English Department Comprehensive Examination
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ENGLISH DEPARTMENT COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION This copy of the Examination MUST BE RETURNED with the Blue Books. NAME: _____________________________________________________________ PLEDGE: ___________________________________________________________ The Examination should be written in FOUR separate Blue Books: Book 1: Sections I and II Book 2: Section III, Parts A, B, C, and D only Book 3: Section III, Parts E, F, G, and H only Book 4: Sections IV and V DO NOT REMOVE THIS EXAMINATION FROM THE EXAMINATION ROOM. I. Identify or define briefly any TEN of the following. (10 minutes) A. epiphany B. gothic novel C. First Folio D. Fugitive Movement E. iambic pentameter F. mock epic G. parataxis H. picaresque I. epistolary novel J. mimicry K. Sir Gawain L. Philomela M. Colley Cibber N. Patroclos O. Restoration Period P. James Boswell Q. carpe diem R. Paolo and Francesca S. stream of consciousness T. villanelle U. dramatic irony V. pathetic fallacy W. Blackfriars X. The Great Vowel Shift Y. pastoral elegy Z. mystery play II. Comment fully on any FIVE of the following passages, giving the author’s name and full title of the work, discussing any notable features of diction or poetic device, and showing how the passage in question contributes to an understanding of the whole work from which it is taken. (50 minutes) A. Grieve not, wise king! Better it is for every man to avenge his friend than mourn overmuch. Each of us must come to the end of his life: let him who may win fame before death. That is the best memorial for a man after he is gone. B. Lo, he that leet hymselven so konnynge, And scorned hem that Loves peynes dryen, Was ful unwar that Love hadde his dwellynge Withinne the subtile* stremes of hire yen**; * delicate / **eyes That sodeynly hym thoughte he felte dyen, Right with hire look, the spirit in his herte: Blissed be Love, that kan thus folk converte! C. Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind, But as for me, helas! I may no more. The vain travail hath wearied me so sore, I am of them that furthest cometh behind. Yet may I by no means my wearied mind Draw from the deer; but as she fleeth afore, Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore, Since in a net I seek to hold the wind. Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt, As well as I may spend his time in vain: And graven in diamonds, in letters plain There is written her fair neck round about: ‘Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am, And wild to hold, though I seem tame.’ D. If we say that we have no sin, We deceive ourselves, and there’s no truth in us. Why then belike we must sin, And so consequently die. Ay, we must die an everlasting death. What doctrine call you this? Che serà, sera, “What will be, shall be?” Divinity, adieu! E. Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. F. Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices, That if I then had wak’d after long sleep, Will make me sleep again, and then in dreaming, The clouds methought would open, and show riches Ready to drop upon me, that when I wak’d, I cried to dream again. G. Busy old fool, unruly Sun, Why dost thou thus, Through windows, and through curtains, call on us? Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run? Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide Late school-boys and sour prentices, Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride, Call country ants to harvest offices; Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime, Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time. H. …[T]ime may come when men With Angels may participate, and find No inconvenient Diet, nor too light Fare: And from these corporal nutriments perhaps Your bodies may at last turn all to Spirit, Improved by tract of time, and winged ascend Ethereal, as wee, or may at choice Here or in Heav’nly Paradises dwell; If ye be found obedient, and retain (cont’d. on next page) Unalterably firm his love entire Whose progeny you are. Meanwhile enjoy Your fill what happiness this happy state Can comprehend, incapable of more. I. I can remember the time when I used to sleep quietly without workings in my thoughts, whole nights together, but now it is other ways with me. When all are fast about me, and no eye open, but His who ever waketh, my thoughts are upon things past, upon the awful dispensation of the Lord towards us, upon His wonderful power and might, in carrying of us through so many difficulties, in returning us in safety, and suffering none to hurt us. J. See the poor Remnants of these slighted Hairs! My hands shall rend what ev'n thy Rapine spares: These, in two sable Ringlets taught to break, Once gave new Beauties to the snowie Neck. The Sister-Lock now sits uncouth, alone, And in its Fellow's Fate foresees its own; Uncurl'd it hangs, the fatal Sheers demands; And tempts once more thy sacrilegious Hands. Oh hadst thou, Cruel! been content to seize Hairs less in sight, or any Hairs but these! K. Thus all these little Difficulties were made easy, and we liv’d together with the greatest Kindness and Comfort imaginable; we are now grown Old: I am come back to England, being almost seventy Years of Age, my Husband sixty eight, having perform’d much more than the limited Terms of my Transportation: And now notwithstanding all the Fatigues, and all the Miseries we have both gone thro’, we are both in good Heart and Health; my Husband remain’d there sometime after me to settle our Affairs, and at first I had intended to go back to him, but at his desire I alter’d that Resolution, and he is come over to England also, where we resolve to spend the Remainder of our Years in sincere Penitence, for the wicked Lives we have lived. L. The ancient poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged and numerous senses could perceive. And particularly they studied the Genius of each city and country, placing it under its mental deity. Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of and enslaved the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects. Thus began Priesthood. Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales. And at length they pronounced that the Gods had ordered such things. Thus men forgot that all deities reside in the human breast. M. Darkling I listen; and for many a time I have been half in love with easeful Death, Call’d him soft names in many a mused rhyme, To take into the air my quiet breath; Now more than ever seems it rich to die, To cease upon the midnight with no pain, While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad In such an ecstasy! Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain— To thy high requiem become a sod. N. “It is a poor conclusion, is it not,” he observed, having brooded a while on the scene he had just witnessed. “An absurd termination to my violent exertions? I get levers and mattocks to demolish the two houses, and train myself to be capable of working like Hercules, and when everything is ready, and in my power, I find the will to lift a slate off either roof has vanished! My old enemies have not beaten me—now would be the precise time to revenge myself on their representatives—I could do it; and none could hinder me—But where is the use? I don’t care for striking, I can’t take the trouble to raise my hand! That sounds as if I had been labouring the whole time, only to exhibit a fine trait of magnanimity. It is far from being the case—I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing. O. “All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event—in the living act, the undoubted deed—there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall?” P. For rigorous teachers seized my youth, And purged its faith, and trimmed its fire, Showed me the high, white star of Truth, There bade me gaze, and there aspire. Even now their whispers pierce the gloom: What dost thou in this living tomb? Forgive me, masters of the mind! At whose behest I long ago So much unlearnt, so much resigned — I come not here to be your foe! I seek these anchorites, not in ruth, To curse and to deny your truth; Not as their friend, or child, I speak! But as, on some far northern strand, (cont’d.