62 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

But eheerly still; and said, "I pray thee then,

Write me as one that loves his fellow-men."
The angel wrote and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,
And lo Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
LEIGU HUNT
JA-TAR
JAFFAR, the [3armeeide, the good Vizier,
The poor man's hope, the friend without a peer,
Jaltar was dead, slain by a doom unjust;
And guilty Haroun, sullen with mistrust =
Of what the good and e'en the bad might say,
Ordained that no man living from that day
Should dare to speak his name on pain of death.—
All Araby and Persia held their breath.

All but the brave Mondeer.—He, proud to show |

How far for love a grateful soul could go,
And facing death for very scorn and grief,
(For his great heart wanted a great relief),
Stood forth in Bagdad, daily in the square
Where once had stood a happy house, and there
Harangued the tremblers at the seymitar,
On all they owed to the divine Jaffar.

"Bring me this man," the caliph cried. The man

Was brought—was gazed upon. The mutes began
To bind his arms. "Welcome, brave cords," cried he;
"From bonds far worse Jaffir delivered me;

FOUR POEMS 68
From wants, from shames, from loveless household fears;
Made a man's eyes friends with delicious tears;
Restored me, loved me, put me on a par
With his great self. How can I pay Jane?"

Hamm, who felt that on a soul like this

The mightiest vengeance could but fall amiss,
Now deigned to smile, as one great lord of fate
Might smile upon another half as great.
Ile said, "Let worth grow frenzied, if it will;
The caliph's judgment shall ble master still.
Go: and since gifts so move thee, take this gem,
The richest in the Tartar's diadem,
And hold the giver as thou dcemest fit."

" Gifts I" cried the friend. He took; and holding it

High towards the heavens, as though to meet his star,
Exclaimed, "This too I owe to thee, Jan.'s."
LEIGIT Hum.

THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE CRICKET

[oN a December day in 1816 Leigh Hunt suggested
to his friend and brother-poet, John Keats, that
they should both write, "then, there, and to time,"
a sonnet on the Grasshopper and the Cricket. The
following arc the poems that they wrote. ]
I
GREEN little vaulter in the sunny grass,
Catching your heart up at the feel of June,
Sole voice that's heard amidst the lazy noon,
When even the bees lag at the summoning brass;

64 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

And you, warm little housekeeper, who class
With those who think the candles come too soon,
Loving the fire, and with your tricksome tune
Nick the glad, silent moments as they pass;
Oh sweet and tiny cousins, that belong,
One to the fields, the other to the hearth,
Both have your sunshine; both, though small, are strong
At your clear hearts; and both seem given to earth
To sing in thoughtful ears this natural song—
 Indoors and out, summer and winter, Mirth.
Lama Run
II
Tire poetry of earth 1s never dead :
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead:
That is the grasshopper's—he takes the lead
In summer luxury,—he has never done
With his delights, for when tired out with fun,
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the hearth there shrills
The cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems, to one in drowsiness half lost,
The grasshopper's among some grassy hills.
JOIEN KEATS

EXERCISES
(4) THE USE OF WORDS
Without changing the sense, substitute other words for those
printed in italics:
 FOUR POEMS 65
(i) The occasion 1s divine.
(ii) The presence in the room.
(iii) Sullen with mistrust.
(iv) Harangued the tremblers.
(v) Green little vaulter.
(vi) The summoning brass.

(B) SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS

Combine and group these sentences so as to form a flowing piece
of composition.
The grasshopper rejoices in the sultry days of June. He
jumps about in the grass. His is the only voice we hear in the
heat of midday. Then even the bees are languid. The
cricket loves the fire. He hates to see the candles come. His
cheerful tune marks those happy moments spent round the
fire. One belongs to the fields. The other belongs to the
hearth. Both are full of sunshine. Both bring us a message of
joy.

(C) PUNCTUATION Arrange in

poetical form and punctuate:
Jaffa:. the Barmecide the good Vizier the poor man's hope
the friend without a. peer Jogar was dead slain by a doom
unjust and guilty Hamm sullen with mistrust of what the
 good and e'en the bad might say ordained that no man living
from that day should dare to speak his name on pain of death
all Araby and Persia held their breath.

(I)) THE CHOICE OF WORDS

Study carefully the rhythm of the following lines. Mark the
accented syllables as in this enunple:
I
And hold I the g'v Cr as I thou deem : est fit
Frs.00 tos immrmcrno;
(i) He said, "Let worth grow frenzied. if it will:
The caliph's judgment shall be master still."

66 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

(ii) The bloody foam above the bars came whisking through
the air.
(iii) Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace.
(iv) Oh sweet and tiny cousins, that belong,
One to the fields, the other to the hearth.

(R) ADDITIONAL EXERCISES

(i) Write a prose description of the scene portrayed m The Glove
and the Liens.
(ii) If you had been De Lorge, what would you have done when
challenged to fetch the glove?
(iii) Find out all the information you can concerning the grasshopper and
cricket, and write a brief description of each.
(iv) What do you suppose the Caliph felt on recerving Mondeer's
answer?
(v) Notice the imitative effect of the line: Ramped
and roared the lions, with horrid laughing jaws.
When read aloud it suggests exactly the sounds which came
from the arena. You will find many more examples in the same
poem: mention the one which strikes you most forcibly.
(vi) Search in your dictionary for the meaning of the word
repartee,’ and then find an example of it from these poems.

VII
AN EQUESTRIAN ADVENTURE
MR PICKWICK found that his three companions liad risen,
and were waiting his arrival to commence breakfast,
which was ready laid in tempting display. They sat
down to the meal; and broiled ham, eggs, tea, coffee,
and sundries, began to disappear with a rapidity which
at once bore testimony to the excellence of the fare, and
the appetites of its consumers:
"Now, about Manor Farm," said Mr Pickwick. "How
shall we go?"
"We had better consult the waiter, perhaps," said Mr
Tupman, and the waiter was summoned accordingly.
"Dingley Dell, gentlemen—{fifteen miles, gentlemen—
cross road—post-chaise, sir?"
"Post-chaise won't hold more than two." said Mr
Pickwick.
"True, sir—beg your pardon, sit —Very nice fourwheeled chaise, sir—seat
for two behind—one in front
for the gentleman that drives. —oh! beg your pardon, sir —
that'll only hold three."
"What's to be done?" said Mr Snodgrass.
"Perhaps one of the gentlemen would like fo ride,
sir?" suggested the waiter, looking towards Mr Winkle;
"very good saddle horses, sir--any of Mr Wardle's men
coming to Rochester bring 'cm back, sir."
"The very thing," said Mr Pickwick. "Winkle, will
you go on horseback?"
6/

EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

Mr Winkle did entertain considerable misgivings in the
very lowest recesses of his own heart, relative to his
equestrian skill; but, as he would not have them even
suspected on any account, he at once replied with
great hardihood, "Certainly. I should enjoy it, of all
things."
Mr Winkle had rushed upon his fate; there was no
resource. "Let them be at the door by eleven," said
Mr Pickwick.
"Very well, sir," replied the waiter.
The waiter retired; the breakfast concluded; and the
travellers ascended to their respective bedrooms, to prepare a change of
clothing, to take with them on them
approaching expedition,
Mr Pickwick had made his preliminary arrangements,
and was looking over the coffee-room blinds at the
passengers in the street, when the waiter entered, and
announced that the chaise was ready—an announcement
which the vehicle itself confirmed, by forthwith appearing before the coffee-
room blinds aforesaid.
It was a curious little green box on four wheels, with
a low place liken wine-bin for two behind, andan elevated
perch for one in front drawn by an immense brown horse,
displaying great symmetry of bone. An hostler stood
near, bolding by the bridle another immense horse—
apparently a near relative of the animal in the chaise—
ready saddled for Mr Winkle.
"Bless. my soul!" said Mr Pickwick, as they stood upon
the pavement while the coats were being put in. "Bless
my soul! who's to drive? I never thought of that."
"Oh! you, of course," said Mr Tupinan.
"I" exclaimed Mr Pickwick.
"Not the slightest fear, sir," interposed the hostler.|
 AN EQUESTRIAN ADVENTURE 69
""Warrant him quiet, sir; a hinfant in arms might drive
him."
"He don't shy, does he?" inquired Mr Pickwick.
"Shy, sir?—Ilie wouldn't shy if he was to meet a
vaggin-load of monkeys with their tails burnt off."
The last recommendation was indisputable. Mr Tupman and Mr Snodgrass
got into the bin; Mr Pickwick
ascended to his perch, and deposited his feet on a floorclothed shelf, erected
beneath it for that purpose.
"Now, shiny Villiam," said the hostler to the deputy
hostler, "give the gen'Im'n the ribbius." "Shiny
Villiam "—so called, probably, from his sleek hair and
oily countenance—placed the reins in Mr Pickwick's left
hand; and the upper hostler thrust a whip into his right.
"Wo-0l1" cried Mr Pickwick, as the tall quadruped
evinced a decided inclination to back into the coffee-room
window.
"tiro-o!" echoed Mr Tupman and Mr Snodgrass from
the bin.
"Only his playfulness, gcn'lm'n," said the head hostler
encouragingly; "just kitch hold on him, Villiam." The
deputy restrained the animal's impetuosity, and the
principal ran to assist Mr Winkle in mounting.
"Tother side, sir, if you please."
"Mowed if the gen'lm'n worn't a gettin' up on the
 wrong side," whispered a grinning post-boy to the inexpressibly gratified
waiter.
Mr Winkle, thus instructed, climbed into his saddle,
with about as much ,,difficulty as he would have experienced in getting up
the side of a first-rate man-of-war.
"All right?" inquired Mr Pickwick, with an inward
pre \ rid iment that it was all wrong.
"All right," replied Mr Winkle faintly.

70 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

"Let 'em go," cried the hostler,—"Hold him in, sir,"
and away went the chaise, and the saddle-horse, with Mr
Pickwick on the box of the one. and Mr Winkle on the
back of the other, to the delight and gratification of the
whole inn-vard.
"What makes him go sideways?" said Mr Snodgrass
in the bin, to Mr Winkle in the saddle.
"I can't imagine." replied Mr Winkle. His horse was
drifting up the street in the most mysterious manner—
side first, with his head towards one side of the way, and
his tail towards the other.
Mr Pickwick had no leisure to observe either this or
any other particular, the whole of his faculties being
concentrated in the management of the animal attached
to the chaise, who displayed various peculiarities, highly
interesting to a bystander, but by no means equally
amusing to anyone seated behind him. Besides constantly jerking his head
up, in a very unpleasant and
uncomfortable manner, and tugging at the reins to an
extent which rendered it a matter of great difficulty for
Mr Pickwick to hold them, he had a singular propensity
for darting suddenly every now and then to the side of
the road, then stopping short, and then rushing forward
for some minutes, at a speed which it was wholly impossible to control.
"What can he mean by this?" said Mr Snodgrass,
when the horse had executed this manoeuvre for the
twentieth time.
"I don't know." replied Mr Tupman; "it looks very
like shying, don't it ?" Mr Snodgrass'was about to reply,
when he was interrupted by a shout from Mr Pickwick.
"Woof" said that gentleman; "I have dropped my whip."

AN EQUESTRIAN ADVENTURE 71
"Winkle," said Mr Snodgrass, as the equestrian came
trotting up on the tall horse, with his hat over his ears,
and shaking all over, as if he would shake to pieces, with
the violence of the exercise, " pick up the whip, there's
a good fellow."
Mr Winkle pulled at the bridle of the tall horse till he
was black in the face; and having at length succeeded
in stopping him, dismounted, handed the whip to Mr
Pickwick, and grasping the reins, prepared to remount.
Now whether the tall horse, in the natural playfulness
of his disposition, was desirous of having a little innocent
recreation with Mr Winkle, or whether it occurred to him
that he could perform the journey as much to his own
satisfaction without a rider as with one, are points upon
which, of course, we can arrive at no definite and distinct
conclusion. By whatever motives the animal was
actuated, certain it 1s that Mr Winkle had no sooner
touched the reins, than he slipped them over his head,
and darted backwards to their full length.
"Poor fellow," said Mr Winkle soothingly—" poor
fellow—good old horse." The "poor fellow" was proof
against flattery: the more Mr Winkle tried to get near
him, the more he sidled away; and, notwithstanding all
kinds of coaxing and wheedling, there were Mr Winkle
and the horse going round and round each other for ten
minutes, at the end of which time each was at precisely
the same distance from the other as when they first
commenced—an unsatisfactory state of things under any
circumstances, but particularly so in a lonely road, where
no assistance can be procured.
"What am I to do?" shouted Mr Winkle. after the
dodging had been prolonged for a considerable time.
"What am Ito do? I can't get on him."
72 EXTRACTS ,AND EXERCISES
"You had better lead him till we come to a turnpike."
replied Mr Pickwick from the chaise.
"But he won't comet" roared Mr Winkle. "Do come,
and hold him."
Mr Pickwick was the very personation of kindness and
humanity: he threw the reins on the horse's back, and
having descended from his scat, carefully drew the chaise
into the hedge, lest anything should come along the road,
and stepped back to the assistance of his distressed
companion, leaving Mr Tupman and Mr Snodgrass in
the vehicle.
The horse no sooner beheld Mr Pickwick advancing
towards him with the chaise whip in his hand, than he
exchanged the rotatory motion in which he had previously indulged, for a
retrograde movement of so very
determined a character, that it at once drew Mr Winkle,
who was still at the end of the bridle, at a rather quicker
rate than fast walking, in the direction from which they
had just come. Mr Pickwick ran to his assistance, but
the faster Mr Pickwick ran forward, the faster the horse
ran backward. There was a great scraping of feet, and
kicking up of the dust; and at last Mr Winkle, his arms
being nearly pulled out of their sockets, fairly let go his
hold. The horse paused, stared, shook his head, turned
round, and quietly trotted home to Rochester, leaving
Mr Winkle and Mr Pickwick gazing on each other with
countenances of blank dismay. A rattling noise at a little
distance attracted their attention. They looked up.
"Bless my soul!" exclaimed the agonized Mr Pickwick, "there's the other
horse running away!"
It was but too true. The animal was startled by the
noise, and the reins were on his back. The result may
be guessed. He tore off with the four-wheeled chaise

AN EQUESTRIAN ADVENTURE 78
behind him, and Mr Tupman and Mr Snodgrass in the
four-wheeled chaise. The heat was a short one. Mr Tupman threw himself into the
hedge, Mr Snodgrass followed
his example, the horse dashed the four-wheeled chaise
against a wooden bridge, separated the wheels from the
body, and the bin from the perch; and finally stood stock
still to gaze on the ruin lie had made.
The first care of the two unspilt friends was to extricate
their unfortunate companions from their bed of quickset—a process which gave
them the unspeakable satisfaction of discovering that they had sustained no injury,
beyond sundry rents in their garments, and various
lacerations from the brambles. The next thing to be done
was, to unharness the horse. This complicated process
having been effected, the party walked slowly forward,
leading the horse among them, and abandoning the chaise
fo its fate. OM/ILES DICKENS, The Piclacick Papers
 EXERCISES
(A) THE USE OF WORDS
Rewrite this passage, avoiding any awkward repetition by the
use of pronouns:
Mr. Pickwick had no leisure to observe either this or any
other particular, the whole of Mr. Pickwick's faculties being
concentrated in the management of the animal attached to
the chaise, who displayed various peculiarities highly interesting to a
bystander but by no means equally amusing to any
one seated behind the animal. Besides constantly jerking the
animal's head up in a very unpleasant and uncomfortable
manner, and tugging at the reins to an extent which rendered
it a matter of great difficulty for Mr. Pickwick to hold the reins,
the animal had a singular propensity for darting suddenly to
the side, then stopping short and then rushing forward at a
great speed.

