1. Historical references in the play.
The historical references within the play relate, on the whole, to three main areas. A
brief discussion of each of these, in chronological order, and of how they are dealt with
in the script might prove helpful to the non-specialist:
The English Monasteries and the Reformation
The Norman presence in England, following William the Conqueror’s triumph over
Harold’s Saxon army at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, had profound consequences for
the texture of English life in the centuries which followed. One of these was the
revival of the monastic movement and the establishment throughout the country of a
number of new monasteries where the monks belonged to the Cistercian order, founded
in 1098 in France by Bernard of Clairvaulx. Besides being centres of worship and
communal life for the monks, many of these institutions became owners of considerable
acreages of land. They also provided care for the sick and accommodation for
travellers. By the early fifteenth century, life in many of these previously strict
abbeys had become relatively lax, with a flouting of the vows of poverty and chastity.
Henry VIII had come into conflict with Pope Clement VII over his petition to have his
marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled, so as to allow him to marry his mistress, Ann
Boleyn. In 1533 Henry reacted by ordering the Archbishop of Canterbury to grant him
permission to re-marry, thus effectively breaking from the Roman Catholic Church. He
was made Supreme Head of the Church by an act of parliament in the following year.
One of Henry’s moves in this new role was to shut down the monasteries, in what is
known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries. This process was completed by 1540. The
bricks from the buildings were often used in the construction of new homes by local
lords, whilst vast tracts of land fell into the ownership of the Crown. This action was
challenged in the north of England by a movement known as the Pilgrimage of Grace,
whose members marched to London in protest in 1536. Henry promised to look into
their complaints but his only significant response was to arrest and execute the leader
of the movement, Robert Aske.
In the play, Irwin refers to the Reformation on p. 19, during his first lesson with the
boys. In an obvious attempt to make an impression upon them as something of an
iconoclast, he talks of the fourteen foreskins of Christ said to exist at the time of the
Reformation, knowledge of which would be useful in answering an essay question on the
topic of the Church on the eve of the Reformation in their Oxbridge examination.
At the start of a subsequent lesson on p. 35 and at the opening of Act Two on p. 58,
Irwin delivers identically worded lines:
Irwin: If you want to learn about Stalin, study Henry VIII.
If you want to learn about Mrs Thatcher, study Henry VIII.
If you want to know about Hollywood, study Henry VIII.
In the first instance, this mantra is used to illustrate to the boys how they should
adopt a perverse stance in their approach to historical topics for their examinations. In

2. the second, Irwin is seen introducing a BBC2 programme from the site of the ruins of
Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire in a scene which goes on to p. 63. This abbey had
been founded as the first Cistercian outpost in the north of England, its construction
initiated by Bernard of Clairvaux himself. Rievaulx was later the centre from which
monks went out to found nineteen further abbeys. Its best known monk was Aelred,
mentioned by Irwin on p. 59,whowas abbot from 1147 to his death in 1167.Aelred, who
was born in Northumberland in 1110, wrote a number of books on history and on
spirituallife.He was canonised a saint in 1476.
World War One
The conflict which became known first as the Great War and, later, World War One,
was sparked off by the assassination in Sarajevo on June 28th
1914 of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, by a Bosnian Serb, one
GavriloPrincip. The subsequent conflict between Serbia and Austria-Hungary led to the
involvement of other nations, with Britain, Russia, France, Italy, and, from 1916,
America, fighting in a coalition known as the Allies, against the Central Powers of
Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria.
The war was fought on various ‘fronts’ throughout Europe, the Western Front being in
northern France and Belgium, where the fighting was characterised by trench warfare,
gains measured in yards, gas attacks from the Central Powers and heavy loss of life on
both sides. For most of the war, British forces were commanded by Field-Marshall
Douglas Haig (1861–1921), who was responsible for leading troops in the battles at the
Somme (1916) in northern France, where more than 400,000 men were killed in a four-
month period, for little territorial gain, and at Passchendaele (1917) in Belgium, where
there was again a huge number of casualties.
The defeated Central Powers accepted an armistice on the 11th
November 1914. The
terms of the subsequent peace treaty were set out in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919,
whereby Germany ceded parts of its territory to neighbouring European nations, had a
demilitarised zone imposed on the areas around the Rhine and, most contentious of all,
was required to pay substantial reparations to the allied powers. This contributed to
the economic collapse in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s and the resentment within
Germany against these conditions can be seen to have been one of the factors which
led to the rise of the Nazi party in this period. In 1923, French forces occupied the
area around the Ruhr in response to a perceived failure to pay the reparations
demanded in the Treaty. The regime in Germany which existed between the end of the
war and the coming to power of the Nazis in 1933 is known as the Weimar Republic,
after the name of the city in which the new constitution was drafted.
The topic of World War One is prominent in the discussions between Irwin and the
boys, who have already studied the poems of the ‘War Poets’ Siegfried Sassoon and
Wilfred Owen with Hector. On p. 23, Irwin introduces the question of how to write
about the war in a way which will appear original and imaginative to the Oxbridge
examiners. On p. 24, the boys show their familiarity with Haig, the Treaty

