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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gavin Richardson, post: 2617770, member: 83956&quot;]Ah yes. Cut pennies and cut farthings. The origin of one of my favorite medieval dirty jokes. I teach Chaucer, and I wrote up this explanation for my students to accompany the attached photo. The larger item is a silver penny from the reign of Edward III, late 14th century. But perhaps more interesting is the smaller half penny cut in two–the equivalent of a farthing. The word “farthing” is an alternate pronunciation of the word “fourthing” because it is ¼ penny. Since the smaller item in the picture is a half penny cut in half, it is equivalent to a farthing. This was how small change was made in the Middle Ages. Geoffrey Chaucer’s Summoner’s Tale from the Canterbury Tales likely alludes to this practice. In the tale, a rich man is dying and a greedy friar wants his wealth. The rich man knows he’s being played, so he tells the greedy friar that he has hidden away an especially valuable treasure in his arse, and all the friar has to do is reach into his arse and take it. But first, the dying man makes the friar promise to split whatever he gets evenly with all of the brothers of his order. Of course, when the greedy friar reaches under the man’s bottom, “Amydde his hand he leet the frere a fart.” The ridiculous potty humor continues as the friar must keep his promise, and thus must figure out how to split a fart 12 ways. This question may have been proverbial, implying that a s mall amount of money or something without great value is rendered virtually worthless if it has to be further divided. But inherent in the joke may be hidden a linguistic/economic pun. The word “farthing” would’ve been pronounced “farting” in Middle English. (Consider, for example, that the river Thames is pronounced /TEMZ/). So when the friar asks, “What is a ferthyng worth parted in twelve?” he simultaneously articulates the potty humor proverb and alludes to the contemporary numismatic practice of cutting pennies and farthings to make smaller and smaller change. If the smaller coin in my photo is equivalent to a farthing, you can imagine how worthless a twelfth of that coin would be. And how do you split a fart 12 ways? You’ll have to read the Summoner’s Tale to find out how an ingenious squire solves this riddle.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]573841[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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