Something Rhymes with Purple - Tintinnabulation

Episode Date: October 4, 2022

Welcome back to Something Rhymes with Purple for our first show in our Autumn tour! Recorded live at the Fortune Theatre in London, Susie and Gyles arrived with bells and whistles on for an etymological exploration into the world of bells, specifically the Capital’s Big Ben. There was much tintinnabulation (as much as Gyles tried to derail this) and our lovely audience of Purple People got to discover the links between cups and chimes, why bells were responsible for re-naming the belfry tower, and why Swiss Cow Bells are nostalgic.  We were saved by the bell once discussions of ringing one’s bell went a little too far and Gyles got his (metaphorical) catsuit on to give us a stunning rendition of T.S. Eliot’s ‘Gus: The Theatre Cat’ from Eliot’s Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us here: [e-mail] We currently have 20% off at the SRwP official merchandise store, just head to: https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple 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: Matter-fangled: to have got into a muddle while talking Rackups: your just desserts Quanker: someone who settles a dispute Gyles' poem this week was 'Gus: The Theatre Cat' by 'T.S. Eliot' Gus is the Cat at the Theatre Door. His name, as I ought to have told you before, Is really Asparagus. That's such a fuss To pronounce, that we usually call him just Gus. His coat's very shabby, he's thin as a rake, And he suffers from palsy that makes his paw shake. Yet he was, in his youth, quite the smartest of Cats-- But no longer a terror to mice and to rats. For he isn't the Cat that he was in his prime; Though his name was quite famous, he says, in its time. And whenever he joins his friends at their club (Which takes place at the back of the neighbouring pub) He loves to regale them, if someone else pays, With anecdotes drawn from his palmiest days. For he once was a Star of the highest degree-- He has acted with Irving, he's acted with Tree. And he likes to relate his success on the Halls, Where the Gallery once gave him seven cat-calls. But his grandest creation, as he loves to tell, Was Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell. A Somethin’ Else & 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 [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. 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. Something else. Welcome to Something Rhymes With Purple, live from London's Fortune Theatre. Wow. Well, thank you so much for joining us.

This is the start of our tour. We'll have a monthly residency, won't we, Giles, in this very theatre until next February. But we're also off to Oxford. Can't wait for that. That's my hometown. We're going to be at the Oxford Playhouse, which is a theatre I know well because in the 1970s I was the artistic director of the Oxford Theatre Festival. Were you?

And I'll be telling you lots of name-dropping stories of stars of stage and screen who appeared there in the 1970s when I was running it. We are today in the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden in the West End of London. Do you know much about the Fortune Theatre? No, I want you to tell me all about it. Well, I'll tell you a little bit about it.

It's one of London's smallest theatres. It's beautiful. It's sort of built in an Italianate style. It was built in the 1920s. On this ground, I mean, we're very close. This is the heart of Theatreland. It's Cotton Garden. A stone's throw from here is the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, a magnificent theatre, one of the largest theatres in London. That was the home of Stealing Someone's Thunder. Remember that? Yeah, I do remind people of that expression. Yes. 1709, February the 5th. Shall I tell Remember that? Yeah, I do remind people of that expression.

1709, February the 5th. Shall I tell the story? No, you tell the story. Okay. There was a playwright critic called John Dennis who had written a play that, by all accounts, was very turgid. It was called Appius in Virginia and had nothing going for it except a thunder-making machine or at least a machine that replicated the sound of thunder.

And despite having this going for it, it closed after a very short run. He very happily went along to the next performance, which was the Scottish play. He was sitting in the audience, apparently very much enjoying it, when from the stage he heard booming the sound of his very own thunder-making machine. And he stood up and said, and we have two contemporaries who wrote accounts of this afterwards, he stood up and said, damn them, they will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder. So there you are.

You are, yeah, exactly, worth a round of applause. So this is where language is made, where theatre is made, this part of the world. We are in the heart of London, and we thought that we would have a sort of London theme, didn't we? Yes, we did, and we chose this actually before, obviously, Her Majesty the Queen died, and bells were very, very much part of the whole period of mourning, really, weren't they?

So we chose this theme before, but I think it's got even more resonance now. Good. So if the sound is working, I think we have some Big Ben bells. Yes, cue. Cue. Just one. Or two. Okay, so now you went to the funeral, didn't you?

I was in attendance on the funeral. I was at Westminster Abbey for the funeral. You were. Didn't Big Ben ring out 96 times? They did. The bell tolled 96 times to mark... For each year of her life. Yeah. So moving.

