It is said to have influenced literary style for more than a quarter of a
century, and traces of its influence are found in Shakespeare. (Columbia
Encyclopedia).
The introduction of Ben Jonson into the party was wholly appropriate,
if one may call to witness some of Jonson’s writings. The subject under
discussion was one that Jonson was acquainted with, in The Alchemist:
Act. I, Scene I,
FACE: Believe’t I will.
SUBTLE: Thy worst. I fart at thee.
DOL COMMON: Have you your wits? Why, gentlemen, for love—-
Act. 2, Scene I,
SIR EPICURE MAMMON: ….and then my poets, the same that writ so subtly
of the fart, whom I shall entertain still for that subject and again in
Bartholomew Fair
NIGHTENGALE: (sings a ballad)
Hear for your love, and buy for your money.
A delicate ballad o’ the ferret and the coney.
A preservative again’ the punk’s evil.
Another goose-green starch, and the devil.
A dozen of divine points, and the godly garter
The fairing of good counsel, of an ell and three-quarters.
What is’t you buy?
The windmill blown down by the witche’s fart,
Or Saint George, that, O! did break the dragon’s heart.
GOOD OLD ENGLISH CUSTOM
That certain types of English society have not changed materially in
their freedom toward breaking wind in public can be noticed in some
comparatively recent literature. Frank Harris in My Life, Vol. 2,
Ch. XIII, tells of Lady Marriott, wife of a judge Advocate General,
being compelled to leave her own table, at which she was entertaining Sir
Robert Fowler, then the Lord Mayor of London, because of the suffocating
and nauseating odors there. He also tells of an instance in parliament,
and of a rather brilliant bon mot spoken upon that occasion.
“While Fowler was speaking Finch-Hatton had shewn signs of restlessness;
towards the end of the speech he had moved some three yards away from the
Baronet. As soon as Fowler sat down Finch-Hatton sprang up holding his
handkerchief to his nose:
“‘Mr. Speaker,’ he began, and was at once acknowledged by the Speaker,
for it was a maiden speech, and as such was entitled to precedence by the
courteous custom of the House, ‘I know why the Right Honourable Member
from the City did not conclude his speech with a proposal. The only way
to conclude such a speech appropriately would be with a motion!'”
AEOLIAN CREPITATIONS
But society had apparently degenerated sadly in modern times, and even in
the era of Elizabeth, for at an earlier date it was a serious–nay,
capital–offense to break wind in the presence of majesty. The Emperor
Claudius, hearing that one who had suppressed the urge while paying him
court had suffered greatly thereby, “intended to issue an edict, allowing
to all people the liberty of giving vent at table to any distension
occasioned by flatulence:”
Martial, too (Book XII, Epigram LXXVII), tells of the embarrassment of
one who broke wind while praying in the Capitol,
“One day, while standing upright, addressing his prayers to Jupiter,
Aethon farted in the Capitol. Men laughed, but the Father of the Gods,
offended, condemned the guilty one to dine at home for three nights.
Since that time, miserable Aethon, when he wishes to enter the Capitol,
goes first to Paterclius’ privies and farts ten or twenty times. Yet, in
spite of this precautionary crepitation, he salutes Jove with constricted
buttocks.” Martial also (Book IV, Epigram LXXX), ridicules a woman who
was subject to the habit, saying,
“Your Bassa, Fabullus, has always a child at her side, calling it her
darling and her plaything; and yet–more wonder–she does not care for
children. What is the reason then. Bassa is apt to fart. (For which
she could blame the unsuspecting infant.)”
The tale is told, too, of a certain woman who performed an aeolian
crepitation at a dinner attended by the witty Monsignieur Dupanloup,
Bishop of Orleans, and that when, to cover up her lapse, she began to
scrape her feet upon the floor, and to make similar noises, the Bishop
said, “Do not trouble to find a rhyme, Madam!”
Nay, worthier names than those of any yet mentioned have discussed the
matter. Herodotus tells of one such which was the precursor to the fall