The Copybook
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
Sir George MacMunn traces Kipling’s masterly handling of English and of storytelling to reading the King James Bible aloud.
In his biography of Rudyard Kipling, Sir George MacMunn drew attention to the impact on Kipling’s work, in prose as well as in verse, of the Authorized or ‘King James’ translation of the Bible, published in 1611 under King James VI and I. MacMunn reminds us that reading the King James Bible out aloud is one of the best and most proven ways for a writer to gain an appreciation of good English — and good stories.
The diplomat’s task is to see the best in other peoples, not to scold them for their failings.
François de Callières, a diplomat in the service of King Louis XIV of France, believed that those posted to overseas embassies should not only show but feel respect for their host country. Given the way that all of us now live in one another’s pockets through the internet, and our much-vaunted democratic government, everyone should heed his advice, for we are all diplomats now.
In 664, a council at Whitby decided to align the traditions of the Northumbrian Church with those of Rome and Constantinople.
In 634, monk Aidan established a monastery on the ‘holy island’ of Lindisfarne in Northumbria. Aidan taught King Oswiu’s chaplains the traditions of the monastery founded by Columba, an Irishman, on Iona in western Scotland; but Oswiu’s Queen came from Kent, and her chaplains kept the Roman ways brought by St Augustine to Canterbury. At last, Oswiu could stand the bickering no more.
Juliet complains that the man she loves has the wrong name, and the man she loves hears her doing it.
One night, Romeo Montague slips into a masked ball at the Capulet residence in Verona — chasing a girl as usual. There he meets Juliet, and Rosaline is forgotten. When he learns that Juliet is the daughter of his father’s sworn enemy, he rushes from the dance, and soon afterwards we find him in the garden, thinking furiously. Suddenly he sees a light at a window above: it seems Juliet has been thinking too.
John Gay reflects that in matters of friendship, quality is preferable to quantity.
This little Fable may look like one of Aesop’s ancient morality tales but it was composed by English poet and dramatist John Gay, remembered today for his Beggar’s Opera of 1728. Gay was one of those investors caught out by the South Sea Bubble, and discovered that in Georgian London being popular with the rich and famous was by no means a guarantee against hardship.
A destitute and friendless farmer, turned from the tradesman’s entrance, tries his luck at the front door.
This poem was composed by the Revd Mr Thomas Moss, minister of Brierley Hill and Trentham in Staffordshire, and included in a collection of verses that he published anonymously in 1769. Admired for its pathos, the poem became a standard for children to memorise, in the hope of sowing the seeds of charitable feelings at an early age; consequently, it was also much parodied.