[lit-ideas] Blue Blood
- From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx" for DMARC)
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 7 May 2014 13:59:25 -0400 (EDT)
My last post today!
----
When virtuous love is sought
Thy power is naught,
Though dating from the flood,
Blue blood!
Blue blood
--
is parodied by Sir W. S. Gilbert in the BALLAD by LORD TOLLOLLER in
"Iolanthe", but the idea may belong in population genetics alla Sykes and
Oppenheimer!?
"Blue blood", qua phrase, is first recorded in 1834.
I would argue that at the time, the expression carried NO implicature:
"He has, literally, blue blood."
The idiom allegedly originates from ancient European society, which
distinguished an upper class (whose superficial veins are blue -- as was, it
was
thought, the blood running within them -- through their untanned skin) from
a working class of the time.
The latter consisted mainly of agricultural peasants who spent most of
their time working outdoors and thus had tanned skin, through which the
superficial blue veins appear less prominently.
It was also assumed, on top of that, that the blood of those belonging to
the working class was plain red, rather than blue (but oddly, 'His blood is
red' seems then to carry no conversational implicature (+> "He belongs to
the working-class").
Ancient and medieval geneticists believed that an aristocrat's blood was
blue, and not plain red.
An ancient or mediaeval nobleman would demonstrate ('show' rather than
say) his pedigree by holding up his sword arm to display the filigree of
blue-blooded veins beneath his pale skin. In Griceian terms, the noblemean
thought that this 'meant' (naturally) or was indicative proof that his birth
had
not been contaminated.
Cheers
Speranza
Spurn not the nobly born
With love affected,
Nor treat with virtuous scorn
The well connected.
High rank involves no shame
We boast an equal claim
With him of humble name
To be respected!
Blue blood ! blue blood!
When virtuous love is sought
Thy power is naught,
Though dating from the flood,
Blue blood!
CHORUS. Blue blood! Blue blood! &c.
Spare us the bitter pain
Of stern denials,
Nor with lowborn disdain
Augment our trials.
Hearts just as pure and fair
May beat in Belgrave Square
As in the lowly air
Of Seven Dials!
Blue blood ! Blue blood!
Of what avail art thou
To serve us now?
Though dating from the flood,
Blue blood!
CHORUS. Blue blood! Blue blood! &c.
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