'And what nonsense it is to say that works of fiction give a distaste
for history,' said Elizabeth.
'You are an instance to the contrary,' said Anne; 'no one loves
stories so well, and no one loves history better.'
'I believe such stories as Ivanhoe were what taught me to like
history,' said Elizabeth.
'In order to find out the anachronisms in them?' said Anne; 'I think
it is very ungrateful of you.'
'No indeed,' said Elizabeth; 'why, they used to be the only history I
knew, and almost the only geography. Do not you remember Aunt Anne's
laughing at me for arguing that Bohemia was on the Baltic, because
Perdita was left on its coast? And now, I believe that Coeur de Lion
feasted with Robin Hood and his merry men, although history tells me
that he disliked and despised the English, and the only sentence of
their language history records of his uttering was, "He speaks like a
fool Briton." I believe that Queen Margaret of Anjou haunted the
scenes of grandeur that once were hers, and that she lived to see the
fall of Charles of Burgundy, and die when her last hope failed her,
though I know that it was not so.
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