LOL Manuscripts!: from: Here begynneth the Book of the Subtyl Historyes and Fables of Esope, 1484

Aesop's Fables, trans. Wylham Caxton.

As I was perusing the manuscript, I also came across this potentially groundbreaking discovery:

(p.s. Everybody should watch The Mighty Boosh)

ye olde Mission Statement

Many of you may know of the Internet phenomenon that is LOLCats. Slightly less of you may know how crazy/awesome early modern woodcut illustrations and frontispieces can be. But what joins these two disparate worlds? Well, it may surprise you to know how popular LOL-ing was in the Renaissance. To wit:

"The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling, / From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause; / Cries 'Excellent!'"
--Troilus and Cressida (1.3.163-5)

Shakespearean proof you can't refute! Welcome to LOL Manuscripts!
-----------------------------------------
(P.S. I know they aren't all "manuscripts," but LOL Early Modern Printed Materials didn't have the same ring to it. LOLNomenclature! Let it go.)

Hamlet (an LOLCat Translation)

2 BE, OR NOT 2 BE : DAT IZ TEH QUESHUN:
WHETHR TIS NOBLR IN DA MIND 2 SUFFR
TEH SLINGS AN ARROWS OV OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE,
OR 2 TAEK ARMS AGAINST SEA OV TROUBLEZ, AN BY OPPOSIN END DEM?
2 DYE: 2 SLEEP;
NO MOAR; AN BY SLEEP 2 SAY WE END
TEH HART-AYKE AN TEH THOUSAND NACHURAL SHOCKZ
DAT FLESH IZ HEIR 2, TIS CONSUMMASHUN
DEVOUTLY 2 BE WISHD. 2 DYE, 2 SLEEP;
2 SLEEP: PERCHANCE 2 DREAM: AY, THARS TEH RUB;
4 IN DAT SLEEP OV DEATH WUT DREAMS CUD COME
WHEN WE HAS SHUFFLD OFF DIS MORTAL COIL,
MUST GIV US PAUSE: THARS TEH RESPECT
DAT MAKEZ CALAMITY OV SO LONG LIFE...

Sunday, September 23, 2007

from: Here begynneth the Book of the Subtyl Historyes and Fables of Esope, 1484

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ye olde Mission Statement

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Hamlet (an LOLCat Translation)

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