If the world be worth thy winning, Take the good the gods provide thee. The many rend the skies with loud applause; Gazed on the fair Who caused his care, And sighed and looked, sighed and looked, At length, with love and wine at once oppressed, 6. Now strike the golden lyre again; A louder yet, and yet a louder strain. Break his bands of sleep asunder, And rouse him, like a rattling peal of thunder. Has raised up his head; As awaked from the dead, And amazed he stares around. See the snakes that they rear, And the sparkles that flash from their eyes! 103, 104. Furies... snakes. The Fu ries, in Greek mythology, were were represented as females, with bodies all black, serpents twined in their hair, and blood dripping from their eyes. LITERARY ANALYSIS.-81, 82. worth. What part of speech is this? (See Swinton's New English Grammar, page 134.) "Winning" and "enjoying " are infinitives in ing or verbal nouns (ibid. page 52), and are in the objective adverbial (ibid. page 105). 97. rouse him. Observe in this line that the sound is the echo of the sense. 102. Revenge. Supply the ellipsis. 105 Behold a ghastly band, Each a torch in his hand! Those are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain, And unburied remain Give the vengeance due To the valiant crew. Behold how they toss their torches on high, How they point to the Persian abodes, And glittering temples of their hostile gods. The princes applaud with a furious joy; And the king seized a flambeau* with zeal to destroy. To light him to his prey, And, like another Helen, fired another Troy. 7. Thus long ago, Ere heaving bellows learned to blow, While organs yet were mute, Timotheus, to his breathing flute And sounding lyre, Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire. 113. crew. See L'Allegro, page 51. 118. flambeau, a torch. 121. Helen, the wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta, was the most beauti- Trojan war, which lasted ten 123. bellows: that is, of the organ. LITERARY ANALYSIS.-108. torch. What is the syntax of this word. 109. Those are... slain. State the real meaning of this sentence. 110 115 120 125 At last divine Cecilia came, Inventress* of the vocal frame; The sweet enthusiast, from her sacred store, Enlarged the former narrow bounds, And added length to solemn sounds, With Nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown before. Or both divide the crown: 129. Inventress of the vocal frame: that is, the organ. The legend of St. Cecilia is obscure. She is reputed to have lived in the third century A.D., and is credited with the invention of the organ. 136. He raised a mortal, etc.: that is, immortalized Alexander. 137. drew an angel down. In the story of St. Cecilia, told in the "Golden Legends" (Legenda Aurea, thirteenth century), she is said to have been under the immediate and present protection of an angel; and this was probably the beginning of the tradition here referred to, and which was exquisitely painted by Raphael. LITERARY ANALYSIS.—129. What is the etymology of "Inventress ?" 134-137. Give a paraphrase of the last four lines. 130 135 II. TWO PORTRAITS IN AQUA-FORTIS. [INTRODUCTION.-These two extracts are from Dryden's political satire called Absalom and Achitophel, which contains over one thousand lines, and was first published in 1681. By Achitophel is meant the Earl of Shaftesbury, the great leader of the Protestant opposition during the latter years of the reign of Charles II. Dryden had before then become a convert to Catholicity, and his object was to throw odium on Shaftesbury and his party. The brilliant, profligate Duke of Buckingham (Zimri) was a statesman and a writer, and at this time was, with Shaftesbury, a leader of the opposition. Many other personages are represented in the poem of Absalom and Achitophel; but these two are the most famous portraits.] I-ACHITOPHEL (THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY). Of these the false Achitophel was first, Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit.* NOTES. Line 3. close designs, secret plots. 6. In power. 4. turbulent of wit = a turbulent spirit. Shaftesbury had been Lord-chancellor.-disgrace: he was at this time in the Tower awaiting trial on a charge of quitted a short time after the first publication of Dryden's poem. 8. pygmy body. Shaftesbury was very small in stature. 9. o'er-informed, over-filled, over-animated. high-treason, of which crime he 13. to show his wit, in order to show was, however, triumphantly ac his skill. LITERARY ANALYSIS.-1-9. Express briefly in your own language the quali ties ascribed to Achitophel in the first nine lines. 10. A daring pilot. What is the figure of speech? (See Def. 20.) Show how the metaphor is carried out in the subsequent lines. 13. to show (= in order to show), adverbial element: what does it modify? 5 10 Great wits * are sure to madness near allied, And all to leave what with his toil he won To that unfeathered, two-legged thing, a son.— To compass this the triple bond he broke, And fitted Israel for a foreign yoke: Then, seized with fear, yet still affecting fame, So easy still it proves, in factious times, How safe is treason, and how sacred ill, Where none can sin against the people's will; 14. Great wits, great intellect. 17. his age: that is, his old age. pointless line, the only one in the piece. 19. Bankrupt of life, etc.: that is, "why 24. the triple bond. The alliance of should he, with a ruined consti- 21. unfeathered, two-legged thing. Plato England, Holland, and Sweden against France (1667). Shaftesbury was in no way responsible for its "breaking," and the line is a slander. foreign yoke. The alliance in 1670 with France. pose of ribaldry, and makes a 28. all-atoning, all-reconciling. LITERARY ANALYSIS.-17. age... hours. Syntax of these words? 23. Resolved. Supply the ellipsis. "To ruin or to rule," would this in prose be the best order of the antithesis? 25, 26. What two examples of metaphor in these lines? 31-34. What kind of sentence is the last? 15 20 25 30 |