3. ofVersailles, the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazis,with Dakin referring on
p. 25 to the names of the two battles associated with Haig, Passchendaele and the
Somme.Also mentioned on this page are the Cenotaph, the war memorial in Whitehall
and the focus of the November Armistice Day commemorations, the Last Post, the
bugle call which is played at such events, and the Unknown Soldier, the anonymous
figure whose tomb in Westminster Abbey was created in 1920 as a symbol of all those
killed in the conflict.
Dakin uses references from this war to describe to Scripps the progress of his
attempted seduction of Fiona, the Headmaster’s secretary. On p. 28, he mentions
Passchendaele, the Western Front and theHun, this last a derogatory term for the
Germans being given to the lady in question. In Act Two, on
p. 81, he gives his friend an update:
Dakin: Broke through. Had the Armistice.The Treaty of Versailles. It’s now the
Weimar Republic.
Finally, we might note an oblique reference to the Treaty of Versailles by Mrs Lintott
on p. 85, when complaining about the lack of influence of women on political decision-
making:
Mrs Lintott: ...In 1919, for instance, they just arranged the flowers then gracefully
retired.
World War Two
It is virtually impossible to provide a summary of this global conflict, which involved so
many nations and which was fought on so many fronts. We can, however, pick up on what
has been said above about the rise of the Nazi movement under Hitler in the 1920s,
culminating in their victory in the German elections in 1933. In Britain, the Conservative
government of Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) had followed a policy of appeasement
towards Germany. Chamberlain, aided by the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax (1881–
1959), negotiated with Hitler in Munich in 1938 and returned with a peace treaty which
he claimed would guarantee ‘peace in our time’. The unification of German-speaking
territories was high on the Nazi agenda and the annexation of Austria in 1938 was
followed by the invasion of Czechoslovakia later the same year, the pretext being the
protection of ethnic Germans in the Sudetan areas of that country. The invasion of
Poland on 1st September 1939 led to the declaration of war with Germany by Britain
and France two days later. Chamberlain resigned in 1940 when Labour politicians
refused to serve under him in a National Government, his position as Prime Minister
going to Winston Churchill (1874–1965). Britain experienced an early defeat when the
British Expeditionary Force in France was cut off by German forces in May 1940 and
saved only by an evacuation of troops from the port of Dunkirk in an operation in which
some 900 vessels were commandeered and used to transport over 330,000 men. The
conflict became global in December 1941 when the American naval base of Pearl
Harbour in Hawaii was attacked by the air force of Germany’s ally Japan, bringing the
United States into the war.
Amongst the many ‘fronts’ at which the war was fought was the one in North Africa.
Italian troops, allied to Germany and based in Libya, had attempted to drive the British
out of Egypt in 1940 but were repulsed. Hitler sent General Erwin Rommel (1891–1944)

4. to lead the Afrika Corps against the British Eighth Army but, commanded by Field
Marshall Montgomery (1887–1976), the latter force gained a decisive victory in the El
Alemain campaign in November 1942. Some historians see this battle as marking the
turning point in the war.
The Nazi movement had always been highly anti-Semitic and the expulsion of Jews
from German-occupied territory had been a priority in their policy from the start of
the war. Initially, leaders of the Jewish community in Germany were arrested and sent
to detention camps like Sachsenhausen, near Berlin, and Dachau, just outside Munich.
When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, it was anticipated that the
conquest of the country would enable the Jews of Europe to be expelled to these
eastern territories. Special squads of soldiers (‘Einsatzgruppen’) were, meanwhile,
dispatched to execute Jews in the Baltic region, Belarus and Ukraine. The military
setbacks encountered during this invasion, however, led to a reassessment of the
situation. At one point the purchase of the island of Madagascar from France was even
considered as a means of obtaining a territory to which to dispatch Europe`s Jews.
Eventually, the Nazis decided upon the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Problem’, which was
to involve mass extermination. Jews in occupied lands were rounded up and sent to
ghetto areas in urban centres, before being transported by rail to specially
constructed extermination camps in Poland, such as Auschwitz, the largest of them,
where over one million Jews perished. Whilst a minority of them were kept alive in
order to work for the German war effort at some of these camps, the majority were
killed immediately in gas chambers. In total, some six million Jews were murdered in
what became known as the ‘Holocaust’.
In Act One of the play, on p. 35, Scripps, in narrator mode, recalls Irwin’s technique on
television of inverting the orthodox position on any historical topic. He uses the attack
on Pearl Harbour as an example, with Irwin contending that the real culprit
wasPresident Roosevelt, the United Sates President at the time.
In Act Two, p. 70, Irwin introduces to the class the question of the Holocaust and how
such a sensitive topic might be approached in an academic context.Hector,on p. 72,
mentions dismissively the idea of school visits to Auschwitz and Dachau.
On p. 89, Dakin uses references to the invasion of Poland in his ambiguous
conversation with Irwin, before the teacher focuses on the student’s essay on turning
points in the war, in which mention is made of Dunkirk, Russia, Alamein, Chamberlain,
Churchill, Halifax and Montgomery.
More Historical Allusions
In addition to the references relating to the three areas outlined above, there are
other, miscellaneous historical allusions in the play.
On p. 31, Hector is discussing famous instances of knocks at the door:
Hector: ...Did the knights knock at the door of Canterbury before they murdered
Becket?
The reference here is to the murder of Thomas à Becket in Canterbury Cathedral.
Becket, who was born in 1118, had worked as an assistant to the Archbishop of
Canterbury before being made Chancellor by Henry II, who was himself engaged in a
power battle with the Church. He appointed Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury in

