Tada! It's a video about Tiffany! I hope you like it. Psst. Hey, hey. Would you like to know more? Okay great. So listen, I need to tell you about this poem. Come with me behind the scenes where I've
been working on this for... I don't even know how long. [light heartedly] Take a seat. [seriously] Get comfortable. It all began with these articles I read saying
the name Tiffany is very old, maybe medieval. What a cute and easy video Past-Grey thought,
and it could have been [it could have been]
if I'd just left things alone, but no, I wanted to read the article sources,
which turned out didn't often contain the name Tiffany
at all, but rather the ye-olden-name Theophania,
or the super-old Theophanu. And like, maybe these medieval ladies called
themselves Tiff, but that's just a bit too cute, isn't it? To me it looked like the sort of Lady Godiva
story where later writers say a thing happened but there's no evidence
from the time that it did, because it's a fairy tale. The kind history is full of once you go looking. [whispering] Don't go looking. So for a while the Tiffany video teetered
on the edge of getting binned, but it turned out my Lady Godiva suspicious
were wrong when some medieval Tiffany's did turn up,
to save the project. But the poem happened before that, and listen. I need to tell you about it, otherwise,
I might just explode trying to contain all the excruciating details
and number of obsessive hours poured into this f--poem. And I can't let it all have been for nothing. Okay. Ready? No? To bad. Here's the poem. [clears throat] Ahem. William de Cognisby Came out of Britany With
his wife Tiffany, And his maide Manfas, And his dogge Hardigras**.**
It's okay. That's it. But what isn't okay is that this poem popped
up in modern writings implying it's proof that Tiffany is maybe
medieval, but never with the poems date or an author
attached. Making it impossible to pin to a timeline. Which made the poem annoying. Doubly so because it's supposed to be a joke. Like here it is in the 1859 history book
with this weird French style humorous illustration. But, I don't get it? Is it the name of the dog? [frustratingly] What's the joke?!? If you get it, please leave a comment, I just. I need to know. Anyway. When you're reading about a topic,
this the sort of thing that happens a lot. There's some detail you keep stumbling over
and over and it could be the critical clue. I'm looking for the earliest Tiffany A-N-Y,
there's a Tiffany A-N-Y right here, maybe the very first,
if I could just pin the poem to its proper place, but no. I had just resolved to give up on this poem
when the The Tiffany's of America arrived at my door,
which I had ordered... weeks ago? To hopefully help with the main Tiffany video. But it was just 90% a literal list of people
named Tiffany in America with hilariously unclear
photos. The book was written by Nelson Otis Tiffany
and thanks Charles Lewis Tiffany for making the
book possible with his, "liberal contributions of money". I love how explicit that is. Then, totally unrelated, there follows a description
of how the Tiffany family crest is the,
"most beautiful thing of it's kind we have ever seen." And then two pages of the densest family flattery
ever put in print. But in between those sections, to mock me,
the poem appeared again, without a date, but with a footnote path to follow. This is the moment I broke and swore to the
gods above, and below I would find the primary source
of this Brittany Tiffany poem, no matter the time,
no matter the cost. And when you give that to the gods,
they of course, played a joke upon Grey, making his pursuit of this poem as painful
as possible. Here's what happened. The Tiffany's of America got the poem from
Richmondshire, its Ancient Lords and Edifices, Which, I ordered, and when it arrived, found
the full title to be Richmondshire. Its Ancient Lords and Edifices
A Concise Guide to the Localities of Interest to the Tourist
and Antiquary with Short Notices of Memorable Men. I opened it and out fell an old map! Which is a thrilling moment, no matter what's
mapped on the map. After checking for spots marked x. Back to book to find the poem,
which had a pencil highlight mark and a note below. It seems whoever owned this book before me
was also on their own poetic Tiffany journey. Maybe it was Nelson Otis Tiffany. I dunno. So, Richmondshire, Its Ancient Lords and Edifices
A Concise Guide to the Localities of Interest to the Tourist
and Antiquary with Short Notices of Memorable Men,
