Thousand and One Nights - Son and Ogress - 8

The King's Son and the Ogress

Quoth Douban, "It contains things without number: the least of its secret virtues is that if, when thou hast cut off my head, thou open the book, turn over six leaves and read three lines of the left-hand page, my head will speak and answer whatever questions thou shalt ask it." At this the King marvelled greatly and shook with delight and said, "O physician, will thy head indeed speak to me, after it is cut off?" And he answered, "Yes, O King." Quoth the King, "This is indeed wonderful!" And sent him under guard to his house, where Douban spent the remainder of the day in setting his affairs in order. Next day, the amirs and viziers and chamberlains and all the great officers and notables of the kingdom came to the court, and the presence chamber was like a flower garden. Presently the physician entered, bearing an old book and a small pot full of powder; and sitting down, called for a dish. So they brought him a dish, and he poured the powder therein and levelled it. Then he said, "O King, take this book, but do not open it till my head has been cut off, placed on this dish and pressed down on the powder, when the blood will cease to flow: then open the book and do as I have enjoined thee." The King took the book and gave the signal to the headsman, who rose and struck off the physician's head and set it on the dish, pressing it down upon the powder, when the blood immediately ceased to flow, and the head unclosed its eyes and said, "Open the book, O King!" Younan opened the book and found the leaves stuck together; so he put his finger to his mouth and took of his spittle and loosened them therewith and turned over the pages in this manner, one after another, for the leaves would not come apart but with difficulty, till he came to the seventh page, but found nothing written thereon and said to the head, "O physician, there is nothing here."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Illiad by Homer.

More About This Book

From the Arab world: these stories date back to the Middle Ages.

Picture: Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryār.

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Lays of Ancient Rome - Lake Regulus - 18

The Battle of the Lake Regillus
by Thomas B. Macaulay

XXXV

So answered those strange horsemen,
And each couched low his spear;
And forthwith all the ranks of Rome
Were bold, and of good cheer:
And on the thirty armies
Came wonder and affright,
And Ardea wavered on the left,
And Cora on the right.
"Rome to the charge!" cried Aulus;
"The foe begins to yield!
Charge for the hearth of Vesta!
Charge for the Golden Shield!
Let no man stop to plunder,
But slay, and slay, and slay;
The gods who live forever
Are on our side to-day."

XXXVI

Then the fierce trumpet-flourish
From earth to heaven arose,
The kites know well the long stern swell
That bids the Romans close.
Then the good sword of Aulus
Was lifted up to slay;
Then, like a crag down Apennine,
Rushed Auster through the fray.
But under those strange horsemen
Still thicker lay the slain;
And after those strange horses
Black Auster toiled in vain.
Behind them Rome's long battle
Came rolling on the foe,
Ensigns dancing wild above,
Blades all in line below.
So comes the Po in flood-time
Upon the Celtic plain;
So comes the squall, blacker than night,
Upon the Adrian main.
Now, by our Sire Quirinus,
It was a goodly sight
To see the thirty standards
Swept down the tide of flight.
So flies the spray of Adria
When the black squall doth blow
So corn-sheaves in the flood-time
Spin down the whirling Po.
False Sextus to the mountains
Turned first his horse's head;
And fast fled Ferentinum,
And fast Lanuvium fled.
The horsemen of Nomentus
Spurred hard out of the fray;
The footmen of Velitræ
Threw shield and spear away.
And underfoot was trampled,
Amidst the mud and gore,
The banner of proud Tusculum,
That never stooped before:
And down went Flavius Faustus,
Who led his stately ranks
From where the apple blossoms wave
On Anio's echoing banks,
And Tullus of Arpinum,
Chief of the Volscian aids,
And Metius with the long fair curls,
The love of Anxur's maids,
And the white head of Vulso,
The great Arician seer,
And Nepos of Laurentum
The hunter of the deer;
And in the back false Sextus
Felt the good Roman steel,
And wriggling in the dust he died,
Like a worm beneath the wheel:
And fliers and pursuers
Were mingled in a mass;
And far away the battle
Went roaring through the pass.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.

More About This Book

This poem celebrates a desperate battle the early Romans had with their immediate neighbors. The Romans won only after the gods intervened. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.

Illustration: Photo of site of the battle. Lake was drained in the 4th. century B.C. Photo by Luiclemens at en.wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0.

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3 Kingdoms - Chapter Two - 18

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
by Luo Guanzhong

29
In the sixth lunar month, He Jin secretly sent someone to poison Empress Dong at her villa in Hejian. Her coffin was transported back to the capital, and laid to rest at the Wen Imperial tombs. Jin faked an illness, and did not attend the funeral. Colonel Director of Retainers Yuan Shao came in to see Jin, and said, "Zhang Rang and Duan Gui are spreading rumors. They are saying that you poisoned Empress Dong, and that you are plotting something major. If we do not seize this opportunity to kill the eunuchs, there will be a major catastrophe later on. In the past, Dou Wu wanted to kill them, but his secret plot was revealed, which then brought about his downfall. Right now, your allies within the military and civil bureaucracy are all stout and able men. If you were to pull out all of the stops, you could take control. You cannot let this opportune moment pass by." Jin replied, "We should discuss this more." One of his attendants secretly reported the conversation to Zhang Rang. Rang then relayed the information to He Miao, along with even more bribes. Miao went to Empress He, and said, "The supreme general has helped to establish a new ruler, but he has not showed any leniency. He seems bent on killing. Now he wants to kill the ten regular attendants for no reason. This is the path to chaos." The empress took his words to heart.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.

