shakespeare wuz ere

Blimey...talk about cold. It’s been ages since Stratford upon Avon was this freezing. It’s so cold it's colder than some of the reviews that Don Jon at the RSC has been getting. You know it’s cold enough to freeze the...at this point I thought you might like to know the (possible) origin of the ‘brass monkey’ er...comparison.

The story goes that cannonballs used to be stored aboard ship in piles, on a brass frame or tray called a 'monkey'. In very cold weather the brass would contract, spilling the cannonballs: hence very cold weather is 'cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey'. There are several problems with this story. The first is that the term 'monkey' is not otherwise recorded as the name for such an object. The second is that the rate of contraction of brass in cold temperatures is unlikely to be sufficient to cause the reputed effect. The third is that the phrase is actually first recorded as 'freeze the tail off a brass monkey', which removes any essential connection with balls. It therefore seems most likely that the phrase is simply a ribald allusion to the fact that metal figures will become very cold to the touch in cold weather (and some materials will become brittle).

Ithankyou...Ask Oxford

Posted by ted de stratford at 19:44 |    

Labels: me, mmmm...that's interesting