| 1 | [[WMG:[[center:[-'''TheOldestOnesInTheBook'''\ |
| 2 | OlderThanTheNES | Before 1985\ |
| 3 | OlderThanCableTV | 1939 -- 1980\ |
| 4 | OlderThanTelevision | 1890 -- 1939\ |
| 5 | OlderThanRadio | 1698 -- 1890\ |
| 6 | '''Older Than Steam''' | 1439 -- 1698\ |
| 7 | OlderThanPrint | 476 -- 1439\ |
| 8 | OlderThanFeudalism | ~800 BC -- 476 AD\ |
| 9 | OlderThanDirt | Before ~800 BC-]]]]] |
| 10 | |
| 11 | [[quoteright:245:[[Creator/HieronymusBosch https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Boschpainting1.jpg]]]] |
| 12 | [[caption-width-right:245:''Series/TheApprentice: The Early Years''[[labelnote:*]] "Der Gaukler" by Hieronymus Bosch[[/labelnote]]]] |
| 13 | |
| 14 | From printing to the steam engine (1439-1698), a time also generally known as TheLateMiddleAges, the Early Modern Era or UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance. The arrival of movable type printing in Europe made books plentiful, and helped standardize the languages that used it. Much more survives from this period than from earlier. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Please note, that when we say steam engine we mean useful steam engine. Not Heron's [[OlderThanFeudalism first century]] toy, not UsefulNotes/JeronimoDeAyanz's device, not [[Platform/{{Steam}} the store]], and ''definitely'' not the gaseous form of water (which predates mankind by hundreds of millions of years). |
| 17 | ---- |
| 18 | !! Notable works and authors from this time period include: |
| 19 | |
| 20 | [[AC:Arts]] |
| 21 | * UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance |
| 22 | ** ''Art/AllegoryOfTheFourSeasons'', by Creator/BartolomeoManfredi |
| 23 | ** Creator/HieronymusBosch |
| 24 | ** Creator/SandroBotticelli |
| 25 | *** ''Art/{{The Birth of Venus|Botticelli}}'' |
| 26 | *** ''Art/{{Primavera}}'' |
| 27 | ** Creator/PieterBruegelTheElder |
| 28 | ** Creator/MichelangeloBuonarroti |
| 29 | *** ''Art/CreationOfAdam'' |
| 30 | *** ''Art/{{David}}'' |
| 31 | *** ''Art/MediciChapels'' |
| 32 | ** Creator/HubertAndJanVanEyck |
| 33 | *** ''Art/TheArnolfiniPortrait'' |
| 34 | *** ''Art/TheGhentAltarpiece'' |
| 35 | ** Creator/RaphaelSanzio |
| 36 | *** ''Art/RaphaelRooms'' |
| 37 | ** ''Art/SevenVirtues'' (including Botticelli's ''Fortitude'') |
| 38 | ** ''Art/SistineChapel'' |
| 39 | ** Creator/LeonardoDaVinci |
| 40 | *** ''Art/TheLastSupper'' |
| 41 | *** ''Art/TheMonaLisa'' |
| 42 | |
| 43 | [[AC:Literature]] |
| 44 | * ''Literature/DonQuixote'' by Cervantes. |
| 45 | * ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'', the great Chinese epic. |
| 46 | * ''Literature/LeviathanThomasHobbes'' |
| 47 | * ''Literature/ParadiseLost'' by Creator/JohnMilton. |
| 48 | * The works of Creator/JonathanSwift. |
| 49 | |
| 50 | [[AC:Theatre]] |
| 51 | * Creator/WilliamShakespeare (see JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples), Creator/ChristopherMarlowe and other authors of Elizabethan/Jacobean drama. |
| 52 | * The plays of Creator/{{Moliere}}. |
| 53 | * ''Literature/LeMorteDarthur'', the codifier of Myth/ArthurianLegend |
| 54 | * The Italian CommediaDellArte farces, establishing many comedy-related tropes we enjoy to this day. |
| 55 | * The plays of Tāng Xiǎnzǔ (see ''Theatre/ThePeonyPavilion'') |
| 56 | |
| 57 | !! Tropes that originated in this time period: |
| 58 | [[index]] |
| 59 | * AdaptationDisplacement: Some of Shakespeare's plays, such as ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', displaced older versions of the same stories. |
| 60 | * AdaptationExpansion: Creator/LeonardoDaVinci's ''Art/TheLastSupper'' adds details not mentioned in Literature/TheFourGospels, such the appearances of the Disciples and Jesus and their reactions to him announcing that one of them would betray him. |
| 61 | * AffablyEvil: Theatre/{{Hamlet}}, speaking of his uncle Claudius who murdered his father, laments that "one may smile, and smile, and be a villain." |
| 62 | * AllThatGlitters: |
| 63 | [[/index]] |
| 64 | ** Shakespeare's ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'', which implies that it was already an old aesop. |
| 65 | ** ''Literature/DonQuixote'', written about eight years after ''The Merchant of Venice'',refers to this trope as "a saying" (Ch. 33), providing another indication that it's really even older. |
| 66 | [[index]] |
| 67 | * AntiHero: Theatre/{{Hamlet}} and Cervantes' ''Literature/DonQuixote'' are both contenders for the first deliberate example of This Very Wiki's definition as "they are good guys, but has flaws to work out." |