So impressive. Now, tell me, do you know a lot about Big Ben? I mean, can you answer the question, is it the name of the bell or the name of the tower? You know the answer. What is it? Well, it's the bell, not the name of the tower. And the tower was originally called the Clock Tower, St Stephen's Tower,

but then it was renamed the Elizabeth Tower, I think in 2012, to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Yes, it was. And I have actually been up the tower because I was, as some of you may know, in the 1990s, I was a Member of Parliament. I was a Member of Parliament, in fact, until the people spoke. And I always remind Giles of a quote that made it into the Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations, or just the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, which is Giles is a quote that made it into the Oxford Dictionary of humorous quotations or just the Oxford dictionary of quotations Which is Giles is an MP saying happiness is the site of your constituency in the rearview mirror

The truth is By the time I lost my seat five years later by then I knew I had contempt for my constituents. But it came as a bit of a shock to the system to find the feeling was entirely mutual. And it did not help that my darling wife put our house in the constituency up for sale during the election campaign. She's here in the audience today

and she will remember that in 1997, you know, in every other house in the street, it said, vote Brandreth, vote Brandreth, vote Brandreth. On our house, it said, for sale. I said to her, Michelle, this is not sending out quite the right signal. She said, darling, the signal is immaterial. These people really don't like you.

And so it proved. But when I was an MP, I did, and I'm not very good at heights, but it's all enclosed. I climbed up the St. Stephen's Tower, as it then was before it proved. But when I was an MP, I did, and I'm not very good at heights, but it's all enclosed, I climbed up the St Stephen's Tower, as it then was, before it became the Elizabeth Tower. And it's pretty tall. And then you get to the clock and the bell, and it's the bell that's called Big Ben. It's the bell that's called Ben. Now, do you know why it's called Ben? No, I don't. Okay.

Big Bad Ben. I don't. Well, two theories. I think one of them less likely than the other. One is that it is named after a bare-knuckle boxer from the 19th century whose nickname was Big Ben. He was called Ben Caunt. Say that very carefully. C-A-U-N-T. So that's one theory. The second theory, which is much more more likely is that it was named after Sir Benjamin Hall and he was a civil engineer served in the House of Commons for more than 30 years but crucially he saw the rebuilding of Westminster essentially following a fire in the 19th century

so I think more much more likely to be him and there's a Times of London report from October the 22nd 1856 which adds a bit of weight to that theory. It says all bells, we believe, are christened before they begin to toll. And on this occasion, it's proposed to call our King of Bells, Big Ben, in honour of Sir Benjamin Hall, etc. Very good. It's interesting, isn't it, that we name cannons and sort of machines of war, we give them sort of quite euphemistic nicknames.

Sometimes female ones. Big Bertha. Big Bertha. What was she? Big Bess. I can't remember who Big Bertha was. She was a siege cannon. Yeah, and Big Bess was...

Big Bess as well. Well, so we're going to talk about bells. Ding dong! Now, ding dong, talk about the dictionary of quotations. I hope that is credited to Leslie Phillips, one of my favorite actors. Oh yes, ding dong.

For me, if I'm feeling low, not that I ever do feel, if I feel really low, I look at my screensaver, then I see the picture of Susie. My morale is boosted immediately. But if I feel low and I want some comfort viewing, if it's a film that has in the cast either Terry Thomas, Ian Carmichael, or Leslie Phillips, I know I'm in for a good time. And I feel ding-dong. Didn't you say things like ding-dong? Ding-dong. Oh, that's more like it.

Ding-dong. Yes, lovely man. And do you remember the rule that means it's ding-dong and not dong-ding? Yes, you often tell me about this. It's something to do with the euphonics, the way it sounds. Yes, exactly. Now, what is the rule called? The rule is beautifully called the rule of Ablaut Reduplication.

Ablaut Reduplication. And it's all about sound, but it's one of the... We have no rules in English, do we, really? It's like our constitution. We make it up as we go along. Yes, we do. And hope for the best. We do, but this is a kind of unwritten law that we know about the sound,

so we don't wear flop flips or e-cat kits or dally-d shally shilly very good and play pumping which i love okay so should we well i call it wef wef and it's actually wef wef isn't it yeah yeah i remember so let's let's explore if we may words to do with bells can we start with the word bell yes can. Where does that come from? Bell is, well, it's old English and it has lots and lots of different roots and what we call cognates in lots of different languages. But I think ultimately we don't know, unlike cloche and cloak and clock, et cetera, which are all to do with the shape of the bell, we don't quite know where bell itself began. Like a very ancient root. And it's nothing to do with beauty? The beautiful sound of the bell?