More About This Story

This is one of four great novels from China, published when it was the most highly civilization in the world. Map shows China at the time of this story.

Chapter Summary: Zhang Yide gets angry and whips the County Inspector; Royal uncle He plots the murder of the wretched eunuchs.

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This translation from Wikipedia. See license CC-BY-SA.

Wizard of Oz - Chapter Five - 10

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum

So, while they were walking through the forest, the Tin Woodman told the following story:

"I was born the son of a woodman who chopped down trees in the forest and sold the wood for a living. When I grew up, I too became a woodchopper, and after my father died I took care of my old mother as long as she lived. Then I made up my mind that instead of living alone I would marry, so that I might not become lonely.

"There was one of the Munchkin girls who was so beautiful that I soon grew to love her with all my heart. She, on her part, promised to marry me as soon as I could earn enough money to build a better house for her; so I set to work harder than ever. But the girl lived with an old woman who did not want her to marry anyone, for she was so lazy she wished the girl to remain with her and do the cooking and the housework. So the old woman went to the Wicked Witch of the East, and promised her two sheep and a cow if she would prevent the marriage. Thereupon the Wicked Witch enchanted my axe, and when I was chopping away at my best one day, for I was anxious to get the new house and my wife as soon as possible, the axe slipped all at once and cut off my left leg.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Romance of the Three Kingdoms the great Chinese novel from the Middle Ages.

Remember Judy Garland's breakout movie of 1939; why wasn't the rest of Baum's Oz books made into movies?

Illustrated: cover of the book's first edition in 1900.

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Innocents Abroad - Chapter Six - 6

by Mark Twain

As we came down through the town we encountered a squad of little donkeys ready saddled for use. The saddles were peculiar, to say the least. They consisted of a sort of saw-buck with a small mattress on it, and this furniture covered about half the donkey. There were no stirrups, but really such supports were not needed--to use such a saddle was the next thing to riding a dinner table--there was ample support clear out to one's knee joints. A pack of ragged Portuguese muleteers crowded around us, offering their beasts at half a dollar an hour--more rascality to the stranger, for the market price is sixteen cents. Half a dozen of us mounted the ungainly affairs and submitted to the indignity of making a ridiculous spectacle of ourselves through the principal streets of a town of 10,000 inhabitants.

We started. It was not a trot, a gallop, or a canter, but a stampede, and made up of all possible or conceivable gaits. No spurs were necessary. There was a muleteer to every donkey and a dozen volunteers beside, and they banged the donkeys with their goad sticks, and pricked them with their spikes, and shouted something that sounded like "Sekki-yah!" and kept up a din and a racket that was worse than Bedlam itself. These rascals were all on foot, but no matter, they were always up to time--they can outrun and outlast a donkey. Altogether, ours was a lively and a picturesque procession, and drew crowded audiences to the balconies wherever we went.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

More About This Book

This travelogue cemented this rising author's reputation when it was published in 1869.

Chapter Summary: Solid Information--A Fossil Community--Curious Ways and Customs
--Jesuit Humbuggery--Fantastic Pilgrimizing--Origin of the Russ Pavement
--Squaring Accounts with the Fossils--At Sea Again

Photo: Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) by Matthew Brady Feb. 7, 1871.

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The Three Musketeers - Chapter 40 - 2

by Alexandre Dumas

"Monseigneur," said d'Artagnan, "this was what happened to me--"

"Never mind, never mind!" resumed the cardinal, with a smile which indicated that he knew the story as well as he who wished to relate it. "You were recommended to Monsieur de Treville, were you not?"

"Yes, monseigneur; but in that unfortunate affair at Meung--"

"The letter was lost," replied his Eminence; "yes, I know that. But Monsieur de Treville is a skilled physiognomist, who knows men at first sight; and he placed you in the company of his brother-in-law, Monsieur Dessessart, leaving you to hope that one day or other you should enter the Musketeers."

"Monseigneur is correctly informed," said d'Artagnan.

"Since that time many things have happened to you. You were walking one day behind the Chartreux, when it would have been better if you had been elsewhere. Then you took with your friends a journey to the waters of Forges; they stopped on the road, but you continued yours. That is all very simple: you had business in England."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.

More About This Book

In this chapter, the hero finally meets the story's arch-villian, the Cardinal Richelieu. This French novel, written in 1844 has been the subject of numerous movies. The 2004 Disney poster advertises the latest.

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The Illiad - Book Two - 52

by Homer

Thus he prayed, but the son of Saturn would not fulfil his
prayer. He accepted the sacrifice, yet none the less increased
their toil continually. When they had done praying and sprinkling
the barley-meal upon the victim, they drew back its head, killed
it, and then flayed it. They cut out the thigh-bones, wrapped
them round in two layers of fat, and set pieces of raw meat on
the top of them. These they burned upon the split logs of
firewood, but they spitted the inward meats, and held them in the
flames to cook. When the thigh-bones were burned, and they had
tasted the inward meats, they cut the rest up small, put the
pieces upon spits, roasted them till they were done, and drew
them off; then, when they had finished their work and the feast
was ready, they ate it, and every man had his full share, so that
all were satisfied. As soon as they had had enough to eat and
drink, Nestor, knight of Gerene, began to speak. "King
Agamemnon," said he, "let us not stay talking here, nor be slack
in the work that heaven has put into our hands. Let the heralds
summon the people to gather at their several ships; we will then
go about among the host, that we may begin fighting at once."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.