lists the poem as from the author M. Thierry. Now buying old rare books gets expensive real
fast. So I headed down to my local library to try
and track M. Thierry down, which took a while because, one, I didn't
know then, but I do know now, that "M" is an old abbreviation
for Mister and the author referenced was Mr. Augustin
Theory, and his book the History of the Conquest of
England by the Normans. And two, my library pre-dates the dewy decimal
system, which makes every book search an adventure
through 17th century organizational idiosyncrasity, which is delightful when your browsing,
but infuriating when you're in the wrong section about England
and you can't find the book your looking for, because you should be in the England only
section, but not here, behind the little book elevator. Anyway. Thierry's book was on the shelf, I grabbed
it, sat down with it and flipped through the pages
to find the poem. and that History of the Conquest of England
by the Normans isn't the primary source either,
pointing to Hearne, Pradif Ad Johan de Fordun, Scotichonicon. [Grey] OK, what's the Scotichronicon? [Narrator-Grey] According to Wikipedia it's
a history book of Scotland started in the 1300s by a priest in Aberdeen
and continued after his death by a Abbot in Inchcolmn. These historians worked to cover the history
of Scotland from their present day back to the literal
genesis. A rather epic undertaking deserving the epic
name the Scothinomicron. Fun fact. This book is one of the earliest references
to Robin Hood, though the authors take a rather... mmm...
more dim view of The Hood and his hoi polloi fans
than most modern interpretations. According to them,
Then arose the famous murderer, Robert Hood... from among the disinherited, whom the foolish
populace are so inordinately fond of celebrating... Interesting. But I didn't come to the library to track
down the earliest reference to Robin Hood. It's the Piers Plowman poems, by the way. I here to find the Sconichicronomicon...
in the Scotland history section, which is in the dark. [Grey] Sure glad my phone has a flashlight. There it is. The Scotheranomicon. Oh, look all these hand written notes. Last time this was checked out was 1995. [Narrator-Grey] Alas, there was no poem on
page 172, but maybe that page number for a different
edition, so there was nothing to do but start flipping
and skimming, flipping and skimming, over, and over,
and over, and over and over, and over, through every single crinkly page
to find the Brittany Tiffany poem nowhere. Maybe the the poem was among those pages,
and I just missed it? I mean, the book is in Latin. It turned out, not. I didn't know it at the time, but I did have
the wrong edition, but in an unexpected way. This one was printed in MDCCLIX. But if you were to search further,
say at the largest library in the world with 200 million volumes,
you could find an earlier edition printed in MDCCXXII. Which was both much smaller and with hilariously
large font like the author was trying to puff up the
book, but in this one on page 170 (not 172) there
she was Brittany Tiffany A-N-Y. I was thrilled to have found truly medieval
evidence of Tiffany. I had the primary source, I could pin the
poem to the 1400s! Or, so I thought. Until I remembered that that these guys wrote
in Latin, and this poem is in modernish English. How is that? Well, it's because this poem isn't in the
Scotichronicon at all, it's a footnote added by the editor of this
1722 edition. And it's also not the primary source, the
editor adding, "In an ancient writing of parchment,
kept charily by the family of the Conisby's, amoung their Records, they have this written." Charily? That's an old word that means "cautious or
warily". That's weird. And Ancient? How Ancient? Fast forward past much time spent searching
Coningsby family records, without luck. Though, of course, now that I'm talking about
this I know some long descendant of the Coningsby's clan
will show up at my door with a reliquary box and the poem inside,
which I'll need to send off for some radiocarbon dating. And also every example of an old Tiffany A-N-Y
will be sent to my door forever more, but that's Future-Grey's problem, for Current-Grey,
well now Past-Grey at the time of writing and research,
the one path the gods had directed before me,
I wish I had not followed through, Who is Tho Hernius, the editor? Well, to find out step one is find his non-Latinized
name, Thomas Hearne. Thomas Hearne was... ehh...
