Flaubert on Critics

Someone who sells written reviews of books, art works, theater plays, and concerts.

Critic: "Always prominent. Besides, reputed to know everything, to be aware of everything, to have read everything and seen everything. When one displeases you, call him Aristarchus, or a eunuch."

Flaubert, Dictionary of Platitudes (1880).

[Translation by J. I. Rodale (1954).]

Philosophers and Folly

"Even the father of the gods and king of men who makes the whole of Olympus tremble when he bows his head has to lay aside that triple forked thunderbolt of his and that grim Titanic visage with which he can terrify all the gods whenever he chooses, and humble himself to put on a different mask, like an actor, if he ever wants to do what he always is doing, that is, 'to make a child'. And the stoics, as we know, claim to be most like the gods. But give me a man who is a stoic three or four or if you like six hundred times over, and he too, even if he keeps his beard as a mark of wisdom, though he shares it with the goat, will have to swallow his pride, smooth out his frown, shake off his rigid principles, and be fond and foolish for a while. In fact, if the philosopher ever wants to be a father it's me he has to call on -- yes, me."

Erasmus, Praise of Folly (1509)

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

A Little Shaver

"His master's grief now, once his joy,

Here lies Pantagathus, a boy

So dexterous one could never feel

The touch when his tonsorial steel

Trimmed the unruly hairs or sheared

The stubble of a stubborn beard.

Earth, treat him, as is only right,

As gently as his hand was light."

Martial, The Epigrams (85 AD).

Truster

A creditor.

"Bankrupts, out with your Knives,

And Cut your Trusters throates."

Shakespeare, Timon of Athens (1607).

Satirist

Someone who uses humor to write nonfiction.

"Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459) spent his life as a layman in the service of the Roman Curia and unearthed unknown manuscripts of many important ancient authors. He was devoted to classical studies but, like many of the humanists, also wrote works of history. His collections of largely indecent satirical material known as the Facetiae and aimed particularly at monks and priests was widely translated by 1500."

Erasmus, Praise of Folly (1509)

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

Lady-in-waiting

A female attendant to a princess or queen.

"Indeed it quite swarmed with ladies-in-waiting. Yet she could not forget that strange encounter with Genji, and it was on her initiative that they still kept up a secret correspondence."

Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji (11th Century).

[Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker.]

Dowser

A water diviner. Someone who finds sources of water by using a divining rod.

"The dry summer of 1893 brought the Divining Rod forward. 'Dowsers' sought for water with the mystic 'twig', and, very often, found it."

The Daily News (1894).