as another manifestation of my nerdish tendencies, i was watching some history channel last night during a marathon veg session at home (along with a disturbing michael jackson documentary, high school reunion, simpsons, married with children reunion, clone high, mad tv reruns, real world...) and caught a little bit about a 17th century female opera singer who was evidently one of the finest fencers of her time, la maupin. being an even bigger nerd, i went to look her up, and DAMN this woman was colorful.

besides being tall and beautiful, la maupin had an amazing voice and memory which eventually led to a career in the opera after a convenient marriage arranged by her first lover, a count. her father had trained her in the use of swords and she learned even more through another lover of hers, a swordsman.

she had a habit of dressing like a man, and also the occasional habit of loving women:
"Having experienced the attentions of young ladies who at first mistook her for a man, she thought it would make a charming contrast for a virile woman such as herself to be seen around town with a young girl, and a blonde would show off her own dark coloring. Soon a beautiful young blonde, perhaps mistaking La Maupin for a man, demonstrated some infatuation for La Maupin, who reciprocated with ardor. The young lady's parents, not surprisingly, did not approve of the liaison, and quickly sent her into the Visitandines convent in Avignon in order to keep the two apart. Our heroine followed, entering the convent herself as a novitiate. Shortly thereafter, one of the nuns died. La Maupin disinterred the body of the deceased nun and, placing it in the bed of her beloved, set the room afire so that the two could flee in the ensuing confusion."
--Jim Burrows, http://home.attbi.com/~brons/Maupin/LaMaupin.html

whoa. so she got a death sentence, but eventually got out of it when a noble who loved her convinced the king to annull the death sentence. she became a professional duelist, skewered plenty of men, and had many, many more affairs with both men and women.

wow. what a character...and she wasn't even fictional.

* * *
"how did i come to this?
i dream myself a thousand times around the world
but i can't get out of this place"