In his deportment, shape, and mien, appear'd
Elysian beauty, melancholy grace,

Brought from a pensive though a happy place.

He spake of love, such love as spirits feel
In worlds whose course is equable and pure;
No fears to beat away - no strife to heal -
The past unsighed for, and the future sure;
Spake of heroic arts in graver mood
Revived, with finer harmony pursued,

Of all that is most beauteous

imaged there

In happier beauty, more pellucid streams,

An ampler ether, a diviner air,

And fields invested with purpureal gleams,

Climes which the sun, who sheds the brightest day
Earth knows, is all unworthy to survey.

Yet there the soul shall enter which hath earned

That privilege by virtue." Ill," said he,
"The end of man's existence I discerned,
Who from ignoble games and revelry

Could draw, when we had parted, vain delight,
While tears were thy best pastime, day and night,

"And while my youthful peers, before my eyes,
(Each hero following his peculiar bent)
Prepared themselves for glorious enterprise
By martial sports, or, seated in the tent,
Chieftains and kings in council were detained,
What time the fleet at Aulis lay enchained.

"The wished-for wind was given : I then revolved
The oracle upon the silent sea;

That of a thousand vessels, mine should be
The foremost prow in pressing to the strand,
Mine the first blood that tinged the Trojan sand.

"Yet bitter, ofttimes bitter, was the pang When of thy loss I thought, beloved wife ; On thee too fondly did my memory hang,

And on the joys we shared in mortal life,

The paths which we had trod - these fountains, flowers; My new-planned cities, and unfinished towers.

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130

"But should suspense permit the soul to cry,

'Behold, they tremble ! — haughty their array,

Yet of their number no one dares to die'?
In soul I swept the indignity away:

135

Old frailties then recurred: - but lofty thought,
In act embodied, my deliverance wrought.

"And thou, though strong in love, art all too weak In reason, in self-government too slow;

140

I counsel thee by fortitude to seek

Our blest reunion in the shades below.

The invisible world with thee hath sympathized;
Be thy affections raised and solemnized.

"Learn by a mortal yearning to ascend
Seeking a higher object: - Love was given,
Encouraged, sanctioned, chiefly for that end.
For this the passion to excess was driven —
That self might be annulled; her bondage prove
The fetters of a dream, opposed to love."

Aloud she shrieked!

for Hermes reappears!

Round the dear shade she would have clung - 'tis vain :
The hours are past, too brief had they been years;

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150

And him no mortal effort can detain :

Swift, toward the realms that know not earthly day
He through the portal takes his silent way,
And on the palace floor a lifeless corse she lay.

Thus, all in vain exhorted and reproved,
She perished; and, as for a willful crime
By the just gods whom no weak pity moved,
Was doomed to wear out her appointed time,
Apart from happy ghosts, that gather flowers
Of blissful quiet 'mid unfading bowers.

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160

Yet tears to human suffering are due;
And mortal hopes defeated and o'erthrown
Are mourned by man, and not by man alone,
As fondly he believes. Upon the side
Of Hellespont (such faith was entertained)
A knot of spiry trees for ages grew

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From out the tomb of him for whom she died;
And ever, when such stature they had gained
That Ilium's walls were subject to their view,
The trees' tall summits withered at the sight –
A constant interchange of growth and blight!

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CHAPTER XXIV

MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE

I. MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS

THE following topics are intended to be used for examination and review questions; also as subjects for essays, discussions, and familiar talks.1

I. Mention and describe three English literary productions previous to the time of Chaucer.

2. When did Chaucer live? Name his greatest work, and give an analysis of its plan.

3. Sketch briefly the plan of the Canterbury Tales. What eminent literary men were living in England at the time of Chaucer?

4. Give a brief outline of the rise and progress of the English drama previous to Shakspeare.

5. Tell the chief facts in the life of Shakespeare. Name ten of his dramas.

6. Give a brief account of the development of the drama, from its most primitive form to the time of Shakespeare.

7. Name three great writers of the age of Queen Elizabeth; also one of the leading works of each.

8. Of whom was it said, "The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind," and who said it?

9. Mention three leading works of the author of the above quotation. 10. Name the novelists and historians of Dr. Johnson's time, with their works.

1 For a most complete series of review questions on English and American literature, see Stopford Brooke's "Primer of English Literature," pp. 221-240.

II. Give an account of Goldsmith and his works, particularly The Deserted Village.

12. Peculiarities of Cowper as a man and a writer.

13. Name the principal writers contemporary with Scott, and their works. 14. Name the author of each of the following works, and mention another work by each author: Areopagitica, Annus Mirabilis, The Tale of a Tub, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, Lay of the Last Minstrel, Rasselas, Essays of Elia, Sketch Book, Marble Faun, American Flag, Evangeline, Biglow Papers, The Task, The Rivals, Tam O'Shanter, Marmion, The Giaour.

15. Quote from each of the following works, naming the authors: Deserted Village, Essay on Man, Bard, Lady of the Lake.

16. When, and by whom, were the following books written: Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, Pickwick Papers, Faery Queen, In Memoriam?

17. Quote a passage from each of the following works, name the author, point out some of his characteristics as a writer, and tell how this work ranks among the author's other writings: Lady of the Lake, Locksley Hall, We are Seven, Elegy in a Country Churchyard.

18. Mention three additional works by the author of Marmion, and two by the author of The Giaour.

19. Who were the great literary impostors of the latter half of the eighteenth century?

20. Give an account of the life of the greatest Scotch poet, and mention two of his poems.

21. Who were the so-called "Lake School" poets? Mention an important poem by each.

22. Mention three leading English historians and two American historians of the nineteenth century; also the leading work of each.

23. Mention five modern English novelists, also one novel written by each. 24. It is said that Goldsmith might with propriety be called a novelist, a poet, and an historian. Mention a work written by him in each of these departments.

25. Mention the five first great English novelists; name one work of each. 26. Name the three historical writers of the eighteenth century, the leading work of each, and the defects of these historians.

27. Give a brief account of Coleridge's life. Quote from his works.

28. State fully the incidents and peculiarities of style of The Ancient Mariner.

29. Give your own impressions of the poetry of Scott, as compared with that of other poets of about the same period.