband's father, then the reigning King, became a Wesleyan Methodist and was killed in an insurrection, the baby bridegroom was stolen by the Inquisition.
Casilda takes no pleasure in this sudden accession to Queenship. She has nothing to wear, and besides that, the family is penniless. That fact does not disturb the Duke. He has anticipated the problem already. Seeing that his social prestige is enormous, he is having himself floated as a company, the Duke of Plaza-Toro, Limited. He does not regard the proceeding as undignified. This Duke never did follow the fashions. He has made it his business to lead them, and he recalls how "in enterprise of martial kind" when there was any fighting, he "led" his regiment from behind, because "he found it less exciting," Such was this unaffected, undetected, well-connected warrior, the Duke of Plaza-Toro.
A. LYTTON
AS
"THE DUKE OF PLAZA-TORO" IN "THE GONDOLIERS."
Left [177] alone, Luiz and Casilda show themselves to be secretly in love with each other, and they bemoan the miserable discovery that has ruined the sweet dreams of the future. The Duke and Duchess in the meanwhile have gone to pay their respects to the Grand Inquisitor. They return with this lugubrious personage, garbed all in black, and present to him the little lady who, as he says, is so unexpectedly called upon to assume the functions of Royalty. Unfortunately he cannot introduce her to her husband immediately. The King's identity is a little uncertain, though there is no probable, possible shadow of doubt that he is one of two men actually in the town and plying the modest but picturesque calling of the gondolier. It seems that, after the little prince was stolen, he was placed in the charge of a highly-respectable gondolier who had, nevertheless, an incurable weakness for drink, and who could never say which of the two children in his home was his own son and which was the prince. That matter can be solved by their nurse, Luiz's mother, who is being brought from the mountains and whose memory will be stimulated, if need be, by the persuasive methods of the Inquisition.
The gondoliers now return with their brides. Tessa tells in a beautiful number how, when a merry maiden marries, "every sound becomes a song, all is right and nothing's wrong." It was too sanguine a thought! The Grand Inquisitor, a gloomy figure amidst these festivities, finds the fact that Marco and Guiseppe have been married an extremely awkward one, and no less awkward their declaration that they are heart and soul Republicans. He does not tell them that one is married already—married to Casilda in infancy—but he does startle them by the news that one of them is a King. Sturdy Republicans as they are, they are loath to accept the idea of immediate abdication, and it is agreed that they shall leave for their country straightaway and, until the rightful heir is established, jointly hold the [178] reins of government. The Grand Inquisitor for good reasons will not let their wives accompany them, but the separation may not be a long one, and the four speculate on the thrills of being a "right-down regular Royal Queen." With a fond farewell the gondoliers then set sail for their distant dominion.
When in the second act we see the Pavilion of the Court of Barataria—there in one corner is the double-seated throne—we see also the happy workings of a "monarchy that's tempered with Republican equality." Courtiers and private soldiers, officers of high rank and menials of every degree are enjoying themselves without any regard to social distinctions, and all are splendidly garbed. The Kings neither expect nor receive the deference due to their office, but they try to make themselves useful about the palace, whether by polishing their own crowns, running little errands for their Ministers, cleaning up in the kitchens, or deputising for sentries who go "in search of beer and beauty." It gives them, as Guiseppe sings, the gratifying feeling that their duty has been done, and in some measure it compensates for their two solitary grievances. One of these is that their subjects, while maintaining the legal fiction that they are one person, will not recognise that they have independent appetites. The other is—the absence of their wives. Marco is moved to describe the great specific for man's human happiness:—
"Take a pair of sparkling eyes,
Hidden ever and anon,
Do not heed their mild surprise,
Having passed the Rubicon.
Take a pair of rosy lips,
Take a figure trimly planned—
Such as admiration whets
Take a tender little hand,
Fringed with dainty fingerettes.
Take all these, you lucky man—
Take and keep them if you can!"
No sooner has he finished than the contadine enter, having braved the seas at the risks of their lives, for existence without their menfolk was dull and their [179] womanly sense of curiosity strong. The re-union is celebrated by a boisterous dance (the cachucha). It is interrupted by the arrival of another unexpected visitor—the Grand Inquisitor.
The Grand Inquisitor, left alone with his prot�g�s, first of all expresses his doubts whether the abolition of social distinctions is a workable theory. It had been tried before, and particularly by a jovial old King who, in moments of tipsy benevolence, promoted so many favourites to the top of the tree that "Lord Chancellors were cheap as sprats, and Bishops in their shovel hats were plentiful as tabby cats—in point of fact, too many." The plain conclusion was that "when everyone is somebodee, then no one's anybody." Then he tells them of the marriage of one of them in infancy. It is certainly an awkward predicament. Two men are the husbands of three wives! Marco, Guiseppe, Tessa and Gianetta try to solve the complicated plot.
Soon afterwards the ducal party arrive attired in the utmost magnificence. The Plaza-Toro issue has been most successful, and the Duke proceeds to describe how his money-making devices include those of securing small titles and orders for Mayors and Recorders, and the Duchess's those of chaperoning dubious ladies into high-class society. The Duke ceremoniously receives the two gondoliers, but he has to take exception to the fact that his arrival has been marked by no royal salutes, no guard of honour, and no triumphal arches. They explain that their off-handed people would not tolerate the expense. His Grace thereupon advises them to impress their court with their importance, and to the strains of a delightful gavotte he gives the awkward fellows a lesson in the arts of deportment.
Luckily, the tangled plot is swiftly and very happily solved on the appearance of the old foster mother, who declares that the missing Prince is none other than Luiz. He promptly ascends the throne and claims the hand of Casilda, while Marco and Guiseppe, their days of regal splendour completed, are glad enough to return with their wives to beautiful Venice, there to become "once more gondolieri, both skilful and wary."
"UTOPIA, LIMITED."
[180]
Produced October 7th, 1893.
"Utopia Limited" is the story—and a very diverting story it is—of a remote country that is desperately anxious to bring itself "up-to-date." Utopia is somewhere in the Southern Pacific, and its inhabitants used to idle in easy, tropical langour amidst their picturesque palm groves. Idlers they were, that is to say, until they first heard of the wonders of England, for then it was that they determined that their land must be swiftly and completely Anglicised. The reformation was undertaken with the utmost zest. King Paramount's eldest daughter, the beautiful Princess Zara, has spent five years in England and taken a high degree as a "Girton Girl." She is due home once more at the time that the story of the opera begins, but already her people have heard of the wise and powerful country overseas, and already they have done much to re-model upon it their own manners, customs and forms of government.
Existence could never have been altogether dull in Utopia. It is ruled by a monarch, a despot only in theory, for the constitution is really that of a dynasty tempered by dynamite. This may seem a hard saying. The explanation of it is that the King, so far from being an autocrat, is watched over day and night by two Wise Men, and on his first lapse from political or social propriety he is to be denounced to the Public Exploder. It would then be this Court official's duty to blow him up—he always has about him a few squibs and crackers—and doubtless he would discharge this function with greater alacrity because he is himself Heir-apparent. Clearly the King's lot is not a happy one, and no less so because the Wise Men insist that all sorts of Royal scandals and indiscretions shall be written by himself, anonymously, for the spicy columns of the "Palace Peeper." Generally his Majesty's agents contrive to buy each edition up, but isolated copies do occasionally [181] get into unfriendly hands, and one of these contained his stinging little paragraph about his "goings-on" with the Royal Second Housemaid.
The King has two younger daughters, the Princesses Nekaya and Kalyba, who are being "finished" by a grave English governess, the Lady Sophy. Exceedingly modest and demure, with their hands folded and their eyes cast down, they are to be exhibited in the market place as patterns of what "from the English standpoint is looked upon as maidenly perfection." In particular they are to reveal the arts of courtship, showing how it is proper for the young lady to be coy and interestedly agitated in turn, and how she must always rehearse her emotions at home before the looking-glass. In the meanwhile the King, very deferential in manner, has an interview with his two Wise Men, Scaphio and Phantis. Notwithstanding that he seems a little hurt about the outrageous attacks on his morality which he has to write and publish at their command, he at least sees the irresistible humour of the strange situation, and he proceeds to sing a capital song about what a farce life is, alike when one's born, when one becomes married, and when one reaches the disillusioned years.
Zara now arrives from her long journey. She is escorted by Captain Fitzbattleaxe, together with four troopers of the 1st Life Guards, whose resplendent bearing immediately impress the maids of Utopia. She brings with her, moreover, six representatives of the principal causes which, she says, have tended to make England the powerful, happy and blameless country it is, and their gifts of reorganisation are to work a miracle in her father's realm. The King and his subjects are then and there introduced to these six "Flowers of Progress." One of them, Captain Fitzbattleaxe himself, is to re-model the Utopian Army. Sir Bailey Barre, Q.C., M.P., is a logician who, according to his brief, can demonstrate that black is white or that two and two make five, just as do the clever people of England. Then there is Lord Dramaleigh, a Lord High Chamberlain, who the Princess says is to "cleanse our court from moral stain and purify our stage." A County Councillor, Mr. Blushington, has come with a [182] mind packed with civic improvement schemes, and the wicked music-halls he also intends to purify. Mr. Goldbury is a company promoter. He floats anything from stupendous loans to foreign thrones to schemes for making peppermint-drops. Last of all comes Captain Sir Edward Corcoran, R.N., to show King Paramount how to run an invincible Navy.
Joyously do the inhabitants hail these "types of England's power, ye heaven-enlightened band." The King is impressed most of all with the idea of a "company limited." Goldbury explains just what this means, and how one can start the biggest and rashest venture on a capital, say, of eighteen-pence, and yet be safe from liability. "If you succeed," he declares, "your profits are stupendous," whereas "if you fail pop goes your eighteen-pence." It strikes the King as rather dishonest, but if it is good enough for England, the first commercial country in the world, it is good enough for Utopia. What is more, he decides to go down to posterity as the first Sovereign in Christendom who registered his Crown and State under the Joint Stock Company's Act, 1862. It is with this brilliant scheme that the first act comes to a close.
The second act is set in the Throne Room of the Palace. Fitzbattleaxe is with the Princess Zara, and he is lamenting how a tenor in love, as he is with her, cannot in his singing do himself justice. The two then discuss the remarkable changes that have come about since the country determined to be Anglicised. The King, when he enters soon afterwards, wears the dress of a British Field Marshal. He is to preside, according to the articles of association, over the first statutory Cabinet Council of Utopia (Limited). For this gathering the "Flowers of Progress" also arrive, and after they have ranged their chairs round in Christy Minstrel fashion, the proceedings open with a rollicking song by the King. This is the chorus:—
"It really is surprising
We have brought about—Utopia's quite another land
In her enterprising movements
She is England—with improvements
Which we dutifully offer to our motherland!"
Following [183] the meeting comes the courtly ceremonial of the Drawing Room. All the ladies are presented in due form to his Majesty. Then, after a beautiful unaccompanied chorus, the stage empties.
Scaphio and Phantis, dressed as judges in red and ermine robes, now enter to storm and rage over the new order of things. All their influence has gone. The sundry schemes they had for making provision for their old age are broken and bankrupt. Even the "Palace Peeper" is in a bad way, and as to the clothes they have imported to satisfy the cravings for the English fashions, their customers plead liability limited to a declared capital of eighteen-pence. The King, whom they used to bully to their hearts' content, is no longer a human being, but a corporation. Once he doffed his Crown respectfully before speaking to them, but now he dances about in lighthearted capers, telling them that all they can do is to put their grievances in writing before the Board of Utopia (Limited). The two call into their counsels the Public Exploder. Between them they work out a plot. By a revolution the Act of 1862 must be at all costs repealed.
Shortly after the trio have departed to scheme out the details, there is a delightful scene between Lord Dramaleigh and Mr. Goldbury, and the two coy Princesses, Nekaya and Kalyba. The "shrinking sensitiveness" of these young ladies is held by themselves to be most thoroughly English. So far from that, the men have to tell them, the girls in the country they come from are blithe, frank and healthy creatures who love the freshness of the open air and the strenuous exertions of sport, and who are "in every pure enjoyment wealthy." (Gilbert, by the way, wrote this opera in the early 'nineties.) Loyally does Goldbury chant their eulogy:—
"Go search the world and search the sea.
Then come you home and sing with me,
There's no such gold and no such pearl
As a bright and beautiful English girl."
Nekaya and Kalyba are quickly converted to the idea that to be her natural self is woman's most winsome quality. Then follows an interlude between the Lady Sophy, whose primness is merely a cloak for ambition, [184] and the King. Compromising paragraphs in the society paper having been explained away, the two declare their mutual love, and soon they are caught by other couples in the act of dancing and kissing. No excuses are attempted and all engage in a wild festive dance.
Enter, now, the revolutionary band under the command of Scaphio, Phantis and the Public Exploder. They relate how the prosperity of Utopia has been brought to naught by the "Flowers of Progress." Suddenly the Princess Zara remembers that, in her great scheme of reform, the most essential element of all has been forgotten, and that was—party government! Introduce that bulwark and foundation of Britain's greatness and all will be well! Legislation will thus be brought to a standstill, and then there will be "sickness in plenty, endless lawsuits, crowded jails, interminable confusion in the Army and Navy, and, in short, general and unexampled prosperity." The King decrees that party government and all its blessings shall be adopted, and the opera ends with a song of homage to a brave distant isle which Utopia is henceforward to imitate in her virtues, her charities and "her Parliamentary peculiarities."
"Great Britain is that monarchy sublime
To which some add (but others do not) Ireland."
[185]
A SAVOYARD BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The literature about Savoy Opera forms a regular library. A great deal of it has been contributed to newspapers and magazines. For the latter the reader should consult Poole's "Index to Periodical Literature" and its successor, "The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature." The following list contains the chief books about the Savoyards.
GILBERT.
W. S. Gilbert: By Edith A. Browne. Stars of the Stage Series. London: John Lane. 1907.
8vo: pp. xii+96+15 plates, one of them showing Gilbert in a kilt as a (3rd) Gordon Highlander (1868-78): gives a list of Gilbert's plays. The operas are dealt with by themselves (pp. 55-84). There is a photograph of H. A. Lytton in "Patience" (facing p. 58).
Sir William S. Gilbert: A study in modern satire: a handbook on Gilbert and the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. By Isaac Goldberg, M.A., Ph.D. (Harvard.) Boston: Stratford Publishing Co., 1913.
8vo. pp. 156. The operas are discussed pp. 83-146. "The character of Pooh-Bah is perhaps the greatest single creation of Gilbert's."
Recollections of Gilbert. By G. W. Smalley. McClure's Magazine (January 1903), xx, 302-304.
Real Conversation with Gilbert. By William Archer. Critic, New York (September 1901), xxxix, 240-240.
Mr. Archer's article on Gilbert as a dramatist in the St. James's Magazine, London, in 1881 (xlix, 287), was one of the first critical appreciations of Gilbert on a big scale.
[186] Gilbert's Humour. By Max Beerbohm. Saturday Review, xcvii, 619; xcix, 696.
The Genius of Gilbert. Blackwood's Magazine (July 1911), cxcix, 121-128.
The English Aristophanes. By Walter Sichel. Fortnightly Review (October 1911), xciv, 681-704.
The Librettos of W. S. Gilbert. By G. H. Powell. Temple Bar, cxxv, 36.
Mr. Gilbert as a Librettist. By J. M. Bulloch. Evening Gazette, Aberdeen (June 16, 17, 1890).
This was originally an address delivered to the Aberdeen University Literary Society, November 16, 1888. J. M. Bulloch also dealt with "The Pretty Wit of Mr. Gilbert" in the Sketch, June 12, 1898; "Mr. Gilbert's Majority as a Savoyard," in the Sketch, Sept. 9, 1898; and "The work of W. S. Gilbert," illustrated in the Bookbuyer, New York, January, 1899.
Gilbert's Profits from Libretto. By G. Middleton. Bookman, New York (October, 1908), xxviii, 116-123.
Sir W. S. Gilbert. Leading article and biography in The Times, May 30, 1911, pp. 11-12.
Portraits. Ten reproductions are inventoried in the A.L.A. Portrait Index (Washington, 1908: p. 378) including those by Rudolf Lehman and "Spy" in Vanity Fair (1881: xiii, plate 13.).
SULLIVAN.
Sir Arthur Sullivan, His Life and Music. By B. W. Findon, London: James Nisbet and Company, 1904.
8vo. pp. viii+214+[2]: portrait of Sullivan. Dedicated to Mr. Findon's aunt, Mary Clementina Sullivan, 1811-82, mother of Sir Arthur. List of Sullivan's works (pp. 204-214): section specially devoted to the Savoy Opera (pp. 94-126). This book was reprinted by Sisley's, Ltd. [1908] as "Sir Arthur Sullivan and his Operas."
Sullivan. [187] By Sir George Grove. Dictionary of Music (1908), iv, 743-747.
Sir Arthur Sullivan: Life story, letters, and reminiscences. By Arthur Lawrence; with critique by B. W. Findon; and bibliography by W. Bendall London: James Bowden, 1899.
8vo. pp. xvi.+360+11 plates+[8]. There are 19 illustrations, showing Sullivan at the ages of 12, 15, 25, 44, 52 and 57, with eight facsimiles of letters or scores. M. Findon's critique occupies pp. 288-326 and the bibliography, pp. 327-360.
Souvenir of Sir Arthur Sullivan, Mus. Doc, M.V.O.; a brief sketch of his life. By Walter J. Wells. London: George Newnes, Ltd., 1901.
8vo. pp. viii. + 106 with 49 illustrations. Contains "Sullivan and Gilbert" (pp. 15-31): "D'Oyly Carte" (pp. 32-46): "American Success" (pp. 47-54.) List of his works (pp. 98-104).
Arthur Sullivan. By H. Saxe Wyndham. London: George Bell and Sons, 1903.
8vo. pp. x+80, with eight illustrations. Dedicated "to my wife through whose skill as a musician the never ending delights of Sullivan's music were first unfolded to me." One of Bell's Miniature Series of Musicians.
Portraits. Twenty-one reproductions are inventoried in the A.L.A. Portrait Index (Washington, 1908: p. 1405) including those by Millais and by "Ape" in Vanity Fair (1874: vi, plate 81).
CARTE.
The starting of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas: a letter written by R. D'Oyly Carte in 1877 to "My Lord" (unnamed), apropos of a proposal to form a small company to produce the operas. Printed in the Pall Mall Gazette, May 1, 1907.
The petition by the Savoy Theatre and Operas, Ltd., and Reduced, for the approval of the Court to the reduction of the capital from �75,000 to �41,250 was heard [188] before Mr. Justice Walton, August 26, 1903 (Times, August 27). This led to a very interesting letter from Gilbert in the Times (Aug. 28) and one in the Telegraph by Mrs. Carte (Aug. 29).
Portraits. Four reproductions are inventoried in the A.L.A. Portrait Index (Washington, 1908: p. 259), including that by "Spy" in Vanity Fair (1891: xxiii, plate 498).
THE SAVOY OPERAS.
Gilbert, Sullivan, and D'Oyly Carte: Reminiscences of the Savoy and the Savoyards. By Francois Cellier and Cunningham Bridgeman. London: Isaac Pitman and Sons, 1914.
8vo. pp. xxiv+443: with 63 portraits and other illustrations and six facsimile letters; and a complete set of casts at the Savoy (pp. 425-435). The collaboration between Mr. Cellier and Mr. Bridgeman (pp. 3-163) was ended by the former's death, January 5, 1914. The rest of the book (pp. 164-422) was done by Mr. Bridgeman.
The Savoy Opera and the Savoyards. By Percy Fitzgerald, M.A., F.S.A.; with six illustrations. London: Chatto and Windus, 1894.
8vo. pp. xvi, 248. Most of the illustrations are pen and ink drawings.
Gilbert and Sullivan Opera: a history and a comment. By H. M. Walbrook: with a foreword by Sir Henry Wood. London: F. V. White and Co., Ltd., 1920.
8vo. pp. 155+[3]+4 plates, including two drawings by H. M. Bateman and a reproduction of the Sullivan Memorial in the Victoria Embankment Gardens; with 42 pen and ink sketches in the text: Short bibliography (p. 155).
Gilbert and Sullivan Jottings. By Shelford Walsh [Harrogate?] coach to the principal operatic societies in the United Kingdom [1903]. [189]
16 mo.: pp. 24+cover. Contains little stories about the operas. Price 4d.
Savoyards on Tour: a description of the various companies on the road. Sketch, June 13, 1894.
Savoyard Dinner, given by the O.P. Club in the Hotel Cecil, December 30, 1906.
Gilbert's historical speech on this occasion was printed verbatim in the Daily Telegraph, December 31, 1906.
BARRINGTON.
Rutland Barrington: a record of thirty-five years' experience on the English stage. By Himself; with a preface by Sir William S. Gilbert, London: Grant Richards, 1908.
8vo. pp. 270+31 illustrations and coloured portrait on the cover. Printed at Plymouth. Dedicated to "My good friend, Mrs. D'Oyly Carte." The Savoy is dealt with pp. 25-86.
More Rutland Barrington. By Himself. London: Grant Richards, 1911.
8vo. pp. 233+[1]+15 illustrations, including one of H. A. Lytton as the Pirate King. Printed in Edinburgh.
GROSSMITH.
A Society Clown: reminiscences. By George Grossmith. Bristol: J. W. Arrowsmith, 1888.
8vo. pp. iv+182. Forming vol. 31 of Arrowsmith's Bristol Library. Chapter on Gilbert and Sullivan pp. 91-125. In "Piano and I" (1910), he describes (pp. 11-18) why he left the Savoy. See also "The Diary of Nobody" (1892).
LYTTON.
Memories of a Merryman. By H. A. Lytton. Graphic, Nov. 19, 26; Dec. 3, 10, 17, 1921.
This consists of some extracts from the present volume. [190]
LONDON PRODUCTIONS OF THE SAVOY OPERAS.
Opera.
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Click on the images to see high-resolution images.
Hyphen removed: "bull[-]dog(s)" (p. 35), "high-water[-]mark" (p. 111), "school[-]boy" (p. 63), "yester[-]year" (p. 139).
Hyphen added: "Mount[-]Ararat" (p. 156).
The following words appear both with and without hyphens and have not been changed: "light[-]hearted", "Merry[-]man", "Mount-Ararat" / "Mountararat", "re[-]appear(s)".
P. 15: "waistcoast" changed to "waistcoat" (my striped waistcoat and green apron).
P. 45: "caste" changed to "cast" (When George Grossmith returned to the cast).
P. 53: "minature" changed to "miniature" (experiments on a miniature stage).
P. 73: "once" changed to "one" (and in one case actually before).
P. 73, 108: "occured" changed to "occurred" (there occurred an incident, thought had occurred to me).
P. 82: "Guiseppi" changed to "Guiseppe".
P. 97 "arn't" changed to "aren't" (I'm an ugly blighter, aren't I?).
P. 110: "CHAPTER" removed from title for consistency.
P. 123: "disfigurnig" changed to "disfiguring" (hit the mark without disfiguring it).
P. 125: "playright" changed to "playwright" (master mind as a playwright).
P. 142: "confesess" changed to "confesses" (She confesses that).
P. 149: "affection" changed to "affectation" (my medi�valism's affectation).
P. 151: "Janes" changed to "Jane" (Lady Jane assures him).
P. 170: "hers" changed to "her" (his intentions towards her are honourable).
P. 174: "to to" changed to "to" (go to fetch the prisoner).
P. 179: "Plazo-Toro" changed to "Plaza-Toro".
P. 180: "propropriety" changed to "propriety" (political or social propriety).
P. 189: "Sullvian" changed to "Sullivan".
P. 190: "Nov. 17, 1877" restored from the context.
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| i don't know |
What is it traditional for women to do on 29th February? | Leap Day Customs & Traditions
Home Calendar Leap Day Customs
Leap Day Customs & Traditions
Leap Day, on February 29, has been a day of traditions, folklore and superstitions ever since Leap Years were first introduced by Julius Caesar over 2000 years ago.
Gloves can hide a naked ring finger.
Tradition dictates that a man who refuses a woman's proposal on leap day has to buy her 12 pairs of gloves so she may hide the embarrassment of not having an engagement ring.
©iStockphoto.com/photllurg
Last leap day was February 29, 2016 .
Women Propose to Their Men
According to an old Irish legend, or possibly history, St Brigid struck a deal with St Patrick to allow women to propose to men – and not just the other way around – every four years.
This is believed to have been introduced to balance the traditional roles of men and women in a similar way to how leap day balances the calendar.
Gloves Hide Naked Ring Finger
In some places, leap day has been known as “Bachelors’ Day” for the same reason. A man was expected to pay a penalty, such as a gown or money, if he refused a marriage proposal from a woman on Leap Day.
In many European countries, especially in the upper classes of society, tradition dictates that any man who refuses a woman's proposal on February 29 has to buy her 12 pairs of gloves. The intention is that the woman can wear the gloves to hide the embarrassment of not having an engagement ring. During the middle ages there were laws governing this tradition.
Leap Day Babies World Record
People born on February 29 are all invited to join The Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, there are Leap Day World Record Holders both of a family producing three consecutive generations born on February 29 and of the number of children born on February 29 in the same family.
Unlucky in Love
In Scotland, it used to be considered unlucky for someone to be born on leap day, just as Friday 13th is considered an unlucky day by many. Greeks consider it unlucky for couples to marry during a leap year, and especially on Leap Day.
St Oswald’s Day
Leap day is also St Oswald’s Day, named after the archbishop of York who died on February 29, 992. His memorial is celebrated on February 29 during leap years and on February 28 during common years .
| propose to men |
People born on 29th February have which Zodiac sign? | The history behind why women propose to men on February 29th
The history behind why women propose to men on February 29th
February 29, 2016 1:12 pm
YouTube/ Comedy Central UK
February 29th isn’t only Leap Day — it’s also known as Bachelor’s Day, the traditional day of the year when women get down on one knee and propose to their partners. Let’s real talk for a second: That’s kind of messed up. Women do not need a specific day of the year to be told they’re allowed to propose, especially a day that only comes along once every four years. That said, we got kind of curious about this strange day and decided to peer into the rich (and debated) history of this problematic day.
The holiday is hundreds of years old, and though the exact origin is uncertain, there are several theories — including a law passed in Scotland by Queen Margaret back in 1288 that allowed women to propose and fine men who refused. Of course, the law is no longer in effect, but the February 29th tradition still stands.
Others believe Bachelor’s Day originated in fifth century Ireland, where Christian nun and saint of Ireland, Saint Brigid of Kildare, asked Saint Patrick to instate a day celebrating women dropping down on one knee. It’s important to note that some historians doubt whether Brigid ever really existed.
These days, Bachelor’s Day has a bad rap because sexism. “Instead of transforming it into an accepted practice, the popular culture mocked and belittled women’s proposals,” historian Katherine Parkin of Monmouth University wrote in a 2011 article on Leap Year marriage proposals . “Scorned and ridiculed for trespassing against male privilege, along with those who wore pants or participated in politics, female proposers learned that seeking rights threatened those who held power.”
As Parkin explained to the Washington Post , the idea of a woman proposing to a man is still shrouded in negative stigma. “In the end, the leap year custom helped ensure that men continued to hold the power in matters of matrimony,” she writes.
As The Guardian notes, there aren’t many instances of women proposing to men in popular culture and literature, but we can find instances of Bachelor’s Day from literature in the past couple centuries, such as Catherine Arrowpoint in George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda and Polly in Nancy Mitford’s Love In A Cold Climate. In 2010 the film Leap Year, starring Amy Adams, put the February 29th tradition into movie-form.
Although we applaud the air of female empowerment that surrounds the day, we have to agree with Parkin when she says it does more to belittle women’s power than to enhance it. It’s 2016, and women should be able to talk about their futures and desires with their partners openly, instead of being forced to treat it like yet another patriarchal tradition. We don’t need a designated day to tell us to propose. If you feel like popping the question, pull a Monica and get down on one knee. And guess what? You can do it on any damn day of the year.
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Which Saint was said to have set aside 29th February as the day that women were allowed to propose to men? | February 29 - Everything2.com
February 29
Tue Jun 03 2003 at 17:54:34
"Thirty days hath September ,
All the rest have thirty-one
Excepting February alone
Which has twenty-eight days, clear,
And twenty-nine in each leap year."
February 29 is a bissextile - the day added to the Gregorian calendar to account for the difference between a solar year , and the typical 365 day calendar year . Over your lifetime, you will see this leap day occur approximately once every 1461 days (once every 4 years). However, over the course of history , Feb 29 actually occurs less frequently - about once every 1506 days. This is because a year is only a leap year if it is:
divisible by 4 and not divisible by 100
or
it is divisible by 400
For this reason 1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 was. Over the course of 400 years, this means that there are 97 instead of 100 occurrences of February 29. For information on how all of this started, check out Gregorian Calendar .
Interesting Facts about the Day
In many countries, this is Sadie Hawkins day or Bachelor's Day
In the Bahá'í Faith , it is a day for service and gift giving
It is International Underlings' Day , a holiday for anyone not covered by Boss's Day or Secretary's Day .
This Day in History
1288
Scotland set aside this day as the one day when a woman could propose marriage to a man. If he refused, he was required to pay a fine. St. Patrick was said to have refused a marriage proposal on this day.
Dawn Fraser received her 36th world record . The Australian swimmer was timed at 58.9 seconds in the 100-meter freestyle in Sydney , Australia.
In other world record news, Frank Rugani drove a shuttlecock over 79 feet.
The first pulsar is discovered.
US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
1972
Hank Aaron becomes the first baseball player to sign for $200000.
Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau announces he is stepping down.
February 29 Birthdays
You may wonder when leap day babies celebrate their birthday . Some celebrate it on February 28 , and some celebrate it on March 1 . If it is not a leap year, for all legal purposes, it should be celebrated on March 1. Why? Try to get your drivers license when you are 15 going on 16, or try going out for a drink when you are 20 going on 21 when it is February 28 - they will tell you to come back tomorrow . However, it's actually much more tricky than this. While everyone is having pity on these people with leap year births, no one thinks that they too have the same problem.
We all celebrate our birthdays incorrectly
What most people actually celebrate is their birth date. If you consider your birthday to be the day you turn another year older, then on average , you actually celebrate your birthday incorrectly 1/4 to 3/4 of the time (the longer you live, the closer it gets to 3/4). Since a year is 365.2425 days (or as we typically estimate it to 365.25), your birthday actually fluctuates in both date and time .
As an example, look at the first four years of the life of a baby born at noon on January 1, 2000 (a leap year).
Assuming (Incorrectly) Assuming Age 365.2425 days/year 365.2500 days/year --------------------------------------------------- 00 2000-01-01 12:00:00 2000-01-01 12:00:00 01 2000-12-31 17:49:12 2000-12-31 18:00:00 02 2001-12-31 23:38:24 2002-01-01 00:00:00 03 2003-01-01 05:27:36 2003-01-01 06:00:00 04 2004-01-01 11:16:48 2004-01-01 12:00:00
You will notice in column 1, that not only does the date and time fluctuate, but the baby would celebrate two birthdays in one calendar year in 2000, and not have a birthday at all in 2002! A similar occurrence is seen in column 2. It is for this reason that we celebrate birth dates instead of birthdays. However, I digress: using the same logic as above, here is how someone born at noon on February 29, 2000 should celebrate their first 25 birthdays:
Assuming (Incorrectly) Assuming Age 365.2425 days/year 365.2500 days/year --------------------------------------------------- 00 2000-02-29 12:00:00 2000-02-29 12:00:00 01 2001-02-28 17:49:12 2001-02-28 18:00:00 02 2002-02-28 23:38:24 2002-03-01 00:00:00 03 2003-03-01 05:27:36 2003-03-01 06:00:00 04 2004-02-29 11:16:48 2004-02-29 12:00:00 05 2005-02-28 17:06:00 2005-02-28 18:00:00 06 2006-02-28 22:55:12 2006-03-01 00:00:00 07 2007-03-01 04:44:24 2007-03-01 06:00:00 08 2008-02-29 10:33:36 2008-02-29 12:00:00 09 2009-02-28 16:22:48 2009-02-28 18:00:00 10 2010-02-28 22:12:00 2010-03-01 00:00:00 11 2011-03-01 04:01:12 2011-03-01 06:00:00 12 2012-02-29 09:50:24 2012-02-29 12:00:00 13 2013-02-28 15:39:36 2013-02-28 18:00:00 14 2014-02-28 21:28:48 2014-03-01 00:00:00 15 2015-03-01 03:18:00 2015-03-01 06:00:00 16 2016-02-29 09:07:12 2016-02-29 12:00:00 17 2017-02-28 14:56:24 2017-02-28 18:00:00 18 2018-02-28 20:45:36 2018-03-01 00:00:00 19 2019-03-01 02:34:48 2019-03-01 06:00:00 20 2020-02-29 08:24:00 2020-02-29 12:00:00 21 2021-02-28 14:13:12 2021-02-28 18:00:00 22 2022-02-28 20:02:24 2022-03-01 00:00:00 23 2023-03-01 01:51:36 2023-03-01 06:00:00 24 2024-02-29 07:40:48 2024-02-29 12:00:00 25 2025-02-28 13:30:00 2025-02-28 18:00:00
If you couldn't tell, the date format above is YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss (using 24 hour time )
Famous Births
Wed Feb 18 2004 at 15:28:00
A Myth
In the 5th Century AD, the world was a rapidly changing place. Groups of Angles and Saxons were leisurely picking through whatever goodies the Romans had left behind, and wondering if that damn wall had really been worth all the effort. A little further away, Attila the Hun was enjoying a moment of quiet contemplation over how he might like to redecorate the Coliseum , and a lot further away, people all over the Western Hemisphere were going happily about their business never having heard of any of this.
And one day, a very nice young woman in Ireland finally decided she'd had one too many unwanted marriage proposals.
"Yeah, well, what do you want me to do about it?" St. Patrick asked, in words to that effect.
"Well," St. Bridget responded, in the modern vernacular , "why not let us have a whack at it?"
"What, women? Proposing?"
"Absolutely."
St. Patrick thought this over.
"Alright," he said, after a moment. "Tell you what. You can have one day a year."
And St. Bridget smiled. So St. Patrick took another moment.
"Out of every four. Starting today."
As the legend goes, that day was February 29 th, and St. Bridget proposed on the spot.
A More Believable Myth
Naturally, the Catholic Encyclopedia 's entry on St. Bridget doesn't mention this gender-role reversing tidbit of apocrypha . But medieval Europe certainly had its rules regarding courtship , and tradition held that only men were allowed to propose.
Women all over the Continent and in Scotland particularly spent another seven hundred years or so complaining about this fact, when it is widely believed that legislation regarding socially acceptable, non-emasculating female marriage proposal was finally put to parchment. The earliest remembered if unrecovered record occurs in the Leap Year Act , allegedly passed by the Scottish Parliament in 1288 . It wasn't supposed to have given carte blanche to the ladies in terms of picking the Big Day, but set aside the whole of the Leap Year as fair ground.
Preliminary research offers the following wording for the Act's most salient feature:
Ordonit that during ye reign of her maist blisset Majestie Margaret, ilka maiden ladee of baith high and lowe estait shall hae liberte to bespoke ye man she likes - albeit he refuses to talk he shall be mulcted in ye sum ane pundis or less.
I can't cut through much of the spelling or brogue , and don't at all want to touch upon ane pundis, but Margaret, Maid of Norway happened to be enjoying the second of her four years on the Scottish throne at the time the act was passed, and for what it's worth, Scotland didn't have another queen until Mary in 1542.
In the elapsed time, those insecure Scotsmen--say nothing of skirts, you--managed to amend the accepted interpretation of the act back to its supposed 5th Century Irish origins, from all of Leap Year to just Leap Year Day--giving them 365 extra days to hedge and squirm without fear of a preemptive strike .
A Warning
For those men among you thinking this is a fantastic tradition to revive and enjoy in this modern age, I warn that scholarly research into the subject suggests the actual existence of any such act is unlikely at best--so your near-wife's legal precedent is probably a sham, and you're not off the hook to drop to one knee.
If it does hold up in court, though, mythological add-ons at least try to make it interesting. One version insists that any women premeditating a marriage had to wear a scarlet petticoat with a clearly visible hem, so that ambivalent or lifelong bachelors could see them coming a fair distance off and amscray . All versions--as the quotation suggests--mandate that if the gentleman isn't able to execute successfully an avoidance strategy and manages to get himself proposed to, failure to accept the proposal could result in a fine . The snubber was obliged to give the snubbed anything from 100 pounds to a silk dress , money to buy a silk dress, or a really decent pair of gloves.
Small price to pay for escaping an unwanted marriage, and much less than a woman commonly had to give up to enter one .
In modern Britain , it seems, the tradition persists to this day, something along the lines of the all-too-American Sadie Hawkins Day . And true to form, the American version comes from a comic strip dating all the way back to 1937 .
One might think that I came across this in the course of idle research about an imminent subject, but no. I was told by my lovely and charming English paramour, who just might be getting a jump--or rather, a leap--on a fine old British tradition.
Bouquets to:
| Saint Patrick |
The Leap Year Cocktail, which consists of gin, Grand Marnier, sweet vermouth and lemon juice, was invented at which London hotel on 29th February 1928? | February 29 - Everything2.com
February 29
Tue Jun 03 2003 at 17:54:34
"Thirty days hath September ,
All the rest have thirty-one
Excepting February alone
Which has twenty-eight days, clear,
And twenty-nine in each leap year."
February 29 is a bissextile - the day added to the Gregorian calendar to account for the difference between a solar year , and the typical 365 day calendar year . Over your lifetime, you will see this leap day occur approximately once every 1461 days (once every 4 years). However, over the course of history , Feb 29 actually occurs less frequently - about once every 1506 days. This is because a year is only a leap year if it is:
divisible by 4 and not divisible by 100
or
it is divisible by 400
For this reason 1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 was. Over the course of 400 years, this means that there are 97 instead of 100 occurrences of February 29. For information on how all of this started, check out Gregorian Calendar .
Interesting Facts about the Day
In many countries, this is Sadie Hawkins day or Bachelor's Day
In the Bahá'í Faith , it is a day for service and gift giving
It is International Underlings' Day , a holiday for anyone not covered by Boss's Day or Secretary's Day .
This Day in History
1288
Scotland set aside this day as the one day when a woman could propose marriage to a man. If he refused, he was required to pay a fine. St. Patrick was said to have refused a marriage proposal on this day.
Dawn Fraser received her 36th world record . The Australian swimmer was timed at 58.9 seconds in the 100-meter freestyle in Sydney , Australia.
In other world record news, Frank Rugani drove a shuttlecock over 79 feet.
The first pulsar is discovered.
US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
1972
Hank Aaron becomes the first baseball player to sign for $200000.
Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau announces he is stepping down.
February 29 Birthdays
You may wonder when leap day babies celebrate their birthday . Some celebrate it on February 28 , and some celebrate it on March 1 . If it is not a leap year, for all legal purposes, it should be celebrated on March 1. Why? Try to get your drivers license when you are 15 going on 16, or try going out for a drink when you are 20 going on 21 when it is February 28 - they will tell you to come back tomorrow . However, it's actually much more tricky than this. While everyone is having pity on these people with leap year births, no one thinks that they too have the same problem.
We all celebrate our birthdays incorrectly
What most people actually celebrate is their birth date. If you consider your birthday to be the day you turn another year older, then on average , you actually celebrate your birthday incorrectly 1/4 to 3/4 of the time (the longer you live, the closer it gets to 3/4). Since a year is 365.2425 days (or as we typically estimate it to 365.25), your birthday actually fluctuates in both date and time .
As an example, look at the first four years of the life of a baby born at noon on January 1, 2000 (a leap year).
Assuming (Incorrectly) Assuming Age 365.2425 days/year 365.2500 days/year --------------------------------------------------- 00 2000-01-01 12:00:00 2000-01-01 12:00:00 01 2000-12-31 17:49:12 2000-12-31 18:00:00 02 2001-12-31 23:38:24 2002-01-01 00:00:00 03 2003-01-01 05:27:36 2003-01-01 06:00:00 04 2004-01-01 11:16:48 2004-01-01 12:00:00
You will notice in column 1, that not only does the date and time fluctuate, but the baby would celebrate two birthdays in one calendar year in 2000, and not have a birthday at all in 2002! A similar occurrence is seen in column 2. It is for this reason that we celebrate birth dates instead of birthdays. However, I digress: using the same logic as above, here is how someone born at noon on February 29, 2000 should celebrate their first 25 birthdays:
Assuming (Incorrectly) Assuming Age 365.2425 days/year 365.2500 days/year --------------------------------------------------- 00 2000-02-29 12:00:00 2000-02-29 12:00:00 01 2001-02-28 17:49:12 2001-02-28 18:00:00 02 2002-02-28 23:38:24 2002-03-01 00:00:00 03 2003-03-01 05:27:36 2003-03-01 06:00:00 04 2004-02-29 11:16:48 2004-02-29 12:00:00 05 2005-02-28 17:06:00 2005-02-28 18:00:00 06 2006-02-28 22:55:12 2006-03-01 00:00:00 07 2007-03-01 04:44:24 2007-03-01 06:00:00 08 2008-02-29 10:33:36 2008-02-29 12:00:00 09 2009-02-28 16:22:48 2009-02-28 18:00:00 10 2010-02-28 22:12:00 2010-03-01 00:00:00 11 2011-03-01 04:01:12 2011-03-01 06:00:00 12 2012-02-29 09:50:24 2012-02-29 12:00:00 13 2013-02-28 15:39:36 2013-02-28 18:00:00 14 2014-02-28 21:28:48 2014-03-01 00:00:00 15 2015-03-01 03:18:00 2015-03-01 06:00:00 16 2016-02-29 09:07:12 2016-02-29 12:00:00 17 2017-02-28 14:56:24 2017-02-28 18:00:00 18 2018-02-28 20:45:36 2018-03-01 00:00:00 19 2019-03-01 02:34:48 2019-03-01 06:00:00 20 2020-02-29 08:24:00 2020-02-29 12:00:00 21 2021-02-28 14:13:12 2021-02-28 18:00:00 22 2022-02-28 20:02:24 2022-03-01 00:00:00 23 2023-03-01 01:51:36 2023-03-01 06:00:00 24 2024-02-29 07:40:48 2024-02-29 12:00:00 25 2025-02-28 13:30:00 2025-02-28 18:00:00
If you couldn't tell, the date format above is YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss (using 24 hour time )
Famous Births
Wed Feb 18 2004 at 15:28:00
A Myth
In the 5th Century AD, the world was a rapidly changing place. Groups of Angles and Saxons were leisurely picking through whatever goodies the Romans had left behind, and wondering if that damn wall had really been worth all the effort. A little further away, Attila the Hun was enjoying a moment of quiet contemplation over how he might like to redecorate the Coliseum , and a lot further away, people all over the Western Hemisphere were going happily about their business never having heard of any of this.
And one day, a very nice young woman in Ireland finally decided she'd had one too many unwanted marriage proposals.
"Yeah, well, what do you want me to do about it?" St. Patrick asked, in words to that effect.
"Well," St. Bridget responded, in the modern vernacular , "why not let us have a whack at it?"
"What, women? Proposing?"
"Absolutely."
St. Patrick thought this over.
"Alright," he said, after a moment. "Tell you what. You can have one day a year."
And St. Bridget smiled. So St. Patrick took another moment.
"Out of every four. Starting today."
As the legend goes, that day was February 29 th, and St. Bridget proposed on the spot.
A More Believable Myth
Naturally, the Catholic Encyclopedia 's entry on St. Bridget doesn't mention this gender-role reversing tidbit of apocrypha . But medieval Europe certainly had its rules regarding courtship , and tradition held that only men were allowed to propose.
Women all over the Continent and in Scotland particularly spent another seven hundred years or so complaining about this fact, when it is widely believed that legislation regarding socially acceptable, non-emasculating female marriage proposal was finally put to parchment. The earliest remembered if unrecovered record occurs in the Leap Year Act , allegedly passed by the Scottish Parliament in 1288 . It wasn't supposed to have given carte blanche to the ladies in terms of picking the Big Day, but set aside the whole of the Leap Year as fair ground.
Preliminary research offers the following wording for the Act's most salient feature:
Ordonit that during ye reign of her maist blisset Majestie Margaret, ilka maiden ladee of baith high and lowe estait shall hae liberte to bespoke ye man she likes - albeit he refuses to talk he shall be mulcted in ye sum ane pundis or less.
I can't cut through much of the spelling or brogue , and don't at all want to touch upon ane pundis, but Margaret, Maid of Norway happened to be enjoying the second of her four years on the Scottish throne at the time the act was passed, and for what it's worth, Scotland didn't have another queen until Mary in 1542.
In the elapsed time, those insecure Scotsmen--say nothing of skirts, you--managed to amend the accepted interpretation of the act back to its supposed 5th Century Irish origins, from all of Leap Year to just Leap Year Day--giving them 365 extra days to hedge and squirm without fear of a preemptive strike .
A Warning
For those men among you thinking this is a fantastic tradition to revive and enjoy in this modern age, I warn that scholarly research into the subject suggests the actual existence of any such act is unlikely at best--so your near-wife's legal precedent is probably a sham, and you're not off the hook to drop to one knee.
If it does hold up in court, though, mythological add-ons at least try to make it interesting. One version insists that any women premeditating a marriage had to wear a scarlet petticoat with a clearly visible hem, so that ambivalent or lifelong bachelors could see them coming a fair distance off and amscray . All versions--as the quotation suggests--mandate that if the gentleman isn't able to execute successfully an avoidance strategy and manages to get himself proposed to, failure to accept the proposal could result in a fine . The snubber was obliged to give the snubbed anything from 100 pounds to a silk dress , money to buy a silk dress, or a really decent pair of gloves.
Small price to pay for escaping an unwanted marriage, and much less than a woman commonly had to give up to enter one .
In modern Britain , it seems, the tradition persists to this day, something along the lines of the all-too-American Sadie Hawkins Day . And true to form, the American version comes from a comic strip dating all the way back to 1937 .
One might think that I came across this in the course of idle research about an imminent subject, but no. I was told by my lovely and charming English paramour, who just might be getting a jump--or rather, a leap--on a fine old British tradition.
Bouquets to:
| i don't know |
February 30th was a real date in which Scandinavian country? | Coach Tours of Scandinavia, Russia and Iceland
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Coach Tours of Scandinavia, Russia and Iceland
Take a coach tour of Scandinavia and enter a land of fjords, forest and famous folklore. Tales of Norse gods and trolls still abound, as well as many other mythical creatures living on land and in water. Scandinavia consists of Denmark, Norway, Sweden. We can also use the term ‘Nordic Countries’ which then includes Finland and Iceland. Whilst Finland uses the Euro currency, all the others have different currencies all called ‘krona’ and some variation of that spelling. You can use credit cards everywhere, but you will need local currency for small purchases. Visit Copenhangen in Denmark, the home of legendary story teller Hans Christian Anderson. Learn more about the Little Mermaid Statue. The city favours cyclists and pedestrians, so it’s easy to get around and view the harbour, Tivoli Gardens and Royal Palace.
Innovative Danish restaurants have emerged such as Noma - a two-Michelin-star restaurant run by chef René Redzepi. The top attraction in our view is the Nyhavn Canal quayside flanked by colourful wooden houses (not made of lego) and waterside cafés. Denmark is the smallest of the Nordic countries and prompts thoughts of Danish pastries, Danish bacon and the Carlsberg brewery. Besides these tasty indulgences, take a look in a toy shop and be reminded of the billions of multi coloured lego bricks that have come from this small country. Your Nordic coach holiday will usually begin in Denmark. From there you may head north to Frederikshavn for an overnight stay. Next day cross the Kattegat via a leisurely ferry crossing to Gothenburg, Sweden's second biggest city. After a view of the city, you head north through the west side of Sweden and cross another international border into Norway and the capital city of Oslo.
Head far north of Scandinavia to Iceland. Encounter a place of nature’s wonders - spouting waterfalls, volcanoes and dazzling scenes every step of the way. The staggering landscape of this nation will guarantee you will need to return over and over. Start your trip in the capital Reykjavík Places you visit on most tours include the hot-springs at Geysir and the stunning Gullfoss Waterfalls, a sort of Iceland Niagara. No tour to Iceland is complete without a visit to Reykjavik's Blue Lagoon.
Whilst we are in this general region of Europe, let’s mention Finland again, but this time add the Baltic states and a small portion of Russia, namely Moscow and St Petersburg.
Finland is covered with just an overnight stay on most tours. You arrive at the capital Helsinki, your Local Specialist shows you the city's sights including Finlandia Hall, Senate and Market Squares. St Petersburg is very impressive and demands a longer stay with it’s canals and colourful buildings. The city's sights include the Tsar's Winter Palace, Nevsky Prospekt, St. Isaac's Cathedral and the statue of Peter the Great. The Hermitage Museum contains one of the world's largest and most valuable art collections, so prepare to be wowed. On arrival in Moscow get ready to see the main sites of Red Square and St. Basil's Cathedral. Visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Kremlin. The Baltic gems of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia have compact and charming old town centres in their respective capitals of Vilnius, Tallinn and Riga. We are sure you will enjoy your tours of all these fascinating places.
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A 20 day first class tour of Norway and Finland, starting in Oslo and ending in Stockholm, Sweden. Visit the North Cape Visitor Centre where you may see the midnight sun. Meet Santa in Rovaniemi From £3175 read more»
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1
| Sweden |
The town of Anthony in which US state was known as ‘The Leap Year Capital of the World’? | Scandinavian Tours, Travel to Scandinavia, Iceland Tours, Baltic Tours and Visa free Cruises, Scandinavian Travel with Nordic Saga
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Enjoy the Northern Beauty – Opt for Scandinavian Tours
Scandinavian and Iceland tours are a very exciting and unforgettable way of spending vacations because of all the magnificent views, sparkling lakes, geysers, volcanoes and fascinating fjords these countries have to offer. The amazing nature of Scandinavia contributes to having the time of one’s life during a well-organized Scandinavian tour. This is especially true for Norway and Iceland Tours.
A very popular way to explore Norway's coast is by Hurtigruten cruise line. Though, it is not the nature only that is to be counted during the Scandinavian travel. If you travel to Arhus, Stockholm, Bergen, Gothenburg, Karlstad, Oslo or Lillehammer, you will be impressed by the views and attractions these places can provide you with during your Scandinavia travel. You will be able to see such world-famous places as Tivoli Gardens (which receive their visitors from April to September), or to get acquainted with Hans Christian Andersen’s home with its cozy and a little bit magic atmosphere. During your Scandinavian travel, you may also visit Den Gamle By located in Denmark, the magnificent City Hall in Stockholm, or the mysterious Gripsholm Castle in Sweden. You will be also guided to Lillehammer’s Maihaugen Museum in the open air (available for visiting from the end of May), and the famous Frogner Park in Oslo, as well as to many more places of interest you may opt for during your travel to Scandinavia.
You will also have a chance to taste a local Swedish treat called Polkagris candy, or help yourself to an apple cider on some Norwegian farm.
Scandinavian tours also offer a great choice of transportation. You may even cruise from Denmark to Sweden on a comfortable liner, or opt for sailing in the yacht to the Sognefjord to enjoy the beauty of the gorgeous northern landscapes.
Your Scandinavia tour may end in a farewell dinner in Oslo that will bring you a lot of new friends and experiences to celebrate your successful Scandinavia travel which will stay in your memory for the rest of your life. Beautiful souvenirs and photos taken during Scandinavia tours will also be a good way to recollect the breathtaking adventures you have experienced in your travel Scandinavia offered you within your family circle.
Another interesting tourism opportunity in this part of the world is travel to the Baltic States. What are exactly the Baltic States on the map? The Baltic States are independent countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia that gained their independence from the Soviet Union over 25 years ago.
Last but not least is St. Petersburg, the Venice of the North, which can be easily acessed by ferry from Helsinki and Tallinn on a visa free cruise run by St. Petersline cruise company. Nordic Saga Tours is the official representative of St. Peterline cruises and tours.
Our company is a large-scale and credited tour operator and seller of Scandinavia tours, Iceland tours, Baltic tours, Hurtigruten Coastal voyages and visa free cruises to St. Petersburg. We are ready to offer you a good variety of options and services for your Scandinavia tour. There are discounted tours for your choice, which you may find irresistible. You may book your travel in advance, and you are sure to receive some sort of bonus or discount. An individual tour Scandinavia can provide in a great variety is also available. You are welcome to have a good time with us.
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Dear Bobby, Wanted to give you a shout and say my vacation in Iceland was successful and very pleasant back in February. Loved the hotels, the food, the people, and definitely enjoyed the scenery. I was able to get a few great photos of the Aurora Borealis one night and am pleased with that whole experience. Never thought I'd get to see such beauty in person. I definitely had to try the fermented shark and must admit it was worth trying, but I don't know if I'd eat it again. I'd love to see the other side of the country in the future, so when I'm able to plan another trip to Iceland, I'll be in touch. Rick Jenkins
Rick Jenkins
| i don't know |
In which country in the UK did it used to be considered unlucky to be born on a Leap Day? | Leap year: 10 things about 29 February - BBC News
BBC News
Leap year: 10 things about 29 February
1 March 2012
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The "leap day" of 29 February exists for purely astronomical reasons, but has always prompted less scientific curiosities.
Here are 10 things to consider - for one day only. Until 2016, that is.
1. The leapyear's extra day is necessary because of the "messiness" of our Solar System. One Earth year (a complete orbit around the Sun) does not take an exact number of whole days (one complete spin of the Earth on its axis). In fact, it takes 365.2422 days, give or take.
2. Until JuliusCaesar came to power, people observed a 355-day calendar - with an extra 22-day month every two years. But it was a convoluted solution to the problem and feast days began sliding into different seasons. So Caesar ordered his astronomer, Sosigenes, to simplify things. Sosigenes opted for the 365-day year with an extra day every four years to scoop up the extra hours. This is how the 29 February was born. It was then fine-tuned by Pope Gregory XIII (see below).
3. Every fourthyear is a leap year, as a rule of thumb. But that's not the end of the story. A year that is divisible by 100, but not by 400, is not. So 2000 was a leap year under the Gregorian calendar, as was 1600. But 1700, 1800 and 1900 are not leap years. "It seems a bit arbitrary," says Ian Stewart, emeritus professor of mathematics at Warwick University. But there's a good reason behind it.
"The year is 365 days and a quarter long - but not exactly. If it was exactly, then you could say it was every four years. But it is very slightly less." The answer arrived at by Pope Gregory XIII and his astronomers when they introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1582, was to lose three leap days every 400 years. The maths has hung together ever since. It will need to be rethought in about 10,000 years' time, Stewart warns. But by then mankind might have come up with a new system.
PM's Leap Day
By Eddie MairPresenter, PM
All this month on PM, listeners have been asked whether they'd be prepared to take advantage of this extra day to do something different.
It transpires there are a lot of people who're ready to use today to take a leap .
There's the apparently mundane... "I resolve to speak Mandarin all day long"… "my partner and I are going to visit some elderly people"... "often meant to take a roof tour of Lincoln Cathedral but never got round to it".
After six years one woman will finally decide the wording for her husband's headstone. Some people are at last scattering the ashes of loved ones having put it off for years.
There's a woman taking up the hula-hoop after more than 50 years.
One woman intends to have some chocolate today - her anorexia has been a problem for years. A man who suffers panic attacks will try to make a bus journey. And a woman in her 60s will get a tattoo.
PM is on BBC Radio Four, Monday to Saturday at 17:00 GMT
PM blog
4. Why isFebruary 29, not February 31, a leap year day? All the other months have 30 or 31 days, but February suffered from the ego of Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, says Stewart. Under Julius Caesar, February had 30 days, but when Caesar Augustus was emperor he was peeved that his month - August - had only 29 days, whereas the month named after his predecessor Julius - July - had 31. "He pinched a couple of days for August to make it the same as July. And it was poor old February that lost out," says Prof Stewart.
5. The traditionof a woman proposing on a leap year has been attributed to various historical figures. One, although much disputed, was St Bridget in the 5th Century. She is said to have complained to St Patrick that women had to wait too long for their suitors to propose. St Patrick then supposedly gave women a single day in a leap year to pop the question - the last day of the shortest month. Another popular story is that Queen Margaret of Scotland brought in a law setting fines for men who turned down marriage proposals put by women on a leap year. Sceptics have pointed out that Margaret was five years old at the time and living far away in Norway. The tradition is not thought to have become commonplace until the 19th Century.
It is believed that the tradition of women proposing on this day goes back to the times when the leap year day was not recognised by English law. Under this theory, if the day had no legal status, it was acceptable to break with the convention of a man proposing.
6. A prayerhas been written by a female cleric for people planning a leap year day marriage proposal. The prayer, for 29 February, asks for blessings on the engaged couple. It reminds them that wedding plans should not overtake preparations for a lifetime together. The prayer has been taken from Pocket Prayers of Blessing by the Venerable Jan McFarlane, Archdeacon of Norwich:
"God of love, please bless N and N as they prepare for the commitment of marriage. May the plans for the wedding not overtake the more important preparation for their lifetime together. Please bless their family and friends as they prepare for this special day and may your blessing be upon them now and always. Amen."
7. The practiceof women proposing in a leap year is different around the world. In Denmark, it is not supposed to be 29 but 24 February, which hails back to the time of Julius Caesar. A refusal to marry by Danish men means they must give the woman 12 pairs of gloves. In Finland, it is not gloves but fabric for a skirt and in Greece, marriage in a leap year is considered unlucky, leading many couples to avoid it.
8. The chanceof being born on a leap day is often said to be one in 1,461. Four years is 1,460 days and adding one for the leap year you have 1,461. So, odds of 1/1,461.
But Stewart points out that is very slightly out, owing to the loss of the three leap years every 400 years. In any case, babies are more likely to be born at certain times of the year rather than others, due to a range of other factors, he says. Babies born on 29 February are known as "leapers" or "leaplings".
9.Other calendarsapart from the Gregorian require leap years. The modern Iranian calendar is a solar calendar with eight leap days inserted into a 33-year cycle. The Indian National Calendar and the Revised Bangla Calendar of Bangladesh arrange their leap years so that the leap day is always close to 29 February in the Gregorian calendar.
10.Explorer ChristopherColumbus used the lunar eclipse of 29 February 1504 to his advantage during his final trip to the West Indies. After several months of being stranded with his crew on the island of Jamaica, relations with the indigenous population broke down and they refused to continue helping with food and provisions. Columbus, knowing a lunar eclipse was due, consulted his almanac and then gathered the native chiefs on 29 February. He told that God was to punish them by painting the Moon red. During the eclipse, he said that God would withdraw the punishment if they starting co-operating again. The panicked chiefs agreed and the Moon began emerging from its shadow.
Also of a supernatural nature, on 29 February 1692 the first warrants were issued in the Salem witchcraft trials in Massachusetts.
| Scotland |
Babies born on 29th February are known as what? | Superstitions - Myths - Legends - Folklore - Omens - Lucks - Sayings
Superstitions – Myths – Legends – Folklore – Omens – Lucks – Sayings
Sunday, May 27th, 2012 at 2:45 am
There are superstitions for almost all aspects of our daily lives and most have unknown origins. Sometimes they are logical (for example, don’t walk under a ladder) but most of the time they are just silly. Some people can become controlled by their superstitions, which can become unhealthy.
Over the years people have intertwined and interchanged the following: myths, legends, folklore, omens, old wives tales, luck, sayings and superstitions so it is hard to separate them. I have placed the “definition” of those below and tried to categorize things in their right topic, however I will admit is a difficult thing to do with so many crossovers.
Superstition [soo-per-stish-uhn]
A belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge, in or of the ominous significance of a particular thing, circumstance, occurrence, proceeding, or the like
Luck [luhk]
The force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person’s life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities
Sayings [sey-ing]
Something said, especially a proverb or apothegm
Folklore [fohk-lawr, -lohr]
The traditional beliefs, legends, customs, etc., of a people; lore of a people
Legend [lej-uhnd]
A non-historical or unverifiable story handed down by tradition from earlier times and popularly accepted as historical
Old wives’ tale
A belief, usually superstitious or erroneous, passed on by word of mouth as a piece of traditional wisdom
Myth
A popular belief or story that has become associated with a person, institution, or occurrence, especially one considered to illustrate a cultural ideal
Omen [oh-muhn]
Anything perceived or happening that is believed to portend a good or evil event or circumstance in the future; portent
An article published in Psychological Science shows that people who believe in “good luck charms” have more confidence than those that do not. So whether what they believe in can be proven true or false it really doesn’t matter.
The other side of the coin shows that believing in superstitions can be unlucky and unhealthy. Certain beliefs can cause people to act without thinking about the consequences and beliefs can cause housing prices to lower and abortions to increase.
For instance, look at the power of a superstition; the unlucky number 13. This particular superstition has been around for a long time. In Rome they believed the number 13 was a symbol of death and destruction. There are many buildings that do not have a 13th floor, houses and apartments will not be numbered 13, many people will not fly or buy things on the13th and restaurants and homes across the world will not allow 13 guests to come or sit at a table.
As you can see believing in such things can cause all kinds of trouble and even danger, so why do people believe?
What it does in people’s lives is give them more security in a very unpredictable world. It puts them in control and most people strive to be there.
Superstitions and the like are usually handed down by the generation before us and thus it is familiar and comfortable for us. It is like a security blanket that we know exactly what we will do or chose when it is time. All you have to do is win the lottery with a certain number and that number will be yours for life.
It is during times of stress, turmoil and strife that you will find superstitions and the like, being used more and more, again it is because of our need to have some sort of control and yet really in the end not be held responsible for the consequences. I lost the game because I didn’t have my lucky shirt on, etc.
One of the worst consequences that can happen in relation to believing fully in superstitions is OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. People make up their own behaviors that they must accomplish or dire results will happen. For instance if I step on a crack, someone will die. They do this because if they do what they think they need to, it gives them safety, security and a great predictability of outcome.
SUPERSTITIONS
GOOD LUCK
To see the thin crescent over ones left shoulder is lucky
Charms and Amulets, in the shape of a crescent moon, are used to protect you from the evil eye, witchcraft and encourage personal wealth.
The Crescent must always point to the left, this represents the first quarter of the moon, when things prosper and grow.
In Roman times, women used to wear silver moon crescents on their shoes to ensure having healthy babies.
People once believed the moon was made of silver, so they would ask the moon for help and jingle the change in their pockets, as they gazed at its glory.
Legend says that to cure warts, catch some moonbeams in a metal basin and wash your hands in it, saying “I wash my hands in thy dish, ‘O man in the moon, do grant my wish, and come and take this away”
The new moon is an auspicious time for planting, courtship, the starting of new business ventures, or trips
It is also the best time to cut the hair and fingernails for better growth later on
If you carry an acorn, you will have continued good luck and a long life
Hanging a horseshoe above the door to any home will bring good luck to all who live there
An old English tradition holds that a new wife seeing the new moon for the first time, should run quickly to her bedroom and turn down her bed to ensure a happy marriage.
At first sight of the new moon, one should turn a silver coin in his purse or pocket and make a wish.
Seeing a new moon for the first time on a Monday will bring you good luck
If the first time you see a new moon, is over your right shoulder, it is a sign of fun times ahead
If you happen to be holding something, in both of your hands, when you see the new moon for the first time, you will never want for anything
A wish made while looking at new moon will come true within a year
To see the thin crescent over ones left shoulder is lucky
Charms and Amulets, in the shape of a crescent moon, are used to protect you from the evil eye, witchcraft and encourage personal wealth.
The Crescent must always point to the left, this represents the first quarter of the moon, when things prosper and grow.
In Roman times, women used to wear silver moon crescents on their shoes to ensure having healthy babies.
Garlic protects from evil spirits and vampires
If you blow out all of the candles on your birthday cake with the first breath you will get whatever you wish for
To have a wish come true using a wishbone, two people make a wish, then take hold of each end of the bone and pull it until it separates. The person with the longer end gets his or her wish
At the end of a rainbow is a pot of gold
BAD LUCK
It was thought that to sleep in direct moonlight caused madness or blindness.
In time, the word, lunatic, from “luna”, meaning moon, and “tic”, meaning struck, evolved from this belief.
It is unlucky to view the first new moon through glass or through a tree
It is also unlucky to point at the moon
It is unlucky to rock an empty rocking chair
It is bad luck to step on a grave
It is bad luck for a different person to close a knife than the person who opened it
It’s bad luck to kill a cricket
It’s bad luck to completely finish a new house
Wearing an opal when it is not your birthstone is bad luck
When boiling milk, it’s bad luck to let it run over the side of the pot
When you leave the house and forgot something and must return indoors, then you should count to 10 before leaving again or you will have bad luck.
It is bad luck to dig a grave or bury a body during a new moon.
A bat flying into your home
An owl hooting three times in a row
If you see three butterflies flying together
Spilling salt – this one can be redeemed by grabbing some of the salt and throwing it over your left shoulder. This is believed to be the way in which to throw the salt into the eyes of the evil spirits that are lying in wait.
A five leaf clover
Putting your shirt on wrong side out
Staring at the new moon over your left shoulder
If giving toast and your break the glass you will be bringing bad luck to yourself
A rooster crowing at night
Placing a hat on your bed
Never get out of bed with your left foot first or you will have bad luck all day
Breaking a mirror will bring on 7 years of bad luck
You can break a bad luck spell by turning seven times in a clockwise circle
Singing before breakfast
Opening an umbrella inside the house is sure to bring bad luck to the entire household.
Be sure when you receive a wedding present to never give it away or it will bring bad luck to the marriage.
If you see an owl during the daytime, beware of misfortune
Giving a knife to someone as a present bring bad luck to the friendship
If the groom happens to drop the wedding ring during the ceremony, the marriage will not last
Take off any clothing prior to mending or bad luck will befall you
If a grave digger walks toward you it means you will become very seriously ill
If a black cat crosses your path, turn around, go all the way back and start your destination over
If a black cat crosses your path to put an x on your window
Don’t step on a crack; you’ll break your mother’s back
Don’t step in a hole; you’ll break your mother’s sugar bowl
If you spill salt you have to take some and throw it over your left shoulder to ward off bad luck
Never buy pearls for yourself, it’ll bring bad luck.
It’s bad luck to wash on New Year’s Day
It’s bad luck to wash your hair on your birthday
If you break a mirror, throw salt over your left shoulder to avoid 7 years bad luck
Never put shoes on a bed for ANY reason. It’s very bad luck
Never walk under a ladder
Don’t open an umbrella in the house
To milk a cow being sent to market
To see an owl in the sunlight
Changing a horse’s name
OLD WIVES TALES, MYTHS, OMENS, LEGENDS, FOLKLORE AND SUPERSTITIONS
Don’t cross your eyes – they’ll get stuck that way!
You can catch poison ivy from someone who has it
Reading in dim light or sitting too close to the TV damages your eyes
Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death
If you dream of a wedding there will soon be a funeral
If you dream of a funeral there will soon be a wedding
If a tree or post comes between two people walking, these people will soon quarrel
If a pregnant woman sees the blood of a dead animal, wherever she touches herself, she will mark the baby in that spot.
