Appendix A.

SCHOLARSHIP QUESTIONS.

Milton.

SENIOR SCHOLARSHIPS 1847.

Literature Proper.

1. "This evening late by then the chewing flocks,

Had ta'en their

supper on the savory herb
Of knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold,
I sat me down to watch upon a bank
With ivy canopied, and interwove
With flaunting honeysuckle, and began,
Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy,
To meditate my rural minstrelsy,
Till fancy had her fill; but ere a close,
The wonted roar was up amidst the woods,
And filled the air with barbarous dissonance;
At which I ceased, and listen'd them awhile,
Till an unusual stop of sudden silence
Gave respite to the drowsy frighted steeds,
That draw the litter of close curtain'd sleep;
At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound
Rose like a stream of rich distilled perfumes,
And stole upon the air, that even silence

Was took ere she was 'ware and wish'd she might

Deny her nature, and be never more,

Still to be so displac'd. I was all ear

And took in strains that might create a soul
Under the ribs of Death."

“Till an unusual stop of sudden silence," &c.

Explain this and the two following lines :—

From "That even silence," &c. down to "still to be so displaced."

a

Explain this passage fully.

Explain the expression "that might create a soul under the ribs of Death." Whence is the image of the ribs of death derived? Give any instances of the like image that may occur to you.

Explain the expressions "by then," "dew-besprent," "Till fancy had her fill," "but ere a close the wonted roar was up amidst the woods." Whose was the wonted roar?

2. "Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy
In scepter'd pall come sweeping by,
Presenting Thebes or Pelops' line
Or the tale of Troy divine;
Or what (though rare) of later age
Ennobled hath the buskin'd stage."

What is the meaning of "sceptered pall"? and why is Tragedy represented as so arrayed?

Why is the tragic termed "the buskined" stage?

What are the principal tragedies which present the line of Thebes-or that of Pelops? or the tale of Troy? and who were the authors of those tragedies?

3. "Thus saying from her side the fatal key,
Sad instrument of all our woe, she took;
And towards the gate rolling her bestial train,
Forthwith the huge portcullis high up drew

on a sudden open fly,

With impetuous recoil and jarring sound,
The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate

Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook
Of Erebus-she opened, but to shut
Excelled her power."

What is meant by "her bestial train"?

State the allegorical meaning of this passage, and in particular of the words "she opened, but to shut excelled her power."

What is there unusual in the manner in which the word

66 grate" is here used?

4. "That stone, or like to that which here below
Philosophers in vain so long have sought,

In vain, though by their powerful art they bind
Volatile Hermes, and call up unbound

In various shapes old Proteus from the sea,
Drained through a limbec to his native form."

To what study do the two first lines allude? to what science the four last? and what is personified by "Volatile Hermes ?"

Pope.

5. "Peace to all such! but were there one whose fires

True genius kindles, and fair fame inspires;
Blest with each talent, and each art to please,
And born to write, converse, and live with ease:
Should such a man, too fond to live alone,
Bear like the Turk, no brother near the throne,
View him with scornful, yet with jealous eyes,
And hate for arts that caused himself to rise;
Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer;
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
Just hint a fault and hesitate dislike;
Alike reserved to blame, or to commend,
A timorous foe, and a suspicious friend;
Dreading e'en fools, by flatterers besieged,
And so obliging that he ne'er obliged;
Like Cato give his little Senate laws
And sit attention to his own applause;
While wits and templars every sentence raise
And wonder with a foolish face of praise.
Who but must laugh, if such a man there be

Who would not weep if Atticus were he !"

Which of Pope's contemporaries is here satirized under the name of Atticus? What was the immediate cause of disagreement between him and Pope?

Explain the following lines :

"Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And without sneering teach the rest to sneer;
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike.

And so obliging, that he ne'er obliged.

Whilst wits and templars every sentence raise
And wonder with a foolish face of praise."

Who were the templars? and why so called?

Explain also the two last lines, and the force of "weep" in the second as contrasted with "laugh" in the first.

6. "Not fortune's worshipper, nor fashion's fool,
Not lucre's madman, nor ambition's tool,

Not proud, nor servile; be one poet's praise
That if he pleased, he pleased by manly ways."

Paraphrase these four lines in prose, and explain their grammatical construction.

7. "Relentless walls! whose darksome round contains

Repentant sighs, and voluntary pains:

Ye rugged rocks! which holy knees have worn;
Ye grots and caverns shagged with horrid thorn!”

What are the walls here referred to? why are they termed "relentless"—and why said to contain "repentant sighs" and 66 voluntary pains."

Explain the expression "shagged with horrid thorn.”—In what sense is the word "horrid" here used?

8. "Whate'er the talents, or howe'er designed,
We hang one jingling padlock on the mind:
A poet the first day, he dips his quill;
And what the last? a very poet still.
Pity the charm works only in our wall,
Lost, lost too soon in yonder house or hall-

There truant Windham every muse gave o'er,
There Talbot sunk, and was a wit no more!
How sweet an Ovid, Murray was our boast!
How many Martials were in Pulteney lost!"

What system of education is here satirized? and why is it said to hang "a jingling padlock on the mind"? What places are signified by 'yonder house' and 'hall'? Who were 'Windham,' 'Talbot,' 'Murray' and Pulteney'? Was it in "house" or "hall" or in both that each was distinguished?

Bacon.

Prose.

9. Bacon after stating that the greatest error of learned men is the mistaking or misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge; and specifying particular forms of that error, says―

"As if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for profit or sale; and not a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate."

State what particular form of error each of the above metaphors, viz. the couch-the terrace-the tower of statethe fort and the shop-is meant to illustrate; and what according to Lord Bacon is the true and highest end of knowledge?

10. What three kinds of learning does Bacon term "the distempers of learning," and what class of writers or age does he instance as peculiarly subject to each distemper?

11. Who does Bacon define "philosophia prima" or "universal philosophy"?

12. How does he divide natural philosophy? and how does he define the two sub-divisions of it which he terms "physic" and "metaphysic"?