Something Rhymes with Purple - Gauntlet

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

Step into the linguistic battlefield with this week's as Susie and Gyles explore the origins of medieval armour terminology. Join us as we immerse ourselves in the rich history of words that once ador...ned the knights of old, forging a connection between language and the clangor of medieval warfare We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our NEW email address here: purplepeople@somethingrhymes.com Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms' Don’t forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com  Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week:  Metanoia - the process of changing ones mind. Perspicatious - wise and clear thinking. Sollipsist - somebody who is entirely self absorbed. Gyles' poem this week was 'Knight in Armour' by Alan Alexander Miln. Whenever I'm a shining Knight, I buckle on my armour tight; And then I look about for things, Like Rushings-out, and Rescuings, And Savings from the Dragon's Lair, And fighting all the Dragons there. And sometimes when our fights begin, I think I'll let the Dragons win ... And then I think perhaps I won't, Because they're Dragons, and I don't. A Sony Music Entertainment production.   Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts     To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:02 Hello, Giles here. And knowing that we have a family audience, and the Purple people often include some very young people, just to say that today's episode does include some language that some people may find uncomfortable or offensive. Welcome to Something Rhymes with Purple. My name is Giles Brandreth. With me is my friend, the great lexicographer, Susie Dent. And I want to ask you something immediately, Susie. When I
Starting point is 00:01:30 say to you, the pellet with the poisons in the vessel with the vessel, but the chalice with the palace has the brew that is true, does that evoke anything for somebody of your generation? I'm afraid not, but I'm intrigued. Well, people of my generation immediately will know that. It comes from a film called The Court Jester, made, I suppose, I think around 1950,
Starting point is 00:01:51 starring Danny Kaye, in which he plays by Court Jester, and who eventually ends up dressed as a medieval knight and takes part in a hilarious jousting occasion where everything goes wrong. And it's hilarious. And he thinks he's being poisoned, or he thinks he's trying to poison somebody. Anyway, there's this very amusing routine where he can't work out, you know, whether the parrot with the poison is the vessel with the pestle, or the chalice from the palace is the brew that is true, or it's the other way around.
Starting point is 00:02:21 It's very, very funny. But if it means nothing to you, it means nothing to you. That was my introduction to people in suits of armor. So that's what we're going to do, I hope, today. We're going to explore suits of armor from the top of the head, from the visor, that word I do know, right down to what I think the shoes are called sabatons.
Starting point is 00:02:42 But maybe you can take us through suits of armour. Yes. I don't think we can do every single aspect of it because there are so many different terms and there's a huge amount of technical vocabulary. But shall I start with armour itself? Yeah, do. And tell me, before you do,
Starting point is 00:02:58 do you have any thoughts about armour? Have you seen armour? Have you been to the Tower of London and seen suits of armour? When and where have you seen a suit of armour? Yeah, I haven't seen any recently, I have to say. But I do remember going to the London Dungeons and to the Tower of London. But mostly, I think, I don't know if this is quite sad,
Starting point is 00:03:15 but as you say, mostly they have comedic value, don't they? Because there's always someone hiding within them in films and things. But I know very, very little about the different parts. I'm not immersed in that world at all. So I've done some research as best I can. But as I say, apologies to those who are real experts in this field. We're not going to have time to go through every single aspect of it, but we can make a start. And I'll tell you about armour itself. And just again, to give us context, what period are we talking about when people would wear? These were things that people wore to protect themselves in battle.
Starting point is 00:03:47 I'm assuming it's the Middle Ages. So that would be 14th, 15th, 16th century, the latest. Yeah. And I have to say, there are some excellent websites out there if people do want to, you know, have a look at the, you can see some brilliant diagrams of the armour and then bit by bit, plate by plate, it will be named for you. So it's really interesting. But full suits, I mean, they are absolutely terrifying full suits of armor. And when you see the horses wearing them as well, you know, they are actually pretty
Starting point is 00:04:16 terrifying. So I think actually full suits of armor were worn by generals and commanders right up to the 18th century because they could survive musket fire, for example, and that kind of thing. And then the horses, they say, they had steel plate, what's called barding, to give them protection, but also for that kind of visual impact because they do look pretty intimidating when you look at them. Even now, they're sort of surviving equine armour. It is quite extraordinary. I mean, it seems quite cruel to the horses. And, you know, throughout the wars, obviously, horses were put to huge efforts.