| 68 | * AnuscapePlan: Literature/TomThumb gets swallowed by a red cow, and the cow is given a laxative and Tom passes from her in a "cow pat". He is taken home and cleaned thereafter. |
| 69 | * ArgumentOfContradictions: May date back as far as CommediaDellArte. |
| 70 | * AsideComment: Creator/{{Shakespeare}} and contemporaries. (Since live theater was the main mode of entertainment during this era, Aside Comments were helpful in telling the audience what characters were thinking.) |
| 71 | * AstroTurf: Fictional example dating back to ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'' by Creator/WilliamShakespeare |
| 72 | * AtlasPose: The, um, Atlas. |
| 73 | * BadassBystander: The servant who challenges Cornwall in ''Theatre/KingLear'' |
| 74 | * BalconyWooingScene: Romeo courts Juliet (at her window) from the garden in the Balcony Scene from Shakespeare's ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''. |
| 75 | * BlackTieInfiltration: ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' has Romeo and some friends gate-crash a party at the Capulet estate, which is where he meets Juliet. |
| 76 | * TheBluebeard: European literary folktale recorded by Charles Perrault, 1697. |
| 77 | * BefriendingTheEnemy At least as old as Myth/ArthurianLegend when Sir Lancelot befriends Prince Galehaut to end a war over disputed territories. |
| 78 | * {{BFG}}: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Early_matchlocks.jpg This illustration]] in the ''Baburnama'' (the memoirs of Babur, the first Mughal Emperor) shows matchlocks that are larger than the soldiers that carry them. |
| 79 | * BluffingTheMurderer: The play within the play in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''. |
| 80 | * BreadEggsBreadedEggs: Polonius's list of genres in ''Hamlet''. |
| 81 | * BromanticFoil: Mercutio of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''. |
| 82 | * TheBurlesqueOfVenus: ''Art/{{The Birth of Venus|Botticelli}}'' by Creator/SandroBotticelli was created in 1486. Botticelli himself is seen as a lesser-known contributor to the Italian Renaissance. |
| 83 | * TheCaptivityNarrative: Popular in colonial America, now a ForgottenTrope |
| 84 | * CargoEnvy: In a famous line from ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', Romeo sees Juliet resting her head on her hand, and wishes he was a glove on that hand. |
| 85 | * CelebrityParadox: In Creator/{{Moliere}}'s 1673 play ''Theatre/TheImaginaryInvalid'', the main character and his brother argue about Moliére. |
| 86 | * TheChessmaster (using actual chess motifs): Iago in ''Theatre/{{Othello}}''. |
| 87 | * ChessmasterSidekick: The literary folktale ''Literature/PussInBoots'' by Charles Perrault, 1695. |
| 88 | * ContrivedCoincidence: ''Theatre/TheComedyOfErrors'' by Shakespeare. |
| 89 | * CounterZany: CommediaDellArte, and Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'' |
| 90 | * CultClassic: Scots poet Creator/RobertBurns and his [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burns_supper annual supper]]. |
| 91 | * DealWithTheDevil: ''[[Myth/{{Faust}} Historia von D. Johan. Fausten dem weitbeschreyten Zauberer und Schwartzkünstler]]'', 1587; may be older. |
| 92 | * DeceasedFallGuyGambit: ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''. |
| 93 | * DetectEvil: Shakespeare's ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''. |
| 94 | * DiamondsInTheBuff: Popular in 16th Century French art. |
| 95 | * DisorganizedOutlineSpeech: ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing''. |
| 96 | * TheEeyore: Jacques in Shakespeare's ''Theatre/AsYouLikeIt''. Some critics consider Hamlet to be another example. |
| 97 | * EpistolaryNovel: ''Prison of Love'' (Cárcel de amor) by Diego de San Pedro, 1485. |
| 98 | * EtTuBrute: ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'' is the TropeNamer, obviously. |
| 99 | * EvilLawyerJoke: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."--Dick the revolutionary from Shakespeare's ''Theatre/HenryVIPart2''. |
| 100 | * EvilerThanThou: Edmund in ''Theatre/KingLear''. |
| 101 | * ExactEavesDropping: Appears to be at least this old; Shakespeare subverted it in ''Hamlet'' and ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'', and invoked it twice in ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing''. |