More About This Book

From the earliest days of Ancient Greece, the author(s) of this poem were contemporaries of the writers of the Bible's Old Testament.

Summary of Second Book: Jove sends a lying dream to Agamemnon, who thereon calls the chiefs in assembly, and proposes to sound the mind of his
army--In the end they march to fight--Catalogue of the Achaean and Trojan forces.

Painting: The Wrath of Achilles by Michael Drolling, 1819.

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Thousand and One Nights - Son and Ogress - 7

The King's Son and the Ogress

Quoth the King, "What is the story of the crocodile?" "I cannot tell it," answered Douban, "and I in this case; but, God on thee, spare me, so may He spare thee!" And he wept sore. Then one of the King's chief officers rose and said, "O King, grant me this man's life, for we see not that he has committed any offence against thee nor that he has done aught but cure thee of thy disorder, which baffled the doctors and sages." "Ye know not why I put him to death," answered the King: "it is because I believe him to be a spy, who hath been suborned to kill me and came hither with that intent: and verily he who cured me by means of a handle held in my hand can easily poison me in like manner. If I spare him, he will infallibly destroy me: so needs must I kill him, and then I shall feel myself safe." When the physician was convinced that there was no hope for him, but that the King would indeed put him to death, he said to the latter, "O King, if thou must indeed kill me, grant me a respite, that I may go to my house and discharge my last duties and dispose of my medical books and give my people and friends directions for my burial. Among my books is one that is a rarity of rarities, and I will make thee a present of it, that thou mayst lay it up in thy treasury." "And what is in this book?" asked the King.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Illiad by Homer.

More About This Book

From the Arab world: these stories date back to the Middle Ages.

Picture: Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryār.

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Lays of Ancient Rome - Lake Regulus - 17

The Battle of the Lake Regillus
by Thomas B. Macaulay

XXXIII

And all who saw them trembled,
And pale grew every cheek;
And Aulus the Dictator
Scarce gathered voice to speak.
"Say by what name men call you?
What city is your home?
And wherefore ride ye in such guise
Before the ranks of Rome?"

XXXIV

"By many names men call us;
In many lands we dwell:
Well Samothracia knows us;
Cyrene knows us well.
Our house in gay Tarentum
Is hung each morn with flowers:
High o'er the masts of Syracuse
Our marble portal towers;
But by the proud Eurotas
Is our dear native home;
And for the right we come to fight
Before the ranks of Rome."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.

More About This Book

This poem celebrates a desperate battle the early Romans had with their immediate neighbors. The Romans won only after the gods intervened. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.

Illustration: Photo of site of the battle. Lake was drained in the 4th. century B.C. Photo by Luiclemens at en.wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0.

More information here:

Check the right column

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3 Kingdoms - Chapter Two - 17

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
by Luo Guanzhong

28
As the two of them continued their war of words, Zhang Rang and his colleagues urged both of them to return to their chambers. Empress He sent word day and night for He Jin to come to the palace; when he arrived, she told him what had happened. He Jin came out, and immediately convened a meeting with the three most senior ministers. He made them hold court in the early hours of the morning, and issue a statement saying that Empress Dowager Dong started out as the wife of a low-ranking noble, and hence should not permanently reside at the palace. It further stated that it would be best if she were relocated to Hejian, and that she would have a fixed number of days within which to leave the gates of the capital. They then sent someone to escort Empress Dong, while at the same time ordering the capital guards to surround general of fast cavalry Dong Chong's manor. They were to apprehend him, and take possession of his official government seal. Dong Chong understood the dire nature of the situation, and committed suicide in a rear hall. The military troops did not disperse until his family members held the funeral. When Zhang Rang and Duan Gui saw that Empress Dong's branch of the family had been nullified, they resorted to using bribes of gold and pearls to collude with He Jin's younger brother He Miao and his mother, the Lady of Wuyang. The stipulation was that sooner or later, they would meet with Empress Dowager He and put in a good word so that the eunuchs would be protected. Because of this, the ten regular attendants acquired a new benefactor.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.

More About This Story

This is one of four great novels from China, published when it was the most highly civilization in the world. Map shows China at the time of this story.

Chapter Summary: Zhang Yide gets angry and whips the County Inspector; Royal uncle He plots the murder of the wretched eunuchs.

More information here:

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This translation from Wikipedia. See license CC-BY-SA.

Wizard of Oz - Chapter Five - 9

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum

"I don't know enough," replied the Scarecrow cheerfully. "My head is stuffed with straw, you know, and that is why I am going to Oz to ask him for some brains."

"Oh, I see," said the Tin Woodman. "But, after all, brains are not the best things in the world."

"Have you any?" inquired the Scarecrow.

"No, my head is quite empty," answered the Woodman. "But once I had brains, and a heart also; so, having tried them both, I should much rather have a heart."

"And why is that?" asked the Scarecrow.

"I will tell you my story, and then you will know."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Romance of the Three Kingdoms the great Chinese novel from the Middle Ages.

Remember Judy Garland's breakout movie of 1939; why wasn't the rest of Baum's Oz books made into movies?

Illustrated: cover of the book's first edition in 1900.

More information here:

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Innocents Abroad - Chapter Six - 5

by Mark Twain

The great altar of the cathedral and also three or four minor ones are a perfect mass of gilt gimcracks and gingerbread. And they have a swarm of rusty, dusty, battered apostles standing around the filagree work, some on one leg and some with one eye out but a gamey look in the other, and some with two or three fingers gone, and some with not enough nose left to blow--all of them crippled and discouraged, and fitter subjects for the hospital than the cathedral.