No, no. That's a nice idea though. Ding dong bell, put this in the well. Who put her in? Anyway, send for the RSPCA. So the bell chimes. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. So toll and chime, give me those two.

Toll, can you tell me a toll? Yes, so toll is simply German again, so that always reminds us that we are a Germanic language at heart, even though we've got so many words from the Normans and hence from Latin and also Greek. But yes, it's a Germanic word. Chime is related to symbol, in fact, which is quite nice. Explain that.

And that ultimately goes back to the Greek for a cup because of the shape. So the shape of a symbol is a little bit like a sort of broad cup. And chime, that ch sound, is behind it as well because the original Greek also had that ch sound. Very good. The chime bell. So the bells, you find the bells in the belfry. So what would the origin of that be? We don't know the origin of bell, but frie?

Yeah, well actually we changed this to make it match with bell, but it didn't start out that way. It started out with bergfried, which was a Germanic word meaning a place of shelter. So the very first meaning of belfry was a wooden tower or a fortification really. And then in its simplest form belfry was a wooden tower or a fortification, really. And then in its simplest form, it was like a sort of penthouse or a shed, you know, like a sort of appendage, really. But it didn't, belfries didn't have bells in originally. No, they didn't. So they

were to give shelter during sieges and things. And so there were towers from that point of view. But because they often housed bells, we decided that it must be bell-free, not berg-free. Because we often change these foreign words because we can't pronounce them, as you know. Gosh, and when did this happen? That was sort of Middle English period, so we're talking, you know, 600 years ago also. Yeah, well, that's further ago for you than it is for me.

Now, people who are interested in bell ringing are called campanologists? Campanologists, yes, they are. Campanology. I want to know the link between camping about, as in, you know, what Kenneth Williams might be up to, and campanology to do with bells. OK, so nothing to do with camping out.

You know, that camp is part of a very prestigious family that gave us champagne, it gave us campus. It's all to do with a large area in ancient Rome where military practice would go on and athletic exercises. Campius Martius in ancient Rome as well. So any flat, expansive ground gave us campus. It also gave us champagne because that's a large, expansive, rather flat land in France. And it gave us campus. It also gave us Champagne because that's a large expanse of rather flat land in France.

And it gave us camping out, like an encampment. And campaign, a campaign that would take place. Campaign as well. And champion too. So they're all related to this large expanse of ground. They are all related to that, but not to Campnologist,

which simply goes back to the Latin campana, which means a bell. Come on, don't rush me. Okay. The large space being camp, if you're camping about in the field, is that connected? Yes. So if you're being camp, I have a feeling, I'm going to look this one up, but I have a feeling we don't actually know. And I think it dates back to Victorian times, the idea of being camp.

But maybe 1920s. It's relatively recent. What do you think? I just say campanology is from the Latin campana, meaning bell. Camp is an adjective, flamboyant, art or theatrical. Yes. Especially linked to the gay community. Maybe it says the French se compaibre, to assume a proud, bold or provocative posture to strike a pose. But we don't know where that comes from.

Two more theories here. So alternative, it says, and less likely etymologies, are from the swagger and dash of military life from the military camps. Oh, on the campaign trail. Or the notorious licentiousness of camp followers. Well, do you know the play The Recruiting Officer by Thomas Farker? No. So it's a one. Sorry. Say it like that as if you're proud of your ignorance. No, I don't. You should be deeply ashamed. Any educated person should know. It's a wonderful play,

and I was lucky enough to see it when it was last done, I think, at the National Theatre, which was, of course, a few years ago in the 1960s. Laurence Olivier was in it, Robert Stevens was in it, Maggie Smith was in it. And interestingly, they were very flamboyant. It's called The Recruiting Officer. It was full of... Captain Brazen is one of the characters, so-called. Captain Plume is another of the characters. The play is set in the 1780s. Okay.

And Farquhar, you know, was writing his pieces quite a while ago. We're talking about restoration. Yeah. So after the restoration of Charles II. So this is a long time ago. And clearly this kind of camp, these were military figures. So I'm suddenly thinking... Maybe.

We don't know this, but this is the joy of this programme. If you're listening around the world, or if you're a military person, an old field master, I've known it all the time. Nothing to do with those silly people on the radio, you know, after you, Julian, Mrs Me Sandy. It's all to do with the campaigns. Do write in and let us know what you think about this.

Purple at somethingelse.com. I agree. So we've learnt something there. We have learnt something. So that's Campanology. And now we talked about Tintinabulation, didn't we? Pleasecom. I agree. So we've learnt something there. We have learnt something. So that's Campanology. And now we talked about tintinabulation, didn't we? Please.

