United States or Eswatini ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


When the daylight had faded, there was always chess-playing, dancing the carole, and singing, and by the thirteenth century little pastoral ballets, in which a knight, and a shepherdess and her lover, took part, began to be produced for the diversion of castle-folk.

The chess-playing scene between Elfride and Knight in A Pair of Blue Eyes is an illustration. Sergeant Troy displaying his skill in handling the sword weaving his spell about Bathsheba in true snake fashion, is another example.

The political events that led up to it were these: between 304 and 319 a Tatar family by the name of Liu, from Manchuria, succeeded in driving the House of Tsin out of northern China: these Tsins were that effete, ladylike, chess-playing, fan-waving, high-etiquettish dynasty I have spoken of before.

Chess-playing requires complete abstraction, and Nigel, though he was a double first, occasionally lost a game from a lapse in that condensed attention that secures triumph. The fact is, he was too frequently thinking of something else besides the moves on the board, and his ear was engaged while his eye wandered, if Myra chanced to rise from her seat or make the slightest observation.

"When an Eastern guest was asked if he knew anything in the universe more beautiful than the gardens of his host, which lay, an ocean of green, broad, brilliant, enchanting, upon the flowery margin of the Euphrates, he replied, 'Yes, the chess-playing of El-Zuli." Surely, the compliment, though Oriental, is not without its strict truth.

A sleek-headed piccolo rushed forward to remove the board, and the erstwhile combatants resumed the courteous dignity that they discarded in their chess-playing moments. "Have you seen the Germania to-day?" asked Herr Rebinok, as soon as the boy had receded to a respectful distance. "No," said von Kwarl, "I never see the Germania. I count on you to tell me if there is anything noteworthy in it."

The winter days passed pleasantly in reading, walking, and tennis-playing; the evenings in chess-playing, music, and story-telling. But one night, as James was chatting and laughing with the Queen and her ladies before going to bed, a great noise was heard.

And so Billy pored over her chessboard feverishly, tirelessly, having ever before her longing eyes the dear time when Bertram, across the table from her, should sit happily staring for half an hour at a move she had made. Whatever Billy's chess-playing was to signify, however, in her own life, it was destined to play a part in the lives of two friends of hers that was most unexpected.

During her brilliant fortnight at Bowood where, besides Madame de Stael, her Albertine, M. de Stael, and Count Palmella, there were the Romillys, the Macintoshes, Mr. Ward, Mr. Rogers, and M. Dumont if it had not been for chess-playing, music, and dancing between times, poor human nature never could have borne the strain of attention and admiration. Jan. 1, 1814.

The power of calculating in figures, of writing poetry, of chess-playing, of preaching sermons, was tremendous; but all their other faculties were like the legs and wings of the fattening goose. Let us try to be entire human beings, round and complete; and if we wish to be so, it is best not to live too much alone.