VIII
MORTE D'ARTHUR
So all day long the noise of battle roll'd
Among the mountains by the winter sea;
Until King Arthur's table, man by man,
Had fall'n in Lyonnesse about their Lord,
King Arthur: then, because his wound was deep,
The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him,
Sir Bedivere, the last of all his knights,
And bore him to a chapel nigh the field,
A broken chancel with a broken cross,
That stood on a dark strait of barren land.
On one side lay the Ocean, and on one
Lay a great water, and the moon was full.
Then spakc King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:
"The sequel of to-day unsolders all
The goodliest fellowship of famous knights
Whereof this world holds record. Such a sleep
They sleep—the men I loved. I think that we
Shall never more, at any future time,
Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds,
Walking about the gardens and the halls
Of Camelot, as in the days that were.
I perish by this people which I made, Tho'
Merlin sware that I should come again To
rule once more—hut let what will be, be, I
am so deeply smitten thro' the helm
That without help I cannot last till morn.
MORTE D'ARTHUR 77
Thou therefore take my brand Excalibur,
Which was my pride: for thou rememberest how
In those old days, one summer noon, an arm
Rose up from out the bosom of the lake,
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
Holding the sword—and how I row'd across
And took it, and have worn it, like a king:
And, wheresoever I am sung or told
Tn aftertime, this also shall be known:
But now delay not: take Excalibur,
And fling him far into the middle mere:
Watch what thou seest, and lightly bring me word."
To him replied the bold Sir Bedivere:
"It 1s not meet, Sir King, to leave thee thus,
Aidless, alone, and smitten thro' the helm.
A little thing may harm a wounded man.
Yet I thy hest will all perform at full,
Watch what I see, and lightly bring thee word."
So saying, from the ruin'd shrine he stept
And in the moon athwart the place of tombs,
Where lay the mighty bones of ancient men,
Old knights, and over them the sea-wind sang
Shrill, chill, with flakes of foam. He, stepping down
By zig-zag paths, and juts of pointed rock,
Came on the shining levels of the lake.
There drew he forth the brand Excalibur,
And o'er him, drawing it, the winter moon,
Brightening the skirts of a long cloud, ran forth
And sparkled keen with frost against the hilt:
For all the halt twinkled with diamond sparks,
Myriads of topaz-lights, and jacinth work '
Of subtlest jewellery. He gazed so long
That both his eyes were dazzled, as he stood,

78 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

This way and that dividing the swift mind,
In act to throw: But at the last it seem'd
Better to leave Excalibur coneeal'd
There in the many-knotted waterflags,
That whistled stiff and dry about the marge.
So strode he back slow to the wounded King.
Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:
"Nast thou performed my mission winch I gave?
What is it thou hast seen? or what hast heard?"
And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:
"I heard the ripple washing in the reeds,
And the wild water lapping on the crag."
To whom replied King Arthur, faint and pale:
"Thou host betray'd thy nature and thy name,
Not rendering true answer, as beseem'd
Thy fealty, nor like a noble knight:
For surer sign had follow'd, either hand,
Or voice, or else a motion of the mere.
This is a shameful thing for men to lie.
Yet now, I charge thee, quickly go again
As thou art lief and dear, and do the thing
I bad thee, watch, and lightly bring me word."
Then went Sir Bedivere the second time
Across the ridge, and paced beside the mere,
Counting the dewy pebbles, rued in thought;
But when he saw the wonder of the hilt,
How curiously and strangely chased, he smote
His palms together, and he cried aloud.
"And if" indeed I east'the brand away,
Surely a precious thing, one worthy note,
Should thus be lost for ever from the earth,
Which might have pleased the eyes of many men.
What good should follow this, if this were done?|

rsIORTE D'ARTHUR 79
What harm, undone? deep harm to disobey,
Seeing obedience is the bond of rule.
Were it well to obey then, if a king demand
An act unprofitable, against himself?
The King is sick, and knows not what he does.
What record, or what relic of my lord
Should be to aftertime, but empty breath
And rumours of a doubt? but were this kept,
Stored in some treasure house of mighty kings,
Some one might show it at a joust of arms,
Saying, 'King Arthur's sword, Exealibur,
Wrought by the lonely maiden of the Lake.
Nine years she wrought it, sitting in the deeps
Upon the hidden bases of the hills.
So might some old man speak in the aftertime
To all the people, winning, reverence.
But now much honour and much fame were lost."
So splice he, clouded with his own conceit,
And hid Exealibur the second time.
And so strode back slow to the wounded King.
Then spoke King Arthur, breathing heavily:
"What is it thou bast seen? or what had heard?"
And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:
"I heard the water lapping on the crag,
And the long ripple washing in the reeds."
To whom replied King Arthur, much in wrath:
"Ah, miserable and unkind. untrue,
Unknightly, traitor-hearted! Woe is mel
Authority forgets a dying king,
Laid widow'd of the power in his eye
That bow'd the will. I see thee what thou art,
For thou, the latest-left of all my knights,
In whom should meet the offices of all,
80 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
Thou would'st betray me for the precious hilt;
Either from lust of gold, or like a girl
Valuing the giddy.pleasure of the eyes.
Yet, for a man may fail in duty twice,
And the third time may prosper, get thee hence
But, if thou spare to fling Excalibur,
I will arise and slay thee with my hands."
Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran
And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged
Among the bulrush-beds, and clutch'd the sword,
And strongly wheed and threw it. The great brand
Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon,
And flashing round and round, and whirl'd in an arch,
Shot like a streamer of the northern morn,
Seen where the moving isles of winter shock
By night, with noises of the northern sea.
So flash'd and fell the brand Excalibur:
But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
And caught him by the hilt, and brandish'd him
Three times, and drew him under in the mere.
And lightly went the other to the King.
Then spake King Arthur, drawing thicker breath:
"Now see I by thine eyes that this 1s done.
Speak out: what is it thou hast heard, or seen?"
"Sir King, I closed mine eyelids, lest the gems
Should blind my purpose, for I never saw,
Nor shall see, here or elsewhere, till I die,
Not the' I live three lives of mortal men,
So great a miracle as yonder hilt.
Then with both hands I flung him, wheeling him:
But when I look'd again, behold an arm
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful |

MORTE D'ARTIIUR 81
That caught him by the hilt, and brandish'd him
Three times, and drew him under in the mere."
And answer made King Arthur, breathing hard:
"My end draws nigh; 'tis time that I were gone.
Make broad thy shoulders to receive my weight,
Anti bear me to the margin; yet I fear
My wound hath taken cold, and I shall die."
So saying, from the pavement he half rose,
Slowly, with pain, reclining on his arm,
And looking wistfully with wide blue eyes
As in a picture. Him Sir Bedivere
Remorsefully regarded thro" his tears,
And would have spoken, but he found not words,
Then took with care, and kneeling on one knee,
O'er both his shoulders drew the languid hands,
And rising bore him thro' the place of tombs.
But, as he walk'd, King Arthur panted hard,
Like one that feels a nightmare on his bed
When all the house 1s mute. So sigh'd the King,
Muttering and murmuring at his ear "Quick, quickI
fear it 1s too late, and I shall die."
But the of her swiftly strode from ridge to ridge,
Clothed with his breath, and looking as he walk'd,
Larger than human on the frozen hills.
lie heard the deep behind him, and a cry
Before. His own thought drove him like a goad.
Dry clash'd his harness in the icy caves
And barren chasms, and all to left and right
The bare black cliff clang'd round him, as he based
His feet on juts of slippery crag that rang Sharpsmitten with the dint, of armed
heels—
And on a sudden, lo | the level lake,
And the long glories of the winter moon.

84 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

But now farewell. I am going a long way
With these thou seest—if indeed I go—
(For all my mind is clouded with a doubt)
To the island-valley of Avalon;
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies
Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard-lawns
And bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea,
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound."
So said he, and the barge with oar and sail
Moved from the brink. like some full-breasted
swan
That, fluting a wild carol ere her death,
Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood
With swarthy webs. Long stood Sir Bedivere
Revolving many memories, till the hull
Looked one black dot against the verge of dawn,
And on the mere the wailing died away.
LORD TENNYSON

EXERCISES
(A) THE USE OF WORDS
Correct mistakes in the following sentences:
(i) Arthur had seen his knights go one by one. and Sir
Bedivere was the last of any.
(ii) The goodliest of any fellowship of famous knights
that ever existed was unsoldered.
(iii) It was the subtlest of any jewellery ever seen in a sword
handle.
(iv) Although Arthur was severely wounded and weak in
body, Sir Bedivere was the weakest in mind.
MORTE D'ARTHUR 85
(v) Excalibur was more wonderful than all swords.
(vi) There were three queens in the barge, and the taller
and fairer of them called Arthur by name.

(13) SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS

Join the following sentences by using relative pronouns:
(i) Arthur writhed in pain. He said that he perished by
the people he had made.
(ii) Sir Bediverc was the last of Arthur's knights. He flung
Excalibur into the middle mere.
(iii) But first Bedivere tried to hide it. Re thought it
was a shame to throw away zo fine a sword.
(iv)Arthur hated all deceit. He reproached Bedivere
bitterly.
(v) There was an arm clothed in white samite. It caught
Exealibur by the hilt.
(vi)The knight was overcome with grief. He bore his
precious load to the margin of the lake.

(C) PUNCTUATION
Make a distinction between possessives and plurals by inserting
apostrophes wherever they are required in the following sentences:
(i) Of all the swords that Sir Bedivere had ever handled
 there was none so grand as Arthurs.
(ii) The Round Table was dissolved: the knights places
were vacant.
(iii)Sir Bediveres eyes were dazzled.
(iv)He nuxde up his mind to disregard the kings whims.
(v) Exealibur was a lonely maidens work. She wrought it
nine years as she sat in the deeps upon the hidden bases of the
86 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
(D) THE CHOICE OF WORDS
It will be noticed that some poetry requires to be said quickly,
while other poetry loses all its beauty and all its meaning unless said
slowly. There arc examples of both in this poem. You cannot
read this passage slowly:
Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran
And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged
Among the bulrush-beds. and clutch'd the sword.
And strongly wheel'd and threw it.
Neither can you read this quickly:
Long stood Sir Bedivero
Revolving many memories, till the hull
Looked one black dot against the verge of dawn,
And on the mere the wailing died away.

Find two similar examples, one of 'fast time,’ and the other of
‘slow time,’ and notice in each case how well the time suits the
meaning.

