He has drawn them at full Length indeed, but as Milton drew his shadowy Beings, Death, Sin, Chaos, by the Extent of his Imagination, and with little Regard to Historical Likeness, or copying after Nature; his Pictures on the King's Side being to a Man, all so many Heroes; on that of the Parliament so many Scoundrels; which was impossible to be true: For, besides that it was not in the Course, so it was not in the Nature of the Thing, that so many heroical Persons should take Party for Oppression and Superstition, and so many Blockheads and Poltrons espouse the Cause of Religion and Liberty.
"An Essay on Criticism"
John Oldmixon
And pertinent to this question another-Why is it that the pirate has, and always has had, a certain lurid glamour of the heroical enveloping him round about?
"Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates"
Howard I. Pyle
"They took Kloet, wounded as he was," said Lord North, "and first strangled, him, then smeared him with pitch, and burnt him with gunpowder; thus, with their holiness, they, made a tragical end of an heroical service.
"History of the United Netherlands, 1586-89, Vol. II. Complete"
John Lothrop Motley Last Updated: February 7, 2009