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Gropecunt Lane
Gropecunt Lane () was a street name found in English towns and cities during the Middle Ages, believed to be a reference to the prostitution centred on those areas; it was normal practice for a medieval street name to reflect the street's function or the economic activity taking place within it. Gropecunt, the earliest known use of which is in about 1230, appears to have been derived as a compound of the words ''grope'' and ''cunt''. Streets with that name were often in the busiest parts of medieval towns and cities, and at least one appears to have been an important thoroughfare. Although the name was once common throughout England, changes in attitude resulted in its replacement by more innocuous versions such as Grape Lane. A variation of Gropecunt was last recorded as a street name in 1561. Toponymy Variations include Gropecunte, Gropecountelane, Gropecontelane, Groppecountelane and Gropekuntelane. There were once many such street names in England, but all have now been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magpie Lane
Magpie Lane is an English folk group, based in Oxford, England. The musicians of Magpie Lane first came together in the winter of 1992–93 to record ''The Oxford Ramble'', a collection of songs and tunes from, or about, Oxfordshire. Originally conceived as a one-off recording project, the success of ''The Oxford Ramble'' and early concerts and appearances in Oxford and further afield led to the release of a second CD, ''Speed the Plough'', a year later. Further recordings followed, celebrating seasonal folk customs of the British Isles: a collection of traditional Festive songs and tunes in ''Wassail: a Country Christmas''; and ''Jack-in-the-Green,'' which celebrates customs around May Day and Midsummer. In 2000, the band were asked to record a companion album for ''A Taste of Ale'', a book by the author and folksong scholar, Roy Palmer. This album was one of two to feature Benji Kirkpatrick on vocals and string instruments. The band have continued to release albums and perf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smithfield, London
Smithfield, properly known as West Smithfield, is a district located in Central London, part of Farringdon Without, the most westerly ward of the City of London, England. Smithfield is home to a number of City institutions, such as St Bartholomew's Hospital and livery halls, including those of the Butchers' and Haberdashers' Companies. The area is best known for the Smithfield meat market, which dates from the 10th century, has been in continuous operation since medieval times, and is now London's only remaining wholesale market. Smithfield's principal street is called ''West Smithfield'', and the area also contains London's oldest surviving church, St Bartholomew-the-Great, founded in AD 1123. The area has borne witness to many executions of heretics and political rebels over the centuries, as well as Scottish knight Sir William Wallace, and Wat Tyler, leader of the Peasants' Revolt, among many other religious reformers and dissenters. Smithfield Market, a Grade II li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whore
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penetrative sex, oral sex, etc.) with the customer. The requirement of physical contact also creates the risk of transferring diseases. Prostitution is sometimes described as sexual services, commercial sex or, colloquially, hooking. It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as "the world's oldest profession" in the English-speaking world. A person who works in this field is called a prostitute, or more inclusively, a sex worker. Prostitution occurs in a variety of forms, and its legal status varies from country to country (sometimes from region to region within a given country), ranging from being an enforced or unenforced crime, to unregulated, to a regulated profession. It is one branch of the sex industry, along with pornography, stri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific ''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament. Among Chaucer's many other works are ''The Book of the Duchess'', ''The House of Fame'', ''The Legend of Good Women'', and ''Troilus and Criseyde''. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fyndere of our ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Miller's Tale
"The Miller's Tale" ( enm, The Milleres Tale) is the second of Geoffrey Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales'' (1380s–1390s), told by the drunken miller Robin toquite (a Middle English term meaning requite or pay back, in both good and negative ways) "The Knight's Tale". The Miller's Prologue is the first "quite" that occurs in the tales. Prologue The general prologue to ''The Canterbury Tales'' describes the Miller, Robin, as a stout and evil churl fond of wrestling. In the Miller's Prologue, the pilgrims have just heard and enjoyed "The Knight's Tale", a classical story of courtly love, and the Host asks the Monk to "quite" with a tale of his own. Before the Monk can respond, however, the drunken Miller insists on going next. The Host tries to persuade the Miller to let some "bettre" man tell the next tale, but acquiesces when the Miller threatens to leave the company. The Miller claims that his tale is "noble", but reminds the other pilgrims that he is quite drunk and cannot be h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Stow
John Stow (''also'' Stowe; 1524/25 – 5 April 1605) was an English historian and antiquarian. He wrote a series of chronicles of English history, published from 1565 onwards under such titles as ''The Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles'', ''The Chronicles of England'', and ''The Annales of England''; and also ''A Survey of London'' (1598; second edition 1603). A. L. Rowse has described him as "one of the best historians of that age; indefatigable in the trouble he took, thorough and conscientious, accurate – above all things devoted to truth". Life John Stow was born in about 1525 in the City of London parish of St Michael, Cornhill, then at the heart of London's metropolis. His father, Thomas Stow, was a tallow chandler. Thomas Stow is recorded as paying rent of 6s 8d per year for the family dwelling, and as a youth Stow would fetch milk every morning from a farm on the land nearby to the east owned by the Minoresses of the Convent of St. Clare. There is no evidence that he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Survey Of London
