By this time, every listener was prepared for Copey's voice as if it were God himself speaking. Two famous Copeland stories involve his distaste as a public speaker for lateness and the imperious wit with which he could handle it. Three students knocked on the locked door as he lectured in "Johnson and his Circle." He ignored them. They knocked again. The door was unlocked and the three walked in and sat down. Copey glared. "All gall is divided in three parts," he remarked crisply, and then went on lecturing.

'Gloria Mundi'

Another time, an unfortunate named Munn happened to stumble while walking in late.

"What is your name?" asked Copey.

"Munn, sir."

"Sic transit gloria Mundi," said Copey. "Leave the course and never return."

Professor Copeland was the third member of the trio which included Bliss Perry and George Lyman Kittredge who, in the words of John Mason Brown, "...succeeded in making a classroom seem like a theatre." His voice became such a Harvard institution that he performed annual readings for the Harvard Union at Christmas time, for the Harvard Club of New York, and for a group of alumni who had formed the Charles Townsend Copeland Association in his honor.

In 1927, Copey was asked to broadcast his annual Christmas reading. He predicted that his first radio performance would be his last. As it turned out, he continued the custom and even allowed a movie to be made for future Harvard generations who would never see the master in action. Even in these operations, his sensitivity to the audience and himself was acute. At the end of his film, Copey remarks gravely: "Such thanks as a dead man can give you are yours."

The aura of ritual reserve carried over from the classroom to Copey's personal encounters. Physically,