(Topic 1) Burke on Conciliation a) How does Burke meet the argument that England has a legal right to tax the Colonies ? b) What may we learn from Burke's Speech as to the best method of governing remote territories? Give an example which he cites. c) Explain what Burke means when he characterizes Lord North's project as "ransom by auction." (Topic 2) Washington's Farewell Address and Webster's First Bunker Hill Oration. (Both a and b must be answered.) a) What does Washington say regarding the danger to national unity in the geographical organization of parties? b) What does Webster say with reference to the results of revolution in South America? (Topic 3) Macaulay's Speeches on Copyright and Lincoln's Speech at Cooper Union. (a, b, and c must be answered.) a) What, according to Macaulay, are the only two ways in which an author can be remunerated for his literary labor? b) What is the plan which Macaulay proposes in his Second Speech on Copyright, and how does he support it by citing the cases of Madame d'Arblay and Miss Austen? c) How did Lincoln meet the Southern argument that the Republican party was sectional ? Group IV-Essays (Topic 1) Macaulay's Life of Johnson. a) What, according to Macaulay, was Johnson's chief weakness as a lexicographer? b) In what respects did Macaulay think Johnson ill-qualified to bring out an edition of Shakespeare? c) After your reading of this essay, what should you say of Macaulay as a critic of men and of literature? (Topic 2) Carlyle's Essay on Burns. a) "The blame for Burns's failure lay chiefly not with the world." Briefly discuss this assertion of Carlyle's. b) What was Burns's relation to the literature of his time? (SEE NEXT PAGE) (Topic 3) Emerson's Essay on Manners. (Answer a, and either b or c). a) In what sense does Emerson use the word "aristocracy”? b) What relation does Emerson discern between the "class of power" and the "exclusive and polished circles"? c) Interpret carefully the following quotation: "I could better eat with one who did not respect the truth or the laws than with a sloven and unpresentable person." PART II-BOOKS FOR READING (The essay called for under this section must be based on one of the ten books presented by you to meet the requirement under English Literature A.) Write a carefully planned theme of four or five hundred words on one (and only one) of the following topics 1. A vivid picture of a scene or a character. 2. The meeting of the hero and the villain. 3. English village life. 4. My favorite essay. 5. The opening scene of the play. 6. An episode from the Bible or from the classics. Tuesday, June 18 ENGLISH 2-LITERATURE 9 a.m. Two hours Allow about an hour and thirty minutes for Part I—Books for Study, and twenty minutes for Part II-Books for Reading. Each answer will count one-fifth of the total. Reserve ten minutes for careful revision. PART I-BOOKS FOR STUDY From each of the following groups choose one topic only, and answer all the questions relating to that topic, except as specified in the question on Burke. Group I-Drama (Topic 1) Shakespeare's Macbeth Answer briefly but clearly the following questions: a) Why did Macbeth kill the grooms of Duncan's bedchamber? b) Why did he particularly desire the death of Banquo? c) Why did he wish the death of Fleance? d) Why did he order the death of all of Macduff's household? (Topic 2) Shakespeare's Julius Caesar Prove by brief reference to the play the following assertions: a) Brutus was an honorable man. b) Brutus was an unreasonable man, too strongly set in his convictions to be moved. c) Brutus was a tender man. d) Brutus was an idealist. (Topic 3) Shakespeare's Hamlet a) What do the chief characters in the play think of Hamlet's madness, and to what causes do they attribute it? b) What is your view of his madness? Give reasons. c) What does it enable him to do in the play? d) How long does he continue to appear mad? The following passages are from Milton's Paradise Lost (published in 1667). What points of comparison and contrast do you detect between this selection and L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, with regard to both the writer's mastery of verse and his outlook upon life? [Opening lines of Book IX] No more of talk where God or Angel Guest Rural repast, permitting him the while Venial discourse unblamed. I now must change And disobedience; on the part of Heaven, Now alienated, distance and distaste, Anger and just rebuke, and judgment given, That brought into this World a world of woe, Book I. Satan reviews in Hell the ranks of his fallen angels, Darkened so, yet shone Above them all the Archangel: but his face (Topic 2) Tennyson's Idylls of the King What knights engage in the quest of the Grail, and what is the degree of success of each? (Topic 3) Palgrave's Golden Treasury a) What resemblances do you find between "The Reaper" and "To the Highland Girl of Inversneyde"? Who wrote these two poems ? b) Name four odes you have studied in Book IV of The Golden Treasury. Give the author of each. Group III-Oratory (Topic 1) Burke on Conciliation Answer either a) or b). a) Name at least five definite objections which Burke raised to the project of Lord North. Discuss any one of these. b) "Sir, these considerations have great weight with me, when I find things so circumstanced that I see the same party at once a civil litigant against me in point of right and a culprit before me, while I sit as a criminal judge on acts of his, whose moral quality is to be decided upon the merits of that very litigation." 1. To what considerations does Burke refer? 2. Whom does he mean by the "civil litigant" and "the culprit"? (SEE NEXT PAGE) (Topic 2) Washington's Farewell Address and Webster's First Bunker Hill Oration. a) Why was Washington opposed to indulging antipathies against and strong attachments for other nations? b) What does Webster say with regard to the attitude of Salem when the port of Boston was closed? (Topic 3) Macaulay's Speeches on Copyright and Lincoln's Speech at Cooper Union. a) What, according to Macaulay, would be the result if Parliament refused to pass the bill against which he was contending in his First Speech on Copyright (1841)? b) In what connection does Lincoln in the Cooper Union Speech refer to the Louisiana Purchase? Group IV-Essays (Topic 1) Macaulay's Life of Johnson Mention three literary qualities of Johnson and three of Macaulay, as shown by Macaulay's Life of Johnson, and comment in detail, and by reference to the work, on any one of these six qualities. (Topic 2) Carlyle's Essay on Burns a) Carlyle says that Burns's wide popularity seems to imply some rare excellence in his work. What is the excellence referred to? b) "Of the verses which Indignation makes, Burns also has given us some specimens." What are some of the specimens mentioned by Carlyle? c) "Properly speaking there is but one era in the life of Burns." What, according to Carlyle, was this era ? (Topic 3) Emerson's Essays on Manners a) What good thing does Emerson find to say about fashion, and how does he expound his idea? b) What besides "personal force" and "unerring taste" does society demand in its patrician class? Illustrate the point by telling the story of Fox and the tradesman. PART II-BOOKS FOR READING "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention."-BACON, Of Studies. Select six books from the ten that you have read from the A list ("books for reading"), and state with regard to each whether you think it should be "tasted," "swallowed," or "chewed and digested." Give briefly your reason in each case. |