217
Following a succesful hunting partnership, the Lion explains how the spoils are to be divided.
Aesop’s Fable of the Lion and the Wild Ass is the origin of the phrase ‘the lion’s share’, meaning the largest portion by far. The version below comes from Sir Roger L’Estrange’s ground-breaking collection of 1669, just as he wrote it. “People should have a care” he advised “how they Engage themselves in Partnerships with Men that are too Mighty for them, whether it be in Mony, Pleasure, or Bus’ness.”
Picture: © Greg Willis, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted August 25 2022
218
The English ‘Cato’ cautioned that sabre-rattling sanctions and other forms of coercion are never in the country’s economic interest.
The wisdom in the 1720s was that the Government and its wealthy partners should use their superior financial and military resources to shape global trade in the British interest; so they bribed, bullied and bombarded foreign lands and peoples into working for us instead of themselves. Wars spread, debts mounted, and ‘Cato’ wondered what happened to sane men when they joined the Cabinet.
Picture: © ken93110, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted August 23 2022
219
Roman statesman Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus was thrust out the City for his hardline politics, but he did not stay away for long.
The story of Gnaeus Marcius Corolianus tells of a Roman nobleman forced to choose between his own life and the wishes of his family. How much of it is legend remains a matter of debate, though historians seem satisfied that the background (it is set in the late 490s BC) is plausible enough. At any rate, William Shakespeare found the tale sufficiently appealing to turn it into a play, in about 1607-8.
Picture: By Heinrich Friedrich Füger (1751-1818), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted August 21 2022
220
Charles Dickens laments William the Conqueror’s brutal rampage through rebellious Durham and Yorkshire.
The Harrying of the North was William of Normandy’s rampage through the lands around Durham and York in the winter of 1069-70. Following victory over King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William was crowned King of England on Christmas Day that year, but the people of England, and their Viking friends in Ireland and across the North Sea, did not meekly acknowledge their new lord.
Picture: From the Bayeux Tapestry Museum, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted August 17 2022
221
At first, John Milton struggled to come to terms with the loss of his eyesight.
In 1649, John Milton (1608-74) was appointed Latin Secretary to the Council of State, a Parliamentary role accountable to Oliver Cromwell, the country’s military ruler following the execution of King Charles I that year. By 1655, Milton was losing his sight, and as his condition worsened he was tempted to complain that God was robbing him of any chance to continue serving him.
Picture: Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted August 16 2022
222
Three servants are engaged to invest their master’s money in the markets.
Jesus, now in Jerusalem, has been telling his disciples about the kingdom of heaven, perhaps better translated as ‘the reign of heaven’. He reminds them that this heavenly reign has begun and is getting wider, and that at some point in the future — he never says exactly when — God will require us to produce something to show for the errands he has sent us on, however small.
Picture: © A. N. Mironov, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted August 16 2022