Tuesday 1 December 2015

PROVERBS 5

OIGNIEZ A MASTIN LE CUL, IL VOUS CHIERA EN LA PAUME

(Rub a dog's bum, and he'll shit in your hand)

source: wikimedia


Medieval people tended not to be prudish...  Variants on this survive also, perhaps all deriving from the original above:

OIGNIEZ LE VILAIN LA PAUME, ET IL VOUS CHI[E]RA ENS

(Rub a peasant's hand, and he'll shit on you)

OIGNI LO VILAIN, IL TE CHIERA EN LA MAIN

(Rub a peasant, and he'll shit on your hand)

GRATEZ AL VILAIN LA COILLE, E IL VOUS CHIERA EN LA PALME

(Scratch a peasant's balls, and he'll shit on your hand)

I'm amused by the combination of extreme snobbery and equally extreme scattology.  It tells us quite a lot about the thirteenth century...

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