QUESTION: Was the word Nosferatu invented for the film?
The term predates the film and was used in Western literature to refer to vampires.
Bram Stoker used it in Dracula (1897) and this was the basis for F. W. Murnau’s film.
Stoker himself had borrowed it from Emily Gerard’s 1885 article Transylvanian Superstitions, which was later incorporated into her 1888 book The Land Beyond The Forest. Gerard, from Airdrie in Scotland, wrote her book after spending two years in Romania.
Gerard described Nosferatu as an Eastern European term for a vampire: ‘More decidedly evil is the nosferatu, or vampire, in which every Roumanian [sic] peasant believes as firmly as he does in heaven or hell.’
Stoker was clearly influenced by Gerard’s writings, and her description of Nosferatu is familiar to those who have read Dracula: ‘Every person killed by a nosferatu becomes likewise a vampire after death, and will continue to suck the blood of other innocent persons till the spirit has been exorcised by opening the grave of the suspected person, and either driving a stake through the corpse or in very obstinate cases of vampirism it is recommended to cut off the head, and replace it in the coffin with the mouth filled with garlic.’
Linguists have debated whether Nosferatu is a genuine Romanian word or a misunderstanding. One theory is that Gerard misread or mistranscribed the Romanian word nesuferit, which means ‘plaguesome’ or ‘insufferable’.
Emily Gerard described Nosferatu as an Eastern European term for a vampire
Stoker was clearly influenced by Gerard’s writings, and her description of Nosferatu is familiar to those who have read Dracula (pictured)
Nosferatu is also close to the Greek word nosophoros (disease-bearing) which is suggested as another possible origin due to Eastern Orthodox Christian influences in Romania.
Simon Cowan, Sheffield
QUESTION: Surely from an evolutionary perspective we should all be ambidextrous. What advantages do we gain from having a preferred hand?
Handedness – our preference for using one hand over the other –evolved as a consequence of brain lateralisation, where different cognitive functions are specialised in either the left or right hemisphere of the brain.
In most people, the left hemisphere controls language and fine motor skills, leading to a right-hand preference (since the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body).
Lateralisation is not unique to humans but it is at its most extreme, and the strong population-level right-handedness observed in humans is unique.
This has been the case for a very long time.
Archaeological data revealing prehistoric hand-use patterns for tool use and cave art have confirmed that right-handedness was already established in Neanderthals.
Archaeological data revealing prehistoric hand-use patterns for tool use and cave art have confirmed that right-handedness was already established in Neanderthals
The principal evolutionary drivers for handedness are thought to be tool use and communication skills. Early humans relied on tools, which required precise co-ordination.
A dominant hand would have helped improve dexterity and efficiency in crafting and using tools. In group settings, a shared hand preference may have made teaching and imitation easier.
K. E. Lewis, Reading, Berks
QUESTION: Does Shakespeare mention Venice’s canals or lagoon in The Merchant Of Venice and Othello?
The canals are not directly referenced in the dialogue or description of either play.
In The Merchant Of Venice, there is a solitary mention of a gondola (‘That in a gondola were seen together/ Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica’) and of the ferry required to reach Venice from the mainland.
However, there is little evidence that Shakespeare was aware of Venice’s extensive waterways.
This is less important in Othello, as Venice serves only as the backdrop for Act I; the subsequent four acts are set in Cyprus.
There is little evidence that Shakespeare was aware of Venice’s extensive waterways
Shakespeare’s Globe: A reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, associated with William Shakespeare, in the London Borough of Southwark
In The Merchant Of Venice, one of Shakespeare’s characters, Old Gobbo, even has a horse and cart.
He speaks of his ‘fill-horse’, which is a horse that goes between the shafts of a cart.
Horses were forbidden in Venice in the 14th century. Shakespeare mentions the Rialto several times, where Shylock’s workplace, the Venetian Exchange, is located.
However, he does not mention the famous Rialto Bridge and the fact that it spans the Grand Canal.
Nor is there mention of The Ghetto, the first such in Europe, behind whose walls Shylock and other Jewish residents would have been locked after midnight and on Christian feast days.
It appears that Shakespeare’s precise geographical knowledge of Venice was scant, although his grasp of the city’s governance and laws was better.
Beatrice Smith, Flint, Clwyd
