Upkars Ugc Net PDF

UPKAR'S UGC NET/JRF/SET ENGLISH
(Paper - II & III)
By
DR. B. B. JAIN
M. A., Ph. D.
(Retd.) Professor and Head
Department of English Studies and Research
Agra College, Agra
Price: Rs. 199. 00
(Rs. One Hundred Ninety Nine Only)
Printed at: UPKAR PRAKASHAN (Printing Unit) Bye-pass, AGRA
PREFACE
This book has been specially written for the candidates preparing for the UGC-NET/JRF/SET and
other competitive examinations of the same level. It covers the latest revised and updated syllabus and
pattern of papers prescribed by the UGC for Paper-II and Paper-III for the above noted examinations. The
Book consists of two parts. Part-I deals with Paper-II and Part-II with Paper-III. Though there is not
much change in the syllabus, the structures of the Papers, specially of Paper-III, have been completely
changed. The new structures will come into force with effect from the ensuing examination. As such the
candidates preparing for this examination on the old patterns of the papers may come to disappointment.
This book has been prepared strictly according to the new structures of the papers.
Part-I: This part covering Paper-II covers all the Literary Ages in the History of English Literature in the
Objective Questions-Form from the Pre-Chaucerian Age to the Modern Age, together with the American,
Indo-Anglian and Greek, Latin and other non-British English Literature of European countries. It also has
two chapters on Literary Theory and Criticism and Rhetoric and Prosody in the Objective Questions-form
as required by the UGC. All types of Objective Questions, such as Multiple-Choice Questions, True or
False Type, Matching-Type and Assertion-Reasoning Type Questions have been given in each chapter of
the book. Answers to all the questions have been given at the end of each chapter.
A special feature of this part of the book, which makes it distinct from other books written within
the same parameters, is that in it each Literary Age has been introduced with a brief but highly
informative survey of the Age together with its broad features, its important historical and literary events
and a genre-wise complete list of the important authors and their works. Thus this part is both a
Chronological as well as an Objective-Type History of English Literature at the same time.
Part-II: Covering Paper-III
The New Structure of the Paper
The Paper is divided into four Sections:
Section I: Comprehension of a given Passage
Under this Section a passage in Prose or Poetry will be given and 5 Questions of 5 marks each will be
asked on the given passage. The candidate will be required to answer each question in upto 30 words
each. Thus this Section will carry 5 x 5 = 25 marks.
Section II: Very Short Questions and Answers

Under this Section 15 Questions of definitional or informative type will be asked. Each question will
carry 5 marks. There will be no internal choice, and the candidate will be required to answer all the 15
Questions, each question in upto 30 words. Thus, this Section will carry 15 x 5 = 75 marks. In this book
140 such questions and their answers, covering the entire history of English Literature, have been given.
Section III: Elective/Specialization Choice
There are five Elective/Specialization choices proposed under this Section, and the candidate is free to
choose any one of them. The most popular choice (Elective V) prescribed in the syllabi of practically all
the universities is one on Literary Theory and Criticism. Therefore this Elective choice has been
thoroughly dealt with in this book from the Elizabethan Age to the present day in the chronological order.
More than ninety such questions and their answers have been given in this book. The candidate will be
required to attempt only 5 Questions, each carrying 12 marks. Each question will be required to be
answered in upto 200 words. There will be no internal choice. Thus, this Section will carry 5 x 12 = 60
marks.
Section IV: Essay-Writing
Under this Section the candidate will be required to write an essay on any one literary topic in upto 1000
words. Internal choice will be provided in this Section. The Essay will carry 40 marks. Thirty Full-
length Essays have been given in this book.
Two Model Papers have been given at the end of the book.
I am confident that this book will meet all the requirements of the candidates according to the latest
syllabus and structure of the Paper.
—Dr. B. B. Jain
CONTENTS
- Previous Year's Solved Paper
Part-I : Paper-II
Chapter 1: The Period upto Chaucer.
— The Age at a Glance 2

— Important Events of the Age 3
— Major Authors of the Age 4
— Important Works of the Major Authors 4
— Multiple-Choice Questions 6
— True or False Type Questions 9
— Type Questions 10
— Assertion-Reasoning Type Questions 10
— Answers 11
Chapter 2: The Age of Shakespeare.

— Matching-Type Questions 21
— Answers 22
Chapter 3: Jacobean to Restoration Period.
— The Period at a Glance 23

— Important Events of the Period 23
— Major Authors of the Period 24
— Works of the Major Authors 24
— -Reasoning Type Questions 31
— Answers 32
Chapter 4: The Augustan Age.

— Answers 45
Chapter 5: The Romantic Period.
— The Age at a Glance, 46

— Answers 58
Chapter 6: The Victorian Period.

— Answers 72
Chapter 7: The Modern Age.

— Answers 87
Chapter 8: American, Indo-Anglian and Other Non-British Literatures
(1) American Literature 88

— Answers 92
(2) Indo-Anglian Literature 92
— Answers 95
(3) Greek, Latin and Other Non-British Literatures 96
— Answers 98
Chapter 9: Literary Theory and Criticism.
Multiple-Choice Questions 99
Matching-Type Questions 102
Answers 103
Chapter 10: Rhetoric and Prosody.

— Answers 106
- Now Test Yourself 107-132
Test Paper 1 107

Test Paper 2 112
Test Paper 3 117
Test Paper 4 122
Test Paper 5 128
Part-II: Paper-III
Section I: Comprehension of Prose and Poetry Passages
Prose Passages
Passage 1 3
Passage 2 4
Passage 3 5
Passage 4 6
Passage 5 7
Passage 6 8
Passage 7 9
Passage 8 10
Passage 9 11
Passage 10 13
Poetry Passages
Passage 11 14
Passage 12 15
Passage 13 16
Passage 14 17
Passage 15 18
Passage 16 19
Passage 17 20
Passage 18 21
Passage 19 22
Passage 20 23
Prose and Poetry Passages for Practice
Prose Passages from 1 to 15 25-40

Poetry Passages from 16 to 30 40-54
Section II: Short Questions and Answers
1. What is Renaissance? 55
2. What is Reformation? 55
3. What is Humanism? 55
4. Why are the Poets called ‘Votes’? 55
5. What is the significance of Lang land's The Vision of Piers the Plowman? 55
6. What is Tottel's Miscellany? 55
7. How does Sidney defend Poetry? 55
8. What is Arnold's view of the Future of Poetry? 55
9. What is Wordsworth's Definition of Poetry? 55
10. What is Arnold's view of Morality in Poetry? 56
11. What is meant by Keats's concept of 'Negative Capability'? 56
12. On what grounds does Shelley call the Poets 'Unacknowledged Legislators
of the World’? 56
13. What is meant by 'Poetic Justice’? 56
14. What is meant by 'Poetic Licence’? 56
15. What is an Epic? 56
16. Define an Epic 56
17. What is a Mock Epic? 56
18. What is a Sonnet? 56
19. What is an Ode? 56
20. What is a Pindaric Ode? 56
21. What is a Lyric? 57
22. What is an Idyll? 57
23. What is a Pastoral? 57
24. What is an Elegy? 57
25. What is a Pastoral Elegy? 57
26. What is a Ballad? 57
27. What is Satire? 57
28. What is Drama? 57
29. What is a Miracle Play? 57
30. What is a Mystery Play? 57
31. What is a Morality Play? 57
32. What is an Interlude? 58
33. What is a Tragedy? 58
34. Give Aristotle's Definition of Tragedy 58
35. What is meant by Catharsis? 58
36. What is meant by Hamartia? 58
37. What is meant by Peripeteia? 58
38. What is meant by Catastrophe? 58
39. What is meant by Recognition in a Tragedy? 58
40. What is meant by Soliloquy? 58
41. What is a Melodrama? 58
42. What is a Tragi-Comedy? 58
43. What is meant by Denouement? 58
44. What is a Comedy? 59
45. What is a Romantic Comedy? 59
46. What is a Comedy of Humours? 59
47. What is a Comedy of Manners or Restoration Comedy? 59
48. What is a Sentimental Comedy? 59
49. What is a Farce? 59
50. What is a Masque? 59
51. What is a Poetic Play? 59
52. What is a Chronicle or Historical Play? 59
53. What is a Dramatic Monologue? 59
54. What is a Problem Play? 59
55. What is a One-Act Play? 59
56. Give the Definition of an Essay 60
57. What is a Personal Essay? 60
58. What is an Aphoristic Essay? 60
59. What is a Periodical Essay? 60
60. What is a Novel? 60
61. What is a Prose-Romance? 60
62. What is a Travelogue? 60
63. What is a Gothic Novel or Terror Novel? 60
64. What is a Picaresque Novel? 60
65. What is an Epistolary Novel? 60
66. What is a Domestic Novel? 60
67. What is a Historical Novel? 61
68. What is a Regional Novel? 61
69. What is a Prophetic Novel? 61
70. What is a Psychological Novel? 61
71. What is a Burlesque? 61
72. What is a Short Story? 61
73. What is a Biography? 61
74. What is an Autobiography? 61
75. What is a Memoir? 61
76. What is Literary Criticism? 61
77. What is Legislative Criticism? 61
78. What is Aesthetic Criticism? 61
79. What is Descriptive or Practical Criticism? 62
80. What is Impressionistic Criticism? 62
81. What is New Criticism? 62
82. Who were the Cavalier Poets 62
83. What is the Metaphysical School of Poetry? 62
84. What is the Graveyard School of Poetry? 62
85. Who were the University Wits? 62
86. Who were the Four Wheels of the Van of the English Novel or the Four
Pillars of the English Novel? 62
87. What is the Pre-Raphaelite School of Poetry? 62
88. What was the Oxford Movement? 62
89. What is Didactic Literature? 62
90. What is Heroic Drama? 63
91. What is a Chorus? 63
92. What was Chaucer's Age? 63
93. What was the Elizabethan Age? 63
94. What was the Jacobean Age? 63
95. What was the Caroline Age? 63
96. What was the Restoration Age? 63
97. What was the Neo-Classical or Augustan Age in English Literature? 63
98. What was Romantic Movement? 63
99. What was the Victorian Age? 63
100. What is Modern Age? 63
101 .What is an Allegory? 64
102 .What is an Ambiguity? 64
103 .What is meant by Anagnorisis? 64
104 .What is meant by Antagonist? 64
105 .Who were called Decadents? 64
106 .What is meant by 'Unification of sensibility'? 64
107. What is meant by Emotive Language? 64
108. What is meant by Euphemism? 64
109. What is meant by Erotic Literature? 64
110. What is meant by Fin de Siecle? 64
111. What is meant by Naturalism? 64
112. What is meant by Objective Correlative? 65
113. What is meant by Satanic School of Poets? 65
114. Which Age is called the Age of Sensibility? 65
115. Who were called Angry Young Men? 65
116. What is a Chorus? 65
117. What is Comic Relief? 65
118. What is didactic Literature? 65
119. What is Heroic Drama? 65
120. What is the Imagist School of Poetry? 65
121. What is Literature of the Absurd? 65
122 .What is meant by Local Colour? 66
123. What is Pantomime or Dumb Show? 66
124. What is meant by Setting? 66
125. What are Stock Characters? 66
126. What are the Three Dramatic Unities? 66
127. What is meant by Aestheticism? 66
128. What is Aphorism? 66
129. What is an Eclogue? 66
130. What is High Comedy? 66
131. Who are called Lake Poets? 66
132. What is an Opera? 67
133. What is a Parable? 67
134. What is a Satiric Comedy? 67
135. What is the distinction between High and Low Comedies? 67
136. What is Judicial Criticism? 67
137. What is Mimetic Criticism? 67
138. What is Pragmatic Criticism? 67
139. What is Expressive Criticism? 67
140. What is Objective Criticism? 67
Section III: Electives/Specializations
Elective V: Literary Theory and Criticism
1. What is Literary Criticism? 71

2. What are the major functions of a good critic? 71
3. What are the essential qualifications of an ideal critic? 72
4. What are the principal Schools of Criticism? 72
5. What is Legislative Criticism? 73
7. What is Historical Criticism? 73
Greek and Roman Critics: Plato, Aristotle, Longinus and Horace
8. Discuss Plato's Theory of Ideas or Mimesis 74

9. On what grounds does Plato condemn Poetry or proposes to banish the Poets
from his ideal Republic? 75
10. Discuss Aristotle's observations on Poetry 75
11. Discuss Aristotle's Definition of Tragedy 75
12. What are the constituent parts of a Tragedy according to Aristotle? 76
13. What are the characteristics of a good Plot according to Aristotle? 76
14. What are the characteristics of the Tragic Hero according to Aristotle? 77
15. What is the relative importance of Plot and Character in a Tragedy according
to Aristotle? 77
16. Which is nobler between Epic and Tragedy according to Aristotle? 77
17. What is meant by Sublimity in Literature according to Longinus? 78
18. What are the Sources of Sublimity in Literature according to Longinus? 78
19. Discuss Horace's observations on Poetry 79
20. Discuss Horace's observations on Drama 79
The Elizabethan Critics: Stephen Gosson, Sir Philip Sidney, Ben Jonson
21. On what grounds does Gosson condemn Poetry and Drama? 80

22. How does Sidney defend Poetry against Gosson's charges? 80
23. How does Sidney establish the superiority of Poetry over all other branches
of learning? 81
24. How does Sidney defend various forms of Poetry? 81
25. Discuss Sidney's views on the use of verse and metre in poetry 81
26. How does Sidney defend the observance of the three Dramatic
Unities as enunciated by the ancients? 82
27. How does Sidney disapprove of the Tragi-Comedy as a form of drama? 82
28. How does Ben Jonson plead for the observance of Classical principles and
practices in drama? 83
29. What qualities, according to Ben Jonson, should a poet possess to be a
great poet? 83
30. Discuss Ben Jonson's attitude towards Classical theories and principles
of literature 84
31. Discuss Ben Jonson's concept of Humours 84
32. Discuss Ben Jonson's observations on good style 85
33. What are the qualifications of an ideal critic according to Ben Jonson? 85
The Neo-Classical Critics: John Dryden, Joseph Addison, Alexander

Pope, Dr. Johnson
34. Discuss Dryden as the Father of English Criticism 86

35. Discuss the plan of Dryden's Essay on Dramatic Poesy 86
36. How does Crites defend the ancient Greek and Roman dramatists? 87
37. How does Lisideius defend the French dramatists? 87
38. How does Eugenius defend the English dramatists of the last age? 88
39. How does Neander (or Dryden himself) defend the English dramatists
and freedom from Classical principles? 88
40. Discuss Dryden's views on the use of rhyme and verse in drama 89
41. What is the true function of poetry according to Dryden? 89
42. What are Dryden's views on Satire? 89
43. What is Addison's approach to Criticism? 90
44. How does Addison differentiate between true wit and false wit? 90
45. Discuss Addison's concept of Imagination? 91
46. Summarise Addison's appraisal of the Paradise Lost 91
47. Discuss Pope as a Critic 91
48. Discuss Pope's concept of Nature 92
49. Discuss Pope's concept of Judgment in Literary Criticism 93
50. Discuss Pope's concept of Wit 93
51. What are the qualifications of an ideal critic according to Pope? 94
52. Discuss Dr. Johnson's Theory of Criticism 94
53. Discuss Dr. Johnson's Historical and Biographical approach to Criticism 95
54. Discuss Dr. Johnson's comments on various forms of poetry 95
55. Discuss Dr. Johnson's comments on drama and its art 95
The Romantic Critics: William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, P. B. Shelley
56. Explain Wordsworth's principles of poetry as enunciated by him in his

Preface to the Lyrical Ballads 96
57. Discuss Wordsworth's definition of Poetry 97
58. Discuss Wordsworth's views on the choice of subjects fit for poetry 97
59. Discuss Wordsworth's views on the language fit for poetry 97
60. Comment on Wordsworth's view that there is no difference between the
language of prose and that of poetry 98
61. On what grounds does Wordsworth disapprove of the use of Poetic
Diction in poetry? 98
62. Comment on Wordsworth's view that Poetry is the breath and finer spirit
of all knowledge 99
63. Discuss Wordsworth's views on the function of poetry 99

64. Discuss Coleridge's Theory of Imagination 100
65. Discuss Coleridge's views on Art 100
66. What is the true spirit of poetry according to Coleridge? 101
67. What is Coleridge's concept of Poetic Genius? 101
68. How does Coleridge refute Wordsworth's concept of poetic language? 102
69. How does Shelley defend Poetry against Love Peacock's charges against it? 102
The Victorian Critics: Matthew Arnold, Waiter Pater
70. What is the true function of literary Criticism according to Matthew Arnold? 103
71. Discuss Arnold's Touchstone Method of Criticism 103
72. Discuss Arnold's views on the role of poetry in moral teaching 104
73. What subjects are fit for poetry according to Matthew Arnold? 104
74. Discuss Matthew Arnold's concept of Grand Style 105
75. Which is higher between creative literature and critical literature according to Arnold?
105
76. Discuss Walter Pater's Theory of Art for Art's Sake 106
77. What are the salient features of good style according to Walter Pater? 106
78. What is the true function of criticism according to Walter Pater? 107
The Critics of the Modern Age: T. S. Eliot, I. A. Richards, F. R. Leavis
79. What is the function of Criticism according to T. S. Eliot? 108

80. What are the qualifications of an ideal critic according to T. S. Eliot? 108
81. What is the meaning of Tradition according to T. S. Eliot? What is the role
of the Individual Talent in it? 108
82. Discuss T. S. Eliot's Impersonal Theory of poetry 109
83. What does T. S. Eliot mean by 'Objective Correlative'? 109
84. Which is superior between creative and critical faculty according to
T. S. Eliot? 110
85. What is T. S. Eliot's view about the Impressionistic Theory of Criticism? 110
86. What is I. A. Richards's concept of Poetry? 110
87. What is I. A. Richard's Theory of Poetic Communication? 111
88. What is the value of poetry according to I. A. Richards? 111
89. What is the importance of literary criticism according to I. A. Richards? 112
90. What is F. R. Leavis's concept of literature and its function? 112
91. What is the true function of criticism according to F. R. Leavis? 113
92. What are the criteria of good literary criticism according to F. R. Leavis? 113
93. Discuss Henry James as a critic 114
94. Write a note on William Empson as a critic 114
95. Write a note on the Moralist critics of the Mid-Twentieth Century? 114
96. Write a note on New Criticism 115
Section IV: Essay-Writing
1. Chaucer as the Father of English Poetry 116

2. The Renaissance 118
3. The Elizabethan Age 120
4. The University Wits 122
5. Shakespeare's Conception of Tragedy 124
6. Shakespeare's Conception of Comedy 126
7. Shakespeare's Historical Plays 128
8. Shakespeare's Dramatic Romances 130
9. The Comedy of Humours 132
10. The Sonnets of Milton 134
11. The Metaphysical School of Poets 137
12. The Restoration Comedy 139
13. The Graveyard School of Poetry 141
14. The Neo-Classical or Augustan Age 144
15. The Four Wheels of the Van of the English Novel 146
16. Wordsworth's Preface to the Lyrical Ballads 148
17. The Romantic Movement 150
18. The Pre-Raphaelite School of Poetry 152
19. The Oxford Movement 155
20. Major Trends in Modern Literary Criticism 157
21. Spenser as Poets' Poet 158
22. The Faerie Queene as an Allegory 160
23. The Blending of Renaissance and Reformation Elements in Paradise Lost 162
24. Bacon as the Father of the English Essay 164
25. Dryden as the Father of English Criticism 166
26. Victorian Compromise between Science and Religion 168
27. Robert Browning's Dramatic Monologues 170
28. Thomas Hardy's Wessex.
or
Hardy as a Regional Novelist 173
The Function of Criticism according to Matthew Arnold 174
29. Sociological or Problem Plays of Galsworthy.
or
30. Galsworthy as a writer of Sociological Tragedies 177
Model Papers
-Model Paper 1 179

-Model Paper 2 182
Syllabus
PAPER-II
Paper II will cover 50 Objective Type Questions (Multiple Choice, Matching Type, True/False, Assertion-
Reasoning Type) carrying 100 marks.
1. Chaucer to Shakespeare
2. Jacobean to Restoration Periods
3. Augustan Age: 18th Century Literature
4. Romantic Period
5. Victorian Period
6. Modern Period
7. Contemporary Period
8. American and other non-British Literatures
9. Literary Theory and Criticism
10. Rhetoric and Prosody
PAPER-III (A)
(CORE GROUP)
1. British Literature from Chaucer to the present day

2. Criticism and Literary Theory
Unit—I
Literary Comprehension (with internal choice of poetry stanza and prose passage).
Unit-II
Up to the Renaissance
Unit-III
Jacobean to Restoration Periods
Unit-IV
Augustan Age: 18th Century Literature
Unit-V
Romantic Period
Unit-VI
Victorian and Pre-Raphaelites
Unit-VII
Modern British Literature
Unit-VIII
Contemporary British Literature
Unit-IX
Literary Theory and Criticism up to T. S. Eliot
Unit-X
Contemporary Theory
PAPER-III (B)
[ELECTIVE/OPTIONAL]
Elective-I
History of English Language, English Language Teaching
Elective-II
European Literature from Classical Age to the 20th Century
Elective-III
Indian writing in English and Indian Literature in English translation
Elective-IV
American and other non-British English Literatures
Elective-V
Literary Theory and Criticism
U. G. C. -NET/JRF Exam. , Solved Paper
(Based on Memory)
English Paper-II
1. Which novel has a nameless narrator?

(A) Moby Dick
(B) Anna Karenina
(C) Invisible Man
(D) The Grapes of Wrath
2. Samuel Beckett wrote—

(A) Volpone
(B) Mother Courage and Her Children
(C) A Doll's House
(D) Endgame
3. Which one of the following author book pair is correctly matched?

(A) Elfriede Jelinek - The Pianist
(B) J. M. Cootzee - Shame
(C) Saul Bellow - Herzog
(D) Salman Rushdie – Disgrace
4. The Plough and the 'Stars' was written by-

(A) G. B. Shaw
(B) Sean O'Casey
(C) Lady Gregory
(D) J. M. Synge
5. Willy Loman is a character in—

(A) Waiting for Godot
(B) A Doll's House
(C) The Cherry Orchard
(D) The Death of a Salesman
6. John Evellyn and Samuel Pepys were the famous writers of—
(A) Editorials
(B) Letters
(C) Essays
(D) Diaries
7. The subtitle of Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel is—

(A) There was no Subtitle
(B) A Poem
(C) A Satire
(D) A satire on the True Blue Protestant Poets
8. Who of the following is not a periodical essayist?

(A) Richard Steele
(B) Lancelot Andrews
(C) Joseph Addison
(D) Jonathan Swift
9. "Did he who made the Lamb made thee" appears in—
(A) "Introduction"
(B) "The Tyger"
(C) "Chimney Sweeper"
(D) "London"
10. Which of the following thinker-concept pairs is rightly matched?

(A) I. A. Richards - Archetypal criticism
(B) Northrop Frye - Practical criticism
(C) Jacqes Devide - New Historicism
(D) Stanley Fish - Reader Response
11. "Essays of Elia" are—

(A) Economic disparity
(B) Literary criticism
(C) Political ideology
(D) Personal impressions
12. Which of the following thinker-concept pairs is rightly matched?

(A) Mamata - Vakrokti
(B) Abhinava Gupta - Kavya Alankar
(C) Bharata - Natya Shastra
(D) Vaman – Dhwanyaloka
13. Choose the correct sequence of the following schools of criticism—

(A) Deconstruction, New Criticism, Structuralism, Reader Response
(B) Reader Response, Deconstruction, Structuralism, New Criticism
(C) New Criticism, Structuralism, Deconstruction, Reader Response
(D) Structuralism, New Criticism, Deconstruction, Reader Response
2
14. "Peripeteia" means—

(A) Tragic flaw
(B) Recognition of error
(C) Purgation of emotion
(D) Reversal of fortune
15. "Gynocriticism" focuses on—

(A) Criticism of male writers by women writers
(B) Criticism on women
(C) Criticism by women
(D) Women as writers
16. Samuel Butler's Hudibras is modelled upon—

(A) Don Ouixote
(B) Endymion
(C) "Annus Mirabilis"
(D) Pilgrim's Progress
17. Who was the last of the Christian Humanists?

(A) John Bunyan
(B) Oliver Cromwell
(C) John Milton
(D) Richard Crashaw
18. The narrative of Raja Rao's Kanthapura is based on—

(A) The Ramayana
(B) The Mahabharata
(C) Puranas
(D) Shastras
19. Which of the following author-book pair is correctly matched?

(A)Arundhati Roy - Algebra of Infinite Justice
(B) Shashi Tharoor - Trotter's Name
(C) C. L. R. James - The English Patient
(D) David Madouf - The City of Djins
20. Who wrote 'A tiger does not proclaim its tigretude'?
(A) Derek Walcott
(B) Soyinka
(C) Achebe
(D) Ngugi
21. "Jindiworobak" movement relates to—

(A) Caribbean literature
(B) Canadian literature
(C) Australian literature
(D) New Zealand literature
22. The Montreal group of poets championed the cause of—

(A) Modernist poetry
(B) Imagist poetry
(C) Symbolist Poetry
(D) Nature Poetry
23. The figure of the "Abyssinian Maid" appears in—

(A) "Kubla Khan"
(B) "Frost at Midnight"
(C) "Dejection: an Ode"
(D) "Christabel"
24. Coleridge's statement that imagination "dissolves, diffuses, dissipates in order to

recreate" relates to—
(A) secondary imagination
(B) esemplastic imagination
(C) fancy
(D) primary imagination
25. Who among the following is a writer of historical romances?

(A) Walter Savage
(B) Walter Scott
(C) Jane Austen
(D) Emily Bronte
26. Which of the following sequences is correct?

(A) Vanity Fair, Henry Esmond, Middle-march, The Return of the Native
(B) Henry Esmond, Vanity Fair, Middle-march, The Return of the Native
(C) Middlemarch, The Return of the Native, Vanity Fair, Henry Esmond
(D) The Return of the Native, Middle-march, Vanity Fair, Henry Esmond
27. Queen Victoria's reign, after whom the. Victorian period is named, spans—
(A) 1833- 1901
(B) 1837- 1901
(C) 1840-1905
(D) 1842-1905
28. Pre-Raphaelite poetry is mainly concerned with—

(A) narrative and style
(B) narrative and nature
(C) form and design
(D) form and value
29. The concept of "mad woman in the attic" can be traced to—
(A) The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
(B) Villette
3
(C) Wuthering Heights

(D) Jane Eyre
30. Who among the Victorians is called "the prophet of modern society"?
(A) Ruskin
(B) Carlyle
(C) Macaulay
(D) Arnold
31. Who among the following is not a pilgrim in The Canterbury Tales?
(A) The Haberdasher
(B) The Tapyser
(C) The Blacksmith
(D) The Summoner
32. Bosola is the executioner in—

(A) The Spanish Tragedy
(B) The Duchess of Malfi
(C) The White Devil
(D) The Jew of Malta
33. The mystery plays deal with—

(A) The life of Christ
(B) The New Testament
(C) Psalms
(D) Apocrypha
34. The Faerie Queene is based on—

(A) Utopia
(B) Tottel's Miscellany
(C) Morte d' Arthur
(D) Orlando Furioso
35. Choose the correct chronological sequence of the following plays—

(A) King Lear, Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet
(B) Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet
(C) Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth
(D) Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth
36. Pope's "Essay on Criticism" sums up the art of poetry as taught first by—
(A) Aristotle
(B) Horace
(C) Longinus
(D) Plato
37. Swift's Tale of a Tub is a satire on—

(A) Science and philosophy
(B) Art and morality
(C) Dogma and superstition
(D) Fake morals and manners
38. Dr. Johnson started—
(A) The Postman
(B) The Spectator
(C) The Rambler
(D) The Tatler
39. Who among the following cautioned against the dangers of popular liberty—
(A) Mary Wollstonecraft
(B) Edmund Burke
(C) Thomas Hobbes
(D) John Locke
40. Which famous American classic opens with "Call me Ishmael"?

(A) Rip Van Winkle
(B) The Scarlet Letter
(C) The Grapes of Wrath
(D) Moby Dick
41. Allen Ginsberg's Vision of America is inspired by—

(A) Walt Whitman
(B) Robert Frost
(C) Ralph Waldo Emerson
(D) Edgar A. Poe
42. Who among the following represents the Sri Lankan diaspora?
(A) M. G. Vassanji
(B) Cyril Debydeen
(C) Michael Ondaatje
(D) Arnold H. Itwaru
43. Out of Africa is a film adaptation of a work by-

(A) Alice Walker
(B) Margaret Lawrence
(C) Margaret Atwood
(D) Alice Munro
44. The Empire Writes Back was writen by—

(A) Bill Ashcroft, Helen Tiffin, Ngugi Wa Thinngo
(B) Bill Ashcroft, Helen Tiffin, Stephen Slemon
(C) Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, Chinua Achebe
(D) Bill Ashcroft, Helen Tiffin, Gareth Griffiths
45. The Theatre of Cruelty is associated with—

(A) Stanislavosky
(B) Grotovsky
(C) Antonin Artand
(D) Eugino Barba
4
46. A particle is—

(A) A patchwork of words, sentences, passages
(B) A satirical poem
(C) A love song
(D) A collection of lines from different poems
47. "Careless she is with artful Care/Affecting to seem unaffected" is an example of—
(A) Irony
(B) Paradox
(C) Simile
(D) Metaphor
48. A metrical foot containing a stressed, followed by an unstressed, syllable is—

(A) Anapaest
(B) Iamb
(C) Trochee
(D) Dactyl
49. The rhyme scheme of a Spenserian sonnet is—

(A) abba, cbcb, cdcd, ee
(B) abab, bccb, ccdd, ee
(C) aabb, bcbc, ccdd, ee
(D) abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee
50. Using the expression "Crown" for the monarchy is an example of—
(A) Metonymy
(B) Synecdoche
(C) Irony
(D) Metaphor
Answers
1. (C) 2. (D) 3. (C) 4. (B) 5. (D)

6. (D) 7. (B) 8. (D) 9. (C) 10. (D)
11. (D) 12. (C) 13. (B) 14. (D) 15. (D)
16. (A) 17. (A) 18. (C) 19. (A) 20. (C)
21. (A) 22. (A) 23. (A) 24. (D) 25. (B)
26. (A) 27. (B) 28. (C) 29. (C) 30. (D)
31. (B) 32. (B) 33. (B) 34. (C) 35. (C)
36. (C) 37. (C) 38. (C) 39. (B) 40. (A)
41. (A) 42. (C) 43. (B) 44. (C) 45. (B)
46. (A) 47. (B) 48. (C) 49. (D) 50. (A)
English
(Paper-III)
UGC-NET/JRF Exam.
Solved Paper
(Based on Memory)
[Page blank]
English Paper-III
Section-I
Directions: Read the following poem and answer the questions given under it from Questions 1 to 5 in 30
words each:
Animals bring us tranquillity; Cats sleep through a war;

Dogs ignore your sister concern, forgive betrayals and nations;
While all morning a man cannot bear his own betryal.
After sleeping with two women.
But a dog will not mount one bitch after another,
Nor want to kill himself for being a Cat.
And quails are monogamous, says the encyclopaedia.
The baboon has a harem but he is hot tormented by claims for equal time.
But then I forgot how troubled I was when at seventeen,
After quarrelling with my father about my mother's rights.
A female ape with a black stripped snout,
Sorted out patiently with her long hands,
Sniff and lick lattice leaves clean for her lord,
And master while he growled all the time.
Q. 1. Comment on the ironic implications of betrayal in the poem.
Q. 2. Identify the antithetical elements projected in the poem.
Q. 3. Discuss the narrator's position on female rights.
Q. 4. How does the poem address the issue of sexuality.
Q. 5. What is the implication of 'growling' at the end of the poem?
5 x 5 = 25
Section-II
Directions: This Section contains 15 Questions, each to be answered in about 30 words. Each Question
carries five marks.
Q. 6. Comment on the addressee in Shake-spear's Sonnets.

Q. 7. What is Comedy of Manners?
Q. 8. What is Pastoral Elegy?
Q. 9. Explain Victorian Dilemma.
Q. 10. Justify the title Songs of Innocence.
Q. 11. Define Keats's concept of 'Negative Capability'.
Q. 12. Comment on the intersection of human and the natural world with reference to any one novel of
Hardy.
Q. 13. What does the Thunder say in The Wasteland?
Q. 14. What is the significance of the cave in A Passage to India?
Q. 15. What is Rushdie's Concept of Imaginary Homelands?
Q. 16. Define the campus Novel.
Q. 17. Identify the elements of Sublimity as defined by Longinus.
Q. 18. What is an Autosuggestive text?
Q. 19. What are the hallmarks of Anglo-American feminism?
Q. 20. Differentiate between a 'Readerly' and a 'Writerly' text.
Section-III
Directions: In this Section there are five Parts. Each Part has five questions. Each Question carries 12
marks and has to be answered in about
4
200 words. A student has to choose only one Part out of the five Parts.
Part-I
Indian Writing in English, and Indian Literature in English Translation
Q. 21. "The post-independence Indian English poets evolved their own poetics. " Examine.
Q. 22. Bring out the significance of locale in the fiction of R K. Narain.
Q. 23. How do Mahesh Dattani's plays reflect his social concern?
Q. 24. The Train to Pakistan fictionalises contemporary history. Discuss.
Q. 25. Examine the role of translation in the emergence of Indian literature in English.
Part-II
History of English Language and English Language Teaching
Q. 21. Discuss the evolution of English language with reference to diverse influences.
Q. 22. Trace the sources of additions to English Vocabulary in Renaissance period and specify their
domains with examples.
Q. 23. How does the Indian English consonantal system differ from that of standard English?
Q. 24. What do you understand by Registers? Explain with reference to English, with examples.
Q. 25. Explain the difference between approach and method in language teaching.
Part-Ill Literary Theory and Criticism
Q. 21. What are the major trends in Romantic criticism? Explain with reference to any critic?
Q. 22. Bring out the contribution made by Alexander Pope in theorising English Criticism.
Q. 23. Attempt a critique of the notion of Euphuism.
Q. 24. How does Marxion ideology influence literary studies?
Q. 25. Account for the broadening of literary studies and their merger with cultural studies.
Part-III
Q. 21. What are the major trends in Romantic criticism ? Explain with reference to any critic ?
Q. 22. Bring out the contribution made by Alexander Pope in theorising English Criticism.
Q. 23. Attempt a critique of the notion of Euphuism.
Q. 24. How does Marxion ideology influence literary studies ?
Q. 25. Account for the broadening of literary studies and their merger with cultural studies.
Part-IV
American and Other Non-British Literatures
Q. 21. Examine different shades of conflict in Sophocles's Theban Plays.

Q. 22. Bring out epic dimensions in War and Peace.
Q. 23. Comment on Dante's construction of Hell in Divine Comedy.
Q. 24. Examine the significance of endings of Kafka's novels.
Q. 25. Would you consider Don Quixote as an example of metafiction? Give reasons for your answer.
Part-V
Colonial Literature
Q. 21. Examine the elective nature of Emerson's transcendentalism?

Q. 22. Comment on the representations of race and identity in Afro-American poetry.
Q. 23. Discuss multi-culturism as reflected in contemporary Canadian Literature.
Q. 24. Consider the major concerns of Australian women poets.
Q. 25. Account for the anti-colonial nature of African writers.
12 x 5 = 60
Section-IV
Essay
There will be Five topics for writing an Essay in about 1000 words. The candidate has to choose only one
topic to write his essay. This question would carry 40 marks.
Q. 26. Myth, Memory and History in Post-Colonial writing.

Or
The confessional milieu in American poetry.
Or
Drama in both literature and theatre.
Or
Decolonising English literary studies.
Or
English in contemporary India.
5
Solutions
Section-I
Q. 1. Human beings alone are guilty of betrayal. They betray their spouses, feel guilty, repent, and yet
commit acts of betrayal. Animals and birds commit no such acts of betrayal. The irony is that animals are
better than men.
Q. 2. The poem is largely antithetical. Men and animals are brought to comparison on the issue of
betrayal, and the poem concludes that many kinds of animals and birds are more faithful to their spouses
than men.
Q. 3. The narrator pleads for equal rights to women. He remembers that at the age of seventeen he
quarrelled with his father for defending the rights of his mother. Females, whether human or of animals,
are usually submissive to their male partners.
Q. 4. On the issue of sexuality the narrator says that males and females should be faithful to their
partners. They should not betray their spouses. Some animals and birds are more faithful than human
beings.
Q. 5. The male ape keeps on 'growling' at the female ape all the time, even though she tries to keep him as
happy as possible. This is, more or less, the position of all females, whether human or of animals.
Section-II
Q. 6. The Sonnets of Shakespeare are addressed to two unidentified persons—a Dark Lady and a certain
friend addressed as Mr. W. H. Thus these sonnets express Shakespeare's frustrated love and broken
friendship. The addressees are wrapped in mystery.
Q. 7. The Comedy of Manners exhibited the artificial manners and low moral values of the high class
society of the Restoration Age. They largely displayed the intrigues, witty remarks, sparkling dialogues
and verbal fencings between gentlemen and sophisticated ladies.
Q. 8. The Pastoral Elegy is an elegy cast into the conventional pastoral form. It is presumed that the poet
is a shepherd mourning the death of a fellow shepherd. The whole imagery of goats, sheep, pastures and
pastoral gods and goddesses is drawn into it.
Q. 9. The term Victorian Dilemma suggests the conflict between science and religion that raged in the
Victorian Age. The traditional religion, beliefs and conventions of Christianity were challenged by the
discoveries and explorations of science.
Q. 10. The Songs of Innocence is a volume of songs written by William Blake. The soul of a Child is
absolutely innocent and is, therefore, protected by God. Worldly experience tarnishes the human soul.
Q. 11. By 'Negative Capability' Keats meant that the poet must completely identity and submerge his own
identity with that of his subject of poetry. The poet has no personality of his own.
Q. 12. There is a deep intersection between human life and nature in all the novels of Hardy, but it is
particularly so in The Return of the Native. Egdan Heath is the permanent natural background for human
actions in this novel.
Q. 13. The Thunder says that the world is like a barren track of mountains. The mountains have no drop
of water to quench the thirst of mankind. Mankind needs for peace Datta, Dayadhvam, Damayata (i. e.
Giving, Sympathy, Self-Control)
Q. 14. A Passage to India by E. M. Forster is a symbolic novel representing racial tensions and
antagonism between the Britishers and the Indians. The caves symbolise different kinds of traps to
torment the natives.
Q. 15. Salman Rushdie's Imaginary Homelands is a volume of Essays and Criticism. In this volume
Rushdie describes the plight and mental and spiritual agony of those people who migrate from their
homeland to other countries.
Q. 16. The Campus Novels deal with the life and problems of students in colleges and universities. They
highlight the problems of education and careers of students during this formative period.
Q. 17. Longinus has identified five principal elements of Sublimity. Sublimity in literature depends upon
the sublimity of theme and sublimity of style and expression. Its five elements are:
(1) Grandeur of thought, (2) Strong Emotions, (3) Proper use of Figures, (4) Nobility of Diction, (5)
Dignity of Composition.
6
Q. 18. What is an Authentic text?

