Re: [ADS-L] An earl y "cock"?

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

I don't think it is too difficult to see ALL of the details as describing an 
uncircumcised penis. I didn't look up "wortewale," though.

jet/inde tail = pubic hair
red corral/red sorrel comb = head of the tumescent penis
 azure legs = veins
silver white spurs = skin between the engourged veins
eyes of crystal = precum
locked all in amber = reference to urine (?)

Admittedly, some of these are a bit thin, but the fact that the "rooster" is 
said to rest every night in the lady's chamber seems pretty clearly to 
indicate that, at the very least, this is a total double entendre.

Did the audience already know that "cock" was a synoym for "penis"--or was 
this just a novel extended metaphor? I agree that that is not clear, but I'm 
inclined to think that--especially given the strained quality of some of the 
vehicles, the author was counting on the audience seeing this as a pun rather than 
some new clever metaphor that nobody had ever thought of before.

In a message dated 6/29/06 9:13:23 AM, cdoyle at UGA.EDU writes:


> Joel, didn't you suggest several days ago that the poem's
> use of "cock" fails to qualify for entry in OED because it's
> just a metaphor?  And a metaphor has to expire into a so-
> called "dead metaphor" before its figurative sense becomes a
> lexified, denotative "meaning" of the word or phrase.
> 
> Furthermore, the early poem contains many descriptive
> details that do NOT fit any consistent interpretation of
> the "cock" as a penis (unless I'm being naive or obtuse!).
> The poem is very unlike those pretended-obscene riddles we
> were discussing last week, in which EVERY detail must fit
> both interpretations.
> 
> --Charlie
> _____________________________________
> 
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 08:44:20 -0400
> >From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> >Subject: An early "cock"?
> >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> >The following anonymous poem/song is alleged to come from
> the 14th century (others allege 15th).  Does it?  Would it
> qualify as = "penis", for which the earliest OED2 citation
> is 1618?  Or is it too ambiguous?  Or has it simply not been
> found in any writing of sufficiently early date?
> >
> >Joel--who is amused at the vision of gentil old ladies
> hearing this sung at a concert of early music.
> >
> >Courtesy of someone (else) with an interest in such things:
> >
> >>"I Have a Gentil  Cock"
> >>___________________
> >>I have a gentil  cock
> >>croweth me day
> >>he doth me risen early
> >>my matins for to  stay
> >>
> >>I have a gentil cock
> >>comen he is of great
> >>his comb is of  red coral
> >>his tail is of jet
> >>
> >>I have a gentil cock
> >>comen he is  of kind
> >>his comb is of red sorrel
> >>his tail is of inde
> >>
> >>his legs  be of azure
> >>so gentil and so small
> >>his spurs are of silver white
> >>into  the wortewale
> >>
> >>his eyes are of crystal
> >>locked all in amber
> >>and  every night he pertcheth him
> >>in my lady`s chamber"
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
> 

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org