The Junior Classics, Volume 4: Heroes and heroines of chivalry
General
The Junior Classics, Volume 4: Heroes and heroines of chivalry
Children's literature
Finally he was seized with one of the strangest whims that ever madman
stumbled on in this world, for it seemed to him right and necessary
that he himself should become a knight-errant, and ride through the
world to seek adventures and practise in person all that he had read
about the knights of old. Therefore he resolved that he would make a
name for himself by revenging the injuries of others, and courting all
manner of dangers and difficulties, until in the end he should be
rewarded for his valour in arms by the crown of some mighty
empire. And first of all he caused certain old rusty arms that
belonged to his great-grandfather, and had lain for many years
neglected and forgotten in a corner of his house, to be brought out
and well scoured. He fixed them up as well as he could, and then saw
that they had something wanting, for instead of a proper helmet they
had only a morion or headpiece, like a steel bonnet without any
visor. This his industry supplied, for he made a visor for his helmet
by patching and pasting certain papers together, and this pasteboard
fitted to the morion gave it all the appearance of a real helmet.
Then, to make sure that it was strong enough, he out with his sword
and gave it a blow or two, and with the very first blow he spoiled
that which had cost him a week to make. To make things better he
placed certain iron bars within it, and feeling sure it was now sound
and strong, he did not put it to a second trial.
He next examined his horse, who though he had nothing on him but skin
and bone, yet he seemed to him a better steed than Bucephalus, the
noble animal that carried Alexander the Great when he went to
battle. He spent four days inventing a name for his horse, saying to
himself that it was not fit that so famous a knight's horse, and so
good a beast, should want a known name. Therefore he tried to find a
name that should both give people some notion of what he had been
before he was the steed of a knight-errant, and also what he now was;
for, seeing that his lord and master was going to change his calling,
it was only right that his horse should have a new name, famous and
high-sounding, and worthy of his new position in life. And after
having chosen, made up, put aside, and thrown over any number of names
as not coming up to his idea, he finally hit upon Rozinante, a name in
his opinion sublime and well-sounding, expressing in a word what he
had been when he was a simple carriage horse, arid what was expected
of him in his new dignity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account