And overal, ther as profyt schulde arise,
Curteys he was, and lowely of servyse.
Ther nas no man nowher so vertuous.
He was the beste beggere in his hous.

(2) Ful heye upon a char of gold stood he,
With foure white boles in the trays.

Instede of cote-armure over his harnays,
With nayles zelwe, and brighte as eny gold,
He hadde a beres skyn, col-blak, for-old.
His longe heer was kembd byhynde his bak,
As eny ravenes fether it schon for-blak.
A wrethe of gold arm-gret, of huge wighte,
Upon his heed, set ful of stoones brighte,
Of fyne rubies and of dyamauntz.

Aboute his char ther wenten white alauntz,
Twenty and mo, as grete as eny steer,
To hunten at the lyoun or the deer,
And folwede him, with mosel faste i-bounde,
Colers of golde, and torettz fyled rounde.

(3)

'Lo, in the lif of seint Kenelm, I rede, That was Kenulphus sone, the noble king Of Mercenrike, how Kenelm mette a thing. A lite er he was mordred, on a day His mordre in his avysion he say. His norice him expounede every del

His swevene, and bad him for to kepe him wel For traisoun; but he nas but seven 3er old, And therfore litel tale hath he told

Of eny drem, so holy was his herte.

By God, I hadde levere than my scherte,
That ze hadde rad his legende, as have I.'

9. When is the final e elided in Chaucer's metre?

[T. T. 1878.]

1. Whence did Shakespeare derive material for his plots of King Lear, Richard II, Merchant of Venice, The Tempest?

2. Analyse the character of Hamlet. Do you take his madness to be feigned?

3. What should you judge to have been the extent of Shakespeare's classical knowledge? Illustrate your answer by quotation.

4. Shakespeare has been accused of overstepping the true limits of tragic pathos in King Lear. What is your opinion on this point? Notice his treatment of the

pathetic in other plays.

5. Give instances of puns and plays upon words occurring in your plays, noting those which bear on the question of English pronunciation in Elizabeth's time.

6. Explain the meaning and etymology, as far as possible, of the following words, illustrating their use by quotation :-Polack, mantle, foison, kernes and gallowglasses, patch, kibe, partisan, fantastic.

7. Explain, with reference to context if necessary, the following passages:

(1)

Who to advance and who

To trash for over-topping.

(2) By'r lakin, I can go no further, sir;

My old bones ache: here's a maze trod indeed
Through forth-rights and meanders!

(3) It did bass my trespass.

(4) The duke cannot deny the course of law:
For the commodity that strangers have
With us in Venice, if it be denied,

Will much impeach the justice of his state;
Since that the trade and profit of the city
Consisteth of all nations.

(5) What, must I hold a candle to my shames?
They in themselves, good sooth, are too too light.
Why, 'tis an office of discovery, love;

And I should be obscured.

(6) That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal.

(7)

(8)

Some I see

That two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry.

If thy speech be sooth,

I care not if thou dost for me as much.

I pull in resolution, and begin

To doubt the equivocation of the fiend
That lies like truth.

(9) The language I have learn'd these forty years,
My native English, now I must forego:
And now my tongue's use is to me no more
Than an unstringed viol or a harp,

Or like a cunning instrument cased up,

Or, being open, put into his hands

That knows no touch to tune the harmony:
Within my mouth you have engaol'd my tongue,
Doubly portcullis'd with my teeth and lips;
And dull unfeeling barren ignorance
Is made my gaoler to attend on me.
I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,
Too far in years to be a pupil now.

(10) Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one,
Were as seven vials of his sacred blood,

Or seven fair branches springing from one root:
Some of those seven are dried by nature's course,
Some of those branches by the Destinies cut;
But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloucester,

(11)

One vial full of Edward's sacred blood,
One flourishing branch of his most royal root,
Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spilt,
Is hack'd down, and his summer leaves all faded,
By envy's hand and murder's bloody axe.

Ah, Gaunt, his blood was thine! that bed, that
womb,

That metal, that self-mould, that fashion'd thee
Made him a man; and though thou livest and
breathest,

Yet art thou slain in him: thou dost consent
In some large measure to thy father's death,
In that thou seest thy wretched brother die,
Who was the model of thy father's life.

O most small fault,
How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show!

That, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature
From the fix'd place; drew from my heart all love,
And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear!
Beat at this gate, that let thy folly in,

And thy dear judgement out!

(12) No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse: Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give

Thee o'er to harshness: her eyes are fierce; but
thine

Do comfort and not burn. 'Tis not in thee
To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,
To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,
And in conclusion to oppose the bolt
Against my coming in: thou better know'st
The offices of nature, bond of childhood,
Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude.

(13) Alb.

(14)

I fear your disposition:

That nature, which contemns its origin,
Cannot be border'd certain in itself;

She that herself will sliver and disbranch

From her material sap, perforce must wither
And come to deadly use.

Gon. No more; the text is foolish.

The queen his mother

Lives almost by his looks; and for myself-
My virtue or my plague, be it either which-

She's so conjunctive to my life and soul,
That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,
I could not but by her. The other motive,
Why to a public count I might not go,

Is the great love the general gender bear him;
Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,
Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows
Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,
Would have reverted to my bow again,

And not where I had aim'd them.

8. How far is the character of Richard II, as drawn by Shakespeare, substantiated by history?

9. Do the notices of places, customs, and life, in The Merchant of Venice warrant the conclusion that Shakespeare must have visited that town? Illustrate your

answer by quotation.

[T. T. 1878.]