5. 1161, fully expecting the new appointee to lend his support to the monarchy. There was,
however, friction between the two men when Becket refused to be so compliant and he
fled to France in 1164, spending more than six years in exile. On his return in 1170,
matters were not greatly improved and the king raged against this low-born clerk.
Acting on their own initiative, four knights went to Canterbury Cathedral in November
1170, where they murdered Becket. Henry made public repentance for this act and
Becket’s tomb became a major place of pilgrimage, before the shrine was destroyed
during the Reformation.
The poet and dramatist T. S. Eliot wrote one of his best known verse dramas, Murder in
the Cathedral (1936), on the events leading up to Becket’s assassination. Given Hector’s
literary background, we might think that this was the source of his knowledge and
interest in the story.
There are other references we should note which occur in Irwin’s lesson to the boys on
p. 35, when he recommends that they study Henry VIII if they want to learn about
Stalin, Mrs Thatcher or Hollywood. The formula is repeated verbatim on p. 58, as part
of his script for a BBC2 programme on Rievaulx Abbey.
Josef Stalin was born IosifVissarionovichDzhugashvili – Stalin, meaning ‘Man of Steel’
was a nickname he adopted later – in Georgia in 1879, the territory then being under
the rule of the Czar of Russia. He became a full-time revolutionary in his youth, often
being imprisoned, before rising to the upper ranks of Lenin’s Bolshevik Party. Following
the October Revolution of 1917 and Lenin’s subsequent death in 1924, Stalin became
the effective dictator of the Soviet Union. He was ruthless in the implementation of
his political and economic plans, notably the collectivisation of farms, which led to
widespread starvation in many areas. He was similarly relentless in his attempts to
eliminate all opposition to himself, his terror tactics in the 1930s resulting in a plethora
of show trials and executions. Stalin led his country through the Second World War, in
which it is estimated that some 20 million Soviets lost their lives. His post-war rule
showed few signs of any softening of approach. He died in 1953.
Margaret Thatcher was born Margaret Roberts in 1925 in Grantham, Lincolnshire,
where her father was a grocer. Educated at the local grammar school, she studied
Chemistry at Oxford and later Law, qualifying as a barrister. She married Dennis
Thatcher, a businessman, in 1951. In 1959 she was elected as Conservative MP for
Finchley, becoming Secretary of State for Education in 1970 under Edward Heath’s
leadership and leader of the Conservative Party in 1975. She became Prime Minister in
1979 and won three successive General Elections, before resigning from the leadership
in 1990 and leaving the Commons in 1992. She will be best remembered for her radical
economic reforms whilst in office and also for her leadership during the Falklands War
of 1982.
Finally, there are Hector’s remarks to Posner on p. 55 of the historical context to the
writing of Hardy’s poem Drummer Hodge. The teacher speculates that Hardy was
writing about the Zulu Wars or later the Boer war possibly, these being the
firstconflicts in British military history in which soldiers... or common soldiers... were
commemorated, the names of the dead recorded and inscribed on war memorials. The

6. Zulu Wars took place in South Africa in 1879, when British forces fought against the
Zulus in their heartlands over a period of months, concluding with a routing of their
army at Ulundi on July 4th
, effectively ending Zulu independence. The Boer War was
fought between the years 1899 and 1902 between British forces and those of the Boer
republics, which had been populated since the seventeenth century by settlers of
Dutch descent. The outcome of this war was a conversion of the Boer republics into
British colonies, which from 1910 formed part of the Union of South Africa within the
British Empire.
Literary References in the play
Hector’s favourite poets, and the ones Alan Bennett chooses to quote most often, are
AE Housman and WH Auden. Both poets were concerned with the loss of youth,
heartbreak and homosexuality, all of which are also major themes in The History Boys.
However, at the end of Act One, Hardy’s poem ‘Drummer Hodge’ is shown to touch
both Hector and Posner. Hector can relate to the loneliness of the poem, being around
the same age as Hardy was when he wrote it, and feeling a sense of unfulfilled
ambition, of a life not lived. For Posner, a teenager dealing with his homosexuality in a
school full of heterosexual boys, the loneliness of Drummer Hodge, a boy not much
older than himself, is deeply affecting.
For both of them it is Hardy’s use of compound adjectives that conjures up the feeling
that they had thought special to them. This scene is in stark contrast to Posner’s
confession to Irwin about his sexuality. The audience are told that Posner, in sensing
that Irwin might also be gay, basically ‘wanted company’. Instead Irwin responds with
the comment ‘it will pass’. At the heart of the ‘Drummer Hodge’ scene, which deals with
the loneliness of two of the play’s central characters, there is a defence of poetry.
It is the poem that brings together a teenage boy and a man of 59. The poetry, if only
for a moment, has provided the company Posner was craving.
A Glossary of Cultural References
The play is full of references to poems, plays, films and songs. The literary references
span the last four hundred years, whilst most of the films and songs mentioned in the
text are from the mid-twentieth century. Some discussion of these can be found in the
‘Textual Commentary’ section of this guide. Here is a page-by-page review of them.
Act One
Page 5
‘All knowledge is precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use’
The remark is attributed to the poet A. E. Housman (see below).
‘Loveliest of trees the cherry now.’
This is the title of a poem by A. E. Housman (1859–1936)
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

7. Is hung with bloom along the bow,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.
Born in Worcestershire, Housman was a classical scholar, holding the position of
Professor of Latin successively at the universities of London and Cambridge. As a poet
he is best known for a volume entitled A Shropshire Lad, which appeared in 1896. The
poem Loveliest of trees, the cherrynow is from this volume.

