The Latin Master's Use of the Rod

"Side by side with this went the writing of Latin, gradually working up to the production of exercises in which the graces of rhetorical ornament and the rigorous clarity of logical argument were displayed. If they were not, it was not for want of effort on the master's part, constantly reinforced by the use of the rod, for beating was an inseparable part of all medieval education, and the constant application of the birch for all offences however trivial was axiomatic."

H. S. Bennett, Six Medieval Men & Women, "Thomas Hoccleve" (1955).

An Honest Politician's Prospects

“The room was black as an honest politician’s prospects.”

Dashiell Hammett, The Big Knockover (1924).

A Knight of the Pestle

An apothecary's assistant who prepares medicine, grinding raw ingredients with a mortar and pestle.

"It is hard to get anything of them that is right pure and good of itself, but druggie baggage, and such counterfeit stuff as is stark naught."

Philip Stubbes, The anatomie of abuses (1583)

Women Divers

"The sea is a frightening thing at the best of times. How much more terrifying must it be for those poor women divers who have to plunge into its depths for their livelihood! One wonders what would happen to them if the cord round their waist were to break. I can imagine men doing this sort of work, but for a woman it must take remarkable courage. After the woman has been lowered into the water, the men sit comfortably in their boats, heartily singing songs as they keep an eye on the mulberry-bark cord that floats on the surface. It is an amazing sight, for they do not show the slightest concern about the risks the woman is taking. When finally she wants to come up, she gives a tug on her cord and the men haul her out of the water with a speed that I can well understand. Soon she is clinging to the side of the boat, her breath coming in painful gasps. The sight is enough to make even an outsider feel the brine dripping. I can hardly imagine this is a job that anyone would covet."

Sei Shonagon, The Pillow Book (11th Century).

[Translated by Ivan Morris.]

Feather Golf Ball Maker

“To make a feather ball, you start with a wide strip of cowhide. Take a straight razor and cut three thin sections of hide, then soften the sections in water and alum. Trim the largest piece to the shape of an hourglass; this will be the middle of the ball. The other two pieces should be round. They are for the top and bottom. Sew the pieces together with waxed thread, forming a ball with a small hole at one end. Turn the ball inside-out so that the stitches are hidden on the inside. Now you’re ready for the gruntwork. After boiling enough goose feathers to fill the standard measuring device—a top hat—pull a thick leather cuff over the hand that will hold the empty ball. Grab a handful of boiled goosedown, as soft as warm sand, and use a finger-length poker to push the down through the hole into the ball. Repeat until you need a short, T-shaped iron awl to stuff more and more feathers through that little hole. After twenty minutes of this, the short awl won’t be weapon enough. To drive one last handful of down into the jam-packed, unyielding ball, you need to wear a wood-and-leather harness. The harness straps around your chest. It has buckles up the sides, a wooden panel in front, and a slot at the crux of your ribcage. Place the butt end of a long awl into the slot and lean forward with all your weight, forcing the last feathers through the hole. When the top hat is empty and the ball is finally full, sew the hole shut as fast as you can.”

Kevin Cook, Tommy’s Honor (2007).

Dickens on Watchmakers

“Mr. Pumblechook appeared to conduct his business by looking across the street at the saddler, who appeared to transact his business by keeping his eye on the coachmaker, who appeared to get on in life by putting his hands in his pockets and contemplating the baker, who in his turn folded his arms and stared at the grocer, who stood at his door and yawned at the chemist. The watchmaker, always poring over a little desk with a magnifying glass at his eye, and always inspected by a group in smock-frocks poring over him through the glass of his shop-window, seemed to be about the only person in the High Street whose trade engaged his attention.”

Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1861).

Weaver and the Ideal Good

"Moreover, it is not easy to see how knowing that same Ideal Good will help a weaver or carpenter in the practice of his own craft, or how anybody will be a better physician or general for having contempleted the absolute Idea. In fact it does not appear that the physician studies even health in the abstract; he studies the health of the human being--or rather of some particular human being, for it is individuals that he has to care."

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (4th Century B.C.)

