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netizens

Who needs Shakespeare, podiatry got a mention on the Simpsons (Kidney Trouble) 1989.

Homer goes to out-patients as the announcer on the tannoy calls " Dr Martens to Podiatry."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_S...ney_Trouble%22

I feel better already

toeslayer

Shaky had it first!

Welcome Gentlemen! Ladies that hath their toes
Unplagued with corns will have a bout with you:-
Ah ha my mistresses! Which of you all
Will now deny to dance? She that makes dainty, she, I’ll swear hath corns……..
A hall! A hall! Give room and foot it girls

Romeo & Juliet. Act 1. Scene 5


Bill Liggins (Warwickshire)

Good Bill

Tis' true, and corns were very much part of Shakespeare’s world. The bard also made reference to the folly of putting the shoe on the wrong foot when he penned in King John (Act 4, scene 2),

"standing on slippers (which his nimble haste had falsely thrust upon contrary feet)”

The playright may have subconsciously absorbed the image of feet and shoes and translated these into his artistic works. One reason cited why there are so many references to feet and shoes in the great English Bard’s writing is because Shakespeare had to pass through the cobblers quarter of London to get to the Globe Theatre. Also street cries common in Shalespearean times included the popular corn curers call.

In Shakespeare's time (1564–1616) the fashionable style of shoe worn by men was called the bears paw. It was a broad shoe which had individual compartments for each toe. So broad were these shoes there was actually not enough flat surfaces in towns for dandies to walk past each other without tripping over. Such events often led to fights and inevitably duels to the death. Malvolio was a character from Twelfth Night and a subplot of this comedy involved his pomposity and vain attempts to attract the opposite sex whilst being duped by clever pranksters. As the plot unfolds this involved in no small part his shoes and colourful hose. Through his creation, the bard wrote the immortal lines

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon'em."

Unfortunately for Malvolio success did not come by way of his pedal extremities. Ever observant Shakespeare also caught the contemporary female fashion for platform shoes.

"By'r lady, your ladyship is neare to heavan than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine."

Chopines were stilt like shoes (forerunners to the platform) worn by the high brow Venetian women in the middle ages. They were popular but only a few paintings & illustrations exist which demonstrate the fashion. This may be in part because chopines were worn under long skirts and considered private. Had Cressida worn them in Shakespear's Troilus and Cressida then there may not have been such a mystery. The unfaithful Cressida was described as a rather loud lady.

"Fie, fie upon her! There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip, Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out at every joint and motive of her body."

What is more strange is the car company, Toyota, named a range of cars after her.

In all his collected works however Shakespeare did not pen the following.

"Be it resolved that all women of whatever age, rank, profession, or degree; whether virgin, maids or widows; that shall after the passing of this Act, impose upon and betray into matrimony any of His majesty's male subjects, by scents, paints, cosmetics, washes, artificial teeth. false hair. Spanish wool, iron stays, hoops, high heeled shoes, or bolstered hips, shall incur the penalty of the laws now in force against witchcraft, sorcery, and such like misdemeanours, and that the marriage upon conviction, shall stand null and void."

This was an edict in colonial America about half a century after the Bard’s death. The contents of the legislation are clear enough and particularly indicative of how men were in complete distrust of women.

In Rock'n' roll, Fats Domino probably has made more reference to feet, shoes and walking than any other recording artist. Domino has so far been unable to account for this but it is a well known fact on his way to the small recording studio where he cut most of his hits, the fat man had to squeeze past a shoeshine stand in the shared lane to the studio.

Who knows, what artistic talents, we influence in our quest for foot eutopia?

toeslayer.

Grammercy good sir

The state of Marriage is already questionable in the U.K. I wonder if that excellent law you outlined were enacted today, how many marriages would be found wanting? Something like 100% I expect!

In the meantime, another bit from the Bard:

What do you think, You the great toe of this assembly?
I the great toe! Why the great toe?
For that, being one o’ the lowest, basest, poorest,
Of this most wise rebellion, thou go’st foremost:
Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run,
Lead’st first to win some vantage

Coriolanus Act 1 Sc.1

By the way, did you enjoy England v the Wallabies?



Bill

By the way, did you enjoy England v the Wallabies?

Oh aye.