(E) ADDITIONAL EXERCISES

(i) Mat are "greaves and euisses "7 Get a picture showing a
knight 1n armour and make a sketch from it.
(ii) Notice how appropriate the hissing sound 1s in the lines:
The sea-wind sang
Shrill, chill, with flakes of foam.
Try to find a similar instance for yourself in any book of poetry
you have.
(iii) Write a description of the "island-valley of Avilion," and
say what you imagine happened to Arthur there.
(iv) What were Sir Bedivere's excuses for disobeying the dying
king? Were they reasonable? What would you have done in Sir
Bedivere's place?
(v) The winter moon, Brightening the skirts of a long cloud, ran forth and
sparkled keen with frost against the hilt
MORTE D’ARTHUR
Describe the scene pictured by the poet as expensively as you can in your
own words.
(vi) “The old order changeth, yielding place to new.” What do you consider
the greatest change that you have seen? Do you consider it a change for the better?
 IX
SIR ROGER AT CHURCH
I ex always very well pleased with a country Sunday,
and think, if keeping holy the seventh day were only a
human institution, it would be the best method that
could have been thought of for the polishing and civilizing of mankind. It is certain
the country people would
soon degenerate into a kind of savages and barbarians,
were there not such frequent returns of a stated time, in
which the whole village meet together with their best
faces, and in their cleanliest habits, to converse with one
another upon indifferent subjects, hear their duties explained to them, and join
together in adoration of the
Supreme Being. Sunday clears away the rust of the
whole week, not only as it refreshes in their minds the
notions of religion, but as it puts both the sexes upon
appearing in their most agreeable forms, and exerting all
such qualities as are apt to give them a figure in the eye
of the village. A country fellow distinguishes himself as
much in the churchyard, as a citizen does upon the
Change, the whole parish-politics being generally discussed in that place either
after sermon or before the
bell rings.
My friend Sir Roger, being a good churchman, has
beautified the inside of his church with several texts of his
own choosing. He has likewise given a handsome pulpitcloth, and railed in the
communion table at his. own
expense. He has often told me, that at his coming to his
SIR ROGER AT CHURCH 89
estate he found his parishioners very irregular; and that
in order to make them kneel and join in the responses, he
gave every one of them a hassock and a common-prayer
book: and at the same time employed an itinerant singing-master, who goes about
the country for that purpose,
to instruct them rightly in the tunes of the psalms;
upon which they now very much value themselves, and
indeed outdo most of the country churches that I have
ever heard.
As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he
keeps them in very good order, and will suffer nobody
to sleep in it besides himself; for if by chance he has
been surprised into a short nap at sermon, upon recovering out of it he stands up
and looks about him, and if he
sees anybody else nodding, either wakes them himself,
or sends his servants to them. Several other of the old
knight's peculiarities break out upon these occasions.
Sometimes he will be lengthening out a verse in the
singing psalms, half a minute after the rest of the congregation have done with it;
sometimes when lie is pleased
with the matter of his devotion, he pronounces amen
three or four times to the same prayer; and sometimes
stands up when everybody else is upon their knees, to
count the congregation, or see if any of his tenants are
missing.
I was yesterday very much surprised to hear my old
friend, in the midst of the service, calling out to one John
Matthews to mind what he was about, and not disturb
the congregation. This John Matthews it seems is remarkable for being an idle,
fellow, and at that time was
kicking his heels for his diversion. This authority of
the knight, though exerted in that odd manner which
accompanies him in all circumstances of life, has a very

92 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

(B) SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS
Avoid the use of and in the following sentences by using a participle. Thus,
instead of "Sir Roger 1s a good churchman and has
beautified the inside of his church." write: "Sir Roger, being a
good churchman, has beautified the inside of his church.”
(i) We know London as it. 1s now and we find it very hard to
realize what it was in the days of Addison.
(ii) It had not long recovered from the ravages of plague
and fire and it was filled with new buildings.
(iii) The church spires and the great new dome of St Paul's
gleamed white over the roofs and were a sight to behold.
(iv) The citizens were mostly traders and they were noted
for their sturdy independence.
(v) The Londoner scarcely ever went on a journey and was
quite content with the sights of his own city.
(C) PUNCTUATION
Punctuate the following sentences:
(i) Why said Sir Roger is your husband not at church this
morning
(ii) Is it likely that many country squires were as kindly
as old Sir Roger
(iii) What are you doing said my old Mend to John
Matthews
(iv) Do the old knights peculiarities make you smile
(v) Is not the church beautiful asked Sir Roger with pride

(D) THE CHOICE OP WORDS

Read through the essay again very carefully, paying particular
attention to the style in which it 1s written. It will be noticed that
the sentences are fairly long, and that the style 1s smooth and flowing, admirably
suiting the subject matter. Rewrite the following so as to make flowing sentences
as nearly as possible in the style of
Addison:
SIR ROGER AT CHURCH 98
Joseph Addison was born near Amesbury in 1672. His
father was a clergyman. Joseph had a great fondness for
writing Latin poetry. In those days’ ability to write verses
in Latin was the key to success. So Addison rose to he
Secretary of State. Ile also wrote much poetry in English.
This has almost been forgotten, except for one or two hymns.
These are often sung in churches. It 1s, however, as an essayist
that he has won lasting fame. The essays, especially those of
The Spectator, had a great circulation. They secured for him
great popularity. "Sir Roger at Church” 1s taken front The
Spectator. It gives a good idea of Addison's style.

(E) ADDITIONAL EXERCISES

(i) What part of a church 1s the chancel? Draw a sketch-plan
of any church you know showing the chancel.
(ii) Set out the reasons which Addison gives in favour of keeping Sunday as
a day of rest.
(iii) Write an essay on "A Sunday in the Country."
(iv) Suppose that you arc John Matthews: write a brief defense
of your bad behavior in church.
(v) Explain what 1s meant by the following phrases: "an
itinerant singing-master"; "a secret reprimand"; "the present
incumbent."
(vi) Imagine that you are one of Sir Roger's tenants: write a
letter to hint explaining your absence from church on Sunday last.

X
THE FORSAKEN MERMAN

COME, dear children, let us away;

Down and away below.
Now my brothers call from the bay;
Now the great winds shore wards blow;
Now the salt tides seawards flow;
Now the wild white horses play,
Champ and chafe and toss in the spray.
Children dear, let us away.
This way, this way.
Call her once before you go.
Call once yet.
In a voice that she will know:
"Margaret! Margaret I"
Children's voices should be dear
(Call once more) to a mother's ear:
Children's voices, wild with pain.
Surely she will come again.
Call her once and come away.
This way, this way.
"Mother dear, we cannot stay."
The wild white horses foam arid fret.
Margaret! Margaret!
Come, deur children, come away down.
Call no more,
One last look at the white-wall'd town,

THE FORSAKEN MERMAN 05

And the little grey church on the windy shore.
Then come down.
She will not come though you call all day.
Come away, conic away.

Children dear, was it yesterday

We heard the sweet bells over the bay?
In the caverns where we lay,
Through the surf and through the swell,
The far-off sound of a silver bell?
Sand-strewn caverns, cool and deep,
Where the winds are all asleep;
Where the spent lights quiver and gleam;
Where the salt weed sways in the stream;
Where the sea-beasts ranged all round
Feed in the ooze of their pasture ground;
Where the sea-snakes coil and twine,
Dry their mail and bask in the brine;
Where great whales come sailing by,
Sail and sail, with unshut eye,
Round the world for ever and aye?
When did music come this way?

Children dear, was it yesterday?

Children dear, was it yesterday
(Call yet once) that she went away?
Once she sat with you and me,
 On a red gold throne in the heart of the sea,
And the youngest sate on her knee.
She comb'd its bright hair, and she tended it well,
When down swung the sound of the far-off bell.
She sigh'd, she look'd up through the clear green| sea.

96 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

She said: "I must go, for my kinsfolk pray
In the little grey church on the shore to-day. "Twill be Easter-time in the world—
ah me I
And I lose my poor soul, Merman, here with thee."
I said; "Go up, dear heart, through the waves;
Say thy prayer, and come back to the kind sea-caves."
She smil'd, she went up through the surf in the bay.
Children dear, was it yesterday?

Children dear, were we long alone?

"The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan.
Long prayers," I said, "in the world they say.
Come," I said, and we rose through the surf in the bay.
We went up the beach, by the sandy down
Where the sea-stocks bloom, to the white-wall'd town.
Through the narrow pav'd streets, where all was still,
To the little grey church on the windy hill.
From the church came a murmur of folk at their prayers,
But we stood without in the cold blowing airs.
We climb'd on the graves, on the stones, worn with rains,
And we gazed up the aisle through the small leaded panes.
She sate by the pillar; we saw her clear:
"Margaret, hist I come quick, we are here.
Dear heart," I said, "we arc long alone.
The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan."
But, ah, she gave me never a look,
For her eyes were seed to the holy book.
"Loud prays the priest; shut stands the door."
Come away, children, call no more.
Come away, come down, call no more.

Down, down, down.

Down to the depths of the sea.

THE FORSAKEN MERMAN 97

She sits at her wheel in the humming town,
Singing most joyfully.
Hark what she sings: "0 joy, 0 joy,
For the humming street, and the child with its toy.
For the priest, and the bell, and the holy well.
For the wheel where I spun,
And the blessed light of the sun."
And so she sings her fill,
Singing most joyfully,
Till the shuttle falls from her hand,
And the whizzing wheel stands still.
She steals to the window, and looks at the sand;
And over the sand at the sea;
And her eyes are set in a stare;
And anon there breaks a sigh,
And anon there drops a tear,
From a sorrow-clouded eye,
And a heart sorrow-laden,
A long, long sigh,
For the cold strange eyes of a little Mermaiden,
And the gleam of her golden hair.

Come away, away, children.

Conic, children, come down.
The hoarse wind blows colder;
Lights shine in the town.
She will start from her slumber
When gusts shake the door;
She will hear the winds howling,
Will hear the waves roar.
We shall see, while above us
The waves roar and whirl, A
ceiling of amber,
08 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
A pavement of pearl.
Singing, "Here came a mortal.
But faithless was she.
And alone dwell for ever
The kings of the sea."
But, children, at midnight,
When soft the winds blow; When
clear falls the moonlight; When
spring-tides are low: When sweet
airs come sea-ward From heaths
starr'd with broom; And high
rocks throw mildly
On the blaneh'd sands a gloom:
Up the still, glistening beaches,
Up the creeks we will hie;
Over banks of bright seaweed
The ebb-tide leaves dry.
We will gaze from the sand-hills,
At the white, sleeping town; At the church on the hill-sideAnd then come
hack down.
Singing, "There dwells a lov'd one,
But cruel is she.
She left lonely for ever
The kings of the sea."
Mien HEW ARNOLD
 EXERCISES
(el) THE USE OF WORDS
Say whether the verbs in the following Sentences are active or
passive; then rewrite, changing active to passive, and vice versa:
THE FORSAKEN MERMAN 99
m The far-off sound of a silver bell was heard by us yesterday.
(ii) My poor soul 1s lost, merman, here with thee.
(iii) In the world they say long prayers.
(iv) ~~ That loved one who dwells in the white town left
the kings of the sea.
(v) The children were told by the merman to come away
down and call no more.
(vi) They took one last fond look at the white-walled
town.

(B) SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS

Join the following pairs of sentences by using one or other of
these connectives: but, ye!, and, for.
(i) The children called long and loud. Their mother did not
hear.
(ii) The strong winds howled. The wild waves roared.
(iii) It was growing cold and dark. They were reluctant to
go back to the sea cavern.
(iv) She would not come. She was afraid that site might
lose her soul.
 (v) The mother was faithless. The children loved her.
(vi) When it 1s tine we will gaze at the little town. Then we
will return.

(C) PUNCTUATION
Arrange in poetical form and punctuate:
Come dear children come away down call no more one last
look at the white walled town and the little grey church on the
windy shore then come down she will not come though you
call all day come away conic away children dear was it yesterday we heard
the sweet bells over the bay in the caverns
where we My through the surf and through the swell the far-off sound of a
silver bell,

100 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

(i)) THE CHOICE OF WORDS
In prose-writing careless repetition 1s a fault, but in poetry a very
striking effect 1s often produced by repeating a word or sound.
There are many good instances in this poem—e.g.,
Let us away
This way, this way.
Write the stanza which you think contains the best examples.
and underline the repeated words.
(E) ADDITIONAL EXERCISES
(i) In a previous exercise you saw how Browning used alliteration; many
instances will be found here also. Search out three
good examples.
(ii) This poem 1s full of pathos:* the author makes us feel very
sorry for the lonely merman and the children who were bereft of a
mother's care. 11 kink of all the other pathetic stories you have
read, whether in poetry or prose, and write a short account of the
saddest of them.
(iii) Write a piece of descriptive prose entitled, "The Merman's
Abode."
(iv) Children dear, was it yesterday
(Call yet once) that she went away? Once she sate with you and me,
On a red gold throne in the heart of the sea.
Read these lines to yourself, and mark the accent by beating
time. Then write them out, marking off the feet, and placing a
dash (") over each accented syllable.
(v) In the following lines it will be noticed how well the sound
suggests the sense:
Now the wild white horses play,
Champ and chafe and toss in the spray.
Find a similar example.
(vi) Study carefully the weather descriptions in the poem, and
show how wind and wave provide a suitable setting for the story.
 XI
A DISSERTATION UPON ROAST PIG
MANKIND, says a Chinese manuscript, for the first
seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw, clawing or
biting it, from the living animal, just as they do in
Abyssinia to this day. The manuscript goes on to say,
that the art of roasting, or rather broiling (which I take
to be the elder brother), was accidentally discovered in
the manner following. The swineherd, Ho-ti, having
gone out into the woods one morning, as his manner
was, to collect mast for his hogs, left his cottage in the
care of his eldest son Bo-bo, a great lubberly boy, who
being fond of playing with fire, as younkers of his age
commonly are, let some sparks escape into a bundle of
straw, which, kindling quickly, spread the conflagration
over every part of their poor mansion, till it was reduced
to ashes. Together with the cottage (a sorry antediluvian
makeshift of a building, you may think it), what was of
much more importance, a fine litter of new-farrowed
pigs, no less than nine in number, perished. China pigs
have been esteemed a luxury all over the East from the
remotest periods that we read of. Bo-bo was in utmost
consternation, as you may think, not so much for the
sake of the tenement, which his father and he could
easily build up again with a few dry branches, and the
labour of an hour or two, at any time, as for the loss of
the pigs. While he was thinking what he should say to
his father, and wringing his hands over the smoking

102 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

remnants of one of those untimely sufferers, an odour
assailed his nostrils, unlike any scent which he had before
experienced. What could it proceed from?—not from
the burnt cottage—he had smelt that smell before—
indeed this was by no means the first accident of the
kind which had occurred through the negligence of this
unlucky young fire-brand. Much less did it resemble that
of any known herb, weed, or flower. A premonitory
moistening at the same time overflowed his nether lip.
He knew not what to think. He next stooped down to
feel the pig, if there were any signs of life in it. He burnt
his fingers, and to cool them he applied them in his booby
fashion to his mouth. Some of the crumbs of the scorched
skin had come away with his fingers, and for the first
time in his life (in the world's life indeed, for before him
no man had known it) he tasted—crackling! Again he
felt and fumbled at the pig. It did not burn him so much
now, still he licked his fingers from a sort of habit. The
truth at length broke into his slow understanding, that
it was the pig that smelt so, and the pig that tasted so
delicious; and, surrendering himself up to the newborn
pleasure, he fell to tearing up whole handfuls of the
scorched skin with the flesh next it, and was cramming
it down his throat in his beastly fashion, when his sire
entered amid the smoking rafters, armed with retributory cudgel, and finding how
affairs stood, began to rain
blows upon the young rogue's shoulders, as thick as
hailstones, which 130-bo heeded not any more than if
they had been flies. The tickling pleasure which he
experienced in his lower regions had rendered him quite
callous to any inconveniences he might feel in those
remote quarters. His father might lay on, but he could
not beat him from his pig, till he had fairly made an end

