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HARE THE SEXUAL PROFLIGATE Nothing could be clearer about the hare than her sexual proclivities, as instanced by her fecundity. The Breviary is presenting the service for the Feast of the Purification (2/II) on this folio, and the ape is twisting the hare’s ears to make her read the Law of Moses in the Nocturnal Lesson--the line of text immediately above her head says “And she should abstain from a man’s bed” [“ac viri thoro abstineret”] in other words, “no sex,” for a number of days following childbirth, something the ape evidently feels she needs to read. (B.L. Yates Thompson MS 8, Winter Breviary of Renaud de Bar, fol. 291v.) Trivet 20 cm sq
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