The walls of the chancel are of porcelain, all pictured over with figures of almost life size, very elegantly wrought and dressed in the fanciful costumes of two centuries ago. The design was a history of something or somebody, but none of us were learned enough to read the story. The old father, reposing under a stone close by, dated 1686, might have told us if he could have risen. But he didn't.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

More About This Book

This travelogue cemented this rising author's reputation when it was published in 1869.

Chapter Summary: Solid Information--A Fossil Community--Curious Ways and Customs
--Jesuit Humbuggery--Fantastic Pilgrimizing--Origin of the Russ Pavement
--Squaring Accounts with the Fossils--At Sea Again

Photo: Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) by Matthew Brady Feb. 7, 1871.

More information here:

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The Three Musketeers - Chapter 40 - 1

by Alexandre Dumas

The cardinal leaned his elbow on his manuscript, his cheek upon his hand, and looked intently at the young man for a moment. No one had a more searching eye than the Cardinal de Richelieu, and d'Artagnan felt this glance run through his veins like a fever.

He however kept a good countenance, holding his hat in his hand and awaiting the good pleasure of his Eminence, without too much assurance, but also without too much humility.

"Monsieur," said the cardinal, "are you a d'Artagnan from Bearn?"

"Yes, monseigneur," replied the young man.

"There are several branches of the d'Artagnans at Tarbes and in its environs," said the cardinal; "to which do you belong?"

"I am the son of him who served in the Religious Wars under the great King Henry, the father of his gracious Majesty."

"That is well. It is you who set out seven or eight months ago from your country to seek your fortune in the capital?"

"Yes, monseigneur."

"You came through Meung, where something befell you. I don't very well know what, but still something."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.

More About This Book

In this chapter, the hero finally meets the story's arch-villian, the Cardinal Richelieu. This French novel, written in 1844 has been the subject of numerous movies. The 2004 Disney poster advertises the latest.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of this Series

The Illiad - Book Two - 51

by Homer

Thus he spoke, and the Achaeans roared applause. As when the
waves run high before the blast of the south wind and break on
some lofty headland, dashing against it and buffeting it without
ceasing, as the storms from every quarter drive them, even so did
the Achaeans rise and hurry in all directions to their ships.
There they lighted their fires at their tents and got dinner,
offering sacrifice every man to one or other of the gods, and
praying each one of them that he might live to come out of the
fight. Agamemnon, king of men, sacrificed a fat five-year-old
bull to the mighty son of Saturn, and invited the princes and
elders of his host. First he asked Nestor and King Idomeneus,
then the two Ajaxes and the son of Tydeus, and sixthly Ulysses,
peer of gods in counsel; but Menelaus came of his own accord, for
he knew how busy his brother then was. They stood round the bull
with the barley-meal in their hands, and Agamemnon prayed,
saying, "Jove, most glorious, supreme, that dwellest in heaven,
and ridest upon the storm-cloud, grant that the sun may not go
down, nor the night fall, till the palace of Priam is laid low,
and its gates are consumed with fire. Grant that my sword may
pierce the shirt of Hector about his heart, and that full many of
his comrades may bite the dust as they fall dying round him."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.

More About This Book

From the earliest days of Ancient Greece, the author(s) of this poem were contemporaries of the writers of the Bible's Old Testament.

Summary of Second Book: Jove sends a lying dream to Agamemnon, who thereon calls the chiefs in assembly, and proposes to sound the mind of his
army--In the end they march to fight--Catalogue of the Achaean and Trojan forces.

Painting: The Wrath of Achilles by Michael Drolling, 1819.

More information here:

Check the right column

More of This Series

Thousand and One Nights - Son and Ogress - 6

The King's Son and the Ogress.

When the physician saw that the King was irrevocably resolved to kill him, he wept and lamented the good he had done to the undeserving, blaming himself for having sown in an ungrateful soil and repeating the following verses:

Maimouneh has no wit to guide her by, Although her sire among the
wise ranks high.
The man, who has no sense to rule his steps, Slips, he the ground
he treads on wet or dry.

Then the swordbearer came forward and bandaged his eyes and baring his sword, said to the King, "Have I thy leave to strike?" Whereupon the physician wept and said, "Spare me, so God may spare thee: and kill me not, lest God kill thee!" And he recited the following verses:

I acted in good faith and they betrayed: I came to nought: They
prospered, whilst my loyalty brought me to evil case.
If that I live, I will to none good counsel give again: And if I
die, good counsellors be curst of every race!

And he said to the King, "Is this my reward from thee? Thou givest me the crocodile's recompense."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Illiad by Homer.

More About This Book

From the Arab world: these stories date back to the Middle Ages.

Picture: Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryār.

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Lays of Ancient Rome - Lake Regulus - 16

The Battle of the Lake Regillus
by Thomas B. Macaulay

XXXI

And Aulus the Dictator
Stroked Auster's raven mane,
With heed he looked unto the girths,
With heed unto the rein.
"Now bear me well, black Auster,
Into yon thick array;
And thou and I will have revenge
For thy good lord this day."

XXXII

So spake he; and was buckling
Tighter black Auster's band,
When he was aware of a princely pair
That rode at his right hand.
So like they were, no mortal
Might one from other know:
White as snow their armor was:
Their steeds were white as snow.
Never on earthly anvil
Did such rare armor gleam;
And never did such gallant steeds
Drink of an earthly stream.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.

More About This Book

This poem celebrates a desperate battle the early Romans had with their immediate neighbors. The Romans won only after the gods intervened. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.