If your left hand itches, you will soon come into money
If your right hand itches, you will soon shake a stranger’s hand
If your nose itches, company is coming
If your ear itches someone is talking about you
If you’re driving and a black cat crosses your path, put an X on the windshield with your finger. If you’re walking and a black cat crosses your path, roll a pant leg up and let it back down. This will prevent bad luck.
Before the Civil War, among the slaves, if a mother died from childbirth and the baby lived, the baby was passed to each family member. This was to prevent the mother’s soul from returning and taking the baby with her.
Shaving your hair causes it to grow back darker, coarser and faster
Knuckle-cracking causes arthritis
You can get the flu from the flu shot
We use only 10 percent of our brains
It’s easier for a couple to conceive if the man wears boxer shorts instead of briefs
Sleeping on your back encourages snoring
Copper bracelets help soothe arthritis
Eating boiled eggs can make you constipated
Pull a grey hair out and you can expect two in its place
Sitting too close to the TV can damage your eyesight
Cloves help relieve toothache
Toothpaste gets rid of skin spots and darkness
Chewing parsley gets rid of garlic breath
Sitting on a hot radiator or cold wall gives you piles
Counting sheep makes you go to sleep
Cleaning your ears with cotton buds can make you go deaf
Chewing on bread can stop you crying when peeling onions
Sharing toothbrushes spreads disease
Swallowed chewing gum takes seven years to digest
Hot Tubs Lower Sperm Count
Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever
Long Labor Means a Boy
Swimming Within an Hour of Eating Will Give You Cramps
Shaving Your Legs Makes the Hair Grow in Thicker and Coarser
Seizures are brought on by a full moon
Gain a child lose a tooth
A bar of soap in the bed prevents nighttime leg cramps
Don’t let a person with a head injury sleep
Heartburn during pregnancy means a hairy baby
Teething causes fever, runny nose and diarrhea
Before modern pregnancy tests, if a rabbit injected with a woman’s urine died, the woman was pregnant
If your nose is itching, someone is talking about you
If your hand is itching, that means you are about to get money
A cat will steal your baby’s breath if you let them near a newborn
If you hold a aspirin between your legs you won’t get pregnant
If you keep making an ugly face it’s going to stay that way
Touching a toad will give you warts
If a woman’s carrying low, it’s a boy; if she’s carrying high, it’s a girl
A bat in the house is a sign of a death
When you see a funeral procession go by, you have to make the sign of the cross or someone in your family will be next
A dog howling at night when someone in the house is sick is a bad sign
Step on a crack will break your mothers back
Knock on wood so you don’t jinx yourself
If it rains on your wedding day, you’ll cry plenty of tears throughout your marriage
Holding a Knife or Axe during an Eclipse Will Result in Injury
Drano can help determine the gender of your unborn child drain – Mix a cup of morning urine with a cup of Drano, if it stays blue it is a girl, if it turns a tea color you are having a boy
CARD PLAYING SUPERSTITIONS
If you have had a run of bad cards it is said to change your luck if you lay your handkerchief flat upon your chair and sit on it.
To alter the run of the cards if you turn your chair round three times or walk round it three times.
It is good luck is to blow through the cards when they are being shuffled.
The luckiest seat is the one which faces the door; the most unlucky is that which has its back to the fire-place.
When cutting for deal, if you turn up the deuce of any suit, it is good luck.
If two packs of cards are used and you are asked with which you wish to deal, always choose the one farthest away from you.
The most unlucky card to hold in one’s hand is the four of clubs.
When changing seats at the table you should always move in a clockwise direction; that is, from right to left.
Never pick up your cards with the left hand, or one card at a time.
It is very unlucky to sit cross-legged when playing cards.
If your partner should lose a game or a trick, never say Bad luck or your luck will not change.
Having a dog in the room while playing cards is said to cause disputes.
Friday is a bad day for card playing
Any thirteenth day of the month is considered unluck
Swallowed gum is harmful to the digestive system
Drinking warm milk makes you sleepy
Eating turkey causes drowsiness
Eating spicy foods can give you an ulcer
Cranberry Juice Prevents Urinary Tract Infections
Fish is Good for Your Brain
An apple a day keeps the doctor away
Eat your crust – it’s good for you
Chicken soup is good for the soul (and the odd cold too!)
Honey last forever
Salt last forever and never spoils
If an egg floats is bad
When cooking beans never “clean the spoon” by banging/bumping it on the top of the pot or it would make your beans stick
NEVER Drink Milk with Fish or You will be Sick by Morning!
Eating apples at night will constipate you
Eat Mac & Cheese with fish or you’d get worms
Never turn a whole fish over when you serve it at a meal, or the fisherman’s boat will sink
Eating carrots makes your eyesight better
The Heimlich maneuver will not work for someone choking on Peanut butter
Eat burnt toast for a sour stomach
Whiskey, lemon, and honey mixed together are supposed to be good for a cough
Gargle with warm, salty water for a sore throat
Drink buttermilk for irritable bowels
Hot coffee will head off a migraine if you drink it at the very beginning of the headache
You should wait one hour after eating before swimming
Drinking coffee will stunt your growth
For African-Americans, drinking black coffee will make you darker
Eating bread crust would make your hair curly
Don’t drink the water that comes out of the tap
Put leeches on your forehead
Rub cow dung and molasses on your temples
Tie a buzzard’s head around your neck
Use powdered moss as snuff
Have someone else rub your head
Have a relative read chapters of the Bible to you
Stand on your head or spin around until you are dizzy
Soak your feet in hot water to draw blood from your head
Run around the house three times
Ask a seventh child to blow in your ear
Put a buckwheat cake on your head
Rub your head with a piece of stone containing iron ore
Wrap damp cloths around your head and burn scented wood
Plait a handful of hair very tightly on top of your head
Lean your head against a tree and have someone else drive a nail into the opposite side of the tree
Tie a leather thong tightly around your head
Wednesday is considered the “best day” to marry
Marry on Monday is for wealth
Marry on Tuesday is for health
The groom carries the bride across the threshold to bravely protect her from evil spirits lurking below
Saturday is the unluckiest wedding day, according to English folklore
Ancient Romans studied pig entrails to determine the luckiest time to marry
Rain on your wedding day is actually considered good luck, according to Hindu tradition!
Middle Eastern brides paint henna on their hands and feet to protect themselves from the evil eye
Peas are thrown at Czech newlyweds instead of rice
A Swedish bride puts a silver coin from her father and a gold coin from her mother in each shoe to ensure that she’ll never do without
A Finnish bride traditionally went door-to-door collecting gifts in a pillowcase, accompanied by an older married man who represented long marriage
Moroccan women take a milk bath to purify themselves before their wedding ceremony
In Holland, a pine tree is planted outside the newlyweds’ home as a symbol of fertility and luck
In many cultures around the world — including Celtic, Hindu and Egyptian weddings — the hands of a bride and groom are literally tied together to demonstrate the couple’s commitment to each other and their new bond as a married couple (giving us the popular phrase “tying the knot”)
Queen Victoria started the Western world’s white wedding dress trend in 1840 — before then, brides simply wore their best dress
In Asia, wearing robes with embroidered cranes symbolizes fidelity for the length of a marriage
Ancient Greeks and Romans thought the veil protected the bride from evil spirits
Brides carry or wear “something old” on their wedding day to symbolize continuity with the past
In Denmark, brides and grooms traditionally cross-dressed to confuse evil spirits!
The “something blue” in a bridal ensemble symbolizes purity, fidelity, and love
If the younger of two sisters marries first, the older sister must dance barefoot at the wedding or risk never landing a husband
The Roman goddess Juno rules over marriage, the hearth, and childbirth, hence the popularity of June weddings
The bride stands to the groom’s left during a Christian ceremony, because in bygone days the groom needed his right hand free to fight off other suitors
If candles lit on the wedding day splutter and go out it, means those evil spirits are nearby, waiting to cause mischief
Superstition has it that it is tempting fate for the bride to write out or sign her married name before her wedding day. The nuptials are said to be doomed and the wedding will not take place.
Tradition says that the first member of the newlywed couple to purchase a new item following the wedding will be the dominant force in the relationship
A bride should exit her house from the front door and step out right foot first
Newlyweds are doomed to barrenness and will be dependent on charity if they run across a nun or a monk on their way to the church
GOWNS
When a bride makes her own wedding dress, for every stitch she sews she will cry a tear
Colors of a wedding gown
Married in White, you have chosen right
Married in Grey, you will go far away,
Married in Black, you will wish yourself back,
Married in Red, you will wish yourself dead,
Married in Green, ashamed to be seen,
Married in Blue, you will always be true,
Married in Pearl, you will live in a whirl,
Married in Yellow, ashamed of your fellow,
Married in Brown, you will live in the town,
Married in Pink, you spirit will sink.
In Japan, white was always the color of choice for bridal ensembles
In Korea, brides wear bright hues of red and yellow to take their vows
The preferred material for bridal gowns is silk
Satin traditionally brings bad luck, and a velvet dress will threaten poverty in the future
The dress must never be stained with blood
The dress must not be patterned
Pictures of birds or vines must in particular be avoided
Another measure for luck is that the last stitch in the dress be left undone until the very last moment before the bride starts off for the ceremony
Another lucky tradition is for the bride to sew several hairs into her dress
Slipping a coin into her stocking or shoe is believed to ensure future prosperity
RINGS
Engagement and wedding rings are worn on the fourth finger of the left hand because it was once thought that a vein in that finger led directly to the heart
About 70% of all brides sport the traditional diamond on the fourth finger of their left hand
A sapphire in a wedding ring means marital happiness
A pearl engagement ring is said to be bad luck because its shape echoes that of a tear
Aquamarine represents marital harmony and is said to ensure a long, happy marriage
It is unlucky to go shopping for wedding rings on a Friday, due to the bad luck associated with that day (Friday the 13th)
It is unlucky for the brides or grooms to wear their rings before the wedding ceremony
Once the wedding ring has been placed on the finger, it is considered bad luck to remove it
If the ring accidentally comes off, your spouse must replace it on your finger
Dropping the ring during the ceremony is an evil omen. Whoever dropped the ring would die first. If the ring rolls away from the alter and rested on a gravestone in the floor of the chapel, it would mean the bride would die first if the person buried there was a woman; the groom would die first if it was a man
A tight ring might point to painful jealousy or the stifling of one party by the other
Having the wedding rings blessed by a clergyman is believed to give the ring the power to rid disease and guard the wearer from devils
FLOWERS
Orange blossoms, which represent purity, chastity, and fertility, have always been associated with happy weddings
Roses are used because they signify love
Flowers to be avoided are peonies, as they symbolize shame
Any combination of red and white flowers should be avoided as well because they represent blood and bandages
The Romans extended the tradition of bouquets to the wearing of garlands and wreaths
Evil spirits could not harm someone inside a circle, so brides wearing wreaths upon their heads were safe
FOOD AND FAMILY
In Egypt, the bride’s family traditionally does all the cooking for a week after the wedding, so the couple can…relax
In South Africa, the parents of both bride and groom traditionally carried fire from their hearths to light a new fire in the newlyweds’ hearth
The tradition of a wedding cake comes from ancient Rome, where revelers broke a loaf of bread over a bride’s head for fertility’s sake
The custom of tiered cakes emerged from a game where the bride and groom attempted to kiss over an ever-higher cake without knocking it over
Legend says single women will dream of their future husbands if they sleep with a slice of groom’s cake under their pillows
All the guests should eat some wedding cake to ensure good luck
It is believed that an unmarried male guest who keeps a piece of wedding cake under his pillow as he sleeps will increase his chances of finding a mate. An unmarried bridesmaid who does the same will dream of her future husband
GOOD LUCK AND LUCKY OMENS
Seeing a chimney sweep on your wedding day (in England, it is popular to hire one to ensure good luck)
Seeing lambs
Seeing toads
Seeing rainbows
Tuck a sugar cube into your glove, according to Greek culture, the sugar will sweeten your union
The English believe a spider found in a wedding dress means good luck
It is held that a final look in the mirror right before the bride leaves her home for the ceremony will bring good luck.
It’s considered good luck for the bride to cry on her wedding day, as this symbolizes that she has shed all her tears and will not have any to shed during her marriage
If you can persuade a cat to eat out of your left shoe one week before the wedding good luck will bless your married life
For good luck, Egyptian women pinch the bride on her wedding day
BAD LUCK AND UNLUCKY OMENS
A new wife tripping as she enters her home (this is why the groom carries her over the threshold)
Seeing a nun or a monk on the wedding day (because they represent chastity and poverty)
In Victorian times, it was deemed unlucky if a woman married a man whose last name began with the same letter as hers. As was typical of the times, a little rhyme was created to help remember the rule:
“To change the name and not the letter
Is to change for the worse and not the better”
Seeing open graves
If a woman looks in a mirror twice before the ceremony, her luck will tarnish to bad!
Marrying when the hands on the clock are on their way down is bad luck. It`s considered far better to marry between the half hour and the hour, when the hands are moving back up, otherwise, your marriage will always be going downhill
Seeing pigs
Hearing a rooster crow after dawn
HALLOWEEN SUPERSTITIONS
If you hear foot steps behind you on this night, don’t look back. It may be the dead following you. Turning back could mean that you will soon join the dead.
Girls who carry a lamp to a spring of water on this night can see their future husband in the reflection.
Girls who carry a broken egg in a glass to a spring of water (during the day) can not only see their future husband by mixing some of the spring water into the glass, but she can also see a glimpse of her future children.
An old tradition was that girls should go into a field and there scatter the seed of hemp. While they did so they chanted “Hempseed I sow thee Come after me and show me”. Upon suddenly turning round, it was declared that each girl would see a vision of the man who would be her husband.
Bobbing for Apples – Each member of the party is given an apple, from which a small piece has been cut, and into which a fortune written on a slip of paper has been inserted. The apples are thrown into a large tub of water and the company invited to duck their heads and retrieve an apple with their mouths. Upon doing so they draw out the slip of paper and read their fortune.
To find out of your lover is true. select one of the letters which you have received from your sweetheart, especially one which contains a particularly passionate and important declaration; lay it wide open upon a table and then fold it nine times. Pin the folds together, place the letter in your left-hand glove, and slip it under your pillow. If on that night you dream of silver, gems, glass, castles or clear water, your lover is true and his declarations are genuine; if you dream of linen, storms, fire, wood, flowers, or he is saluting you, he is false and has been deceiving you.
Mashed potatoes offer a method of divining who will be the first to wed. Into the heap of mashed potatoes a ring, a three penny-bit, a button, a heart-shaped charm, a shell and a key are inserted. Then all the lights in the room are turned out, and each guest, armed with a spoon or fork, endeavors to find the hidden charms. The one who finds the ring win marry first; the three penny-bit signifies wealth; the button, bachelorhood or spinsterhood; the heart, passionate love; the shell, long journeys; the key, great success and power.
The old Celtic custom was to light great bonfires on Halloween, and after these had burned out to make a circle of the ashes of each fire. Within this circle, and near the circumference, each member of the various families that had helped to make a fire would place a pebble. If, on the next day, any stone was out of its place, or had been damaged, it was held to be an indication that the one to whom the stone belonged would die within twelve months.
Halloween derives its name from the fact that in the Christian calendar it occurs the day before ‘All Saints’ or All Hallows’ Day. It was the last night of the old year according to the ancient calendar of the Celts. On that night it was said that the witches, hobgoblins, warlocks, and other evil spirits walked abroad and devoted themselves to wicked revels. But the good fairies, too, according to some folklore, made their appearance at this time, but only from the hour of dusk until midnight.
If a bat flies into a house it is a sign that ghosts are about and maybe the ghost let the bat in
If bats come out early and fly around playfully, then it is a sign of good weather to come.
If a bat flies around a house 3 times, it is a death omen.
Peel an apple from top to bottom. The person with the longest unbroken peel would be assured the longest life. If you threw the apple peel over your shoulder, the initial it forms upon landing is the initial of your future mate.
When bobbing for apples, it is believed that the first person to bite an apple would be the first to marry.
If you go to a crossroads at Halloween and listen to the wind, you will learn all the most important things that will befall you during the next twelve months.
A person born on Halloween can see and talk to spirits
To prevent ghosts coming into the house at Halloween, bury animal bones or a picture of an animal near the doorway.
If a girl puts a sprig of rosemary herb and a silver sixpence under her pillow on Halloween night, she will see her future husband in a dream.
In Britain, people believed that the Devil was a nut-gatherer. At Halloween, nuts were used as magic charms.
Many people used to believe that owls swooped down to to eat the souls of the dying. If they heard an owl hooting, they would become frightened. A common remedy was thought to be, turning your pockets inside out and you would be safe
Some believe if you catch a snail on Halloween night and lock it into a flat dish, in the morning you will see the first letter of your sweetheart written in the snail’s slime
You should walk around your home three times backwards and counterclockwise before sunset on Halloween to ward off evil spirits
Knocking on wood keeps bad luck away
If you see a spider on Halloween, it could be the spirit of a dead loved one who is watching you
If you ring a bell on Halloween, it will scare evil spirits away
In North America, it’s bad luck if a black cat crosses your path and good luck if a white cat crosses your path. In Britain and Ireland, it’s the opposite.
If a candle flame suddenly turns blue, there’s a ghost nearby
NEW YEARS SUPERSTITIONS
Empty pockets or empty cupboards on New Years Eve portend a year of poverty
If the first person to cross the threshold of a house after midnight on New Years is a dark-haired man and he carries a shovel full of coal, then a year of good luck will follow.
Its bad luck to let a fire go out on New Year’s Eve
You could ensure yourself good fortune by draining the last dregs from a bottle of drink on New Years!
The Weather – If the wind blows from the south, there will be fine weather and prosperous times in the year ahead. If it comes from the north, it will be a year of bad weather. The wind blowing from the east brings famine and calamities. If the wind blows from the west, the year will witness plentiful supplies of milk and fish but will also see the death of a very important person. If there’s no wind at all, a joyful and prosperous year may be expected by all.
Loud Noise – Make as much noise as possible at midnight to scare away evil spirits.
Letting the Old Year Out: At midnight, all the doors of a house must be opened to let the old year escape unimpeded. He must leave before the New Year can come in, says popular wisdom, so doors are flung open to assist him in finding his way out.
To dance in the open air, especially round a tree, on New Year’s Day is declared to ensure luck in love and prosperity and freedom from ill health during the coming twelve months.
Children born on New Year’s Day bring great fortune and prosperity to all the household.
On New Year’s Day if, on rising, a girl should look out of her bedroom window and see a man passing by, she may reckon to be married before the year is finished.
Clocks should be wound up immediately the New Year begins in order to endow the house with good fortune, while all daily cleaning and dusting should be completed early in the day of December 31 in order to avoid the danger of sweeping good luck from the house.
Breakage – Avoid breaking things on that first day lest wreckage be part of your year. Also, avoid crying on the first day of the year lest that activity set the tone for the next twelve months
Money – Do not pay back loans or lend money or other precious items on New Year’s Day. To do so is to guarantee you’ll be paying out all year.
New Clothes – Wear something new on January 1 to increase the likelihood of your receiving more new garments during the year to follow.
Work – Make sure to do — and be successful at — something related to your work on the first day of the year, even if you don’t go near your place of employment that day. Limit your activity to a token amount, though, because to engage in a serious work project on that day is very unlucky.
Black-Eyed Peas – A tradition common to the Southern part of the United States says that the eating of black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day will attract both general good luck and money in particular to the one doing the dining
A person who lives alone might place a lucky item or two in a basket that has a string tied to it, and then place the basket just outside the front door before midnight. After midnight, the lone celebrant hauls in his catch, being careful to bring the item across the doorjamb by pulling the string rather than by reaching out to retrieve it and thus breaking the plane of the threshold.
Nothing Goes Out – Nothing, absolutely nothing, not even garbage — is to leave the house on the first day of the year. If you have presents to deliver on New Year’s Day, leave them in the car overnight. Don’t so much as shake out a rug or take the empties to the recycle bin. Some people soften this rule by saying it’s okay to remove things from the home on New Year’s Day, provided that something else has been brought in first.
Just as the clock strikes twelve the head of the house should open the door in order to allow the Old Year to pass out and the New Year to come in.
Kissing at midnight – To ensure that those affections and ties will continue throughout the next twelve months. To not do this would be to set the stage for a year of coldness.
Stocking Up – The New Year must not be seen in with bare cupboards, lest that be the way of things for the year. Larders must be topped up and plenty of money must be placed in every wallet in the place to guarantee a prosperous year.
Paying Off Bills – The new year should not be begun with the household in debt, so checks should be written and mailed off prior to January 1st. Likewise, personal debts should be settled before the New Year arrives.
First Footing – The first person to enter your home after the stroke of midnight will influence the year you’re about to have. Ideally, he should be dark-haired, tall, and good-looking, and it would be even better if he came bearing certain small gifts such as a lump of coal, a silver coin, a bit of bread, a sprig of evergreen, and some salt. Blonde and redhead first footers bring bad luck, and female first footers should be shooed away before they bring disaster down on the household.
First Footing – The first footer should knock and be let in rather than just using a key. After greeting those in the house and dropping off whatever small tokens of luck he has brought with him, he should make his way through the house and leave by a different door than the one through which he entered. No one should leave the premises before the first footer arrives — the first traffic across the threshold must be headed in rather than striking out.
First footers must not be cross-eyed or have flat feet or eyebrows that meet in the middle
Squint-eyed, flat-footed, or red-haired men bring bad luck If they are first-footers, and so does a woman. But a man with a high instep, or one who comes on a horse, is considered particularly lucky.
Don’t breathe in when driving past a cemetery
There are a lot of old wives tales about cemetery’s and the dead, but one of the most persistent is the old wives tale that says you must hold your breath when you drive past a cemetery or you’ll breathe in the spirit of someone who died and was buried there recently
There is a similar old wives tale that says you shouldn’t step on a grave, but if you should have to you should walk quickly and hold your breath so that you do not inhale the spirit of the person in the grave
A drowned woman floats face up, a drowned man floats face down
A person cannot drown before going under three times
Smell dandelions, wet the bed
Good Friday – The Friday before Easter is Good Friday. If someone dies on Good Friday, they will go directly to Heaven
Jogging – You shouldn’t jog. It jumbles up your insides
Knitting – Placing the needles in the balls of yarn will bring bad luck to anyone who used the item that yarn is used to make
Leaves – If you catch a falling leaf on the first day of fall, you will not get sick that whole winter
Onions – If you make a wish over burning onions, it will come true
Pencil – Use the same pencil for taking a test as was used for studying for the same test. The pencil will remember the answers
Scissors – Dropping a pair of scissors means that your lover is seeing someone behind your back
Thirteen – Thirteen is just an unlucky number in general
Veil – Bride’s wear veils due to the ancient belief that this will protect them from jealous evil spirits
Wood – If speaking of good luck, knock on wood three times so evil spirits won’t take it away
X – The lines on the palm of your right hand that show an “X” represent the number of children you will have
See a penny, pick it up. All day long you will have good luck
Don’t pick up a penny that is face down ( tails up )It will only bring bad luck
People thought kids would get polio if they played in the mud puddles after a rain
If you accidentally swallow a cat or dog hair it will become a worm in your tummy
Kissing toads give you warts
If you plant a cedar tree then when the shade from the tree is big enough to completely cover a grave you will die.
Don’t to whistle in the house (or barn) because it would call the devil
If you eat in the bathroom you invite the devil to dine on your soul
When you put the pillowcases on your pillows, the opening should never face a door – otherwise evil spirits will be able to slip into the pillowcase
Speak of the Devil, and he will come
If you give someone a wallet or purse, you have to put money in it (even one coin is Okay)
Don’t wake up a sleepwalker or they will go mad
Every time you say something that could curse someone but you didn’t mean it, you have to spit the badness away
Never give a friend or loved one a knife as a present or it will “cut” your friendship
Don’t put your new shoes on the table or they will forever hurt your feet.
Always wear clean underwear in case you’re in an accident.
Don’t joke about something going wrong, because it will
Don’t talk about something going right… You’ll jinx it
Never, ever mention having extra money while in the car. You’re sure to need a repair within the week.
I Can Feel It in My Bones
A big wife and a big barn will never do a man any harm
A clean conscience makes a soft pillow
A merry companion is music on a journey
A poor excuse is better than none at all
A stitch and time saves 9
A wife that does not know how to keep house throws out more with a teaspoon than a man can bring in with a shovel
A little too late is much too late
A good deed is never lost
A smile is worth a thousand words
A person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package
A false friend and a shadow stay only while the sun shines
All is fair in love and war, but friendship there is truth
A word of praise is equal to ointment on a sore
A chain is as strong as its weakest link
A clock will run without watching it
A man is judged by the company he keeps
A good neighbor, a found treasure
A friend to everyone is a friend to nobody
A man is the only animal that can be skinned more than once
A small leak will sink a great ship
A living dog is better than a dead lion
A woman is as old as she admits.
A man without guts lives on his knees
A man who marries twice is a two-time loser
A woman thinks it takes two to keep a secret
A good lie finds more believers than a bad truth
A man is not better than his conversation
A good name is a second inheritance
A man warned is half saved
A good wife is the best household furniture
A frightened atheist half believes in God
A pebble and a diamond are alike to a blind man
A good cause finds weapons to defend it
A tree is known by its fruit, not by its leaves
A guilty conscience needs no accuser
A false friend is worse than an open enemy
A good word costs n more than a bad one
At the center of climb is “I”
An arrogant bug is a cocky roach
Anger without power is folly
Anytime means no time
A handsome husband is common property
A small body may harbor a great soul.
Arrogance is a roadblock on the highway of wisdom
Adversity makes men; prosperity makes monsters
Believe nothing you hear, half of what you see and only one fourth of what you know to be true
Bad neighbors count a man’s income but not his expenses
Better an hour early and stand and wait than a moment behind time
Better weak beer than lemonade
Better a dollar earned than ten inherited
Beware of a door that has too many keys
Borrowing does well only once
By candlelight every country wench is handsome
Be what you appear to be
Better to ask twice than lose your way once
Better bowlegs than no legs at all
Better to heaven in rags than to hell in embroidery
Be silent and pass for a philosopher
Warm hands, cold heart
Curses, like chickens, come home to roost
Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor
Corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds
Cowards die daily, the brave but once
Concealed knowledge is buried treasure
Don’t live it up so high that you can’t lie it down
Don’t dare kiss an ugly girl, she’ll tell the world about it
Don’t taste every man’s soup, you’ll burn your mouth
Doctor’s faults are covered with earth and rich mien’s with money
Even a fish wouldn’t get caught if he kept his mouth shut
Every donkey thinks itself worthy of standing with the king’s horses
Even the devil was an angel in the beginning
Even the devil will swear on a stack of bibles
Every slip is not a fall
Envy is the sincerest form of flattery
Every family has at least one black sheep
Every man judges others by himself
Every man knows best when his own shoe pinches
Every path has a puddle
Every mother’s child is handsome
Every age explodes old errors and creates new ones
Early ripe, early rotten
Every field looks green from a distance, even a cemetery
Everybody lays his load on the willing horse
Fate is the course when men fail to act
Fools use bets for arguments
Figures never lie, but liars can figure
First deserve it, and then desire it
Fortune and misfortune are next-door neighbors
Good actions speak for themselves; they need no tin horn
God gives food but does not cook it
Guilty men see guilt written on the faces of saints
Good health is above wealth
Gross negligence is equal to intentional wrong
Great possessions are great cares
He who laughs last, laughs longest
He who rides slowly gets just as far, only it takes longer
He who never fails will never grow rich
He who hears forgets, he who sees remembers, he who does learns
Hearsay is half lies
He who holds the ladder is as bad as the thief
He who follows the crowd has many companions
He who has no enemy has no friend
Honest doubt is better than faith in a pious fraud
He doubles his gift who gives in time
He who excuses himself, accuses himself
He that falls in love with himself will find no rival
If you come to the end of your rope — tie a knot in it and hang on
It takes pennies to make dollars
It is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all those that follow
If you are always dwelling in trouble, change your address
If the stone hits you, I threw it
In trying times, don’t quit trying
If a race could be won after the first gallop, thousands would wear blue ribbons
It is a waste of gunpowder to fire at the man-in-the-moon
It is nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice
It is better to bend than break
If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride
It is better to be a has-been than a never-was
“IF’s” and “But’s” butter no bread
If you can’t take advice, you can’t be helped
If there were no fools in the world, all people would agree on everything
If you hate storm and strife lead a bachelor’s life
It takes a good many shovelfuls to bury the truth
It’s easy to be generous with another man’s money
It’s easier to go down than up
It’s easier to lose faith than to find it again
It’s better to be happy than wise
If you want a neat wife, choose her on a Saturday
If you wish another to keep your secret, keep it first yourself
It is better to have a hen tomorrow than an egg today
Joy is not in things, it is in us
Judges should have two ears, both alike
Lost time is never found
Little minds still are little, even when they are made professors
Life is not a problem to be solved, but a gift to be enjoyed
Life goes on, no matter what we try to do to it
Life is like a grindstone, whether it grinds him down or polishes him depends on the stuff he is made of
Living is like licking honey off a thorn
Listen at the keyhole and you’ll hear news of yourself
Life is a game played with marked cards
Lawyers, like painters, can easily change white to black
Laughter is worth a hundred groans in any market
Lend your money and lose your friend
Liberty, like charity, must begin at home
Liars and gossips are Siamese twins
Living in worry invites death in a hurry
Let thy maid-servant be faithful, strong and homely
Make the house clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy
Men who talk like big wheels usually are merely spokes men
Many love triangles are really wreck tangles
Man is the only animal that can be skinned more than once
Marry a handsome man and you marry trouble
Must is a hard nut to crack
Modesty is like the snow; when it melts it is gone forever
Many a pearl is still hidden in the oyster
Many persons think they are wise, when they are only windy
No matter how high a bird flies, it has to come down for water
Nothing dries faster than a tear
Nothing is gained by having one donkey call another “Long Ears!”
Never stop the plough to catch a mouse
No piper ever suited all ears
New churches and new bars are well patronized
Necessity sharpens industry
Naked men never lose anything
No man tells the truth about himself, only his neighbors do
Nonsense charms the multitude; plain sense is despised
One who thinks he can live without others is mistaken but he who thinks others cannot live without him are more mistaken
Of all the sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest ones, “It might have been”
One eyewitness is better than ten hearsay
One murder makes a villain, millions make a hero
One does not put beauty in a kettle
One can learn even from an enemy
One has only to die to be praised
Obstinacy is the strength of the weak
Overdone is worse than underdone
Poverty is no disgrace but decidedly inconvenient
Punctuality is the key to success
Peace without truth is poison
Put the light out and all women are alike
Promises won’t butter any bread
Pleasant hours fly fast
Put your trust not in money but your money in trust
Poets and pigs are appreciated only after their death
Rest is sweet when one has earned it
Rich get richer and poor get children
Religion is the best armor but the worst cloak
Relatives are friends from bitter necessity
Reparations is what you are in the light; character is what you are in the dark
Revolutions are vices when they fail; they are virtues when successful
Self praise is half slander
Silence is consent
Spend your money as you go with shoes worn down at heel and toe
Search others for their virtues, and yourself for your vices
Self-defense is nature’s oldest law
Sickness comes in haste and goes at leisure
Swallows and sparrows cannot understand the ambitions of swans
Some people have tact, others tell the truth
Speak the truth and embarrass the devil
She that is born a beauty is half married
Small talk is sufficient for little men
Small men imitate; great men originate
Together we stick; divided we are stuck
Things turn up for the man who digs
The smart man knows how little he really knows
The person who thinks too little usually talks too much
The sun doesn’t shine on the same dog’s back every day
They that have no other meat, bread and butter, they are glad to eat
To act is easy to think is hard
Trouble comes when the New Year’s resolutions collide with the old year’s habits
The second million is always easier than the first
Today is that tomorrow you thought about yesterday
Truth is the best advocate
Tell me whom you associate with and I will tell you who you are
The remedy is often worse than the disease
The ugliest girl makes the best housewife
Truth is the opinion that survives
The best patch is of the same cloth
There is no rule without it’s exception
The belly hates a long sermon
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics
The old forget the young don’t know
The drunken mouth reveals the heart’s secrets
There is no head so holy that the devil does not make a nest in it
There is no one so rich that he does not still want more
The wise man has long ears, big eyes and a short tongue
The stable wears out a horse more than a road
The worst use that can be made of success is to boast of it
Until tomorrow, equality is elusive
Vanity is a sixth sense
Victory belongs to the most persevering
Vows made in storms are forgotten in calms
Visits should be short, like a winter’s day
We shall be judged not by what we might have done, but by what we have been
When the well is dry, you know the worth of water
What do we live for if it is not to make life less difficult for others?
When one has seen the bear in the woods, he hears his growl in every bush
Wedlock is a padlock
Weeds need no sowing
Woman is a mystery to men but are wise to each other
You can’t anymore give away something you ain’t got than you can come back from someplace you haven’t been
You never know the length of a snake until it is dead
You can’t tell the depth of the well by the length of the handle on the pump
You can’t put out old heads on young shoulders
Zeal is blind when it encroaches upon the rights of others
Morning is welcome to the industrious
Do a little well and you do much
Gold is the dust that blinds all eyes
If you are in debt, somebody owns a part of you
A bad broom leaves a dirty room
Plain words make the most ornamental sentences
When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry a hundred
They must hunger in frost who will not work in heat
A cracked plate will last as long as a sound one
Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap
Envy shoots at others but hits itself
Water run by will does not turn a mill
There is a difference between profanity and dramatic fervor
Merit is superior to birth and virtue is not hereditary
Every pea helps to fill the pod
One watch set right will do to set many by
Children and fools tell the truth
Little children step on one’s lap; tall ones tread on one’s heart
He who rides slowly gets just as far, only it takes a little longer
Bad breath is better than no breath at all
Don’t worry when you stumble Remember, a worm is the only thing that can’t fall down
Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but rising every time we fail
Quarreling is the weapon of the weak
People give nothing so willingly as advice
The smaller the waistline the longer the life
Too many square meals make too many round people
There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it should remind all of us, not to criticize the rest of us
The beard does not make the philosopher
When you feel all steamed up, remember the tea kettle — it is always up to its neck in hot water and it still sings
You can’t make cookies when you haven’t got the dough
One had better have no dealings with girls with fat legs
DEATH OMENS
A bird in the house is a sign of a death If a robin flies into a room through a window, death will shortly follow
Light candles on the night after November 1, one for each deceased relative should be placed in the window in the room where death occurred
If a picture falls and lands face down, someone will die
Never leave a rocking chair rocking or someone will die
If a clock which has not been working suddenly chimes, there will be a death in the family
You will have bad luck if you do not stop the clock in the room where someone dies
If a woman is buried in black, she will return to haunt the family
If a dead person’s eyes are left open, he’ll find someone to take with him
Mirrors in a house with a corpse should be covered or the person who sees himself will die next
Dogs howling in the dark of night, Howl for death before daylight
If you dream of death it’s a sign of a birth, if you dream of birth, it’s a sign of death. If you touch a loved one who has died, you won’t have dreams about them
A person who dies on Good Friday will go right to heaven
A person who dies at midnight on Christmas Eve will go straight to heaven because the gates of heaven are open at that time
All windows should be opened at the moment of death so that the soul can leave. The soul of a dying person can’t escape the body and go to heaven if any locks are locked in the house
If the left eye twitches there will soon be a death in the family. If a dead person’s eyes are left open, he’ll find someone to take with him
Funerals on Friday portend another death in the family during the year
It’s bad luck to count the cars in a funeral cortege
It’s bad luck to meet a funeral procession head on
Thunder following a funeral means that the dead person’s soul has reached heaven
Nothing new should be worn to a funeral, especially new shoes
Pointing at a funeral procession will cause you to die within the month
Pregnant women should not attend funerals
Don’t talk about a dream of death on Sunday morning or the dream will come true
If the person buried lived a good life, flowers will grow on the grave. If the person was evil, weeds will grow
If a mirror in the house falls and breaks by itself, someone in the house will die soon
A white moth inside the house or trying to enter the house means death
If 3 people are photographed together, the one in the middle will die first
If 13 people sit down at a table to eat, one of them will die before the year is over
Dropping an umbrella on the floor means that there will be a murder in the house
If you dream of falling and hit the ground before you wake up, you will die
Are the ‘windows to the soul’ and the color leads to differing beliefs
Dark blue eyes = delicate and refined souls;
Light blue or grey eyes = strong and healthy ones;
Green eyes = hardy souls; Hazel eyes = vigorous, deep-thinking folk
Itching eyes: if the right eye tickles, it’s lucky, and vice versa. Theocritus has it, ‘My right eye itches now and I shall see my love’
‘Trust not the man whose eyebrows meet, For in his heart you’ll find deceit’
If you look at someone cross-eyed and a wind blows, you’ll stay like that
Don’t cross your eyes or they’ll stick that way
THE EARS
My ears are burning, someone is talking about me
Small ears denote a delicate character
Thick ears a person of a sensual/coarse nature
Thin, angular ears = a bad temper;
Long or prominent ears = a person with musical inclinations
The larger the ear lobes, the greater the intellect
Ears ringing mean someone is talking (thinking) about you
If your right ear itches, someone is saying something nice about you. If it’s the left, someone’s saying something bad about you
THE NOSE – This is how you tell the character of a man
Prominent noses = intelligence and determination;
Thin noses = jealousy and uncertainty;
Receding noses = bad temper and obstinacy;
Tip-tilted noses = bright and lively characters
There is said to be a connection between the size of a person’s nose and their sexual organs
THE NOSE – For Everyone
A tickling nose (Britain) = a fight or an important communication or (America) a kiss
Itchy Nose – It’s still said that if your nose itches, a fool is about to kiss you or you will have a fight
If your nose itches, you will soon get a visitor. Right nostril indicates a female visitor, left nostril indicates male visitor
THE LIPS
Itch or tingle when someone is about to kiss you
If you bite your tongue while you are eating then you have recently told a lie
A large gap between the teeth = lucky in life;
Large teeth = physical strength;
Small, regular teeth = careful and methodical in your habits
It is not good for a child to be born with any teeth showing
Never eat anything when a funeral bell is tolling or toothache will follow
Crush up strawberries into a paste and rub it on your teeth to whiten them.
HAIR
A sudden loss of hair is unlucky, forecasting a decline in health, loss of property or failure in business, or the death of a closely related child
Red hair is associated with fiery-tempered people (e.g. Cleopatra and Queen Elizabeth I)
Black and dark brown hair indicates strength; fair hair implies timidity
Your hair grows faster in the summer than in the winter
If you pull out a gray hair 10 more will grow back in its place
On a man, if the hair grows low on the forehead and back above the temples he will have a long life;
If a woman’s hair grows in a low point on her forehead (‘widow’s peak’) she will outlive her husband
If a woman suddenly develops curls on her forehead her man has not long to live
Lank hair = a cunning nature;
Curly hair = good nature, full of fun;
Long hair = strength (e.g. Samson) and luck
It is said to be unlucky to have your hair cut when the moon is in the wane as this will cause it to fall out and lose its luster
Cutting your own hair will tempt fate
To determine your future: set fire to some strands of your hair – cut them off first! If they burn brightly, you are in for a long life. If they splutter and smolder, it is said to be a death omen
Never pull out grey hairs, for one will be replaced by ten. It has often been believed that a sudden fright can turn hair white
THE HAND
The right hand is lucky and the
Left unlucky because the Devil is supposed to have sat on the left-hand side of God before being cast out of heaven
Kings of England are said to have had the power to ‘heal by touch’
Fingernails – Cutting your nails on Friday or Sunday is bad luck. Fingernail clippings should be saved, burned, or buried to prevent bad luck
When your left palm itches, it means money coming into your pocket; when your right palm itches, it means money going out of your pocket
The hand of an executed criminal, cut from his body while still on the gallows, was said to have healing powers as well as providing its owners with the ability to commit crime and robbery without fear of detection by stupefying all those who saw it
Large, thick hands = strength of character
Small, slender hands = weak and timid character
Long hands = ingenious nature
Short ones = careless and foolish nature
Hard hands = rudeness; Soft hands = wit
Hairy hands = a person who likes luxury
A damp hand = an amorous disposition; while ‘a cold hand means a warm heart’.
If the palm of your right hand itches you will receive money;
If the left palm, you will lose some (‘left, lose; right, receive’).
Two people should never wash their hands together in the same water – this will lead to a quarrel between them
Crossed fingers (imitating the sign of the cross) wards off bad luck
Long fingers = artistic
Short, thick fingers = intemperate and silly
A crooked little finger = omen of wealth
The first finger (the ‘poison finger’) should never be used to administer medicines
The third finger (the ‘wedding’ finger) is said to be linked directly to the heart
It is unlucky to cut fingernails on a Friday or Sunday
Specks on the nails:
Black = ill-luck
White = good fortune to come
If a woman cuts the nails of her right hand with her left hand she will have the upper hand in marriage
THE FEET
An itching foot = a journey to somewhere new;
Flat feet = bad temper;
Do not enter a building left foot first, to avoid bad luck
Girls hold our feet up when you go over the railroad tracks or you will never get married.
MOLES AND DIMPLES
Left hand side of the body = unlucky
Those on the right = lucky’
On the face (especially chin or neck) = wealth
On the chest and stomach = strength
A mole on the nose = great lechery
A mole on a woman’s thigh = unfaithful, and a great spendthrift
A girl with a mole on her breast will be irresistible
A hairy chest = masculinity
‘Dimple on the chin – Devil within’
A wart is said to be the mark of the Devil and is unlucky
SNEEZING
It is believed when you sneeze your soul will momentarily leave your body
Sneeze ‘once for a wish, twice for a kiss, three for a letter, four for something better’
In Scotland, a newborn child is said to remain under ‘the fairy spells’ until it has sneezed for the first time
It was also believed that an idiot could not sneeze, so that a child’s first sneeze was important
If you sneeze when talking you are telling the truth (America);
Three sneezes before breakfast means you will receive a present during the day (Germany);
Any sneeze is an indication that someone, somewhere, is saying nice things about you (Japan)
It is very lucky to sneeze at exactly the same time as someone else you are with
COUGHING
Meant the unexpected entry of a devil into a person who had been telling lies or carrying out misdemeanors of some kind
HICCUPS
Are caused by someone who dislikes you complaining to someone else
The only way to stop them is to guess the name of the person maligning you
YAWNING
Can lead to evil spirits entering the body unless you cover your mouth with your hand
It is a sign that Death is calling to you, and you must snap your second finger and thumb (American Indian)
A SHIVER
Means that someone is walking over your (eventual) grave
LAUGH
Before breakfast and it will end in tears before supper;
To laugh excessively shows that the person is possessed and that his days are numbered
Prevents evil spirits from entering the body by one of the five orifices
Wearing earrings and painting the lips were talismans to keep devils away
Emeralds = unlucky because they were used in the East for the eyes of religious figures and consequently became the target of robbers
Opals = unlucky; although 13th century alchemist Albertus Magnus maintained that an opal wrapped in bay leaves made its wearer invisible
Pearls = once believed to be unlucky; in medieval times they were thought to be ‘solidified tears’
Diamonds = the best of all good luck bringers, possessing the power to drive off witches and prevent the wearer from ever going insane
GLOVES
It is unlucky to drop your glove and pick it up yourself;
If someone else does it, good fortune will follow for both of you
CLOTHING PUT ON INSIDE OUT:
It is lucky to put on an item of clothing inside out, although you must not change it until the time you would normally take it off, for the luck to hold
BUTTON UP
It has always been unlucky to hook or button up any item of clothing wrongly (start all over again if you do);
Just as you should never put your left arm, leg or foot into anything first
UNDERWEAR
If a girl’s bra or pants should suddenly slip down this is a sign that someone who loves her is thinking of her;
If two or more holes should appear in any of these items then tradition says the owner can expect a gift very shortly
Any girl wearing suspenders who finds that her stocking slips from the clasp three times can take it she is in for an unlucky day,
But if stockings on the washing line curl round each other it is an omen that the owner may expect great happiness before long
Garters have always been regarded as lucky, and many a girl has slept with one under her pillow on Midsummer Eve in the hope of dreaming of her future husband
Any young girl anxious for a husband should get a garter worn recently by a married woman and put it on her own leg;
A girl who puts Valerian in her underwear will prove irresistible to men (Wales)
It used to be very lucky for brides to be married wearing no underwear under her wedding gown
Well into the nineteenth century a new husband became liable for any debts previously incurred by his bride but, if the girl went to the altar wearing no more than her dress, any creditor would forgive the loan. Such ceremonies were known as ‘smock’ weddings’
HANDKERCHIEF
Tying a knot in a handkerchief to remember something signifies a very ancient belief that that the knot was a charm against evil. Any demon nearby will be so intrigued by the shape that all thoughts of interfering with you will go from his head
HAT
Putting your hat on back to front will result in a bad day;
A woman who puts on a man’s hat is giving a sign that she wants to be kissed (America)
SHOE
Lucky, hence the custom of tying an old boot to the back of the car of a couple who have just got married
Shoes on the table is symbolic of hanging
Shoes left crossed on the floor or put on the wrong feet brings bad luck
Walking anywhere with one shoe on could lead to the death of one of your parents
A shoelace which comes undone as you set off on a venture is unlucky
If you tie someone else’s shoe laces up you should make a wish as it is lucky
NEW CLOTHES
Always slip a small coin into the right-hand pocket of a new suit or dress, to avoid being hard up when you wear that item of clothing.
It is lucky to wear a new item of clothing on Easter Day, as everything old and dirty should be renewed
UMBRELLA
If an umbrella is dropped on the floor of a house, someone in that house is going to die shortly
HOME
Houses have either a warm and friendly atmosphere or one that is cold and depressing. It has nothing to do with how long the house has stood (new or old); nor whether it’s well-heated or not. The atmosphere stems from the ‘spirit of the house’ whose personality governs whether the house is lucky or unlucky
Bread and salt (German)
BELL
It’s been said that the bells provide protection from demons as they are scared of the loud noise
DOOR
Horseshoe, with points upwards to stop the luck from running out
It’s believed that leaving a house through any door other than the one that is used to enter the house is bad luck
It is unlucky to enter the house for the first time by the back door, as this entrance is not protected against evil spirits
Encourage visitors to leave by the same door they came in to avoid taking the owner’s luck with them
The opening of a door of its own accord indicates that a visitor is on the way,
Whilst a slamming door may damage the ‘spirit of the house’ and should be avoided
Leave a door open when a child is being born or someone is dying, so that the entry or exit may take place without hindrance
COOKING
When any food is mixed it should be stirred clockwise,
As all functions of importance should be performed in an east to west direction (old belief in sun-worship)
Leave a tray or a cooking utensil in the oven when not in use (old Jewish), for the time may come when the owner has nothing to place in it
Never waste leftover morsels of pastry or dough from making bread or cakes, or the whole baking will be ruined
Loaves marked with a cross protects them from evil
When baking bread, remember
‘She that pricks bread with fork or knife;
Will never be a happy maid or wife’
A loaf that splits open while it is in the oven warns of a death to come in the family;
A loaf with a hollow center presages a death;
It is unlucky to turn a loaf upside down after cutting the first slice for this will cause the head of the household to fall ill;
If a loaf crumbles in your hand as you are cutting it there is going to be a quarrel before very long;
Drop a slice of buttered bread butter side up and a visitor will arrive
EGGS
When you have finished your boiled egg, crush the shell or push the spoon through the bottom to avoid bad luck
Do not bring eggs into the house after dark as it is bad luck
Painting eggs red at Easter is seen as good luck, as it is the color of blood and life
SALT
Later beliefs had it that evil spirits dwelt on the left-hand side of the body and so began the custom of throwing spilt salt over your left shoulder (and into their eyes)
Salt is often given to newborn babies for luck
Country folk often carry a little bag of salt on their person to bring them luck in their dealings (Britain, Europe)
If spilled salt is carefully picked and thrown into the fire, this will dry up the tears otherwise shed (America)
TEA
To stir the teapot anti-clockwise will stir up a quarrel
If two women pour from the same pot one of them will have a baby within a year
UTENSILS
Crossing two knives is bad luck
If you are given a present of a knife, give a coin in return to avoid ‘cutting’ the friendship
Drop a butter knife and company’s coming
‘Let the superstitious wife
Near the child’s heart lay a knife
Point be up, and haft be down,
While she gossips in the town
This amongst other mystic charms
Keeps the sleeping child from harms(Robert Herrick)
To drop a fork means a woman will visit
To drop a knife means a man will visit
To drop a spoon means a child will visit
If you drop a fork on the floor it means you’ll get money
APRON
Accidentally put one on inside out = lucky
If it falls off suddenly for no apparent reason = unlucky (Europe)
If a man’s wipes his hands on a woman’s apron he will soon fall in love with her
By contrast, members of the opposite sex should never dry themselves on the same towel as this will invariably lead to a quarrel between them
WASHING UP
If you break a plate or cup you can expect another breakage before the end of the day unless you deliberately smash some other small item to avoid the bad luck
An English country superstition says that it is bad luck to throw any water out of the house after nightfall
‘They that wash on Monday, have the whole week to dry
They that wash on Tuesday are not so much awry
They that wash on Wednesday will get their clothes so clean
They that wash on Thursday are not so much to mean
They that wash on Friday, wash for their need
But they that wash on Saturdays are dirty folks indeed’
To drop a dishcloth means bad luck is coming
DINING TABLE
When rising from the table take care not to upset your chair, for this is a sign that you have lied at some time during your conversation
Anyone who lies down on a table will die within a year;
Any engaged girl who sits on a table while talking to her fiancé risks losing him;
It is unlucky to change your position at the table after a place has been allocated to you;
To place your chair back against the wall or fold your napkin after a meal at a friend’s home will prevent you ever visiting there again (America)
FIREPLACE
A fire that roars up the chimney = an omen of an argument or a storm;
Sparks clinging to the back of the chimney are a sign of important news in the offing;
A sudden fall of soot presages bad weather or a disaster of some kind
Coal (a symbol of fire) is lucky and small pieces were often carried in the pocket
MIRRORS AND LOOKING-GLASSES
To break one will result in seven years bad luck
STAIRCASE
It is unlucky to pass anyone on the stairs (cross your fingers if you do so)
Stumbling on the staircase is said to be a good omen and may indicate a wedding in the household before long
UPSTAIRS
Do not sing in bath as this will lead to sorrow before evening;
Any young girl who persistently splashes herself or her clothes when washing will end up with a husband who is a drunk
Get out of bed the right side
The left-hand side is associated with the Devil
But, if you can’t avoid it, put your right sock and shoe on first
You will always get the best night’s sleep if your bed is positioned in a north-south direction with your head to the south – this will ensure a long life
To be rich, point your head to the east; to travel widely, the west. It is unlucky to put a hat on the bed (America)
HOUSEWORK
China ornaments of animals should never be placed so that they face a door for they will allow the luck to run out of the house
It is unlucky to sweep any dust or waste material directly out of the house, as this will carry the good luck with it
Sweep such waste into the center of the room, collect it up in a pan and then carry the lot out of doors to avoid any repercussions
A new broom should always be used the first time to sweep something into the house, to symbolize luck
Never buy any new brush in May; as the Romans decreed May to be the month of death:
‘If you buy a broom or brush in May
You’ll sweep the head of the household away’
ANIMAL SUPERSTITIONS
ALBATROSS
In the days of sail, an albatross flying round a ship in mid-ocean was an omen of wind and bad weather to come
It was very unlucky to kill it because it was thought to embody the restless soul of some dead mariner
ANT
Stepping on ants brings rain
Ants signify bad weather when they are very agitated
An ant building a nest near the door to your house is a clear sign of financial security in the future
BAT
A bat means long life and happiness, a good omen (China and Poland)
If a bat lands on your head, you should hope the Cricket sees rain coming because the bat won’t get off until it hears thunder
When you see a bat, you might actually be seeing the Devil, a witch, a ghost, or Dracula
It is considered bad luck to kill one. If one flies past you then watch out for someone is trying to deceive you
If a bat flies three times around a house, it is a death omen
Conversely, when bats come out early and fly about playfully, it is a sign of good weather to come
BEAR
Bears only mate once every seven years and when they do they cause such a disturbance in the atmosphere that any pregnant cattle in the district will give birth to still-born calves (American backwoodsmen)
BEE
It is an ill omen to give away a hive:
Bees must be sold for a fair price commensurate with their worth; and
They should never be moved from one place to another without being told beforehand
If they become lazy it is said that there will be a disaster shortly, and
Should they suddenly swarm on a bush or tree there will be a death nearby
Bees can tell whether a girl is pure or not, and that any girl whose family has a hive and who is about to be married should inform the bees before doing so if she wants a long and happy marriage
If she wants to make doubly sure of their blessing, she will leave a piece of wedding cake outside the hive for their enjoyment
If a bee enters your home, it’s a sign that you will soon have a visitor
Considered unlucky in some places to kill a bee
A bee landing on someone’s hand is believed to foretell money to come,
While if the bee settles on someone’s head it means that person will rise to greatness
They were once considered to deliberately sting those who swore in front of them,
And also to attack an adulterer or unchaste person;
It was once held to be a sure sign that a girl was a virgin if she could walk through a swarm of bees without being stung
Bees cannot prosper in an atmosphere of anger or hatred, and will either pine away and die, or fly away
There is still a common belief that bees should be told about deaths that occur in the beekeepers
A borrowed swarm or one given freely is more likely to do well;
A stock of bees was often started from a borrowed swarm on the understanding that it would be returned if the giver was ever in need of it
Bee-stings were once thought to prevent rheumatism, and in some places a bee-sting was also thought to cure it
BIRDS
A bird that flies into a house, foretells an important message
The white bird foretells death
A bird call from the north means tragedy
A bird call from the south is good for crops
A bird call from the west is good luck
A bird call from the east, good love
If a bird poops on your car, it is good luck
Blackbirds
Should a blackbird nest anywhere in your house then you can look forward to a year of good fortune
If two male blackbirds are seen sitting together this is a very good omen
Ducks and geese
Ducks and geese indicate wind and rain on the way when they hiss and quack more than usual
A duck that lays dun-colored eggs is very ill-omened and should be destroyed, according to an old English belief
If one goose flies around the house it is said to know that death is on the way
Kingfisher
Carry some of Kingfisher’s feathers on your person is both a protection and a charm for good fortune
Magpie
The best way to avoid bad luck when you pass a magpie is to doff your hat (England)
It was the only bird not to enter the Ark, preferring to remain on its own outside
It is also held in awe because it is one of the very few wild creatures that is colored black and white – a combination of the Devil’s color and the sacred or holy color of white
In England, magpies are also counted, ‘One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl and four for a boy; five for sorrow, six for gold, seven is a secret never to be told, eight is a wish, nine is a kiss and ten is the bird you must not miss
Owls
Hearing the hoot of an owl is now associated with bad luck
To counter evil owl power put irons in your fire. Or throw salt, hot peppers or vinegar into the fire, the owl will get a sore tongue, hoot no more, and no one close to you will be in trouble
When you hear an owl, take off your clothes, turn them inside out and put them back on
Any man who eats roasted owl will be obedient and a slave to his wife
Peacocks
Never bring a peacock feather indoors for decoration as they are unlucky
The peacock is another indicator of rain, signaling its approach with a harsh crying call
Pigeons
A lone white pigeon perching on a chimney is said to be a death omen
It was claimed that pigeon feathers in such a bed only prolonged the agonies of someone dying
Raven
An ill-omened bird, able to predict the future, particularly death
If the Ravens in the Tower of London should be lost or fly away then the Royal Family will die and Britain will fall to an enemy
The raven is ‘the messenger of death’ (American Indian)
To kill a raven is to harm the spirit of King Arthur who visits the world in the form of a raven
Robin
Make a wish on the first robin you see in spring and it will come true – if you can finish making the wish before the robin flies away
The robin is perhaps the most loved of all wild birds and dire are the omens if you should kill one
Legend has it that it got its distinctive red breast when it tried to pull the bloody thorns from Christ’s head as he hung on the cross
Seagulls
Three seagulls flying together, directly overhead, are a warning of death soon to come
Sparrow
Sparrows carry the souls of the dead; it’s unlucky to kill one
Storks
Storks deliver babies
Storks were sacred to Venus in Roman mythology
If a stork builds a nest on your roof, you have received a blessing and a promise of never ending love from Venus
Swallow
The swallow heralds the arrival of summer
Any house on which it builds its nest is due for good luck, and in particular protection from fire and storm
When they fly low it is a signal for rainy weather
Swan
A swan’s feather, sewed into the husband’s pillow, will ensure fidelity
When one of the birds is dying it sings, thus giving rise to the expression ‘swansong’
When one of them lays its head and neck back over its body during the daytime then a storm is on the way
White Dove
White-winged dove tradition claims it is the one bird into which the Devil cannot transform himself
Among miners it is considered ill-omened and no superstitious miner would go underground after seeing a white dove flying near the pit shaft
BUTTERFLY
If the first butterfly you see in the year is white, you will have good luck all year
CALF
British White calf the first calf born during the winter is white; the winter will be a bad one
CAT
They believed if a black cat crossed your path, Satan was taking notice of you
A black cat is lucky or unlucky, depending on where you live
Cats were sacred to the goddess, Isis in Egyptian mythology
Bast or Pasht, the daughter of Isis, was represented with the face of a cat. Anyone who killed a cat was put to death
In Egypt it was believed that a black cat crossing one’s path brought good luck
In East Anglia, England, they used to mummify cats and place them in the walls of their homes to ward off evil spirits
If a black cat walks towards you, it brings good fortune, but if it walks away, it takes the good luck with it
Keep cats away from babies because they “suck the breath” of the child
A cat on board a ship is considered to bring luck
If one sneezes then rain is on the way;
A cat sitting with its back to the fire indicates a storm;
While one sharpening its claws on a table leg are a sign of a change in the weather, usually for the better
CATTLE
In some areas it is thought that cattle should be informed of any deaths in their owners’ household, or the cows, sensing that something was wrong, would sicken and probably die
During medieval times the superstition arose that cattle would kneel at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve;
In some parts of Europe they were also believed to gain the ability to speak on this night, although it was considered dangerous for any human to hear their speech as misfortune would befall anyone who overheard them
It was once considered unlucky if an offer were made to purchase cattle which were not for sale, leading to their illness and perhaps death
In some districts it was also considered unlucky to strike cattle with human hands;
A stick should be used to drive them from place to place, and should be thrown away once the destination was reached
Cattle that stand close together in low ground, and feed hard together, are said to be foretelling rain, but if they stand on high ground the weather will be fair
It was traditional to drive cattle over the embers of the Beltane and Midsummer fires, as a magical protection against cattle plague and other diseases
As recently as the nineteenth century, some farmers would sacrifice one healthy calf or cow (sometimes burying it under the threshold of the byre with feet pointing upwards) as a symbolic sacrifice that the herd might be spared from cattle plague
In India and parts of the East the cow is still regarded as a sacred animal
It is lucky to meet a herd of cows on the road; stems from earlier times when to meet such on the road meant the arrival of a drover with cattle to provide milk or to be sold for meat
In the past, cattle were believed to be one of the prime targets of witches and, apart from the numerous charms developed to protect them, it was the custom if a herd was struck by illness to burn a calf alive because of the maxim ‘burn one to save the herd’
When cows lie on high ground it is said to be a sign of good weather to come, while if they feed too close together or low excessively then rain is imminent. If a cow breaks into your garden then there will be a death in the family
If a plow kills a daddy long legs the cows will go dry
If you see nine cows in a shed with a gray bull next to the door, and all of them lie on the same side, you are in luck, because you will be granted one wish
CRICKET
A cricket is a lucky house spirit that takes its luck away when it leaves
A cricket can tell of oncoming rain, death, and x-lovers
CROW
If a plow kills a daddy long legs the cows will go dry
DOGS
Greeks thought dogs could foresee evil
If you have your new-born baby licked by a dog, your baby will be a quick healer
Howling dogs mean the wind god has summoned death, and the spirits of the dead will be taken
A howling dog at night means bad luck or somebody close to you will be very sick or worse
A howling dog outside the house of a sick person was once thought to be an omen that they would die, especially if the dog was driven away and returned to howl again
A dog which gives a single howl, or three howls, and then falls silent is said to be marking a death that has just occurred nearby
In Scotland, a strange dog coming to the house means a new friendship
In England, to meet a spotted or black and white dog on your way to a business appointment is lucky
Three white dogs seen together are considered lucky in some areas
Black dogs are generally considered unlucky, especially if they cross a traveler’s path or follow someone and refuse to be driven away
Fishermen traditionally regard dogs as unlucky and will not take one out in a boat, or mention the word ‘dog’ whilst at sea
The sight of a dog eating grass, rolling on the floor or scratching itself excessively are all said to be omens that rain is imminent
DONKEY
There is also a tradition that to see a dead donkey means great good fortune,
It is considered a good-luck charm to leap over the carcass of a dead donkey three times
When a donkey brays and twitches its ears, it is said to be an omen that there will be wet weather
ELEPHANTS
In Siam, white elephants were rare and not made to work for their upkeep,
FISH
Throw back the first fish you catch then you’ll be lucky the whole day fishing
It’s bad luck to get married when the fish aren’t biting, according to the custom of some fisher folk
A fish should always be eaten from the head toward the tail
Dream of fish: someone you know is pregnant
If you count the number of fish you caught, you will catch no more that day
It’s bad luck to say the word “pig” while fishing at sea
FOX
Fox passing your home is a forerunner of misfortune
FROG
Frogs, like toads, were once thought to have peculiar properties, and were frequently used in healing charms, and in others of a slightly less innocent nature
A well known country cure for thrush was to hold a live frog with its head in the patient’s mouth. As it breathed, so it drew the disease away and into itself. Warts could also be cured by rubbing a frog across them
The dried body of a frog worn in a silk bag around the neck averted epilepsy and other fits
A frog brings good luck to the house it enters
Frogs are said to be the souls of children who have died and thus it is very unlucky to kill one
GOAT
A goat’s foot or some hairs from his beard are believed to be talismans for driving off evil spirits
HENS and COCKS
A hen with tail-feathers like those of a rooster is considered to be unlucky; previously these birds would be killed on most farms
Hens which roost in the morning are said to be foretelling a death, usually that of the farmer or someone in his household
A hen which enters the house is an omen that a visitor will arrive, and this is also the case if a rooster crows near the door or comes inside
A hen that crows near a house is supposed to be forecasting a death,
And any hen that persistently crows is said by country folk to have ‘got the Devil in her’ and should be killed before she takes to destroying her eggs and teaches the other hens to do the same
It is said to be unlucky for a hen to lay an even number of eggs and you would be well advised to remove one from a sitting bird
It was believed that when he crowed to welcome the dawn all ghosts and evil spirits had to return to the underworld
A cock crowing in the evening is an omen of bad weather the following day,
And if it calls during the night hours there is going to be a death in the family
That the bird crows all through Christmas Eve to Christmas morning so that no evil spirits can spoil this holy time
HORSE
A white horse could warn of danger, and lived longer than a dark horse, so was considered a living amulet against early death
Spotted horses are magical
Grey horses and horses with four white socks are unlucky
In some places it is lucky to meet a white horse;
Tradition states that upon meeting a white horse one should spit and make a wish, or cross one’s fingers until a dog is seen
In many places it is lucky to lead a horse through the house
It was once thought that whooping-cough could be cured by going to the stables and inhaling the breath of a horse
Being breathed upon by a piebald horse, or riding upon its back, was another supposed cure
Horse-hairs, chopped very finely and fed to a child in bread and butter, were thought to be a certain cure for worms,
And the horse-spurs (calluses which appear on the sides of a horse’s leg) were believed in the eighteenth century to be a cure for cancer if dried, ground and drunk frequently with new milk
LADYBUG
The bright scarlet ladybug is a luck-bringer, probably because it is traditionally associated by its color with fire
It is a sign of good fortune if one lands on a person’s hand or dress. It must, however, be allowed to fly away of its own accord, and must not be brushed off. It is permissible to speed it onwards by a gentle puff, and by the recitation of the rhyme which runs
Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home
Your house is on fire and your children are gone
The deeper the ladybug’s color, the better luck it brings.
The number of spots on its back is also important. The more spots…the better the luck!
If a young girl catches a ladybug and then releases it, the direction in which it flies away will be the direction from which her future husband will come
MOTH
A big black moth in the house means a deceased one is just visiting reincarnated through that moth
MOUSE
Somebody throws away a dead mouse; the wind will soon start to blow from that direction
To hear a mouse squeaking anywhere near someone who is ill is a sign that the person will die
They are the souls of people who have been murdered
If they nibble anyone’s clothing during the night, that person will suffer some misfortune
While no journey undertaken after seeing one is likely to be successful
PIG
One superstition to get rid of warts involves rubbing a peeled apple and giving it to a pig
There is a superstition that pigs can see the wind (Ireland)
When they are seen hurrying about their sty or carrying a bunch of straw in their mouth then there is a storm on the way
It is unlucky to have a pig cross your path – turn your back till it is gone – and if it begins to make a rather strange whining noise then there is to be a death in the family
RABBITS AND HARES
In the British Isles, the hare, like the cat, was thought to be a witch in disguise
This witch could only be killed with a silver bullet
Since rabbits and hares are born with eyes open, which is an erroneous notion, they supposedly had special powers over the evil eye
It is believed to be unlucky to meet either a hare or a rabbit
In some English counties it is considered unwise to shoot a black rabbit
Rabbits and hares were never mentioned at sea, as they were considered ill-omened words, and to meet one on the way to see was a very bad omen
An old custom is to say ‘Rabbits’ or ‘White Rabbits’ either once or three times on the first day of the month, as a good luck charm; it must be the first word said that morning, otherwise the charm is not potent
The rabbit’s foot also became a symbol of fertility
Rabbit’s feet are also symbols of new life
By owning a rabbit’s foot as a talisman, you would have vital connections with many powerful forces
A left rabbit hind foot, carried in the left pocket after having been removed from a rabbit that was killed during a full moon by a cross-eyed person is truly lucky
Actors may keep a rabbit’s foot in their make-up cases for good luck, and will meet with misfortune if the foot is lost
In Wales an old belief is that a new-born child rubbed all over with a rabbit’s foot will be lucky for life
SHEEP
To meet a flock of sheep on a journey is an omen of good luck
An old Manx belief states that sheep cannot be counted accurately unless the person counting them has washed his or her eyes under running water first
Peaceful sheep, lying in the field, are said to herald fine weather,
But rain is foretold if they are restless and baa for no apparent reason
The knuckle-bone from a piece of mutton was once thought to be a preventative charm against rheumatism if carried about in the pocket; similarly,
A certain T-shaped bone from a sheep’s head was believed to protect its carrier from bad luck and evil
A strip of sheepskin on a horse’s collar was once used as prevention against the evil eye
A sheep’s lung was once applied to the feet of a pneumonia sufferer, and was thought to draw the disease downward into itself
People could be wrapped in the skin of a freshly-killed sheep in an attempt to cure an adder bite;
Children with whooping-cough were thought to be cured by letting a sheep breathe on them
Sufferers from consumption were once advised to walk around a sheepfold many times a day, beginning early in the morning
If sheep gnash their teeth during round-up in the autumn, the winter will be hard
If sheep gnash their teeth somewhere else, it presages very bad weather
SPIDER
Superstitious people probably don’t kill spiders because it has been unlucky since a spider spun a web over baby Jesus to hide him from Herod
‘If you wish to live and thrive
Let the spider run alive’
There are numerous superstitions concerning the humble spider:
If you see a spider spinning a new web, you will shortly get some new clothes
If one drops onto you face or clothes – particularly a tiny ‘money spider’- then your finances will improve
A spider with syrup cures fever
Seeing a spider run down a web in the afternoon means you’ll take a trip
You’ll meet a new friend if you run into a web
A spider is a repellent against plague when worn around the neck in a walnut shell
SOW BUGS
A bag filled with 13 sow bugs tied around a child’s neck will cure the child from the thrash, or sores in the mouth
WEASELS
It is impossible to catch a weasel asleep
T is bad luck if one crosses your path and appears near your home making its distinctive squeaking sound
WOLF
Powered wolf liver was used to ease birth pains
A wolf’s right paw, tied around ones throat, was believed to ease the swelling caused by throat infections
It was widely believed that a horse that stepped in a wolf print would be crippled
The gaze of a wolf was once thought to cause blindness
Others believed that the breath of the wolf could cook meat
Naturalists of the day believed wolves sharpened their teeth before hunting
Dead wolves were buried at a village entrance to keep out other wolves
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Sadie Hawkins Day, usually celebrated in the US on 29th February, is named after a character in which Al Capp comic strip? | What is Sadie Hawkins Day?