Tacitus on Profligate Generals

"I have mentioned before that Julianus was in command of the gladiators, Apollinaris of the seamen, two men whose profligacy and indolence made them resemble gladiators rather than generals. They kept no watch; they did not strengthen the weak points of the fortifications; but, making each pleasant spot ring with the noise of their daily and nightly dissipation, they dispersed their soldiers on errands which were to minister to their luxury, and never spoke of war, except at their banquets."

Tacitus, Histories (100 AD).

Housebreakers

"In the days of this abbot [Frederic, 1065-1067] England was taken and subdued by the Normans, and evils began to multiply on the earth, according to the exposition of a vision of the sainted King Edward, who saw the Seven Sleepers turning from their right sides to their left. Which was an omen to mortals, and more especially to the English; robbery and envy, pride and nightlong dicing, swilling and divers forms of lechery, uncleanness and perjury, began their unhappy career, even as the little fire of charity began to wax cold. The country was full of wandering housebreakers and robbers. The nightlong dice, with horrible oaths contrary to English wont, stirred up strife and manslaughter; and the Age of Silver--nay, rather, of Clay--succeeded to the now fading Golden Age."

Thomas Walsingham, Gesta Abbatum S. Albani (1350)

Erasmus on the Unmasking of Actors

"If anyone tries to take the masks off the actors when they're playing a scene on the stage and show their true, natural faces to the audience, he'll certainly spoil the whole play and deserve to be stoned and thrown out of the theatre for a maniac. For a new situation will suddenly arise in which a woman on the stage turns into a man, a youth is now old, and the king of a moment ago is suddenly Dama, while a god is shown up as a common little man. To destroy the illusion is to ruin the whole play, for it's really the illusion and make-up which hold the audience's eye. Now, what else is the whole life of man but a sort of play? Actors come on wearing their different masks and all play their parts until the producer orders them off the stage, and he can often tell the same man to appear in different costume, so that now he plays a king in purple and now a humble slave in rags. It's all a sort of pretence, but it's the only way to act out this farce."

Erasmus, Praise of Folly (1509)

[translated by Betty Radice, notes by A. H. T. Levi (1993)].

Marooner

A buccaneer or pirate.

"On the south shore dwelt a marooner, that modestly called himself a hermit."

William Byrd, The Westover Manuscripts (1728-1736).

Mandarin

An eminent scholar who passes various exams and qualifies to become an imperial Chinese government official.

"I am a prisoner in the hands of the enemy,
Enduring the shame of captivity.
My bones stick out and my strength is gone
Through not getting enough to eat.
My brother is a Mandarin
And his horses are fed on maize.
Why can't he spare a little money
To send and ransom me?"

Anonymous, "The Other Side of the Valley"

[Translated by Arthur Waley.]

The Loss of a Hand for False Moneyers

"Mint workers were combined in the Lombardo-Byzantine fashion into colleges, over which counts were expected to keep a watchful eye. Later, Louis the Pious was to adopt the imperial sanction of the loss of a hand for false moneyers and to punish with exile and confiscation anyone striking coins outside state workshops."

Georges Duby, The Early Growth of the European Economy (1969).

[Translated by Howard B. Clarke.]

Twain on Salaried Employees

"All the streets and lanes was just mud; they warn't nothing else but mud--mud as black as tar and nigh about a foot deep in some places, and two or three inches deep in all the places. The hogs loafed and grunted around everywheres. You'd see a muddy sow and a litter of pigs come lazying along the street and whollop herself right down in the way, where folks had to walk around her, and she'd stretch out and shut her eyes and wave her ears whilst the pigs was milking her, and look as happy as if she was on salary."

Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn (1884).

Popcorn Man

Someone selling popcorn in an amusement park, such as Coney Island.

“At one place I heard the voice of a popcorn man raised in a dreadful note, as if he were chanting a death hymn. It made me shiver as I felt all the tragedy of the collapsed popcorn market. I began to see that it was an insult to the pain and suffering of these men to go near to them without buying anything. I took new and devious routes sometimes.”

Stephen Crane, Other Writings About New York, “Coney Island’s Failing Days” (1894-6).

