The Necessity of Chivalry by C.S. Lewis Doodle

The Necessity of Chivalry by C.S. Lewis Doodle
This is an illustration of a C.S. Lewis essay that was published on the 17th August 1940 during the heat and roar of the Battle of Britain - five days after 'Eagleday' (13 August 1940) – the Nazi Luftwaffe’s operation to destroy the Royal Air Force. It was also just three days before Churchill’s famous “Never was so much owed by so many to so few” speech (20 August 1940) concerning heroic British fighter pilots (some 500+ young fighter pilots had been killed in action up to that point). On the 15 September 1940 the Nazi’s were on the verge of victory but, suffering heavy losses, switched from a strategy of conquest to that of siege of the British Isles. You can find the book here: https://ift.tt/2bN90HZ (0:28) “And thou was the meekest man and the gentlest that ever ate in hall among ladies" (The Death of Arthur, Book XXI, chapter 13). (1:33) Practicable means ‘doable’. Practical means ‘useful’. (2:28) Achilles was the mythical Greek hero of the Trojan War and the central character and greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad. (2:40) "Stern to inflict and stubborn to endure" is from a poem by Robert Southey (1774-1843) in Amos Cottle’s translation of the Poetic Edda, Icelandic Poetry. (2:48) Attila was a leader of the Hunnic Empire and was one of the most feared enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. Quote here: “The haughty step and demeanour of the king of the Huns expressed the consciousness of his superiority above the rest of mankind; and he had a custom of fiercely rolling his eyes, as if he wished to enjoy the terror which he inspired.“ Edward Gibbon (1781), 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', Vol. III, chapter 34. (2:55) A fairly typical example here would be the Gaul leader, Vercingetorix. At the Battle of Alesia, the Romans besieged and defeated his forces and accepted his surrender. In 46 BC, as part of Caesar's triumph, Vercingetorix was paraded through the streets of Rome and then executed in prison on Caesar's orders. (3:47) "Milksop": A piece of bread sopped in milk and by extension, a weak, easily frightened or ineffectual person. (5:53) Lewis uses this phrase again in his final book of his Space trilogy, “Dreams of the far future destiny of man were dragging up from its shallow and unquiet grave the old dream of Man as God…What should they find incredible, since they believed no longer in a rational universe? What should they regard as too obscene, since they held that all morality was a mere subjective by-product of the physical and economic situations of men?" (Chapter 9). (5:58) “Modern Invocation” (1910) is a poem by modernist W. Williams which abandons visions of truth and beauty based on idealistic images. He turns away from beauty in creation to sing of 'beauty not always sweet' in modern industrial life; the beauty of the man-made by the use of elaborate wording. (6:01) Stalky & Co. is a novel by Rudyard Kipling about adolescent boys at a British boarding school. "Stalky" (real name: Arthur Lionel Corkran) knows that he is destined for Sandhurst Military Academy, so he does not care about many academic subjects. The stories have elements of revenge, the macabre, bullying and violence making them far from idealised. U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt disdained this novel stating: "for there is hardly a single form of meanness which it does not seem to extol, or of school mismanagement which it does not seem to applaud.” (6:11) Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy, (5 April 1769 – 20 September 1839) was a Royal Navy officer. He served as flag captain to Admiral Lord Nelson, and commanded HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805 during the Napoleonic Wars, saving Britain from French invasion. Nelson was shot as he paced the decks with Hardy, and as he lay dying, Nelson's famous remark of "Kiss me, Hardy" was directed at him. In their last conversation, Nelson had said, "Take care of my dear Lady Hamilton, Hardy, take care of poor Lady Hamilton" and then when the moment came for the two men to part for the last time, Nelson then very close to death, asked Hardy to kiss him. Hardy kissed him on the cheek; "Now I am satisfied," said Nelson, "Thank God I have done my duty". (6:12) Sir Philip Sidney. He was an English poet, courtier, scholar, and soldier, who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age. While lying mortally wounded he gave his water to another wounded soldier, saying, "Thy necessity is yet greater than mine". Lewis wrote: "Even at a distance, Sidney is dazzling...". (6:20) "We shall weave the world's shroud" is from a poem by the Lyons silk weavers in 1831 promising the future overthrow of society. (8:31) "There was...a rumour in the last century that wolves would gradually become extinct by some natural process." See the essay "The Funeral of the Grand Myth [of Cosmic Improvement]".
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