The texts of certain very ancient books are not found in their authentic forms. Different editors or
publishers modify them in their own way. Efforts should be made to discover their real or authentic form.
Q. 19. Anglo-American feminism refers to the new spirit of awakening amongst women for their rights
and privileges. Women are rising up for equality with men in all fields of life.
Q. 20. 'Readerly' text is written keeping in mind the interests of the reading public. It should attract more
and more reading public. 'Writerly' text concentrates upon the interests of the writer rather than those of
the reader.
Section-III
Part-III
Q. 21. Romantic criticism is diametrically opposed to Neo-classical criticism both in its concept and
execution. Whereas the Neo-classical criticism valued literature on the basis of reason, aristocracy, satire
and adherence to classical rules, Romantic criticism laid emphasis on emotion, imagination, aesthetic
pleasure, humanitarian-ism and spontaneity in feeling and expression. Wordsworth, Coleridge and
Shelley were the most powerful Romantic poets as well as critics. Though Wordsworth was the founder
of Romantic Criticism, Coleridge was a better and greater critic. Coleridge held Imagination to be the
soul of poetry. Poetry is the product of imagination working on the objects of human life and nature. It is
this power of imagination that infuses life and spark and beauty into the objects of the world. The next
essential element is the presence of sublime thought and emotion. The poet should have a large heart
enlivened with love, compassion and humanitarian zeal. Romantic criticism also disapproves of the
eighteenth century Poetic Diction. Wordsworth holds that poetry should be written in a language really
spoken by men. Romantic criticism also liberates poetry from the fetters of Heroic couplet. Great poetry
can be written in any stanza form or in Blank Verse. The vogue of Romantic criticism continues to
prevail to the present day.
Q. 22. Pope was a champion of the classical school of criticism in English. He laid down the classical
theories of criticism and advocated that English critics must follow them and evaluate a literary work in
the light of those theories. Aristotle, Plato, Virgil, Longinus were his literary gods and he advocated blind
adherence to them both in concept and practice. The classical critics were moralists who believed in the
didactic, reformatory, and moral functions of literature. As such Pope also advocated that literature must
teach high moral values. Mere emotional or imaginative pleasure was not the end of great literature.
According to him reason overpowers imagination, logic must replace fancy, and good sense must prevail
over sentiment. For all these values be travelled back to the ancients. He advocated:
"Know well each Ancient's proper character:
His fable, subject, scope in every page:
Religion, country, genius of every age:
Be Homer's works your study and delight,

Read them by day, and meditate by night,
Thence form your judgement, thence your maxims bring,
And trace the Muses upward to their spring. "
The ideal critic's duty is to give advice. He is pleased to teach and he ought to be proud of his knowledge,
yet he should be unbiased and unprejudiced. In the true spirit of literary criticism there are no friends or
foes. So Pope says:
"Modestly bold, and humanely severe,
Who to a friend his faults can freely show,
And gladly praise the merit of a foe. "
Q. 23. The term Euphuism is derived from John Lyly's prose romance Euphues. The full title of
Euphues is Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit. It also has a sequel entitled Euphues and His England. It
is a love romance. It enjoyed extraordinary popularity in its times and went through ten editions within a
few years. It became a model for aristocratic polished manners, behaviour and style of talking. The ladies
of the court used it as a moral handbook. It became a guide to polite behaviour and elegance in speech
and writing. However, in literature it is known for its typical style of writing. Its style is characterized by
extreme elaboration and artifice. It is further distinguished by a number of rhetorical devices which give it
a quality of its own. It is its typical style on account of which it has retained its fame through so many
centuries. The most outstanding feature of its style is excessive use of balanced
7
antithesis. We quote here a typical sentence: "As you may suspect me of idleness in giving ear to your
talk, so you may convince me of lightness in answering such toys. " In this sentence there is a series of
contrary expressions: "suspect me" and "convince me"; "giving ear" and "answering"; "idleness" and
"lightness", "talk" and "toys". These are contrasting pairs. Lyly also freely uses all Figures of Speech.
Therefore Euphuism has been accepted as a literary term.
Q. 24. The Marxist Theory of Criticism is based on the sociological theory of Marx and Lenin. It is based
on the concept that every work of art and literature is the product of the social and political conditions of
the age in which it is produced. It believes that literature is inseparably related with the social, political
and economic background of the period: "This sociological approach to literature is particularly cultivated
by those who profess a specific social philosophy. Marxist critics not only study those relations between
literature and society, but also have their clearly defined conception of what these relations should be both
in our present society and in a future classless society. They tell us not only what were and are the social
conditions and implications of an author's work, but what they should have been or ought to be. They are
not only students of literature and society but also prophets of the future, monitors, propagandists and they
have no difficulty in keeping these two functions separate. " (Rene Wellek) Some important critics who
belong to this School are Edmund Wilson, F. O. Mathiessen, Christopher Caudwell, and H. B. Parkes.
All these critics believe that no author can keep himself detached from those broad currents of thought and
feeling which are shared by the other members of contemporary society. A work of literature and
contemporary society are interdependent on each other.
Q. 25. Literature and contemporary social values and ideologies are inseparably interdependent on each
other. Literature and cultural awakening go side by side. There is a kind of second Renaissance in our
present age. There is a new educational, cultural, scientific, economic, and national and international
awakening in the world today. The narrow regional, racial, religious, cultural and linguistic barriers are
breaking down. A sort of international fraternity is growing up. Naturally there is an ever-widening
public interested in literary studies. The literary
authors, both in prose and verse, come up to meet the demand of the fast increasing reading public.
Millions of books, magazines, journals and periodicals are being published and widely circulated in the
world today. Correspondingly, new and amazingly fast methods of printing are coming up. The invention
of preserving the original texts in the form of computer C. D. 's and Floppies has further facilitated the
preserving and reprinting of the books. Huge libraries can now be safely preserved in a single almirah.
As a result, literature and culture have merged into each other. This new awakening has led to the fast
growth of the public interested in literary studies. And as literature and culture cannot be separated today,
cultural awakening has accompanied literary studies.
Section-IV
Q. 26. Drama in both literature and theatre.
Drama and Poetry: Originally Drama was known as Dramatic Poesy. Dryden entitled his famous
treatise on Drama as an Essay of Dramatic Poesy. The term Dramatic Poesy points to the fact that
Drama is as much an intrinsic part of literature as Poetry. It is not essential that drama must be acted on
the stage in a theatre. In fact, drama has a double advantage. It can be enjoyed as a distinct genre of
literature both on the stage as well as in one's study room. Great works of Drama are equally successful
on the stage as well as in the study parlour.
Early Dramas only for the Stage: However, earliest dramas were written only for the stage. They were
Miracle plays, Mystery plays, Morality plays, and Interludes. These plays were basically religious and
didactic and were meant to teach the largely illiterate English public principles, teachings and tenets of
Christianity by staging them at public places. Since there were no regular public theatres in those days,
these plays were staged under the open sky or on public platforms. The Miracle plays presented the lives
and martyrdom of the great Christian saints. The Mystery plays staged the theme of the Bible in a
chronological order beginning with Nativity, Crucifixion, Resurrection of Christ and the last Judgment.
The Morality plays presented on the stage personified Virtues, Vices, and Death as the Reward of Sin.
The Interludes just entertained the public to relieve them from boredom. Since the larger section of the
public could not read them, they were staged
8
on the artificially created platforms. Sometimes, they were also staged in the Halls of Dukes, Barons and
other royal personalities. They were all rudimentary plays and had very little literary value.
Shakespeare's Plays: Shakespeare's plays touch the highest watermark as literature as well as stage plays.
He is the greatest dramatist the world has ever produced. His plays are held to be as important today as
they were when they were written more than four centuries ago. The fact that several of his plays are still
prescribed in the syllabi of universities in many countries of the world goes to prove that his plays are
highly and widely recognized works of literature. They are equally popular as theatrical plays. His
important tragedies are Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear. His famous comedies are As You Like
It, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, and
several more. His Historical Plays and Romances are in no way less important. In all he has written
thirty-seven plays, and all of them have been celebrated both as literary works and theatrical plays. A
great admirer of Shakespeare, M. Henry Cochin, praises the genius of Shakespeare in these words:
"Shakespeare is the king of poetic rhythm and style as well as the king of realm of thought, along with his
dazzling prose. Shakespeare has succeeded in giving us the most varied, the most harmonious verse
which has ever sounded upon the human ear since the verse of the Greeks. "
Other Stage Dramatists: There are many more dramatists whose dramas are remarkably literary as well
as fit for the stage. Their plays can be read as works of literature in one's parlour, but they would be
equally successful on the stage. These dramatists include Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Dryden, Congreve,
Vanbrugh, Farquhar, Sheridan, Goldsmith and a few others. They present the socio-cultural life of the age
in which they lived and wrote! Ben Jonson's plays are called Comedies of Humours. They caricature
human foibles and eccentries in good humour. Sheridan, Congreve, Farquhar present the falling morals
and foppish fashions of the Restoration Age. They largely display the intrigues, foppish manners, witty
remarks, sparkling dialogues, and verbal fencing between aristocratic ladies and lords. The Restoration
Age was known for these characteristics. Presenting the true picture of the Restoration Age, these plays
deal with the relations and intrigues of gentlemen and ladies living in a polished and sophisticated society,
and rely for comic effect in great part on the wit and sparkle of the dialogues, leading to a kind of verbal
fencing match. Excellent examples of such plays are Congreve's The Way of the World, and Wycherley's
The Country Wife. These plays were repeatedly acted on the stage and appreciated by the public. But
they were equally good and enjoyable as master pieces of literature in their own areas. People read them
for pleasure in their parlours.
Purely Literary Dramas: There is one more distinctly different type of drama which is known as Poetic
Play or Lyrical play. These plays are actually long poems of epical dimensions split up into Acts and
Scenes. They are avowedly written for reading as purely literary works and not for acting on the stage. In
fact, it is a long poem cast into the dramatic form and meant to be read as a poem. The poetic play is also
called a Closet play. The normal stage play is not complete in itself. It requires a complex external
paraphernalia such as a theatre, a stage, actors and audience, and its success depends upon their
performance on the stage. Against it, the poetic play is complete in itself. It can be read and enjoyed by
the reader in his own closet or study-room without any external aid The reader can enjoy it all by himself
as he can enjoy an epic or a novel. The poetic play is normally written in blank verse. It is generally
written on some classical, mythological or legendary theme. The poetic plays came to be written in the
Romantic Age. The principal writers of the poetic plays were practically all the Romantic poets including
Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron and later on Tennyson and Browning. However,
the earlist poetic plays were Comus and Samson Agonistes written by Milton. T. S. Eliot's Murder in the
Cathedral is also a famous poetic play. Hardy's The Dynasts is also a very long play not meant to be
acted. It is an epic-drama.
Thus there are two principal types of plays— those which are both literature as well as stage plays, and
those which are only literature not designed to be acted.
English Literature
Chapter 1
The Period upto Chaucer
The Age of Chaucer

(1340-1400)
(i) The Age at a Glance
The beginning or the end of a social or literary age cannot be definitely dated. The process of change
from one Age to another is a process of slow evolution which cannot be assigned to a particular date.
However, for the sake of convenience and chronological study we take some important historical or
literary event to mark the date of the beginning or end of a particular Age. The Age of Chaucer is dated
from 1340 to 1400 because in 1340 Chaucer was born and in 1400 Chaucer died.
Chaucer, the first really national poet of England, had the rare distinction of having lived through the
reigns of three English monarchs. He was born in the reign of Edward III, lived through the reign of
Richard II, and died in the reign of Henry IV. This was a period of glaring social contrasts and rapid
political changes. In the words of W. H. Hudson, "Edward's reign marks the highest development of
medieval civilization in England. It was also the midsummer of English chivalry. The spirit of his court
was that of romantic idealism which fills Chaucer's own Knight's Tale, and the story of his successive
wars with Franch, and of the famous victories of Crecy and Poictiers, as written in the Chronicles of
Froissart, reads more like a brilliant novel than a piece of sober history. Strong in its newly established
unity, England went forth on its career of foreign conquests in a mood of buoyant courage, and every fresh
triumph served to give further stimulus to national ambition and pride. "
But there was another side of the picture too, which was dark and dismal. With the increase of trade, the
commercial classes accumulated huge wealth and lived in extravagant luxury. So did the royal families
and the nobility. They lived a gay and debonair life. The masses of the people lived in deplorable poverty
and misery. Further, epidemic after epidemic ravaged the country. The fierce Plague, called the Black
Death, broke out in 1348-49. This swept away in a single year more than a third of the entire population
of the country. The plague reappeared in 1362, 1367 and 1370. These epidemics were followed by
famine. As a result, vagrants, robbers and thieves multiplied in the country. Therefore, much of the
glamour and gaiety of life had gone and the people had to face stern realities of life.
The worst phase of this degradation was corruption in the Church. The clergy had become corrupt,
profligate, demoralized and degraded. They stooped to the level of befooling, cheating and even robbing
the people. Chaucer in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales rightly draws the portraits of the fat,
pleasure-loving Monk, the merry and wanton Friar, the roguish Pardoner, and the greedy and lusty priests.
3
This was the shocking state of things in the religious world in England in Chaucer's age. However,
religious pilgrimages in large groups of pilgrims were quite in vogue in this age. Chaucer's Canterbury
Tales are woven through the texture of a similar pilgrimage.
(ii) Important Events of the Age of Chaucer
Event Year
Edward Ill's reign 1327-1377
William Langland bom 1332
Beginning of the Hundred Years' War with France 1338
Chaucer born 1340
Battle of Crecy 1346
The Black Death (Plague) 1348-49
Battle of Poictiers 1356
Richard II's reign 1377-99
Wyclif's Bible 1380
Wat Tyler's Rebellion 1381
Henry IV ascends the throne 1399
Death of Langland 1400
Death of Chaucer 1400
Important Events of the Post-Chaucerian Period (1400-1557)
Event Year
Death of Henry IV 1413
War of the Roses 1455-86
Caxton's Printing Press set up 1476
Henry VII 1485-1509
Henry VIII 1509-1547
Edward VI 1547-53
Queen Mary 1553-1558
Literary Works Year

Occleve Govemail of Princes 1412
James I's The King's Quair 1422
Lydgate's Falles of Princes 1430
Malory's Morte d' Arthur 1470, Pub. 1485
Dunwar's Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins 1507
Douglas' Aeneid 1513
More's Utopia 1551 (English version)
Tyndale's New Testament 1525
Coverdale's Bible 1535
Tottle's Miscellany 1557
4
(iii) Major Authors of the Age
(1)Major Authors before Chaucer
Caedmon—(?-680?) Date of birth not known. Date of death approximate. Cynewulf— (720-?) Date of
death not known. Date of birth approximate. King Alfred—(849-901); Layamon—(12th Century);
Geoffrey Monmouth—(12th Century); Orm—(13th Century); Robert Mannyng—(Early 14th Century)
(2)Major Authors of the Age of Chaucer

(a)Poets
John Gower—(1332?-1408); William Langland-(1330?-1400); John Barbour— (1316?—1395)
(b)Prose Writers
Chaucer—Besides poetry, he wrote some prose also; Wyclif— (1320?-1384) Sir John Maundville—(14th
Century)
(3)Major Post-Chaucerian (15th Century) Authors

(a)Poets
Thomas Occleve (1370?-1450); John Lydgate (1370?-1451); King James I of Scotland (1394-1437);
William Dunbar (1465?-1530?); Robert Henryson (1430?-1506?); Gawain Douglas (1474-1522); Sir
Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542); Earl of Surrey (1516-47)
(b)Prose Writers
Reginald Pecock (1395?-1460); Sir John Fortescue (1394?-1476?);
Sir Thomas Malory (15th Century); William Caxton (1422?-1491?)—Printer
(iv) Important Works of the Major

Authors
King James I of Scotland:
The King's Quair
Peblis to the Play
Christis Kirk on the Green
John Lydgate:
Fades of Princes
The Temple of Glass
Story of Thebes.
London Lickpenny
Sir Thomas Malory:
Morte d' Arthur
Sir Thomas More:
Utopia (English Version)
Tottle:
Miscellany
William Tyndale:
New Testament
Geoffrey Chaucer:
The Boke of the Duchesse
The Romaunt of the Rose
The House of Fame
Troylus Cryseyde
The Canterburry Tales
Legends of Good Women
The Parliament of Fouls
William Langland:
Piers the Plowman (A Vision)
A Treatise on the Astrolabe.
John Gower:
Confessio Amantis Vox Clamantis
Speclum Meditantis
Wyclif:
The Bible
Sir John Maundevill:
The Travels of Sir John Maundevill
Thomas Occleve:
The Govemail of Princes
Occleve's Complaint
La Mala Regie
The Complaint of Our Lady.
William Dunbar:
The Thistle and the Rose
Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins
Roger Ascham:
The Scholemaster
Nicholas Udall:
Roister Doister
John Heywood:
Four P's
Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton:
Gorboduc
John Still:
Gammer Gurton's Needle
John Barbour:
Bruce
Sir David Lyndsay:
The Dreme
Meldrum
Estaits
Robert Henryson:
Morall Fabillis of Esope
The Testament of Cressied
Orpheus and Eurydice
Gowain Douglas:
The Palace of Honour
King Hart
Conscience
Stephen Hawes:
The Passetyme of Pleasure
The Example of Virtue
A Joyfull Medytacyon
Alexander Barclay:
Ship of Fools
Certayne Ecloges
John Skelton:
Garland of Laurell
Dirge on Edward IV
Magnificence
Questions
Multiple-Choice Questions
1. Between which sets of dates did Chaucer live?

(A) 1340-1400 (B) 1345-1400 (C) 1348-1400 (D) 1349-1400
2. Chaucer lived during the reigns of:

(A) Edward III and Richard II (B) Edward III and Henry IV
(C) Richard II and Henry IV (D) Edward III, Richard II and Henry IV
3. Who of the following was the closest contemporary of Chaucer?

(A) John Gower (B) William Langland (C) Wyclif (D) John Barbour
4. The Hundred Years' War began in the:

(A) 11th Century (B) 12th Century (C) 13th Century (D) 14th Century
5. The Hundred Year's War was fought between:

(A) England and the Romans (B) The Romans and the Saxons
(C) England and France (D) The Greeks and the Romans
6. Caedmon and Cynewulf were two famous poets. They were:

(A) Chaucer's contemporaries (B) Chaucer's predecessors
(C) Chaucer's successors (D) Not definitely known
7. Beowulf is the most important Anglo-Saxon literary work. It is:

(A) an epic (B) a collection of ballads (C) a romance (D) a history of the Anglo-Saxon period
8. Who is the author of Beowulf?

(A) Caedmon (B) Cynewulf (C) John Gower (D) None of these
9. In which century did Norman Conquest take place?

(A) 10th Century (B) 11th Century (C) 12th Century (D) 13th Century
10. Black Death is the name given to:

(A) the great Famine that occurred in Chaucer's Age
(B) the epidemic of plague that occurred in Chaucer's Age
(C) the epidemic of Cholera that broke out in Chaucer's Age
(D) a mysterious epidemic that swept over England in Chaucer's Age
11. The War of Roses figures in the works of:

(A) Chaucer (B) Langland (C) Shakespeare (D) Gower
12. Who of the following is called 'the morning star of the Reformation'?
(A) John Wyclif (B) Chaucer (C) Langland (D) Gower
13. How many pilgrims in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are going on the pilgrimage?
(A) 27 (B) 29 (C) 30 (D) 31
7
14. How many pilgrims in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales represent the military profession?
(A) 1 (B) 2 (C) 3 (D) 4
15. How many ecclesiastical characters are portrayed in the Prologue?

(A) 5 (B) 6 (C) 7 (D) 8
16. What is the name of the Inn where the pilgrims assemble for the night?
(A) Southwark Inn (B) Temple Inn (C) Tabard Inn (D) St. Becket Inn
17. It is believed that the Host at the Inn was a real man. What is the real name of
the Host at the Inn?
(A) Henry Bailly (B) Harry Bailly (C) Homey Bailly (D) Hoary Bailly
18. To which shrine are the pilgrims going?

(A) Shrine of St. Agnes at Canterbury
(B) Shrine of St. Lucas of Jerusalem
(C) Shrine of St. Thomas a' Becket at Canterbury
(D) Shrine of St. Mark in Southwark
19. How many women characters figure in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales?
(A) 1 (B) 2 (C) 3 (D) 4
20. One of the Tales in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is in prose. Which of these?
(A) The Pardoner's Tale (B) The Parson's Tale (C) The Monk's Tale (D) The Knight's Tale
21. One of the portraits in the Prologue is that of Wife of Bath. What is Bath?
(A) The Christian name of the lady
(B) The surname of the lady
(C) The name of her husband
(D) The name of the town to which she belonged
22. "He was as fresh as the month of May." This line occurs in the Prologue. Whom
does this line refer to?
(A) Friar (B) Franklin (C) Doctor of Physic (D) Squire
23. Who is the author of Troylus and Cryseyde?

(A) Langland (B) Gower (C) Chaucer (D) Caedmon
24. Who is the author of Piers the Plowman?

(A) Langland (B) Chaucer (C) John Barbour (D) Gower
25. Which of the following is not a work of Chaucer?

(A) The House of Fame (B) The Owl and the Nightingale (C) The Legend of Good Women
(D) Romaunt of the Rose
26. Which of the following is Chaucer's prose work?

(A) Troylus and Cryseyde (B) The Legend of Good Women
(C) Treatise on the Astrolabe (D) The House of Fame
27. The War of Roses was fought between:

(A) Richard II and Henry IV
(B) Edward III and Richard II
(C) Edward III and Henry IV
(D) The House of York and The House of Lancaster
28. The legend of "King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table" was first related
in:
(A) Malory's Morte de Arthur (B) Geoffrey's Historia
(C) Layamon's Brut (D) Tennyson's ldylls of the King
29. Which of the following works of Chaucer does not belong to Chaucer's 'Italian
period'?
(A) House of Fame (B) Legend of Good Women
(C) Canterbury Tales (D) Troylus and Cryseyde
30. Chaucer was not indebted for his sources to one of the following. Identify him:
(A) Homer (B) Virgil (C) Dante (D) Ovid
31. Who were Lollards?

(A) Poor priests of the Church of England
(B) Poor priests of the Roman Catholic Church
(C) The followers of Wyclif
(D) The pilgrims of Chaucer's Age
32. Wyclif's Bible is a translation of:

(A) Greek Texts (B) Latin Texts (C) Hebrew Texts (D) Arabic Texts
33. John Wyclif was the first to render the Bible into English. In which year did he
do so?
(A) 1480 (B) 1380 (C) 1280 (D) 1400
34. The Piers the Plowman is a series of visions seen by its author Langland. What
was the first vision that he saw?
(A) The Vision of 'Seven Deadly Sins'
(B) The Vision of a 'Field Full of Folks'
(C) The Vision of 'Lady Bribery'
(D) The Vision of 'Man's Moral and Spiritual Life'
35. Who of the following poets wrote a famous poem mourning the death of
Chaucer?
(A) Occleve in The Govemail of Princes
(B) Lydgate in Falles of Princes
(C) James I of Scotland in The King's Quair
(D) William Dunwar in The Thistle and the Rose
36. Sir Thomas Malory's famous Morte de Arthur was written in:
(A) 1470 (B) 1485 (C) 1490 (D) 1495
37. Caxton was the first to set up a printing press in England. In which year did he
set up the press?
(A) 1376 (B) 1476 (C) 1486 (D) 1496
38. Which of the following is the earliest version of the Bible?

(A) William Tyndale's English New Testament
(B) Miles Coverdale's English Bible
(C) Cromwell's Great Bible
(D) King James' Authorised Version of the Bible
39. Tottle's Miscellany is a famous anthology of 'Songs and Sonnets'. Whose songs
and sonnets are predominant in it?
(A) Shakespeare and Spenser (B) Marlowe and Sidney (C) Wyatt and Surrey (D) Lydgate and Occleve
40. Thomas Mores' Utopia was first written in Latin in 1516. In which year was it
rendered into English?
(A) 1520 (B) 1551 (C) 1557 (D) 1559
41. Roister Doister is believed to be the first regular comedy in English. Who wrote
it?
(A) Nicholas Udall (B) Thomas Norton (C) Geoffrey of Monmouth (D) John Heywood
42. Gorboduc is believed to be the first regular tragedy in English. Who wrote it?
(A) Thomas Sackville (B) John Heywood (C) Thomas Norton (D) Sackville and Norton in collaboration*
43. Who called Chaucer "The Father of English Poetry"?

(A) Sidney (B) Spenser (C) Dryden (D) Arnold
44. Who described Chaucer as The Well of English undefiled?"

(A) Dryden (B) Spenser (C) Pope (D) Sidney
45. In which month did Chaucer's pilgrims go on their pilgrimage?

(A) January (B) February (C) March (D) April
True or False
Directions: Which of the following statements are True or False?
1. Chaucer was born in the reign of Richard II.

2. Chaucer died in the reign of Henry IV.
3. The Hundred Years' War was fought between England and France.
4. Black Death was the name given to the great famine that occurred in Chaucer's age.
5. The author of the House of Fame is Chaucer.
6. The War of Roses was fought between the House of York and the House of Lancaster.
7. Layamon's Brut is written on the legend of "King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table."
8. All the Canterbury Tales written by Chaucer are in Verse.
9. Chaucer and Langland died in the same year.
10. King James I of Scotland was a Post-Chaucerian poet.
10
Matching-Type Questions
(I) Match the Authors in Column A with their works in Column B:
A B
Author Work
1. John Gower (a) Translation of Aeneid
2. William Langland (b) Dream of the Rood
3. Geoffrey Monmouth (c) Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins
4. Layamon (d) Paraphrase
5. John Wyclif (e) Confessio Amentis
6. Caedmon (f) Falles of Princes
7. John Lydgate (g) Piers the Plowman
8. William Dunbar (h) History of Britain
9. Gawain Douglas (i) English Version of the Bible
10. Cynewulf (J) Brut
(II) Match the events in Column A with their dates in Column B:
A B
Event Year
1. Norman Conquest (a) 1348
2. Beginning of the Hundred Years' War (b) 1338
3. Henry IV ascends the throne (c) 1400
4. Langland's death (d) 1381
5. Chaucer's birth (e) 1066
6. Wat Tyler's Rebellion (f) 1340
7. Death of Edward III (g) 1399
8. Caxton's Printing Press set up (h) 1377
9. Occurrence of the Black Death (i) 1455
10. Beginning of the War of Roses (j) 1476
Assertion-Reasoning Type Questions
(I) Which of the following arrangements of the poetical works is in the correct chronological
order?
(a) Canterbury Tales, Troylus and Cryseyde, The Romaunt of the Rose, Confessio Amentis
(b) The Romaunt of the Rose, Troylus and Cryseyde, Canterbury Tales, Confessio Amentis
(c) Confessio Amentis, Troylus and Cryseyde, Canterbury Tales, The Romaunt of the Rose
(d) Canterbury Tales, Troylus and Cryseydes, Confessio Amentis, The Romaunt of the Rose.
11
(II) Which of the following arrangements of poets is in the correct chronological order?
(a) William Langland, Chaucer, Dunwar, Layaman
(b) Chaucer, William Langland, Layaman, Dunwar
(c) Layaman, William Langland, Chaucer, Dunwar
(d) Dunwar, Layaman, William Langland, Chaucer
ANSWERS
1. (A) 2. (D) 3. (B) 4. (D) 5. (C) 6. (B) 7. (A) 8. (D) 9. {B)

10.
(B)
11. (C) 12. (A) 13. (B) 14. (C) 15. (D) 16. (C) 17. (B) 18. (C) 19. (C) 20.
(B)
21. (D) 22. (D) 23. (C) 24. (A) 25. (B) 26. (C) 27. (D) 28. (C) 29. (C) 30.
(A)
31. (C) 32. (B) 33. (B) 34. (B) 35, (A) 36. (A) 37. (B) 38. (A) 39. (C) 40.
(B)
41. (A) 42. (D) 43. (E) 44. (B) 45. (D)
True or False
1. F 2. T 3. T 4. F 5. T 6. T 7. T 8. F 9. T 10.
T
Matching Type Questions

(I)
l. e 2. g 3. h 4. j 5. i 6. d 7. f 8. c 9. a 10. b
(II)
l. e 2. b 3. g 4. c5. f 6. d 7. h 8. j 9. a 10. 1

(I) b (II) c
CHAPTER 2
THE AGE OF SHAKESPEARE

The Elizabethan Age (1558-1625)
What in Literature we call the Age of Shakespeare, we call it the Elizabethan Age in the history of
England. The period of Queen Elizabeth's reign over England (1558-1603) is rightly called the Golden
Period in the history of England as also in the history of English Literature. Broadly speaking, it is the
Age of Shakespeare. In literary terms, it is called the period of Renaissance. The term 'Renaissance'
means rebirth or revival. In the present context, it means the rebirth or revival of Greek and Italian
culture, learning, literature, art, painting and architecture, etc. in other European countries, notably in
Germany, France and England. It was around the middle of the fifteenth century that the Turks invaded
and conquered most part of the Greek empire, with the result that the great Greek philosophers, scholars
and artists started fleeing from Greece and spreading out in other European countries. The exodus of
Greek scholars gained great momentum on the fall of Constantinople at the hands of the Turks in 1453.
Many of them found shelter in Italy. Gradually Italy became the centre of Greek (Classical) art and
literature. In course of time, the Greek and Italian scholarship, art and literature reached England through
France and found England a very favourable country for their growth and advancement. Greek and Italian
models began to be imitated or even copied in England. English poets, dramatists and authors became
crazy about Greek models. Marlowe's plays, Shakespeare's Tragedies, Spenser's Faerie Queene, Sidney's
Arcadia, Ben Johnson's Comedies, Bacon's Essays are all based directly or indirectly on the Greek
classical models. Plato and Aristotle prescribed the principles of philosophy and literary criticism. The
English authors felt proud in being able to imitate the classical models. This spirit of imitating the
classical models persisted in English Literature upto the eighteenth century, when Pope went to the extent
of saying:
"Know well each Ancient's proper character;

His fable, subject, scope in every page;
Religion, country, genius of his Age:
Without all these at once before your eyes,
Cavil you may, but never criticize.
Read them by day, and meditate by night;
Thence form your judgement, thence your maxims bring
But this does not mean that the Elizabethan poets, dramatists and authors were mere imitators.
They just took models from the ancients and then produced their own original works which are the glory
of English Literature. Shakespeare, Spenser, Bacon, Ben Johnson and many others are counted among the
greatest authors of the world.
In this way, as a critic says, "every breeze was dusty with the pollen of Greece, Rome and of
Italy," and even the general atmosphere was charged with the spirit of the Renaissance or new learning.
Consequently, an immense impetus was given to the sense of beauty, chivalry and aesthetic faculties and
the growing love of everything that made for the enrichment of life and prosperity.
Another important current that flowed along with the Renaissance was that of Reformation. It was
a current for reformation in religion for rescuing it from age-old superstitious and unnecessary rituals.
This interest in religion was naturally accompanied by a deepening of moral earnestness and spiritual
values.
It was also an age of new discoveries and explorations of new lands through adventurous voyages
across unchartered seas and oceans. The recent discoveries of new worlds beyond the seas, and the
thrilling tales brought home by daring explorers, like Hawkins, Drake, Frobisher and Raleigh, quickened
the popular curiosity and the zest for adventure, kindled fresh ideas about many things, and did much to
enlarge the boundaries of men's minds. Thus it was an age when "men lived intensely, thought intensely
and wrote intensely. "
It was also an age of intense patriotism, when people took a keen interest in England's past, pride
in England's greatness, hatred of England's enemies and unflinching loyalty to England's Queen. The
people sank all their minor differences and stood shoulder to shoulder in defence of their country. "At
such a time, when passions were strong, and speculation was rife, and a great public existed eager to
respond to the appeal of genius, everything conspired to bring out of each man the best that was in him. "
By virtue of its wonderful fertility and of the variety and splendour of its production, this period as a
whole ranks as one of the greatest in the annals of the world's literature.
(ii) Important Historical/Literary Events of the Age

Poetry Drama Prose
Sackville: The Mirror of Lord Buckhurst, Sackville Ascham's School Master-
Magistrates-1559 and 1570
Norton's Gorboduc-
Gascoigne: Steel Glass-1576 1561. Holinshed's Chronicles, 1577
Nicholas Udall's Roister
The Shepheardes Calender, Doister- Lyly's Euphues. 1579
1579 1550
Still's Gammer Gurton's Sidney's Arcadia and
Faery Queene Needle, Apology for Poetrie, 1581
Bks I-III. 1590 1566, Miracle or Mystery
Venus and Adonis-1593 Plays, Puttenham's Arte of English
Faery Queene, First London Play Houses Poesie. 1589
Bks IV-V1. 1596 built,
Daniel: Civil Wars-1595 1576 Lodge's Rosalynd, 1590
Lyly's Endymion, 1579, Hocker's Ecclesiastical
Death of Spenser-1599 Morality Polity, 1594-97
Plays, Marlowe's Plays
Shakespeare's Sonnets. 1609 Shakespeare's I Phase, Bacon's Essays, I Edition,
Early 1597
Comedies (1588-93)
Shakespeare's II Phase. Bacon's Essays, II Edition,
Great Comedies and 1612, Bacon's Essays, III
Chronical Plays (1594-1600) Edition, 1625
Shakespeare's III Phase Great
Tragedies (1601-1608) Bacon's death-1626
Shakespeare's IV Phase, Authorised Version of the

Romances (1608-1612) Bible, 1611, Raleigh's
Ben Jonson's Comedies History of the World, 1614,
Globe theatre built, 1599, Holinshed's Chronicles of
The University Wits, England, Scotland and
Beaumont and Fletcher's Ireland
Plays, John Heywood's Plays,
Webster's Plays, Death of
Marlowe-1593. Death of
Lyly-1606, Death of
Shakespeare, 1616, Death of
Beaumont, 1616, Death of
Fletcher, 1625
14
(1) Poets
Authors Tears Authors Tears

Thomas Sackville 1536-1608 Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey 1516-1547
Thomas Norton 1532-84 William Shakespeare 1564-1616
George Gascoigne 1525-1577 Sir Phillip Sidney 1554-1586
Edmund Spenser 1552-1599 Samuel Daniel 1562-1619
Thomas Wyatt 1503-1542 Michael Drayton 1563-1631
(2) Dramatists
Authors Tears Authors Tears
"The University Wits" who include Thomas Middleton 1570-1627

John Lyly 1554-1606 John Webster 1580-1625
Thomas Kyd 1557-1595 John Ford 1586-1639
George Peele 1558-1597 Francis Beaumont 1584-1616
Thomas Lodge 1558-1625 John Fletcher 1579-1625
Robert Greene 1560-1592 Philip Massinger 1583-1640
Christopher Marlowe 1564-1593 Thomas Dekker 1572-1632
Thomas Nash 1567-1601 James Shirley 1596-1666
John Marston 1572-1634
Shakespeare 1564-1616 Thomas Heywood 1575-1650
Ben Jonson 1573-1637
George Chapman 1559-1634
(3) Prose Writers/Romance Writers
Writers Tears Writers Tears

John Lyly 1554-1608 Raphael Holinshed ?-1580
Sir Phillip Sidney 1554-1586 Richard Hakluyt 1552-1616
Thomas Lodge 1558-1625 Richard Hooker 1554-1600
Robert Green 1560-1592 William Webbe (16th Century)
Francis Bacon 1561-1626 George Puttenham (16th Century)
Raleigh 1552-1618
(iv) Important Works of the Major Authors
Edmund Spenser:
The Faerie Queene The Shepheardes Calendar Amoretti Epithalamion Prothalamion
Mother Hubberd's Tale The Ruins of Time The Tears of the Muses Astrophel
Phillip Sidney:
Arcadia Astrophel and Stella An Apologie for Poetrie
Ben Jonson:
Every Man in His Humour Every Man Out of His Humour Volpone Or the Fox Cynthia's Revels.
The Alchemist Bartholomew Fayre Epicaene or the Silent Women Sejanus His Fall
Catline His Conspiracy The Poetaster The Devil as an Ass The Masque of Beauty
Daniel:
Delia Civil Wars between the Two Houses of Lancaster and York
Michael Drayton:
The Battle of Agincourt England's Heroic Epistles The Barons' Wars Polyolbion
William Warner:
Albion's England
Thomas Sackville:
The Myrroure for Magistrates, Gorboduc (in collaboration with Thomas Norton)
Thomas Norton:
Gorboduc (in collaboration with Sackville)
George Gascoigne:
Steel Glass Supposes Jocasta
William Shakespeare:
The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Merry Wives of Windsor Measure for Measure
The Comedy of Errors Love's Labour's Lost The Taming of the Shrew All's Well that Ends Well
A Midsummer Night's Dream The Merchant of Venice Much Ado About Nothing
As You Like It Twelfth Night Romeo and Juliet Macbeth Hamlet King Lear Othello
Antony and Cleopatra Julius Caesar Timon of Athens Coriolanus Titus Andronicus
Troilus and Cressida King John King Richard the Second King Henry the Fourth-First Part
King Henry the Fourth-Second Part King Henry the Fifth King Henry the Sixth-First Part
King Henry the Sixth-Second Part King Henry the Sixth-Third Part King Richard the Third
King Henry the Eighth Cymbeline Pericles The Winter's Tale The Tempest
Venus and Adonis and Rape of Lucrece (Narrative Poems) Sonnets (154 in number).
Christopher Marlowe:
Tamburlaine the Great Edward II Doctor Faustus The Jew of Malta The Tragedy of
Dido, Queen of Carthage.
George Peele:
The Araygnement of Paris The Famous Chronicle of King Edward I
Robert Greene:
Frier Bacon and Frier Bungey Orlando Furioso Pandosto

Thomas Nash:
The Unfortunate Traveller Or The Life of Jack Wilton
Thomas Lodge:
The Wounds of Civil War Rosalynde
Thomas Kyd:
The Spanish Tragedy
John Lyly:
Euphues, The Anatomy of Wit Euphues and His England Endymion

Francis Bacon:
Essays The Advancement of Learning The New Atlantis Novum Organum
John Fletcher:
Philaster
The Maid's Tragedy
John Webster:
The White Devil The Duchess of Malfi The Devil's Law Case.
John Ford:
The Broken Heart 'Tis Pity She is a Whore The Lover's Melancholy Love's Sacrifice
Philip Massinger:
A New Way to Pay Old Debts The City Madam The Duke Milaine
Thomas Heywood:
A Woman Killed with Kindness The English Traveller The Captives
Francis Beaumont:
A King and No King The Night of the Burning Pestle
Roger Ascham:
The Schoolemaster
Robert Burton:
The Anatomy of Melancholy

Sir Thomas Browne:
Religio Medici Vulgar Errors Hydrotaphia or Urne Burriale Christian Morals
Thomas Hobbes:
Leviathan
Jeremy Taylor:
The Liberty of Prophesying Holy Living Holy Dying
Thomas Fuller:
The Church History of Britain The Worthies of England Good Thoughts and Bad Times
Sir Thomas More:
Utopia (English Version)
Raleigh:
History of the World
Raphael Holinshed:
Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland
Richard Hakluyt:
Discoveries of English Nation
Richard Hooker:
Ecclesiastical Polity
William Webbe:
Discourse of English Poetrie
George Puttenham:
Arte of English Poesie
Questions
1. One of the following dramatists did not belong to the group of 'University Wits'. Identify him:
(B) John Webster (D) Thomas Kyd (A) Marlowe (C) George Peele
2.Who is the author of Steel Glass?
(A) Sackville (B) Beaumont (C) Gascoin (D) Thomas Nashe
3. In which year was the Globe Theatre built?

(A) 1588 (B) 1590 (C) 1594 (D) 1599
4. Shakespeare's Sonnets were first published in:

(A) 1609 (B) 1598 (C) 1616 (D) 1600
5. Who was the author of Endymion?

(A) Ben Jonson (B) John Lyly (C) Robert Greene (D) Thomas Lodge
6. Who is the author of Venus and Adonis?

(A) Shakespeare (B) Sidney (C) Spenser (D) John Lyly
7. How many plays did Shakespeare write in all?

(A) 36 (B) 37 (C) 38 (D) 39
8. When Sidney died, Spenser wrote an elegy on his death. Which of the following?
(A) Amoretti (B) Astrophel (C) Epithalamion (D) Shepherd's Calendar
9. Spenser's Epithalamion is:

(A) an elegy
(C) a sonnet
(B) a narrative poem
(D) a wedding hymn
10. Spenser's Amoretti is:

(A) a collection of his love lyrics
(B) a collection of his love sonnets
(C) a collection of his miscellaneous songs
(D) an elegy on the death of Sidney
11. Spenser wrote a series of sonnets in honour of his lady love, Elizabeth Boyle,
whom he later married. What title did he give to this series?
(A) Epithalamion
(B) Venus and Adonis
(C) Amoretti
(D) Astrophel and Stella
12. Roister Doister is believed to be the first real comedy in English. Who wrote it?
(A) John Heywood
(B) Thomas Norton
(C) Nicholas Udall
(D) Thomas Sackville
13. Gorboduc is believed to be our first real tragedy. It was written in collaboration by:
(A) Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton
(B) Nicholas Udall and Thomas Sackville
18
(C) Thomas Norton and John Heywood

(D) John Heywood and Thomas Sackville
14. The first tragedy Gorboduc was later entitled:

(A) Gammer Gurton's Needle
(B) Endymion
(C) Corpus Christi
(D) Ferrex and Porrex
15. Sidney's Apologie for Poetrie is a reply to:

(A) Gosson's School of Abuse
(B) Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity
(C) Aristotle's Poetics
(D) Longinus's On the Sublime
16. In his Apologie for Poetrie, Sidney:

(A) defends Poetry but condemns Drama
(B) prefers History to Poetry
(C) condemns Blank Verse
(D) defends the Three Dramatic Unities
17. One of the following dramatists has written only Tragedies. Identify him:
(A) Ben Jonson
(B) Marlowe
(C) John Webster
(D) John Ford
18. "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?" In which play does this line occur?
(A) Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra
(B) Marlowe's Dr. Faustus
(C) Webster's Duchess of Malfi
(D) John Ford's The Broken Heart
19. Who used the phrase 'Marlowe's mighty line' for Marlowe's Blank Verse?
(A) Shakespeare
(B) Ben Jonson '
(C) Coleridge
(D) Dryden
20. Who said, "Shakespeare has only heroines and no heroes"?

(A) Arnold
(B) Johnson
(C) Ruskin
(D) Dryden
21. For what is the phrase 'The Mousetrap' used by Shakespeare?

(A) Hamlet's tragic flaw
(B) The ghost of Hamlet's father
(C) The play within the play in Hamlet
(D) Hamlet's conscience
22. Spenser dedicates the Preface to The Faerie Queene to:
(A) Queen Elizabeth
(B) Sir Walter Raleigh
(C) Bacon
(D) Sidney
23. The Faerie Queene is an allegory. In this Queen Elizabeth is allegorized through
the character of:
(A) Duessa
(B) Gloriana
(C) Una
(D) Charissa
24. Who calls Spenser the 'Poets' Poet'?

(A) Matthew Arnold
(B) Sidney
(C) Hazlitt
(D) Charles Lamb
25. In which work did Spenser first use the Spenserian stanza?
(A) Faerie Queene
(B) Amoretti
(C) The Shepherd's Calendar
(D) Epithalamion
26. In the original scheme or plan of the Faerie Queene as designed by Spenser, it
was to be completed in:
(A) One whole Book
(B) Six Books
(C) Twelve Books
(D) Ten Books
19
27. How many Cantos are there in Book I of the Faerie Queene?
(A) Six
(B) Ten
(C) Four
(D) Twelve
28. In the complete plan of the Allegory in the Faerie Queene, Spenser designed to have twelve books in
it, but he could not complete the whole plan. How many Books now exist?
(A) One
(B) Three
(C) Six
(D) Ten
29. In the Dedicatory Letter, Spenser says that the real beginning of the allegory in the Faerie Queene is
to be found in:
(A) Book I
(B) Book XII
(C) Book X
(D) Book VI
30. The Faerie Queene is basically a moral allegory. From whom did Spenser derive
this concept of moral allegory?
(A) Plato
(B) Aristotle
(C) Homer
(D) Vergil
31. 'Spenser writ no language. ' Who said this?

(A) Dryden
(B) Dr. Johnson
(C) Ben Jonson
(D) Matthew Arnold
32. Spenser divided his Shepheardes Calender into twelve Eclogues. Why did he do
so?
(A) Because he designed to divide his Faerie Queene also into twelve Books
(B) Because twelve was supposed, to be a standard number for a long allegory
(C) Because there are twelve months in a year
(D) No explanation is possible
33. Who is the author of The New Atlantis?

(A) Bacon
(B) John Lyly
(C) Shakespeare
(D) Marlowe
34. Bacon's Essays are modelled on the Essais of:

(A) Vergil
(B) Aristophanes
(C) Montaigne
(D) Plato
35. Who is the author of Novum Organum?
(A) Bacon
(B) Ben Jonson
(C) Sir Walter Raleigh
(D) Raphael Holinshed
36. To whom does Spenser dedicate his Shepheardes Calendar?

(A) Sir Walter Raleigh
(B) Queen Elizabeth
(C) Sir Philip Sidney
(D) Prince Arthur
37. How many Essays were published in Bacon's First Edition of Essays in 1597?
(A) Ten
(B) Twelve
(C) Thirty-eight
(D) Fifteen
38. How many essays of Bacon were published in his third and last edition of Essays in 1625?
(A) 29
(B) 40
(C) 58
(D) 62
39. "a mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may
make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it. " In which essay of Bacon do these lines occur?
(A) Of Great Place
(B) Of Truth
(C) Of Honour and Reputation
(D) Of Followers and Friends
20
40. "A place sheweth the man and it sheweth some to the better, and some to the
worse. " In which essay of Bacon do these lines occur?
(A) Of Honour and Reputation
(B) Of Followers and Friends
(C) Of Friendship
(D) Of Great Place
41. "Frailty thy name is woman. " Who says this?

(A) Hamlet
(B) Othello
(C) King Lear
(D) Macbeth
42. "Life is a tale, told by an idiot,

Full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing. "
In which play do these lines occur?
(A) Julius Caesar
(B) Hamlet
(C) Macbeth
(D) Richard II
43. "This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise . . . . . . "
These highly patriotic lines are spoken by:
(A) John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster
(B) Richard II
(C) Henry IV
(D) King Lear
44. "The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,

Are of imagination all compact. "
(A) Much Ado About Nothing
(B) As You Like It
(C) A Mid-Summer Night's Dream
(D) Twelfth Night
45. "Neither a borrower nor a lender be:

For loan often loses both itself and friend. "
Who speaks these lines?
(A) Polonius
(B) Horatio
(C) Laertes
(D) Prospero
46. "We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep"
Who speaks these lines?
(A) Brutus
(B) Polonius
(C) Hamlet
(D) Prospero
47. "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player.

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage.
And then is heard no more. "
(A) Tempest
(B) As You Like It
(C) Macbeth
(D) Hamlet
48. "Others abide our question. Thou art free.

We ask and ask—thou smilest and art still,
Out-topping knowledge. "
These lines are written about Shakespeare. Who has written them?
(A) Keats
(B) Matthew Arnold
(C) Shelley
(D) Tennyson
49. Shakespeare is called The Bard of Avon'. Why is he so called?

(A) 'Avon' was the surname of his family
(B) 'Avon' was the name of the town where he was born
(C) 'Avon' was a title conferred on him by Queen Elizabeth
(D) Shakespeare was born at Stratford on the banks of the river Avon
21
50. Ben Jonson's comedies are called 'Comedies of Humour'. Why?

