The Golden Legend

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About this book

The Golden Legend by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow opens its prologue at the spire of Strasburg Cathedral, where night and storm accompany Lucifer's attempt to tear down the Cross. Voices tell Lucifer that Saints and Guardian Angels protect the Cross and defeat the spirits everywhere. Prince Henry says the doctors can discern no cure for his malady except one he calls impossible.

A scroll read by Lucifer names a remedy requiring a maiden's blood and her freely chosen death to give another person life. Prince Henry tells Friar Angelo that the woman comes to be healed rather than to die, calling her mad.

About the author

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Longfellow was the most widely read poet in the English-speaking world in his own century and close to unread in the next, a fall worth explaining rather than simply repeating. He taught modern languages at Harvard, made the first American translation of Dante's Commedia, and wrote for a public that memorised verse as a matter of course.