Honor Examination,

1879.

ENGLISH POETRY.

Milton, Scott, Trench.

Examiner-MR. W. H. PAULSON, M. A.

1. Characterize and account for the peculiarities of Milton's Prose style.

Mention any allusions in the Areopagitica which throw light upon his private life and character.

2. Explain the following passages, and the arguments embodied in them

a.

"Believe it, Lords and Commons, they, who counsel ye to such a suppression, do as good as bid ye suppress yourselves."

b. "I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for not without dust and heat."

c.

"This licensing order may prove a nursing mother to sects, but I shall easily show how it will be a step-dame to truth.”

3.

Notice any thing which calls for remark in the followinga. "A parochial minister who has his reward, and is at his Hercules pillars in a warm benefice."

b. "Plato fed his fancy by making many edicts to his airy burgomasters which they, who otherwise admire him, wish had been rather buried and excused in the genial cups of an Academic night sitting."

C. "No song must be set or sung, but what is grave and Doric."

d. "I know that books are as lively and as vigorously productive as those fabulous dragon's teeth; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men."

e. "He who takes up arms for coat and conduct and his four nobles of Danegelt."

4. Write notes on the following words occurring in the Areopagitica-statist, injury, conceit, skill, remember, whenas, gramercy, limbo, jaunt.

5. Discuss briefly the legitimacy of historical romance. Criticize the historical accuracy displayed by Scott in Quentin Durward. 6. Illustrate from Quentin Durward the character of Charles the Bold.

7. Write a note upon the Bohemian characters introduced in the story.

8. 66 There is a great difference between the English language under Charles II, and that under Queen Anne." Mention some authors from whom you would test this assertion.

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9. Can you mention any attempts that have ever been deliberately made to reform a language, or to check its proclivities ? What are the most obvious objections to phonetic spelling?

10. Give some instances in English (a) of words that have, so to speak, become degraded in meaning, (b) of words that have become exalted.

Illustrate the tendency of English to drop its forms or powers."

THE DRAMA.

Shakespeare, Villiers, Sheridan.
Examiner-RRV. W. C. FYFE.

1. Over what periods of English history do Shakespeare's historical plays extend? Name these plays in the chronological order of their subjects. Indicate the time and the action in the play of King Richard III., mentioning two or three of the principal persons introduced in the action, and conveying your impression of their characters as drawn by Shakespeare.

2. What internal evidence does the play of Henry VIII afford of the time when it was written or published? Wherein does the play agree or disagree with the actual history of the period in which it is laid? Analyse the character of Henry VIII, as deli neated by Shakespeare.

3. From what sources did Shakespeare derive the story of the "Winter's Tale"? Write a short critique on the Winter's Tale ; and point out some of the anachronisms, geographical errors and other incongruities which cccur in it. Contrast the jealousy of Leontes with that of Othello.

4. What great moral truths are elaborated in the plays of Richard III, and Henry VIII? Quote, or refer to, any passages that seem to you distinguished for their ethical value and literary beauty, and point out the particular points of beauty.

5. State and illustrate by references, some of the more prominent grammatical anomalies which are to be found in the dramas of Shakespeare.

6. Explain the following passages :

(a.) My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.

(b.) I am the most unhappy woman living.
Shipwreck'd upon a kingdom where no pity,
No friends, no hope, no kindred weep for me.
Almost no grave allow'd me.

(c.)

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The jealousy

Is for a precious creature as she 's rare,
Must it be great, and as his person's mighty,
Must it be violent.

(d.) The silence often of pure innocence

Persuades where speaking fails.

(e.) We will unite the white rose and the red.

(f)

A peace above all earthly dignities
A still and quiet conscience.

I feel within me

7. Explain the following words and phrases:-" Virginalling”a federary"- -"woman-tired"-"a mankind-witch"-" soft cheveril"-" troll-my-dames"—" inquire me"-" a touch of your condition."

8. Give a short account of the life and character of Villiers, Second Duke of Buckingham. What influence had the publication of" The Rehearsal" upon the dramatic style of Dryden ?

9. Annotate the following passages so far as you consider necessary for their elucidation :

:

(a.) How strange a captive am I grown of late! Shall I accuse my Love or blame my Fate? My Love, I cannot; that is too Divine.

And against Fate what mortal dares repine ?
(b.) He that dares drink, and for that drink dares die,
And, knowing this, dares yet drink on, am I.
(c.) Others may boast a single man to kill;

But I the blood of thousands daily spill.
(d.) Granted our cause, our suit and trial o'er,
The worthy sergeant need appear no more:
In pleasing I a different client choose.

He served the Poet, I would serve the Muse:
Like him, I'll try to merit your applause;

A female counsel in a female's cause.

(e.) Oh! there is nothing to be hoped for from her! she's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of Nile.

(f) Ay, Sir, there's no more trick is there? you are not like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once, are you?