well we'll get to that. But he worked at the Bodleian Library at Oxford
in the early 1700s and published lots of editions of medieval
texts, Scottocrononicon, among them. Now trying to find more information about
why someone wrote a footnote 300 years ago seemed hopeless,
but Google, against all odds, turned up the collected letters of Alexander
Pope. A contemporary of Hearne's in England,
who wrote a 35 page letter about Hearne that begins
"THAT He, may never be forgotten, who has raked the Repositaries of Antiquity,
and been indefatigable infetching Learning from Places
where many would not have sought after it; a few Memorials of his Life, and some observations
on his writings, will, we hope, redound to his credit." Which at first sounds like, wow, what a fan. And this 35-page letter, by Alexander Pope,
happens to mention the Brittany Tiffany poem, though in a context that seems, off? Saying Hearne had so many,
not just historical documents but poems in particular,
that it would waste your time to tell you about all of them. Pope then says Hearne wanted to be useful
by saving them all, but then lists several clearly-useful-to-no-one-ever
poems, including Brittany Tiffany. It's just sort of weird, and I would have
left it at that, [should have left it at that]
but then this passage caught my eye, "We... have taken the Liberty to correct some
few Mistakes in [Hearne's] Writing. [And] been careful not to offend any impartial
Reader: we have avoided Flattery on the one Hand,
and Scandal on the other." That's very, "Oh I don't love drama," sentence
from Pope isn't it? [Alexander Pope] I'm just somehow always at
the center on the drama. Oh this burn book? It's nothing. Just where I write down my ideas for plays. I'm a literal dramatist, you know. [Narrator-Grey] Pope then goes on to fill
his 35-page letter with nothing but corrections for every mistake
Hearne ever made in all of his work, in this infuriating,
Oh, let me just help you out, Hearne, kind of way. Some observations on his writing indeed. Hearne gets a date wrong, and Pope says,
[Alexander Pope] I'm sorry, Hearne, see here, where you wrote 1274,
you have either "Not kept up your avowed regard for truth,
or unhappily blundered in a point of Chronology. You say this man in 1274 studied at Canterbury
College and you wrote about it,
but I'm afraid to tell you the college was not built until 1363,
therefore the man must have either lived 89 years before
he was born or written of a place many years before it was built. Oh Hearne, now don't be annoyed,
"These [corrections] how much so ever they may look like Ridicule...
are undoubted Confirmations of [your] Industry, and will ever be thought so by Persons of
deeper Penetration." [Narrator-Grey] Me-yow! Alexander Pope, it turns out, is the human
who coined the phrase, Damning with faint praise. Of course, only after reading the entire letter,
did I realize I could have skipped it had I first seen Pope
hanging out on the bottom of Hearne's Wikipedia page
calling Hearne's life work unappealing and monkish. Hearne, complained into his diary, that Alexander
Pope, one of the most quoted authors in the English
language, just below Shakespeare and the bible, lacked
scholarship. Alexander Pope, in turn created a character
for one of his plays based on Hearne named Wormius,
a know-nothing-know-it-all pedant. Hearne shot back saying Pope's play was,
"A scurrilous piece against many of the greatest men of the age!" This delicious beef was the only highlight
of my reading, so I needed to know more. But putting plus Hearne plus Wormius into
Google returned exactly one result,
the Wikipedia page itself, which is super sus. I mean, does information even exist if it's
not on the Internet. Oh right, of course. So I had to check the listed footnote, which
wasn't at the library so, I ordered the book. It arrived. I opened it, I read it, and the Hearne Wormius
thing checks out. Amazing. But even after that Alexander Pope just couldn't
let it go for some reason and after Hearn's death he
wrote, "Hearne was a most sordid poor wretch;
had an universal mistrust of the generality of mankind;
lived in a slovenly, stingy manner, and died possessed of what he had not the
heart to enjoy." Alex, jeez. Uh, so as you can see, we've traveled down
many paths here, and at this point I really needed a friend
to talk to about this in my life. The number of people willing to listen for
months on end to updates about, not even the very broad topic of the
origin of the name Tiffany, [remember that's where we started]
