# The Shakespeare Answer Wasn't Good Enough **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [October 16, 2005, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shakespeare-answer-wasnt-good-enough/326495 "2005-10-16T19:00:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2005, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shakespeare-answer-wasnt-good-enough/326495/21 "2005-10-26T07:07:21Z")
> [@George Hynes](#): > > What I meant was that it is probably evolving faster in the UK because we tend to be have more integration with people from other ethnicities, not to mention the indigenous populations of the Scots, Irish, Welsh and English who have been travelling on an ever divergent path for a lot longer than any particular people group in USA. I trust you have a cite for your extraordinary statement that there are more ethnicities in the UK than the US because frankly it sounds like balderdash to me. As for the ‘ever divergent path’ of the Scots, Irish, etc that too is nonsense. If anything, the trend is in the other direction, owing to the universal influence of American TV, movies, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2005, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shakespeare-answer-wasnt-good-enough/326495/22 "2005-10-27T15:44:33Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > _Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!_ > > Which, of course, is intended to bring to mind the typical illustration of the “four winds” on a map of the time as faces in clouds, blowing at the land. It does? As a cartographer I would have never made that connection, rather I see it as a fart. No I don’t know what else they were talking about around that, but if someone said that to me I’d be heading for the hills. The biggest reason I see for teaching Shakespeare is because so many thing reference him, from other books to TV and music. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2005, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shakespeare-answer-wasnt-good-enough/326495/23 "2005-10-27T19:00:53Z")
> [@Edward The Head](#): > > It does? As a cartographer I would have never made that connection, rather I see it as a fart. No I don’t know what else they were talking about around that, but if someone said that to me I’d be heading for the hills. > > The biggest reason I see for teaching Shakespeare is because so many thing reference him, from other books to TV and music. I had a regrettable English associate professor (working on a Ph.D. at the time, I believe) who made the same association. He thought the whole damn thing was about body sounds, body cavities, and that sort of sophmoric humor. I dropped the class out of my complete disgust at such silliness. The allusion to the Four Winds makes much more sense at the time, I suppose, when the concept of almost animate winds was not such a remote idea. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2005, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shakespeare-answer-wasnt-good-enough/326495/24 "2005-10-27T23:16:42Z")
> [@](#): > > I had a regrettable English associate professor (working on a Ph.D. at the time, I believe) who made the same association. He thought the whole damn thing was about body sounds, body cavities, and that sort of sophmoric humor. I dropped the class out of my complete disgust at such silliness. I thought Shakespeare’s work was rife with humour like that? Why is it silly? ---
**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shakespeare-answer-wasnt-good-enough/326495/25 "2005-10-28T01:01:21Z")
You’re thinking of Chaucer. I don’t think Shakespeare made any “fart” jokes. He wasn’t above the odd crude metaphor now and again but he tended to be a bit more…classy…about it. Maybe someone can come up with a Shakespeare fart joke but, off the top of my head, I don’t think there ever was one. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shakespeare-answer-wasnt-good-enough/326495/26 "2005-10-28T01:52:54Z")
No fart jokes, but I recall: _Aguecheek._ These are her very C’s her U’s her T’s and thusly doth she make her great P’s. That’s as near as I can remember it. I don’t have my Shakespeare with me now. Anyway as I recall this was a bawdy joke about the female anatomy. There was another in Henry V in the English lesson for the French Princess. Anyway Shakespeare did have to play to the Groundlings. If they got bored, I don’t see much chance of anyone else enjoying the play. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shakespeare-answer-wasnt-good-enough/326495/27 "2005-10-28T11:43:03Z")
> [@Jojo](#): > > You’re thinking of Chaucer. > > I don’t think Shakespeare made any “fart” jokes. He wasn’t above the odd crude metaphor now and again but he tended to be a bit more…classy…about it. > > Maybe someone can come up with a Shakespeare fart joke but, off the top of my head, I don’t think there ever was one. Comedy of Errors III,i **Dromio E.** Dro. E. A man may break a word with you, sir, and words are but wind: Ay, and break it in your face, so he break it not behind. I’m sure that isn’t the only fart joke in the canon. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shakespeare-answer-wasnt-good-enough/326495/28 "2005-10-28T11:49:09Z")
Here’s another fart joke from the pen of the Bard. Othello Act III, Sc.1 Clown: Are these, I pray you, wind-instruments? First Musician: Ay, marry, are they, sir. Clown: O, thereby hangs a tail. First Musician: Whereby hangs a tale, sir? Clown: Marry. sir, by many a wind-instrument that I know. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shakespeare-answer-wasnt-good-enough/326495/29 "2005-10-28T17:58:36Z")
> [@Dominic Mulligan](#): > > I thought Shakespeare’s work was rife with humour like that? Why is it silly? It’s silly in the _Lear_ context. The poor old man is out at night in the worst storm in history, and he’s about one inch away from a complete nervous breakdown as he stands there and defies the weather to do its worst. A fart joke _at that point_ is just dumb. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shakespeare-answer-wasnt-good-enough/326495/30 "2005-10-28T18:10:51Z")
But if you can work it in as a double-meaning and get away with it you might be tempted. It’s no worse than the ‘count-ry’ bit from Hamlet. I admit, I was aware of the line and had understood it’s more straightforward meaning but had also always interpreted it as a fart joke as well. The double-meaning’s the thing! ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shakespeare-answer-wasnt-good-enough/326495/31 "2005-10-28T19:03:41Z")
> [@George Hynes](#): > > Samclem, > > You are a Diamond Geezer who is so sharp you probably cut yourself when you are shaving. > > You probably move move in slightly more elevated company than myself. I still reckon that the average vocabulary of most people these days is approx 2,000 words. You are probably right when you claim that most people would at least recognize a further 5 - 10,000 words but would they know what they meant? According to [Word Origins](http://www.wordorigins.org/number.htm): > [@](#): > > about 200,000 words are in common use today. An educated person has a vocabulary of about 20,000 words and uses about 2,000 in a week’s conversation. (These estimates vary widely depending on who is doing the counting, so don’t take them as absolute.) So, we’re comparing all the words in Shakespeare’s entire _oeuvre_ to the words that your average schmoe uses each week? And I can tell you fo shizzle that US English evolves. Consider yourself 0wNzored. Daniel [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shakespeare-answer-wasnt-good-enough/326495.md?page=1)