Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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1309

King Arthur’s Last Request

The legendary British warrior makes ready for his final journey, leaving Sir Bedivere with one last duty to perform.

‘The Passing of Arthur’ is the last of twelve poems forming ‘The Idylls of the King’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Mortally wounded in his victory over Mordred, Arthur now prepares to depart for the Isle of Avilion (Avalon), and has some last words of counsel for Sir Bedivere, the only surviving Knight of the Round Table.

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Picture: © Eric Jones, geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.

1310

The Last Days of Charles II

James calls Fr Huddleston to his brother’s deathbed, ready for a most delicate task.

As King, Charles II was officially the Head of the Church of England, an ever-so-modern, Protestant church. But like his father before him, and his brother James, his sympathies lay with the older Roman ways, and in 1685, lying in his bed at Whitehall Palace and facing his last hours on earth, he had an agonising decision to make.

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Picture: © Brian Robert Marshall, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.

1311

Bellerophon and the Chimera

The wronged hero vanquishes a dreadful monster with the help of a winged horse, but then it all goes to his head.

The detailed myth of Bellerophon comes from a variety of ancient sources, but the basic tale is found in Homer’s ‘Iliad’. It is a tale of the ‘pride that goeth before a fall’ (Proverbs 16:18), and has a starring role for that most noble of all mythological figures, Pegasus, the winged horse.

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Picture: © William Neuheisel, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.

1312

‘God Tempers the Wind to the Shorn Lamb’

Mary Mason could not forgive herself for a past misdeed.

Lady Mary Mason inherited Orley Farm from her husband, Joseph Mason of Groby Park, Yorkshire, who was forty-five years her senior and had a son of his own. A bitter, damaging court-case ensued. The Will was upheld, but later on Mary privately admitted she had forged it, and she never forgave herself.

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Picture: © Chris Paul, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.

1313

Jane Austen

The blushing clergyman’s daughter is recognised today as one of the great figures of English literature.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was not especially well-known in her own day, but has subsequently become recognised as one of the foremost novelists in English. Her dry wit, sparkling characters and radical themes have endeared her novels and herself to millions, not least Winston Churchill.

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Picture: © Neil Clifton, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.

1314

Turning the Tide

King Canute enacted a memorable demonstration of the limits of government power.

This famous story is regarded as a fable by many but it is a very early one, being already established only a century or so after the time of King Canute (Cnut), who reigned from 1016 to 1035. It is important to be clear that Canute was not trying to prove he could ‘turn back the tides’. He was trying to prove that he couldn’t.

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Picture: © David Dixon, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.