| 102 | * ExitPursuedByABear: ''Theatre/TheWintersTale'' |
| 103 | * EyeOfProvidence: ''Supper at Emmaus'' by Jacopo "Pontormo" Carucci. |
| 104 | * TheFateOfThePrincesInTheTower: Shakespeare's ''Theatre/RichardIII'' is the TropeMaker, codifying UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfTudor's accusation against Henry VII's rival for the throne in its most remembered form. The UrExample is the Tudors' own propaganda on which the play was based. |
| 105 | * FeministFantasy: ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene''. |
| 106 | * FlyingBroomstick: In 1453 a man suspected of witchcraft confessed to flying a broom—the first such mention of the practice in recorded history. |
| 107 | * ForgottenFramingDevice: ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew'', 1592 |
| 108 | * FourTemperamentEnsemble: Has its roots in the 16th Century theory of 'humours', and formed the backbone of a whole genre called the "comedy of humours" (although this related to any comedy where everyone is based on a single FatalFlaw each). |
| 109 | * FriendlyLocalChinatown: The first-ever recorded Chinatown (outside of China of course) was Binondo, in Manila (UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}), founded in 1594. The Chinatowns in Nagasaki (Japan) and Hoi An (Vietnam) also date from the 16th century, while Mexico City's arguably dates from the early 17th. |
| 110 | * TheGhost: Rosaline in ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', Angelo and Marcus Luccios in ''Othello'', and Dulcinea in ''Literature/DonQuixote''. |
| 111 | * GodivaHair: Botticelli's 1486 painting ''Art/{{The Birth of Venus|Botticelli}}'', if not earlier with Lady Godiva herself. |
| 112 | * GoodIsNotNice: In ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', Macduff is a good and noble knight out to avenge his family's deaths, get revenge on the one who killed them, and reclaim the throne for the true heir. |
| 113 | * HandOfGlory: The legend of this macabre candelabra can be traced to circa 1440, but the name only dates to 1707. |
| 114 | * HauntingTheGuilty: Creator/WilliamShakespeare used this in several plays, but one of the more archetypical ones is when the murdered Banquo appears to his killer Theatre/{{Macbeth}} to taunt him. |
| 115 | * HeartbrokenBadass: Sir Pelleas over Ettarde in ''Literature/LeMorteDarthur'' by Sir Thomas Malory, c. 1450-1470. |
| 116 | * HedgeMaze: Earliest examples date from the Elizabethan era (mid-1500s). |
| 117 | * HeWhoFightsMonsters: Vindice in ''Theatre/TheRevengersTragedy'', 1606 |
| 118 | * HobbesWasRight: ''Literature/LeviathanThomasHobbes'', 1651 |
| 119 | * HoldingBothSidesOfTheConversation: Shakespeare's ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'' |
| 120 | * HonorAmongThieves: Cervantes' ''Literature/DonQuixote'' |
| 121 | * HourglassPlot: Don Quixote and Sancho in ''Literature/DonQuixote''. |
| 122 | * HumblePie: Called umble pie in the 15th and 16th century. |
| 123 | * IAmSpartacus: ''Theatre/{{Fuenteovejuna}}'' by Creator/LopeDeVega |
| 124 | * ICallItVera: The bombard now called "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mons_Meg Mons Meg]]" was first named "Muckle Meg" in 1650 (or in the 16th century, if "Monce" counts as a name instead of an identification of origin). |
| 125 | * ImpededMessenger: Shakespeare's ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''. |
| 126 | * InAnotherMansShoes: Shakespeare's ''Theatre/HenryV''. |
| 127 | * InMyLanguageThatSoundsLike: Shakespeare's ''Theatre/HenryV'', when Princess Katherine is trying to learn "English" from her maid. The English words "foot" and "gown" sound a lot like the French for "fuck" (''foutre'') and "cunt" (''con''). (Helped along by poor pronunciation in the second case.) |
| 128 | * IveComeTooFar: ''Theatre/RichardIII'', early 1590s |
| 129 | * JokerJury: In Vanity Fair in ''Literature/ThePilgrimsProgress'' |
| 130 | * {{Jossed}}: Cervantes disproved all the non-canonical novels written by other author(s) featuring his character Don Quixote, going as far as to have the characters in the canonical book read the others and prove them as inaccurate. |
| 131 | * JustFollowingOrders: [[https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1223&context=lawreview One of the first recorded attempts at using this as a legal defense occurred in 1474 at the trial of German governor Peter von Hagenbach for crimes in office.]] Von Hagenbach tried to pin it on his superior, the Duke of Burgundy, with the line "Is it not known that soldiers owe absolute obedience to their superiors?" The court ruled this was not, in fact, known, and von Hagenbach was convicted and executed. |
