# "Making the beast with two backs" - where from?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-beast-with-two-backs-where-from/449018>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 12, 2008, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-beast-with-two-backs-where-from/449018 "2008-05-12T14:03:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Fir\_na\_tine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fir\_na\_tine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fir_na_tine)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-beast-with-two-backs-where-from/449018/21 "2008-05-13T16:28:46Z")

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[QUOTE=Trunk]  
Maybe it’s a Maine thing. Think of it like “making the beast with the back of a man, and the front of a sheep.”  
[/QUOTE]

Now\*\* that image \*\*is perfectly clear! Evidently Shakespeare didn’t have any sheep handy to work with.

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**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-beast-with-two-backs-where-from/449018/22 "2008-05-13T16:55:46Z")

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[QUOTE=Fir na tine]  
Now\*\* that image \*\*is perfectly clear! Evidently Shakespeare didn’t have any sheep handy to work with.  
[/QUOTE]

He probably worked with sheep in his native Warwickshire, but found it hard to get his hands on a sheep in the big city.

On the other hand, his wife was back home in Stratford raising the children, so he must have filled the empty hours in London with something apart from writing poems and plays. At least, the movie Shakespeare in Love suggests as much.

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-beast-with-two-backs-where-from/449018/23 "2008-05-13T17:48:01Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Now that image is perfectly clear! Evidently Shakespeare didn’t have any sheep handy to work with.

You don’t know your Shakespeare. In that same speech Iago says

“An Old Black Ram is Tupping your White Ewe”

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**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-beast-with-two-backs-where-from/449018/24 "2008-05-13T18:18:12Z")

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[QUOTE=CalMeacham]  
You don’t know your Shakespeare. In that same speech Iago says

“An Old Black Ram is Tupping your White Ewe”  
[/QUOTE]  
Apropos of nothing, I played Roderigo in _Othello_ once, which means I got to stand on stage a lot and be impressed by how much better Iago’s dialogue was than mine.

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