(A) They are all highly humorous comedies
(B) Each of them deals with a particular 'Humour' in human nature
(C) He was the first writer of really humorous comedies
(D) To distinguish his great comedies from contemporary farcical comedies.
True or False

1. Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne of England in 1558.
2. Shakespeare wrote in all 36 plays.
3. Shakespeare was born at Avon.
4. Marlowe was the closest follower of Shakespeare in his Tragic Concept.
5. The Shepheardes Calendar is based on the models set by Theocritus.
6. Queen Elizabeth is allegorized in Lady Una in Spenser's Faerie Queene.
7. John Lyly was a poet, not a dramatist.
8. Shakespeare's Othello has "a play within a play. "
9. Lyly's Euphues is a prose-work.
10. Bacon was the author of Novum Organum.
(I) Match the Authors in Column A with their works in Column B:
A B
Author Works
1. Spenser (a) Jew of Malta

2. Sidney (b) The Maid's Tragedy
3. Shakespeare (c) The Alchemist
4. Bacon (d) Astrophel
5. Ben Jonson (e) The Broken Heart
6. Marlowe (f) Endymion
7. John Ford (g) The White Devil
8. John Webster (h) Coriolanus
9. Beaumont (i) Novum Organum
10. John Lyly (j) Arcadia
(II) Match the events in Column A with their dates in Column B:
A B
Event Year
1. The play houses the Theatre and the Curtain built in London (a) 1611
2. Death of Shakespeare (b) 1616
3. Authorised Version of the Bible appeared (c) 1599
4. Death of Spenser (d) 1576
5. Accession of Queen Elizabeth (e) 1561
6. Death of Beaumont (f) 1616
7. Bacon born (g) 1558
8. Arcadia published (h) 1613
22
(I) Which of the following arrangements of the poetical works is in the correct chronological order?
(a) Every Man in his Humour; First Edition of Bacon's Essays; Tamburlaine the Great; Authorised
Version of the Bible
(b) Authorised Version of the Bible; Every Man in His Humour; Tamburlaine the Great; First Edition of
Bacon's Essays
(c) Tamburlaine the Great; First Edition of Bacon's Essays; Every Man in His Humour; Authorised
Version of the Bible
(d) Tamburlaine the Great; Authorised Version of the Bible; First Edition of Bacon's Essays, Every Man
in His Humour
(II) Which of the following arrangements of Shakespeare's plays is in the correct chronological
order?
(a) Love's Labour's Lost; Henry V; Measure for Measure; Cymbeline
(b) Measure for Measure; Love's Labour's Lost; Henry V; Cymbeline
(c) Cymbeline; Love's Labour's Lost; Measure for Measure; Henry V
(d) Love's Labour's Lost; Cymbeline; Measure for Measure; Henry V
ANSWERS
l.(B) 2.(C) 3. (D) 4. (A) 5. (B) 6. (A) 7. (B) 8. (B) 9. (D) 10. (B)
11. (C) 12. (C) 13. (A) 14. (D) 15. (A) 16. (D) 17. (B) 18. (B) 19. (B) 20. (C)
21. (C) 22. (B) 23. (B) 24. (D) 25. (A) 26. (C) 27. (D) 28. (C) 29. (B) 30. (B)
31. (C) 32. (C) 33. (A) 34. (C) 35. (A) 36. (C) 37. (A) 38. (C) 39. (B) 40. (D)
41. (A) 42. (C) 43. (A) 44. (C) 45. (A) 46. (D) 47. (C) 48. (B) 49. (D) 50. (B)
True or False
l. T 2.F 3.F 4.F 5. T 6. F 7.F 8.F 9.T 10. T
(I)
l. d 2. j 3. h 4. i 5. c 6. a 7. e 8. g 9.b 10. f
(II)
1. d 2.f 3. a 4. c 5. g 6. b 7. e 8. h
(I) c (II) a
23
Chapter 3
Jacobean to Restoration Period

Jacobean to Restoration Period
(1603-1700)
(i) The Period at a Glance

The period from the Jacobean Age to the Restoration is a long period of nearly a hundred years in the
history of England. It was a period of the greatest sociopolitical and religious upheavals in the history of
England. Broadly speaking, this long period can be divided into the following historical periods:
1. The Jacobean Age (1603-1625)
2. The Coroline Age or The Age of Charles I (1625-1649)
3. The Interim Period of Commonwealth (1649-1660)
4. The Period of Restoration of Charles II (1660-1685)
5. James II (1685-1688)
6. The Socio-Cultural Aftermath of the Restoration (Upto 1700)
After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, James I ascended the throne of England. The period of his
reign is called the Jacobean Age. After the glorious and glamorous period of Queen Elizabeth, the reign of
James I showed a sharp decline in every field of national life. The spirit of Renaissance, the craze for
learning, the spirit for daring voyages for the discovery of new lands, and the solidarity of England which
had all touched the high water mark during the Elizabethan Age started declining like spent up forces.
Several kinds of dissipating forces, specially in the domain of religion, had started emerging and
weakening the nation.
(ii) Important Events of the Period
Historical Poetry Drama Prose

Reign of James I Milton's: Nativity Death of Fletcher, Sir Thomas Browne's
(1603-1625) Ode, 1625 Religio Medici
Reign of Charles I 1629 Death of Ben Jonson, Milton's
(1625-1649) L'Allegro and III 1637 Areapagitica
Commonwealth Penseroso, 1633 The Theatres Closed, Pepys's Diary
(1649- 1660) Comus, 1634 1642 Dryden's : Essay
Death of Cromwell, Lycidos, 1637 Reopening of the of
1659 Death of Donne, 1631 theatres, 1660 Dramatic Poesy
Restoration of Charles Dryden's: On the Dryden's: Essay of Heroic Plays
II- 1660 Death of Cromwell Tyrannic Love, 1669 Bunyan's:
Reign of Charles 1659 Conquest of Pilgrim's Progress
II (1660-1685) Annus and Mirabilis, Granada Pt. I, 1678
The Great Fire 1667 1670 Pt. II. 1684
of London. 1666 Absolem and All for Love, 1678 Mr. Badman, 1680
Reign of James II Achitophel, 1681 Wycherley's Holy War, 1682
(1685-1688) Fables, 1699 Comedies, Death of Bunyan,
The Glorious Milton's: Paradise 1671-77 1688
Revolution, 1688 Lost, Otway's Orphan,
King James II flees, 1667, Paradise 1680
1688 Regained & Samson Death of Waller,
William III and his Agonistes, 1671 1687
Wife Death of Milton,
Mary II jointly 1674
succeed, 1689 Butler's: Hudibras
Mary II dies, 1694 Pt. I, 1663
William III dies, 1702 Pt. II, 1664 Pt. III,
1678 Dryden's death,
1700
24
(iii) Major Authors of the Period
(1) Poetry
Poets Years Poets Years

Robert Herrick 1591-1674 John Donne 1573-1631
Caroli Thomas Carew 1598-1639 Abraham Cowley 1618 -1667 Metaphysical
ne Francis Quarles 1592-1644 Richard Crashaw 1613-1649 Poets
Poets Sir John Suckling 1600-1642 George Herbert 1593-1633
Richard Lovelace 1618-1658 Henry Vaughan 1622-1695
Andrew Marvell 1621-1678 Thomas Traherne 1634-1704
John Milton 1608-1674 Edmund Waller 1605-1687

Samuel Butler 1612-1680
Sir John Denham 1615-1669
John Dryden 1631-1700
(2) Drama
Authors Years Authors Years

John Milton 1608-1674 George Farquhar 1678-1707
John Dryden 1631-1700 Nathaniel Lee 1653-1692
William Wycherley 1640-1716 Thomas Otway 1652-1685
William Congreve 1670-1729 George Etheredge 1635-1691
John Vanbrugh 1664-1726
(3) Prose

John Milton 1608-1674 Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679
Jeremy Taylor 1613-1667 John Dryden 1631-1700
Richard Baxtor 1615-1691 John. Bunyan 1628-1688
Thomas Fuller 1608-1661 Sir William Temple 1628-1699
Sir Thomas Browne 1605-1682 John Tillotson 1630-1694
Robert Burton 1577-1640 John Locke 1632-1704
Izaac Walton 1593-1683 John Evelyn 1620-1706
Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon 1609-1674 Samuel Pepys 1633-1703
Robert Herrick:
Noble Numbers
Hesperides
Thomas Carew:
Poems
'He that loves a rosy cheek'
Sir John Suckling:
'Ballad upon a Wedding'
'Why so pale and wan, Fond Lover?
Richard Lovelace:
To Althia from Prison'
Lucasta
To Lucasta going to the Wars
Andrew Marvell:
To His Coy Mistress',
The Rehearsal Transprosed'
'Ode upon Cromwell's Return from
Ireland' New Letters (a Prose Work)
George Herbert:
The Temple
Affliction
Easter Wings
The Collar
Man
25
Richard Crashaw:
Carmen Deo Nostro
The Infant Mortyrs
Steps to the Temple
Francis Quarles:
The Religious Emblems
John Milton:
Paradise Lost (in twelve Books)
Paradise Regained
Comus
Lycidas
Samson Agonistes
L'Allegro
III Penseroso
Areopagitica (Prose Work)
Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity
Sonnets (including):
'On His Blindness'
'On the Late Massacre in Piedmont'
'When the Assault was Intended to the City'
'On His Having Arrived at the Age Twenty-three'
A large number of Tracts and Pamphlets in support of the Parliament
John Donne:
Songs and Sonnets
Aire and Angels
A Nocturnall upon Lucies Day
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
The Extasie
Devotions (Sermons in Prose)
Ignatius His Enclave (a Prose Work)
Of the Progress of the Soul
Death's Duell
Abraham Cowley:
Pyramus and Thisbe
The Mistress
The Davideis
Pindarique Odes
Constantia and Philetus
Discourse by Way of Vision
Concerning the Government of Cromwell (a Prose Work)
Henry Vaughan:
Poems Regeneration
The Retreat
Olor Iscanus
Thalia Redivia
Silex Scintillans
Thomas Traherne:.
Poems
Centuries of Meditations (a Prose Work)
Samuel Butler:
Hudibras
Sir John Denham:
Cooper's Hill
Poems
John Dryden:
(i) Heroic Stanzas on the Death of Oliver Cromwell
Astraea Redux (on the Restoration of Charles II)
Absalom and Achitophel
Religio Laici
The Hind and the Panther
The Fables
Annus Mirabilis
The Medal
Mac Flecknoe
Alexander's Feast
Prefaces to His Plays (in Prose)
An Essay of Dramatic Poesy
(ii) Dryden's Plays
Tyrannic Love
Conquest of Granada
All for Love
The Rival Ladies
The Indian Emperor
Aureng-Zeb
DonSebastian
Cleomenes
Love Triumphant
William Wycherley:
Love in Wood
The Plain Dealer
The Country Wife
The Gentleman
Dancing Master
William Congreve:
The Way of the World
The Old Bachelor
26
The Double Dealer

Love for Love
The Mourning Bride
John Vanbrugh:
The Relapse
The Provoked Wife
The Confederacy
George Farquhar:
The Recruiting Officer
The Beaux Stratagem
George Btheredge:
The Comical Revenge
She Would if She Could
The Man of Mode
Thomas Otway:
Orphan
Venice Preserved
Don Carlos
Alcibiades
Nathaniel Lee:
Nero
The Rival Queens
Sophonisba
John Bunyan:
The Pilgrim's Progress
Grace Abounding
The Life and Death of Mr. Badman
The Holy War
John Locke:
Essay on the Human Understanding
Treatise on Government
Thoughts on Education
John Evelyn:
Diary
Samuel Pepys:
Diary
Questions
1. Whose Age is called the Jacobean Age?

(A) The Age of Charles I
(B) The Age of James I
(C) The Age of Charles II
(D) The Age of James II
2. Who headed the Puritan Government formed after the execution of Charles I?
(A) Charles II
(B) Cromwell
(C) James I
(D) James II
3. Who was appointed the Latin Secretary during the Puritan Government?
(A) Milton
(B) Dryden
(C) Cromwell
(D) Samuel Butler
4. Samson Agonistes is:
(A) an epic written by Milton
(B) a poetic Biography of Samson Agonistes written by Milton
(C) a poetic play written by Milton
(D) a long pamphlet in defence of Cromwell
5. Milton wrote Areopagittca:
(A) to defend the cause of the Regicides
(B) to condemn the deeds of the Regicides
(C) to defend people's Freedom of Speech
(D) to propagate his faith in Puritanism
6. How many Books are there in Paradise Lost?
(A) 8
(B) 10
(C) 12
(D) 6
7. In which Book of Paradise Lost Adam and Eve meet for the first time?
(A) Book I
(B) Book II
(C) Book III
(D) Book IV
8. Identify the author of Hudibras:
(A) Dryden
(B) Samuel Butler
(C) John Denham
(D) Abraham Cowley
9. The term 'Metaphysical School of Poets' was first applied to Donne and his
companion poets by:
(A) Matthew Arnold
(B) Dryden
(C) Dr. Johnson
(D) Coleridge
10. One of the following authors was not a Caroline prose writer. Identify him:
(A) Jeremy Taylor
(B) John Bunyan
(C) Thomas Fuller
(D) Richard Baxter
11. Which of the following was the author of 'Religio Medici'?
(A) Milton
(B) Dryden
(C) Sir Thomas Browne
(D) Thomas Hobbes
12. 'Fame is the last infirmity of noble mind'. In which poem of Milton's does this
line occur?
(A) Comas
(B) Paradise Regained
(C) Lycidas
(D) Samson Agonistes
28
13. Name the woman whom Samson Agonistes loved and who betrayed him:
(A) Helen
(B) Delilah
(C) Prosperpine
(D) Rosalind
14. Milton became blind at the age of:
(A) 38
(B) 43
(C) 33
(D) 44
15. Lycidas is a pastoral elegy written by Milton on the death of his friend:
(A) Arthur Hallam
(B) Cromwell
(C) Edward King
(D) Charles I
16. Who says of Milton: Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart'?
(A) Wordsworth
(B) Matthew Arnold
(C) Dr. Johnson
(D) Keats
17. 'Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour !'
Who remembers Milton in a sonnet so passionately?
(A) Shelley
(B) Wordsworth
(C) Keats
(D) Matthew Arnold
18. How many times did Milton marry?
(A) Only once
(B) Two times
(C) Three times
(D) Did not marry at all
19. In which year did Dryden die?
(A) 1700
(B) 1650
(C) 1750
(D) 1777
20. Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy is:
(A) a long poetical work
(B) a play in Five Acts
(C) a critical treatise on dramatic art developed through dialogues
(D) a long essay on the art and craft of English dramatists
21. Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy develops through dialogues amongst four
interlocutors. One of the following is not one of those interlocutors. Identify
him:
(A) Eugenius
(B) Crites
(C) Leslie
(D) Neander
22. In Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy Neander speaks for:
(A) French Dramatists
(B) Greek Dramatists
(C) Ancient Dramatists
(D) Modern English Dramatists
23. Which of the following is not a play written by Dryden?
(A) All For Love
(B) Love's Labours Lost
(C) Conquest of Granada
(D) Tyrannic Love
24. Dryden's All For Love is based on:
(A) Samson Agonistes
(B) Romeo and Juliet
(C) Caesar and Cleopatra
(D) Antony and Cleopatra
25. Who is the author of The Essay on Human Understanding?
(A) John Tillotson
(B) John Evelyn
(C) John Locke
(D) Samuel Pepys
26. Who is the author of Mr. Badman?
(A) Samuel Butler
(B) Congreve
(C) Bunyan
(D) John Locke
27. The central theme of Dryden's The Hind and the Panther is:
(A) Defence of Puritanism
(B) Defence of Protestantism
(C) Defence of Roman Catholicism
(D) Defence of Anglicanism
29
28. Dryden said in one of his critical treatises: "Our numbers (Versification) were in
their nonage till these two appeared." Whom does Dryden refer to in this
observation?
(A) Waller and Denham
(B) Samuel Butler and Cowley
(C) Milton and Donne
(D) Herrick and Taylor
29. Samuel Butler's Hudibras is a satire on:
(A) Restoration of kingship
(B) Contemporary social life
(C) Puritanism
(D) Contemporary poetry
30. One of the following works of John Bunyan is autobiographical. Which is it?
(A) The Pilgrim's Progress
(B) The Life and Death of Mr. Badman
(C) Grace Abounding
(D) The Holy War
31. Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress is:
(A) a travelogue
(B) an allegory
(C) a picaresque novel
(D) a long sermon
32. Who is the author of the play 'Venice Preserved?
(A) Thomas Otway
(B) George Farquhar
(C) William Congreve
(D) William Wycherley
33. 'Gather ye rose-buds while ye may'. This is the opening line of a popular lyric
written by Robert Herrick. Which of the following?
(A) To Daffodils'
(B) To Blossoms'
(C) 'Counsel to Girls'
(D) To Dianeme'
34. Which of the following plays is written by William Congreve?
(A) She wou'd if she cou'd
(B) Love in Wood
(C) The Way of the World
(D) The Provoked Wife
35. Which of the following plays is written by William Wycherley?
(A) Love for Love
(B) The Comical Revenge or Love in a Tub
(C) The Relapse
(D) The Country Wife
36. Which of the following was the author of The Rival Queens?
(A) William Congreve
(B) William Wycherley
(C) Nathaniel Lee
(D) John Vanbrugh
37. "Here is God's plenty". Who is Dryden referring to in this remark?
(A) Shakespeare
(B) Marlowe
(C) Chaucer
(D) Spenser
38. The Faerie Queene, Divina Comedia, and Pilgrim's Progress are alike in one
respect. What is it?
(A) All are religious
(B) All are political
(C) All are Biblical
(D) All are allegories
39. One of the following Restoration playwrights gave a happy ending to King Lear.
Identify the playwright:
(A) Thomas Otway
(B) Nathaniel Lee
(C) Nahun Tate
(D) George Farquhar
30
40. The theatres were closed down during the Commonwealth period in England. In
which year were they reopened?
(A) 1649
(B) 1655
(C) 1660
(D) 1658
41. The Age of Restoration is so called because one of the following was restored to
the English throne:
(A) Charles I
(B) Charles II
(C) James I
(D) James II
42. There are four interlocutors in Drydens Essay of Dramatic Poesy. Which of them
represents Dryden?
(A) Crites
(B) Lisidius
(C) Neander
(D) Eugenius
43. "Here lies my wife, here let her rest!
Now she is at rest, and so am I! "
This was a proposed epitaph to be engraved on the tomb of his wife. Who was
this poet?
(A) Alexander Pope
(B) Ben Jonson
(C) John Dryden
(D) Samuel Butler
44. Dryden's The Medal is a personal satire on:
(A) Shaftesbury
(B) James II
(C) Charles I
(D) John Bunyan
45. Which of the following is a Cavalier poet?
(A) Richard Lovelace
(B) John Donne
(C) Samuel Butler
(D) John Milton
46. Which of the following is hailed as The Father of English Criticism' by Dr.
Johnson?
(A) Sidney
(B) Ben Jonson
(C) Dryden
(D) Pope
47. Name the most important Caroline poet:
(A) Robert Herrick
(B) Thomas Carew
(C) Sir John Suckling
(D) Richard Lovelace
48. The Restoration marks the real moment of birth of our Modern English Prose."
Who makes this observation?
(A) Dryden
(B) Addison
(C) Matthew Arnold
(D) Dr. Johnson
49. Samuel Pepy's Diary was written in coded language. When was it deciphered?
(A) 1703
(B) 1669
(C) 1770
(D) 1825
50. Zimri, Duke of Buckingham, is a character that appears in Dryden's:
(A) McFlecknoe
(B) Absolem and Achitophel
(C) The Medal
(D) The Rehearsal
True or False
Directions: Which of the following statements are true or false?

1. Milton was bom in 1608.
2. Charles I was executed in 1625.
3. Cromwell died in 1659.
4. Dryden died in 1700.
5. James II ascended the throne in 1688.
6. The Great Fire of London occurred in 1766.
7. The Theatres of England were closed down in 1642.
31
8. Milton married three times.

9. The Age of Charles I is called Caroline Age.
10. The Age of Charles II is called Jacobean Age.
11. Sir John Vanbrugh was one of the playwrights of the Restoration Age.
12. Milton's Comus is a classical play.
13. Milton's Areopagitica is a burlesque.
14. John Donne was the author of Religio Medici.
15. The Pilgrim's Progress by Bunyan is an account of his pilgrimage to Palestine.
(I) Match the following types of comedies with their authors
Type of Comedy Author

1. Comedy of Humours (A) Shakespeare
2. Comedy of Manners (b) William Congreve
3. Restoration Comedy (C) Ben Jonson
4. Sentimental Comedy (d) Oliver Goldsmith
5. Romantic tragi-comedy (e) William Wycherley
(II) Match the following events with their dates
Event Date
1. Execution of Charles I (a) 1649
2. Establishment of Commonwealth (b) 1700
3. Death of Cromwell (c) 1666
4. Death of Dryden (d) 1660
5. Restoration of Charles II (e) 1685
6. The Great Fire of London (f) 1649
7. Accession of James II (g) 1659
8. Milton becomes blind (h) 1652
(I) Which of the following arrangements of the literary works are in the correct chronological
order?
(a) Comus, Religio Medici, Areopagitica, Essay of Dramatic Poesy
(b) Areopagitica, Religio Medici, Essay of Dramatic Poesy, Comus
(c) Essay of Dramatic Poesy, Religio Medici, Comus, Areopagitica
(d) Areopagitica, Comus, Religio Medici, Essay of Dramatic Poesy
(II) Which of the following arrangements of the poets is in the correct chronological order
according to their dates of birth?
(a) John Denham, Edmund Waller, Samuel Butler, Milton
(b) Samuel Butler, Milton, Edmund Waller, John Denham
(c) Edmund Waller, Milton, Samuel Butler, John Denham
(d) Milton, Edmund Waller, John Denham, Butler
32
ANSWERS
1. (B) 2. (B) 3. (A) 4. (C) 5. (C) 6. (C) 7. (D) 8. (B) 9.(C) 10. (B)
11. (C) 12. (C) 13. (B) 14. (D) 15. (C) 16. (A) 17. (B) 18. (C) 19. (A) 20. (C)
21. (C) 22. (D) 23. (B) 24. (D) 25. (C) 26. (C) 27. (C) 28. (A) 29. (C) 30. (C)
31. (B) 32. (A) 33. (C) 34. (C) 35. (D) 36. (C) 37. (C) 38. (D) 39. (C) 40. (C)
41. (B) 42. (C) 43. (C) 44. (A) 45. (A) 46. (C) 47. (A) 48. (C) 49. (D) 50. (B)
True or False
l. T 2.F 3.T 4. T 5. F 6. F 7.T 8.T 9.T 10. F
11. T 12. F 13. F 14. F 15. F
(I)
l. c 2.b 3. e 4. d 5. a
(II)
1. f 2. a 3. g 4. b 5. d 6. c 7. e 8. h
(I) a (II) c
33
4 The Augustan Age

(18th Century Literature)

The eighteenth century in English literature is roughly called the Augustan Age. It is also called the
Classic or Neo-Classical Age in English literature. Broadly speaking, the eighteenth century is divisible
into two literary Ages:
(i) The Age of Pope (1700-1745)
(ii) The Age of Johnson (1745-1798)
Though the broad features of both the Ages are alike, there is a marked advance in literary values in the
Age of Johnson over the Age of Pope.
Why is it called the Augustan Age?
The term 'Augustan' was first applied to the literature of the 18th century as a term of high praise. The
eighteenth century is called our 'indispensable century'. Those who used this term believed that as the Age
of Emperor Augustus was the golden age in Latin Literature in the Roman Empire, so the eighteenth
century was the golden age in literature in England. Now the term has just become a catchword to draw an
analogy between the English literature of the first half of the eighteenth century and the Latin literature of
the times of Vergil and Horace. Commenting upon this analogy W. H. Hudson says: "In both cases men of
letters were largely dependent upon powerful patrons. In both cases a critical spirit prevailed. In both
cases the literature produced by a thoroughly artificial society was a literature, not of free creative effort
and inspiration, but of self-conscious and deliberate art."
Why is it called Classic Age?
Eighteenth Century is also called Classic Age or Neo-Classical Age. The term Classical refers to ancient
Latin literature which flourished in the Roman Empire. The Latin poets and critics of this age were
believed to be the best models and ultimate standards of literary taste. The English poets and critics of the
early eighteenth century felt honoured in being able to copy these classical poets and critics. Hence they
were called Neo-Classicists. Again, like these Latin poets and critics, the English poets and critics of this
age had little faith in the inspiration and talent of individual genius and had absolute faith in the laws and
rules as prescribed and practised by the ancients. A notable critic Walsh wrote to Pope: "The best of the
modern poets in all languages are those that have nearest copied the ancients." This was the basic principle
of Classicism. So writes Pope in his Essay on Criticism:
"Those Rules of old discover'd, not devis'd.
Are Nature still, but Nature methodiz'd:
Nature, like liberty, is but restrain'd
By the same laws which herself ordain'd.
Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem.
To copy Nature is to copy them."
34
Predominance of Logic and Reason:

The Age preceding the Classic Age was the Restoration Age. The Restoration Age was notoriously known
for its moral depravity, outrageous licentiousness, scandalous profligacy and corruption. It was also an age
of uncontrolled passion, extravagance and irrational sentimentalism. In the Age of Pope there was a
general disapproval of and reaction against all these indecencies and irrationality. The people were fast
growing sick of the outrageous licence and profligacy. There was resolute attempt in the direction of
moral regeneration and control of passion. Thus while revolting in this way against Restoration profligacy,
the men of this age were equally hostile to everything that savoured of Puritan fanaticism and religious
zeal. Good sense became the idol of the time, and good sense meant love of the reasonable and the useful,
and hatred of the extravagant, the mystical, and the visionary. This led to the supremacy of logic and
reason. All the preachers appealed to the reason and good sense of the people. All the theological writings
of the eighteenth century were characterized by this rationalistic and utilitarian temper.
Lack of passion and emotion in literature:
The same temper of suppression of passion and emotion, and supremacy of reason, logic and good sense
prevailed in the literature of this Age. It was a literature of intelligence, of wit, and of fancy, not a
literature of emotion, passion, or creative genius. Spontaneity and simplicity were sacrificed to the
dominant mania for elegance and correctness. More emphasis was laid on the form than on the spirit.
Literature of Town-life:
In their search for decency, good sense, elegance and mannerism, the literary men confined themselves to
town-life. They found rural life and even nature outside the limits of their sense of decency and good
sense. Even their poetry seldom travelled beyond the interests of that narrow world of the Town'. Their
outlook was circumscribed to coffee-houses and drawing-rooms. The poets drew their sustenance from
politics and discussions of the day. Nature was' no proper subject for their poetry. The language of their
poetry was equally stilted, artificial and mannered. The humbler aspects of life were neglected in their
poetry, and it showed no real love of nature, landscape, or country things and people.
Satirical and Didactic:
The poetry of this age, as we have said above, was in the main 'the product of intelligence playing upon
the surface of life; It was conspicuously lacking in emotion and imagination. It was commonly satirical
and didactic, a poetry of argument and criticism, of politics and personalities. The satires were social,
political and even personal. Closed Heroic Couplet:
The Neo-Classical poetry of the early eighteenth century was almost entirely written in the closed Heroic
Couplet The poets of the Elizabethan Age and even of the Restoration Age wrote their poetry in many
types of stanza forms, using different types of metres. Many eminent poets of the rank of Shakespeare and
Milton wrote much of their poetry even in Blank Verse. But the Neo-classical poets wrote their poetry
only in the closed Heroic Couplets. The closed Heroic Couplet best suited their poetic expression on
account of its epigrammatic terseness and satirical suitability. The couplet was equally suitable for
stereotyped traditional poetic diction.
A Gradual Change in the latter half of the eighteenth century:
As we have said at the beginning of this Chapter, eighteenth century was divided into two Ages—the Age
of Pope and the Age of Johnson. The English social life
35
underwent a slow but steady change in social, political, religious and literary values between these two
Ages. The new generation of the Age of Johnson started reacting against the complacency, the sterility,
the slavishness and suppression of the genius in the Age of Pope. The people of the Age of Johnson, says
W. H. Hudson, "found themselves discontent with the way in which their fathers had looked at life, with
their formalism, their narrowness of sympathy, and their controlling ideals. Weary of the long-continued
artificiality, they began to crave for something more natural and spontaneous in thought and language.
They awoke to a sense that in a world of wonder and mystery there were many things undreamt of in the
shallow philosophy of the Augustan School. In particular, they were quickened into fresh activity by the
renaissance of the feeling."
With these feelings there grew a widening and deepening sympathy with man as man, irrespective of his
position in society. More than ever before, the individual man was now recognized in his individual
personality. This spirit was further strengthened by the growing concept of democracy. People became
increasingly familiar with the notions of liberty, equality and the rights of man. Rousseau's concept that
'men are born free and equal' caught hold of the public at large. This change in human outlook had its
effect on the literature of the time. The literature of the Age of Johnson was essentially different in respect
alike of matter, spirit and form.
(ii) Important Events of the Age
Historical Events Poetry Drama Prose/Novel

Death of William; Pope's Pastorals, Steele's The Funeral, Swift's Battle of the
1702 1709 1701 Books, 1704
Pope's Essay on
Criticism, 1711
Queen Anne's Pope's Rape of the Steele's The Lying Swift's Tale of a Tub,
succession, 1702 Lock, 1712 Lover, 1703 1704
Union of England Gay's Shepherd's Steele's The Tender Steele's The Tatler,
and Scotland, 1707 Week. 1714 Husband, 1705 1709-11
Death of Queen Gay's Trivia, 1715, Addison's Cato, Berkeley's Principles
Anne. George I Pope's Homer, 1715- 1713 of Human Know-
succeeds to the 25 ledge, 1710
throne, 1714
Walpole forms Prior's Poems, 1718
Steele's The Addison's The
Ministry, 1721 Conscious Louers, Spectator, 1711
1722
Death of George I. Thomson's Seasons. Gay's Beggar's Shaftesbury's
Succession of George 1726-30 Opera, 1728 Characteristics,
II. 1727 1711
Arbuthnot's History
Death of Queen Gay's Fables, 1727 Lillo's The London of John Bull, 1713
Caroline. 1737 Merchant. 1731 Defoe's Robinson
Fall of Walpole. 1742 Pope's The Dunciad, Goldsmith's Good- Crusoe, 1719
1728 natured Man, 1768 Swift's Gulliver's
Conquest of India Pope's Moral Goldsmith's She Travels, 1726-27
begins under General Essays, 1732-35 Stoops to Conquer.
Clive. 1757 1773
George III succeeds. Pope's Essay on Man Butler's Analogy,
1760 1732-34 1736
Pope's Imitations of
Homer, 1733-37
36
American Declaration Pope's Epistle to Sheridan's Rivals, Richardson's Pamela,

of Independence, Arbuthnot, 1735 1775 1740
1776 Young's Night
Thoughts, 1742
Gordon Riots, 1780 Blair's The Grave, Sheridan's School Fielding's Joseph,
1742 for Scandal, 1777 Andrews, 1742
Invention of Steam Akenside's Pleasures Richardson's Clarissa

Engine by James of the Imagination, Harlowe, 1748
Watt, 1784 1744 Smollett's Roderick
Thomson's Castle of Random, 1748
Indolence, 1748
Abolition of Slave Johnson's The Fielding's Tom
Trade, 1787 Vanity of Human Jones, 1749
Wishes, 1749
The French Macpherson's Fielding's Amelia,

Revolution begins, Ossian, 1760-63 1751
1789
Execution of Louis Chatterton's Poems, Smollett's Peregrine
XVI, 1793 1764-70 Pickle, 1751
Goldsmith's
Traveller, 1764
French Directory Percy's Reliques of Richardson's Sir
established, 1795 Ancient English Charles Grandison,
Poetry. 1765 1753
Goldsmith's Deser-
ted Village, 1770
Napoleon becomes Crabbe's Village, Johnson's Rasselas,

First Consul; comes 1783 1759
in power, 1799
Union with Ireland, Blake's Poetical Sterne's Tristram
1800 Sketches, 1783 Shandy. 1759
Cowper's Task, 1785 Walpole's Castle of

Otranto, 1765
Blake's Songs of
Innocence, 1789
Blake's Songs of Goldsmith's Vicar
Experience, 1794 of Wakefield, 1766
Smollett's Humphry
Clinker. 1771
Mackenzie's Men of
Feeling. 1771
Burney's Evelina,
1778
Radcliffe's Romance
of the Forest. 1791
Lewis' The Monk.
1795
37
(iii)
Major Authors of the Age
(1) Poets

Alexander Pope 1688-1744 Thomas Parnell 1679-1718
Matthew Prior 1664-1721 Allan Ramsay 1686-1758
John Gay 1685-1732 James Thomson 1700-1748
Edward Young 1683-1765 William Blake 1757-1827
Robert Blair 1699-1746 George Crabbe 1754-1832
William Somerville 1675-1742 William Collins 1721-1759
Sir Samuel Garth 1661-1719 James Macpherson 1736-1796
Lady Winchilsea 1660-1720 Thomas Gray 1716-1771
Dr. Samuel Johnson 1709-1784 Robert Burns 1759-1796
Oliver Goldsmith 1728-1774 William Cowper 1731-1800
John Dyer 1700-1758 Christopher Smart 1722-1771
William Shenstone 1714-1763 Thomas Chatterton 1752-1770
James Beattie 1735-1803 Bishop Thomas Percy 1729-1811
(2) Dramatists
Richard Steele 1672-1729 John Gay 1685-1732

Joseph Addison 1672-1719 Oliver Goldsmith 1728-1774
Mrs. Centlivre 1667-1723 Dr. Samuel Johnson 1709-1784
George Lillo 1693-1739 Richard Sheridan 1751-1816
(3) Novelists and General Prose-Writers (a) General Prose

Daniel Defoe 1661-1731 Oliver Goldsmith 1728-1774
Jonathan Swift 1667-1745 David Hume 1711-1776
Joseph Addison 1672-1719 William Robertson 1721-1793
Richard Steele 1672-1729 Edward Gibbon 1737-1794
John Arbuthnot 1667-1735 Thomas Paine 1737-1809
Henry John, Lord Bolingbroke 1678-1751 William Godwin 1756-1836
Francis Atterbury 1662-1732 Lady Mary Wortley 1689-1762
Colley Cibber 1671-1757 Montagu
Lord Shaftesbury 1671-1713 Philip Dormer 1694-1773
Stanhope,
George Berkeley 1685-1753 Earl of Chesterfield
Joseph Butler 1692-1752 Horace Walpole 1717-1797
Dr. Samuel Johnson 1709-1784 Adam Smith 1723-1790
James Boswell 1740-1795 Edmund Burke 1729-1797
(b) Novelists

Daniel Defoe 1661-1731 Oliver Goldsmith 1728-1774
Jonathan Swift 1667-1745 Miss Frances Burney 1752-1840
Samuel Richardson 1689-1761 Horace Walpole 1717-1797
Henry Fielding 1707-1754 Mrs. Ann Radcliffe 1764-1823
Tobias Smollett 1721-1771 Matthew Gregory Lewis 1775-1818
Laurence Sterne 1713-1768
38
Alexander Pope:
Pastorals
An Essay on Criticism
Windsor Forest
The Rape of the Lock
Dunciad
Translation of Iliad and Odyssey
To Lord Bathurst
On the Use of the Riches
An Essay on Man
Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot
Of the Knowledge and Characters of Men
Of the Characters of Women
The Messiah
Satires and Epistles of Horace Imitated
Matthew Prior:
Solomon on the Vanity of the World
Alma: or the Progress of the Mind
The Town and Country Mouse
John Gay:
Fables
The Shepherd's Week
The Rural Sports
Trivia
The Beggar's Opera
The Streets of London
Edward Young:
Night Thoughts
Robert Blair:
The Crave
Lady Winchilsea:
The Spleen
The Prodigy
A Nocturnal Reverie
Dr. Samuel Johnson:
The Vanity of Human Wishes
London
The Lives of the Poets
Preface to Shakespeare
Dictionary of the English Language
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
The Rambler
Rasselas
Prince of Abyssinia
The Life of Savage
The Adventurer
The Idler
Oliver Goldsmith:
The Traveller
The Deserted Village
The Good-Natured Man
She Stoops to Conquer
The Citizen of the World
The Vicar of Wakefield
The Hermit
Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog
Robert Blair:
The Grave
Daniel Defoe:
Robinson Crusoe
Mall Flanders
Colonel Jack
The Memoirs of a Cavalier
Captain Singleton
Journal of the Plague Year
Roxana
Jonathan Swift:
The Battle of the Books
A Tale of a Tub
Gulliver's Travels
Journal to Stella
The Drapier's Letters
Cadenus and Vanessa
Joseph Addison:
The Spectator
The Campaign
Public Credit
The Vision of Mirza
Cato
Rosamond
The Drummer
Richard Steele:
The Tatler
The Guardian
The Funeral
The Lying Lover
The Tender Husband
The Conscious Lover
George Lillo:
London Merchant
Fatal Curiosity
Edward Gibbon:
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
39
Edmund Burke:
Speeches on American Taxation
On Conciliation with Amerjca
Reflections on French Revolution
Letter to a Noble Lord
Letters on a Regicide Peace
Thomas Paine:
Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful.
Samuel Richardson.:
Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded
Clarissa, or The Adventures of a Young Lady
Clarissa Harlowe
Sir Charles Grandison
Henry Fielding:
The Adventures of Joseph Andrews
Tom Jones
Amelia
Jonathan Wild the Great
A Journey from this World to the Next
Voyage to Lisban
Laurence Sterne:
Tristam Shandy
A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy
Tobias Smollett:
The Adventures of Roderick Random
Peregrine Pickle
Humphry Clinker
Horace Walpole:
Castle of Otranto
Clara Reeve:
Old English Baron
Ann Radcliffe:
Romance of the Forest
The Mysteries of Udolpho
The Italian James Thomson:
Seasons (in four Parts )
John Dyer
Grongar Hill
William Blake:
Poetical Sketches
Songs of Innocence
Songs of Experience George Crabbe:
The Village
The Parish Register
The Borough
Tales in Verse
Tales of the Hall Bishop Percy:
Reliques of Ancient English Poetry Thomas Chatterton:
Poems
William Collins:
Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland
Ode to Evening
Ode to Simplicity
James Macpherson:
Fragments of Ancient Poetry translated from Galic
Ossian Poems
Thomas Gray:
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
On a Distant Prospect of Eton College
On the Death of a Favourite Cat
The Bard
The Progress of Poesy
The Fatal Sisters
The Descent of Odin
Robert Burns:
The Cottar's Saturday Night
William Cowper:
The Task
Christopher Smart:
Song to David
Questions
1. The epithet 'Augustan' was first applied to Dryden by:

(A) Matthew Arnold
(B) Pope
(C) Dr. Johnson
(D) Coleridge
2. The eighteenth century in English literature is also called:
(A) The Age of Puritanism
(B) The Age of Reason
(C) The Age of Excessive Passion
(D) The Age of Sentimentalism
3. The term 'Augustan' was first applied to a School of Poets by:
(A) Pope
(B) Dryden
(C) Dr. Johnson
(D) Ben Jonson
4. Who called the eighteenth century "Our admirable and indispensable Eighteenth
Century"?
(A) Pope
(B) Dryden
(C) Dr. Johnson
(D) Matthew Arnold
5. Who called the eighteenth century 'the Age of Prose and Reason'?
(A) Matthew Arnold
(B) Dr. Johnson
(C) Coleridge
(D) Hazlitt
6. 'Dryden found English poetry brick and left it marble.' Who made this remark?
(A) Dr. Johnson
(B) Pope
(C) Matthew Arnold
(D) Coleridge
7. 'If Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be found?' Who made this observation?
(A) Hazlitt
(B) Dryden
(C) Dr. Johnson
(D) M. Arnold
8. The Neo-Classical Age in English Literature follows the models of:
(A) Roman Literature
(B) Greek Literature
(C) Anglo-Saxon Literature
(D) The Elizabethan Literature
9. In the 'Life' of which poet did Dr. Johnson apply the term 'Metaphysical School
of Poets'?
(A) Milton
(B) Donne
(C) Cowley
(D) Gray
10. James II ascended the throne after:
(A) James I
(B) Charles I
(C) Charles II
(D) Cromwell
11. Who started the Journal The Tatler?
(A) Addison
(B) Steele
(C) Dr. Johnson
(D) Daniel Defoe
12. "I shall endeavour to enlighten morality with wit, and to temper wit with
morality." Who made this endeavour?
(A) Cowley
(B) Addison
(C) Goldsmith
(D) Steele
13. Referring to one of his novels, Jonathan Swift said, "Good God ! What a genius I
had when I wrote that book !" Which novel was he referring to?
(A) A Tale of the Tub
(B) The Battle of the Books
(C) Gulliver's Travels
(D) Cadenus and Vanessa
41
14. In a letter to Pope, Swift wrote: "I heartily hate and detest that animal called
man." This is the central theme of one of his novels. Which is it?
(A) Gulliver's Travels
(B) The Battle of the Books
(C) A Tale of the Tub
(D) None of these
15. Swift wrote in one of his works: "A young healthy child, well nursed, is at a year
old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted,
baked, or boiled." Where does he make this observation?
(A) A Modest Proposal
(B) Journal to Stella
(C) The Drapier's Letters
(D) Gulliver's Travels
16. Who said, "The proper study of mankind is man?"
(A) Milton
(B) Dryden
(C) Pope
(D) Dr. Johnson
17. Iliad and Odyssey were translated into English by:
(A) Pope
(B) Dryden
(C) Milton
(D) Dr. Johnson
18. Which of the following deals with the 'Popish Plot'?
(A) Mack Flecknoe
(C) Essay on Man
(D) Dunciad
19. Who wrote, "True wit is what oft was thought but never so well expressed?"
(A) Dryden
(B) Pope
(C) Swift
(D) Dr. Johnson
20. Thomas Rhymer was a:
(A) poet
(B) an essayist
(C) critic
(D) novelist
21. Which of the following was not written by Pope?
(A) Windsor Forest
(B) Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot
(C) The Good-Natured Man
(D) To Lord Bathurst
22. Which of the following was not a work of Dr. Johnson?
(A) Rasselas
(B) Prince of Abyssinia
(C) The Rambler
(D) The Citizen of the World
23. In Joseph Andrews Fielding parodies:
(A) Radcliffe's Romance of the Forest
(B) Smollett's Roderick Random
(C) Richardson's Pamela
(D) Sterne's Tristam Shandy
24. One of the following is not one of the 'Four Wheels of the Van of the English
Novel. Identify him.
(A) Fielding
(B) Smollett
(C) Walter Scott
(D) Sterne
25. 'Pope can fix in one couplet more sense than I can do in six.' Who said this?
(A) Johnson
(B) Dryden
(C) Swift
(D) Matthew Prior
26. The 'Coffee House Culture' flourished in:
(A) The Age of Dr. Johnson
(B) The Age of Dryden
(C) The Age of Wordsworth
(D) The Age of Ben Jonson
27. "A little knowledge is a dangerous things;
Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring."
Whose observation is this?
(A) Dryden
(B) Dr. Johnson
(C) Pope
(D) Sidney
42
28. A certain ciritic says that Pope's Essay on Criticism is 'all stolen'. Which of the
following says this?
(A) Addison
(B) Robert Southey
(C) Lady M. W. Montagu
(D) James Boswell
29. Matthew Prior's The Town and Country Mouse is a parody of Dryden's:
(A) Religio Laici
(C) The Hind and the Panther
(D) Annus Mirabilis
30. Who is the author of Mall Flanders?
(A) Robert Blair
(B) Daniel Defoe
(C) John Gay
(D) Lady Winchilsea
31. The 'Lives' of how many poets were written by Dr. Johnson in his "Lives of the
Poets'?
(A) 45
(B) 42
(C) 52
(D) 56
32. Dr. Johnson left out one important poet in his Lives of the Poets. Who was that
poet?
(A) Gray
(B) Goldsmith
(C) Collins
(D) James Thomson
33. Who is the author of The School for Scandal?
(A) Richardson
(B) Swift
(C) Sheridan
(D) Smollett
34. Who is the author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ?
(A) Edward Gibbon
(B) Edmund Burke
(C) William Robertson
(D) William Godwin
35. Who is the author of Inquiry Concerning Political Justice?
(A) Edward Gibbon
(B) Edmund Burke
(C) William Godwin
(D) Thomas Paine
36. Who is the author of Castle of Otranto?
(A) Clara Reeve
(B) Ann Radcliffe
(C) Horace Walpole
(D) M. G. Lewis
37. The Mysteries of Udolpho is a:
(A) Gothic Novel
(B) Picaresque Novel
(C) Domestic Novel
(D) Historical Novel
38. What is a Picaresque Novel?
(A) a novel whose hero is a knight
(B) a novel whose hero is a villain
(C) a novel whose hero is a wandering rogue
(D) a novel whose hero is subordinate to the heroine
39. Which of the following novels is written by Richardson?
(A) Humphry Clinker
(B) Roderick Random
(C) Clarissa Harlowe
(D) Joseph Andrews
40. Fielding's Joseph Andrews is a burlesque based on:
(A) Smollett's Peregrine Pickle
(B) Smollett's Humphry Clinker
(C) Richardson's Clarissa Harlowe
(D) Richardson's Pamela
41. James Thomson's Seasons is a Nature poem divided into:
(A) twelve parts
(B) four parts
(C) six parts
(D) eight parts
43
42. Who is the author of the poem Grongar hill?

