Fors Clavigera (Volume 2 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great BritainRuskin, John
General
Fors Clavigera (Volume 2 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain
Ruskin, John
Aesthetics; Conduct of life; Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems; Working class -- Great Britain
And thirdly, the word 'Squire' means a Carver, properly a carver
at some one else's feast; and typically, has reference to the
Squire's duty as a Carver at all men's feasts, being Lord of Land,
and therefore giver of Food; in which function his lady, as you have
heard now often enough, (first from Carlyle,) is properly styled
Loaf-giver; her duty being, however, first of all to find out where
all loaves come from; for, quite retaining his character in the
other two respects, the typical squire is apt to fail in this, and to
become rather a loaf-eater, or consumer, than giver, (compare X. 4,
and X. 16); though even in that capacity the enlightened press of
your day thinks you cannot do without him. (VII. 17.) Therefore, for
analysis of what he has been, and may be, I have already specified to
you certain squires, whose history I wish you to know and think over;
(with many others in due course; but, for the present, those already
specified are enough,) namely, the Theseus of the Elgin Marbles and
Midsummer Night's Dream, (II. 3); the best and unfortunatest [31] of
the Kings of France, 'St. Louis' (III. 8); the best and unfortunatest
of the Kings of England, Henry II. (III. 9); the Lion-heart of
England (III. 11); Edward III. of England and his lion's whelp,
(IV. 14); again and again the two Second Friedrichs, of Germany and
Prussia; Sir John Hawkwood, (I. 6, and XV. 11); Sir Thomas More,
(VII. 4); Sir Francis Drake, (XIII. 11); and Sir Richard Grenville,
(IX. 11). Now all these squires are alike in their high quality of
captainship over man and beast; they were pre-eminently the best men
of their surrounding groups of men; and the guides of their people,
faithfully recognized for such; unless when their people got drunk,
(which sometimes happened, with sorrowful issue,) and all equality with
them seen to be divinely impossible. (Compare XIV. 7.) And that most
of them lived by thieving does not, under the conditions of their day,
in any wise detract from their virtue, or impair their delightfulness,
(any more than it does that of your, on the whole I suppose, favourite,
Englishman, and nomadic Squire of Sherwood, Robin Hode or Hood); the
theft, or piracy, as it might happen, being always effected with a good
conscience, and in an open, honourable, and merciful manner. Thus, in
the account of Sir Francis's third voyage, which was faithfully taken
out of the reports of Mr. Christofer Ceely, Ellis Hixon, and others
who were in the same voyage with him, by Philip Nichols, preacher,
revised and annotated by Sir Francis himself, and set forth by his
nephew, what I told you about his proceedings on the coast of Spanish
America (XIII. 12) is thus summed:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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