Full of zeal and athirst for glory

…he was one of your play-up-and-fear-God paladins, full of zeal and athirst for glory, was John, and said his prayers and didn’t drink and thought women were either nuns or mothers.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.61, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,John Nicholson, paladin.

Greek heroes

I recognized the handwriting, and my heart gave a skip; when I opened it I got a turn, for it began, ‘To my beloved Hector,’ and I thought, by God she’s cheating on me, and has sent me the wrong letter by mistake. But in the second line was a reference to Achilles, and another to Ajax, so I understood she was just addressing me in terms which she accounted fitting for a martial paladin; she knew no better. It was a common custom at that time, in the more romantic females, to see their soldier husbands and sweethearts as Greek heroes, instead of the whore-mongering, drunken clowns most of them were. However, the Greek heroes were probably no better, so it was not far off the mark.


Flashman, p.170, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.



Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Ajax, Achilles, Hector.