Among the earliest of those Roman “kings” to defend England against invading tribes was this one in particular. Â His reign is mentioned briefly by two ancient writers: Geoffrey of Monmouth and Robert of Gloucester.
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We see this third-century king as remarkable for his era in that rulers in those days had reputations for negligence, unscrupulousness, thievery and murder.
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Not this king.
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Geoffrey and Robert characterize him as brave yet even-tempered, as capable yet good-humored. Â So respected, so popular was he that even his daughter’s accomplishments were recorded. Â [She was a skilled musician.] Â Little else is known of this beneficent king.
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Who was he? Â We wouldn’t know anything else, except that someone made up a rhyme about him. Â It is a rhyme which has been remembered, translated into the tongue of the day, and passed down for seventeen hundred years. Â It is a rhyme which is slowly falling into obscurity as we drop the orality of our learning more and more. Â My students don’t know many of the fairy tales; they certainly won’t have learned this rhyme. Â
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But I learned it. Â I liked it. Â I remembered it.
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And now I will pass it on to my Brit Lit I students.
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Old King Cole was a merry old soul,
and a merry old soul was he.
He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl,
and he called for his fiddlers three.
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The story is quoted from Paul Harvey’s The Rest of the Story.