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4 1 8 WRITERS

the baby in half with his sword, and then gave it to the woman who showed concern for its life: 'And all Israel heard of the judgement which the king had rendered; and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him, to render justice.' Anyone demonstrating great wisdom can be described as a Solomon.

I, who am all-powerful, I, whose loveliness is more than the loveliness of that Grecian Helen, of whom they used to sing, and whose wisdom is wider, ay, far more wide and deep than the wisdom of Solomon the Wise.

H. RIDER HAGGARD She, 1887

'All women are thus.' Kim spoke as might have Solomon. RUDYARD KIPLING Kim, 1900

Solon Solon (C.630-C.560 BC) was an Athenian statesman and lawgiver, noted for his economic, constitutional, and legal reforms. He was one of the supposed SEVEN SAGES OF GREECE. A wise statesman can be described as a Solon.

Are you Socrates or Solon, always right?

BARBARA MICHAELS The Wizard's Daughter, 1980

Thoth In Egyptian mythology, Thoth was the god of the moon, wisdom, writing, and the sciences. He is usually represented with the head of an ibis.

He was an important man. He wielded power: power of appointment, power of disappointment, power of the cheque book, power of Thoth and the Mercurial access to the Arcana of the Stant Collection.

A. s. BYATT Possession, 1990

Wise Men •See MAGI.

Writers

There are many writers covered in this book. For example, Kafka is included at Strangeness, Conan Doyle at Adventure, Orwell at Power, and Smiles at Thrift. The writers grouped below are those who have been regarded as archetypes of 'the great writer'.

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a philosopher and essayist, best known as the author of The Advancement of Learning (1605) and many essays. He is sometimes mentioned as an exemplar of a beautiful, often epigrammatic, English writing style.

For his orations convulsed his hearers and his contributions were excellent, being patriotic, classical, comical, or dramatic, but never sentimental. Jo regarded them as worthy of Bacon, Milton, or Shakespeare.

LOUISA M. ALCOTT Little Women, 1868

Dante Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was an Italian poet, born in Florence. His

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reputation as a major figure of world literature rests on his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy (c. 1309-20), an epic poem that relates his spiritual journey though Hell and Purgatory guided by the poet Virgil, and Paradise, guided by his beloved Beatrice.

We talk of literature as a trade, not of Homer, Dante, and Shakspeare.

CEORCE GissiNG New Grub Street, 1891

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (1737-94) w a s an English historian and author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88), generally regarded as a monumental work of literature as well as historical analysis. Ranging from the 2nd century AD to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Gibbon's work covers the founding of Christianity, the movement and settlement of the Teutonic tribes, the conquests of the Muslims, and the Crusades. The famous remark, 'Another damned, thick, square book! Always scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh! Mr Gibbon?' is usually attributed to the duke of Gloucester.

It is my ambition to out-Gibbon Mr Gibbon.

WILLIAM GOLDiNG Rites of Passage, 1980

Homer Homer (8th century BC) was a Greek epic poet, held to be the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, though it is probable that these were based on much older stories which had been passed on orally. According to tradition, he was blind. In later antiquity Homer was regarded as the greatest and unsurpassable poet.

Milton John Milton (1608-74) w a s a major English poet of the 17th century whose works include Lycidas (1638), Paradise Lost (1667), Paradise Regained

(1671), and Samson Agonistes (1671).

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) is chiefly remembered for his diary (1660-9) m which he vividly describes life in the early Restoration period and records such contemporary events as the Great Plague, the Fire of London, and the sailing of the Dutch fleet up the Thames.

Shakespeare William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the English dramatist and poet, is habitually cited as the epitome of the literary or theatrical genius.

The appointed day came. . . . Rampion presented himself. . . . Mrs Felpham tried to rise to the occasion. The village Shakespeare, it was obvious, must be interested

in the drama.

ALDOUS HUXLEY Point Counter Point, 1928

Youth

Most of the entries below are concerned not simply with the idea of being young, but with the ever-intriguing fantasies of having one's youth restored or being granted the gift of eternal youth. These stories contrast

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with some of those at the theme Old Age in which immortality is accompanied by perpetual aging.

Cagliostro Count Alessandro Cagliostro (1743-95), whose real name was Giuseppe Balsamo, was a charlatan and adventurer born in Palermo. He claimed to be able to grant everlasting youth to anyone who would pay him for his secret. Cagliostro was imprisoned for life by the Inquisition on the grounds of his association with freemasonry.

Marat has a family? I mean a mother and a father and the usual things? The ordinary arrangement, the cook said. Odd, really, I never thought of Marat having a beginning. I thought he was thousands and thousands of years old, like Cagliostro. Can I see him?

HILARY MANTEL A Place of Greater Safety, 1992

Dorian Cray In Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), Dorian is an extraordinarily handsome young man who remains youthful-looking while the portrait he has had painted ages on his behalf and reflects Dorian's inner moral corruption. A person who is described as a 'Dorian Gray' or who

is said to have 'a portrait in the attic' is someone who looks unnaturally young, especially if in addition they are suspected of having a somewhat dissipated lifestyle.

Attenborough has grown from a young man into an old one on television. At the same time, the natural history programme—a genre which he helped invent—has done a Dorian Cray. Infra-red, slo-mo, 'Starlight' cameras: with every year, the genre is fresher, more agile and has a bigger stash of tricks up its sleeve.

The Observer, 1998

Endymion In Greek mythology, Endymion was a young man of surpassing beauty, whom Zeus granted eternal sleep so that he would remain perpetually youthful. He was loved by the moon goddess Selene.

But your Endymion, your smooth, Smock-fac'd Boy . . . shall a Beauteous Dame

enjoy.

JOHN DRYDEN Juvenal Satires x, 1693

Hebe In Greek mythology, Hebe, the daughter of Zeus and Hera, was the goddess of youth. She had the power of restoring the aged to youth and beauty. Hebe attended on Hera and was the cup-bearer of the gods, in which role she was later succeeded by Ganymede. Her Roman name was Tuventus.

Girlhood just ripening into womanhood . . . Upon my word—a very Hebe!' ANNE BRONTË Tenant of Wildfell Hall, 1848

Peter Pan Peter Pan is the hero of J. M. Barrie's play of the same name (1904), a boy with magical powers who never grew up. He takes the Darling children on an adventure to Never-Never Land, where they encounter Captain Hook and his pirate gang. The term 'Peter Pan' can be applied to a man who never seems to grow older or who is immature.

Only Rainger would want to dance and skylark in the shadow of the prison door. He wasn't really wicked, he was Peter Pan. He simply could not cope with the responsibilities of the adult world, could not connect his actions in the drug trade with the human wreckage that floated in its wake, nor begin to comprehend why his light-

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hearted infidelities had brought his wife to the edge of serious mental disorder. RICHARD HALEY Thoroughfare of Stones, 1995

Britain's music industry was toasting more than the knighthood for Cliff Richard, the pop world's Peter Pan, following the release of figures yesterday which showed that sales have powered ahead by more than a fifth in the first six months of the year.

The Guardian, 1995

The computer games industry never grows up. This does not mean an idyllic Peter Pan-style childhood but rather a perpetual adolescence.

The Independent, 1998

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