A DISSERTATION UPON ROAST PIG 108

of it, when, becoming a little more sensible of his situation, something like the
following dialogue ensued.
"You graceless whelp, what have you got there devouring? Is it not enough
that you have burnt me down three
houses with your dog's tricks, and be hanged to you, but
vou must be eating fire, and I know not what--what
have you got there, I say ?"
"0, father, the pig, the pig, do come and taste how
nice the burnt pig cats."
The ears of Ho-ti tingled with horror. He cursed his
son, and he cursed himself that ever he should beget a
son that should eat burnt pig.
Bo-bo, whose scent was wonderfully sharpened since
morning, soon raked out another pig and fairly rending
it asunder, thrust the lesser half by main force into the
fists of Ho-ti, still shouting out "Eat, cat, eat the burnt
pig, father, only taste-0 Lord," —with such-like barbarous ejaculations, cramming
all the while as if he
would choke.
Ho-ti trembled in every joint while he grasped the
abominable thing, wavering whether he should not put
his son to death for an unnatural young monster, when
the crackling scorched his lingers, as it had done his son's,
and applying the same remedy to them, he in his turn
tasted some of its flavour, which, make what sour mouths
he would for a pretence, proved not altogether displeasing to him. In conclusion
(for the manuscript here is a
little tedious) both father and son fairly sat down to the
mess, and never left off till they had despatched all that
remained of the litter.
Bo-bo was strictly enjoined not to let the secret escape,
for the neighbours would certainly have stoned them for
a couple of abominable wretches, who could think of im-

104 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

proving upon the good meat which God had sent them.
Nevertheless, strange stories got about. It was observed
that Ho-ti's cottage was burnt down now more frequently
than ever. Nothing but fires from this time forward.
Some would break out in broad day, others in the nighttime. As often as the sow
farrowed, so sure was the house
of Ilo-ti to be in a blaze; and Ho-ti himself, which was
the more remarkable, instead of chastising his son,
seemed to grow more indulgent to him than ever. At
length they were watched, the terrible mystery discovered, and father and son
summoned to take their trial
at Peldn, then an inconsiderable assize town, Evidence
was given, the obnoxioixs food itself produced in court,
and verdict about to be pronounced, when the foreman
of the jury begged that some of the burnt pig, of which
the culprits stood accused, might be handed into the box.
He handled it, and they all handled it, and burning their
fingers, as Bo-bo and his father had done before them,
and nature prompting to each of them the same remedy,
against the face of all the facts, and the clearest charge
which judge had ever given—to the surprise of the whole
court, townsfolk, strangers, reporters, and all present—
without leaving the box, or any manner of consultation
whatever, they brought in a simultaneous verdict of Not
Guilty.
The judge, who was a shrewd fellow, winked at the
manifest iniquity of the decision; and when the court
was dismissed, went privily, and bought up all the pigs
that could be had for love or money. In a few days his
Lordship's town house was observed to be on fire. The
thing took wing, and now there was nothing to be seen
but fires in every direction. Fuel and pigs grew enormously dear all over the
district. The insurance offices

A DISSERTATION UPON ROAST PIG 105

one and all shut up shop. People built slighter and
slighter every day, until it was feared that the very
science of architecture would in no long time be lost to
the world. Thus this custom of firing houses continued,
till in process of time, says my manuscript, a sage arose
who made a discovery, that the flesh of swine, or indeed
of any other animal, might be cooked (burnt, as they
called it) without the necessity of consuming a whole
house to dress it. Then first began the rude form of a
gridiron. Roasting by the string, or spit, came in a century or two later, I forget in
whose dynasty. By such
slow degrees, concludes the manuscript, do the most
useful, and seemingly most obvious arts, make their way
among mankind.
Without placing too implicit faith in the account above
given, it must be agreed, that if a worthy pretext for
so dangerous an experiment as setting houses on fire
(especially in these days) could be assigned in favour of
any culinary object, that pretext and excuse might be
found in ROAST PIG. CHARLES LAMB

EXERCISES
(A) THE USE OP WORDS
Expand the following sentences by inserting relative clauses,
thus: Charles Lamb, (who wrote this essay), lived in London.
(i) The swine-herd, Ho-t1, ( ), left the cottage in the
care of his eldest son, Bo-bo.
(ii) While he was thinking what he should say, an ( odour ) assailed
his nostrils.
(ii) Bo-be paid no heed to the blows ( ) but continuedgating.
(iv) The father and son were summoned to take their trial
at Pekin ( ).

106 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

(v) The gentlemen of the jury ( ) brought in a simultaneous verdict of
Not Guilty.
(vi) The judge ( ) bought up all the pigs that could be had for love or
money.

(B) SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS

As a sentence 1s the expression of a single thought, it should contain no
more than is necessary to convey that one thought. Rewrite the following passage,
breaking up the sentences where this
rule 1s not obeyed:
The cottage, a poor makeshift of a building, Was left in the
charge of Bo-bo, who was extremely fond of playing with fire.
 He let some sparks escape mto a bundle of straw which kindled
quickly and made such a blaze that their poor mansion was
reduced to ashes together with a fine litter of new-farrowed
pigs, and this was much more important. Bo-bo, wondering
what he should say to his father, was in great trouble over the
loss of the pigs, which was indeed a serious matter, when a
strange odour assailed his nostrils. It was unlike any scent
which he had before experienced, and he knew it did not come
from the burnt cottage. He had smelt that smell before. It
was not the first accident of the kind which had occurred
through his carelessness, and his mouth began to water. He
felt the pig and burnt his fingers. To cool them, lie put them
to his mouth and tasted—crackling!

(C) PUNCTUATION
Change into direct speech:
(i) Bo-bo asked his father to come and taste the burnt pig.
(ii) Ho-t1 asked his son what he had got there devouring.
(iii) The foreman of the jury said he should like to have
some of the burnt pig.
(iv) Ho-t1 told his son not to let the secret escape.
(v) The angry father told the boy that he had already
burnt down three houses.
(vi) The reporter said that it was the oddest verdict he had
ever known.
 A DISSERTATION UPON ROAST PIG 107
(I)) THE CHOICE OF WORDS
Charles Lamb in this essay often uses high-sounding phrases in
order to produce a humorous effect. Notice the following ex-an
mles, and rewrite, expressing the same 1dea as simply as possible:
(i) Ills sire entered, armed with retributory cudgel.
(ii) He shouted out, "Only taste-0 Lord,"—with
suchlike barbarous ejaculations.
(iii) A premonitory moistening overflowed his nether lip.
(iv) An odour assailed his nostrils, unlike any scent which
he had before experienced.
(v) The tickling rendered him. quite callous to any
MoonWide:1M he might feel in those remote quarters.
(vi) Bo-bo was in utmost consternation, as you may think.
(B) ADDITIONAL EXERCISES
(i) Write an account entitled "The Discovery of Roast Pig,
according to Bo-bo."
(ii) Give a version of the trial at Pekin supposed to have been
written by a reporter who was present.
(iii) Write an essay on "My Favourite Dish."
(iv) Imagine that you have discovered a paragraph cut from an
old newspaper giving an account of the sudden rise in the price of
fuel and pigs. Write out this paragraph.
(v) Write a short conversation that took place between Ho-ti
and Bo-bo after the trial.
 (vi) Search for the meanings of these words, and then use each
in a sentence: consternation, wringing, negligence, asunder, manifest.

XII
SOME GALLOPING POEMS
How THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM GHENT
TO AIX
I SPRANG to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three;
"Good speed!" cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew;
"Speed!" echoed the wall to us galloping through;
Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest,
And into the midnight we galloped abreast.

Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace

Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our
place;
I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight,
Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right,
Re-buckled the cheek-strap, chained slacker the bit,
Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit.
"Twas moonset at starting; but while we drew near
Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned clear;
At Boom, a great yellow star came out to see;
At Duffield, 'twas morning as plain as could be;
And from Mecheln church-steeple we heard the half chime,
So, Joris broke silence with, " Yet there is time!"

SOME GALLOPING POEMS 109

At Aerschot, up leaped of a sudden the sun,
And against him the cattle stood black every one,
To stare thro' the mist at us galloping past,
And I saw my stout galloper Roland at last,
With resolute shoulders, each butting away
The haze, as some bluff river-headland its spray.

And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear bent back,
For my voice, and the other pricked out on his track;
And one eye's black intelligence, —ever that glance
O'er its white edge at me, his own master, askance!
And the thick heavy spume-flakes which aye and anon
His fierce lips shook upwards in galloping on.

By Hasselt, Dirck groaned; and cried Joris, "Stay spur!

Your Roos galloped bravely, the fault's not in her,
We'll remember at Aix "—for one heard the quick wheeze
Of her chest, saw the stretched neck and staggering knees,
And sunk tail, and horrible heave of the flank,
As down on her haunches she shuddered and sank.
So we were left galloping, Joris and I,
Past Looz and past Tongres, no cloud in the sky;
The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh,
"Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff;
Till over by Dalhem a dome-spire sprang white,
And "Gallop," gasped Joris, "for Aix is in sight!"

"How they'll greet us !"—and all in a moment his roan

Rolled neck and croup over, lay dead as a stone;
And there was my Roland to bear the whole weight
Of the news which alone could save Aix from her fate,

110 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

With his nostrils like pits full of blood to the brim,
And with circles of red for his eye-sockets' rim.
Then I cast loose my buffcoat, each holster let fall,
Shook off both my jack-boots, let go belt and all,
Stood up in the stirrup, leaned, patted his ear,
Called my Roland his pet-name, my horse without peer;
Clapped my hands, laughed and sang, any noise, bad
or good,
Till at length into Aix Roland galloped and stood.

And all I remember is—friends flocking round

As I sat with his head 'twixt my knees on the ground;
And no voice but was praising this Roland of mine.
As I poured down his throat our last measure of wine,
Which (the burgesses voted by common consent)
Was no more than his due who brought good news from
Ghent. RODE= BROWNING

LOCUINVAR
0. YOUNG Loehinvar is come out of the west,
Through all the wide border his steed was the best;
And, save his good broadsword, he weapons had none,
He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone.
So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,
There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.

He staid not for brake, and he stopped not for stone,

He swam the Eske river where ford there was none;
But ere he alighted by Netherby gate,
The bride had consented, the gallant came late;
For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war,
Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.

SOME GALLOPING POEMS 111

So boldly he entered the Netherby Hall,
Among bride's-men, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all:
Then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword,
(For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word),
"O come ye in peace here, or come ye in war,
Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar?"

"I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied;—

Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide—
And now am I come, with this lost love of mine,
To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.
There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far,
That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar."

The bride kissed the goblet: the knight took it up,

He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup.
She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh,
With a smile on her lips, and a tear in her eye.
He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar, --
"Now tread we a measure I" said young Lochinvar.

So stately his form, and so lovely her face,

Thai never a hall such a galliard did grace;
While her mother did fret, and her father did fume,
And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume;
And the bride-maidens whispered, " "Twere better by far,
To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar."
One touch to her hand, and one word in her car,
When they reached the hall-door, and the charger stood
near;
So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung,
So light to the saddle before her he sprung I

112 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

"She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur;
They'll have fleet steeds that follow," quoth young
Lochinvar.

There was mounting 'mong Graemes of the Netherby

clan;
Fqrsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they
ran:
There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee,
But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see.
So daring in love, and so dauntless in war,
Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?
SIR WALTER SCOTT

BANNERMAN OF THE DANDENONO !

1 RODE through the Bush in the burning noon
Over the hills to my bride,—
The track was rough and the way was long,
 And Bannerman of the Dandenong,
He rode along by my side.

A day's march off my Beautiful dwelt,

By the Murray streams in the West;—
Lightly lilting a gay love-song
Rode Bannerman of the Dandenong,
With a blood-red rose on his breast.

"Red, red rose of the Western streams"

Was the song he sang that day—
Truest comrade in hour of need;
Bay 3.4athinna his peerless steed—I
had my own good grey.

: By permission of Miss Alice Werner.

SOME GALLOPING POEMS 113

There fell a spark on the upland grass—
The dry Bush leapt into flame;—
And I felt my heart go cold as death,
And Bannerman smiled and caught his breath,—
But I heard him name Her name.

Down the hill-side the fire-floods rushed.

On the roaring eastern wind; —Neck
 and neck was the reckless race, —Ever
the bay mare kept her pace,
But the grey horse dropped behind.

He turned in the saddle—"Let's change, I say!"

And his bridle rein he drew.
lie sprang to the ground, —" Look sharp I " he said,
With a backward toss of his curly head—
"I ride lighter than you!"
Down and up—it was quickly done—
No words to waste that day!—Swift
as a swallow she sped along, The good
bay mare from Dandenong,—
And Bannerman rode the grey.

The hot air scorched like a furnace blast

From the very mouth of Hell:-
The blue gums caught and blazed on high
Like flaming pillars into the sky; . ..
The grey horse staggered and fell.

"Ride, ride, lad—ride for her sake!" he cried;

Into the gulf of flame
Were swept, in less than a breathing space,
The laughing eyes, and the comely face,
 And the ling that named Her name.

114 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

She bore me bravely, the good bay mare,—
Stunned, and dizzy and blind,
I heard the sound of a mingling roar-
"Twas the river's rush that I heard before,
And the flames that rolled behind.

