'Knights should be naturally endowed with slim calves and neat feet whose length exceeds their width as if moulded by a craftsman, but I observe that your calves are on the contrary pudgy, bulging, round and stunted, and your feet are as broad as long, and gigantic to boot,' jibes a countess to a commoner, referring not to his shoe-size ('gigantic to boot') but to the dimensions of his feet, in this stylish but not always lucid translation. The commoner replies:

LRB 17 November 1983 | PDF Download