8. Page 6
‘Wash me in steep-down cliffs of liquid fire’
This is a line from Shakespeare’s Othello (1604). It occurs in Act V Scene 2, when
Othello discovers that Desdemona, his wife, whom he has just murdered in a jealous
rage, was, in fact, innocent and that he has been deceived by the lies of the scheming
Iago:
Whip me, ye devils,
From the possession of this heavenly sight!
Blow me about in winds! Roast me in sulphur!
Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!
O Desdemona! Desdemona! Dead!
O, O!
Page 6
‘I have put before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that
both thou and thy seed may live.’
The line is from the Book of Deuteronomy (30:19) in the Old Testament of the Bible,
the words being attributed to God.
Page 7
‘Vex not his ghost. O let him pass. He hates him
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer.’
This quotation and the ones which follow, spoken successively by Timms, Posner, Hector
and Posner again, are from the final scene, Act V Scene 3, of Shakespeare’s King Lear,
following the death of Lear, who has himself recently witnessed the death of his
daughter Cordelia. Kent and Edgar are loyal followers of the king.
Page 7
‘The Prayer Book’
Scripps is probably referring to the Book of Common Prayer, the compilation of
prayers and worship for the Protestant Church of England, first published in 1549 and,
in revised formats, used throughout the Anglican communion ever since.
Page 7
Hymns Ancient and Modern
This is the title of a compilation of hymns for use within the Anglican Communion, first
published in 1861 and still the basis for subsequent revised editions.
Page 12
Edith Piaf
Edith Piaf (1915–1963) was a French singer famous for her emotional renditions of her
material, including her ‘signature’ song, Je Ne RegretteRien.
Page 13
‘La Vie en Rose’
This is the title of a song associated with the Edith Piaf and also the English title of
the award-winning 2006 French film based upon her life.
Page 23

9. Catcher in the Rye
This is the title of a novel written by the American writer J. D. Salinger and
published in 1951. The novel describes, through a first person narrative, a weekend in
the life of a teenage boy, Holden Caulfield, first at his boarding school and, later, in
Manhattan, New York City. It is regarded by many as one of the greatest novels dealing
with adolescent life and perspectives.
Page 24
...since Wilfred Owen says men were dying like cattle...
Dakin’s reference is to perhaps the best known of the poets who wrote verse based
upon their experiences in World War One. The line What passing bells for those whodie
as cattle?is the opening of Anthem for Doomed Youth. Other well-known poems by
Owen include Dulceet Decorum Est, Strange Meeting and Disabled.
Born the son of a railway worker in 1893, Owen joined the war in France in January
1917 and began writing his poetry based upon his experiences in the trenches. In the
summer of that year, he was wounded at the Somme and was sent for treatment for
shell-shock at Craiglockhart War Hospital, where he met Sassoon. He returned to the
Front in 1918 and was awarded the Military Cross. He was killed in action a week before
the signing of the Armistice in November 1918.
Page 26
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Sassoon is, like Owen, one of the most prominent of those known collectively
as the War Poets, who fought in the First World War and wrote poems with
overwhelmingly anti-war sentiments.
Sassoon was born in 1886 and came from a relatively privileged background. As an
officer in France, his daring exploits earned him the nickname ‘Mad Jack’. He had
treatment for fever in England in 1916 and, on his return to the Front, was wounded in
action the following year. In a letter to the Times he accused the government of
prolonging the war unnecessarily. Deemed unfit for service, he was sent to
Craiglockhart War Hospital in Scotland, where he met Wilfred Owen, a fellow poet and
patient. (Their time at the hospital was the basis for the novel Regeneration by Pat
Barker.) Both returned to the Front, Owen being killed in 1918, whilst Sassoon was
wounded once more and returned to England. He wrote verse and prose in his post-war
career and died in 1967.
Page 26
Saint Wilfred Owen
(See p. 24 entry). Irwin’s ironic ‘canonisation’ of Wilfred Owen stems from the fact
that he is by far the best known and revered of the War Poets.
Page 26
‘If any question why we died,
Tell them because our fathers lied.’
The lines are from Rudyard Kipling’s work entitled Epitaphs ofWar (1918), a collection
of short poetic statements on war. The couplet above is entitled Common Form.
Kipling (1865–1936) was born in India and, after an education in England, he returned to
the sub-continent to work as a journalist. He wrote novels – including The Jungle Book –