Safe—safe, at Nammoora gate,

I fell, and lay like a stone.
0 love! thine arms were about me then,
Thy warm tears called me to life again,-
But-0 God! that I came alone! —

I and my Beautiful dwelt in peace,

By the Murray streams in the West,—
But oft through the mist of my dreams along
Rides Bannerman of the Dandenong,
With the blood-red rose on his breast.
ALICE WERNER

EXERCISES
(A) THE USE OF WORDS
 Rewrite the following passage, making the necessary corrections
in the tenses:
It was sunrise when I rose from my resting-place and resumed my
journey. What a &angel All was waste. The sun
had set upon a prairie still clothed in its natural garb of herbage. It rose upon
a scene of desolation. Not a single weed—
not a blade of grass is left. The tall grove now spreads a
labyrinth of scorched and naked branches—the very type of
ruin. A thin covering of grey ashes was sprinkled upon the
ground beneath, and several large dead trees were still blazing
or sending up long spires of smoke. In every direction barrenness marks the
track of the flames. It has even worked its
course against the blast, hugging to the roots of tall grass.
The wind was still raging, cinders and ashes are drifting and

SOME GALLOPING POEMS 115

(73) SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS
Use the following phrases in complete sentences:
(i) broke silence; (ii) horrible heave of the flank; (iii) cast
loose; (iv) dauntless in war; (v) lightly lilting; (vi) a breathing-space.
(C) PUNCTUATION
Punctuate the following sentences, and supply capital letters
where necessary:
(i) good speed cried the watch as we galloped through
(ii) joris broke silence with yet there is time
(iii) gallop gasped he for aix is in sight
 (iv) joris cried stay spur
(v) now tread we a measure said young lochinvar
(vi) he turned in the saddle lets change I say
(13) THE CHOICE OF WORDS
Rearrange the words so as to restore the galloping rhythm to
these lines:
(i) And at last I saw my stout galloper Roland.
(ii) As down his throat I poured our last measure of wine.
(iii)But they did ne'er see the lost bride of Netherby.
(iv) 0, out of the west young Lochinvar is come.
(v) But behind dropped the grey horse.
(vi) She, the good bay mare, bore me bravely.
(E) ADDITIONAL EXERCISES
(i) Write a descriptive sketch entitled "A Ride for Life."
(ii) Examine the following lines, and notice how the sound helps
the sense:
The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh,
"Weigh our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff.
The &'s convey just the crisp, snapping effect which the poet
desired. Search for other examples.

116 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

(iii) Tell the story of Bannerman’s great sacrifice in your own words.
 (iv) write in a few lines what you think must have been the bridegroom’s
opinion of young Lochinvatr and his exploit.
(v) Find the meanings of the following words: postern, askance, dastard,
craven, galliard, seaur, strath, peerless.
(vi) Read carefully the account of the young Locnhinvar’s feats, and say
which you consider to be the most wonderful. Was it possible?

XII
DOBBIN'S FIGHT WITH CUFF
Cum's fight with Dobbin, and the unexpected issue of
that contest, will long be remembered by every man who
was educated at Dr Swishtail's famous school. The latter
youth (who used to be called Heigh-ho Dobbin, Gee-ho
Dobbin, and by many other names indicative of puerile
contempt) was the quietest, the clumsiest, and, as it
seemed, the dullest of all Dr Swishtail's young gentlemen.
His parent was a grocer in the City: and it was bruited
abroad that he was admitted into Dr Swishtail's academy
upon what are called "mutual principles "—that is to
say, the expenses of his board and schooling were defrayed by his father in goods,
not money; and he stood
It almost at the bottom of the school—in his scraggy
corduroys and jacket, through the seams of which his
great big bones were bursting—as the representative of
so many pounds of tea, candles, sugar, mottled-soap,
plums (of which a very mild proportion was supplied
for the puddings of the establishment), and other
commodities. A dreadful day it was for young Dobbin
when one of the youngsters of the school, having run into
the town upon a poaching excursion for hardbake and
polonies, espied the cart of Dobbin and Budge, Grocers
and Oilmen, Thames Street, London, at the Doctor's
door, discharging a cargo of the wares in which the firm dealt.
118 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
Young Dobbin had no peace after that. The jokes were
frightful, and merciless against him. "Hullo, Dobbin,"
one wag would say, "here's good news in the paper. Sugar
is ris', my boy." Another would set a sum—" If a pound
of mutton-candles cost sevenpence-halfpenny, how much
must Dobbin cost?" and a roar would follow from all the
circle of young knaves, usher and all, who 'rightly considered that the selling of
goods by retail is a shameful
and infamous practice, meriting the contempt and scorn
of all real gentlemen.
"Your father's only a merchant, Osborne," Dobbin
said in private to the little boy who had brought down
the storm upon him. At which the latter replied
haughtily, "My father's a gentleman, and keeps his
carriage," and Mr. William Dobbin retreated to a remote
outhouse in the playground, where he passed a half holiday in the bitterest sadness
and woe.
Now, William Dobbin, from an incapacity to acquire
the rudiments of the Latin language, as they are propounded in that wonderful
book the Eton Latin
Grammar, was compelled to remain among the very last
of Dr. Swishtail's scholars, and was "taken down"
continually by little fellows with pink faces and pinafores
when he marched up with the lower form, a giant
amongst them, with downcast stupefied look, his dog ‘seared primer, and his tight
corduroys. High and low, all
made fun of him. They sewed up those corduroys, tight
as they were. They cut his bed-strings. They upset
buckets and benches, so that he might break his shins
over them, which he never failed to do. They sent him
parcels, which, when opened, were found to contain the
paternal soap and candles. There was no little fellow
but had his ieer and ioke at Dobbin: and he bore everv-
DOBBIN'S FIGHT WITH CUFF 119
thing quite patiently, and was entirely dumb and
miserable.
Cuff, on the contrary, was the great chief and dandy
of the Swishtail Seminary. He smuggled wine in. He
fought the town-boys. Ponies used to come for him to
ride home on Saturdays. He had his top-boots in his
room, in which ho used to hunt in the holidays. He had
a gold repeater: and he took snuff like the Doctor. He
had been to the Opera, and knew the merits of the principal actors, preferring Mr
Kean to Mr Kemble. He could
knock you off forty Latin verses in an hour. He could
make French poetry. What else didn't he know, or
couldn't he do? They said even the Doctor himself was
afraid of him.
Cuff, the unquestioned king of the school, ruled over
his subjects, and bullied them, with splendid superiority.
This one blacked his shoes: that toasted his bread,
others would fag out, and give him balls at cricket during
whole summer afternoons. 'Figs ' was the fellow whom
he despised most, and with whom, though always abuse
I o him, and sneering at him, he scarcely ever condelitcathi to hold personal
communication.
hie day in private, the two young gentlemen had had
a (III rc riell» Figs, alone in the schoolroom, was blundering flyer a home letter;
when Cuff, entering, bade him
go upon some message, of which tarts was probably the
subject.
"IT can't," says Dobbin; "I want to finish my
letter."
"You can't! says Mr Cuff, laying hold of that document (in which many words
were scratched out, many
were misspelt, on which had been spent I don't know how
much thought. and labour. and tears: for the poor fellow
120 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
was writing to his mother, who was fond of him, although
she was a grocer's wife, and lived in a back parlour in
Thames Street). "You can't?" says Mr Cuff: "I should
like to know why, pray? Can't you write to old Mother
Figs to-morrow?"
"Don't call names," Dobbin said, getting off the bench
Very nervous.
"Well, sir, will you go ?" crowed the cock of the
school.
"Put down that letter," Dobbin replied; "no gentleman readth lettefth."
"Well, now will you go ?" says the other.
"No, I won't. Don't strike, or I'll thnzash you," roars
out Dobbin, springing to a leaden inkstand, and looking
so wicked, that Mr Cuff paused, turned down his coat
sleeves again, put his hands into his pockets, and walked
away with a sneer. But he never meddled personally
with the grocer's boy after that; though we must do
him the justice to say he always spoke of Mr Dobbin with
contempt behind his back.
Sometime after this interview, it happened that Mr
Cuff, on a sunshiny afternoon, was in the neighbourhood
of poor William Dobbin, who was lying under a tree in
the playground, spelling over a favourite copy of The
Arabian Nights which he had—apart from the rest of the
school, who were pursuing their various sports—quite
lonely, and almost happy.
William Dobbin had for once forgotten the world, and
was away with Sinbad the Sailor in the Valley of
Diamonds, or with Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Peribanou in that delightful cavern
where the Prince found
her, and whither we should all like to make a tour; when
shrill cries, as of a little fellow weeping, woke up his
DOBBIN'S FIGHT WITH CUFF 121
pleasant reverie; and looking up, he saw Cuff before him,
belabouring a little boy.
It was the lad who had peached upon him about the
grocer's cart; but he bore little malice, not at least
towards the young and small. "How dare you, sir, break
the bottle ?" says Cuff to the little urchin, swinging a
yellow cricket-stump over him.
The boy had been instructed to get over the playground wall (at a selected
spot where the broken glass
had been removed from the top, and niches made convenient in the brick); to run a
quarter of a mile; to
purchase a pint of rum-shrub on credit; to brave all the
Doctor's outlying spies, and to clamber back into the
playground again; during the performance of which
feat, his foot had slipt, and the bottle was broken, and
the shrub had been spilt, and his pantaloons had
been damaged, and he appeared before his employer
a perfectly guilty and trembling, though harmless,
wretch.
"How dare you, sir, break it?" says Cuff; "you
blundering little thief. You drank the shrub, and now
you pretend to have broken the bottle. Hold out your
hand, sir."
Down came the stump with a great heavy thump on
the child's hand. A moan followed. Dobbin looked up.
The Fairy Peribanou had fled into the inmost cavern
with Prince Ahmed: the Roe had whisked away Sinbad
the Sailor out of the Valley of Diamonds out of sight, far
into the clouds: and there was everyday life before
honest William; and a big boy beating a little one
without cause.
 "Hold out your other hand, sir," roars Cuff to his
little school-fellow, whose face was distorted with pain.
122 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
Dobbin quivered, and gathered himself up in his narrow
old clothes.
"Take that, you little rascal!" cried Mr Cuff, and
down came the wicket again on the child's hand.
Dobbin started up.
I can't tell what his motive was. Up he sprang, and
screamed out, "Hold off, Cuff, don't bully that child any
more; or I'1]1—"
"Or you'll what?" Cuff asked in amazement at this
interruption. "Hold out your hand, you little beast."
"I'll give you the worst thrashing you ever had in
your life," Dobbin said, in reply to the first part of Cuff's
sentence; and little Osborne, gasping and in tears, looked
up with wonder and incredulity at seeing this amazing
champion put up suddenly to defend him : while Cuff's
astonishment was hardly less. Fancy our late monarch
George III when he heard of the revolt of the North
American Colonies : fancy brazen Goliath when little
David stepped forward and claimed a meeting; and you
have the feelings of Mr Reginald Cuff when this rencontre
was proposed to him.
"After school," says he, of course; after a pause and
a look, as much as to say, "Make your will, and communicate your last wishes to
your friends between this time
and that."
"As you please," Dobbin said. "You must be my
bottle-holder, Osborne."
""Well, if vou like," little Osborne replied; for you see
his papa kept a carriage, and he was rather ashamed of
his champion.

Yes, when the hour of battle came, he was almost

ashamed to say, "Go it, Figs "; and not a single other
DOBBIN'S FIGHT WITH CUFF 128
boy in the place uttered that cry for the first two or three
rounds of that famous combat, at the commencement of
which the scientific Cuff, with a contemptuous smile on
his face, and as light and as gay as if he was at a ball,
planted his blows upon his adversary, and floored that
unlucky champion three times running. At each fall
there was a. cheer; and everybody was anxious to have
the honour of offering the conqueror a knee.
"What a licking I shall get when it's over," young
Osborne thought, picking up his man. "You'd best give
in," he said to Dobbin; "it's only a thrashing, Figs, and
you know I'm used to it." But Figs, all whose limbs
were in a quiver, and whose nostrils were breathing rage,
put his little bottle-Holder aside, and went in for a
fourth time.
As he did not in the least know how to parry the blows
that were aimed at himself, and Cuff had begun the
attack on the three preceding occasions, without ever
allowing his enemy to strike, Figs now determined that
he would commence the engagement by a charge on his
own part; and accordingly, being a left-handed man,
brought that arm into action, and hit out a couple of
times with all his might—once at Mr Cuff's left eye, and
once on his. beautiful Roman nose.
Cuff went down this time, to the astonishment of the
assembly. "Well hit, by Jove," says little Osborne,
with the air of a connoisseur, clapping his man on the
back. "Give it him with the left, Figs, my boy."
Figs' left made terrific play during the rest of the
combat. Cuff went down every time. At the sixth
round, there were almost as many fellows shouting out,
"Go it, Figs," as there were youths exclaiming, "Go it,
Cuffs." At the twelfth round the latter champion was
124 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
all abroad, as the saying is, and had lost all presence of
mind and power of attack or defence. Figs, on the contrary, was as calm as a
Quaker. His face being quite pale,
his eyes shining open, and a great cut on his under lip
bleeding profusely, gave this young fellow a fierce and
ghastly air, which perhaps struck terror into many
spectators. Nevertheless, his intrepid adversary prepared to close for the thirteenth
time. Cuff coming up
full of pluck, but quite reeling and groggy, the Figmerchant put in his left as usual
on his adversary's
nose, and sent him down for the last time.
"I think that will do for him," Figs said, as his opponent dropped as neatly on
the green as I have seen
Jack Spot's ball plump into the pocket at billiards; and
the fact is, when time was called, Mr Reginald Cuff was
not able, or did not choose, to stand up again.
And now all the boys set up such a shout for Figs as
would have made you think he had been their darling
champion through the whole battle; and as absolutely
brought Dr Swishtail out of his study, curious to know
the cause of the uproar. He threatened to flog Figs
violently, of course; but Cuff, who had come to himself
by this time, and was washing his wounds, stood up and
said, "It's my fault, sir—not Figs'—not Dobbin's. I was
bullying a little boy; and he served me right." By
which magnanimous speech he not only saved his
conqueror a whipping, but got back all his ascendency
over the boys which his defeat had nearly cost him.
W. M. TFIACKERAY, Vanity Pair

DOBBIN'S FIGHT WITH CUFF 125

EXERCISES
(A) THE USE OF WORDS
Rewrite the following passage in the present tense:
William Dobbin had for once forgotten the world. and was
away with Sinbad the Sailor in the Valley of Diamonds. or
with Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Peribanou in that delightful
cavern where the Prince found her, and whither we should all
like to make a tour; when shrill cries, as of a little fellow
weeping, woke up his pleasant reverie; and looking up, he
saw Cuff before him, belabouring a little boy. It was the little
lad who had peached upon him about the grocer's cart; but he
bore little malice, not at least towards the young and small.