Which I love. Tintinabulation is just the ringing of bells and it goes back to, even the Romans had tintilabulare, which is, sorry, that's a bit too Italian.

Tintilabulare, the tinkling of bells, which is just gorgeous. And what about titanus? Is it the same? Tinnitus? Tinnitus. Tinnitus.

No, no, Mrs. No. No, titter ye not. Titter ye not. No, no, no. Yes, titanus. Forgive me. Tinitus. Tinitus. Same thing. A ringing in your ears. It's the same thing. Yes. It's the same thing. Yes. Tintinabulation and titanus. But no, what I'm just saying, it is tintinabulation, thing. Yes. Tintinabulation and titanus.

But no, but it is tintinabulation, isn't it? Tintinabulation. But with tinnitus, there's no T. Tinnitus. Tinnitus. It's not tintitus. It's tinnitus, but then tintinabulation. I can see why you're slightly... You can see there's a slight confusion there.

You can see I'm just trying to get myself out of the... Out of this. Out of the well. Ding dong well. What about tubular bells, actually? Oh, yeah, made famous by Mark Oldfield, wasn't it? So they are... Oh, by the way, met him. I've met him. Any stories?

Very nice guy. Yes, but not ones that we can broadcast. Moving swiftly on. So they're just kind of vertically suspended bells, aren't they, that are tubes that are struck with a mallet. Those are tubular bells. There's the sally. Do you know what the sally is when it comes to a bell?

No. That's the fluffy bit of the rope that's covered in wool, you know, that you pull. Have you ever done bell ringing? I would love to. I promise you, I'm positive I would go up with the bell if I did well that's that is how does it ever happen it always happens particularly when you're young I started that's a moon people regularly we have to learn how to do it you have to learn to let go you pull it down and then

you're supposed to let go and then catch it if you hang on to it it just takes you up again yeah but it's quite fun. I quite like that, actually. Yeah, oh, yeah. Bell ringing is marvellous. So the rope, you're telling us, what is that? So the fluffy bit that gives you a bit of a grip. Yes, that often is multicoloured, red or blue. It's called a sally.

Sally, and I don't know if it's because you sally forth, if, like me, you get pulled upwards, or if it's just because we like giving names, don't we, personal names to all sorts of things. What about a carillon of bells? A carillon? A carillon, yeah, a carillon. That's a set of bells.

It's kind of automatically mechanised, I think. And it's a bit like a piano roll. There's no saying, I think. I'm the one asking you. Is it or is it not? What is a carillon? I know where the word comes from. I thought you'd listen to a carillon of bells

when it's a kind of bell ringing. The whole programme is known as a carillon, but maybe not. I think it's a peal of four bells that played on this equivalent of a piano roll. I haven't actually seen one, but at its heart is the Latin cator, four, because it's four bells. Remind me, when we come back after the break, because you've just reminded me of something about Swiss cowbells.

Oh, I want to know about Swiss cowbells. But do you ever get annoyed by bells? Because where we live, my wife and I and our children, we live in West London and we live in a village called Barnes and we have a lovely church, St Mary's, where there are brilliant bell ringers.

But I do know that there are people who live closer to the church than we do who sometimes find the bells a bit infuriating when a wedding is about to happen and they're practicing do you ever find do they ever know you school bells definitely but not church bells i love them can i give us one more bell word before we take our break yes clap up is there not a word like there is yeah that is the sort of ringing the thing that strikes the bell and that makes the noise. The thing inside is the clapper. Go like the clappers.

It's not the metal bit and the ball. Is it the whole thing? It is the metal bit and the ball. And the ball. That is called a clapper. That's the clapper. And we go like the clappers because we're going like that. We go like the clappers. Like you talk fast and a lot.

You go like the clappers. You go like the clappers. Can I say I've hardly breathed a word? But the time has gone like the clappers. It means it's now time for our break. I think it is time for our break. We will be back. I'm Nick Friedman.

I'm Lee Alec Murray. And I'm Leah President. And this is Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect. We are a new show breaking down the anime news, views, and shows you care about each and every week. I can't think of a better studio to bring something like this to life. Yeah, I agree. We're covering all the classics.