Updated February 16, 2016.
Question: What is Sadie Hawkins Day? Is It the Same Day as Leap Day?
Sadie Hawkins Day is a holiday that turns the tables on male/female relationships as women take the lead in pursuing men.
Answer: Named after a fictional character, Sadie Hawkins Day celebrates role reversal by sanctioning women to ask men out on a date or even propose marriage.
There's a common misconception that February 29th (better known as Leap Day) is Sadie Hawkins Day. Although that isn't the case, February 29th does hold significance for women thanks to an old Irish tradition called St. Bridget's Complaint , which granted women permission to propose marriage on that day.
Sadie Hawkins Day is rooted in the story of Sadie Hawkins, a character created by Al Capp in the comic strip Li'l Abner. Sadie Described as "the homeliest gal in the hills," Sadie was unable get a date; so her father, a prominent citizen in the town of Dogpatch, named a day after her to help Sadie get a man.
On Sadie Hawkins Day, a footrace was held in Dogpatch so the women could pursue the town's eligible bachelors.
According to the Li'l Abner website, Sadie Hawkins Day is an unspecified date in November which Al Capp observed in his comic strip for four decades.
| Li'l Abner |
In which European country is it considered unlucky to marry on a Leap Day? | 1000+ images about Comic Strip Characters on Pinterest | Search, Calvin and hobbes and The family
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Li'l Abner is a satirical American comic strip that appeared in many newspapers in the United States, Canada and Europe, featuring a fictional clan of hillbillies in the impoverished mountain village of Dogpatch, Kentucky. Written and drawn by Al Capp (1909–1979), the strip ran for 43 years, from August 13, 1934 through November 13, 1977.
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Which Roman Emperor was said to be behind the origin of the Leap Year? | The History | Origin of New Years Day / December 31rst / Ball Dropping In Times Square
EVENTS
A History of New Years
In 46 B.C.E. the Roman emperor Julius Caesar first established January 1 as New Year’s day. Janus was the Roman god of doors and gates, and had two faces, one looking forward and one back. Caesar felt that the month named after this god (“January”) would be the appropriate “door” to the year. Caesar celebrated the first January 1 New Year by ordering the violent routing of revolutionary Jewish forces in the Galilee. Eyewitnesses say blood flowed in the streets. In later years, Roman pagans observed the New Year by engaging in drunken orgies—a ritual they believed constituted a personal re-enacting of the chaotic world that existed before the cosmos was ordered by the gods.
As Christianity spread, pagan holidays were either incorporated into the Christian calendar or abandoned altogether. By the early medieval period most of Christian Europe regarded Annunciation Day (March 25) as the beginning of the year. (According to Catholic tradition, Annunciation Day commemorates the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would be impregnated by G-d and conceive a son to be called Jesus.)
After William the Conqueror (AKA “William the Bastard” and “William of Normandy”) became King of England on December 25, 1066, he decreed that the English return to the date established by the Roman pagans, January 1. This move ensured that the commemoration of Jesus’ birthday (December 25) would align with William’s coronation, and the commemoration of Jesus’ circumcision (January 1) would start the new year - thus rooting the English and Christian calendars and his own Coronation). William’s innovation was eventually rejected, and England rejoined the rest of the Christian world and returned to celebrating New Years Day on March 25.
About five hundred years later, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII (AKA “Ugo Boncompagni”, 1502-1585) abandoned the traditional Julian calendar. By the Julian reckoning, the solar year comprised 365.25 days, and the intercalation of a “leap day” every four years was intended to maintain correspondence between the calendar and the seasons. Really, however there was a slight inaccuracy in the Julian measurement (the solar year is actually 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds = 365.2422 days). This slight inaccuracy caused the Julian calendar to slip behind the seasons about one day per century. Although this regression had amounted to 14 days by Pope Gregory’s time, he based his reform on restoration of the vernal equinox, then falling on March 11, to the date had 1,257 years earlier when Council of Nicaea was convened (March 21, 325 C.E.). Pope Gregory made the correction by advancing the calendar 10 days. The change was made the day after October 4, 1582, and that following day was established as October 15, 1582. The Gregorian calendar differs from the Julian in three ways: (1) No century year is a leap year unless it is exactly divisible by 400 (e.g., 1600, 2000, etc.); (2) Years divisible by 4000 are common (not leap) years; and (3) once again the New Year would begin with the date set by the early pagans, the first day of the month of Janus - January 1.
On New Years Day 1577 Pope Gregory XIII decreed that all Roman Jews, under pain of death, must listen attentively to the compulsory Catholic conversion sermon given in Roman synagogues after Friday night services. On New Years Day 1578 Gregory signed into law a tax forcing Jews to pay for the support of a “House of Conversion” to convert Jews to Christianity. On New Years 1581 Gregory ordered his troops to confiscate all sacred literature from the Roman Jewish community. Thousands of Jews were murdered in the campaign.
Throughout the medieval and post-medieval periods, January 1 - supposedly the day on which Jesus’ circumcision initiated the reign of Christianity and the death of Judaism - was reserved for anti-Jewish activities: synagogue and book burnings, public tortures, and simple murder.
The Israeli term for New Year’s night celebrations, “Sylvester,” was the name of the “Saint” and Roman Pope who reigned during the Council of Nicaea (325 C.E.). The year before the Council of Nicaea convened, Sylvester convinced Constantine to prohibit Jews from living in Jerusalem. At the Council of Nicaea, Sylvester arranged for the passage of a host of viciously anti-Semitic legislation. All Catholic “Saints” are awarded a day on which Christians celebrate and pay tribute to that Saint’s memory. December 31 is Saint Sylvester Day - hence celebrations on the night of December 31 are dedicated to Sylvester’s memory.
U.S. News and World Report December 23, 1996
| Julius Caesar |
In Scotland, what colour petticoat should women wear, and make sure it is partly visible, to ensure success when they propose to a man? | Constantine The Great: Roman Emperor, Christian Saint, History's Turning Point | Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese
Constantine The Great: Roman Emperor, Christian Saint, History's Turning Point
by Robert Arakaki
"Tell me the history of Christianity and I can tell you your theology." This is especially true with a controversial figure like Constantine. Where Roman Catholics present him as laying the foundation for the Papacy, Protestants see him as the one responsible for leading the early Church away from the simplicity of the pure gospel and turning it into an institutional Church. However, blaming Constantine for the fall of the Church is a double-edged sword that cuts in both directions. If Protestants accuse Constantine of tampering with the Church, how do they know that Constantine did not tamper with the Bible? The problem with the "fall of the Church" argument is that it opens the possibility of a radical discontinuity between present-day Christianity and the early Church.
This danger can be seen in one of today's most popular bestsellers, The DaVinci Code. In the middle of the book (Chapter 55) Sir Leigh Teabing gives Sophie Neveu a brief synopsis of the "history" of Christianity. In it he makes the following points about Constantine:
Constantine was a lifelong pagan who was baptized against his will on his deathbed.
Constantine made Christianity the official Roman religion solely for political gain.
Christianity is a hybrid religion, the result of Constantine's fusing the pagan cult of Sol Invictus with Christianity.
This blending can be seen in Constantine's changing the Christian day of worship from Saturday to Sunday.
Under Constantine's influence, the Council of Nicea, by a small majority, turned a mortal prophet into the divine Son of God.
Constantine ordered the making of the Bible that would reinforce the Council's decision to make Jesus the divine Son of God, and at the same time ordered the destruction of opposing documents.
Personally, I thought the book was a lot of fun to read, but as church history it was laughable. This is not a criticism of the author, as his bestseller is a work of fiction. The problem comes when people confuse fiction and nonfiction.
It is imperative that Christians, especially Orthodox Christians, have a firm grasp of their faith and of church history. Faith and history go together. We cannot separate church history from what we believe. The Orthodox understanding of truth is grounded in the Incarnation, the Son of God taking on human nature. Because the Son of God entered into human history, truth consists of more than a set of logically consistent concepts. Our faith is grounded in the historical figure Jesus of Nazareth, who asserted: I am the Truth. When Orthodoxy claims that the Christian Faith is the true faith, it is asserting that it is a real faith, based on historical events that actually happened. Because Christianity is grounded in reality, our salvation in Christ is a real salvation that has an impact on both the spiritual and physical realities.
Constantine the Great
Constantine was born at Naissus on February 27, 272 or 273, to Flavius Constantius and his wife Helena. Flavius Constantius was an army officer, and in 289 he divorced Constantine's mother to marry Theodora, the daughter of his commanding officer. Constantine embarked on his own military career, which took him all over the Roman Empire, from Palestine and Asia Minor to Britain, Spain, and Gaul. While crossing the Alps with his army, Constantine had a vision (or dream) of a cross of light shining in front of the sun and the words: In this sign conquer. Shortly after that vision, Constantine defeated his rival, Maxentius, captured Rome, and was acclaimed the next emperor.
History often turns upon certain pivotal events or individuals. Early Christianity faced two significant perils: one external—violent persecution by the Roman government, and one internal—the Arian heresy, which denied Christ's divinity. In a providential twist of events, God raised up an emperor who would play a key role in confronting each of these perils, becoming one of Christianity's greatest defenders. Constantine's rule precipitated an avalanche of events that radically altered the course of the history of Christianity.
External Danger—Persecution
Prior to Constantine's becoming emperor, the early Church was going through one of the fiercest and bloodiest of the persecutions by the Roman government, the Diocletian persecution. During this wave of persecution thousands of Christians lost their lives, churches were destroyed, and scriptures were burned. Then in 313, the situation reversed itself. Constantine (with his co-emperor Licinus) issued the famous Edict of Milan, declaring Christianity to be a legal religion. Christianity was not yet the official religion of the Empire—this would not happen until 380 under Emperor Theodosius. And Constantine's edict of toleration was not the first—Galerius had issued a similar edict in 311. But it marked a major turning point for the Roman government. With the Edict of Milan, the three-centuries-long era of persecution came to an end.
Contrary to popular belief, Constantine did not rescue Christianity from extinction. Even if he had not adopted the Christian cause, the majority of the Roman population was well on its way to becoming Christian. What Constantine did do was hasten the process of evangelizing the Roman Empire. Constantine's conversion marked the climax of a centuries-long process of evangelization that began in an obscure corner of the Roman Empire. For the first time, the entire structure of Roman civilization, from the emperor down to the lowliest slave, shared the Christian faith.
Internal Danger—Heresy
In the early fourth century, a theological controversy broke out that threatened to derail the Christian faith. Arius taught that the Son of God had a beginning and was a created being. The controversy threatened deeply to divide the Christian Church, and in so doing to imperil the unity of the Roman Empire. Concerned for the unity of the empire, Constantine wrote letters to Bishop Alexander and to Arius, urging them to make up their differences and forgive each other. When that failed, he convened an ecumenical council of the entire Church. Previously there had been regional and local synods, but this was the first worldwide gathering of bishops. Constantine aided this historic gathering by covering the travel expenses of bishops coming from the far-flung corners of the empire.
In order to repudiate the Arian heresy, the bishops inserted the word homoousios ("of the same essence") into the baptismal creed. By asserting that Christ was of the same essence as God the Father, the Council decisively affirmed the divinity of Christ. This was approved by an overwhelming majority of the Council (only three persons—including Arius—out of three hundred disagreed). Although Constantine may have suggested that homoousios be inserted into the creed, the word was not invented by him. Even Arius made use of it, albeit in his arguments against the divinity of Christ.
Although he presided over the council, it is an exaggeration to claim that Constantine controlled the direction of the Council of Nicea, as many Protestants argue. Many of the bishops present at the council were survivors of the Diocletian persecution and would have been more than willing to put their lives on the line for the gospel of Christ once more. Another weakness of the Protestant stereotype of Constantine is that it gives short shrift to the theological genius of Athanasius. Anyone who reads Athanasius' theological classic Against the Arians will see that it was Athanasius, not Constantine, who turned the tide against the Arian heresy. Also, the limitations of Constantine's ability to coerce the Church into doing his will can be seen in his earlier failure to resolve the Donatist controversy in 320. As W. H. C. Frend notes in The Rise of Christianity, "The lesson, however, had been learned. Never again did he seek to beat into submission a movement within the church."
Equal-to-the-Apostles
Constantine's legacy can be seen in Christianity's transformation from a private sect into a public church that encompassed the whole of society. He put it on an institutional footing, which enabled the Church to be the leading cultural force in the ancient world. The Christianization of Roman society can be seen as a partial fulfillment of Revelation 21:24: "The nations . . . shall walk in its [New Jerusalem] light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it." The Church is the New Jerusalem—replacing the Jerusalem of the Old Testament—which brings spiritual enlightenment to the pagan nations throughout the Roman Empire. However, a balanced assessment of the historical evidence shows that, as much as Constantine may have contributed to the Christianization of the Roman Empire, he did not originate Holy Tradition as many Protestants believe.
Sunday as the day of worship. Although Sunday was made a public holiday, there is no evidence that it was Constantine who changed the Christians' day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. Two first-century documents—Didache 14.1 and Ignatius' Letter to the Magnesians 9.1—document the fact that Christians worshiped on a different day from the Jewish Sabbath. As emperor, Constantine transformed what was once the private practice of an illegal sect into a public holiday for all Romans.
Constantinople—the New Rome. With his decision to turn the sleepy village of Byzantinum into the Roman Empire's new capital city, Constantine laid the groundwork of what would become a major spiritual center, the Patriarchate of Constantinople. As the New Rome, Constantinople was intended to signal the Roman Empire's break with its pagan past and its embracing of Christianity. Under Constantine's orders, no pagan ceremonies were allowed in this city. While the original Rome and the Latin West entered into the Dark Ages, Constantinople thrived as a spiritual and political capital through the time of Columbus' voyage to America. Constantinople was also the springboard from which the missionary outreach to Russia would take place.
The Council of Nicea and the biblical canon. While Constantine played an important role at the First Ecumenical Council, there is no evidence that he had anything to do with deciding which books would go into the Bible. The Muratorian Canon (from the year 200) provides a list of New Testament documents that closely resembles the list found in today's Bible. Similar lists can be found in the writings of Origen (250) and Eusebius of Caesarea (300). It is true that Constantine ordered the burning of books by Arius, the anti-Christian philosopher Porphyry, the Novatians, the Marcionites, and others. But the fact remains that by the time Constantine became emperor, much of today's biblical canon was already in place.
Constantine a Saint?
Constantine died in 337. Shortly before his death, he was baptized by Eusebius of Nicomedia. Following his baptism, Constantine refused to wear the imperial purple and died wearing the white baptismal robe. He was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles just days after he had dedicated it. The day of his death—May 21—is commemorated in the Orthodox Church as a major feast day.
Skepticism about the sincerity of Constantine's Christianity stems from a number of factors. Constantine did not openly repudiate the pagan gods, but tolerated pagan belief even as he began favoring the Christians. Another source lies in his execution of his son, Crispus, and his wife, Fausta, in 326, a year after the Council of Nicea. A third factor was Constantine's delaying of his baptism until just a few days before his death.
On closer examination, however, the basis for this skeptical attitude becomes problematic. Constantine's participation in the pagan rites most likely stemmed from his obligations as military and political leader. Regarding his execution of his son and wife, it is not clear what the reasons were. Unless the reasons for this drastic action are known, it is not fair to condemn Constantine. Also, modern evangelicalism may frown on deathbed conversions, but in the early Church such delaying of one’s baptism was not uncommon.
Constantine's conversion follows more closely the Orthodox understanding of salvation than the Protestant understanding. Where Protestants, especially evangelicals, tend to see salvation in terms of a one-time conversion experience, Orthodoxy sees salvation as a mystery and as a process that unfolds over time. While Constantine's personal faith may be a matter of debate, his historical contributions to the Church under his reign are undeniable. Frend writes, "The 'Age of the Fathers' would have been impossible without Constantine's conversion. The church's councils under the emperor's guidance became assemblies where the new, binding relationship with the Christian God, on which the safety of the empire depended, was established."
The Orthodox Church sees Constantine as the emperor who assisted the early Church in evangelizing the Roman Empire. For this reason it honors him as Saint Constantine Equal-to-the-Apostles.
Constantine and the Church
For Orthodoxy, Constantine represents an important link to the past. The persecuted underground Church and the official state Church are the same Church. Constantine played a key role in the historic transition from the former to the latter. For Orthodox Christianity, there is no "fall of the Church." The Orthodox Church believes that it stands in unbroken continuity with the Church of the first century.
There is a popular belief among evangelicals that the true Church was the underground Church, which refused to compromise with the worldly state Church, and that this true Church remained in hiding over the following centuries, leaving few records of its existence until it was rediscovered by the Protestants in the sixteenth century. The main problem with this belief is not only the absence of supporting evidence, but the presence of contrary evidence. Eusebius, in Books IV and V of his History of the Church, provides a chronological listing of bishops that goes back to the original apostles. Present-day Orthodox bishops and patriarchs are able to trace their spiritual and historical lineage back to the original apostles, something that Protestants cannot do.
Symphonia—The Harmony of Faith and Politics
Constantine's support for the early Church laid the foundation for the doctrine of symphonia—the ideal of political and religious leaders working in harmony to realize God's will here on earth. This ideal is rooted in the Lord's Prayer: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Symphonia avoids two extremes: the separation of Church from State on the one hand, and the fusion of Church and State on the other. Despite his active participation in the Ecumenical Council, Constantine did not view himself as one of the bishops, but rather as "bishop of those outside." This ideal found concrete expression in the Byzantine Empire, which lasted for a thousand years. Under Constantine's rule began the transformation of Roman culture. Execution by crucifixion ceased, gladiatorial battles as punishment ended.
Symphonia has a number of important implications for Orthodox Christians. One is that the Church is called to pray for those in power, even if they are not Christians. For Orthodoxy, symphonia is the ideal situation, but not the only one. Christianity is not tied to any one particular political structure. Another implication is that there is no separation between the physical and the spiritual (belief in dualism is an early heresy). Orthodoxy is both a personal and a public faith. The Orthodox Church encourages good citizenship, public service along with philanthropy. Its preference for lay involvement in politics helps avoid the dangers of theocratic rule. It is expected that Orthodox Christians will bring the values of the Church into the political and social realms.
Venerating a Great Saint Today
The Orthodox Church today honors the memory of Constantine in several ways. Many Orthodox parishes are named after him. I attend Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Pacific. On Sunday mornings, soon after I enter the church, I see the icon of Christ sitting on the throne. I also see the icon of Constantine and his mother, Helen. Inside the church up in front I see Constantine and Helen on the icon screen. They are now part of the great cloud of witnesses cheering us on to finish the spiritual race (Hebrews 12). During the Sunday Liturgy, just before the scripture readings, the following troparion (hymn) is sung:
Your servant Constantine, O Lord and only Lover of Man,
Beheld the figure of the Cross in the heavens,
And like Paul, not having received his call from men,
But as an apostle among rulers set by Your hand over the royal city,
He preserved lasting peace through the prayers of the Theotokos.
The troparion celebrates God's sovereignty in human history: how God selected a pagan Roman soldier, converted him through a miraculous vision of the Cross, and made him emperor and one of the greatest evangelists in the history of Christianity.
Robert Arakaki has an M.A. in Church History from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He recently earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Originally published by AGAIN Magazine, 2005
Conciliar Press Ministries Inc.
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A Leap Year occurs every how many years? | Leap Year Explained
Leap Year Explained
Leap years synchronize the calendar year with the solar year
by Ann Marie Imbornoni & Mark Hughes
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Why do we need leap year?
The Gregorian calendar, which now serves as the standard calendar for civil use throughout the world, has both common years and leap years. A common year has 365 days and a leap year 366 days, with the extra, or intercalary , day designated as February 29. A leap year occurs every four years to help synchronize the calendar year with the solar year, or the length of time it takes the earth to complete its orbit about the sun, which is about 365¼ days.
The length of the solar year, however, is slightly less than 365¼ days—by about 11 minutes. To compensate for this discrepancy, the leap year is omitted three times every four hundred years.
In other words, a century year cannot be a leap year unless it is divisible by 400. Thus 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years, but 1600, 2000, and 2400 are leap years.
What are your chances of being born on leap day?
About 1 in 1,500.
When is the birthday party?
If you are born on a Leap Year, do you get your driver's license on February 28th or March 1st? It is an ambiguous question that is decided by each state. Most states, however, consider March 1st the official day. For instance, the Michigan Vehicle Code states that people born on February 29th "are deemed to have been born on March 1st."
How many people were born on leap day?
There are about 187,000 people in the US and 4 million people in the world who were born on Leap Day.
The rules for determining a leap year
Most years that can be divided evenly by 4 are leap years.
Exception: Century years are NOT leap years UNLESS they can be evenly divided by 400.
When did leap year originate?
The Gregorian calendar is closely based on the Julian calendar, which was introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. The Julian calendar featured a 12-month, 365-day year, with an intercalary day inserted every fourth year at the end of February to make an average year of 365.25 days. But because the length of the solar year is actually 365.242216 days, the Julian year was too long by .0078 days (11 minutes 14 seconds).
This may not seem like a lot, but over the course of centuries it added up, until in the 16th century, the vernal equinox was falling around March 11 instead of March 21. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII adjusted the calendar by moving the date ahead by 11 days and by instituting the exception to the rule for leap years. This new rule, whereby a century year is a leap year only if divisible by 400, is the sole feature that distinguishes the Gregorian calendar from the Julian calendar.
Following the Gregorian reform, the average length of the year was 365.2425 days, an even closer approximation to the solar year. At this rate, it will take more than 3,000 years for the Gregorian calendar to gain one extra day in error.
For even more information, read: Leap Year 101
Did you know?
| four |
Who played the role of dance instructor, Mrs Wilkinson, in the 2000 film Billy Elliot? | Leap Year - Geography For Kids - By KidsGeo.com
Written for the KidsKnowit Network by:
Meredith Tennant
This year, 2012, is a leap year. What does that mean?
Every four years an extra day is added to the calendar, making
the length of the year 366 days, instead of the normal 365.
Why on earth does that need to happen?
The calendar is supposed to match the solar year, in other words, the length of time it takes for Earth to orbit the Sun once. But things aren’t quite that simple. It actually takes Earth 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds to complete its orbit (about 365 1/4 days). Those extra hours gradually add up so that after four years the calendar is out of step by about one day. Adding a day every four years allows the calendar to match up to the solar year again.
However, because the solar year isn’t exactly 365 days, even adding a leap day every four years means that the calendar is still out of step by 11 minutes and 14 seconds each year. Over the course of 400 years this would add up to three extra days. In order to solve this problem it was decided to leave out the leap year three times every 400 years. So, the new rule was, a century year (1600, 1700, 1800, etc.) would only be a leap year if it was evenly divisible by 400. This means that the year 2000 was a leap year, but 2100 will not be.
Phew! So, who figured all this out?
The Egyptians were the first people to think of adding a leap day to the calendar every four years. Later, the Romans copied the idea. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII reformed the Julian calendar (introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BCE). By Pope Gregory’s time the calendar had drifted 14 days off track. He neatly solved this by lopping ten days off the calendar, telling everyone that the day after October 4th was going to be October 15th. Bad luck for people with birthdays during that time!
The early Roman calendar, way before Julius Caesar’s time, began the year with March. It consisted of ten months, each lasting about 30 days, ending with December. They didn’t seem to have counted the winter months. It is thought that two extra months, January and February, were added sometime around 715-673 BCE. This would have made February the end of the year, which might explain why a leap day was added to that month. Later it was decided to start the year with January, as that month contained a festival dedicated to Janus, the god of gates (and, later, all beginnings).
Did You Know?
With the current system of adding leap days, it will be 3,300 years before the calendar is again off by a day.
Other nations have different calendars and different methods of keeping the calendar in line with the solar year. A day, or in some cases a month, gets added every few years, according to the organization of the particular calendar. The Chinese, for example, add a month about every three years, whereas in Islamic Hijri calendar a day is added 11 times during a 30-year cycle.
It’s pretty confusing, but just remember that for our calendar:
Thirty days hath September,
All the rest have thirty-one
Save February, she alone
Hath eight days and a score
Til leap year gives her one day more.
An example of the Gregorian calendar when ten days were removed in 1582.
Did You Know?
There is a tradition that women are allowed to propose marriage to men on leap days. One day in the 5th century, St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about the unfairness of the system which only allowed men to propose, so he decided to let women do the asking once every four years!
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Which famous London building was destroyed by fire in 1834? | The Great Fire of 1834 - UK Parliament
The Great Fire of 1834
Churchill and the Commons Chamber
The Great Fire of 1834
In 1834, the Exchequer was faced with the problem of disposing two cart-loads of wooden tally sticks. These were remnants of an obsolete accounting system that had not been used since 1826. When asked to burn them, the Clerk of Works thought that the two underfloor stoves in the basement of the House of Lords would be a safe and proper place to do so.
Parliament on fire in 1834
On 16 October, a couple of workmen arrived in the morning to carry out his instructions. During the afternoon, a party of visitors to the House of Lords, conducted by the deputy housekeeper Mrs Wright, became puzzled by the heat of the floor, and by the smoke seeping through it. But the workmen insisted on finishing their job. The furnaces were put out by 5pm, and Mrs Wright, no longer worried, locked up the premises.
Fire!
At 6pm, Mrs Wright heard the terrified wife of a doorkeeper screaming that the House of Lords was on fire. In no time, the flames had spread to the rest of the Palace. It was a great sight for the crowds on the streets (who were kept back by soldiers) and a great opportunity for artists such as J.M.W. Turner who painted several canvases depicting it.
Both Houses of Parliament were destroyed along with most of the other buildings on the site. Westminster Hall was saved largely due to heroic fire fighting efforts, and a change in the direction of the wind during the night. The only other parts of the Palace to survive were the Jewel Tower, the Undercroft Chapel, the Cloisters and Chapter House of St Stephen's and Westminster Hall.
With Restoration and Renewal of the Houses of Parliament in the news, Dr Caroline Shenton looks back at the petitions which occurred when the building was originally constructed in the nineteenth century.
| Palace of Westminster |
Which English snooker player is nicknamed ‘The Rocket’? | BBC - History - A History of British Architecture
A History of British Architecture
By Adrian Tinniswood
Last updated 2011-03-29
From the Middle Ages to the 20th century, what are the influences and movements that have shaped the changing face of British architecture?
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The Middle Ages - 1066 and all that
Architecture is about evolution, not revolution. It used to be thought that once the Romans pulled out of Britain in the fifth century, their elegant villas, carefully-planned towns and engineering marvels like Hadrian's Wall simply fell into decay as British culture was plunged into the Dark Ages. It took the Norman Conquest of 1066 to bring back the light, and the Gothic cathedral-builders of the Middle Ages played an important part in the revival of British culture.
The great cathedrals and parish churches that lifted up their towers to heaven were acts of devotion in stone...
However, the truth is not as simple as that. Romano-British culture - and that included architecture along with language, religion, political organisation and the arts - survived long after the Roman withdrawal. And although the Anglo-Saxons had a sophisticated building style of their own, little survives to bear witness to their achievements as the vast majority of Anglo-Saxon buildings were made of wood.
Even so, the period between the Norman landing at Pevensey in 1066 and the day in 1485 when Richard III lost his horse and his head at Bosworth, ushering in the Tudors and the Early Modern period, marks a rare flowering of British building. And it is all the more remarkable because the underlying ethos of medieval architecture was 'fitness for purpose'. The great cathedrals and parish churches that lifted up their towers to heaven were not only acts of devotion in stone; they were also fiercely functional buildings. Castles served their particular purpose and their battlements and turrets were for use rather than ornament. The rambling manor houses of the later Middle Ages, however, were primarily homes, their owners achieving respect and maintaining status by their hospitality and good lordship rather than the grandeur of their buildings.
Fitness for purpose also characterised the homes of the poorer classes. Such people didn't matter very much to the ruling elite and so neither did their houses. These were dark, primitive structures of one or two rooms, usually with crude timber frames, low walls and thatched roofs. They weren't built to last. And they didn't.
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Buildings of the Middle Ages
White Tower, at the heart of the Tower of London, was begun by Bishop Gundulf in 1078 on the orders of William the Conqueror. The structure was completed in 1097, providing a colonial stronghold and a powerful symbol of Norman domination.
Durham Cathedral was begun by Bishop William de St Carilef in 1093 and completed about 1175. The choir was extended in the Gothic style between 1242 and 1280. Muscular pillars and round-headed arches make Durham one of the most imposing Norman buildings in England.
Haddon Hall, Derbyshire, was probably begun in the 12th century, but was remodelled and adapted at various times right through to the 16th century. It was then carefully restored in the early 20th century. Haddon shows the quality which characterises the great medieval house, in which function dictates form.
King's College Chapel, Cambridge, spans the period of transition between the Middle Ages and the Tudors. Its foundation stone was laid in 1446 by Henry VI and the structure, with its lacy perpendicular fan-vaulting, was completed by 1515 during the reign of Henry VIII. The windows were installed in 1546-7.
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The Tudors - stately and curious workmanship
In a sense, the buildings of the 16th century were also governed by fitness for purpose - only now, the purpose was very different. In domestic architecture, in particular, buildings were used to display status and wealth, as William Harrison noted in his Description of England (1577):
Each one desireth to set his house aloft on the hill, to be seen afar off, and cast forth his beams of stately and curious workmanship into every quarter of the country.
This stately and curious workmanship showed itself in various ways. A greater sense of security led to more outward-looking buildings, as opposed to the medieval arrangement where the need for defence created houses that faced inward onto a courtyard or series of courtyards. This allowed for much more in the way of exterior ornament. The rooms themselves tended to be bigger and lighter - as an expensive commodity, the use of great expanses of glass was in itself a statement of wealth. There was also a general move towards balanced and symmetrical exteriors with central entrances.
In spite of this building boom the Renaissance was generally slow to arrive in England...
In addition there was progress towards more stable and sophisticated houses for those lower down the social scale. Stone, and later brick, began to replace timber as the standard building material for the homes of farmers, tradespeople and artisans. To quote Harrison again:
Every man almost is a builder, and he that hath bought any small parcel of ground, be it never so little, will not be quiet till he have pulled down the old house (if any were there standing) and set up a new after his own device.
In spite of this building boom the Renaissance was generally slow to arrive in England, largely because Elizabeth's troublesome relations with Catholic Europe made the free exchange of ideas difficult. Craftsmen and pattern-books did come over from the Protestant Low Countries, but by and large our relative isolation from the European cultural mainstream led to a national style which was a bizarre though attractive mixture of Gothic and classical styles.
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Tudor Palaces and Houses
Hampton Court Palace (1515 onwards). The great house that Cardinal Wolsey began and then gave to Henry VIII in 1525, in a desperate attempt to stay in the King's favour, has undergone many changes since the 16th century. Christopher Wren rebuilt the south and east ranges for William and Mary between 1689 and 1694, and the Palace contains some remarkable Tudor work, notably Henry VIII's hammer-beamed Great Hall.
Longleat House, Wiltshire, which was completed in 1580, exemplifies the confidence of Tudor craftsmen in a society that was more stable than that of their medieval ancestors. It looks outwards rather than in on itself, whilst classical detailing such as the pilasters that flank the expanses of glass, and the roundels carved with busts of Roman emperors, show that Renaissance ideas were creeping slowly into Britain during the mid 16th century.
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire (1591-97). This is the archetypal late-Elizabethan house: tall, compact and beautiful. It was designed, probably by Robert Smythson, for Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury who was better known as Bess of Hardwick. Her descendants, the Dukes of Devonshire, made Chatsworth their principal seat, and left Hardwick more or less unscathed. A remarkable survival.
Whilst Elizabethan houses in England concentrated on the conspicuous display of wealth, Scotland saw the building of castles and fortified houses continue well into the seventeenth century. In fact, fortification became a style in its own right, and the turrets and strongly vertical emphases of Scottish Baronial houses mark one of Scotland's most distinctive contributions to British architecture.
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Styles of the 17th century - a world turned upside down
With the exception of Inigo Jones (1573-1652), whose confident handling of classical detail and proportion set him apart from all other architects of the period, most early 17th century buildings tended to take the innocent exuberance of late Tudor work one step further. Traditional planning was cloaked in the splendidly overblown ornament - the sort of details described at the time as 'a heap of craziness of decorations... very disgusting to see'.
But during the 1640s and 50s the Civil War and its aftermath sent many gentlemen and nobles to the Continent either to escape the fighting or, when the war was lost, to follow Charles II into exile. There they came into contact with French, Dutch and Italian architecture and, with Charles's restoration in 1660, there was a flurry of building activity as royalists reclaimed their property and built themselves houses reflecting the latest European trends.
The style is heavy and rich, sometimes overblown and melodramatic.
As the century wore on, this resolved itself into a passion for the Baroque grandeur which Louis XIV had turned into an instrument of statecraft at Versailles. Formal, geometrical and symmetrical planning meant that a great lord could sit in his dining chamber, at the physical as well as the metaphorical centre of his world, with suites of rooms radiating out in straight lines to either side. His gardens would reflect those lines in long, straight walks and avenues.
The British Baroque was a reassertion of authority, an expression of absolutist ideology by men who remembered a world turned upside down during the Civil War. The style is heavy and rich, sometimes overblown and melodramatic. The politics which underpin it are questionable, but its products are breathtaking.
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Buildings of the 17th century
The Queens House, Greenwich, was begun for Queen Anne between 1616 and 1619 and completed for Henrietta Maria between 1630 and 1635. Greenwich Hospital was built from 1696 onwards. The Queens House is by Inigo Jones and the Hospital is largely Christopher Wren's.
St Paul's Cathedral, London, (1675-1710) is not only one of the most perfect expressions of the English Baroque, but also one of the greatest buildings anywhere in England. It was designed by Wren to replace the old cathedral which had been devastated during the Fire of London in 1666.
Although built in the 18th century, the ideology behind Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire lies firmly in the 17th century. Conceived as a monumental homage to the Duke of Marlborough, whose victory over Louis XIV's army at Blenheim in Bavaria gives the palace its name, it was designed by John Vanbrugh and is the nearest thing Britain has to a Versailles
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Styles of the 18th century - rules cramp the genius
To the Whigs who came to power on the accession of George I in 1714, the Baroque was inextricably linked with the authoritarian rule of the Stuarts. A new style was needed for a new age, and the new ruling class, which aspired to build a civilisation that would rival that of ancient Rome, looked for a solution in antiquity.
Or so it thought. Actually, the solution was found in an antiquity which had been heavily re-interpreted by the 16th century Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508-80). Palladio's Four Books of Architecture methodically explored and reconstructed the buildings of ancient Rome. They also provided illustrations, in the form of its author's own designs for villas, palaces and churches, of a way in which the early Georgians might adapt those rules to create an architecture of the classical tradition - the yardstick by which all civilised activity was measured.
By the end of the 18th century, the idea of a single national style of architecture had had its day.
But architects soon found the Palladian search for an ideal architecture pointlessly limiting. Whilst the buildings of the ancients should 'serve as models which we should imitate, and as standards by which we ought to judge', a more eclectic approach was called for. In the words of the later 18th century's greatest architect, Robert Adam, 'Rules often cramp the genius and circumscribe the idea of the master'.
By the end of the 18th century, the idea of a single national style of architecture had had its day. Austere neo-classical masterpieces were still being produced; but so too were huge mock-abbeys, battlemented castles, picturesque sixteen-bedroomed cottages and even, as the 19th century dawned, oriental palaces such as John Nash's Royal Pavilion at Brighton. The Cult of Styles had arrived.
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Buildings of the 18th century
Loosely modelled on Palladio's Villa Capra, Lord Burlington's Chiswick House was one of the first shots fired in the war waged by the Georgians against the Baroque. In case anyone was slow to appreciate where Burlington's architectural allegiances lay, he had Michael Rysbrack design two statues to flank the entrance stair with Palladio on the left, and his earliest English disciple Inigo Jones on the right.
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire (1758-77), is a high point of British neo-classicism. The Palladian layout had already been established when the up-and-coming Scottish architect Robert Adam was asked to take over the project in 1760 by the owner, Sir Nathaniel Curzon. The austere, delicate interiors, with their remarkably unified decoration, show Adam at the height of his powers. Kedleston, the Glory of Derbyshire, was one of the most consistently praised of all Georgian houses.
'I am going to build a little Gothic castle at Strawberry Hill', announced Horace Walpole in 1750. Over the next three decades Walpole transformed the uninteresting villa he had bought by the Thames at Twickenham into one of the landmarks of the Gothic Revival in Britain. Strawberry Hill aroused enormous interest - Walpole had to issue tickets to restrict the number of visitors coming to see it - and demonstrated that native medieval architecture could be every bit as valid as classicism.
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Victorian times - Merry England
In the early 19th century, the French Revolution was recent enough to provide an awful example of what might happen if the upper classes lost control, whilst Peterloo and demonstrations against the Six Acts in 1819 were a reminder that it could happen here. The building classes took refuge in a fictitious past, such as the Middle Ages of Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1819) or the romantic Elizabethan style of Kenilworth (1821). The myth of Merry England, with its strictly ordered society and its chivalric code of values, had a strong appeal for a ruling elite which felt under threat from social and political unrest at home and abroad.
...reformers like John Ruskin and William Morris made a concerted effort to return to hand-crafted, pre-industrial manufacturing techniques.
The huge glass-and-iron Crystal Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton to house the Great Exhibition of 1851, shows another strand to 19th century architecture - one which embraced new industrial processes. But it wasn't long before even this confidence in progress came to be regarded with suspicion. Mass production resulted in buildings and furnishings that were too perfect, as the individual craftsman no longer had a major role in their creation.
Railing against the dehumanising effects of industrialisation, reformers like John Ruskin and William Morris made a concerted effort to return to hand-crafted, pre-industrial manufacturing techniques. Morris's influence grew from the production of furniture and textiles, until by the 1880s a generation of principled young architects was following his call for good, honest construction.
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Victorian buildings
The Houses of Parliament (Charles Barry and A.W.N. Pugin, 1840-60) replaced the building destroyed by fire in 1834. A good example of the period's confused love affair with the past, it was summed up earlier this century as classic in inspiration, Gothic in detailing, and carried out with scrupulous adherence to the architectural detail of the Tudor period.
With its quiet, unassuming love for the vernacular of Kent and Sussex, and its rejection of Victorian pomposity, Philip Webb's Red House at Bexleyheath (1859-60) is the building which started the Arts and Crafts movement. It was originally designed for newly-weds William and Janey Morris.
Castell Coch, near Cardiff (1872-79), is a piece of inspired lunacy by William Burges, best known for his restoration of Cardiff Castle, an opium habit and the fact that he used to relax at home with a pet parrot perched on the shoulder of his hooded medieval robe. This reconstruction of a 13th century chieftain's stronghold - right down to the working portcullis - is scholarly, at least as far as the exterior is concerned. The interior is downright weird, combining High Victorian romanticism with Burges' own eclectic drawings from ancient British history, Moorish design and classical mythology.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art (1896-99, 1907-9) proves that there were a few dissenting voices raised against the Victorian trend to return to the past. Mackintosh was uncompromising in his rejection of historicism, and his buildings have more in common with the vertical geometry and sinuous curves of Art Nouveau work in France, Belgium and Austria. But his decadent approach to design met with hostility in Britain and, a few years after the School of Art was completed in 1909, he gave up architecture.
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Styles of the 20th century - conservatism and change
The most important trends in early 20th century architecture simply passed Britain by. Whilst Gropius was working on cold, hard expanses of glass, and Le Corbusier was experimenting with the use of reinforced concrete frames, we had staid establishment architects like Edwin Lutyens producing Neo-Georgian and Renaissance country houses for an outmoded landed class. In addition there were slightly batty architect-craftsmen, the heirs of William Morris, still trying to turn the clock back to before the Industrial Revolution by making chairs and spurning new technology. Only a handful of Modern Movement buildings of any real merit were produced here during the 1920s and 1930s, and most of these were the work of foreign architects such as Serge Chermayeff, Berthold Lubetkin and Erno Goldfinger who had settled in this country.
Local authorities, charged with the task of rebuilding city centres, became important patrons of architecture.
After the Second World War the situation began to change. The Modern Movement's belief in progress and the future struck a chord with the mood of post-war Britain and, as reconstruction began under Attlee's Labour government in 1945, there was a desperate need for cheap housing which could be produced quickly. The use of prefabricated elements, metal frames, concrete cladding and the absence of decoration - all of which had been embraced by Modernists abroad and viewed with suspicion by the British - were adopted to varying degrees for housing developments and schools. Local authorities, charged with the task of rebuilding city centres, became important patrons of architecture. This represented a shift away from the private individuals who had dominated the architectural scene for centuries.
Since the War it has been corporate bodies like these local authorities, together with national and multinational companies, and large educational institutions, which have dominated British architecture. By the late 1980s the Modern Movement, unfairly blamed for the social experiments implicit in high-rise housing, had lost out to irony and spectacle in the shape of post-modernism, with its cheerful borrowings from anywhere and any period. But now, in the new Millennium, even post-modernism is showing signs of age. What comes next? Post-post-modernism?
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Buildings of the 20th century
Cardiff's imposing Civic Centre is a vast complex including a City Hall and Law Courts by Lanchester & Richards, and the University College by W D Caroë. It was hailed as one of the most magnificent examples of civic planning in Britain but, in retrospect, its deeply conservative architecture also seems both arrogant and strangely out of touch with contemporary building in the rest of Europe.
The De le Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, is a superb expression of all that is best about the Modern Movement. Commissioned by Lord De La Warr, mayor of Bexhill, and built by Eric Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff between 1933 and 1936, it was an attempt to make Bexhill as attractive as exotic French and Italian resorts. It goes without saying that it failed, but the recent restoration of the Pavilion's clean, sweeping lines is a cause for national celebration.
The Royal Festival Hall (Sir Leslie Martin and the Architecture Department of the London County Council, 1951) is all that survives of the complex laid out on London's South Bank for the 1951 Festival of Britain. The festival buildings were important for the opportunity they afforded of presenting a showcase for good modern architecture and Martin's concert hall, while not exactly earth-shattering, is a timely reminder of what good festival architecture looks like.
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Which word represents the letter ‘E’ in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet? | What does NATO phonetic alphabet mean?
Definitions for NATO phonetic alphabet
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word NATO phonetic alphabet
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NATO phonetic alphabet(ProperNoun)
Informal name for a spelling alphabet officially known as the ICAO radiotelephony spelling alphabet.
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NATO phonetic alphabet
The NATO phonetic alphabet, more accurately known as the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet and also called the ICAO phonetic or ICAO spelling alphabet, as well as the ITU phonetic alphabet, is the most widely used spelling alphabet. Although often called "phonetic alphabets", spelling alphabets do not have any association with phonetic transcription systems, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet. Instead, the International Civil Aviation Organization alphabet assigned code words acrophonically to the letters of the English alphabet so that critical combinations of letters and numbers can be pronounced and understood by those who transmit and receive voice messages by radio or telephone regardless of their native language or the presence of transmission static. The 26 code words in the NATO phonetic alphabet are assigned to the 26 letters of the English alphabet in alphabetical order as follows: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu. Some of the 26 words have altered pronunciations: Charlie can be either "char-lee" or "shar-lee", and Uniform is either "you-nee-form" or "oo-nee-form", neither of which is the English pronunciation of the word. Oscar is pronounced "oss-cah" and Victor as "vik-tah" without the 'r', even by people who would normally pronounce it. Papa is pronounced "Pa-PAH" with the accent on the second syllable instead of the first. The code word Quebec is pronounced as French "keh-beck". The ICAO and FAA use the standard number words of English with four altered pronunciations, whereas the ITU and IMO use ten code words for numbers.
Numerology
The numerical value of NATO phonetic alphabet in Chaldean Numerology is: 3
Pythagorean Numerology
| Echo |
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Which island was previously named Van Dieman’s Land? | Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land
'Up stream Upper Nile Bridge' by John Glover, 1840 (ALMFA, SLT)
Tasmania's cultural history was pre-determined for more than a century by its colonial origins and, in particular, by the whole emotive package conjured up by its former name, Van Diemen's Land. In 1642, in the manner of the time, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman had innocently bestowed this name to honour, and perhaps accrue favour from, a powerful figure in his world, Anthony van Diemen, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. For English convicts, however, and indeed for free settlers, it resonated with more sinister suggestions. In a colony where transported felons often outnumbered free settlers, where law and order were fragile and relative concepts, and brutality the resort of prisoner and gaoler alike, 'demons' were in plentiful supply, augmented by a lurking fear of those shadows in the bush, the original inhabitants.
After a false start at Risdon in 1803, Hobart Town was established the following year by Lt-Governor David Collins as Governor King's proposed solution to two perceived problems � French expansionism and English felons. Its dual purpose was to deter the French exploratory expeditions from laying claim to any part of New Holland and to act as a supplementary gaol for excess contingents of convicts shipped to New South Wales. The first of these roles was short-lived: the French departed the scene leaving the island characterised not only as a prison but as the place of most severe and soul-destroying punishment. A stanza from 'The Female Transport', an anonymous street ballad of the time, encapsulates the dread associated with the name that was soon to become synonymous with a convict hell.
Every night when I lay down I wet my straw with tears,
While wind upon that horrid shore did whistle in our ears,
Those dreadful beasts upon that land around our cots do roar,
Most dismal is our doom upon Van Diemen's shore.
The immediate and acute problem confronting the free settlers and convicts alike was survival. By 1806 the colony was starving. Few ships visited and for eighteen months everyone from Collins down was without bread, vegetables, tea, sugar and alcohol. In these circumstances the longer-term need to clear, till and plant an allocation of land was by-passed in favour of securing the one plentiful food source � kangaroos. Even convicts were armed and sent out to hunt, initiating a lawlessness that could only be checked, too late, by the most draconian measures. Shooting kangaroos was simple: the consequences were complex and prolonged. Convicts soon realised that, armed, they could survive very well beyond the settlement and escaped prisoners formed bands of bushrangers, terrorising outlying farms and travellers. The unprecedented slaughter of the kangaroos also had a dramatic effect on the local Aborigines whose traditional hunting grounds had been summarily appropriated. The struggle for land rights had begun.
The starvation problem was soon solved as, especially in the Midlands, cleared land proved highly productive. Under Lt-Governor Arthur the economy soared. Exports rose from £45,000 to £540,00 and by 1830 wheat and wool production along with land values were booming. But the first decade of struggle for survival spawned consequences that plagued Van Diemen's Land for half a century and haunted it for a century more.
Initially the colonists were sustained largely by necessity. Having poured their life savings into emigrating from Britain, few could have afforded to return. Yet once the starvation years were past these mostly working-class immigrants had many advantages over their counterparts in England and mainland Australia; ticket-of-leave men were better off here than in the highly-competitive, criminal underworld from which they had been transported; and the prospects for most convicts were far rosier than for felons aboard prison hulks on the Thames. In most areas there was adequate rainfall, the climate was more conducive to growing the crops they were used to and, overall, the land was not only fertile but in many areas already cleared by the fire-stick burning practices of the Aborigines. The temperature was also considered more invigorating than the heat and humidity that enervated settlers in the other Australian colonies. Van Diemen's Land was soon marketing itself as the 'Sanatorium of the South', famous for its flowers, fruit and healthy inhabitants. In addition, assigned convicts provided many free settlers with a source of labour that in England was the prerogative only of the rich. For these 'free' farm hands, builders and servants they were required to supply only food and necessary clothing. Convict labour also constructed the elegant public buildings and private mansions, the graceful bridges and excellent roads that so impressed visitors as the outward sign of an established, civilised society.
Survival may have been the immediate challenge but it was not the only one. To these settlers from the crowded towns of industrialised England, the real horror of the new land was the experience of successive absences. With so few people (Indigenous people and convicts did not qualify), the island itself seemed a terrifying immensity of meaningless space and loneliness 'at the furthest extremity of the world'. Scottish playwright David Burn, whose fulsome descriptions of his overland trek to Macquarie Harbour witness to his eloquence, nevertheless complained, 'It is a difficult task to paint the scenery of a tenantless wilderness, where no landmarks, no spot of terror or renown, not even a shepherd's cot is to be found to give an impress to the features � whereby succeeding tourists may call identical localities to immediate recognition'.1
Worse, there was no shared history, no cultural framework within which the country could be understood, no basis for interacting with it except in terms of hostility, exile and brute conquest. In emotional terms, the land was indeed 'without form, and void'. The process of relating to it imaginatively required an acceptable context and the creation of 'stories' to provide unique cultural resonances.
Inevitably, at first, it was an ill-fitting, hand-me-down culture that was imposed on the land by means of comparisons, often more ingenious than obvious, with the established cultural norms of Britain and Europe. Acculturation programs saw deciduous trees and fruits transplanted to this southernmost colony with such success that English novelist Anthony Trollope declared, 'Everything in Tasmania is more English than is England itself'.2 Artist-writer Louisa Meredith certainly agreed, applying the word 'English' liberally to the landscape, to trees, flower gardens, fruit, houses, rivers, lakes and rosy-faced children. For more spectacular scenery, Meredith had recourse to the Scottish Highlands, the Gulf of Genoa and the Swiss Alps for comparisons.3
Yet visual similarity was not enough to embed the new surroundings within a cultural matrix. Irish political prisoner John Mitchel, exiled in the Midlands, was 'willing to believe that no lake on earth is more beauteous than [Lake] Sorell' and asked himself 'Why should not Lake Sorell also be famous?' Pondering on the intimate connection between the emotional appeal of Old World lakes and their celebration in poetry and story, he looked forward to the day when 'some sweet singer shall berhyme thee yet � and the glancing of thy sun-lit, moon-beloved ripples shall flash through the dreams of poets yet unborn'.4 Later travellers, surveyors and artists constructed colonial scenes in terms of European aesthetic models � the Romantic, the picturesque and the sublime.
In opposition to the focus on similarity was a fascination with novelty, beginning with the island's unique flora and fauna then spreading gradually to landforms. In 1792 Admiral Bruni d'Entrecasteaux, moored in Recherche Bay, had been charmed by his first encounter with an old-growth forest and reflected on its implicit judgment on human interference. 'Nature, in all its vigour, and at the same time in decline, offers to the imagination something more imposing and picturesque than the sight of the same nature, embellished by civilised man's industry. In wishing to conserve only its beauty man has managed to � ruin its exclusive character � the one of being always old, and always new'.5 Forty years later the Austrian Baron von Hügel was similarly over-awed by the unique tree ferns and by the experience of forest wilderness: 'The ground itself is covered with an infinite variety of mosses, small ferns and liverworts, revealing a new world to the wanderer. Here in this primeval forest, in this realm of Creation � there is an indescribable stillness and solitude. It is as if one were under a bell-jar, cut off from the outside world'.6 Van Diemen's Land was soon being ransacked for specimens to augment British collections at Kew and the Natural History Museum. Under the aegis of Sir John and Lady Franklin the struggling natural history societies were united as the Tasmanian Society, which they also supported financially. The esteem with which the Tasmanian Society and its Journal were regarded paved the way for the next governor, Sir John Eardley-Wilmot, to initiate the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land for Horticulture, Botany and the Advancement of Science, the first Royal Society for scientific studies outside Britain. Lady Franklin also instigated the colony's first botanical garden of endemic flora around the elegant building, inspired by a Greek Doric temple, that she had constructed to house Australia's first museum.
The Franklins attracted explorers, geophysicists and artists and promoted education, and the intrepid Jane Franklin insisted on accompanying her explorer husband overland through dense scrub and across flooded rivers to Macquarie Harbour. But the Franklins fell foul of colonial society. Sir John's habit of consulting his highly intelligent lady and his wife's penchant for expressing her very definite views publicly were intolerable to the factional interests of Hobart Town. Steps were taken; they were recalled.
Art also played an important role in creating a cultural context for appreciating the land, though more in retrospect than at the time. The paintings of John Glover, arguably Australia's greatest colonial landscape artist, might have given his fellow settlers an identifiable pictorial documentation of aesthetic response to this antipodean land, but unfortunately Glover knew where his market was and nearly all his work was shipped off to England. Nevertheless art flourished during the Van Diemen's Land years, from the topographical recordings of the new colony by Harris, Lycett and Costantini to the interpretative landscapes of Skinner Prout, de Wesselow, Gritten and Knut Bull and the detailed natural history art of Louisa Meredith and Mary Morton Allport.
A very different response to the land was recorded by those whose livelihood demanded a long-term involvement with the wildest parts of the island. Surveyors and track-cutters, prospectors, miners and Huon pine cutters spent exhausting months struggling to cut tracks through almost impenetrable bauera and horizontal scrub, attempting to reach the west of the island across parallel ranges separated by deep ravines with raging torrents in their beds. Although the endurance and achievements of these men were at least comparable to those of the mainland inland explorers, they remained virtually unknown and failed to receive the triumphalist celebration of the folk heroes Leichhardt, Sturt, Burke and Wills. Nevertheless, they left much the same legacy: the implication that the land was the enemy that these gallant men had to overcome � or die in the attempt. Virtually all the land now declared World Heritage was vilified as hostile, violent and treacherous.
If the land in its natural state appeared evil, it was rendered infinitely more so by the convict presence. By 1822 convicts made up 58 percent of the population and confining and controlling them became a Herculean task. Grinding punishment and terror became the instruments of threat and retribution for repeat offenders and Lt-Governor Sorell hit upon what seemed the ideal place to enact them � Macquarie Harbour. The winds and waves that batter the west coast of Tasmania have by-passed South Africa, gathering force since leaving South America. A ship trying to enter the Harbour must wait for a suitable tide to lift it across the sand bar at the narrow entrance and align its course carefully to avoid the Scylla and Charybdis of the treacherous Macquarie Heads. Yet worse, by far, awaited the convicts at the Sarah Island penal station within the Harbour. During the years of its operation (1822�33) the appalling conditions and punishments of many of the convicts and the sensational accounts propagated about the actions and fate of escapees driven to cannibalism to survive were widely circulated for their own purposes by both supporters and opponents of transportation. Even when the Penal Settlement was moved to the opposite side of the island, this reputation of endemic evil remained, in the popular imagination, associated with the west coast. Historian and abolitionist John West castigated Macquarie Harbour in terms that resonated for decades: 'Sacred to the genius of torture, Nature concurred with the objects of its separation from the rest of the world to exhibit some notion of a perfect misery. There man lost the aspect and heart of a man'.
Ironically, it was when the major site of convict incarceration moved to Port Arthur that Van Diemen's Land acquired its unique cultural mythology, anchoring it firmly in both the social fabric and the natural world. Unlike Macquarie Harbour, Port Arthur appeared not threatening but benign and beautiful, and the notion of a collusion between Nature and the systemic evil was replaced by one of macabre anomaly, an aberration that continues to disturb visitors seeing the sloping green lawns with their avenue of English trees and Tasmania's only picturesque Gothic ruin, the burnt shell of the handsome stone church. Quaker missionary Frederick Mackie wrote in 1852, 'I could not help contrasting the beauty of the outward scene with the moral wilderness and mental chaos that we knew existed here',8 and novelist Caroline Leakey, who lived there a year, described it as 'indeed a lovely spot; but alas it is a penal settlement, "where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile!"'9 Yet Lt-Governor Arthur, who devised this monument to his administration, had chosen wisely. Geographically the whole of the Tasman Peninsula is a natural prison surrounded by a shark-frequented moat, with the Forestier isthmus and the narrow Eaglehawk Neck providing a double set of 'locks' on the door, patrolled by a few soldiers and the notorious line of dogs. Of the 12,700 convicts incarcerated there over its fifty years of active life, few escaped and most who did starved in the surrounding bush.
Port Arthur acquired an international reputation as a place of ultimate cruelty and oppression, though it had been intended as a model penitentiary rather than a place of punishment; Arthur's aim was reform and by modern standards recidivism was low (25 percent). The adjacent Port Puer was established specifically to remove young offenders from the influence of hardened felons and to rehabilitate the boys by teaching them trades with which to earn an honest living on their release. It was only the second juvenile prison in the world and a landmark in prison reform. But facts counted for little against the power of the pen. Marcus Clarke's great novel His Natural Life (1870�72), with its graphic descriptions and emblematic characters, became 'history' for readers then and now. In a country where no wars have been fought on home soil except the undeclared war against the Indigenous people, Port Arthur provides the horror story we like to tell ourselves to claim a place in the tragic pantheon of world history. Its legacy produced a malaise that lingered long after the prison was closed in 1877. A name change to Carnarvon, having failed to lessen its notoriety, was revoked in the interests of attracting tourists to enjoy Gothic stories and ghost tours of the cells, for if there was one thing worse than the convict 'stain' it was poverty. From 1840 Van Diemen's Land had begun to sink into an economic depression that became more acute after 1850 when the gold rush in Victoria lured able-bodied men away from the island to make their fortune. Few returned. The 'convict stain' dyed deeper in Tasmania than in any other state because it was so widespread. By 1836, 75 percent of the population were convicts, former convicts or of convict ancestry. The subsequent fall in numbers of free immigrants meant that this ratio was slow to change.
Whatever the plight of the convicts it pales into insignificance compared with the treatment of the Indigenous Tasmanians or Palawa. The very word 'settler' falsely implies the notion of peaceful establishment and stability. Relations with the Aborigines were neither. Despite humane injunctions from Whitehall, duly transmitted by vice-regal proclamation, that the native people were to be treated with respect, they were regarded by the invaders, not as the legal owners of the land but as inconvenient relics of a primitive stage of Man. Tolerated as long as they did not hinder the spread of settlement they were, where possible, exploited. Originally hospitable, the desperate Palawa were soon driven to reprisals for the loss of their traditional hunting lands. They speared the sheep that now replaced kangaroos and thereby incited brutal retaliation by settlers and their convict shepherds, armed for the purpose. These violent measures and Arthur's 'Black Line' were followed by George Robinson's Conciliation process and exile to Flinders Island until there was only a pathetic group of 47 Palawa to be repatriated to the Tasmanian mainland in 1847. Belatedly, guilt moved the white population and the elderly and significantly childless Trucanini was declared the last of her race and feted as Queen of the Aborigines. For a century Tasmanians continued to believe that the Indigenous people were extinct, until their convenient regret was shattered by claims to Aboriginality by descendants of the women whom sealers had abducted to off-shore islands. The once-demonised original inhabitants have now been re-mythologised by writers and their presence indelibly reinscribed on their land, casting yet another shadow over the past.
Although the name Tasmania was used from the 1820s, it was not until November 1855 that the colony was officially renamed, in the hope that this would exorcise the ghosts of convictism. It failed to do so. The imagery associated with Van Diemen's Land was too deeply rooted in the history and the literary culture of the island. It lingered on as a malaise, as a sense of inferiority to 'the mainland', and few writers have been able to resist the quick and easy path to tragedy by revisiting the plight of convicts or Aborigines, if not both. The miasma associated with Van Diemen's Land was finally dissipated only 120 years after the name change by the fresh air of a new cause with a new name � Wilderness.
Ros Haynes
Footnotes:
1. David Burn, Narrative of the overland journey of Sir John and Lady Franklin and party from Hobart Town to Macquarie Harbour, 1842, ed George Mackaness, Sydney: Historical Monographs, 1955, p 38.
2. Anthony Trollope, Australia and New Zealand, 2 vols, London: Chapman and Hall, 1873, vol II, p 169.
3. Louisa Meredith, Our island home: a Tasmanian sketchbook, Hobart Town: J. Walch & Sons, 1879, pp 22, 39, 9.
4. John Mitchel, The gardens of Hell: John Mitchel in Van Diemen's Land 1850�1853, ed Peter O'Shaughnessy, Kenthurst, NSW: Kangaroo Press, 1988, pp 71�2.
5. Bruny d'Entrecasteaux, Voyage to Australia and the Pacific 1791�1793, edited and translated by Edward Duyker and Maryse Duyker, Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, 2001, p 32.
6. Baron Charles von Hügel, New Holland journal, November 1833�October 1834, translated and edited by Dymphna Clark, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press in association with the State Library of New South Wales, 1994, pp 109�110.
7. John West, The history of Tasmania, vol 1, Launceston: Henry Dowling, 1852, pp 181�2.
8. Frederick Mackie, Traveller under concern, Hobart: Reports on the Historical Manuscripts of Tasmania No 8, University of Tasmania, 1973, p 41.
9. Caroline Leakey, letter to her sister, 1841, quoted in Emily Leakey, Clear shining light : a memoir of Caroline Woolmer, London: J.F. Shaw, 1882, p 41.
Copyright 2006, Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies
| Tasmania |
Late opera singer Luciano Pavarotti was born in which Italian city? | Tasmania History | About Australia
Facts
Tasmania History
Twelve thousand years ago sea level was rising as the most recent period of global glaciation eased. The land mass now known as Tasmania was cut off and the Aboriginal people living here were isolated. They shared many traits with Australian mainland Aboriginal people but also developed physically and culturally into a distinctive population.
The Tasmanians were hunters and gatherers. They made tools and containers from wood, bone, stone, seaweed, bark, grass and sinew. They managed their environment carefully, moving around their country to harvest seasonal food resources and using fire to maintain grasslands which supported an abundance of wallabies and kangaroos.
Coastal people relied on the sea for much of their diet. Scale fish were eaten in the distant past but apparently not since about 3,500 years ago, however the women collected abalone, oysters, mussels and other shellfish. The remains of these make up enormous middens all around Tasmania’s coastline. The Tasmanians made bark canoes to travel to offshore islands to harvest muttonbirds and seals during summer and autumn. The people camped in family groups several of which formed a band, the land-holding group in Tasmanian society. Several bands spoke the same language and there were nine language groups / tribes in Tasmania at the time of European contact. Bands with reciprocal arrangements intermarried and shared resources.
By the time of European contact, the Aboriginal people in Tasmania had nine major ethnic groups. At the time of British settlement in 1803, the indigenous population was estimated at between 5,000 and 10,000 people. Through the introduction of infectious diseases to which they had no immunity, war, persecution, and intermarriage, the population dwindled to 300 by 1833. Almost all of the indigenous population was relocated to Flinders Island by George Augustus Robinson.
A woman named Truganini (1812–76) is generally recognised as the last full-blooded Tasmanian Aborigine.
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Billund Airport is in which European country? | Car rental Billund Airport | Europcar
Denmark
Car rental in Billund Airport
Navigating a whole new area on your own schedule was never easier than with a cheap car rental from Billund Airport. As soon as you arrive at Billund Airport, Denmark, you can look forward to exploring straight away. As well as having the freedom to drive to exciting new locations on a whim, you can plan day trips and excursions to nearby attractions that capture your interest.
With a simple booking system and a great selection of vehicles, Europcar is the perfect choice for your Billund Airport car rental. Book online before you go and discover a range of options; we have hourly, daily, short term, weekly, monthly and long term deals available in this location, and you can talk to us to find out which one will be best suited to your trip.
Rent a car in Billund Airport and prepare to hit the road for a whole new heap of memories
Remember to always bring your driver’s license, valid credit card and additional proof of identity (such as a passport if you are renting abroad).
Why choose Europcar in Billund Airport
Express pick-up service available
Easy 3-step online booking: search, select, book
New, comfortable rental car fleet
Award-winning car rental company
| Denmark |
Which popular board game was originally called ‘Criss Cross Words’? | Billund Airport Arrivals and Departures | Flight Information
Billund
Billund Airport
Billund-Airport is one of the medium-sized airports in Denmark. It is an international airport with more than 2.9m passengers per year (incoming, outgoing and transit). The runways are located 11 hours away from Atlanta, GA and from here the shortest possible connection is a 1 Stop Over flight. This is a Long Distance flight as defined by the European Union.
From the city center of Billund to the terminals you will need approx. 8 minutes by car, as the distance is about 3 miles. To have a look at the Billund-Airport Flight Information please check the "Arrivals & Departures" section. And if you plan to visit Denmark please keep in mind that the official currency is "Danish Crown". Just use the currency converter in the field "Money".
Airport
Passengers per Year 2,852,076 (2014)
BLL
If the button "Arrivals" is not working please
click on the following link:
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Which Asian city was previously known as Edo? | History of Tokyo (Edo) - Wa-pedia
History of Tokyo
Tokyo Imperial Palace (formerly Edo Castle).
Tokyo was initially established in 1457. The city was then known as Edo (江戸, literally "bay-entrance" ). Tokyo is therefore a new city by Eurasian standards, far more recent than most European cities and almost as recent as the first European colonies in the Americas.
The Tokugawa shōgunate was established in 1603 with Edo as its seat of government - the de facto capital of Japan, although the Emperor's residence remained in Kyoto, which had been the actual capital until that time. In September of 1868, when the shōgunate came to an end, Emperor Meiji ordered Edo to be renamed "Tokyo" (東京), meaning "Eastern Capital." The new name was meant to emphasize Tokyo's status as the new capital of Japan, both temporally and spiritually.
Tokyo has been generally accepted as the sole capital of Japan since 1869, when the Emperor took up permanent residence there. However, the capital was never legally "transferred" to Tokyo, leading some to question whether Kyōto may still be the capital, or a co-capital.
The Great Kanto earthquake struck Tokyo in 1923, killing approximately 70,000 people; a massive reconstruction plan was drawn up, but was too expensive to carry out except in part. Despite this, the city grew until the beginning of World War II. During the war, Tokyo was heavily bombed, much of the city was burned to the ground, and its population in 1945 was only half that of 1940.
Following the war, Tokyo was under military occupation and governed by the allied forces. General Douglas MacArthur established the occupation headquarters in what is now the Dai-Ichi Seimei building overlooking the Imperial Palace. The American presence in Tokyo made it an important command and logistics center during the Korean War. Tokyo still hosts a number of U.S. military bases, including Yokota Air Base.
