Showing posts with label grosse flegme. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grosse flegme. Show all posts

Monday, May 19, 2014

How to Spit, 1651

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Boys Eating Grapes
and Melons
(detail), 1645 
"Spet not farre off thee, nor behinde thee, but aside, a little distant, & not right before thy companion: but if it be some grosse flegme, one ought, if it may be, tred upon it. Be-spet not the windows in the streets, nor spet on the fire, nor on a bason, nor on any other place where the spettle cannot be taken away by putting thy foot thereon." 
Francis Hawkins, Youths Behavior (1651)
The trick to public spitting is a nimble foot. It's preferable not to be-spet your companion, but if you do, just tread upon him discreetly.