Truckmen and that inevitable, overhanging, devastating Monday

“The gayety which arises upon these Sunday night occasions is different from all other gayeties. There is an unspeakable air of recklessness and bravado and grief about it. The train load is going toward that inevitable, overhanging, devastating Monday. That singer there tomorrow will be a truckman, perhaps, and swearing ingeniously at his horses and other truckmen. He feels the approach of this implacable Monday. Two hours ago he was ingulfed in whirligigs and beer and had forgotten that there were Mondays. Now he is confronting it, and as he can’t battle it, he scorns it. You can hear the undercurrent of it in that song, which is really as grievous as the cry of a child.”

Stephen Crane, Other Writings About New York, “Coney Island’s Failing Days” (1894-6).

Zealous Zealators

"The rule commonly requires also that there should be two prudent sisters who are called Zealators, and whose duty it is to admonish the superioress, should she exceed or fail in her duties."

Ullathorne, Plea Rights Relig. Women (1851)

The Abbess and the Dean

"One day he met the abbess of the holy Eleven Thousand Virgins: before her went her clerks, wrapped in mantles of grey fur like the nuns; behind went her ladies and maid-servants, filling the air with the sound of their unprofitable words; while the Dean was followed by his poor folk that besought him for alms. Wherefore this righteous man, burning with the zeal of discipline, cried aloud in the hearing of all: 'Oh, lady Abbess, it would better befit your profession, it would better adorn your religion, that ye, like I, should be followed not by buffoons but by poor folk!'"

Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus Miraculorum (13th century).

The Chapman Always Grinds Twice

A peddler, dealer, or merchant.

"The gains of ordinary trades and vocations are honest, and furthered by two things, chiefly: by diligence, and by a good name for good and fair dealing; but the gains of bargains are of a more doubtful nature, when men shall wait upon others' necessity: broke by servants and instruments to draw them on; put off others cunningly that would be better chapmen; and the like practices, which are crafty and naught. As for the chopping of bargains, when a man buys not to hold, but to sell over again, that commonly grindeth double, both upon the seller and upon the buyer."

Francis Bacon, Essays, Of Riches, (1625).

Miles on Musicians

"Musicians have to play the instruments that best reflect the times we're in, play the technology that will give you what you want to hear. All these purists are walking around talking about how electrical instruments will ruin music. Bad music is what will ruin music, not the instruments musicians choose to play."

Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, Miles The Autobiography (1989).

The Most Detestable of All Employments

"Honour makes a great part of the reward of all honourable professions. In point of pecuniary gain, all things considered, they are generally underrecompensed, as I shall endeavour to show by and by. Disgrace has the contrary effect. The trade of a butcher is a brutal and an odious business; but it is in most places more profitable than the greater part of common trades. The most detestable of all employments, that of public executioner, is, in proportion to the quantity of work done, better paid than any common trade whatever."

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776).

Now Rome is Rome, not just a huge bazaar

"The thrusting shopkeepers had long been poaching
Our city space, front premises encroaching
Everywhere. Then, Domitian, you commanded
That the cramped alleyways should be expanded,
And what were footpaths became real roads.
One doesn't see inn-posts, now, festooned with loads
Of chained flagons; the praetor walks the street
Without the indignity of muddy feet;
Razors aren't wildly waved in people's faces;
Bar-owners, butchers, barbers know their places,
And grimy restaurants can't spill out too far.
Now Rome is Rome, not just a huge bazaar."

Martial, The Epigrams, (85 AD).

To Rise in the World He Carried a Hod

Hod Carrier: a mason or bricklayer who transports mortar, bricks, or stones balanced in a wooden tray or trough, on a pole borne on the shoulder, called a hod.

"Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin’ Street,
a gentle Irishman mighty odd.
Had a beautiful brogue, so rich and sweet.
To rise in the world, he carried a hod.

Now Tim had a sort of a tipplin’ way;
with a love for the liquor poor Tim was born,
and to help him on with his work each day,
he'd a ‘drop of the craythur’ every morn'."

Tim Finnegan's Wake (a.k.a. The Ballad of Finnegan's Wake)
(19th Century Irish folk song).