| 132 | * KickMePrank: Cervantes' ''Literature/DonQuixote'' |
| 133 | * LastVillainStand: Shakespeare's ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', with the protagonist's last stand. |
| 134 | * LibertyOverProsperity: First found in ''Literature/ParadiseLost'': Satan would rather reign in {{Hell}} than serve in {{Heaven}}. |
| 135 | * LoanShark: Shylock in Shakespeare's ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice''. |
| 136 | * LordErrorProne: ''Don Quixote'' |
| 137 | * LoserHasYourBack: Happens to the protagonist in the morality play ''Theatre/{{Everyman}}''. |
| 138 | * LoveAcrossBattlelines: The title characters of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', scions of the violently feuding Montagues and Capulets. |
| 139 | * LoveDodecahedron: Shakespeare's ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' and ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'' |
| 140 | * MacrossMissileMassacre: The earliest known multiple rocket launcher is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwacha hwacha]], invented and refined in Korea in the 15th century. It consisted of a wooden wheeled cart that could fire up to 200 projectiles at once. These projectiles, ''singijeon'', were arrows with gunpowder at the bottom for propulsion and some more at the tip to explode on impact--missiles, in short. True to the trope, a hwacha attack typically made short work of invading armies, particularly the Japanese ''samurai'' who liked to travel in closely-packed formations, though at the expense of being very slow and expensive to reload. |
| 141 | * [[/index]]Mad Alchemist: The precursor to the modern {{mad scientist}}.[[index]] |
| 142 | * MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter (The "mad scientist is good" variant): Shakespeare's ''Theatre/TheTempest'', 1611, even though Prospero is a sorcerer, not a scientist. |
| 143 | * MagicallyBindingContract: Faust's contract with Mephistopheles has to be signed with blood, and can't be broken. |
| 144 | * {{Malaproper}}: Several Shakespheare comedies. |
| 145 | * MegaCorp: The various European East India Companies, with the first founded in England in 1600 and the second in the Netherlands in 1602. |
| 146 | * MistimedRevival: ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' |
| 147 | * MobileShrubbery: ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''. "I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, / The wood began to move. |
| 148 | * MonsterInTheMoat: Probably goes back to a Neapolitan legend of a giant crocodile living in the moat of Castle Maschio Angioino and eating prisoners from the castigate in the 15th century. [[ArtisticLicenseHistory Actual castle moats usually weren't even deliberately flooded]]: they were just a ditch. |
| 149 | * MonumentalDamage: The Venetians destroyed the Parthenon while invading Greece in 1687 after the Turks filled the entire temple with stores of gunpowder and explosives. |
| 150 | * MoralMyopia: Shakespearean characters, such as Queen Margaret in ''Theatre/HenryVI'' and ''Theatre/RichardIII'', and Tamara in ''Theatre/TitusAndronicus''. |
| 151 | * MoreThanMindControl: ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene,'' ''[[Literature/ThePilgrimsProgress The Pilgrim's Progress]]'' |
| 152 | * MST3KMantra: Puck's final speech in ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' starts with "If we shadows have offended / Think but this and all is mended..." The speech can essentially be compressed into "It's just a play; cool it, willya?" |
| 153 | * MythologyGag: The Art/SistineChapel, the physical building itself, has the same dimensions (40.9 meters long by 13.4 meters wide) as the Temple of Solomon does in Literature/TheBible. This reinforces one of the main theses of the Chapel: to demonstrate that the Christian tradition flows directly from the teachings of UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}}. |
| 154 | * NewEnglandPuritan: It was during this time period that the Puritans first set out to settle what is now know as New England, resulting in the region's reputation as a hot bed for religious fundamentalism. |
