xchar (06/23/82)
>From the first chapter of "Ivanhoe," by Sir Walter Scott:
"Why, how call you those grunting brutes running about on
their four legs?" demanded Wamba.
"Swine, fool--swine," said [Gurth, the swineherd];
"every fool knows that."
"And swine is good Saxon," said [Wamba], "but how call
you the sow when she is flayed, and drawn, and quartered, and
hung up by the heels, like a traitor?"
"Pork," answered the swineherd.
"I am very glad every fool knows that too," said Wamba,
"and pork, I think, is good Norman-French; and so when the brute
lives, and is in the charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by her
Saxon name; but becomes a Norman, and is called pork, when she is
carried to the castle hall to feast among the nobles. What dost
thou think of this, friend Gurth, ha?"
"It is but too true doctrine, friend Wamba, however it got
into thy fool's pate."
"Nay, I can tell you more," said Wamba in the same tone:
"There is old Alderman Ox continues to hold his Saxon epithet
while he is under the charge of serfs and bondsman such as thou,
but becomes Beef, a fiery French gallant, when he arrives before
the worshipful jaws that are destined to consume him. Mynherr
Calf, too, becomes Monsieur de Veau in the like manner: he is
Saxon when he requires tendance, and takes a Norman name when he
becomes matter of enjoyment."
--Charlie Harris (rabbit!xchar), Bell Labs, Murray Hill