10. and poetry there and back in England, gaining him considerable popularity, though some
disliked what they saw as a jingoistic attitude in his work. He reported from both the
Boer War in South Africa and, later, the First World War trenches in France. His only
son, John, was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915 at the age of seventeen. This death
affected Kipling profoundly and his mood is reflected in later works like Epitaphs
ofWar.
Page 27
Those long uneven lines (and following lines spoken successively by Scripps,
Lockwood, Akthar, Posner and Timms).
The whole of Philip Larkin’s poem MCXIV is quoted by the boys, though the middle
section is not printed in the text. (The Roman numerals denote the year 1914.) Larkin
was born in Coventry in 1922 and worked as a librarian at the universities of Leicester,
Belfast and, for some thirty years, Hull, where he was Chief Librarian up to his death in
1985.
Page 29
‘Bewitched’
The song which Posner sings, sometimes known as Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,
was first heard in 1940, as part of the new Broadway musicalPal Joey, written by
Rodgers and Hart. The show made its West End debut in 1954. More recently, the
song was included on Rod Stewart’s 2003 album TheGreat American Songbook 2, in a
duet with Cher.
Page 29
‘O villainy! Let the door be locked!
Treachery! Seek it out.’
The quotation is from Act V Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, as the Prince discovers
that his uncle, King Claudius, has plotted to poison him and inadvertently killed
Gertrude, Claudius’ wife and Hamlet’s mother, who has drunk from the poisoned chalice
herself.
Page 30
The Trial
The Trial is the title of a novel by Franz Kafka, who was born in Prague in 1883, and is
the best known of the writer’s works. In the novel, the central character, Josef K, is
arrested at his home one morning on an unspecified charge. He is then put on trial for
this alleged crime, about which he knows nothing. Many see the novel as an extended
metaphor for the workings of a totalitarian police state. The novel was published in
1925, the year following the author’s death from tuberculosis.
Page 30
The person from Porlock
Akthar is here referring to the account by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–
1834) of the circumstances surrounding the composition of his famous poem KublaKhan,
about the thirteenth century Chinese emperor and the summer palace he had built.
Coleridge claimed that, during a period when he was living in Somerset, he was inspired
to write the poem by an opium-induced vision, but that he was interrupted in the

11. writing of it by a visitor from Porlock in Devon. The visit lasted about an hour, by which
time the vision had dissolved and the poem was left unfinished.
Page 30
Don Giovanni: the Commendatore
Posner’s reference here is to Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, premiered in 1787. In Act
One, the Commendatore is confronted one evening by Don Giovanni, who has been
accused by the daughter of the former of attempting to seduce her. Her father is
killed in the subsequent duel.
Page 30
Behold I stand at the door and knock
Revelation
The Christian Scripps is quoting from the Book of Revelation, sometimes referred to
as the Apocalypse, the last book of the canonical New Testament. According to
Christian tradition, the book is the account of a vision seen in a dream by the apostle
John and written when he was living on the Greek island of Patmos, though some
modern scholars dispute the authorship.
The full line Chapter 3, Verse 20 in the Authorised Version is: Behold, I stand at the
door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and
will sup with him, and he with me.
Page 30
Could it be Paul Henreid and Bette Davis in Now Voyager?
The film Now Voyager was released in 1942, the storyline revolving around the
relationship between Charlotte, the character played by Bette Davis, and Jerry, a
married man, played by Paul Henreid. The pair meet on a cruise ship and then spend
five days together in Rio de Janeiro, before parting. They meet again later in life,
though the relationship is never taken beyond a passionate friendship. The final line of
the film is the much-quoted Oh, Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon... we have the stars.
Page 32
Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass.
‘The untold want of life and land ne’er granted
Now Voyager, sail thou forth to seek and find.’
Hector, predictably, not only knows the film but the origin of the title. (The film itself
was based upon a novel with the same title, written by Olive Higgins Prouty and
published in 1941.)
Walt Whitman (1819–1892) is regarded as one of the foremost poets in the American
tradition. His collection Leaves of Grass,containing the shortpoemThe Untold
Want,was first published in 1855.
Page 33
the Carry On films
What are referred to as the Carry On films comprise a total of 29 films, all produced
at Pinewood Studios and directed by Gerald Thomas between 1958 and 1978. They are
best remembered for the ‘saucy’ nature of the comedy and the appearances of
mainstay actors like Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims and Charles Hawtrey.

12. Barbara Windsor, known to a new generation for her role in the BBC soap opera
EastEnders, featured in ten of the series.
Page 34
George Orwell
George Orwell was the pen-name of Eric Blair, who was born in 1903. After an unhappy
time as a schoolboy at Eton, Orwell became a police officer in Burma, which was part of
the Indian Empire. His novel Burmese Days (1934) is based upon his experiences at this
time. Back in Europe, he wrote vivid accounts of his experiences working in a Paris hotel
and then living as a tramp in England in a book entitled Down and Out in Paris and
London (1933). He reported on the condition of miners in the north of England in The
Road toWigan Pier (1937). Orwell fought in the International Brigade against Franco’s
forces during the Spanish Civil War. His direct experience of this situation is recorded
in Homage toCatalonia (1938). He is best known for two books in which life under a
totalitarian regime forms the major theme, these being the political allegory Animal
Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949), a dystopian vision of Britain as a police state. Orwell died
of tuberculosis in 1950.
Page 35
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Ryn(1606–1669) was a Dutch painter who is best known
for his portraits, including a famous self-portrait.
Page 35
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon (1909–1992) was an English painter, noted for his abstracts which often
have a grotesque aspect to them.
Page 36
Turner
Joseph Turner (1775–1851)was an English painter, best known for his landscapes and
seascapes, in which the colours and texture of light are key components.
Page 36
Ingres
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780–1867)was a French portrait painter.
Page 36
‘About suffering they were never wrong
The Old Masters... how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window...’
The lines which Timms is quoting here are from a poem entitled Musee de BeauxArts
by the English poet W. H. Auden (1903–1973). In the poem, the poet meditates upon
the painting The Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Breughal the Elder, which
hangs in the Musee de Beaux Arts in Brussels. (There is, it should be said, nowadays
some dispute as to whether the painting is by Breughal.) In the painting we see the fall
of Icarus into the sea, as well as a farmer who continues with his ploughing, a shepherd
tending to his flock and a man fishing by the sea. Amidst drama and tragedy for some,
everyday life goes on for others.

