McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1883-09-27
Pretty Tales Devoid OF Truth.

to-day celebrate the festive ceremony
connected with the name of Lady Go
diva, ought to be little disturbed by a
bombshell cast into their midst in the
shape of a letter which we publish,
mercilessly assailing their favorite ira.
dition. The legend of Lady Godiva
has already received some severe treat
ment at the hands of Mr.. Freeman :;
and now ga Lineal Descendant of
Leofric and Godiva" selects the occa-
sion of the Coventry procession as an
opportunity for demolishing the story.
The good people of Coventry, by way
of keeping green the memory of their
benefactress, employ a lady to ride
through their town attired Sin flesh
ings." Whether this attire is decent or
such as "would not be tolerated upon
the English stage" is alien to the ques-
ton of historical accuracy, although a
lineal descendant of Lady Godiva may
be pardoned for referring even to the
subject of decorum with some warmth.
Our correspondent goes through the
agOniZing process of showing in detail
that the procession which is to take
place to-day has no origin in fact, but
only in the fertile brains of chroniclers.
The earliest chronicles, he says, are
silent about the fabulous ride; and it
makes its first appearance in quite
different form from that which it has
assumed in later times. The populace
of Coventry, so far from being notified
to keep house, as MIR. Tennyson sings
and tradition now relates, were assem-
bled to view the spectacle: so that the
Glow churl, compact of chankless
earth, who paid for his treachery by
the loss of his eyesight, must be
accounted mythical.
But even these early versions, it
seems, are fabulous. Our correspond
ent admits Lady Godiva; but he disal-
lows Coventry in those days. There
was no town which Lady Godiva could
have ridden, or anything pertaining to
town, save, perhaps, the cluster of
houses which may have grown up
around the abbey completed in 1912 by
her devoted husband, Earl Leofric.
The beautiful and virtuous Godiva en-
dowed this abbey with all her wealth,
in such wise that she fairly "denuded
herself of all her personal property"
If these last words are to be taken as
indicating the origin of the modern tale
of Lady Godiva and the ''grim Earl"
her husband, number Of instances
suggest themselves III which metaphor
has been the parent of myth. Leaving
aside familiar examples drawn from
classical mythology, we may recall the
story of the yacht-ownlng peer who was
reported to have been so enraged with
a presumptuous aspirant to the hand
of his pretty daughter that he threw
him out of his yacht; a report which
proved to be a development of the per-
fectly true statement that he ''threw
him over" AT all events, the legend
does not appear able to stand the pom
derous criticism of our correspondent,
who breaks his historical butterfly upon
the wheel in the true spirit of Niebuhr
flaying Livy, or a Bentley demolishing
the Epistles of Phalaris.
The pretty tale of Godiva, we fear,
must be added to the list of those which
have fallen victims to the modern spirit
of skepticism and critical investigation.
One by one the romantic chapters of
history, those which used to enchain
childish fancy, and form the landmarks
of childish knowledge, are being lost to
us forever, except as by-words of cred
uIous ignorance. Once they were long
established beliefs which no one
dreamed of assailing; they were en-
shrned in the pages of Mangnall and
revered accordingly. To those persons,
be they of Coventry or any other
place, who bewail an assault upon Il
favorite legend, the only consolation to
be offered is that, in Homeric phrase,
many and better traditions have died
ere this one. The kings of Rome per-
ished a long time ago by the pen of
Niebuhr, andthey have been killed over
and over again since the great his
torian's time. Homer has not exactly
forfeited all claim to an individual ex-
istence under the attacks of Wolf and
his followers, but he has been sadly
compromised. Esop has not escaped,
for it is now the fashion to maintain
that there never was such q person, but
that he only afforded convenient
name under which to group the COM
posers of ancient fable IN general,
although, by curious piece of irony,
Sir George Cronewall Lewis, one of
the greatest of historical skeptics, edi-
ted a spurious collection of Esopic
fables, palmed off on the world by an
impudent modern Greek, as if Esop
were genuine parsonage, and these
fables were the genuine production of
Esop. To come to more modern times,
the current story of Joan of Arc has
been dozen times refuted and as often
reasserted. The historical career of
William Tell is indeed melancholy, for
he has been found out by the critics, in