If a teacher’s mission is to enthuse, motivate, inspire, our English teacher certainly did it with great aplomb. Whether it was Merchant of Venice or Mill on the Floss or Idylls of the King (our English texts), she had us “bewitched, beguiled, besotted”. Shakespeare’s famous lines became our own, we took up cudgels on behalf of Shylock, more sinned against than sinning, in school debates and walked away with honours. We decided Antonio and Bassanio were wimps though we had a grudging admiration for Portia and her wily arguments.
In Mill on the Floss, we lost our hearts to Maggie and Tom Tulliver, the brother-sister duo who loved each other through all the vicissitudes of fortune and in the end died together, in the flood on the river Floss. Idylls of the King dazzled us with the exploits of King Arthur and his gallant knights, Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad and especially the quest for the Holy Grail.
My favourite poem in the Idylls was Morte d’Arthur where King Arthur dying, asks Sir Bedevere, his knight, as a last wish to return his famed Excalibur to the “Lady of the Lake”. When Sir Bedevere resists initially to do his bidding the dying king says in sorrow and indignation; “Authority forgets a dying king/ Laid widowed of the power in his eye/That bowed the will.”
These were my favourite lines in the Arthurian legend as well as popular lines for annotation in our school examinations. I am often reminded of them when I see today the changing fortunes of politicians, less noble characters than the legendary King, and how agonising it must be for them. We also strayed into the highways and alleyways of literature and got acquainted with great writers and their immortal works. It was from the school library that I had read Tess of the D’Urbervilles, A Tale of Two Cities and Jane Eyre and went on to feast on a number of novels. We shed copious tears over Tess and Jane and laughed over Jeeves, that straight faced valet “the gentleman’s personal gentleman”.
Our teacher was equally a stickler for language and warned us against dropping of prepositions and articles. She gave us ponderous sentences for analysis and chunks from Shakespeare to paraphrase. In our innocence we thought she was ruining our holidays but got to realise that we were discovering the English language. Misspelling was a sin and had to be atoned for. She gave us the love of words and taught us style. Style meant for her simplicity, clarity and precision. Above all she passed on to us the love of literature and it’s abiding joys. I remember her with immense gratitude.
Sudha Devi Nayak
Email: sudhadevi_nayak@yahoo.com