| 155 | * NightParadeOfOneHundredDemons: One of the oldest and most famous examples is the 16th-century handscroll ''Hyakki Yagyō Zu'' (百鬼夜行図), erroneously attributed to Tosa Mitsunobu, located in the Shinju-an of Daitoku-ji, Kyoto. |
| 156 | * NoFourthWall: Many of Creator/{{Shakespeare}}'s plays, if not earlier. |
| 157 | * NotHisBlood: ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', 1606 |
| 158 | * NumberedSequels: Shakespeare's ''Theatre/HenryIV'' Parts ''1'' and ''2'', and ''Theatre/HenryVI'' Parts ''1'', ''2'' and ''3''. |
| 159 | * OhCrapThereAreFanficsOfUs: Don Quixote and his fellow characters read ''Literature/DonQuixote'' fanfiction novels written by authors other than Cervantes, and complained about whichever parts Cervantes disliked. |
| 160 | * OminousFog: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair/Hover through the fog and filthy air."--''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''. |
| 161 | * OverlyLongGag: Gratiano's repeated ironic echoes of Shylock at the climax of the court scene in ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice''. |
| 162 | * PascalsWager: The original wager appeared in ''Pensées'', a collection of Blaise Pascal's [[DiedDuringProduction notes for an unfinished Christian apologetic piece]] which were published posthumously in 1670. |
| 163 | * ThePeepingTom: The folk legend of Lady Godiva, in a version from the 17th century. |
| 164 | * PinealWeirdness: Descartes' ''Literature/TreatiseOfMan'', 1629 |
| 165 | * PressGanged: The Kingdom of England started the practice of impressment in 1563. |
| 166 | * PoesLaw: ''EpistolaeObscurorumVirorum'', 1515-1517 |
| 167 | * PoseOfSilence: Shakespearean stage production technique. |
| 168 | * PottyEmergency: ''Literature/DonQuixote'' features this joke. |
| 169 | * RapidFireComedy: Shakespeare's comedies, though many of the jokes go unnoticed, due to culture (and linguistic) changes, without the body-language context of live performance. |
| 170 | * RashEquilibrium: Shakespeare's ''Theatre/MeasureForMeasure'' |
| 171 | * RealityHasNoSubtitles: Shakespeare's ''Theatre/HenryV'' (an entire scene in French) |
| 172 | * RecursiveCrossdressing: Shakespearean comedy, especially ''Theatre/AsYouLikeIt''. |
| 173 | * RecursiveCanon: ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' refers to ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'' as a play. |
| 174 | * RedHerring: Actual red herrings used in hunting. |
| 175 | * ReturningTheHandkerchief: Shakespheare's ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' |
| 176 | * RussianReversal: In Shakespeare's ''Theatre/RichardII'' the title character, reflecting on his reign, laments that "I wasted time, and now doth time waste me." |
| 177 | * ScrubbingOffTheTrauma: ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' is the likely TropeCodifier. |
| 178 | * SecondaryCharacterTitle: ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'' (Caesar's only in three scenes; the protagonist is Brutus) |
| 179 | * ShooOutTheClowns: ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', ''Theatre/KingLear'', and ''Henry V'' |
| 180 | * ShowWithinAShow:[[/index]] |
| 181 | ** Type 1: Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', ''Theatre/TheTempest'', and ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' (also Type 3). |
| 182 | ** Type 2: ''"The Ill-Advised Curiosity"'' in ''Literature/DonQuixote''.[[index]] |
| 183 | * SimpleSolutionWontWork: In ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', the title character initially doesn't start plotting to kill King Claudius on the grounds that he needs absolute proof of Claudius's guilt first: the ghost claiming to be Hamlet's late father might be lying. Later in the play, he has Claudius dead to rights but holds himself back because Claudius is praying at the time, so Hamlet thinks Claudius might go to Heaven instead of Hell if he assassinates him right then. |
| 184 | * SkeletalMusician: Appear in fifteen century "Dance of Death" art. |
| 185 | * SpontaneousHumanCombustion: The oldest known report of such an incident allegedly occurring dates back to 1654, briefly detailing an incident believed to have occurred sometime between 1468 and 1503. |
| 186 | * AStormIsComing: ''Macbeth'' |
| 187 | * StumblingUponTheLostWizard: ''Theatre/TheTempest'' with Prospero as the wizard in question. |
| 188 | * SurrogateSoliloquy: ''Hamlet'' |
