The Queen of the Air - Being a Study of the Greek Myths of Cloud and Storm by John Ruskin
page 36 of 152 (23%)
page 36 of 152 (23%)
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--not the strongest. Note how Shakespeare always leans on this. Of
Mortimer, in "changing hardiment with great Glendower": "Three times they breathed, and three times did they drink, Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood." And again, Hotspur, sending challenge to Prince Harry: "That none might draw short breath to-day But I and Harry Monmouth." Again, of Hamlet, before he receives his wound: "He's fat, and scant of breath." Again, Orlando in the wrestling: "Yes; I beseech your grace I am not yet well breathed." Now, of all the people that ever lived, the Greeks knew best what breath meant, both in exercise and in battle, and therefore the queen of the air becomes to them at once the queen of bodily strength in war; not mere brutal muscular strength,--that belongs to Ares,--but the strength of young lives passed in pure air and swift exercise,--Camilla's virginal force, that "flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main." 33. Now I will rapidly give you two or three instances of her direct agency in this function. First, when she wants to make Penelope bright and beautiful; and to do away with the signs of her waiting and her |
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