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And watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. And watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. Who knew you could give yourself the ick? That's why Bumble is changing how you start conversations. You can now make the first move or not. With opening moves, you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches. Then sit back and let your matches start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Now look, this is Something Rhymes with Purple. We're at the Fortune Theatre in London's Covent Garden, and we're talking about bells. We've been in the world of tintinabulation, campanology, and we're going to meet some of the audience in this part of the podcast. But when we went for

our break, you were going to tell me about Swiss cowbells. Swiss cowbells oh no it's just really interesting because I've just been doing a lot of study of emotions and the history of our emotions and nostalgia was one of the ones that I looked at and nostalgia which was called originally mal du, the sickness of the country or country sickness, was diagnosed by a Swiss physician who noticed real physical effects in Swiss soldiers who would have nausea, they would have intense depression, but just headaches. Sometimes he even thought it was fatal. And he put it down to the intense jangling of Swiss cowbells and that it had

somehow sort of caused these kind of neural dysfunctions but that this feeling that they had was caused by the longing to return home and the longing to return home to that sound so it was almost as if it was addictive and then it was renamed Nostalgia so Nostalgia was really a big business and a pretty nasty one originally and now we just have you know 70s Nostalgia. So Nostalgia was really a big business and a pretty nasty one originally. And now we just have, you know, 70s Nostalgia Nights, don't we? It's kind of gone down in the world a bit. Well, you may. My whole life is a 1950s Nostalgia Night. I first went to Switzerland in the 1950s when I was a little boy.

And my parents sent me, I was seven years of age, they sent me on my own to Switzerland. And they couldn't stand the way I wouldn't stop talking at home. So they sent me off to Switzerland on my own. And I got out of the, it was quite easy. I went by train and got out to Zurich. But the confusion was that I could speak French. That's why they sent me. But my German was a bit rusty, age seven.

And so it was a bit difficult to getting across, you know, to get the train to where I had to go. But eventually I got to where I had to go, where I was met, and I was staying at this kind of holiday home for international children whose parents didn't like them very much. And what I remembered most was walking down a hill one day, a whole group of us, and we were made to hold hands.

We didn't, you know, we were only seven years old. Yeah. So we didn't sort of... And the girl on the end of the line held on to a fence Around a field of cars with the bells ding-donging which is charming except the fence was an electric fence And it literally it went through all of those children Electric shocks. Yeah amazing amazing. When we next talk

about Switzerland, I've got a long, I've got a lot of stories to tell you. Okay. But I know we're supposed to be talking about bells today, so let's stick. The point is, you mentioned Switzerland, and it rings a bell. Tell me about the phrases we associate with. Oh yes, we've got lots of phrases. Well, yes, so we ring in the changes, don't we? I'll come back to rings a bell because it has a meaning that you might not expect. So to ring in the changes, that's the kind of, vary the way in which you do something really. And that is simply about bell ringing

and the different orders in which a peal of bells may be rung. That's one of them. To ring a bell. Did you know what the very first meaning of that was in the 15th century? To ring a bell? Mm-hmm. To ring someone's bell. Oh, of that was in the 15th century? To ring a bell? Mm-hmm.

To ring someone's bell. Oh, something to do with the plague, possibly? No, it was to cause a person to experience orgasm. Oh! That is how it's defined in the dictionary in the 1500s. In the 15th century, do I ring your bell, madam? Is that the idea? Well, yes.

Back to ding-dong. How do we know? Excuse me. This is the OED. Yeah, I know it's the OED, but you were used to work for the OED. Justify how they can spring in the 15th century from the phrase ring a bell, meaning having an orgasm. This is from Green's early English carols. When Jack had done, though he rung the bell,

all night there he made me to dwell. I'm not sure that's such a nice thing. But, OK, this is not going to get in the podcast. This is from 1593. Do you really want to hear this? We definitely do. It's in the interest of science. He was pleased by her with wagging his bauble and ringing his bell

while she picked his pocket and cut his purse. So she obviously was up to no good. This is not good. A pretty slight of a slattering slut. Well, it's got some alliteration. Yes. I still... I can see that it's got connotations, ring his bell and all that. Yeah.

I don't actually think that you can say it definitely means having an orgasm now, but it did in the 15th century Drawn from those two examples. No, there's lots of them, but I won't you know If we wanted to consult the Oxford News Dictionary, is it available for sale? I mean, how could I get into that? Oh now you're interested. Yeah, it is Yeah, you can get a subscription. You can go to any public library and you can go and have a look. So that's where you'll be going now. Well, no, because I want to find out more.

Okay. And what about Saved by the Bell? That's when you achieved the orgasm and you felt, I've got away with it. Just to keep with bell ring, to ring a bell to awaken a memory, that's 1933, so that meaning is much more recent. And that's simply just letting something resonate in your head, ringing a bell in your head.

