Letter: Literary heritage: where lessons in Milton could lead

Sir: In 'Men of influence behind the shift in educational values' (12 December) you mention that John Marenbon, chairman of the English Committee of the School Examinations and Assessment Council, listed Dryden's The Cock and the Fox 'among the top 10 books which children should have read by the age of 16'.

Those of your readers who (like me) were not obliged to read this masterpiece of English literature by the age of 16, and do not have their copy of Dryden to hand, may like to see a few extracts from it (it is a rendition of Chaucer's The Nun's Priest's Tale). Dryden is describing Chaucer's widow, 'somewhat old and very poor':

This Dowager, on whom my Tale I found,

Since last she laid her Husband in the Ground,

A simple sober life in patience led,

And had but just enough to buy her bread:

But Huswifing the little Heav'n had lent,

She duly paid a Groat for Quarter- Rent

For no delicious Morsel pass'd her Throat;

According to her Cloth she cut her Coat:

No paynant Sawce she knew, no costly Treat,

Her Hunger gave a Relish to her Meat:

A sparing Diet did her Health assure;

Or sick, a Pepper-Posset was her Cure.

Her Poverty was glad; her Heart content.

Dryden's version may not be up to much (far better that our 16- year-olds should read Chaucer in the original - they will not find the tenth and last lines above), but the moral tone would clearly benefit prospective poll-tax dodgers, fraudulent claimants and scroungers on the NHS. There must be a place for Dr Marenbon in the No 10 Policy Unit.

Yours truly,

JOHN DELAFONS

London, W5

14 December