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Re: Gunpowder, treason, and plot
Posted By: wintermute, on host 195.153.64.90
Date: Thursday, October 18, 2001, at 09:30:00
In Reply To: Re: Gunpowder, treason, and plot posted by Issachar on Thursday, October 18, 2001, at 09:26:11:

> > 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.)

The only thing I can correct is the "used to". Children still make dummies (called guys) and wheel them around for a few days, asking people for "penny for the guy". Then, on the 5th, the guy goes on top of a bonfire and is ritually burnt.

winter"It's a good poem"mute

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