And to ring the bell was to carry off the prize. You know those strength testing machines at fairs, fun fairs? Were you apparently ever done one of those? Have I done one? I've broken it often. OK, so that was... I was saved by the bell. Saved by the bell? What's one? I've broken it often. OK. So that was... Saved by the bell. Saved by the bell? What's that?

A boxing reference. Explain. So if you're being pummeled and the bell goes at the end of the round, you have been saved by the bell. Yeah.

Bells and whistles? Yes. It's all bells and whistles. What does that mean? I like that. To do with an elaborate train or a fairground? Yeah, actually to do with old fairground organs

that had all sorts of bells and whistles attached to them. And we have, be there with bells on. Yes, I'll be there with bells on. I think that's another reference to the bells and whistles. Is it, or is it to there? I don't know. I'm picturing a court jester with those three-cornered hats with a little bell on the end.

Could that be it? Be there with bells on? Be there with bells on? Possibly. There's a nursery rhyme again with somebody with rings on her fingers and bells on her... Oh, yes. Ride a cock horse, thank you, madam.

To Banbury Fair. Yes. That's about Lady Godiva, isn't it? Is that about Lady Godiva? I think it might be about Lady Godiva. Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross to see a fine lady upon a fine horse with rings on her fingers and bells on her toes.

She shall have music wherever she goes. So she had on her toes, on her shoes, do you think she had bells? I don't know if it was. I know Gore Blimey comes from the story of Lady Godiva. Tell us about Gore Blimey. Well, it was Peeping Tom, wasn't it? So Peeping Tom was said to be voyeuristic, and was it that everybody was sent to their houses

as she rode naked through the town? I think, am I right in thinking it was in protest at her husband's taxation? Yeah. Yeah. It's always the man's fault. You can take that for it was red. Of course.

Slightly draconian taxation rules. And Tom was just, he couldn't resist, so he looked. So he was the original peeping Tom. And in some versions of the story, he was then blinded. And so when we say, go blind me, that's a euphemism for God blind me. And it's said to look back to that story. Oh, this is why people listen to the podcast. It's fantastic.

So anything else? This is the time, I think, when we throw questions open to the podcast. It's fantastic. So anything else? This is the time, I think, when we throw questions open to the audience and we will answer anything, really, won't we? Now, what happens here? If you've been listening to the podcast, we've done about 180 episodes now, if you're new to it,

feel free to go back and feel free to get in touch. We love people communicating with us and we're available on social media, but you can send us an email, purple at something else dot com and suzy does you know research to try and make sure she comes up with the right answer but today because we're here live in this lovely theater in the west end of london um i know it's

frustrating for people who are listening to us in sydney or seattle but i think we've got somebody from seattle who's here today maybe they'd like to say hello to us and talk. And originally from Georgia. That's fantastic. So today we thought we'd just have questions from people who are here in the audience. So if you've got a question you'd like to ask. Actually, before we start, you had one for me, which I had to look up because you said, why is a man called a rake? I knew that one. Oh yes, when we came onto the stage earlier, I realised the stage had quite a sharp rake going down.

And I said to Susie, what is the origin of the word rake? Why are men sometimes called rakes? And why is the slope on this stage known as a rake? So, the rake that is here on the stage, and I didn't realise it was called that, goes back to an old English word, raku, R-A-C-U, which means a steep valley or ravine. So it's all about something that's deep sided. But the rake, the cad, the scoundrel, is from rake hell.

And it was somebody considered so immoral that they would go and rake through the embers of hell to find what they needed. Gosh. Yeah, it's a bit grim, isn't it? Gripping, actually. So you've had some, you've got some of the questions that people have. I have. And these are from

people in the audience. These are from people So you read them out. Do we want them also to speak them out or are we just going to read them out? Well, maybe we can

read them out and then they can identify themselves. Good. If they should so choose. This is from Nicholas from Michigan. Michigan?

Is he in the room? Yes, very much. Yes, and Nicholas says Oh, thank you. You come from Michigan. Thank you so much. Well, you won't, I would reserve your thanks, Joe. very much. Yes, and Nicholas says... Oh, thank you. You come from Michigan. Thank you so much. Well, you went... I would reserve your thanks, Joe. I'd reserve your thanks, because Nicholas says,

what's your show about? I've been dragged here by my husband. Oh. OK. That's very funny. The show is called Something Rhymes With Purple, and it's all about words and language, and it's called Something Rhymes with Purple, and it's all about words and language. And it's called Something Rhymes with Purple because when we came up with the idea of the show,

I said to Susie, let's call it, well, nothing rhymes with purple, let's call it The Purple Show. And she said, something rhymes with purple. I said, really, what? And she said, herple, which means to walk with a lip. And there may be one or two other words that rhyme with purple. So that's why it's called Something Rhymes with Purple. It's about words and language.

