The story of this quote is dramatic and excited me from when I first read it as quite a young child; I already knew about Sir Walter Raleigh and his exploits and adventures from my children’s book of heroes, about laying his cloak over a muddy puddle so Queen Elizabeth I wouldn’t get her feet dirty, about fighting the Spanish and sailing to America, and introducing potatoes and tobacco to England… I’m not sure I knew about him being beheaded, Horrible Histories weren’t available then!
I began to work through a pre-war book of the Story of the British People in Pictures, which had belonged to my dad and eventually I came to the Elizabethan era and there was a wonderful picture of Sir Walter and his cloak, and then on a following page a small picture of Elizabeth showing her friend what Walter had written on her window with a diamond ring she had given him: “Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall” Elizabeth then inscribed a reply “If thy heart fail thee, climb not at all.”
I thought it so romantic and exciting, and the words remained with me as I grew up… but I never thought to associate it with anything other than romance; so boldly venturing in search of love… but boldly venturing in search of anything else? Another quote which I often think about, and used to misunderstand, was from the actor Steve McQueen: “You gotta make it happen.” It was a long time before I realised it meant “You gotta make it happen!”
Lois Elsden 