I've rambled on in this space about my love of Wikipedia. It's a great new love affair, me and Wikipedia. It's like the heady days when I first discovered Google and it opened a whole new world of web searching.
:::sniffle!::: those were the days.
So I was looking up something on Wikipedia the other day when something jolted me: Wikipedia Was Wrong about something. I mean, I know it's user-generated content, but this content was WRONG.
I was looking into the history of tennis, and Wikipedia said of Tennis: "...Originating in England in the late 19th Century, the game spread..."
"What? Tennis didn't start in the 19th Century!" I yelled, startling my coworkers. Maybe in its modern form, but... I thought back to my knowledge of Shakespeare, Henry V in particular:
FRENCH AMBASSADOR
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit, This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this, Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.
KING HENRY V
What treasure, uncle?
EXETER
Tennis-balls, my liege.
KING HENRY V
We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us; His present and your pains we thank you for: When we have march'd our rackets to these balls, We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set - Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.
Okay. So obviously Shakespeare's plays have been edited quite a bit since they were first written. The treasure might have been "Naked Naughty Water Polo Balls" originally. I don't know.
My searching online shows that tennis was played as far back as the 13th Century, (by Monks) so Henry V could have been written with a reference to tennis, for all I know.
:::sniffle!::: those were the days.
So I was looking up something on Wikipedia the other day when something jolted me: Wikipedia Was Wrong about something. I mean, I know it's user-generated content, but this content was WRONG.
I was looking into the history of tennis, and Wikipedia said of Tennis: "...Originating in England in the late 19th Century, the game spread..."
"What? Tennis didn't start in the 19th Century!" I yelled, startling my coworkers. Maybe in its modern form, but... I thought back to my knowledge of Shakespeare, Henry V in particular:
FRENCH AMBASSADOR
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit, This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this, Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.
KING HENRY V
What treasure, uncle?
EXETER
Tennis-balls, my liege.
KING HENRY V
We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us; His present and your pains we thank you for: When we have march'd our rackets to these balls, We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set - Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.
Okay. So obviously Shakespeare's plays have been edited quite a bit since they were first written. The treasure might have been "Naked Naughty Water Polo Balls" originally. I don't know.
My searching online shows that tennis was played as far back as the 13th Century, (by Monks) so Henry V could have been written with a reference to tennis, for all I know.
The real Henry V ruled from 1413-1422, so it's possible he knew about tennis, but the scene was very likely utterly fictional, which is fine.
But in an age where information in increasingly virtual, who to trust? In a few more decades, there won't even be books in libraries, just rows of computers. This makes facts very easy to modify, easy to rewrite history...
Shrug. I don't know. Obviously this isn't a new problem, and I'm not the first person to worry about this... But still it troubles me.
Fear not, I don't think the Wikipedia lied to you. In that article it says that modern "tennis" is sometimes called "lawn tennis" so as not to be confused with "real tennis" an older form of the game. The page on "real tennis" says it dates back to an earlier game from about the 12th century. It also points out Shakespeare references it ("real" or "royal tennis") in Henry V.
ReplyDeleteDid you know you can add the Wikipedia to the mini search box in Firefox? Rokken!
Thanks Kato!
ReplyDeleteWhew! Now I can go back to loving Wikipedia with a love that's sweet and true.
This reminds me of a Winston Churchill Quote:
ReplyDelete"History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it."
Just moving to the USA has shown me how biased history can be, and that 'facts' can be twisted.
For example, British History shows that Britian paid huge amounts of money to send colonists to the 'New World'...colonists who later refused to repay their debt, pay any taxes, and revolted.
American History shows these colonists fleeing tyrany and oppression, living off their own wits and guile, then breaking away from oppressive British Rule.
What actually happened is probably somwhere in between.
One man's terrorist is another man's 'freedom fighter'.
History and 'facts' have always been biased. I think the internet and things like Wikipedia just give us more opinions to choose from.
I will never submit to your Stamp Tax, sir!
ReplyDeleteYes, I was going to say what Kato said - it was "real" tennis back then. A weird indoor game a bit of a cross between squash (raquetball?) and tennis I suppose. The poshies still play it.
ReplyDelete