BOOKS AND READING
BY HILDEGARDE HAWTHORNE
Red and White Roses
It was a remarkable century, this fighting fifteenth. It saw the discovery of printing by Gutenberg, for one thing. This occurred about 1450, but it not until 1474 that the first book was printed in England, by Caxton. You can find a short story about this Caxton in a volume called “Little Stories of England,” by Maude Barrows Dutton (American Book Co.), very agreeably told. The book contains other stories of this same period, all worth reading.
Another thing that happened during this century was the final overthrow of feudalism with the fall of the great Earl of Warwick, called “the King-Maker.” The superb and mighty earl was one of the most picturesque and arresting figures in English history. He kept a more than kingly state, and is said to have fed thirty thousand people at his table, his boast being that no one ever came hungry to his house without going away satisfied. He belonged to the York party, but deserted to the Lancastrians after a bitter quarrel with Edward IV, fought under Henry VI, who had been dethroned, and brought him back—only to die himself on the field before the victorious Edward.
This, too, was the time of Joan of Arc, who freed France from the English—one of the most wonderful women who ever lived. You will find Mark Twain's life of this young heroine interesting to read in connection with the English happenings, since England had to yield to her, though later, deserted by the king she had helped to become the real master of his country, the weak Charles VII of France, the English burned her at Rotten; and then, at the very end of the century, came the discovery of America!
Tn one of Henty’s books, “Both Sides the Border” (Scrihner’s), you will find a spirited account of the Welsh rebellions under the fourth Henry. Mortimer, Owen Glendower, and others of the famous Welsh leaders appear in the course of the story, which covers the reigns of both Henry IV and Henry V, for the Welsh trouble kept on for many years. Another book, written from the Welsh point of view and very anti-English, is by E. Everett Green, “Cambria’s Chieftain,” and is excellent reading, though a bit declamatory. It gives a good notion of the passionate feeling of the times, and many portraits of the famous men who lived in them,
Scott has written one of his best stories in the time of this reign of the fourth Henry, only his scene is Scotland. “The Fair Maid of Perth” tells of the feud between two great Highland clans, and of the struggles of the kind but ineffective Robert II of Scotland to rule his turbulent people. There is a clear picture of the conditions that prevailed over Scotland, and the story is an absorbing one, with its plots and counter-plots, the murder of the heir-apparent by his the Duke of Albany, the menace of England, and the efforts of the common people to make a living and keep from getting killed. Robert’s second son, James, is finally captured by the English, after the abdication of the old king. Another splendid story, this time by Charlotte Yonge, tells us all about this captivity, with the prince’s final escape to his own country, where he was crowned James I of Scotland. The book is called “The Caged Lion,” and you must surely get it.
A vivid picture of the reign of Henry IV is given in the two plays of Shakspere, with their constant changes of scene, their battles and commotions. But these may, perhaps, not appeal to you yet, though I ‘m sure you cannot help being interested in the play that tells the short and glorious story of Henry V, whom we have seen as the wild prince with his harum-scarum crowd of followers in the preceding plays, and now find a noble monarch, the last of the great race of knights, and the greatest English hero since the death of the Black Prince. Like this prince, Henry also won immense success in France, particularly in the battle of Agincourt, with which838
