ENG208.002 – Survey of British Literature: Beginnings to 1789
Prof. Eileen Joy
Fall 2003
MID-TERM EXAM: Wednesday, October 8th
** STUDY VERSION ** STUDY VERSION ** STUDY VERSION ** STUDY VERSION **
| PART I. IDENTIFICATION/CONTEXT (60 points) |
Six of the following twelve passages will appear on the exam. Your analysis of each should include the following: (a) title and author of the work; (b) context (speaker? addressee? situation? etc.); (c) overall significance of the passage to the larger work. For extra points, you might also point out the passage's larger cultural significance. (You should write one detailed analytical paragraph on each passage. You will be penalized if you neglect to respond with full, complete sentences.)
E X A M P L E:
" . . . . No need then
to lament for long or lay out my body:
if the battle takes me, send back
the breast-webbing that Weland fashioned
and Hrethel gave to me, to Lord Hygelac.
Fate goes as ever fate must."
ONE POSSIBLE ANSWER: The quotation is from Old English long poem Beowulf, and it is actually Beowulf himself speaking to Hrothgar, in an early part of the story, when Beowulf and his men first arrive in Heorot, Hrothgar's great hall. More specifically, Beowulf is explaining how he is going to fight Grendel in hand-to-hand combat, and if he doesn't win, Hrothgar doesn't have to give him a big funeral, but instead, should just send his armor back to his liege lord, Hygelac. By saying, "Fate goes as ever fate must," Beowulf is commenting upon the pagan concept of "wyrd," or fate, which plays a big role in the heroic world of the poem, and he is also showing his bravery and courage. He's not worried about death (or where he's going after death) as much as he is worried about his reputation and how people will remember him after he's gone, which he believes will be based on his heroic deeds and strength as a warrior. Therefore, this passage expresses the heroic code that is so important throughout the poem: life is short, you never know when death's coming to get you, and actions always speak louder than words. Given the fact that the poem was probably written in the tenth century, most likely in a monastery, and that there are many places in the poem where Beowulf also seems to express a faith in what sounds like a Christian God, there is obviously a tension in the poem between the Christian world-view of its author and the pagan world-view of its fifth to sixth-century south Scandinavian characters. [This last sentence comments on the larger cultural significance which, as you should note above, is not necessary for getting all the points on this part of the exam, although your professor will certainly look favorably on it, and you might need the extra points.]
(1)
" . . . . he had dwelt for a time
in misery among the banished monsters,
Cain's clan, whom the Creator had outlawed
a condemned as outcasts."
(2)
"Wise sir, do not grieve. It is always better
to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning.
For every one of us, living in this world
means waiting for our end. Let whoever can
win glory before death. When a warrior is gone,
that will be his best and only bulwark."
(3)
"For a brief while your strength is in bloom
but it fades quickly; and soon there will follow
illness or the sword to lay you low,
or a sudden fire or a surge of water
or jabbing blade or javelin from the air
or repellent age."
(4)
"Nay, to fight, in good faith, is far from my thought;
There are about on these benches but beardless children,
Were I here in full arms on a haughty steed,
For measured against mine, their might is puny."
(5)
". . . . it seems a great wonder--
A man so well-meaning, and mannerly disposed,
And cannot act in company as courtesy bids,
And if one takes the trouble to teach him, 'tis all in vain."
(6)
"True men pay what they owe;
No danger then in sight.
You failed at the third throw,
So take my tap, sir knight."
(7)
"Men may divine and glosen up and down,
But wel I woot, expres, withouten lie,
God bad us for to wexe and multiplye:
That gentil text can I wel understonde."
(8)
"Crist wol we claime of him oure gentilesse,
Nat of oure eldres for hir 'old richesse.'
Fir though they yive us al hir heritage,
For which we claime to been of heigh parage,
Yit may they nat biquethe for no thing
To noon of us hir vertuous living . . . ."
(9)
". . . . he will take this love for a stair, as it were, to climb up to another far higher than it. The which he shall bring to pass, if he will go and consider with himself what a strait bond it is to be always in the trouble to behold the beauty of one body alone. . . . And thus shall he behold no more the particular beauty of one woman, but an universal, that decketh out all bodies."
(10)
It is most true, what we call Cupid’s dart
An image is, which for ourselves we carve;
And, fools, adore in temple of our heart,
Til that good god make church and churchmen starve.
True, that true beauty virtue is indeed,
Whereof this beauty can be but a shade,
Which elements with mortal mixture breed;
True, that on earth we are but pilgrims made,
And should in soul up to our country move:
True, and yet true that I must Stella love.
(11)
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
(12)
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow upon her head;
. . . .
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
| PART II. SHORT ANSWER TERMINOLOGY (40 points) |
Eight of the following twelve terms will appear on the exam. Define each briefly, using complete sentences (you might consider using an example from a text we have read to clarify your definition—IN FACT, I would strongly recommend it—but an example alone will not stand as a definition).