Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
British School, ca. 1600, via the Royal Collection and Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
Hamlet cannot understand what his mother could possibly see in his uncle Claudius.
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© PaulTurner, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.
John Galsworthy shared his unease at the rise of two competing forms of national speech.
By Abid, son of Aqa Riza (fl. 1600s), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
The dazzling throne of the Mughal Emperors has vanished from history, but not before Abdul Hamid Lahori had seen it.
© Derek Bennett, Geograph. CC BY-SA 2.0.
John Galsworthy urges the English to love their language as they love their country.
By Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
A US Congressman tells the House why they mustn’t censor the press.
© Sandeep Nanu, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.
John Wood shares the wonder of the Indian cobra’s hood, in science and in myth.