Remember… Remember the Fifth of November… Of Gunpowder, Treason and Plot…

A Cuddly V from V for Vendetta by Nick Davis

Remember remember the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason why gunpowder, treason

Should ever be forgot…

A Penny for the Guy?

Did you know Guy Fawkes is sometimes toasted as “the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions?”

On this day, the 5th of November in 1605 Guy Fawkes entered the Houses of Parliament to blow it up to restore Catholic rule to the British Isles. He was unsuccessful, caught before he could set off the barrels of gunpowder secreted under Parliament by his co-conspirators .

The Remember, Remember poem is sometimes referred to as ‘Please to remember the fifth of November’. It serves as a warning to each new generation that treason will never be forgotten. In my home country England the 5th of November is still commemorated each year with fireworks and bonfires culminating with the burning of effigies of Guy Fawkes (the guy). The ‘guys’ are made by children by filling old clothes with crumpled newspapers to look like a man. Tradition allows British children to display their ‘guys’ to passers-by and asking for ” A penny for the guy”.

His image is more recognizable nowadays as V from V for Vendetta… The Anarchist who argued people should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people. And brought down a fictional fascist British Government in the Alan Moore penned book about the concepts of liberty.

However Guy Fawkes is remembered I urge you all to have a safe Bonfire night….

Art note – The Cuddly V was finished in watercolor pencils and charcoal pencil.