More from Charles Major

I've been immensely enjoying "When Knighthood Was in Flower", having gotten into it now.  Here are some reasons (all are quotations from the novel, please consider this my citation) ...


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He had no vanity—which is but an inordinate desire for those qualities that bring self-respect, and often the result of conscious demerit—but he knew himself, and knew that he was entitled to his own good opinion.

(T)he surest way to any woman's heart is to convince her that you make her better, and arouse in her breast purer impulses and higher aspirations.

(M)an's caution avails but little when set against woman's daring.

(H)e had learned to swear in Flanders.

I like a woman who can be as savage as the very devil when it pleases her; she usually has in store an assortment of possibilities for the other extreme.

I was a jealous little devil.

Jane sat there looking so demure you would have thought mischief could not live within a league of her, but those very demure girls are nearly always dangerous.



>> Probably MY personal favorite quote!
Prudery is no more a sign of virtue than a wig is of hair.



>>This reminds me of the way I use words and humor ... 
(S)he answered with glances, smiles, nods and monosyllables—a very good vocabulary in its way, and a very good way, too, for that matter.

>>Hah!
I would rather fight a pack of howling, starving wolves than the Scotch; they fight like very devils, which, of course, is well; but you have nothing after you have beaten them, not even a good whole wolf skin.

(S)he looked for a laugh, but found a sigh.

>>Regarding a new dance at court: 
The king [Henry VIII]asked Brandon to teach him the steps, which he soon learned to perform with a grace perhaps equaled by no living creature other than a fat brown bear.

(A)s bright and beautiful a June day as ever gladdened the heart of a rose

It is wonderful what a fund of useless information some persons accumulate and cling to with a persistent determination worthy of a better cause.


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Charles Major is not, to my knowledge, any relation.  But, reading his work, I would hardly blush to be told we were family of some kind.