If you go and peruse the internet, you will discover many discussions of the medieval shame flute, an instrument created specifically to be fastened to a bad musician, in order to shame him. There are pictures. There is a lot of certainty about this. Alas, it wasn’t there. Michelle went to find them, and, though there are a couple of torture museums which have examples, those are not medieval examples. In fact, do we think that there were ever any shame flutes, even after the middle ages? We do not. Because we think, really, when bad musicians come to your town, you can just make them leave. And then not hire them any more. Michelle found some pretty nifty postcards, though, with lots of shaming devices, and you can buy them. And send them to your friends.
I’m so relieved to know that the pear of anguish wasn’t real. I swear the birth of psychology is because of the Victorians.
I finally caught up on episodes and something Michelle said about zombies in The Great Famine sparked an idea. You guys should talk about deviant burials. I know Vlad the Impaler was the topic of the one of the early episodes, but I don’t remember if the deviant burials found in England were mentioned. I mean technically these are desecrations of corpses and that is a crime.
I love this podcast! I listen to it during my commutes.