The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #16942   Message #4069074
Posted By: GUEST,guest- Kathy D
21-Aug-20 - 12:32 PM
Thread Name: St. Peter's shoes -- what are they?
Subject: RE: St. Peter's shoes -- what are they?
Re: Who's the Fool now:
Cannot recall the source for this, but I was told that "Pieterschoon" (No idea how to spell, or if this was an old English or another language- I'm using more or less Dutch spelling) was an early name for a lantern, developing from referring to carrying a candle in a shoe, and then muddling it with St Peter's shoes. It was supposed to be a particular type of lantern, like the small, many-paned lantern more commonly now seen in gnome statues. I however have never been able to locate that word again.
Whatever, because the song actually has a method to its nonsense by plays on images, the idea of the man in the moon adjusting the light by closing off/ clouting/cobbling the lantern seemed to fit.