NOTES AND QUESTIONS

Biography. Charles Lamb (1775-1834) was an English writer who spent his entire life in London. He was a classmate of the poet Coleridge. His father was a clerk in a lawyer’s office, and Charles was an accountant until he was fifty years of age. He was, however, a great reader and spent his hours of leisure at the bookstalls and printshops or at home reading with his sister Mary. He and Mary wrote Tales from Shakespeare, giving the story or plot of many of Shakespeare’s plays. In a letter to his friend Mr. Manning, Lamb said of his sister: “She is doing for Godwin’s bookseller twenty of Shakespeare’s plays, to be made into children’s tales. Six are already done by her: The Tempest, Winter’s Tale, Midsummer Night, Much Ado, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Cymbeline; and the Merchant of Venice is in forwardness. I have done Othello and Macbeth, and mean to do all the tragedies. I think it will be popular among the little people, besides money. It is to bring in sixty guineas. Mary has done them capitally, I think you’d think.” Lamb’s rich personality gave flavor and enduring fame to his writings.

Discussion. 1. Be prepared to tell the story in the fewest possible words. 2. Make an outline giving the principal events of the story. 3. Note all that is said of the forest of Arden; where may such a forest be found? 4. Is the forest described a real one? 5. What impression of the elder duke’s character do you get from the story? 6. What evidences of true friendship did Celia show? 7. Who are the important characters? The most important? 8. Give your opinion of these: Rosalind, Celia, Orlando. 9. Are the characters real and lifelike or are they improbable? 10. What humorous situations do you find? 11. Pronounce the following: haunts; wrestling; fatigue.

Phrases

THE TEMPEST

CHARLES AND MARY LAMB

There was a certain island in the sea, the only inhabitants of which were an old man, whose name was Prospero, and his daughter Miranda, a very beautiful young lady. She came to this island so young that she had no memory of having seen any other human face than her father’s.

They lived in a cave, or cell, made out of a rock; it was divided into several apartments, one of which Prospero called his study; there he kept his books, which chiefly treated of magic, a study at that time [much affected by all learned men]. The knowledge of this art he found very useful to him; for being thrown by a strange chance upon this island, which had been enchanted by a witch called Sycorax, who died there a short time before his arrival, Prospero, by virtue of his art, released many good spirits that Sycorax had imprisoned in the bodies of large trees, because they had [refused to execute] her wicked commands. These gentle spirits were ever after obedient to the will of Prospero. Of these Ariel was the chief.