Starting point is 00:04:54 In fact, by marble arch, there is a gorgeous monument, isn't there, to the horses that were killed during the war. In different wars, yes. Absolutely. Of a horse's head sort of standing on, almost on the snout of the head. Exactly. It goes up into the air. You were going to give me the origin of the word armor. Nothing to do with amour, A-R-M-O-U-R.
Starting point is 00:05:15 What is armor? No. And nothing to do with arm either. The arms, even though it's quite tempting to say there's to do with the arms on our body. In fact, if you were to stay with arms of your body, you would go to the brassiere, which gave us the bras, because the first meaning of bras or brassiere was actually armor for the arms. But armor itself, because bras in French is arm, I should say, armor itself comes from
Starting point is 00:05:41 arm use as a weapon. And that came into english in medieval times it came from french and ultimately latin and it is all about protection so you'll find it in armadillo which is spanish for little armed man you'll find it in armistice which is from the latin for stopping of arms the ceasing of arms you'll find it in armature. And of course, you'll find it in armor. So it's very different to the arm that's the part of the body that was Old English. And then you talked, Giles, about chain mail. And once again, there are two different words spelled mail, really, in terms of their origin. So the mail that comes through our door,
Starting point is 00:06:22 the postal system, that came to us from french but actually it's related to a dutch word meaning a wallet or a bag and the use of a postal service arose from that because of the bag in which letters are carried and then eventually it was transferred to the contents of that bag and then to the news that was delivered and that's why we have newspaper titles such as the daily mail in this country. So that's that. But in the coat of mail, it's very different in terms of origin, because that goes back to the Latin macula, meaning a stain or a blemish or the mesh of a net. So when it comes to stain and blemish, that macula gave us maculate, meaning stained, and of course, immaculate, meaning unstained. There's also a macula in us maculate meaning stained and of course immaculate meaning unstained there's
Starting point is 00:07:06 also a macula in the eye which looks a little bit like a stain in your eye but it's the mesh of a net sense of mail that gave us chain mail because it referred to the individual metal rings or plates that make up the armor so a knight would have worn a coat of males. And eventually that was made into the singular. Very good. This is rich stuff. Okay. So we have the helmet. Yes. Which is simply from Latin, has always meant the same thing.
Starting point is 00:07:32 It came to us via French. You mentioned a cuirass. Now, could you define a cuirass for me? Because I remember seeing it in things like asterisks, cartoons and things. And I think the three musketeers. Well, I assume, I don't know. I think I associate the cuirass with the breastplate. And the backplate.
Starting point is 00:07:50 So they're kind of fastened together, aren't they? I think so. But I mean, I really know nothing about this. I mean, the helmet has got a visor. I know that, through which you see, and that's obviously visive, as in seeing. And the top of the helmet often had a sort of plume on top. And I think that's called the comb, as in a coxcomb. I assume, am I right there?
Starting point is 00:08:10 Yeah, yeah, no, that's interesting. Then you come down to... Oh, yeah. Okay, no, go on, go on. No, I was just going to go back to Queer Ass, because I can't picture it. So I've just looked up a picture. And it is that, you're right, it covers the breastplate.
