> Guy Fawkes earns himself prominance by having been the person found hiding in the basement with the barrels of gunpowder and the flint and steel.

I learned who Guy Fawkes is by way of the epigram preceding T.S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men". The epigram, "A penny for the old Guy", refers to Guy Fawkes, and apparently children used to say that while begging coins from people on Guy Fawkes Day. (Correct me if that's wrong.)

T.S. Eliot intended the reference to remind readers of a time when people had the boldness to carry out audacious plans. Even if the deed was evil, at least the conspirators had the brass to attempt it, in contrast to the spineless, character-less figures Eliot saw all round him in his day.

Iss "not with a bang but a whimper" achar