I must say I'm not sure if I remember it Edmund but the minute I hear 'keel' I hear 'Keel row' as in the old Northumbrian song - Weel May the Keel Row. Now I've just checked out that 'Keel' ( a flat bottomed boat) which was from the Anglo Saxon 'Ceol' - which sounds very much like it could degenerate into cool ?
Sorry can't go further unless I read the whole play but - but as you mentioning 'cool' and the AngSax is 'ceol'...
Not an answer just a coincidence to chew on.
G
On 2/27/07, Edmund Hardy <[log in to unmask]> 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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