standing godfather

"Shakespeare, standing godfather to one of [Ben] Jonson’s children, and faced with the necessity of thinking of an appropriate christening gift, comes out of 'a deep study' inspired."

1. what is a "standing godfather" and how does it differ from just "a godfather"?

2. what does "comes out of 'a deep study' inspired" mean?



"'I’ll e’en give him a dozen good latten spoons,' he tells Ben, “and thou shalt translate them.' For modern readers this feeble jest requires a gloss: latten was a brass or brass-like alloy."

[Tdol]

standing = in his position as
deep study = he thaought about it carefully

what is the difference between "a standing godfather" and just "a godfather?"

what does it mean here:

-when i first came here, one of the guys punched me in the face.
-they do that to all the newcomers. they call it "standing godfather."

[Tdol]

I havent heard the expression and it isn't in www.onelook.com. I assumed in the Shakespeare example, it just menat that he was occupying the position of godfather. Maybe someone else here has heard the expression.

standing godfather is just another way to say he is the current godfather, comes out of 'a deep study' inspired means he contemplated or thought about it intensely and finally figured out a great gift to get the child. the word inspired suggests however that the idea was sudden rather than methodical.

[Tdol]

I agree, though if the decision was a dozen spoons, I wonder how deeply he considered the matter.

Originally Posted by xbisoubisoux

standing godfather is just another way to say he is the current godfather, comes out of 'a deep study' inspired means he contemplated or thought about it intensely and finally figured out a great gift to get the child. the word inspired suggests however that the idea was sudden rather than methodical.

thank you. what puzzles me is that a godfather is a godfather, there shouldn't be something like standing godfather or "sitting" godfather -). this might be that i'm just a stranger to the christening traditions. so please enlighten me: could somebody have more than one godfather or can there be different godfathers at diferent times of one's life?

Originally Posted by tdol

I havent heard the expression and it isn't in www.onelook.com. I assumed in the Shakespeare example, it just menat that he was occupying the position of godfather. Maybe someone else here has heard the expression.

after "deep study" i was "inspired" that it may be the custom habit of thugs to beat the newcomers to the gang and call it christening. "hey, i first punched you, so i'm your godfather from now on." only the meaning added to the sentence by the word "standing" eluded me.