Medieval Mentality
The Land of Beer Abundance
It is told about this spring, or the water flowing from it, that it tastes exactly like ale and is very abundant. It is also said that if drunk to excess, it goes into one’s head.” […]
Clean
Greek and Roman
The Ugly Birth of All Things
Heaven rejoiced in his evil doing. But vast Earth groaned within, being straitened, and she made the element of grey flint and shaped a great sickle, and told her plan to her dear sons. […]
Britons and Celts
An Elizabethan Bully
“One time at a tavern Sir Walter Raleigh beat him and sealed up his mouth (i.e. his upper and nether beard) with hard wax.” […]
Human Affairs
In the Belly of the Metaphorical Whale
“At this time an old woman came in and dressed my wound. Then the neighbours began to take off the bandages. They rejoiced when they saw that I had recovered my senses and began to laugh over my misfortunes while I, as the sinner, mourned over them.” […]
Greek and Roman
The Prettiest Barbarian
“They bestowed the kingdom of the Visigoths on Athavulf his kinsman, a man of imposing beauty and great spirit; for though not tall of stature, he was distinguished for beauty of face and form.” […]
Greek and Roman
The Clothes Make the Man
“The King ordained that his dress, for the time to come, should he of a different texture and colour; one side to be composed of the most ordinary materials, and the other of the most valuable : so that when he looked upon the baser portion, his pride might be abated, and the vicious propensities, in which he had indulged, relinquished; on the other hand, when he surveyed the more gorgeous part, his hopes might be raised, and his spirit animated to goodness.” […]
Greek and Roman
Night, Whom Even the Deathless Gods Fear
“And there, all in their order, are the sources and ends of gloomy earth and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea and starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor.” […]
Britons and Celts
The Beauty of a Giant
“Sir Walter Raleigh ordered him to carry up the first dish at dinner, where the queen beheld him with admiration, as if a beautiful young giant had stalked in with the service.” […]
Humor
The Chains of Etiquette
“You are only a boy,” he replied, “and cannot understand the things appertaining to honor in which, at the present time, is all the wealth of respectable people. You must remember that I am, as you know, an esquire. I swear to God that if I met a count in the street and he did not salute me, I would not salute him if I met him again.” […]
Greek and Roman
The Paradise of Fools
“The fools, of course, believing it to be Paradise, while they themselves were the chosen and happy possessors of the land, gave not another thought to the future. The consequence was that, one night, finding them asleep, the magician cut them off; and thus, through the instrumentality of a factitious Eden, perpetrated the foulest enormities.” […]