Gothic Bites 2024 2: George Colman the Younger

George Colman, the Younger, A Maid of the Moor, or the Water Fiends, 1797

By George Colman, the Younger

OK so the deal with this one is it's funny, but it can be hard to see that at first glance. It's a fairly cliched story of ghosts and evil spirits, but threaded throughout are arch jokes that honestly all kind of land.

One's racist, and unfortunately that doesn't really stop how funny it is in the context, alas. You'll know it when you get to the line about the moor -- "Moor" is an antiquated word for a Muslim person. You may have heard it in relation so Shakespeare's Othello.

The poem itself gallops along, tossing out its jokes every so often, before slamming into an ending that manages to be one more silly gag and an appropriately, if also cliched, sad ending to the tale.

Read it here