tator, in his hand. Such a mark of respect was due to the unsullied statesman, to the accomplished scholar, to the master of pure English eloquence, to the consummate painter of life and manners. It was due, above all, to the great satirist who alone knew how to use ridicule without abusing it; who, without inflicting a wound, effected a great social reform; and who reconciled wit and virtue, after a long and disastrous separation, during which wit had been led astray by profligacy, and virtue by fanaticism. POPE'S VENOMED SHAFT.' Peace to all such !2 but were there one whose fires 1 This malevolent but most powerful characterization of Addison, under the name of Atticus (see last line), appeared in the Prologue to Pope's Satires. Addison and Pope had been friends, but the bitter and suspicious temper of the latter led to a rupture, and he wrote what Macaulay styles “the brilliant and energetic lines which everybody knows by heart, or ought to know by heart." Macaulay adds: "One charge which Pope has enforced with great skill is probably not without foundation. Addison was, we are inclined to believe, too fond of presiding over a circle of humble friends. Of the other imputations scarcely one has been proved to be just, and some are certainly false. That Addison was not in the habit of damning with faint praise' appears from innumerable passages in his writings, and from none more than those in which he mentions Pope. And it is not merely unjust, but ridiculous, to describe a man who made the fortune of almost every one of his intimate friends as 'so obliging that he ne'er obliged.'" 2 By "all such" is meant the poetasters whom Pope has been unmercifully lashing in the previous part of the poem. Alike reserved to blame or to commend, SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY. · [INTRODUCTION.-The Spectator, from which these papers of Addison are taken, was a daily periodical started by Sir Richard Steele in 1711, as a successor to the Tatler. Sir Roger de Coverley, a fictitious character, was represented as one of a select club to which Mr. Spectator (drawn for Addison himself) belonged. The members of this club were sketched in a paper (Spectator No. 2) written by Steele, and here we have the first outlines of the portrait of Sir Roger. "Addison took the rude outlines into his own hands, retouched them, colored them, and is, in truth, the creator of the Sir Roger de Coverley and the Will Honeycomb with whom we are all familiar.”—MACAULAY: Essay on Addison.] I.-COVERLEY HALL (SPECTATOR NO. 106). 1. Having often received an invitation from my friend Sir Roger de Coverley to pass away a month with him in the country, I last week accompanied him thither, and am settled with him for some time at his country-house, where I intend to form several of my ensuing speculations. Sir Roger, who is very well s ... LITERARY ANALYSIS. I-5. Having. speculations. What kind of sentence grammatically considered? 1 "Obliged:" pronounced in Pope's time and long afterwards, obleeged, in the French fashion. = 2 "Raise " = applaud. The sting in this allusion is that when Addison's tragedy of Cato was first brought out, Addison's managers are said to have filled the pit with friendly literary men ("wits") and lawyers ("templars”— from the "Temple," or Inns of Court), who, it was understood, would carry the piece through with applause. acquainted with my humor,* lets me rise and go to bed when I please; dine at his own table or in my chamber, as I think fit; sit still and say nothing without bidding me be merry. When the gentlemen of the country come to see him, he only shows me at a distance. As I have been walking in his fields I have ob- 10 served them stealing a sight of me over an hedge, and have heard the knight desiring them not to let me see them, for that I hated to be stared at. 2. I am the more at ease in Sir Roger's family because it consists of sober and staid persons; for as the knight is the best 15 master in the world, he seldom changes his servants; and as he is beloved by all about him, his servants never care for leaving him. By this means his domestics are all in years, and grown old with their master. You would take his valet de chambre for his brother; his butler* is gray-headed; his groom is one of the gravest men that I ever have seen; and his coachman has the looks of a privy-councillor. You see the goodness of the master even in the old house-dog, and in a gray pad* that is kept in the stable with great care and tenderness out of regard to his past services, though he has been useless for several years. 3. I could not but observe with a great deal of pleasure the joy that appeared in the countenances of these ancient domestics upon my friend's arrival at his country-seat. Some of them NOTES. Line 6. humor, disposition, - temper. II. an hedge. The use of an before a sounded his very common with 22. Addison. de shahm-br], an attendant-an- privy-councillor, a member of the 12. the knight: that is, Sir Roger. LITERARY ANALYSIS.