Explore "The Dragon of Wantley" by Owen Wister on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
With the respect that was due to holy men, Sir Godfrey removed his helmet, and stood waiting in a decent attitude of attention to the hymn, although he did not understand a single word of it. The long deliberate Latin words rolled out very grand to his ear, and, to tell you the truth, it is just as well his scholarship was faulty, for this is the English of those same words:
"It is my intention / To die in a tavern, / With wine in the neighbourhood, / Close by my thirsty mouth; / That angels in chorus / May sing, when they reach me, -- / 'Let Bacchus be merciful / Unto this wine-bibber."