Wednesday WIN

These images were created during the Renaissance period. It's interesting to note that naughty sketches, songs and stories have been with us for a long, long time.


This is the frontispiece to a pamphlet written by John B. Marriott in 1642. Marriott was a well-known lawyer whose name was synonymous with gluttony. He was the target of several written attacks regarding his excessive eating, and this pamphlet was his retaliation.

It looks like the larger figure (his attacker) has a flogger in his hand and is about to use it, even though it is his bottom that is bared and not his victim's. I assume the smaller figure is Marriott. Note that the publisher has not dared to spell out the word "arse".

This woodcut is the ornamentation to a ballad on the evils of drinking. The goodwife is fully prepared to whack her husband, who is probably too drunk to enjoy it. I strongly suspect that the woman's words have been photoshopped, but it's still an interesting piece of history.


For more strange images from the Renaissance, visit http://lolmanuscripts.blogspot.com/