ENGLISH 303 TEST: DUE FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31
You have three sections here. The first two have three questions, the last
has four. Please answer these, providing specific details and features and
themes we have discussed in class. You should be able to do this in fifty
words, but it is fine to go over. In fact, it is encouraged.
Note also that you have one optional question which you can use as a
substitute if one of the questions in the sets gives you trouble.
1.
The CRǼFT of the poet.
A.
This poet promises to tell his story
Anew
As it was fashioned featly
In tale of derring-do,
And linked in measures meetly
By letters tried and true.
This short little coda comes at the end of longer stanzas made up of lines
like “Then you were ware, as they went, of the whistling of arrows.” What
distinguishes this line? What is the shorter unit at the end of each stanza
called? What is the effect of such formal elements?
B. This poet, who is serving as a narrator, explains that he must tell
Everich a word, if it be in his charge,
Al speke he nevere so rudeliche and large,
Or elles he moot elle his tale untrewe.
Every single word, if it is his obligation,
Although he speaks ever so much like rudely and freely,
Or else he is bound to tell his tale untruly.
Earlier he begs the reader not to mark the subject matter or the language up
to “my vilainye.” What does “vilainye” or “villainy” refer to here? Consider
the difference between the “reverdie” to spring and the way the Wife of Bath
talks. Why is the poet afraid of being accused of “villainy”? And please
note that this word does not mean what it does in Present Day English.
C. This poet speaks of “a thane of the king’s household” who is “a
traditional singer deeply schooled in the lore of the past” and who knows how
to link “a new theme to a strict meter” and to tell stories “in wellfashioned lines, entwining his words.”
What is the poet telling us about himself?
culture?
What is this poet called in his
Elsewhere in the poem a king is addressed as
O king of the Bright-Danes,
dear prince of the Shieldings, friend of the people
and their ring of defense.
Later the same king is called “the gray-haired warrior” and “the old lord.”
One other example:
Right away the mast was rigged with its sea-shawl;
Sail-ropes were tightened, timbers drummed
And stiff winds kept the wave-crosser
Skimming ahead; as she heaved forward,
Her foamy neck was fleet and buoyant,
A lapped prow loping over currents,
Until the Geats caught sight of the coastline
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And familiar cliffs. The keel reared up,
Wind lifted it home, it hit on the land.
What technique is being employed in the description of the king and to what
effect? What point is the poet making about him in a very subtle way? What
sort of language or device is the poet employing in his description of the
ship? How does he display his skill or CRǼFT?
2. CRAFT OF THE POET: HORIZONS
By “horizons” here I am referring to various perspectives we’ve encountered
of characters and events. All of these works are looking forward, beyond
their own times, the situation of characters and beyond the words on the
page. Where do we look when we learn to read them as they were intended to be
read? Where is our “horizon”?
A. This character examines a sword hilt, “that relic of old times.” It is
“engraved all over” with “rune-markings” that record “for whom the sword had
been first made and ornamented with its scrollworked hilt.” The character
breaks out with a sermon on worldly pride and tries to give advice to another
character who is much younger. He is one who has “wintered into wisdom.”
This meditation on the hilt looks in what directions in terms of time? The
poem in which we find this passage ends with the lament of a woman over a
funeral pyre. How are we, as readers, meditating on a “relic of old times”
and with this ending in what direction/s does this “relic” focus our vision?
B.
Now wol I saye you sooth, by Saint Thomas,
Why that I rente out of his book a leef,
For which he smot me so that I was deef,
He had a book that gladly night and day
For his disport he wolde rede alway.
He cleped it Valerie and Theofraste
.
.
.
.
By God, if wommen hadden writen stories
As clerkes han within hir oratories,
They wolde han writen of men more wikkednesse
Than al the merk of Adam may redresse.
Now I am going to tell you the truth, by Saint Thomas
Why I rent a page out of his book
Because of which he smote me so hard that I was deaf,
He had a book that he would gladly always read night and day for
his pleasure. He called it Valerie and Theofraste.
By God, if women had written stories
Like the ones clerks have written in their cells,
They would have written more wickedness about men
That all the mark of Adam could redress.