Starting point is 00:08:23 It's also the back plate. So it is like a sort of waistcoat, you like also medicine it's an artificial ventilator that wraps up the body and forces air in and out of the lungs instantly but anyway it goes back to the latin corium meaning leather because the first cuirasses were actually made of leather rather than steel plates yeah sorry to butt in No, please do butt in because you know about it and I don't. Well, the visor is the movable part of a helmet, isn't it? That can be pulled down to cover the face. And that is simply from the old French vis and visage,
Starting point is 00:08:58 meaning the face and ultimately again from Latin, that one. On your hands, you have gauntlets, don't you? Yes, you do. Why are they called gauntlets? Because actually, also, there's flinging down the gauntlet, which is challenging someone to a duel. I flung down the gauntlet. Give me the background to gauntlet, please, if you know it.
Starting point is 00:09:16 Yes. Okay, so to throw down the gauntlet is to throw, to issue a challenge, isn't it? And that is from the medieval custom of literally throwing the gauntlet is to throw, to issue a challenge, isn't it? And that is from the medieval custom of literally throwing the gauntlet or the armoured glove, as worn by a medieval knight, onto the ground. And whoever picked it up was deemed then to have accepted the challenge. So that is what throwing down the gauntlet means. And that was the customary way in which a knight would challenge another person to a duel. To run the gauntlet is very different, even though it's spelled the same way. So to run the gauntlet actually has nothing to do with gloves and everything to do with a
Starting point is 00:09:54 really horrible form of military punishment that you'll find recorded in around the 17th and 18th centuries. And when a soldier was found guilty of something, of an offence, particularly if he, and it was normally he, stole from his colleagues, he would be stripped to the waist and then forced to run between two lines of men who were armed with sticks, who would beat him as he ran past. I mean, horrible. But Gauntlet here is an early version of a Swedish word, But gauntlet here is an early version of a Swedish word, gantlop, G-A-N-T-L-O-P-E, which means lane course. In other words, you were running this lane or this course where you'll be beaten by sticks.
Starting point is 00:10:35 So running the gauntlet, actually pretty grisly. Very grisly indeed. Gosh. Then you have greaves and greaves with shin armour. And actually that's changed a lot as it passed through various languages. But actually, if you take it all the way back, it goes back to a Latin word meaning leg, C-R-U-S or cruris meaning of the leg. So that's that one. So sabatons, S-A-B-A-T-O-N-S came from an Italian word. Now these are pieces of armour
Starting point is 00:11:07 A-T-O-N-S, came from an Italian word. Now, these are pieces of armour for the feet. And you can just see, can't you, so many of these have been through other languages to get to us. You can absolutely see how English has just hoovered up words from other languages and how much of a Mongol tongue it is. You can. So, is it the same root as the French word sabo which is a kind of clog i don't think so no it's because it's sab80 rather than ot so i get where you're coming from perhaps the ancient root is the same but believe it or not it's linked to the italian bread ciabatta um because ciabatta means a shoe and it's because of the shape shape of the bread that looks a little bit like a slatta means a shoe and it's because of the shape of the bread that looks a little bit like a slipper or a shoe. So it seems to go all the way back to a medieval Latin word sabbatum, whereas sabbo, as you say clogs, famously gave a sabotage. Let me see if the OED will give me
Starting point is 00:12:01 an ancient read for that one. Ah, I am taking it all back because actually it is a riff on Sabaton and you're absolutely right. So Sabaton, a broad-toed armed foot covering worn by warriors in army, went into Provençal and obviously then changed its foul. So you're absolutely right. I am corrected.
