"Joker"

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Mon Apr 29 03:49:13 UTC 2013


On Apr 28, 2013, at 11:36 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 28, 2013 at 9:53 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
>> Well, we all know Kit Marlowe's "Tamburlaine", Parts I and II, don't we?
>> And we know enough about Chechnya to sent threatening notes to the embassy
>> of the Czech Republic.
>
>
> Larry, we're part of the 0.56% who know stuff beyond our address and
> telephone number.
>
> A Tamerlane anecdote
>
> When The T approached a town, he would give the inhabitants thereof the
> choice of simply surrendering without putting up any resistance or the
> choice of standing and fighting.
>
> If the inhabitants surrendered and opened the gates to him, then he would
> kill the men and sell the women and children into slavery, because a
> population that didn't have the nads to try to defend itself against him
> didn't deserve any mercy.
>
> It the inhabitants stood and fought, then, after they had been defeated, he
> would kill the men and sell the women and children into slavery, because a
> population that had the unmitigated gall to try to defend itself against
> him didn't deserve any mercy.
> --
So you're saying Tamurlaine was the original Hobson?  Well, they did call him T the Great, not T the Good.

LH

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