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Jest Book
Jest books (or Jestbooks) are collections of jokes and humorous anecdotes in book form – a literary genre which reached its greatest importance in the early modern period. Origins The oldest surviving collection of jokes is the Byzantine '' Philogelos'' from the first millennium. In Western Europe, the medieval fabliau and the Arab/Italian novella built up a large body of humorous tales; but it was only with the ''Facetiae'' of Poggio (1451) that the anecdote first appears rendered down into joke form (with prominent punchline) in an early modern collection. Like his immediate successors Heinrich Bebel and Girolamo Morlini, Poggio translated his folk material from their original language into Latin, the universal European language of the time. From such universal collections, developed the particular vernacular jestbooks of the various European countries in the sixteenth century. Elizabethan jestbooks Tudor and Stuart jest books were typically anonymous collections of indivi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jokes
A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with dialogue, and ends in a punch line, whereby the humorous element of the story is revealed; this can be done using a pun or other type of word play, irony or sarcasm, logical incompatibility, hyperbole, or other means. Linguist Robert Hetzron offers the definition: It is generally held that jokes benefit from brevity, containing no more detail than is needed to set the scene for the punchline at the end. In the case of riddle jokes or one-liners, the setting is implicitly understood, leaving only the dialogue and punchline to be verbalised. However, subverting these and other common guidelines can also be a source of humour—the shaggy dog story is an example of an anti-joke; although presented as a joke, it contains a long drawn-out nar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Deloney
Thomas Deloney (born ; died in or shortly before 1600) was an English silk-weaver, novelist, and ballad writer. Biography Thomas Deloney was born sometime in the middle decades of the 16th century; the precise date is not recorded. Although often alleged to be a native of Norwich, he was most likely born in London, where he was trained as a silk-weaver. French and Walloon immigrants dominated the silk-weaving trade in 16th-century England, and the name Deloney, which looks like an anglicized form of a French name such as De Laune or De Lanoy, suggests that his family may have been relatively recent arrivals in England. An entry in the parish register of St Giles-without-Cripplegate from 16 October 1586 records the baptism of his son Richard, who may have died within a few months. During the 1580s and 1590s he became well-known as a writer of popular printed ballads, many of which circulated as ephemeral broadsides, while others were collected in books and pamphlets. His subject ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fiction Forms
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, "fiction" refers to written narratives in prose often referring specifically to novels, novellas, and short stories. More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium, including not just writings but also live theatrical performances, films, television programs, radio dramas, comics, role-playing games, and video games. Definition Typically, the fictionality of a work is publicly marketed and so the audience expects the work to deviate in some ways from the real world rather than presenting, for instance, only factually accurate portrayals or characters who are actual people. Because fiction is generally understood to not fully adhere to the real world, the themes and conte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shakespeare's Jest Book
The title of Shakespeare's Jest Book has been given to two quite different early Tudor period collections of humorous anecdotes, published within a few years of each other. The first was ''The Hundred Merry Tales'', the only surviving complete edition of which was published in 1526. The other, published about 1530, was titled ''Merry Tales and Quick Answers'' and originally contained 113 stories. An augmented edition of 1564 contained 140. The explanation of the title comes from a reference to one or other collection in William Shakespeare's play ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in which the character Beatrice has been accused 'that I had my good wit out of the 100 Merry Tales' (II.sc.1). By that time it seems that the two works were being confounded with each other. Contents The stories in the 1526 ''Hundred Merry Tales'' are largely set in England, mostly in London or the surrounding area, and contain the stock figures of stupid clergymen, unfaithful wives, and Welshmen, the butt of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salcia Landmann