not even of the exact original source of one poem
that mentions the name Tiffany A-N-Y, but of two dead dude's schoolboy level squabbles
that are tangentially related to Tiffany,
is zero. But then there was hope. I can't even remember how I found it now,
but I came across another Hearne Burn, via Historian John Horace Round in his
Feudal England: Historical Studies on the XIth and XIIth Centuries. Complaining about Hearn's lack of document
date questioning, ignoring of internal evidence, and superficial
examinations, leading to publishing more wrong dates
polluting the timeline for everyone. Oh! And Hearne also got the poem's surname spelling
wrong, twice. Which is why nothing turned up for Coningsby
family records earlier. Offf. At this point, Hearne having cost me so much
time [and feeling so thoroughly alone in the world]
I was excited to find in John Horace Round a friend to phone
and complain with over coffee. As it happens, he even translated part of
the Domesday Book, which was the very first source I checked
when starting the Tiffany project so long ago. We were going to have loads to talk about! While searching for his digits, I realized
in my excitement I had missed the original publication date
of his work. Round had died a hundred years ago, and I
was back to being, Grey-no-mates. As usual. Okay so look. This side path I've been carving out to even
be able to talk about the Brittany Tiffany poem is
only a tiny, tiny part of all the explorations that had
to happen to make the main Tiffany video. I've been here, alone for... oh gods. Half a year as the only one alive who cares
about any of this. This script is so long now. Will anyone make it this far? Is anyone here? :: sigh ::
Okay. Snap out of it. Now, in my journeys, I had learned two things
about Hearne. First, his contemporaries referred to him
as an Antiquarian, which in my head first translated as old-timey
for Historian but was actually old-timey code for hoarder. Hearne loved collecting every historic document
he could find, but was not very good at sorting them out. The second thing was that Hearne's edition
of the Scotronnomicon, from which all sources pointed back to as
the providence of the poem, is worse-than-useless,
as not only are his contributions of dubious value,
but he also took it upon himself to cut out a lot,
which explains why his edition was printed in giant font. This is not considered canonical. And this should have been the end of it,
but there was still something left to try pin to the timeline. Was this Tiffany A-N-Y a real person and when
did she live? Okay. I know. In retrospect,
it seems obvious I should have started here. Painfully obvious. But, as always, you only know at the end
what is the fastest way from the beginning. Now surely, I thought, at least tracking down
genealogical records of the family the poem mentioned everything
would check out, right? Wrong. So as reminder the poem starts with William,
from Britany, wife Tiffany. William Coningsby was a real person, in the
1300s in England, not Brittany, and his wife was Beatrice, not
Tiffany. They had a son, Thomas Coningsby,
who did go to Brittany, with the Black Prince, who was alive at the
time to battle. And Thomas, while fighting, became a prisoner
of war. However, his captor agreed to let Thomas go
if he would marry his daughter, Tiffany. Which he did, and it was Thomas,
who came out of Brittany with his wife Tiffany, Except not, because if you look up her paperwork,
her name is actually THEOPHANIA. She's only called Tiffany hundreds of years
later. SO THE POEM ISN'T RIGHT ABOUT ANYTHING. GOD DAMN YOU, HEARNE! Everything is wrong. And the poem is evidence of nothing useful
at all. [sigh] I'm sorry. It's just. It's been a lot. So here's the final working theory. Hearne knew the Coningsby family who either
told him of the poem, or perhaps he spotted it himself,
expressed an outsized interest in their collection of old papers,
as he was wont to do, but either way when editing his edition of
the Scotichronicon, and it mentioned the family, that triggered
his memory, and he added in his footnote,
wrong as he saw it or wrong as he remembered it. That note in his non-canonical edition through
pure bad luck got swept up in the paper writing footnote
copy-paste game where no one checks the original and the context
that the name Tiffany is not actually in the original book
got lost. At least now the timeline is complete,
but all this work has shown is that in the 1700s the name Tiffany A-N-Y existed,
which was not in question at all at the beginning. For the gods capricious tormenting pleasure
