Write about two hundred words on each of three topics selected by yourself from the following list (of a pair of subjects enclosed in brackets, choose but one):

{ Jessica's Escape from her Father's House.
{ Launcelot Gobbo.

Sir Roger at Church.

The Encounter of Fitz-James and Roderick Dhu.

{ Goldsmith's Life as a Student.
{ The Circumstances of the Composition, the First Performance, and the Publication
{ of She Stoops to Conquer.

{ Lynette's Behavior toward Sir Gareth.
{ The History of "the nine-years-fought-for diamonds."

Carlyle's Defense of Burns's Personal Character.

(Only candidates taking final examinations may choose the last.)

B

  1. (a) Explain the significance of the italicized words and phrases: "Memorize another Golgotha"; "To alter favor ever is to fear"; "Wicked dreams abuse The curtained sleep"; "But in them nature's copy's not eterne"; "His two chamberlains Will I with wine and wassail so convince."
  2. (b) What important persons of the drama are absent from the banquet? Where is each at that time? How far do these circumstances influence any later events in the play?
  4. (c) Give the substance of Malcolm's actions and utterances as far as they are presented on the stage.
  5. (a) What is said respecting the parentage of Mirth and Melancholy in L'Allegro and Il Penseroso? Interpret the meaning of each of the various suggestions.
  6. (b)
    What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield
    That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin,
    Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone,
    But rigid looks of chaste austerity,
    And noble grace that dashed brute violence
    With sudden adoration and blank awe?
  7. Locate the above quotation as exactly as you can, and show its relation to the general subject of the poem. Explain fully the allusions in the first three lines.
  8. (a) "First, then, I cannot admit that proposition of a ransom by auction, because it is a mere project.... Secondly, it is an experiment which must be fatal in the end to our Constitution.... Thirdly, it does not give satisfaction to the complaint of the Colonies." What was "that proposition"? Give the substance of Burke's objections under the above headings. What is the relation of this part of the speech to the whole? Was the "proposition" accepted?
  9. (b) What connection with the main argument has Burke's discussion of slave-holding in the Colonies?
  10. (a) Macaulay's remarks on Comus; (b) on Addison as a critic.