Thursday, October 24, 2013

Likely Doublet Bonanza

Started reading something "serious" for a change - REPROBATES: THE CAVALIERS OF THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR by John Stubbs. So I guess it's back to kings for me! After that one book about kings I gave up on that other book about kings, so we'll see. Right away, in the introduction, there's this: "Since we cannot cancel the term 'cavalier' in the record altogether, we should try to comprehend the depth and variety of qualities it actually denoted." And I was like, "Oh no! Should we?" But I'm going to keep going! After all, it promises doublets aplenty ("Everyone can picture him, the cavalier, with his lovelocks, his broad hat, his mantle and bucket-topped boots, the basket-handled rapier at his side, a buskin covering his satin doublet") and I hardly ever get to use my "doublet" label at the bottom of these "posts." Nothing against author John Stubbs, but his name makes me think about Stubbe Peeter, a man whose 1590 trial records I have read in the LYCANTHROPY READER... "A True Discourse Declaring the Damnable Life and Death of One Stubbe Peeter, A Most Wicked Sorcerer, Who in the Likeness of a Wolf..." well, the title is awful and bloody and goes on and on. (See also.) I thought Stubbe Peeter was also known as "Peter Stubbs" but I see my memory has failed me. According to the index, he was also known as Peter Stump, which seems worse somehow. Wait! Have I never told you about the LYCANTHROPY READER before? My "blog search function" says no. Here's the full subtitle: "Werewolves in Western Culture - Medical Cases, Diagnoses, Descriptions; Trial Records, Historical Accounts, Sightings; Philosophical and Theological Approaches to Metamorphosis; Critical Essays on Lycanthropy; Myths and Legends; Allegory." My friend's wife gave it to him for Christmas! And it scared him so much he gave it to me to get it out of his house.