Something called "The Portia Campaign" claims, on its website, that Martin Luther said, of King Henry VIII, that he was "...a pig, an ass, a dunghill, the spawn of an adder, a basilisk, a lying buffoon, a mad fool with a frothy mouth...a lubberly ass...a frantic madman...".
Sadly, the "contact us" link on the website is nonfunctional. One had rather hoped to learn the provenance.
While this is not a specifically "wordy" inquiry, any takers?
Yah, yah. That's where I found it, too, but there seems to be (a) no way to contact the Portia people to ask them from whence they got it nor (b) any other citation to it on the web -- at least not according to Google. Our ranks are so filled with erudite people that I thought/hoped that someone would pull a dusty volume of "The Truly Obscure Works of Martin Luther" off their home shelf and find the pencil-marked passage from whence this comes.
Perhaps weissbier could translate it into German and ty searching that way.
translate it into German and try searching that way
Brilliant! I have not the skill ... 'tho I can order off the menu in a German restaurant if the chef doesn't get too fancy.
ah, I see. sorry FS.
I'll run off and see if I can find the complete works of ML online somewhere. back in a few days...
might find something here, if'n we knew the German:
http://luther.bc.edu/default.htm
here's another site which credits Luther with the phrase "lubberly ass", used in response when KH
vilified Luther with purple prose: "What a great limb of the Devil he is, endeavoring to tear the Christian members of Christ from their head." - the way I read it, they credit "The People's Almanac" as their source?
http://snipurl.com/fm28
From the website tsuwm found: "Little-Known Facts: Henry VIII was a tennis player."
At the risk of cross-threading, this looks like a factoid to me.
Apparently his late Majesty wrote a treatise (Assertio Septem Sacramentorum adversus Martinum Lutherum) against Martin Luther, which so pleased the Pope of the time that he bestowed the title "Defender of the Faith" on Henry and his successors (indeed it is still borne by our sovereign lady, the present Queen).
Luther wrote a reply, and it is presumably from that work that the quotation comes.
Yes, Henry was well-known in his younger years for being a keen tennis player. I have a vague memory of having seen the real tennis courts where he played at Hampton Court.
Bingley
I have a vague memory of having seen the real tennis courts where he (Henry) played at Hampton Court. Bingley
Your memory serves you well. I too, saw the tennis court at Hampton Court where he played. Later I saw a program on PBS about early tennis. Seems the tennis Henry Rex played was very differennt but recognizable to tennis players today.
Real tennis is still played, despite the overwhelming presence of the lawn variety.
http://www.real-tennis.com/history/main.htmlBingley
Didn't Henry the VIIIth die of gout, or something?
hank had gout--you usually don't die from it.
its considered nowdays to be a form of arthritis--and it is largely treated by modifying food intake. Its painful, and can cause joint damage, (which results in limited mobility, which can cause other problems..)
Hank was in his late fifties, overweight, with gout, and other health problems, (some related to his obesity) and its not clear what he died of. i think he died of dyspepsia--but the symptoms of 'dyspepsia' (a vague term for upset stomache/heartburn) can also be the symptoms of a heart attack, or of bleeding ulcer.
-he also had dropsy--(swelling from retained fluid) an other symptom of poor cardio-vascular health--fluid retention is a common symptom of cardio/pulminary failure('congestive heart failure")and can lead to high blood presure.. and so on.
so take your pick!
Siphilis?
I thought that was George III. Not mutually exclusive, I guess. (Have you been reading the Baroque Trilogy again?)
There is much medico-historical speculation that George III suffered from Porphyria which caused his apparent insanity, rather than syphillis.
> Have you been reading the Baroque Trilogy again?
again? god, I can't get through it the first time...
Wolfie asks: "Have you been reading the Baroque Trilogy again?"
And the Vicar responds: I'm waiting for the Readers Digest condensed version to be published.
Readers' Digest Condensed Version...
Hold not thy breath. Even if they reduced it by three-quarters it would still be 750 pages. As long as a later Harry Potter book, almost! But somebody in Baroquia - France or Germany or Saxony or whatever - was portrayed as a syphilitic King, as I recall.
'Twas Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds.
Him too (and he was cured by nearly dying from a high fever. Did you know they used to give people malaria for exactly that purpose? Hot enough to kill the spirochetes but not quite enough to kill the host. If he was lucky.) But there was also Eliza's husband - was he a Hanover? - who was King-for-real somewhere and was childless and, shall we say, impaired...
and, shall we say, impaired...
You have a great second career awaiting you in the diplomatic service.