Many thanks to all who responded re: liz's window. I suspected the statement was more-or-less apocryphal, but the references to Bacon and others are extremely helpful. On Momus, I think the most immediately relevant text for Elizabethans is probably Erasmus, (Collected Works of Erasmus, eds. Sir R.A.B. Mynors et al., trans. Margaret Mann Phillips et al. (Toronto: University of Toronto Pres, 1982), v.31, p.449.) Glossing the adage _Momo satisfacere, et similia_ (to satisfy Momus, and the like), Erasmus relates the following tale about the Olympian god of fault-finding: "Minerva, Neptune and Vulcan were competing with each other for the prize of the best craftsmanship. Each produced an outstanding specimen of his art: Neptune created a bull, Minerva planned a horse, Vulcan put together a man. Momus was chosen a judge of the contest and assessor of the workmanship. He inspected the work of each one; apart from the deficiencies he had noticed in the works of the others, he parti!
cularly complained that in the making of the man the craftsman had not added some windows or openings in the breast, to allow an insight into what was hidden in the heart, which he had made full of caverns and winding sinuosities."
Thanks again!
James
Dr. James Dougal Fleming,
Assistant Professor of English,
Simon Fraser University,
(604) 291-4713
Laissez parler les faits.
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