Illustration: Photo of site of the battle. Lake was drained in the 4th. century B.C. Photo by Luiclemens at en.wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0.

More information here:

Check the right column

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3 Kingdoms - Chapter Two - 16

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
by Luo Guanzhong

26
The following day, the empress dowager ordered that He Jin be made chief of staff. All of her other people were also given official posts. Empress Dowager Dong summoned Zhang Rang to her chambers to discuss the matter. She said, "At first, I helped to advance He Jin's younger sister. Now that her son has become emperor, all of the ministers from inside and outside of the palace are her trusted confidents. She has too much power; what should I do?" Rang addressed her, saying, "You could personally take over the running of the government. You could make Prince Xie the emperor, and rule on his behalf from behind a curtain. You could then place your brother Dong Chong in a powerful post, and put him in charge of the military. If you assign me and my colleagues to important positions, you will be able to accomplish great things."

27
Empress Dowager Dong was overjoyed. The following day at court, Empress Dowager Dong handed down a decree which made Prince Xie the Prince of Chenliu. Dong Chong was made general of fast cavalry. Zhang Rang and his colleagues were all granted administrative powers to run the government. Empress Dowager He saw that Empress Dowager Dong was monopolizing power, so she organized a banquet within the palace, and requested that Empress Dowager Dong attend. After a few cups of wine, Empress Dowager He stood up, wine cup in hand, and bowed twice, saying, "We're just women after all. It is not appropriate for us to participate in the running of the government. In the past, Empress Lü was given power and as a result, a thousand people of the same clan were killed. We should dwell behind the cloistered walls of the palace. Major affairs of state should be delegated to senior ministers, who consult with each other on their own. This is a good thing for the nation, do you really want to personally run things?" Empress Dowager Dong flew into a rage, saying, "It was you who poisoned Consort Wang out of spite and jealousy. It is only because your son is the emperor, and the mighty He Jin is your brother, that you dare speak such non-sense! I could command the general of fast cavalry to cut off your brother's head with a wave of my hand!" Empress He also responded in anger, saying, "I was using friendly words when I gave you advice, why do you respond with such anger?" Empress Dong said, "You come from a low-class family of meat butchers and wine sellers, what do you know about anything!"

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.

More About This Story

This is one of four great novels from China, published when it was the most highly civilization in the world. Map shows China at the time of this story.

Chapter Summary: Zhang Yide gets angry and whips the County Inspector; Royal uncle He plots the murder of the wretched eunuchs. .

More information here:

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This translation from Wikipedia. See license CC-BY-SA.

Wizard of Oz - Chapter Five - 8

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum

It was a bit of good luck to have their new comrade join the party, for soon after they had begun their journey again they came to a place where the trees and branches grew so thick over the road that the travelers could not pass. But the Tin Woodman set to work with his axe and chopped so well that soon he cleared a passage for the entire party.

Dorothy was thinking so earnestly as they walked along that she did not notice when the Scarecrow stumbled into a hole and rolled over to the side of the road. Indeed he was obliged to call to her to help him up again.

"Why didn't you walk around the hole?" asked the Tin Woodman.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Romance of the Three Kingdoms the great Chinese novel from the Middle Ages.

Remember Judy Garland's breakout movie of 1939; why wasn't the rest of Baum's Oz books made into movies?

Illustrated: cover of the book's first edition in 1900.

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Innocents Abroad - Chapter Six - 4

by Mark Twain

It is in communities like this that Jesuit humbuggery flourishes. We visited a Jesuit cathedral nearly two hundred years old and found in it a piece of the veritable cross upon which our Saviour was crucified. It was polished and hard, and in as excellent a state of preservation as if the dread tragedy on Calvary had occurred yesterday instead of eighteen centuries ago. But these confiding people believe in that piece of wood unhesitatingly.

In a chapel of the cathedral is an altar with facings of solid silver—at least they call it so, and I think myself it would go a couple of hundred to the ton (to speak after the fashion of the silver miners)--and before it is kept forever burning a small lamp. A devout lady who died, left money and contracted for unlimited masses for the repose of her soul, and also stipulated that this lamp should be kept lighted always, day and night. She did all this before she died, you understand. It is a very small lamp and a very dim one, and it could not work her much damage, I think, if it went out altogether.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

More About This Book

This travelogue cemented this rising author's reputation when it was published in 1869.

Chapter Summary: Solid Information--A Fossil Community--Curious Ways and Customs
--Jesuit Humbuggery--Fantastic Pilgrimizing--Origin of the Russ Pavement
--Squaring Accounts with the Fossils--At Sea Again

Photo: Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) by Matthew Brady Feb. 7, 1871.

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The Three Musketeers - End of Chapter 39

by Alexandre Dumas

The usher returned and made a sign to d'Artagnan to follow him. It appeared to the young man that the Guards, on seeing him depart, chuckled among themselves.

He traversed a corridor, crossed a grand saloon, entered a library, and found himself in the presence of a man seated at a desk and writing.

The usher introduced him, and retired without speaking a word. D'Artagnan remained standing and examined this man.

D'Artagnan at first believed that he had to do with some judge examining his papers; but he perceived that the man at the desk wrote, or rather corrected, lines of unequal length, scanning the words on his fingers. He saw then that he was with a poet. At the end of an instant the poet closed his manuscript, upon the cover of which was written "Mirame, a Tragedy in Five Acts," and raised his head.

D'Artagnan recognized the cardinal.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.