(B) SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS

Rewrite the following passage, altering the phrasing so as to
omit the word 'then':
Thaekeray, who was born at Calcutta, was sent to the
famous Charterhouse School in London which he nicknamed
the "Slaughterhouse." Then he went to Cambridge where he
made friends with Tennyson and many others who afterwards
became famous. By them he was always affectionately called
"Old Thack." Then he went abroad; and then he returned
home to enjoy the fortune which his father had left him. Then
he lost a great portion of this fortune through gambling and
then he realized that he would have to work for his living.
Then he set to work and started on his career as a writer. So
 that what seemed at the time a great disaster was really a
blessing both for Thackeray himself and for us who read his
books.

(C) PUNCTUATION
Change into direct speech:
(i) The wags told Dobbin that sugar was ris".
(ii) Dobbin reminded Osborne that his father was only a
merchant.
126 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
(iii) Osborne replied that his father was a gentleman and
kept his carriage.
(iv) Cuff said he would like to know why.
{(v) Cuff ordered Osborne to hold out his hand.
(vi) Dobbin said he would give him the worst thrashing he
had ever had in his life.

(D) THE CHOICE OF WORDS

Supply descriptive words of your own in the following sentences,
afterwards comparing your words with those used by Thackeray:
(i) He stood there—almost at the bottom of the school—in
his — corduroys.
(ii) The jokes were — and — against him.
(iii) They considered that the selling of goods by retail was
a — and — practice.
 (iv) He marched up with the lower form, a giant amongst
them, with — look.
(v) Little Osborne gasped with wonder and incredulity
at seeing this — champion put up suddenly to defend
him.
(vi) Fancy — Goliath when — David stepped forward
and claimed a meeting.

(E) ADDITIONAL EXERCISES

(i) Write the outlines of an imaginary debate, in which Cuff,
Osborne, Dobbin, and other boys at the Swishtail Seminary took
part, on the subject "What makes a gentleman?"
(ii) Supply an alternative title to the extract.
(iii) Write a letter from Dr Swislitail to Messrs Dobbin
and nudge, Grocers and Oilmen, Thames Street, London, E.C.,
requesting a supply of soap and candles for use in the
Seminary.
(iv) Find out all you can concerning the Fairy Peribanou, Sinbad the Sailor,
the Valley of Diamonds, the Roe, and Prince Ahmed, and write a short
account of each.
(v) Write an essay on “Bullies”
(vi) Compile a list of all the schoolboy lights of which you have ever read,
and say which account pleases you most

XIV
ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY
 CHURCHYARD
TEE curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,

And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds :

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower

The moping owl does to the moon complain
Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,
Molest her ancient solitary reign.

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade

%Mere heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

The breezy call of incense-breathing morn,

The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed,
GRAY'S ELEGY 129
The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,
No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.

For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,

Or busy housewife ply her evening care :
No children run to lisp their sire's return,
Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,

Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;
How jocund did they drive their team afield!
How how'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!

Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,

Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
The short and simple annals of the poor.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave
Await alike th'inevitable hour;
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault,

If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise,
Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.

Can storied urn or animated bust

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold car of Death?

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre;

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page

Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll;
Chill Penury repressed their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene

The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

180 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast
The little tyrant of his fields withstood,
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

Th'applause of listening senates to command,

The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,
And read their history in a nation's eyes,

Their lot forbade: nor circumscribed alone

Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined;
Forbade to wade thro' slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind;

The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,

To quench the blushes of ingenious shame,
Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride
With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife

Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
GRAY'S ELEGY 181
Yet ev'n these bones from insult to protect
Some frail memorial still erected nigh,
With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd,
Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.

Their name, their years, spelt by th'unlettered Muse,

The place of fame and elegy supply:
And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.

For who, to dumb Forgetfulness a prey,

This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing lingering look behind?

On some fond breast the parting soul relics,

Some pious drops the closing eye requires;
E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,
E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.

For thee, who, mindful of th'unhonour'd dead,

Dog in these lines their artless talc relate;
If chance, by lonely contemplation led,
Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate,—
182 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
Haply some hoary-headed swain may say,
"Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn
Brushing with hasty steps the dews away,
To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.

"There at the foot of yonder nodding beech

That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,
Ilis listless length at noon-tide would he stretch
And pore upon the brook that babbles by.

"Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,

Muttering his wayward fancies he would rove;
Now drooping, woeful-wan, like one forlorn,
Or crazed with care, or cross'd in hopeless love.

"One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill,

Along the heath, and near his favourite tree;
Another came; nor yet beside the rill,
Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he;

"The next with dirges due in sad array

Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne.
Approach and read (for thou cant read) the lay
Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn!!
THE EPITAPH
Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
A Youth, to Fortune and to Fame unknown:
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth
And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere;

Heaven did a recompense as largely send:
He gave to Misery all he had, a tear,
He gain'd from Heaven ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.
No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
(There they alike in trembling hope repose,)
The bosom of his Father and his God.
Tnomns Gitsv
ON A FAVOURITE CAT 133
ODE ON THE DEATH OF A FAVOURITE CAT
DROWNED IN A TUB OP GOLD-FISHES
TWAS on a lofty vase's side,
Where China's gayest art had dyed
The azure flowers that blow;
Demurest of the tabby kind
The pensive Selima, reclined,
Gazed on the lake below.

Her conscious tail her joy declared:

The fair round face, the snowy beard,
The velvet of her paws,
 Her coat that with the tortoise vies,
Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes,
She saw, and purr'd applause.

Still had she gazed, but 'midst the tide

Two angel forms were seen to glide,
The Genii of the stream:
Their scaly armour's Tyrian hue
Through richest purple, to the view
Betray'd a golden gleam.

The hapless Nymph with wonder saw:

A whisker first, and then a claw,
With many an ardent wish
She stretch'd, in vain, to reach the prize.
What female heart can gold despise?
What Cat's averse to fish?

Presumptuous Maid!, with looks intent

Again she stretch'd, again she bent,

184 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

Nor knew the gulf between—
(Malignant Fate sat by and smiled—);
 The slippery verge her feet beguiled;
She tumbled headlong in!

Eight times emerging from the flood

She inew'd to every watery God
Some speedy aid to send.—
No Dolphin came, no Nereid stirr'd,
Nor cruel Tom nor Susan heard—A
favourite has no friend!

From hence, ye Beauties! undeceived,

Know, one false step is ne'er retrieved,
And be with caution bold:
Not all that tempts your wandering eyes
And heedless hearts, 1s lawful prize,
Nor all that glisters, gold!
THOMAS GREY

EXERCISES
(A) THE USE OF WORDS
Turn into the passive:
(i) The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.
(ii) The ploughman leaves the world to darkness and to me.
(iii) Let not ambition mock their useful toil.
(iv) One morn I missed him on the eustomed
 (v) Heaven did a recompense send.
(vi) Her conscious tail her joy declared.
(B) SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS
Combine the following pairs of sentences by using for, as, Or
because:
GRAY'S , ELEGY & ON A FAVOURITE CAT 135
(1) The ploughman plods slowly homeward. He is weary.
(ii) The moping owl complains to the moon. Some have
molested her ancient solitary reign.
(iii) I:lothing shall rouse them from their lowly bed. They
are gone beyond recall.
(iv) Knowledge did not unroll her ample page to their eyes,
They were poor and had to toil unceasingly.
(v) Some hand has erected a frail memorial. It wished to
protect these bones from insult.
(vi) I missed him near his favourite tree. He was dead.
(C) PUNCTUATION

Punctuate the following passage, and supply capital letters

where necessary:
while thomas gray was staying with his mother and aunts
at stoke poges he began the famous elegy for a time it was
not printed but circulated in manuscript among his friends
afterwards however it was brought out in pamphlet form and
sold at sixpence unlike old thack who was driven through force
 of ei Feu instances to write for his living gray had private means
and wn r very little he resided in a college in cambridge at
ole I 1 rite lir became terribly afraid of fire and so that he might
be um iy at any time he ordered a rope ladder from london
WWI(= III H-11 1eV011n undergraduates heard of thisand one night
ern r d fire v.I l*n there was no fire gray as they expected let down
hi*' 13( h ler and quickly descended into a big tub of cold water
whirl I inut been placed beneath the poet did not see the joke
and angrily MOW(' to another college where strange to say he
was nearly burned out in dead earnest.

(D) THE CHOICE OF WORDS

Make a list of all the adjectives with the accompanying nouns
which occur in the lines from "Now fades the glimmering landscape." to "No more
shall rouse them from their lowly bed."
Notice in each ease how apt is the description. You could not
change a word without losing something of sound or meaning.

(E) ADDITIONAL EXERCISES

(1) Notice the slumbrous effect of the letter in in the line: The moping owl
does to the moon complain, and see if you can find a similar instance in the
same poem.
(ii) Write an essay entitled "Reflections in a Country Churchyard."
186 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
(iii) What do you imagine the gold-fish thought: (a) when the
cat first stretched out a paw; (/0 when "she tumbled headlong
 in"?
(iv) Bow came Gray's Elegy to be associated with the capture
of Quebec? Give an account of the incident.
(v) What is an elegy? Is the second poem an elegy? Read a
portion of each poem carefully to vourself, and then say what vou
notice about their respective fimes. VVhy must one be read in
quick time and the other slowly?
(vi) Write out "cruel Tom's" reasons for not coming to the
rescue.

XV
MARK TAPLEY AT SEA
A DARK and dreary night; people nestling in their beds
or circling late about the fire; Want, colder than Charity,
shivering at the street corners; church-towers humming
with the faint vibration of their own tongues, but newly
resting from the ghostly preachment "One " The earth
covered with a sable pall as for the burial of yesterday;
the clumps of dark trees, its giant plumes of funeral
feathers, waving sadly to and fro: all hushed, all noiseless, and in deep repose, save
the swift clouds that skim
across the moon, and the cautious wind, as, creeping after
them upon the ground, it stops to listen, and goes rustling
on, and stops again, and follows, like a savage on the trail.
Whither go the clouds and wind, so eagerly? If, like
guilty spirits, they repair to some dread conference with
power., like themselves, in what wild regions do the elei
I:ell f=; hold council, or where unbend in terrible disport?
ma, ()II, on, over the countless miles of angry space roll
t Ile Iuutt I win/jug billows. Mountains and caves are here,
and vet. are not; for what 1s now the one, is now the
of then all is but a boiling heap of rushing water..
I'::,, and flight, and mad return of wave on wave, and
t )))), niggle, ending in a spouting-up of foam that.
N% 1111 cir; he black night; incessant change of place, and
))»1 1, :1'I(1 hue; constancy in nothing, but eternal strife;
on, Am, on, they roll, and darker grows the night, and
louder howls the wind, and more clamorous and fierce
become the million voices in the sea, when the wild cry
goes forth upon the storm, "A ship 1"
Onward she comes, in gallant combat with the elements,
her tall masts trembling, and her timbers starting on the
strain ; onward she comes, now high upon the curling
billows, now low down in the hollows of the sea as hiding
for the moment from its fury; and every storm-voice in
the air and water, cries more loudly yet, "A ship!"
And though the eager multitude crowd thick and fast
upon her all the night, and dawn of day discovers the
untiring train yet bearing down upon the ship in an
eternity of troubled water, onward she comes, with dim
lights burning in her hull, and people there, asleep: as
if no deadly element were peering in at every seam and
chink, and no drowned seaman's grave, with but a plank
to cover it, were yawning in the unfathomable depths
below.
Among these sleeping voyagers were Martin and Mark
Tapley, who, rocked into a heavy drowsiness by the unaccustomed motion, were as
insensible to the foul air in
which they lay, as to the uproar without. It was broad
day, when the latter awoke with a dim idea that he was
dreaming of having gone to sleep in a four-post bedstead

188 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES »

which had turned bottom upwards in the course of the
night. There was more reason in this too, than in the
roasting of eggs; for the first objects Mr Tapley recognised when he opened his
eyes were his own heels—
looking down at him, as he afterwards observed, from
a nearly perpendicular elevation.
"Well!" said Mark, getting himself into a sitting
posture, after various ineffectual struggles with the rolling of the ship. "This is the
first time as I ever stood on
my head all night."

MARK TAPLEY AT SEA 139

"You shouldn't go to sleep on the ground with your
head to leeward, then," growled a man in one of the
berths.
""With my head to where?” asked Mark. The man
repeated his previous sentiment.
"No, I won't another time," said Mark, "when I know
whereabouts on the map that country is. In the meanwhile I can give you a better
piece of advice. Don't you
nor any other friend of mine never go to sleep with his
head in a ship, any more."
The man gave a grunt of discontented acquiescence,
turned over in his berth, and drew his blanket over his
head.
"—For," said Mr Tapley, pursuing the theme by way
of soliloquy, in a low tone of voice; "the sea is as nonsensical a thing as any going.
It never knows what to do
with itself. It hasn't got no employment for its mind,
and is always in a state of vacancy. Like them Polar
bears in the wild-beast shows as is constantly a-nodding
their heads from side to side, it never can be quiet.
Which is entirely owing to its uncommon stupidity."
Is I hat you, Mark ?" asked a faint voice from another

"It's as much of me as is left, sir, after a fortnight of

this work," Mr Tapley replied. "What with leading the
life of a fly ever since I've been aboard—for I've been
perpetually holding-on to something or other, in a upsidedoesn position—what
with that, sir, and putting a very
le into myself, and taking a good deal out in various
way , I here an't too much of me to swear by. How do
you 1d yourself this morning, sir ?"
" Very Miserable," said Martin, with a peevish groan.
"1". hI This is wretched, indeed!"
"Creditable," muttered Mark, pressing one hand upon
his aching head and looking round him with a rueful
grin. "That's the great comfort. It is creditable to
keep up one's spirits here. Virtue's its own reward. So's
jollity."