During the 1950s and mid-1960s, Japan experienced what is widely described as the "economic miracle", which transformed the nation from wartime devastation to the world's second-largest economy by 1966. During this period, Japanese government policy placed priority on the development of infrastructure and manufacturing industries over social welfare. As a result, Japan came to dominate a range of industries including steel, ship-building, automobiles, semiconductors, and consumer electronics. Tokyo's re-emergence from wartime trauma was complete at the 1964 Summer Olympics, which publicized the city on an international stage and brought global attention to the "economic miracle".
Beginning in the 1970s, Japanese cities experienced a massive wave of expansion as laborers began migrating from rural areas, and Tokyo was one of the most dramatic examples. As it grew steadily into the economic bubble of the late 1980s, Tokyo became one of the most dynamic cities on Earth, with a tremendous range of social and economic activities, myriad restaurants and clubs, a major financial district, tremendous industrial strength, a wealth of shops, and world-class entertainment opportunities. The construction boom of the bubble years was one of the greatest in world history (as judged by the level of building expenditures in relation to the size of the economy), leading Tokyo to have an enormously more modern capital stock of buildings than similar metropolises such as London and New York City. Although the recession following the bursting of the "bubble economy" in the early 1990s hurt the city, Tokyo remains the predominant economic center of East Asia, rivaled only by Hong Kong and Singapore.
On March 20, 1995, Tokyo became the focus of international media attention in the wake of the Aum Shinrikyō cult terrorist organisation attack with Sarin nerve gas on the Tokyo subway system (in the tunnels beneath the political district of central Tokyo) in which 12 people were killed and thousands affected (see Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway).
| Tokyo |
In medicine, dystocia is difficulty in doing what? | Interesting Facts About Tokyo - Fun Facts About Tokyo
Fun & Interesting Facts about Tokyo
Tokyo is the seat of the Japanese government, home of the Emperor of Japan and is the capital of the country.
Earlier, Tokyo was a small fishing village named ‘Edo’, meaning estuary. Later, when it became the imperial capital of Japan, in 1868, its name was changed to Tokyo.
The name ‘Tokyo’ literally translates to ‘Eastern Capital’.
The 23 wards of Tokyo collectively constitute the ‘City of Tokyo’, which is one of the largest cities in the world.
Tokyo is one of the three world finance ‘command centers’, apart from New York and London.
The Greater Tokyo Area that includes Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama, is the most densely populated metropolitan area in the world.
The ‘Curse of Roppingi Hills’ in Tokyo, is one of the most talked about curses around the world. It is said that the building, Roppingi Hills, opened in 2003, and since then, a child would die under bizarre circumstances every year. Today, the building is deserted.
According to a 2010 consensus, five of the 25 world’s greatest amusement parks are located in and around Tokyo.
It is believed that there are at least one or two houses on every street that have a grisly past or a haunted mansion associated with it. Legend has it, that the best place to spot a ghost is at Komine Tunnel, where accidents are a regular occurrence and a girl in red is seen drifting from one end to another.
There are many remote islands in Tokyo, which extend as far as 1850 km from central Tokyo.
Tokyo has the largest metropolitan gross domestic product (GDP) in the whole world, for a city.
Tokyo is rated as the 3rd most livable city in the world by an International magazine.
Tokyo became the capital city of Japan in 1603 and still continues to be the capital of the country.
The heart of Tokyo and Tokyo’s army and economy were centrally hit post the Operation held at ‘Pearl Harbor’ in 1941.
Tokyo is home to many of the world's most developed investment banks and insurance companies.
Tokyo is home to some of the best themed restaurants and is home to one of the most expensive restaurants in the world called ‘Aragawa’ that specializes in Kobe Beef. A meal for one here would 35,000 Yen.
Tokyo serves as the nucleus of Japan's transportation, broadcasting and publishing industries.
Railways in Tokyo have the most extensive urban railway network in the whole world.
Tokyo was stuck by many historical tragedies, including the 1923 Kanto Earthquake, widespread devastation during World War II, the economic ‘bubble burst’ of 1989 and the 1995 nerve gas attack.
The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Tokyo as the most costly city in the whole world, for a period of 14 years, until 2006.
Popular Hollywood flicks like ‘The Fast and the Furious’, ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Lost in Translation’ have been filmed in Tokyo.
In 2009, Tokyo was named the third Most Liveable City and the World’s Most Livable Megalopolis by the magazine Monocle.
In 2012 Tokyo was named the most expensive city for expatriates, according to the Mercer and Economist Intelligence Unit cost-of-living surveys.
Tokyo, by far, has the most Michelin stars restaurants of any city in the world.
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The island of Lampedusa belongs to which European country? | Lampedusa: the Gate of Europe - OneEurope
Lampedusa: the Gate of Europe
The vibrant multicultural artistic scene of the island of Lampedusa - the positive effects of cross-cultural encounter
24 Oct 2013
| tags: Europe , Italy , integration , Culture , refugees , Lampedusa and illegal immigration
"La porta d'Europa", work of the artist Mimmo Paladino.
After the last tragic shipwreck of migrants, Europe and the rest of the world discovered the existence of the little
island
of Lampedusa .
Nowadays inhabitants of Lampedusa are called to face a big challenge: to overcome their isolated status and to open up to a likely integration process. Integration is not easy, of course, but it could be a good stimulus for Lampedusa, and lead to excellent cultural results.
But the question is: is it really possible for a “lost rock” in the middle of the sea to become a meeting point for different cultures and art expressions? Can Lampedusa become a inter-socio-cultural hub between the North and South sides of the
Mediterranean Sea
?
While the majority of Europeans consider the shipwreck on 3rd October just a single tragic episode, for all Lampedusani (the inhabitants of Lampedusa), it was an almost daily tragic event.
As a matter of facts, shipwrecks began more than ten years ago, when migration fluxes started to flood the southern area of the
Mediterranean Sea
, but in all these years nobody has really paid attention to that issue. If Italian politics were too occupied in approving a couple of discriminatory bills against immigrants, the rest of
Europe
ignored the situation, following the idea that every country should solve its own problems.
In this way, inhabitants of Lampedusa and
Sicily
have been left to solve the matter of migration by themselves, although migration is not just an Italian issue, since there are important migratory fluxes towards many other European countries.
In all Europe only Malta risks the same problems in the same way as Lampedusa. In fact, sometimes there are diplomatic incidents between
Malta
Malta
have difficulties in deciding the local competence of receiving migrants.
There are many different causes that provoke migration fluxes, but the political crisis which afflicts many countries in Africa and in the
Middle East
has worsened the situation.
It is not so easy to find working solutions for migration problems and difficulties, but history taught us that culture and education can be a positive way to make people meet and get to know each other, enriching the culture of the local area, too.
Inhabitants of Lampedusa don’t want to be regarded as “pitiful” just because of the situation in which they have been involved. But at the same time Lampedusani want to live a normal life, without forgetting those tragedies, but without fishing corpses as well.
Those sea tragedies sensitized different artists and creative people, who felt the necessity to express themselves and create something for the inhabitants of the island, stimulating people of different cultures to accept and integrate each other. For this reason the little
island
of
Lampedusa
could take advantage of the mass migration and its positive consequences to become a good example for the rest of
Europe
.
But before continuing with the article, it would be better to give some information about Lampedusa.
The Italian Island is the largest one of the Pelagies, an archipelago in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea (very close to Malta) and it belongs to the Autonomous Region of Sicily (province of Agrigento).
Lampedusa is the town hall of its municipality, which includes all the three islands of the archipelago (for a total of 6.304 inhabitants).
This archipelago is closer to the African coasts rather than to the Italian ones.
Distances: Lampedusa-Tunisia:
127 km
.
In the last years the culture sector has been increasingly developed in Lampedusa, creating events, founding institutions, promoting works of art. All of them have been created with the same aim: to enrich the culture of the island, supporting immigrants and local inhabitants.
Askavusa: Cultural Centre and Migration Museum
Askavusa is a socio-cultural association founded in March 2009. It was created with the purpose of promoting and fostering social and cultural activities contributing to develop a collective identity.
The association aims to promote anti-racism and multiculturalism, contributing to increase the cultural and civic sense of the community. During the year 2011 Askavusa decided to provide a space where migrants could find what they were missing in the immigrants shelter: a shower, a meal, clean clothes, and legal advises.
The association also manages a little museum, in which are collected many peculiar objects abandoned by migrants in their ships, once arrived at Lampedusa.
In addition, Askavusa organizes some events, such as Lampedusa Infestival.
Lampedusa Infestival is a short film festival (fiction, documentary or video clips of maximum 45') which takes place in July. The slogan of the event is: Encounter With the Other, reflecting an emphasis on stories of travel and integration. In 2011 and in 2012 the event received the Medal of Honor by the President of the
Italian
Republic
and was selected in 2012 by UNAR (the Italian national antiracist office) as good practice against racism.
The Festival is a competition for filmmakers from all over the world and has as its main theme the migrations of both humans and animals. The aim is to highlight these film travel and life stories through various initiatives, but not exclusively contemporary event. The competition section dedicated to migration, is enriched by a second one, which is subjected to changes every year.
One feature that makes this festival very special, is the fact that the organizers (scattered throughout Italy, London and Brussels) develop together the planning stage of the event almost entirely through Skype conferences. The event is also self-financed and carried out by Italians and foreigners volunteers.
O’Scià is a music festival conceived by the Italian singer Claudio Baglioni in 2003 and it is performed every year in September.
The title of the event is given by a word of the local dialect, O’Scià, which means “my breath” and which is used by the inhabitants of the island as a friendly greeting.
The event was born as a form of awareness about the problem of illegal immigration.
In this festival are involved many famous Italian and foreigners singer and songwriters.
Since 2004, thanks to the growing success of the event both in terms of audience participant of media attention, O’Scià has obtained important institutional awards, becoming one of the most interesting art exhibitions with social purposes in Europe.
This festival has been sponsored by the European Commission and received support from many international organizations such as the United Nations, the High Commissioner for Refugees and Amnesty International.
From the fifth edition, the event became a traveling festival, being performed also in other Mediterranean countries. In 2007 it was the turn of Malta in a concert held at the port of Valletta with the participation of Italian and Maltese artists.
The intentions of the organizers is to stage the festival also in Spain, in Morocco and in Libya, but economical and political crisis don’t simplify its production.
Furthermore the idea is to involve all the people of the Mediterranean area in a sort of permanent and traveling "forum", a meeting in which music and art could help to promote respect for human rights, civil coexistence and values of integration.
Vento del Nord – North Wind
Vento del Nord is a festival of cinema, comedy and literature, which shows newest released films and the most recent documentaries dedicated to the Sicilian cinema with a special attention to movies based on literature.
The show takes place every year in Lampedusa in August and it is conceived and organized by the Italian actor Massimo Ciavarro.
Apart from the Sicilian section, North Wind aims to be a rendez-vous of movies and literatures between the North and the South coasts of the Mediterranean Sea.
For this reason every year there is a selection of international films in which it is possible to recognize the contrast between different cultures, landscapes and ideas.
In addition, there is also a special section dedicated to the geographical North area of the world, and an important attention is given to the short films created by the students of Lampedusa, who are invited to take part in a competition named La mia isola (My island).
Italia di notte (Italy by Night) is another section of the Festival, and it is a selection of seven Italian films of the previous season, chosen among most important success.
This last section is really appreciated by the inhabitants of Lampedusa, since the island is devoid of a movie theater from many years.
Porta d’Europa – Gate of
Europe
This monument was inaugurated on June 28th 2008 and was dedicated to the memory of migrants who lost their lives in the
Mediterranean Sea
.
This gate was placed on a cliff exposed to the sea because Lampedusa is seen by many immigrants as the gate of
Europe
.
The artist is the Italian Domenico Palladino and it consists of a building of almost five meters high and three meters wide, made of refractory ceramic.
According to the artist: the fundamental sense of this work is to bring to memory the last twenty years in which we have seen thousands of migrants dying at sea, in an inhumane way, in an attempt to reach Europe, a massacre without witnesses, often without burial, and therefore without pity. The intent is to deliver this tragedy to next generations. A symbol that helps us not to forget, but it is also a place for reflection.
This monument has received the patronage of the United Nations, the High Commissioner for Refugees, the Italian Ministry of Interior and the Region of Sicily.
Edited by: Celeste Concari
| Italy |
What was the name of Jim Carrey’s pet Jack Russell Terrier in the 1994 film ‘The Mask’? | Migrants From African Unrest Land In Italy : NPR
Tunisian immigrants stand in front of a detention center on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Feb. 14. Roberto Salomone /AFP/Getty Images hide caption
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Roberto Salomone /AFP/Getty Images
Tunisian immigrants stand in front of a detention center on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Feb. 14.
Roberto Salomone /AFP/Getty Images
The uprisings in North African countries are creating newly freed societies, but they are also triggering an exodus of people hoping to find greater stability and employment in Europe.
In just a few days, 5,000 Tunisians have landed on Lampedusa, a small Italian island in the Mediterranean that normally has a population of just 6,000. The onslaught is challenging Italy and the rest of Europe to cope with this new migratory wave.
Lampedusa is a tiny, flat island dotted with prickly pear cactus and sandy beaches.
It's closer to Africa than to the Italian mainland, and over the last decade it has become accustomed to receiving waves of boat people seeking better lives in Europe.
The latest to arrive are mostly young men.
Chakar Awadi, 28, says all he's seeking is freedom and honest work, either here or in France or Belgium. His sea passage was very dangerous, he says, with 75 people packed into a rickety boat for three days at sea.
When asked what he'll do if Italian authorities send him back home, he says he'll hang himself.
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A banner that translates as "Thank you, Lampedusa," hangs from a fence after some of the new arrivals from Tunisian marched it through town on Feb. 16. Sylvia Poggioli/NPR hide caption
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Sylvia Poggioli/NPR
A banner that translates as "Thank you, Lampedusa," hangs from a fence after some of the new arrivals from Tunisian marched it through town on Feb. 16.
Sylvia Poggioli/NPR
Avoiding Human Traffickers
These migrants are determined and well-organized. Many of them pooled their resources and bought their own vessel rather than pay human traffickers for the journey.
Many have already been flown to other reception centers in Sicily, but nearly 2,000 are still on Lampedusa — and local authorities allow them to move freely around the island.
They have cell phones and are in constant contact with their homeland.
They seem to have money — at least enough for a few days — and can been seen shopping in supermarkets and sipping coffee at local cafes.
At night, many are packed into the Lampedusa holding center.
"We Tunisians have no confidence in the new government," says Emin, a 20-year-old with a bushy beard who only gives his first name. "They are people who belong to the regime of the former president Ben Ali. They talk democracy but it's just blah, blah, blah."
So far, the population of Lampedusa has welcomed the latest influx of migrants. The island is only 60 miles off the Tunisian coast and has a long tradition of commerce and contacts with the North African country.
On Tuesday, there was a friendly soccer match between local youths and some of the new arrivals — many of whom marched through town with a banner with words "Grazie Lampedusa" — Thank you, Lampedusa.
The island's mayor, Bernardino De Rubeis, stresses that the situation is calm but fragile. He even follows follows weather forecasts closely.
"Potentially there is an entire nation that wants to flee Tunisian territory and come to Lampedusa," De Rubeis says. "I worry that as soon as the weather clears and the seas are calm, we will be overwhelmed by an even bigger onslaught."
Some Italian government officials estimate that the Tunisian influx could reach 70,000. There is concern the exodus could spread even farther. Unrest has broken out in Libya — and nearly 100 Egyptians landed on Sicilian shores in the last two days.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini announced an agreement with Tunisia under which Italy will provide its troops with sophisticated radar equipment and fast boats to intercept migrant vessels.
Italy has also urged a broader Europe-wide response to the crisis on its borders. But both France and Germany have made clear they don't want to take in any of the new migrants.
"Europe also has to take responsibility for change: It means also coping with these situations and not just raising tensions of possible invasions of North Africans," says Laura Boldrini, a spokesperson for UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.
But as the political map of Africa changes fast — creating newly free societies — Europe faces a bind. It has welcomed the end of dictatorships, but it's also trying to raise the drawbridge against a widening wave of migrants.
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What is the name of the Tropic which lies approximately 23.5 degrees south of the Equator and runs through Australia, Chile, Brazil and South Africa? | The Equator, Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn
By Matt Rosenberg
Updated August 31, 2016.
Three of the most significant imaginary lines running across the surface of the Earth are the equator, the Tropic of Cancer, and the Tropic of Capricorn. While the equator is the longest line of latitude on the Earth (the line where the Earth is widest in an east-west direction), the tropics are based on the sun's position in relation to the Earth at two points of the year. All three lines of latitude are significant in their relationship between the Earth and the sun.
The Equator
The equator is located at zero degrees latitude . The equator runs through Indonesia, Ecuador, northern Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo , and Kenya, among other countries . It is 24,901.55 miles (40,075.16 kilometers) long. On the equator, the sun is directly overhead at noon on the two equinoxes - near March and September 21. The equator divides the planet into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. On the equator, the length of day and night are equal every day of the year - day is always twelve hours long and night is always twelve hours long.
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Overview of the Four Seasons
The Tropic of Cancer and The Tropic of Capricorn
The Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn each lie at 23.5 degrees latitude. The Tropic of Cancer is located at 23.5° North of the equator and runs through Mexico, the Bahamas, Egypt, Saudi Arabia , India, and southern China. The Tropic of Capricorn lies at 23.5° South of the equator and runs through Australia, Chile, southern Brazil (Brazil is the only country that passes through both the equator and a tropic), and northern South Africa .
The tropics are the two lines where the sun is directly overhead at noon on the two solstices - near June and December 21. The sun is directly overhead at noon on the Tropic of Cancer on June 21 (the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of winter in the Southern Hemisphere) and the sun is directly overhead at noon on the Tropic of Capricorn on December 21 (the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of summer in the Southern Hemisphere).
The reason for the location of the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn at 23.5° north and south respectively is due to the axial tilt of the Earth. The Earth is titled 23.5 degrees from the plane of the Earth's revolution around the sun each year.
The area bounded by the Tropic of Cancer on the north and Tropic of Capricorn on the south is known as the "tropics." This area does not experience seasons because the sun is always high in the sky. Only higher latitudes, north of the Tropic of Cancer and south of the Tropic of Capricorn, experience significant seasonal variation in climate. Realize, however, that areas in the tropics can be cold. The peak of Mauna Kea on the big island of Hawaii stands nearly 14,000 feet above sea level, and snow is not unusual.
If you live north of the Tropic of Cancer or south of the Tropic of Capricorn, the sun will never be directly overhead. In the United States, for example, Hawaii is the only location in the country that is south of the Tropic of Cancer, and it is thus the only location in the United States where the sun will be directly overhead in the summer..
Prime Meridian
While the equator divides the Earth into Northern and Southern Hemispheres , it is the Prime Meridian at zero degrees longitude and the line of longitude opposite the Prime Meridian (near the International Date Line ) at 180 degrees longitude that divides the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres . The Eastern Hemisphere consists of Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia while the Western Hemisphere includes North and South America . Some geographers place the boundaries between the hemispheres at 20° West and 160° East so as to not run through Europe and Africa. Unlike the equator and the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, the Prime Meridian and all lines of longitude are completely imaginary lines and have no significance with regard to the Earth or to its relationship with the sun.
| Tropic of Capricorn |
Who was the original presenter of the UK tv show ‘Never Mind the Buzzcocks’? | The Seasons, the Equinox, and the Solstices
The Seasons, the Equinox, and the Solstices
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The Equinox (Vernal & Autumnal)
There are only two times of the year when the Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in a "nearly" equal amount of daylight and darkness at all latitudes. These events are referred to as Equinoxes.The word equinox is derived from two Latin words - aequus (equal) and nox (night). At the equator, the sun is directly overhead at noon on these two equinoxes. The "nearly" equal hours of day and night is due to refraction of sunlight or a bending of the light's rays that causes the sun to appear above the horizon when the actual position of the sun is below the horizon. Additionally, the days become a little longer at the higher latitudes (those at a distance from the equator) because it takes the sun longer to rise and set. Therefore, on the equinox and for several days before and after the equinox, the length of day will range from about 12 hours and six and one-half minutes at the equator, to 12 hours and 8 minutes at 30 degrees latitude, to 12 hours and 16 minutes at 60 degrees latitude.
The Solstices (Summer & Winter)
The summer solstice occurs at the moment the earth's tilt toward from the sun is at a maximum. Therefore, on the day of the summer solstice, the sun appears at its highest elevation with a noontime position that changes very little for several days before and after the summer solstice. The summer solstice occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer, which is located at 23.5° latitude North, and runs through Mexico, the Bahamas, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, and southern China. For every place north of the Tropic of Cancer, the sun is at its highest point in the sky and this is the longest day of the year.
The winter solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, it occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, which is located at 23.5° south of the equator and runs through Australia, Chile, southern Brazil, and northern South Africa.
For a complete listing of the dates of the winter and summer solstice's and spring and fall equinox's through 2025, check out this site from the U.S. Naval Observatory.
The Seasons
We all know that the Earth makes a complete revolution around the sun once every 365 days, following an orbit that is elliptical in shape. This means that the distance between the Earth and Sun, which is 93 million miles on average, varies throughout the year. During the first week in January, the Earth is about 1.6 million miles closer to the sun. This is referred to as the perihelion. The aphelion, or the point at which the Earth is about 1.6 million miles farther away from the sun, occurs during the first week in July. This fact may sound counter to what we know about seasons in the Northern Hemisphere, but actually the difference is not significant in terms of climate and is NOT the reason why we have seasons. Seasons are caused by the fact that the Earth is tilted on its axis by 23.5°. The tilt's orientation with respect to space does not change during the year; thus, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the sun in June and away from the sun in December, as illustrated in the graphic below.
The Relationship Between Length of Day and Temperature
There is a lag between the longest day of the year and the warmest average temperatures for most mid and high latitude locations.
In northern OH/northwest PA, the maximum daily temperature occurs nearly 3 weeks later in mid July. Just as the warmest part of the day usually occurs several hours after noon, when the sun is highest in the sky, so too does the warmest part of the summer lags the summer solstice. This lag is due to the time required for ground and water to heat up. Average temperatures continue to climb until the sun drops lower in the sky. While the effect is evident in a daily temperature plot, it is more readily apparent by looking at changes in the monthly average temperature. In Cleveland, July averages 3.3°F degrees higher than June, with August also warmer than June by 2.8°F, even though the length of days in August is considerably less than the length of days in June.
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Apart from the moon, which planet in our solar system is the brightest natural object in the night sky? | The Most Extreme Skywatching Objects in Night Sky
Credit: George Tucker
Extreme Night Sky Targets
The night sky is full of uncountable wonders, as any dedicated stargazer knows. Here's a brief rundown of some of the most extreme night sky sights, from the brightest planet to the most distant object detectable with the naked eye.
FIRST STOP: The Brightest Planet
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Credit: Cory Poole
The Brightest Planet
Earth's hellishly hot "sister planet," Venus , takes this title because of its highly reflective clouds and proximity to Earth. It's about six times more luminous than the runners-up, Mars and Jupiter.
Venus is brighter than pretty much any object in our sky apart from the sun and moon, shining at a maximum apparent magnitude of -5 or so. For comparison, the full moon blazes at magnitude -13, making it roughly 1,600 times brighter than Venus. (In astronomy, lower magnitudes signify brighter objects.) [ Amazing Photos of Venus and the Moon ]
NEXT: The Largest Star
Credit: NASA, ESA, and R. Humphreys (University of Minnesota)
The Largest Star
The largest known star is probably VY Canis Majoris, a red M-type star that lies about 3,800 light-years from Earth in the constellation Canis Major, The Big Dog.
Researchers estimate that VY Canis Majoris could be more than 2,100 times the size of the sun. If placed in our solar system, the monster star's surface would thus extend out past the orbit of Saturn. But VY Canis Majoris may not even have a discernible surface, since the star appears to be about 1,000 times less dense than Earth's atmosphere at sea level.
VY Canis Majoris is the source of considerable controversy, since the estimates of its size fall outside the bounds of current stellar theory. Astronomers think VY Canis Majoris will die in a "hypernova" explosion sometime within the next 100,000 years, producing a burst of energy substantially higher than that generated by typical supernovas.
NEXT: The Brightest Star
Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Bond (STScI), and M. Barstow (University of Leicester)
The Brightest Star
In 1997, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope identified what may be the most luminous star known — a celestial mammoth 25,000 light-years away that releases up to 10 million times the energy of the sun and is big enough to fill the diameter of Earth's orbit.
Researchers have suggested that this powerhouse star — found in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius — also created a surrounding cloud of glowing gas that has been dubbed the Pistol Nebula. As such, it's called the "Pistol Star."
Unfortunately, this amazing star is not visible to skywatchers here on Earth; it's hidden behind the great dust clouds along the Milky Way. The brightest visible star is currently Sirius, the Dog Star, which is found in the constellation Canis Major. Sirius shines with an apparent magnitude of -1.44. [ More on the Pistol Star ]
NEXT: Most Colorful Star
Credit: Francesco Malafarina
The Most Colorful Star
Many stars are known for their beautiful colors, such as the double star Albireo (blue and orange) and Antares (fiery red). But the most colorful of all stars visible to the naked eye may be the reddish-orange Mu Cephei, which is sometimes known as Erakis.
The red giant Mu Cephei — dubbed "The Garnet Star" by famed British astronomer William Herschel — resides in the constellation Cepheus (The King). Mu Cephei is a pulsating variable star and cycles from a maximum magnitude of 3.7 down to about 5.0 before brightening back up again.
And the star's color can vary, too. Most of the time, Mu Cephei appears a deep orange-red, but on occasion it has seemed to take on a weird purplish tint. While The Garnet Star is slightly dim, its ruddy cast is apparent even to the unaided eye on a dark night, and it’s stunning in good binoculars.
NEXT: Most Distant Naked-Eye Object
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Credit: Johannes Gligoris
Most Distant Naked-Eye Object
This superlative goes to the Andromeda galaxy , a collection of 400 billion stars that was spotted as early as the 10th century by Persian astronomer Al Sufi. He described it as a "little cloud."
Even through binoculars or backyard telescopes, Andromeda still looks like little more than an elongated fuzzy patch. But that's still plenty impressive, considering that the galaxy is 2.5 million light-years from Earth.
But it's getting closer. Astronomers estimate that Andromeda and our own Milky Way will merge about four billion years from now, bringing the once-distant galaxy into spectacular view for any skywatchers still around to look up. [ Gallery: Andromeda's Crash with Milky Way ]
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| Venus |
Daisy, Rose and Violet are fictional sisters in which UK tv comedy series? | What makes Venus the brightest planet? | Science Wire | EarthSky
What makes Venus the brightest planet?
By EarthSky in Science Wire | Space | July 8, 2015
Venus is bright because it’s nearby, because it’s blanketed in highly reflective clouds and because of its location in orbit with respect to Earth now.
View larger. | Venus and Jupiter (with moons) on June 30, 2015 by Geraint Smith in Taos, New Mexico.
Venus is much brighter than any other planet viewed in Earth’s sky. It’s the third-brightest object in the sky, after the sun and moon, and right now it’s at another time of greatest brilliancy on July 9-10, 2015. Look for Venus now in the west after sunset. It’s near another very bright planet – but not as bright as Venus. The other planet is Jupiter. Click the links below to learn more about why Venus is so bright and how to see it as its brightest:
When will Venus be at its brightest for 2015?
Venus (below) and Jupiter in conjunction on June 30, 2015, as captured by Mohamad Fadzli in Melaka, Malaysia. Jupiter is our solar system’s largest planet, but, in our sky, Venus appears brighter.
Why is Venus bright? As the planet next-inward from Earth in orbit around the sun, Venus is relatively nearby. But it’s nearness isn’t the only reason Venus is bright. Consider that Mars orbits one step outward from Earth. And Mars waxes and wanes in brightness in our sky. It’s only exceptionally bright around the time Earth passes between Mars and the sun, when the Red Planet is at its closest to us.
With Venus, something else is going on. Astronomers use the term albedo to describe how bright a planet is in absolute terms. When sunlight strikes a planet, some of the light is absorbed by the planet’s surface or atmosphere – and some is reflected. Albedo is a comparison between how much light strikes an object – and how much is reflected.
Venus has the highest albedo of any major planet in our solar system. Its albedo is close to .7, meaning it reflects about 70 percent of the sunlight striking it. When the moon is close to full in Earth’s sky, it can look a lot brighter than Venus, but the moon reflects only about 10 percent of the light that hits it. The moon’s low albedo is due to the fact that our companion world is made of dark volcanic rock. It appears bright to us only because of its nearness to Earth. It’s only about a light-second away, in contrast for several light-minutes for Venus.
Venus is bright (it has a high albedo) because it’s blanketed by highly reflective clouds. The clouds in the atmosphere of Venus contain droplets of sulfuric acid, as well as acidic crystals suspended in a mixture of gases. Light bounces easily off the smooth surfaces of these spheres and crystals. Sunlight bouncing from these clouds is a big part of the reason that Venus is so bright.
By the way, Venus isn’t the most reflective body in our solar system. That honor goes to Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. Its icy surface reflects some 90% of the sunlight striking it.
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Telescopic view of daytime Venus (l) and moon via NASA. Notice that Venus appears as a crescent.
When is Venus at its brightest for 2015? Right now! Look for Venus in the west after sunset, and you’ll see what we mean.
We mentioned above that Mars is brightest when Earth passes between the Red Planet and the sun. At such times, Mars is closest to us, and so it appears brightest in our sky. A similar situation occurs for Venus: the planet is brightest around the time Venus passes between us and the sun, but not exactly at that time.
Because Venus orbits the sun inside Earth’s orbit, when it goes between us and the sun it’s lighted hemisphere, or day side, is facing away from us. At such times, it’s difficult or impossible to see Venus at all.
Because it’s an inner planet, as Venus approaches its time of passing between the Earth and sun, we see the planet exhibit phases, like a tiny moon. As Venus draws up behind Earth in orbit – and prepares to “lap” us in the race of the planets – observers on Earth can watch as the phase of Venus wanes. Meanwhile, as the crescent Venus in waning in phase, the overall size of the disk of Venus gets larger in Earth’s sky, as Venus draws closer to us and prepares to go between us and the sun.
Venus is brightest when those two factors combine – waning crescent, plus largest overall size of Venus’ disk – so that the greatest amount of surface area of Venus shows in our sky. Astronomers call this greatest illuminated extent.
For 2015:
Venus greatest illuminated extent in evening sky: July 9-10, 2015
Venus greatest illuminated extent (in morning sky) September 21, 2015
Bottom line: Venus is very bright. It’s the third-brightest object in the sky, after the sun and moon. That’s partly because sunlight is easily reflected by acidic clouds in the atmosphere of Venus. This planet is brightest around the time it passes between us and the sun. In 2015, its times of greatest brilliancy for Venus occur around July 10 and September 21.
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Aquae Sulis was the Roman name for which English city? | City of Bath : the Roman city of aquae sulis. (Book, 1988) [WorldCat.org]
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I thought you might be interested in this item at http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/19922033 Title: City of Bath : the Roman city of aquae sulis. Author: Jane Wilton-Smith Publisher: Pitkin, ©1988. ISBN/ISSN: 0853724385 9780853724384 OCLC:19922033
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| Bath |
Balestra, Derobement and Florentine are terms used in which sport? | Aquae Sulis | Definition, meaning & more | Collins Dictionary
the Roman name for Bath
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
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Who wrote the short story ‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner’? | The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner | film by Richardson [1962] | Britannica.com
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
film by Richardson [1962]
The Wizard of Oz
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, British film drama, released in 1962, that was directed by Tony Richardson and featured the impressive screen debut of Tom Courtenay.
Courtenay played Colin Smith, a troubled young man sent to a reform school after he robs a bakery. A gifted runner, he is chosen to represent the institution in a key long-distance race against a prestigious school. Much of the story is told in flashback and inner monologue, revealing the thoughts of the young man as he struggles with his identity while incessantly practicing in preparation for the big race. The finale finds him enacting a startling gesture of defiance: he stops near the finish line and lets the other runners pass.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner was based on a short story by Alan Sillitoe , who also wrote the screenplay. It is a notable example of the “Angry Young Men” films that were popular in British cinema after World War II.
Production notes and credits
Director and producer: Tony Richardson
Writer: Alan Sillitoe
The British film drama The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) was directed by Tony Richardson. The movie featured the impressive screen debut of Tom Courtenay.
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| Alan Sillitoe |
Which playing card is known as ‘Big Casino’? | The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Writer | Maine Crime Writers
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Writer
Posted on August 31, 2011 by MCWriTers
By James Hayman
One of my favorite films from the 60’s is Tony Richardson’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner starring a very young Tom Courtenay. The film is based on a short story by Alan Sillitoe who also wrote the screenplay. It tells the story of a rebellious young man from England who is arrested for robbing a bakery and is sent to a boys reformatory or a borstal as the Brits call it. While there he discovers that he has a gift for long-distance running and much of the film is about how his lonely reveries while running mile after mile, ultimately shape and change his life.
In my view the film provides an excellent metaphor for the craft of writing.
Writing is a solitary, if not anti-social, pursuit. It’s something you must do alone. If the piece you’re writing happens to be a three or four hundred page novel you have to plan on being alone for incredibly long stretches of time. If you crave or need constant or even frequent attention and interaction with other people, the best advice anyone can give you about writing a novel is don’t.
The single line I remember most clearly from Annie Dillard’s excellent memoir The Writing Life, (which I read several years ago) is her response to a reader’s question about what makes the ideal writing space.
Dillard, at the time, lived in a beautiful house overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Washington and this reader no doubt was expecting Dillard to describe a cozy, book-filled study with endless views of endless waves lapping against the magnificent coastline. Instead she said that the ideal writing room, at least for her, was a cinderblock cell devoid of books, telephone, television and even windows through which she could catch a glimpse of the outside world.
Like Dillard, I’m lucky enough to live in a beautiful house overlooking the ocean on Peaks Island. My designated writing room is a small, admittedly book-lined room on the second floor of my house and it boasts one of the prettiest views anyone could ever imagine of Casco Bay and the islands stretching out in the distance. When I write I close the shades and shut it all out. I also turn off the telephone and disconnect myself from the Internet.
Even writers who prefer writing in crowded places, coffee shops for example, or libraries (where I often write) or while riding on trains or planes, essentially have to be alone inside their own minds and imaginations while they craft their pieces. Their only company are the characters who people their stories (whom I sometimes describe as my imaginary friends). The only interesting conversations they get to engage in are the dialogue exchanges they put in their characters’ mouths. The only beautiful views, or views of any sort, they can enjoy are the ones gazed on by the characters in their tales.
All of this makes me, if not other writers, something of a curmudgeon. When my wife gently knocks on my door, usually to ask me a civil and often necessary question, my typical response is a low dangerous growl. Cujo in spectacles.
I am currently on deadline to finish my third suspense novel and so I spend all my working time by myself. I’ll be happy when the book is finally finished. So, I daresay, will my wife and any friends I still have left, those who I haven’t totally driven away.
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Who was TV puppet Lenny the Lion’s human partner? | The Lenny the Lion Show (TV Series 1957–1961) - IMDb
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17 January 2017 8:05 PM, UTC
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Title: The Lenny the Lion Show (1957–1961)
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What - doesn't anyone remember Lenny The Lion? Shame on you.
Well now; Lenny The Lion and his partner Terry Hall were amongst the most popular characters of early British children's television. They appeared around the time that Sooty began to make good, and would seem to have been presented as an alternative.
In fact, Lenny was much more of a character because - unlike Harry Corbett - Lenny's partner, Terry Hall, was a ventriloquist. And he gave Lenny a very identifiable and quirky voice as well as an interesting and humorous personality. Lenny was a big puppet - an armful - with a hand and a movable face, eyes and lower jaw. In short, there was a great deal more entailed in his act compared to the silent glove-puppet of Sooty and the rabid squeaking of Sweep.
At his peak, Lenny had his own show with variety guest appearances on prime-time kids' telly, but he doesn't seem to have lasted. Ceertainly he hasn't been anything like as enduring as Sooty & Sweep. And for the life of me I cannot think why? After the show he continued to make many guest appearances before being relegated to the pantomime circuit.
It wasn't fair, but I guess that's showbiz. Late 50's early 60's saw a lot of ventriloquist acts come and go. Comic impersonators seemed to banish them all by the 1970's.
But in 1957 Lenny was certainly worth the Lion's share in Puppetry and ventriloquism. What a pity he's just faded into obscurity.
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| Terry Hall |
Ricin is a highly toxic protein obtained from the pressed beans of which plant? | Terry Hall | British ventriloquist | Britannica.com
British ventriloquist
Originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year. Presented as archival content.
Alternative Title: Terence Hall
Coventry , England
Terry Hall (Terence Hall), (born Nov. 20, 1926 , Oldham , Lancashire, Eng.—died April 4, 2007 , Coventry , West Midlands , Eng.), British ventriloquist who charmed British audiences for more than 20 years with his bashful “sidekick,” Lenny the Lion, whose shy demeanour, falsetto voice , and endearing inability to pronounce the letter r delighted children with such television programs as The Lenny the Lion Show (1957), Lenny’s Den (1959–61), and Pops and Lenny (1962–63). The latter famously featured an early performance by the Beatles. Hall, a highly skilled ventriloquist, was one of the first to use an animal puppet rather than a human dummy. In 1958 he and the easily “embawassed” Lenny made a guest appearance on the American Ed Sullivan Show. Hall also wrote educational storybooks, many of which were later featured on Reading with Lenny (1977–80).
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Date Published: May 30, 2007
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What is the name of the prospector in the 1999 animated film ‘Toy Story 2’? | Toy Story 2 (1999) - IMDb
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When Woody is stolen by a toy collector, Buzz and his friends vow to rescue him, but Woody finds the idea of immortality in a museum tempting.
Directors:
John Lasseter (original story by), Pete Docter (original story by) | 6 more credits »
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Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 20 wins & 28 nominations. See more awards »
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The toys are mistakenly delivered to a day-care center instead of the attic right before Andy leaves for college, and it's up to Woody to convince the other toys that they weren't abandoned and to return home.
Director: Lee Unkrich
A cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman figure supplants him as top toy in a boy's room.
Director: John Lasseter
After his swamp is filled with magical creatures, Shrek agrees to rescue Princess Fiona for a villainous lord in order to get his land back.
Directors: Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson
Stars: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz
A family of undercover superheroes, while trying to live the quiet suburban life, are forced into action to save the world.
Director: Brad Bird
A rat who can cook makes an unusual alliance with a young kitchen worker at a famous restaurant.
Directors: Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava
Stars: Brad Garrett, Lou Romano, Patton Oswalt
Directors: Pete Docter, David Silverman, and 1 more credit »
Stars: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Mary Gibbs
Directors: Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, and 1 more credit »
Stars: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz
A hot-shot race-car named Lightning McQueen gets waylaid in Radiator Springs, where he finds the true meaning of friendship and family.
Directors: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft
Stars: Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Paul Newman
Set during the Ice Age, a sabertooth tiger, a sloth, and a wooly mammoth find a lost human infant, and they try to return him to his tribe.
Directors: Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha
Stars: Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Ray Romano
Spoiled by their upbringing and unaware of what wildlife really is, four animals from the New York Central Zoo escape, unwittingly assisted by four absconding penguins, and find themselves in Madagascar.
Directors: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath
Stars: Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer
After his son is captured in the Great Barrier Reef and taken to Sydney, a timid clownfish sets out on a journey to bring him home.
Directors: Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich
Stars: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould
When a criminal mastermind uses a trio of orphan girls as pawns for a grand scheme, he finds their love is profoundly changing him for the better.
Directors: Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud
Stars: Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand
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Storyline
While Andy is away at summer camp Woody has been toynapped by Al McWiggin, a greedy collector and proprietor of "Al's Toy Barn"! In this all-out rescue mission, Buzz and his friends Mr. Potato Head, Slinky Dog, Rex and Hamm springs into action to rescue Woody from winding up as a museum piece. They must find a way to save him before he gets sold in Japan forever and they'll never see him again! Written by Anthony Pereyra <[email protected]>
The toys are back! See more »
Genres:
24 November 1999 (USA) See more »
Also Known As:
Toy Story 2 in 3-D See more »
Filming Locations:
$57,388,839 (USA) (26 November 1999)
Gross:
Did You Know?
Trivia
Consistent with Al's love for cheese puffs, not only does Al fall asleep eating cheese puffs, but there is a cheese puff in his hand bag shown when he steals Woody. See more »
Goofs
We see Zurg break out of his package as the toys leave the store. As the first confrontation with Buzz#2 states, all rangers are required to be in hyper-sleep for transfer, making it entirely possible that the toys can, in fact, move and be alive while inside their original packaging, therefore making it possible for Zurg to get free and also may be why Stinky Pete could move around if his box had indeed never been open. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Buzz Lightyear : [landing on Zurg's planet in the Buzz Lightyear Video Game] Buzz Lightyear to mission log: All signs point to this planet as location of Zurg's fortress, but there seems to be no signs of intelligent life anywhere...
Starting December 25th, there are "bloopers" running over the credits. See more »
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(New Hope, MN) – See all my reviews
I thought the original Toy Story was great. I went to this movie hardly knowing anything about it. Toy Story 2 exceeded my expectations; it's better than the original Toy Story. This movie works on two levels. It's aimed at younger kids, who will love the wackiness of the characters and the situations they find themselves in, though some of the jokes might sail over their heads (but they'll laugh anyway). It's also aimed at adults, who, when I saw it, laughed louder than the kids at some points. The voice work is excellent, especially Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, reprising their roles from the original. The supporting toys (Mr. Potato Head, Slinky Dog, et al.) have much bigger roles this time around.
This movie has everything: Andy's new dog Buster; two dueling Buzz Lightyears; partying Barbie dolls; three 3-eyed aliens from the original; even the Evil Emperor Zurg! I can't emphasize enough how great this movie is and I highly recommend it for kids and adults.
10/10
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How many points is a ‘Try’ worth in a game of rugby union? | Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue! (PS1 Gameplay) - YouTube
Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue! (PS1 Gameplay)
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Published on Jun 29, 2012
Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue is a platformer developed by British video game developer Traveller's Tales, based on Pixar's computer animated movie Toy Story 2 and is the sequel to the first game. It was released for the Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Dreamcast, and Windows 95/98/ME PC in 1999 and 2000. A different version of the game was released for the Game Boy Color. A sequel to the game was released 11 years later based on the third film.
The player controls Buzz Lightyear as he tries to locate and rescue Woody after he is kidnapped by Al McWhiggin, the owner of Al's Toy Barn. He can execute a jump and a double jump, as well as two attacks: his wrist laser and his spin attack using his pop-out wing tips, both of which can be charged. In addition, there are 5 power-ups that can be unlocked to help Buzz complete certain tasks. Most of the voice cast from the film returned to voice their characters in the game with the exception of Wallace Shawn who did not reprise the role as Rex (being voiced instead by Earl Boen). The game starts out at Andy's house, as Al just kidnapped Sheriff Woody. Buzz Lightyear Hamm, Rex, Slinky and Mr. Potato Head head to find and rescue Woody from Al, and enter the neighborhood, eventually moving to a construction yard and eventually Al's Toy Barn. They end up an airport, where Buzz has a final battle with Stinky Pete. Hamm and Rex are with you each level, and Slinky and Mr. Potato Head appear in multiple levels, to give you tips and bonuses. Other characters including Rocky Gibraltar, Bo Peep, Jessie and Bullseye will also need your assistance.
There are fifteen levels in the game. The levels are grouped into five zones (3 levels per zone). Only the first level is available at first, but the player can unlock more levels by collecting Pizza Planet tokens. Each level starts with a FMV scene taken from the movie (except from the Nintendo 64 version—its low-capacity cartridge system meant that these movies were replaced with comic-strip type 'cutscenes'). In each level, there are five Pizza Planet tokens that the player must collect. The player must collect at least one token to unlock the subsequent level.
In the first level of every zone, Mr. Potato Head is missing a body part that the player has to retrieve in order to unlock a specific power-up. The power-ups are the Cosmic Shield (Level 1), Disc Launcher (Level 4), Rocket Boots (Level 7), Grappling Hook (Level 10), and Hover Boots (Level 13). Some Pizza Planet tokens can only be collected with the use of a power-up, while others are merely easier to collect when a power-up is unlocked. Returning to previous levels is required to obtain Pizza Planet tokens that couldn't be retrieved earlier without a certain power-up.
The tasks that Buzz needs to perform to gain a Pizza Planet token are:
Collecting 50 coins for Hamm;
Finding five lost items (i.e. Bo Peep's sheep);
Competing in a race against another character (i.e. RC Car) or a time trial event;
Solving a "puzzle" located somewhere in the level (i.e. mixing primary paint colors to create secondary colors);
Defeating a mini boss.
These tasks get harder as the game progresses.
In the last level of every zone, the player has to fight a boss to proceed to the next level. A certain number of tokens is required in order to access these "boss levels." When the player completes a boss level, a bonus movie can be unlocked, which can be viewed at any time. In the last boss level, the player will face three mini-bosses from previous levels all at once: the Prospector (Airport Infiltration), the Gunslinger (Al's Penthouse) and the Blacksmith (Tarmac Trouble).
____________________________________________________________________________
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In Mary Shelley’s novel ‘Frankenstein’, what is Frankenstein’s first name? | Frankenstein
Frankenstein: What's in a Name?
The full title of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley's novel is Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus.
What influenced her to use "Frankenstein" as the name for her protagonist?
And why should she give it a subtitle referring to an ancient Greek god?
Given the importance of electricity as an animnating force in the novel, most readers, particularly her immediate audience of the early 1800s, would connect the name Frankenstein with Ben Franklin. All Europe was familiar with Ben Franklin's recent experiments with electricity and Mary included a direct reference to him in the first edition of the novel.
But she didn't just make up a German name that sounded like the anglican Franklin. Frankenstein is the name of an old aristocratic German family whose ruined castle she passed on her way home from Europe in 1814 . The name--literally, the stone of the Franks--derives from the fact that this Frankish family (the Franks were a Germanic people who settled in Western Europe during the decline of the Roman Empire) built their castle near a quarry .
Mary's novel radiates meanings on several levels, and ideas associated with the name Frankenstein resonate throughout the novel in many ways.
While the novel may be a critique and a parody of Romanticism on one hand, it also very much embodies Romantic values--particularly that of the Romantic hero. She surely would be struck by the Romantic heroes in the history of the Frankenstiens .
Clearly, the novel is concerned with the search for secret knowledge and the creation of life, and the historical Frankensteins also had a connection with these issues. Fortuitously, the philosopher's stone --a term associated with alchemy and Paracelsus --is also suggested by Frankenstein-- "FranksStone." Significantly, Mary has her protagonist study the works of Paracelsus as a youth.
Also, the Frankenstein Castle ruins no doubt served as a magnet to travelers of romantic temperaments and interest in legends. The site and its history had an inspirational effect on Johann Goethe and his Faust . In Goethe's epic, the hero sells his soul to the devil in seeking the secret of life; the work and creates an artificial man in his laboratory. Mary Shelley was very familiar with Goethe's work.
But what of the subtitle--the modern Prometheus?
Mary knew the Prometheus myth as a fusion of two earlier versions--Prometheus plasticator (creator) and Prometheus pyrphoros (fire-bringer). In this modern version, the fire stolen by Prometheus became the fire of life with which he animated his man of clay.
When Mary Shelley subtitled her novel "The Modern Prometheus," she forcefully directed our attention to the books critique both of the promethean poets she knew best, Byron and Percy Shelley , and of the entire Romantic ideology as she understood it. Victor Frankensteins failure to mother his child has both political and aesthetic ramifications . The father who neglects his children can be seen as the archetype of the irresponsible political leader who puts his own interests ahead of those of his fellow citizens. Victor Frankensteins quest is nothing less than the conquest of death itself. By acquiring the ability to "bestow animation upon lifeless matter" and thus "renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption" (49), Frankenstein in effect hopes to become God, the creator of life and the gratefully worshipped father of a new race of immortal beings.
In contrast to this unchecked prometheanism, Mary Shelley realized that means become ends: no political ideology can be detached from its modes of production. At every step one must balance the abstract ideal one serves against a moral obligation to preserve the welfare of living individuals, especially those family members most dependent upon one. Mary Shelley grounded her alternative political ideology on the metaphor of the peaceful, loving, bourgeois family. She thereby implicitly endorsed a conservative vision of gradual evolutionary reform, a position articulated most forcefully during her times by Edmund Burke.
In popular culture, many people often mistake Frankenstein as the name for the monster, not the scientist/creator.
| Victor |
In which London palace were Queen Victoria and Prince Albert married? | 'Frankenstein' is Published | World History Project
Jan 1 1818
'Frankenstein' is Published
Over the course of time, Frankenstein's monster has usurped the very name of his creator, Victor Frankenstein, the precocious student of natural philosophy from Geneva, where Mary Shelley was living with two gifted poets, her husband, Percy, and George Gordon, Lord Byron, when she conceived the strange Gothic tale. A period of bad weather in Switzerland bred a compact between Byron, Percy, and Mary, that while at the Villa Diodati, each should write the kind of story the trio were so enjoying reading. Numerous twentieth-century films attest to the story's durability, perhaps because of what science has become in western society over the past two centuries. The subtitle, "The Modern Prometheus," suggests the mythic dimensions of the three-fold tale. The author, incredibly not quite nineteen at the time of composition (and, moreover, a teenaged mother), draws a correspondence between young Frankenstein's hope of scientific glory prompting him to manufacture a monster and God's creating the archangel who would become the rebel Satan.
Source: 'Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" (1818) - A Summary of Modern Criticism'; Philip V. Allingham/victorianweb.org Added by: Colin Harris
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a novel written by Mary Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18 and the novel was published when she was 20. The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley's name appears on the second edition, published in France. The title of the novel refers to a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who learns how to create life and creates a being in the likeness of man, but larger than average and more powerful. In popular culture, people have tended incorrectly to refer to the monster as "Frankenstein". Frankenstein is infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. It was also a warning against the expansion of modern man in the Industrial Revolution, alluded to in the novel's subtitle, The Modern Prometheus. The story has had an influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories and films.
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Purbeck Marble originates from which English county? | Purbeck - definition - What is ?
What is ?
definition : Purbeck
Purbeck may refer to:
* Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula in the English county of Dorset * Purbeck District, a local government district in the English county of Dorset * Purbeck Hills, a range of hills in the English county of Dorset * Purbeck stone ** Purbeck Marble, a stone found on the Isle of Purbeck * Purbeck Ball Clay, a ball clay found on the Isle of Purbeck * Purbeck Group, a sequence of rock strata
| Dorset |
On January 1st of which year did Spain stop using the peseta as its national currency? | Worth Matravers Parish Council
Home Parish History Industry & Communications Contact Us Agendas & Minutes Current Planning Local Activities Wedding Venues Local Businesses Purbeck MP / MEP Donations Current Parish Issues Links
Worth Matravers Parish Council was set up by statute in 1894 to provide government for people at local level and to attempt to address their local problems. The Parish Council consists of seven councillors who are elected to serve for four years. The Chairman and Vice Chairman are elected at the first Council Meeting (or Annual Meeting) in May.
The Council meets each month, usually on the first Tuesday at 7.30pm and alternates between Worth Matravers Village Hall and Harmans Cross Village Hall. Notices of the meetings are posted on both the village notice boards, one opposite the Green in Worth Matravers and the other at Harmans Cross crossroads opposite the bus shelter.
The public discussion period is held at the beginning of the meetings and all are most welcome to attend.
The civil parish stretches from the coast northwards to, and just beyond, the A351 road from Corfe Castle to Swanage. It includes the village of Worth Matravers towards the south of the parish and the hamlet of Harmans Cross, which stradles the main road, to the north.
Worth Matravers is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. The village is situated on the cliffs west of Swanage. It comprises of Purbeck stone cottages and farm houses and is built around a pond, which is a regular feature on postcards of the Isle of Purbeck.
Harman's Cross is a small Hamlet on the Isle of Purbeck, in the county of Dorset. It is situated on the A351 road between Swanage and Corfe Castle. Harman's Cross is the location of Harman's Cross railway station, one of the intermediate stations on the Swanage Railway, a steam locomotive operated heritage railway.
Representing the villages of
Worth Matravers and Harmans Cross
in the heart of the Purbecks
WORTH MATRAVERS
HARMANS CROSS
Copyright © Worth Matravers Parish Council
This beautiful Purbeck stone village is an ancient settlement now part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site and in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It has a fascinating history, from the days of dinosaurs to Second World War radar research and surrounded by stunning views, wildlife and countryside. The number of people on the electoral roll in Worth Matravers is 250 in 2012.
Purbeck Stone Cottages
After the First World War, building began in Harmans Cross. It continues to grow and has a flourishing shop incorporated into the garage. The numbers of people on the electoral roll has increased from 163 in 1955 to 354 today (2012)
Harmans Cross
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Which band released the 2011 single ‘Moves Like Jagger’, featuring Christina Aguilera? | Moves Like Jagger | Maroon 5 Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia
" Out of Goodbyes "
"Moves Like Jagger" is a song by American band Maroon 5 featuring recording artist Christina Aguilera , released by A&M Octone Records on June 21, 2011, as the fourth and final single from the re-release of the group's third studio album Hands All Over (2010). The song was written by Adam Levine , Ammar Malik, Benjamin Levin, and Shellback; the latter two are also the producers. "Moves Like Jagger" is a dance-pop and electropop song and is backed by synths and electronic drums. The lyrics refer to a male's ability to impress a female with his dance moves, which he compares to Mick Jagger, frontman of The Rolling Stones.
"Moves Like Jagger" was well received by music critics, who praised the song's chorus. Praise also went to the vocals of Levine and Aguilera, with critics pointing out solid chemistry between the two. Likewise, the song was a commercial success, going on to top the charts in over 18 countries. In the United States, "Moves Like Jagger" became the band's second (after 2007's " Makes Me Wonder ") and Aguilera's fifth number-one single and is among the best-selling singles of all time. The song also made Aguilera the second female artist to score a number one hit in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s (the first being Britney Spears), which in turn made her the fourth female to score number-one singles in three different decades, after Janet Jackson, Madonna and Spears. Worldwide, it was the ninth-best-selling digital single of 2011 with sales of 7 million copies. As of 2014, the song ranks as one of the six best-selling digital singles of all time with sales of over 15 million copies.
The music video was directed by Jonas Åkerlund. The video features an old video footage of Jagger and his iconic dance moves. "Moves Like Jagger" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 54th Grammy Awards but lost to "Body and Soul" by Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse. The song was first performed in June 2011 on an episode of The Voice (where Levine and Aguilera both served as judges/coaches).
| Maroon 5 |
which 18th Century scientist said ‘Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do’? | Moves Like Jagger Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com
" Payphone "
(2012)
Moves Like Jagger is a dance pop single released by American pop rock band Maroon 5 on June 22, 2011 internationally and digitally . The single features pop singer-songwriter Christina Aguilera and was produced by Shellback, Benny Blanco, and Ari Levine. The song was later put on the Maroon 5 album Hands All Over in July of 2011 for the re-release. The song peaked at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles' chart for four weeks and number-one on the Billboard Digital Songs chart for three weeks. The song will not feature on the upcoming fourth studio album Overexposed , which is scheduled for release on June 26, 2012.
The song's lyrics refer to a male protagonist's ability to impress a female with his dance moves, which he compares to those of The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger . The song received a positive critical appreciation, many of them complimented the vocal chemistry between Levine and Aguilera and labeled it "an irresistible summer hit".
Music video
The music video for "Moves Like Jagger" was directed by Jonas Åkerlund and filmed in Los Angeles, California on July 8, 2011. On July 9, Aguilera posted an image of herself from the video shoot via Twitter, saying, "Always great to see Jonas Akerlund. He created the perfect feel for the song. Expect a fun video." The image showed Aguilera performing with a band in front of a background of the American flag. Four shirtless images of Levine from the shoot were also released online the same day. More images from the video shoot were released online on July 11, showing Levine and Aguilera performing in front of an American and British-themed backdrop with confetti falling from the ceiling. Another image showed Aguilera performing in front of a black backdrop with her name "Christina" shown in pink. Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger made an appearance in the video "via archive footage." The music video premiered on August 8 on E!
Track list
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Green, Oolong, Black and Jasmine are all varieties of what? | Black Jasmine Tea | Harney.com | Harney & Sons Fine Teas
Quantity
$ 30.00
Back by popular demand, Jasmine Black, our black tea version of a favorite floral tea. Originally Jasmine teas were from green or slightly oxidized (pouchong) leaves. However, we were able to source a limited amount made of this black tea version from Fujian Province in China. It is difficult to find more, so get it while you can!
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| Tea |
South Africa is divided into how many provinces? | Most Popular Types of Tea | All Things Tea | Ito En
Pu-erh Tea
un-oxidizedOxidized
Generally speaking, the less a tea is oxidized, the more gentle and lighter it will be in taste and aroma. Heavily oxidized teas will yield a dark deep reddish brown or earthy infusion, while a white will yield a pale yellow-green liquor. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. A gyokuro, the highest grade of Japanese loose leaf green tea, will have a much more intense flavor than a smooth, toffee-like full leaf black tea from Sri Lanka.
While common, it should be noted that many popular infusions like chamomile or linden flower are not real teas because they do not come from the Camellia sinensis. But because of their popularity, information on herbal infusions is included below.
White Tea
White tea undergoes the least processing of all teas. Traditionally cultivated in China, white tea was picked only a few days out of the year, when a white down, known as bai hao, appeared on the tender shoots. The tea shoots are allowed to wither then dry to prevent oxidization. This process is a delicate one, requiring strict attention from the tea makers. Nowadays, other tea growing regions as Darjeeling and Sri Lanka have begun to cultivate white tea, in an effort to capitalize off white tea's growing popularity.
White tea tends to have the most delicate flavors and aromas. The nuances are gentle, even elusive, evoking fresh flavors like bamboo or asparagus or earthier elements like almonds. Aromas tend towards subtle floral bouquets.
Famous White Varieties
SILVER NEEDLE (BAI HAO YIN ZHEN) – this tea contains only white, downy buds and the purest, most delicate
flavor.
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Green Tea
Because they are unoxidized, green teas keep their vital color. To prevent oxidization, the leaves are heat processed to eliminate the enzyme responsible for oxidization. In China, this is generally done by roasting or pan-firing the leaves, while the Japanese generally accomplish this by steaming the leaves at a high temperature. Each process tends to bring out a more particular flavor from the tea leaves. The Chinese style of processing tends to bring out a mouthwatering range of flavors from citrus-like to smoky with a lighter body. The color of the liquor is usually not a true “green”, but a pale yellow or straw color. The steaming process yields a deep vegetal or herbaceous quality-a characteristic prized in Japanese teas. Japanese green teas range in color of liqour from the pale green of a light sencha, to the deep grassy green of a gyokuro. Green teas that have been steamed contain more moisture and are therefore more delicate. Such teas should be stored at cooler temperatures and consumed sooner after picking than pan-fired teas. At ITO EN, we recommend keeping Japanese green tea in a low-temperature environment, as in a refrigerator, in a sealed container that keeps out moisture and light.
Famous Chinese Varieties
DRAGON'S WELL (LUNG CHING) – grown in Zhejiang Province, and processed by a flat pressing of the leaves particular to this variety. Delicate flavor with a sweet aroma.
PI LO CHUN – Or “Green Snail Spring”, this tea is grown near the summit of Tung Ting Mountain in Jiangsu Province. A refined and mild tea.
Famous Japanese Varieties
SENCHA – a pure green steamed tea, with refreshing astringency and grassy or vegetal flavors.
HOUJICHA – roasted green tea leaves and stems, with a nutty or toasty aroma and taste.
GYOKURO – tea bushes are shaded for around 3 weeks, just before picking. The leaves from these plants produce more chlorophyll and amino acids like theanine, resulting in the tea having a deep green color and rich, almost savory flavor (known as umami in Japan.) A pure green steamed tea, with refreshing astringency and grassy or vegetal flavors.
MATCHA – from shade-grown bushes, similar to Gyokuro, Tencha leaves are picked, they are then processed and dried, and then ground in stone mills to a fine powder called Matcha. This powder is traditionally whisked into hot water to become the thick, frothy and bright green beverage that is the center of Japanese tea ceremony.
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Oolong Tea
Oolong, also spelled Wu Long, teas are semi-oxidized. The term in Chinese actually means "Black Dragon". Oolong teas have long been cultivated in both mainland China and Taiwan. In general, larger, mature leaves are picked, withered, rolled, oxidized, and then fired. The leaves can be allowed to oxidize between 10% to 80%. Often, different tea estates have their preferred ways of making oolong tea. It is because of the intricacy of this process that oolong teas can have the widest array of flavors and aromas. Furthermore, oolongs can be steeped several time, with each successive infusion having its own distinctive taste and fragrance.
Famous Oolong Varieties
TAI GUAN YIN - named for the Iron Goddess of Mercy, this beautiful oolong yields a light amber liquor, with creamy texture and floral overtones.
DONG DING - This tea is noted for its bright green appearance and fresh vegetal notes.
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Black Tea
Black tea is the most well-known variety of tea in the West. Known as "red tea" in China, black tea leaves are fully oxidized. In the case of most black teas, younger leaves are picked before being withered, rolled, fully oxidized, and fired. While created originally in China, black teas are now cultivated worldwide. Some of the most famous black teas come from the Indian regions of Assam, Darjeeling, and Nilgiri as well as Sri Lanka. The use of machines is becoming more common, but the best black teas are those entirely done by hand. Machine-processed teas tend to be of lower quality and are generally used in tea bags.
The long-standing trend in black tea, taken from the British, has been to create "blends". For centuries, tea companies take various kinds of tea to create a particular flavor or character-for example, a strong breakfast tea or a delicate afternoon tea. And just like a perfume house, several older tea companies are known for their signature blends. But as the quality and character of tea harvests can vary greatly year to year, tea companies rely on the skills of tea blenders to take different teas from the year's harvest to create the same taste again and again.
However, another trend in black teas has recently taken off. The new vogue, imported from continental Europe, is estate teas, meaning teas that come from a single tea garden or estate from a particular year. Like a good wine, estate teas can capture the particular character of region and the year's weather. Because of their unique character, estate Darjeelings have gained global popularity in particular and can often be auctioned for thousands of dollars per pound. Of course, because estate teas are at the mercy of the elements, quality can vary dramatically year to year.
With both blends and estate teas, it is frequent to see black teas divided into broken leaf and full leaf categories. A broken-leaf tea consists of leaves that have purposely broken into small pieces during processing. The smaller size allows the water to extract more of the tea leaves' components in a short period of time. For this reason, broken leaf teas tend to be more brisk and higher in caffeine, making them an excellent morning teas to be paired with milk and sugar. Full leaf teas, on the other hand, tend to be more refined and gentler on the palate. While there are exceptions, like many of Assam's full leaf teas, these teas are traditionally taken later in the day without anything added.
Famous Chinese Black Teas:
KEEMUN – a sophisticated tea known for its refined orchid-like aroma and subtle notes of dark chocolate.
LAPSANG SOUCHONG – the tea leaves for Lapsang Souchong are actually smoked over a pine wood fire to infuse the tea with a deep, dark, smokey character. This tea is often used in Russian breakfast and afternoon blends.
YUNNAN – teas from Yunnan tend toward being milder or sweeter in flavor, with chocolate or honey tones.
Famous Indian Black Teas:
DARJEELING – Often referred to as “the champagne of teas,” teas from Darjeeling in India tend to be lighter, with a refreshing astringency.
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Pu-erh Tea
Despite the common misnomer, there is a variety of tea that is actually fermented. Named for a town in China's Yunnan province, Pu'er teas consist of larger leaves that can be aged for several years. Often, the most highly prized Pu'er teas will actually have a light dusting of mold. Pu’Er leaves are usually compressed into various shapes before being aged. During the aging process, Pu’er teas are exposed to microflora and bacteria that ferment the tea, in a way similar to wine or yogurt. The process takes longer though, and the tea’s flavor profile can change drastically and increase in depth over many years. Like fine wines, many connoisseurs become collectors of very old and well-aged Pu’ers. Some of the most highly regarded and expensive teas of this type are well over 30 years old.
Pu'er teas yield a dark, hearty brew that is low in caffeine. The taste is usually earthy and mellow, lacking much of the astringency of other types of tea. Chinese tradition says that Pu'er aids the body with digestion, while new studies indicate that Pu'er may help in reducing cholesterol.
Famous pu'er teas:
There are many famous “vintages” from different regions in China, but true Pu’ers from one of Yunnan province’s mountainous tea farms are considered the most prized.
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Tisanes (HERBAL AND FLORAL INFUSIONS)
Technically, a tea comes only from the Camellia sinensis plant. However, the term tea commonly refers to a whole range of plant and floral infusions that offer an enticing tastes and aromas. At ITO EN, we prefer the term "tisane" in order to properly distinguish tea from other infusions. The advantage of tisanes is that they are generally caffeine-free and gentle on the body, making them an excellent choice for children in particular. Often, tisanes have their own particular benefits, as is the case South African Rooibos, which is naturally high in vitamin C and antioxidants..
As with any other food product or beverage, it is important to be aware of the effects a particular tisane may have. For instance, ginseng or South American mate have stimulant properties like caffeine, while chamomile can cause a reaction for those who have an allergy to ragweed.
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| i don't know |
What type of creature is a wobbegong? | Learn About All The Different Types Of Sharks Here - Shark Sider
my favorite is the mako
lucas
reef shark!!!!!!:):):):):):):):)::):):):):):))):))):)):):):)::
Denise Dalecki
the goblin shark is just ugly and when i just first saw it I through my laptop away and it broke same with a different shark the spiral saw shark I was so furious
Denise Dalecki
it was quiet funny a little though
Denise Dalecki
LOL
Denise Dalecki
But my favorite shark was the Megalodon but there’s a shark not there and it is the Dunkleostues shark which is exctinc
Rokas Kilikevicius
Dunkleosteus was not a shark but a primitive fish. Besides this article only listed Megalodon to keep the interest going, this article would be many times longer if ALL of the prehistoric sharks we have discovered so far were listed.
Austin
I like the great whale shark! 🙂
brandon
cjxjfjxlf
I need to find out a name of a shark that starts with M but it is HArmless unless scared because i watched a video on facebook and i have forgotten the name it mightn’t begin with M but i am pretty sure it does any suggestions welcome 🙂 (sorry if a dumb question ahaha)
Tristan
Well I can name 30 sharks
Isaac Webster
Bull sharks are the best, most attacks since this shark can live in fresh water and goes down streems
Cameron Pennine
I like them all sharks ar important to reefs they keep the fish pop staple to munch fish in one ecosystem is bad for the sea plants plakton and ect
Cameron Pennine
Great white,basking,mako,hammerhead,goblin,magamough,treasher,reef shark,sand tiger,bull shark,whale shark,port jasson shark,great hammerhead,mahadlon,shortfin mako,longfin mako,nurse shark,blacktop reef shark,drafw shark,Greenland shark,carpet shark, the elusive tiger shark,smoothhead hammerhead
magladone lover
No my personal favorite is the whale shark but first the magladone the whale shark
karrilyn
My favorite shark is the megalodon.. its awesome
Aubrey Samonte
I want a sand shark……
connor
my favourite shark is Megalodon
erol
Mako sharks are the best
Scott – Owner
I have come face to face with 15 kinds of sharks
Scott – Owner
Yeah can you imagine being in the water with such a big creature ? that would be amazing wahooa.com
Robert Enders
Name them.