(A) James Thomson
(B) John Dyer
(C) Allan Ramsay
(D) Burns
43. Which of the following is not a poetical work of William Blake?
(A) Songs of Experience
(B) Songs of Innocence
(C) Poetical Sketches
(D) The Parish Register
44. Thomas Chatterton died at the age of:
(A) 21
(B) 24
(C) 18
(D) 32
45. Bishop Percy became famous as an antiquarian by the publication of:
(A) Essay on the Ancient Minstrels
(B) Reliques of Ancient English Poetry
(C) Fragments of Ancient Poetry
(D) Ossian
46. Which poem begins with the line 'The curfew tolls the knell of parting day"?
(A) Collins' Ode to Evening
(B) Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
(C) Collins' Ode on the Passions
(D) Gray's On the Death of a Favourite Cat
47. Gray's The Bard and The Progress of Poesy are:
(A) Long lyrics
(B) Narrative Poems
(C) Pindaric Odes
(D) Verse Tales
48. The theme of Gray's Bard is the curse inflicted upon King Edward I and his
progeny by:
(A) some gods desecrated by him
(B) some patriots killed by him
(C) some poets killed by him
(D) some maidens dishonoured by him
49. 'Nor second He, that rode sublime
Upon the seraph-wings of Ecstasy'.
These lines quoted from Gray's The Progress of Poesy allude to:
(A) Shakespeare
(B) Milton
(C) Spenser
(D) Donne
50. Louis XVI of France was executed by the Revolutionaries in:
(A) 1789
(B) 1795
(C) 1793
(D) 1799
True or False
1. The Age of Pope covers the second half of the eighteenth century.
2. The Neo-classical Age in English literature is also called the Augustan Age.
3. The Neo-classical Age is also known as the Age of Reason and Logic.
4. The Age of Johnson was largely a continuation of the Age of Pope.
5. The closed Heroic Couplet was written in Iambic Pentameter rhyme.
6. Louis XIV was executed by the Revolutionaries in the French Revolution.
7. Fielding, Smollett, Sterne and Walter Scot formed the Four Wheels of the Van of the English Novel.
44
8. Thomson's Castle of Otranto was the most famous Historical Novel of the eighteenth century.
9. Thomson's Castle of Indolence had for its model Spenser's Faerie Queene.
10. Dr. Johnson's first historical novel was Rasselas.
11. The Spectator was a joint enterprise of Addison and Sterne.
12. Radcliffe's Romance of the Forest was a Gothic Novel.
13. John Dyer and James Thomson were born in the same year 1700.
14. Thomas Gray and Christopher Smart died in the same year 1771.
15. Miss Frances Burney was a novelist.
(I) Match the following events in Column A with their dates in Column B.
Column A Column B
Events Dates
1. Beginning of the French Revolution (A 1760
2. Gordon Riots )(B) 1793
3. American Declaration of Independence (C) 1727
4. Abolition of Slave Trade in England (D 1789
5. Execution of Louis XVI of France. )
(E) 1702
6. Queen Ann's succession to the Throne (F) 1780
7. Succession of George 11 (G 1776
8. Death of Queen Caroline )(H 1787
9. Succession of George III )
(I) 1737
10. Fall of Walpole (J) 1742
(13) Match the Works in Column A with their Authors in Column B.
Column A Column B
Works Authors
1. Windsor Forest (A) Joseph Addison

2. The Town and Country Mouse (B) Jonathan Swift
3. The Beggar's Opera (C) Dr. Johnson
4. Night Thoughts (D) Pope
5. The Vanity of Human Wishes (E) Goldsmith
6. The Citizen of the World (F) Matthew Prior
7. Mall Flanders (G) John Gay
8. The Drapier's Letters (H) Richardson
9. The Vision of Mirza (I) Edward Young
10. Sir Charles Grandison (J) Daniel Defoe
(I) Which of the following arrangements of the Poetical Works is in the correct chronological order
according to the dates of their publication?
(a) Goldsmith's Traveller, Dr. Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Pope's Rape
of the Lock.
(b) Pope's Rape of the Lock, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Dr. Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes,
Goldsmith's The Traveller
45
(c) Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Pope's Rape of the Lock. Dr. Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes,
Goldsmith's The Traveller
(d) Goldsmith's The Traveller, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Dr. Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes, Pope's
Rape of the Lock.
(a) William Cowper. William Blake. Oliver Goldsmith. James Thomson
(b) William Blake, William Cowper, Oliver Goldsmith. James Thomson
(c) James Thomson. Oliver Goldsmith, William Cowper, William Blake
(d) Oliver Goldsmith, William Cowper, James Thomson, William Blake
ANSWERS
l.(C) 2. (B) 3. (C) 4. (D) 5. (A) 6. (A) 7. (C) 8. (A) 9. (C) 10. (C)
11. (B) 12. (B) 13. (A) 14. (A) 15. (A) 16. (C) 17. (A) 18. (B) 19. (B) 20 (C)
21. (C) 22. (D) 23. (C) 24. (C) 25. (C) 26. (A) 27. (C) 28. (C) 29. (C) 30. (B)
31. (C) 32. (B) 33. (C) 34. (A) 35. (C) 36. (C) 37. (A) 38. (C) 39. (C) 40. (D)
41. (B) 42. (B) 43. (D) 44. (C) 45. (B) 46. (B) 47. (C) 48. (C) 49. (B) 50. (C)
True or False
l. F 2. T 3. T 4. T 5. T 6. F 7. F 8. F 9. F 10. F
11. F 12. T 13. T 14. T 15. T
(I)
1. D 2. F 3. G 4. H 5. B 6. E 7. C 8. 1 9. A 10. J
(II)
l. D 2. F 3. G 4. 1 5. C 6. E 7. J 8. B 9. A 10. H
(I)b (II) c
46
5 The Romantic Period

(1798-1837)

No Literary Age can be precisely dated. Yet for the sake of convenience or demarcation some important
literary or historical event is taken to mark the beginning or the end of a Literary Age. The Romantic
Period or the Age of Wordsworth is supposed to begin in 1798 because it was in this year that the Lyrical
Ballads of Wordsworth were published. The publication of these Lyrical Ballads marks the beginning of
the Romantic Period. The Romantic Period ends when the Victorian Age begins. Queen Victoria
succeeded to the throne in 1837 which marks the end of the Romantic Period and the beginning of the
Victorian Age.
Two Generations of the Poets
The Romantic Period in English Literature is clearly divisible into two generations of poets. The first
generation of poets are known as the Older Poets. They include William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge,
Walter Scott and Robert Southey. The poets of the second generation are called the Younger Poets or the
Revolutionary Poets. They include Lord Byron, P. B. Shelley and John Keats.
Post-Revolutionary Period
The Romantic Period in English Literature came immediately after the French Revolution. Some poets
and authors of the older generation actually lived and wrote through the French Revolution. The poets and
authors of the younger generation saw the aftermath of the Revolution. The poets and authors of both the
generations were immensely influenced by the ideals of the Revolution. The concept of Liberty, Equality
and Fraternity came from the ideals of the Revolution. The whole of Europe was thrilled with excitement.
So Wordsworth wrote:
"But Europe at that time was filled with joy.
France standing on the top of golden hours.
And human nature seeming born again."
And again he said,
"Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive.
But to be young was very heaven." However, this excitement did not last long. The excesses of the reign
of terror, the sensational rise of Napoleon, the establishment of a military despotism, and the long strain of
the Napoleonic wars accompanied by colossal destruction and human suffering soon disillusioned the
advocates of the Revolution. Both these phases of the Revolution are seen in the poetry and prose-writings
of the Romantic period.
The Romantic Revival:
The Romantic Movement is popularly known by two terms—the Romantic Revival and the Romantic
Revolt. Let us briefly consider both these terms. The Romantic
47
Movement is called Romantic Revival because it seeks to revive the poetic ideals of the Elizabethan Age.
Love, beauty, emotion, imagination, romance and beauty of Nature were the ideals of the Elizabethan
poetry. The poets and dramatists of the Eliz?bethan Age such as Marlowe, Shakespeare, Lyly, Sidney,
Spenser and others enriched their plays and poetry with all these Elizabethan ideals. But all these ideals
were not only suppressed but also derided and denounced during the Jacobean, Puritan, Restoration and
Augustan Ages in English poetry. These ideals were replaced by reason, logic, satire and profligacy. For
more than a hundred years the Elizabethan ideals remained suppressed and poetry became just a dry,
lifeless, mechanical and artificial device of wit and intellect. However, after a long gap of nearly a
century, the Romantic poets such as Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Byron, Walter Scot, and Coleridge
revived all those Elizabethan ideals and infused them into their poetry. Therefore, the Romantic
Movement is called the Romantic Revival.
The Romantic Revolt
The Romantic Movement is also called Romantic Revolt because it revolted against the ideals, principles
and practices of Neo-classical or Augustan School of poetry that preceded the Romantic period. The
Romantic poets revolted against both the matter and manner of the Neo-classical poets. The neo-classical
poetry was mechanical and artificial to the last degree. It was "the product of the intelligence playing upon
the surface of life." It conspicuously lacked in emotion and imagination. It was primarily rational,
argumentative, satirical and didactic. It was also exclusively 'town' poetry dealing with the aristocratic
class of society. Rural life, nature and common men were derided by the Augustan poets. In respect of
language and metre, too, it was inflexible and rigid. It was written almost entirely in the closed Heroic
Couplet in a highly artificial and stilted language called 'poetic diction'. The Romantic poets revolted
against all these fetters of the Neo-classical school of poetry. Emotion, imagination, love, beauty and
nature became essential ingredients of Romantic poetry. It was written in simple and lucid language, in
blank verse or in different metres and stanza-forms. Thus, it was in revolt against all restrictions and
fetters of the Neo-classical school. Therefore it was termed as Romantic Revolt,
Historical Events Poetry Poetic Drama Prose/Novel

India Act. 1784 Wordsworth's Lyrical Joanna Baillie's Edinburgh
Ballads. 1798 Plays of the Passion. Review, founded.
1798-1812 (about 28 1802
in number)
Trial of Warren Campbell's Pleasures Quarterly
Hastings (1788-95) of Hope. 1799 Review, founded,
1809
Blackwood's
Magazine, founded,
1817
George III succeeds Scott's Border George Colman's The London Magazine.
to the throne. (1760- Minstrelsy. 1802 Surrender of Calais. founded. 1817
1820) The Battle of
Hexham.
The Mountaineers
French Revolution. Landor's Cebir. 1798 Southey's The Fall of Edgeworth's Castle
1789 Byron's Hours of Robespierre Rackrent. 1800
War with France. Idleness. 1807 Scott's Macduff's Edgeworth's Popular
1793 Cross or Holidon Tales. 1804
Hill
48
British takes Moore's Irish Charles Lamb's John

Ceylone, 1795 Melodies, 1807 Woodvil
Irish Rebellion, 1798 Scott's Marmion, Coleridge's Remorse Jane Austen's Sense
1808 and Sensibility, 1811
Conquest of Mysore, Byron's Childe Byron's Werner, Jane Austen's Pride
1799 Harold 1809-1818 Manfred, and Prejudice, 1812
Sardanapalus
Act of Union of Scott's Rokeby 1813 Scott's Waverley,
Britain and Ireland, 1814
1800
Napoleon becomes Wordsworth's Scott's Ivanhoe, 1819

Emperor, 1804 Excursion, 1814
End of Holy Roman Coleridge's
Empire, 1806 Christabel, 1816
Peninsular War, Shelley's Alastor, Shelley's The Cenci,
1808-14 1816 Prometheus
Byron's unbound, Rebolt of
Manfred, 1817 Islam
Napoleon's Hundred Byron's Beppo, 1818 Keats's Otho the De Quincey's Opium
Days, 1815 Keats's Endymion, Great Eater. 1821
1818
Napoleon abdicates, Byron's Don Juan, Miss Mitford's Julian, Lamb's Elia, 1821-23
1814 1819-23 Fosoari,Rienzi
Battle of Waterloo Keats's Hyperion, Leigh Hunt's Coleridge's
and Napoleon's final 1820 The Legend of Biographia Literatia,
defeat, 1815 Shelley's Prometheus Florence 1817
Unbound, 1820
Nepoleon escapes Byron's Cain, 1821 Sir Henry Taylor's Hazlitt's Criticisms,
from Elba, 1813 Shelley's Adonais, Philip Van Artevelde 1817-20
1821
Treaty of Vienna, Roger's Italy, 1822 Wilson's Noctes Amb-
1815 rosianae, 1822-33
Napoleon sent to the Roger's Pleasures of Landor's Imaginary

island of St. Helena, Memory, 1792 Conversations,
1815 1824-53
Death of Napoleon, Southey's Moore's Life of
1821 Joan of Arc. 1793 Byron, 1830
George IV succeeds Southey's
to the throne, (1820- A Vision of
1830) Judgment,
William IV succeeds Roger's Pleasures of
to the throne, (1830- Hope, 1799
37)
Queen Victoria Shelley's Revolt of
succeeds to the Islam, 1817
throne, 1837
Keats's Odes, 1819
Leigh Hunt's Story of

Remini, 1816
49
(1) Poets
William Wordsworth 1770-1850 P. B. Shelley 1792-1822

S. T. Coleridge 1772-1834 John Keats 1795-1821
Walter Scott 1771-1832 J. H. Leigh Hunt 1784-1859
Robert Southey 1774-1843 Thomas Hood 1799-1845
Thomas Campbell 1777-1844 W. M. Praed 1802-1839 '
Thomas Moore 1779-1852 R. H. Barham 1788-1845
Savage Landor 1775-1864 Thomas Lovell Beddoes 1803-1849
James Hogg 1770-1835 Felicia Dorothia Hemans 1793-1835
Samuel Rogers 1763-1855 Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802-1838
William Lisle Bowles 1762-1850 John Clare 1793-1864
Lord George Gordon 1788-1824
Byron
(2) General Prose-Writers
Francis Jeffrey 1793-1850 William Hazlitt 1778-1830

Sydney Smith 1771-1845 Leigh Hunt 1784-1859
John Wilson 1785-1854 William Cobbett 1762-1835
Thomas De Quincey 1785-1859 Savage Landor 1775-1864
John Gibbon Lockhart 1794-1854 Robert Southey 1774-1843
Charles Lamb 1775-1834 S. T. Coleridge 1772-1834
(3) Novelists
Walter Scott 1771-1832 Theodore Hook 1788-1841

Jane Austen 1775-1817 John Galt 1779-1839
Maria Edgeworth 1767-1849 Thomas Love Peacock 1785-1866
Susan E. Ferrier 1782-1854 George Payne R. James 1801-1860
Charles Robert Maturin 1785-1824 W. H. Ainsworth 1805-1882
(4) Dramatists
Robert Southey 1774-1843 Lord Byron 1788-1824

Walter Scott 1771-1832 P. B. Shelley 1792-1822
Charles Lamb 1775-1834 John Keats 1795-1821
S. T. Coleridge 1772-1834 Leight Hunt 1784-1859
50
William Wordsworth:
The Lyrical Ballads
The Prelude
The Excursion
Tintem Abbey
Ode on Intimations of Immortality
Michael
The Solitary Reaper
Laodamia
Ode to Duty
To Milton
The Leech-Gatherer
Upon Westminster Abbey
The Rainbow
We Are Seven
The World Is Too Much with Us
To the Cuckoo
The Daffodils
Lucy Gray
Simon Lee
Early Spring
Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known
Walter Scott:
The Bride of Lammermoor
Ivanhoe
Quentin Durward
The Heart of Midlothian
Old Mortality
The Antiquity
Guy Mannering
Waverly
Rob Roy
Kenilworth
Red Gauntlet
The Black Dwarf
The Monastery
The Abbot
The Pirate
The Fortunes of Night
The Betrothed
The Talisman
Woodstock
Lives of the Novelists
Life of Napoleon
Tales of Grandfather
The Lay of the Last Minstrel
The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border Marmion
The Lady of the Lake Rockeby
Robert Southey:
Joan of Arc
Wat Tyler
After Blenheim
The Holly Tree
The Scholar
A Vision of Judgement
Madoc
Life of Nelson
Thalaba the Destroyer
Roderick
The Curse of Kehama
John Clare:
Selected Poems
Poems of Clare's Madness
S. T. Coleridge:
Biographia Literaria
Table Talk
Aids to Reflection
Christabel
Kubla Khan
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
France: An Ode
Destiny of Nations
Frost at Midnight
Dejection: An Ode
Youth and Age
Religious Musings
Lord Byron:
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
Don Juan
The Bride of Abydos
Manfred
The Giaour
Hours of Idleness
The Vision of Judgement
The Prisoner of Chillon
51
Lara
Marino Faliero
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
The Siege of Corinth
The Corsair
Cain
P. B. Shelley:
On the Necessity of Atheism
The Revolt of Islam
Prometheus Unbound
The Mask of Anarchy
Hellas
The Cenci
The Witch of Atlas
The Indian Serenade
Ozymandias of Egypt
Epipsychidion
Alaster
Queen Mab
Adonais
Ode to the West Wind
The Cloud
Ode to a Skylark
O World ! O Life ! O Time !
Defence of Poetry (a Prose Work)
To Night
The Sensitive Plant
A Lament
John Keats:
Endymion
Lamia
Hyperion
The Eve of St. Agnes
Isabella
The Eve of St. Mark
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
Ode to a Nightingale
Ode to Autumn
Ode On a Grecian Urn
Ode to Psyche
On Melancholy
On First Looking into Chapman's Homer
Bright Star
Jane Austen:
Sense and Sensibility
Pride and Prejudice
Mansfield Park
Emma
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
Charles Lamb:
Essays of Elia
The Last Essays of Elia
John Woodvil
Tales from Shakespeare
Specimens of English Dramatic Poets
The English Comic Writers
The Old Familiar Faces
William Hazlitt:
Characters of Shakespeare's Plays
The English Poets
The English Comic Writers
The Dramatic Literature of the Age of
Elizabeth The Round Table: A Collection of Essays Table Talk on Men and Manners The Spirit of the Age
Thomas De Quincey:
Confessions of an English Opium Eater
Joan of Arc
English Mail Coach
Dream Fugue
Murder Considered as One of the Fine
Arts
Suspiria de Profundis
Thomas Love Peacock
The Four Ages of Poetry
Headlong Hall
The Philosophy of Melancholy
Melincourt
Maid Marian
The Misfortunes of Elphin
Crotchest Castle
Gryll Grange
Samuel Rogers:
Pleasures of Memory
Italy
52
James Hogg:
Kilmeny
The Queen's Wake
Thomas Campbell:
Pleasures of Hope
Theodoric
Gertrude of Wyoming
Lachiel
Lord Ullin's Daughter
The Last Man
Ye Mariners of England
Hohenlinden
The Battle of Baltic
Thomas Moore:
Lalla Rookh
Irish Melodies
Leigh Hunt:
Story of Rimini
Autobiography
Thomas Hood:
The Dream of Eugene Aram
The Song of the Shirt
The Bridge of Sighs
Ode to Melancholy
The Haunted House
John Gibson Lockhart:
Adam Blair
Spanish Ballads
Life of Burns
Life of Scott Savage Landor:
Gebir
Hellenics
Imaginary Conversations
The Citations of William Shakespeare
Pericles and Aspasia
Maria Edgeworth:
The Absentee
Castle Rockrent
Ormond
53
Questions
1. Why is the year 1798 taken to be the year of the beginning of the Romantic
Movement?
(A) Because it was the year of Wordsworth's birth
(B) Because it was the year in which James Thomson's Seasons was published
(C) Because it was the year in which Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads was published
(D) It was the year of the beginning of the French Revolution
2. Who was or were the authors of the Lyrical Ballads?
(A) Wordsworth
(B) Coleridge
(C) Both Wordsworth and Coleridge
(D) Wordsworth and Walter Scott
3. Wordsworth's Prelude is a:
(A) Philosophical poem
(B) Metaphysical poem
(C) Autobiographical poem
(D) Biographical poem
4. "God made the country and man made the town."
Who wrote this line?
(A) Wordsworth
(B) Cowper
(C) Blake
(D) Thomson
5. "We are laid asleep in body and become a living soul."
In which poem of Wordsworth does this line occur?
(A) Immortality Ode
(B) Tintern Abbey
(C) The Prelude
(D) The Excursion
6. Collins's poem "In Yonder Grave a Druid lies" is an elegy on the death of:
(A) Ben Jonson
(B) William Blake
(C) James Thomson
(D) Milton
7. In Nightmare Abbey Thomas Love Peacock satirises:
(A) Shelley
(B) Coleridge
(C) Both Shelley and Coleridge
(D) Neither of them
8. Who is the author of The Four Ages of poetry?
(A) Hazlitt
(B) Thomas Love Peacock
(C) Coleridge
(D) Shelley
9. "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good
fortune must be in want of a wife." In which novel of Jane Austen does this
sentence occur?
(A) Pride and Prejudice
(B) Sense and Sensibility
(C) Emma
(D) Persuasion
10. To which of the following poets does the phrase "willing suspension of disbelief
apply?
(A) Wordsworth
(B) Coleridge
(C) Shelley
(D) Keats
54
11. "When lovely woman stoops to folly" occurs in a play written by:
(A) Sheridan
(B) Goldsmith
(C) Southey
(D) Byron
12. "But Europe at that time was thrilled with joy
France standing on the top of golden hours.
And human nature seeming born again."
Which 'time' is Wordsworth referring to in these lines?
(A) The Age of Renaissance
(B) The beginning of Industrial Age
(C) The period of the French Revolution
(D) The period of discovery of new lands
13. "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive. But to be young was very heaven." These
lines occur in Wordsworth's:
(A) Tintem Abbey
(B) The Excursion
(C) The Prelude
(D) Immortality Ode
14. "Hell is a city much like London." Whose view is this?
(A) Wordsworth
(B) Walter Scott
(C) Shelley
(D) Byron
15. Who was the intellectual father of the French Revolution?
(A) Rousseau
(B) Hegel
(C) Frederic Engels
(D) Napoleon
16. The Mariner in The Ancient Mariner kills:
(A) a golden fish
(B) a phantom
(C) a penguin
(D) an albatross
17. "O Lady, we receive but what we give. And in our life alone does Nature live."
Who is the 'Lady' Wordsworth addresses in these lines?
(A) Mary Hutchinson, his wife
(B) Dorothy Wordsworth, his sister
(C) Jane Austen, the novelist
(D) Mary Godwin
18. Robert Southey's A Vision of Judgement is a ludicrous eulogy of:
(A) George II
(B) Charles II
(C) George III
(D) Queen Mary
19 Shelley was expelled from the Oxford University for the publication of:
(A) The Mask of Anarchy
(B) The Revolt of Islam
(C) On the Necessity of Atheism
(D) Hellas
20. Who was the poet who woke one morning and found himself famous?
(A) Shelley
(B) Lord Byron
(C) Tennyson
(D) Coleridge
21. Who called Shelley "an ineffectual angel beating in the void his luminous wings
in vain"?
(A) John Ruskin
(B) Matthew Arnold
(C) Charles Lamb
(D) Hazlitt
22. Name the novelist whose novels are called Waverly Novels?
(A) Fielding
(B) Walter Scott
(C) Smollett
(D) Jane Austen
23. 'Elia' is a pen-name assumed by:
(A) Carlyle
(B) De Quincey
(C) Hazlitt
(D) Lamb
24. Shelley's Defence of Poetry is a rejoinder to:
(A) Sidney's Apologie for Poesic
(B) Byron's English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
55
(C) Love Peacock's The Four Ages of Poetry

(D) Hazlitt's The English Comic Writers
25. Adonais is a Pastoral Elegy written on the death of:
(A) Shelley
(B) Keats
(C) Byron
(D) Scott
26. Madeline is the heroine of a narrative poem of Keats. Which poem?
(A) Endymion
(B) Eve of St. Agnes
(C) Eve of St. Mark
(D) Hyperion
27. About Keats, a critic said, "He is with Shakespeare." Which of the following critics? (A) Hazlitt
(B) Coleridge
(C) Matthew Arnold
(D) Ruskin
28. Who said about himself: "My name is writ in water."
(A) Shelley
(B) Keats
(C) Byron
(D) Chatterton
29. Who said, "I have a smack of Hamlet myself"?
(A) Shelley
(B) Keats
(C) Byron
(D) Coleridge
30. Shelley's death was caused by:
(A) drowning
(B) poisoning
(C) consumption
(D) fighting
31. "Nothing of him that doth fade. But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange." These
lines from Ariel's song were inscribed upon the grave of one of the following poets. Identify the poet:
(A) Byron
(B) Shelley
(C) Keats
(D) Southey
32. "Life, like a dome of many coloured glass.
Stains the white radiance of Eternity
Until death tramples it to fragments, die."
From which of the following poems are the above lines quoted?
(A) Wordsworth's Immortality Ode
(B) Wordsworth's The Prelude
(C) Shelley's Hellas
(D) Shelley's Adonais
33. One of Keats's Odes ends with the line:
"For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair."
Which of the following?
(A) Ode to a Nightingale
(B) Ode to Autumn
(C) To Psyche
(D) Ode on a Grecian Urn
34. "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever." A verse-tale of Keats begins with this line.
Identify the tale:
(A) Hyperion
(B) Endymion
(C) Eve of St. Agnes
(D) Eve of St. Mark
35. "We look before and after,
And pine for what is not."
In which of Shelley's lyrics do these lines occur?
(A) To a Skylark
(B) Love's Philosophy
(C) Lament
(D) The Cloud
56
36. "He prayeth best, who loveth best,

All things, great and small."
In which of the following poems do these lines occur?
(A) Kubla Khan
(B) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
(C) Christabel
(D) Dejection: An Ode
37. Who is the author of Confessions of an English Opium Eater?
(A) William Hazlitt
(B) Thomas Love Peacock
(C) Thomas De Quincey
(D) Charles Lamb
38. Who is the author of Life of Scott?
(A) John Wilson
(B) William Gifford
(C) Francis Jeffrey
(D) John Lockhart
39. Who has written Tales from Shakespeare?
(A) Hazlitt
(B) Charles Lamb
(C) Love Peacock
(D) Leigh Hunt
40. The author of Biographia Literaria is:
(A) Coleridge
(B) Hazlitt
(C) Matthew Arnold
(D) John Ruskin
41. Who is considered to be the most remarkable Historical Novelist of the Romantic
Period?
(A) John Galt
(B) Jane Austen
(C) Walter Scott
(D) Maria Edgeworth
42. One of the following novels is not written by Jane Austen. Identify it:
(A) Mansfield Park
(B) Persuasion
(C) Northanger Abbey
(D) Nightmare Abbey
43. One of the following novels is not written by Walter Scott. Identify it:
(A) The Heart of Midlothian
(B) Guy Mannering
(C) Castle Rackrent
(D) The Highland Widow
44. Edinburgh Review was founded in:
(A) 1809
(B) 1802
(C) 1817
(D) 1819
45. The severe criticism of Endymion which is believed to have hastened Keats's
death appeared in:
(A) Blackwood's Magazine
(B) Edinburgh Review
(C) Quarterly Review
(D) London Magazine
46. Referring to Adonais, Shelley said, "I have dipped my pen in consuming fire for
his destroyers."
Who were these destroyers?
(A) The Editors of The London Magazine
(B) The Editors of Quarterly Review
(C) The Editors of Blackwood's Magazine
(D) The Editors of both Quarterly Review and Blackwood's Magazine
47. After whom did Wordsworth become the Poet Laureate of England?
(A) Coleridge
(B) Walter Scott
(C) Robert Southey
(D) Dryden
48. After whose refusal the Poet Laureateship was conferred on Robert Southey?
(A) Walter Scott
(B) Coleridge
(C) Pope
(D) Johnson
49. Charles Lamb wrote one of the following plays. Which is it?
(A) Queen Mab
(B) The Good-Natured Man
(C) John Woodvil
(D) Joan of Arc
57
50. Why is the year 1837 taken as the closing year of the Romantic Period and beginning of the Victorian
Age?
(A) Because Wordsworth ceased writing by this year
(B) Because Queen Victoria succeeded to the throne in this year
(C) Because Tennyson came into prominence in this year.
(D) Because almost all the major Romantic poets had died by this year
True or False

1. Wordsworth supported the French Revolution all through his life.
2. In spite of all his name and fame, Wordsworth could never become the Poet Laureate of England.
3. Robert Southey was the Poet Laureate of England before Wordsworth.
4. Rousseau was the intellectual father of the French Revolution.
5. Shelley married the daughter of William Godwin, the renowned philosopher and statesman.
6. Keats began his career as an apprentice to an apothecary.
7. There are six Cantos in Byron's Childe Harold.
8. Shelley was expelled from the Oxford University.
9. Byron was the youngest of the three younger Romantic poets.
10. Shelley was an iconoclast.
11. The contemporary critical Reviewers were largely responsible for Keats's early death.
12. The Confessions of an English Opium Eater was written by Thomas De Quincey.
13. Charles Lamb wrote his essays in the name of Elia because it was his family name.
14. William Hazlitt was known as The Critics' Critic'.
15. Jane Austen's novels are largely melodramatic.
(I) Match the events under Column A with their dates under Column B:
Column A Column B
Events Dates
1. Publication of Lyrical Ballads (A) 1820
2. Death of Cowper (B) 1809
3. Tennyson born (C) 1832
4. Death of Walter Scott (D) 1824
5. Byron's death (E) 1798
6. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice published (F) 1800
7. Wordsworth appointed Poet Laureate (G) 1789
8. French Revolution starts (H) 1812
9. Napoleon becomes Emperor (I) 1843
10. George IV succeeds to the throne (J) 1804
58
(II) Match the books under Column A with their authors under Column B
Column A Column B
Books Authors
1. Laodamia (A) Walter Scott

2. Wat Tyler (B) Lord Byron
3. Biographia Literaria (C) Shelley
4. Old Mortality (D) Jane Austen
5. Don Juan (E) Wordsworth
6. The Witch of Atlas (F) Robert Southey
7. Lamia (G S.T. Coleridge
8. Northanger Abbey )(H Charles Lamb
9. The English Comic Writers )(I) Thomas De Quincey
10. Confessions of an English Opium Eater (J) Keats
(I) Which of the following arrangements of the historical events is in the correct chronological
order?
(a) Accession of William IV, Accession of George III, Accession of Queen Victoria, Napoleon becomes
Emperor.
(b) Napoleon becomes Emperor, Accession of Queen Victoria, Accession of William TV, Accession of
George III.
(c) Accession of George III, Napoleon becomes Emperor, Accession of William IV, Accession of Queen
Victoria.
(d) Accession of William TV, Accession of George III, Napoleon becomes Emperor, Accession of Victoria
(a) Walter Scott, Robert Southey, J. H. Leigh Hunt, Thomas Hood
(b) Robert Southey, Walter Scott, Thomas Hood, J. H. Leigh Hunt
(c) Walter Scott, Thomas Hood, Robert Southey, J. H. Leigh Hunt
(d) Walter Scott, J. H. Leigh Hunt, Robert Southey, Thomas Hood
ANSWERS
l.(C) 2.(C) 3.(C) 4. (B) 5. (B) 6. (C) 7.(C) 8. (B) 9. (A) 10. (B)
11. (B) 12. (C) 13. (C) 14. (C) 15. (A) 16. (D) 17. (B) 18. (C) 19. (C) 20. (B)
21. (B) 22. (B) 23. (D) 24. (C) 25. (B) 26. (B) 27. (C) 28. (B) 29. (D) 30. (A)
31. (B) 32. (D) 33. (D) 34. (B) 35. (A) 36. (B) 37. (C) 38. (D) 39. (B) 40. (A)
41. (C) 42. (D) 43. (C) 44. (B) 45. (C) 46. (D) 47. (C) 48. (A) 49. (C) 50. (B)
True or False
l. F 2. F 3. T 4.T 5. T 6. T 7. F 8. T 9. F 10. T
11. T 12. T 13. F 14. T 15. F
(I)
l. E 2. F 3..B 4. C 5. D 6. H 7. 1 8. G 9. J 10. A
(II)
l. E 2. F 3. G 4. A 5. B 6. C 7. J 8. D 9. H 10. I
Assertion-Reasoning Type
(I) c (II) a
Questions
59
6 The Victorian Period
(1837-1901)

The Victorian Age is taken to cover the period from 1837 to 1901. 1837 is the year in which Queen
Victoria succeeded to the throne of England, and 1901 is the year in which she died. By the time the
Victorian Age came to a close, the tendencies of the modern age had already started appearing slowly but
decisively. This is why some of the literary critics hold that 1887, the year of Victorian Jubilee, should be
taken to mark the end of the Victorian period in literature because by that time a fresh generation of poets
and prose writers had arisen, while those of the former generation who still survived had nothing of
importance to add to their literary output. The authors of the earlier Victorian period found themselves
'among new men, strange faces and other minds' in the later Victorian period.
Astonishing Variety and Complexity
The Victorian Age was an Age of astonishing variety and complexity in all social, political and literary
fields. The literature of this period embodies the complete spirit of Victorian England. "It is such a
literature", as W.H. Hudson says, "as could not conceivably have been produced at any other time in the
world's history." The two main currents that form the civilization of Victorian England are, in the social
and political spheres, the progress of democracy, and in the intellectual sphere, the progress of science.
The progress in all these fields was simply astounding. In this context, W.H. Hudson says, 'The progress
of science kept pace with the progress of democracy, and in the fifty years with which we are here
concerned men added far more to their positive knowledge of themselves and the universe than their
forefathers had done in all the preceding eighteen centuries of our era."
Conflict between Science and Religion
Two equally powerful forces opposing each other in the Victorian Age were Science and Religion. There
was a ceaseless conflict between the two. It meant a conflict between Head and Heart. Religion was
supported and sustained by faith, while science was born and bred in the mind by logic and reason.
Christianity was sustained by the tenets preached in the Bible. Christianity believed in the existence of an
omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God who supervised the entire universe. The world was believed
to have been created at the command of God. In course of time religion came to believe in all kinds of
miracles, superstitions, institutions, rituals and traditions which could not be explained, proved or tested
by science or reason. Thus science challenged the very existence of God, the authority of the Bible and the
utility of the Church and priesthood. The evolutionary scientists like Darwin [The Origin of Species) and
Wallace, and the utilitarian philosophers like Herbert Spencer, John Stuart Mill and Malthus joined hands
against all religious institutions. The very foundations of Christianity were shaken. People were
60
bewildered and confused and did not know what to believe in and what to reject. This strange predicament
is described by Matthew Arnold thus:
"Wandering between two worlds, one dead.
The other powerless to be born,"
Summing up this situation, W. H. Hudson says: "A vast upheaval in thought was the consequence of this
rapid progress and popularization of knowledge; new theories came into conflict with old faiths; the
ancient intellectual order was shaken at its foundations. Hence the Victorian Age was marked throughout
by the prominence of the spirit of inquiry and criticism, by scepticism and religious uncertainty, and by
spiritual struggle and unrest; and these are among the most persistent and characteristic notes of its higher
literature."
The Victorian Compromise
The liberal thinkers and poets, notably Tennyson and Matthew Arnold, sought to bring about a sort of
compromise between these two powerful forces governing the Victorian social life. They advised the
Churchmen to be less rigid and more liberal, and they appealed to the scientists to be more generous and
humanistic. Both the forces should draw a balance and promote each other. So Tennyson said:
"We have but faith: We cannot know;
For knowledge is of things we see;
And yet we trust it comes from Thee,
A beam in darkness: let it grow.
Let knowledge grow from more to more.
But more of reverence in us dwell;
The mind and soul, according well,
May make one music as before."
Industrial Revolution and Prosperity
Victorian England had unprecedented wealth and prosperity. The British Empire spread far and wide.
England had its colonial states all over the globe from East to West. Victoria became the Empress of India
in 1876. It was metaphorically but truly said that the sun never set on the British Empire. England was
then the greatest power in the world. The ever expanding horizons of knowledge, the new discoveries and
inventions of science, the easy and rapid means of travelling and transmission did much to destroy the old
provincialism, to help the progress of democracy, and to change fundamentally the spirit of the world. So
Hugh Walker says: "At the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria the English nation grew 'drunk with sight
of power.' There were miles of warships gathered at Spithead; feudatory princes from India and
representatives of free peoples ruling over territories such as had never before owed allegiance to a single
flag were assembled to do homage to the aged sovereign."
Historical Events Poetry Drama Prose/Novel

Accession of Queen Tennyson's Poems, Pinero's Second Mrs. General Prose
Victoria, 1837 1833 Tanqueray, 1893 Carlyle's
Napoleon sent to St. Browning's Pauline, Wilde's Importance of Sartor Resartus,
Helena, 1815 1833 Being Earnest, 1895 1833-34
Death of Napoleon, Arnold's Strayed H. A. Jone's Carlyle's French
1821 Reveller, 1848 The Liars, 1897 Revolution, 1837
Slavery abolished in Arnold's Poems Pinero's Trelawny of Lockhart's Life of
British Empire, 1833 Mrs. Browning's the 'Wells', 1897 Scott, 1838
India's First War for Aurora Leigh, 1856 Macaulay's Essays.
Independence, 1857 1843
61
American Civil War, Tennyson's Idylls of Bernard Shaw's Ruskin's

1861-65 the King, 1859-86 Plays Modern
Assassination of Swinburne's Poems Pleasant and Painters, 1843-60
Abraham Lincoln, and Ballads, 1866 Unpleasant, 1898 Macaulay's
1865 Browning's The H. A. Jones' History, 1848-60
Queen Victoria Ring Mrs. Dane's Froude's History,
becomes Empress of and the Book, 1868- Defence, 1856-69
India, 1876 69 1900 Buckle's
Queen Victoria's Morris's Earthly Hardy's Dynasts, Civilization.
Golden Jubilee, Paradise, 1868-70 1904-08 1857-61
1887 Rossette's Poems, Arnold's Essays
Victoria's Diamond 1870-72 in
Jubilee, 1897 Robert Bridge's Criticism, 1865,
Queen Victoria's Shorter Poems, 1888
death. 1901 1873-80 Pater's Renaissance,
Edward VII Kipling's Barrack 1873
succeeds Room Ballads, 1892 Symond's
to the throne, 1901 Thompson's Renaissance in Italy,
Hound 1875-86
of Heaven, 1893 Stevenson's
Yeats's Poems, 1895 Virginibus
Houseman's Puerisque,
Shropshire Lad. 1881
1896
Wilde's Ballad Novels
of
Reading Gaol. 1898 Dickens's Boz, 1834
Hardy's Dickens's Pickwick
Wessex Papers, 1837
Poems, 1898 Thackeray's
Yellow—
plush Papers, 1837
Disraeli's Sybil, 1845
Thackeray's
Vanity Fair, 1847-48
Bronte's Jane Eyre,
1847
Kingsley's
Alton Locke, 1850
Trollope's
Warden. 1855
George Eliot's Cleri-
cal Life. 1858
George Eliot's Adam
Bede. 1859
Meredith's Richard
Feverel. 1859
Hardy's Return of
the Native. 1878
Hardy's Mayor of
Casterbridge, 1885
Kipling's Plain Tales
from the Hills, 1887
Gissing's New Grub
Street, 1891
Gissing's Born in
Exile, 1892 Hardy's
Tess, 1891 Moore's
Esther Waters, 1894
Hardy's Jude the
Obscure, 1895 H. G.
Wells' Time
Machine, 1895
62
(1) Poetry

Alfred Tennyson 1809-1892 Martin Farquhar Tupper 1810-1889
Robert Browning 1812-1889 Philip James Bailey 1816-1902
Matthew Arnold 1822-1888 Sydney Dobell 1824-1874
Arthur Hugh Clough 1819-1861 Alexander Smith 1830-1867
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806-1861 James Thomson 1834-1882
D. G. Rossetti 1828-1882 John Davidson 1857-1909
Christina Georgina Rossetti 1830-1894 Thomas Hardy 1840-1928
A. C. Swinburne 1837-1909 Alfred Austen 1835-1913
William Morris 1834-1896 W. E. Henley 1849-1903
Sir Henry Taylor 1800-1886 H. W. Longfellow 1807-1882
Robert Stephen Hawker 1803-1875 Francis Thompson 1859-1907
Edward Fitzgerald 1809-1883
(2) General Prose

Thomas Carlyle 1795-1881 J. A. Symonds 1840-1893
John Ruskin 1819-1900 Leslie Stephen 1832-1904
Matthew Arnold 1822-1888 John Henry Newman 1801-1890
T. B. Macaulay 1800-1859 John Tyndall 1820-1893
William Morris 1834-1896 John Henry Huxley 1825-1895
H. T. Buckle 1821-1862 Walter Pater 1839-1894
Edward Freeman 1823-1892 R. L. Stevenson 1850-1894
J. A. Froude 1818-1894 Oscar Wilde 1856-1900
(3) Novel
Charles Dickens 1812-1870 Charlotte Bronte 1816-1855

William Makepeace Thackeray 1811-1863 Emily Bronte 1818-1848
George Eliot (Mary Ann or Anne Bronte 1820-1849

Marian Evans) 1810-1880 Charles Kingsley 1810-1875
Charles Reade 1814-1884 William Wilkie Collins 1824-1889
Mrs. Gaskel 1810-1865 George Meredith 1828-1909
Anthony Trollope 1815-1882 Robert Louis Stevenson 1850-1894
Benjamin Disraeli 1804-1881 Thomas Hardy 1840-1928

Lord Lytton 1803-1873
Alfred Tennyson:
The Princess In Memoriam Maud

Enoch Arden Idylls of the King Queen Mary
Harold
Backet
Akbar's Tomb
Crossing the Bar
Locksley Hall
Locksley Hall Sixty Years After
63
Dora.
Poems by Two Brothers
The Falcon
i he Cup
Poems Chiefly Lyrical
Ulysses
The Lotus-Eaters
The Death of Oenone and Other Poems
Robert Browning:
Pauline
Paracelsus
Strafford
Sordello
Bells and Pomegranates
Christmas Eve and Easter Day
Men and Women
Dramatis Personae
The King and the Book
Asolando
Pippa Passes
Fra Lippo Lippi
Andrea del Sarto
King Victor and King Charles
Dramatic Lyrics
Dramatic Romances and Lyrics
Matthew Arnold:
Sohrab and Rustum
Tristram and Iseult
Balder Dead
Empedocles on Etna
Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse
The Strayed Reveller and Other Poems
Dover Beach
Thyrsis
Scholar Gypsy
On Translating Homer
New Poems
On the Study of Celtic Literature
Essays in Criticism
Culture and Anarchy
Literature and Dogma
Mixed Essays
Friendship's Garland
God and the Bible
Arthur Hugh Clough:
Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich
Amours de Voyage
Dipsychus
Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth
Elizabeth Barrett Browning:
Casa Guidi Windows
Cry of the Children
Aurora Leigh
Sonnets From the Portuguese
Prometheus Bound
The Seraphim and Other Poems
An Essay on Mind
D. G. Rossetti:
The Blessed Damozel
World's Worth
Ave
The White Ship
Sister Helen
Eden Bower
The House of Life
Ballads and Sonnets
Christina Georgina Rossetti:
The Goblin Market
The Prince's Market
A Pageant and Other Poems
William Morris:
The Defence of Guenevere
The Life and Death of Jason
The Earthly Paradise
A Dream of John Bull
News from Nowhere
A Tale of the House of the Wolfings
The Roots of the Mountains
The Story of the Glittering Plain
The Sundering Flood
Hope and Fears for Art
Signs of Change
A. C. Swinburne:
Atalanta in Calydon
Erechtheus
Tristram of Lyonesse
Chasteland
Bathwell
Mary Stuart
William Blake: A Critique
A Study of Shakespeare
A Study of Ben Jonson
Songs Before Sunrise
H. W. Longfellow:
Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea
Voices of the Night
Evangeline
The Song of Hiawatha
64
Edward Fitzgerald:
Euphranor: A Dialogue on Youth
Translation of Rubaiat
Philip James Bailey:
Festus
Sydney Dobell:
The Roman Balder
John Davidson:
The Testament of John Davidson
The Yellow Book
The Savoy
W. E. Henley:
Lyra Heroica
For England's Sake
A Late Lark Twitters
Invictus
Thomas Carlyle:
Sartor Resartus
The French Revolution
Heroes and Hero-Worship
Past and Present
The Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell
Latter-day Pamphlets
Life of John Sterling
History of Frederick the Great
Chartism
John Ruskin:
The Modern Painters
Salsette and Elephanta
The Seven Lamps of Architecture
The Stones of Venice
The Two Paths
Unto this Last
Munera Pulveris
Time and Tide by Wear and Tyne
Fors Clavigera
Sesame and Lilies
The Crown of Wild Olive
T. B. Macaulay:
History of England from the Accession of
James II Lays of Ancient Rome
Charles Dickens:
Pickwick Papers
Nicholas Nickleby
Martin Chuzzlewit
Dombey and Son
David Copperfield
Bleak House
A Tale of Two Cities
Great Expectations
Our Mutual Friend
Edwin Drood
Oliver Twist
Little Dorrit
Baraby Rudge
The Uncommercial Traveller
A Christmas Carol
Hard Times
Old Curiosity Shop
William Makepeace Thackeray:
Vanity Fair
Barry Lyndon
Pendennis
Henry Esmond
The New Comes
The Virginians
Adventures of Philip
The Book of Snobs
The History of Pendennis
Lovel the Widower
The Round about Papers
The English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century
The Four Georges
Rebecca and Rowena
The Rose and the Ring
Ivanhoe—the Legend of the Rhine
George Meredith:
The Ordeal of Richard Feveral
Evan Harrington
Emilia in England
Rhoda Fleming
Vittoria
The Adventures of Harry Richmond
Diana of the Crossways
One of Our Conquerors
The Amazing Marriage
The Egoist
Beauchamp's Career
The Tragic Comedians
65
Charlotte Bronte:
Jane Eyre
Shirley
The Professor
Villette
Emily Bronte:
Wuthering Heights
Anne Bronte:
Agnes Gray
The Tenant. of Wild Fell Hall
George Eliot:
(Mary Ann Evans)
Adam Bede
The Mill on the Floss
Silas Mamer
Scenes of Clerical Life
Life of Jesus
Romola
Felix Holt the Radical
Daniel Deronda
Middlemarch
Anthony Trollope:
The Warden
Doctor Thorne
The Kellys and the O'Kellys
Barchester Towers
Phineas Redux
The Last Chronicle of Barset
Benjamin Disraeli:
Vivian Gray
Sybil: Or the Two Nations
The Voyage of Captain Popavilla
Henrietta Temple
Coningsby: Or the New Generation
Tancred: Or the New Crusade
The Wondrows Tale of Alroy and the Rise of lskander
Contarini Fleming: A Psychological Autobiography
R. L. Stevenson:
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes An Inland Voyage Virginibus Pueresque New Arabian Nights
Treasure Island
The Strange Case of Dr. Jackyll and Mr. Hyde
65
Kidnapped
The Black Arrow
The Master of Ballantrae
Catriona
Underwords
A Child's Garden of Verses
Mrs. Elizabeth Gaskell:
Cranford
Sylvia's Lovers
Wives and Daughter
North and South
Mary Barton: A Tale
My Lady Ludlow
Cousin Phillis
Charles Kingsley:
Westward Ho!
Alton Locke
Yeast: A Problem
Hypalia or New Foes with an Old Face
Wilkie Collins:
The Dead Secret
No Name
The Woman in White
The Moonstone
Thomas Hardy:
Under the Greenwood Tree
Desperate Remedies
A Pair of Blue Eyes
Two on a Tower
Far From the Madding Crowd
The Return of the Native
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Jude the Obscure
The Hand of Ethelberta
The Trumpet Major
The Woodlanders
The Well-beloved
A Laodicean
A Group of Noble Dames
Life's Little Ironies
Wessex Poems
The Dynasts
A Changed Man
Winter Words
The Waiting Supper and Other Tales
66
Questions
1. Queen Victoria succeeded to the throne of England after:

(A) George III
(B) George IV
(C) William IV
(D) Edward VII
2. The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria's reign was celebrated in:
(A) 1837
(B) 1887
(C) 1862
(D) 1901
3. Queen Victoria became the Empress of India in:
(A) 1857
(B) 1876
(C) 1837
(D) 1887
4. The Oxford Movement was basically a:
(A) Literary Movement
(B) Political Movement
(C) Social Movement
(D) Religious Movement
5. The Oxford Movement was started by:
(A) the clergymen of Oxford
(B) the scholars of the Oxford University
(C) the scholars of both Oxford and Cambridge Universities
(D) the University Wits
6. What was common amongst D. G. Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, Morris and
Swinburne?
(A) They were all Victorian Novelists
(B) They all belonged to the Pre-Raphaelite School
(C) They all belonged to the Oxford Movement
(D) They were all painters
7. Who was the leader of the Pre-Raphaelite group of artists in England?
(A) D. G. Rossetti
(B) Swinburne
(C) Christina Rossetti
(D) Morris
8. Who is the author of The Blessed Damozel?
(A) Christina Rossetti
(B) Tennyson
(C) D. G. Rossetti
(D) Robert Browning
9. Who is the author of Aurora Leigh?
(A) Swinburne
(B) Tennyson
(C) Christina Rossetti
(D) Elizabeth Barret Browning
10. The basic theme of Arnold's Literature and Dogma is:
(A) Contemporary literary criticism
(B) Theology
(C) Social changes in the Victorian Age
(D) Art and Literature
11. Arnold's Culture and Anarchy deals with the subject of:
(A) Religion
(B) Theology
(C) Education
(D) Civilization
67
12. Darwin's The Origin of Species by Natural Selection challenges:

(A) Discoveries in the field of Zoology
(B) Discoveries in the field of Botany
(C) Biblical concept of the creation of the world
(D) Doctrines of Christianity
13. What is common amongst Cardinal Newman, John Keble, Henry Newman and
Stanley?
(A) They were all associated with the Oxford Movement
(B) They were all associated with the Pre-Rephaelite School
(C) They were all sceptical poets
(D) They were all atheists
14. Which of the following novels is called a "Novel without a hero"?
(A) Mill on the Floss
(B) Northanger Abbey
(C) Vanity Fair
(D) Pickwick Papers
15. What is meant by 'Wessex'?
(A) The home town of George Eliot
(B) The region where the Bronte sisters lived
(C) The region in which Hardy's novels are set
(D) The name of a county in Scotland
16. George Eliot's novel Romola is a:
(A) Historical novel
(B) Picaresque novel
(C) Gothic novel
(D) Autobiographical novel
17. 'George Eliot' was the pen-name of:
(A) Clara Reeve
(B) Marian Evans
(C) Mary Collins
(D) Lara Evans
18. Charles Dickens left one novel unfinished. Which of these?
(A) Edwin Drood
(B) Our Mutual Friend
(C) Dombey and Son
(D) Little Dorrit
19. Who wrote: "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him?"
(A) Rousseau
(B) Fitzgerald
(C) Ruskin
(D) Voltair
20. Tennyson was appointed Poet-Laureate after:
(A) Robert Southey
(B) William Wordsworth
(C) S. T. Coleridge
(D) Robert Browning
21. In In Memoriam Tennyson mourns the death of:
(A) Keats
(B) Arthur Hallam
(C) Hugh Clough
(D) Lord Byron
22. Matthew Arnold's Thyrsis is an elegy written on the death of:
(A) Hugh Clough
(B) Arthur Hallam
(C) Edward King
(D) Milton
23. Who defines poetry thus: "Poetry is a criticism of life, under the conditions fixed for such a criticism
by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty"?
(A) Wordsworth
(B) Coleridge
(C) Arnold
(D) Shelley
68
24. The Dynasts is an epic drama written by Hardy. It deals with:

(A) Queen Victoria's reign
(B) The Napoleonic Wars
(C) The Industrial Revolution
(D) Science and Religion
25. In which of Hardy's novels the scene of a wife's auction takes place?
(A) Tess
(B) Jude the Obscure
(C) The Mayor of Casterbridge
(D) Return of the Native
26. Wilkie Collins as a novelist is best known for:
(A) psychological characterization
(B) creating double plots
(C) the creation of sensational plots
(D) the striking endings of his novels
27. The phrase 'Stormy Sisterhood' is applied to:
(A) Charlotte Bronte
(B) Emily Bronte
(C) Anne Bronte
(D) Collectively to all the three
28. What award was given to Hardy as a great novelist?
(A) Nobel Prize
(B) Laureateship
(C) Order of Merit
(D) Knighthood
29. In one of his novels Hardy says: "Happiness is but an occasional episode in the general drama of
pain." In which of the following novels?
(A) Jude the Obscure
(B) Tess
(D) The Return of the Native
30. In one of his novels Hardy quotes Shakespeare's remark:
"As flies to the wanton boys are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport."
In which of the following novels does he quote these lines?
(A) Tess
(B) The Mayor of Casterbridge
(C) The Return of the Native
(D) Jude the Obscure
31. Hardy believed in the philosophy of:
(A) Immanent Will
(B) Character is destiny
(C) Free will
(D) Man as the master of his own fate
32. Who is the author of Prometheus Bound?
(A) P. B. Shelley
(B) Lord Byron
(C) Robert Browning
(D) Elizabeth Barret Browning
33. Which of the following poets speaks of Nature as 'Red in Tooth and Claw'? (A) Thomas Hardy
(B) Tennyson
(C) Rudyard Kipling
(D) W. E. Henley
34. Which of the following novels of Charles Dickens is most autobiographical? (A) A Tale of Two Cities
35. (B) David Copperfield

(C) Hard Times
(D) Pickwick Papers
35. Who is the author of the novel No Name?
(A) Mrs. Elizabeth Gaskell
(B) Wilkie Collins
(C) Anne Bronte
(D) Charles Kingsley
36. Who is the author of 'Unto This Last?
(A) Macaulay
(B) Carlyle
(C) Ruskin
(D) R. L. Stevenson
69
37. Dickens said about one of his novels:

"I like this the best." Which novel was he referring to?
(A) Oliver Twist
(B) Great Expectations
(C) A Tale of Two Cities
(D) David Copperfield
38. Who is the author of Dr. Jakyll and Mr. Hyde?
(A) Charles Reade
(B) Charles Kingsley
(C) R. L. Stevenson
(D) George Meredith
39. Charles Dickens's characters are generally:
(A) Flat
(B) Round
(C) Humorous
(D) Humanitarian
40. In Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities', the two cities referred to are:
(A) Rome and Paris
(B) London and Paris
(C) Athens and Paris
(D) Berlin and Paris
41. The theme of Tennyson's Idylls of the King is:
(A) The story of King Arthur and His Round Table
(B) Helen and the Greek Kings
(C) Roman Emperors and their Victories
(D) Kings of England after the Restoration of Charles II
42. Tennyson's Queen Mary is a:
(A) Verse tale
(B) Novel
(C) Drama
(D) Novelette
43. "Let knowledge grow from more to more.
But more of reverence in us dwell:
'That mind and soul, according well,
May make one music as before."
These lines are quoted from Tennyson's
In Memoriam. What do these lines imply?
(A) Supremacy of knowledge over faith
(B) Supremacy of faith over knowledge
(C) Compromise between knowledge and faith
(D) Supremacy of the Bible over both knowledge and faith
44. "And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea !"
These lines occur in Tennyson's:
(A) In Memoriam
(B) Break, Break, Break
(C) Crossing the Bar
(D) Ulysses
45. How many years did Tennyson take in brooding over and finishing In Memo
riam?
(A) Two years
(B) Seven years
(C) Seventeen years
(D) One full year
46. Which poem of Browning's begins with the lines:
"Grow old along with me !
The best is yet to be."
(A) The Lost Leader
(B) Home-Thoughts from Abroad
(C) Rabbi Ben Ezra
(D) The Last Ride Together
70
47. "I was ever a fighter, so one fight more,

The best and the last !"
In which poem of Browning's do these lines occur?
(A) The Lost Leader
(B) Prospice
(C) My Last Duchess
(D) Rabbi Ben Ezra
48. "God's in his heaven—
All's right with the world !"
In which poem do these lines occur?
(A) Evelyn Hope
(B) Life in Love
(C) Pippa Passes
(D) The Patriot
49. 'Truth sits upon the lips of dying men." In which poem of Matthew Arnold's does this line occur?
(A) Rugby Chapel
(B) Scholar Gypsy
(C) Thyrsis
(D) Sohrab and Rustum
50. "Others abide our question. Thou art free.
We ask and ask: Thou smilest and art still,
Out-topping knowledge."
In these lines from a-poem written by Matthew Arnold, 'Thou' refers to:
(A) Milton
(B) Spenser
(C) Shakespeare
(D) Wordsworth
True or False
1. D. G. Rossetti was the leader of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement.

