The Argument Between Physicians and Lawyers

[fable]

In Florence, during the Renaissance, it came about that the physicians and attorneys were in dispute over who should take precedence in the many sacred and secular festivals and pageants of that festival-mad town. For all guildmembers took part in marching through the city; and the foremost, the richest and proudest, of course went first.

As arguments and arbitrations achieved nothing, the physicians and attorneys agreed to set up a committee that would abide by the time-old example of precedent. And in this, they were at once successful, and returned to their respective guilds bearing a message: let the physicians be first, and the attorneys, second.

How was such a conclusion reached, and so swiftly, their guild members asked. Simple, was the reply, once we looked at the precedents set by our community and other communities, since the beginnings of time. For it is apparent that the hangman always proceeds the thief on the way to the gallows; so, let the physicians proceed the attorneys, in all their festive rounds.

(That joke, believe it or not, actually appears in Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, published around 1600. I tried giving it a bit of period feel, since the translations these days are all venacular. Really liked how it hit at two stuffy professions at once. ) )

Nice

[sageridder]

Must be where the idea of lawyers chaseing ambulances came from.