13. Page 37
Breaking bread with the dead, sir.
Akthar, (no doubt having heard it from Hector), is quoting from a line from Auden
written in an article in the New York Times in 1971 – Art is our chief means of breaking
bread with the dead.
Page 37
The Prayer Book
It is likely that Lockwood is here referring to the Book of Common Prayer (see p. 7
note above).
Page 37
The Mikado
This is the name of a comic opera, with music written by Arthur Sullivan and words by
W. S. Gilbert, which opened in London in 1885. It has been performed continuously
since then by amateur and professional companies throughout the world.
Page 37
‘The heart has its reasons that reason knoweth not.’
As Crowther explains, Lockwood’s quoted line is from the works of the French
mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623–1662). He is perhaps best known
today for his theological work entitled Pensées(‘Thoughts’), which was published
posthumously in 1670.
Page 38
‘Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm.’
Dakin quotes the opening lines of a poem by W. H. Auden (see the note on p. 36), its
title being the first line. The poem was written in 1937.
Page 39
‘England, you have been here too long
And the songs you sing now are the songs you sung
On an earlier day, now they are wrong.’
Lockwood quotes the lines and provides the information that they come from a poem by
Stevie Smith (1902–1971), best known for her poem Not Waving but Drowning. This
particular quotation comes from a poem entitled Voices Against England in the Night.
Page 40
Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto
Scripps plays this famous work by the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–
1943), which was first performed in 1901. The piece was used extensively as
background music to the film Brief Encounter (see below) and has featured in a number
of other films. The melodies from various parts of the work have been adapted as the
basis of a number of more modern songs.
Page 40
Celia Johnson, Cyril Raymond and Brief Encounter
This second instance of the boys acting out an excerpt from a 1940s film focuses on
the classic Brief Encounter (1945), directed by David Lean. The film stars Celia

14. Johnson and Trevor Howard as a couple, Laura and Alec, who first meet in the waiting
room of a station and feel an instant attraction to each other. Their subsequent
relationship is made more complicated by the fact that Laura is married to Fred, played
by Cyril Raymond,and is haunted by guilt as she embarks on the affair. Eventually Alec,
a doctor, informs her that he is going to accept a job offer in South Africa. The scenes
of the final meeting and parting of the couple are some of most iconic in the history of
British film. The lines quoted by Posner and Scripps are from the scene when Laura
returns to live with Fred.
Page 44
‘When I survey the Wondrous Cross’
The hymn which Posner sings was written in 1707 by Isaac Watts (1674–1748) and
expresses awe at the love for mankind implicit in Christ’s crucifixion.
Pages 45–46
T. S. Eliot
‘A painter of the Umbrian School
Designed upon a gesso ground
The nimbus of the Baptised God.
The wilderness is cracked and browned
But through the water pale and thin
Still shine the unoffending feet
And there above the painter set
The Father and the Paraclete.’
As Dakin is quick to recognise, the lines are from T.S. Eliot. They are from a poem
entitled Mr Eliot’s Sunday Morning Service, which first appeared in a collection
published in 1920. Although Eliot (1888–1965) is often regarded as an English poet, he
was born in St Louis, Missouri and educated at Harvard, before settling in England.
Eliot’s poetry, including The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock (1917), The Waste Land
(1922), Ash Wednesday (1930) and Four Quartets (1943) are expressive of the
spiritual development of the writer. Eliot is also known for his verse drama, particularly
Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Family Reunion (1939).
Page 46
Pierodella Francesca
Not only is Dakin able to identify Eliot as the poet of Scripps’ quotation, but he also
knows that the poem is based on a reflection upon a picture in the National Gallery in
London by the Italian Renaissance painter, who lived from c. 1412 to 1492. The painting
in question is The Baptism of Christ, completed in 1450.
Page 47
Nietzsche
Dakin’s gaffe relates to the pronunciation of the name of the German philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), whose writings on the decline of religion, the
subsequent secularisation of society and the concept of a super-hero are seen by many
as being influential in the development of Nazi ideology.
Page 51

15. ‘After such knowledge, what forgiveness?’
Another quotation from T. S. Eliot, this one fromGerontion,first published in 1920.
Page 51
‘The tree of man was never quiet.
Then ‘twas the Roman; now ‘tis I.’
Hector is quoting again from A. E. Housman (see p. 5 note), the lines being from
OnWenlock Edge in The Shropshire Lad (1896).
Page 52
‘To think that two and two are four
And never five nor three
The heart of man has long been sore
And long ‘tis like to be.’
Housman again, this time it’s from XXV of his Last Poems (1922).
Page 53
Plato
This is the first of three successive references by the Headmaster to figures who are
known or thought to have been homosexuals.
Plato (c. 428–c. 347 BC) was a student of the Greek philosopher Socrates and, in turn,
mentor to Aristotle. His best known work is The Republic, which deals with questions of
justice and earthly representations of ideal forms.
Page 53
Michelangelo
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) was an Italian painter, sculptor, architect and
poet. His best known works include the statue of David in Florence, completed in 1504,
and the Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, completed in 1512.
Page 53
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He wrote one novel, The Picture of DorianGray,
published in 1891. He became a hugely popular dramatist in the 1890s for his works
Lady Windermere’s Fan (1891), A Woman of No Importance (1892), An IdealHusband
(1895) and, especially, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). He was convicted of
the then crime of sodomy with Lord Alfred Douglas in a famous trial in 1895 and served
two years imprisonment with hard labour. He died in Paris in 1900 and is buried in that
city’s Pere Lachaise cemetery, where his tomb is a place of pilgrimage to this day.
We might note that Alan Bennett himself used the title A Woman of No Importance
for the first of his monologues written for television, which featured Patricia
Routledge in 1982.
Page 54
’Drummer Hodge’
Posner recites by heart this poem by Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), one of a number of
poems by the writer on the subject of war, inspired by the Boer War (1899–1902) or
World War One (1914–1918). Hardy, who trained and practised as an architect in
London for some years, turned to poetry relatively late in his writing career, after
completing a series of novels in which the people and landscape of his native Dorset –