140 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

Mark was so far right, that unquestionably any man
who retained his cheerfulness among the steerage accommodations of that noble
and fast sailing line of
packet-ship, The Screw, was solely indebted to his own
resources, and shipped his good humour, like his provisions, without any
contribution or assistance from the
owners. A dark, low, stifling cabin, surrounded by
berths all filled to overflowing with men, women, and
children, in various stages of sickness and misery, is not
the liveliest place of assembly at any time; but when
it 1s so crowded that mattresses and beds are heaped
upon the floor, to the extinction of everything like
comfort, cleanliness, and decency, it is liable to operate
not only as a pretty strong barrier against amiability of
temper, but as a positive encourager of selfish and rough
humours. Mark felt this, as he sat looking about him;
and his spirits rose proportionately.
Here an old grandmother was crooning over a sick
child, and rocking it to and fro, in arms hardly more
wasted than its own young limbs; here a poor woman
With an infant in her lap, mended another little creature's
clothes, and quieted another who was creeping up about
her from their scanty bed upon the floor. Here were old
men awkwardly engaged in little household offices,
wherein they would have been ridiculous but for their
good-will and kind purpose; and here were swarthy
fellows--giants in their way—doing such little acts of
tenderness for those about them, as might have belonged
MARK TAPLEY AT SEA 141
to gentlest-hearted dwarfs. The very idiot in the corner
who sat mowing there, all day, had his faculty of imitation roused by what he saw
about him; and snapped
his lingers; to amuse a crying child.
"Now, then," said Mark, nodding to a woman who
was dressing her three children at no great distance from
him: and the grin upon his face had by this time-spread
from ear to ear: "Hand over one of them young 'uns
according to custom."
"I wish you'd get breakfast, Mark, instead of worrying
with people who don't belong to you," observed Martin,
petulantly.
"All right," said Mark. "She'll do that. It's a fair
diVision of labour, sir. I wash her boys, and she makes
our tea. I never could make tea, but anyone can wash a
boy."
The woman, who was delicate and 1ll, felt and understood his kindness, as
well she might, for she had been
covered every night with his great-coat, while he had had
for his own bed the bare boards and a rug. But, Martin,
who seldom got up or looked about him, was quite
incensed at the folly of this speech, and expressed his
dissatisfaction by an impatient groan.
"So it is, certainly," said Mark, brushing the child's
hair as coolly as if he had been born and bred a barber.
"What are you talking about, now ?" asked Martin.
"What you said," replied Mark; "or what you meant,
when you gave that there dismal vent to your feelings.
I quite go along with it, sir. It is very hard upon her."
"What 1s?"
"Making the voyage by herself along with these young
impediments here, and going such a way at such a time
of the year to join her husband. If you don't want to be
driven mad with yellow soap in your eye, young man,"
sald Mr Tapley to the second urchin, who was by this
time under his hands at the basin, " you'd better shutit."
"Where does she join her husband?" asked Martin,
yawning.
"Why, I'm very much afraid," said Mr Tapley, in a
low voice, "that she don't know. I hope she mayn't
miss him. But she sent her last letter by hand, and if
she don't see him a waving his pocket handkerchief on
the shore, like a pietur out of a song-book, my opinion
1s, she'll break her heart."
"Why, how, in Folly's name, does the woman come to
be on board ship on such a wild-goose venture!" cried
Martin.
142 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
Mr Tapley glanced at him for a moment as he lay
prostrate in his berth, and then said very quietly:
" Ah I How, indeed! I can't think! He's been away
from her, for two year: she's been very poor and lonely
in her own country; and has always been looking
forward to meeting him. It's very strange she should be
here. Quite amazing! A little mad, perhaps] There
can't he no other way of accounting for it."
Martin was too far gone in the lassitude of sea-sickness
to make any reply to these words, or even to attend to
them as they were spoken. And the subject of their discourse returning at this crisis
with some hot tea, effectually put a stop to any resumption of the theme by Mr
Tapley; who, when the meal was over and be had
adjusted Martin's bed, went up on deck to wash the
breakfast service, which consisted of two half-pint tin
mugs, and a shaving-pot of the same metal.
It is due to Mark Tapley to state, that he suffered at
least as much from sea-sickness as any man, woman, or
MARK TAPLEY AT SEA 148
child, on board; and that he had a peculiar faculty of
knocking himself about on the smallest provocation, and
losing his legs at every lurch of the ship. But resolved,
in his usual phrase, to "come out strong" under disadvantageous circumstances, he
was the life and soul of
the steerage, and made no more of stopping in the middle
of a facetious conversation to go away and be excessively
ill by himself, and afterwards come back in the very best
and gayest of tempers to resume it, than if such a course
of proceeding had been the commonest in the world.
There never was a more popular character than Mark
Tapley became, on board that noble and fast-sailing
line-of-packet ship, The Screw, and he attained at last
to such a pitch of universal admiration, that he began to
have grave doubts within himself whether a man might
reasonably claim any credit for being jolly under such
exciting circumstances.
"If this was going to last," said Mr Tapley, "there'd
be no difference as T can perceive, between The Screw
and t he Dragon, 1 never am to get credit, I think. I
licrin In be afraid 'hat the Fates is determined to make
Iw v. odd easy Ili ine."
"11, II, M.irk," said Martin, near whose berth he had
ruolittoti [toI Inc ¢ "When will this be over ?"
wi.l Ir week, II y say, sir," returned Mark, "will
mot bring lei into port. The ship's going along at
present, eee) dre u ship can, sir; though I don't
1114.1111 in e411y ne. hal very high praise."
"I don't I hint, II is, indeed," groaned Martin.
" I I'ci= all T he bet ter for it, sir, if you was to turn
out ." rd Mark.
144 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
a AW pe =°® by the ladies and gentlemen on the
after drel,," returned Martin, with a scornful emphasis
upon the words, "mingling with the beggarly crowd that
are stowed away in this vile hole. I should be greatly
the better for that, no doubt!"
"I'm thankful that I can't say from my own experience
what the feelings of a gentleman may be," said Mark,
"but I should have thought, sir, as a gentleman would
feel a deal more uncomfortable down here, than up in
the fresh air, especially when the ladies and gentlemen in
the after-cabin know just as much about him, as he
does about them, and are likely to trouble their heads
about him in the same proportion. I should have
thought that, certainly."
"I tell you then," rejoined Martin, "you would have
thought wrong, and do think wrong."
" Very likely, sir," said Mark, with imperturbable good
temper. "I often do."
"As to lying here," cried Martin, raising himself on
his elbow, and looking angrily at his follower. "Do you
suppose it is a pleasure to lie here?"
"All the madhouses in the world," said Mr Tapley,
"couldn't produce such a maniac as the man must be
who could think that."
"Then why are you forever goading and urging me
to get up?" asked Martin. "I lie here because I don't
wish to be recognised, in the better days to which I
aspire, by any purse-proud citizen, as the man who came
over with him among the steerage passengers. Die here,
because I wish to conceal my circumstances and myself,
and not to arrive in a new world Wedged and ticketed as
an utterly poverty-stricken man. If I could have afforded
a passage in the after-cabin, I should have held up my
head with the rest. As I couldn't, I hide it. Do you
understand that?"
MARK TAPLEY AT SEA 145
"I am very sorry, sir," said Mark, "I didn't know you
took it so much to heart as Ibis comes to."
" Of course you didn't know," returned his master.
"How should you know, unless I told you? It's no trial
to you, Mark, to make yourself comfortable and to bustle
about. It's as natural for you to do so under the circumstances as if 1s for me not to
do so. Why, you don't
suppose there's a living creature in this ship who can
possibly have half so much to undergo on board of her as
have? Do you ?" he asked, sitting upright in his
berth and looking at Mark, with an expression of great
earnestness not unmixed with wonder.
Mark twisted his face into a tight knot, and with his
head very much on one side pondered upon this question
as if he felt it an extremely difficult one to answer. He
was relieved from his embarrassment by Martin himself,
who said, as he stretched himself upon his back again
and resumed the book he had been reading:
 "But what's the use of my putting such a case to you,
when the very essence of what I have been saying, is,
that you cannot by possibility understand it! Make me
a lit t le brandy-and-water, cold and very weak, and give
me a biscuit, and tell your friend, who 1s a nearer
neighbor of ours than I could wish, to try and keep her
children a Iii tit. quieter to-night than she did last night;
that's a good fellow,"
Mr. Tapley .I himself to obey these orders with great
altieri y, and pending their execution, it may be presumed flagging spirits revived:
inasmuch as he
several Niue. til)served, below his breath, that in respect
of if 'lower of imparting a credit to jollity, The Screw
It T (".1 I nimbly had some decided advantages over the
Dragon. Ile also remarked, that it was a high gratifica-
148 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
(iii) Explain what is meant by the terms: leeward, berth, steerage, long-boat,
spar.
Draw a plan of a.ship, showing starboard and port; fore and aft.
(iv) Write down some "Thoughts on Sea-sickness."
(v) Notice how Dickens in his description of a stormy sea obtains the effect
of rapid and constant motion. The narrative is so
vivid that you can fancy vou hear the swirl of the waters. Notice,
too, how the effect is heightened by the use of the historic present.
Write a short passage entitled "A Page from a Lighthouse-keeper's
Note-book," and strive to obtain similar effects.
 (vi) Mark Tapley did not give any explanation of those "consolatory
thoughts" which helped him. What do you think they
were?

XVI
THE LOTOS-EATERS
" COURAGE? he said, and pointed toward the land.
"This mounting wave will roll us shoreward soon."
In the afternoon they came unto a land,
In which it seemed always afternoon,
All round the coast the languid air did swoon,
Breathing like one that hath a weary dream.
Full-faced above the valley stood the moon;
And like a downward smoke, the slender stream
Along the cliff to fall and pause and fall did seem.

A land of streams? some like a downward smoke,

Slow-dropping veils of thinnest lawn, did go;
And scum t hro' wavering lights and shadows broke,
Rolling it %cluminous sheet of foam below.
Tile) :.axs III(' gleaming river seaward flow
From I he inner land: far off, three mountain-tops,
Thni 41, nl pimnwles of aged snow,
itnit :Anew! Thn.11'd: dew'd with showery drops,
I'p.clumhIlis ..hadowy pine above the woven copse.

Thr ehanmd t.imset linger'd low adown

InThi n r'it : I hrn’ mountain clefts the dale
ho and the yellow down
150 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
And un n low, with slender galingale;
A land where all things always seem'd the same.
And round about the keel with faces pale,
Dark faces pale against that rosy flame,
The mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters came.

Branches they bore of that enchanted stem,

Laden with flower and fruit, whereof they gave
To each, but whoso did receive of them,
And taste, to him the gushing of the wave
Far far away did seem to mourn and rave
On alien shores; and if his fellow spake,
His voice was thin, as voices from the grave;
And deep-asleep he seem'd, yet all awake,
And music in his ears his beating heart did make.

They sat them down upon the yellow sand,

Between the sun and moon upon the shore;
And sweet it was to dream of Fatherland,
Of child, and wife, and slave; but evermore
Most weary seem'd the sea, weary the oar,
Weary the wandering fields of barren foam.
Then some one said, "We will return no more";
And all at once they sang, "Our island home
Is far beyond the wave; we will no longer roam."

cnorac SONG
I
There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
Or night-dews on still waters between walls
Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass;
THE LOTOS-EATERS 151
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tir'd eyelids upon tir'd eyes;
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies.
Here arc cool mosses deep,
And thro' the moss the ivies creep,
And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep,
And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep.
II
Why are we weigh'd upon with heaviness,
And utterly consumed with sharp distress,
While all things else have rest from weariness?
All things have rest: why should we toil alone,
We only toil, who are the first of things,
And make perpetual moan,
Still from one sorrow to another thrown:
Nor ever fold our wings,
And cease from wanderings,
Nor steep our brows in slumber's holy balm;
Nor hearken what the inner spirit sings,
"There is no joy but calm!"
Why should we only toil, the roof and crown of things?
In
1401 in the middle of the wood,
TI tp folded leaf is %you'd from out the bud
11 it It win<h Whim I he branch, and there
(41.4r,+, 104+e0 mid broad, and takes no care,
-: 1111 ..teyl,'11 al, noon, and in the moon
ly i h %% i'vd; and turning yellow
Valk, um! Ilnats adown the air.
Lo | sweeten'd with the summer light,
The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow,
Drops in a silent autumn night.
All 1ts allotted length of days,
The flower ripens in its place,
Ripens, and fades, and falls, and bath no toil,
Fast-rooted in the fruitful soil.
IV
Hateful is the dark-blue sky,
Vaulted o'er the dark-blue sea.
Death is the end of life; ah, why

152 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

Should life all labour be?
Let us alone. Time driveth onward fast,
And in a little while our lips are dumb.
Let us alone. What is it that will last?
All things are taken from us, and become
Portions and parcels of the dreadful Past.
Let us alone. What pleasure can we have
To war with evil? Is there any peace
In ever climbing up the climbing wave?
All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave
In silence; ripen, fall and cease:
Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease.