More About This Book

In this chapter, the hero finally meets the story's arch-villian, the Cardinal Richelieu. This French novel, written in 1844 has been the subject of numerous movies. The 2004 Disney poster advertises the latest.

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The Illiad - Book Two - 50

by Homer

And Agamemnon answered, "Nestor, you have again outdone the sons
of the Achaeans in counsel. Would, by Father Jove, Minerva, and
Apollo, that I had among them ten more such councillors, for the
city of King Priam would then soon fall beneath our hands, and we
should sack it. But the son of Saturn afflicts me with bootless
wranglings and strife. Achilles and I are quarrelling about this
girl, in which matter I was the first to offend; if we can be of
one mind again, the Trojans will not stave off destruction for a
day. Now, therefore, get your morning meal, that our hosts join
in fight. Whet well your spears; see well to the ordering of your
shields; give good feeds to your horses, and look your chariots
carefully over, that we may do battle the livelong day; for we
shall have no rest, not for a moment, till night falls to part
us. The bands that bear your shields shall be wet with the sweat
upon your shoulders, your hands shall weary upon your spears,
your horses shall steam in front of your chariots, and if I see
any man shirking the fight, or trying to keep out of it at the
ships, there shall be no help for him, but he shall be a prey to
dogs and vultures."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.

More About This Book

From the earliest days of Ancient Greece, the author(s) of this poem were contemporaries of the writers of the Bible's Old Testament.

Summary of Second Book: Jove sends a lying dream to Agamemnon, who thereon calls the chiefs in assembly, and proposes to sound the mind of his
army--In the end they march to fight--Catalogue of the Achaean and Trojan forces.

Painting: The Wrath of Achilles by Michael Drolling, 1819.

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Thousand and One Nights - Son and Ogress - 5

The King's Son and the Ogress.

When he had finished, the King said to him, "Dost thou know why I have sent for thee?" And the physician answered, "None knoweth the hidden things save God the Most High." Quoth the King, "I have sent for thee to kill thee and put an end to thy life." Douban wondered greatly at these words and said, "O King, wherefore wilt thou kill me and what offence have I committed?" "I am told," replied Younan, "that thou art a spy and comest to kill me, but I will kill thee first." Then he cried out to his swordbearer, saying, "Strike off the head of this traitor and rid us of his mischief!" "Spare me," said Douban; "so may God spare thee; and kill me not, lest God kill thee!" And he repeated these words to him, even as I did to thee, O Afrit, and thou wouldst not spare me, but persistedst in thine intent to put me to death. Then the King said to Douban, "Verily I shall not be secure except I kill thee: for thou curedst me by means of a handle I held in my hand, and I have no assurance but thou wilt kill me by means of perfumes or otherwise." "O King," said Douban, "is this my reward from thee? Thou returnest evil for good?" The King replied, "It boots not: thou must die and that without delay."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Illiad by Homer.

More About This Book

From the Arab world: these stories date back to the Middle Ages.

Picture: Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryār.

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Lays of Ancient Rome - Lake Regulus - 15

The Battle of the Lake Regillus
by Thomas B. Macaulay

XXIX

Fast, fast, with heels wild spurning,
The dark-gray charger fled:
He burst through ranks of fighting men,
He sprang o'er heaps of dead.
His bridle far out-streaming,
His flanks all blood and foam,
He sought the southern mountains,
The mountains of his home.
The pass was steep and rugged,
The wolves they howled and whined;
But he ran like a whirlwind up the pass,
And he left the wolves behind.
Through many a startled hamlet
Thundered his flying feet;
He rushed through the gate of Tusculum,
He rushed up the long white street;
He rushed by tower and temple,
And paused not from his race
Till he stood before his master's door
In the stately market-place.
And straightway round him gathered
A pale and trembling crowd,
And when they knew him, cries of rage
Brake forth, and wailing loud:
And women rent their tresses
For their great prince's fall;
And old men girt on their old swords,
And went to man the wall.

XXX

But, like a graven image,
Black Auster kept his place,
And ever wistfully he looked
Into his master's face.
The raven-mane that daily,
With pats and fond caresses,
The young Herminia washed and combed,
And twined in even tresses,
And decked with colored ribbons
From her own gay attire,
Hung sadly o'er her father's corpse
In carnage and in mire.
Forth with a shout sprang Titus,
And seized black Auster's rein.
Then Aulus sware a fearful oath,
And ran at him amain.
"The furies of thy brother
With me and mine abide,
If one of your accursed house
Upon black Auster ride!"
As on a Alpine watch-tower
From heaven comes down the flame,
Full on the neck of Titus
The blade of Aulus came:
And out the red blood spouted,
In a wide arch and tall,
As spouts a fountain in the court
Of some rich Capuan's hall.
The knees of all the Latines
Were loosened with dismay,
When dead, on dead Herminius,
The bravest Tarquin lay.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.

More About This Book

This poem celebrates a desperate battle the early Romans had with their immediate neighbors. The Romans won only after the gods intervened. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.

Illustration: Photo of site of the battle. Lake was drained in the 4th. century B.C. Photo by Luiclemens at en.wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0.

