Chiff and Fipple Forums

Schandflöte. Kinda looks like a scotch pipe.

Wow. What a weird contraption. Was that really a thing?

If there was such an item my wife would be insisting I used it !.

According to posts circulating for the past year or so on FB this is a device used to punish a musician for not playing well. Since I read none of the languages in this posting I am only reporting what I have heard elsewhere.

benhall.1 wrote:Wow. What a weird contraption. Was that really a thing?

I've never seen it before, either. But I wouldn't be surprised; I see it as information, rather than merely the perverse whim of bored and creative hands: Back in the day when public punishment was common - emphasis on "public" - if you were illiterate or simply a fresh passerby you could in this instance know immediately what the offense was and, if you were so inclined, tailor your taunts accordingly. The Scold's Bridle would no doubt have served in much the same way. As such, they also served as very specific warnings to all who might qualify for a similar fate.

Note also that the punishment wasn't only shaming: there was light torture involved. The iron neck ring is fixed to the handheld part in such a way that if the arms dropped from fatigue, the ring would be at an angle that could press into the base of the skull, and I'm guessing it could bite down on the collarbones, too. Ouch. To me it looks as if there's some room for you to vary your torments so you won't get bored. Wickedly ingenious.

But we don't do that sort of thing anymore. Nowadays B&D's shifted to the private sector, where a Flute of Shame's a bit too campy even for the most tricked-out dungeon. Simple clamps are fine, thank you; much easier to clean, too.

Nanohedron wrote:The Scold's Bridle would no doubt have served in much the same way. As such, they also served as very specific warnings to all who might qualify for a similar fate.

Here’s a variation on the theme with both yokes depicted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrew%27s_fiddle

Ah, the good old Shrew's Fiddle. Only came across that for the first time recently in the TV drama series Jamestown. But the perp wasn't a woman as the name suggests, so one suspects that since they already had stocks, this was a punishment for all who said Too Much of the Wrong Thing to the Wrong People - but I don't remember what the guy's offense actually was. In any case, he was in pretty bad odor both figuratively and literally, because they kept him in it for days. Went looking for a screenshot but can't find one. It looked a lot like this, though:

Just noticed that behind the tandem Shrew's Fiddle, standing on the floor is another Shame Flute! How did I miss that?

This one's neck ring can pivot, which suggests some possibilities for customizing the punishment: free-pivoting for a kinder, gentler experience (such as it is), or if you're sadistic, set it at an exquisitely difficult angle and crank the bolt tight so it won't slip. I came to this possibility because here the neck ring does double duty as a base, which wouldn't work if you couldn't secure it.

Nanohedron wrote:How did I miss that?

I was wondering myself.......

Pretty sure I saw this in a tv show recently