Starting point is 00:12:21 Lovely, I've learned something then. It's a relief for me occasionally, one in a thousand moments, to have something that I remember, mostly from my childhood of going to the French Lycée in London. That's where these words come from. I'm reflecting on how difficult
Starting point is 00:12:35 it must have been to fight, let alone to move, wearing these extraordinary suits of armour. And I think I'm right in saying, certainly from the court jester, when they got onto their horses, they had to be lifted up onto the horses with a kind of crane mechanism because it was so you couldn't climb onto the horse. You had to be hoisted aloft. The horse was then brought below you and you were then lowered onto the horse. And I remember that
Starting point is 00:13:00 too from the famous wartime film, Second World War film of Henry V, directed and starring Laurence Olivier as Henry V. There they wore suits of armour. And again, I think I can remember a scene where he is hoisted into the air on a kind of pulley and then lowered onto his horse because of these suits of armour. Wow. And actually, once again, I feel poor horses because they must have been so heavy. You know, not only were they wearing armour, but actually they had heavily clad knights on their backs. It must have been incredibly difficult. them have huge codpieces, metal protections for the private parts of the soldiers on wearing the armour. I don't know if they're words for, I mean, I call them a codpiece. What is the origin of codpiece, actually? I know, that's strange. So that goes back to cod, I think was a double D,
Starting point is 00:14:01 which was an old English for your scrotum, essentially. So it meant a bag or a pouch, a purse or a wallet, and then the scrotum or the scrotum and testicles considered together. So it was a piece for your cod. So the metallic ones were there to protect your scrotum and adjoining parts. Extraordinary. All important. And I do remember saying to you, I don't know if you remember, that the brackets that we use in architectural building, or even that we use when we are writing and we put things in parentheses or brackets, those actually go back to a word in Italian that meant codpiece, because they just thought that they looked like codpieces, or what was housed within them. Well, there you go. Well, from the point of view of language, war has been very useful.
Starting point is 00:14:50 The point of view of humanity, it's been pretty ghastly. And suits of armor, though they look marvelous in museums now, one mustn't forget that they were associated with horrific cruelty, people inflicting one upon another, worn to protect you, but also warned to enable you to attack with greater impunity the enemy. Oh, my. Well, well, well, that's sobering, isn't it? Yeah. Totally agree. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:14 And unfortunately, we're seeing it in many different places now. Don't, don't. I think, I hope people are listening to this to get away from the horrors of the real world. Yeah. Well, let's discover why people are listening, because we'll have some correspondence after the break. Wherever you're going, you better believe American Express will be right there with you. Heading for adventure?
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Starting point is 00:15:50 That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamx. Benefits vary by card. Terms apply. Hi, I'm Jesse Tyler Ferguson, host of the podcast, Dinners on Me. I take some of my favorite people out to dinner, including, yes, my Modern Family co-stars, like Ed O'Neill. I had friends in organized crime. Sofia Vergara.
Starting point is 00:16:10 Why do you want to be comfortable? Julie Bowen. I used to be the crier. And Aubrey Anderson-Emmons. I was so down bad for the middle of Miranda when I was like eight. You can listen to Dinners on Me wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:16:23 This is Something Rhymes with Purple. Susie Dent, Giles Branruth. We love words and language, and so do you, Purple people, listening to us from around the world. And we do get letters every week, emails coming to us from, well, parts all over. And I think the first one comes,
Starting point is 00:16:38 is it from Australia that comes with this message? Who's it from, Susie? I think it does. It's from Ian Roberts. Dear Giles and Susie, what a marvelously happy and kind program you offer us. Well, we do try. Can you tell us why we anglicize the names of so many countries, even though they are quite easy to say? I mean, if I can say Australia, we can say Italia. Deutschland is no more difficult than Swaziland, and say Deutsche Bank with ease. Likewise, Portuguesa can roll off the tongue as easily as Scarborough.
Starting point is 00:17:08 The list goes on. Recently, Turkey requested the United Nations to refer to it by its proper name, Turkiye, and the media here in Australia have begun to follow suit. Perhaps it's time for the English-speaking world to adopt more local names. In any case, do you know how the anglicising came about in the first place? Well, that's interesting, isn't it? He ends up, and I must read this because it's so generous, thank you for your wonderfully good-natured show, such a buoyant offering, a little pod of delight bobbing away in a sea of argument and negativity.
