EXAMINATION PAPERS.
123
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
Satan exalted sat, by merit raised
To that bad eminence.”
3. Translate the following passages into modern English :—•
“ In a somer seson . whan soft was the sonne,
I shope me in shroudes . as I a shepe were,
In habite as an heremite . vnholy of workes,
Went wyde in Jus world . wondres to here.
Ac on a May mornynge . on Maluerne hulles,
Me byfel a f'erly . of fairy, me thoujte ;
I was wery forwandred . and went me to reste
Vnder a brode banke . bi a homes side,
And as I lay and lened . and loked in pe wateres,
I slombred in a slepyng . it sweyued so merye.”
or,
The busy larke, messager of daye,
Salueth in Aire song the morwe graye ;
And fyry Phebus ryseth up so brighte,
That al the orient laugheth of the lighte,
And with his stremes dryeth in the greves
The silver dropes, hongyng on the leeves.
And Arcite, that is in the court ryal
With Theseus, his squyer principal,
Is risen, and loketh on the merye day.
4. Comment on the words in Italics in the above passages.
5. Explain, and comment on, the following idiomatic expressions—
Methinks: I was an hungred : they fell a-talking : he was done
to death ; many a thing : it is I: lack-a-day.
6. Compare the proportion of the Teutonic and Classical elements in
modern English. At what times and through what channels
has the classical element in the language chiefly been intro¬
duced ?
7. Give the derivations of the following words: prey, doom, rule
battle, shire, feudal, shall, bishop, church, woman, lady, sir,
madam, churl, earl.
8. Name, and give the chief works of, any two leading writers of—
(a.) Drama (excluding Shakespeare).
(b.) Epic poetry.
(c.) Satiric poetry.
9. Give some account of the life, works, and chief characteristics of
any one of the following: Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spenser,
Ben Jonson, Jonathan Swift, John Dry den, Daniel Defoe, Dr.
Samuel Johnson, William Cowper, Sir Walter Scott.
Section II.
10. Give some account of the Danish Invasions of England, and of the
settlement reached by King Alfred in the Peace of Wedmore.
11. Explain what you mean by the “Feudal System,” and show how
its influence has gradually failed.
12. Give some account of the work of Simon de Montfort.
13. Discuss the claims of Edward I. to the suzerainty of Scotland, and
describe the war of Scottish independence to the battle of Ban¬
nockburn.