yes I actually look this stuff up

 

This week, I’m hammering out the last 10,000 or so words of Highland Soldiers: The Betrayal. It’s set in late 17th Century Scotland, and–because I’m classy like Shakespeare–I want to use the word “ass”.

But did they use that word back in the 17th century? Why, yes they did. Shakespeare used the word “ass” eighty-eight times, turns out. And that was a hundred years before my book takes place, so I’m safe.

It pays to read footnotes on jstor. And titles. (I love this one.)

The Ass Motif in The Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by Deborah Baker Wyrick