367
With King John dead and the threat of invasion fading, Philip Faulconbridge reflects that the danger within is always greater than the danger without.
At the end of William Shakespeare’s play The Life and Death of King John, written in about 1594-96, the King has just died an untimely death; with him has died the threat of a French invasion, and John’s heir Henry has returned home to England to assume the crown. Henry’s cousin Philip Faulconbridge heaves a sigh of relief, and draws an optimistic moral from all that has gone before.
Picture: By Charles A. Buchel (1872-1950), via the Victoria and Albert Museum and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted October 18 2021
368
Mr Gradgrind and a Government expert on education make sure that the children of Coketown have the right opinions about everything.
Mr Gradgrind is ready to hand Coketown’s model school over to zealous Mr M’Choakumchild, fresh from teacher-training. Present on this auspicious occasion is a gentleman from the Government, who believes that the purpose of education is to mass-produce identical batches of priggish little human vials filled to the brim with State-approved Facts, and empty of everything else.
Picture: © Ad Meskens, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted October 13 2021
369
A sophisticated City Mouse went to see his Country cousin, and pitied his simple fare.
Horace, a former military officer who was given a roving brief in the government of Emperor Augustus, chafed under the anxious bustle and empty chatter of life in Rome, and yearned for a quiet talk over beans, greens and streaky bacon in his rural bolt-hole. A sympathetic neighbour was apt to launch into the following tale to humour him.
Picture: © David Dixon, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted October 6 2021
370
In Jim Baker’s considered opinion, the bluejay had a much better command of language than Mark Twain’s cats did.
While walking in the woods near Heidelberg, Mark Twain was subjected to a barrage of derisory comment by three ravens. Not that he pretended to understand their language, but he got the gist of it well enough. That set him thinking about talking animals, and remembering what grizzled Californian miner Jim Baker had once told him about the ravens’ cousin, the bluejay.
Picture: © Andy Reago and Chrissy McClarren, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted October 2 2021
371
In 917, King Edward embarked on a swashbuckling tour of the midlands, and brought their towns under one crown for the first time in five hundred years.
In 917, King Edward the Elder, successor of Alfred, King of Wessex, summoned his royal troops and began a campaign to secure the loyalty of towns beyond his father’s realm, many of which had long been under Viking control. He broke first the power of Northampton and Huntingdon, followed by Colchester and Cambridge; and then it seemed as if all England opened up before him, flower-like.
Picture: From Royal MS 14 B VI, via the British Library and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted October 1 2021
372
In a lonely castle upon a remote island, Sir Lancelot’s wanderings brought him once more into the presence of the elusive cup of Christ’s blood.
Sir Lancelot has been searching many years for the Sangreal, the Holy Grail or cup which Christ gave to his Apostles at the Last Supper. Now he has taken ship and sailed many seas, and come at last to a lonely isle, and a castle kept only by lions as door-wardens. Entering within, he finds a brightly lit chamber, filled with heavenly song, and prays fervently to Jesus: “Show me something of that I seek!”
Picture: By Andrey Rublev (?-?1430), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted August 24 2021