The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #104390 Message #2137598
Posted By: TheSnail
31-Aug-07 - 08:53 AM
Thread Name: BS: 400 year old joke: revivable, or dust?
Subject: RE: BS: 400 year old joke: revivable, or dust?
As Grab's link says, the full quote that Shakespeare was referring to was "We three loggerheads be".
As far as I can gather, the original inn sign would have been two carved wooden heads - loggerheads i.e. blockheads not asses. The extra dimension to Shakespeare's joke is that Sir Andrew doesn't get the joke. He thinks he is being clever by comparing the other two to the inn sign, not realising that he is including himself.