Scott – Owner
You’ve got me there, I might know like 6 of them, White Tip, Nurse, Bull, Black Tip, Reef, Lemon, here in the Florida Atlantic Coast, I have Scuba and snorkeled with many more that I would never know the type. But yeah thanks for asking have you seen one of these beautiful creatures in the ocean ?
Scott – Owner
My favorite too, but I haven’t had a chance to see them in the wild yet.
Scott – Owner
| Shark |
Which country won the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations? | Special Creature Feature – Wobbegong Shark
by Matt Reed
on July 6, 2015
The Wobbegong Shark is a carpet shark also known by it’s Latin name Orectolobidae. They are a bottom dwelling species mostly found relaxing on the seabed using their excellent camouflage to lie in wait for prey. With lots of small, sharp teeth they can inflict a serious bite and generally their prey doesn’t escape the vice like grip once the biting starts!
Mostly found around Australia and Indonesia they are a rare sighting in the Philippines, the species are listed by the IUCN as “Near Threatened” due to habit destruction and being by catch to other unsustainable fishing methods. So it was with much excitement that Matt and Julian Elliott came across one of these beauties while diving the wreck of the Pioneer Cebu in 110m. Obviously this wreck is very deep and out of reach of most divers, so hopefully the Wobbegong will have a fairly peaceful life if it chooses to hang around that area.
Have you ever seen a Wobbegong shark in the Philippines?
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| i don't know |
Which author created the character Tracy Beaker? | Tracy Beaker | Tracy Beaker Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia
Dani Harmer
Sarah Chum (stunt) Annabelle Canavan (stunt)
Tracy Beaker (born May 8th 1991 [1] , Blackburn Royal Hosptial [2] ), named after a beaker Jacqueline Wilson found while in the bath, [3] ,is the main protaganist of the Tracy Beaker franchise of books and television series'. Previously, she was a high-temptered girl in foster care turned into a powerfully independent care-worker at Elm Tree House . Her mother, Carly Beaker , gave birth to her as a teenager. As a child, her mother's boyfriend used to beat her so she was taken to the Dumping Ground for dosmectic viloence. Four years after her foster mum was married to Gary , they divorced and she became a social worker. Currently, she lives with Cam , her adopted mother and occasionally by herself, when her mum is in New York . As of Goodbye Tracy Beaker , she is a former character, due to Dani Harmer not wanting to pursue her career as Tracy Beaker [4]
She is portrayed by Dani Harmer and Sarah Churm , in the stage play, Tracy Beaker Gets Real [5] .
Contents
Early Years
(Background)
In her teenage years, 16-year-old Carly Beaker (Tracy's mother) was pregnant with her. Once Tracy was born, her mum left her at home unattended so she could go the pub ad stay out late. Then, her mother got a Boyfriend named Dave, who she calls Monster Gorrila, possibly her father, who used to hit and abuse her alot. Then, she was sent to a care-home and, since she couldn't stay with her mum, began crying and causing tantrums so she was locked up.
After this she was sent to another carehome, where she met this lovely girl named Camilla and met Louise , who became a good friend for her. Then, she was fostered again by Julie and Ted Brown. Everything was fine until they were expecting a baby so she was sent by to the carehome.
Once again, she was fostered, by a woman she called Aunt Peggy .Then, she was taken back to the Dumping Ground, where she meets Justine , a new girl to the place. [6]
Arrival at The Dumping Ground
Tracy arriving at the Dumping Ground
Proir to her being fostered by Ted and Juile , Tracy is being shoved back into the Dumping Ground, as Ted and Juile were having a baby together and Tracy couldn't be trusted with babies, as once she locked one in the cupboard. (" The Story of Tracy Beaker "). So, she was taken to the Dumping Ground.
She later appears in The Story of Tracy Beaker , when Ted and Juile escort her to Stowey House , with she relucantly does. Later on, Jenny seen in the corridor letting her thorough and Tracy is greetted by Mike how pushes her up the stairs. At this point, she unpacks her things in her room, only to see it is the new girl, Justine's room and enters her own room. ( Tracy Returns to the Dumping Ground )
Childhood
Toddler In Town - Tracy continues living with Cam and Gary .
Two's A Crowd - It's 'special guest day' at the DG and Roxy brings her 'delightful' friend Emily - but who is causing all the trouble and upsetting everyone? Could there be more than one Emily? It's time for Marco to leave the DG with his dream family - but how can he leave Milly behind? Justine's Dad brings her cousin John along to the guest day. Justine reacts badly at first, but then comes some way to accepting the situation.
Moving On - Tracy is forced to think about her future, as Lol is moving to the half way house and she's next. So she agrees to spend time with Cam and Gary and, to her surprise, they get on brilliantly... until Cam drops the bombshell that they're getting married - this is way too much for Tracy to handle and she wants nothing to do with the 'sordid' affair.
The Wedding - In the series finale, Cam and Gary get married and Tracy only manages to make it thanks to Crash and Jackie . In the end, Cam and Gary tell Tracy they are going to adopt her.
Adulthood
Television Series
Series One
Full Circle - 4 years later, she has written an autobiography, however, she used Cam's credit card to publish it and the police soon catch on. She is arrested and interviewed before being locked up, where it was revealed that Cams' marraige with Gary didn't work out, with Tracy stating that they don't talk about him. The reason why is still unknown. She is released when Cam drops the charges, on condition that she pays her back and that she helps write a column for the newspaper. When she returns home, she hears some angry sounding messages from Cam and she runs away from home. She ends up in the Dumping ground and Mike allows her to stay the night. The next day she asks Mike for a job and he lets her become an assistant careworker. However, she does not do a good job, always being late and breaking her promises to the kids. When she is told that she might be fired, she quits and leaves. With the help of the kids, she gets her job back. After that, she has a job filled with excitement almost every day and she becomes closer to the kids, particularly Lily and Toby because of their problems. Some of her adventures as a careworker include her disastrous first night shift at the Dumping Ground, her attempt to get Lily back with Poppy and Rosie and her attempt of finding out about stolen goods in Sapphire's room. In the last episode of the first series, Tracy is offered a job for a newspaper in London and she has to write an article about life in care. Everyone refuses to help at first, but eventually they decide to help her. Tracy is given the job, but she turns it down, saying that she would much rather stay at the Dumping Ground.
In the second series, Tracy learns that the council are going to shut down the Dumping Ground and so she climbs onto the roof and starts a protest. The protest ends in disaster, however, when Lily ends up climbing onto the roof and falling off. As a result the Dumping Ground is briefly blue, but rebeakerised thanks to the news reports about the accident. Mike is almost sacked because of the protest, but he is thankfully let in. Lily is fostered by Cam after the accident, and Tracy starts to feel jealous as it has always just been her and Cam living together. After briefly getting a second job at a cafe to avoid spending time at home, Tracy finally accepts having Lily as a sister and they start to bond even more. After many more adventures at the Dumping Ground, including being made to dress up as a giant sausage with Sapphire and having to be a team leader during a weekend in the countryside, Tracy finally loses Lily as a sister when she decides to live with her dad once again. When Cam leaves for New York, Tracy starts having panic attacks at home, finally resulting in a big one in front of the kids.
In series 3 Tracy deals with cynical Burnywood careworker Dennis Stokle, tries to get shy, Mousy Kitty out of her shell despite being warned of her unpredictable behaviour resulting in Tracy being injured badly, and helping Lily to try and help her to get Rosie and Poppy with their dad, Steve Kettle.In episode 7, Tracy has diffic when she was warned by denis of Kitty's unpreditable behaviour ulty at the Dumping ground when Justine Littlewood returns.Later in the episode,Justine announced that she is getting married with a man called Charlie.(Episode 12).In the final episode of Tracy Beaker returns,Tracy decides to leave DG because she becomes a fully qualified careworker in a different care home. She is replaced with Melanie, who makes Tracy jealous because on Tracy's last day of working at the DG she does everything better than Tracy does including Jody Jackson's life after she has an allergic reaction. Tracy sleeps overnight at the DG then the next morning says goodbye to Mike and leaves for good. Tracy is nice and caring to everyone at the DG.
Characterization
Physical Appearance
To begin with, in the books Tracy had black curly hair, pale skin and black eyes. Thoroughout the book she is described as small, with Football saying she is tiny and Tracy referrs herself as a 'little titch'. She is shown usually wearing bright red jumper with a short, blue skirt with long dark blue socks and light blue slippers. Her eyes are shown to be small black dots and her black eyebrows curved. In photos, she is shown to have bright red cheeks as well as a short round neck. In the first series of television series, she is shown have brown eyes instead of black eyes and her fashion sense is the same as it was before along her other qualities. As of the second series, her fashion sense changes are she wears more age-appropriate clothes, like boots or leather jackets, as she has become twelve- years old and also her hair is longer as she sometimes decides to wear it in plaits. Then, as of the third series, she keeps her long hair but prefers to wear it curly and continues this til to the end of the television show. In Tracy Beaker Returns, she becomes 5'1" (1.55m) [7] and has longer hair and fairer skin. Even though she is still short and is shown to be shorter than Liam and other teenage Elm Tree House residents. Her fashion sense is varied, but it still the same as she wears leather jackets occasionally with boots but mostly jumpers.
Personality
At the first, Tracy has a fierce personality and appears strong and independent, often described as 'tomboy'. She is usually portrayed as extremely tough since in Starring Tracy Beaker she gave Justine a bloody nose by rapidly punching her. As well as this, people tend to fear her because of this. However, in Justine's Telly , she is described, by Jenny , as a '"softie", since she made petition for Justine when she her television stopped working. Once, in a interview, Jacqueline Wilson stated "Tracy is so outrageous. It's great to invent somebody who is far bolder than you would ever be yourself. I do think she's got an excuse for bad behaviour, though, because she's had a really tough life. If Tracy didn't have this total determination to survive and get her own back on people, she would be an extra-specially sad soul." [8] She has an interest in revenge and has often got her back on other people many a time. As revealed in Sufia The Silent , she is a flair for art as she paints a stream, until Micheal ruins it. At the at age of ten, she remained fantastical about mother coming to take her home. Later on, Tracy becomes more mature and nice with. Four years later, Tracy becomes more bubbly and cheerful however her ideas still come off as, what Gina calls, a "Tracy Plan". Also, as she is, at first a little reckless and causes Tee to fall off a tree, showing she is not ready to be a care-worker and is described as "a lousy care-worker". Later on in the series, she is respected and is seen a responsible, mature adult and more emotional.
Interests
Writing
At the age of ten, writing was a major interest of hers with her writing in a journal every day at express her feelings about her care-home, Elm Tree House . She has always had a flair for writing, usually in the bedroom, whilst being interrupted by Elaine Boyack . When she was younger she expected to be an extremely famous author, perhaps to follow in her mum's footsteps of being famous. She sees Cam as in inspiration ,despite being an struggling author. As revealed in The Dare Game , she wants her book to revolve around her will the title related to her misadventures at her care-home and with Cam Lawson . She often asks Cam for advice about writing and even gives advice for Cam to write. As a child, she was persistent about becoming famous by taking up this profession. Four years after she gets adopted by Cam and Gary she writes a book called: My Life in Care and it is a autobiographical, like she has always dreamed. After this her book becomes wildly popular, but she used Cam's credit card. She also wrote a journal entry on her laptop, when Johnny forces Tee to clean and he falls off the tree
Journalism
In Justine's Telly , Tracy first displayed in interest in journalism as she wanted to write an article about how Justine was allowed a television in her room but everyone else isn't allowed. She holds the qualities of a true journalist as she speaks the truth. Once she found out the truth, she campaigned for her to have a television in her room, after her television stopped working. Then, she even writes a article so Cam would let her stay at the Dumping Ground.Later on in her life, he is appointed by Mike to write an article about Toby called Bad Luck Boy will her stating that he is jinx, which is what he thought, though Tracy was trying to ironic in the article so people would laugh but then everyone was calling him "Bad Luck Boy" because of this.
Football
Tracy liking for football was first revealed in The Dare Game , when she sees a boy named Football and skills him up stating that she is 'the best at football', much to Football 's dismay and they have a match, in which Tracy wins and then begins bragging about how she won. Also, she plays a game of football in the episode Football Trial .
Driving
Tracy interest in driving was first seen in Good Luck Boy . After a driving test, Tracy gets her learners permit. So, Cam , her foster mum, is with her in the car helping her to drive. Throughout the episode, Tracy gets increasiley better at it.
Social Life (all in order of first interaction)
Family
Aunt Peggy and Uncle Sid
Aunt Peggy and Uncle Sid took care of Tracy for some time. She is shown to resent them, although she harbours no feeling for Uncle Sid . In a dream, she sees Aunt Peggy and the other people she knows hurting her.
Main article: Cam and Tracy
Cam and Tracy hugging.
When Tracy first met Cam , she thought of her as an inspiration and tried extremely hard to get her to like her trying to make a good first impression, even wearing makeup, but ends getting in a fight with Justine , her arch-enemy (" The Story of Tracy Beaker ", " Cam's First Visit "). After this, Tracy gets interviewed by Cam and is delighted as she going into an article. But, ends up asking Cam to find a mum for her, who doesn't want to keep in contact with her. (" The 1000 Words About Tracy "). At first, Tracy thinks of her as a role model and then begins to think of her as a friend. Soon, Tracy wants Cam to despreately foster her despite the fact she is not ready. (" The Story of Tracy Beaker )", " Tracy and Cam Row ", " Romance ", " Helpful Tracy ", The End! "). However, after a while, she eventually fosters her. (" The Story of Tracy Beaker ", " The End! "). Throughout the series', Tracy and Cam have thier ups and downs: Tracy sets her house on fire, Tracy and Cam row. However, they go on a trip to Egypt. But, their relationship was distrubed by Gary , who later adopted them. In Tracy Beaker Returns , Cam divorces Gary and Cam gives her advice about being a care-worker (" Full Circle ", " Bad Luck Boy "). She then moves to New York .
Ryan Matthews and Zak Matthews
Tracy is the couisin of the twins: Ryan and Zak . Though they don't spend much time together, they appear to be close friends due to the fact that they are related, as revealed in Tracy Returns to the Dumping Ground . They even fix Justine 's clock , so Tracy doesn't have to. However, they interact with each other little and it is shown that they sometimes annoy her. Later on, Tracy ends up fighting Justine but Ryan and Zak set up a fight for them. As they see each other they usually move quickly away and usually angry (" Tracy Returns to the Dumping Ground ", " Big Fight "). After Ryan and Zac leave the Dumping Ground ( Stowey House ), they probarbly keep in touch, due to them being cousins.
Gary
Cam marrying Gary.
Given that, Gary was Cam 's boyfriend, Tracy had to get along with him but can not stand him. However, it is not because he did something wrong but he takes up most of Cam 's time. In fact, she even moved to the Dumping Ground again. ( Free Piggy ). She often thinks of him as a barrier between her and Cam . However, they some how become friends and Tracy is willing to be on good terms with him for Cam . He was Tracy foster father and between 2006-2010, as Cam and Gary were divorced. She mentions at one point that 'we do not speak of him' referring to Gary . ( Full Circle ).
Penelope Lawson
Tracy first met Penelope Lawson , in the Meet the Parent and thought we was boring as she is Cam's mother so her adoptive grandmother. However, they began to talk and begin to enjoy conversing to each other, given they have so much in common and both know Cam very well so they have a lot to talk about.
Peter Ingham
Tracy laughing at Peter.
At first, Tracy wanted to have nothing to do with Peter , describing him as 'weedy' and as even more annoyed when she says she is her best friend. However, Peter and Tracy somehow become friends and Tracy states that she misses him. ( The Dare Game ), along with Justine and Louise . Through the books, Tracy taunts Peter emotionally, despite how nice he is to him. Also, when he gets adopted, by Terry and Jill she seems rather sad about it.
Adele Azupadi
Adele talking to Tracy at her bedsit.
Since she is a teenager, Tracy is seen being extremely clingy with Adele , which sometimes disappoints her (" Cam's First Visit ", " Bedsit "). However, Adele admires the fact Tracy is inspired by her. In many scenes, Tracy usually borrows makeup from her. Tracy also loves Adele indepent lifestyle, as seen in Bedsit . However, Tracy and Adele aren't seen thoughout the series 2, since Bedsit.
Liam O'Donavan
Tracy looking at Liam, suspiciously.
At the start of the series, Tracy meets Liam , when they are both being questioned by the police: Tracy because of Cam 's credit card and Liam for a serious offence. Tracy immediately resents Liam , due to the fact that he is very mishevious but, like all the other residents, ends up being extremely close to Tracy, to their suprise. Often Tracy is seen stopping him from one of his schemes (" By The Book ", " Anarchy in DG ", " Out of Control ", " Big Brother "), along with Frank . However, Tracy often helps him make the right descions, regarding his personal life at Elm Tree House .
Carmen Howle
Tracy and Carmen, along with Toby, telling people to be quiet.
Tracy first meets Carmen , proir to her stealing Cam 's credit card. She then asks Mike for permission to stay at Elm Tree House for a bit, only for her to be offered a job as a care-worker there. Tracy is oblivious to the fact that Carmen , along with Lily and Tee , think she is a celebrity because of her book, My Life in Care , written by Tracy. However, Carmen still trusts her, despite the fact that she is a minor celebrity and as shown in Viva Carmen supports for judgements on descions because she was unsure whether to stay with her mum. Simalar to Carly Beaker , Tracy's mum, her mother used to leave her by herself to so she could go to the pub and hang out with boys.
Tee Taylor
Tee on top of a tree, after receiving poor judgement from Tracy
Similar to how the other residents of Elm Tree House met Tracy , Tee met her, thinking she was a celebrity and was asking her many questions. They officially meet in By the Book . They get along well at the first. Despite this, Tracy manages to interfere with Tee and Johnny's brother-sister bond, when she is angry about the way Johnny treats Tee . But, they seen happier with each other later in the series.
Gus Carmichael
Gus looking at Tracy.
Upon her first day at Elm Tree House , as an assistant care-worker, Gus Carmichael was persistent to make sure that she got a tour of Elm Tree House . Tracy finds it very difficult for Gus to calm down and relax, as he has Austim. However, Tracy realizes that Gus thoroughly respects her, as well as everyone one else because she is a "fun care-worker".
| Jacqueline Wilson |
Which British playwright won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005? | The Story of Tracy Beaker (TV series) | Tracy Beaker Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia
The Story of Tracy Beaker (TV series)
The Story of Tracy Beaker (TV series)
431pages on
The Story of Tracy Beaker redirects here.For the book of the same name., see The Story of Tracy Beaker ,
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The Story of Tracy Beaker
The title sequence for "The Story of Tracy Beaker"
Also known as
8 July 2002 – 5 March 2006
Original run
8 July 2002 – 5 March 2006
Status
Tracy Beaker Returns
The Story of Tracy Beaker is a television programme adapted from the book of the same name by Jacqueline Wilson . Its sequel Tracy Beaker Returns started in 2010.It ran on CBBC for five series, from 2002 to 2006 and also contained a feature length episode, Tracy Beaker's Movie of Me , broadcast in 2004, as well as a week of interactive episodes for Children in Need , entitled Tracy Beaker Parties with Pudsey, which were also crossovers with other shows from CBBC.The episodes themselves intersperse live action with cartoon sequences drawn by Nick Sharratt depicting Tracy's inner thoughts and, from series 3 onwards, the thoughts of other characters. Initially these cartoons would often be followed by a more realistic interpretation of what happened, but this was discontinued after the first series. The theme song was written and performed by Keisha White .In March 2009, the BBC announced that actress Dani Harmer would reprise the role of Tracy Beaker in a new series consisting of 13 episodes in which she would become a careworker at her former care home - this appears on TV as Tracy Beaker Returns . All of the five series have been released on DVD.
Contents
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The series is the story of various children in a British carehome, told through its lead, Tracy Beaker . In the first three series, Tracy lived at the carehome and the stories revolved around her desire to leave the home, nicknamed by the kids as 'The Dumping Ground'. By the start of the fourth series, Tracy has been fostered by author Cam Lawson ; the events of this are depicted in The Movie of Me. Because of this, the focus of the programme shifts slightly with the plots now focusing on Cam and Tracy's relationship, while back at 'The Dumping Ground', characters such as Jackie , Crash , Lol and Bouncer have been taking over Tracy's narrative role there. With the fostering of the series' primary antagonist, Tracy's worst enemy, Justine Littlewood , a new family called " The Wellards " are introduced to the home. Tracy's role is reduced further in the final series, notably she does not debut in person until episode 4, with the main narrative being the return of Justine to the 'Dumping Ground'. However when Tracy does return, she moves back into the children's home because of Cam's new boyfriend, Gary. Gary and Cam marry, which Tracy is initially hostile to, before adopting Tracy full-time. This closes the original series.
Cast
Main article: List of Tracy Beaker Characters
Main Cast
Tracy Beaker ( Dani Harmer ) is the twelve-year old protagonist. Despite being in care, she is a determined child with a high temper and attempts desperately to get what she wants by either: screaming, shouting or annoying people. Throughout the show, she is fostered by struggling author, Cam Lawson . She doesn't get along with any of the residents of Elm Tree House , except for Adele Azupadi and Peter Ingham however she can't stand Justine Littlewood and can no longer trust, Louise Goven , as she left her as a friend for Justine. Before going to The Dumping Ground, she was fostered sereval times and was put into care since her mother couldn't take care of her as she gave birth to her as a teenager.
Fiery-tempered, enemy of Tracy Beaker , best friend of Louise Goven and antagonist of the series - Justine Littlewood ( Montana Thompson ) is a girl, who is very harsh to any one who is rather vulnerable or angry in the Elm Tree House , to hide her real emotions. She is seen taunting Tracy Beaker and her friend Peter Ingham . Although close to her father , she remains contacting him very little. Perhaps, her mother has died so her dad was too upset to take care of her, like the Tracy Beaker Returns and The Dumping Ground character, Lily Kettle .
Peter Ingham ( Joe Starrs ) is a boy in care who has a major crush on Tracy , that she realizes later on the book series. Tracy often describes Peter as 'weedy little Peter Ingham. He likes to be nice to everyone in Elm Tree House , including Justine . Unfortunately, he was put in care because his parents died and so did his grandma . Despite having a tough time, he is prepared to be nice to everyone he meets.
Adele Azupadi ( Rochelle Gadd ) is teenager in care. She is a good friend of Tracy Beaker and Tracy is often too clingy with her. Unfortunately, she only has appeared in series one and series two . In Series Two, she begins in a bedsit before moving back to the Dumping Ground .
Louise Goven ( Chelsie Padley ) known for her blonde, highlighted with streaks of ginger (stawberry blonde), glistening hair is the former friend of Tracy Beaker , now friends with Justine Littlewood , who controls her. She appears generally nice and defenceless as she lets Justine control her, as she doesn't have any other friends. Tracy envies her and wishes she looked like her.
Ryan Matthews ( Sonny Muslim ) is older, more dominant twin of Zac Matthews . He appears in speak in a cockey dialect, unlike his younger twin . Like his twin , he is interested in judo. As of series 2 , he and his twin have been kicked off the show, possibly he was fostered.
Zac Matthews ( Jay Haher ) is the younger twin of Ryan Matthews .They shared a room in the first series, with Zac residing on the bottom bunk of their bed. An avid martial arts fan, he also likes vampires and owned a family of dolls, which he later sold. Apparently, he seems to dislike his brother's overprotective tendinces.
Maxy ( Jerome Holder ) is a kid in care who is close friends with Peter Ingham . Throughout the series, he is shown to be an extremely cheeky and likes to mess with the Careworkers . Later on, he begins helping Duke cook as he loves licking the cake mixtures.
Laurence "Lol" Plakova ( Ciaran Joyce ) is the younger brother of Bouncer . He is very mischievous and loves junk food. He is a year older than Tracy . Lol may be a replacement for Ryan a character in series 1. Unlike his brother, he is very irresponsible.
Bradley "Bouncer" Plakova ( Ben Hanson ) is the older of Lol . He is then a trainee chef. He goes to a Half Way house at the end of series 4. He later returns to work as a chef in the Dumping ground. In series 3 he also works for a short time at a cake store. He is a nice caring person. He is very protective of his brother Lol and always supports him he is also sometimes protective of Hayley, Layla, Jackie and Alice and is like a big brother to them.
Dolly ( Chole Hibbert-Waters ) is a small, cute and hyper girl who likes to be with Tracy in the children's home . She sees Tracy as her hero and even made a club about her in Series Three. She was fostered in the middle of series 3.She is easily bribed for sweets by Amber in one episode.
Amber Hurst ( Alicia Hooper ) is an elder girl who has a bad attitude and is bad- tempered towards most people. She is a bad influence and considers herself a rebel and non conformist.
Marco Maloney ( Jack Edwards ) is a boy who likes to wear costumes and dress-up. He always tries to wear new and original costumes. He is best friends with Milly and gets fostered with Milly by the Boxer family.
Hayley ( Kristal Lau ) is a quiet girl who is best friends with Layla . She gets Fostered in Season 4. She is always seen holding her teddy. Hayley is Quiet, sweet and an adorable girl who get's annoyed when people ignore her.
Micheal Grys ( Willam Tomlin ), a snitch and bully, instantly made himself unpopular and a rival to Crash , in series 3 . He starts the series snitched on the older kids and bullying the younger children. Later on in the series, he is revealed to have a brother who escaped from his carehome.
Liam "Crash" Daniels ( Darragh Montell ) is an agressive teenage boy who is close friends with Jackie , Tracy and Justine . Apparently, he inherits his anger issues from his father . Throughout the series, he has a crush on Justine at different points.
Jackie Hopper ( Abby Rakic-Platt ) is the best friend of Crash and Tracy and is a trainee athlete. Constantly, she remains calm, peaceful and thoughtful. Throughout the series, she meets her grandfather on many occasions and is devastated when he dies.
Layla ( Cara Readle ) is a younger girl who has Cerebral Palsy and is friends with Hayley , until she leaves, and then becomes friends with Alice and also gets along well with Bouncer . She is an eager and caring person, who is quick to get upset.
Roxy Wellard ( Sophie Borja-Edwards ) is the youngest of The Wellard Family and often shown to be the "brains" of the family and doesn't get along with others at all. Throughout the series, she is shown wearing black making her a sterotypical goth. However, she is occasionally nice to the residents of Elm Tree House .
Rio Wellard ( Craig Roberts ) is the middle child of The Wellard Family and is somewhat the least intelligent of the family often listening to what Roxy has to say.
Chantal Wellard ( Deepal Parmar ) is the eldest child of The Wellard Family . They are her half-siblings from the same mother and another father, but they always call each-other brother or sister, even when fighting. She is also very protective over her siblings.
Shawn "Wolfie" Lynch ( Felix Drake ) is a boy with rich parents who likes to live roughly because he has a fear of being trapped. He got his nickname from the Dumping Ground kids, who heard rumours that he was bought up in the wild by wolves. Wolfie thinks the rumour is funny, so he doesn't bother denying it. He can't sleep in a bed and hates being locked up.
Milly Saunders ( Holly Gibbs ) is very shy and chooses not to talk. She speaks only twice on screen in the whole of her stay at the Dumping Ground (One of which was in Tracy's dream). Milly is best friends with Marco. She is eventually fostered with Marco .
Rebecca Chalmers ( Georgina Hagen ) is Justine 's key rival, except for Tracy and was bullying Justine . She has a younger half brother named Jake, whom she does not see. Rebecca is a girl who cares a lot about what she looks like.
Alice ( Oliva Grant ) is a young girl, who is introduced in series five , and believes faires are real.She thinks Roxy Wellard is her best friend and likes to see the good in everyone.
Reccuring Cast
Camilla "Cam" Lawson ( Lisa Coleman ) is a middle-aged struggling author who later becomes Tracy 's foster mother when she meets her at Elm Tree House . She is an inspriation to Tracy , who desperately wants to become an author. Throughout, the books she appears to like simple things in life and has a small apartment. Cam has taken a liking to Tracy , as she is fiercely independent and aspires to be an author like her.
Micheal "Mike" Milligan ( Connor Byrne ) is the head careworker at Elm Tree House and Tracy considers him to be her strongest father figure. Mike has been an assistant care worker at the Dumping Ground since Tracy was very small and cares very much for all of the children, even once taking the blame for when Tracy smashed a window with a football. He is usually the one who lets the kids off lightly when they get into mischief, which makes him one of the more lighthearted members of staff.
Elaine Boyack ( Nisha Nayer ) also known as Elaine the Pain is Tracy 's social worker and tries to deal with her emotional breakthroughs. Although, she means well she appears annoying to the kids at Elm Tree House .
Norman "Duke" ( Clive Rowe ).is a care-worker and also the Dumping Ground's chef where Tracy lives. In series 4 he retired to be with his family. He is loved by all the kids and the other careworkers.
Shelley Appleton ( Nicola Reynolds ) is the head Care worker of the children's home from series three of Story of Tracy Beaker onwards. She has a cool, collected and confident attitude, but ultimately has a huge affection for all the kids. In series 3, it is mentioned that she cared for her dad as a child, because he had Alzheimer's disease.
Nathan Jones ( James Cartwright ) is a real care worker in , Story of Tracy Beaker , starting in series 2 and becomes a permanent member of staff from the end of series 2 to the end of series 3. Although he has been accused by his co-workers as well as some of the other children of being unprofessional, his 'childlike' manner allows the residents to trust him. Unfortunately, his behaviour also causes trouble and unintentionally hurts the residents' feelings.
Sid Rooney ( Vincenzo Pellegrino ) Sid is the Head care worker in series 4. Lol and Bouncer like to wind him up. Sid isn't seen or mentioned in series 5 and it is not mentioned where he went.
Benjamin Oliver "Ben" Batambuze ( Luke Youngblood ) is a boy with a rich background, he is friendly,outgoing and best friends with Tracy, however,he doesn't live in the Dumping Ground. At the start of Series 3 it was revealed that he left to go to boarding school, but he does appear in a photo halfway through the series.
Steven Samuel 'Steve' Littlewood ( Stephen Crossley ) is the father of Justine Littlewood, wife to sarah littlewood . Since his wife died, he has been very protective over Justine. During the television series he and Justine have a very 'bumpy' relationship, as after Carrie and Steve take Justine home, she comes back at the DG, as her cousin is taking Justine's room.
Carrie Littlewood ( Caroline Bunce ) is the girlfriend and later wife of Steve Littlewood .
Grandpa Jack ( Howell Evans ) is the altheic grandfather of Jackie who Jackie adores, but sadly, in series 4 he dies.
Episodes
The Story of Tracy Beaker ran from on CBBC from the 8th of July 2002 – 5th of March 2006. The show consisted of 120 episodes + 5 specials over a total of five seasons.
Season
| i don't know |
In the game of darts, what score is known as ‘Not old’? | Darts 501 - Terms and Meanings
The centre of the board. (see also: "SINGLE-BULL" and "DOUBLE-BULL") Score of 50
BUST / BUSTED
Hitting more than you needed in an x01 game. The darts do not count and the player begins his next turn on the same score he had prior to.
C
C
In a Cricket game this refers to high scores base on the number of darts scored. For example a triple-20, single-20, single-20 would be called a C-5 because "5 darts" were scored with three darts.
CHAMPAGNE BREAKFAST
Hitting treble 20, treble 1 and treble 5 in three darts (see "BREAKFAST")
CHALKING
Keeping score / marking the game.
CHIPS
A score of 26. (See also: "BREAKFAST /BED & BREAKFAST")
CHUCKER
A player who just "chucks" the darts at the board, doesn't aim or care.
CIRCLE IT
When a player scores a single digit (less than 10) with three darts, his team-mates would shout out "Circle it!" to the scorekeeper to highlight the terrible throw. A variation on this tradition is to draw a fish around the score, often leading to aquarium-related jokes being aimed at particularly poor or unlucky players.
CLOCK
The dartboard itself, usually in the context of "ROUND THE CLOCK".
CORK
The centre of the board. This comes from the cork in the end of a keg where it is tapped. The ends of kegs were used for targets in the game's early days.
D
DARTITIS
Name given to a mental state of a dart thrower unable to release his / her dart during a throw.
DEVIL
The treble-6, so called due to '666', and the fact that it is often hit in error when going for treble-13 or treble-10.
DIDDLE FOR THE MIDDLE
A throw to see who gets one dart closer to the bullseye to determine who throws first in the game. Also known as a "BULL OFF", "MIDDLE FOR MIDDLE" and "OUT FOR BULL".
DOUBLE
The thin outer ring of the board. In standard x01 games, a double counts for two times the number hit.
DOUBLE-BULL
On dartboards configured with a bullseye consisting of two concentric circles, the outer circle is commonly green and worth 25 and the inner circle is commonly red and worth 50 points. Hitting the innermost ring of this type of bullseye is a "DOUBLE-BULL". (See also: "BULLSEYE")
DOUBLE IN (DI)
A variant of x01 in which a double is needed to start the game.
DOUBLE OUT (DO)
Hitting the double of a number to win a game of 'x01
DOUBLE TOP
Not being able to hit the double needed to win the game.
DOWNSTAIRS
The lower portion of the board, usually in reference to the 19s in a game of x01.
E
A game that requires no special shot to begin scoring.
FAT
The largest portion of a number (the area between the double and triple ring)
FEATHERS
The 'feathers'/ Flights of the dart which makes the dart more aerodynamic
FLIGHTS
The "wings" at the end of a dart that make it fly straight. Also known as feathers.
G
Advises all players that the match has now started
GAME SHOT
Signifies that the match winning double has been hit
GOOD GROUP
A compliment for tight, accurate throwing.
GRAND SLAM
Hitting the T5, T20 & T1 in one throw.
GRANNY
A lose without scoring, see SHUT OUT cricket game
H
HAIL MARY
The third dart that miraculously scores a high treble where the first two combined scored low single numbers
HAT TRICK
A score of three bullseyes in a single throw.
HIGH TON
Scoring between 151-180 points in a game of '01
HOCKEY
The throw or Toe line. See 'Oche' Oche is pronounced as Hockey
I
ISLAND
The actual playable area of a dart board (inside the doubles ring). Missing this area entirely is sometimes referred to as "Off the island".
J
K
KILLER
A game variant where a number of players "own" a number on the dartboard and compete to build up "lives" (by hitting that number) until a threshold is reached (usually 4 or 6) before attempting to "kill" other players by removing the lives they have built up (by hitting those other players' numbers) until a single player is left.
L
LEG
One game of a match. Most professional matches are made up of a number of sets, each of which is split into legs.
LEG SHOT
Signifies that a player has completed (Won) the "leg" as per Game Shot.
LIPSTICK
Name given to the treble twenty made famous by Geordie darts commentator Sid Waddell
LITTLE / SMALL
The single bed between the bull and the triple
LOW TON
Scoring between 100-150 points in a game of '01
M
MAD HOUSE
The double-1. At least two explanations for the term have been proffered; because it can drive you crazy trying to hit one in a game of x01, or because it impossible to "get out" of the mad house - once a player has a score of 2 the only way to finish the game is by hitting a double-1.
MAXIMUM
A score of 170 to end a game. treble-20, treble-20, inner bull
MIDDLE FOR MIDDLE
See "DIDDLE FOR THE MIDDLE".
MONGER
A person who deliberately scores many more points than needed to win the game cricket game not 501.
Motown
Scoring 44 finish i.e single 4 and double 20 (tops). It is a reference to the ' Four Tops' group that were associated with the Motown Music label
MUGS AWAY
Loser of the previous game goes first in the next game.
N
Another word for 1. See "Bucket of Nails" and "Bag of Nails".
NOT OLD
A score of 37 (usually by hitting a 20, a 5 and a 12). The phrase is believed to have its origins in a Monty Python sketch.
O
The throw line you stand behind and to throw the darts. (pronounced 'Hockey')
OUT FOR BULL
The out scoring area of the centre bullseye- score of 25.
P
Least number of darts to win a leg of darts 501 - 9 darts
PERFECT SCORE
When a player scores a maximum 180 points in one throw of three darts.
PERFECT FINISH
When a player finishes a game with a maximum score of 170. This must be done by scoring treble 20, treble 20, double bull, with only three darts. This is considerably more difficult than hitting a perfect score as the player must break focus to change targets and it can only be done if the player has an exact score of 170 remaining.
POINTS
The point of the dart, steel tipped or plastic.
Q
When you throw a dart into the shaft of another.
ROUND OF Terms
Throwing three triples in one turn in Cricket.
ROUTE 66
Scoring 66 points in a throw.
ROUND THE CLOCK
Any of a number of game variants where players compete to be the first to hit all the segments on the board in an agreed order (usually numerical), finishing with the outer bull followed by the bull. In some versions hitting a double entitles the player to skip the next number, with a treble entitling the player to skip two numbers. Also commonly played by single players as a form of practice.
S
The part of a dart behind the barrel when the flights are mounted.
SHANGHAI
A score of a single, double and triple in the same number. "Shanghai" sometimes refers to a checkout of 120 (single, treble and double 20). In some games this is an automatic win i.e in a game of Shanghai.
SHOOTER
American terms for dart thrower
SHUT OUT
When you lose a game without ever scoring in it.
SINGLE BULL
On dartboards configured with a bullseye consisting of two concentric circles, the outer circle is commonly green and worth 25 and the inner circle is commonly red and worth 50 points. Hitting the outermost ring of this type of bullseye is a "SINGLE-BULL". (See also: "BULLSEYE")
SLOP /SLOPPY DARTS
Darts that score, but not where you wanted them. (See also: "SPLASH")
SPIDER or WEB
The dartboard wire assembly which divides the scoring segments of the dartboard.
SPLASH
Darts that score, but not where you wanted them. (See also: "SLOP")
SPLITTING THE 11
Throwing a dart between the digits of the 11 on the number ring. (Split double 1!)
STACKER
Dart landing on top and touching a previous dart thrown forming a stacked effect.
STICKS
STRAIGHT IN / SINGLE IN / STRAIGHT OFF
A game that requires no special shot to begin scoring.
STRAIGHT OUT / SINGLE OUT
Ending a game of '01 without having to hit a double, but hitting the required i.e. ten required 10 hit not necessarily double 5
STRIKING OIL
Hitting a double bull when "DIDDLING FOR THE MIDDLE" - comes from the black centre of some modern dart boards.
T
Three darts in the same number.
THROW LINE
The line you stand behind and throw the darts from also known as the 'Oche' Line / Toe Line.
TOE LINE
The line you stand behind and throw the darts from also known as the 'Oche' Line / Throw Line.
TON
A score of 100 in a game of x01.
TON PLUS
Scoring 100+ points in a throw (Ton 40 would be 140 points)
TOPS
The double 20 bed. As in "he wants tops for the match".
TRIPLE / TREBLE
The thin inner ring of the board, it usually counts for three times the number hit.
TROMBONES
Scoring 76 points in a throw.
TWO & SIX
Scoring 26 points in a throw (Old English money term)
TWO FAT LADIES
Scoring 88 points in a throw.
U
Dart landing underneath and touching a previous dart thrown forming an 'under stacking' effect.
UPSTAIRS
The upper portion of the board, usually in reference to the 20s.
V
| 37 |
What is the first name of Rene’s wife in the UK tv series ‘Allo ‘Allo!? | Darts | Dartboard | Dartboards | Dart Flights
Dart Flights
Darts Glossary
Choose A Letter:
ANNIE'S ROOM - The number One (1).
ARROWS - Another term for darts .
ARCHER - Refers to a player who throws very quick smooth darts
-B-
BABY TON - A score of 95, usually by scoring five 19s.
BAG O' NUTS - A score of 45.
BARREL - The metal body of the darts where they are gripped.
BASEMENT - The double-3.
BOTTOM OF THE BOARD - The numbers on the bottom half of the dartboard .
BOUNCE OUT - When a dart hits a wire on the board flush-on and bounces back off the dartboard . Can be potentially dangerous to spectators who are too close.
BREAKFAST - (or BED 'N' BREAKFAST) A score of 26, made up of a single-5, single-20, single-1 in a game of x01. This is a common score in darts because players aiming for the 20 sector (which contains the highest scoring area on the dartboard ) will often accidentally hit the 1 and the 5 sectors, which are located on either side of the 20. The term comes from the typical price of a bed-and-breakfast in times gone by: 2 shillings and sixpence, or "two and six". (See also "CHIPS")
BUCKET/BAG OF NAILS - Landing all three darts in the 1s.
BUCKSHOT - A throw when darts land wildly all over the dartboard .
BULL-OFF - See DIDDLE FOR THE MIDDLE.
BULLSEYE (or BULL) - The bull's eye, which has an Outer Bull and an Inner Bull.
BUST - Hitting more than you needed in an x01 game. The darts do not count and the player begins his next turn on the same score he had prior to.
-C-
CRICKET - In a Cricket game this refers to high scores base on the number of darts scored. For example a triple-20, single-20, single-20 would be called a C-5 because "5 darts " were scored with three darts .
CHAMPAGNE BREAKFAST - Hitting treble 20, treble 1 and treble 5 in three darts (see "BREAKFAST")
CHIPS - A score of 26. (See also: "BREAKFAST")
CHUCKER - A player who just "chucks" the darts at the board, doesn't aim or care.
CIRCLE IT - When a player scores a single digit (less than 10) with three darts , his team-mates would shout out "Circle it!" to the scorekeeper to highlight the terrible throw. A variation on this tradition is to draw a fish around the score, often leading to aquarium-related jokes being aimed at particularly poor or unlucky players.
CLOCK - The dartboard itself, usually in the context of "ROUND THE CLOCK".
CORK - The center of the dartboard . This comes from the cork in the end of a keg where it is tapped. The ends of kegs were used for targets in the game's early days.
COVER - A term frequently used by Sid Wadell, meaning aiming for treble 19.
-D-
DAIRYLEA DARTS - A throw that is 'spread' around the board, named after the cheese spread Dairylea.
DEVIL - The treble-6, so called due to '666', and the fact that it is often hit in error when going for treble-13 or treble-10.
DIDDLE FOR THE MIDDLE - A throw to see who gets one dart closer to the bullseye to determine who throws first in the game. Also known as a "BULL OFF", "MIDDLE FOR MIDDLE" and "OUT FOR BULL".
DOUBLE - The thin outer ring of the dartboard . In standard x01 games, a double counts for two times the number hit.
DOUBLE-BULL - On dartboards configured with a bullseye consisting of two concentric circles, the outer circle is commonly green and worth 25 and the inner circle is commonly red and worth 50 points. Hitting the innermost ring of this type of bullseye is a "DOUBLE-BULL". (See also: "BULLSEYE")
DOUBLE IN - A variant of x01 in which a double is needed to start the game.
DOUBLE TOP - The double 20.
DOUBLE TROUBLE - Not being able to hit the double needed to win the game.
DOWNSTAIRS - The lower portion of the dartboard , usually in reference to the 19s in a game of x01.
-E-
EASY IN - A game that requires no special shot to begin scoring.
EDDIE SHUFFLE - The art of adjusting ones stance or position along the ockey in an attempt to circumnavigate a troublesome 'blocking' dart. Also referred to as The Milk Float.
-F-
FOGLE - A series of castaway darts thrown with no other purpose than to irritate opponents.
FLIGHTS - The "feathers" of the dart that give it aerodynamic float. Also known as wings.
-G-
GAME ON - Advises all players that the match has now started
GAME SHOT - Signifies that the match winning double has been hit
GRANNY - A lose without scoring, see SHUT OUT
-H-
HAT TRICK - A score of three bullseyes.
HIGH TON - A score greater than 150.
HOCKEY - A raised 1 1/2" board used to mark the throwing line.
-I-
INNING - A round of completed turns by both players, or a turn in a particular game that has innings, like Baseball or Shanghai.
-L-
LEG - A game in a match, as in "the best of five legs", in which each leg is an entire game. Or, in the game of Legs, a stripe on the dart board .
-M-
MAD HOUSE - The double-1. At least two explanations for the term have been proffered; because it can drive you crazy trying to hit one in a game of x01, or because it impossible to "get out" of the mad house - once a player has a score of 2 the only way to finish the game is by hitting a double-1.
MAXIMUM - A score of 180
MAXIMUM CHECK-OUT - A score of 170 to end a game. treble-20, treble-20, inner bull
MUGS AWAY - Loser of the previous game goes first in the next game.
MURPHY - A score of single-5, single-20, single-1 in a game of x01. Based on Murphy's Law.
-N-
NAIL - Another word for 1. See "Bucket of Nails" and "Ton of Nails".
NINE DARTER - When a player completes a game of 501 in the minimum required nine- darts . This is a very rare event. There is usually a cash prize for professionals throwing a televised nine-darter.
NOT OLD - A score of 37 (usually by hitting a 20, a 5 and a 12). The phrase is believed to have its origins in a Monty Python sketch.
-O-
OCHE - The line you stand behind and throw the darts from.
-P-
PERFECT SCORE - When a player scores a maximum 180 points in one throw of three darts .
PERFECT FINISH - When a player finishes a game with a maximum score of 170. This must be done by scoring treble 20, treble 20, double bull, with only three darts . This is considerably more difficult than hitting a perfect score as the player must break focus to change targets and it can only be done if the player has an exact score of 170 remaining.
PIE - any of the numbered segments on the dartboard .
POPCORN - When the darts land so close to each other, they knock their flights out.
-R-
REDEEMER - A dart , (often a T20) that "redeems" two previous poor efforts.
RIGHT CHURCH - Term for hitting a double or triple, but the wrong number. Also known as "DADDY'S BED"
ROBIN HOOD - When you shoot a dart into the shaft of another.
ROUND OF NINE - Throwing three triples in one turn in Cricket.
ROUND THE CLOCK - Any of a number of game variants where players compete to be the first to hit all the sectors on the dartboard in an agreed order (usually numerical), finishing with the outer bull followed by the bull. In some versions hitting a double entitles the player to skip the next number, with a treble entitling the player to skip two numbers. Also commonly played by single players as a form of practice.
-S-
SCROAT - A dart that is aimed for treble 20, but ends up in double 20.
SET - A scoring method used in many tournaments.
SHAFT - The middle section of the darts that holds the Flight .
SHANGHAI - A score of a single, double and triple in the same number. "Shanghai" sometimes refers to a checkout of 120 (single, treble and double 20, also as "Shanghai 20"). In some games this is an automatic win. This is also the name of a game.
SHARKEY - A non-registered player who has to assume a false identity in order to fill in for an absent player in a league game, e.g. "due to poor turnout, The Arms had to use a Sharkey".
SHUT OUT - When you lose a game without ever scoring in it.
SINGLE BULL - On dartboards configured with a bullseye consisting of two concentric circles, the outer circle is commonly green and worth 25 and the inner circle is commonly red and worth 50 points. Hitting the outermost ring of this type of bullseye is a "SINGLE-BULL". (See also: "BULLSEYE")
SKUNKED - When you lose a game without ever scoring in it.
SLOP - Darts that score, but not where you wanted them.
SPIDER - The metal web that divides the dartboard into sections.
SPLASH - Darts that score, but not where you wanted them.
SPRAY 'N' PRAY - Darts thrown by an irate and less talented player, rather quickly
STICKS - The darts themselves.
STRAIGHT IN - A game that requires no special shot to begin scoring.
STRIKING OIL - Hitting a double bull when 'diddling for the middle' - comes from the black centre of some modern dart boards .
-T-
THREE IN A BED - Three darts in the same triple of a number. i.e. three triple 20's 180!
THROW LINE - The line you stand behind and throw the darts from.
TOE LINE - The line you stand behind and throw the darts from.
TON - A score of 100 in a game of x01. Scores over 100 would be called a "ton-whatever" for example, a ton-thirty would be a score of 130.
TON OF NAILS - A score of 5 where all three darts fell in the 1 bed with 1 dart in the treble 1.
TOP BANANA - Double 20. Usually exclaimed after hitting this bed to win a match.
TOP OF THE BOARD - The numbers on the top half of the dartboard .
TOPS - The double 20 bed. As in "he wants tops for the match".
TRIPLE/TREBLE - The thin inner ring of the dartboard , it usually counts for three times the number hit.
-U-
UPSTAIRS - The upper half of the dartboard
-W-
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In June 1938, Dr Douglas Hyde was elected the first President of which European country? | 1938: Douglas Hyde: The First Irish President | History.info
1938: Douglas Hyde: The First Irish President
Photo Credit To Wikipedia Commons
Story Highlights
Historical event:
25 June 1938
It is interesting that, during the mandate of the first President of Ireland, it was not yet clear who was actually the head of state in Ireland - the president or the British king, George VI. Specifically, Ireland still had links with the United Kingdom, even though it had its own government and prime minister.
On this day in 1938, Ireland got its first president in history. His name was Douglas Hyde and he was a respected scholar of the Irish language (Gaelic).
This old language had diminished as a spoken tongue and was at risk of falling into oblivion due to the expansion of the English language.
Douglas Hyde was very interested in the Irish language and old Irish Gaelic culture already in his youth. He even founded an organization called “Gaelic League” (Irish: Conradh na Gaeilge) that promotes the Irish language in order to save it from extinction.
In 1938, Douglas Hyde emerged as the ideal person for the President of Ireland. Irish Prime Minister Éamon de Valera and the head of the opposition W. T. Cosgrave both agreed on that.
In fact, they both appreciated Hyde, who had a distinguished academic career (and a doctorate). Indeed, Dr. Hyde was a Protestant, which the Catholic Prime Minister de Valera and the head of the opposition Cosgrave wanted to utilize in order to show that Ireland is not intended to be religiously exclusive.
All in all, Hyde was elected President of Ireland with no real opposition.
Interestingly, Hyde gave his presidential oath in the Irish language, in his native dialect. In the meantime, this dialect has long disappeared (Dr. Hyde was one of the last speakers), so the recording of his oath is one of the few reminiscences of this historical dialect.
As president, Hyde moved into the official presidential residence – Áras an Uachtaráin in Dublin – which is still the official residence of the President of Ireland.
It is interesting that, during the mandate of the first President of Ireland, it was not yet clear who is actually the head of state in Ireland – the president or the British king, George VI.
Specifically, Ireland still had links with the United Kingdom, even though it had its own government and prime minister. However, it was not a real problem, but mostly a formal one.
All these disagreements were resolved after World War II, when Ireland was formally declared a republic and completely separate from the United Kingdom.
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Which BBC sports commentator famously said ‘For those of you watching in black and white, Spurs are in the all-yellow strip’? | The Presidents of Ireland: From 1938 Until 2015
The Presidents of Ireland: From 1938 Until 2015
European History Expert
By Robert Wilde
The Republic of Ireland emerged from a protracted struggle with the British Government during the first half of the nineteenth century, leaving the landmass of 'Ireland' divided into two. Self-government initially returned to Southern Ireland in 1922 when the country became a 'Free State' in the British Commonwealth. Further campaigning followed, and in 1939 the Irish Free State adopted a new constitution, replaced the British monarch with an elected president and became 'Éire', 'Ireland'. Full independence - and complete withdrawal from the British Commonwealth - followed with the declaration of the Republic of Ireland in 1949.
This is a chronological list of the presidents of Ireland; the dates given are the periods of said rule.
1. Douglas Hyde 1938 – 1945
An experienced academic and professor rather than a politician, Hyde’s career was dominated by his desire to preserve and promote the Gaelic language. Such was the impact of his work that he was supported by all the main parties in the election which made him the first president of Ireland.
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2. Sean Thomas O'Kelly 1945 – 1959
Unlike Hyde, O’Kelly was a long time politician who was involved in the early years of Sinn Féin, fought against the British in the Easter Rising, and worked in succeeding layers of government, including that of Eamon de Valeria, who would succeed him. O’Kelly was elected for the maximum two terms, and then retired.
3. Eámon de Valera 1959 – 1973
Perhaps the most famous Irish politician of the presidential era (and with good reason), Eamon de Valera was taoiseach / prime minister and then president of the sovereign, independent Ireland he did so much to create. A president of Sinn Féin in 1917, founder of Fianna Fáil in 1926, he was also a respected academic.
4. Erskin Childers 1973 – 1974
Eskine Childers was the son of Robert Erskine Childers, an acclaimed writer and politician who was executed in the struggle for independence. After taking a job at a newspaper owned by De Valera’s family, he became a politician and served in many positions, eventually being elected president in 1973. However, he died the next year.
5. Cearbhall O'Dalaigh 1974 – 1976
A career in law saw O'Dalaigh become Ireland’s youngest attorney general, a Supreme Court judge and chief justice, as well as a judge in the burgeoning European system. He became president in 1974, but his fears over the nature of an Emergency Powers Bill, itself a reaction to IRA terrorism, led him to resign.
6. Patrick Hillery 1976 – 1990
After several years of upheaval, Hillery bought stability to the presidency, and after saying he would only serve one term was asked back by the main parties to stand for a second. A medic, he transitioned into politics and he served in the government and the EEC.
7. Mary Robinson 1990 – 1997
Mary Robinson was an accomplished lawyer, a professor in her field, and had a record of promoting humans rights when she was elected president, and she became the most visible holder of the office to that date, touring and promoting Ireland’s interests. When her seven years were up she moved into a role as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and still campaigns on the issues.
8. Mary McAleese 1997 – 2011
The first president of Ireland to be born in Northern Ireland, McAleese was another lawyer who transitioned into politics, and who turned a controversial start into a career as one of the best regarded presidents of Ireland.
9. Michael D Higgins 2011 -
A published poet, respected academic and long-time Labour politician, Higgins was considered an incendiary figure early on but turned into something of a national treasure, winning the election in no small part due to his speaking ability.
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Euphrasia is used as a herbal or homeopathic remedy for infections in which part of the body? | Euphrasia - Homeopathy
Homeopathy
Eyebright
Euphrasia officinalis
Eyebright (botanical name Euphrasia officinalis) is indigenous to Europe, where it is found growing in the wild. It is believed that the plant has acquired its name eyebright from its use in the form of a traditional indigenous medication for treating irritation in the eyes.
The herb euphrasia has a typical similarity with our eyes. The general physical symptoms cured by this herb include eye irritation accompanied by hurtful and smouldering pains as well as muggy mucus. In such cases, the sufferer usually experiences an intense sensitivity to light together with inflamed, swollen eyelids and repeated blinking. The eyes also have a tendency to water heavily - a symptom worsened when the sufferer is exposed to open air, is coughing or lying down. This medication is primarily used to treat infections or allergies that affect the eyes and the nose; for instance, colds , conjunctivitis and/ or hay fever . In addition, Euphrasia is often recommended for eye symptoms following any injury.
Since the Middle Ages people have been employing eyebright to cure straining and inflamed eyes. In contemporary times, practitioners of herbal medicine use eyebright to treat allergies and infections of the eyes , nasal passages, sinuses and the middle ear.
Euphrasia is a remedy that becomes effective very fast and assists in brightening the eyes and clearing blockages. It provides immediate relief when anyone is suffering from burning, inflamed, red and aggravated eyes attributable to hay fever, allergies or a running cold. Other symptoms cured by this homeopathic remedy may include headaches , coughs and noses changing from congested and stuffy to profusely runny. It may be pleasant to your eyes when their condition worsens in a smoke-filled warm room compared to being in a garden when it is in full bloom.
As a homeopathic remedy, Euphrasia is inclined to work excellently for individuals whose nature is somewhat melancholic. Such people may have a tendency to daydream and may be engaged easily into their environs as well as people around them. In addition, such individuals have a propensity to struggle with physical symptoms that may result in exasperation and frustration in their personal lives too.
Parts used
The entire fresh flowering plant including the root.
Uses
In homeopathy, Euphrasia is the main cure for several eye conditions, including cataract , allergies of the eyes, conjunctivitis, granular eyelids and glandular swellings. It is an excellent remedy for catarrhal conjunctivitis accompanied by cloudiness of cornea and ulceration. This medication is most suitable for people who have a feeling of dryness, inflammation and stinging in their eyes. In such cases, the eyes water profusely almost always and the water has a pungent smell. It is also given to people who experience copious acrid lachrymation accompanied with copious bland coryza. Usually, the eyes are sticky in the morning. In addition, Euphrasia is also effective for curing granular eyelids. In such cases, the edges of the eyelids turn red, distended and there is a burning sensation - making the eyes extremely susceptible to touch. This homeopathic remedy is also useful for conditions like violent prickling of the eyes that results in frequent rubbing as well as winking. It is also an appropriate remedy for delicate rashes in the region of the eyes accompanied with swollen eyelids and unclear vision. In addition, the patients may experience a biting pain in their eyes, which spreads out towards the head, and there is a sensation as if the eyes are straining owing to the presence of sand particles.
The traditional use of the eyebright based herbal remedies go back to Scotland of the 14th and 15th centuries, during this time the Scottish highlanders made an herbal infusion of the Euphrasia officinalis and used this herbal infusion for the treatment of different eye conditions caused by a variety of factors. Herbalist traditionally used to give eyebright to patients affected by coughs, by hoarseness of voice, those with an earache , and those affected by headaches during the 19th century and the plant was one of the most important herbs used in the treatment of these conditions. Its use as an antiseptic herb and an anti-inflammatory herb continues till this day and many herbalists prescribe this herb for the treating inflammation in their patients. Some of the typical problems in which Euphrasia based medications are used include the different disorders of the eye, like the inflammation of the conjunctiva or conjunctivitis, it is also used in the treatment of the disorder called blepharitis, which is the inflammation affecting the eyelids, it is also used in treating the inflammation of the irises or iritis, in addition, the herbal remedies made from the Euphrasia are also used in the treatment of dimmed vision, in treating intolerance to bright light, in alleviating and reducing the production of sticky mucus in the body, in the treatment of small blisters which affect the cornea of the eye, the cornea is the keratinized hardened surface tissue of the human eye, the remedy is also used in the treatment of dry eyes which often afflict women during menopause . The remedy also finds extensive use in the effective treatment of physical injuries to the eyes and in those cases where the eyes turn watery or are otherwise affected by an intense stinging sensation, coupled with the presence of abundant, intensely burning and sticky discharges. Patients affected by common colds and seasonal symptoms of hay fever in whom symptoms such as very hot and reddened cheeks along with abundant watery mucus can be treated with this remedy for a full recovery. Euphrasia is also very effective in the treatment of individuals suffering from seasonal disorders such as the allergy induced hay fever; the eyes are the main part of the body affected during this condition. Hay fever causes irritation and swelling in the eyes of the person, this symptom is often accompanied by the presence of a bland watery nasal discharge at times. The herbal remedies made from the eyebright herb are also used in the treatment of intense and splitting headaches affecting patients; it can be used as an herbal remedy for the treatment of intense and painful constipation , and is an excellent remedy for the initial stages of measles in patients. The herbal remedy based on the eyebright is also often used in the treatment of women, especially during problems such as short and painful menstruation , where the menstrual flow might last only for about an hour each day during the entire menstrual period, the painful inflammation affecting the prostate gland in men can also be treated using the herbal eyebright remedy.
Individuals suffering from any type of eye condition are likely to find the homeopathic remedy Euphrasia beneficial. It is useful in curing sticky eyes, especially when it is accompanied with a burning sensation. This homeopathic remedy is also effective in treating eyes that are prone to profuse watering or eye problems that have a tendency to worsen when they are exposed to open air. In such case, there may be some kind of irritation as well as pain in the eyes owing to allergies.
While most people especially rely on the homeopathic remedy Euphrasia to get relief from their eye problems, this medication can also assist in curing the primary causes related to almost all eye problems. In this case, it is worth mentioning that Euphrasia may be very effective in treating hay fever as well as the symptoms and complications associated with this condition. These symptoms may comprise irritating eyes, ears and nose.
Source
The homeopathic remedy Euphrasia is made with the entire freshly obtained flowering eyebright plant, counting the root, and slicing it in small pieces. Subsequently, these slices are steeped in alcohol and the resultant solution is the homeopathic Euphrasia that works excellently in treating several eye conditions. It is important to note that the end product does not retain even the slightest trace of the original plant and is safe for use.
| Eye |
In which country of the UK was designer Laura Ashley born? | Conjunctivitis - Health911.com - Pink Eye, Remedies for Conjuctivitis
• itchy, scratchy feeling
• watering of the eyes
• sometimes a sticky discharge that may cause eyelashes and eyelids to become stuck together while you are asleep
The eyes are red and swollen and seem to be filled with sand. Before you treat conjunctivitis, rule out other eye problems with similar symptoms, such as allergies, irritation from chemicals (especially chlorine in pools), and exposure to cigarette smoke and smog. Generally, mild cases of conjunctivitis should go away in several days without treatment; however, it may be uncomfortable, so the remedies discussed below should prove helpful.
Causes
• Bacterial (staph or strep), usually from hand-to-eye contact, and viral infections associated with a cold, sore throat, cold sore or measles, are causes for most conjunctivitis. Viral conjunctivitis tends to clear up of its own accord. Bacterial conjunctivitis produces a yellowish discharge that becomes crusty when you sleep. If the bacterial infection doesn't clear up after four days of using the compresses and other remedies listed below consult your doctor.
• Overuse of nonprescription eyedrops used to soothe your eyes has recently been discovered as one of the triggers of conjunctivitis. Many over-the-counter eyedrops contain decongestants that help shrink swollen blood vessels in the eyes. Allergic reaction to these ingredients can trigger conjunctivitis. With continued use, you may experience a "rebound" effect, where your eyes will get redder and sorer - just the opposite of what you are trying to do. Look for an alternative without the decongestants, preferably saline drops, also known as "artificial tears."
• A deficiency of vitamin A may leave you more susceptible to infections and other eye problems.
• Allergies can cause persistent eye irritation. If you get conjunctivitis frequently, it is most likely an allergy, usually from certain foods. Modifying your diet will help both conditions. Conjunctivitis caused by allergies will cause puffy eyelids and leave the eyes red, with a gritty feeling, but there will be no discharge.
• Allergic rhinitis, can be seasonal (hay fever), due to pollen, or year-round, due to house dust, molds or pets. Having itchy, watery eyes, and stringy (clear, not crusty) pus are common symptoms. The eyelids are often swollen. In this case, use an antihistamine and a cool compress to relieve the itching.
• Contact lens use may be a cause of infection. The lenses may trap particles in the eye or the lenses may be worn too long, causing irritation. Poor hygiene may cause infection, so make sure you follow proper storage procedures and clean your lenses very well and wash your hands before touching your lenses. Some people are allergic to contact lens cleaning solutions, especially those containing the preservative Thiomersal.
• Certain illnesses, such as measles, may trigger conjunctivitis.
• Some sexually transmitted diseases can cause conjunctivitis.
• The inside of the eyelids may develop bumps which cause irritation and the eyes will become bloodshot. There may be a feeling that there is a foreign body in your eye.
• Foreign substance in the eye.
• Cosmetics, such as mascara.
• Conjunctivitis is highly contagious, so don't share towels, pillows, or washcloths with someone else.
• Change your pillowcase frequently.
• If you get conjunctivitis or other eye irritations frequently, we suggest you boost your immune system to help ward off infections.
• Wash towels and bedding frequently.
• Needless to say, keep your fingers out of your eyes!
• Wash your hands before and after touching your eyes, preferably with antibacterial soap.
• If the conjunctivitis comes at the same time as a cold sore, check with your doctor to make sure the herpes virus has not infected your eye. This is very important.
• If you use makeup, discard any you were using when you got conjunctivitis, as it is probably contaminated and is an easy way to spread it to your other eye.
• Look for berberine as an ingredient in herbal or commercial eyewashes. It is antibacterial and is quite effective against both staph and strep infections, two major causes of conjunctivitis.
• If you normally wear contact lenses, switching to glasses will help the infection clear up faster. The contacts hold the germs in the eye and are also irritating to the eye.
• If you go out in bright sunlight, wear sunglasses. Sunlight irritates pink eye.
Supplements and the Immune System
As with any infection, you will need to enhance your immune system to fight the infection. You may want to take the following supplements:
PCO, also known as OPC, (oligomeric proanthocyanidin) is a very powerful antioxidant derived from pine bark needles or grape seeds. It works as an anti-inflammatory and against allergic reactions. When taken with vitamin C, the PCO enhances its effectiveness. The PCO will enhance healthy tissue growth. Take 100 mg 2x daily.
Vitamin A 100,000 IU daily for up to a month (do not exceed 10,000 IU if you are pregnant). This will enhance your immune system.
Vitamin C 2-6,000 mg daily in divided doses. Vitamin C promotes healing.
Zinc 50 mg daily. Also enhances the immune system.
The best approach to treat conjunctivitis is to keep the eye as clean as possible and wash the infection away using one of the eyewashes mentioned below. It may take a few days, but following these tips should clear it up.
Eyewashes & Compresses
Making Eyewashes
Boil the water for 10 minutes to sterilize it, then follow the directions for making an eyewash. Be sure to sterilize the eyecup or eyedropper for 10 minutes in boiling water before each use. Also, do not use either the eyecup or the eyewash in both eyes; use fresh eyewash and sterilize the eyecup again. Conjunctivitis is very contagious, so you must take all precautions to keep from spreading it. Using one of the eyewash remedies below, strain the mixture through a coffee filter, a gauze pad or cheesecloth. Put the eyewash into the eyecup and lower your eye to the cup; roll your eye around and blink so that the wash will coat the entire eye. Keep the eye immersed for a minute.
Using Compresses
• Using a compress will soothe the eye. To make a compress, use a cotton pad or very clean cloth. Choose a remedy discussed below and apply a compress for at least 10 minutes as often as needed.
• One of the easiest remedies to use is the warm or cold water compress. Put a warm compress over the eyes to soothe them and prevent the sticky discharge from drying on the lashes, and a cold one to shrink the swelling and reduce the itchiness. Do this for five minutes three or four times a day.
• Many of the bacteria that cause conjunctivitis don't like heat, so a hot compress will be helpful. Use a hot compress three to four times a day, but test the temperature before putting it over the eye to make sure it isn't too hot.
CAUTION: You may have an eye condition called iritis or uveitis, an inflammation of the iris. Do this simple test to see if you have conjunctivitis or iritis: cover the inflamed eye with your hand and shine a penlight or flashlight directly in to your good eye for three seconds. If you do not feel any pain, you probably have pinkeye. If you do feel pain in your covered eye, you probably have iritis and should see your doctor at once. By shining the light in to your good eye, the pupils of both eyes will contract, and pain will generally indicate that you have iritis.
See Your Doctor When...
• If you don't have iritis and your problem continues for three or four days with little improvement. Conjunctivitis can lead to potentially serious eye damage.
• If you have severe pain or blurred vision, go to your doctor at once.
• If the discharge becomes worse.
• If the redness is due to an eye injury.
Conjunctivitis should clear up by itself in a few days to two weeks, depending on the cause and severity. The remedies listed below will soothe the pain and itching and speed the healing process.
Remedies
Using aromatherapy oils will promote healing and help draw out the infection.
Chamomile oil Make a warm compress with a few drops.
Lavender oil Make a warm compress with a few drops.
Rose oil Make a warm compress with a few drops.
Folk
Aloe Soak a cloth with aloe vera juice and place it over the eyes. Can also be used as an eyewash.