-Give the derivation of the word "humor" (6), and explain as here used.-Derivation of “butler" (20)? Of "pad" (23)? 8-10. When the gentlemen... distance. What kind of sentence is this rhetorically? II. stealing a sight. Substitute an equivalent expression. 15, 16. best master, etc. What figure of speech? (See Def. 34.) 18. and grown. Supply the ellipsis. 1-25. State in your own language some of the amiable traits of character attributed to Sir Roger in paragraphs 1 and 2. 27, 28. ancient domestics. Substitute synonyms. 25 could not refrain from tears at the sight of their old master; every one of them pressed forward to do something for him, and 30 seemed discouraged* if they were not employed. At the same time, the good old knight, with a mixture of the father and the master of the family, tempered* the inquiries after his own affairs with several kind questions relating to themselves. This humanity and good-nature engages everybody to him, so that 35 when he is pleasant upon any of them, all his family are in goodhumor, and none so much as the person whom he diverts himself with; on the contrary, if he coughs, or betrays any infirmity of old age, it is easy for a stander-by to observe a secret concern in the looks of all his servants. 4. My worthy friend has put me under the particular care of his butler, who is a very prudent man, and, as well as the rest of his fellow-servants, wonderfully desirous of pleasing me, because they have often heard their master talk of me as of his particular friend. 40 45 5. My chief companion, when Sir Roger is diverting himself in the woods or the fields, is a very venerable man, who is ever with Sir Roger, and has lived at his house in the nature of a chaplain above thirty years. This gentleman is a person of good sense and some learning, of a very regular life and obliging con- 50 versation; he heartily loves Sir Roger, and knows that he is 31. they. Strict grammar requires he. 48. in the nature of. We should now 33. tempered, gently mingled. say "in the character of." LITERARY ANALYSIS.-Give an Anglo-Saxon synonym for "discouraged (31).-State the derivation of "tempered" (33). Of "tinged" (57).—What curious piece of history in the word "chaplain" (48)?—What metaphor is in the word "insulted" (65)? 35. engages. What is the subject? Can the singular number be defended here? 36. pleasant upon. What preposition should we now use? 39. stander-by. Give the modern form of the word. 41-45. My worthy . . . particular friend. What kind of sentence grammatically? Give the principal proposition. Point out its two adjective clauses; its adverbial clause.-What kind of sentence is this rhetorically, a period or a loose sentence?—Point out an infelicitous repetition of a word. 48. at his house. What preposition do we now use? 49-53. This gentleman... dependent. Make an equivalent sentence using different words. very much in the old knight's esteem, so that he lives in the family rather as a relation than a dependent. 6. I have observed in several of my papers that my friend Sir Roger, amidst all his good qualities, is something of an humor-55 ist; and that his virtues as well as imperfections are, as it were, tinged by a certain extravagance, which makes them particularly his, and distinguishes them from those of other men. This cast of mind, as it is generally very innocent in itself, so it renders his conversation highly agreeable, and more delightful than 6 the same degree of sense and virtue would appear in their common and ordinary colors. As I was walking with him last night, he asked me how I liked the good man whom I have just now mentioned; and, without staying for my answer, told me that he was afraid of being insulted with Latin and Greek at his own 63 table, for which reason he desired a particular friend of his at the university to find him out a clergyman rather of plain sense than much learning, of a good aspect, a clear voice, a sociable temper, and, if possible, a man that understood a little of backgammon. "My friend," says Sir Roger, "found me out this 70 gentleman, who, besides the endowments required of him, is, they tell me, a good scholar, though he does not show it. I have given him the parsonage of the parish; and because I know his 65. insulted with Latin and Greek, etc. In the time of Sir Roger, the 69, 70. backgammon. The word is Welsh (bach, little, and cammon, a battle), and so, also, is probably the game in its origin. It is mentioned by Shakespeare under the name of "tables." 73. the parsonage, the benefice or office of parson-not the residenceis here meant. Various classes of "patrons" had the right of appointing to church benefices. Sir Roger, as knight of the shire, had this right. LITERARY ANALYSIS.-55, 56. an humorist. What is the modern form of the article?-Is "humorist" here used in a different sense from its common modern meaning? 58-62. This cast... colors. Point out an instance of pleonasm in this senHow may the fault be corrected? tence. 67-70. a clergyman... backgammon. What is there humorous in Sir Roger's ideal of a clergyman? |