2. The Oxford Movement was essentially a Literary Movement.
3. The Oxford Movement was also called the Tractarian Movement.
4. Henry Newman initiated the Oxford Movement.
5. The Oxford Movement challenged the authority of the Bible.
6. Tennyson succeeded Coleridge as the Poet-Laureate of England.
7. Matthew Arnold was Professor of English Poetry at the Oxford University.
8. Tennyson took seventeen years in finishing In Memoriam.
9. Thackeray borrowed the title of his novel Vanity Fair from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.
10. Matthew Arnold defined Poetry as "emotions recollected in tranquillity."
11. Mrs. Elizabeth Gaskell's pen-name was George Eliot.
12. Hardy's Dynasts is an epic drama.
13. 'Wessex' is an imaginary name of the region in which the novels of Hardy are set.
14. Ruskin was a recipient of Newdigate Prize for Poetry at Oxford.
15. Hardy was a recipient of Order of Merit for his novels.
71
(I) Match the events given under Column A with their dates under Column B:
Column A Column B
Events Dates
1. Accession of Queen Victoria to the throne (a) 1897
2. India's First War of Independence (b) 1887
3. Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria's reign (c) 1901
4. Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria's reign (d) 1837
5. Accession of Edward VII to the throne (e) 1850
6. Tennyson appointed as the Poet-Laureate (f) 1857
7. Death of Thomas Hardy (g) 1876
8. Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India (h) 1928
(II) Match the Works listed under Column A with their Authors under Column B:
Column A Column B
Works Authors
1. Enoch Arden (a) D. G. Rossetti

2. Pippa Passes (b) Matthew Arnold
3. Sohrab and Rustum (c) A. C. Swinburne
4. Sonnets from the Portuguese (d) Robert Browning
5. The Blessed Damozel (e) John Ruskin
6. Atalanta in Calydon (f) Tennyson
7. The Modern Painters (g) Thackeray
8. Oliver Twist (h) Elizabeth Barrett Browning
9. Henry Osmond (i) Charles Dickens
10. The Mill on the Floss (j) George Eliot
(I) Which of the following arrangements of the literary works is in the correct chronological order
according to their dates of publication?
(a) Walter Pater's The Renaissance, Macaulay's History of England, Carlyle's French Revolution, Arnold's
Culture and Anarchy.
(b) Carlyle's French Revolution, Macaulay's History of England, Arnold's Culture and Anarchy, Walter
Pater's The Renaissance.
(c) Arnold's Culture and Anarchy, Macaulay's History of England, Carlyle's French Revolution, Walter
Pater's The Renaissance.
(d) Macaulay's History of England, Arnold's Culture and Anarchy, Walter Pater's The Renaissance,
Carlyle's French Revolution.
(II)' Which of the following arrangements of the authors is in the correct chronological order
(a) A. C. Swinburne, D. G. Rossetti, Thomas Hardy, William Morris.
(b) D. G. Rossetti, William Morris, A. C. Swinburne, Thomas Hardy.
(c) William Morris, A. C. Swinburne, D. G. Rossetti, Thomas Hardy.
(d) D. G. Rossetti, A. C. Swinburne, William Morris, Thomas Hardy,
72
ANSWERS
l.(C) 2.(B) 3. (B) 4. (D) 5. (B) 6. (B) 7. (A) 8.(C) 9.(D) 10. (B)
11. (C) 12. (C) 13. (A) 14. (C) 15. (C) 16. (A) 17. (B) 18. (A) 19. (D) 20. (B)
21. (B) 22. (A) 23. (C) 24. (B) 25. (C) 26. (C) 27. (D) 28. (C) 29. (C) 30. (A)
31. (A) 32. (D) 33. (B) 34. (B) 35. (B) 36. (C) 37. (D) 38. (C) 39. (A) 40. (B)
41. (A) 42. (C) 43. (C) 44. (C) 45. (C) 46. (C) 47. (B) 48. (C) 49. (D) 50. (C)
True or False
l. T 2.F 3.T 4.T 5. F 6. F 7.T 8.T 9.T 10. F

11. F 12. T 13. T 14. T 15. T
(I)
l. d 2f 3.b 4. a 5. c 6. e 7. h 8. g
(II)
l. f 2. d 3.b 4. h 5. a 6. c 7.e 8. i 9. g 10. j
(I) b (II) b
73
Chapter 7
The Modern Age

(1901-2000)
The beginning or end of a social, cultural or literary Age cannot be precisely dated. Yet some historical
event or landmark has to be sought to mark the beginning and end of a certain Age. Thus the year 1901
can be fixed as the year marking the end of the Victorian Age and the beginning of the modern Age, for it
is the year of Queen Victoria's death. The death of Queen Victoria may be taken to signify the end of the
Victorian Age and the beginning of the Modern Age.
Many of the poets, dramatists, novelists and prose writers were born in the Victorian Age but they
continued living and writing well upto the third or fourth decade of the twentieth century. Their major
works were published in the twentieth century. Hence they have been included in the Modern Age. On the
contrary, there were some authors, such as Hardy, who lived upto the third decade of the present century,
but their important works had already been published in the Victorian Age. Such authors have already
been included and considered in the Victorian Age.
The Modern Age is the most complex, complicated, baffling and revolutionary Age in the history of the
world. It is an Age of most amazing, astounding and unimaginable scientific discoveries, inventions and
advancement which our ancestors or even our immediate predecessors, the Victorians, could not have
visualized even in dreams. This is an Age of jet planes, space crafts, computers, internet communications,
mobile phones and fax, and interstellar flights, which have reduced the entire Cosmos into a tiny unit in
terms of both time and space.
There is the other and darker side of the picture too. We have invented and stocked highly devastating war
armaments such as atom bomb, hydrogen bomb, interballistic missiles, nuclear missiles, nuclear-loaded
warships, torpedoes, and chemical and biological armaments which can kill millions of people in the
twinkling of an eye. And now, threatening clouds of war are fast gathering in the sky. The whole world is
sitting on the mouth of a live-volcano. If the world is to be saved, thinkers, philosophers, poets and literary
men must come to the forefront, replacing the politicians, war-mongers and promoters of terrorism in the
world.
The present Age has not taken any lesson from the two devastating World Wars through which it has
passed. At the end of the First World War the League of Nations was founded in 1919 to prevent further
recurrence of wars and to promote world peace. But it proved of no use and was dissolved in 1946. In
spite of the League of Nations, the Second World War broke out in 1939 and did not stop until Atom
Bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan in 1945. At the end of the Second World War,
the United Nations Organisation was founded for the same purpose, but U. N. O. too seems to prove
ineffective in preventing the occurrence of another war.
74
In these circumstances literature would be useless if it did not serve a definite social and political purpose.
The authors who fail to share this conviction will be thought to be skulking in the ivory tower of mere
literary art.
Historical Events Poetry Drama Fiction
Death of Queen Hardy's Pinero's Second Mrs. H. G. Wells' Time

Victoria, 1901 Dynasts, 1904 Tanqueray, 1893 Machine, 1895
Accession of Edward Robert Brooke's Wilde's Importance Conrad's Nigger of
VII, 1901 Poems, 1911 of the Narcissus
Accession of George Masefield's Ever Being Earnest, 1895 Conrad's Lord Jim,
V, 1910 Lasting Mercy, 1911 H. A. Jone's 1900
First World War Walter De La Mare's The Liars, 1897 Kipling's Kim, 1901
breaks out (1914- Listeners, 1912 Bernard Shaw's Plays Butler's Way of All
1918 Pleasant and Flesh, 1903
League of Nations Hopkins' Poems, Unpleasant, 1898 Conrad's Nostromo,
established, 1919 1918 H. A. Jones' Mrs. 1904
Treaty of Versalles, Eliot's The Dane's Defence, Well's Kipps, 1905
1919 Wasteland, 1922 1900
Mussolini emerges as Robert Bridges' Shaw's Man and Arnold Bennet's Old
a fascist, 1922 Testament of Beauty, Superman, 1903 Wives' Tale, 1908
1929 Synge's Playboy of
Death of Lenin, 1924 Osbert Sitwell's the Western World, Wells' Tono-Bungay,
England Reclaimed, 1907 1909
America's great 1927
crash, 1928 Edith Sitwell's Galsworthy's Strife, D. H. Lawrence's
Collected Poems, 1909 Sons and Lovers,
Hitler becomes 1930 Granville-Barker's 1913
Chancellor of Auden's Selected Voysey Inheritance, Conrad's Victory,
German Parliament, Poems, 1940 1909 1915
1933 Eliot's Four John Drink water's
Quartets, Abraham Lincoln, George Moore's
Death of George V, 1944 1918 Brook Kerith, 1916
1936. Accession of De La Mare's
George VI, 1936 Collected Rhymes Shaw's Heartbreak Wells' Mr. Britling
Edward VIII and Verses, 1944 House, 1919 Sees It Through, 1916
abdicates, 1936 Yeats' Last Poems
and Plays, 1940 Galsworthy's Skin Galsworthy's Forsyte
Game, 1920 Saga, 1922
Germany leaves E. Sitwell's A Song of
League of Nations, the Cold, 1945 Shaws' Back to James Joyce's
1936 Methuselah, 1921 Ulysses, 1922
Second World War E. Sitwell's The
breaks out (1939-45) Canticle of the Rose, O'Casey's Juno and Bennet's Riceyman
1949 the Paycock, 1925 Steps, 1923
Atom Bomb dropped Osbert Sitwell's
on Nagasaki and Wrack at Tidesend. Shaw's Apple Cart, E. M. Forster's A
Hiroshima, 1945 1952 1930 Passage to India,
Unconditional Dylan Thomas' 1924
surrender of Collected Poems, Eliot's Murder in the
Germany and Japan, 1952 Cathedral. 1935 Virginia Woolf 's
1945 Orlando, 1928
U. N. O. founded. Priestley's Time and
1945 the Conways, 1937
75
India gets Bridie's Mr. Bolfry, Priestley's The Good

Independence, 1947 1943 Companion. 1929
Queen Elizabeth II Bridie's Daphne Maugham's Cakes

succeeds to the Laureola, 1949 and Ale. 1930
throne, 1952
Fry's The Lady's Not V. Woolf s The
Queen Elizabeth's For Burning. 1949 Waves, 1931
Diamond Jubilee,
2002 Eliot's The Cocktail Huxley's Brave New
Party, 1950 World, 1932
Death of Swinburne, V. Woolf's The
1909 Years, 1937
Death of Robert James Joyce's

Bridges, 1930 Finnegans Wake,
1939
Death of John George Orwell's
Galsworthy, 1933 Animal Farm
Death of James Joyce
and of Virginia Orwell's Nineteen
Woolf, 1941 Eighty-Four, 1949
Death of W. B.
Yeats, 1939
Death of Kipling,
1936
Death of H. G. Wells,
1946
Death of Bernard
Shaw, 1950
Death of De La Mare,
1956
(iii) The Major Authors of the Age
(1) Poets

Alfred Austen 1835-1913 T. S. Eliot 1888-1965
W. E. Henley 1849-1903 Christopher Fry 1907 born
William Watson 1858-1935 W. H. Auden 1907-1973
Rudyard Kipling 1865-1936 C. Day Lewis 1904-1972
Francis Thompson 1859-1907 Louis MacNeice 1907-1963
A. E. Houseman 1859-1936 Stephen Spender 1909-1977
Robert Bridges 1844-1930 Dylan Thomas 1914-1953
Rupert Brooke 1887-1915 Edith Sitwell 1887-1964
John Masefield 1874-1967 Osbert Sitwell 1892 born
W. B. Yeats 1865-1839 Walter De La Mare 1873-1956
Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844-1889
(Though he lived and died in Age, he is
included in the because his first Poetic
appeared in 1914) the Victorian Modern
Age al collection
76
(2) Dramatists

A. W. Pinero 1855-1934 Harley Granville—Barker 1877-1946
Henry Arthur Jones 1851-1928 T. S. Eliot 1888-1965
George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950 Christopher Fry 1907 born
J. M. Synge 1871-1909 James Bridie 1888-1951
Sean O'Casey 1884-1964 Noel Coward 1899 born
Lady Gregory 1852-1932 J. B. Priestley 1894-1984
J. M. Barrie 1860-1937 Laurence Houseman 1865-1959
John Galsworthy 1867-1933
(3) Novelists

George Moore 1857-1933 D. H. Lawrence 1885-1930
George Gissing 1857-1903 Aldous Huxley 1894 born
Rudyard Kipling 1865-1936 George Orwell 1903-1950
Stanley Meyman 1855-1928 Hugh Walpole 1884-1941
Maurice Hewlett 1861-1923 Compton Mackenzie 1883 bom
H. G. Wells 1866-1946 J. B. Priestley 1894-1984
Joseph Conrad 1857-1924 Graham Green 1904-1991
Arnold Bennett 1867-1931 Evelyn Waugh 1903-1966
William De Morgan 1839-1917 Charles Morgan 1894-1958
Osbert Sitwell 1892 born Joyce Cary 1888-1957
Virginia Woolf 1882-1941 Katherine Mansfield 1888-1923
E. M. Forster 1879-1970 William Gerald Golding 1911 born
James Joyce 1882-1941 Harold Pinter 1930 born
Somerset Maugham 1874-1965
(4) General Prose

Robert Lynd 1879-1949 Lord David Cecil —
A. G. Gardiner 1865-1946 Bertrand Russell 1872-1970
E. V. Lucas 1868-1898 Gertrude Bell 1868-1926
Max Beerbohm 1872-1956 T. E. Lawrence 1888-1935
C. M. Doughty 1843-1926 Hilaire Belloc 1870-1953
W. H. Hudson 1841-1922 G. K. Chesterton 1872-1936
Lytton Strachey 1880-1932 C. P. Snow 1905-1980
Benjamin Disraeli 1804-1881 I. A. Richards 1893-1979
Arthur James Balfour 1848-1930 F. R. Leavis 1895-1978
Stanley Baldwin 1867-1947 Angus Wilson 1913-1991
Winston Churchill 1874-1965 Ezra Pound 1885-1972
G. M. Trevelyan 1876-1962 Siegfried Sassoon 1886-1967
77
Robert Bridges :
The Testament of Beauty
The Growth of Love
Eros and Psyche
Promethes the Fire Giver
The Feast of Bacchus
Palicio
The Christian Captives
The Return of Ulysses
Achilles in Scyros
The Humours of the Court
Nero
Bernard Shaw :
Widowers' Houses
Candida
You Never Can Tell
Man and Superman
Back to Methuselah
Saint Joan
Heartbreak House
The Philanderer
Mrs. Warren's Profession
Caesar and Cleopatra
John Bull's Other Island
Major Barbara
The Doctor's Dilemma
Getting Married
The Apple Cart
Pygmalion
The Dark Lady of the Sonnets
Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant
The Millionaire
The Intelligent Woman's Guide to
Socialism
Everybody's Political What is What
Cashel Byron's Profession
Love Among the Artists
Androcles and the Lion
The Devil's Disciple
The Man of Destiny
W. B. Yeats :
The Land of Heart's Desire
The Countess Cathleen
The Shadowy Waters
The Hour-glass
The Resurrection
The King's Threshold
On Baile's Strand
The Cat and the Moon
Ideas of Good and Evil
Discoveries
The Wind among the Reeds
The Wanderings of Oisin
The Tower
The Winding Stair and Other Poems
Lake Isle of lnnisfree
Byzantium
John Galsworthy :
The Silver Box
Strife
The Skin Game
The Man of Property
Justice
Loyalties
Escape
The Inn of Tranquillity
The Forsyte Saga
The Country House
Fraternity
The Patrician
The Dark Flower
Saint's Progress
Maid in Waiting
Flower Wilderness
George Moore :
The Brook Kerith
Abelard and Heloise
Ulick and Soracha
Evelyn Innes
Esther Waters
A Modern Lover
A Mummer's Wife
A Drama in Muslin
Spring Days
Confessions of a Young Man
Memoirs of My Dead Life
Hail and Farewell I Ave
The Lake
Sister Teresa
The Untilled Field
Conversations in Ebury Street
78
George Gissing:
Born in Exile
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
The New Grub Street
Thyrza
The Nether World
The Old Woman
The Emancipated
By the Ionian Sea
Eve's Ransom
Demos: English Socialism
Charles Dickens, a Critical Study
Rudyard Kipling:
Kim
The Jungle Book
Barrack-room Ballads
Departmental Ditties
The Seven Seas
The Five Nations
Tales from the Hills
Soldiers Three
Life's Handicap
The Phantom Rickshaw
Many Inventions
The Day's Work
Just-so Stories for Little Children
Rewards and Fairies
Debits and Credits
H. G. Wells:
The Time Machine
Love and Mr. Levisham
Kipps
The History of Mr. Polly
Mr. Britling Sees It Through
Christina Alberta's Father
The Wonderful Visit
The Island of Dr. Moreau
The Invisible Man
The War of the Worlds
The First Men in the Moon
The Food of the Gods
Marriage
Experiment in Autobiography
The Contemporary Novel
Joseph Conrad:
The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
Typhoon
Lord Jim
Victory
Almayer's Folly
An Outcast of the Islands
Youth
Heart of Darkness
The Secret Agent
The Shadow of Line
Suspense-A Napoleonic Novel
Arnold Bennett:
The Old Wives' Tale
Clayhanger
Riceyman Steps
Buried Alive
Hilda Lessways
These Twain
Sacred and Profane Love
The Pretty Lady
The Love Match
The Author's Craft
Gerard Manley Hopkins:

The Wreck of the Deutschland
Pied Beauty
The Windhover
God's Grandeur
The Caged Skylark
Felix Rendal
Harry Ploughman
Inversnaid
Spelt From Sibyl's Leaves
That Nature Heraditean
Walter De La Mare:
Peacock Pie
Memoirs of a Midget
Songs of Childhood
Bells and Grass
The Traveller
Early the Morning
Love
T. S. Eliot:
The Waste Land
Prufrock and Other Observations
Gerontion
The Hollow Men
Ash Wednesday
Four Quartets
Sweeney Agonistes
79
Murder in the Cathedral

The Rock
The Family Reunion
The Cocktail Party
The Confidential Clerk
The Sacred Wood
After Strange Gods
The Elder Statesman
The Idea of a Christian Society
What is a Classic?
For Lancelot Andrews
The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism
Elizabethan Essays
Points of View
W. H. Auden:
Look Stranger
The Orators
New Year Letter
The Age of Anxiety
The Poet's Tongue
Collected Shorter Poems
The Oxford Book of Light Verse
Edith Sitwell:
The Sleeping Beauty
Troy Park
Street Songs
The Songs of the Cold
Aspects of Modern Poetry
Collected English Eccentrices
Osbert Sitwell:
Left Hand, Right Hand (in five volumes)
Virginia Woolf:
The Voyage Out
Jacob's Room
Mrs. Dalloway
To the Light House
The Waves
Flush
Orlando: a Biography
The Common Reader
Roger Fry
The Death of the Moth
Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown
A Room of One's Own
Between the Acts (Unfinished)
E. M. Forster:
Abinger Harvest
Two Cheers for Democracy
A Passage to India
Howard's End
The Hill of Devi
The Celestial Omnibus
Collected Short Stories
Where Angels Fear to Tread
The Longest Journey
The Story of the Siren
A Room with a View
The Eternal Moment
James Joyce:
Ulysses
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Finnegans Wake
Dubliners
D. H. Lawrence:
Sons and Lovers
Woman in Love
Lady Chatterly's Lover
The Rainbow
The White Peacock
Kangaroo
The Plumed Serpent
Samuel Butler:
The Way of All Flesh
Odyssey
Evolution Old and New
Essays on Life, Arts and Science
Shakespeare's Sonnets Reconsidered
Unconscious Memory
Life and Habit
Aldous Huxley:
Point Counter Point
The Burning Wheel
Those Barren Leaves
Brave New World
After Many a Summer
Eyeless in Gaza
Antic Hay
Time Must Have a Stop
Crome Yellow
The Defeat of Youth
The Perennial Philosophy
The Devils of Loudun
80
Graham Green:
England Made Me
The Power and the Glory
Brighton Rock
The Heart of the Matter
The End of the Affair
A Burnt-out Case
The Comedians
Our Man in Havana
The Quiet American
Battlefield
Travels with My Aunt
The Third Man
A Gun for Sale
George Orwell:
The Animal Farm
The Road to Wigan Pier
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Burmese Days
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
Ezra Pound:
The Pisan Cantos
Hugh Selwyn Mobberly
John Masefield:
Dauber
Reynard the Fox
The Everlasting Mercy
The Widow in the Bye Street
The Daffodil Fields
Saltwater Ballads
Lollingdon Downs
Biography
August 1914
Ballads and Poems
Right Royal
The Land Workers
Good Friday
The Trial of Jesus
The Coming of Christ
The Tragedy of Nan
Midsummer Night
End and Beginning
Oscar Wilde:
The Sphinx
The Ballad of Reeding Gaol
The Canterville Ghost
De Profundis
The Duchess of Padua
The Importance of Being Earnest
An Ideal Husband
Lady Windermere's Fan
Salome
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Happy Prince and the Other Tales
Stephen Spender:
The Still Centre
Vienna
Ruins and Visions
Poetry Since
The Destructive Element
World Within World
Collected Poems
Sean O'Cassey:
Juno and Polycock
The Shadow of a Gunman
The Plough and the Stars
The Silver Tassie
Within the Gates
The Star Turns
Red Red Roses for Me
Oak Leaves and Lavender
Cockadoodle Dandy
William Somerset Maugham:

A Man of Honour
Lady Frederick
Caesar's Wife
The Constant Wife
Jack Straw
Mrs. Dot
The Circle
For Services Rendered
Home and Beauty
J. B. Priestley:
Dangerous Corner
Time and the Conways
I Have been Here Before
An Inspector Calls
When We are Married
A Severed Head
81
Harold Pinter:
The Birthday Party
The Dumb Waiter
The Care Taker
A Night Out
The Home Coming
Old Times
Silence
C. P. Snow:
Times of Hope
The New Men
The Masters
Strangers and Brothers
The Conscience of the Rich
Corridors of Power
The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution
C. Day Lewis:
A Time to Dance
Transitional Poem
The Magnetic Mountain
Overtures to Death and Other Poems'
The Friendly Tree
From Feathers to Iron
Word Over All
Starting Point
Child of Misfortune
Hope for Poetry
Poetry for You
The Poetic Image
Transitional Poems
William Gerald Golding:

Lord of Flies
The Inheritors
Pincher Martin
Free Fall
The Scorpian God
The Spire
I. A. Richards:
Principles of Literary Criticism
Practical Criticism
Coleridge On Imagination
The Meaning of Meaning
The Foundation of Aesthetics
F. R. Leavis:
New Bearings in English Poetry
For Continuity
The Great Tradition
The Common Pursuit
Revaluation
D. H. Lawrence: Novelist
Fducation and the University
82
Questions
1. Who was the Editor of an anthology of verse entitled Georgian Poetry?

(A) Rupert Brooke
(B) Edward Marsh
(C) John Masefield
(D) Ralph Hodgson
2. What is common amongst Rupert Brooke, Julian Grenfell and Siegfried Sassoon
as poets?
(A) They were all elegiac poets
(B) They were all satirists
(C) They were all war poets
(D) They were all sea-poets
3. Who succeeded Robert Bridges as Poet Laureate of England?

(A) John Masefield
(B) W. B. Yeats
(C) Rudyard Kipling
(D) Rupert Brooke
4. Who was the author of the popular tragic play Riders to the Sea?
(A) Lady Gregory
(B) J. M. Barrie
(C) Sean O'Cassey
(D) J. M. Synge
5. Which of the following poets supported British Imperialism in India?

(A) John Masefield
(B) George William Russell
(C) A. E. Houseman
(D) Rudyard Kipling
6. Rudyard Kipling was born in:

(A) London
(B) Edinburgh
(C) Glasgo
(D) Bombay
7. "Oh, East is East, and West is West, And never the twain can meet." Whose lines are these?
(A) A. E. Houseman
(B) George Bernard Shaw
(C) Rudyard Kipling
(D) W. E. Yeats
8. Who is the author of The Testament of Beauty?

(A) Robert Bridges
(B) W. B. Yeats
(C) John Masefield
(D) T. S. Eliot
9. T. S. Eliot dedicated his The Waste Land to:

(A) Ezra Pound
(B) Bernard Shaw
(C) Thomas Hardy
(D) John Ruskin
10. In how many parts is The Waste Land divided?

(A) Two parts
(B) Three parts
(C) Four parts
(D) Five parts
11. Which of the following poems of T. S. Eliot ends with the lines?
"Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata, Shanti, Shanti. Shanti."
(A) The Hollow Men
(B) Ash-Wednesday
(C) The Waste Land
(D) Gerontion
12. James Joyce's Ulysses is based on the pattern of:

(A) Homer's Odyssey
(B) Tennyson's Ulysses
(C) Virgil's Aenied
(D) Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress
83
13. James Joyce initiated:

(A) Surrealism technique
(B) Imaginative technique
(C) Stream of consciousness technique
(D) Episodic technique
14. Which of James Joyce's novels resembles a Vast Musical Composition?

(A) Finnegans Wake
(B) Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(C) Ulysses
(D) Dubliners
15. Which of the following novels of D. H. Lawrence has autobiographical over

tones?
(A) Woman in Love
(B) Rainbow
(C) Sons and Lovers
(D) The White Peacock
16. D. H. Lawrence called one of his novels "Thought Adventure". Which of these?
(A) The White Peacock
(B) Woman in Love
(C) Kangaroo
(D) Rainbow
17. D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover is generally called an obscene novel.

Why?
(A) Its theme is irreligious
(B) Its theme is immoral
(C) Its theme is sexual experience
(D) Its theme is homo-sexual love
18. The phrase 'religion of the blood' is associated with:

(A) Virginia Woolf
(B) James Joyce
(C) D. H. Lawrence
(D) E. M. Forster
19. Virginia Woolf was the daughter of an eminent critic. Which of the following? (A) I. A. Richards
(B) F. R. Leavis
(C) Harold Pinter
(D) Leslie Stephen
20. A character in Virginia Woolf's novels changes his sex. Which is that novel?
(A) Mrs. Dalloway
(B) Orlando
(C) To the Light House
(D) The Voyage Out
21. What is the Central theme of Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman?
(A) Man's evolution into superman
(B) The latent faculties of man
(C) A woman's search for a fitting mate
(D) Godly spark in man
22. In which of Shaw's plays the 'Chocolate cream hero' appears?

(A) Arms and the Man
(B) St. Joan
(C) Man and Superman
(D) Candida
23. The phrase 'Don Juan in Hell' occurs in Shaw's:

(A) St. Joan
(B) Man and Superman
(C) Back to Methuselah
(D) Caesar and Cleopatra
24. What is the central theme of Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession?

(A) Prostitution
(B) Social Service
(C) Education
(D) Adultery
25. The central theme of Galsworthy's Strife is:

(A) An individual in conflict with society
(B) Labour and Capital conflict
(C) An individual in conflict with the system of law and justice
(D) Man in conflict with Nature
84
26. "The law is what it is-a majestic edifice sheltering all of us, each stone of which rests on another."
In which play of Galsworthy do these lines occur?
(A) The Silver Box
(B) Strife
(C) Justice
(D) Loyalties
27. In which year was Bernard Shaw awarded the Nobel Prize?
(A) 1920
(B) 1925
(C) 1930
(D) 1932
28. Joseph Conrad's novels are generally set in the background of:
(A) labour colonies
(B) slums
(C) the sea
(D) mountains and valleys
29. E. M. Forster's A Passage to India deals with:

(A) ancient Indian Culture
(B) arrival of the Britishers in India
(C) relationship between the Britishers and Indians
(D) discovery of the sea-route to India
30. Who is the author of Human Bondage?

(A) J. B. Priestley
(B) Somerset Maugham
(C) Harold Pinter
(D) C. Day Lewis
31. Who has written the poem If?

(A) Rudyard Kipling
(B) W. B. Yeats
(C) Thomas Hardy
(D) T. S. Eliot
32. Who is the author of Two Cheers for Democracy?

(A) Aldous Huxley
(B) E. M. Forster
(C) Rudyard Kipling
(D) Oscar Wilde
33. Who is the originator of 'Sprung Rhythm'?

(A) A. E. Houseman
(B) Stephen Spender
(C) Christopher Fry
(D) Hopkins
34. The term 'Stream of consciousness' was first used by:

(A) James Joyce
(B) Virginia Woolf
(C) Sigmund Freud
(D) William James
35. The terms 'Inscape' and 'Instress' are associated with:

(A) Francis Thompson
(B) Hopkins
(C) Christopher Fry
(D) Dylan Thomas
36. One of Shaw's plays was proscribed on the charge of obscenity. Which was it?
(A) Widower's Houses
(B) The Philanderer
(C) Mrs. Warren's Profession
(D) Heartbreak House
37. Who called Hamlet an artistic failure?

(A) T. S. Eliot
(B) I. A. Richards
(C) F. R. Leavis
(D) Aldous Huxley
38. The World Within World is an autobiography of:

(A) C. Day Lewis
(B) Stephen Spender
(C) George Moore
(D) George Gissing
39. Who said, "For art's sake alone I would not face the toil of writing a single
sentence?"
(A) G. B. Shaw
(B) T. S. Eliot
(C) Dylan Thomas
(D) Stephen Spender
85
40. Aldous Huxley borrowed the title 'Brave New World' from:
(A) Lyly's Euphues
(B) Sidney's Arcadia
(C) Shakespeare's Tempest
(D) Bacon's New Atlantis
41. Who was the author of Light of Asia?

(A) Matthew Arnold
(B) Arnold Bennett
(C) Edwin Arnold
(D) W. H. Auden
42. Who was the author of The Earthly Paradise?

(A) D. G. Rossetti
(B) William Morris
(C) A. C. Swinburne
(D) Christina Rossetti
43. The Seven Types of Ambiguity was written by:

(A) F. R. Leavis
(B) George Watson
(C) William Empson
(D) T. S. Eliot
44. Who was believed to be "a classicist in literature, royalist in politics and anglo-catholic in religion?"
(A) Ezra Pound
(B) Rudyard Kipling
(C) George Orwell
(D) T. S. Eliot
45. Who was the founder of the Bloomsbury Group, a literary club of England?
(A) Virginia Woolf
(B) Christina Rossetti
(C) Edith Sitwell
(D) Katherine Mansfield
46. How should Rudyard Kipling be rightly called?

(A) An Indo-Anglian poet
(B) An Anglo-Indian poet
(C) A native English poet
(D) An alien English poet
47. George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is:

(A) A phantasy
(B) A prophetic novel
(C) An Arcadian novel
(D) A scientific novel
48. Would you call Aldous Huxley's Brave New World:

(A) A novel of adventure
(B) A prophetic novel
(C) A picaresque novel
(D) A psychological inward voyage
49. Who initiated the term 'New Criticism' in English literary criticism?
(A) Henry James
(B) I. A. Richards
(C) David Daiches
(D) William Empson
50. In which verse-form is T. S. Eliot's Waste Land written?

(A) Free Verse
(B) Blank Verse
(C) Sprung rhythm
(D) Prose-Verse
True or False

1. Christina Rossetti was the wife of D. G. Rossetti.
2. Virginia Woolf was the daughter of the eminent critic Leslie Stephen
3. Rudyard Kipling was born in England.
4. Rupert Brooke belonged to a group of poets known as War Poets
86
5. Virginia Woolf was the founder of a literary club known as Bloomsbury Group.
6. George Bernard Shaw was a Nobel Laureate.
7. The concept of Life Force was first developed by H. G. Wells.
8. W. B. Yeats was a Nobel Laureate.
9. Robert Bridges succeeded John Masefield as the Poet-Laureate.
10. Robert Bridges missed to get the honour of Poet-Laureateship on account of a political propaganda
against him.
11. The concept of 'Sprung Rhythm' was first given by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
12. Shaw's Apple Cart is a satire on Democracy.
(I) Match the Authors under Column A with their Works under Column B.
Authors Works
1. Robert Bridges (A) The Lake Isle of lnnisfree
2. G. B. Shaw (B) The Skin Game
3. W. B. Yeats (C) Pigmalion
4. Galsworthy (D) Tyfoon
5. H. G. Wells (E) The Testament of Beauty
6. Joseph Conrad (F) The Old Wives' Tale
7. Arnold Bennett (G) The First Men in the Moon
8. T. S. Eliot (H) After Strange Gods
(II) Match the Events under Column A with their Dates under Column B.
Events Dates
1. Death of Queen Victoria (A) 1914
2. Accession of George V (B) 1919
3. Beginning of World War I (C) 2002
4. Establishment of the League of Nations (D) 1901
5. Establishment of U.N.O. (E) 1950
6. Beginning of World War II (F) 1910
7. Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee (G) 1945
8. Death of Bernard Shaw (H) 1914
9. Abdication of Edward VIII (I) 1952
10. Queen Elizabeth II succeeds to the throne (J) 1936
(I) Which of the following arrangements of literary works is chronologically correct according to
their dates of publication?
(a) George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, E. M. Forster's A
Passage to India, James Joyce's Ulysses
(b) E. M. Forster's A Passage to India, James Joyce's Ulysses, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four,
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
(c) James Joyce's Ulysses, E. M. Forster's A Passage to India. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George
Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four
(d) Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, E. M. Forster's A Passage
to India. James Joyce's Ulysses
87
(II) Which of the following arrangements of the poets is chronologically correct according to their
dates of birth?
(a) Robert Bridges, John Masefield, T. S. Eliot. Stephen Spender
(b) T. S. Eliot, Stephen Spender, Robert Bridges, John Masefield
(c) Stephen Spender, T. S. Eliot, Robert Bridges, John Masefield
(d) John Masefield, Robert Bridges, T. S. Eliot, Stephen Spender
ANSWERS
1. (B) 2. (C) 3. (A) 4. (D) 5. (D) 6. (D) 7. (C) 8. (A)9. (A)10. (D)
11. (C) 12. (A)13. (C) 14. (A)15. (C) 16. (C) 17. (C) 18. (C) 19. (D) 20. (B)
21. (C) 22. (A)23. (B)24. (A)25. (B)26. (C) 27. (B)28. (C) 29. (C) 30. (B)
31. (A) 32. (B)33. (D) 34. (D) 35. (B)36. (C) 37. (A)38. (B) 39. (A) 40. (C)
41. (C) 42. (B)43. (C) 44. (D) 45. (A)46. (B)47'. (B) 48. (B)49. (C) 50. (A)
True or False
l. F 2. T 3. F 4. T 5. T 6. T 7. F 8. T 9. F 10. F
11.T 12. T
(I)
1. E 2. C 3. A 4. B 5. G 6. D 7. F 8. H
(II)
l. D 2. F 3. A 4. B 5. G 6. H 7. C 8. E 9. J 10. I

(I) c (II) a
88
Chapter 8
American, Indo-Anglian and Other Non-British Literatures

Section (1)
American Literature
1. Who discovered America?

(A) Vasco da Gama
(B) Captain Cook
(C) Christopher Columbus
(D) Cabot
2. When was the American Civil War fought?

(A) 1830-1840
(B) 1815-1820
(C) 1861-1865
(D) 1825-1833
3. Who defined 'Democracy' as a "Government of the people, by the people, for the people"?
(A) Abraham Lincoln
(B) George Washington
(C) Walt Whitman
(D) Theodore Roosevelt
4. An American poet is hailed as the representative poet of American democracy.

Who is he?
(A) Robert Frost
(B) Edgar Allan Poe
(C) R. W. Emerson
(D) Walt Whitman
5. "If the red slayer think he slays,

Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways
I keep, and pass, and turn again."
From which of the following poems have these lines been quoted?
(A) Frost's Stopping by Wood
(B) Whitman's Passage to India
(C) Emerson's Brahma
(D) Edgar Allan Poe's Dream-Land
6. "I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."
(A) Emerson's Each and All
(B) Whitman's Song of Myself
(C) Edgar Allan Poe's To One in Paradise
(D) William Cullen Bryant's A Forest Hymn
89
7. "Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Foot-prints on the sands of time."
From which poem have these lines been quoted?
(A) H. W. Longfellow's A Psalm of Life
(B) Emerson's Brahma
(C) Whitman's Song of Myself
(D) Frost's Stopping by Wood
8. 'Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream !
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem."
(A) Emerson's Terminus
(B) Whitman's Passage to India
(C) Emily Dickinson's Hope Is a Thing with Feathers
(D) H. W. Longfellow's A Psalm of Life
9. Mark Twain was only a pseudonym. What was the author's real name?
(A) Samuel Richards
(B) Samuel Clemens
(C) Samuel Herford
(D) Samuel Cleveland
10. Who is the author of Rip Van Winkle?

(A) Nathaniel Hawthorne
(B) Henry David Thoreau
(C) Washington Irving
(D) James Fenimore Cooper
11. Who is the author of the Scarlet letter?

(A) Herman Melville
(B) Nathaniel Hawthorne
(C) Mark Twain
(D) Henry David Thoreau
12. Melville's Moby-Dick gives us glimpses into the:

(A) World of animals
(B) World of sailors
(C) World of whales
(D) World of sea-treasures
13. The hero of Melville's Moby-Dick is:

(A) Moby Dick
(B) Ahab
(C) Ishmael
(D) Pip
14. Which of the following is not a work of Melville?

(A) Moby-Dick
(B) Typee
(C) Omoo
(D) Twice-Told Tales
15. Who has written Tom Sawyer?

(A) Henry James
(B) Hawthorne
(C) Mark Twain
(D) Melville
16. What is common amongst Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and Life
on the Mississippi?
(A) All the three novels deal with the great crash of 1928
(B) All the three novels describe the economic depression following the World War I
(C) The background of all the three novels is social life in and around the valley of Mississippi river
(D) All the three novels are social satires
90
17. What is the central theme of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter?

(A) The effect of sin and guilt upon human beings
(B) Religious conflicts in the 17th century America
(C) Sufferings of American farmers in the 17th century
(D) America struggling for its industrial growth
18. Who is the author of Walden?

(A) Mark Twain
(B) Melville
(C) Henry David Thoreau
(D) Henry James
19. Walden has a sub-title. What is it?

(A) My Life at Walden
(B) My Eighteen Years at Walden
(C) Walden Pond
(D) Life in the Woods
20. Whose lines are these?

"Success is counted sweetest
By those who never succeed,
To comprehend nectar
Requires sorest need."
(A) Whitman
(B) Robert Frost
(C) Emily Dickinson
(D) Emerson

"A word to the Wise is enough,
God helps them that help themselves,
Time-enough always proves little enough."
(A) R. W. Emerson
(B) William Cullen Bryant
(C) Benjamin Franklin
(D) Thomas Paine
22. What is common amongst the following American authors:

Sarah Kemble Knight, William Byrd, John Woolman?
(A) They are all minor poets
(B) They are all Diarists
(C) They are all short story writers
(D) They are all satirists
23. Who are known as the Knickerbockers?

