2023-06-04 15:30:34
James Wade “unraveled” British humour. This after analyzing a medieval text from the 15th century, which records a kind of comedy stand-up of the time. Wade is a professor at the University of Cambridge and Girton College, and his study was published in the academic journal The Review of English Studieson Wednesday the 31st.
In the research, the professor focused on the first of the nine booklets from the “Heege Manuscript”, which contains three texts with mockery about kings, priests and peasants. According to him, these materials can help scholars to have a better understanding of the famous sense of humor. British. This style of humor is known for being “very dry” — and can range from sarcasm and irony regarding “life’s nonsense in general” to self-deprecation.
Wade noticed that the author of one of the writings had signed it with the following sentence: “For me, Richard Heege, because I was at that feast and did not drink.” “It was an intriguing display of humor and it is rare for medieval scribes to share so much of his character,” said the professor. From there, the professor began to investigate how, where and why Heege had copied the texts.
About the medieval text with the ‘dry’ English humor
The professor believes that, around 1480, Heege copied the texts from another document written by an unknown minstrel, who performed near the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshir. Minstrels traveled between fairs, taverns and baronial halls to entertain the people with songs and stories.
According to Wade, the minstrel would have written part of his act because his nonsensical sequences were probably too difficult to memorize. “He didn’t give himself the kind of repetition or trajectory of history that would make things simpler to remember,” states the professor.
All three Heege writings are, namely, humorous and intended for live performance. The texts feature the oldest recorded use of “red herring”, a red herring given to the reader to throw him off.
Even though some names, payments, instruments played and locations of minstrels were identified, there was virtually no evidence of the lives or work of these performers.
Magazine journalism intern West. Under supervision of Anderson Scardoelli
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