Margaret Mikulska:

>I'm not sure why this point is misunderstood.  Nowadays people believe
>that ius primae noctis was a historically documented medieval (and later)
>custom.  In reality, it did not exist (at least not as an accepted custom
>- certainly there were cases of upper class men abusing lower class women
>and girls); it was invented by the 18th-century French philosophes.  So
>in the 18th century at least the brighter people understood that it was
>a fiction, but a fiction invented and used to fight class inequality -
>something that is very well shown in Beaumarchais's play.  Of course Da
>Ponte makes us believe the custom existed, but he knew very well it was
>just a rhetorical device and he uses it as such.

I understand your point.  However, I'm now confused about why you object to
a Trump Tower Le Nozze.  Too real?  Too close to the bone?

Steve Schwartz