Artificial tears These drops will soothe the eye and help flush it out.
Baking soda Mix 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in 1/2 cup of water. This makes a soothing eyewash.
Barberry tea Make a tea using 1/2 teaspoon of powdered root bark in one cup of water. Boil for 15-30 minutes and use as an eyewash or with a compress. Barberry has berberine, the antibacterial compound described above.
Boric acid Use a boric acid eyewash. Make a solution of one quart of boiled water and one tablespoon of boric acid; allow to cool; use with a clean washcloth or cotton ball three or four times daily; allow to dry, then rinse gently.
Bread Apply cold bread to closed eyes to reduce the inflammation and soothe itching.
Castor oil Put one drop in the eye three times a day.
Chamomile Add 1 teaspoon of dried chamomile flowers to 1 cup of boiled water. Steep for 5 minutes, strain, let cool, and use as an eyewash. May also be made into a compress.
• Steep equal parts of chamomile and eyebright in boiling water, cool, and use as an eyewash.
• Add 12 drops of tincture of chamomile to 1 cup of boiled water, cool, and use as an eyewash.
Colloidal silver Use a drop or two in the infected eye, or dilute a few drops in water and use as an eyewash. Colloidal silver is a natural antibiotic and has safely been used for a century. It should clear up the infection quickly.
Elderberry Use elderberry blossom tea as an eyewash.
Elderflower Make a strong infusion and use as a compress. Fresh leaves placed over the eye and held in place with a bandage may also be used.
Eyebright Eyebright has been used for hundreds of years for a variety of eye problems. It has astringent and antibacterial properties, and is soothing to the eyes. Make an infusion using one teaspoon of dried herb in one cup of boiling water for ten minutes. Cool, strain, and use as an eyewash. Do this 3-4 times a day. May also be used as a compress.
• Put three drops of eyebright tincture in a tablespoon of boiled water. When cool, use as an eyewash.
Fennel Boil fennel seeds and use as an eyewash.
Goldenseal This herb is especially beneficial if the conjunctivitis is caused by an infection. It is believed that the berberine in goldenseal is the active ingredient that fights infections. It can kill staph and strep bacteria, each of which may be a cause of conjunctivitis. Make a solution using 2 teaspoons of the herb to a cup of boiled water and use for a warm compress. May also be used as eyedrops, 2-3 drops, three times daily.
• Another method is to mix 1/8 teaspoon each of goldenseal, comfrey and chamomile, add to one cup of boiled water and steep for 15 minutes; strain. Use as eyedrops.
Honey You may either put a drop or two of honey directly on your eyes or put three tablespoons in 2 cups of boiling water, stir to dissolve, let it cool, then use as an eyewash several times a day. The honey has antibacterial properties and unpasteurized honey has antibiotic properties. Honey will soothe the eye and promote healing.
• Honey/eyebright Pour 3/4 pint of boiling water over a handful of eyebright flowers and leaves, cover and let stand until lukewarm; strain; add 3 tablespoons of honey and stir until dissolved. Soak cotton or other very clean cloth in the mixture and place on the eye for 15-20 minutes. Make sure to keep the cotton or cloth moist. This mixture may also be used to wash the eyes several times a day. Milk may be substituted for the water.
Milk Use warm(tepid) milk as an eyewash or as a compress.
Potato Grate a potato and place on the eye. It is an astringent and will help reduce the inflammation. The potato may also be made into a poultice and placed over the eye for 15 minutes. Do this for three successive nights.
Slippery elm Make a poultice of slippery elm powder and place on the inflamed eye.
Tea Tea contains bioflavonoids that fight viral and bacterial infections and can help reduce inflammation. Put a moist teabag of eyebright tea on the affected eye for several minutes. Repeat several times a day. If your eye is swollen, moisten the teabag with cool water. The tannic acid in the tea will soothe the itching.
• Use a green or black teabag. Black tea has more tannins that help reduce the inflammation.
• A weak solution of tea may be used as an eyewash.
Turmeric Make a solution using 2 teaspoons of turmeric to a cup of boiled water and use for a warm compress.
Water Washing the eyes several times a day with cool water will soothe the inflammation.
Witch hazel American Indians used witch hazel for inflammation. Use a gauze pad or cottonballs soaked in witch hazel extract as a compress over closed eyes. Witch hazel has astringent properties and will help reduce the swelling.
Yarrow Yarrow is astringent, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory. Make an eyewash by steeping 1 teaspoon of yarrow in a cup of water for 5-10 minutes; cool and use in a compress.
Yogurt Apply a poultice made from live yogurt culture daily. This will help reduce inflammation.
Homeopathic
You may take the following specific remedies every hour for up to 10 doses a day, unless otherwise noted.
Aconite 30c Use if symptoms come on after injury or exposure to cold. The eye will be red and inflamed, feel hot and dry and seem like grit has gotten into it.
Apis is used when the eyeball seems burning, appears red and swollen, and filled with fluid, but feels better with a cold compress.
Argentum nit. 6c Use when there is a fair amount of discharge and the membranes surrounding the eyes are red and swollen.
Argentum nit. 30c (twice a day) or 12x (four times a day).
Arsenicum album 30c (twice a day) or 12x (four times a day). This remedy is used if there is a burning sensation with a clear discharge, or if the eyes are sensitive to light with swelling around the eyes.
Belladonna 30c (twice a day) or 12x (four times a day). Use this remedy if the problem has come on rapidly, with red, swollen, burning eyelids, and the eyes are dry and very sensitive to light. There will not be much discharge.
Euphrasia 6c Use if there is little or no discharge, and is good for burning, itchy eyes. You may also make a soothing eyewash by using 10 drops of Euphrasia tincture and 1 teaspoon of salt in one-half pint of warm water. Use as an eyewash every four hours, but not more than four times a day.
Hep.sulf. is useful to draw out infection. Take on waking on alternate days with Pulsatilla.
Optique remedy by Boiron. Take as directed.
Pulsatilla 30c (twice a day) or 12x (four times a day). This remedy is used when there is a thick, yellow-green discharge from the eyes and the eye is swollen and sore.
Sulphur 30c (twice a day) or 12x (four times a day). Use this remedy when there are burning pains and redness around the eyes. There is usually a yellowish discharge.
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If something is sigmate, it is in the shape of which letter of the English alphabet? | The stories behind the letters of our alphabet | New York Post
The stories behind the letters of our alphabet
Modal Trigger
G’s that look like I’s, F’s that sound like “Waw,” and Q’s that look like monkeys — man, was our alphabet a mess.
That’s because many of our letters began as Egyptian hieroglyph symbols 4,000 years ago, with a hodgepodge of Semitic, Phoenician, Greek and Roman influences thrown in.
It would take centuries, and the dropping of more than a few letters along the way, before our alphabet was born. By year 1011, the order that we know today was largely in place — excluding “J,” “U,” “W” — but there were 29 letters, including the ampersand.
The alphabet we know today takes its modern 26-letter shape in the 16th century.
Author Michael Rosen devotes 400-plus pages to topsy-turvy history of our letters in his entertaining “Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells A Story” (Counterpoint), dedicating a chapter to each of the 26 letters. Here’s a brief look.
Illustrations by Leah Tiscione
A
Turn the “A” upside down and you’ll have a good sense of its original shape and meaning when it was introduced around 1800 BC. Resembling an animal’s head with antlers or horns, the original meaning of the letter in ancient Semitic was “ox.”
B
Flip “B” on its belly and you see a home — complete with a door, a room and a roof. Now you have some idea of why 4,000 years ago in Egypt, “B” (which sounded like our “h”) was a hieroglyph that meant “shelter.”
C
The first “C” shape emerged in Phoenician and stood for a hunter’s stick or boomerang. The Greeks renamed it “gamma” and when they switched to reading from right to left to left to right in 500 BC, they flipped the shape. As the letter spread to Italy, it took on a more crescent shape, and the C as we know it today was born.
D
Around 800 BC, Phoenicians began to use a “dalet” — or a rough triangle facing left — which translated to door. The Greeks adopted it and renamed it “delta.” The Romans later added serifs and varied the thickness of the lines, softening one side into a semicircle.
E
The “E” of 3,800 years ago, pronounced “h” in Semitic, resembled a stick with two arms and a leg meant to signify a human form. The Greeks flipped it around in 700 BC and changed the sound to “ee.”
F
The “F” of Phoenician times resembled a “Y” and sounded like “waw.” The ancient Greeks changed it to “digamma” and tipped the “Y” over to look like a drunk version of our “F.” The Romans regulated the writing of the letter centuries later, drawing the cross lines at firm geometric right angles, also giving it the “fff” sound.
G
Today’s “G” derives from the Greek letter “zeta,” a letter that looks like our “I” but was pronounced as a “zzz.” Around 250 BC, Romans altered the shape of this strange letter to look more like an “E” without the middle horizontal arm and then applied the “g” sound because they didn’t need the “z” sound in Latin. Over time, the crescent curved.
H
Based on the Egyptian hieroglyph of a fence, it’s one of the most controversial letters in the English language. The breathy sound associated with the letter made academics argue that the letter was unnecessary — and many Latin and British scholars began dropping the “H” in 500 AD. Despite the controversy, “H” secured a spot in our alphabet.
I
Around 1000 BC, the letter “I” was “yod,” meaning arm and hand. The Greeks adopted the letter as “iota” changing it to a vertical squiggle. By 700 BC, “I” became the straight line we use today.
J
“I” was a popular letter and often a stand-in for “j” sounds. The red-headed stepchild of our alphabet, “J” was only introduced in standardized spelling in the 15th century by the Spanish and only appeared consistently in print around 1640.
K
What appeared to be an outstretched hand with one finger and a thumb visible appeared in Egyptian hieroglyphs around 2000 BC. The ancient Semites called it a “kaph,” meaning “palm of the hand,” which sounded like our “K.” Around 800 BC, the Greeks reversed it and took it on as their own “kappa.”
L
A hook-shaped letter, referred to as “El,” meaning “God” emerged in ancient Semitic inscriptions around 1800 BC. The Phoenicians straightened out the hook, reversed its position, and called it “lamed” (“lah-med”), meaning a cattle prod. Again the Greeks flipped the letter and renamed it “lamda.” The Romans straightened the bottom leg into a right angle.
M
Four-thousand years ago, Egyptians drew a vertical wavy line with five peaks to denote “water.” The Semites reduced the number of waves to three in 1800 BC; the Phoenicians continued the trend by removing one more wave. By 800 BC, the peaks became zigzags and the structure was made horizontal — our “M” in sound and appearance.
N
Around the same time as “M,” “N” was emerging in Egypt with a small ripple on top and a larger one below. The word translated to “snake” or “cobra.” Ancient Semites gave it the sound “n,” meaning fish. By around 1000 BC, the sign contained just one wave and was named “nu” by the Greeks.
O
“O” starts its life on Egyptian hieroglyphs (around the time as “M” and “N”) as “eye.” Semites called it “ayin,” but with a guttural sound that sounds like “ch” (think Hebrew name Chaim). The Phoenicians reduced the eye to just the outline of a pupil, our “O.”
P
An inverted “V”-shape appears in early Semitic language 3,800 years ago, sounding like “pe” and meaning “mouth.” The Phoenicians adapted it to a diagonal hook shape at the top. The Romans closed the loop, and flipped it right, by 200 BC.
Q
Around 1000 BC, “Q,” which sounded like “qoph,” either meant ”monkey” or a “ball of wool.” According to Rosen, academics are still split. “Q” was then a circle with a vertical line through it. A “Q” that we’d recognize appeared in Roman inscriptions in 520 BC — it was also then that the “u after q” rule was invented.
R
“R” first appears in ancient Semitic in the form of a profile of a human. Pronounced “resh” it translated to (no surprise) “head.” The Romans flipped it to face right and added a tail, “probably to distinguish it from ‘P’,” writes Rosen.
S
Early “S’s” appeared 3,600 years ago as a horizontal, curvy “W” shape, meant to denote an archer’s bow. Phoenicians added an angularity that looks more like our “W’s” At this stage it was known as “shin” meaning “tooth.” The early Greeks rotated it to the vertical and called it “sigma” with the “s” sound — and the Romans flipped it.
T
“T” in its modern, lower-case form, is found all over ancient Semitic inscriptions. By 1000 BC, the Phoenicians referred to it as “taw,” meaning “mark,” with our current “tee” sound. The Greeks named it “tau” and added a cross stroke at the top to differentiate it from “X.”
U
There’s a lot of confusion among letters “U,” “V” and “W.” According to Rosen, the Phoenicians began using a letter that looked like our “Y” around 1000 BC. They called it “waw” meaning “peg.” The Greeks adopted this in 700 BC and called it “upsilon.”
V
The Romans did not differentiate between “V” and “U” sounds — so Venus was actually pronounced “Weenus.” Even Shakespeare used “U’s” in place of “V’s” in his plays and poems. Capital “V’s” at the start of words started to appear in the 1400s.
W
During the Middle Ages, Charlemagne’s scribes placed two “U’s” side by side with a space between (as in literally “double U”), a new letter that sounded like a “V.” It wasn’t until around 1700 that W as a unique letter (not two “U’s” or two “V’s” placed side-by-side) emerged in printing presses across Europe. In French, this letter is still referred to as “double V.”
X
The ancient Greeks had a letter “ksi” which sounded like our “X.” Lower case “x’s” arrive via handwritten manuscripts of early medieval times and the Italian printers of the late 15th century.
Y
The original “Y” entered the alphabet as “upsilon” or our “U.” Around 100 AD Romans added “Y” to their alphabet, usually to denote something of Greek origins.
Z
“Z” might be the last letter of the alphabet, but it’s an elder. Three-thousand years ago the Phoenicians used a letter called “zayin,” meaning “ax.” It looked like an uppercase “I” with top and bottom serifs. The Greeks adopted it as “zeta” around 800 BC, when it evolved into our modern “Z” shape (and also led to the creation of our “G”) with the sound of “dz.” The letter fell into disuse for several centuries, until the Norman French arrived with words that used the “Z” sound.
What didn’t make the cut
It took thousands of years to establish our 26-letter alphabet. As we formed our modern language, we lost a few letters, including:
Thorn: þ
This letter — which was pronounced “th” as in “them” and translated to “the” — took the place of “ye” in place names like “Ye Olde Fishe and Chippe Shoppe.” Over time, as Gothic script was introduced to Old English, “Y” and “thorn” looked too similar — and one had to go.
Wynn: ƿ
Latin didn’t offer a letter with the “wah” sound popular to English speakers. Wynn filled the void, but not for long. Over time, it became popular to stick two double-“U’s” side-by-side to create the sound of wynn.
Yogh: Ȝ
The yogh sound entered during the Middle English to represent the “ch” sound (think: Bach). It disappeared thanks to the French printing presses, which decided to replace yogh with “gh.”
Ash: ӕ
You’ve seen it in medieval (when spelled mediaeval) or in aeon and aether. This is an example of Roman ligature, meaning the tying together of two letters, in this case “a” and “e.” Though it was dropped as a letter from English, it remains one in Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic.
Ethel: œ
Another Latin ligature, this is the combination of “o” and “e” that can be seen in words like “foetus” and “subpoena.” Now in most cases, we replace this letter with an e.
Ampersand: &
Though Rosen does not include this in his book, because he says “pedantically and fussily” that it’s a symbol, not a letter. But the ampersand was once considered part of the alphabet. In fact, that’s how it got its name. The end of the alphabet was “x, y, z and, per se, and.” That is, “in itself, and,” meaning the symbol for “and.” That became am-per-sand.
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| S |
On an Ordnance Survey map, what does ‘PA’ represent? | Letter: translate English - Dutch
a written message addressed to a person or organization1
mailed an indignant letter to the editor1
an award earned by participation in a school sport1
he won letters in three sports1
the conventional characters of the alphabet used to represent speech1
his grandmother taught him his letters1
a strictly literal interpretation (as distinct from the intention)1
he followed instructions to the letter1
he obeyed the letter of the law1
owner who lets another person use something (housing usually) for hire1
mark letters on or mark with letters1
set down or print with letters1
win an athletic letter1
An activity that tracks the delivery of a letter. The activity can contain the electronic copy of the letter.2
Wiktionary Translations for letter :
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Entomophobia is the irrational fear of which type of creatures? | Beeline Pest Control
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Entomophobia
For all those that scream, stress or feel like their heart is going to explode whenever they see any small creature with multiple legs, it is possible you have entomophobia. Entomophobia is the fear of or aversion to all types of bugs. Most of us find this fear to be irrational. Bugs are a fraction of our size, and yet many of our physiological reactions make them appear to be a huge threat to our well-being. Why is it that so many of us are afraid of these tiny creatures?
Symptoms of Entomophobia
Phobias create an extreme amount of anxiety whenever we come in contact with whatever it is we fear. An insect phobia can create many unpleasant symptoms such as:
Feeling faint
Fuzzy vision or hearing
In most situations, one feels that they MUST escape the situation that they’re in. These symptoms range from mild to severe, but overall they can be manageable with time.
What Causes a Phobia of Insects?
Although there isn’t a specific “trigger” to cause a phobia, there are some ideas as to how they can start. Sometimes an ugly experience with a bug, such as being stung, can spark a phobia within someone. Memories of the pain or the oddity of the situation can keep the phobia alive. Parents also have a large impact on what their children fear. If a parent continually shows fear whenever they see a bug, the child will believe that the bug will harm them, causing anxiety.
Overcoming Your Fears
Because we have learned to fear insects, we have to unlearn the fear in order to overcome it.
First, pinpoint why you might have this fear. Are you afraid of bites or stings? Or are you afraid of the way they look and move? Write down what it is you fear about bugs, or a particular bug.
Educate yourself about that bug or bugs. Understanding what it is you fear will help you overcome the anxiety you feel when you see it.
Start by drawing a picture of a bug you’re afraid of. Physically drawing out your fear will help you overcome your reactions. Progress into looking at black and white photos of your fear, and eventually colored pictures.
When you’re ready, slowly start watching videos about bugs.
Once you feel like you’ve got your emotions in control, check out an insect exhibit at your local zoo.
Exposing yourself to bugs in short burst over time will help you overcome your fear. Don’t force it too hard upon yourself in risk of causing too much panic. Remember that overcoming your fears will not happen overnight. Building up short exposures with bugs will in due time help you manage your phobia. In the mean time, make sure that your home and phobia is free from bugs by checking out our previous post: 3 Ways to Bug-Proof Your Home.
By, Jessica Doucette
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Who became Speaker of the House of Commons in June 2009? | Entomophobia- Fear of insects | Phobia Source
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Entomophobia- Fear of insects
Entomophobia is having an excessive or persistent fear of insects, whether the insects are harmful or not. This includes fear of spiders, bugs, mites, cockroaches or other small creatures that creep and crawl. They experience extreme anxiety at the mere sight of an insect. Sufferers usually find themselves cleaning rooms, floors, doors, and windows. Causes may be linked from past traumatic events during childhood. Being stung by a bee may be a trigger to the fear or knowing someone to be allergic to bees. Individuals may also get this fear of insects from parents who are afraid of insects.
Another reason for this phobia is the fear that these insects are carriers of disease such as the ‘kissing disease’ or chiggers caused by the bite of a bug or malaria and other hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola which is caused by a bite of a mosquito. One might have been bitten by an insect before and experienced pain thus they fear bugs.
Symptoms of Entomophobia include feeling of terror, panic, anxiety, increased heart rate, tremors, and shortness of breath.
Systematic desensitization is one of the most common treatments for this type of phobia. The goal is to reduce or eliminate the phobia to help the patient cope with the fear. Relaxation technique is another way wherein it will help alleviate the tension and anxiety that is in their daily life.
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Which US Vice President had a pet Cocker Spaniel called Checkers? | Nixon's Checkers Speech . Eisenhower . WGBH American Experience | PBS
Eisenhower's vice president, Richard Nixon, counters critics who claim he took a $18,000 contribution and used it for personal expenses, though he admits that his family dog,Checkers, was a political gift.
Richard Nixon's Checkers Speech
September 23, 1952
My Fellow Americans,
I come before you tonight as a candidate for the Vice-Presidency and as a man whose honesty and integrity has been questioned.
Now, the usual political thing to do when charges are made against you is to either ignore them or to deny them without giving details. I believe we have had enough of that in the United States, particularly with the present Administration in Washington, D.C.
To me the office of the Vice Presidency of the United States is a great office, and I feel that the people have got to have confidence in the integrity of the men who run for that office and who might attain them.
I have a theory, too, that the best and only answer to a smear or an honest misunderstanding of the facts is to tell the truth. And that is why I am here tonight. I want to tell you my side of the case.
I am sure that you have read the charges, and you have heard it, that I, Senator Nixon, took $18,000 from a group of my supporters.
Now, was that wrong? And let me say that it was wrong. I am saying it, incidentally, that it was wrong, just not illegal, because it isn't a question of whether it was legal or illegal, that isn't enough. The question is, was it morally wrong. I say that it was morally wrong -- if any of that $18,000 went to Senator Nixon, for my personal use. I say that it was morally wrong if it was secretly given and secretly handled.
And I say that it was morally wrong if any of the contributors got special favors for the contributions that they made.
And to answer those questions let me say this: not a cent of the $18,000 or any other money of that type ever went to me for my personal use. Every penny of it was used to pay for political expenses that I did not think should be charged to the taxpayers of the United States.
It was not a secret fund. As a matter of fact, when I was on "Meet the Press" -- some of you may have seen it last Sunday -- Peter Edson came up to me, after the program, and he said, "Dick, what about this fund we hear about?" And I said, "Well, there is no secret about it. Go out and see Dana Smith who was the administrator of the fund," and I gave him his address. And I said you will find that the purpose of the fund simply was to defray political expenses that I did not feel should be charged to the Government.
And third, let me point out, and I want to make this particularly clear, that no contributor to this fund, no contributor to any of my campaigns, has ever received any consideration that he would not have received as an ordinary constituent.
I just don't believe in that, and I can say that never, while I have been in the Senate of the United States, as far as the people that contributed to this fund are concerned, have I made a telephone call to an agency, nor have I gone down to an agency on their behalf.
And the records will show that, the records which are in the hands of the administration.
Well, then, some of you will say, and rightly, "Well, what did you use the fund for, Senator? Why did you have to have it?"
Let me tell you in just a word how a Senate office operates. First of all, the Senator gets $15,000 a year in salary. He gets enough money to pay for one trip a year, a round trip, that is, for himself, and his family between his home and Washington, D.C. and then he gets an allowance to handle the people that work in his office to handle his mail.
And the allowance for my State of California, is enough to hire 13 people. And let me say, incidentally, that this allowance is not paid to the Senator.
It is paid directly to the individuals, that the Senator puts on his pay roll, but all of these people and all of these allowances are for strictly official business; business, for example, when a constituent writes in and wants you to go down to the Veteran's Administration and get some information about his GI policy -- items of that type for example. But there are other expenses that are not covered by the Government. And I think I can best discuss those expenses by asking you some questions.
Do you think that when I or any other senator makes a political speech, has it printed, should charge the printing of that speech and the mailing of that speech to the taxpayers?
Do you think, for example, when I or any other Senator makes a trip to his home State to make a purely political speech that the cost of that trip should be charged to the taxpayers?
Do you think when a Senator makes political broadcasts or political television broadcasts, radio or television that the expense of those broadcasts should be charged to the taxpayers?
I know what your answer is: It is the same answer that audiences give me whenever I discuss this particular problem.
The answer is no. The taxpayers should not be required to finance items which are not official business but which are primarily political business.
Well, then the question arises, you say, "Well, how do you pay for these and how can you do it legally?" And there are several ways, that it can be done, incidentally, and it is done legally in the United States Senate and in the Congress.
The first way is to be a rich man. So I couldn't use that.
Another way that is used is to put your wife on the pay roll. Let me say, incidentally, that my opponent, my opposite number for the Vice Presidency on the Democratic ticket, does have his wife on the pay roll and has had her on his pay roll for the past ten years. Now let me just say this: That is his business, and I am not critical of him for doing that. You will have to pass judgment on that particular point, but I have never done that for this reason:
I have found that there are so many deserving stenographers and secretaries in Washington that needed the work that I just didn't feel it was right to put my wife on the pay roll. -- My wife sitting over there.
She is a wonderful stenographer. She used to teach stenography and she used to teach shorthand in high school. That was when I met her. And I can tell you folks that she has worked many hours on Saturdays and Sundays in my office, and she has done a fine job, and I am proud to say tonight that in the six years I have been in the Senate of the United States Pat Nixon has never been on the Government pay roll.
What are the other ways that these finances can be taken care of? Some who are lawyers, and I happen to be a lawyer, continue to practice law, but I haven't been able to do that.
I am so far away from California and I have been so busy with my senatorial work that I have not engaged in any legal practice, and, also, as far as law practice is concerned, it seemed to me that the relationship between an attorney and the client was so personal that you couldn't possibly represent a man as an attorney and then have an unbiased view when he presented his case to you in the event that he had one before Government.
And so I felt that the best way to handle these necessary political expenses of getting my message to the American people and the speeches I made -- the speeches I had printed for the most part concerned this one message of exposing this Administration, the Communism in it, the corruption in it -- the only way I could do that was to accept the aid which people in my home State of California, who contributed to my campaign and who continued to make these contributions after I was elected, were glad to make.
And let me say that I am proud of the fact that not one of them has ever asked me for a special favor. I am proud of the fact that not one of them has ever asked me to vote on a bill other than my own conscience would dictate. And I am proud of the fact that the taxpayers by subterfuge or otherwise have never paid one dime for expenses which I thought were political and should not be charged top the taxpayers.
Let me say, incidentally, that some of you may say, "Well, that is all right, Senator, that is your explanation, but have you got any proof?" And I would like to tell you this evening that just an hour ago we received an independent audit of this entire fund. I suggested to Governor Sherman Adams, who is the chief of staff of the Eisenhower campaign, that an independent audit and legal report be obtained, and I have that audit in my hand.
It is an audit made by Price Waterhouse & Co. firm, and the legal opinion by Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, lawyers in Los Angeles, the biggest law firm, and incidentally, one of the best ones in Los Angeles.
I am proud to report to you tonight that this audit and legal opinion is being forwarded to General Eisenhower and I would like to read to you the opinion that was prepared by Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, based on all the pertinent laws, and statutes, together with the audit report prepared by the certified public accountants.
It is our conclusion that Senator Nixon did not obtain any financial gain from the collection and disbursement of the funds by Dana Smith; that Senator Nixon did not violate any federal or state law by reason of the operation of the fund; and that neither the portion of the fund paid by Dana Smith directly to third persons, nor the portion paid to Senator Nixon, to reimburse him for office expenses, constituted income in a sense which was either reportable or taxable as income under income tax laws.
(signed)
Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher,
by Elmo Conley
That is not Nixon speaking, but it is an independent audit which was requested because I want the American people to know all the facts and I am not afraid of having independent people go in and check the facts, and that is exactly what they did.
But then I realized that there are still some who may say, and rightly so -- and let me say that I recognize that some will continue to smear regardless of what the truth may be -- but that there has been understandably, some honest misunderstanding on this matter, and there are some that will say, "well, maybe you were able, Senator, to fake the thing. How can we believe what you say -- after all, is there a possibility that maybe you got some sums in cash? Is there a possibility that you might have feathered your own nest?" And so now, what I am going to do -- and incidentally this is unprecedented in the history of American politics -- I am going at this time to give to this television and radio audience, a complete financial history, everything I have earned, everything I have spent and everything I own, and I want you to know the facts.
I will have to start early, I was born in 1913. Our family was one of modest circumstances, and most of my early life was spent in a store out in East Whittier. It was a grocery store, one of those family enterprises.
The only reason we were able to make it go was because my mother and dad had five boys, and we all worked in the store. I worked my way through college, and, to a great extent, through law school. And then in 1940, probably the best thing that ever happened to me happened. I married Pat who is sitting over here.
We had a rather difficult time after we were married, like so many of the young couples who might be listening to us. I practiced law. She continued to teach school.
Then, in 1942, I went into the service. Let me say that my service record was not a particularly unusual one. I went to the south pacific. I guess I'm entitled to a couple of battle stars. I got a couple of letters of commendation. But I was just there when the bombs were falling. And then I returned. I returned to the United States, and in 1946, I ran for Congress. When we came out of the war -- Pat and I -- Pat during the war had worked as a stenographer, and in a bank, and as an economist for a Government agency -- and when we came out, the total of our savings, from both my law practice, her teaching and all the time I was in the war, the total for that entire period was just less than $10,000 -- every cent of that, incidentally, was in Government bonds -- well, that's where we start, when I go into politics.
Now, whatever I earned since I went into politics -- well, here it is. I jotted it down. Let me read the notes.
First of all, I have had my salary as a Congressman and as a Senator.
Second, I have received a total in this past six years if $1,600 from estates which were in my law firm at the time that I severed my connection with it. And, incidentally, as I said before, I have not engaged in any legal practice, and have not accepted any fees from business that came into the firm after I went into politics.
I have made an average of approximately $1,500 a year from nonpolitical speaking engagements and lectures.
And then, unfortunately, we have inherited little money. Pat sold her interest in her father's estate for $3,000, and I inherited $1,500 from my grandfather. We lived rather modestly.
For four years we lived in an apartment in Parkfairfax, Alexandria Virginia. The rent was $80 a month. And we saved for a time when we could buy a house. Now that was what we took in.
What did we do with this money? What do we have today to show for it? This will surprise you because it is so little. I suppose as standards generally go of people in public life.
First of all, we've got a house in Washington, which cost $41,000 and on which we owe $20,000. We have a house in Whittier, California which cost $13,000 and on which we owe $3,000. My folks are living there at the present time.
I have just $4,000 in life insurance, plus my GI policy which I have never been able to convert, and which will run out in two years.
I have no life insurance whatever on Pat. I have no life insurance on our two youngsters Patricia and Julie.
I own a 1950 Oldsmobile car. We have our furniture. we have no stocks and bonds of any type. We have no interest, direct or indirect, in any business. Now that is what we have. What do we owe?
Well, in addition to the mortgages, the $20,000 mortgage on the house in Washington and the $10,000 mortgage on the house in Whittier, I owe $4,000 to the Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C. with an interest at 4 percent.
I owe $3,500 to my parents, and the interest on that loan, which I pay regularly, because it is a part of the savings they made through the years they were working so hard -- I pay regularly 4 percent interest. And then I have a $500 loan, which I have on my life insurance.
Well, that's about it. That's what we have. And that's what we owe. It isn't very much. But Pat and I have the satisfaction that every dime that we have got is honestly ours.
I should say this, that Pat doesn't have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat, and I always tell her she would look good in anything.
One other thing I should probably tell you, because if I don't they will probably be saying this about me, too. We did get something, a gift, after the election.
A man down in Texas heard Pat on the radio mention that our two youngsters would like to have a dog, and, believe it or not, the day we left before this campaign trip we got a message from Union Station in Baltimore, saying they had a package for us. We went down to get it. You know what it was?
It was a little cocker spaniel dog, in a crate that he had sent all the way from Texas, black and white, spotted, and our little girl Tricia, the six year old, named it Checks.
And you know, the kids, like all kids, loved the dog, and I just want to say this, right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we are going to keep it.
It isn't easy to come before a nation-wide audience and bare your life, as I have done. But I want to say some things before I conclude, that I think most of you will agree on.
Mr. Mitchell, the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, made this statement that if a man couldn't afford to be in the United States Senate, he shouldn't run for senate. And I just want to make my position clear.
I don't agree with Mr. Mitchell when he says that only a rich man should serve his Government in the United States Senate or Congress. I don't believe that represents the thinking of the Democratic Party, and I know it doesn't represent the thinking of the Republican Party.
I believe that it's fine that a man like Governor Stevenson, who inherited a fortune from his father, can run for President. But I also feel that it is essential in this country of ours that a man of modest means can also run for President, because, you know -- remember Abraham Lincoln -- you remember what he said -- "God must have loved the common people, he made so many of them."
And now I'm going to suggest some courses of conduct.
First of all, you have read in the papers about other funds, now, Mr. Stevenson apparently had a couple. One of them in which a group of business people paid and helped to supplement the salaries of State employees. Here is where the money went directly into their pockets, and I think that what Mr. Stevenson should do should be to come before the American people, as I have, give the names of the people that contributed to that fund, give the names of the people who put this money into their pockets, at the same time that they were receiving money from their State government and see what favors, if any, they gave out for that.
I don't condemn Mr. Stevenson for what he did, but until the facts are in there is a doubt that would be raised. And as far as Mr. Sparkman is concerned, I would suggest the same thing. He's had his wife on the pay roll. I don't condemn him for that, but I think that he should come before the American people and indicate what outside sources of income he has had. I would suggest that under the circumstances both Mr. Sparkman and Mr. Stevenson should come before the American people, as I have, and make a complete financial statement as to their financial history, and if they don't it will be an admission that they have something to hide.
And I think you will agree with me -- because, folks, remember, a man that's to be President of the United States, a man that is to be Vice President of the United States, must have the confidence of all the people. And that's why I'm doing what I'm doing. and that is why I suggest that Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Sparkman, if they are under attack, that should be what they are doing.
Now let me say this: I know this is not the last of the smears. In spite of my explanation tonight, other smears will be made. Others have been made in the past. And the purpose of the smears, I know, is this, to silence me, to make me let up.
Well, they just don't know who they are dealing with. I'm going to tell you this: I remember in the dark days of the Hiss trial some of the same columnists, some of the same radio commentators who are attacking me know and misrepresenting my position, were violently opposing me at the time I was after Alger Hiss. But I continued to fight because I knew I was right, and I can say to this great television and radio audience that I have no apologies to the American people for my part in putting Alger Hiss where he is today. And as far as this is concerned, I intend to continue to fight.
Why do I feel so deeply? Why do I feel that in spite of the smears, the misunderstanding, the necessity for a man to come up here and bare his soul? And I want to tell you why.
Because, you see, I love my country. And I think my country is in danger. And I think the only man that can save America at this time is the man that's running for President, on my ticker, Dwight Eisenhower.
You say, why do I think it is in danger? And I say look at the record. Seven years of the Truman-Acheson Administration, and what's happened? Six hundred million people lost to Communists.
And a war in Korea in which we have lost 117,000 American casualties, and I say that those in the State Department that made the mistakes which caused that war and which resulted in those losses should be kicked out of the State Department just as fast as we can get them out of there.
And let me say that I know Mr. Stevenson won't do that because he defends the Truman policy, and I know that Dwight Eisenhower will do that, and he will give America the leadership that it needs.
Take the problem of corruption. You have read about the mess in Washington. Mr. Stevenson can't clean it up because he was picked by the man, Truman under whose Administration the mess was made.
You wouldn't trust the man who made the mess to clean it up. That is Truman. And by the same token you can't trust the man who was picked by the man who made the mess to clean it up and that's Stevenson. And so I say, Eisenhower who owes nothing to Truman, nothing to the big city bosses -- he is the man who can clean up the mess in Washington.
Take Communism. I say as far as that subject is concerned the danger is greater to America. In the Hiss case they got the secrets which enabled them to break the American secret State Department code.
They got secrets in the atomic-bomb case which enabled them to get the secret of the atomic bomb five years before they would have gotten it by their own devices. And I say that any man who called the Alger Hiss case a red herring isn't fit to be President of the United States.
I say that a man who, like Mr. Stevenson, has pooh-poohed and ridiculed the Communist threat in the United States -- he has accused us, that they have attempted to expose the Communists, of looking for Communists in the Bureau of Fisheries and Wildlife. I say that a man who says that isn't qualified to be President of the United States.
And I say that the only man who can lead us into this fight to rid the Government of both those who are Communists and those who have corrupted this Government is Eisenhower, because General Eisenhower, you can be sure, recognizes the problem, and knows how to handle it.
Let me say this, finally. This evening I want to read to you just briefly excerpts from a letter that I received, a letter which after all this is over no one can take away from us. It reads as follows:
Dear Senator Nixon,
Since I am only 19 years of age, I can't vote in this presidential election, but believe me if I could you and General Eisenhower would certainly get my vote. My husband is in the Fleet Marines in Korea. He is in the front lines. And we have a two month old son he has never seen. And I feel confident that with great Americans like you and General Eisenhower in the White House, lonely Americans like myself will be united with their loved ones now in Korea. I only pray to God that you won't be too late. Enclosed is a small check to help you with your campaign. Living on $85 a month it is all I can do.
Folks, it is a check for $10, and it is one that I shall never cash. And let me just say this: We hear a lot about prosperity these days, but I say why can't we have prosperity built on peace, rather than prosperity built on war? Why can't we have prosperity and an honest Government in Washington, D.C., at the same time?
Believe; me, we can. And Eisenhower is the man that can lead the crusade to bring us that kind of prosperity.
And now, finally, I know that you wonder whether or not I am going to stay on the Republican ticket or resign. Let me say this: I don't believe that I ought to quit, because I am not a quitter. And, incidentally, Pat is not a quitter. After all, her name is Patricia Ryan and she was born on St. Patrick's day, and you know the Irish never quit.
But the decision, my friends, is not mine. I would do nothing that would harm the possibilities of Dwight Eisenhower to become President of the United States. And for that reason I am submitting to the Republican National Committee tonight through this television broadcast the decision which it is theirs to make. Let them decide whether my position on the ticket will help or hurt. And I am going to ask you to help them decide. Wire and write the Republican National Committee whether you think I should stay on or whether I should get off. And whatever their decision, I will abide by it.
But let me just say this last word. Regardless of what happens, I am going to continue this fight. I am going to campaign up and down America until we drive the crooks and the Communists and those that defend them out of Washington, and remember folks, Eisenhower is a great man. Folks, he is a great man, and a vote for Eisenhower is a vote for what is good for America.
| Richard Nixon |
Which musical instrument does Kermit the Frog play? | Presidential Dogs - Dog Breeds Presidents Have Owned - DogLoverStore
Presidential Dogs – Dog Breeds Presidents Have Owned
Presidential Dogs – Dog Breeds Presidents Have Owned
Presidential Dogs – Dog Breeds Presidents Have Owned – Part 1
President Warren Harding was the 29th President of the United States and served in office from 1921 to 1923. During his time in the White House, Harding had an Airedale named Laddie Boy. It was said that Laddie Boy had a hand carved chair that he would lay in during cabinet meetings. It was also said that Laddie Boy would beg dinner guests for food a time or two. Bad doggy! Warren Harding was considered the “Father of the First Dog”.
George H Bush, 41st President of the United States, had a Springer Spaniel named Millie. Millie became quite popular over at the White House, perhaps the most famous Presidential dog in history. Millie “wrote” a best-selling book called Millie’s Book: As Dictated to Barbara Bush, Barbara being the First Lady of course. The book outsold the President’s auto-biography! Millie was a very pretty dog and she made it onto the cover of Life Magazine alongside Barbara Bush when she gave birth to a litter of puppies. One of these puppies became George W Bush’s White House pet. In 1989 Washingtonian Magazine labeled Millie as Washington’s “ugliest dog in the city”. The President took offense to the magazine picking on his dog because his dog was actually quite pretty. Many said Bush’s love for his beloved canine increased his relatability and likability as a President.
Franklin Roosevelt, or FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and had a Scottish Terrier named Fala during his time at the White House. Fala went everywhere with Roosevelt and was thought as possibly one of the most photographed dogs in the world. It was said that Fala once went missing in the Aelutian Islands and Roosevelt sent a U.S. Navy ship to find the dog. Stories like this is one of the reasons why Fala was followed so much by the media. Fala outlived FDR by 7 years and now you can see a statue of both Roosevelt and his beloved pooch in Washington, D.C. at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.
Theodore “Teddy “Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States and had two terriers named Skip and Jack; Skip was the more famous of the two. In the book, Theodore Roosevelt’s Letters to His Children, Skip is mentioned several times. In the first letter mentioning Skip, it looks as though TR found him when he was out hunting bears and bobcats. He states that the dog was a part of John Goff’s pack and the dog really took a liking to him and followed him around, so he decided to take the dog home to his son, Archie. Skip was mentioned 6 other times in the book where TR states that the dog was once good for hunting but now he just wants sleep all day and become a lapdog. Skip passed away during Teddy’s time at the White House and he was buried on the grounds. Once Teddy’s Presidential time was up, the dog was exhumed and reburied at the Roosevelt family estate in Sagamore Hill.
Richard Nixon was the 37th President of the United States. Nixon had a cocker spaniel named Checkers who was a gift from a Republican supporter. Checkers became a part of one of the more famous campaign speeches made by Nixon in 1952. It wasn’t illegal to keep gifts that were given by Presidential backers, it was just simply frowned upon because allegations of possible conflict of interest would arise. Nixon vowed nationally, in what is now titled the “Checkers Speech” that he would never give up the family dog that his daughter had named. Some say this evoked a large sympathy vote.
George W Bush was the 43rd President of the United States. Both Bush’s dogs, a Springer Spaniel named Spot and a Scottish Terrier named Barney, became famous for different reasons. Spot’s mom was George H Bush’s dog Millie. Spot was born in the White House in 1989 during George Bush Sr’s Presidential term. Spotty’s full name is Spot Fetcher Bush. Spot would follow George W Bush around the White House and became a loyal companion for 15 years. The dog was put to sleep after suffering several strokes in 2004. The White House cat came to be thanks to Spot, who found the cat hiding in a tree on the grounds of the White House one day. Barney became famous, or infamous let’s say, after biting two different reporters on two separate occasions. Laura Bush, wife of the President, joked that this was Barney’s way of saying he was “done with the paparazzi.” Barney’s infamy grew after Bush was criticized for having such a “puny” dog as such an “influential” world leader.
| i don't know |
Which bird is traditionally depicted delivering newborn babies? | 99 Adorable Facts about Babies | FactRetriever.com
99 Adorable Facts about Babies
By Karin Lehnardt, Senior Writer
Published August 20, 2016
A baby cannot taste salt until it is 4 months old. The delay may be related to the development of kidneys, which start to process sodium at about that age.[12]
In medieval Europe, leeches were commonly used to treat babies’ illnesses. For example, leeches were placed on a baby’s windpipe for croup. Additionally, teething babies were commonly purged or bled.[12]
A baby’s eyes are 75% of their adult size, but its vision is around 20/400. By six months, a baby’s vision should reach 20/20.[10]
Newborns are more likely to turn their head to the right than to the left.[10]
The inner ear is the only sense organ to develop fully before birth. It reaches its adult size by the middle of pregnancy.[5]
A baby's skull doesn't fuse until around age 2
The protein that keeps a baby’s skull from fusing is called “noggin.”[11]
Within a few days of birth, a baby can distinguish between the touch of bristles that are of different diameters.[5]
Adults have 206 bones. When babies are born, they have 300. Their bones fuse as they grow, resulting in fewer bones as adults.[11]
The intestines of a newborn are about 11 feet long. The length will double by the time the baby grows to adulthood.[11]
A newborn urinates about every 20 minutes and then roughly every hour at 6 months.[12]
Human babies are the only primates who smile at their parents.[12]
If a person who was born 8 lbs. and 20 in. at birth continued growing at the same rate as he does the first year, by the time he reached 20, he’d be 25 ft. tall and weigh nearly 315 lbs.[12]
Famous premature babies include Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Mark Twain, Stevie Wonder, Johannes Kepler, and Sir Winston Churchill.[4]
The largest number of babies born to a woman is 69. From 1725-1765, a Russian peasant woman gave birth to 16 sets of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets.[6]
In 1978, the first baby was born in Antarctica: Emilio Marcos Palma.[6]
A baby has significantly more tastebuds than an adult
A baby has around 30,000 taste buds. They are not just on the tongue but also on the sides, back, and roof of the mouth. Adults have about 10,000.[5]
Each year, over four million babies are born in the U.S.[11]
Approximately 80% of infants are born with some form of birthmark, usually “stork bites” and “port wine stains.”[11]
Approximately two or three of every 1,000 children in the United States are born deaf or hard-of-hearing. More lose their hearing later in childhood.[9]
Babies can suffer serious health effects if their mothers have an STD, including death, low birth weight, conjunctivitis (an eye infection), pneumonia, neonatal sepsis (infection in the baby’s blood stream), neurologic damage, blindness, deafness, acute hepatitis, meningitis, chronic liver disease, and cirrhosis. Many of these problems can be prevented if the mother receives prenatal care that includes screening for STDs.[13]
Some scientists suggest that shaking the head to mean “no” derives from newborns turning their head away from food when they are full.[11]
A baby can recognize the smell and voice of its mother at birth. It takes a few weeks before a baby can see the difference between its mother and other adults.[11]
A baby’s first social smile appears between four and six weeks after birth.[12]
The heaviest baby on record to survive was a 22 lb. 8 oz. Italian baby born in 1955. In 1879, a woman in Canada gave birth to a 23 lb. 1.92 oz. baby that died 11 hours after birth.[11]
In the United States, more babies are born on Wednesday than on other days of the week. Sunday is the slowest day.[10]
In the United States, more babies are born in late summer and early fall than in other times of the year. February tends to be the month when the least babies are born.[10]
Utah has the highest birthrate in the U.S., at about 21 babies per 1,000 people. Vermont has the lowest birth rate, with slightly more than 10 babies born per 1,000 people.[3]
In 1970, the average age for a first-time mom in the U.S. was 21. In 2008, it was 25.1.[3]
It is estimated that new parents in the U.S. will spend on average $7,000 the first year on a new baby’s diapers, formula, and day care. This does not include medical costs.&n[6]
Around 353,000 babies are born every day
A baby is born in the world every three seconds.[5]
Babies born in May usually weigh on average 200 grams more than babies born in other months.[1]
The number of babies born to single women is at record levels. In 2010, there were 9.8 million single moms living with children under 18 in the U.S., up from 3.4 million in 1970.[3]
There were about 1,049 male babies born for every 1,000 female babies in 2006 in the United States. This ratio has been consistent for the past 60 years.[11]
In 2006, there were 32.1 pairs of twins born for every 1,000 births in the United States. This rate has remained roughly the same, though between 1980 and 2004, the rate rose 70%.[1]
Over half a million babies (1 in 8) are born prematurely in the United States each year. Low birth weight rate has increased 9% since 2000 and 24% since the mid 1980s.[1]
Research has shown that cesarean babies are more likely to have breathing difficulties, as it is thought they may miss out on important hormonal and physiological changes that occur during labor.[10]
In four or five out of every 100 newborn babies, there is discharge of milk from the nipples. This is due to unusually high levels of the mother’s hormones that leak across the placenta during pregnancy. Premature babies never have this discharge, only those who are full term.[9]
A baby’s head is proportionally huge, being one-quarter of the total body length, compared to only one-eighth of the total adult’s length.[11]
The kneecap bone doesn't harden until between the ages of 2 and 6
At birth, babies have no kneecaps. Kneecaps do not develop completely until after six months.[11]
The grasp of a newborn baby is so strong that its whole body can hang in midair, with its bent fingers supporting its weight.[11]
At the moment of birth, a baby’s heart beats at 180 pulses per minute. Within a few hours, the rate falls to 140 pulses. At 1 year old, the infant heart rate is 115 beats per minute. An adult’s average resting level is 70-80 beats a minute.[11]
Research shows that a baby responds positively to the fragrance of its mother’s breasts and ignores breast pads used by other women. Even more striking is the discovery that a blindfolded woman has the ability to identify her own child from a host of other babies by scent alone.[11]
New babies prefer looking at a drawing of a face rather than a random pattern, and they prefer smiling faces to grumpy ones.&n[10]
Up until 7 months old, a baby can breathe and swallow at the same time.[11]
Lina Medina, a 5-year-old Peruvian girl, was the youngest person to ever give birth. She gave birth to a boy on May 14, 1939.[12]
On average, female babies spend a day longer in the womb than male babies. White babies, on average, spend five days longer inside their mothers than black babies, while Indian babies spend six days longer in the womb than white babies.[12]
The very best chance a baby has of surviving gestation is when its mother is aged 22, an age which has been described as “the age of fecundity” in humans.[12]
The chances of giving birth to twins are especially high in certain parts of West Africa. In Nigeria, for example, the odds are 22-1. Conversely, women in Japan are less likely to have twins, with the odds as high as 200-1.[11]
The average weight of a baby at birth is 7-8 lbs. The smallest baby ever to survive weighed only 8.5 oz. at birth.[11]
The first 3 months of growth are especially important
During the nine months between conception and birth, a baby’s weight increases by 3,000 million times. Between birth and the end of its second year, an infant will have quadrupled in size.[1]
On the whole, boy babies are slightly heavier than girl babies. The average weight of a newborn boy is 7 lbs. 10 oz. while that of a newborn girl is 7 lbs. 2 oz.[11]
The brain of a newborn accounts for 10% of its total body weight. In adults this figure is down to 2%. By the end of the first year, an infant’s brain increases in size two and half times, and by the end of the fifth year, it is three times what it was at birth. At all stages, the male brain is slightly larger than that of the female.[5]
Babies are born with natural swimming abilities and can hold their breath. However, this ability quickly disappears.[5]
At around 6 months old, a baby learns that each object is unique. Before this time, whenever it sees a bird in a tree, it always assumes it was the same bird.[12]
Brain scans reveal that male babies have more asymmetrical brain hemispheres than female babies, and that female brains tend to have greater symmetry in the part of the brain concerned with complex mental processes. Female babies have more gray matter in the newer parts of the cerebral cortex, while male babies have proportionately more gray matter in the older, more primitive parts of the brain. Male brains are also significantly larger on the left.[5]
SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is responsible for more deaths than any other cause for babies 1 month to 1 year old, claiming 7,000 babies each year in the United States, or almost one baby every hour.[14]
Eyesight is the least developed of all the newborn senses. Newborns can see best at a distance of only 8-14 inches, and until they are about three months old, they see best in their peripheral vision. Babies may also have difficulty distinguishing color tones.[10]
Most newborns will lose all the hair they are born with in the first three or four months of life.[11]
Babies are not born with psychic tearing, or tears that indicates emotional distress, though they are born with basal tearing (enough tears to keep the eyes moist and healthy) and reflex tearing (tears that respond to an irritant). Between 2 and 4 months of age, a baby will start crying with tears when it gets upset.[5]
In China, many children with birth defects are abandoned
In China, a baby is born with a birth defect every 30 seconds. Birth defects in that country have increased nearly 40% since 2001.[8]
Newborns prefer the cadence of their native language at birth, suggesting that some language learning starts in utero. Research suggests that babies may even cry with the intonations of their mother tongue.[5]
Ancient Greeks were known to spit on themselves to ward off the Evil Eye, and the ritual extended to babies as well. Medieval nurses licked the faces of their charges, while peasants all over the world would spit in the faces of babies.[12]
Babies all over the world have been adorned with necklaces, anklets, and amulets to ward off the Evil Eye. Some ornamental infant wear included odd numbers, (which were thought to have protective powers), crescent shapes, five-point stars, amber, red beads, tiger images, and coral.[12]
In European and American societies, coral was often used as a teething aid or in rattles for babies, but its real function was to act as a protective element in the battle against evil. It was used specifically for first-born sons. Known since ancient times, the Greeks believed coral had grown from the blood of the Gorgon, Medusa.[12]
Historians of the 18th century estimate that an infant was four times more likely to be a victim of homicide than anyone else.[12]
One of the first foundling hospitals to be recorded was established by Datheus, Archbishop of Milan in A.D. 787. His intention was to help parents avoid eternal damnation in killing their children by bringing them to a hospital.[12]
In Europe, milk was not pasteurized until the 1890s and was avoided, particularly for infants, because people believed their child would grow up to resemble the animal.[12]
The Greeks thought that mother’s milk was produced in the uterus and transported to the breast by special vessels in the body. There existed since the Middle Ages a vague awareness that breast milk provided some protection against sickness—but colostrum, the fluid secreted after birth, was considered dangerous, and women were advised not to feed the newborn baby for a few days. An older child would draw the breast milk first.[11]
The term “infant” is from the Latin infans, meaning “unable to speak” and typically refers to the ages from 1-12 months. A “newborn” usually refers to an infant in the first 28 days of life.[12]
In Medieval Europe, unruly babies were thought to be the result of inferior breast milk.[12]
Up until the 7th century, doctors believed many infant sicknesses were caused by the presence of too much acid in the stomach. Babies were fed chalk, crushed eggshells, coral, and oyster shells mixed with their gruel to counteract the acidity.[12]
Until the 19th century, babies were not considered to have personalities and, therefore, were not in need of the physical and psychological nurturing advised today.[12]
Redheaded wet nurses were avoided because at least until the 19th century, it was thought that babies absorbed the characteristics of the person nursing them. Parents wanted to avoid the legendary tempers of redheads.[12]
In 1235, Henry III decreed that Christian wet nurses could not nurse Jewish babies.[12]
Depending on family economics, in the 18th century, babies were fed a kind of gruel made of flour and water. Known as “pap,” “panda,” or “caudle,” it was a breeding ground for bacteria and most closely resembled wallpaper paste.[12]
Spoons were often used to feed infants and were known as “pap boats.” Expensive and elaborate versions were available to those who could afford it. The expression “born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth” probably evolved around the 16th century.[12]
In Europe and America in the 18th century, it was tradition to wash a newborn and then scour it with salt. It would be purged of meconium with emetic syrup, oil of almonds, castor oil, or anything else the midwife had, including wine and whisky.[12]
In parts of England, a newborn’s head was washed in rum for luck. It was common all over Europe to give the infant a dab of butter and a little sugar to signify the hoped for riches that the child would have in the future.[12]
Traditionally the caul, which sometimes covered the head of an infant, was highly treasured and credited with magical powers.[12]
Disposable diapers take over 500 years to decompose
An average baby will go through approximately 2,700 diapers a year.[6]
Traditionally, the length of the cut umbilical cord was thought to predict the length of a male baby’s penis.[12]
In Ancient Rome, an olive branch would be hung from the front door of a house if a boy was born, and a strip of woolen fabric was hung if the child was a girl. Eighteenth-century London houses hung strips of ribbon on their doorknockers: pink for a girl and blue for a boy.[12]
The Apache Indians ritually killed one twin, arguing that the mother did not have sufficient milk to feed two infants, and some Eskimo tribes left one twin outside to die in the cold.[12]
Babies typically prefer a female voice over a male voice, which may explain why people raise the pitch of their voice when talking to babies, otherwise known as “motherese.”[11]
Meconium, or the greenish-black sticky material in the baby’s digestive track, stands in for fecal material and allows the intestine to develop so it can digest milk immediately after birth.[11]
The philosopher John Lock argued in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding that a baby is born with a “blank slate” or a tabula rasa. This is in contrast to the beliefs of Plato and the medieval church, both of whom believed babies were born with innate inequalities.[12]
Psychologists believe that a baby’s self-awareness develops around 12 months old.[5]
Object permanence is usually understood at 8-9 months of age.[5]
In the late 19th century, it was medically accepted in Europe and America that “infants who persisted in the habit of sucking always become masturbators.” Not only were pacifiers considered unhealthy, parents were instructed to tie their children’s hands to their cribs or to stuff their hands inside aluminum mittens.[2]
Babies in medieval Europe were often tightly swaddled in linen strips because it was thought that swaddling would help its arms and legs grow straight. It also served to immobilize the baby.[12]
The infant mortality in medieval Europe was as high as 30-50%.[12]
An adult has between 1.2 and 1.5 gallons of blod
A newborn baby has about one cup of blood in its body.[11]
Female infanticide is still a major problem in India and China. Estimates indicate that 30.5 million females are “missing” from China.[11]
To many Victorians, the sight of crawling infants reminded them of their ape-like origins, and they forced their children to learn to walk early with the aid of cages and walkers.[12]
After birth, the human brain more than doubles to reach 60% of its adult size by the time a baby is 1 year old. By kindergarten, the brain has reached its full size but it typically does not finish developing until the child is in its mid-20s.[5]
The word “baby” may come from a baby’s babbling, as in “ba-ba-ba-ba.”[12]
Research indicates that a baby’s name influences a baby’s life into adulthood. For example, a newborn boy with a more “feminine” name could lead to behavioral problems in life.[7]
Children don’t remember much before the age of 3, due to what psychologists call “infantile amnesia.” Neuroscientists believe that early experiences never make it into long-term memory banks because the brain’s recording machinery isn’t functional yet or because memory is tied to language acquisition.[5]
A baby will eat an estimated 15 pounds of cereal per year.[3]
Pinnable Facts
References
| Stork |
Discretion, Prudence, Piety and Charity are all women in which 17th Century work of literature? | SIGNS: ANIMALS
APE: In art it depicts malice.
ASS: Humility. Patience. Animal of the poor.
BASILISK: A fabled creature, based on Psalm 91:13: naming four animals for the Antichrist. These were interpreted by St. Augustine as four aspects of the Devil, who was trodden down by the triumphing Christ. Although a well-established symbol, and often represented in the Middle Ages, the basilisk rarely appears in Italian paintings of the Renaissance.
BAT: Night. Desolation.
BEAR [wild]: Cruelty and evil influence. In the Old Testamtent it represented the kingdom of Persia.
BEAR [tame]: Christianity.Typical is the life of St. Euphemia, who, when thrown to wild animals in the arena, was shown honor by a bear who appeared tame, and would not eat her.
BEE: Tireless activity. Regal power. Chastity.
Also associated with St. Rita of Cascia.
BIRDS: Symbol of the "winged soul." Many artists have the Child Jesus holding a bird in His hand.
BLACKBIRD: The black feathers and melodious song represented the temptation of sin. Tradition tells us that one day when St. Benedict was praying the Devil appeared to him in the form of a blackbird which tried to divert him from his devotions. St. Benedict was not fooled: he made the Sign of the Cross and the Devil departed in haste.
BULL: Depicts strength; sometimes St. Sylvester is shown with a bull at his feet because he brought back a dead bull to life. If the bull is made of brass, this is a symbol of St. Eustace who was Martyred with his family by being encased in a brass bull under which a fire was ignited.
BUTTERFLY: Resurrection of Christ.
CAMEL: Represents the virtue of temperance because he can go a long time without water. Also a sign of royalty in the Old Testament. Camel's hair is one of the the symbols of St. John the Baptist.
CAT: Symbolizes laziness and lust gnerally because of its indolent habits, although the cat is a symbol of good, for instance, when it is shown with the Virgin because tradition has it that a cat gave birth to a litter of kittens in the stable at Bethlehem. Several Annunciation images portray the Virgin Mary with a little cat near her feet.
CENTAUR: This mythic animal, part horse, part man is a symbol of St. Anthony Abbot because a mysterious animal appeared to him to point the way to reach St. Paul the Hermit in the desert.
COCK: Because the cock crows early in the morning, it symbolizes vigilance, but when depicted in a painting of St. Peter, it signifies his denial of Jesus Christ and subsequent repentance. Thus the cock is now a symbol of the Passion. [John 13:38]
CRANE: Vigiliance. Loyalty and good works. Good order in monastic life.
It is thought that at night some cranes maintain watch for the others.
CROCODILE: Hypocrisy.
DOG: Fidelity. Loyalty. Watchfulness. Orthodoxy. There are many examples of the faithfulness of dogs, such as the dog of [St.] Tobias and St. Roch, which brought bread to the Saint and remained at hs side. A dog with a flame is a symbol of St. Dominic. Occasionally black and white dogs were used as symbols of the Dominicans [Domini canes, that is dogs of the Lord] because the friars wear black and white robes.
DOLPHIN: Resurrection. Faith. Love. Society. Since they swim alongside ships, they symbolize Christ guiding the Church. Often the dolphin is used to depict the whale of Jonah. When the dolphin is pictured with an anchor it represents the Catholic Church.
DOVE: Purity. Innocence. Peace. At the time of the flood, when Noah sent out for the last time the dove from the ark, it brought back an olive branch to show that the waters had receded and that God made peace with man. Under the Mosaic law the dove was used during the purification ceremony after the birth of a child. Thus one sometimes sees paintings of the Presentation of the Child Jesus with Joseph bearing two white turtledoves. [Luke 2:22, 24] As an emblem of purity the dove sometimes appears on top of St. Joseph's rod to show that he was chosen to be the husband of the Virgin Mary.
The dove was seen by the father of St. Catherine of Siena above her head while she was in prayer. The most important use of the dove in art, however, is as the symbol of the Holy Ghost, which first appears as such at the Baptism of Christ [John1:32]. The dove, symbol of the Third Person the Holy Trinity, is shown in images of the Trinity, Baptism, the Annunciation and with the Host and or Chalice at Holy Mass.
Seven doves are used to represent the seven spirits of God or the Holy Spirit in its sevenfold gifts of Grace. This refers to the prophecy of Isaiah 11:1, 2:
"And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of His roots: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord."
The dove is also connected with the lives of several Saints other than St. Catherine. For instance, it is the attribute of St. Benedict because he saw the soul of his dead sister Scholastica fly up to Heaven in the shape of a white dove. The dove is also used as an attribute of St. Gregory the Great, for the dove of the Holy Spirit perched upon St. Gregory's shoulder while he wrote.
DRAGON: Satan.
Dragon chained or underfoot: The conquest of evil.
The dragon as the enemy of God is vividly portrayed in Revelation 12:7-9:
"And there was war in Heaven: Michael and his Angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his Angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found anymore in Heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his Angels were cast out with him."
The dragon, expelled from Heaven, continues his war against God. Thus, he is depicted as the devouring monster who angrily destroys his victims. The dragon is the attribute of St. Margaret, and of St. Martha, both of whom are said to have fought, and vanquished, a dragon. It is also the attribute of a number of other Saints, including St. George of Cappadocia, who slew the dragon 'through the power of Jesus Christ.' The dragon appears with the Apostle Philip, St. Sylvester, and the Archangel Michael, who is often shown with a dragon under foot, in token of his victory over the powers of of darkness. The serpent, symbolizing the Devil and Satan, is depicted as the tempter of Adam and Eve. 'And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat' [Genesis 3:13]. Thus, the serpent represents in general the wily tempter that betrays man into sin. The serpent is sometimes portrayed at the foot of the Cross to signify that the evil power responsible for man's fall has been overcome by the power of Christ, Who died that man might be redeemed.
EAGLE: The eagle may generally be interpreted as a symbol of the Resurrection. This is based upon the early belief that the eagle, unlike other birds, periodically renewed its plumage and its youthful vigor by flying near the sun and then plunging into the water. This interpretation is further borne out by Psalm 103:5: '. . . thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.'
The eagle is also used to represent the new life begun at the baptismal font and the Christian soul strengthened by grace. 'But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles . . .' [Isaiah 40:31]. The eagle is said to have the ability to soar until it is lost to sight, and still retain its ability to gaze into the blazing midday sun. For this reason, it has come to symbolize Christ. In a more general sense, it symbolizes those who are just; or stands for the virtues of courage, faith, and contemplation. More rarely, when it is depicted as a bird of prey, the eagle suggests the demon who ravishes souls, or the sins of pride and worldly power.
The eagle also symbolizes generosity. It was believed that the eagle, no matter how great its hunger, always left half its prey to the birds that followed.
The eagle is the particular attribute of St. John the Evangelist. The vision of Ezekiel 1:5, 10: ". . . out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. ..as for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion . . . the face of an ox . . . the face of an eagle," is interpreted as referring to the four evangelists. Because St. John, in his Gospel, soared upward in his contemplation of the Divine nature of the Saviour, the eagle became his symbol. In a more general sense, the eagle came to represent the inspiration of the Gospels. It is from this symbolic interpretation that the lectern, from which the Gospels are read, is often given the form of a winged eagle.
EGG: Hope. Resurrection. The meaning is taken from the manner in which the young chick breaks forth from the egg at its birth.
ERMINE: Purity: the is small animal has a whitish fur and is said to prefer death to being defiled.
FALCON [wild]: Evil thought or action.
FALCON [tame or domestic]: Holy man or Gentile converted to Catholicism. Courtliness: a symbol of the page accompanying the Magi
FISH: Baptism. Believers. The symbol of Christ Himself, the most frequent symbolic use because
the five Greek letters forming the word 'fish' are the initial letters of the five words: 'Jesus Christ God's Soul Saviour'. In this sense, the fish symbol was frequently used in Early Christian art and literature. The fish is also used as a symbol of Baptism, for, just as the fish cannot live except in water, the Christian cannot live save through the waters of Baptism.
In Renaissance imagery, the fish is given as an attribute to Tobias because the gall of a fish restored the sight of his father Tobit; it is also given as an attribute to St. Peter, an allusion to his being a fisherman; and to St. Anthony of Padua, who preached to the
fish.
FLY: The fly has long been considered a bearer of evil or pestilence. In Catholic symbolism the fly is a symbol of sin. It sometimes appears in pictures of the Virgin and Child to convey the idea of sin and redemption. The fly as a bringer of disease was sometimes shown with the goldfinch, a 'saviour-bird' against the disease.
FOX: Cunning. Fraud. Lust. Cruelty. Traditionally the symbol of cunning and guile, the fox symbolized the Devil. Though it was shown frequently in sculpture during the Middle Ages, it was for the most part confined to book illustration during the Renaissance.
FROG: This has two opposite meanings:
1. Because of its reappearance after winter's hibernation, the Resurrection.
2. Because of its continual croaking and the fact that one of the plagues of Eygpt was a rain fo frogs [Chapter 8], it is sometimes the symbol of heretics or the repulsiveness of sin itself. More loosely, it is interpreted as a symbol of those who snatch at life's fleeting pleasures; hence it represents worldly things in general.
GIRAFFE: In the Renaissance the giraffe was depicted more because of its strange appearance and its rarity among animals in Europe than for any symbolic meaning.
GOAT: Fraud. Lust. Cruelty. The damned at the Last Judgement.
This interpretation is based upon a long passage in the Bible (Matthew 25:31-46) which relates how Christ upon His coming, shall separate the believing from the unbelieving, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. In the Renaissance the goat was usually shown in order to distinguish the sinners from the righteous.
GOLDFINCH: The goldfinch is fond of eating thistles and thorns, and since all thorny plants have been accepted as an allusion to Christ's crown of thorna, the goldfinch has become an accepted symbol of the Passion of Christ. In this sense, it frequently appears with the Christ Child, showing the close connection between the Incarnation and the Passion.
GOOSE: Since the time of the Romans, the goose has been a symbol of providence and vigilance. The legend of the Capitoline geese that saved Rome from the invasion of the Gauls is well known. In Catholic art the goose is sometimes given as an attribute to St. Martin of Tours, because a goose is supposed to have revealed his hiding place to the inhabitants of Tours, who had come to call the Saint to be their bishop.
GRASSHOPPER (Locust): The grasshopper, or locust, was one of the plagues visited upon the Egyptians because the Pharaoh's heart was hardened against the Word of the Lord. Accordingly, the grasshopper when held by the Christ Child is a symbol of the conversion of nations to Catholicism. This meaning is also derived from Proverbs 30:27: "The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands," a passage early interpreted as referring to the nations formerly without Christ for their King. St. John the Baptist was said to have fed on locusts.
GRIFFIN: This mythic creature, usually depicted with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion, is used with two different and opposite meanings; on the one hand to represent the Saviour; on the other, because it is a combination of the preying of the eagle and the fierceness of the lion, to symboliz those who oppress and persecute Christians.
