Lori's Lexicon and More Brought To You By John Vaughn

As usual, this week's guitar lesson provided a myriad of knowledge not limited to the subject of guitar:

First, lexical knowledge was enhanced, brought about by the playing of Wildwood Flower. While trying to find the lyrics for this song, Mr. Vaughn found that Wildwood Flower contains two instances of misheard lyrics. He then discovered the technical name for these mishearances. They are called mondegreens. This term originated when an author was referring to hearing "upon the green" as "mondegreen". Historically, mondegreens help to explain the many different lyrics in similar folk songs. In Wildwood Flower, one version has the lines "The myrtle so white and its emerald hue The pale and the leader and islip so blue" while another has "The myrtle so white and its emerald hue The pale amanita and eyes look so blue." To peruse an archive of mondegreens, go HERE.

For another tangential history lesson, John Vaughn recalled the names of Henry VIII's wives as well as the mnemonic device to remember their fates: 1) Catherine of Aragon - divorced 2) Anne Boleyn - beheaded 3) Jane Seymour - died (in childbirth) 4) Anne of Cleves - divorced 5) Katherine Howard - beheaded 6) Catherine Parr - survived. Mnemonic for remembering the fate of Henry VIII's wives: "Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived"