<snip>
from The Anatomy of Melancholy, which includes the following:
She may look like a nerd in a lanthorn.
<snip>
Project Gutenberg gives the phrase as a 'merd in a lantern' in its online
text of Burton. (It's from Partition. III Section II, Member III, Subsection
I on *Symptoms of Love*, a fact not absolutely clear from Gutenberg.) My
19th C edition also has 'merd' (ie a piece of shit), although 'lanthorn' is
unmodernised:
'Every lover admires his Mistress, though she be very deformed of her self
[...] a vast virago, or an ugly Tit, a slug, a fat fustilugs, a truss, a
long lean raw-bone, a skeleton, a sneaker [...] and to thy judgement looks
like a merd in a lanthorn, whom thou couldest not fancy for a world [...] he
takes no notice of any such errors...'
So alas no early nerds.
CW
_______________________________________________
'Lasciamo ai padroni lo champagne: noi abbiamo i pomodori'
(Let the bosses have the champagne: we've got the tomatoes)
- Potere Operaio, New Year 1968
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