Between two stools

Now available in paperback, Between two stools investigates the representation of scatology – humorous, carnivalesque, satirical, damning and otherwise – in English literature from the middle ages to the eighteenth century. Smith contends that the ‘two stools’ stand for two broadly distinctive attitudes towards scatology. The first is a carnivalesque, merry, even hearty disposition, typified by the writings of Chaucer and Shakespeare. The second is self-disgust, an attitude characterised by with