The Copybook

Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.

949

From Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Most Unkindest Cut of All Clay Lane

Greek revolutionary Nikitarás gives his ungrateful men a sharp reminder of what really matters.

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950

From Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (1907), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Pandora’s Box Clay Lane

After being outwitted once too often, Zeus decides to spite Prometheus by ruining the race of men.

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951

© jimmyweee, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Cuthbert’s Cordon Clay Lane

A man steals a mother sparrow from her chick, but St Cuthbert isn’t going to let him get away with it.

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952

© Alexandru Baboş Albabos, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

Cuthbert and the Wry Face Clay Lane

A man who seems to have everything loses his good looks to a dreadful disease.

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953

© nottsexminer, Wikimeda Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Cuthbert and the Iron Grip Clay Lane

A boy goes bird-nesting in Cuthbert’s church, and finds himself all in a heap.

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954

© Nickolas Totkov, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Ring for Service Charles H. Ross

A cat belonging to a Carthusian monastery in Paris gets a free lunch, but who is exploiting whom?

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