Hang the Witch!
Aug. 26th, 2007 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
squeefulfishThe family who were visiting have vanished back to Rugby and have taken my grandmother with them for a few weeks. This makes my life a lot less filled with nursing duties (in the older sense of nursing, rather than the professional sense cos I ain't a nurse.) Last night there was a potentially entertaining conversation about homosexuality happening in the kitchen. One of those nights when I was quite glad I was sober and excluded from conversation due to my youth... Only problem being that the plasterboard wall between my room and them is rather thin. Fun with grimaces!
So being trapped in the bedroom for a few hours I figured I'd crack open some of my midwifery stuff and out came the copy of "Witches, midwives and nurses." Short history of the vilification of women healers that a large part of me very much enjoyed, even if there wasn't anything in there that was new to me. Would seem that I've read an awful lot of similar things over the years. There's a picture in it that sent me off on one of my tangents though. 3 "witches" being hanged and at their feet are toads(?) labelled Jacke and Gill. Thing is, the picture is from a book published in 1589. I always assumed that Jack and Jill was something to do with the French Revolution, though I don't know where I got that idea. The interwebs also suggest something to do with Charles I. I'm having fun with nursery rhymes and the Malleus Maleficarum and being silly and it's great!
I think tonight I'm going to read some fiction. Something that doesn't require a brain. Something that won't send me off on a silly tangent that takes up nearly a day. I will ignore the pages of the Malleus Maleficarum that I've printed out. Honest. I will. Oooh "Whether Witches can Hebetate the Powers of Generation or Obstruct the Venereal Act." Now that looks like excellent bedtime reading!
So being trapped in the bedroom for a few hours I figured I'd crack open some of my midwifery stuff and out came the copy of "Witches, midwives and nurses." Short history of the vilification of women healers that a large part of me very much enjoyed, even if there wasn't anything in there that was new to me. Would seem that I've read an awful lot of similar things over the years. There's a picture in it that sent me off on one of my tangents though. 3 "witches" being hanged and at their feet are toads(?) labelled Jacke and Gill. Thing is, the picture is from a book published in 1589. I always assumed that Jack and Jill was something to do with the French Revolution, though I don't know where I got that idea. The interwebs also suggest something to do with Charles I. I'm having fun with nursery rhymes and the Malleus Maleficarum and being silly and it's great!
I think tonight I'm going to read some fiction. Something that doesn't require a brain. Something that won't send me off on a silly tangent that takes up nearly a day. I will ignore the pages of the Malleus Maleficarum that I've printed out. Honest. I will. Oooh "Whether Witches can Hebetate the Powers of Generation or Obstruct the Venereal Act." Now that looks like excellent bedtime reading!
