An antique fable, and thereto a preface on morals, such as Theseus, reputed sometime Duke of Athens, vowed he never could believe. And with good reason: poets, lovers and madmen have such seething brains, bodying forth the form of things unknown, giving to airy nothing a local habitation and a name. And yet,

what's in a name? The first recorded William Shakespeare was hanged for robbery in 1248; the latest Cleopatra dances in burlesque. Mary Fitton or Mistress Davenant - what odds the name? A poet loved a woman and wooed her frailty into immortal rhyme. You are content to read his verses; then why not I? Why must I see all Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt? Because I know there is a world of romance in a name; and when you whisper "Guenevere" to me, my soul harks back to Arthur's court, mine eyes look on the queen, and in a dream I seem to see her walking 'mid the flowers of Camelot; I see her pause and raise her head as on the gravel-walk she hears the tread of Lancelot's mailed feet. And Mary? 'Tis the name of the Mother of God.