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3 Kingdoms - Chapter Two - 15

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
by Luo Guanzhong

24
After all of the officials had finished paying their respects, Yuan Shao entered the palace to capture Jian Shuo. Shuo panicked and ran out into the courtyard, where he was killed in the shade of the bushes by the attendant Guo Sheng. The palace guards that Shuo was in charge of all surrendered. Shao said to He Jin, "The eunuchs have formed a faction, and now we should seize the opportunity to kill them all." People like Zhang Rang understood the dire nature of the situation, and hurriedly ran into Empress He's chambers, saying, "It was only ever Jian Shuo who plotted to set up the supreme general. It had nothing to do with us. Now the general has listened to Yuan Shao's advice and wants to kill all of us. We beg our empress for mercy!" Empress He replied, "Don't you worry, I will protect you." She then sent a decree which ordered He Jin to enter her chambers. The empress dowager confided in him, "You and me, we're both from humble and lowly origins. If it weren't for Zhang Rang and the others, how could we possibly have attained this wealth and prestige? Jian Shuo has now acted ungraciously, and was killed for his misdeeds. How can you believe what people are saying, and want to kill all of the eunuchs?"

25
After He Jin heard her explanation, he went out and told everyone, "Jian Shuo has plotted my demise, and his entire family should be killed for it. It is not necessary to cause additional harm to any of the others." Yuan Shao said, "If you don't nip this in the bud, it will eventually be the death of you." Jin replied, "I have already made up my mind, say nothing further." After that, they all dispersed.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.

More About This Story

This is one of four great novels from China, published when it was the most highly civilization in the world. Map shows China at the time of this story.

Chapter Summary: Zhang Yide gets angry and whips the County Inspector; Royal uncle He plots the murder of the wretched eunuchs.

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This translation from Wikipedia. See license CC-BY-SA.

Wizard of Oz - Chapter Five - 7

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum

"Why, I guess so," Dorothy answered. "It would be as easy as to give the Scarecrow brains."

"True," the Tin Woodman returned. "So, if you will allow me to join your party, I will also go to the Emerald City and ask Oz to help me."

"Come along," said the Scarecrow heartily, and Dorothy added that she would be pleased to have his company. So the Tin Woodman shouldered his axe and they all passed through the forest until they came to the road that was paved with yellow brick.

The Tin Woodman had asked Dorothy to put the oil-can in her basket. "For," he said, "if I should get caught in the rain, and rust again, I would need the oil-can badly."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Romance of the Three Kingdoms the great Chinese novel from the Middle Ages.

Remember Judy Garland's breakout movie of 1939; why wasn't the rest of Baum's Oz books made into movies?

Illustrated: cover of the book's first edition in 1900.

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Innocents Abroad - Chapter Six - 3

by Mark Twain

There is not a wheelbarrow in the land--they carry everything on their heads, or on donkeys, or in a wicker-bodied cart, whose wheels are solid blocks of wood and whose axles turn with the wheel. There is not a modern plow in the islands or a threshing machine. All attempts to introduce them have failed. The good Catholic Portuguese crossed himself and prayed God to shield him from all blasphemous desire to know more than his father did before him. The climate is mild; they never have snow or ice, and I saw no chimneys in the town. The donkeys and the men, women, and children of a family all eat and sleep in the same room, and are unclean, are ravaged by vermin, and are truly happy. The people lie, and cheat the stranger, and are desperately ignorant, and have hardly any reverence for their dead. The latter trait shows how little better they are than the donkeys they eat and sleep with. The only well-dressed Portuguese in the camp are the half a dozen well-to-do families, the Jesuit priests, and the soldiers of the little garrison. The wages of a laborer are twenty to twenty-four cents a day, and those of a good mechanic about twice as much. They count it in reis at a thousand to the dollar, and this makes them rich and contented. Fine grapes used to grow in the islands, and an excellent wine was made and exported. But a disease killed all the vines fifteen years ago, and since that time no wine has been made. The islands being wholly of volcanic origin, the soil is necessarily very rich. Nearly every foot of ground is under cultivation, and two or three crops a year of each article are produced, but nothing is exported save a few oranges--chiefly to England. Nobody comes here, and nobody goes away. News is a thing unknown in Fayal. A thirst for it is a passion equally unknown. A Portuguese of average intelligence inquired if our civil war was over. Because, he said, somebody had told him it was—or at least it ran in his mind that somebody had told him something like that! And when a passenger gave an officer of the garrison copies of the Tribune, the Herald, and Times, he was surprised to find later news in them from Lisbon than he had just received by the little monthly steamer. He was told that it came by cable. He said he knew they had tried to lay a cable ten years ago, but it had been in his mind somehow that they hadn't succeeded!

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

More About This Book

This travelogue cemented this rising author's reputation when it was published in 1869.

Chapter Summary: Solid Information--A Fossil Community--Curious Ways and Customs
--Jesuit Humbuggery--Fantastic Pilgrimizing--Origin of the Russ Pavement
--Squaring Accounts with the Fossils--At Sea Again

Photo: Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) by Matthew Brady Feb. 7, 1871.

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Kim - End of Chapter One

Last week week we ended the first chapter of the novel Kim by Rudyard Kipling. You may read the rest of the book by either borrowing a copy from the library, downloading a copy from Gutenberg, or purchase from Amazon.


Next week we begin a selection from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.

---

Come back next week for the Three Muskateers. Tomorrow's installment from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.

More About This Book

Kipling's novel of India and the British empire, published in 1900. Illustration was done for the book by Kipling's father.

