Evening star., 1933-12-03

queror's entrance and that he was quick-witted
enough to seize a handful of soil as he roSe
saying. Thus take this SOIL" No truth in the
story, says Lord Raglan. Incidents which
occur in tradition are never historical. and
conversely. historical facts never find their way
into tradition"
Tradition has story about old Calico and
his ordeal before 10 scarlet-clad cardinals
When the churchmen required Galileo to kneel
and recant his ridiculous notion that the earth
moves and is smaller than the great sun, old
Galileo-so tradition Says-roSe to his feet
mumbng, Nevertheless, it does move" Con-
temporary history mentions such remark.
Tradition is as unreliable about customs az
about characters You have seen the cross
legged ef11ges of knights sculptured o. medieval
Wmb6, Tradition says that the pose means
the knight went to Palestine to fight in the
Crusades.
But that popular explanation was queried
by an investigator, who made what you might
call q survey He found that some cross legged
knights lived and died after the Crusades we're
over. He found efhgies Of real Crusaders with
legs stuck straight out ahead of them. And
he found few efigies of women with crossed
legs.
Shakespeare's historical plays, based in many
Instances on tradition, deviate considerably from
historical facts, in Lord Raglan's estimation
The very existence of the merry Falstah Is to
be doubted Henry the Fifth was probably
never the madcap prince who played around
London with wild characters, and then on
ascending the throne promptly became an
earnest, forceful sovereign.
Prince Halls wild reputation is traced as far
back as its apparent debut in print about a
century after his death. The madcap prince
and his reform were described then in moral
ilng lesson book for princes. The book was
written for the benefit Of another Prince Hal
who was eventually to become Henry the
Eighth
c HAKESPEARE followed tradition when he
- ended his play, Antony and Cleopatra" by
having the Queen kill herself with an asp. No
one knows how Cleopatra died. There are
statements that her body after death showed
no signs of poisoning.
If you want to see tradition at work right
now shaping up good story, consider our
most familiar American tradition, the good old
tale OF George Washington and the cherry tree.
Parson Weems, who wrote it down after
Washington's death, claimed that he got the
story from an aged lady who as a girl visited
the Washingtons. AS Weems told the story,
George tried the edge of his hatchet on the
body of beautiful young English cherry tree
which he barked so terribly that the tree was
killed. AS every one today tells the story, little
George chopped down the cherry tree Perhaps
In another century the story will be that George
chopped down whole row of trees.
Tradition even creates characters that never
existed. Robin Hood, for example. 1t is pretty
well demonstrated by now that there was no
Robin Hood who lived in Sherwood Forest and
loved Maid Marian and robbed the rich to
give to the poor
Lord Raglan traces the origin Of long tradi-
tional narratives such as the William Tell
story, Robin Hood, the Trojan War, the Ice
landic sagaS, to ritual religious drama
Here are some of the peculiarities by which.
says Lord Raglan, you can distinguish a
dltlnal narrative from real history.
Characters often sing speak IN verse, a
thing which does not happen
The characters remain the same age Helen
OF Troy's love affairs last for 30 years, but In
Homer's narrative Helen is young and beautiful
to the end.
There is almost always a king and q,1esA IN