How sweet it were, hearing the downward stream,

With half-shut eyes ever to seem
Falling asleep in a half-dream I
To dream and dream, like yonder amber light,
Which will not leave the myrrh-bush on the height;
To hear each other's whisper'd speech;
Eating the Lotos day by day,
To watch the crisping ripples on the beach,
And tender curving lines of creamy spray;
To lend our hearts and spirits wholly

THE LOTOS-EATERS 153

To the influence of mild-minded melancholy;
To muse and brood and live again in memory,
With those old faces of our infancy
Heap'd over with a mound of grass,
Two handfuls of white dust, shut in an urn of brass.
VI
Dear is the memory of our wedded lives,
And dear the last embraces of our wives
And their warm tears: but all bath suffer'd change;
For surely now our household hearths arc cold:
Our sons inherit us: our looks are strange:
And we should come like ghosts to trouble joy.
Or else the island princes over-bold
Have eat our substance, and the minstrel sings
Before them of the ten-years' war in Troy,
And our great deeds, as half-forgotten things.
Is there confusion in the little isle?
Let what 1s broken so remain.
The Gods are hard to reconcile:
Ms hard to settle order once again.
There is confusion worse than death,
Trouble on trouble, pain on pain,
Long labour unto aged breath,
Sore task to hearts worn out with many wars
154 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
And eyes grown dim with gazing on the pilot-stars.
VII
But propt on beds of amaranth and moly,
How sweet (while warm airs lull us blowing lowly)
With half-dropt eyelids still,
Beneath a heaven dark and holy,
To watch the long bright river drawing slowly
His waters from the purple hill—
To hear the dewy echoes calling
From cave to cave thro' the thick-twined vine—
To watch the emerald-colour'd water falling
Thro' many a wov'n acanthus-wreath divine!
Only to hear and see the far-off sparkling brine,
Only to hear were sweet, stretch'd out beneath the pine.
VIII
The Lotos blooms below the barren peak:
The Lotos blows by every winding creek:
All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone:
Thro' every hollow cave and alley lone
Round and round the spicy downs the yellow Lotos-dust
1s blown.
We have had enough of action, and of motion we,
Roll'd to starboard, roll'd to larboard, when the surge
was seething free,
Where the wallowing monster spouted his foam-fountains
in the sea.
Let us swear an oath, and keep 1t with an equal mind,
In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined
On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind.
For they Lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are
hued

THE LOTOS-EATERS
Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightlv
curl'd
Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming
world;
Where they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands,
Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring
deeps and fiery sands,
Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships,
and praying hands.
But they smile, they find a music centred in a doleful
song
Steaming up, a lamentation, and an ancient tale of
wrong,
Like a tale of little meaning, tho' the words are strong;
Chanted from an ill-used race of men that cleave the soil,
Sow the seed and reap the harvest with enduring toil,
Storing yearly little dues of wheat, and wine and oil;
Till they perish and they suffer—some, 'tis whisper'd,
down in hell
Suffer endless anguish, others in Elysian valleys dwell,
11(-.1 lug weary limbs at last on beds of asphodel.
14111.1.1y, surely, slumber is more sweet than toil, the shore
‘ri11111 hi lunir in the deep mid-ocean, wind and wave and

t )11 rust ye, 1)11)1 her mariners, we will not wander more.
Loan TENNYSON
EXERCISES
(A) THE USE OF WORDS
Make 1 lin necessary corrections in the following sentences:
(i) The yellow clown was bordered by palm-trees.
(ii) The shadowy pinestrees seemed as if they were climbing
up above the copse.
(iii) The Lotos was different to anything they had ever
tasted before.
(iv) We can find no fault to what the weary mariners said.
(v) The old Greeks said they would swear an oath and keep
it in an equal mind.
(vi) Death is the end to life.
(B) SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS
Make sentences containing the following phrases:

15 6 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES

(i) slumbrous sheet of foam; (ii) gushing of the wave;
(iii) craggy ledge: (iv) our household hearths; (v) winding
creek; (vi) weary limbs.
(C) PUNCTUATION
Rewrite the following, showing dearly which is poetry and
which prose by using quotation marks, and by setting out the
poetry in its proper verse-form:
If you read "The Lotos-Eaters" carefully, you will see that
Tennyson was able to paint beautiful pictures to please the
mind's eye, and at the same time to compose sweet music
to delight the ear, in a way that few other poets could equal.
You can hear the mighty billows heaving in we have had
enough of action, and of motion we, mll'd to starboard, roll'd
to larboard, when the surge was seething free. You can see the
water falling over the cliff into the depths below in the lines
and like a downward smoke, the slender stream along the cliff
to fall and pause and fall did seem. While if you read the
stanza beginning there is sweet music here that softer falls
than petals from blown roses on the grass, you feel yourself
being sweetly lulled to sleep.

(D) THE CHOICE OF WORDS

In the old Greek plays the Chorus always played a prominent
part. This was composed of singers and dancers, who sang a stanza
as they turned to the right from the altar in the centre of the stage.
Then they turned back, singing an answering stanza. After that
THE LOTOS-EATERS 157
they turned to the left, and back to the starting-point once
more.
The Chorie Song in "The Lotos-Eaters" is arranged in this way.
The opening stanza, or sfrophe, describes the beauty of the Lotosland, while the
second. or antistrophe, deals with the troubles and
wanderings which have vexed the mariners. The third returns to
sing of the wondrous country to which they have come, while the
fourth reverts to the sorrows beyond. One stanza, the sfrophe,
is a sigh of contentment; the next, the anfistrophe, is a moan of
despair, until in the epode, the last stanza of all, the mariners
resolve that they will wander no more.
Read through the Choric Song carefully, noting the contrast
which this arrangement gives, then write out the strophe which
you think to be the most beautiful.

(B) ADDITIONAL EXERCISES

(i) Write a prose description: (a) of the Lotos-land, (&#) of the
life of a mariner.
(ii) Give as many beautiful comparisons as you can remember
for sweet music which falls on the car ever so softly.
(iii) Smith and Robinson had a debate, Smith arguing that the
mariners were lazy loafers who were shirking their duties, while
Robinson contended that they were sensible men to stay in a good
place when they found it. hat is your opinion?
(iv) Write explanatory notes on: nectar, asphodel, amaranth,
cooly, acanthus.
 (v) In a previous exercise you noted the 'slumbrous’ effect of
the letter in. Find an example in this poem.
(vi) Write an essay entitled "The Life-Story of an Apple," first
reading carefully the very beautiful description in the poem.
160 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
heroes, as Athamas his uncle ruled in Bceotia; and like
Athamas, he was an unhappy man. For he had a stepbrother named Pclias, of
whom some said he was a
nymph's son, and there were dark and sad tales about
his birth. When he was a babe he was cast out on the
mountains, and a wild mare came by and kicked him.
But a shepherd passing found the baby, with its face all
blackened by the blow; and took him home, and called
him Pelias, because his face was bruised and black. And
he grew up fierce and lawless, and did many a dreadful
deed; and at last he drove out iEson his step-brother,
and then his own brother Neleus, and took the kingdom
to himself, and ruled over the rich Minuan heroes, in
Tolcos by the sea.
And &son, when he was driven out, went sadly away
out of the town, leading his little son by the hand; and
he said to himself, "I must hide the child in the mountains; or relicts will surely kill
him, because he is the heir."
So he went up from the sea across the valley, through
the vineyards and the olive groves, and across the
torrent of Anauros, towards Pelion the ancient mountain,
whose brows are white with snow.
He went up and up into the mountain, over marsh,
and crag, and down, till the boy was tired and footsore,
and A.son had to bear him in his arms, till he came to
the mouth of a lonely cave, at the foot of a mighty cliff.
Above the cliff the snow-wreaths hung, dripping and
cracking in the sun; but at its foot around the cave's
mouth grew all fair flowers and herbs, as if in a garden,
ranged in order, each sort by itself. There they grew gaily
in the sunshine, and the spray of the torrent from above;
while from the cave came the sound of music, and a
man's voice singing to the harp.
JASON AND THE CENTAUR 161
Then £son put down the lad and whispered—
"Fear not, but go in, and whomsoever you shall find,
lay your hands upon his knees and say, 'In the name of
Zeus, the father of Gods and men, I am your guest from
this day forth."
Then the lad went in without trembling, for he too
was a hero's son; but when he was within, he stopped in
wonder to listen to that magic song.
And there he saw the singer lying upon bear-skins and
fragrant boughs: Cheiron, the ancient centaur, the wisest
of all things beneath the sky. Down to the waist he was
a man, but below he was a noble horse; his white hair
rolled down over his broad shoulders, and his white
beard over his broad brown chest; and his eyes were
wise and mild, and his forehead like a mountain-wall.
And in his hands he held a harp of gold, and struck it
with a golden key; and as he struck, he sang till his
eyes glittered, and filled all the cave with light.
And lie sang of the birth of Time, and of the heavens
and I he dancing stars; and of the ocean, and the ether,
and I he fire, and the shaping of the wondrous earth.
And he sang of the treasures of the hills, and the hidden
jewels of the mine, and the veins of fire and metal,
and the virtues of all healing herbs, and of the speech
or birds, and of prophecy, and of hidden things to
come.
Then he sang of health, and strength, and manhood,
and a valiant heart; and of music, and hunting, and
wrestling, and all the games which heroes love; and of
I ravel, and wars, and sieges, and a noble death in fight;
will I hen he sang of peace and plenty, and of equal justice
in I he land; and as he sang the boy listened wide-eyed,
and l'urgot his errand in the song.
162 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
And at the last old Cheiron was silent, and called the
lad with a soft voice.
And the lad ran trembling to him, and would have
laid his hands upon his knees; but Cheiron smiled, and
said, "Call hither your father iEson, for I know you, and
all that has befallen, and saw you both afar in the valley,
even before you left the town."
Then JEson came in sadly, and Cheiron asked him,
"Why earnest thou not thyself to me, 4Eson the
/Eolid?”
And :son said-
" I thought, Cheiron will pity the lad if he sees him
come alone; and I wished to try whether he was fearless,
and dare venture like a hero's son. But now I entreat
you by Father Zeus, let the boy be your guest till better
times, and train him among the sons of the heroes, that
he may avenge his father's hearse."
Then Cheiron smiled, and drew the lad to him. and
laid his hand upon his golden locks and said, "Arc you
afraid of my horse's hoofs, fair boy, or will you be my
pupil from this day?"
"I would gladly have horse's hoofs like you, if I could
sing such songs as yours."
And Cheiron laughed, and said, "Sit here by me till
sundown, when your playfellows will come home,. and
vou shall learn like them to be a king, worthy to rule
over gallant men."
Then he turned to iEson, and said, " Go back in peace,
and bend before the storm like a prudent man. This boy
shall not cross the Anauros again, till he has become a
glory to you and to the house of fEolus."
And )Eson wept over his son and went away; but the
boy did not weep, so full was his fancy of that strange
JASON AND THE CENTAUR 168
cave, and the centaur, and his song, and the playfellows
whom he was to see.
Then Cheiron put the lyre into his hands, and taught
him how to play it, till the sun sank low behind the cliff,
and a shout was heard outside.
Then in came the sons of the heroes, JEneas, and
Heracles, and Peleus, and many another mighty name.
And great Cheiron leapt up joyfully, and his hoofs
made the cave resound, as they shouted, "Come out
Father Cheiron; come out and see our game." And one
cried, "I have killed two deer "; and another, "I took
a wild cat among the crags "; and Heracles dragged a
wild goat after him by its horns, for he was as huge as
a mountain crag; and Czeneus carried a bear-cub under
each arm, and laughed when they scratched and bit, for
neither tooth nor steel could wound him.
And Cheiron praised them all, each according to his
deserts.
Only one walked apart and silent, Asklepios, the toowise child, with his
bosom full of herbs and flowers, and
round his wrist a spotted snake; he came with downcast
eyes to Cheiron, and whispered how he had watched the
snake cast its old skin, and grow young again before his
eyes, and how he had gone down into a village in the vale.,.
and cured a dying man with a herb which he had seen
a sick goat eat.
And Cheiron smiled, and said, "To each Athene and
Apollo give some gift, and each is worthy in his place;
but to this child they have given an honour beyond all.
hononN, to cure while others kill."
T 11(.11 I Lir lads brought in wood, and split it, and lighted
a blazing nit: and others skinned the deer and quartered
t hem, and set them to roast before the fire; and while-
164 EXTRACTS AND EXERCISES
the venison was cooking they bathed in the snow-torrent,
and washed away the dust and sweat.
And then all ate till they could eat no more (for they
had tasted nothing since the dawn), and drank of the
clear spring water, for wine 1s not it for growing lads.
And when the remnants were put away, they all lay
down upon the skins and leaves about the fire, and each
took the lyre in turn, and sang and played with all his
heart.
And after a while they all went to a plot of grass at
the cave's mouth, and there they boxed, and ran, and
wrestled, and laughed till the stones fell from the
cliffs.
Then Cheiron took the lyre, and all the lads joined
hands; and as he played, they danced to his measure,
in and out, and round and round. There they danced
hand in hand, till the night fell over land and sea, while
the black glen shone with their broad white limbs. and
the gleam of their golden hair.
CRAB SSKINGSLEY, The Heroes
EXERCISES
(A) THE USE OP WORDS
Notice carefully how shall and will are used in the following
passage. Make a copy of it, and after each shall or will place (D)
in brackets if it means determination, and (F) if it signifies simple
futurity.
Then Cheimn smiled and said, "Are you afraid of my
horse's hoofs, fair boy, or will you be my pupil from this day ?"
"I would gladly have horse's hoofs like you, if I could sing
such songs as yours."
And Cheiron laughed, and said, "Sit here by me till suns
down, when your playfellows will come home, and you shall
learn like them to be a king, worthy to rule over gallant men."
JASON AND THE CENTAUR 165
Then he turned to /Eson, and said, "Go back in peace.
This boy shall not cross the Anauros again, till he has become
a glory to you."
(B) SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS
Combine the following sentences by using either so, therefore,
or hence:
(i) !'no said the children must he sacrificed. The poor
children were brought to the altar.
(ii) The Oracle told him that he must wander till the wild
beasts should feast him as their guest. He went on in hunger
for many a day.
(iii) The wolves left the sheep for him, and he ate of it,
and knew that the oracle was fulfilled. He wandered no more.
(iv) There Retie fell into the sea. Those narrow straits are
called Hellespont.
(v) &son said he must hide the child. He went up from
the sea towards Pelion, the ancient mountain.
(vi) Phrixus died but his spirit had no rest. He came in
(hennas to the heroes.

(C) PUNCTUATION
Punctuate and insert capital letters where necessary:
Many wonderful tales were told among the old grceks or
liellenes as we should call them and handed down from father
to son these were usually about the gods and heroes who had
done such mighty deeds in times past. all these legends when
collected together form what is known as the greek mythology
 and each separate story is termed a myth so that we who
blow no lath: or greek might read these wonderful stories in
our own tongue diaries kingslcy wrote the heroes in plain and
simple english here we may learn of perseus and of the golden
fleece of the argonauts and of theseus.

(D) THE CHOICE OF WORDS

Von will notice the smooth, flowing effect which Kingsley obtains by the frequent
use of and and so. Rewrite the following