LOL Manuscripts!: William Blake, "The Tyger" (1789)

William Blake's somewhat ridiculous illustration for "The Tyger" may have been the very first lolcat.

It's not the Renaissance, but nevertheless an important milestone.

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!
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(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...

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

William Blake, "The Tyger" (1789)

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Hamlet (an LOLCat Translation)

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