Salcia Landmann, born Salcia Passweg ( he, זלציה לנדמן; 18 November 1911 – 16 May 2002), was a Jewish writer. She was born in Zhovkva, Galicia, and died in St. Gallen, Switzerland. She worked on preserving the Yiddish language, and she wrote the important work ''Der Jüdische Witz'' (''Jewish Humor''). She was one of the founders of the International PEN in Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarch .... She had one son and was married to philosopher Michael Landmann since 1939. 1911 births 2002 deaths People from Zhovkva Jewish Ukrainian writers Swiss writers Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Polish emigrants to Switzerland Ukrainian women writers Jewish women writers People from St. Gallen (city) There IS already a good articl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Armin
Robert Armin (c. 1568 – 1615) was an English actor, and member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men. He became the leading comedy actor with the troupe associated with William Shakespeare following the departure of Will Kempe around 1600. Also a popular comic author, he wrote a comedy, ''The History of the Two Maids of More-clacke'', as well as ''Foole upon Foole'', ''A Nest of Ninnies'' (1608) and ''The Italian Taylor and his Boy''. Armin changed the part of the clown or fool from the rustic servingman turned comedian to that of a high-comedy domestic wit. Early life :"…the clown is wise because he plays the fool for money, while others have to pay for the same privilege." – Leslie Hotson in ''Shakespeare's Motley'' Armin was one of three children born to John Armyn II of King's Lynn, a successful tailor and friend to John Lonyson, a goldsmith also of King's Lynn. His brother, John Armyn III, was a merchant tailor in London. Armin did not take up his father's craft; inste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Till Eulenspiegel
Till Eulenspiegel (; nds, Dyl Ulenspegel ) is the protagonist of a German chapbook published in 1515 (a first edition of ca. 1510/12 is preserved fragmentarily) with a possible background in earlier Middle Low German folklore. Eulenspiegel is a native of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg whose picaresque career takes him to many places throughout the Holy Roman Empire. He plays practical jokes on his contemporaries, at every turn exposing vices. His life is set in the first half of the 14th century, and the final chapters of the chapbook describe his death from the plague of 1350. Eulenspiegel's surname translates to "owl-mirror"; and the frontispiece of the 1515 chapbook, as well as his alleged tombstone in Mölln, Schleswig-Holstein, render it as a rebus comprising an owl and a hand mirror. It has been suggested that the name is in fact a pun on a Low German phrase that translates as "wipe-arse".From the Middle Low German verb ''ulen'' ("to wipe") and ''spegel'' ("mirror ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bowdlerisation
Expurgation, also known as bowdlerization, is a form of censorship that involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive from an artistic work or other type of writing or media. The term ''bowdlerization'' is a pejorative term for the practice, particularly the expurgation of lewd material from books. The term derives from Thomas Bowdler's 1818 edition of William Shakespeare's plays, which he reworked in ways that he felt were more suitable for women and children. He similarly edited Edward Gibbon's ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire''. A ''fig-leaf edition'' is such a bowdlerized text, deriving from the practice of covering the genitals of nudes in classical and Renaissance statues and paintings with fig leaves. Examples Religious * In 1264, Pope Clement IV ordered the Jews of Aragon to submit their books to Dominican censors for expurgation. Sexual * "The Crabfish" (known also as "The Sea Crabb"), an English folk song dating back to the mid-1800s about a man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabethan Era
The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personification of Great Britain) was first used in 1572, and often thereafter, to mark the Elizabethan age as a renaissance that inspired national pride through classical ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over Spain. This "golden age" represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music and literature. The era is most famous for its theatre, as William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of England's past style of theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people, most certainly after the Spanish Armada was repelled. It was also the end of the period when England was a separate re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the " Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the "many imitations" of his play '' Tamburlaine,'' modern scholars consider him to have been the foremost dramatist in London in the years just before his mysterious early death. Some scholars also believe that he greatly influenced William Shakespeare, who was baptised in the same year as Marlowe and later succeeded him as the pre-eminent Elizabethan playwright. Marlowe was the first to achieve critical reputation for his use of blank verse, which became the standard for the era. His plays are distinguished by their overreaching protagonists. Themes found within Marlowe's literary works have been noted as humanistic with realistic emotions, which some scholars find difficult to reconcile with Marlowe's "anti-intellectualism" and his c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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