Starting point is 00:17:40 Such a lovely metaphor, thank you. And is onias mean, is that an Australian expression meaning Anyas? I don't know where we went to, why we particularly went to Australia. It's just that I think Ian mentions Australia. I mean, the Anyas are an Australian punk band, but yeah, I don't know. He'd have to say what Anyas means. I don't know. Ian Roberts is writing to us from Australia, and it's a very good question. Why do we say Paris instead of Paris? Why do we say Italy instead of Italia? Well, there is no one simple answer to this. So I'm probably going to disappoint Ian here, I think, because there are many reasons, many factors. So the reason you asked, why don't we
Starting point is 00:18:25 say Paris instead of Paris? I mean, that is just an example of how we like to anglicise things so that they're more comfortable for us to say. And we've always struggled with foreign languages. So there's that element to it, is that we are shifting these names to something with which we are more familiar and more comfortable, particularly when it comes to pronunciation. Then you've also got referring to countries by names that are different from their native language names. And a driver of that is the history of colonialism and imperialism, because European countries often gave new names to the places they colonized. And that was part of their attempt to establish their own dominance, you know, linguistically as much as anything else. And you can see that going back absolute centuries. So that's another driving force, I would say.
Starting point is 00:19:11 And then sometimes the English name for a country is often based on the name of the country in that country's official language. And then if that country changes its name, we will and should also change to reflect it, but it can take some time. So Ceylon became Sri Lanka, didn't it, in 1972, and we eventually changed to reflect this. But we don't always change it. Sometimes we don't, either because we think that the existing name is too well established. So Burma changed its name to Myanmar in 1989, but I think a lot of people still say Burma, do you think? No. And I think they say Myanmar, not Myanmar.
Starting point is 00:19:49 But I may have got that wrong. No, you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. So it's a really sensitive matter. And it's so bound up in political ideologies, historical disputes. There's real nationalism, I suppose, involved in patriotism. And there's no easy answer to it. And I think it would be a fascinating study to take each country of the world, to take
Starting point is 00:20:12 their name and to explore how it is expressed in English and in other countries and the motivations for that. Do you know, I know you know a lot of countries have very short names like Peru and Oman, but do you know the country in the world that has the longest name, the longest named country on the planet Earth? No, that's your bailiwick. You love that kind of thing. I don't. I love this kind of thing.
Starting point is 00:20:33 And I can tell you it is our country. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has the longest name of any country in the world. We've got another letter. This comes from another Ian. This in the world. We've got another letter. This comes from another Ian. This is the week. We decided to have letters this week only from people called Ian
Starting point is 00:20:49 and there were two of them. This is the other one. Hello, Susie and Giles. Just curious what it is about words like moist and ointment that makes some people want to crawl out of their skin. I have several friends who forbid those around them from using these words.
Starting point is 00:21:03 They don't bother me one bit. That's, well, that's good, Ian. What do you think the answer is? Okay. So there's been quite a lot of research into this. And one set of research really came up with three clear hypotheses as to why people have such an aversion to words. And as you know, mine was moist for a very long time. That was the top of my bugbear list, but I have decided to get over it, not least because everybody else hates the M word. But in terms of the three reasons, one is it's the sound of the word simply, but why do people object to moist and not foist? And that is because the second one is about the word's connotations. And moist is a little bit, the words connotations and moist is a little bit I suppose like sort of damp there's just yeah there's just a sort of slightly unsavory association with it I think and finally the
Starting point is 00:21:53 third reason that these researchers came up with is that there's a social transmission of the idea that this word is disgusting so the more people talk about finding moist disgusting the more infectious it becomes and people pick it up really. But it's the first point I find really interesting, the sound of the word, because, you know, is it the phonetics? Is it the rhythms? What is it that can cause such repulsion? I think it is much more to do with the words connotations, because if you take things like phlegm, phlegm could actually be quite beautiful if it referred to a summer breeze, but no, it doesn't refer to a summer breeze. And so we particularly find it horrible. Puke, another one. Flange is one of my least favourite. Bulbous. I think we are immediately going to what
Starting point is 00:22:36 this connotes to us in our heads and then finding it pretty unpalatable. Just remind me what flange means. I know what bulbous means because my nose is becoming that more so daily. Your nose is not bulbous. Well, I think it's getting more bulbous. I think it doesn't look remotely bulbous. Well, that's very sweet of you. My morale is boosted. Flange. Flange. Well, it's really the bit that kind of widens out. It's a sort of branching out of something really. But I suppose it's used, it's not particularly offensive. It's used for a projecting collar or a rib. It's something that strengthens an object or that kind of projects from it as a sort of rim, if you like. But I don't know why just that maybe is born of the sound for me. I just, flange just doesn't sound
Starting point is 00:23:21 good. That's strange because plunge sounds all right, doesn't it? Well, I agree. I agree. I have no idea. It's a very strange thing, but research still goes on, particularly when it comes to moist. Which one do you find most offensive? I don't know. I tell you the word I hate most is S-H-I-T. I really dislike that word.
