A question! of history!

[desperance]

So I know Dorothy Dunnett had a bit of a Homer's-nodding-again approach to her historical research - today's faux pas is her reference to a thousand metres when first she means a thousand square metres, second I think it's a fairly unlikely figure for the sail of a galley, and third she's a hundred and fifty years too early for the metric system - but even so, I do not think she is confusing a historical figure with a recent Regency romance: so please, somebody tell me, who or what was meant by the Grand Sophy, pre-Heyer? The internet I find very reluctant to disclose this information...

Comments

[hunningham]

I think it's the same as Shah. Shakespeare refers the court of the Grand Sophy in Persia. Does that fit? (And you are so right - the internet does not want you to know this. It is a secret.)

[desperance]

Yup, that fits; thanks. (Where in Shakespeare does this come? I don't recognise it offhand...)

[hunningham]

And google helped me with this one - it's 12th night. And I had mis-remembered it - Shakespeare just says "the Sophy"

[desperance]

Aha! "They say he has been fencer to the Sophy"! But of course. I might even have remembered that - and it still wouldn't have helped me know who the Sophy was. I do love the internets, for they are very full of smart people...

[hunningham]

I think what I must have been remembering was not the play itself, but the notes in the Swan annotated edition. This is where I would have gotten the "Grand Sophy of Persia", whereupon my 15-year old mind went "Aha! Like Heyer" I think the internets is full of people who have read Georgette Heyer