(A) The early nineteenth century writers of New York City
(B) The little known satirists of America
(C) The caricaturists of early nineteenth century
(D) The followers of Washington Irving
24. What is common amongst:

George Moses Horton, James M. Whitfield, Frances Watkins Harper?
(A) They are all humorists
(B) They are all Black Poets
(C) They are all anti-traditionalists
(D) They are all patriotic poets

"America, it is to thee,
Thou boasted land of liberty,
It is to thee I raise my song.
Thou land of blood, and crime, and wrong."
(A) James M. Whitfield
(B) George Moses Horton
(C) Walt Whitman
(D) William Cullen Bryant
91
26. Which of the following novels is not written by Ernest Hemingway?

(A) The Great Gatsby
(B) A Farewell to Arms
(C) For Whom the Bell Tolls
(D) The Old Man and the Sea
27. Who is the author of The Sound and the Fury?

(A) Ernest Hemingway
(B) William Faulkner
(C) Mark Twain
(D) Nathaniel Hawthorne
28. Who has written The Portrait of a Lady?

(A) William Faulkner
(B) Mark Twain
(C) Ernest Hemingway
(D) Henry James
29. Which of the following novels is written by William Dean Howells?

(A) The Vacation of the Kelwyns
(B) Moby-Dick
(C) For Whom the Bell Tolls
(D) The Princess Caramassima
30. In Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, the old man hooks a huge fish. What is the fish called?
(A) Swordfish
(B) Shark
(C) Marlin
(D) Whale
31. In which year was Eugene O'Neill awarded the Nobel Prize?
(A) 1922
(B) 1928
(C) 1936
(D) 1945
32. How many times was Eugene O'Neill awarded the Pulitzer Prize?
(A) Four times
(B) Two times
(C) Three times
(D) Only once posthumously
33. Which of the following plays is not of Eugene O'Neill?

(A) Beyond the Horizon
(B) Anna Christie
(C) The Happy Journey
(D) Strange Interlude
34. What is common amongst the following plays of O'Neill?

Emperor Jones, All God's Chillun Got Wings and Thirst (a collection of plays)
(A) They are all tragi-comedies
(B) They all deal with the evils of the Industrial Age
(C) They all deal with Negro-life
(D) They all present an individual struggling with himself
35. One of the following plays is not written by Arthur Miller. Identify it:
(A) The Crucible
(B) A View from the Bridge
(C) A Memory of Two Mondays
D) Anna Christie
36. Arthur Miller received the Pulitzer Prize for Theatre for one of the following plays. Identify the play.
(A) All My Sons
(B) Death of a Salesman
(C) The Crucible
(D) A View from the Bridge
37. Who was the first American playwright who received the Nobel Prize for
Literature?
(A) Arthur Miller
(B) Eugene O'Neill
(G) Tennessee Williams
(D) Edward Albee
38. Who is the author of the play The Glass Menagerie?

(A) Edward Albee
(B) Tennessee Williams
(C) Arthur Miller
(D) Arthur Laurents
92
39. Who is the author of the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
(A) Tennessee Williams
(B) Arthur Laurents (C) Edward Albee
(D) Arthur Miller
40. Who is the author of the play The Zoo Story?
(A) Harold Pinter
(B) William Hanley
(C) Tennessee Williams
(D) Edward Albee
ANSWERS
1. (C) 2. (C) 3. (A) 4. (D) 5.(C) 6. (B) 7. (A) 8. (D) 9. (B) 10. (C)
11 (B) 12. (C) 13. (B) 14. (D) 15. (C) 16. (C) 17. (A) 18. (C) 19. (D) 20. (C)
.
21 (C) 22. (B) 23. (A) 24. (B) 25. (A) 26. (A) 27. (B) 28. (D) 29. (A) 30. (C)
,
31 (C) 32. (A) 33. (C) 34. (C) 35. (D) 36. (B) 37. (B) 38. (B) 39. (C) 40. (D)
Section (2)
Indo-Anglian Literature
1. Who was the first Indian poet who received the Nobel Prize for Literature?
(A) Sri Aurobindo Ghosh
(B) Bankim Chand Chatterjee
(C) Dr. Rabindranath Tagore
(D) Dr. V. S. Naipaul
2. Who was the first recipient of the Bhartiya Jnanpith Award?

(A) Sumitranandan Pant
(B) Jai Shankar Prasad
(C) Umasanker Joshi
(D) G. Shankara Kurup
3. Who was the founder of the Bhartiya Jnanpith?

(A) G. D. Birla
(B) Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain
(C) J. R. D. Tata
(D) K. M. Munshi
4. The Sahitya Akademi Awards are given for best writings in how many Indian
languages?
(A) 12
(B) 15
(C) 20
(D) 22
5. Who was the first recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award for the best writing in English?
(A) R. K. Narayan
(B) Mulk Raj Anand
(C) Raja Rao
(D) Khushwant Singh
6. A very popular film was made on one of the novels of R. K. Narayan. Which of these novels?
(A) Waiting for the Mahatma
(B) Malgudi Days
(C) Guide
(D) Mr. Sampath
7. A very popular T. V. serial was made on one of the novels of R. K. Narayan.

Identify the novel:
(A) Guide
(B) Malgudi Days
(C) Waiting for the Mahatma
(D) The Bachelor of Arts
93
8. Which of the following is not a work of Raja Rao?

(A) The Serpent and the Rope
(B) On the Ganga Ghat
(C) Swami and Friends
(D) Kanthapura
9. Who is the latest Nobel Laureate of Indian origin for Literature?

(A) C. V. Raman
(B) V. S. Naipaul
(C) Rabindranath Tagore
(D) Hargovind Khorana
10. Who is the author of A Bend in the River?

(A) Kamala Markandeya
(B) R. K. Narayan
(C) Raja Rao
(D) V. S. Naipaul
11. Summer in Calcutta is a poetical collection of:

(A) Kamala Das
(B) Amrita Pritam
(C) Mrs. Sarojini Naidu
(D) Anita Desai
12. Who is the author of The Sword and the Sickle?

(A) Manohar Malgonkar
(B) Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
(C) Kamala Das
(D) Nayantara Sahgal
13. In which year was Rabindranath Tagore awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature?
(A) 1912
(B) 1913
(C) 1915
(D) 1920
14. A very eminent English poet edited Dr. Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali. Which of the following
poets?
(A) W. B. Yeats
(B) William Morris
(C) A. C. Swinburne
(D) D. G. Rossetti
15. Dr. Rabindranath Tagore translated some poems of an important Indian poet
from Hindi into English. Who was that poet?
(A) Rahim
(B) Kabir
(C) Jayasi
(D) Surdas
16. Rabindranath wrote his Gitanjali originally in Bengali. Who translated it into
English?
(A) Gogonendranath
(B) Abanindranath
(C) Rabindranath himself
(D) Dwijendranath
17. Guerdon is a very popular lyric. Who has written it?

(A) Sarojini Naidu
(B) Mahadevi Varma
(C) Subhadra Kumari Chauhan
(D) Amrita Pritam

"Into that heaven of freedom. my father,
let my country awake?
(A) Anita Desai
(B) Sarojini Naidu
(C) Rabindranath Tagore
(D) Mahadevi Varma
19. Who is the author of the following works : The Last Labyrinth, the Foreigner, The Apprentice?
(A) Arun Joshi
(B) Bhavani Bhattacharya
(C) Manohar Malgonkar
(D) Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
20. One of the following collections of short stories is not of Raja Rao. Identify it:
(A) The Cat and Shakespeare
(B) The Cow of the Barricades
(C) The Policeman and the Rose
(D) On the Ganga Ghat
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21. Who is the author of the popular novel The Circle of Reason?
(A) Aran Joshi
(B) Manohar Malgonkar
(C) Amitav Ghosh
(D) Gauri Deshpande
22. Identify the first novel published by Kamala Markandeya:

(A) A Handful of Rice
(B) Nectar in a Sieve
(C) A Silence of Desire
(D) Some Inner Fury
23. The central theme of J. G. Farrell's novel The Siege of Krishnapur is:
(A) The Non-cooperative Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi
(B) The Partition of Bengal
(C) The Mutiny of 1857
(D) The Freedom Movement of 1942
24. What is the central theme of Manohar Malgonkar's novel A Bend in the Ganges?
(A) The communal riots following the partition of India
(B) The Jallianwala massacre
(C) The martyrdom of Bhagat Singh
(D) The Sepoy Rebellion of 1857
25. Who is the author of Train to Pakistan?

(A) Raja Rao
(B) R. K. Narayan
(C) Khushwant Singh
(D) Kamala Das
26. Who is the author of The Strange Case of Billy Biswas?

(A) Mulk Raj Anand
(B) C. L. Nahal
(C) Shiv K. Kumar
(D) Arun Joshi
27. Bhabani Bhattachary's first published book was:

(A) So Many Hungers !
(B) He Who Rides a Tiger
(C) Shadow from Laddakh
(D) Music for Mohini
28. Who is the author of A Passage to England?

(A) Khushwant Singh
(B) Nirad C. Chaudhary
(C) R. K. Narayan
(D) Mahatma Gandhi
29. Which of the following is Mulk Raj Anand's book?

(A) The Guide
(B) The Untouchable
(C) Swami and Friends
(D) The Bachelor of Arts
30. For which of the following works was Salman Rushdie declared a Kafir by the
Muslim world?
(A) Midnight's Children
(B) Grimus
(C) Satanic Verses
(D) Shame
31. My Son's Father is an autobiography of an Indo-Anglian poet. Which of the

following is he?
(A) Jayanta Mahapatra
(B) A. K. Ramanujan
(C) Dom Moraes
(D) Nissim Ezekiel
32. Who is the author of the famous stage-play Tughlaq?

(A) Vijay Tendulkar
(B) Girish Karnad
(C) Satyajeet Ray
(D) Nirad C. Chaudhary
33. Who is the author of Life Divine?

(A) Mahatma Gandhi
(B) Dr. S. Radhakrishnan
(C) Sri Aurobindo Ghosh
(D) Gopal Krishna Gokhale
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34. India's national anthem Bande Mataram was written by:

(A) Rabindranath Tagore
(B) Bankim Chandra Chatterji
(C) Aurobindo Ghosh
(D) Sarojini Naidu
35. Who is known as the Shakespeare of India?

(A) Jayashanker Prasad
(B) Kalidas
(C) Bhavabhuti
(D) Banabhatta
(A) (B)
Authors Works
1. R. K. Narayan (A) Train to Pakistan

2. Mulk Raj Anand (B) Midnight's Children
3. Raja Rao (C) Glimpses of World History
4. Rabindranath Tagore (D) Two Leaves and a Bud
5. Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (E) A Bend in the River
6. Sarojini Naidu (F) On the Ganga Ghat
7. Jawaharlal Nehru (G) The Golden Threshold
8. Khushwant Singh (H) The Bachelor of Arts
9. Salman Rushdie (I) Life Divine
10. V.S. Naipaul (J) Red Oleanders
(II) Match the Authors under Column A with their Works under Column B.
(A) (B)
Authors Works
1. Nirad C. Chaudhary (A) Clear Light of Day
2. Anita Desai (B) The Circle of Reason
3. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (C) The Strange Case of Billy Biswas
4. Manohar Malgonkar (D) A Passage to England
5. Kamala Markandeya (E) The Day in Shadow
6. Nayantara Sahgal (F) Heat and Dust
7. Arun Joshi (G) A Bend in the Ganges
8. Bhabani Bhattacharya (H) The Siege of Krishnapur
9. J. G. Farrell (I) The Nowhere Man
10. Amitav Ghosh (J) He Who Rides a Tiger
ANSWERS
1. (C) 2. (D) 3. (B) 4. (D) 5. (A) 6. (C) 7. (B) 8. (C) 9. (B) 10. (D)
11. (A) 12. (B) 13. (B) 14. (A) 15. (B) 16. (C) 17. (A) 18. (C) 19. (A) 20. (A)
21. (C) 22. (B) 23. (C) 24. (A) 25. (C) 26. (D) 27. (A) 28. (B) 29. (B) 30. (C)
31. (C) 32. (B) 33. (C) 34. (B) 35. (B)
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(I)
1. (H) 2. (D) 3. (F) 4. (J) 5. (I) 6. (G) 7. (C) 8. (A) 9. (B) 10. (E)
(II)
1. (D) 2. (A) 3. (H) 4. (G) 5. (I) 6. (E) 7. (C) 8. (J) 9. (H) 10. (B)
Section (3)
Greek, Latin and Other Non-British Literatures of Europe
1. Who was the Originator of the Theory of Imitation in Literature?

(A) Longinus
(B) Aristotle
(C) Plato
(D) Horace
2. Who was the most illustrious pupil of Plato?

(A) Aristotle
(B) Longinus
(C) Aristophanes
(D) Socrates
3. Who collected and compiled the Dialogues of Socrates?

(A) Longinus
(B) Horace
(C) Aristotle
(D) Plato
4. Who was the most illustrious disciple of Socrates?

(A) Sophocles
(B) Plautus
(C) Plato
(D) Critus
5. Aristotle was the teacher of:

(A) Augustus Caesar
(B) Alexander the Great
(C) Emperor Nero
(D) King Oedipus
6. From where has the term 'Oedipus Complex' originated?

(A) Oedipus the Rex
(B) Oedipus at Colonus
(C) Antigone
(D) Jocasta, the Queen of Thebes
7. The term 'Electra Complex' has originated from a tragedy entitled Electra written by:
(A) Aeschylus
(B) Sophocles
(C) Euripides
(D) Seneca
8. When king Oedipus discovered that he had unknowingly married his own mother Jocasta, he blinded
himself in penance. What did Jocasta do?
(A) She also blinded herself
(B) She committed suicide
(C) She became insane
(D) She fled from her country
9. Which of the following plays is not by Sophocles?

(A) Antigone
(B) The Seuen Against Thebes
(C) Oedipus the Rex
(D) Electra
10. Which of the following plays is by Euripides?

(A) Electra
(B) Alcestis
(C) The Seven Against Thebes
(D) Antigone
11. Which of the following plays is by Aeschylus?

(A) Lysistrata
(B) Electra
(C) Alcestis
(D) Eumenides
12. Which of the following plays is by Aristophanes?

(A) Lysistrata
(B) Medea
(C) Amores
(D) Amphitryon
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13. Metamorphoses is a:
(A) Tragedy
(B) Comedy
(C) Collection of poems
(D) Collection of short stories
14. Which of the following plays is the work of Ovid?

(A) Amphitryon
(B) Pharsalia
(C) Amores
(D) Medea
15. The first husband of Helen of Troy was:

(A) Achilles
(B) Menelaus
(C) Paris
(D) Hercules
16. Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey were written in:
(A) 700 B.C.
(B) 1100 B.C.
(C) 600 B. C.
(D) 1500 B.C.
17. Who is the author of Philocletes?

(A) Aristophanes
(B) Euripides
(C) Sophocles
(D) Seneca
18. Who is the author of The Prince?

(A) Thucidides
(B) Herodotus
(C) Machiavelli
(D) Plutarch
19. Which of the following is the work of Virgil?

(A) Metamorphoses
(B) Odyssey
(C) Aenied
(D) Inferno
20. Inferno is written by:

(A) Terence
(B) Pliny
(C) Dante
(D) Virgil
21. Cupid in Greek mythology is the god of:

(A) Wealth
(B) War
(C) Love
(D) Marriage
22. Atalanta in Greek mythology is:

(A) Huntress
(B) Musician
(C) Poetess
(D) Dancer
23. Francis Bacon's philosophy of life was influenced by:

(A) Livy
(B) Plutarch
(C) Machiavelli
(D) Cicero
24. "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety."
Whose beauty is referred to in the above lines?
(A) Helen of Troy
(B) Diana, the Goddess of Moon
(C) Cleopatra of Egypt
(D) Delilah, the faithless wife of Samson Agonistes
25. "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships.

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?"
Whose face is referred to in these lines?
(A) Cleopatra
(B) Helen
(C) Diana
(D) Eurydice
26. How many sources of sublimity have been discussed by Longinus in his critical treatise On the
Sublime?
(A) Two
(B) Three
(C) Four
(D) Five
27. Who is the author of Ars Poetica?

(A) Longinus
(B) Horace
(C) Aristotle
(D) Dionysus
28. In which of his following works Plato discusses his Theory of Poetry?
(A) Apology
(B) Ion
(C) The Republic
(D) Phaedrus
29. Goethe was a great poet-philosopher. To which country did he belong?

(A) Greece
(B) Italy
(C) Germany
(D) France
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30. Rousseau was a great statesman and philosopher. To which country did he
belong?
(A) England
(B) France
(C) Germany
(D) Russia
Matching-Type Question
Column A Column B
Authors Works
1. Homer (A) Lysistrata
2. Virgil (B) Phaedrus
3. Aristophanes (C) The Seven against Thebes
4. Goethe (D) Antigone
5. Sophocles (E) Alcestis
6. Euripides (F) Ars Poetica
7. Horace (G) Poetics
8. Aeschylus (H) Faust
9. Plato (I) Inferno
10. Aristotle (J) Iliad
ANSWERS
1. (C) 2. (A) 3. (D) 4. (C) 5. (B) 6. (A) 7. (B) 8. (B) 9. (B) 10. (B) 11. (D) 12. (A) 13. (D) 14. (C) 15. (B)
16. (A) 17. (C) 18. (C) 19. (C) 20. (C) 21. (C) 22. (A) 23. (C) 24. (C) 25. (B) 26. (D) 27. (B) 28.
(C) 29. (C) 30. (B)
(I)
1. (J) 2.(1) 3. (A) 4. (H) 5. (D) 6. (E) 7. (F) 8. (C) 9. (B) 10. (G)
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Chapter 9

1. Who was the first literary critic who said that 'Art is twice removed from reality'?
(A) Plato
(B) Aristotle
(C) Longinus
(D) Horace
2. Who proposed that poets should be banished from the ideal Republic?
(A) Plato in his Republic
(B) Aristotle in his Poetics
(C) Sir Philip Sidney in his Arcadia
(D) Sir Thomas More in his Utopia
3. What is the meaning of the term 'Hamartia' as used by Aristotle in his Theory of Tragedy?
(A) Tragic end of the tragedy
(B) Working of fate against the hero
(C) A weak trait in the character of the hero
(D) A strong quality in the character of the hero
4. What is the meaning of the term 'Peripeteia' as used by Aristotle in his Theory of Tragedy?
(A) Change in the fortune of the hero from bad to good
(B) Change in the fortune of the hero from good to bad
(C) Constancy in the fortune of the hero
(D) Fluctuations occurring in the fortune of the hero
5. What is the meaning of the term Anagnorisis' as used by Aristotle in his Theory
of Tragedy?
(A) The hero's recognition of his tragic flaw
(B) The hero's ignorance about his tragic flaw
(C) The hero's recognition of his adversary
(D) The hero's recognition of his tragic end
6. What is 'denouement'?
(A) The ending of a tragedy
(B) The ending of a comedy
(C) The climax in a tragedy
(D) The climax in a comedy
7. Ars Poetica is the most important critical work of:

(A) Ovid
(B) Virgil
(C) Horace
(D) Longinus
8. How many principal sources of Sublimity are there according to Longinus?

(A) Three sources
(B) Four sources
(C) Five sources
(D) No definite number of sources
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9. Who is the author of the notorious book entitled The School of Abuse?
(A) Roger Ascham
(B) Stephen Hawes
(C) John Skelton
(D) Stephen Gosson
10. Some Elizabethan Puritan critics denounced poets as 'fathers of lies' and
caterpillars of a commonwealth'. Who was he who used these offensive terms?
(A) William Tyndale
(B) Roger Ascham
(C) Stephen Gosson
(D) Henry Howard
11. Sidney's Apologie for Poetrie is a defence of poetry against the charges brought against it by:
(A) Henry Howard
(B) Roger Ascham
(C) John Skelton
(D) Stephen Gosson
12. What does Sidney say about the observance of the three Dramatic Unities in
drama?
(A) They must be observed
(B) It is not necessary to observe them
(C) He favours the observance of the unity of action only
(D) Their observance depends upon the nature of the play concerned
13. "It is not rhyming and versing that maketh a poet, no more than a long gown
maketh an advocate."
Whose opinion is this?
(A) Shakespeare's
(B) Marlowe's
(C) Spenser's
(D) Sidney's
14. What does Ben Jonson mean by a 'Humorous' character?

(A) A character who is always cheerful and gay
(B) A character who is by nature melancholy
(C) A character whose temper is determined by one of the four liquids in the human body
(D) An eccentric person
15. Which of the following is the critical work of Ben Jonson?

(A) Discourse of English Poetrie
(B) Discoveries.
(C) Arte of English Poesie
(D) Apologie for Poetrie
16. Dryden wrote An Essay of Dramatic Poesy. Is this:

(A) An Essay
(B) A Drama
(C) A Poetical Work
(D) An Interlocution
17. In Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy there are four speakers representing four
different ideologies. Which of them expresses Dryden's own views?
(A) Lisideius
(B) Eugenius
(C) Neander
(D) Crites
18. What has Dryden to say about the observance of the three Classical Dramatic
Unities?
(A) He advocates their strict observance
(B) He does not advocate their strict observance
(C) He says that every dramatist should decide it for himself
(D) He is silent about this issue
19. Is Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy a work of:

(A) Interpretative criticism
(B) Legislative criticism
(C) Comparative criticism
(D) Textual criticism
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20. Who called Dryden the father of English criticism?

(A) Joseph Addison
(B) Dr. Johnson
(C) Coleridge
(D) Matthew Arnold
21. Poetry was generally written in 'Poetic diction' by:

(A) The Elizabethan poets
(B) The Neo-classical poets
(C) The Romantic poets
(D) The Victorian poets
22. "The tragi-comedy, which is the product of the English theatre, is one of the
most monstrous inventions that ever entered into a poet's thoughts." Whose
view is this?
(A) John Dryden
(B) Alexander Pope
(C) Joseph Addison
(D) Dr. Johnson
23. "Be Homer's works your study and delight.

Read them by day, and meditate by night."
Who gives this advice to the poets?
(A) Sidney
(B) Dryden
(C) Pope
(D) Ben Jonson
24. Which of the following critics preferred Shakespeare's Comedies to his Tragedies?
(A) Dryden
(B) Pope
(C) Dr. Johnson
(D) Addison
25. Wordsworth's Preface to the Lyrical Ballads is believed to be the Preamble to Romantic Criticism. In
which year was it published?
(A) 1798
(B) 1800
(C) 1801
(D) 1802
26. "The end of writing is to instruct;

the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing."
Whose view is this?
(A) Wordsworth's
(B) Coleridge's
(C) Dr. Johnson's
(D) Matthew Arnold's
27. Regarding the observance of the three Classical Unities in a play, Dr. Johnson's
view is that:
(A) Only the unity of Time should be observed
(B) Only the unity of Place should be observed
(C) Only the unity of Action should be observed
(D) All the three unities should be observed
28. "Poetry is emotions recollected in tranquillity." Who has defined Poetry in these words?
(A) Shelley
(B) Wordsworth
(C) Coleridge
(D) Matthew Arnold
29. "There neither is, nor can be, any essential difference between the language of
prose and metrical composition." Who holds this view?
(A) Wordsworth
(B) Coleridge
(C) Hazlitt
(D) Lamb
30. "I write in metre because I am about to use a language different from that of
prose." Who says this?
(A) Wordsworth
(B) Coleridge
(C) Shelley
(D) Keats
31. Which of the following critics has most elaborately discussed the Concept of
Imagination?
(A) Walter Pater
(B) John Ruskin
(C) S. T. Coleridge
(D) Freud
32. Who defines poetry "as a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a
criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty"?
(A) Coleridge
(B) Shelley
(C) Walter Pater
(D) Matthew Arnold
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33. Who says that "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world?"
(A) Shelley
(B) Walter Pater
(C) Matthew Arnold
(D) T. S. Eliot
34. Who has divided Literature into two broad divisions-Literature of power and
Literature of knowledge?
(A) T. S. Eliot
(B) F. R. Leavis
(C) De Quincey
(D) Matthew Arnold
35. Who gave the concept of "Art for Art's sake'?

(A) Walter Pater
(B) F. R. Leavis
(C) T. S. Eliot
(D) John Keats
36. Who gave the concept of "Art for life's sake'?

(A) T. S. Eliot
(B) Wordsworth
(C) Matthew Arnold
(D) Tennyson
37. Who said, "For art's sake alone I would not face the toil of writing a single
sentence "?
(A) T. S. Eliot
(B) George Bernard Shaw
(C) John Galsworthy
(D) John Masefield
38. In whose opinion "Poetry is the most highly organised form of intellectual
activity?"
(A) G. B. Shaw
(B) W. B. Yeats
(C) T. S. Eliot
(D) D. H. Lawrence
39. What is common amongst these three critical expressions?

'Objective correlative'
'Dissociation of sensibilities'
'Unification of sensibilities'
(A) All the three come from T. S. Eliot
(B) All the three come from I. A. Richards
(C) All the three come from F. R. Leavis
(D) All the three come from William Empson
40. Who is believed to be the pioneer of the so-called New Criticism?

(A) John Crowe Ransom
(B) F. R. Leavis
(C) I. A. Richards
(D) T. S. Eliot
Column A Column B
Authors Works
1. Stephen Gosson (A) Ars Poetica
2. Sir Philip Sidney (B) Preface to Shakespeare
3. John Dryden (C) Biographia Literaria
4. Dr. Samuel Johnson (D) Essays in Criticism
5. S. T. Coleridge (E) An Essay of Dramatic Poesy
6. P. B. Shelley (F) Tradition and the Individual Talent
7. Matthew Arnold (G) An Apologie for Poetrie
8. T. S. Eliot (H) A Defence of Poetry
9. Plato (I) The School of Abuse
10. Aristotle (J) On the Sublime
11. Longinus (K) Poetics
12. Horace (L) The Republic
103
ANSWERS
l.(A) 2. (A) 3. (C) 4. (B) 5. (A) 6. (B) 7. (C) 8.(C) 9. (D) 10. (C)
11. (D) 12. (A) 13. (D) 14. (C) 15. (B) 16. (D) 17. (C) 18. (B) 19. (B) 20. (B)
21. (B) 22. (C) 23. (C) 24. (C) 25. (A) 26. (C) 27. (C) 28. (B) 29. (A) 30. (B)
31. (C) 32. (D) 33. (A) 34. (C) 35. (A) 36. (C) 37. (B) 38. (C) 39. (A) 40. (A)
(I)
1. (I) 2. (G) 3. (E) 4. (B) 5. (C) 6. (H) 7. (D) 8.(F) 9. (L) 10. (K)
11. (J) 12. (A)
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Chapter 10
Rhetoric and Prosody

1. What is meant by Prosody?

(A) It is science of verse forms only
(B) It is science of poetic metres only
(C) It is science of rhythms only
(D) It is science of all the three mentioned above
2. What is meant by Rhetoric?

(A) Art of using language effectively or impressively
(B) Using language for exaggeration
(C) Using language musically
(D) Using language metaphorically
3. What is a Heroic Couplet?

(A) It is a two-line stanza having eight syllables in each line
(B) It is a two-line stanza having ten syllables in each line
(C) It is a two-line stanza having two rhyming lines in Iambic Pentameter
(D) It is a two-line stanza having two rhyming lines in any metre
4. What is meant by enjambed couplets?

(A) The couplets in which the sense completes at the end of each couplet.
(B) The couplets in which the sense runs on from one couplet to another.
(C) The couplets in which the last line contains an extra syllable.
(D) The couplets in which the last line is short by one syllable.
5. What is an Alexandrine?
(A) A line of four iambic feet occasionally used in a Heroic couplet
(B) A line of six iambic feet occasionally used in a Heroic couplet
(C) A line without iambic metre occasionally used in a Heroic couplet
(D) A line without end-stop occasionally used in a Heroic couplet
6. What is Terza Rima?

(A) Terza Rima is a three-line stanza of rhyming lines
(B) Terza Rima is an end-stop three-line stanza
(C) Terza Rima is a run-on three-line stanza with a fixed rhyme-scheme
(D) Terza Rima is a run-on three-line stanza with varying rhyme-schemes
7. What is Rhyme Royal stanza?

(A) Rhyme Royal stanza is a seven-line stanza in any metre
(B) Rhyme Royal stanza is a seven-line stanza in iambic pentameter
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(C) Rhyme Royal stanza is a seven-line stanza in iambic hexameter

(D) Rhyme Royal stanza is a seven-line stanza in iambic septameter
8. What is Ottawa Rima?

(A) It is an eight-line stanza in iambic pentameter with a fixed rhyme-scheme
(B) It is an eight-line stanza with varying rhyme-schemes in iambic pentameter
(C) It is an eight-line stanza made-up of four Heroic couplets
(D) It is an eight-line stanza made-up of two Terza Rima and a Heroic couplet
9. What is Spenserian stanza?

(A) It is a nine-line stanza consisting of two quatrains in iambic pentameter, rounded off with an
Alexandrine
(B) It is a nine-line stanza of which the first line is an Alexandrine followed by two quatrains in iambic
pentameter
(C) It is a nine-line stanza consisting of two iambic pentameter quatrains joined by an Alexandrine
(D) It is a nine-line stanza made up of four Heroic couplets rounded off with an Alexandrine
10. What is Blank Verse?

(A) Blank verse has no metre and no rhyme
(B) Blank verse has a metre but no rhyme
(C) Blank verse has a rhyme but no metre
(D) Blank verse has both rhyme and metre but no rhythm
11. Which part of a Miltonic Sonnet is called Octave?

(A) The first eight lines of a sonnet
(B) The last eight lines of a sonnet
(C) The middle eight lines from lines 4 to 11
(D) A set of eight rhyming lines in any part of the sonnet
12. What is a Simile?

(A) It is a comparison between two animate things
(B) It is a comparison between one animate and another inanimate thing
(C) It is a comparison between two things which have at least one point common
(D) It is a comparison between two things which do not necessarily have any point common
13. What is a Metaphor?

(A) Metaphor is a condensed form of simile
(B) Metaphor is a form of simile in an elaborate form
(C) In a metaphor no common point between two things or objects is suggested
(D) Metaphor is just the opposite of simile
14. What is Hyperbole?

(A) It is an exaggerated statement for the sake of emphasis
(B) It is an exaggerated statement in order to ridicule something or somebody
(C) It is a kind of exaggerated irony
(D) It is a metaphorical falsehood
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15. Which of the following is an example of Onomatopoeia?

(A) Sweet-bitter tears flowed from her eyes
(B) The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves
(C) A load of learning lumbering in his head
(D) Fair is that fair does
16. Which of the following is an example of Oxymoron?

(A) There is kind cruelty in the surgeon's knife
(B) Ruin seize thee, ruthless king !
(C) And Brutus is an honourable man !
(D) Kalidas is the Shakespeare of India
17. Which of the following is an example of pun?

(A) His honour rooted in dishonour stood
(B) Thus idly busy rolls their world away
(C) Sweet are the uses of adversity !
(D) Is life worth living? That depends upon the liver
18. Which of the following is an example of antithesis?

(A) Who is to blame but you!
(B) To err is human, to forgive divine
(C) As you sow, so you reap
(D) Forget me not!
19. Which of the following is an example of transferred epithet?

(A) I am the monarch of all I survey
(B) He is a wolf!
(C) The ploughman homeward plods his weary way
(D) He is the heir apparent
20. Which of the following is an example of Apostrophe?

(A) Barking dogs seldom bite
(B) My misfortune is your fortune
(C) O solitude ! Where are thy charms?
(D) The beetle wheels his droning flight
ANSWERS
1. (D) 2. (A) 3. (C) 4. (B) 5. (B) 6. (C) 7. (B) 8. (A) 9. (A) 10. (B) 11. (A) 12. (C)
13. (A) 14. (A) 15. (B) 16. (A) 17. (D) 18. (B) 19. (C) 20. (C)
107
Now Test Yourself

(Based on U.G.C. Papers)
Test Paper 1
1. Machiavelli appears in the Prologue to:

(A) Doctor Faustus
(C) Richard III
(B) Tamburlaine
(D) The Jew of Malta
2. The words 'What's in a name?" occur in:

(A) Othello
(B) Hamlet
(C) Romeo and Juliet
(D) Julius Caesar
3. Milton's Comus is:

(A) An epic
(B) A masque
(C) A pastoral
(D) An elegy
4. The film version of Pygmalion is:

(A) The Sound of Music
(B) The Sound and Fury
(C) My Fair Lady
(D) Come September
5. Pozzo appears in:

(A) The Rose Tatoo
(B) Marco Millions
(C) The Birthday Party
(D) Waiting for Godot
6. Who is not a grammarian?

(A) Daniel Jones
(B) Randolf Quirk
(C) Sidney Greenbaum
(D) A. O. Sandved
7. Who first used the term the theatre of the Absurd?

(A) A. Strindberg
(B) F. Nietzsche
(C) Martin Esslin
(D) James Joyce
8. Which was the first book of essays to be published?

(A) Cicero's De Amicitia
(B) Bacon's Essays
(C) La Rochefoucauld's Maxims
(D) Montaigne's Essais
9. Who was the first ever Poet Laureate?

(A) Spenser
(B) Dryden
(C) Johnson
(D) Arnold
10. "On the knocking of the Gate in Macbeth" is written by:

(A) Charles Lamb
(B) William Hazlitt
(C) Thomas de Quincey
(D) L. C. Knights
11. Who wrote Confessions?

(A) Rousseau
(B) Bacon
(C) Walter Pater
(D) Oscar Wilde
12. Who advised his fellow poets to follow nature?

(A) Dryden
(B) Pope
(C) Wordsworth
(D) Herrick
108
13. Who is associated with the term Tension'?

(A) Ransom
(B) Tate
(C) Empson
(D) Blackmur
14. When did Constantinople fall?

(A) 1450
(B) 1444
(C) 1453
(D) 1492
15. Who according to Dr. Johnson is the Father of English criticism?

(A) Stephen Gosson
(B) John Dryden
(C) Philip Sidney
(D) Ben Jonson
16. Who wrote the book The New Criticism?

(A) J. E. Spingarn
(B) R. P. Blackmur
(C) T. S. Eliot
(D) J. C. Ransom
17. The observation "Age cannot wither her...'.." about Cleopatra is made by:
(A) Caesar
(B) Antony
(C) Octavius
(D) Enobarbus
18. The Anatomy of Melancholy is written by:

(A) Swift
(B) Burton
(C) Boulton
(D) Milton
19. In Things Fall Apart Achebe depicts:

(A) Igbo Community
(B) Hashua Community
(C) Yoruba Community
(D) Tutu Community
20. Who wrote The Accidental Man?

(A) Murdoch
(B) Amis
(C) Orwell
(D) Osborne
21. Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which:

(A) A part represents the whole
(B) The whole represents a part
(C) A part represents another part
(D) None of the above
22. Clym is a character in:

(A) Far From The Madding Crowd
(B) The Return of The Native
(D) Tess of the D'Urbervilles
23. Who is the author of The Sacred Wood?

(A) Cynewulf
(B) Eliot
(C) Kipling
(D) Caedmon
24. Who is the author of A Gun For Sale?

(A) Hardy
(B) Housman
(C) Steinbeck
(D) Greene
25. Imogen is a character in:

(A) Cymbeline
(B) Twelfth Night
(C) Love's Labour's Lost
(D) Pericles
26. The author of Pamela is:

(A) Richardson
(B) Fielding
(C) Eliot
(D) Conrad
27. Who wrote Culture And Anarchy?

(A) Eliot
(B) Ruskin
(C) Shelley
(D) Arnold
28. Which school of criticism has been called 'Neo-Aristotleans'?

(A) The Myth Criticism
(B) Historicism
(C) The New Criticism
(D) The Chicago Critics
29. 'Positivism' was enunciated by:

(A) August Strindberg
(B) Isaac Newton
(C) August Comte
(D) John Locke
109
30. The Cenci was written by:

(A) Boccaccio
(B) Shelley
(C) Carducci
(D) Keats
31. Which one of the following is associated with the Royal Court Theatre, London?
(A) Arnold Wesker
(B) Alan Plater
(C) Edward Bond
(D) Tom Stoppard
32. Byron, Shelley and their imitators were described as "The Satanic School' by: (A) Wordsworth
(B) Collier
(C) Southey
(D) Eliot
33. Who wrote A Tale of a Tub?

(A) Dickens
(B) Defoe
(C) Swift
(D) Hardy
34. The term 'postmodernism' was first used in connection with:

(A) Architecture
(B) Painting
(C) Literature
(D) Music
35. Who wrote the following line

"I fall upon the thorns of life, I bleed"
(A) Shakespeare
(B) Shelley
(C) Milton
(D) Tennyson
36. The title of the novel The Sound And The Fury reminds one of:
(A) Hamlet
(B) Othello
(C) King Lear
(D) Macbeth
37. John Bunyan belongs to:

(A) 14th century
(B) 15th century
(C) 16th century
(D) 17th century
38. James Joyce's Ulysses was published in:

(A) 1916
(B) 1922
(C) 1926
(D) 1930
39. The Great Fire of London took place in:

(A) 1660
(B) 1666
(C) 1670
(D) 1534
40. "Time held me green and dying

Though I sang in my chains like the sea,"
Who wrote these lines?
(A) Hopkins
(B) Shelley
(C) Dylan Thomas
(D) Owen
41. "The lunatic the lover and the poet/Are of imagination all compact."
The lines occur in:
(A) Romeo and Juliet
(B) Twelfth Night
(C) A Midsummer Night's Dream
(D) The Tempest
42. Who made this statement: "An aged man is but a paltry thing"?
(A) Pound
(B) Yeats
(C) Eliot
(D) Auden
43. The 4th book of Spenser's The Faerie Queene is titled:

(A) Chastity
(B) Friendship
(C) Temperance
(D) Courtesy
44. A Grain of Wheat is written in the background of:

(A) Suez Crisis
(B) Boer War
(C) Apartheid
(D) Mau Mau Rebellion
45. The Great Indian Novel is a re-working of:

(A) The Ramayana
(B) The Mahabharata
(C) Kathasaritsagar
(D) Panchatantra
46. King George VI formally abandoned his title of "Emperor of India" in:
(A) August 1947
(B) June 1947
(C) July 1947
(D) September 1947
110
47. 'Ambiguity' according to Empson is:

(A) Verbal nuance
(B) A verbal nonsense
(C) Careless writing
(D) A linguistic vice
48. "Oh, he flies through the air with the greatest of ease." This line is in:
(A) Iambic metre
(B) Iambic with anapestic variation
(C) Anapestic metre
(D) Anapestic with dactyllic variation
49. Shelley's last unifinished poem is

(A) "The Triumph of Life"
(B) "Crossing the Bar"
(C) "Lines to an Indian Air"
(D) "Bright Start Would I were Steadfast as thou art"
50. Strophe, antistrophe and epode are the components of:

(A) Pindaric Ode
(B) Horatian Ode
(C) Sophoclean Chorus
(D) Aeschylian Chorus
True or False
(I) Directions: Which of the following statements are True or False?

1. Chaucer and Langland were contemporaries.
2. The Caroline Age was the Age of James I.
3. Roister Doister is believed to be our first real comedy.
4. The author of The Defence of Poetry was Sir Philip Sidney.
5. Spenser's Faery Queene was left incomplete.
6. Milton wrote The Paradise Lost after the Restoration of Charles II to the throne of England.
7. Wordsworth was denounced as a 'Lost Leader' by Robert Browning.
8. In Memoriam was written by Tennyson on the death of his friend Arthur Clough.
9. Hardy's Dynasts is an epic.
10. The World War I broke out in 1914.
A B
Authors Works
1. Spenser (A) Cynthia's Revels
2. Marlowe (B) A Tale of a Tub
3. Ben Jonson (C) Pastorals
4. Dryden (D) Pied Beauty
5. Swift (E) The Tragedy of Dido. Queen of Carthage
6. Pope (F) Persuasion
7. Jane Austen (G) Aurangzeb
8. G. M. Hopkins (H) Amoretti
9. Raja Rao (I) Nectar in a Sieve
10. Kamala Markandeya (J) On the Ganga Ghat
111
Assertion-Reasoning Type Question
(I) Which of the following arrangements of the authors is chronologically correct according to
their dates of birth?
(A) William Shakespeare. Spenser. Francis Bacon. Ben Jonson
(B) Spenser, Francis Bacon. William Shakespeare. Ben Jonson
(C) Francis Bacon. William Shakespeare. Spenser. Ben.Jonson
(D) Ben Jonson. Spenser. Francis Bacon. William Shakespeare
ANSWERS
1. (D) 2. (C) 3. (B) 4. (C) 5. (D) 6. (D) 7. (C) 8. (D) 9. (B) 10. (C)
11. (A) 12. (B) 13. (B) 14. (C) 15. (B) 16. (D) 17. (D) 18. (B) 19. (A) 20. (A)
21. (A) 22. (B) 23. (B) 24. (D) 25. (A) 26. (A) 27. (D) 28. (D) 29. (C) 30. (B)
31. (C) 32. (C) 33. (C) 34. (B) 35. (B) 36. (D) 37. (D) 38. (B) 39. (B) 40. (C)
41. (C) 42. (B) 43. (B) 44. (D) 45. (B) 46. (A) 47. (A) 48. (C) 49. (A) 50. (A)
True or False
(I)
l. T 2. F 3. T 4. F 5'. T 6. T 7. T 8. F 9. F 10. T
Matching Type Question
(I)
1. (H) 2. (E) 3. (A) 4. (G) 5. (B) 6. (C) 7. (F) 8. (D) 9. (J) 10. (I)
(I) (B)
112
Test Paper 2
1. The rocks of Britanny feature in Chaucer's:
(A) Miller's Tale
(B) Franklin's Tale
(C) Wife of Bath's Tale
(D) Parson's Tale
2. The first practitioner of Blank Verse was:

(A) Chaucer
(B) Marlowe
(C) Surrey
(D) Shakespeare
3. Book IV of The Faerie Queene is devoted to:

(A) Holiness
(B) Courtesy
(C) Temperance
(D) Friendship
4. Sir Epicure Mammon is a character in:

(A) The Alchemist
(B) Volpone
(C) Every Man in His Humour
(D) Sejanus
5. In the phrase 'O Brave New World' used by Miranda, 'brave' means:
(A) Couragious
(B) Audacious
(C) Virtuous
(D) Beautiful
6. The editors of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays were:

(A) Heminge and Condall
(B) Beaumont and Fletcher
(C) Jonson and Drayton
(D) Middleton and Tourneur
7. Lycidas is an Elegy on the death of:

(A) Charles 1
(B) Oliver Cromwell
(C) Edward King
(D) Charles Diodati
8. The phrase The wasp of Twickenham' is applied to:

(A) Dryden
(B) Pope
(C) Johnson
(D) Swift
9. The Battle of the Books discusses the conflict between:

(A) English writers and French writers
(B) The Ancients and the Moderns
(C) Ben Johnson and Shakespeare
(D) Swift and Addison
10. Wordsworth was accused of being 'the lost leader' by:

(A) Shelley
(B) Byron
(C) Arnold
(D) Browning
11. A Prince of Abyssinia features in a work by:

(A) Johnson
(B) Defoe
(C) Goldsmith
(D) Sheridan
12. Cain is the subject of a work by:

(A) Keats
(B) Scott
(C) Byron
(D) Southey
13. Tennyson's The Princess deals with:

(A) Enchantment
(B) Women's emancipation
(C) Arthurian legend
(D) Evolution
14. Dickens treats of 'the law's delay' in:

(A) Hard Times
(B) Oliver Twist
(C) Little Dorrit
(D) Nicholas Nickleby
15. Hardy's title Far From the Madding Crowd is taken from a poem by:
(A) Gray
(B) Collins
(C) Wordsworth
(D) Keats
113
16. James Joyce's Ulysses was published in:

(A) 1916
(B) 1922
(C) 1926
(D) 1930
17. T. S. Eliot's line "Sweet Thames run softly till I end my song" is a quotation
from:
(A) Shakespeare
(B) Donne
(C) Wordsworth
(D) Spenser
18. The group known as the Movement Poets does not include:
(A) Robert Conquest
(B) Kingsley Amis
(C) W.H.Auden
(D) Philip Larkin
19. Shaw's concept of the Life Force is enunciated in:

(A) Arms and the Man
(B) Candida
(D) The Apple Cart
20. Many of D.H. Lawrence's novels are set in:

(A) The Nottingham region
(B) Yorkshire
(C) Wessex
(D) Ulster
21. Robert Frost's nature poems are chiefly set in:

(A) The Midwest
(B) New Hampshire
(C) The South
(D) California
22. The Zoo Story is an absurdist play because:

(A) There are animal characters in it
(B) The characters are absurd persons
(C) Mad persons appear in it
(D) It lacks external action
23. Hester wore the 'Scarlet letter' as:

(A) A mark of sexual transgression
(B) A token of Dimmesdale's guilt
(C) A momento of her relationship with the pastor
(D) A religious observance
24. The Harikatha tradition has been extensively used in:

(A) A River Sutra
(B) The Gangaghat and Other Stories
(C) Kanthapura
(D) The Serpent and the Rope
25. The poet who writes about 'Whoring after the English Gods" is:
(A) A. K. Ramanujan
(B) R. Parthasarathy
(C) Jayanta Mahapatra
(D) Vikram Seth
26. An Indian English novelist who is also a prominent writer of verse, is:
(A) Salman Rushdie
(B) Vikram Seth
(C) Arundhati Roy
(D) Amitav Ghosh
27. The Mau Mau rebellion is used in a major way in:

(A) Weep Not Child
(B) Things Fall Apart
(C) Cry the Beloved Country
(D) A Grain of Wheat
28. The novel by Achebe which describes the celebration of the Uri Feast of
Obierika's daughter, is:
(A) A Man of the People
(B) Things Fall Apart
(C) Arrow of God
(D) Anthills of the Savannah
114
29. A Fine Balance is a novel by:

(A) M. G. Vassanji
(B) Bharati Mukherjee
(C) Rohinton Mistry
(D) M. H. Kingston
30. Patrick White's The Solid Mandala shares the concept of Mandala with:
(A) Freud
(B) Adler
(C) Lacan
(D) Jung
31. According to Aristotle, the least essential part of tragedy is:

(A) Thought
(B) Spectacle
(C) Diction
(D) Melody
32. The concept of literary 'decorum' is memorably proposed by:

(A) Longinus
(B) Plato
(C) Horace
(D) Seneca
33. The observation "He invades authors like a monarch; and what would be theft in other poets, is only
victory in him"—is about:
(A) Ben Jonson
(B) Shakespeare
(C) Beaumont
(D) Fletcher
34. Wordsworth presents his views on the nature and function of poetry first in:
(A) The 'Preface' to the 1800 edition of the Lyrical Ballads
(B) The 'Advertisement appended to the first edition of the Lyrical Ballads
(C) A separate supplement
(D) A letter to Dorothy
35. The dictum that Life imitates Art is expounded by:

(A) John Ruskin
(B) Walter Pater
(C) Oscar Wilde
(D) Matthew Arnold
36. F. R. Leavis's 'great tradition' of the English novel does not include:
(A) Jane Austen
(B) Thomas Hardy
(C) George Eliot
(D) Joseph Conrad
37. 'Structuralism' was first employed in the study of:

(A) Psychoanalysis
(B) Anthropology
(C) Literature
(D) Linguistics
38. The lines 'Stern Daughter of the Voice of God, O Duty!" illustrate:
(A) Synecdoche
(B) Antithesis
(C) Apostrophe
(D) Interrogation
39. The line "Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang" contains feet that are:
(A) Spondaic
(B) Pyrrhic
(C) Dactylic
(D) Hypermetrical
40. Information about the lives of famous Englishmen will be found in:
(A) PMLA
(B) DNB
(C) OED
(D) NCBEL
41. The Authorized Version of the Bible appeared in the reign of:
(A) Elizabeth I
(B) Richard HI
(C) Charles I
(D) James I
42. The English writer who was imprisoned in France during the French Revolution was:
(A) Byron
(B) Wordsworth
(C) Tom Paine
(D) Edmund Burke
43. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was written by:

(A) Mary Wollstonecraft
(B) Elaine Showalter
(C) Julia Kristeva
(D) Mary Shelley
44. Queen Victoria ascended the throne in:

(A) 1830
(B) 1837
(C) 1832
(D) 1857
45. In Lycidas "the Pilot of the Galilean lake" refers to:

(A) Jesus Christ
(B) Pontius Pilate
(C) St. Peter
(D) John the Baptist
115
46. The Origin of the Species was published in:

(A) 1842
(B) 1849
(C) 1859
(D) 1855
47. The assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand led to:

(A) Fragmentation of the Balkans
(B) World War I
(C) World War II
(D) The rise of Bismark
48. The notion of 'tension' in poetry was advanced by:

(A) R. P. Blackmur
(B) Austin Warren
(C) Cleanth Brooks
(D) Allen Tate
49. 'Strong lined' poetry was a term applied in its day to:
(A) Metaphysical poetry
(B) Augustan satire
(C) Hopkins's poetry
(D) Imagist poetry
50. The term 'apron stage' refers to:

(A) Greek theatre
(B) Brechtian theatre
(C) Elizabethan theatre
(D) Opera
True or False
1. Chaucer and Langland died in the same year.

