#ben jonson

From Thom Gunn's introduction to his selection of poems from Ben Jonson.

Sebastian Armesto as Ben Johnson in Anonymous (2011)

*Not all of these are strictly new.

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Medieval people once believed that, for a birth, the mother provided the matter for the unborn child and the father provided the form—which is interesting because with that information from the Elizabethan/Jacobean era, I could headcanon that the twins don’t have parents if their most essential/basic/fundamental forms are immaterial shadow and light (of which I once textually-analyzed previously + an addition).

("Moder" is a Middle English word in common for mother and matter, hence the link between concepts.)

Rafal’s shadow form can be in any size or shape, and as a shadow, it would logically not have some sort of matter, even if it can somehow physically affect its surroundings and pick up children to kidnap.

-> Unlikely but tangential headcanon: Technically speaking, Rafal has no form then, if we strictly adhere to the logic of the appearance of a form and the ability to magically(?) affect his environment. He just chooses to appear in the form of a man.

@spirit-of-the-art-hollow Idk if you would be interested, but I realized you might like the above thoughts.

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Other Miscellaneous Headcanons (still late 1500s-adjacent)

Rafal has an excess of black bile causing an imbalance within him. (His temperament is probably some balance of melancholic-choleric. Rhian is more sanguine-choleric.)

Rafal is immune to wasting away from lovesickness or ambiguous literary diseases, often revolving around heart symbolism for the sake of being poetic. Rhian is markedly not, according to the mechanics of not being able to get over someone in "The Knight's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales.

If Rafal were a manager, he'd abuse employees -> If he were a feudal lord, he'd abuse guilds.

He would support the theater and love the “special effects” (bursting pig or sheep bladders filled with blood!!!!).

He and mainly Rhian would support gothic architecture, and the massive undertaking that would have been cathedrals.

Unfortunately, he supports sea voyages until he finds out what happens in whatever their equivalent of the New World is…

(At that point, he’s actually in favor of dragging the explorers/conquererors back in chains.)

If he’s on the wrong side of history, I could see him being more than problematic, like, an Inquisitor for Christendom, if the Woods had such an institution…… (he has to have a torturer role, yk? He can get his comeuppance for the evil later. Get beheaded during some reign of terror or another, whatever...)

His reckless side would come out when it came to dueling over petty arguments. (But he's an immortal, so he can afford to be petty.)

^Yet, Rhian is better at fencing and he's better at sorcery. (<- I feel as if I've heard this one before. I don't think I originated it.)

Rafal doesn't like public bathhouses (—depends on time period, this thought is less medieval, more from antiquity really).

The only(?) reason why he doesn't attend church is that he would burn if he set foot in one? Maybe just a slight stinging sensation, nothing extreme though? (It's not as if he has the most infernal presence of all.)

Perhaps, he has a witches’ mark somewhere underneath his clothes. When crops fail, he boards up his windows and deserts his fief, heading for the coast. He does not want to be targeted like the poor accused.

Milk curdles/butter spoils when he enters a room.