alone, this path went absolutely nowhere,
provided nothing of value, and drained many hours of my sadly finite
life. Uh, thanks for listening? I guess I just really needed to get out all
of this frustration to tell you the story of tracking down a poem
that didn't even make it into the main video. The. Thank you for making it to, not just the end
of the video but, after the end of the video. Welcome. Well, that ended up being quite a journey
over the past half a year. Sometimes in making a video,
the path through the Forest of All Knowledge is clearly marked out. Other times you have something much more difficult
to try to get through. Oh, don't step on the... Whoa. And occassionally there's almost nothing,
and you're in danger of getting quite lost. But this is the job. To turn something that is unmarked,
into something that's slightly marked. Perhaps something that has been completed
with trusses to get you over the dangerous and difficult
parts. Some of the videos I make take unreasonably
long amounts of time and unreasonably large amounts of effort. Ahhh, things that are frankly not very good
business sense from a YouTube algorithim sort of way but,
I know that, as a viewer, I love it when people make those sorts of
videos. And, I imagine if you're still watching,
you're one of the people who likes those kinds videos as well. I've resisted for a years coming up with a
name for the people who support the channel. I've never really liked that stuff but,
I've changed my thoughts on that because I realize they really are part of the team
now. And, I know how this is going to sound, but
I really mean it, the past six months I have definitely felt
very alone at times working on this but, one of the things that has helped me push
on with a crazy project like this is,
is knowing that there are a lot of people who really care about these videos. The capricious winds of the YouTube gods can
not be relied upon. But people willing to back projects directly
that they really like, it means so much. These videos aren't for everyone. They're for you. So if you would like to become a Bonnie Bee
and help support the creation of future videos, which will also get you access to some of
the behind the scenes of how the videos are made, I just have one
requirement first. You must be finacially self supporting,
so, no students in particular, ahh, I want people to work on themselves
and work on their own lives before they try to help me out. I will be fine. Make sure you're good first. And, I plan on doing this for a LONG time. I have been doing this for a long time. I'll be here later. So, as long as you're set there. If you would like to join you can click here. And, thank you so much. I'll see you in the next video.
I love these Grey descends into madness following the paper trail videos, I'm considering this an unofficial sequel to the Staten Island video
I always wondered why Grey needed SO much time for his videos, but this explains A LOT.
Mad respects for going down all those rabbit holes. I would have set something on fire in this situation, probably after the first visit to the library.
Well, I have a new favourite Grey video. That was some journey, and I went right along with you on it.
I've followed old paper trails many times, including into Scotichroniconfusion, and the frustration at these snobbish antiquarians who don't know what a footnote is is insane.
Oh, and it's always good to get a reminder that historical people could be just as catty and sarcastic as the rest of us. Especially Alexander Pope.
Grey, I am happy to sit on a zoom call and listen to whatever is bugging you at the moment. This was amazing.
"My local library predates the Dewey Decimal system" is the most fucking British thing I've ever heard, Jesus fucking Christ.
I’m still convinced that Grey lost his marbles when the pandemic hit and hasn’t found a single one since. Makes for very amusing videos though!
So now I have a clearer understanding of what hell is like.
And though he did suffer on this project, I found this narration of his experience fascinating. The story of researching the poem is a quest in itself, and this video is over double the length of the original Tiffany video. I love it.
He says that he had no one to talk to about Tiffany's, but I love to listen into more rants like this.
I dig how Grey has opened up emotionally over the years
Thanks for the content buddy, I appreciate the translation of effort into visuals, you're an inspiration
I think Grey is becoming an actual historian.