"O Proserpina,
For the
flowers now, that frighted thou let'st fall
From
Dis's waggon! daffodils,
That come
before the swallow dares, and take
The winds
of March with beauty; violets dim,
But sweeter
than the lids of Juno's eyes
Or Cytherea's
breath; pale primroses,
That die
unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright
Phoebus in his strength,--a malady
Most incident
to maids; bold oxlips and
The crown
imperial; lilies of all kinds,
The flower-de-luce
being one"
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) The Winters Tale. Act 4 Scene 1.
"However, I was thinking it
would be nice if a piece on the fan would
be nice. There is a widely
distributed treatsie written in period by
a Spanish woman who was (I
think) in Elanor of Acquitane's court. She
explained how the fan was
brought from spain to the French court and
spread to England. The interesting
thing was how the fan was used in
a "kind of code" to communicate
with 'interested gentlemen' across the
room. It's called the language
of the fan....?" – Lady Isabela del bosque
I've always enjoyed the idea of beautiful ladies gracefully using their fans to telegraph what they thought like a professional baseball player. So, I was pretty put out when my Research Staff came back to me and told me the the first actual record of the Language of the Fan was in book called Fächer-Sprache für Damen. in 1870, by a man named Fenella. Does that mean it didn't happen that way? Of course not. This is just where we wander off into that place of probabilities and such. Sure it may be just a Victorian fiction, but it may be something that just lay hidden for a few hundred years before becoming well known. It's also possible we missed something somewhere.
However, here are some of the meanings that we came across:
Carrying it right hand: "You
are too willing"
Carrying in right hand in front
of face: "Follow me"
Carrying the fan closed and
hanging from her right hand: "I'm engaged, or I want to be engaged"
Carrying in left hand: "Desirous
of acquaintance"
Carrying in left hand, open:
"Come and talk to me"
Carrying in left hand in front
of face: "Desirous of acquaintance"
Clasping the hands under the
open fan: "Forgive me I pray you"
Closed: "I wish to speak to
you"
Closing the fan quickly and
impetuously: "I'm jealous"
Covering the left ear with the
open fan: "Do not betray our secret"
Drawing across the eyes: "I
am sorry"
Drawing through the hand: "I
hate you"
Drawing across the cheek: "I
love you"
Drawing it across the forehead:
"You have changed", or "We are watched"
Dropping it: "We will be friends"
or "We are friends"
Fanned slowly: "I am married"
or "Don't waste yourtime, I don't care about you"
Fanned fast: "I am engaged"
or "I love you so much"
Fanning herself with her left
hand: "Don't flirt with that woman"
Gazing pensively at the shut
fan: "Why do you misunderstand me?"
Half-opening the fan over her
face: "We are being watched over"
Hiding the sunlight. You're
ugly"
Hitting any object: "I'm impatient"
Hitting her hand's palm: "Love
me"
Letting the fan to drop: "I
belong to you"
Looking closely at the painting:
"I like you"
Moving her hair away of her
forehead.Don't forget me"
Open and shut: "You are cruel"
Open wide: "Wait for me"
Passing the fan from one hand
to the other: "I see that you are looking at another woman"
Placed on left ear: "You have
changed", or "I wish to get rid of you"
Placed behind head: "Don't forget
me"
Presented shut: "Do you love
me?"
Presenting a number of sticks,
fan part opened: "At what hour?"
Pressing the half-opened fan
to the lips: "You may kiss me"
Pressing handle to lips: "Kiss
me"
Resting the fan on her heart:
"I love you and it makes me suffer"
Resting the fan on right cheek:
"Yes"
Resting the closed fan on the
right eye: "When may I be allowed to see you?"
Resting the fan on left cheek:
"No"
Resting the fan the fan on her
lips: "I don't trust you"
Running her fingers through
the fan's ribs: "I want to talk to you"
Shut the fully opened fan very
slowly: "I promise to marry you"
The shut fan held to the heart:
"You have won my love"
Threaten with the shut fan:
"Do not be so imprudent"
Touching tip with finger: "I
wish to speak with you"
Touching the unfolded fan in
the act of waving: "I long to be near you"
Twirled in left hand: "I wish
to get rid of you" or "We are watched"
Twirled in right hand: "I love
another"
With little finger extended:
"Good-bye"
Sources:
Armstrong, Nancy. Fans.
Fenella. Fächer-Sprache
für Damen. 1870
Alton's Millenium Question Part 2 - "And just what is this Millenium thing anyway, and why do we care?"
A "millenium" is a period of a thousand years. Why we should care about these particular sets of thousand years is little more complicated, and begins very likely during the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero. According to some scholars, this was when the Apocalypse, or Revelation, of St John, the final book of the New Testament was written. And in that work, a metaphorical work that describes the end of the world in a number of horrible scenes culminating in a stark battle between good and evil that will destroy the world as it is known, which will then be followed by a thousand years of peace under the Messiah, after which the world will truely end. When this will take place is not discussed, but people seemed to become hooked on the "thousand year" idea. The second part of why this was important to people in the year 1000 occured in the year 247 Anno Diocletiani. In that year, a monk and scholar, named Dionysius, or Dennis, took it upon himself to figure out when Jesus was born. We don't know what clues he used to determine that it was the Anno Domini 531, but he did. Scholars today have decided that his dating was off by 4-7 years. I'm actually amazed that he was off only by that much, what with the materials at hand, and the fact that even today we can't agree on the date of the birth of Jesus, much less whether he even existed. So, something like 400 years after this date was determined, with the events in the world offering plenty of omens and protents as described in the Revelation, people began to believe that the world they knew would be coming to an end.
Sources:
Duncan, David Ewing. Calendar,
Humanity's Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year. 1998
Lacey, Robert and Danny Danziger.
The year 1000, what life was like at the turn of the first millenium.
1999.
If you have any questions about
things that interest you, please send them to me directly, or by way of
Chronicler.