35. The Fart That Ruined a Wedding
As the Earl of Oxford’s fart illustrates, breaking wind in public was embarrassing in the court of Elizabeth I. However, such embarrassment pales in comparison to the social consequences of a public front in the Arabian Peninsula. In the middle ages, a wealthy Yemeni merchant named Abu Hassan married one of the region’s most beautiful women, and threw a lavish wedding feast to which he invited notables from near and far.
The bridegroom ate and drank heartily at the feast – perhaps too heartily. When he rose from his seat to go to his bride’s chamber, he let out a thunderous fart. Mortified, Abu Hassan turned away from the bridal chamber, headed to the courtyard, saddled his horse, and rode off into the night, weeping bitterly. It was the start of a weird and long journey and exile, that would put that of the Earl of Oxford to shame.