HARE/RABBIT: Lust. Hare/Rabbit at the feet: Victory over lust.
The hare, itself defenseless, is a symbol of men who put the hope of their salvation in the Christ and His Passion. A white hare is sometimes placed at the feet of the Virgin Mary to indicate her triumph over lust.
HOG: The hog is used to represent the demon of sensuality and gluttony. It is frequently shown as one of the attributes of St. Anthony Abbot, who is reputed to have vanquished this demon.
HORSE: In ancient times the horse was the emblem of the sun, as the ox was that of the moon. In the Renaissance, however, the horse was most often depicted as a symbol of lust. This interpretation is based on Jeremiah 5:8: "They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbor's wife."
HYENA: The unstable. Those who feed on false doctrine.
LAMB: Innocence. Gentleness. Patience. Humility. Symbol of Christ in His sacrificial role. Many scriptural passages give authority for this symbolism. One reference is John 1:29: "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" The Holy Lamb is often depicted with a nimbus, standing upon a small hill from which four streams of water flow [Revelation 14:1]. The hill represents the Church of Christ, the mountain of God's house. The streams represent the four Holy Gospels, the four rivers of Paradise, ever flowing and refreshing the pastures of the Church on earth. In pictures where Christ is shown as the rescuing shepherd, the lamb is also used to symbolize the sinner. This subject, usually called the Good Shepherd, is very frequent in Early Christian art, but was seldom used in the Renaissance. During the Renaissance the lamb was often depicted in representations of the Holy Family with the Infant St. John. Here, the lamb alludes to St. John's mission as the forerunner of Christ, and his recognition of Christ as the Lamb of God at the time of His Baptism. This meaning is indicated by the portrayal of St. John the Baptist pointing to a lamb which he usually holds in his left hand. A variation on this theme can be viewed HERE.
The lamb (Latin, agnus) is given as an attribute to St. Agnes, who was Martyred because she declared herself to be the bride of Christ and refused to marry. It is also found as an attribute of St. Clement, who was guided by a lamb to the spot where he found water.
LARK: The lark, because it flies high and sings only when in flight toward Heaven, has been taken as the symbol of the humility of the priesthood.
LEOPARD: The leopard is a symbol of sin, cruelty, the Devil, and the Antichrist. It sometimes appears in representations of the Adoration of the Magi to show that the Incarnation of Christ was necessary for redemption from sin.
LION: Strength. Our Lord. Courage. Fortitude. Kingliness. The lion is used in Renaissance art with various meanings, depending upon the circumstances. In general, when it is used it is emblematic of strength, majesty, courage, and fortitude. Because it once was believed that young lions are born dead, but come to life three days after birth when breathed upon by their sire, the lion has become associated with the Resurrection, and this is why it is symbol of Christ, the Lord of Life.
The lion is one of the four animals that appear in the prophecy of Ezekiel. He is the symbol of the Evangelist Mark because St. Mark in his Gospel dwells most fully upon the Resurrection of Christ and proclaims with great emphasis the royal dignity of Christ. The winged lion is invariably the attribute of St. Mark, and appears also as the emblem of Venice, because this city was under the protection of St. Mark. St. Jerome is also closely identified with the lion. According to tradition the Saint removed a painful thorn from the paw of a lion, who thereupon became his close and faithful friend. It was a medieval belief that the lion slept with its eyes open. For this reason, he also became a symbol of watchfulness. In rarer instances the lion, because of its pride and fierceness, was used as symbol of the Prince of Darkness, this interpretation being suported by Psalm 90:13: "Thou shalt tread upon the lion an adder . . ." This passage is interpreted as Christ triumphing over the Devil. In addition, lions appear as attributes of St. Mary of Egypt, St. Euphemia, St. Onuphrius, and St. Paul the Hermit.
OWL: The owl, since it hides in darkness and fears the light, has come to symbolize Satan, the Prince of Darkness. As Satan deceives humanity, so the owl is said to trick other birds, causing them to fall into the snares set by hunters. The owl also symbolizes solitude and, in this sense, appears in scenes of hermits at prayer. Its most ancient-thought attribute, however, is that of wisdom, and with this meaning, it is sometimes shown with St. Jerome. In another sense, the owl is an attribute of Christ, Who sacrificed Himself to save mankind, "To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death
. . ." [Luke 1:79]. This explains the occasional presence of the owl in scenes of the Crucifixion.
OX: Patience. Strength. Service. Endurance. Sacrifice. The ox, a sacrificial animal of the Jews, was often used in Renaissance painting to represent the Jewish nation. It is also a symbol of patience and strength as indicated aboveand almost invariably, the ox and the ass appear together in paintings of the Nativity. In the writings of some of the early Christian fathers, the ox is accepted as a symbol of Christ, the true sacrifice. This symbol is similarly used to represent all who patiently bear their yoke while laboring in silence for the good of others. The winged ox is the attribute of St. Luke because of his emphasis upon the sacrificial aspects of our Lord's atonement as well as upon the Divine priesthood.
PARTRIDGE: In a good sense, the partridge is used as a symbol of the Church and of truth; but it is ordinarily symbolic of deceit and theft, and in a more general sense, of the Devil: "As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst, his days, and at his end shall be a fool." [Jeremiah 17:11]
PEACOCK: In Catholic art the peacock is used as the symbol of immortality. This symbolism is derived from an ancient belief that the flesh of the peacock does not decay. It is with this meaning that it appears in scenes of the Nativity. The 'hundred eyes' in the peacock's tail are sometimes used to symbolize the 'all seeing' Church. The peacock's habit of strutting and displaying the beauty of its feathers has caused it also to become a symbol of worldly pride and vanity. A peacock's feather is sometimes an attribute of St. Barbara, in reference to Heliopolis, the city of her birth.
PELICAN: According to ancient belief, the pelican, which has the greatest love of all creatures for its offspring, pierces its breast to feed
them with its own blood: It is on this basis that the pelican came to symbolize Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, because of His love for all mankind. In this sense, it also symbolizes the Eucharistic Sacrament. This interpretation is supported by Psalm 101:7: "I am like a pelican of the wilderness," which is an accepted allusion to Christ. The pelican is sometimes shown nesting on the top of the Cross.
PHOENIX: The phoenix was a mythic bird of great beauty which lived in the Arabian wilderness. Its life span was said to be between three hundred and five hundred years. Periodically, it burned itself upon a funeral pyre; whereupon, it would rise from its own ashes, restored to all the freshness of youth, and would tenter upon another cycle of life. The phoenix was introduced into Christian symbolism as early as the first century, when the legend of this bird was related by St. Clement in his first Epistle to the Corinthians. In early Catholic art, the phoenix constantly appears on funeral stones, its particular meaning being the resurrection of the dead and the triumph of eternal life over death. The phoenix later became a symbol of the Resurrection of Christ, and commonly appears in connection with the Crucifixion. In another sense, the phoenix stands for faith and constancy. Though popular in the art of the Middle Ages, the phoenix is rare in Italian Renaissance paintings.
RAM: Symbol of Christ. Leader of the herd. Because the ram is the leader of the herd, it is used as a symbol for Christ. Also, in the same way that the ram fights with the wolf and vanquishes him, so Christ battles with Satan and is victorious. The ram, the animal God caused to be placed in a thorny bush so that Abraham might sacrifice it in place of his son Isaac, represents Christ crowned with thorns and sacrifIced for mankind. In a general sense, the ram is used as symbol for strength.
RAT/MOUSE: The rat, or the mouse, because of its destructiveness, is symbolic of evil. It is rarely seen in Renaissance art except as an attribute of St. Fina. The mouse is also a symbol for St. Gertrude of Nivelles, the patron of those who fear mice.
RAVEN: According to a Jewish legend, the raven was originally white, but its feathers turned black when it failed to return to the ark, from which Noah had sent it to find out if the flood abated. Because of the blackness of its plumage, its supposed habit of devouring the eyes and the brain of the dead, and its liking spoiled flesh, the raven was selected as a symbol of the Devil, who throws the soul into darkness, invades the intelligence, and is gratified by corruption. The raven appears in a more favorable light in relation to certain Saints. It is the attribute of St. Vincent because God sent a raven to guard his sacred remains. The raven is also the attribute of St. Anthony Abbot and St. Paul the Hermit because it brought them a loaf of bread each day while they lived together in the desert. The raven, as symbolic of solitude, is associated with these hermit Saints.
SCORPION: The scorpion is one of the symbols of evil. The sting of the tail of the scorpion is poisonous and causes great agony the person who is stung. It is often mentioned in the Bible, ". . . their torment was the torment of a scorpion, when it striketh a man" [Apocalypse 9:5]. Because of the treachery of its bite, the scorpion became a symbol of Judas. As a symbol of treachery, the scorpion appears on the flags and shields held by the soldiers who assisted at the Crucifixion of Christ.
SNAIL: The snail was believed to be born from the mud, and to feed upon it. It was, therefore, interpreted as the symbol of the sinner, and of laziness, because it made no effort to seek food, but ate what it found at hand.
SNAKE: Satan. Evil. This is because the Devil came in the form of a "serpent" or snake to Eve in the Garden of Paradise.
SPARROW: Considered to be the lowliest among all birds, the sparrow came to be used as a symbol of the lowly, the least among all people, who were, nevertheless, under the protection of God the Father; for even the sparrow came to earth only through the will of God, and received from Him its means of life. It is also a symbol of the Holy Family, who lived a humble, lowly life in obedience to the will of God.
SPIDER: The spider is used symbolically, first to represent the miser, for it bleeds the fly as the miser bleeds the poor; second, to represent the Devil, for the Devil prepares his traps as the spider, does its web; and third, to represent the malice of evil-doers whose webs will perish like those of the spider. The cobweb is a symbol of human frailty.
STAG/HART/DEER/HIND: Piety.Faithful Christian longing for God. Christ the Savior. The stag takes its symbolic significance from Psalm 41:1: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." Thus, the stag has come to typify piety and religious aspiration. Similarly, because the stag seeks freedom and refuge in the high mountains, it has been used to symbolize the solitude and purity of life.
The stag, as the attribute of St. Eustace and St. Hubert, is shown with a crucifix between its horns. The stag without the crucifix is an attribute of St. Julian the Hospitator. The stag or hind is also the symbol of St. Giles, one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers because every day for a considerable period of time, when the Saint was living in the forest, a hind came to him to be milked as would a cow, thus supplying the hermit Abbot with milk.
STORK: The stork is a symbol of prudence and vigilance, piety, and chastity. It was associated with the Annunciation because, as the stork announces the coming of spring, the Annunciation to Mary indicated the Advent of Christ. It is possible that the present north European and American fable whch is sometimes told to children that newborn babies are carried to their mothers by storks, may be derived from the association of this bird with the Annunciation.
SWALLOW: In the Renaissance the swallow was a symbol of the Incarnation of Christ. For this reason, it appears in scenes of the Annunciation and of the Nativity, nestling under the eaves or in holes in the wall. It was thought that the swallow hibernated in the mud during the winter, and its advent in the spring was looked upon as a rebirth from the death-like state of winter. For this reason it also became a symbol of resurrection.
UNICORN. The unicorn, according to myth, was a small animal, similar in size to a kid, but surprisingly fierce and swift with a very sharp, single horn in the center of its forehead like the rhinoceros. Suposedly no hunter could capture the animal by force, but it could be taken by means of tricking with bait, that of a pure virgin. The unicorn, sensing the purity of the maiden would run to her, lay its head in her lap, and fall asleep. Thus it was captured. For obvious reasons the mythic unicorn was early accepted as the symbol of purity in general and of feminin chastity in particular, an allegory of the Annunciation and the Incarnation of Christ, born of a Virgin. Thus, the unicorn is usually an attribute of the Virgin Mary, bul also of St. Justina of Padua and of St. Justina of Antioch, who retained their purity under great temptation.
The unicorn is mentioned many times in Scripture, in truth the rhinoceros, for this term was not yet coined. One instance is Psalm 91:11: "But my horn shall be exalted like the unicorn .. ."
WHALE: According to ancient legend, the huge body of the whale was often mistaken by mariners for an island, and ships anchored to its side were dragged down to destruction by a sudden plunge of the great creature. In this way, the whale came to be used as a symbol of the Devil and of his cunning, and the whale's open mouth was often depicted to represent the open gates of Hell. The whale also appears in the Biblical account of Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale and disgorged three days later. Allegorically, the experience of Jonah is likened to Christ in the sepulchre and His Resurrection after three days. Unfamiliarity with the appearance and habits of the whale, and even with the identification of the Biblical sea-monster as such, prevented the artists of the Italian Renaissance from painting naturalistic whales. Rather, Jonah's monster was, to them, either something in the way of a dragon, a great shaggy fish, or a dolphin.
WOLF: Heresy. Gluttony. False prophets. The Devil. Yet, in sharp contrast, the wolf is sometimes used as an attribute of St. Francis of Assisi. This is based on the famous story of the wolf of Gubbio. A wolf that had been doing great damage was being hunted by the people of Gubbio, when St. Francis encountered it. He addressed it as 'Brother Wolf,' and protected it as a fellow creature who knew no better, and set about to reform it.
WOODPECKER: The woodpecker is usually symbolic of the Devil, or of heresy, which undermines human nature and leads man to danmation.
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In 1985, who became the first football player to be sent off during an FA Cup final? | BBC SPORT | Football | Europe | When Bryan Robson tamed Barca
When Bryan Robson tamed Barca
The 1984 Barcelona team
By Jonathan Stevenson and Chris Bevan
If Manchester United's previous meetings with Barcelona are anything to go by, their semi-final clash in this season's Champions League ought to be a classic.
The clubs met twice in the old European Cup Winners' Cup and have twice found themselves in the same Champions League group.
Each tie proved to be memorable for different reasons but for pure drama the first, in March 1984, was arguably the best.
606: DEBATE
Do you remember United seeing off Maradona and co?
United had lost the first leg of their Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final 2-0 at the Nou Camp through Graeme Hogg's own goal and Juan Carlos P�rez Rojo's last-minute strike.
Ron Atkinson's side were given little chance of overturning that deficit against the Spanish giants, who were managed by World-Cup winning coach Cesar Luis Menotti and boasted a certain Diego Armando Maradona in their illustrious ranks.
But United had their own icon in Bryan Robson, who showed why he was known to Red Devils fans as Captain Marvel with his display in the return at Old Trafford.
Robson began the fightback with 22 minutes gone when he connected with a diving header from Ray Wilkins' corner and then, five minutes after the break, he sent the majority of the 58,350 crowd into raptures by slamming home from close-range after Javier Urruticoechea fumbled a Wilkins cross.
UTD v BARCA PAST MEETINGS
1983-84 ECWC q-final
1998-99 Champ Lge groups
BARCA 3-3 UTD
The tie was level on aggregate but there was only going to be one winner. As United poured forward, Frank Stapleton latched on to a Norman Whiteside knockdown and lashed into the net from an acute angle.
United bowed out 3-2 on aggregate in the last four to a Michel Platini-inspired Juventus, while Maradona left Barcelona for Napoli at the end of the season.
But what happened to the other players who took part in that remarkable match 24 years ago? BBC Sport tracks down Arthur Albiston, Remi Moses, Jose Ramon Alexanco and the rest ahead of Wednesday's Champions League semi-final, first leg between Barcelona and Manchester United.
MANCHESTER UNITED
Atkinson spent five years in charge at Old Trafford
Manager - Ron Atkinson Flamboyant and suntanned boss who, like his Barca counterpart Menotti, enjoyed a cigar or three. 'Big Ron' won the FA Cup twice with United and the League Cup with Sheffield Wednesday, as well as taking Aston Villa to second place in the Premier League in 1993, his best finish in the top flight.
He also worked as a TV pundit before resigning from ITV in 2004 over racist remarks he made about Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly after a Champions League semi-final. Now director of football at British Gas Business Football League Premier Division side Halesowen Town.
Gary Bailey Ipswich-born but South African-bred keeper who completed a BSc in physics when in Manchester. After a knee injury ended his career in England in 1987 he returned to South Africa to play for Kaizer Chiefs and study civil engineering but, after an investment in Mabula Game Reserve went wrong, he went to Oxford to get an MBA from Henley College. Now works as a TV presenter and motivational speaker and was an ambassador for South Africa's successful bid for the 2010 World Cup.
Arthur Albiston Reliable Scottish left-back who won three FA Cups for United before teaming up again with Atkinson at West Brom in 1988. Later played for Dundee, Chesterfield, Chester, Norwegian side Molde, Ayr United, Sittingbourne, Witton Albion and Droylsden, who he also briefly managed. Now works for MUTV and also hosts tours of Old Trafford.
Kevin Moran A successful Gaelic football player, Moran, who studied commerce at University College Dublin and worked as an accountant, was spotted playing football for Dublin side Pegasus and joined United in 1978. A combative centre-back, he spent 10 years at Old Trafford and won 71 Republic of Ireland caps but became the first player to be sent off in an FA Cup final in 1985. Retired in 1994 after spells with Sporting Gijon and Blackburn and set up the Proactive sports agency with Jesper Olsen and Paul Stretford. Also owns a chain of greeting-card shops as well as working as a TV pundit.
Graeme Hogg A no-nonsense centre-half who came through the ranks at United and left for Portsmouth in 1988. Also played for Hearts, where he was best known for being punched and having his nose broken by his team-mate Craig Levein during a pre-season friendly in 1994, as well as West Brom, Notts County and Brentford. Retired in 1998 and is now a TV engineer in Falkirk.
Mike Duxbury Another to come through the ranks at Old Trafford, Duxbury was a speedy right-back who won 10 England caps. He left to join Blackburn in 1990 and finished his playing days in Hong Kong. Duxbury briefly worked as a PE teacher in Bolton but returned to Hong Kong to head up United's soccer school in Hong Kong and is now in an identical role for the club in Dubai.
Arnold Muhren A Dutch master with a wand of a left foot, Muhren won the Uefa Cup with Ipswich in 1981 and the FA Cup with United in 1983 and 1985. He lifted the Cup Winners' Cup with Ajax in 1987 and supplied the cross for Marco van Basten's spectacular volley in Holland's win over Russia in the 1988 European Championship final. Since retiring he has worked as a youth coach with FC Volendam and Ajax.
Bryan Robson Despite suffering a succession of injuries, Robson, who won 90 England caps, captained the Red Devils to three FA Cup wins and the 1991 Cup Winners' Cup final success over Barcelona. He turned down the chance to succeed Terry Venables as national boss in 1996 but, after a bright start with Middlesbrough, his managerial career has been a disappointment. Sacked by Sheffield United in February, he is back at United working as an ambassador.
Ray Wilkins Had a nomadic playing career after leaving United for AC Milan in the summer of 1984 and failed to shine as manager at QPR and Fulham. Wilkins also coached under Gianluca Vialli at Chelsea and Watford and was Dennis Wise's assistant at Millwall, where he also worked in a consultancy role. His last coaching job was as assistant to England Under-21 coach Peter Taylor. Now concentrating on his work as a TV pundit.
Remi Moses Manchester-born United fan who was the owner of one of the most famous afros in football. Moses moved to Old Trafford from West Brom along with Robson in 1981 and became the club's first black goalscorer but was forced to retire with an ankle problem in 1987, aged 28. He later coached the Manchester Warriors inline skating team and now works for the Unity in the Community scheme as coach of Old Trafford FC, a team drawn from youngsters from Moss Side.
Frank Stapleton A powerful striker, Stapleton also played for Arsenal, Ajax, Le Havre and Blackburn. He managed Huddersfield, Bradford and US side New England Revolution and briefly coached Bolton's strikers. Now a TV pundit and after-dinner speaker, he also owns a soccer school in Ireland.
Norman Whiteside The youngest player to appear at the World Cup finals, aged 17 years and 42 days, when he played for Northern Ireland in Spain in 1982. Whiteside was a bruising forward whose career was ended by a long-standing knee injury, aged 27. Now a qualified chiropodist and an after-dinner speaker.
ON 21 MARCH 1984
A Soviet submarine crashes into the USS Kitty Hawk off the coast of Japan
Part of Central Park in New York is renamed Strawberry Fields in honour of John Lennon
An EEC common market summit in Brussels collapses, with PM Margaret Thatcher coming under fire
Lionel Richie is at number one in the UK with 'Hello'
Substitutes:
Mark Hughes Replaced Norman Whiteside on 72 minutes
Battling front-man who had an ill-fated spell at Barcelona after joining them for �2.3m in 1986. Hughes returned to United in 1988 and scored twice to help them beat Barca in the 1991 Cup-Winners Cup final. He won 72 caps for Wales and took charge of his country in 1999 before becoming Blackburn boss in 2004.
| Kevin Moran |
What was a member or supporter of the Parliamentary Party called during the English Civil War? | Remembering the 1985 FA Cup final: Manchester United v Everton | Sport | The Guardian
That 1980s sports blog
Remembering the 1985 FA Cup final: Manchester United v Everton
Cup finals were like Christmas for fans in the 1980s, with this season particularly poignant given the troubles facing the game
Manchester United defenders John Gidman and Kevin Moran parade FA Cup trophy after their 1-0 defeat of Everton. Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty Images
Steven Pye for That 1980s Sports Blog, part of the Guardian Sport Network
Friday 10 May 2013 07.30 EDT
First published on Friday 10 May 2013 07.30 EDT
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This article completes a series on the 1985 FA Cup, following on from pieces about the first , second , third , fourth and fifth rounds, and the quarter-finals and semi-finals .
May 1985 was not a particularly pleasant period for English football. On Saturday May 11, what had originally been a day of celebration turned into tragedy at Bradford, as 56 people lost their lives in the horrific fire that swept through the Main Stand at Valley Parade.
As the nation heard of the horror at Bradford, news also started to drift through of crowd violence at St Andrews, with Birmingham City and Leeds fans involved in running battles. Sadly, during the trouble inside the ground, a wall collapsed, killing a 15-year-old boy, and dragging the name of the sport through the mud once more. It was within this climate of angst that the build-up to the 1985 FA Cup final played out, a nation of football fans hoping that the showpiece event could maybe paper over the gaping chasms within the structure of the game at the time.
Despite all the turmoil, the FA Cup final was still an eagerly anticipated event as Saturday May 18 approached, perhaps a temporary escape from the troubles surrounding the sport. The Express had been running a number of articles on Wembley first-timers in the week before the final, including an article on Howard Kendall's 1964 Cup final appearance for Preston, making him, at the time, the youngest player to have played in the final.
Both the Express and the Mirror had bumper pull-outs on the day of the match and of course there were the obligatory Cup final songs. Manchester United's We All Follow Man United peaked at number 10 in the charts, just beating Everton's Here We Go, which reached number 14 . Cheesy they may have been, but this was just one of the many pieces of the jigsaw that made the FA Cup final so exciting. And we haven't even started on the television coverage on Cup final day yet.
Cup final day in my childhood was basically Christmas Day for football supporters. A mere glimpse of the Saturday schedule back in 1985 reveals why; the BBC started their coverage at 11am, with the usual variety of delights, such as the traditional visit to the team hotels, the Road to Wembley, and the interviews on the team coach on the way to the ground.
ITV's World of Sport started an hour later, with guests including Dennis Taylor, Billy Connolly, Jimmy Tarbuck, and a helicopter-based Anneka Rice flying above Wembley stadium. I was a BBC boy myself – no adverts getting in the way – and for roughly seven hours I hardly left my seat. Alas, the FA Cup is now just another game in the season, and part of me feels sorry for anyone not fortunate enough to have experienced just how it felt to wake up as a child on cup final day and be as delighted as I used to be.
For Everton , the weeks after their semi-final win over Luton had seen them get positively high on silver polish, as they clinched two parts of a potential treble; their first league title since 1970 after an 18-match unbeaten run, and on the Wednesday before the final they travelled to Rotterdam and won the European Cup-Winners' Cup by beating Rapid Vienna 3-1.
Howard Kendall's stock had risen so much that the press were now linking him with the Real Madrid job – although Ron Atkinson was mentioned in some reports too – and Everton went to Wembley in an understandably confident mood, especially after two wins over their opponents already during the season (one a 5-0 league win at Goodison, the other a 2-1 Milk Cup victory at Old Trafford).
United's league form unsurprisingly dipped immediately after their high of beating Liverpool, two points from the next nine ultimately costing them the runners-up spot in Division One. However, their 5-1 defeat at Watford prior to the final could be taken with a pinch of salt. Bryan Robson was rested to give his dodgy hamstring time to recover – he would later prove his fitness by scoring a hat-trick in a practice match on the Thursday – and Jesper Olsen was given a much needed rest after playing four games in eight days for club and country. Kevin Moran would eventually get the nod over Graeme Hogg at the heart of United's defence, a selection decision that would take on extra significance as events would unfold.
The quality of both teams was unquestionable, with all three major award winners featuring in the final: Peter Reid (PFA Player of the Year), Mark Hughes (Young Player of the Year), and the Football Writers' Player of the Year in Neville Southall.
A number of mouthwatering battles and intriguing tussles hung in the air. How would the relatively inexperienced Paul McGrath deal with the experienced Andy Gray ? Who would win the midfield contest between Reid and Robson? Could Hughes ruffle the feathers of his international team-mate Kevin Ratcliffe? Could John Gidman and Arthur Albiston prevent Everton's wide duo of Kevin Sheedy and Trevor Steven from supplying the ammo for Gray and Graeme Sharp?
In all, 21 of the starting 22 would end their careers with a full international cap (Everton's Derek Mountfield the exception, though he did play at B and U21 level), and United would make history by becoming the first side to win the FA Cup final with 11 full internationals. Unsurprisingly, with so much talent on both sides, opinion was split on the possible destination of the famous old trophy.
Derek Potter of the Express took United to win by a couple of goals, whereas his colleague Steve Curry, although a lifelong United supporter, predicted that Everton would complete the treble. Phil Neal felt Everton's wide men would be the main difference, with the Mirror's Frank McGhee sounding the general opinion that Everton seemed to have the better team, and United the greater individual talent: "United will, I believe, take the trophy because they have more of the many individual talents on display – Bryan Robson, Mark Hughes, Jesper Olsen, Gordon Strachan to name the main four."
Derek Wallis of the Mirror also favoured Manchester United , highlighting that "...the match represents such a challenge to United that a frustrating season will become a heartwarming occasion at the last throb." Somewhat surprisingly, the bookies appeared to agree with the narrow majority that it would be United's day; both Coral and William Hill had United at 4-5 to win the trophy outright, with Everton at evens. The bookies are not often wrong – I know this from personal experience – and so it would prove, after an historical 120 minutes at Wembley.
Before the match there was the usual chance for the press to indulge in a touch of scaremongering. According to reports, touts were flogging tickets at roughly ten times the market value (a £25 ticket would cost £250), fans travelling by road were having to contend with over 50 miles of lane closures on the M6 and M1, the AA expecting approximately 80,000 cars (not all supporters I'm guessing) on the road that day, and any fans not travelling by car could take advantage of the 27 special trains laid on by British Rail, which were estimated to be transporting roughly 25,000 supporters. This of course gave the police the extra headache of making sure rival fans were kept apart, although it was at least refreshing to hear that trains had been laid on for the day (take note Virgin), and that the game would kick off at the wacky time of 3pm (take note FA). Football wasn't all bad in the 1980s.
As with many over-hyped Cup finals, the match didn't really live up to expectations, hardly surprising really when you consider that both clubs were playing their 60th match of a gruelling season (plus the numerous international fixtures on top of that).
The first half was particularly average, the only real talking point was Peter Reid's effort , which was deflected on to the post by Gidman, after a poor punch by Bailey. Frank Stapleton did test Southall from long range, the keeper easily saving the attempt that wasn't even going in, which neatly summed up the general poor showing from both teams in the first 45 minutes.
The second half began more encouragingly, Andy Gray spurning a decent chance after fine work by Reid down Everton's right. Then came the clearest chance of the match, Norman Whiteside surging through after good work by Mark Hughes and bearing down on goal. Luckily for Everton, Southall showed just why he was regarded as the best keeper in the world at the time, as he raced off his line to smother Whiteside's effort . With the game drifting inevitably towards extra time, it looked as if United were beginning to benefit from Everton's midweek exertions, until in the 77th minute came a moment that made football history.
A mistake from the otherwise impeccable McGrath was seized upon by the tireless Reid, and as the midfielder drove forward, all of a sudden there was just Kevin Moran between him and United's goal. Moran mistimed his tackle , sending a flying Reid sailing through the air, and although Everton's fans began chanting for Moran to be dismissed, no one expected what was to follow.
Indeed Brian Moore, commentating on ITV, indicated that Moran was about to go into the book, before he and the whole watching world realised that referee Peter Willis had other ideas. "Oh! He's sent him off. He's sent Moran off," spluttered a stunned Moore, with co-commentator Ian St. John equally as surprised: "I really do find that incredible Brian. I think the referee is 100 percent out of order."
A bit of context: looking at the challenge in today's footballing world, you would probably expect Moran to be dismissed, but back in the 1980s, the decision made by Willis was truly jaw-dropping. After the match, journalists and pundits rounded on Willis. Mick Channon did not hold back, declaring that "the game was nearly ruined by an imposter calling himself a referee". Jimmy Greaves hinted that, as this was Willis' last ever match as a referee, "he wanted to get his name in history before he retired."
Frank McGhee called the decision "a savage injustice", Steve Curry called it "an impetuous decision", and, writing in the Times, Stuart Jones expressed his displeasure on the incident: "The one figure who should have remained anonymous in the background had unwittingly taken a leading and seemingly decisive role in the play." Only former referee, Clive "The Book" Thomas backed Willis post-match, and that was hardly a ringing endorsement.
Willis, who received £43 for officiating the final, was adamant that he had made the right call, informing the press on the day after the match: "I have no second thoughts about sending off Kevin Moran. I believe I was right at the time and I still believe I was right. But that doesn't stop me feeling terrible about it."
This one moment was talked and written about for days after the final, so you can only imagine the kind of fuss an equivalent decision would cause if it were to happen in the 24/7 world of sport we live in today. Whether the decision was right or wrong – I happen to think that in the context of the sport at the time, Moran should have been booked – the fact was that United would face an uphill struggle to contain the champions with just ten men on the pitch.
Atkinson initially resisted the temptation to bring on Mike Duxbury, dropping Stapleton back into defence to partner McGrath. United ended the 90 minutes strongly, Whiteside and Gidman combining well before Pat Van Den Hauwe nipped in to quash any danger (and dashing my remote hopes of a surprise win in my football team's sweepstake).
Duxbury was introduced at the start of extra time, in place of Arthur Albiston, United hoping desperately that they could somehow get the match to a replay on Thursday night. One man hoping for a positive result, however, was England manager Bobby Robson, who would be robbed of the services of Gary Stevens, Trevor Steven, Paul Bracewell, Peter Reid, Gary Bailey, and most importantly Bryan Robson, for England's World Cup qualifier on the Wednesday night in Finland. Club vresus country issues existed even back in 1985, which is almost reassuring to know.
As the cliché goes, it is often a lot harder to play against 10 men, and Everton were struggling to take advantage of their numerical superiority. Although Peter Reid would test Gary Bailey from 20 yards, and they would later graze the bar via an unintentional flick from Robson, it was evident to many that Everton's tired display was an indication that their season was finally catching up on them. With just 10 minutes to go, all seemed set for a replay and an unwanted headache for Robson, until a moment of genius settled the issue.
When Hughes received the ball in his own half with his back to goal, there seemed to be little danger for Everton, even after the Welshman turned well and played a lovely pass with the outside of his right foot to Whiteside on United's right. Whiteside backed Van Den Hauwe towards goal, using the defender as a shield, before spotting a gap and curling a superb left-footed shot off the inside of the post and past Southall .
Curry would later remark: "You need astonishing expertise these days to curl a ball beyond the reach of Neville Southall, yet Whiteside managed it with a low shot that was as lethal as an Exocet missile." Put simply, it was a goal worthy of winning a Cup final, and even with the handicap of playing with a man down for 40 minutes-plus, few could dispute that United had deserved their victory. Not for the first time, the determination of Manchester United had deprived Merseyside of a treble.
There would be more controversy as United's weary players climbed the famous Wembley steps to collect the trophy. Under FA laws, Moran was not allowed to collect his winner's medal, meaning that he would have to wait for an FA committee to meet in the week to decide on the matter.
Again, every man and his dog had a say on the issue, the Mirror even inviting readers to send in postcards with either YES or NO written on them to indicate whether they felt Moran should receive his medal (for the record, of the 1,140 votes received, 93.5% said yes). Eventually the FA voted in Moran's favour, the defender naturally delighted as United were enjoying a holiday in Trinidad: "I'm going to treat the lads to a drink. It's been a traumatic week, but I'm delighted it's turned out this way."
Although Everton's season had ended in disappointment, they could be cheered by the fact that, during their lap of honour (do Wembley losers still do this?), their fans reminded them that they were champions. After the dust had settled, the club could reflect on a fine season and start to look towards the following campaign, and the ultimate challenge of the European Cup.
But just 11 days later came the Heysel Stadium disaster, 39 deaths and a sad conclusion to an already tragic English football season, the inevitable expulsion of English clubs from Europe preventing Everton from ever having the chance to pit themselves against the cream of the continent.
During the course of my blogs covering the first round to the final, there have been many interesting and controversial moments along the way: Ian Branfoot taking his Reading players to visit the "Big Pit" in Blaeavon prior to their first round match with Barry Town; pitch invasions at Dagenham in the second round and at the North East derby between Darlington and Middlesbrough in the third round; Burton v Leicester replayed behind closed doors after Burton keeper Paul Evans had been concussed by a block of wood thrown from the terraces; the endless cold snap that swept the country during the fourth round; York embarrassing Arsenal ; the romantic tale of Telford reaching the fifth round; that infamous evening in Luton during the quarter-finals; two classic semi-finals that still bring goosebumps just thinking about them. And to conclude, an against the odds victory for 10-man Manchester United against the finest team in the land during the 1984-85 season.
The 1985 FA Cup may have been tainted with controversy throughout. It might not have celebrated all that was good about English football during the 1980s, but at least it mattered in those days, and I for one will be forever grateful for that, even more so when I settle down to watch the FA Cup sponsored by Budweiser at 5.15pm on Saturday May 12. Well as long as it doesn't clash with my tea that is.
| i don't know |
What was the first name of Paddy Maguire’s wife in the UK tv series ‘Shameless’? | Paddy Maguire | Shameless Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia
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|career = gangster Patrick Donal "Paddy" Maguire (born August 31, 1962) is the patriarch of the Maguire Family , the most feared and well respected of the local criminal families in Stretford. His cherished wife is Mimi , and he has an identical twin brother, Noel . He has six sons: Jamie , Fergal , Joey , Donny , Shane and Micky , and one daughter, Mandy .
Patrick is extremely intimidating, forceful and violent and his presence strikes fear into most residents of the Chatsworth Estate . For example, when he and his family enter the local pub, The Jockey , the customers sitting at the table beside the entrance clear the seat for them. He and his family are also drug dealers on the Chatsworth estate and are particularly wealthy and prosperous as a result, with most of his sons staying within the family business.
He has a particular dislike for the Gallagher family, particularly Frank and Lip , which he has demonstrated on several occasions, both physically and verbally. However in later series, Paddy has begun to show a more compassionate side, and since Series 4 , he has also become much more accepting of Lip Gallagher, as well as Karen , the wife of his eldest son Jamie.
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Katie & the Gallaghers
Paddy is first seen after Mandy becomes pregnant with Lip Gallagher 's baby. As Mandy is actually in a relationship of convenience with Lip's brother Ian Gallagher , Paddy and the family instantly presume that Ian is the father and forcibly welcome him into their family. Paddy 'initiates' Ian by taking him to a street by trying to make him participate in beating up somebody who owes them money. He displays some tendencies of a sociopath after getting his sons to stop the beating, only to deliver the final kick in the face himself that knocks the man unconscious.
After encouraging Ian to propose to Mandy (which Ian does out of fear), Lip shows up at the engagement party and announces that the baby is his, wrecking everything. Paddy, overcome with rage, makes a beeline for Lip and beats him to a pulp before announcing to the Gallaghers that Mandy's baby belongs to the Maguires now and that they will never again have anything to do with it.
Heroin Addiction
Upon the family's annual pilgrimage to son Fergal 's grave, Fergal's gravestone is discovered to be vandalized. After cleaning it, Paddy installs a CCTV camera in a nearby tree and watches the grave from his laptop, where after some time, a beautiful woman appears to stop at Fergal's grave, look up at the camera and walk off. Paddy watches the short CCTV clip over and over again in intrigue, then begins to regularly visit his son's grave. By chance, he eventually meets the woman, Maureen , in the flesh, and looks immensely happy to be with her.
Paddy then wakes up on the day of his anniversary, in an upstairs bedroom on a bed, with his arms and legs securely tied to each bedpost. Initially, he thinks it's Maureen being kinky, but as the reality sinks in that he isn't going to be let go, he is overcome with anxiety. After some hours pass, Maureen turns on a video of her young daughter in a school play, who she reveals recently died of a heroin overdose. Maureen holds Paddy responsible and forcibly injects him with heroin while the video plays on repeat. She continues to inject him multiple times, turning him into a rabid, drugged-up mess.
The next morning, Paddy wakes up in a park in the middle of Manchester, with a shaved head, filthy clothes and black eyes. He arrives at home but declines to tell Mimi the truth, which, combined with Paddy missing their anniversary, begins the decline of their marriage. He goes on to become deeply addicted to heroin, buying it from under-aged children on the estate and shooting up in the street. Kelly discovers him and helps him do it properly, offering her insights from her own experience as an addict. When Paddy keeps sneaking off to shoot up, Kelly ends up telling Mimi, who decides to follow Paddy everywhere 24/7 to help wean him off.
However, Mimi goes to jail, taking the rap for Jamie after he puts Joe Pritchard into a coma, an act that would violate his bail, leaving Paddy to his own devices. While his sons continue running the family business, he gets Frank to babysit Katie while he takes another hit in the bathroom. Frank discovers him seconds before he's about to inject and valiantly tries to stop him, causing the heroin package to spill all over the floor. Jamie , Shane and Micky turn up to see their father, now a nervous wreck, desperately scooping up the drugs on the floor.
Paddy decides to go cold turkey from this point onwards and enlists the help of his sons. They barricade Paddy's bedroom windows and triple lock the door. Shane and Micky take turns to make sure Paddy never leaves the room, with Shane carrying a shotgun loaded with rubber bullets. Paddy endures two days of sickness, loneliness and hellish nightmares and hallucinations, screaming out loud and climbing the walls. He also starts masturbating to fantasies of daughters-in-law Karen and Kelly .
Eventually, Paddy is let out to the relief of the family, as he has gotten over the worst of the detox. Mimi is also released from jail after Joe drops the charges, but their marriage does not recover. Mimi, assuming that Paddy has been sleeping around with other women, makes life hard for Paddy in various ways, such as refusing to cook him dinner and making him sleep in his car. Paddy eventually can't take it anymore and forces her to listen to him talk about Maureen and how, despite her injecting him, she has "something" that Mimi doesn't, causing Mimi to destroy Paddy's bedroom in an emotional rage.
The next day, Paddy goes to extract debt from a low-life on the estate when he sees a girl in the flat overdosed on heroin. Having no access to a phone, he immediately carries the unconscious girl to Micky 's limo and rushes her to hospital, where she is saved in the nick of time. By chance, Maureen appears in the hospital's chapel where Paddy is thinking. He acquires her new address and waits for her to come home that night, when he pounces on her and ties her up to a chair.
After some time however, Paddy unties Maureen and the two sit at the table drinking whiskey together, showing that Paddy still has feelings for Maureen over his frosty wife. At first, there seems to be a small attraction between the two, however when Maureen admits that she slammed the door on her daughter after she begged for her help, Paddy is overcome with disgust and revulsion. Realizing just how mentally disturbed Maureen is, he immediately gets up and walks out, leaving Maureen in a flood of tears.
Maureen later decides to hurt Paddy in the same way he hurt her, through his daughter. She phones The Jockey , hours before Mandy's engagement party and lies that she found a wallet containing a large amount of money and a raffle ticket from the pub and asks if she could come collect it. Not wanting to let free money pass, Mandy is lured to Maureen's house where she quickly realizes the truth. Maureen starts to flood the house with gas and is preparing to light a match, to kill both herself and Mandy, when she is discovered and the two begin to fight. Meanwhile, Paddy hears that a woman phoned and asked for Mandy specifically and he realizes what has happened. He races to Maureen's house with Micky and when Mandy hears her father at the door she leaves a beaten and bleeding Maureen on the kitchen floor and tries to leave. Maureen manages to light a match just as Micky presses the door bell and the house explodes throwing Paddy and his son across the street.
Divorce, D'Reen and Departure
Paddy managed to break his heroin addiction completely but the stress of it along with his guilt over Mandy's death directly contributed to the break down of his marriage. He and Mimi divorced, with Mimi living above The Jockey with Jamie and Karen and Paddy staying at the Maguire house . Paddy eventually began a relationship with D'Reen Savage , a woman he met at the Community Center, and the couple bonded over Salsa Dancing. Paddy set up a formal dinner for his family to announce D'Reen's existence and tell them that he was going to move away from the Chatsworth Estate with her. Though Paddy said he was happy to hand over the family's crime business as a "parting gift", Mimi cornered him and explained that none of the family other than Micky was interested. Mimi went on to mention that Roscoe , the head of Moss Side's leading crime family had been appearing in The Jockey and she wanted Paddy to not only steal a large amount of money from an upcoming deal of his but also to kill him to ensure the safety of the family and make sure they were financially secure. Paddy grungingly agreed to do so but through his son's.
He sent Shane and Micky to follow Roscoe around and listen to his phone calls to discover when and where Roscoe would be meeting people to sell a large quantity of Cocaine. However, when they returned with the information Paddy realized that he was set to dance in a Salsa competition with D'Reen at the time of the deal. He knew that Micky and Shane would not be able to pull the heist off alone and refused to break his promise to his new girlfriend so he eventually managed to convince Jamie to break his own promise and do a job for the family again. They pulled it off almost without a hitch, Micky forgot to remove a tracking device from the Police car they stole in order to impersonate officers of the law, but the boys got away with the money and as Roscoe had never seen them before they were fine. However, Kelly soon realized the money was fake and that Roscoe had been "ripped off". Mimi angrily phoned Paddy who was getting ready to dance but he hung up on her only to be phoned by Maxine Donnelly telling him that Karen had taken her baby back to the hospital convinced he wasn't hers. Paddy left to go to Karen and leaving D'Reen before they got to dance.
Once Karen was ok, Paddy returned to D'Reen to apologoize and explain that he couldn't move to Cuba with her as they had been planning as his family needed him too much. He appealed to her to stay with him and continue their relationship there but she turned him down.
Series 8
In Series 8 a street funeral procession is held outside the Maguire house , much to Mimi's surprise. She loudly questions its purpose but Jamie hurries her and the rest of the family into the house at the same time a coffin is carried in. Kelly reads the plaque on the coffin and exclaims when she realizes it's for Paddy but is even more shocked when the coffin is opened and revealed to be full of guns. Jamie reveals they were bought from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Paddy took the opportunity to fake his death so he can start a new life in Thailand without Police interference. Mimi quickly becomes annoyed however when she spends the next few days being sought out by officers from every police station in South Manchester who are ecstatic at Paddy' death but present her with condolence cards which she promptly rips up.
In Episode 22 of Series 8 , in an effort to prove just how serious she was about marrying Billy Tutton , Mimi revealed that 3 months previous she had received a phone call from Paddy. Paddy mentioned that he was working with some "main players" exporting drugs out of Bangkok, Thailand. Mimi explained that he lived in a 6 bedroom house on the beach, complete with a full staff and chauffeur driven Mercedes. Paddy had begged Mimi to join him and said he would do anything to get her back as none of it mattered without her, however Mimi turned him down as it wasn't what she wanted.
Jamie refused to believe Mimi but she produced a first class Manchester to Bangkok plane ticket that Paddy had sent her as proof, dated before Billy and Mimi had even started their relationship. Mimi cited her ability to know that she would rather spend the rest of her life among her children than live a life of luxury as proof she knew her own mind well enough to know that she wanted to be with Billy. This information resulted in her children giving her and Billy's nuptials their grudging blessing.
Injuries
Paddy was assaulted by a client in Episode 612 when collecting money. Paddy was also shot in the arm by a business partner with a gun in Episode 702. He also nearly choked to death on a peanut .
Crime
Paddy has illegal possession of firearms, including double-barrelled shot guns and revolvers/pistols. Paddy mainly sold drugs, basing his business around his family, whom were often his enforcers. It is strongly implied that Paddy has killed people in the past. Paddy has physically assaulted many peaple, notably Frank Gallagher, Lip Gallagher, Paddy Smith (Epsiode 502) and even his own sons, such as Jamie, Shane and Mickey.
| Mimi |
What are the patterns called which are applied to the hands of Indian women using Henna? | "Shameless" (2004) - Episodes cast
Season 4, Episode 4: Episode #4.4
30 January 2007
Ian literally runs into a girl called Anna,who asks his help as she has stolen a case containing thousands of pounds worth of scratch cards from the Maguires and he hides her at his house. Hearing that not only is her son Fergal dead but that her brother has been electrocuted Mimi feels her family is cursed and hopes Mandy might marry Lip but,after Ian has helped Anna escape,relations between the Maguires and Gallaghers are strained. For the Karibs business is so bad that Kash fakes his own death for the insurance.
Season 5, Episode 10: Episode #5.10
4 March 2008
Karen is wary when Jamie's cell-mate Mark turns up and tricks Jamie into abetting a robbery. Fortunately the Maguires pull together to force Mark to tell the truth. With poor GCSE grades Carl feels he is a somebody at last when Paddy encourages him to box,where he does well . Unfortunately his last fight involves taking a dive. Yvonne is shocked when her schoolgirl daughter Meena declares that she is going to Islamabad for an arranged marriage though Meena's auntie Shaza makes her see sense. Shaza also invites Norma out for a drink and at last Norma seems to be over Monica.
Season 5, Episode 15: Episode #5.15
8 April 2008
Whilst Carl gets brewer's droop Ian finds himself oddly attracted to Mandy and Norma wakes up after a drunken night wondering why she is wearing a stranger's jogging pants - though the answer is a let down. Tom and Debbie find a young girl who has been raped and left unconscious and Tom is charged. Debbie is anxious to come forward but Tom forbids it as their secret will be exposed. However Frank admits to Debbie he has known all along and the real rapist is caught. Paddy subjects Shane to a violent beating in the Jockey over Kelly - before asking her to dinner. After all,she is family.
Season 6, Episode 2: Episode #6.2
3 February 2009
Ian leaves the area and Micky enrols on a film course where his penchant for erotic scripts sees him indulging in threesomes with tutor Zeta and her husband Ady whilst Mimi finishes his assignment. As the Jockey reopens after its fire damage with a night of impromptu strip-tease Karen and Jamie fall out but get back together and Carl,working at the hospital,is smitten with nurse Maxine though she wants their relationship to be casual. Mandy gets a new boyfriend in Jamie's friend Joe whilst Stan at last makes a break-through with Yvonne's kids and Norma,obsessed with a possible murder at the pub in the past,finds what she mistakenly believes to be human remains.
Season 6, Episode 3: Episode #6.3
10 February 2009
Frank finds he has been the victim of identity theft,which wipes his criminal record clean and makes him eligible for jury service. Initially resentful he is soon revelling in the joys of expenses and conspiring with fellow juror Helen to delay the verdict for as long as possible. After Shane and Micky are reported for trying to scam tourists with a Madchester tour Carrie pursues Micky to an empty building where his recitation of one of his erotic scripts has an effect on them both whilst Mandy moves out leaving Mimi feeling broody and Stan and Tom indulge in a prank war.
Season 6, Episode 4: Episode #6.4
17 February 2009
The Maguires are horrified to find their late son Fergal's grave has been desecrated and set up a CCTV camera which actually captures a mystery woman tending the grave. Carl gets a job as a car washer,leading to another sexual encounter but when he discovers he has an STD ,on Stan's advice,he is forced to tell all his old conquests - except the sexy customer,who is expecting. Micky learns that Ady is in love with him but,after an ultimatum from Zeta,intends to stay in his show marriage,ending Micky's acquaintance with the couple. Monica uses sham hypnotist Damien De Soto to try and make Frank jealous but ends up having sex with Damien in the toilet. Despite a misunderstanding over body hair Mandy,now living in the Jockey,has a night of passion with Joe.
Season 6, Episode 5: Episode #6.5
24 February 2009
During a James Bond themed evening at the Jockey Paddy meets Maureen,the woman from Fergal's graveside,and Karen suffers a miscarriage. When Mimi and Paddy insist on an elaborate show funeral she wonders whether she wants to bring another Maguire into the world. Debbie enters Liam for a modelling contest,a cash prize accompanying the photo shoot in Blackpool. As the poster is for a child abuse campaign Debbie is not keen for Monica to know but she tags along with Norma and Frank,who ends up being in the poster. Whilst Carl's compilation of a black book of the sexiest women he knows lands him in trouble,Tom's sick prank to make Stan think he has hung himself will lead to his leaving the area with Carrie.
Season 6, Episode 6: Episode #6.6
3 March 2009
After a night of drink Paddy wakes to find himself tied to a bed in Maureen's house. But this is not a sex game. Maureen's teen-aged daughter died of an overdose of heroin supplied by Paddy and now she intends to inject him with his own merchandise. Lonely DSS fraud officer Bernard calls on Frank to find out why he is claiming for children who have left home. Frank tries to bribe him with drink and a session at the brothel but Monica's wiles ensure that the case will be 'lost' though Frank is unhappy with her seduction method. Micky begs Carl to keep quiet after Carl discovers he is into men and Carrie and Tom move on,taking the contents of the police house with them.
Season 6, Episode 7: Episode #6.7
10 March 2009
Mimi celebrates her wedding anniversary at the Jockey,unaware that Paddy is still being fed heroin by Maureen. Kelly and Shane make a sex video which,thanks to Liam,does the rounds of the estate and Debbie and Maxine are locked in a shopping mall overnight after fleeing security guards who catch them shoplifting. Ian returns from Spain to find that he has been smuggling deaf teenager Danny in the boot of his car. Danny is looking for his grandfather but the man seems to have died. Monica,feeling unwanted by the family,takes off again.
Season 6, Episode 8: Episode #6.8
17 March 2009
Maureen releases Paddy who returns home addicted to heroin though Mimi believes he has cancer. Kelly discovers the truth and tells Shane. She has resigned from the brothel and they are working a scam to blackmail married men having sex with her in hotels before Shane bursts in on them. However one man attacks Shane,who ends up in a coma. The Gallaghers believe they have inherited a four-bedroomed house from a deceased aunt but it turns out to only be a caravan. Karen and Jamie have yet another public row when she opposes his being co-licensee as she refuses to let the pub pass to the Maguires.
Season 6, Episode 9: Episode #6.9
24 March 2009
Shane is left temporarily paralysed,causing Mimi and Kelly to fight over which one of them should care for him,which in turn leads to Kelly telling Mimi that Paddy is an addict. Mimi eventually agrees to stand by her husband. Ian and Danny move into Danny's grandfather's house and Norma decides to go back to lorry driving. Old flame Ruby suggests they start over but Norma sees that,with Monica gone,Liam and Stella need a mother and returns to the estate. Suspecting that Joe is overly controlling to Mandy Karen confronts him but ends up having sex with him.
Season 6, Episode 13: Episode #6.13
21 April 2009
Chesney loses his cherry to housewife Lorna and becomes infatuated with her. However,literally caught with his pants down by her tough-looking soldier husband he realises that the man allows his wife's promiscuous indulgence to make up for his own deficiency. Joe agrees to drop the charges against Mimi provided Mandy returns to him and Mandy agrees though she plans to leave him later. However Karen and Jamie are reconciled. Liam and Stella are taken into care after a neighbour finds Frank comatose in charge of them. Debbie lets fly at him and he reacts predictably - by getting drunk.
Season 6, Episode 14: Episode #6.14
28 April 2009
Despite Frank's efforts to stay sober Social Services doubt his parenting abilities and Debbie trying to snatch Liam and Stella from the foster-home does not help. Fortunately Yvonne is accepted as the new foster parent. She has persuaded Meena to return home from the brothel but a larger problem when husband Kash,who faked his suicide,leaving the children to believe he was dead,returns and wants money to vanish again. Desperate Yvonne and Stan devise a plan which ensures that this time he will stay dead. Mimi is released and a contrite Joe sells his share of the pub back to Jamie whilst declaring his love for Mandy.
Season 6, Episode 15: Episode #6.15
5 May 2009
Paddy has gone cold turkey but Mimi still believes he betrayed her with Maureen and is hostile. After Frank has defecated in public Debbie throws him out and he shelters in a church confession box where he overhears Mimi planning to hire an assassin to kill Paddy. He tells Paddy who decides he will pay the hitman more to kill Mimi though in the event the gunman intends to kill them both but is knocked out by Mark,Debbie's new boyfriend. Joe proposes to Mandy and Ian plans to return to Spain despite Liam's efforts to get him to stay by using Micky as a potential lover.
Season 6, Episode 16: Episode #6.16
12 May 2009
Angry to have lost his Child Benefit to Yvonne Frank gets her to pay him to baby-sit whilst farming the kids out to a woman in the pub at a lower rate. Maxine comes up with a novel way to declare her feelings for Carl in public whilst Karen finds she is pregnant. Suspecting that Joe might be the father she tells Mandy about their fling and asks her not to marry Joe. However Mandy is lured to Maureen's house where the older woman,desperate and deranged,aims to show Paddy what it means to lose a daughter and blows the house up,killing herself and Mandy.
Season 7, Episode 1: Episode #7.1
26 January 2010
Eight months have elapsed. Debbie has joined the Army and left the area. On his fiftieth birthday Frank saves librarian Libby from being run over and believes she is the one for him,despite her narcolepsy and interfering mother. Frank is also present when Nin,his grandmother,kills the severely disabled husband whose care has been a long-time burden to her and who revels in the relative luxury of being sent to jail and waited on. Whilst Joe is trying to persuade the heavily pregnant Karen to go away with him she goes into labour and he delivers the baby. At the christening he also gets a lingering kiss from her.
Season 7, Episode 2: Episode #7.2
2 February 2010
Baby Connor's christening day looms but Karen still finds herself attracted to Joe. Mimi organizes the proceedings,denying Kelly her wish to be godmother,which requires a little chicanery on the part of Kelly and Shane to ensure that Mimi's first choice fails to show. Shane and Jamie refuse to join Paddy in the family 'business' and he rejects Micky as being too stupid. However when Paddy goes missing only Micky bothers to look for him and Mimi insists Paddy apologize - which Paddy does,in a very bizarre and not wholly successful manner when he is called upon to be the children's entertainer at the christening.
Season 7, Episode 3: Episode #7.3
9 February 2010
Ian and Micky are living in Danny's old house and Maxine joins them after rowing with Carel over his drinking. At his new school Liam falls for classmate Holly and tells her his father is dead as he is ashamed of Frank. However,when Frank is called to the school and Holly lets fly at him Liam shows his loyalty to his father. Karen succumbs to severe post-natal depression leading to a breakdown and hospitalization whilst Yvonne and Stan,having scammed Paddy out of the money they owe him,do a runner,selling the shop to Joe,in whose care they leave Chesney.
Season 7, Episode 5: Episode #7.5
23 February 2010
Karen returns home and is cared for by Mimi,who tries to keep her daughter-in-law's illness a secret. However Jamie finds it hard to accept and on a night out has casual sex with Michelle,who runs an escort agency. Maxine gets Ian to pose as her boyfriend to impress her parents, a fact which makes both Carl and Micky jealous and when Micky catches the couple in bed together and tells Carl the brothers end up fighting. Kelly runs Lilian's brothel in her absence and does well, but refuses to cut Paddy in as he requests her to.
Season 7, Episode 8: Episode #7.8
16 March 2010
As Libby and Patty move in Frank offers to paint Patty's room but,when he falls over absconding with the paint,he feigns injury to get out of the task before buying cheap road marker paint from the workmen. Karen improves but Kelly,ashamed of her session with Paddy,repeatedly turns down Shane's marriage proposals until Paddy tells his son the truth and the couple wed. Chesney and Carl go on the run after seeing the ultra-violent Jimmy beat to death a boy who has sex with his sister and threaten to claim that Chesney was the killer.
Season 7, Episode 9: Episode #7.9
23 March 2010
The council ask the residents to make a film to improve the estate's image though Micky's violent take on 'Taxi Driver' is not what they expected. Meanwhile the Gallaghers use the filming to shadow Jimmy but when Ian confronts him he gets a severe beating. Chesney and Carl hole up with the free-spirited Hazel on her cannabis farm in Wales but she is also hiding a deadly secret and Carl decides to return home. Mimi joins the W.I. to soften her image and gets her revenge when the others look down on her.
Season 7, Episode 10: Episode #7.10
30 March 2010
Chesney and Carl return to the estate,hiding out with Joe,who dissuades Carl from shooting Jimmy. Eventually Shane,increasingly angry at how the cocky Jimmy and his gang see themselves as beyond the law whilst terrorising the Gallaghers,persuades his family to take them on and teach them a lesson. Maxine persuades Jimmy's sister to tell the police the truth and the fugitives are cleared though Maxine still aborts Carl's child. Shane also finds that he is infertile,leading to his family offering to be sperm donors though Kelly declines their offer as she and Shane continue to be surrogate parents to Liam.
Season 7, Episode 11: Episode #7.11
6 April 2010
Missing Debbie,who has been posted to Afghanistan,and getting on badly with Libby,Liam spends more and more time visiting Reggie,an elderly ex-Spitfire pilot whom he has been seeing to help with his World War Two school project. Libby and Carl suspect that Reggie is a paedophile but he is just a lonely old man who dies in Liam's presence. Maxine's gay brother Bruce turns up,claiming his father Cameron hit him and threw him out. Cameron follows and Frank,rather unusually,offers Cameron advice on paternal tolerance. Joe opens out to Karen as he tells her he is attending an anger management course.
Season 7, Episode 12: Episode #7.12
13 April 2010
Libby makes it clear to Frank she wants a child but she and Liam do reconcile. However,at the Jockey's Talent Contest night it's Liam's new friend Dean who helps him win - approval. Ian is involved with the local boxing club and discovers that its owner Jock and Paddy have ill-feeling which goes back a long way. Jock owes Paddy money and to prevent him taking his gym he torches it. Fortunately Micky,recently accepted as a fireman,is on hand to act and to save Paddy - at long last gaining his father's respect.
Season 7, Episode 13: Episode #7.13
20 April 2010
When Kelly's fifteen year old sister Tonya arrives to stay her child has been taken into care but she has a chance of reclaiming it if she proves she can look after a robotic baby. However she dumps it on the Maguires whilst she goes out on the lash and Micky sadly acknowledges that her child would be better off without her though he rallies the family to scare off her father Homer,who is also the father of her baby. Frank accompanies Patty to Lourdes,where they masquerade as clerics to steal the altar wine and Frank appears to be on the receiving end of a miracle.
Season 7, Episode 14: Episode #7.14
27 April 2010
When Paddy plans to move on with new lady friend Rosalita he and Mimi decide to divorce,only to discover their marriage was never legal.so they have to get married again quickly to make the children legitimate. They hope to keep things secret but Micky finds out. After Frank has stolen from her Patty sets him up for benefit fraud,leading to a day in the cells for them both whilst Micky gets picked up by attractive Gary. Unfortunately Gary thinks Micky is Paddy and is only sleeping with him for the status,which he publicly declares.
Season 7, Episode 16: Episode #7.16
11 May 2010
Helped by his friend Anto Joe flees the estate with Karen and Connor but when Karen expresses a desire to return to Jamie,Joe gets violent,trying to strangle her. Fortunately Ian has followed and kills him. Back at the Jockey,the scene for a weapons amnesty,Roscoe,whom the Maguires scammed out of counterfeit money,bursts in with his gang and takes everybody hostage,threatening to shoot Shane and Jamie. However Frank,Bruce and Micky,who are in the cellar,access the handed in guns and succeed in saving the day by arming everybody... except Mimi,who is upstairs. The pains she thought were menopausal were in fact a sign of pregnancy and she gives birth to a little girl.
Season 8, Episode 2: Episode #8.2
11 January 2011
Mimi comes out of hospital and tries to reconcile Karen and Jamie whilst Micky takes child care lessons for Cilla and Shane takes over the drug business. He is,however,not ruthless enough and Jamie goes to elaborate lengths to persuade him to hand it to him. Frank wakes in a white room,fantasising that he is Doctor Who and Monica announces that she wants her two youngest. Liam agrees to go if she lets Stella stay with Libby and Patty is involved in a war of attrition with Avril and her husband Jackson over their noisy love-making.
Season 8, Episode 3: Episode #8.3
12 January 2011
Frank is in a mental ward at the mercy of Monica's lover ,nurse Mildred,but Libby believes he has deserted her and spends the wedding money on a new kitchen. Avril sets out to look after Mimi,causing Mimi to temporarily have 'impure' thoughts about her whilst Shane takes over security at the school where Jackson works. He helps young Jude overcome bullying by his twin but there is still competition between him and Jamie over business. Micky attempts to help his ex-con pen-pal come out to his family but just stops short of outing himself to Mimi and his brothers.
Season 8, Episode 5: Episode #8.5
14 January 2011
Monica informs Libby that she has twenty-four hours to marry Frank or else she will nullify the divorce and reclaim the house. Recognizing Mildred Fletcher as Monica's lover Frank steals her keys and escapes with a girl called Carly,putting Mildred wise as to Monica's true nature. However,as Libby has broken into the unit he has to recruit the Maguire boys to go back with him to rescue her. At the Jockey the wedding is about to take place,Liam sending a letter to say he will stay with Monica to try and make her a better person. Monica is beaten but Libby and Frank decide not to marry but live together instead.
Season 8, Episode 8: Episode #8.8
1 February 2011
To get money for Cilla and do his bit for morals Micky creates a fake child porn site Skool Dreamz,with no nude photos,to get the credit card details of would-be punters and bankrupt them. Unfortunately the family is arrested for fraud but Micky gives a rousing speech in court which has no bearing on the case being dismissed. Working on a help line Patty meets and marries depressive Trevor but finds he only wants her for a suicide pact,which she is not about to fulfil. Sita gets one over on Aidan,who has been sexually harassing her.
Season 8, Episode 9: Episode #8.9
8 February 2011
After sleepless nights with Cilla Mimi is starting to feel bad and believes that she is going mad,as one of her relatives did,and that the house is haunted. Finally she believes that Kelly and Shane are trying to kill her and locks them out of the house though she recovers after seeing a vision of Mandy,who tells her what to do. Kelly is suspicious of the power new girl Bonnie exerts over Lillian in the brothel and Avril and Jackson's continuing efforts to spice up their sex life leads daughter Letitia to believe that her father is having an affair.
Season 8, Episode 11: Episode #8.11
22 February 2011
Kelly is appalled to find that Lillian has formally adopted Bonnie and given her the brothel,which she sets about altering. However Bonnie is a very mixed up young woman and,unable to face up to Lilian's love for her,kills herself. Also disturbed is Jennie,the carer Libby hires to look after Patty because Jennie has a pathological hatred of old people,stemming from her childhood,and Libby has to save her mother from her. Carl is upset when Sita tells him she is returning to Pakistan for an arranged marriage though he has a new,unwanted admirer in Letitia.
Season 8, Episode 15: Episode #8.15
6 September 2011
Avril starts living above her means,sending Letitia to a private school and Jackson is horrified to learn she has been financing it by embezzling the Jockey's holiday fund. Vilified by the estate she goes to work for Lillian but Jackson's overtime and Letitia's scams pay off the money owing. Mimi meets fellow jogger Neil and is soon enjoying a sexual relationship but dumps him when she learns he prefers her to gain rather than lose weight. Chesney is concerned that delivery driver Gorky,separated from his wife,is abusing Bean,his 12-year old daughter and sets out to frame him for drug-dealing.However Bean takes drastic action of her own and Chesney helps her to escape.
Season 8, Episode 16: Episode #8.16
13 September 2011
Jackson over-reacts when he sees Letitia kissing her boyfriend Dee and goes to Dee's house to complain,only to discover that his mother Alyah,is an old flame of his and Dee in all probability his son so he persuades Carl to help him break the couple up. Frank,drunk as usual,accidentally gets onto a mini-bus and eventually wakes up in a synagogue where a man named Isaac believes he is an angel sent from God though Frank's response is to steal the candelabra. With Jamie having legally taken over the Jockey during her breakdown Karen feels it is time to get her share of the pub back,which she does by beating Jamie at cards and at last they both have their names over the door.
Season 8, Episode 18: Episode #8.18
27 September 2011
When pensioner Cynthia Feltz is attacked in her home,Frank,whose DNA is found all over the place,is arrested. Carl calls former resident Kev who confirms that he and Frank once did work in the house and CCTV footage shows Frank,out of it as usual,being a reluctant drug courier for hard man Growbag MacReady, a fact witnessed by Cynthia. Frank is released but scared to cross MacReady.Fortunately D.I. Carroll,the officer in charge of the case,is an old flame of Kev's and helps him bring the real attacker to justice. Micky rows with Mimi and moves into a squat with Marty,whose presence is still causing grief between Kelly and Shane.
Season 8, Episode 20: Episode #8.20
11 October 2011
When the Maguires see CCTV footage of Marty's inept attempted robbery Shane realises the robber is using his clothes and gun and calls the police,sending Marty on the run. Kelly's affections are torn and when Shane tells her that Marty's wife and children died in a mysterious fire in Spain and the arsonist has yet to be caught she is unsure what to believe. Billy tries to get back into Mimi's good books but very nearly fails when he attempts to kill the annoying local priest who is conducting Cilla's christening.
Season 8, Episode 21: Episode #8.21
18 October 2011
Micky has landed in court and been given community service,helping supervise a social group for people with Downs Syndrome and autism. He notes that one group member Ray is brilliant with numbers and takes him to hit the casino but he is rubbish there and only interested in Kelly - who admits to Karen she is pregnant by Marty. When the unpopular group leader Michelle gets pushed downstairs Micky takes over organizing the annual play,a Nativity,which he stages at the Jockey and it is a huge success. Mimi gets Billy to 'man up' by joining her on a burglary. Escaping the law they hide in a church,where he proposes to her.
Season 9, Episode 1: Episode #9.1
9 January 2012
Kelly moves in with Marty,asking Micky to leave. Jackson celebrates qualifying as a teacher but festivities are short-lived,due to Operation New Start,a multi-agency based crackdown on the benefit culture of the estate led by hard as nails Carmen Kenaway and her adoring assistant Daniella Feeney. Soon they are evicting dozens of residents,who take refuge at the Jockey but,since over-night stays breach its licence,Kenaway demands its closure. Having unsuccessfully tried to save himself by turning super-grass Frank is made to become a double agent,discovering that Operation New Start wants nothing less than to obliterate the estate as it is seen as an example of throwing good money after bad.
