Scolds bridle Medieval instrument against women chatter

Gossip is the Devil’s radio. George Harrison. Scolds bridle Medieval instrument against women chatter

Scolds bridle Medieval instrument against women chatter
Called “the branks”, Scold’s bridle was invented in 1500th in Britain and then spread to Europe. Branking (in Scotland and the North of England) was designed as a mirror punishment for “shrews'”or “scolds” — women of the lower classes whose speech was “riotous” or “troublesome” — women accused of witchcraft — by preventing such “gossips or scolds” from speaking.
It was projected into the mouth and pressed down on top of the tongue. The “curb-plate” was frequently studded with spikes, so that if the tongue moved, it inflicted pain and made speaking impossible. Wives who were seen as shrews and scolds, were forced to wear a brank’s bridle, her husband could parade her around town and the town’s people could scold her or beat her, sometimes to death.

Old lithograph. Scold’s bridle – Medieval instrument against women chatter

Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip. Richard Steele

Quotes on gossip:

– Be Impeccable With Your Word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love. Miguel Angel Ruiz

a Medieval man leads his woman, like a dog, on a leash. Scold’s bridle – a Medieval instrument against women chatter

– It is just as cowardly to judge an absent person as it is wicked to strike a defenseless one. Only the ignorant and narrow-minded gossip, for they speak of persons instead of things.
Lawrence G. Lovasik
– Gossip needn’t be false to be evil – there’s a lot of truth that shouldn’t be passed around.
Frank Howard Clark
– Male and female gossip also sounds different, as women use more animated tones, more detail and more feedback. Kate Fox
– The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them. Will Rogers

An instrument against women chatter

– While gossip among women is universally ridiculed as low and trivial, gossip among men, especially if it is about women, is called theory, or idea, or fact. Andrea Dworkin
– Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality. Oscar Wilde
– Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you. Spanish Proverb
– What you don’t see with your eyes, don’t witness with your mouth. Jewish Proverb