Together with Sir Thomas More, Sir Thomas Elyot was the most outstanding English humanist of his generation. He was the first writer in English to fashion the idea of a gentleman educated according to a humanist curriculum; he wrote the earliest...

"How to Tell a Flatterer from a Friend" is the title of one of Plutarch's most famous Moralia, but the phrase could just as easily be the subtitle of Shakespeare's Othello. Flattery and false friendship were topics that preoccupied many people during the...

The 'two widows syndrome' - caused when someone dies leaving behind both the spouse and a clandestine, long-standing lover who has no rights and must, by definition, grieve in secret - is difficult enough at the best of times. But imagine how much worse...