Season 9, Episode 3: Episode #9.3
17 January 2012
Despite an awkward interview Avril gets a job in a hospital pharmacy but Marty is concerned that Kelly,rather than grieve for her dead child,throws herself into partying. Given their age gap Mimi insists she and Billy should have an open marriage,having other sex partners. Shane takes Billy to a club whilst Mimi goes on the pull with her friend Gloria. Both pull but do not enjoy it. Patty attends a friend's funeral and hopes to make money when the deceased's son,Alan,who never knew his mother,attaches himself to her but he becomes obsessive and Patty has to let him down gently,eschewing any rewards.
Season 9, Episode 5: Episode #9.5
31 January 2012
Aidan feels guilty that he stood by and let Kane rape Lara,especially when Kane turns his attentions to Letitia. After letting Lara stay with him and Patty Aidan agrees to testify and Kane is arrested. Jamie is almost tricked into doing the dirty work of a discredited policeman,Brooksy,to whom he owes a favour,but Karen stops him in time and Brooksy is sent packing after trying to knife Jamie. Micky ends up with a baby instead of a debt he was sent to collect and decides to move on,becoming a single father. As he leaves he is about to come out but Mimi,already aware of his sexuality,prevents him.
Season 9, Episode 8: Episode #9.8
21 February 2012
Marty's efforts to redirect the power supply to get free electricity plunges the estate in darkness though he believes that,having had so many volts pass through him and still survived,he is chosen for something. It still fails to prevent the looters from giving him a kicking. Whilst Jamie holds a lock-in at the Jockey - where Frank loses his coat - the women gather for drinks at Mimi's. Here Gloria confesses that her parents kept Dom but put her up for adoption and,on going to the pub for more drinks,she ends up in bed with Jamie. Chesney passes out whilst demonstrating to Billy his fitness regime for protecting the shop against thieves.
Season 9, Episode 9: Episode #9.9
28 February 2012
Following his collapse Chesney comes out of hospital to find that his cousin Toof wants to take him back to Bradford,where he can be offered a more affluent life-style. However Chesney realises that this this will place him under the thumb of his grandfather,the shop owner,and,encouraged by Patti,decides to stay on the estate and build the shop up on his own terms. Ruby and Kelly are recruited onto Lillian's panel to recruit new girls for the brothel. They do not get on though the brothel certainly ends up with a new look. Jamie continues his affair with Gloria,who,unlike him,seems to have no guilt feelings.
Season 9, Episode 10: Episode #9.10
6 March 2012
When Frank tells the Maguire brothers that Manchester's former war rooms have been taken over by the NAtional Lottery and are now home to thousands of scratch cards the boys,along with Frank,Ruby and Aidan,hatch a plan to tunnel underneath the main hall and steal the cards. Unnfortunately Frank's stupidity and a general falling out among thieves leads to the tunnel collapsing and trapping them. In Jamie's absence Karen sets out to prove to Mimi that she can replace him as the collector for the family's business whilst Letitia and her friends Keisha and Heaven post a girl band video online but suffer from a hacker.
Season 9, Episode 11: Episode #9.11
13 March 2012
In the collapsed tunnel Frank finds his time capsule from 1976 when he had ideals and a poetic soul but unfortunately in the present he clumsily bursts a pipe,causing the chamber to flood. However Gloria recalls Jamie telling her of the proposed heist though Dom claims Jamie told him in order to keep the affair quiet. A rescue attempt is launched,headed by Billy and Jackson,and all five residents are saved. Jamie is pleased with Karen's work in his absence and it looks as if his fling with Gloria is over. Sadly the scratch cards have to be burned to prevent any come-back.
Season 10, Episode 1: Episode #10.1
12 September 2012
Frank is having a terrible nightmare - he has been sentenced to life imprisonment and subject to the taunts of a sarcastic warder. But the reality,from Frank's viewpoint,is just as horrendous. The Department of Work and Pensions has finally caught up with him and considered him fit for work. His attempts to get Patty to injure him go wrong and he ends up working for World of Burgers. Shane and Jackson set up their own still,selling hooch to the pub and Mimi bribes them to employ Billy,who turns out to be more professional than imagined until he gets the mix wrong. Avril goes into business selling tablets to Patty,which has an odd effect on her.
Season 10, Episode 2: Episode #10.2
13 September 2012
Frank does well at World of Burgers,becoming employee of the week and hits it off with colleagues and customers but not the sweaty manager Wesley,who makes him dress as a giant chicken to promote the place. Frank retaliates with a go-slow so Wesley promotes him to manager but,following an armed robbery by one of his acquaintances,Frank is demoted again. Karen is alarmed when her son Connor starts to draw penises on walls so Mimi,with the aid of a stolen library book,starts to give her lessons in motherhood. However,after a traumatic incident with her daughter Cilla,Mimi realises that child rearing cannot be conducted via books and that each case is different. Kelly,angry with Aiden for calling her an old prozzie, tries to teach him to respect women,ultimately becoming a surrogate mother figure for him.
Season 10, Episode 3: Episode #10.3
19 September 2012
Whilst working as a handyman Marty meets Brazilian Aparecita,whom he believes is a domestic slave and spends three grand belonging to Lilian to 'free' her. As a solution Lilian employs her at the brothel,where she is very happy,but Marty's misguided attempts to liberate her further only end in her arrest. Gloria is appalled when Dominic brings home Hazel,the birth mother who gave her up for adoption whilst keeping her brother. Dominic is still his mother's darling and Hazel wants them to leave together but Dominic resists though at least the two women have a brief heart to heart before Hazel departs. Billy feels he is being walked over and uses a self help hypnosis tape with strange results whilst Shane,being distracted by a phone message from wanton cousin Ruby,runs over a pedestrian in his car.
Season 10, Episode 4: Episode #10.4
25 September 2012
Short of cash Gloria gets a loan with a huge interest rate and gets drunk,waking up at Mimi's. Next day Billy finds a positive pregnancy test kit and,assuming Mimi is pregnant,gets advice from Jamie - who concludes that Gloria is actually pregnant after their fling. He offers her money for an abortion but,finding that the result was a false alarm, she rejects it. However Dominic gets Jamie to pay her to keep the secret from Karen. Chesney and Aidan are shocked when Jamie sends them to collect the meat for the pub raffle and end up with a live cow,which they call Alan. Too attached to it to kill it they let it go and buy in meat instead. Shane engineers a meeting with Ruthie,the widow of the man he ran over,whilst Avril annoys Jackson by clubbing with young colleague Calum but draws the line when the lad gets too serious.
Season 10, Episode 5: Episode #10.5
3 October 2012
Calling himself Danny McKenzie Shane continues to befriend Ruthie,agreeing to help her choose a headstone for her dead husband Eddie. However not only does he face opposition from Ruthie's teen-aged son Sean,who masturbates in public,but is haunted by Eddie's abusive ghost. Finally,rather than admit the truth to Ruthie,he takes Kelly's advice and roughly breaks things off with her. Kelly herself and Lilian face opposition when the super-efficient Louise opens a rival brothel at knock-down prices,stealing away some of Lilian's regulars,including Frank. When Louise offers Kelly a job she takes the opportunity to spy on her rival and,having obtained the details of all of Louise's clients,uses a little blackmail to see off the opposition.
Season 10, Episode 6: Episode #10.6
10 October 2012
After seeing a fatal road accident Marty decides that life is fleeting and eventually proposes to Kelly,who accepts. However when he receives a letter from his supposedly dead children in Spain,he is anxious to fly out to see what has happened. He does assure Kelly that he still wants to marry her so the engagement party goes ahead without him. Karen suspects Jamie of infidelity,initially with Ruby,but,convinced she is wrong,tries to set a honey trap with Gloria. Jamie tries to cover himself by claiming that Gloria came on to him but she sees it as prudent to end the affair. Lilian has a vision in which a talking dog warns her of imminent calamity on the estate. However the dog later returns to tell her that she was unable to prevent either of the lovers' tiffs.
Season 10, Episode 7: Episode #10.7
17 October 2012
Jackson and Shane are flourishing as wheeler dealers with stolen solar panels and food past its sell-by date. However when Shane,to Jackson's annoyance,starts to give away some left-overs to the homeless he has a queue of unemployed in the yard seeking hand-outs and agrees to donate food to the local Catholic priest. But the priest goes behind his back to steal his business,leaving Shane to resort to blackmail to get his livelihood back. Patty organizes coffee mornings for other elderly folk but is exposed as having played on their absent-mindedness to win money and jewellery from them by gambling. Soon she is reviled all over the estate but Kelly detects that she is cranking up the abuse to gain sympathy and forces her into a deal. Meanwhile Billy is having problems in the bedroom department which Lilian,Dominic and a little plain talking soon cure.
Season 10, Episode 8: Episode #10.8
24 October 2012
Following the suicide of his old flame Alice, Dominic loses both his faith and the will to live and asks Frank to help him to kill himself. Frank,however,does his best to sabotage every attempt until eventually Dominic has an epiphany whilst sitting on the roof of a high building and decides to return to the land of the living,seeing it as his business to stop Avril's attempt to help her daughter Letitia lose her cherry. Meanwhile Lillian gets her own back on magistrate Malcolm,a client who has passed her off as his life coach to justify his expenses.
Season 10, Episode 9: Episode #10.9
31 October 2012
Jamie is receiving death threats by letter and text and,after his lock-up is torched and Karen's blouse nailed to the door,suspects that one of the pub regulars is in league with his tormenters. After Karen is attacked he agrees to meet the gang responsible and give them two hundred thousand pounds to back off but is shocked when he discovers who is behind the threats. Whilst Frank,now sacked,claims he has had sex by proxy with all the estate through 'Sex Degrees of Separation' Avril wrongly diagnoses Patty with terminal leukaemia,which gives Patty the opportunity to insult the whole estate. However Avril has cause to think again when the real results come through.
Season 10, Episode 10: Episode #10.10
1 November 2012
Frank is delegated to tell Patty she is terminally ill but she already knows and asks that he help her see Ireland before she dies. With no funds for the ferry trip he takes her to the beach at Waterloo,where she swears she can see the old country. At her request he leaves her alone and,on return,finds she has taken matters into her own hands. As Mimi prepares for her wedding anniversary her constant criticisms of Ruby's father lead Ruby to taking her hostage at knife-point with tragic consequences. Dominic takes brotherly love to a whole new level with Gloria but Jackson,aware of Avril's fling with young Calum from work,walks out on her.
Season 11, Episode 1: Episode #11.1
26 February 2013
Mimi is now heading the PTA at the local school and twists Frank's arm into becoming the janitor so that he can pick the magic mushrooms in the adjoining field. This does allow him to finance his latest venture with the Gastric Bandits,prostitutes Sherilee and Derrilee. Following a riot on the discovery that the alleged genuine London Olympic ring awarded the estate is,due to a mix-up,a fraud, half the estate are arrested and given community service,which particularly rankles with Avril,who,after her husband's departure,has moved with Letitia into her snobbish sister Patreesha's house. Jamie discovers that Paddy was not his father and travels to Leeds to meet Kassi,his half-brother by their now deceased parent. The meeting does not go well and Jamie makes matters worse when Kassi comes to see him at the pub,throwing him out in anger. Shane,however,finds some contentment,with his new venture - a festival site - and an affair with a policewoman.
Season 11, Episode 2: Episode #11.2
5 March 2013
As Gloria and Dominic continue their incestuous affair the local school prepares for an inspection and Mimi offers headmaster Banbury advice though he suspects she is empire building. Come the inspection itself Mimi gets the inhabitants of the Chatsworth estate to pose as teachers and they do her proud,at the same time showing how to deal with the school's problem child Adam. The school is about to pass until a kitchen accident reveals junk food being bought in,Adam being behind the scam. However Mimi has another plan to stitch up the inspector and get the school through. Jamie,having initially antagonised Kassi,welcomes him for a return visit,admitting to him his criminal background though Kassi has a confession of his own to make. Ultimately the two young men discover that they can be friends after all.
Season 11, Episode 3: Episode #11.3
12 March 2013
Avril reluctantly allows Patreesha to throw her a women only birthday party whilst Mimi is asked by Banbury to help out Mrs Tattersall,a once brilliant teacher,who has now lost her confidence. Helped by drink and drugs Mimi turns her into a no-nonsense ,frightening carbon copy of herself but at the party,unsuccessfully gate-crashed by Frank in drag, Mrs Tattersall admits what is really grieving her - which Mimi is able to put right. Lillian asks Kelly and Marty to retrieve a case from a left luggage locker,containing her life savings of four thousand pounds. However they discover the amount is nearer to fifty thousand and decide to keep some of it to help get them away from the estate,getting Kassi to launder it for them. Lillian is not as innocent of the bag's contents as they thought though and tells Kelly all ties between them are now severed.
Season 11, Episode 4: Episode #11.4
19 March 2013
Jamie wakes up in Kassi's house after a night on the town to find police hammering at the door as Kassi is accused of money-laundering and fraud and his assets confiscated. Jamie is shocked when Kassi tells him of his plan to escape to France but,when this falls,he moves Kassi,his wife and children onto the Chatsworth estate,where they are generally made welcome. Mimi,however,recalling Kassi's father,is extremely hostile. With their mortgage application refused,Kelly and Marty,now outcasts for robbing Lilian, do exit the estate whilst Shane 's bizarre affair with policewoman Randall continues.
Season 11, Episode 5: Episode #11.5
26 March 2013
When Avril loses her job Patreesha insists she work at the car wash Patreesha owns with ex-husband Bernard. However Avril discovers that Bernard was gay and that his lover has been running the business. Determined not to be a sleeping partner Patreesha decides to take an active role and put her stamp on the car-wash. After a disaster with the freezer Chesney decides to refurbish the shop,adding a pharmacy,and brings in British Muslim Remona to run it. Soon he and Patreesha's daughter Mary Mae find evidence to suggest that Remona is making bombs and suspect she is a terrorist - though it turns it she is teaching boy scouts how to make soap. Kassi is arrested after a night out with Jamie and it is down to Jamie to look after his wife Esther and their children.
Season 11, Episode 6: Episode #11.6
2 April 2013
Aidan is looking after Stan,an elderly,ailing man who does not want to go on with life and kills himself. Fearing that he will be incriminated Aidan enlists the help of Billy,who is useless,and Dominic,who has practical ideas for a cover-up,but they are interrupted by Stan's daughter Angela who is aware of her father's suicidal longings and tells Aidan she knows he is innocent. When Aidan seems unusually flush and is seen driving Stan's car Dominic wonders if he is so innocent after all and informs the police who arrest Aidan. A talk with Angela convinces Dominic that he has been wrong and he owns up to the assisted suicide and is himself charged. Aidan bails him and he flees the estate as the truth of Stan's demise is eventually shown. The Blancos are now living in Avril's old house and Esther's children are concerned about her friendship with Frank. She claims that he is merely being helpful as a neighbour but is taken aback to find him in her bed in the nude.
Season 11, Episode 7: Episode #11.7
9 April 2013
Mary Mae and Chesney are mutually smitten but fear Patreesha's disapproval. After Avril starts work at the shop - and identifies some rather odd manufacturing by Remona - Letitia and Aidan read that an adrenalin rush will bring a man's passionate nature to the fore and stage a robbery whilst Mary Mae is in the shop. It works but for the wrong reasons when Mary Mae discovers that the thieves have genuinely spent the spoils and confesses everything to Chesney. Shane's music festival is all set to go until Lilian catches him having sex with WPC Randall and tells Mimi.Mimi is convinced her son is being used so the police can launch a drugs raid on the festival and orders him to end the affair. He refuses but the policewoman's love of kinky sex ends it anyway. Fearing antagonism from the family Shane considers calling off the event but Karen persuades him to go ahead with it and it is a success - as is his first attempt to have straightforward,non-kinky sex with his girl in blue.
Season 11, Episode 8: Episode #11.8
16 April 2013
Frank is dismayed to discover that Lip has been living nearby with his little daughter Katie but not bothered to visit though he has been in touch with Katie's maternal grandma,Mimi. He invites them to tea,which requires Esther's help in cleaning the filthy house and they meet Stella,Monica's youngest,whom he has been minding. Whilst Lip has fun with the other estate lads and Karen and Jamie welcome him at the Jockey Frank sulks. Worse is to come when Lip catches his father having sex with Derilee and Sherilee and,after getting drunk,decides he and Katie should leave. Thus,whilst all the Maguires are invited to Katie's confirmation Frank is absent.
Season 11, Episode 9: Episode #11.9
23 April 2013
Chesney is surprised when Remona's father Barry shows up as she had said that he was dead. He gives her a cheque for thirty grand from his house sale and endears himself to Jockey customers with his generosity and anecdotes but Remona is hostile. Learning that Mindy,Barry's new wife,has left him Chesney feels sorry for him but soon learns that Barry has lied about his relationship and joins Remona in helping Mindy escape her husband. Frank accompanies Esther to a Polish evening,hoping for free vodka,but her son Tam,in revenge for Frank stealing his stash of drugs,feeds everybody laxatives whilst WPC Randall becomes jealous of Esther's innocent chats with Shane. Billy gets a tattoo to impress Mimi but the result is a failure.
Season 11, Episode 10: Episode #11.10
30 April 2013
Hoping to gain respect on the estate Billy goes for a job selling security devices but after a conversation with the sympathetic waitress in the café next door ends up as a short order cook,maintaining the illusion to everybody but Aidan that he has the sales job. To get extra money he arranges for his house to be burgled to claim the insurance but is eventually found out though Mimi is pleased that he did it for her. Esther is shocked to find that Thalia is the school bully and goes around apologizing to everybody though it gets her into trouble from which her artful daughter extricates her with sympathy-gaining lies. Lilian meanwhile takes in Stella,as a result of which the brothel suffers an infestation of nits.
Season 11, Episode 11: Episode #11.11
7 May 2013
Patreesha's boyfriend Louis tells her he has arranged a singing tour of America for her but drops dead of a drug over-dose,leaving a case containing fifty thousand pounds. Patreesha and Avril attempt to cheat each other out of the money,Avril staging a false kidnap attempt involving Shane, but eventually they unite when they learn that Louis was actually a con artist who had cheated several women out of money with false promises of an American tour. Tam Blanco's obsession with stealing knickers from washing-lines meanwhile leads to Frank being wrongly accused of being a pervert.
Season 11, Episode 12: Episode #11.12
14 May 2013
Mimi decides she wants to retire from dealing and do something good for the community. Her idea is to endow a new gym for the local school. She becomes a tireless fund-raiser though the regulars at the Jockey are less than generous so Billy enlists Chesney and Aidan to help him commit a little robbery,hauling over nine thousand pounds. Karen and Jamie learn of the theft but Mimi sees it as a foundation and when Jamie and Shane work out that Billy was behind the robbery and capture him she frees him,ultimately using some blackmail to get her funds. Shane decides to end his affair with WPC Randall as it is purely sexual but discovers that she is very persistent.
Season 11, Episode 13: Episode #11.13
21 May 2013
Gun-toting 'Biddy' Baxter arrives at Frank's house. He is Derilee's husband,anxious for her to return to him though she flatly refuses and soon the police are besieging the house with Frank,Stella and Derilee as Biddy's hostages after Biddy has accidentally shot a postman. News coverage brings Monica back to the estate. Courting press publicity she volunteers to be a hostage in Stella's place but,whilst she and Frank seem to get on,Derilee and Biddy's differences come to the fore. As the residents hold a party in the Jockey police storm the house but Biddy lies dead,shot by Derilee - in alleged self defence. She is not prosecuted and she and Sherilee leave the area.
Season 11, Episode 14: Episode #11.14
28 May 2013
Having served six months for benefit fraud Frank is discharged from jail to be welcomed by a heavily pregnant Monica,so pregnant that she gives birth in the Jockey. Soon she is suffering severe post-natal depression,upset that she had a termination that disposed of her surviving child's twin.With little help from Frank she summons Fiona,Lip and Carl for a show funeral for the dead child but Fiona,recognizing the inadequacy of her parents to raise more children,steals Stella and the baby and,helped by Lip,hides them with Kev Ball whilst she talks to Steve about housing them. Stella,babe in arms,wanders off,causing panic on the estate but she eventually tracks Frank down and cleverly forces him to publicly admit that he loves her. He takes the pair of them home,where there is a huge family row,which,in turn,leads to reconciliation and a celebration at the Jockey whilst another fight starts and the police are called - just like old times.
| i don't know |
‘A little dab’ll do ya’ was the advertising slogan for which grooming product? | 101 Best Slogans List
101 Best Slogans List
A List of 101 Great Corporate, Company, Product and Service Slogans and Taglines to Inspire You to Branding Greatness
The greatest slogans and taglines of all time? Let’s just say it’s a slogan list of 101 clever, catchy, memorable ideas going back several decades. You’ll find a list of some of the most powerful advertising slogans and taglines in history included here.
7 Up – The Un-cola
ABC’s Wide World of Sports – The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat
Adidas – impossible is nothing
Alka Seltzer – I can’t believe I ate the whole thing
Allstate – You’re in good hands with Allstate (Allstate)
American Express – Don’t leave home without it
Apple – Think Different
AT&T – Reach out and touch someone
Avis – We try harder.
Beef Council – Beef. It’s what’s for dinner
BMW – The Ultimate Driving Machine
Bounty – The quicker picker-upper
Brylcreem – A little dab’ll do ya
Budweiser – The king of beers
Budweiser – This Bud’s For You
Burger King – Have it your way
California Milk Processor Board – Got Milk?
Campbell’s Soup – M’m! M’m! Good!
Capital One – What’s in your wallet?
Champale Malt Liquor – Champale Makes You Feel Special, Every Day
Charmin Toilet Paper – Please Don’t Squeeze the Charmin
Chevrolet – See the USA in your Chevrolet
Chevrolet – The Heartbeat of America
Citibank – The Citi never sleeps
Clairol – Does she or doesn’t she?
Coca Cola – Have a Coke
Coca Cola – It’s the real thing
Coca Cola – Open happiness
Colt 45 Malt Liquour: It Works Every Time
Crest Toothpaste – Look, Ma, no cavities!
DeBeers – A diamond is forever
Disney Land – The happiest place on earth
E.F. Hutton – When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen
Energizer Batteries – It keeps going... and going... and going
Fed-X – When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight
Fiat Strada – Hand built by robots
Forbes Magazine – Capitalist Tool
FTD – Say It With Flowers
Future Shop – See what the future has in store
Gatorade – Is it in you?
Geico – So Easy a Caveman Can Do It
General Electric – We bring good things to life (GE)
Greyhound – Leave the driving to us
Grey Poupon – Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?
Haig Scotch Whiskey – Don’t be vague. Ask for Haig.
Hallmark – When you care enough to send the very best
Hertz – Let Hertz Put You In the Driver’s Seat
Intel – Intel inside
Ivory Soap – 99 and 44/100% pure
John Deere – Nothing runs like a Deere
Kay Jewelers – Every kiss begins with Kay
Kentucky Fried Chicken – Finger lickin’ good
Lexus – The relentless pursuit of perfection
Levy’s Rye Bread – You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s Rye Bread
L’Oreal – Because I’m worth it
Lay’s Potato Chips – Betcha can’t eat just one
M&Ms – Melts in your mouth, not in your hands
MasterCard – There are some things money can’t buy, for everything else there’s MasterCard
Maxwell House – Good to the last drop
McDonald’s – I’m lovin’ it
McDonald’s – You Deserve a Break Today
Meow Mix – Tastes so good cats ask for it by name
Miller Lite – Tastes great, less filling
Morton Salt – When it rains, it pours!
Motel 6 – We’ll leave a light on for you
National Milk Producers Board – Got Milk?
New York State – I love New York
Nike – Just do it
Packard – Ask the Man Who Owns One
Partnership for a Drug-Free America – This is your brain on drugs
Pepsi – The choice of a new generation added by: KirkSaw
Perdue – It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken
Porsche – There is no substitute Porsche
Rice Krispies – Snap! Crackle! Pop!
Rolaids – How do you spell relief? R-O-L-A-I-D-S
Skittles: Taste the Rainbow
Smith Barney – We make money the old-fashioned way. We earn it.
Smucker’s – With a name like Smucker’s, it has to be good
Sprite – Obey your thirst
Texaco – You can trust your car to the man who wears the star
The Independent – It is. Are you?
The New York Times – All the news that’s fit to print
Timex – Takes a licking and keeps on ticking
Trix Cereal – Trix Are For Kids
United Airlines – Fly the Friendly Skies
United Negro College Fund – A mind is a terrible thing to waste
UPS – What Can Brown Do For You?
U.S. Army – Be all that you can be
U.S. Forest Service/Smokey the Bear – Only you can prevent forest fires
U.S. Postal Service – We deliver
Verizon Mobile – Can you hear me now?
Volkswagen – Think Small
| Brylcreem |
Who wrote the 1885 novel ‘King Solomon’s Mines’? | Tagline Guru | Slogan & Jingle Survey
Slogan & Jingle Survey
TAKE YOUR TAGLINE TO THE NEXT LEVEL:
Criteria & Methodology
More than 400 nominated slogans and jingles were sent to 100 advertising, marketing, and branding professionals on both the client and agency side.
The survey was restricted to taglines and jingles created after 1948 (the advent of commercial broadcast TV).
Informants were asked to rank their top 10 taglines and top 3 jingles based on the following branding criteria:
Longevity: Have they endured the test of time?
Equity: Have they become synonymous with a company or product?
Portability & Memorability: Have they exercised an influence on our culture, media, and language?
Originality: Have they broken new ground in the advertising industry?
Nominated taglines and jingles were given a weighted ranking based on the number of votes they received and the rank they were assigned.
The 100 Most Influential Taglines Since 1948
1.
Don’t leave home without it. (1975)
American Express
Where’s the beef? (1984)
Wendy’s
You’re in good hands with Allstate. (1956)
Allstate Insurance
Tastes great, less filling. (1974)
Miller Lite
Melts in your mouth, not in your hands. (1954)
M&M Candies
Takes a licking and keeps on ticking. (1956)
Timex
When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight. (1982)
FedEx
Reach out and touch someone. (1979)
AT&T
A diamond is forever. (1948)
DeBeers
Let your fingers do the walking. (1964)
Yellow Pages
17.
There are some things that money can’t buy. For everything else there’s MasterCard. (1997)
MasterCard
What happens here, stays here. (2002)
Las Vegas
You’ve come a long way, baby. (1968)
Virginia Slims Cigarettes
We bring good things to life. (1981)
General Electric
Please don’t squeeze the Charmin. (1964)
Charmin
Does she or doesn’t she? (1964)
Clairol
Have it your way. (1973)
Burger King
I can’t believe I ate the whole thing. (1966)
Alka-Seltzer
Come alive! You’re in the Pepsi generation. (1964)
Pepsi
The ultimate driving machine. (1975)
BMW
Look, Ma, no cavities! (1958)
Crest
Pork. The other white meat. (1986)
National Pork Board
Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon? (1980)
Grey Poupon
Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. (1992)
U.S. Dept. of Transportation
Have a coke and smile. (1979)
Coca-Cola
I love New York. (1977)
NY State Dept. of Econ. Development
34.
Betcha can’t eat just one. (1981)
Lay’s Potato Chips
Think outside the bun. (1998)
Taco Bell
The mind is a terrible thing to waste. (1972)
United Negro College Fund
It keeps going, and going, and going... (1989)
Energizer Batteries
Hey, Mikey...he likes it! (1972)
Life Cereal
This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions? (1987)
Partnership for a Drug-Free America
40.
The happiest place on earth. (1960s)
Disneyland
Beef. It’s what’s for dinner. (late 1980s)
National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn.
43.
With a name like Smucker’s, it has to be good. (1962)
Smucker’s
Nothing comes between me and my Calvins. (1979)
Calvin Klein Jeans
Is it live or is it Memorex? (1970s)
Memorex
Because I’m worth it. (1967)
L’Oréal
The few, the proud, the Marines. (1991)
U.S. Marines
Our repairmen are the loneliest guys in town. (1967)
Maytag Appliances
Put a tiger in your tank. (1964)
Esso (Exxon)
You quiero Taco Bell. (mid-1990s)
Taco Bell
How do you spell relief? R-O-L-A-I-D-S. (1970s)
Rolaids
This Bud’s for you. (1970s)
Budweiser
When EF Hutton talks, people listen. (mid-1980s)
EF Hutton
It’s everywhere you want to be. (1988)
VISA
I’ve fallen and I can’t get up. (1990)
LifeCall
We make the money the old-fashioned way—we earn it. (1980s)
Smith Barney
Don’t get mad. Get GLAD. (early 1980s)
GLAD
It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken. (1972)
Perdue Chicken
We will sell no wine before its time. (1970s)
Paul Masson
Fly the friendly skies. (1966)
United Airlines
Thank you for your support. (1985)
Bartles & Jaymes
Try it, you’ll like it. (1970s)
Alka-Seltzer
We answer to a higher authority. (1975)
Hebrew National
Get a piece of the rock. (1970s)
Prudential
The world’s favourite airline. (1983)
British Airways
Nothing runs like a Deere. (1972)
John Deere
Leave the driving to us. (1950s)
Greyhound
The world’s online marketplace. (late 1990s)
eBay
Quality is job one. (1979)
Ford
Think outside the box. (1990s)
Apple Computer
The relentless pursuit of perfection. (1990s)
Lexus
The king of beers. (1950s)
Budweiser
Hertz puts you in the driver’s seat. (1961)
Hertz
Cotton. The fabric of our lives. (1989)
Cotton Incorporated
I want my Maypo. (1956)
Maypo
RAID kills bugs dead. (1966)
RAID
Fosters—Australian for beer. (1990s)
Fosters Australian Beer
Solutions for a small planet. (mid-1990s)
IBM
For those who think young. (1961)
Pepsi
My wife, I think I’ll keep her. (1971)
Geritol
Never let ‘em see you sweat. (1980s)
Gillette
I’d rather fight than switch. (1960s)
Tareyton Cigarettes
For fast, fast, fast relief. (1950s)
Anacin
A silly millimeter longer. (1970s)
Chesterfield Cigarettes
Take it all off. (1960s)
Noxzema
The spirit of ’76. (1960s)
Unocal
It’s not a job. It’s an adventure. (1980s)
U.S. Navy
Did somebody say McDonald’s? (1997)
McDonald’s
Ring around the collar. (1968)
Wisk Laundry Detergent
It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile... (1980s)
Oldsmobile
The toughest job you’ll ever love. (1970s)
U.S. Peace Corps
Share moments. Share life. (1990s)
Kodak
It’s not just for breakfast anymore. (1980s)
Florida Orange Juice Growers Assn.
I liked it so much I bought the company. (1978)
Remington
Sorry, Charlie. Starkist wants tuna that tastes good, not tuna with good taste. (1961)
Starkist Tuna
Celebrated Taglines Prior to 1948
Only you can prevent forest fires. (U.S. Forest Service)
1944
The beer that made Milwaukee famous. (Schlitz Beer)
1940
Look sharp, feel sharp. (Gillette)
1940s
Better living through chemistry. (DuPont)
1939
The breakfast of champions. (Wheaties)
1935
The pause that refreshes. (Coca-Cola)
1929
When you care enough to send the very best (Hallmark)
1934
Good to the last drop. (Maxwell House)
1926
Ask the man who owns one. (Packard)
1925
Always a bridesmaid, but never a bride. (Listerine)
1923
I’d walk a mile for a Camel. (Camel Cigarettes)
1921
Say it with flowers. (FTD)
1917
When it rains, it pours. (Morton Salt)
1911
The champagne of bottled beer. (Miller High Life)
1906
America’s most famous dessert (Jell-O)
1902
His master’s voice. (Victor Talking Machine Company)
1899
57 varieties. (H.J. Heinz Co.)
1896
All the news that’s fit to print. (New York Times)
1896
The 30 Most Influential Jingles Since 1948
1.
My bologna has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R. (1960s)
Oscar Mayer
Plop plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is. (1970s)
Alka-Seltzer
Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. (1971)
State Farm Insurance
Double your pleasure, double your fun. (1959)
Wrigley’s Doublemint Gum
Be all that you can be. (1981)
U.S. Army
For all you do, this Bud’s for you. (1970s)
Budweiser
A little dab’ll do ya. (1950s)
Brylcreem
It’s the real thing. (1970)
Coca-Cola
Ace is the place with the helpful hardware man. (1970s)
Ace Hardware
You deserve a break today. (1971)
McDonald’s
Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t. (1953)
Peter Paul Mounds/Almond Joy
I’d like to teach the world to sing... (1971)
Coca-Cola
I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener. (1965)
Oscar Mayer
14.
Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun. (1975)
McDonald’s
Things go better with Coke. (1963)
Coca-Cola
In the valley of the jolly--ho-ho-ho!--Green Giant. (early 1960s)
Green Giant
There’s always room for J-E-L-L-O. (1950s)
Jell-O
I’m a pepper, he’s a pepper, she’s a pepper... (1970s)
Dr. Pepper
Just for the taste of it, Diet Coke. (1986)
Diet Coke
See the USA in your Chevrolet. (1950s)
Chevrolet
Nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee. (1972)
Sara Lee
Nothing says lovin’ like somethin’ from the oven. (1957)
Pillsbury
What would you do for a Klondike Bar? (early 1990s)
Klondike Bar
Winston tastes good like a cigarette should. (1954)
Winston Cigarettes
If you’ve got the time, we’ve got the beer. (1980s)
Miller Beer
You’ll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent. (1953)
Pepsodent Toothpaste
Here’s to good friends. (1978)
Lowenbrau Beer
Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat. (1961)
Rice-a-Roni
Away go troubles down the drain. (1956)
Roto-Rooter
Maxwell House coffee pot percolator theme (1961)
Maxwell House
| i don't know |
The meadow flower ‘Ranunculus acris’ is better known by what name? | Ranunculus acris, Meadow Buttercup: identification, distribution, habitat
Family: Ranunculaceae
Who is not stopped in their tracks by the sight of a beautiful buttercup meadow? Children today still play the game of finding out if their playmates like butter by holding a buttercup flower under their chin; if the golden yellow is reflected on the skin, the answer is 'Yes!'
Identification
One of the best known of wildflowers, the Meadow Buttercup is tall and stately, and quite the perfect yellow for playing 'Do you like butter?'
Meadow Buttercup usually grows to a height of about 75cm but can reach a metre or more. This hairy perennial has toothed, palmate lower leaves and a few lanceolate leaves at flower stalk junctions. Flowers are borne singly on unfurrowed stalks branching from stems, with a terminal flower on a stem rather longer than the others. Each flower usually has five rounded sepals - there are no true petals, but most people use the term petals when describing these flowers - forming a shallow cup 1.5 to 2.5cm across that gradually flattens out. Seeds are produced in star-like achenes (segmented seed pods).
Distribution
Widespread and common throughout Britain, Ireland and most of northern and central mainland Europe, Ranunculus acris is also native to parts of asia. This buttercup is also present in Australia, New Zealand and North America.
Habitat
It's in the common name, of course: these are wildflowers of damp permanent-pasture meadows, but they can also produce impressive stands on grassy roadside verges.
Blooming Times
Ranunculus acris blooms in Britain and Ireland from April until October and is generally at its best from May to July.
Uses
Buttercups contains an irritant latex that can cause very unpleasant reactions in farm animals and in people. The acrid taste of Meadow Buttercups (and indeed to a degree nearly all common buttercup species except the Goldilocks Buttercup Ranunculus auricomus) seems to be sufficient deterrent, as there have been only a few cases of serious poisoning.
There is a risk to farm animals if they are left too long in a buttercup meadow, because when there is no grass left they might have to settle for buttercups, and become very 'unsettled' as a result. Despite these safety concerns, buttercups are sometimes used in herbal treatments for arthritis, bronchitis and several other ailments. (We strongly advise against eating or using as medicines any plants without first obtaining qualified professional advice.)
Etymology
The genus name Ranunculus comes from the Latin rana, meaning frog, while the suffix -culus indicates the diminutive form - hence Ranunculus means 'little frog'. The most likely explanation is that both frogs and Ranunculus wildflower species are usually found in damp places. The specific epithet acris means bitter tasting (as in acrid). Folklore has it that, because of the yellow of the buttercups, cows grazing in buttercup-richmeadows provided the finest butter.
Similar Species
There are many other buttercup species. Creeping buttercup Ranunculus repens is often found in lawns and gardens, while the bulbous buttercup Ranunculus bulbosus is another farmland species.
The pictures of Meadow Buttercup shown on this page were taken in West Wales and in Somerset during May.
We hope that you have found this information helpful. If so we are sure you would find our books Wonderful Wildflowers of Wales, vols 1 to 4, by Sue Parker and Pat O'Reilly very useful too. Buy copies here...
| Ranunculus |
Which animal is the symbol of the Rastafari religion? | medicinal herbs: MEADOW BUTTERCUP - Ranunculus acris
Meadow Buttercup
Family: Ranunculaceae (Buttercup Family)
Medicinal use of Meadow Buttercup:
The whole plant is acrid, anodyne, antispasmodic, diaphoretic and rubefacient. The plant has been crushed and applied as a poultice to the chest to relieve colds and chest pains. The fresh leaves have been used as a rubefacient in the treatment of rheumatism etc. The flowers and the leaves have been crushed and sniffed as a treatment for headaches. An infusion of the roots has been used in the treatment of diarrhoea. The poulticed root is also rubefacient and was applied to boils and abscess. The plant sap has been used to remove warts. The sap has also been used as a sedative. The flowers are used in Tibetan medicine, where they are considered to have an acrid taste and a heating potency. Their use is said to promote heat, dissolve tumours and draw out serous fluids. They are used in the treatment of disorders brought about by rotting sores or wounds. Use with caution, the whole plant is extremely acrid and can cause intense pain and burning of the mouth, mucous membranes etc.
Description of the plant:
July
Habitat of the herb:
Damp meadows and pastures, usually on calcareous or circum-neutral soils. Also found on damp rock ledges, in gullies and occasionally on mountain top detritus.
Edible parts of Meadow Buttercup:
Leaves - cooked and used as greens. Some caution is advised, see the notes above on toxicity.
Propagation of the herb:
Seed - sow spring in situ. You are very unlikely to need to encourage this plant. Division in spring. Very easy, though probably totally unnecessary, larger divisions can be planted out direct into their permanent positions.
Cultivation of Meadow Buttercup:
Damp meadows and pastures, usually on calcareous or circum-neutral soils. Also found on damp rock ledges, in gullies and occasionally on mountain top detritus.
Known hazards of Ranunculus acris:
All parts of the plant are poisonous, the toxins can be destroyed by heat or by drying. The plant has a strongly acrid juice that can cause blistering to the skin.
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How many inches are in an imperial mile? | Convert inches to miles - Conversion of Measurement Units
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How many inches in 1 miles? The answer is 63360.
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The SI base unit for length is the metre.
1 metre is equal to 39.3700787402 inches, or 0.000621371192237 miles.
Note that rounding errors may occur, so always check the results.
Use this page to learn how to convert between inches and miles.
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›› Definition: Inch
An inch is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, and United States customary units. There are 36 inches in a yard and 12 inches in a foot. The inch is usually the universal unit of measurement in the United States, and is widely used in the United Kingdom, and Canada, despite the introduction of metric to the latter two in the 1960s and 1970s, respectively. The inch is still commonly used informally, although somewhat less, in other Commonwealth nations such as Australia; an example being the long standing tradition of measuring the height of newborn children in inches rather than centimetres. The international inch is defined to be equal to 25.4 millimeters.
›› Definition: Mile
A mile is any of several units of distance, or, in physics terminology, of length. Today, one mile is mainly equal to about 1609 m on land and 1852 m at sea and in the air, but see below for the details. The abbreviation for mile is 'mi'. There are more specific definitions of 'mile' such as the metric mile, statute mile, nautical mile, and survey mile. On this site, we assume that if you only specify 'mile' you want the statute mile.
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How many times has jockey Richard Dunwoody won the English Grand National? | Convert inches to miles - Conversion of Measurement Units
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How many inches in 1 miles? The answer is 63360.
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The SI base unit for length is the metre.
1 metre is equal to 39.3700787402 inches, or 0.000621371192237 miles.
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I'm feeling lucky, show me some random units .
›› Definition: Inch
An inch is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, and United States customary units. There are 36 inches in a yard and 12 inches in a foot. The inch is usually the universal unit of measurement in the United States, and is widely used in the United Kingdom, and Canada, despite the introduction of metric to the latter two in the 1960s and 1970s, respectively. The inch is still commonly used informally, although somewhat less, in other Commonwealth nations such as Australia; an example being the long standing tradition of measuring the height of newborn children in inches rather than centimetres. The international inch is defined to be equal to 25.4 millimeters.
›› Definition: Mile
A mile is any of several units of distance, or, in physics terminology, of length. Today, one mile is mainly equal to about 1609 m on land and 1852 m at sea and in the air, but see below for the details. The abbreviation for mile is 'mi'. There are more specific definitions of 'mile' such as the metric mile, statute mile, nautical mile, and survey mile. On this site, we assume that if you only specify 'mile' you want the statute mile.
›› Metric conversions and more
ConvertUnits.com provides an online conversion calculator for all types of measurement units. You can find metric conversion tables for SI units, as well as English units, currency, and other data. Type in unit symbols, abbreviations, or full names for units of length, area, mass, pressure, and other types. Examples include mm, inch, 100 kg, US fluid ounce, 6'3", 10 stone 4, cubic cm, metres squared, grams, moles, feet per second, and many more!
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What is the name of the spirit who serves Prospero in Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’? | No Fear Shakespeare: The Tempest: Characters
No Fear Shakespeare
Act 1, Scene 1
Prospero
The play’s protagonist and Miranda’s father. Twelve years before the events of the play, Prospero was the duke of Milan. His brother, Antonio, in concert with Alonso, king of Naples, usurped him, forcing him to flee in a boat with his daughter. The honest lord Gonzalo aided Prospero in his escape. Prospero has spent his twelve years on an island refining the magic that gives him the power he needs to punish and reconcile with his enemies.
Miranda
Prospero’s daughter, whom he brought with him to the island when she was still a small child. Miranda has never seen any men other than her father and Caliban, although she dimly remembers being cared for by female servants as an infant. Because she has been sealed off from the world for so long, Miranda’s perceptions of other people tend to be naïve and non-judgmental. She is compassionate, generous, and loyal to her father.
Ariel
Prospero’s spirit helper, a powerful supernatural being whom Prospero controls completely. Rescued by Prospero from a long imprisonment (within a tree) at the hands of the witch Sycorax, Ariel is Prospero’s servant until Prospero decides to release him. He is mischievous and ubiquitous, able to traverse the length of the island in an instant and change shapes at will. Ariel carries out virtually every task Prospero needs accomplished in the play.
Caliban
Another of Prospero’s servants. Caliban, the son of the now-deceased witch Sycorax, acquainted Prospero with the island when Prospero arrived. Caliban believes that the island rightfully belongs to him and that Prospero stole it. Caliban’s speech and behavior is sometimes coarse and brutal, sometimes eloquent and sensitive, as in his rebukes of Prospero in Act 1, scene 2, and in his description of the eerie beauty of the island.
Ferdinand
Son and heir of Alonso. Ferdinand seems in some ways to be as pure and naïve as Miranda. He falls in love with her upon first sight and happily submits to servitude in order to win Prospero’s approval.
Alonso
King of Naples and father of Ferdinand. Alonso aided Antonio in unseating Prospero as duke of Milan twelve years before. Over the course of the play, Alonso comes to regret his past actions and desire a reconciliation with Prospero.
Antonio
Prospero’s thoroughly wicked brother who betrayed Prospero’s trust and stole his dukedom years before the play begins. Once on the island, Antonio wastes no time demonstrating that he is still power-hungry and murderous, persuading Sebastian to help him kill Alonso. Though Prospero forgives him at the end of the play, Antonio never repents for his misdeeds.
Sebastian
Alonso’s brother. Like Antonio, Sebastian is wicked and underhanded. Antonio easily persuades him to agree to kill Alonso. Also like Antonio, Sebastian is unrepentant at the end of the play.
Gonzalo
An old, honest lord. The goodhearted Gonzalo helped Prospero and Miranda to escape and survive after Antonio usurped Prospero’s title. During the play, Gonzalo does his best to cheer up the despondent Alonso, maintains an optimistic outlook on the island where they’re standed, and remains unfazed by the insulting taunts of Antonio and Sebastian.
Trinculo and Stefano
Two minor members of the shipwrecked party. Trinculo, a jester, and Stefano, a drunken butler, provide a comic foil to the other, more powerful pairs of Prospero and Alonso and Antonio and Sebastian. Their drunken boasting and petty greed reflect and deflate the quarrels and power struggles of Prospero and the other noblemen.
Boatswain
Appearing only in the first and last scenes, the Boatswain angers the noble characters with his foul-mouthed and rude remarks, but remains competent and resourceful in the shipwreck scene, demanding practical help rather than weeping and prayer.
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Who is considered to be the founder of the modern method of freezing food? | This Rough Magic: Door Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" - Door County Pulse
Door County Pulse
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Mark Corkins as Prospero and Grayson Heyl as Miranda.
The rough magic that occurs in the Björklunden garden during this summer’s performance of Door Shakespeare’s The Tempest conjures up what might well be one of the best shows in the history of the company.
Prospero, aptly performed by Mark Corkins (a longtime member of the Milwaukee Rep resident acting company), serves as a sort of ringmaster as he manipulates the fates of those who have wronged him bringing about not only justice, but also romance for his daughter Miranda and humor for the audience.
In the backstory, this Duke of Milan had been betrayed and deposed, and through treachery marooned on an island with his small daughter Miranda. But because he has his books and the services of resident spirits, his life has not been bad; however, after several years have passed, he seizes the moment for revenge when a ship carrying the instigators of the coup d’etat sails near the island. Through the use of a magic administered by his servant, the airy spirit Ariel, a storm is conjured up to wash the villains ashore. And with a stylized shipwreck on stage, the action of the play begins.
A number of factors contribute to the success of this production, perhaps most important the choice of the play. The story of The Tempest takes place outdoors on an island; the garden setting of the production easily suggests that location. Also, the natural space is enhanced through the addition of a permanent set piece this season that includes an elevated platform and two sets of steps that add performance levels to what had previously been a flat space.
Steven Lee Johnson as The Tempest.
The cast is uniformly strong. Along with the fine performance by Corkins, Steven Lee Johnson’s acrobatic portrayal of Ariel is as magical as the conjurations that Prospero directs him to perform. Jonathan Wainwright’s Caliban, the deformed monster, is equally spellbinding. The earth-bound Caliban, the antithesis of Ariel, scrambles simian-like, his body knotted with energy.
Grayson Heyl (Miranda) and Andrew Carlyle (Ferdinand, the prince) shine as Shakespeare’s lovers. The couple grins and flirts with the verisimilitude of universal young love, and the audience smiles in return.
The tone of the show is light throughout, appropriate for an audience on folding chairs sitting under a cool night sky. In this production, time passes quickly because of the level of energy of the actors, the imaginative movement patterns, and the engaging live performance of incidental music. When Prospero says, “We are such stuff as dreams are made on,” his words ring true.
But the humor also has depth. “Oh brave new world that has such people in it!” Miranda exclaims when for the first time she sees the unsavory visitors to the island; the irony is not lost on the audience.
This playgoer always brings with him a bit of ambivalence regarding modern dress Shakespeare productions, contemporary costumes seeming at odds with archaic language, even though philosophically we all champion the universality of the bard’s themes. But in this show, the costuming works, formal wear for the visiting castaways and grunge for the island residents.
Grayson Heyl as Miranda and Andrew Carlyle as Ferdinand.
For theatergoers who have been reluctant to attend a Door Shakespeare production because of the challenge presented by classic theater in an outdoor setting, this might be the show to attend. The plot is easily followed, the script abridged to a comfortable length. And the restored formal garden near the playing space provides a pleasant stroll during intermission.
The Tempest (Wednesday and Friday, 8 pm; Saturday, 5 pm) is performed in repertory with Romeo and Juliet (Tuesday and Thursday, 8 pm; Saturday, 8:30 pm) through August 15. For information and tickets visit doorshakespeare.com or call 920.839.1500.
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What was the name of the airship that burst into flames at Lakenhurst Naval Station, New Jersey in 1937? | Hindenburg explodes in New Jersey - May 06, 1937 - HISTORY.com
Hindenburg explodes in New Jersey
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Hindenburg explodes in New Jersey
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On this day in 1937, the German airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built, explodes as it arrives in Lakehurst, New Jersey . Thirty-six people died in the fiery accident that has since become iconic, in part because of the live radio broadcast of the disaster.
The dirigible was built to be the fastest, largest and most luxurious flying vessel of its time. It was more than 800 feet long, had a range of 8,000 miles, could carry 97 passengers and had a state-of-the-art Mercedes-Benz engine. It was filled with 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen, even though helium was known to be far safer, because it made the flying ship more maneuverable.
The Hindenburg had made 10 successful ocean crossings the year before and was held up by Germany’s Nazi government as a symbol of national pride. Flying at a speed of 85 miles per hour, the Hindenburg was scheduled to arrive in New Jersey at 5 a.m. on May 6. However, weather conditions pushed the arrival back to the late afternoon and then rain further delayed the docking at Lakehurst. When the dirigible was finally cleared to dock, Captain Max Pruss brought the ship in too fast and had to order a reverse engine thrust. At 7:20 p.m., a gas leak was noticed. Within minutes, the tail blew up, sending flames hundreds of feet in the air and as far down as the ground below.
A chain reaction caused the entire vessel to burn instantly. The nearly 1,000 spectators awaiting the Hindenburg‘s arrival felt the heat from a mile away. Some on the blimp attempted to jump for the landing cables at the docking station but most died when they missed. Others waited to jump until the blimp was closer to the ground as it fell. Those who were not critically injured from burns often suffered broken bones from the jump. Fifty-six people managed to survive.
On WLS radio, announcer Herbert Morrison gave an unforgettably harrowing live account of the disaster, “Oh, oh, oh. It’s burst into flames. Get out of the way, please . . . this is terrible . . . it’s burning, bursting into flames, and is falling . . . Oh! This is one of the worst . . . it’s a terrific sight . . .oh, the humanity.”
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Which US fictional private eye calls his gun ‘Betsy’? | Crash Site of the Hindenburg, Lakehurst, New Jersey
Memorial marks the exact crash spot.
Crash Site of the Hindenburg
Lakehurst, New Jersey
In the long, long list of 20th century disasters, the explosion and crash of the Zeppelin Hindenburg at least provided a never-before-witnessed visual spectacle. Actually, "explosion" is an inaccurate word to describe it, as we were told by our tour guide at the crash site. "If it had exploded," he said, sweeping his arm across an empty field, old hangars in the distance, "none of this would be here."
The Hindenburg was the pride of the Nazi airship fleet, the biggest aircraft ever built: 804 feet long, filled with over seven million cubic feet of combustible hydrogen. On May 6, 1937, it was landing at a Navy base in Lakehurst, New Jersey -- the nearest place to Manhattan that was big and empty enough to handle an immense, flying bomb -- when it burst into flames and crashed. Thirty-six people died. So did the popularity of zeppelins as transatlantic transit.
The site where the Hindenburg crashed is still big and empty, a windswept expanse of crumbled asphalt and occasional scrubby weeds. And it's still part of an active Navy base, which means that everyone who wants a tour has to be screened weeks in advance. The flat, infertile airfield was originally sand, which cushioned the fall of some people who jumped from the burning Zeppelin.
The exact spot of the crash is marked by a metal wind-turned silhouette of the Hindenburg atop a pole, and an anchor-chain outline of the Zeppelin on the ground. Don, our retired Navy guide, was full of colorful stories about the airship and its unlucky human cargo. "Captain Pruss got so badly burnt," he said, "it burnt off his nose. He used to take his fake nose off and set it next to the bed at night."
Carl shows us Hindenburg dinnerware.
After posing for photos at the site, next stop for our tour group was the Airship Information Center, a little museum packed with artifacts and memorabilia.
A 12-foot-long model of the Hindenburg hangs from the ceiling, built by a local man with a framework of 6,000 fudgesicle sticks. "Took him three years," said our new tour guide, Carl, a very knowledgeable volunteer from the town historical society. Carl pointed out items salvaged from the wreck: a drinking cup, a fork with the Hindenburg logo, and a section of girder -- the largest piece of the doomed airship that survived -- which Carl guessed was worth close to $100,000. "But we wouldn't sell anything," he said. While most items are behind glass, there are intriguing piles of loose artifacts in corners -- either they're less important, or waiting to be cataloged.
It's a short walk from the museum into giant Hangar 1, which occasionally sheltered the Hindenburg when it wasn't flying or crashing. "They didn't like to bring it inside," said Carl, readying another cataclysmic comparison. "You don't want seven million cubic feet of hydrogen in here. If anything happened, there wouldn't be any Lakehurst left."
Replica gondola from 1975 Hindenburg movie.
The hangar, bigger than the airship, now encloses an immense space of empty air, as well as a life-size replica of the Hindenburg's control car (made for a 1975 Hollwyood movie about the Hindenburg that starred George C. Scott) and a neon and metal blimp sign that once stood outside of the defunct Lakehurst Motel .
There's so much room in the hangar that it also contains attractions that have nothing to do with doomed airships. Carl walked us back to the Ready Room and the POW Joint Military Room, two small museums packed with military mementos, uniforms, patches, weapons, and thousands of home-made models of planes and boats. There's simply too much to see, but we noticed the diving helmet and suit worn by Cuba Gooding Jr. in the film Men Of Honor, and a tribute to Monsignor Paul Bradley of Brooklyn, "the fighting padre of Iwo Jima."
Further back, the "Salute to the Hanoi Hilton" exhibit featured custom-made dummies modeling pajama-like POW uniforms and the phony nice clothes that POWs wore when they were sent home "to make it look like they were on vacation," according to Carl. The Vietnamese guards, Carl said, would "put bugs in their food; they had to dig the bugs out." Rat droppings were put in the POWs' cigarettes, "like a form of torture." Carl pointed to a pair of crutches used by one mistreated prisoner who "required 51 different operations to make him even walk a little bit."
We were beginning to lose track of the calamities commemorated at Lakehurst, so Carl walked us back to our car through the hangar, past a full-size replica aircraft carrier landing deck, which is used to train sailors who work the catapults and arresting gear.
We asked Carl if the hangar doors could be opened for a photo, but he shook his head dismissively. "Each of those doors weighs 1,350 tons," he said. "And at wind speeds over 20 mph, each door becomes a giant sail...."
All right, all right! Someone else will have to be responsible for that catastrophe, the day that a destroyer-sized door flies off of its hinges and causes another memorable crash at Lakehurst.
Crash Site of the Hindenburg
Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station
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In Greek mythology, what was Arachne turned into after beating Athena in a weaving contest? | Greek Stories about Athena-Athena, Arachne and the Weaving Contest
Athena, Arachne and the Weaving Contest
Athena, Arachne and the Weaving Contest
In a small town of Ledia, in Northern Greece, there once lived a beautiful maid with the name Arachne. Arachne was famous in town for being a very skillful weaver and spinner and every day many girls and nymphs were stopping by to see her weave.
However, Arachne was a very vain girl and couldnât stop boasting about her talent. She claimed that she had learned the skill all by herself and that there was no one else in the world who could weave as delicately as her... she even felt that she could compete against Athena , the goddess of skill, and win her with ease.
When Athena heard these words, she got disappointed and decided to disguise as an old lady and appear in front of Arachne.
"My dear", she told Arachne, "I am old and have much life experience, so let me give you one advice: donât ever mess up with a goddess! No mortal can compete against Athena. Take back your words and kindly ask for forgiveness..."
Arachne got furious and threw the thread against the old woman, telling her:
"I donât need your advice, I know best what I can do! If Athena really dares, then she should come here and compete against me!"
At that moment, the old woman transformed herself into the radiant goddess Athena. On her sight, everybody in the room kneeled down in awe- not so Arachne, who couldn't wait to compete against her.
Soon the competition started and both contestants were doing really well. Athena was weaving the Parthenon and her contest with god Poseidon. Arachne, on the other hand, was making fun of the gods by weaving scenes of gods full of weaknesses and fears.
Arachneâs work seemed to be perfect technically, yet it was not beautiful because it was showing disregard of the gods. When Athena saw this, she became very offended and told Arachne:
"You may be foolish and stubborn, but you seem to love your work. So go ahead now and spin forever!"
Immediately, Athena sprinkled her with the juice of magical herbs and the body of Arachne transformed into a small and ugly animal, which is known as the spider nowadays .
Since then, the spider is cursed to be trapped inside her own web, weaving constantly and endlessly... but having finally all her works destroyed by humans!
This story proves that the Greek gods and goddesses were subject to human emotion.
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The legend of ‘Lohengrin’ comes from which European country? | Myth of Arachne, the spider woman - Greeka.com
Discover the myth of Arachne, the spider woman
The offence to the gods
Arachne in Greek mythology, was a Lydian woman, thought by some to be a princess, who was highly gifted in the art of weaving. Born to Idmon, a famous dyer in Lydia, Arachne was no ordinary weaver and the very act of her weaving was sheer magic and a sight to behold.
Soon news of Arachne's artistry spread far and wide and it is said that nymphs from the forests left their frolicking and gathered around Arachne to watch her weave. So moved were they by her skills that they remarked that she surely must have been trained by none other than Goddess Athena, the goddess of weaving.
The weaving contest
All this adulation was more than Arachne could handle and being an ordinary mortal who was quite vulnerable to human failings, she became quite arrogant about her superior skills. She was annoyed at being regarded as a pupil of Athena and began bragging about her skills, proclaiming herself to be far more superior to even Athena.
Now, when the goddess of weaving heard of Arachne's bold claims, she was upset, but nonetheless decided to give the young woman a chance to regret her folly. Disguised as an old woman, Athena appeared before Arachne and warned her of the consequences of provoking the wrath of the gods, but Arachne was not a bit remorseful and challenged Athena to a contest, declaring that if she lost, she would accept any punishment that Athena would decide for her.
That time Athena revealed her true form and accepted the challenge. The stage was set for a battle in which a god and a mortal pitted their artistic skills to decide who the better artist was. The nymphs who had come to watch Arachne weave shrank back, horrified at Arachne's audacity, but Arachne was unshakable and stood her ground. And so the contest began, Athena at her loom and Arachne at hers, each working with threads of gold and a splendid array of colors to decide who would outdo the other in this ultimate trial.
What unfolded next was a feast for the eye. Athena created a tapestry replete with scenes from the history of the gods. She portrayed Zeus at the center of the Olympic pantheon as well as her own contest with Poseidon and her victory, which ultimately made the people of Athens name their city after her. At the corner of her tapestry, she artfully depicted humans who had dared to defy the gods and who had been punished without a trace of mercy.
As for Arachne, she deliberately chose scenes that depicted the infidelities and amours of the gods. She vividly portrayed Zeus and his string of indiscretions. She showed how Zeus had turned into a swan to rape the Spartan queen Leda; a bull to entice Europa; an eagle to abduct Aegina; as a shower of gold to seduce Danae; and as a satyr to seduce Antiope. Arachne's work of art, according to the Latin narrative, featured twenty-one scenes of the various misdemeanors of the mighty gods, including Poseidon, Apollo, Dionysus and others.
The transformation into a spider
Although Arachne had shown little respect for the gods by choosing a subject that made a mockery of the supreme deities of the Olympus, even Athena had to admit that her work was brilliant and flawless. That, however, was not enough to calm down Athena who was incensed by Arachne's humiliating portrayal of the gods. At last, Athena destroyed in anger Arachne's tapestry and loom.
Arachne, like many other foolish mortals, had dared to question the supremacy of the gods. She had, in her arrogance over her art, been blind to the consequences of challenging the gods. Still in anger, Athens transformed Arachne into a disgusting insect. She turned her into a spider ("arachni" in Greek), proclaiming that Arachne and all her descendants would henceforth hang forever from threads and be skillful weavers.
An interesting fact that relates myth to history is that the art of weaving is said to have originated in Anatolia, a part of modern Turkey and spiders have been a constant source of inspiration for man to perfect his weaving skill. The story of Arachne from Greek myhology has also been immortalized by science and the taxonomical class name for spiders is Arachnida.
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Which British poet had a relationship with Fanny Brawne? | Jane Campion's Ode To Keats' Romantic Love : NPR
Jane Campion's Ode To Keats' Romantic Love
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Truth and beauty: Bright Star director Jane Campion says she was drawn into John Keats' intense — and chaste — relationship after reading his letters to 18-year-old Fanny Brawne. The correspondence "made you feel so intimate," she says. "Right in the middle of what they were experiencing themselves." Apparition hide caption
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Campion on casting her dream poetry class.
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Campion on how she wanted to make a film you could feel.
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Bright Star, the latest film by Oscar-winning director Jane Campion, chronicles the intense and tragic love story of British Romantic poet John Keats and 18-year-old Fanny Brawne. In some ways, it was an unlikely story for the director to tell.
"I have to admit that I had a lot of problems with poetry," Campion tells Melissa Block. "I used to feel kind of stupid that I didn't understand it properly."
But when she turned 50, the director decided it was time to learn more about verse. She picked up Keats, a biography by Andrew Motion, and was captivated by the "funny and honest and thoughtful" man she encountered.
As she read through the poet's letters, Campion says, she "fell in love with the guy." From the letters, she moved on to Keats' poetry and was hooked. But it was the poet's intense — and chaste — relationship with Brawne that really captivated her imagination.
"Their love letters existed, so it made you feel so intimate — right in the middle of what they were experiencing themselves," she says.
Campion describes the relationship between Keats and Brawne as being "entwined together." At one point, Keats stayed in a room within the Brawne family home; in the film, Campion brings this scenario to life with a scene in which Brawne stands with her cheek pressed against one side of the wall, while Keats holds his hand against the other side.
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"The holiness of the heart's affections ..." Campion describes John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and Fanny Brawne (Abby Cornish) as being "entwined together." hide caption
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"The holiness of the heart's affections ..." Campion describes John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and Fanny Brawne (Abby Cornish) as being "entwined together."
"I think the story touches me maybe because of the restraint that was placed upon [Keats and Brawne]. They got engaged finally, but they never did get married. ... I think it was interesting to me how intense and in love these two could be without having sex."
Campion says that she was careful not to burden the love story with extraneous romanticism — a task that sometimes required toning down the natural beauty of the British countryside. In one scene, the director found herself shooting amidst a sea of daffodils, but, she says, "it looked corny, sort of Disney." So the crew stopped filming and "everybody had to help pull out the daffodils."
Watch Clips
'Keats And Brawne Through The Wall'
'Brown And Keats Fight'
Even if she wound up pulling out flowers during the making of Bright Star, Campion says that learning about Romantic poetry has been like "[planting] a garden in my head."
"It's been such an amazing and incredible journey for me, getting close to John Keats and also Shelley and Byron," she says. "I think what they responded to was their own spirits, and that was the Lord for them. And to me that seems like great instructions for life."
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What type of gas was used by the Germans against the French for the first time, at the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915? | Bright Star | WBEZ
Bright Star
September 25, 2009
Abbie Cornish plays Fanny Brawne and Ben Whishaw plays John Keats in "Bright Star"
British poet John Keats lived a short life, but his words have survived for centuries. The Academy Award-winning director Jane Campion has a new film out based on the love affair between Keats and Fanny Brawne. Film critics seem to love the film as much as Keats and Brawne loved each other. In his regular film commentary, Milos Stehlik of Facets Multimedia , let's us know if he's feeling the love as well.
Jane Campion, director of The Piano, which caught the world by storm, has a new film out called Bright Star. The reviews have largely been bubbly and ecstatic — I don't get it. For me, it's a film just marginally above the level of Masterpiece Theatre.
Bright Star is the tragic story of poet John Keats' love affair with Fanny Brawne. We all know what's going to happen before the film begins – that's history. Keats is going to die. I just wished that in this film, he died a little sooner.
It's not that Bright Star is a bad film. It's just that the hype — is miles apart from what's on the screen. There's very little in the film that's original and hasn't been done to death – and often more brilliantly – by many, many, many British television shows over the years. The British do this formula exceedingly well.
John Keats was a poet, but Bright Star is remarkably un-poetic – unless you're one of those who believe good poetry can be found in a Hallmark card. It's a pretty typical British costume drama set in the beautiful countryside. Camion tries to use the countryside to find a poetically visual equivalent to Keats, and to represent the beauty of the love that eventually develops between Keats and Brawne. But this visual poetic representation is remarkably un-original: fields of beautiful flowers in the springtime; ahhhhh you can smell that country air. In wintertime, we are led to believe that it snows often – as giant snowflakes dance, drift and cover the ground. Must have been a very unusual year – since there's never that much snow in England.
Here's the situation: Fanny Brawne does what all good 19th century English girls do: embroider — and dream of Prince Charming. The encounter with her Prince Charming – John Keats, who's staying with his friend and writing partner Charles Brown, is the kind of spirited meeting one would expect from “Generation Z”, not a 19th century couple. Fanny may be dumb when it comes to poetry, but she is a free woman who speaks her mind.
Eventually and expectedly, John Keats' sensitivity and charm win her heart – though personally, I found their relationship rather unbelievable. For one thing, there's Keats' friend Charles Brown, who doesn't think much of Fanny's empty-headed obsession with fashion. There's an essential script problem here: Brown's role is way too large – as a supporting character, he occupies far too much screen time, and Paul Schneider plays the role as bold and boorish, adding an unpleasant element to all that romance going on in the background.
Now let's talk about John Keats — or at least as he is portrayed in the film by Ben Whishaw. Of course, he's sick and will die of tuberculosis, but he's also a wimp. Perhaps Keats was hyper-sensitive, but this doesn't mean he didn't also possess an inner strength; a determination to express himself through poetry. In my mind, this John Keats could barely write a shopping list. In between bouts of coughing himself to death, he writes letters to Fanny. But as portrayed by Whishaw, Keats is weak, a kind of verse-spouting zero of a person. He looks more like an accountant than a poet, but in the overwhelmingly positive reaction that Bright Star received from critics, few could avoid using the word “romantic”. I must confess that for a long time, I just kept wishing that Keats and Fanny would just get it on already.
But there is a silver lining. A major point of praise for Jane Campion's approach is that Bright Star tells us about a romantic relationship through the woman's — Fanny Brawne's — point of view. And here is the film's modernist conceit: As I said before, Fanny knows her mind — and is not afraid to speak it. At least at the beginning, she's not particular to Keats' or anyone else's poetry. Had she given up embroidery, Fanny might be the 21st century college girl. And while this pseudo-feminist approach that Campion carries over from her big hit, The Piano, is admirable – it's still a conceit, and not a movie.
Aside from Keats dying, which happens off-screen, there is very little drama. The film is illustrative, rather than dramatic. In one word, it's a bore and a snore.
I find it interesting that in real life, the last poem Keats wrote before he died was “To Fanny.” Surprisingly, in this poem, Keats expresses doubts and suspicions about Fanny. It's clear something happened. Perhaps he was near-delusional, sapped of strength. Nevertheless, the poem represents a change of heart — one that Bright Star dared not address. It would've ruined that manipulative “romantic” feel. Yet, how much more interesting if real life could have made the idealized love in Bright Star shine just a little dimmer...
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Milos Stehlik's commentaries reflect his own views and not necessarily those of Facets Multimedia, Worldview or 91.5 WBEZ.
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