2. Gorboduc is believed to be our first real tragedy.
3. Bacon's Essays were modelled on the essays of Machiavelli.
4. Milton married three times.
5. Dryden lived through the reigns of Charles I. Charles II and James II
6. Pope's Rape of the Lock is a social epic.
7. Spenser's Shepheardes Calender is modelled on Thomson's Seasons.
8. The Preface to The Lyrical Ballads was jointly written by Wordsworth and Coleridge.
9. Sir Walter Scott was primarily a writer of Historical novels.
10. Rupert Brooke was one of the leaders of Georgian Poetry.
A B
Authors Works
1. Sophocles (A) Saltwater Ballads
2. Aeschylus (B) The Strange Case of Billy Biswas
3. Euripides (C) Byzantium
4. Kamala Das (D) Electra
5. V. S. Naipaul (E) A Bend in the River
6. Arun Joshi (F) The Seven against Thebes
7. W. B. Yeats (G) Alcestis
8. John Masefield (H) Summer in Calcutta
9. Rudyard Kipling (1) Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown
10. Virginia Woolf (J) Kim
116
(I) Which of the following arrangements of the authors is chronologically correct according to their
dates of birth?
(A) S. T. Coleridge. William Wordsworth, Walter Scott, Jane Austen
(B) S. T. Coleridge, Walter Scott, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth
(C) William Wordsworth, Walter Scott, S. T. Coleridge, Jane Austen
(D) Jane Austen, Walter Scott, William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge
ANSWERS
1. (B) 2. (C) 3. (D) 4. (A) 5. (D) 6. (A) 7. (C) 8.(B) 9.(B) 10. (D)
11 (A) 12. (C) 13. (B) 14. (C) 15. (A) 16. (B) 17. (D) 18. (C) 19. (C) 20. (A)
.21 (B) 22. (B) 23. (A) 24. (C) 25. (A) 26. (B) 27. (D) 28. (B) 29. (C) 30. (D)
.31 (D) 32. (C) 33. (B) 34. (B) 35. (A) 36. (B) 37. (B) 38. (C) 39. (D) 40. (B)
.41 (D) 42. (C) 43. (A) 44. (B) 45. (C) 46. (C) 47. (B) 48. (D) 49. (C) 50. (C)
.
True or False
(I)
l. T 2.T 3. F 4.T 5. T 6. F 7. F 8. F 9. T 10. T
(I)
1. D 2. F 3. G 4. H 5. E 6. B 7. C 8. A 9. J 10. I

(I) (C)
117
Test Paper 3
1. Who wrote Travels?

(A) Swift
(B) Mandeville
(C) Wells
(D) Forster
2. Who wrote the following line?

'The proper study of mankind is man."
(A) Dryden
(B) Wordsworth
(C) Arnold
(D) Pope
3. Queen Victoria ascended the throne in:

(A) 1830
(B) 1834
(C) 1837
(D) 1857
4. The Act of Supremacy to make Henry VIII "Supreme head on earth of the
Church of England" was passed in:
(A) 1434
(B) 1534
(C) 1634
(D) 1734
5. Which of the following dramatists does not belong to the group called 'University Wits'?
(A) George Peele
(B) Thomas Lodge
(C) John Webster
(D) Thomas Nash
6. Who wrote the following line

"A hard time we had of it"?
(A) Dickens
(B) Pound
(C) Arnold
(D) Eliot
7. Which of the following does not belong to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood?

(A) Swinburne
(B) Rossetti
(C) Millais
(D) Hunt
8. The phrase "dissociation of sensibility" was used by Eliot in:

(A) Tradition and The Individual Talent
(B) The Metaphysical Poets
(C) Dante
(D) Baudelaire
9. The author of "The Purloined Letter" is:

(A) Poe
(B) Richardson
(C) Voltaire
(D) Romain Rolland
10. The phrase "Art for Art's Sake' was introduced by:
(A) Baudelaire
(B) Mallarme
(C) Gautier
(D) Wilde
11. Who wrote Masque of Anarchy?

(A) Godwin
(B) Milton
(C) Shelley
(D) Arnold
12. The Woman in White is written by:

(A) Collins
(B) Lawrence
(C) Marvell
(D) Defoe
13. The Waste Land was published in:

(A) 1911
(B) 1917
(C) 1922
(D) 1924
14. Who wrote Troilus and Criseyde:

(A) Shakespeare
(B) Chaucer
(C) Homer
(D) Dryden
118
15. The grizzly bear is huge and wild'. This line is in:
(A) Dactyllic metre
(B) Iambic metre
(C) Dactyllic with iambic variation
(D) Iambic with dactyllic variation
16. Venus and Adonis is a poem written by:

(A) Keats
(B) Jonson
(C) Shakespeare
(D) Heywood
17. Who wrote The Cocktail Party?

(A) Pinter
(B) Eliot
(C) Greene
(D) Galsworthy
18. Belinda is a character in:

(A) Absalom and Achitophel
(B) Paradise Lost
(C) The Rape of The Lock
(D) The Beggar's Opera
19. Who is the author of The Moon And Sixpence?

(A) Maugham
(B) Pound
(C) Yeats
(D) Eliot
20. Bobadill is a character in:

(A) Every Man in His Humour
(B) Pickwick Papers
(C) Roderick Random
(D) Moll Flanders
21. A novel tracing the development of the artist is known as:

(A) Bildungsroman
(B) Erziehungsroman
(C) Kunstleroman
(D) Graeco Roman
22. Bhowani Junction is written by:

(A) Paul Scot
(B) John Masters
(C) Bhabani Bhattacharya
(D) Amitav Ghosh
23. Archeology of Knowledge is written by:

(A) Aristotle
(B) Roland Barthes
(C) Jean Francois Lyotart
(D) Michel Foucault
24. 'When I consider how my light is spent .... " is an example of:
(A) Synecdoche
(B) Hyperbole
(C) Metonymy
(D) Pun
25. Who among the following is not a Marxist critic?

(A) Christopher Caudwell
(B) Raymond Williams
(C) Terry Eagleton
(D) Victor Shkolousky
26. In An Essay of Dramatick Poesie, the views of Dryden are expressed by:
(A) Crites
(B) Neander
(C) Eugenius
(D) Lisideus
27. Stephen Greenblatt is associated with:

(A) Texture and Structure
(B) Base and Superstructure
(C) Intension and Extension
(D) Resonance and Wonder
28. Volutha, the untouchable, appears in:

(A) The God of Small Things
(B) Coolie
(C) Untouchable
(D) In Custody
29. Who is considered to be the founder of the Chicago School of Criticism?

(A) C. K. Ogden
(B) R. P. Blackmur
(C) R. S. Crane
(D) Cleanth Brooks
30. Uncle Toby appears in:

(A) Tom Jones
(B) All My Sons
(C) Uncle Tom's Cabin
(D) Tristram Shandy
119
31. Germaine Greer wrote:

(A) The Female Eunuch
(B) Sexual Politics
(C) Sexual/Textual Politics
(D) The Female Form
32. "Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but
upon the poetry." Who said the above sentence?
(A) Arnold
(B) Eliot
(C) Ransom
(D) Leavis
33. The founder of the Oxford Movement was:

(A) Thomas Huxley
(B) Charles Lamb
(C) John Newman
(D) John Keble
34. Who is the author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead?

(A) William Shakespeare
(B) G. B. Shaw
(C) Tom Stoppard
(D) John Osborne
35. Who wrote "The Vanity of Human Wishes "?

(A) Jonathan Swift
(B) Samuel Johnson
(C) Ben Jonson
(D) Alexander Pope
36. Who admired Ben Jonson but loved Shakespeare?

(A) Pope
(B) Hazlitt
(C) Coleridge
(D) Dryden
37. Who coined the term Stream of Consciousness?

(A) William James
(B) Henry James
(C) James Joyce
(D) J. S. Mill
38. Who among the following is also known as a lexicographer?

(A) Webster
(B) Golding
(C) Johnson
(D) Sterne
39. How many years did Tennyson take in composing In Memoriam?

(A) Nearly 7 years
(B) Nearly 10 years
(C) Nearly 17 years
(D) Nearly 20 years
40. The writer who said, "I describe not men but manners...... " was:
(A) Pope
(B) Addison
(C) Steele
(D) Swift
41. Which of the following poets has not received the Sahitya Akademi Award?
(A) Nissim Ezekiel
(B) Shiv K. Kumar
(C) A.K. Ramanujan
(D) Jayanta Mahapatra
42. When was Johnson's Dictionary published?

(A) 1756
(B) 1777
(C) 1755
(D) 1750
43. The rhyming scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is:

(A) ab ba, abba, cde, cde
(B) ab ba, ab ba, cd cd, ee
(C) ab ab, cd cd, ef ef. gg
(D) aa bb, bb cc, de, de ff
44. The first name of Marlow in Heart of Darkness, is:

(A) Charlie
(B) Christopher
(C) John
(D) Andrew
45. Which of the following is not a bilingual writer?

(A) Dilip Chitre
(B) Kamala Das
(C) Gieve Patel
(D) Vikram Seth
46. Phillip Larkin belongs to a loose group of writers known as:

(A) The Bloomsbury Group
(B) The Imagist Group
(C) The Movement
(D) New Generation Poets
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47. "I speak and write in English but do not altogether share the preoccupations
and perspectives of an Englishman"—was said by:
(A) Rushdie
(B) Conrad
(C) Walcott
(D) Heany
48. Who wrote The Inheritors?

(A) Darwin
(B) Golding
(C) Lessing
(D) Woolf
49. The Future Poetry is written by:

(A) Arnold
(B) Aurobindo
(C) Ramanujan
(D) Daruwalla
50. Which person from the following list received the Nobel Prize for literature?
(A) Winston Churchill
(B) Albert Schweitzer
(C) Graham Greene
(D) Martin Amis
True or False
1. The epidemic called the Black Death occurred in the Age of Chaucer.
2. Thomas Lodge was one of the group of playwrights called the University Wits.
3. Milton's Comus is a classical comedy.
4. Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress is thoroughly a Puritan work.
5. Pope's Essay on Criticism is believed to be the best example of Classical prose.
6. Goldsmith is one of the so-called Four Wheels of the Van of the English Novel.
7. The Oxford Movement was a religious movement.
8. Shelley was honoured by the Oxford University for publishing The Necessity of Atheism.
9. In Thyrsis Arnold mourns the death of Edwin Arnold, a fellow poet.
10. Hopkins was the innovator of 'sprung rhythm.'
A B
Authors Works
1. Melville (A) Society and Solitude
2. Hawthorne (B) Border Minstrelsy
3. Thoreau (C) Nigger of the Narcissus
4. Emerson (D) Moby-Dick
5. Whitman (E) Walden
6. Walter Scott (F) Manfred
7. Byron (G) The Scarlet Letter
8. Conrad (H) Leaves of Grass
9. George Orwell (I) Of Human Bondage
10 Somerset Maugham (J) Nineteen Eighty-Four
.
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(I) Which of the following arrangements of the authors is chronologically correct according to
their dates of birth?
(A) Graham Greene, C. P. Snow, W. H. Auden, George Orwell
(B) W. H. Auden, George Orwell, C. P. Snow, Graham Greene
(C) George Orwell, Graham Greene, C. P. Snow, W. H. Auden
(D) George Orwell, W. H. Auden, C. P. Snow, Graham Greene
ANSWERS
1. (A) 2. (D) 3. (C) 4. (B) 5. (C) 6. (B) 7. (D) 8. (B) 9. (A) 10. (C)
11. (C) 12. (A) 13. (C) 14. (B) 15. (B) 16. (C) 17. (B) 18. (C) 19. (A) 20. (A)
21. (C) 22. (B) 23. (D) 24. (C) 25. (D) 26. (B) 27. (D) 28. (A) 29. (C) 30. (D)
31. (A) 32. (C) 33. (D) 34. (C) 35. (B) 36. (D) 37. (A) 38. (C) 39. (C) 40. (D)
41. (D) 42. (C) 43. (C) 44. (A) 45. (D) 46. (D) 47. (B) 48. (B) 49. (B) 50. (A)
True or False
(I)
l. T 2.T 3. F 4.T 5. F 6. F 7.T 8. F 9.F 10. T
(I)
l. D. 2. G 3. E 4. A 5. H 6. B 7. F 8. C 9. J 10. I
Assertion- Reasoning Type Question

(I) (C)
122
Test Paper 4
1. The verse in The Canterbury Tales consists of :
(A) Alliterative lines
(B) Unrhymed couplets
(C) Alternative lines rhyming
(D) Rhymed couplets
2. The story of Sohrab and Rustum is taken from :

(A) Omar Khayyam
(B) Folk literature
(C) The Arabian Nights
(D) Firdausi
3. For Horace the most important literary value is :

(A) Proper diction
(B) Fidelity
(C) Decorum
(D) Perspicuity
4. Eugenius in Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy criticises the Greek drama on the ground that it :
(A) Has conventional plot
(B) Is too formal on account of the unities
(C) Lacks innovation in themes
(D) Is untrue to life in upholding truth
5. Identify the critic who has explained the distinction between organic form and mechanical form :
(A) Eliot
(B) Wordsworth
(C) Lamb
(D) Coleridge
6. The Oxford Movement sought to :

(A) Reject the Roman Catholic Church
(B) Reinstate the Roman Catholic Church
(C) Reject the Church of England
(D) Reconcile the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church
7. Chartist Movement was a movement for :

(A) Women's rights
(B) Equal distribution of wealth
(C) Children's rights
(D) Electoral reforms
8. Who describes poetry as "the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science"?
(A) Carlyle
(B) Shelley
(C) Wordsworth
(D) Coleridge
9. Philistines in Culture and Anarchy stand for :

(A) The English middle class
(B) The English aristocracy
(C) The English working class
(D) The English Jews
10. Who attacked the Pre-Raphaelite poetry in the Fleshly School of Poetry ?
(A) Thomas Carlyle
(B) Oliver Goldsmith
(C) Robert Buchanan
(D) Jeremy Collier
11. The object of imitation in drama, according to Aristotle, is :

(A) Human beings
(B) Events
(C) Actions of human beings
(D) Moral excellence
123
12. The first English comedy was:

(A) Ralph Roister Doister
(B) Gammar Gurton's Needle
(C) Euphues
(D) A Midsummer Night's Dream
13. The Unfortunate Traveller or The Life of Jack Wilton was written by:
(A) John Lyly
(B) Thomas Nash
(C) Thomas Lodge
(D) Robert Greene
14. Chapman is best known for his:

(A) The Gentleman Usher
(B) Hymns, 1624
(C) The Admiral of France
(D) Translations of Homer
15. English Puritanism found its first allegories in:

(A) John Bunyan
(B) Sir Thomas Browne
(C) Edmund Spenser
(D) John Milton
16. Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight was written by:
(A) Langland
(B) An unknown poet
(C) Geoffrey of Monmouth
(D) Chaucer
17. The first complete version of the Bible in English was made by:
(A) Wycliffe
(B) Tyndale
(C) Coverdale
(D) King James I
18. The first example of blank verse in English is:

(A) Chaucer's Roman de ta Rose
(B) Langland's Piers the Plowman
(C) Surrey's Translation of the Second Aeneid
(D) Michael Drayton's Shepherd's Garland
19. Miracle plays were based on:

(A) Stories from the Bible
(B) Stories from the lives of the saints
(C) Marvellous happenings and events
(D) Concepts of Christian theology
20. "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. " This line
occurs in:
(A) The Lord of the Flies
(B) Gulliver's Travels
(C) Animal Farm
(D) Nineteen Eighty-four
21. Who, among the following, is a 'materialist', according to Virginia Woolf?

(A) Thomas Hardy
(B) Arnold Bennett
(C) James Joyce
(D) George Eliot
22. Which novelist is primarily known for his epistolary novels?

(A) Jane Austen
(B) Defoe
(C) Fielding
(D) Richardson
23. Johnson's phrase, "fatal Cleopatra", refers to Shakespeare's:

(A) Neglect of the unities
(B) Fondness for puns
(C) Fondness for similes
(D) Love of allusions
24. One of the sources of the symbolism of The Waste Land is:
(A) Symbolist Movement in Literature
(B) The Golden Bough
(C) The Myth of Sisyphus
(D) The Road to Xanadu
124
25. Existentialism in its religious aspect goes back to:

(A) Kierkegaard
(B) Sartre
(C) Camus
(D) Heidegger
26. In which of his books does Carlyle discuss "the condition-of-England

questions"?
(A) Sartor Resartus
(B) On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in Poetry
(C) Chartism
(D) French Revolution
27. When was the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays published?

(A) 1623
(B) 1603
(C) 1634
(D) 1599
28. Who said that Hamlet is "most certainly an artistic failure"?

(A) Ben Jonson
(B) Dr. Johnson
(C) T. S. Eliot
(D) L. C. Knights
29. Which of the following comedies was attacked by Steele in The Spectator?
(A) The Man of Mode
(B) The Country Wife
(C) The Double Dealer
(D) The Way of the World
30. Whose style was praised by Dr. Johnson as "elegant but not ostentatious,
familiar but not coarse"?
(A) Dryden
(B) Fielding
(C) Addison
(D) Goldsmith
31. Who, in Pope's Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, was "willing to wound but afraid to
strike"?
(A) Shaftesbury
(B) Lord Harvey
(C) Dryden
(D) Addison
32. 'Surrealism' was launched in France by:

(A) Andre Breton
(B) Mallarme
(C) Louis Aragon
(D) Baudelaire
33. Who, among the following, i9 not one of "the Pylon poets"?
(A) W. H. Auden
(B) Stephen Spender
(C) Day Lewis
(D) W. B. Yeats
34. Which of the following names is associated with the controversy over the 'two cultures', scientific and
literary?
(A) Robert Lynd
(B) C. P. Snow
(C) Wilson Knight
(D) Bertrand Russell
35. The Shield of Achilles is by:

(A) Homer
(B) Aeschylus
(C) W. H. Auden
(D) Stephen Spender
36. "Nuptial love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth and embaseth
it". Where do these words occur?
(A) The Old Testament
(B) Francis Bacon
(C) Sir Thomas Browne
(D) John Bunyan
37. Sir Philip Sidney's Apologie for Poetrie is a rejoinder to:

(A) Plato's Symposium
(B) Sir Leslie Stephen's An Agnostic's Apology
125
(C) Stephen Gosson's Schoole of Abuse

(D) Edmund Spenser's Complaints
38. Spenser's Astrophel is an elegy on:

(A) Sir Walter Raleigh
(B) James I
(C) Sir Philip Sidney
(D) John Wyatt
39. Milton's Comus is:

(A) An allegory
(B) A masque
(C) An ode
(D) A lyric
40. Dryden's The Conquest of Granada is a:

(A) Romantic tragedy
(B) Heroic play
(C) Romantic comedy
(D) Revenge tragedy
41. By "pathetic fallacy" is meant:

(A) Building up misplaced pathos
(B) Making a sad error
(C) Treating inanimate objects as animate
(D) Investing objects with human emotions
42. De Profundis is:

(A) A verse play
(B) A prose romance
(C) A personal letter
(D) A novel
43. The Gates of Paradise is by:

(A) William Blake
(B) Robert Southey
(C) John Milton
(D) Dante Alighieri
44. Tennyson's The Princess deals with:

(A) A moral dilemma
(B) Women's education
(C) A child's dream
(D) A historical event
45. The character Subtle appears in Ben Jonson's:

(A) Everyman in His Humour
(B) Everyman out of His Humour
(C) Volpone or the Fox
(D) The Alchemist
46. Who calls Shelley "a beautiful but ineffectual angel. beating in the void his
luminous wings in vain"?
(A) Matthew Arnold
(B) Swinburne
(C) T. S. Eliot
(D) Walter Pater
47. Who said that Donne in his poetry "affected the metaphysics"?
(A) John Dryden
(B) Dr. Johnson
(C) T. S. Eliot
(D) H. J. C. Grierson
48. In Dryden's Absolem and Achitophel Corah stands for:

(A) The Duke of Buckingham
(B) Charles II
(C) The Earl of Shaftesbury
(D) Titus Oates
49. The theme of Allegory of Love by C. S. Lewis is:

(A) Romantic love
(B) Courtly love
(C) Physical love
(D) Divine love
50. If you say 'contagious countries' instead of 'contiguous countries', you will be
making a mistake known as:
(A) Euphuism
(B) Spoonerism
(C) Malapropism
(D) Euphemism
126
True or False

1. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales was left incomplete
2. Spenser's Astrophel commemorates the memory of Sir Philip Sidney.
3. Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy is written in verse.
4. Dr. Samuel Johnson was the first lexicographer in English.
5. Ben Jonson's Comedies are known as Comedies of Humours.
6. All the novels of Fielding were Picaresque novels.
7. Milton was hailed as "the last of the Elizabethans. "
8. The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads was written jointly by Wordsworth and Coleridge.
9. Tennyson was the last and greatest of the Victorian Poets.
10. Wordsworth declined to accept the Poet-Laureateship of England.
Matching Type Question
Authors Works
1. Sophocles (A) Religio Medici
2. Virgil (B) Treasure Island
3. Marlowe (C) Ossian
4. Ben Jonson (D) Tamburlaine the Great
5. Thomas Browne (E) Antigone
6. Macpherson (F) Cynthia's Revels
7. Hazlitt (G Aeneid
8. H. G. Wells )(H The Spirit of the Age
9. R. L. Stevenson )(I) The Invisible Man
10. John Masefield (J) The Trial of Jesus
(I) Which of the following arrangements of the Poets/Authors is chronologically correct according
to their dates of birth?
(A) Dryden, Swift, Addison, Pope
(B) Swift, Addison, Pope. Dryden
(C) Pope, Addison, Swift, Dryden
(D) Addison, Swift, Dryden, Pope
ANSWERS
1. (D) 2. (D) 3. (C) 4. (B) 5. (D) 6. (D) 7. (D) 8. (C) 9. (A) 10. (C) 11. (C) 12. (A) 13. (B) 14. (D)
15. (A) 16. (B) 17. (D) 18. (C) 19. (B) 20. (C) 21. (B) 22. (D) 23. (B) 24. (B) 25. (A) 26. (C) 27.
(A) 28. (C) 29. (B) 30. (C)
127
31. (D) 32. (A) 33. (D) 34. (B) 35. (C) 36. (B) 37. (C) 38. (C) 39. (B) 40. (B) 41. (D) 42. (C)
43. (A) 44. (B) 45. (D) 46. (A) 47. (A) 48. (D] 49. (B) 50. (C)
True or False
(I)
l. F 2. T 3. F 4. T 5. T 6. F 7. T 8. F 9. F 10. F
(I)
1. E 2. G 3. D 4. F 5. A 6. C 7. H 8. I 9. B 10. J
(I) (A)
128
Test Paper 5
1. The correct title of William Langland's whole poem is:
(A) The Piers Plowman
(B) Piers the Plowman
(C) The Vision of Piers the Plowman
(D) The Books of Piers the Plowman
2. Utopia was written by:

(A) John Bunyan
(B) Sir Thomas Malory
(C) Sir Thomas More
(D) Cardinal Wolsey
3. The Authorised Version of the Bible appeared in:

(A) 1573
(B) 1595
(C) 1611
(D) 1660
4. Who introduced the sonnet form in English for the first time?
(A) Chaucer
(B) Wyatt
(C) Milton
(D) Surrey
5. The Mystery plays were based on:

(A) Stories from the Bible
(B) Stories from the lives of the saints
(C) Marvellous happenings and events
(D) Concepts of Christian theology
6. The Astrophel and Stella sonnets were composed by:

(A) Wyatt and Surrey
(B) Sir Philip Sidney
(C) Spenser
(D) Shakespeare
7. Who complained that Spenser "writ no language"?

(A) Johnson
(B) Ben Jonson
(C) Dryden
(D) Lamb
8. 'Affective fallacy' is defined as the error of judging:

(A) A work by its effects on the reader
(B) A work by the intention of the author
(C) Inanimate objects as animate
(D) A work by affections aroused
9. Doctor Faustus in Marlowe's play is:

(A) A headstrong physician
(B) A calculating gentleman
(C) An introspective ascetic
(D) A heartless sensualist
10. Who in Dryden's Essay of Dramatick Poesie says that "there is no theatre in the
world has anything so absurd as English tragi-comedy"?
(A) Eugenius
(B) Crites
(C) Neander
(D) Lisideus
11. According to Coleridge, in poetry, metre is:

(A) A necessary condition
(B) Not a necessary condition
(C) A super addition
(D) A mere ornament
12. The title of Robert Burton's well-known book is:

(A) The Anatomy of Melancholy
(B) Religio Medici
(C) Religion of Protestantism
(D) A Country Parson
13. Which one of the following is a Movement Poet?

(A) Louis MacNeice
(B) Thorn Gunn
(C) Sylvia Plath
(D) E. E. Cummings
129
14. T. S. Eliot uses the term 'objective correlative' in:

(A) The Function of Criticism
(B) Tradition and the Individual Talent
(C) The Frontiers of Criticism
(D) Hamlet and His Problems
15. Utilitarianism identified 'what is good' with:

(A) What is true
(B) What is morally right
(C) What makes for happiness
(D) What is beautiful
16. Who among the following is not an imagist?

(A) W. B. Yeats
(B) Amy Lowell
(C) T. E. Hulme
(D) Ezra Pound
17. The Suffragette movement was a movement for:

(A) Social reform
(B) Redress of sufferings
(C) Women's rights
(D) Children's rights
18. The Decline and Fall of the Romantic Ideal was written by:
(A) Edward Gibbon
(B) L. C. Knights
(C) F. L. Lucas
(D) Graham Hugh
19. Who calls poetry "the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge"?
(A) Wordsworth
(B) Coleridge
(C) Shelley
(D) Keats
20. Aldous Huxley writes about his visit to India in:

(A) Eyeless in Gaza
(B) The Doors of Perception
(C) Mortal Coils
(D) Jesting Pilot
21. The Growth of a Poet's Mind' is the sub-title of:

(A) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
(B) Lyrical Ballads
(C) The Prelude
(D) Kubla Khan
22. Lady Bracknell is a character in:

(A) Lady Windermere's Fan
(B) An Ideal Husband
(C) A Woman of No Importance
(D) The Importance of Being Earnest
23. In which of the following plays Shakespeare attacks the Puritans?

(A) Richard II
(B) Twelfth Night
(C) The Merchant of Venice
(D) The Comedy of Errors
24. Who said that Shakespeare has in his comedies only heroines and no heroes?
(A) Carlyle
(B) Hazlitt
(C) Ben Jonson
(D) Ruskin
25. Milton's Areopagitica is a defence of:

(A) Reason against imagination
(B) Freedom to form unions
(C) Freedom of thought
(D) Freedom of expression
26. 'Metaphysical conceit' is basically:

(A) A simile
(B) A metaphor
(C) A symbol
(D) None of the above
27. Who said: "It is not enough that Aristotle has said so, for Aristotle drew his
models of tragedy from Sophocles and Euripedes and if he had seen ours, might
have changed his mind"?
(A) Coleridge
(B) Sidney
(C) Johnson
(D) Dryden
28. Thyrsis commemorates:

(A) Arthur Hugh Clough
(B) Arthur Hallam
(C) John Keats
(D) Edward King
130
29. Who wrote The Defence of Lucknow?

(A) E. M. Forster
(B) Lord Tennyson
(C) Rudyard Kipling
(D) John Dryden
30. The theme of Browning's Paracelsus is:

(A) Search for excellence in art
(B) Search for knowledge
(C) Search for success in love
(D) Search for worldly well-being
31. Who first attacked most prominently the Restoration Comedy for its 'immo
rality'?
(A) Dr. Johnson
(B) Jeremy Collier
(C) Macaulay
(D) Addison
32. Whose style was praised by Dr. Johnson as "elegant but not ostentatious,
familiar but not coarse"?
(A) Dryden
(B) Goldsmith
(C) Cowley
(D) Addison
33. John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress is:

(A) A symbolic narrative
(B) A historical narrative
(C) An allegory
(D) A fable
34. The Spider and the Bee' episode occurs in:

(A) A Tale of a Tub
(B) Gulliver's Travels
(C) The Battle of the Books
(D) Journal to Stella
35. W. H. Auden wrote "Homage to Clio". Which discipline is she the Muse of?
(A) Poetry
(B) Dancing
(C) History
(D) Learning
36. The theme of Bacon's The New Atlantis is:

(A) Pursuit of knowledge
(B) Discovery of the new world
(C) Advancement of science
(D) Democratic political philosophy
37. Ben Jonson is a:

(A) Jacobean dramatist
(B) Reformation dramatist
(C) Restoration dramatist
(D) Elizabethan dramatist
38. According to Longinus, the most important source of the sublime is:
(A) Elevated language
(B) A vigorous treatment of emotions
(C) A clever use of figures
(D) A lofty cast of mind
39. Which one of the following is an 'artificial' comedy?

(A) The Birthday Party
(B) The Cocktail Party
(C) The Way of the World
(D) Volpone
40. Pamela is:

(A) A picaresque novel
(B) A Gothic novel
(C) A novel of ideas
(D) An epistolary novel
41. Which is the first English tragedy?

(A) The Spanish Tragedy
(B) Gorboduc
(C) Cato
(D) The Battle of Alcazar
131
42. For Matthew Arnold 'a poetry of revolt against moral ideas' is:
(A) A poetry of immorality
(B) A poetry of acceptance of life
(C) A poetry of revolt against life
(D) A poetry of revolutionary ideas
43. Who called Wordsworth 'the lost leader'?

(A) Byron
(B) Tennyson
(C) Browning
(D) Matthew Arnold
44. The Gothic novel is satirised in:

(A) The Mysteries of Udolpho
(B) Northanger Abbey
(C) Mill on the Floss
(D) The Heart of Midlothian
45. Carlyle's Sartor Resartus is:

(A) An autobiography
(B) A fictive biography
(C) A biography
(D) A fictive autobiography
46. Who wrote the book Road to Xanadu?

(A) Herbert Read
(B) Basil Wiley
(C) J. L. Lowes
(D) Coleridge
47. Don Juan by Byron is:

(A) A heroic narrative
(B) An epic satire
(C) A long ballad
(D) A sonnet sequence
48. On whose real-life experiences is Defoe's Robinson Crusoe supposed to be

based?
(A) Alexander Selkirk
(B) Daniel Defoe
(C) Gulliver
(D) Christian
49. The repetition of similar vowel sounds is called:

(A) Alliteration
(B) Onomatopoeip.
(C) Assonance
(D) Head rhyme
50. Which of the following plays by G. B. Shaw attacks Darwinism?

(A) You Never Can Tell
(B) Back to Methuselah
(D) St. Joan
True or False

1. Sidney said, "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world."
2. Queen Elizabeth was succeeded by Charles I as the monarch of England.
3. The great Fire of London occurred in 1666.
4. Walter Scott is primarily a novelist of historical novels.
5. Matthew Arnold paid tributes to Shakespeare in a Sonnet.
6. Wordsworth paid tributes to Milton in a Sonnet.
7. Byron died by drowning in the sea on the coast of Italy.
8. Keats began his career as an assistant to an apothecary.
9. Twentieth century was an age of interrogation.
10. G. 'B. Shaw moved out from Dublin and settled down in London.
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A B
Authors Works
1. Raja Rao (A Widower's House
2. R. K. Narayan )(B) Quentin Durward
3. V. S. Naipaul (C Kim
4. Walter Scott )(D Kanthapura
5. Arnold Bennett )(E) The Renaissance
6. Walter Pater (F) A Bend in the River
7. G. B. Shaw (G The Bachelor of Arts
8. Rudyard Kipling )(H The Hollow Men
9. T. S. Eliot )(I)
Clayhanger
10. Eugene O'Neil (J) The Hairy Ape
(I) Which of the following arrangements of the Poets/Authors is chronologically correct according
to their dates of birth?
(A) Tennyson, A. H. Clough, Robert Browning. Matthew Arnold
(B) Tennyson, Robert Browning, A. H. Clough, Matthew Arnold
(C) A. H. Clough, Matthew Arnold, Tennyson. Robert Browning
(D) Matthew Arnold. A. H. Clough, Tennyson. Robert Browning
ANSWERS
1. (C)2. (C)3. (C)4. (B)5. (A)6. (B)7. (B)8. (A)9. (A)10. (D)
11. (D)12. (A)13. (B)14. (D)15. (C)16. (A)17. (C)18. (C)19. (A)20. (D)
21. (C)22. (D)23. (B)24. (D)25. (D)26. (A)27. (D)28. (A)29. (C)30. (B)
31. (B)32. (D)33. (C)34. (C)35. (C)36. (B)37. (A)38. (D)39. (C)40. (D)
41. (B)42. (C)43. (C)44. (B)45. (D)46. (C)47. (B)48. (A)49. (C)50. (B)
True or False
(I)
l. F 2. F 3. T 4. T 5. T 6. T 7. F 8. F 9. T 10. T
(II)
l. D 2. G3. F 4. B5. 1 6. E7. A 8. C 9. H 10. J

(1) (B)
1
English
UGC/NET/JRF/SLET
(Paper III)
2
[Page blank]
3
SECTION-I
Passages For Comprehension

Directions: Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions given under each passage in
about 30 words each—
Passage-1
UNHAPPINESS
One of the sources of unhappiness, fatigue and nervous strain is the inability to
be interested in anything that is not of practical importance in one's own life. The
result of this is that the conscious mind gets no rest from a certain small number of
matters, each of which probably involves some anxiety and some element of worry.
Except in sleep the conscious mind is never allowed to lie fallow while subconscious
thought matures its gradual wisdom. The result is excitability, lack of sagacity,
irritability, and a loss of sense of proportion. All these are both causes and effects of
fatigue. As a man gets more tired, his external interests fade, and as they fade he
loses the relief which they afford him and becomes still more tired. This vicious circle
is only too apt to end in a breakdown. What is restful about external interests is the
fact that they do not call for any action. Making decisions and exercising volition are
very fatiguing, specially if they have to be done hurriedly and without the help of the
subconscious. (Bertrand Russell)
Questions
What is the principal cause of fatigue and nervous breakdown according to the
passage?
What does the passage say about the conscious and subconscious processes of
thought?
Why do some people become highly irritable?
What is the effect of certain actions which have no practical importance in life?
What is the central idea of the above passage?
Answers
1. The principal cause of fatigue and nervous breakdown is one's inability to find a job of one's interest
and practical utility in life. When forced to do such an uninteresting job, one feels tired and exhausted.
2. Man's mind functions at two levels—the conscious and the subconscious level. The mind at the
conscious level never stops functioning except in sleep, but the subconscious mind keeps on working even
more vigorously in sleep.
3. Some people become highly irritable when they are forced to do a job which is not of their liking, and
which, according to them, has no practical value in life.
4. The actions which have no practical value in life, and if one is forced to do them, would lead one to
disappointment, frustration, and even nervous breakdown. One should not be forced to do such a job.
5. One should not be forced to do any job which is not of one's liking or of practical utility. Such a work
would impair one's mind both at the conscious and subconscious levels.
4
Passage-2
WALKING TOURS
Now, to be properly enjoyed, a walking tour should be gone upon alone. If you go in a company, or even
in pairs, it is no longer a walking tour in anything but name; it is something else and more in the nature of
a picnic. A walking tour should be gone upon alone, because freedom is of the essence; because you
should be able to stop and go on, and follow this way or that, as the freak takes you; and because you must
have your own pace, and neither trot alongside a champion walker, nor mince in time with a girl. And
then you must be open to all impressions and let your thoughts take colour from what you see. You
should be as a pipe for any wind to play upon. "I cannot see the wit," says Hazlitt, "of walking and talking
at the same time. When I am in the country I wish to vegetate, like the country"—which is the gist of all
that can be said upon the matter. There should be no cackle of voices at your elbow, to jar on the
meditative silence of the morning. And so long as a man is reasoning he cannot surrender himself to that
fine intoxication that comes of much motion in the open air, that begins in a sort of dazzle and
sluggishness of the brain, and ends in a peace that passes comprehension.
During the first day or so of any tour there are moments of bitterness, when the traveller feels more than
coldly towards his knapsack, when he is half in a mind to throw it bodily over the hedge, and, like
Christian on a similar occasion, "give three leaps and go on singing". And yet it soon acquires a property
of easiness. It becomes magnetic; the spirit of the journey enters into it.
(R. L. Stevenson)
Questions
1. Why, according to the passage, a walking tour should be undertaken alone?

2. "You should be as a pipe for any wind to play upon. " What does the author mean by this remark?
3. Is there any literary reference in the remark "Like Christian give three leaps and go on singing"?
4. What does a man feel impulsively on the first day of undertaking a walking tour?
5. What is the central idea of the above passage?
Answers
1. A walking tour must be undertaken alone. Freedom is the basic requisite of a meaningful walking
tour. A companion walker will take away much of the walker's freedom and spoil the very spirit of the
walking tour.
2. The author means to say that a person going on a walking tour must have complete freedom to act
according to his freak of whim or sweet will. There should be no curb on his freedom.
3. Yes, Christian is the hero of John Bunyan's famous allegorical novel Pilgrim's Progress. A person
going on a walking tour should have the freedom and cheerfulness of Christian.
4. On the first day the man going on a walking tour feels unwilling, hesitant, and even tired. But
gradually the pleasure derived from it gets into his heart and soul.
5. The central idea of the above passage is that a walking tour can be best enjoyed when one is alone. A
companion walker spoils his pleasure. Absolute freedom is the soul of a meaningful walking tour.
5
Passage-3
INDEPENDENCE
Few virtues have been more praised by moralists than generosity; every practical treatise of ethics tends to
increase our sensibility of the distresses of others, and to relax the grasp of frugality. Philosophers that are
poor, praise it because they are gainers by its effects; and the opulent Seneca himself has written a treatise
on its benefits, though he was known to give nothing away.
But among many who have enforced the duty of giving, I am surprised there is none to inculcate ignominy
of receiving; to show that by every favour we accept, we in some measure forfeit our native freedom; and
that a state of continual dependence on the generosity of others is a life of gradual debasement.
Were men taught to despise the receiving obligations with the same force of reasoning and declamation as
they are instructed to confer them, we might then see every person in society filling up the requisite duties
of his station with cheerful industry, neither relaxed from hope, nor sullen from disappointment.
Every favour a man receives in some measure sinks him below his dignity; and in
proportion to the value of the benefit, or the frequency of its acceptance, he gives up
so much of his natural independence. He, therefore, who thrives upon the unmerited
bounty of another, if he has any sensibility, suffers the worst of servitude; the
shackled slave may murmur without reproach, but the humble dependent is taxed
with ingratitude upon every symptom of discontent; the one may rave round the
walls of his cell, but the other lingers in all the silence of mental confinement. To
increase his distress, every new obligation but adds to the former load which kept
the vigorous mind from rising: till at last, elastic no longer, it shapes itself to
constraint, and puts on habitual servility. (Oliver Goldsmith)
Questions
1. Why do philosophers generally highly praise the virtue of generosity?
2. What do you know about Seneca?
3. Who, according to this passage, is the worst victim of servitude?
4. What is the worst enemy of one's dignity and independence according to this passage?
5. What is the central idea of the passage?
Answers
1. The philosophers highly praise generosity and the spirit of giving assistance to the poor because the
philosophers themselves are generally poor. They would be the first gainers if the spirit of generosity
increases.
2. Seneca was a Greek philosopher who believed in the philosophy of indulgence in sensual pleasures.
He did not believe in the soul or rebirth after death. His famous dictum was: "Eat, drink and be merry. "
3. The persons who entirely depend upon the generosity, charity and assistance of others are the worst
victims of servitude. They sink lower and lower and debase themselves and fall into the worst type of
servitude.
4. The worst enemy of one's dignity, honour and independence is dependence on the generosity, charity
and obligations of others. Every new obligation degrades him until he sinks to the lowest level of
indignity.
5. Generosity is generally praised as a great virtue. But its darker side is often ignored. Every favour or
obligation that one receives from others lowers his dignity and debases him.
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Passage 4
MORAL TRAP
But nearly all of them—and this is where the colour of hope genuinely comes in— would see no reason
why, just because the individual condition is tragic, so must the social condition be. Each of us is solitary:
each of us dies alone: all right, that's a fate against which we can't struggle—but there is plenty in our
condition which is not fate and against which we are less than human unless we do struggle.
Most of our fellow human beings, for instance, are underfed and die before their time. In the crudest
terms, that is the social condition. There is a moral trap which comes through the insight into man's
loneliness: it tempts one to sit back, complacent in one's unique tragedy, and let the others go without a
meal.
As a group, the scientists fall into that trap less than others. They are inclined to be impatient to see if
something can be done: and inclined to think that it can be done, until it's proved otherwise. That is their
real optimism, and it's an optimism that the rest of us badly need.
In reverse, the same spirit, tough and good and determined to fight it out at the side of their brother men,
has made scientists regard the other culture's social attitudes as contemptible. That is too facile: some of
them are, but they are a temporary phase and not to be taken as representative.
Those are two of the misunderstandings between the two cultures. I should say,
since I began to talk about them—the two cultures, that is—I have had some
criticism. Most of my scientific acquaintances think that there is something in it, and
so do most of the practising artists I know. But I have been argued with by non-
scientists of strong down-to-earth interests. Their view is that it is an over
simplification, and that if one is going to talk in these terms there ought to be at
least three cultures. (C. P. Snow)
Questions
1. What is 'the moral trap' referred to by the author in this passage?