10. Write notes on the italicised expressions in the following passages:

(a.) I died for hope ere I could lend thee aid.

(b.)

(c.)

T

We say the king,

Is wise and virtuous; and the noble queen
Well struck in years.

Yet I know her for

A spleeny Lutheran; and not wholesome to
Our cause that she should lie i' the bosom of
Our hard-ruled king.

(d.) I am the shadow of poor Buckingham
Whose figure even this instant cloud puts on,
By darkening my clear sun.

(e.)

(f.)

New customs,
Though they be never so ridiculous,
Nay let them be unmanly, yet are followed.
O Cromwell, Cromwell,

Had I but served my God with half the zeal

I served my king, He would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.

11. Explain the origin of the final letters in mine, their, why, whilom, here, once, twice.

What is the etymology of both, yes,

no, among, such, which?

12. Give, with illustration, the nature of the foreign influences which were acting upon the English drama in the reign of Charles II.

ENGLISH POETRY.

Examiner-REV. W. C. FYFE.

Chaucer, Milton, Pope, Byron.

1. What is the object of poetry as distinct from that of ordinary prose? What are the chief characteristics of poetical diction, as distinct from the diction of prose?

2. What are the chief grammatical changes which converted the Anglo-Saxon into the English of the 14th century? Mention the chief grammatical differences between the English of the present day and that of the 14th century. State briefly Chaucer's position and influence in English literature.

3.

Turn the following passages into modern English prose:(a.) Our hoste vpon his stiropes stood anon,

And seyde, "good men, herkeneth euerich on;

This was a thrifty tale for the nones!

Sir parish prest, "quod he," for goddes bones,
Tel vs a tale, as was thy forward yore.

(b.) Of Hercules the souereyn conquerour

Singen his workes laude and hy renoun;
For in his tyme of strengthe he was the flour.

(c.) But atte last speken she bigan

And mekely she to the sergeant preyde,
So as he was a worthy gent!l man,

That she moste kiss hir child er that it deyde;
And in her barm this litel child she leyde
With ful sad face, and gan the child to kisse
And lulled it, and after gan it blisse.

(d) His Iambeux were of quyrboilly,
His swerdes shethe of yuory.

His helm of laton bryght;

His sadel was of rewel boon
His brydel as the sonne shoon,

Or as the mone lyght.

4. Explain the following words and phrases :-"The pleinte of Dianire." "A loller."-" Payndemeyn." "Awang-toth." 'Dey naturel." "Chambre of parements."

"Shredde and seeth."

"Herbergage."

5. Sketch briefly the history of the composition of the Paradise Lost. What do you consider to be the pre-eminent characteristic of the Paradise Lost? Illustrate your opinion by references to the first three Books. Examine the propriety of calling the Paradise Lost an Epic Poem.

6. Specify anything excellent, which you may discover, in the versification of the following passages. Scan the monosyllabic line; and show how it is exempt from the mimicking censure of Pope :"And ten low words oft creep in one dull line."

(a.)

(Essay on Criticism)

But first, whom shall we send

In search of this new world,-whom shall we find
Sufficient? who shall tempt with wandring feet
The dark unbottomed, infinite abyss,

And through the palpable obscure find out
His uncouth way?

(b.) High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
Satan exalted sat,-by merit raised

To that bad eminence.

7. With what meanings, now unusual, do the following words occur in the Paradise Lost ?-Afflicted-battle-success-fatalexercise-intend-ruin-influence-admired-sublime.

8. Define SATIRE; and state some of the chief characteristics of Pope as a satirist. Illustrate your opinion, by references to, or quotations from, his Satires.

9. Write explanatory notes on the following passages:(a.) Yet then did Gildon draw his venal quill;

I wished the man a dinner and sate still.

(b.) Content with little I can piddle here

On brocoli and mutton round the year.

(c) I'll do what Mead and Cheselden advise

To keep these limbs, and to preserve these eyes.
(d.) Unhappy Dryden! In all Charles's days
Roscommon only boasts unspotted bays;
And in our own (excuse some courtly stains)
No whiter page than Addison remains.

(e.) Let humble Allen with an awkward shame

Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.

10. Describe fully the metre of Byron's Childe Harold. Reproduce in your own words Byron's striking reflections on Napoleon in Canto III. Give the meaning and derivation of each of the following words :-Mote-whilome-joyaunce-moe-ne-eld-fytte. 11. Specify, with brief remarks, any literary beauties which you may discover in the following passages :

(a.) Son of the morning, rise! approach you here!
Come-but molest not yon defenceless urn:
Look on this spot-a nation's sepulchre.
(b.) Roll on thou deep and dark blue Ocean roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin-his control
Stops with the shore;-upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man's ravage, save his own.

He sinks into thy depths, with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknell'd, uncoffin'd and unknown.

12. Compare Byron and Wordsworth as poets. Whom do you reckon the greatest English poet of the nineteenth century? Justify your preference by argument and quotation.