16. referred to in the fiction as Wessex – play a prominent role. Amongst these are Under
the Greenwood Tree (1872), Far from the Madding crowd (1874), The Mayorof
Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1896). All
of these have been adapted for television and/or the cinema.
Page 54
Rupert Brooke... ‘There’s some corner of a foreign field...
in that rich earth a richer dust concealed...’
Rupert Brooke was born in Rugby in 1887 and studied at Cambridge. He lived at the Old
Vicarage, Grantchester, subject and title of one of his most famous poems (1912). A
sonnet sequence entitled 1914 was published in 1915, the year Brooke died of blood
poisoning in Greece whilst serving with the British forces in Greece in World War One.
The poem Posner is quoting from is Sonnet V: The Soldier:
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less,
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Page 57
‘The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo.
You that way, we this way.’
The quotation is from Act V Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s playLove’s Labours’ Lost.
Act Two
Page 64
Cordelia
Cordeliais the youngest daughter ofKing Learin Shakespeare’s play. When confronted
with the task of displaying her love for her father in public, alongside her two sisters,
Goneril and Regan, to determine which of them will inherit the most land, she refuses
to comply.
Page 66
Beethoven’s Pathetique

17. ThePathetiqueis the name often given to a work of the great German composer Ludwig
van Beethoven (1770–1827). Its more official title is the Piano Sonata No 8 inC
minor, opus 13. It was written in 1798.
Page 66
Greig’s Piano Concerto
The Piano Concerto in A minor is one of the great works of the Norwegian composer
EdvardGreig (1843–1907).
Page 66
Svengali
Svengali was the name of a fictional character inTrilby(1894), a novel by the English
writer George du Maurier(1834–1896). In the narrative, which is set in Paris in the
1850s, Svengali uses hypnosis to transform Trilby O’Ferrall, a half-Irish girl working as
an artists’ model and laundress, into a great singer, despite the fact that she is tone-
deaf. The name has become a general term for anyone who manipulates an artistic
talent through excessive personal influence.
Page 67
James Mason and Anne Todd in the Seventh Veil
In this 1945 British film, Anne Todd plays Francesca, a concert pianist who undergoes
psychiatric treatment. The ‘seventh veil’ refers to the final uncovering of the emotional
truth which must come if she is to understand the source of her neurosis. In a series
of flashbacks, Francesca portrays her relationship with Nicholas, played by James
Mason, who is her guardian and the Svengali-like driving force behind her career as a
concert pianist. The soundtrack to the film features Beethoven’s Pathetiqueand
Francesca herself plays part of Greig’s Piano Concerto.
Page 67
‘When I’m Cleaning Windows.’ George Formby.
George Formby (1904–1961) was a Lancashire-born star of the musical hall, radio and
several films. He was known for his wide grin, his banjo playing and his songs which
often contained a number of double-entendres. His best known songs are When I’m
Cleaning Windows, which featured in the 1936 film Keep Your Seats,Please and Leaning
on a Lamppost, which he sang in the film Feather Your Nest, released in the following
year. His catchphrasewas‘turned out nice again!’, which was also the title of a 1941 film.
Page 67
Gracie Fields
Gracie Fields (1898–1979) was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, and became an extremely
popular singer both in Britain and the United States, especially during World War Two.
In many of her songs, Fields used her native Lancashire accent for comic effect.
Page 69
van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) was a Dutch painter, many of whose most famous works,
featuring bold use of colour and texture, were executed during the time he lived in the
Provencal town of Arles. He later lived in Auvers-sur-Oise, producing paintings at a
prolific rate, before shooting himself on July 27th
1890. He died two days later.
Page 71

18. ‘Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.’
The lines quoted here by Dakin are from the conclusion to the work entitled
TractatusLogico-Philosophicus(1921) by the Austrian-born philosopher
LudwigWittgenstein (1889–1951). He was appointed to the chair of Philosophy at
Cambridge University in 1937.
Page 77
No more the bike’s melancholy long withdrawing roar...
Scripps’ reference here is to a line in the poem Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold
(1822–1888). The poem is a reflection on the decline of religious faith and certainties,
containing the stanza:
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Page 79
Gracie Fields’ ‘Sing as We Go’.
(See p. 67 note).Sing as We Go is a song from a 1934 film with the same title, starring
Gracie Fields and Stanley Holloway, and written by the novelist J.B. Priestley. Fields
stars as a Lancashire mill-worker who has been laid off in the depression. She takes
herself to Blackpool, where she has several adventures.
Page 79
Barbara Streisand
Barbara Streisand was born in New York in 1942 and is one of America’s best known
singers and film stars. Amongst her film hits are Funny Girl (1968), The WayWe Were
(1973) and A Star is Born (1976).
Page 82
Richard Rogers
The British architect Richard Rogers (b. 1933) has designed several well-known public
buildings, including the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Millennium Dome at Greenwich,
the Welsh Assembly building in Cardiffand Heathrow’s Terminal Five.
Page 82
Wren
Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723) was the architect who designed St Paul’s
Cathedral, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and the library of Trinity College,
Cambridge.
Page 82
Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661–1736) worked for Sir Christopher Wren on a number of
major projects and then, in collaboration with John Vanbrugh, on the designing of
Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire and Castle Howard, North Yorkshire. He is known as the