This woman is very open about her sexuality and doesn’t think much of clerks
like Jerome. Who is she? Who is speaking these lines? What is in the book
she attacks? What is she seeking liberation from? How would someone in the
Middle Ages view her? How do you think the poet views her? What is he
attempting to do in his portrayal of this character? Finally, how does she
look forward to our own times? Does she still speak to us?
c. This poet stops telling his story to describe a PENTANGLE. It is “a sign
by Solomon sagely devised/To be a token of truth,” and is “a figure formed of
five points,/And each line is linked and locked with the next/For ever and
ever.” Thus, it is called “the endless knot.” How does this “sign” reach
out and connect with a force beyond the story itself? Consider the Vitruvian
Man:
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Can we see the pentangle here? What does this have to do with balance, with
being in harmony with “truth”? How is this story all about “getting in tune
with the straight and narrow”? Isn’t this what we all struggle to do? To
get in tune? How does the main character get “in tune” or in balance at the
end of the story? Are you in tune today? Are you yourself today?
3.
Craft of the King/Warrior
a. HROTHGAR answered, helmet of Scyldings:—
“I knew him of yore in his youthful days;
his aged father was Ecgtheow named,
to whom, at home, gave Hrethel the Geat
his only daughter. Their offspring bold
fares hither to seek the steadfast friend.
And seamen, too, have said me this, —
who carried my gifts to the Geatish court,
thither for thanks, — he has thirty men’s
heft of grasp in the gripe of his hand,
the bold-in-battle. Blessed God
out of his mercy this man hath sent
to Danes of the West, as I ween indeed,
against horror of Grendel. I hope to give
the good youth gold for his gallant thought.
Be thou in haste, and bid them hither,
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clan of kinsmen, to come before me;
and add this word, — they are welcome guests
to folk of the Danes.”
What qualities of kingship is Hrothgar here showing? What are the requirements for
being a leader at this time?
b. HROTHGAR spake, helmet-of-Scyldings:—
“Ask not of pleasure! Pain is renewed
to Danish folk. Dead is Aeschere,
of Yrmenlaf the elder brother,
my sage adviser and stay in council,
shoulder-comrade in stress of fight
when warriors clashed and we warded our heads,
hewed the helm-boars; hero famed
should be every earl as Aeschere was!
What has happened to Aeschere? Note that the same description of Hrothgar is used here
that we have just above: helmet of Scyldings. What is significant about this appositive?
How is the poet working to provide us with a complex portrait of this older king? What
has Hrothgar lost? Is he still the “helmet” of his people”?
c. “Sorrow not, sage! It beseems us better
friends to avenge than fruitlessly mourn them.
Each of us all must his end abide
in the ways of the world; so win who may
glory ere death! When his days are told,
that is the warrior’s worthiest doom.
Rise, O realm-warder! Ride we anon,
and mark the trail of the mother of Grendel.
No harbor shall hide her — heed my promise! —
enfolding of field or forested mountain
or floor of the flood, let her flee where she will!
But thou this day endure in patience,
as I ween thou wilt, thy woes each one.”
Leaped up the graybeard: God he thanked,
mighty Lord, for the man’s brave words.
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For Hrothgar soon a horse was saddled
wave-maned steed. The sovran wise
stately rode on; his shield-armed men
followed in force.
Who speaks these words? What is their effect? What does the relationship between this
character and the king say about the bonds between warrior and king?
d. This character just isn’t himself lately, that’s according to the latest report from
Bertilak’s castle and the area around the Green Chapel. He seems to have some trouble
with the requirements of being a knight. Explain. How is his story all about identity?
The problem of being who you are supposed to be?
OPTION: You may substitute for one of the questions above with this one:
PLEASE DESCRIBE THE TRAJECTORY OF ENGLISH THROUGH THE OLD ENGLISH
PERIOD, THE NORMAN CONQUEST, AND UP TO THE 14TH CENTURY. WHAT IS
HAPPENING TO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN REGARD TO STATUS? WHAT IS
TRANSLATIO IMPERII AND STUDII?
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