And we're very interested that you're here from Michigan. Thank you so much for coming. Even more so, thank you for staying beyond the interval. That is very true. Okay, on we go. Any more questions or are we going to move on to your trio? We're going to move on to the trio with definitions from our lovely audience. Because you have submitted some gems. Oh, so this is like your usual trio.

You're going to give us three words to which there is a genuine definition, but you've challenged the audience to come up with their own versions. Yes. Fun. So the first one was matterfangled. Do you remember that?

Matterfangled. Yes. And how do you spell that? Matter. Oh, at M-A-T-T-E-R. Yes. Matterfangled. I thought initially it was going to be something to do with bullfighting, you know,

when the poor matador ends up on the ground. He's been matter fangled. Not the poor matador. Poor bull is where I was going with that one. Right, okay. So we have, a lot of people are saying confusion. Yeah. Is that where you would go if it was?

I would. Matter fangled, yeah. Yeah. So we have the matter with fangs. We have Juan's crazy decision to leave Chelsea. I love that one. Is it Juan or Juan? Juanmatter. We have to make someone believe a false definition of a word

that has been maliciously advertised as the truth, e.g. Giles Brandreth was matterfangled. And a Strictly Come Dancing themed dance based on the periodic table I love that one very clever that's very good um that was from Joan very good we have also Stuart from London matterfangles is when you get a bit stuck between your teeth Graham in Blackheath the dentist has messed up mum's dentures again. And Sue from Germany, when you've tripped over a rumpled carpet.

I love that one. That is very good. And a wrangled atom says, who was that? That was Mary. And Ari says, a vampire physicist. So I've read out lots of them there.

How should we decide this, Charles? Shall we do...? What was your favourite? Well, I quite... I don't know. I like the Strictly dance. Ah, we like the Strictly. Does anyone like that one? Yeah. OK. Let's go with that one. Seven! We give it to that one. Who's that?

Yeah, so this is Joan Caroline King from Welling in Kent. Well done. And she gets a prize. She gets a tote bag. A tote bag, to that one. Who's that? Yes, this is Joan Caroline King from Welling and Kent. Well done. And she gets a prize. She gets a tote bag. A tote bag, whatever that may be. Or a T-shirt. Ooh, exactly.

Christmas is coming. Yay. OK. Next word. Rackups. Rackups. How do you spell it? R-A-C-K-U-P-S.

R-A-C-K. Oh, I didn't tell you what matterfangles are anyway. Oh, yes. What does matterfangles mean? It simply means to have got into a muddle while you're talking. Oh. Matterfangled. I got really matterfangled yesterday.

Yes. OK, so your rackups. Well, anyone's rackups. Rackups. Yes. I've no idea. Rackups. Give us some of the definitions that the audience here have offered.

OK. So we have a structure similar to a bra. That's great. And Adam from Walthamstow. I'm not sure I'm going to say thank you to this one, Adam. It's when you hiccup and there's a little bit of sick. Raccoon hiccups. Oh, I like that one.

People's irritation with others' luggage on a plane. I think that's actually very clever. Yes, because we're just standing behind. That's the result of it. No, I put my bag there first. You're sitting over there. Why have you put your thing here? I like that. Rackups.

Exactly. Explain this one to me. This is from Mark. Michael Gove's exercise regime. Rackups. Yeah, move on. OK. If you don't know what a bell end is, you're not going to go there. And we have lots of hiccup-y type things.

A new storage system for frozen barbecue ribs. That's quite clever, actually. Rack-ups, a rack of lamb. Yeah,'s quite simple that's quite clever actually rack up is your rack of lamb yeah i quite like that uninterrupted supply of uh oh i like this one a duck's hiccups oh as opposed to quack up yes yes so what do you think what do you what do what did we think yeah i think we did i thought that was clever because we've all been in that situation. I agree. And I think if I'm right, that is from Penelope in Wiltshire. Penelope in Wiltshire. Another take there coming your way. Have we got a third one? Yes, a third one, Giles. Oh, did you tell us what the real definition was? Oh no. Rack-ups are your just desserts. Oh, what you have racked up in life. You're just desserts.

You're rack-ups. Yes. Ooh. Nothing to do with the desserts that you eat, the sweet puddings, obviously. No, but you're just desserts. Yeah. You're rack-ups. You're rack-ups.

