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Overnight Open Thread

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Clio2/20/2009 1:44:11 am PST

The quoted tirade is apparently against the New Testament line that is translated in the 17th-century King James Version as “the MEEK shall inherit the earth.

What the author seems not to know is that when this translation was made the word “meek” did NOT mean weak or timid. It meant good-breeding and courteous manners. (The French translation uses “debonaire”.)

When Chaucer described his Kinight “as to his porte [conduct] as meeke as is a mayde [young lady]” he most surely did not mean that this veteran military hero was weak and timid. He meant that he showed good manners toward all.

The author of the cited passage should update his adjectives before he does battle with them.