Starting point is 00:23:40 Yeah, I don't like it either much. All the four-letter words that are sort of taboo. Most of them I don't really mind. But that word, I don't know. I suppose it is the connotations of what it is. I just don't like hearing it. No, I'm the same. And fart used to be the same for me as well. I don't really like that either. But now it just makes me smile. But just to remember, and we have got all of this in our swearing episode, that shit actually is one of the very few true old English Anglo-Saxon words, swear words. And it was no ruder then than defecation or excrement would be today. Yeah. And I suppose I'm not into defecation or excrement in a public place.
Starting point is 00:24:14 I think these can be confined to where we want them, which is not here. Yes. I'm with you. I understand that. And yeah, maybe it should use shizzle instead then. Oh, is that what that means? It's shizzle? Yes, shizzle. It's the shizzle. It's an euphemism for shit. Oh, I didn't know that. Because I appear on a program in this country called This Morning, and they bring down, they have a prize, there's a competition, and people are offered the shizzle bag. And it's a bag of goodies. And they do rather mock the goodies people are offered the shizzle bag and it's a bag of goodies and they do rather mock the goodies that are in the bag it's done as a sort of spoof and they call it the
Starting point is 00:24:49 shizzle bag and are they saying actually this is the gifts in here are shit i didn't realize that well no because because if you say oh let's get all my i need to get all my shit together you're just talking about your stuff aren't you so it's a much wider use than the very literal one, thankfully. Well, not for our 250th episode, but for a future episode, I'm wanting us to do rude words, bad words, naughty words that are amusing, that are outlandish,
Starting point is 00:25:15 that may be archaic, unexpected vulgarisms. You're really going for this, aren't you? You're mentioning it so often that I won't be able to refuse because you've publicly asked for it. Well, exactly, because you've been resisting this for so long. And since it's such a long answer to you.
Starting point is 00:25:30 No, I've only been resisting the one where you say you want to get kinky. And then I just think, yeah, you can have that one. I want to get amusingly kinky. Though actually a kinky episode. Let's not get kinky at all. Out of interest, what is the origin of kinky? What is a kinky? Oh, it just means a bit bent and out of shape.
Starting point is 00:25:46 And so you don't quite follow the straight and narrow. Oh, that sounds quite fun. What we will do actually is be led by our listeners. If there are episodes that you feel we, subjects, topics you'd like us to talk about, we will be led by you, purple people. So do get in touch with us, purplepeopleatsomethingrhymes.com. And we have got a special episode coming up,
Starting point is 00:26:08 our 250th. And for the anniversary, we are making it all about you. So if there's any etymology questions you've got, any questions of any kind, actually, big, small, unusual, amusing, celebratory, just pop a line to us. It's purplepeopleatsomethingrhymes.com.
Starting point is 00:26:24 And we'll try to answer as many as we can in that special episode, marking our 250th episode. Well, now, have you given us a trio, three interesting words? I do. I have metanoia is the first one, and metanoia, incredibly useful from Greek, as you might expect. And it simply means the process of changing one's mind and reorientating or reorienting your way of life. So it's a fundamental shift in how you see something, which is quite a brave thing to do, really, and quite unusual these days, particularly on social media. It's very rare that somebody will say, oh, okay, hang on, I think you're right.
