Tom,
Trowbridge is new to me. The "taught" version I had was that to prove to
Isabella that the earth was round, Cristobal grabbed the orange and put a
tiny model ship on it, and then turned the orange to make the ship gradually
appear as if it were coming over the horizon. He made his point because she
had to admit that a ship indeed appears to rise out of the water at first as
it approaches the shore, rather than appearing as a speck and only getting
larger the closer it comes.
I admit the egg story is subtler; but did it originate with Trowbridge or was
he incorporating earlier lore?
Regards,
John Parsons
On Wed, 9 Jul 1997, Thomas Izbicki wrote:
> John,
>
> I never encountered the orange, but the egg shows up in a different
> context in Trowbridge, The Courtiers & the Egg. In that poem, part of
> The Story of Columbus, he challenges the courtiers to stand an egg on
> end. They fail. He cracks one end lightly & stands it, telling them
> that it's easy "Yes, when I've shown the way."
>
> tom
>
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