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The Illiad - Book Two - 49

by Homer

On this the Argives raised a shout, till the ships rang again
with the uproar. Nestor, knight of Gerene, then addressed them.
"Shame on you," he cried, "to stay talking here like children,
when you should fight like men. Where are our covenants now, and
where the oaths that we have taken? Shall our counsels be flung
into the fire, with our drink-offerings and the right hands of
fellowship wherein we have put our trust? We waste our time in
words, and for all our talking here shall be no further forward.
Stand, therefore, son of Atreus, by your own steadfast purpose;
lead the Argives on to battle, and leave this handful of men to
rot, who scheme, and scheme in vain, to get back to Argos ere
they have learned whether Jove be true or a liar. For the mighty
son of Saturn surely promised that we should succeed, when we
Argives set sail to bring death and destruction upon the Trojans.
He showed us favourable signs by flashing his lightning on our
right hands; therefore let none make haste to go till he has
first lain with the wife of some Trojan, and avenged the toil and
sorrow that he has suffered for the sake of Helen. Nevertheless,
if any man is in such haste to be at home again, let him lay his
hand to his ship that he may meet his doom in the sight of all.
But, O king, consider and give ear to my counsel, for the word
that I say may not be neglected lightly. Divide your men,
Agamemnon, into their several tribes and clans, that clans and
tribes may stand by and help one another. If you do this, and if
the Achaeans obey you, you will find out who, both chiefs and
peoples, are brave, and who are cowards; for they will vie
against the other. Thus you shall also learn whether it is
through the counsel of heaven or the cowardice of man that you
shall fail to take the town."

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow we wind up our selection from Kim by Rudyard Kipling and introduce our next classic.

More About This Book

From the earliest days of Ancient Greece, the author(s) of this poem were contemporaries of the writers of the Bible's Old Testament.

Summary of Second Book: Jove sends a lying dream to Agamemnon, who thereon calls the chiefs in assembly, and proposes to sound the mind of his
army--In the end they march to fight--Catalogue of the Achaean and Trojan forces.

Painting: The Wrath of Achilles by Michael Drolling, 1819.

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Thousand and One Nights - Son and Ogress - 4

The King's Son and the Ogress.

And also the following:

Avert thy face from trouble and from care And trust in God to
order thine affair.
Rejoice in happy fortune near at hand, In which thou shalt forget
the woes that were.
Full many a weary and a troublous thing Is, in its issue,
solaceful and fair.
God orders all according to His will: Oppose Him not in what He
doth prepare.

And these also:

Trust thine affairs to the Subtle, to God that knoweth all, And
rest at peace from the world, for nothing shall thee appal.
Know that the things of the world not, as thou wilt, befall, But
as the Great God orders, to whom all kings are thrall!

And lastly these:

Take heart and rejoice and forget thine every woe, For even the
wit of the wise is eaten away by care.
What shall thought-taking profit a helpless, powerless slave?
Leave it and be at peace in joy enduring fore'er!

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Illiad by Homer.

More About This Book

From the Arab world: these stories date back to the Middle Ages.

Picture: Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryār.

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Lays of Ancient Rome - Lake Regulus - 14

The Battle of the Lake Regillus
by Thomas B. Macaulay

XXVII

Mamilius spied Herminius,
And dashed across the way.
"Herminius! I have sought thee
Through many a bloody day.
One of us two, Herminius,
Shall never more go home.
I will lay on for Tusculum,
And lay thou on for Rome!"

XXVIII

All round them paused the battle,
While met in mortal fray
The Roman and the Tusculan,
The horses black and gray.
Herminius smote Mamilius
Through breast-plate and through breast,
And fast flowed out the purple blood
Over the purple vest.
Mamilius smote Herminius
Through head-piece and through head,
And side by side those chiefs of pride,
Together fell down dead.
Down fell they dead together
In a great lake of gore;
And still stood all who saw them fall
While men might count a score.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.

More About This Book

This poem celebrates a desperate battle the early Romans had with their immediate neighbors. The Romans won only after the gods intervened. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.

Illustration: Photo of site of the battle. Lake was drained in the 4th. century B.C. Photo by Luiclemens at en.wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0.

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3 Kingdoms - Chapter Two - 14

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
by Luo Guanzhong

22
Just as they were pondering their next move, Pan Yin arrived, and said, "The emperor is already dead. Today, Jian Shuo talked things over with the ten regular attendants; the death is to be kept secret so that they can forge an imperial edict which summons Uncle He to the palace. They would like to take care of any future repercussions, and they would like to hold a ceremony to make Prince Xie the new emperor."

23
He had not even finished speaking, when the order arrived for Jin to enter the palace as soon as possible so that a successor could be chosen. Cao said, "For now, the plan should be: first, choose the correct successor to the throne; next, deal with the traitors." Jin said, "Who is daring enough to join with me in choosing the correct successor and in prosecuting the traitors?" One man stood up and said, "I would like to ready five thousand elite troops, and we will fight our way into the palace. We will then put a new successor on the throne, and kill all of the wretched eunuchs. We shall sweep through the court until it is free of any impurities, and thus bring peace to the country!" Jin saw that it was the son of Minister over the Masses Yuan Feng, and the nephew of Yuan Wei. His surname was Yuan, and his given name was Shao; his style name was Benchu. He was currently serving as Colonel Director of Retainers. He Jin was overjoyed, and gave him five thousand men from the capital guard. Shao dressed himself in full-body armor. He Jin took more than thirty people with him, including such important ministers as He Yong, Xun You and Zheng Tai. They all filed into the palace, and in front of Emperor Ling's coffin, they helped Prince Bian onto the imperial throne.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.

More About This Story

This is one of four great novels from China, published when it was the most highly civilization in the world. Map shows China at the time of this story.

Chapter Summary: Zhang Yide gets angry and whips the County Inspector; Royal uncle He plots the murder of the wretched eunuchs.

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This translation from Wikipedia. See license CC-BY-SA.