| 189 | * SwitchedAtBirth: Shakespeare's Theatre/HenryIV wishes out loud that his wayward son Hal had been switched at birth with the honorable rebel Hotspur. |
| 190 | * {{Technobabble}}: Creator/BenJonson's ''Theatre/TheAlchemist'' contains rather a lot of baffling alchemical jargon. Some uses it straight to confuse the audience with the cleverness of the characters who understand alchemy, and some is in-universe technobabble employed by charlatans pretending to be actual alchemists. |
| 191 | * ThatCloudLooksLike: ''Hamlet'' |
| 192 | * ThoseTwoGuys: Braggadocchio and Trompart in ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene''; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in ''Hamlet'' |
| 193 | * ThreadOfProphecySevered: During the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar, [[UsefulNotes/NotableSwedishMonarchs King Gustaf II of Sweden]] claimed to be the "Lion from the North", a world-altering figure prophesied by the 16th century Swiss mystic Paracelsus. Unfortunately for those who believed in the prophecy, Gustavus Adolphus was killed in a mishap at the Battle of Lützen in 1632. |
| 194 | * ThreateningMediator: In the opening scene of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' the Prince of Verona tries to shut down the Montague/Capulet feud by decreeing that any more swordplay in public will result in the combatants being stripped of their titles and exiled. |
| 195 | * ThroneMadeOfX: In ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'', the goddess Guanyin makes a throne out of swords and later halbeards to imprison the Red Boy. |
| 196 | * TooSmartForStrangers: ''Literature/LittleRedRidingHood'' by Creator/CharlesPerrault, 1697: |
| 197 | -->''Moral: Children, especially attractive, well bred young ladies, should never talk to strangers, for if they should do so, they may well provide dinner for a wolf. I say "wolf," but there are various kinds of wolves. There are also those who are charming, quiet, polite, unassuming, complacent, and sweet, who pursue young women at home and in the streets. And unfortunately, it is these gentle wolves who are the most dangerous ones of all.'' |
| 198 | * TortureIsIneffective: ''Cautio Criminalis'', published in 1631 by a Jesuit priest named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Spee Friedrich Spee]], sharply criticizes the use of torture to elicit confessions (specifically of witchcraft): "Torture has the power to create witches where none exist." This book helped end European and American witch scares and helped lead to the end of torture as a generally accepted practice. |
| 199 | * TrueCrime: With the proliferation of the printing press, street literature detailing true crimes (both sensationalized and not) became widespread in Britain from as early as the 1550s. |
| 200 | * TwentyOneGunSalute: The naval tradition of firing your guns to render yourself unarmed appears to date to the Middle Ages/Renaissance. Probably not OlderThanPrint. |
| 201 | * UnsettlingGenderReveal: Someone falls in love with the SweetPollyOliver in both ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'' and ''Theatre/AsYouLikeIt''. |
| 202 | * ViewersInMourning: Remarked upon by Richard Barber in ''Literature/TheKnightAndChivalry''. |
| 203 | * WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: "Literature/{{Cinderella}}", amongst others. |
| 204 | * WhyDontYouMarryIt: ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'', 1595-6 |
| 205 | * {{Woolseyism}}: The King James translation of ''Literature/TheBible'' uses this method in many passages. More modern translations such as the New International Version have preserved the most famous ones in only slightly modernized form. |
| 206 | * WrongGenreSavvy: The eponymous character of ''Literature/DonQuixote''. |
| 207 | * YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: The Gunpowder Plot, 1605 (famously referenced in the ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'' franchise). Also became a common charge on all sides in the incredibly violent European Wars of Religion, which mostly began in this era as sparked by the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation. |
| 208 | * ZanyScheme: ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'' -- it's one long ping-pong match of schemery. |
| 209 | * ZanySchemeChicken: Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'' and ''Theatre/TheMerryWivesOfWindsor'' |
| 210 | [[/index]] |
| 211 |
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