"James Lipton - ExaltationOfLarks" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lipton James)

A WATCH OF NIGHTINGALES
A BARREN OF MULES
The term seems to refer to their sterility, but Hodgkin suspects that barren (or, as it appears in most of the lists, baren) was a corruption of the ME berynge, "bearing," and, in the same sense, The Egerton Manuscript has a "Burdynne of Mulysse."
A SHREWDNESS OF APES
A ROUTE OF WOLVES
In Old French route meant a troop or throng.
A MURMURATION OF STARLINGS
A SPRING OF TEAL
A SMACK OF JELLYFISH
A HARRAS OF HORSES
Hara in Latin meant a pigsty, hence any enclosure for animals.
A PENCIL OF LINES
A proper contemporary group term in mathematics.
A PARLIAMENT OF OWLS
AN EXALTATION OF LARKS

PART III

The Unexpected

In the Introduction to this book I mentioned "the astonishing digressions into the realm of pure poetry and wit" of Dame Juliana, or the schoolmaster printer, or whoever wrote The Book of St. Albans. As I said, there were one hundred sixty-four terms of venery in that book. You have now read many of them (with the terms from various other sources) in the preceding pages. It will probably surprise you, as it did me, to discver that of the one hundred sixty-four venereal terms in The Book of St. Albans, seventy of them refer not to animals but to people and life in the fifteenth century and every one of these social venereal terms makes the same kind of affectionate or mordant comment that the strictly field terms do.
By 1486 venereal terms were already a game, capable of codification; and if you think that the social terms were casually intended and soon forgotten, be advised that the second such term in the St. Albans list (it is the ninth term in actual order) is the still very much alive BEVY OF LADIES; and the seventeenth term on the list is none other than A CONGREGATION OF PEOPLE, a true venereal term, coming between A WALK OF SNIPES and AN EXALTATION OF LARKS.
The social terms are scattered throughout the list, with nothing to distinguish them from the hunting terms. Obviously the compiler considered all the terms equally valid and important to anyone anxious to avoid the title of "churl." The social terms are so surprising, and so filled with wit and revelation, that I would be remiss not to include a number of them in this book. Herewith, some highlights from the venereal game, as it was played in The Book of St. Albans in the year of our Lord 1486.

A HERD OF HARLOTS
A SUPERFLUITY OF NUNS
Henry VIII was as yet unborn, but the ground was obviously fertile for his quarrel with Rome.
A SCHOOL OF CLERKS
A CONVERTING OF PREACHERS
A DOCTRINE OF DOCTORS
A SENTENCE OF JUDGES
A DILIGENCE OF MESSENGERS
Any doubt that these social terms had wide currency should be dispelled by the recollection that, in more recent times, a fast coach was still called "a diligence."
A STATE OF PRINCES
A HOST OF MEN
See the earlier note on HOST OF ANGELS.
A ROUTE OF KNIGHTS
See the previous note on ROUTE OF WOLVES.
AN IMPATIENCE OF WIVES
A PRUDENCE OF VICARS
AN OBEISANCE OF SERVANTS
A SET OF USHERS
A DRAUGHT OF BOTTLERS
A PROUD SHOWING OF TAILORS
A TEMPERANCE OF COOKS
A STALK OF FORESTERS
A BOAST OF SOLDIERS
A LAUGHTER OF HOSTLERS
A CAJOLERY OF TAVERNERS
The vast and comprehensive New English Dictionary defines glozing as "flattering, cajolery," and gives as one of its definitions, "3. An alleged name of a 'company' (of taverners) 1486 Bk. St Albans Fvi b, A Glosying of Tauerneris," which is how the term appears in the list.