Template:Did you know nominations/William of Blois (poet)

William of Blois (poet)

 * ... that the major themes represented in the 12th-century dramas written by William of Blois are guile, deception, lust and sexual scheming?
 * Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Robert Pakington

Created by Ealdgyth (talk). Self nominated at 21:52, 8 May 2013 (UTC).


 * Symbol question.svg Article size just squeaks in at 1533 B (276 words) readable prose size. Article creation date okay.  Hook length and interest okay, source offline but I checked an online excerpt and the gist of it is supported.  However, the article is lacking some basic biographical clarity.  In the first sentence it needs to say he was French.  It needs to link Calabria, and Maniaci too if there is an article about that.  The infobox has very little info; if there isn't more than that, maybe there shouldn't be one at all.  The categories need to be expanded, to include at least Category:French poets and maybe others similar to what Peter of Blois has.  Also consider using this journal article as a source: http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/content/L/CXCIX/487.extract.  It might have additional biographical information, and even the public extract has a couple of interesting bits, including the enfant terrible characterization of him and the "astonishing obscenity" of Comedy of Alda.   Wasted Time R (talk) 10:40, 9 May 2013 (UTC)
 * I already unsucessfully searched for a link to Maniaci (and it's alternate names) .. we don't have an article that fits the location. There is a Maniaci in Sicily, but Sicily isn't Calabria. I'm hesitant to say he's French because I don't have anything that calls him French. The fact that his brother's article says "French" isn't necessarily proof that either of them were French. I'll happily consider using the EHR article as a source, but I'm hesitant to overload the article with too much about the Alda because its not clear that William wrote the Alda. Welcome to obscure medieval historical figures, where little is known. Ealdgyth - Talk 11:42, 9 May 2013 (UTC)
 * I get that little is known, but the article does say "... who urged William to leave Italy and return to France." Since the article never had him in France in the first place, that's kind of strange.  Can you work in a mention that his name likely derives from Blois in France?  Wasted Time R (talk) 12:14, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
 * The Blois thing would be OR though (granted pretty obvious OR, but OR...). I can change "return to France" to  "go to France" but the source pretty clearly says that Peter was urging him to return to France. What we know of this guy is pretty much from his brother's letters, and the possibility of him writing the two works that are extant. (It's always possible that the missing work is not really missing .. that Peter, who gave it the title I relate in the article, got the title wrong and its one of hte other works or some other work entirely ...  that shows how little we know about him.) Ealdgyth - Talk 13:16, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
 * How about John D. Cotts, The Clerical Dilemma: Peter of Blois and Literate Culture in the Twelfth Century.  Page 19 says there is no documentary evidence that Peter was born in Blois, but Page 20 says that in any case he grew up in the Loire region with possible familial origins in Brittany.  That page also mentions William as his brother, so if Peter is clearly French, then so would be William.  It also says that William had "considerable education", which seems worth including in the article.  Pages 28 and 248 also add a little biographical detail about William's return from Sicily and that William was a Benedictine.  Wasted Time R (talk) 15:54, 12 May 2013 (UTC)
 * User:Srnec has very kindly found some more sources so hopefully this resolves your concerns? Ealdgyth - Talk 12:49, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes and no. The added information about the abbey is good (and I've added an inter-language link), but the unequivocal placement of him in Blois runs counter to what you have said and the Cotts source.  I've modified that and some other biographical bits from Cotts.  Let me know if you're okay with these changes.  Wasted Time R (talk) 11:31, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Looks fine to me. Sorry, real life has been insane the last few days. Ealdgyth - Talk 22:19, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Symbol confirmed.svg Then we're good to go. (No apologies necessary, I disappear from here for days at a time when reality beckons.)  Wasted Time R (talk) 01:28, 17 May 2013 (UTC)