Starting point is 00:27:06 That doesn't seem to happen. So I thought metanoia might actually be quite useful. The next two, actually, I think will be very familiar to some of our very erudite purple people. Perspicacious, you will know this one, means wise and clear thinking. Perspicacious. And why does it mean that? What's the origin of that within it, perspicacious? Do you know what I was thinking as I was saying that? I was thinking of
Starting point is 00:27:30 perspex, because if you break it down, you have per, meaning through, and then you have the spicare or perspicare, which is to look closely into something or to see through it, to perceive something. And I think Perspex probably was a riff on that. Is Perspex plastic? It is, isn't it? Kind of plastic, I think so. Yes. Yes. Anyway, so I think that's all linked. And the third one, again, I think will be familiar to many people, solipsist. And the solipsist is somebody who is entirely self-absorbed. So I thought all of those, however recognizable,
Starting point is 00:28:05 were probably very useful. So it's self-referential. If something is solipsistic, and that's a word that does come up quite often, it means it's referring to itself. Yeah, or just extremely self-centered. So a solipsist is somebody who only looks inwards, really. Bit of a navel-gazer. Well, I'm looking outwards for my poem. I'm looking to one of my favourite writers, Alan Alexander Milne, best known for creating Winnie the Pooh and the stories about Winnie the Pooh and his adventures with Christopher Robin. A.A. Milne had a son born in 1920.
Starting point is 00:28:40 And when he was six or so, A.A. Milne published, well, four books in all, two books of poetry and two storybooks featuring Christopher Robin and Chris Robin's bear, Willie the Boo. They made him world famous. But A.A. Milne was slightly frustrated by that because he was a very successful playwright as well. He was a polemicist. He wrote a murder mystery actually called The Red House Mystery, which has recently been reissued. And I actually wrote the introduction for the new edition of The Red House Mystery, rather than a good old-fashioned murder mystery set in the 1920s.
Starting point is 00:29:14 Fun. So he was a writer of great variety. And he wrote also a wonderful memoir that is very affecting called It's Too Late Now, because he felt frustrated that he was sort of put in this box as the man who simply created Winthrop and Christopher Robin. But the children's poems he created were completely wonderful. And I'm going to read one today because it's so appropriate. It's called Night in Armour, and it's one of the many poems and songs that A.A.
Starting point is 00:29:42 Milne wrote for his own son. many poems and songs that A. A. Milne wrote for his own son. And it's about a boy, in this case, who is pretending to be a knight in shining armor. And I remember when I was a little boy, I had a suit of armor, not made of metal, but made of plastic, and I had a sword. And I often was taming dragons. I was slaying dragons. That's what little boys did, you know, when I was a little boy a long time ago. Here goes the poem. It's quite short. Whenever I'm a shining knight, I buckle on my armor tight. And then I look about for things like rushings out and rescuings and savings from the dragon's lair and fighting all the dragons there. And sometimes when our fights begin, I think I'll let the dragons win. And then I think perhaps I won't because they're dragons
Starting point is 00:30:33 and I don't. It's quite fun, isn't it? Very well read. Yeah, I love that one. Thank you. And at least appropriate to our subject, suits of armour. That's very, very true. true well thank you so much for your company as always we really do appreciate it please do keep following us you can find us on social media as we always say at something rhymes on twitter and facebook or at something rhymes with on instagram something rhymes with purple is a sony music entertainment production it was produced by na idea with additional production from Naomi Oyeku, Hannah Newton, Chris Skinner, Poppy Thompson. We have Sophie King and we have, well, how should we, do you think, can you imagine this person in a suit of armour, Giles? I can. It's Rishi.
Starting point is 00:31:18 I can too. I think it'd be rather fetching.

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