John Stow (''also'' Stowe; 1524/25 – 5 April 1605) was an English historian and antiquarian. He wrote a series of chronicles of English history, published from 1565 onwards under such titles as ''The Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles'', ''The Chronicles of England'', and ''The Annales of England''; and also ''A Survey of London'' (1598; second edition 1603). A. L. Rowse has described him as "one of the best historians of that age; indefatigable in the trouble he took, thorough and conscientious, accurate – above all things devoted to truth". Life John Stow was born in about 1525 in the City of London parish of St Michael, Cornhill, then at the heart of London's metropolis. His father, Thomas Stow, was a Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers, tallow chandler. Thomas Stow is recorded as paying rent of 6s 8d per year for the family dwelling, and as a youth Stow would fetch milk every morning from a farm on the land nearby to the east owned by the Poor Clares, Minoresses of the C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Urban Culture
Urban culture is the culture of towns and cities. The defining theme is the presence of a great number of very different people in a very limited space - most of them are strangers to each other but still try to be polite to each other more times than not. This makes it possible to build up a vast array of subcultures close to each other, exposed to each other's influence, but without necessarily intruding into people's private lives.Tönnies, Ferdinand: Community and society, 1957. Urban Areas Globally, urban areas tend to also be home to concentrations of power, such as government capitals and corporate headquarters, and the wealthy and powerful people that are employed in them. Cities also organize people, create norms, beliefs, and values. As outlined by Max Weber in his book, ''The City'', "There are five things that make a city: fortification, market, a law code, an association of urban citizenry creating a sense of municipal corporateness, and sufficient political autonomy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Shambles
The Shambles is a historic street in York, England, featuring preserved medieval buildings, some dating back as far as the fourteenth century. The street is narrow with many timber-framed buildings with jettied floors that overhang the street by several feet. It was once known as The Great Flesh Shambles, probably from the Anglo-Saxon ''Fleshammels'' (literally 'flesh-shelves'), the word for the shelves that butchers used to display their meat. In 1885, thirty-one butchers' shops were located along the street, but now none remain. Etymology "'' Shambles''" is an obsolete term for an open-air slaughterhouse and meat market. Streets of that name were so called from having been the sites on which butchers killed and dressed animals for consumption. (One source suggests that the term derives from "Shammel", an Anglo-Saxon word for shelves that stores used to display their wares, while another indicates that by AD 971 "shamble" meant a 'bench for the sale of goods' and by 1305, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montpellier
Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Hérault. In 2018, 290,053 people lived in the city, while its Functional area (France), metropolitan area had a population of 787,705.Comparateur de territoire INSEE, retrieved 20 June 2022. The inhabitants are called Montpelliérains. In the Middle Ages, Montpellier was an important city of the Crown of Aragon (and was the birthplace of James I of Aragon, James I), and then of Kingdom of Majorca, Majorca, before its sale to France in 1349. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the List of oldest univ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cock Lane
Cock Lane is a small street in Smithfield in the City of London, leading from Giltspur Street in the east to Snow Hill in the west. In the medieval period, it was known as ''Cokkes Lane'' and was the site of legal brothels. 25 Cock Lane is the site where the supposed Cock Lane ghost manifested itself in 1762, and is also the place where writer John Bunyan, who wrote England's first best-seller, died from a fever in 1688. The junction of Giltspur Street and Cock Lane was known as Pye Corner, famous as marking the furthest extent of the Great Fire of London, which is commemorated by the Golden Boy of Pye Corner. This effigy was originally built into the front of a public house called The Fortune of War ''The Fortune of War'' is the sixth historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by British author Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1979. It is set during the War of 1812. HMS ''Leopard'' made its way to Botany Bay, left its prisoners, ... which used to occupy the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piers Plowman
''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un-rhymed, alliterative verse divided into sections called (Latin for "step"). Like the Pearl Poet's ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'', ''Piers Plowman'' is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest works of English literature of the Middle Ages, even preceding and influencing Geoffrey Chaucer, Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales''. ''Piers Plowman'' contains the first known reference to a literary tradition of Robin Hood tales. There exist three distinct versions of the poem, which scholars refer to as the A-, B-, and C-texts. The B-text is the most widely edited and translated version; it revises and extends the A-text by over four thousand lines. Summary The poem, a mix of theological allegory and social satire, concerns the narrator/dreamer's quest fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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