(20) 'My lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,
Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king;
And if you crown him, let me prophesy:
The blood of English shall manure the ground,
And future ages groan for this foul act;
Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels;
And in this seat of peace, tumultuous wars
Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound;
Disorder, horror, fear and mutiny

Shall here inhabit, and this land be called
The field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls.'

XIV. PAPER FOR 1864.

ENGLISH LITERATURE.

Examiner: C. KNIGHT WATSON, Esq.

[N.B. You are not expected to answer all the questions in this paper. A wide range has been taken to suit the reading, necessarily various, of different candidates.]

1. From what period would you date the commencement of English literature, properly so called, and what considerations would hinder you from dating it earlier ?

2. State what you know about Wycliffe's translation of the Bible, and explain fully the influence it exercised on the rise and progress of English literature.

3. State as precisely as you can to what foreign sources Chaucer was indebted. Justify your statements by reference to his works and by the relative dates of great Continental poets.

4. With what great political and religious movement or movements was Chaucer contemporary, and to what extent can they be said to be reflected in his poetry? Give such an account of the social condition of England as can be gathered exclusively from the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.

5. If you were publishing a selection of English poetry from Chaucer to Spenser exclusively, what authors, in order of date, would you have to select from, what pieces would you select, and what new metrical arrangements would they comprise ?

6. Name in their order the principal prose writers of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, and give as full an account as you can of their respective works. Which of them may be said to have done for English prose what Chaucer did for English poetry? Compare generally the progress of the two branches of composition.

7. Translation is the pest of speech' (Dr. S. Johnson). Discuss this statement. How is it borne out by the English translations executed during the 16th century?

8. Give a brief sketch of Spenser's life and works. What are the most striking peculiarities of his diction? Mention or quote some of the most famous passages in the 'Faery Queen.'

9. How far did Shakspere borrow (1) from older English dramatists, (2) from contemporary or earlier chronicles, (3) from authors of classical antiquity? Illustrate your answers by a reference to various plays. Compare Shakspere and Ben Jonson.

10. Paraphrase and explain the following pass

ages:

(1) 'It hath been taught us from the primal state

That he which was was wished until he were,

And the ebbed man ne'er loved till ne'er worth love
Comes dear by being lacked. This common body,
Like to a vagabond flag upon a stream,

(2)

(3)

(4)

Goes to and back lackeying the varying tide
To rot itself with motion.

'So our virtues

Lie in the interpretation of the time.
And power unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair

To extol what it hath done.'

'Fortune's blows

When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves
A noble cunning.'

'O then we bring forth weeds

When our quick winds lie still and our ills told us
Is as our knowing.'

(5) 'That in my face I dare not stick a rose,

Lest men should say, Look where three farthings goes.'

11. In what plays of Shakspere do the following characters occur, and what are they?-Angelo, Autolycus, Benedict, Biron, James Gurney, Hermia, Jaques, Porteus, Shallow.

12. Give the purport of one of Bacon's Essays as far as possible in his own words.

13. What reason have we for supposing that the form which 'Paradise Lost' now wears is not that which Milton originally intended to give it? Quote the passage in his writings which seems to imply that he at one time contemplated a different subject for an epic. What suggested the composition of 'Paradise Regained'? With what justice has he been accused of plagiarism in 'Paradise Lost'?

14. Who were the authors and what are the subjects of the following works?-Ralph Roister Doister,' 'The Duchess of Malfi,' 'The Passionate Pilgrim,''The History of the Turks,' 'An Apology

for Smectymnuus,' History of the Worthies of England,' 'Hydriotaphia,' 'Leonidas,' 'The Shipwreck,' 'The Wisdom of the Ancients,' 'On the Study and Use of History,' 'The Cotter's Saturday Night,' 'Sylva,' 'Timber,' 'The Complete Angler,' 'Hermes,' 'Discourse on Government.' Arrange your answers in chronological order.

15. What place in English literature do you assign to Dryden? Who are meant by the Hare, the Fox, the Wolf, the Bear, the Boar, the Lion, the Hind and the Panther, respectively, in the poem which bears the name of the last two? Under what circumstances was this poem written ?

16. Of whom does Dryden say—

'The statesman we abhor, but praise the judge.'
'Was everything by starts and nothing long.'
His memory, miraculously great,

Could plots exceeding man's belief repeat.'

17. Give some account of Pope's 'Dunciad' and of his Essay on Criticism.' Write down as many as you can remember of the most famous lines or couplets which those two works have rendered proverbial.

18. State what you know of the history of the "Tatler' and the 'Spectator.' Give an analysis of any paper in either of them which may strike you

as remarkable.

19. In what works do we meet with the 'Man on the Hill,''Lefebvre,' and 'Mr. Burcham' respectively? Who were their authors, and when did they live ?

20. Mention the principal literary forgeries of the last century.