More likely she was a perpetually greasy scullery
maid (the lowest on the social hierarchy of the
household--think Cinderella without a fairy
godmother or Disney makeup artists) who didn't
get to bathe as often as Queen Elizabeth and owned only one change of clothing.
At 06:05 PM 2/27/2007, Edmund Hardy wrote:
>I was wondering what anyone thinks of / has
>thought of when they hear the line "While greasy
>Joan doth keel the pot" in the 'When daisies
>pied...' song from Love's Labour's Lost .
>
>
>For some reason, I originally imagined it,
>hearing the song as a child, as scraping out the
>pot, but then later once the word keel as 'to
>make cold' had sunk in from other contexts as
>stirring the pot, with stew (or winter broth) in
>it, as this would be to make cold. But now I
>wonder if there's an element of Greasy Joan as
>trickster, or at least mischievous like a hob,
>making the pot keel when you want to bring it to
>the boil. Her quality of greasiness may be her slippery nature?
>
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