Day Labourers

"A nation may exist without an astronomer, or philosopher, but a day labourer is essential to the existence of man."

Frederick Robertson, Expository lectures on St. Paul's epistles to the Corinthians (1853).

A Jobber Who Sniffed the Coming Storm

"The more acute stockjobbers imagined justly that prices could not continue to rise forever. Bourdon and La Richardière, renowned for their extensive operations in the funds, quietly and in small quantities at a time, converted their notes into specie, and sent it away to foreign countries. They also bought as much as they could conveniently carry of plate and expensive jewellery, and sent it secretly away to England or to Holland. Vermalet, a jobber, who sniffed the coming storm, procured gold and silver coin to the amount of nearly a million of livres, which he packed in a farmer's cart, and covered over with hay and cow-dung. He then disguised himself in the dirty smock-frock, or blouse, of a peasant, and drove his precious load in safety into Belgium. From thence he soon found means to transport it to Amsterdam."

(Description of events leading up to the collapse of the French financial system in 1720.)

Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, "The Mississippi Scheme" (1841).

The Mississippi Pilot

"If I have seemed to love my subject, it is no surprising thing, for I loved the profession far better than any I have followed since, and I took a measureless pride in it. The reason is plain: a pilot, in those days, was the only unfettered and entirely independent human being that lived in the earth. Kings are but the hampered servants of parliament and the people; parliaments sit in chains forged by their constituency; the editor of a newspaper cannot be independent, but must work with one hand tied behind him by party and patrons, and be content to utter only half or two-thirds of his mind; no clergyman is a free man and may speak the whole truth, regardless of his parish's opinions; writers of all kinds are manacled servants of the public. We write frankly and fearlessly, but then we 'modify' before we print. In truth, every man and woman and child has a master, and worries and frets in servitude; but, in the day I write of, the Mississippi pilot had none."

Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi (1883).

First Workers' Revolt based on Specific Claims

"Perhaps the strangest example of all workers' revolts was the uprising of the Jewish peasants of the orator Libanius of Antioch in the fourth century A.D.

"Libanius said in effect that his peasants claimed the right to discuss freely with him the conditions of their employment, and he was exceedingly annoyed by such temerity. This is practically the only example in the entire history of ancient societies of a workers' revolt based upon specific claims."

Claude Mossé, The Ancient World of Work

[translated by Janet Lloyd], (1969).

Envoys

"One Musonius Rufus, a man of equestrian rank, strongly attached to the pursuit of philosophy and to the tenets of the Stoics, had joined the envoys. He mingled with the troops, and enlarging on the blessings of peace and the perils of war, began to admonish the armed crowd. Many thought it ridiculous; more thought it tiresome; some were ready to throw him down and trample him under foot, had he not yielded to the warnings of the more orderly and the threats of others, and ceased to display his ill-timed wisdom."

Tacitus, Histories, (100 AD).

The Lustre of the Dancers' Silken Robes

"Often I will go all the way to Kamo to see the dances. On arrival I tell my men to place the carriage under the great trees. The smoke of the pine torches trails along the ground; and by their light the cord of the dancers' jackets and the lustre of their silken robes look even more beautiful than in the daytime. It is delightful too when the dancers move in rhythm with the sacred songs, stamping their feet on the boards of the wooden bridge. The sound of running water blends with the music of the flute, and surely even the Gods must enjoy such a scene."

Sei Shonagon, "Outstandingly Splendid Things," The Pillow Book (11th Century).

Burroughs on Obsolete Unthinkable Trades

"Followers of obsolete unthinkable trades, doodling in Etruscan, addicts of drugs not yet synthesized, black marketeers of World War III, excisors of telepathic sensitivity, osteopaths of the spirit, investigators of infractions denounced by bland paranoid chess players, servers of fragmentary warrants taken down in hebephrenic shorthand charging unspeakable mutilations of the spirit, officials of unconstituted police states, brokers of exquisite dreams and nostalgias tested on the sensitized cells of junk sickness and bartered for raw materials of the will, drinkers of the Heavy Fluid sealed in the translucent amber of dreams."

William Burroughs, Naked Lunch (1959).