The story of Alexander by Robert Steele
When I promised some months ago to tell you a fairy story, I did not remember that most of them have been so well told by my friend Mr. Jacobs, and others, that it would be difficult to find any fresh ones worth telling you.
Then I remembered that there was a time, hundreds of years ago, when folk here in England were fond of hearing and telling stories, and when, in the long winter evenings, people gathered round the castle fire in the great hall, lord and lady, squires and dames, pages, varlets, children, even the dogs, all of them listen- ing to the old chaplain who read them a never-ending tale of a brave knight and a wicked enchanter; or, better still, to a travelling tale-teller who brought the last story from France and Italy. "Now," thought 7, "the tales that pleased these folk so well would perhaps suit young people of today.'
For the men who lived then were large-hearted and simple-souled, and if it is true, as our great English poet said, " Men are but children of a larger growth " and it was true of that time perhaps the vii stories of the men of those days would still have the power to please the children of ours. Well, I began to turn over some of those big books you have seen in my room and to read their stories again to choose one for you, and the first story I read was The History of Alexander the Great.
You must not be frightened about the tale, however; there are no dates and summaries at the ends of the chapters to learn, and, though I believe every word of it myself, I am afraid that if you were to put some of it in your examination paper on Greek History, the mistress who marked it would be annoyed, and I am certain that you will not find the pictures like those of the Greeks in your other books.
This is only a tale, and the Alexander and Darius, the Greeks and the Jews, it tells about, are not the ones you have read of, but different people with the same names. The reason for choosing the story of Alexander to tell you is this: it was the earliest and one of the most interesting of the stories of the Middle Ages.
Everyone liked it, everyone knew something about it, and everyone told it his own way. Even the animals (in a tale of Reynard the Fox) liked it, and one of them told it to the lion. All the English poets of those days knew and loved it. If, then, you could read any of the Middle Ages tales, you could read this one. So you must now fancy that times are changed; you are sitting in some great castle hall, and all the people around you are in dresses like those that Mr Mason has drawn for you; perhaps you are sitting on a throne like the queen in the picture, and I am sitting on the stool before you, and I begin to tell you a viii story
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