OK, Giles, what is a quanker? A quanker? Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. A disgusting duck. I don't know. Yes, lots of duck ones. A particularly haughty duck. Oh gosh, I can't read some of these. It's a family show, goes global. Yes. A smug, irritating duck. Someone, okay, no, I can't do that one. And how is it spelt? Quank. Yeah.

Uh. Uh. Fine. Okay. That's it. I wouldn't like to say, but anyway, there are four of them. Quaker with a disagreeable temperament. That's quite clever.

We also have masturbation with cheese savories. And a creaky door mic from Essex. Oh, marvellous. Oh, dear. Okay. I'm completely cream-crackered, but the bell is about to toll. Yes, go on.

Well, that's it. I'm going to leave them as that. So, anybody got any favourites? Well, I don't think we'd admit to it if we did. Quanker. A quanker. You choose one. A banker who had to retrain in psychology during recession.

Sorry. Okay. Well, that's quite clever, actually. A banker who had to retrain. You know, because we know that a duck, when it has a breakdown, quacks up. And this is what happens to a banker. Yes. I quite like that.

Okay, so are we going to go with masturbation with quavers? Or are going to go for a small irritation with quavers it's a portmanteau oh as a portmanteau word i think that gets it doesn't it do you think yeah okay do you know now we've put the idea into the public domain i bet you within a year channel four will have it as a show. And you and I will be asked to appear on Celebrity Crankers. Am I right in thinking that came from Michael in Enfield? Michael in Enfield? Yes.

Are you owning up to that? Well done, Mike. Hilarious. Did you give us what the real definition was? Oh, I'm so sorry, I never do this. You're so matterfangled today. I am. You're forgetting where you are. I like this one.

A quanker is somebody who settles a dispute. Oh, I think that's very good. A quanker settles a dispute. Yes. Very good. It's the opposite of what you might think. Well, my poem today, I wanted to give you something that was theatrical, since we're in this

beautiful Fortune Theatre here in the West End of London, a theatre that's a century old. And I picked down from my shelf one of my favourite books, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. Now, regular listeners will know that I was lucky enough when I was a little boy to be a server at a church in London, St Stephen's in Gloucester Road. And one of the sidesmen of this church was the great T.S. Eliot. So when I was a little boy, I knew T.S. Eliot and talked to him about his poetry, not his big serious poetry, but these lovely Book of Practical cats poems that he wrote in the 1930s for his own godchildren. And indeed, T.S. Eliot encouraged me to learn Macavity the Mystery Cat, which I think I probably performed before. This one, I'm going to just read you part

of it. I can't read you the whole poem because we haven't got time. It's called Gus the Theatre Cat. If you want to see this poem performed, I think, magically, get out on video or download it or somehow find the film Cats. It was panned, this film. I enjoyed it. It was the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical version of Cats, with Judi Dench in it, but also Ian McKellen appeared. And he performed, as a song, the poem I'm about to read to you.

And it was a mesmerizing five minutes of cinema. I really recommend it. I'm going to give you one minute of a reading now. The beginning of Gus the Theatre Cat, spoken at the Fortune Theatre by me, but the poem is by T.S. Eliot. Gus is the cat at the theatre door. His name, as I ought to have told you before,

is really Asparagus. That's such a fuss to pronounce that we usually call him just Gus. His coat's very shabby, he's thin as a rake, and he suffers from palsy that makes his paw shake. Yet he was, in his youth youth quite the smartest of cats, but no longer a terror to mice and to rats. For he isn't the cat that he was in his prime,

though his name was quite famous, he says, in its time. And whenever he joins his friends at their club, which takes place at the back of the neighborhood pub, he loves to regale them, if someone else pays, with anecdotes drawn from his palmiest days. For he once was a star of the highest degree. He acted with irving, he acted with tree, and he likes to relate his success on the halls

where the gallery once gave him seven catcalls. But his grandest creation, as he loves to tell, was far fro'y fiddle, the fiend of the fell. Thank you very much indeed for joining us. This has been Something Rhymes with Purple. A Something Else production. It was produced by Sophie, Andrew, Sam, Something Rhymes With Purple. It's something else production. It was produced by... Sophie.

Andrew. Sam. Chris. Jen. Harriet Wells. And I'm afraid he's not here today because let's face it, he's just never around anymore.

We think of him as gully. But ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being with us. And next time, meet us again, either here at the Fortune Theatre or at the Oxford Playhouse, or just by listening to the podcast wherever you find it.

And keep in touch with us. It's purple at somethingelse.com. Meanwhile, thank you for being part of our purple people today. Goodbye. APPLAUSE Thank you.