IV: Sir Dinadan the Humorist explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Technology vs. Superstition

  Hank's ordinary 19th-century clothes are mistaken for enchanted armor, highlighting the clash between modern rationality and medieval superstition.

• Social Class and Aristocracy

  The court's casual indecency and Hank's embarrassment reveal the gap between aristocratic norms and Hank's modern sensibilities.

• The Heroic Ideal vs. Reality

  Sir Kay's exaggerated tale of capturing a 'sky-towering monster' contrasts with Hank's ordinary appearance, mocking the chivalric ideal.

Characters to notice

• Hank Morgan

  The narrator and protagonist, who is condemned to death and stripped of his clothes, then thrown into a dungeon.

• Sir Dinadan the Humorist

  Awakens the court with a practical joke involving a dog and metal mugs, then delivers a speech full of stale jokes.

• Sir Kay

  Recounts a fantastical story of capturing Hank, describing him as a giant and ogre, and condemns him to death.

• Merlin

  Suggests stripping Hank to nullify the supposed enchantment of his clothes.

• Queen Guenever

  Observes Hank's legs with naive interest, offering the only compliment he receives.

• King Arthur

  Presides over the court where Hank is condemned and stripped.

Key passages

• “He tied some metal mugs to a dog’s tail and turned him loose, and he tore around and around the place in a frenzy of fright, with all the other dogs bellowing after him and battering and crashing against everything that came in their way and making altogether a chaos of confusion and a most deafening din and turmoil; at which every man and woman of the multitude laughed till the tears flowed, and some fell out of their chairs and wallowed on the floor in ecstasy.”

  Sir Dinadan tied metal cups to a dog's tail, causing the dog to run wildly in panic while other dogs chased it, creating a loud and chaotic scene that made everyone laugh uncontrollably, with some even falling from their chairs.

  Hank observes the court's childlike amusement at a cruel practical joke.

• “He said the most of Sir Dinadan’s jokes were rotten and the rest were petrified. I said 'petrified' was good; as I believed, myself, that the only right way to classify the majestic ages of some of those jokes was by geologic periods.”

  The boy scoffed that most of Sir Dinadan's jokes were bad and the rest were ancient. Hank agreed, thinking that the jokes were so old they could be classified by geological eras.

  Hank and the boy critique the antiquity of Sir Dinadan's humor.

• “He spoke of me all the time, in the blandest way, as 'this prodigious giant,' and 'this horrible sky-towering monster,' and 'this tusked and taloned man-devouring ogre,' and everybody took in all this bosh in the naivest way, and never smiled or seemed to notice that there was any discrepancy between these watered statistics and me.”

  Sir Kay described Hank as a giant, monster, and ogre, and the court naively accepted these absurd exaggerations without noticing how they contradicted Hank's actual appearance.

  Hank notes the court's gullibility in accepting Sir Kay's fantastical tale.

• “In half a minute I was as naked as a pair of tongs! And dear, dear, to think of it: I was the only embarrassed person there. Everybody discussed me; and did it as unconcernedly as if I had been a cabbage.”

  Hank was quickly stripped naked, and he was the only one who felt embarrassed; the court discussed him casually as if he were an object.

  Hank's modern sense of modesty clashes with the court's lack of shame.