MJB
Well-known member
Was the post in English? If yes, he's hoisted himself on his own petard [alert! French word!!!] :-O
The word pétard transferred to English some time ago, its use referring to a small bomb to blow in locked doors
, appearing in Hamlet (but only in the second Quarto in 1604), and so Will probably was aware of it for some time beforehand. The word's ancestry lies in Latin, from pedere (to break wind), but it was much more commonly appreciated in the slang form 'to fart' and so it may have been used as an intentional jokey pun:
"They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work,
For ’tis the sport to have the enginer
Hoist with his own petard; and ’t shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines
And blow them at the moon."
(An 'enginer' was a sapper)
MJB