Seeking explanation about Leicester's "mechanical dolphin" of 1575
score:11
Accepted answer
There are two contemporary accounts of those festivities - "Langham letter" and "The Princely Pleasures at the Courte at Kenelwoorth". These have a certain discrepancy in how they describe this particular episode, but none of them mentions the dolphin being underwater, or it being an automaton. Here's how the author of "Princely Pleasures" describes the event:
From thence her Majestie passing yet further on the brydge, Protheus appeared, sitting on a dolphyn’s back. And the dolphyn was conveyed upon a boate, so that the owers seemed to be his fynnes. Within the which dolphyn a consort of musicke was secretly placed, the which sounded: and Protheus, clearing his voyce, sang this song of congratulation [...]
Thus, it seems the dolphin was simply a boat decorated to look like a marine animal, and Greenblatt added a bit of embellishment to the event in his book.
You can find an article comparing the two accounts here.
More post
- 📝 Were "Little Ship" owners and crew compensated for evacuating Dunkirk?
- 📝 What was the first health insurance company in America?
- 📝 What was the typical peasant's diet like in Europe during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 How did the Soviet Union support the development of their atomic bomb in 1949?
- 📝 Was there ever a conqueror who named the place after themselves?
- 📝 What are historical examples of globalization in action?
- 📝 When was Khemet renamed to Misr?
- 📝 Which port did Alexander board his ship from, while returning from the Indian campaign?
- 📝 Did pre-16th century Europeans call the Pacific Ocean the Atlantic?
- 📝 What military power would ever pre-announce an attack to give the enemy time to work up a defense?
- 📝 Why was Hitler friendly toward Arabs given that they are Semitic too?
- 📝 What did Sweden do with all the wrong-sided steering wheels after Högertrafikomläggningen?
- 📝 Which crown features on the Japanese Order of the Precious Crown?
- 📝 What events or situations of WW1 led to a Nazi fascination with Anglo-Saxon powers?
- 📝 Does a Baal human sacrifice statue from Carthage exist?
- 📝 What was happening to bank deposits during WW2?
- 📝 Easter ornaments question
- 📝 Did medieval scholars believe the Earth was round?
- 📝 How successful was Bismarck in winning support for his domestic policies in the years 1878 to 1890?
- 📝 What were the Nazi racial views on Hungarians and the Japanese?
- 📝 Why did the introduction of European firearms have such an impact on warfare in Africa and the Americas?
- 📝 What are the precursors of the Bayeux Tapestry?
- 📝 Country/Area joins war after claiming neutral then attacking
- 📝 Duchy and Electorate of Saxony during the Schmalkaldic War
- 📝 Is strategic bombing as ineffective as this math suggests?
- 📝 How much did Israel pay the Libyan Flight 114 shootdown victims?
- 📝 When did the modern visa system become widespread?
- 📝 Where was the ruling seat of East Francia located under Henry the Fowler?
- 📝 Historical Claims Against Jesus Christ's Existence?
- 📝 Where, exactly, was the "Sudetenland?"
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Seeking explanation about Leicester's "mechanical dolphin" of 1575
- 📝 When did the allies find out about the killing of Jews during WW2
- 📝 What did Germany do in World War II about the different rail gauge in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 What did people in 13th century England know about Greek mythology?
- 📝 What is the oldest authentic example of people complaining about modern times and the young?
- 📝 How serious was Fermat's statement about the ancients?
- 📝 Is there a historical explanation as to why the USA people are so litigious compared to the French?
- 📝 What do the modern Japanese people think about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
- 📝 What disruptions were brought about by Islam that the Arabians saw so many victories?
- 📝 When did Britain learn about the American Declaration of Independence?
- 📝 Why are there so many laws about eye injuries in the Code of Hammurabi?
- 📝 Did Churchill and Roosevelt know about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, or the following secret pacts between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union?
- 📝 Did the Romans know about China?
- 📝 Why was PTSD not written about as much before the 20th century?
- 📝 What evidence is there of the vision aids people used before the invention of eyeglasses in about 1286?
- 📝 Did Romans complain about sundials?
- 📝 Did the aborigines of Australia and the Maoris in New Zealand know about each other's existence, before the Europeans came?
- 📝 Is there an accepted explanation for multiple independent "cradles of civilization"?
- 📝 Is black American history only about segregation, slavery, and the 3 people you get taught about in school?
- 📝 What did Native Americans know, or speculate, about the Old world?
- 📝 Did Joseph Goebbels really say this about German opposition in 1933?
- 📝 What did Tacitus write about Nero and the Great Fire of Rome 64AD?
- 📝 How do Friedman and Bernanke's explanations about the causes of the Great Depression compare?
- 📝 What did Hitler mean with the following statement about Franco?
- 📝 Why did the film "The Longest Day" have the "cricket" training scene if the Allies received no intelligence about the hedgerows in Normandy?
- 📝 In ancient Rome, did a lot of people feel guilty about owning slaves?
- 📝 How much is known about the Punic language (of classical Carthage)?
- 📝 About how many immigrants were on the Titanic?
- 📝 What is known about the Ubaid lizard-people figurines?
- 📝 What historical evidence is there for the existence of Jesus Christ? What do we know about him?