19. architect of a number of churches in London and of the towers of the west front of
Westminster Abbey.
Page 82
Richard Rogers? Doesn’t he write musicals?
Here Mrs Lintott, perhaps as a joke, is ‘confusing’ Richard Rogers, the British
architect, with the American Richard Rodgers (1902–1979), who co-wrote musicals,
first with Lorenz Hart and later with Oscar Hammerstein. With the former he wrote
Pal Joey (1940) and with the latter Oklahoma (1943), Carousel (1945), The King and I
(1951) and TheSound of Music (1959).
Page 83
Mozart
This is, of course, the great Austrian-born composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756–1791).
Page 84
Wittgenstein
See p. 71 note.
Page 86
This Sporting Life
This is the title of a film, based on a novel written by David Storey and released in
1963. It stars Richard Harris as Frank Machin, a professional Rugby League player in
the industrial north of England, and deals with his life on and off the pitch.
Page 86
Jean-Paul Sartre
The French writer Sartre (1905–1980) is one of the great names of twentieth century
philosophy. He is also known for his plays and novels.
Page 87
Kafka
See p. 30 note.
Page 92
‘Magnificently unprepared
For the long littleness of life’
The lines are from a quatrain written by the English poet Frances Cornford (1886–
1960) about Rupert Brooke (see p. 54 note):
A young Apollo, golden haired,
Stands dreaming on the verge of strife,
Magnificently unprepared
For the long littleness of life.
Page 92
Gracie Fields’ ‘Wish me Luck as You wave Me Goodbye’.
(See p. 67 note.) This song was one of her 1940s hits.
Page 94
‘The open road, the dusty highway.Travel, change, interest, excitement.Poop,
poop.’

20. These words are taken from Chapter II of the novel The Wind in the Willows by
Kenneth Graham (1858–1932). Hector’s ‘quotation’ is a compilation of various lines from
the chapter, all spoken by Mr Toad.
Page 94
Brief Encounter
See p. 40 note.
Page 94
Gracie Fields
See p. 67 note.
Page 96
The Lord of the Rings
This is the title of the trilogy of novels by J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973), which were
first published as a trilogy in 1954–1955. The novels, sequels to the earlier work The
Hobbit (1937), are concerned with life in the fantasy world of Middle-earth. Each novel
of the trilogy – The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King
– has been made into a hugely successful feature film.
Page 96
Virginia Woolf
A leading member of the literary set known as the Bloomsbury Group, Virginia Woolf
(1882–1941) is a major figure in twentieth century English Literature. In novels
including Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928) and The
Waves (1931), she presented a form of narrative which emphasised the detailed
workings and impressions of the consciousness of an individual.
Page 98
Wilfred Owen
See p. 24 note.
Page 102
The Spectator
This is the title of a political magazine which is published weekly. It was first published
in 1828.
Page 104
The Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It’s a Sin’.
A rare – indeed unique – reference in the play to an item of 1980s pop culture! ThePet
Shop Boys is the name of a hugely successful duo – Neil Tennant (vocals) and Chris
Lowe (keyboards) – who have been making electronic-based music since the mid-80s.
It’s a Sin was released in 1987.
Page 104
Gracie Fields
See p. 67 note.
Page 104
‘Give him the money, Barney!’
This was one of the catchphrases from the popular BBC radio game show Have a Go,
which ran from 1946 to 1967. The show came from different locations every week and
people from the local area talked of their loves and memories to the host,

21. WilfredPickles (1904–1978). In one part of the show, contestants would, in succession,
try to answer four general knowledge questions. Before the quiz, Wilfred Pickles would
ask his co-presenter, his wife Mabel, to describe the prizes on offer that week, in
addition to the usual cash awards, by saying What’s on the table, Mabel? Whenever a
contestant answered all of his/her four questions correctly, Pickles would respond with
the cry Give him (or her) the money, Barney!, referring to the show’s producer, Barney
Colehan.
Page 106
Bye Bye, Blackbird
This song was first published in 1925 and written by American song-writers Ray
Henderson (music) and Mort Dixon (lyrics). It has been recorded by a host of artists
since then.
Page 106
‘We are mulched by the dead, though one person’s death will tell you more than a
thousand.’
Lockwood expresses his confusion as to which of Hector’s sayings were his own words
and which literary quotations. This sounds like one of the latter, but, as far as we can
tell, it is not!
Page 108
‘Finish, good lady, the bright day is done and we are for the dark.’
These words are spoken to Cleopatra in Act V Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Antonyand
Cleopatra by Iras, one of her faithful handmaidens, as her mistress chooses death
before dishonour at the hands of the triumphant Octavius Caesar.