Further Readings of the Curious cases of the Literati..

Image via Wikipedia

Further progress on Curiosities of Literature by John Sutherland-

There is something primitive about my taste- the second chapter is about heads, lungs, hearts and bowels, and I found the passages about the excretory functions interesting-

-that Henry James was sent to a grand tour of Europe to ameliorate his constipation - more here at Project Muse

-the quote from The Miller's Tale

"leet fly a fart,
 As greet as it had been a thonder-dent"

-the possibly apocryphal story of the bargeman who owed up to the act when Queen Victoria broke wind on boarding his barge- the bargeman was knighted for this act of nobility

-and above all- this passage from John Aubrey's Brief Lives-

This Earle of Oxford, making of his low obeisance to Queen Elizabeth, happened to let a Fart, at which he was so abashed and ashamed that he went to Travell, 7 yeares. On his returne the Queen welcomed him home, and sayd, My Lord, I had forgott the Fart.