Frowning judicially

      “Wot abaht the slaves, sir?” says bosun. “Them black devils is liable to cut their throats aht o’ spite if we sink her.”
       Ballantyne weighed this for a good two seconds, frowning judicially like Buggins Major undecided whether to thrash Juggins minor or set him a hundred lines of Virgil.


Flashman on the March, p.19, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, thrash.

Dreams of Spring

“Aha, but we'll have him presently, rari nantes in gurgite vasto,* and be damned to him!”

* Swimming dispersedly in the vasty deep. - Virgil


Flashman and the Tiger, p.114, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, Latin.

The monster Flashman

Flashmanum monstrum informe igens et horrendum…

 *The monster Flashman, shapeless, huge and horrible (adapted from Virgil’s description of Polyphemus).


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.70, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, monster.

Dooced appropriate

…for once I’d recognized his quotation — it had been framed on the wall of the hospital at Rugby, where I’d sobered up on that distant day when Arnold kicked me out . . . “Olim miminisse juvabit”,* and dooced appropriate, too, Seneca, if memory serves.


*It will be pleasant to remember former troubles — Virgil (not Seneca).


Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.63, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, troubles.

Thunderbird Two pilot?

“Fuit Illium,* if you know your Virgil, which you never did, blast you!”


*Troy has been (i.e., the reason for dispute no longer exists).



Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.39, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, Virgil.