A statue inscribed ‘Philip II, King of the Macedonians’ in Thessalonica, a city founded in about 315 BC by King Cassander of Macedon. At Philip’s death (see a map at Wikimedia Commons), Macedonia occupied what is now Western and Central Macedonia in northern Greece, and its capital was at Pella. A northwestern portion of the ancient kingdom around Lake Prespa now lies within Albania and the Republic of Northern Macedonia (Skopje), though the ‘Macedonian’ language and culture of the latter is Slavic, whereas ancient Macedonian was a form of Doric Greek.
Introduction
Like his famous son Alexander the Great, Philip II, King of Macedon (r. 359-336 BC) was a Philhellene who aspired to the manners and language of the cultivated Greeks; but there remained a barbarian side to Philip which showed in his seven wives and his bouts of drinking.
A WOMAN of foreign blood shouldered her way into the exalted company; though innocent, she had been judged guilty of some offence by King Philip when in his cups. She screamed her demand for an appeal, and when someone asked her to whom it was to be made, “To Philip” she replied, before adding “only sober”.*
She was engulfed in wine fumes from another of Philip’s capacious yawns, but wafting them aside she forced the drunk to look back carefully over her case, and bring in a fairer verdict. Thus she wrung from him the justice she had been unable to obtain before, getting a better return from lese-majesty than from innocence.
From the Latin
Based on ‘Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium,’ Bk 6 ch. 2 (ext) sect. 1, ed. Karl Friedrich Kempf (1888).
‘To appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober’ thus means to ask someone to reconsider something, with a wiser mind. When Eliza Frances Andrews looked back over her diary of the American Civil War fifty years after first writing it, she mused: “to edit oneself after the lapse of nearly half a century is like taking an appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober” (‘The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865’).
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Précis
A woman convicted of a crime she did not commit insisted on taking her appeal back to the inebriated judge who sentenced her, King Philip of Macedon. But she also insisted he examine her case sober, and stood over him until he gave it the proper attention and acquitted her — a victory for insubordination more than for innocence. (58 / 60 words)
A woman convicted of a crime she did not commit insisted on taking her appeal back to the inebriated judge who sentenced her, King Philip of Macedon. But she also insisted he examine her case sober, and stood over him until he gave it the proper attention and acquitted her — a victory for insubordination more than for innocence.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, because, besides, despite, just, must, ought, since.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Drink. His. Some.
2 Capacious. Look. Sober.
3 Better. Demand. Obtain.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
x
0
Add
Your Words ()
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