This incident occurs as part of "The Hearth and the
Salamander", the first section of the book. Montag goes to burn a woman's secret
selection of books and she chooses to be burnt with her collection rather than to live.
As she dies, she says:
"Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day
light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put
out."
What is key about this
quote is that it comes from Master Ridley, who was burnt alive because of their
insistence of spreading the translated Bible in England which was viewed as heresy at
the time. The woman, likewise, sets herself ablaze for a similar cause, as the
government of the time is set to suppress the spread of literature and to destroy it
completely, and she is obviously against this.
What is so
surprising is that Beatty knows the quote and its origin. As the leader of a force whose
job it is to destroy printed matter, it is somewhat shocking that he knows the content
of what he is implacably set on eradicating.
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