2. What is the attitude of the scientists according to this passage?
3. What does the author mean by the two cultures?
5. What is the attitude of the scientists and artists towards the culture of the wealthier classes.
Answers
1. By the term 'moral trap' the author refers to the callous indifference of the wealthy class of the people
to the sufferings of the poor. Their conscience is caught in the moral trap.
2. The attitude of the scientists is that something can surely be done to ameliorate the living conditions of
the poor. They do their best to discover ways and means to reduce the sufferings of the poor.
3. By two cultures the author means the culture of the scientists which is sympathetic and humanitarian,
and the culture of the wealthy class which is of callous indifference towards the sufferings of the weaker
classes of society.
4. The central idea is that it is a sin on the part of the wealthier classes to be callously indifferent to the
sufferings of the weaker classes. The scientists do their best to ameliorate the living conditions of the
poor.
7
5. The attitude of the scientists and artists towards the culture of the wealthier classes is one of severe
criticism and condemnation. The wealthier classes should be more sympathetic and humanitarian towards
the weaker classes.
Passage-5
TEACHING PROFESSION
Teaching, more even than most other professions, has been transformed during
the last hundred years from a small, highly skilled profession concerned with a
minority of the population, to a large and important branch of the public service. The
profession has a great and honourable tradition, extending from the dawn of history
until recent times, but any teacher in the modern world who allows himself to be
inspired by the ideals of his predecessors is likely to be made sharply aware that it is
not his function to teach what he thinks, but to instil such beliefs and prejudices as
are thought useful by his employers. In former days a teacher was expected to be a
man of exceptional knowledge or wisdom, to whose words men would do well to
attend. In antiquity, teachers were not an organized profession, and no control was
exercised over what they taught. It is true that they were often punished afterwards
for their subversive doctrines. Socrates was put to death and Plato is said to have
been thrown into prison, but such incidents did not interfere with the spread of their
doctrines. Any man who has the genuine impulse of the teacher will be more anxious
to survive in his books than in the flesh. A feeling of intellectual independence is
essential to the proper fulfilment of the teacher's functions, since it is his business to
instil what he can of knowledge and reasonableness into the process of forming
public opinion. In antiquity he performed this function unhampered except by
occasional spasmodic and ineffective interventions of tyrants or mobs. In the Middle
Ages teaching became the exclusive prerogative of the church, with the result that
there was little progress either intellectual or social. With the Renaissance, the
general respect for learning brought back a very considerable measure of freedom to
the teacher. (Bertrand Russell)
Questions
1. In what way teaching profession has become more important today than what it was in the past?
2. In the Middle Ages teaching made no impact either intellectual or social. Why?
3. How did the Renaissance affect the teaching profession?
5. Why were some great teachers in ancient times punished?
Answers
1. In the past education was confined to the very small minority of the rich and aristocatic class. Today
education has become the very basis of society and teaching has become a very important profession.
2. In the Middle Ages teaching was an exclusive prerogative of the church. Therefore, it became highly
insular and confined to religious fanaticism. As such, it made little impact on the general public either
intellectually or socially.
3. With the Renaissance, the craving for knowledge became intense and universal. Every section of
society and every individual craved for unlimited knowledge. Therefore, teaching became a highly sought
after and respectable profession.
8
4. In ancient times education was confined to the aristocratic class. In the Middle Ages teaching became
an exclusive prerogative of the Church. In modern times, craving for knowledge and teaching has become
universal.
5. In ancient times teachers were men of exceptional knowledge and wisdom. But they were punished if
they taught anything contrary to traditional beliefs. Socrates, Plato and many more great teachers were
punished on this charge.
Passage-6
UNIFICATION OF THE WORLD
There can be little question that the attainment of a federation of all humanity, together with a sufficient
measure of social justice, to ensure health, education, and a rough equality of opportunity to most of the
children born into the world, would mean such a release and increase of human energy as to open a new
phase in human history. The enormous waste caused by military preparation and the mutual annoyance of
competing great powers, and the still more enormous waste due to the under-productiveness of great
masses of people, either because they are too wealthy for stimulus or too poor for efficiency, would cease.
There would be a vast increase in the supply of human necessities, a rise in the standard of life and in what
is considered a necessity, a development of transport and every kind of convenience; and a multitude of
people would be transferred from low-grade production to such higher work as art of all kinds, teaching,
scientific research, and the like. All over the world there would be a setting free of human capacity, such
as has occurred hitherto only in small places and through precious limited phases of prosperity and
security. Unless we are to suppose that spontaneous outbreaks of superman have occurred in the past, it is
reasonable to conclude that the Athens of Pericles, the Florence of Medici, Elizabethan England, the great
deeds of Ashoka, the Tang and Ming periods in art, are but samples of what a whole world of sustained
security would yield continuously and cumulatively. Without supposing any change in human quality, but
merely its release from the present system of inordinate waste history justifies this expectation.
We have seen how, since the liberation of human thought in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, a comparatively few curious and intelligent men, chiefly in
western Europe, have produced a vision of the world and a body of science that is
now, on the material side, revolutionizing life. Mostly these men have worked against
great discouragement with insufficient funds and small help or support from the
mass of mankind. It is impossible to believe that these men were the maximum
intellectual harvest of their generation. England alone in the last three centuries
must have produced scores of Newtons who never learnt to read, hundreds of
Daltons, Darwins, Bacons, and Huxleys who died stunted in hovels, or never got a
chance of proving their quality. (H. G. Wells)
Questions
1. What would mankind gain by the attainment of a federation of all humanity?

2. How would the standard of living of mankind increase by the unification of the world?
3. How has science revolutionised the material side of mankind?
4. How has England failed to produce great men during the last three centuries?
5. Give the central idea of the above passage.
9
Answers
1. Mankind would gain a lot if a federation of all humanity is attained. It would save the huge wastage of
wealth and human energy on military preparations and use these savings in promoting human welfare.
2. The unification of the world would save the enormous wealth and human energy wasted on military
preparation and transfer them to the promotion of health, education and total welfare of mankind.
3. Scientific researches and inventions have greatly added to the welfare, health, education, transport
facilities and standard of living of mankind.
4. England, like other European countries, wasted enormous wealth and human powers on destructive
achievements and armaments during the last three centuries and produced no great men as she did in
earlier ages.
5. The unification of the world and federation of all humanity would stop the huge wastage on military
preparations and promote total welfare, social justice, health, education and goodwill amongst all
countries and nations.
Passage-7
THE SPIRIT OF INDIA
The world of today has achieved much, but for all its declared love for humanity, it has based itself far
more on hatred and violence than on the virtues that make man human. War is the negation of truth and
humanity. War may be unavoidable sometimes but its progeny are terrible to contemplate. Not mere
killing, for man must die, but the deliberate and persistent propagation of hatred and falsehood, which
gradually become the normal habits of the people. It is dangerous and harmful to be guided in our life's
course by hatreds and aversions, for they are wasteful of energy and limit and twist the mind and prevent
it from perceiving the truth. Unhappily there is hatred today in India and strong aversions, for the past
pursues us and the present does not differ from it. It is not easy to forget repeated affronts to the dignity
of a proud race. Yet, fortunately Indians do not nourish hatred for long; they recover easily a more
benevolent mood.
India will find herself again when freedom opens out new horizons and the future
will then fascinate her far more than the immediate past of frustration and
humiliation. She will go forward with confidence, rooted in herself and yet eager to
learn from others and co-operate with them. Today she swings between a blind
adherence to her old customs and a slavish imitation of foreign ways. In neither of
these can she find relief or life or growth. It is obvious that she has to come out of
her shell and take full part in the life and activities of the modern age. It should be
equally obvious that there can be no real cultural or spiritual growth based on
imitation. Such imitation can only be confined to a small number who cut
themselves off from the masses and the springs of national life. True culture derives
its inspiration from every corner of the world but it is home-grown and has to be
based on the wide mass of the people. Art and literature remain lifeless if they are
continually thinking of foreign models. The day of a narrow culture confined to a
small fastidious group is past. We have to think in terms of the people generally and
their culture must be a continuation and development of past trends, and must also
represent their new urges and creative tendencies. (Jawaharlal Nehru)
10
Questions
1. How does war harm mankind?

2. How do the memories of the past affect the attitude of Indians?
3. How was the attainment of freedom expected to revolutionise life in India?
4. How does the spirit of imitation of the West affect the culture of India?
Answers
1. War harms mankind in many ways. It is responsible for the destruction of human life and property on
a huge scale. But what is worse still, it generates hatred and violence which dehumanize humanity.
2. India has faced many national indignities in the past. Their memories generate and preserve hatred
and aversion. Yet, fortunately, Indians tend to forget the past memories and do not nourish hatred for
long.
3. Freedom was expected to open new horizons of national progress, prosperity and peace. But these
expectations have not come out true.
4. The imitation of the Western culture has tarnished the true spirit of Indian culture. The borrowed
cultural imitation is confined to a small section of population. It can never become the culture of the
masses of India.
5. India has a glorious cultural history. The true culture of India is all-assimilating. But the blind
imitation of the Western culture has tarnished the true spirit of Indian culture.
Passage-8
TRUTH AND AHIMSA
To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the meanest of
creation as oneself. And a man who aspires after that cannot afford to keep out of any field of life. That
is why my devotion to Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say without the slightest
hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not
know what religion means.
Identification with everything that lives is impossible without self-purification; without self- purification
the observance of the law of Ahimsa must remain an empty dream; God can never be realised by one who
is not pure of heart. Self- purification therefore must mean purification in all the walks of life. And
purification being highly infectious, purification of oneself necessarily leads to the purification of one's
surroundings.
But the path of self-purification is hard and steep. To attain to perfect purity one has to become absolutely
passion-free in thought, speech and action; to rise above the opposing currents of love and hatred,
attachment and repulsion. I know that I
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have not in me as yet that triple purity, in spite of constant ceaseless striving for it. That is why the
world's praise fails to move me, indeed it very often stings me. To conquer the subtle passions seems to
me to be harder far than the physical conquest of the world by the force of arms. Ever since my return to
India, I have had experiences of the dormant passions lying hidden within me. The knowledge of them
has made me feel humiliated but not defeated. The experiences and experiments have sustained me, and
given me great joy. But I know that I have still before me a difficult path to traverse. I must reduce
myself to zero. So long as one does not of his own free will put himself last among his fellow creatures,
there is no salvation for him. Ahimsa is the farthest limit of humility.
In bidding farewell to the reader, for the time being at any rate, I ask him to join
with me in prayer to the God of Truth, that He may grant me the boon of Ahimsa in
mind, word and deed. (M. K. Gandhi)
Questions
1. How can one realize the real Spirit of Truth according to Gandhiji?
2. How are religion and politics related to each other?
3. How can one achieve self-purification?
4. "I must reduce myself to zero. " What does this statement imply?
5. What does Gandhiji mean by triple purity?
Answers
1. In order to realize the real Spirit of Truth, one must love the meanest creation as one's ownself. One
must embrace all aspects of social and national life in the true spirit of devotion and dedication.
2. Religion and politics in their true spirit are complementary to each other. Politics without religion is
public corruption, and religion without politics neglects an important aspect of national life.
3. One can attain self-purification by becoming absolutely passion-free in thought, speech and action.
One's thoughts should be noble, actions honest, and speech free and frank. One's thoughts, actions and
speech must be bound in honest harmony.
4. The true spirit of Ahimsa must lead one to the farthest end of humility and reduce oneself to zero. One
must shed off all traces of ego in order to become a true devotee of Ahimsa.
5. By triple purity Gandhiji means purity of thought, purity of speech and purity of action. Without
attaining this triple purity one can never become passion-free or true devotee of truth and Ahimsa.
Passage-9
OUR NATIONAL UNITY
When you look at the historical side, at all times it had many races, many languages and many religions.
There was never any question of saying that this group is the biggest or that is not the biggest. The idea
was to accommodate all, and
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to harmonise all faiths. Even a very conservative legislator like Manu tells us that all the people should
learn their own particular traditions. We never believed that we are a chosen race. We never believed that
ours is a chosen religion or a chosen tribe. The historical traditions of each race, of each community, of
each tribe, were preserved and taught to them. It was this attitude of acknowledging every path, rejecting
none, trying to find something of value in each tribe and in each community, that has been the tradition
which governed the history of our country. You find something similar in the Koran. There it is said: "O
mankind, we created you from a single pair of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes
that you may know each other, not that you may despise each other. " So, it was a question of what may
be regarded as "Sarva-mata-samanvaya"—integration of all religions or faiths.
In the greatest periods of our history, when we were able to make a mark, we adopted this attitude of
toleration and goodwill. Ashoka sent missionaries to far countries. He had his great principles cut out in
rock: "Samanvaya Sudha"—concord alone is meritorious. In the next great empire of the country, the
Golden Age of the Guptas, Fa Hien, a Chinese traveller, who spent ten years in India, was impressed by
the toleration of the people. He testifies that he was allowed to go and do whatever he wanted, and that
the people of India never believed in the superiority of their own religion. Harsha Vardhana also followed
the religion of freedom.
(Dr. Radhakrishnan)
Questions
1. What is the true spirit of national unity in India?

2. What tradition has governed the history of India?
3. What does Koran teach us?
4. Why is the Age of the Guptas called the Golden Age in the history of India?
5. What is the message of Indian culture according to this passage?
Answers
1. India is a country of many races, many languages and many religions. Indian culture believes in
harmonising all of them in the true national spirit. Indian culture seeks to develop true national unity
amidst all this diversity.
2. The tradition that governs Indian history is that of tolerating and accommodating all religions, faiths,
customs and manners in a spirit of equality and harmony. We believe in finding and accepting something
good in every faith and concept.
3. Koran teaches us that Allah created all human beings out of a single pair of a male and female. They
grew into many tribes and nations. Therefore they should not despise each other.
4. The Age of the Guptas is called the Golden Age because there prevailed the spirit of toleration and
accommodation between all faiths and religions in that Age. All Were equally bound in bonds of mutual
respect and appreciation.
5. The message of Indian culture is that of mutual respect and appreciation of all faiths, beliefs and
concepts. India discovers something good in each of them and accepts it. Our culture is all-assimilating.
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Passage-10
INTELLECTUAL CULTURE
It is your duty to train and develop your Mind and acquire knowledge, as much knowledge as you
possibly can obtain. Knowledge is like a deep well, fed by perennial springs, and your Mind is the little
bucket that you drop into it: you will get as much as you can assimilate. The Brain, which is the physical
organ of the Mind, really distinguishes you from the animals. Many animals have very powerful sense-
organs: the eagle, the ant, and the dog have keener senses than Man. But no animal has a more evolved
Brain and a higher Intelligence. If you do not develop and use this Brain to the utmost of your power, you
are more akin to the beast than to Homo sapiens.
Knowledge and mental self-culture will confer untold blessings upon you. You will not be the victim of
superstition and demagogy in religion and politics. You will know your duty and do it. To be wise and
independent in your religion and your politics, not to be doped and duped by the selfish priests and the
scheming politicians, is this not a noble aim worth striving for? Most men and women today are not free
and wise: they are like kites flown by the priests and politicians who hold the string. They are fleeced and
fooled on account of their ignorance of Science, History, Economics, and other subjects. Half the ills of
mankind are due to Ignorance, the other half arise from Egotism. Knowledge is fully as important as
Ethics: they are really interdependent. As Lessing says: "The aim of Knowledge is Truth, and Truth is a
need of the soul. " The Persian poet Saadi exhorts all to acquire Knowledge with unremitting zeal: "Like a
taper, one should melt in pursuit of Knowledge. This is thy duty, even if thou hast to travel over the
whole earth. "
(Dr. Har Dayal)
Questions
1. What distinguishes man from animals according to this passage?

2. Why should one try to acquire as much knowledge as possible?
3. What would one gain by acquiring mental self-culture?
4. What ills would Ignorance bring to man according to this passage?
5. "One should melt in pursuit of knowledge. " What does this statement imply?
Answers
1. Man differs from animals in one respect only. Man has a more developed mind and higher
intelligence. A man who does not make the fullest use of his mind and intelligence is in no way different
from animals.
2. One should try to acquire as much knowledge as possible because this will bring untold blessings to
him. He will be free from all superstitions and religious and political dogmas. He will not be duped by
anyone.
3. Mental self-culture will make one free from all superstitions and false faiths. He will not be under the
unwanted control of priests and politicians. He will not be fleeced by any one on account of his
ignorance.
4. Ignorance will make one a slave to priests and politicians. His thoughts and actions would be
controlled by them. He would be an easy prey to and fleeced by any clever man.
5. The statement means that one should pursue knowledge to the last point of his faculty, because
without knowledge one is in no sense different from animals. One should go to the farthest limit in
pursuit of knowledge.
14
Poetry Passages
Passage-11
SEA OF FAITH
The sea of faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd;
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar
Retreating to the breath
Of the night-wind down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another ! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so near,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night. (Matthew Arnold)
Questions
1. Why does the poet say that the sea of faith is retreating with a melancholy roar?
2. Why does the poet say that the world has really 'neither joy, nor love, nor light'?
3. What is the central idea of the poem?
4. What figure of speech is suggested by the lines: "But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar. "
5. Explain the meaning of the line:
"Where ignorant armies clash by night. "
Answers
1. There was a serious conflict between science and faith in the Victorian Age. The force of science
proved stronger, with the result that the sea of faith had to recede back painfully.
2. With the recession of faith, man was left with no shelter or succour in his hour of grief, hopelessness
or despondency. Man wandered in the desert of darkness without peace within or calm around.
3. The central idea of the poem is that having lost faith in God and religion, man is wandering helplessly
in the desert of disbelief all around him. He has neither hope, nor love, nor peace within him.
4. The figure of speech used in these lines is Onomatopoeia, because the sound of words used in these
lines expresses the sense of the receding sea. The sound of words expresses their meaning.
5. By 'ignorant armies' the poet means 'large crowds of people who have lost faith in God and religion. '
The word 'darkness' here means 'scepticism'. The world has become a dark arena where blind-fold people
are fighting aimlessly.
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Passage-12
GIRD ON THY SWORD
Gird on thy sword, O man, thy strength endue,

In fair desire thine earth-born joy renew.
thou thy life beneath the making sun,
Till Beauty, Truth, and Love in thee are one.
Thro' thousand ages hath thy childhood run:
On timeless ruin hath the glory been:
From the forgotten night of loves foredone,
Thou risest in the dawn of hopes unseen.
Higher and higher shall thy thoughts aspire,
Unto the stars of heaven, and pass away,
And earth renew the buds of the desire
In fleeting blooms of everlasting day,
Thy work with beauty crown, thy life with love;
Thy mind with truth uplift to God above:
For whom all is, from whom was all begun,
In whom all Beauty, Truth, and Love are one.
(Robert Bridges)
Questions
1. Is this poem idealistic, visionary or inspirational? Explain how?

2. In what kind of stanza form is this poem written? Give the rhyme scheme of each stanza.
3. The poem invokes a celebrated Trinity. What is this Trinity?
4. What is the message of the poem?
5. Why is the Trinity of Beauty, Truth and Love important in life?
Answers
1. This poem is basically an inspirational poem. The title Gird On Thy Sword means 'Be prepared to
fight out the battle of life. ' Man must collect all his courage and strength to render some valuable service
to mankind.
2. The poem is written in irregular fourline stanza form. The rhyme-scheme in the first and fourth
stanzas is—
aabb
The second and third stanzas have the rhyme-scheme:
abab
3. The celebrated trinity in this poem is the Trinity of the three great ideals of life. These ideals are
Beauty, Truth and Love. This Trinity is the emblem of God.
4. The message of this poem is that one should remain undaunted against the problems and difficulties of
life. One should undauntedly strive to achieve the Trinity of Beauty, Truth and Love in life.
5. Beauty, Truth and Love are the three great ideals of perfect life. There should be Beauty in one's
actions, Love in one's life, and Truth in one's faith in God.
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Passage-13
PROSPICE
Fear death?—to feel the fog in my throat,

The mist in my face,
When the snows begin, and the blasts denote
I am nearing the place,
The power of the night, the press of the storm,
The post of the foe;
Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form,
Yet the strong man must go:
For the journey is done and the summit attained,
And the barriers fall,
Though battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained,
The reward of it all.
I was ever a fighter, so—one fight more,
The best and the last ;
I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forebore,
And bade me creep past.
No ; let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers,
The heroes of old,
Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears
Of pain, darkness and cold.
For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave,
The black minute's at end,
And the elements' rage, the fiend-voices that rave,
Shall dwindle, shall blend,
Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain,
Then a light, then thy breast,
O thou soul of my soul; I shall clasp thee again,
And with God be the rest!
(Robert Browning)
Questions
1. 'When the snows begin, and the blasts denote'. What do the 'snows' and 'blasts' signify?
2. 'The barriers fall'. What does this expression signify?
3. Who is referred to in the expression 'soul of my soul'?
4. Is this poem an elegy, a sonnet, a lyric, or a dramatic monologue? Explain, how?
5. What is meant by the Arch Fear?
Answers
1. When a person is about to die, his body becomes cold—'the snows begin'. Similarly at the time of
death one begins to breathe hard as if storms or blasts begin to blow within him.
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2. The human body is the 'barrier' between the life in this world and life in heaven. When a person dies,
the barrier of the body falls down, and human soul goes straight to heaven.
3. The poet's wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the famous poetess, had died earlier. The poet hopes to
meet her in heaven after his own death. He calls her 'soul of my soul. '
4. The poem entitled Prospice is a dramatic monologue. In a dramatic monologue there is only one
person who loudly expresses his own personal thoughts and feelings. This is a loud dialogue with the self.
5. The 'Arch Fear' is the frightening Demon of Death. The Demon of Death seems to stand visibly at the
bed-side of the dying man. The brave man, like the poet, challenges him fearlessly.
Passage-14
FROM LYCIDAS
Next, Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow,

His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge,
Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge
Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe.
"Ah ! who hath reft," quoth he, "my dearest pledge?"
Last came, and last did go,
The Pilot of the Galilean Lake;
Two massy keys he bore of metals twain
(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain).
He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake
"How well could I have spared for thee, young swain,
Enow of such as, for their bellies' sake,
Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold !
Of other care they little reckoning make
Than how to scramble at the shearer's feast,
And shove away the worthy bidden guest.
Blind mouths ! that scarce themselves know how to hold
A sheep-hook, or have learnt aught else the least
That to the faithful herdman's art belongs !
What recks it them? What need they? They are sped;
And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs
Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw;
The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw,
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread;
Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw
Daily devours apace, and nothing said.
But that two-handed engine at the door
Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more. "
(John Milton)
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Questions
1. Who is 'The Pilot of the Galilean Lake'? What do the keys in his hand signify?
2. 'Enow of such as, for their bellies' sake, Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold !' What do these
lines signify?
3. Who are 'the hungry sheep look up, and are not fed'?
4. Who is 'that two-handed engine' awarding the last judgment?
5. What was the condition of the church in Milton's times according to the above passage?
Answers
1. The 'Pilot of the Galilean Lake' refers to St. Peter. With the golden key he opens the gates of Heaven
for the holy souls, and with the iron key he closes the gates of Heaven against the unholy souls.
2. These lines refer to the corrupt, greedy and selfish clergymen. They exploited their innocent devotees.
The followers of Christianity are referred to as the sheep, and the clergymen devoured them in the form of
wolves.
3. The 'hungry sheep' are the followers of Christianity who want to be fed with the doctrines of
Christianity. But the clergymen exploit their sentiments and fill up their own bellies and leave their
followers spiritually starving.
4. 'The two-handed engine' is God. God awards just and even justice to all. God's justice is infallible and
even. Therefore it is called two-handed or even-handed justice.
5. In Milton's times the church had become the centre of corruption and greed. The clergymen neglected
their clerical duties and exploited the sentiments of their innocent followers and served their own ends.
Passage-15
FROM LOTOS-EATERS
There is sweet music here that softer falls

Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
Or night-dews on still waters between walls
Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass;
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes;
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies.
Here are cool mosses deep,
And thro' the moss the ivies creep,
And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep,
And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep.
Why are we weigh'd upon with heaviness
And utterly consumed with sharp distress,
While all things else have rest from weariness?
All things have rest: why should we toil alone,
We only toil, who are the first of things,
And make perpetual moan,
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Still from one sorrow to another thrown:

Nor ever fold our wings,
And cease from wanderings,
Nor steep our brows in slumber's holy balm;
Nor harken what the inner spirit sings,
"There is no joy but calm !"—
Why should we only toil, the roof and crown of things?(Tennyson)
Questions
1. These stanzas are quoted from a poem written by Tennyson. What is the title of this poem?
2. What kind of a land is suggested in the first stanza quoted above?
3. Who are these Lotos-Eaters who bemoan their lot in the second stanza quoted above?
4. Who are referred to as 'the roof and crown of things'?
5. Give the central idea of the poem.
Answers
1. This extract has been taken from a poem written by Tennyson. The title of the poem is Lotos-Eaters.
The poem describes the adventures of the followers of Ulysses returning home from the war of Troy.
2. The isle of Lotos-Eaters is an ideally calm, quiet, peaceful and restful land resonant with soft music.
The Lotos-Eaters having eaten the lotos flowers become absolutely indolent. There is no movement even
in nature.
3. The Lotos-Eaters are the followers of Ulysses who have undertaken an endless voyage across
unchartered seas in search of new lands and islands. They bemoan their lot because they have no rest in
their life.
4. The 'roof and crown of things' refer to human beings. When God created the universe and the living
creatures, human beings were God's best creation. Therefore human beings are called 'the roof and crown
of things'.
5. The followers of Ulysses land on the isle of the Lotos-Eaters. This isle is ideally quiet and peaceful.
The people eat the lotos-flowers and become indolent. They do not want to go anywhere from there.
Passage-16
GITANJALI
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic
walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arm towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand
of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action—
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
(Rabindranath Tagore)
20
Questions
1. "Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high. " Explain this line.
2. "Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls. " Bring out the
meaning of these lines.
3. "Dreary desert sand of dead habit". What is the underlying meaning of this line?
4. "Ever-widening thought and action. " What does this line mean?
5. What type of poem is this? Give the central idea of the poem.
Answers
1. The country where people can think and express their thoughts freely and fearlessly, and where people
can hold their head high in self-respect.
2. Where the world has not been split up into small regions, countries, and territories. Where the whole
world is treated as one country.
3. The line means: "Old, out-dated habits and traditions which have lost their utility in the present world.
" New thoughts and concepts should replace them.
4. The line means: "ever-increasing area of thought and action. " Man is free to think and act in the wider
interests of humanity.
5. This is a patriotic poem. The poet prays to God that his country, India, may awake in a world of free
thought, noble action and universal goodwill. There should come new awakening so that she may lead the
whole world.
Passage-17
BREAK, BREAK, BREAK
Break, break, break

On thy cold gray stones, O Sea !
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
O well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play !
O well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay !
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still !
Break, break, break
At the foot of thy crags; O Sea !
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.
(Lord Alfred Tennyson)
Questions
1. What is the significance of the title of the poem, Break, Break, Break?
2. Why does the poet envy the freedom of the fisherman's boy and the sailor lad?
3. Who is referred to in the expressions 'vanished hand' and 'voice that is still'?
4. In whose memory is this poem written?
21
Answers
1. The poet is mourning over the death of his friend, Arthur Hallam. The title suggests that the sea is
also mourning and therefore the waves are breaking their heads on the shore.
2. The poet envies the freedom of the fisherman's boy and the sailor lad because they can freely and
loudly express their feelings of joy, but the poet has to repress his feelings of grief within his heart.
3. These highly suggestive expressions suggest that his friend Arthur Hallam has died, and he can no
longer touch his hand or hear his voice.
4. This poem is written in the memory of the poet's friend Arthur Hallam who had recently died. The
poet mourns his death through highly suggestive symbols.
5. The poet mourns the death of his friend Arthur Hallam. The poem suggests that the sea is also
mourning with him and therefore its waves are breaking their heads on the shore.
Passage-18
"I VOW TO THEE, MY COUNTRY"
I vow to thee, my country—all earthly things above—

Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love,
The love that asks no questions; the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best:
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.
And there's another country, I've heard of long ago—
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know—
We may not count her armies; we may not see her king—
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering—
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are peace.
(Sir Cecil Arthur Spring Rice)
Questions
1. What type of poem is this? How does the poet express his love and reverence for his country?
2. What is the nature and quality of the poet's love and reverence for his country?
3. What can the poet sacrifice for his country?
4. What is the other country referred to by the poet?
Answers
1. It is a highly patriotic poem. The poet vows his love and reverence to his country. The poet says that
his love and reverence for his country are firm and unwavering and he can make any sacrifice for her.
2. The poet's love and revernce for his country are deep, firm, unwavering and selfless. He is prepared to
make any sacrifice in her service. He is prepared even to lay down his life for her.
22
3. The poet is prepared to make any sacrifice for his country. He is prepared even to lay down his life in
the service of his country.
4. The other country referred to by the poet is heavenly country of God. This heavenly country lies in
the heart and soul of every man. Nobility and peace lead to this country.
5. It is a highly patriotic poem. The poet expresses his love and reverence for his country in highly
moving words. His devotion to his country is unwavering. He is prepared to lay down even his life for
his country.
Passage-19
THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made,
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core. (W. B. Yeats)
Questions
1. Where is the Lake Isle of Innisfree? Is it a real or an imaginary island?

2. How does the poet want to live there?
3. Describe the beauty and peace that prevail in the Island of Innisfree.
4. How does the poet feel the fascination of the island?
5. Why do you feel the poet wants to go and live in the Island of Innisfree?
Answers
1. The Lake Isle of Innisfree is a real island. It is situated on the shore of Scotland. The beauty of the
island as described by the poet is imaginary.
2. The poet wants to live in peace and natural beauty on the island. The poet would make a small
cottage, sow some bean plants and make a hive for honey-bees and live there in peace and beauty of
nature.
3. The Isle of Innisfree is very peaceful, colourful and beautiful. Even the midnight has glimmering light
there and noons have purple glow. Birds and linnets sing their songs.
4. The poet is so fascinated with the beauty and peaceful atmosphere of the island that he remembers it
and hears its song even on the roadways and pavements of his city.
5. The poet wants to go and live on the Lake Isle of Innisfree because he is tired of the noise and hurry
and worry of city life. He wants to live amidst natural beauty and peace.
23
Passage-20
THE PSALM OF LIFE
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream !
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal!
'Dust thou art, to dust returnest',
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.
Art is long and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
Be a hero in the strife !
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant !
Let the dead Past bury its head !
Act—act in the living Present; .
Heart within, and God o'erhead !
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of Time—
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labour and to wait. (H. W. Longfellow)
Questions
1. What is the truth about human body and Soul?

2. What is the goal of life according to this passage?
3. What does the poet say about the Past, Present and Future?
4. What can we learn from the lives of great men?
5. What is the poet's advice to man?
24
Answers
1. Human body and Soul are two different entities. While human body is perishable, Soul is immortal.
Soul is not buried with the body in the dust.
2. The goal of life is neither enjoyment nor sorrow. Joy and sorrow come alternately and pass. The goal
of life is action. Man must act and every tomorrow should take us farther than today. This march should
go on.
3. The poet makes very striking observations about the Past, Present and Future. He says that Past has
passed and cannot be recalled; the Future is unseen and uncertain. The most important is the Present
which we must make the best use of.
4. We must learn from the lives of great men how we can also make our lives sublime and memorable
and leave the prints of our feet on the sands of time.
5. The poet's advice is that we must work ceaselessly, with heart and soul. Act and act and wait for the
result with patience and hope. Result will come sooner or later.
25
Prose and Poetry Passages for Practice

Directions: Answer the Questions given under each Passage in 30 words each.
Prose
Passage-1
WHAT I BELIEVE
I do not believe in Belief. But this is an age of faith, and there are so many militant creeds that, in self-
defence, one has to formulate a creed of one's own. Tolerance, good temper and sympathy are no longer
enough in a world which is rent by religious and racial persecution, in a world where ignorance rules, and
science, which ought to have ruled, plays the subservient pimp. Tolerance, good temper and sympathy—
they are what matter really, and if the human race is not to collapse, they must come to the front before
long. But for the moment they are not enough, their action is no stronger than a flower, battered beneath a
military jack-boot. They want stiffening, even if the process coarsens them. Faith, to my mind, is a
stiffening process, a sort of mental starch, which ought to be applied as sparingly as possible. I dislike the
stuff. I do not believe in it, for its own sake, at all. Herein I probably differ from most people, who
believe in Belief, and are only sorry they cannot swallow even more than they do. My lawgivers are
Erasmus and Montaigne, not Moses and St. Paul. My temple stands not upon Mount Moriah but in that
Elysian Field where even the immortals are admitted. My motto is: "Lord, I disbelieve—help thou my
unbelief. "
I have, however, to live in an Age of Faith—the sort of epoch I used to hear praised when I was a boy. It
is extremely unpleasant, really. It is bloody in every sense of the word. And I have to keep my end up in
it. Where do I start?
With personal relationships. Here is something comparatively solid in a world full of violence and
cruelty. Not absolutely solid, for Psychology has split and shattered the idea of a 'Person,' and has shown
that there is something incalculable in each of us, which may at any moment rise to the surface and
destroy our normal balance. We don't know what we are like. We can't know what other people are like.
How, then, can we put any trust in personal relationships, or cling to them in the gathering political storm?
In theory we cannot. But in practice we can and do. Though A is not unchangeably A or B unchangeably
B, there can still be love and loyalty between the two. For the purpose of living, one has to assume that
the personality is solid, and the 'self is an entity, and to ignore all contrary evidence.
(E. M. Forster)
[Hints: The author does not believe in traditional beliefs or systems simply because they have been
coming down since antiquity. The traditional ideals of tolerance, sympathy and fraternity have lost their
relevance and force in the present age. It is the physical power or military force that rules supreme today.
It is the age of individualism. One's 'Self is the entity which is complete in itself. Even personal
relationships have lost their hold in the political storms today.]

2. Why have the old ideals of universal love, tolerance, equality and fraternity lost their force in the
world today?
26
3. How far can we depend on the concept of traditional Faith in the world today?
4. How far do you agree with the author's view that personal relationships can still preserve our social
life?
5. Explain in the context of the given passage that 'Self' is an entity complete in itself in the present social
system.
Passage-2
SOCIAL STANDARDS
It is not easy to plan out a system of positive social service which will be both efficient and democratic. If
you think too much about efficiency, you are quite liable to sacrifice some degree of individual freedom,
or of personal initiative. If you think too much about democratic liberty and equality, you may find that
you have interfered with the efficiency of your social service machinery. In any case, as large-scale social
service is an enormous and difficult business, you may find yourself landed with a cumbrous bureaucracy
in which both efficiency and personal liberty are suffocated in red tape.
All the same, there are certain general principles for a democratic Social Service State, and in certain
fields the broad lines of them are already beginning to emerge in practice. The most basic of those
principles, it seems to me, is that of minimum social standards.
Here let me make a brief digression into scientifc history. Just thirty years ago a Cambridge biochemist
called Hopkins conclusively proved that the ordinary foodstuffs which physiology said were enough to
keep you in health—the starches, sugars, fats and proteins—would not, in point of fact, do so. Other
substances were necessary—only in tiny traces but nevertheless necessary. Several other workers had
guessed or hinted at something of the sort, but Hopkins was the first to prove it. Now he is Sir Gowland
Hopkins, past President of the Royal Society, and what he discovered was the first of what are now called
the 'accessory food factors'; they include all the vitamins from A to K, and various mineral salts as well.
What has this got to do with the future of democracy? The answer is clear enough. After all, the
opportunity of a healthy and fully developed body is the primary and basic service which a social service
democracy owes to its members. And, through all the mass of scientific and clinical work which sprang
from this discovery of Hopkins, we are now able, for the first time in history, to set up standards by which
we can measure whether people are getting the minimum physiological diet—all the different kinds of
foodstuffs required to give them that healthy and well-developed body.
(Julian Huxley)
[Hints: Social service on a large scale is not possible in the present social structure governed by
bureaucracy. An individual can do commendable social service only on a moderate scale. The most
important task that a social service agency can perform is to provide healthy and balanced food to every
member of society.]
1. Give the central idea of the given passage.

2. Why is not social service on a large scale possible by an individual in the present structure of society?
3. What are the basic constituents of healthy and balanced food which should be provided to all people in
the country?
27
4. What did Sir Gowland Hopkins discover about healthy food necessary for people?
5. What is the primary and basic service which democracy owes to its members?
Passage-3
SUBSTITUTES FOR RELIGION
Extreme democracy has as many devotees as extreme nationalism; and among

those devotees there are probably more chronic enthusiasts than are to be found
among the patriots. As a substitute for religion, extreme democracy is more adequate
than nationalism; for it covers more ground, at any rate, as a doctrine. For
revolutionary democracy is a forward-looking faith. It preaches a future state—in
this world, not another—when all the injustices of the present will be remedied, all
the unhappinesses compensated, when the first shall be last and the last first, and
there shall be crowns for all no more weeping, and practically no more work.
Moreover, it is susceptible of a much more thorough philosophical treatment than
nationalism. 'My country right or wrong' is a sentiment which cannot be completely
rationalized. The only reason that any man has for loving and serving his country is
the mere accident that it happens to be his. He knows that if he had been born
somewhere else, the object of his worship would have been different. Not the bulldog,
but the cock or the eagle would have been his totem. Not Dr. Arne, but Haydn or
Rouget de Lisle would have hymned him into ecstasy. There can be no metaphysic of
patriotism; it is just a raw, unalterable fact, which must be accepted as it is.
Democracy, on the other hand, does not vary from country to country; it is a
universal and imperishable doctrine—for the poor are everywhere and at all times
with us. The raw facts of misery, envy, and discontent can be rationalized in the
most thorough-going fashion. To explain and justify the very natural desire of the
poor and oppressed for freedom, wealth and power a far-reaching system of
metaphysics has been evolved. The Christian doctrines of original sin and divine
grace have been denied and all the virtues and perfections of God have been lodged
in humanity—not indeed as it is now (that would be too hard to swallow), but as it
will be when freed from oppression and enlightened by education. This doctrine,
although manifestly false, is a genuine religious explanation of the world, in terms of
which it is possible with a little judicious manipulation, to explain all the facts of
human life. (Aldous Huxley)
[Hints: Liberal and effective democracy can be a good substitute for religion. The basic function of
religion is to provide shelter to all classes of people, specially the poor and the oppressed. A liberal
democracy provides the same shelter in a much better and more effective way. Patriotism or nationalism
is a matter of coincidence by birth, while democracy is universal. Democracy is not confined to any one
country or nation or sect like religion. Religion has its limitations, while democracy transcends such
geographical or sectarian divisions.]

2. In what respects democracy can be a more effective substitute for religion?
3. On what grounds does the author hold that nationalism or patriotism is just a matter of coincidence?
4. On what basis does the author proclaim that democracy is universal, while religion is confined to
particular countries or sects?
5. On what grounds does the author assert that the doctrines of religion can be challenged or denied but
not those of democracy?
28
Passage-4
THE SCIENTIFIC POINT OF VIEW
Science affects the average man and woman in two ways already. He or she benefits by its applications,
driving in a motor-car or omnibus instead of a horse-drawn vehicle, being treated for disease by a doctor
or surgeon rather than a witch, and being killed with an automatic pistol or a shell in place of a dagger or a
battle-axe. It also affects his or her opinions. Almost everyone believes that the earth is round, and the
heavens nearly empty, instead of solid. And we are beginning to believe in our animal ancestry and the
possibility of vast improvements in human nature by biological methods.
But science can do something far bigger for the human mind than the substitution of one set of beliefs for
another, or the inculcation of scepticism regarding accepted opinions. It can gradually spread among
humanity as a whole the point of view that prevails among research workers, and has enabled a few
thousand men and a few dozen women to create the science on which modern civilization rests. For if we
are to control our own and one another's actions as we are learning to control nature, the scientific point of
view must come out of the laboratory and be applied to the events of daily life. It is foolish to think that
the outlook which has already revolutionized industry, agriculture, war and medicine will prove useless
when applied to the family; the nation, or the human race.
Unfortunately, the growing realization of this fact is opening the door to innumerable false prophets who
are advertising their own pet theories in sociology as scientific. Science is continually telling us through
their mouths that we are doomed unless we give up smoking, adopt—or abolish—birth control, and so
forth. Now it is not my object to support any scientific theory, but merely the scientific standpoint. What
are the characteristics of that standpoint? In the first place, it attempts to be truthful and, therefore,
impartial. And it carries impartiality a great deal further than does the legal point of view. A good judge
will try to be impartial between Mr. John Smith and Mr. Chang Sing. A good scientist will be impartial
between Mr. Smith, a tapeworm, and the solar system. He will have behind him his natural repulsion of
the tapeworm, which would lead him to throw it away instead of studying it as carefully as a statue or a
symphony, and his awe for the solar system.
(J. B. S. Haldane)
[Hints: Science affects the average man in two opposite ways. Its discoveries and inventions are both a
blessing and a curse. Science has discovered the secrets of the origin of life and nature, of the universe
and the firmaments. Its inventions have revolutionized industry, agriculture, war armaments and
medicine. But it is unfortunate that it has failed in reorganising human character, family bonds and social
structure. It is high time that scientists directed their attention and efforts towards these ends which
demand our top priority.]

2. In what ways scientific discoveries and inventions are both a blessing and a curse?
3. How has science revolutionized our industry, agriculture and other factors of production?
4. What is the true spirit of scientific approach to any problem?
5. What are the areas towards which scientists should now direct their attention?
29
Passage-5
DEMOCRACY
The corruption of democracies proceeds directly from the fact that one class imposes the taxes and another
class pays them. The constitutional principle, "No taxation without representation," is utterly set at nought
under a system which leaves certain classes without any effective representation at all. At the present time
it is said that one-tenth of the population pays five-sixths of the taxes. The class which imposes the taxes
has refused to touch the burden of the war with one of its fingers; and every month new doles at the public
expense are distributed under the camouflage of 'social reform. ' At every election the worldly goods of
the minority are put up to auction. This is far more immoral than the old-fashioned election bribery,
which was a comparatively honest deal between two persons; and in its effects it is far more ruinous.
Besides these defects, the democracy has ethical standards of its own, which differ widely from those of
the educated classes. Among the poor, "generosity ranks far before justice, sympathy before truth, love
before chastity, a pliant and obliging disposition before a rigidly honest one. In brief, the less admixture
of intellect required for the practice of any virtue, the higher it stands in popular estimation. " In this
country, at any rate, democracy means a victory of sentiment over reason. Some may prefer the softer
type of character, and may hope that it will make civilisation more humane and compassionate than it has
been in the past. Unfortunately, experience shows that none is so cruel as the disillusioned sentimentalist.
He thinks that he can break or ignore nature's laws with impunity; and then, when he finds that nature has
no sentiment, he rages like a mad dog, and combines with his theoretical objection to capital punishment a
lust to murder all who disagree with him.
But whether we think that the bad in democracy predominates over the good, or
the good over the bad, a question which I shall not attempt to decide, the popular
balderdash about it corresponds to no real conviction. The upper class has never
believed in it; the middle class has the strongest reasons to hate and fear it. But how
about the lower class, in whose interests the whole machine is supposed to have
been set going? The working man has no respect for either democracy or aristo
cracy. (William Ralf lnge)
[Hints: The corruption of Democracy proceeds from the fact that all classes of people are not represented
in it. The higher classes impose the taxes and the lower classes pay them without any representation. The
basic principle of democracy that "No taxation without representation" is grossly violated in practice.
Heavy taxes are imposed in the name of 'social reform' but they are actually spent on either actual war or
on preparation for war. Democracy practices false ethical values. No class of population in general has
really any faith or respect for democracy.]

2. What is the basic cause of corruption of democracy?
3. On what is the major part of taxes spent in a democracy in the name of 'social reform'?
4. In what respects is the ethics of a democracy different from the accepted sense of ethics?
5. What is the attitude of the different classes of people towards democracy?
30
Passage-6
INDIA'S CONTRIBUTION TO WORLD UNITY
India's key position simply needs pointing out. The facts speak for themselves, so they need exposition
only, not demonstration. India is the central link in a chain of regional civilisations that extends from
Japan in the far north-east to Ireland in the far north-west.
It is not, of course , only in a geographical sense that India is in a key position. At the present moment,
for instance, it is widely recognised that India holds the balance in the world-wide competition between
rival ideologies. Today the parliamentary form of democracy has a hold in Asia because India has made
this way of political life her own. If India were to change her mind over this, the effect would be felt, not
just in India itself, but all round the shores of the Indian Ocean and in the heart of Asia and Africa.
However, politics is one of the more superficial of Man's activities. Religion cuts far deeper, and, at the
religious level, India has not been a recipient; she has been a giver. About half the total number of the
living higher religions are of Indian origin. About half the human race today adheres to either Hinduism
or Buddhism. India has also been a major force in the World's history in the very different field of
economics. Consider the economic history of the Persian Empire from the reign of Darius I onwards; of
the Graeco-Roman World after the opening up of the sea-route between the Indus delta and Egypt in the
second century B. C. ; of mediaeval Christendom after the rise of Venice; and of the modern Western
World since Vasco de Gama made his landfall at Calicut; in each of these cases you will find that the story
becomes intelligible only when you have taken into account the Indian factor in it. As for the field of
politics, India has been the site of no less than four of those empires that will, I believe, be recognised in
retrospect to have been experimental models for a world-state in the literal sense. Two of these, the
Maurya and the Gupta Empire, were built and maintained wholly by Indian hands; and the Mughal and the
British Empire in India, too, could not have been either built or maintained if their non-Indian originators
had not been able to enlist the aid of Indian coadjutors on a large scale.
(Arnold—Toynbee)
[Hints: India has played the role of a leader in several fields in the history of the world. Geographically
India is a connecting link between the far East and the far West. India was the first country which
introduced the concept of democracy in politics as well as in society. India also played the role of a leader
in the field of religion. Her role in the economic field has also been incomparable in the world. Similar
has been the role of India in the field of politics. Thus India has contributed immensely in promoting
world unity.]
1. Give the central idea of the passage given above.

2. In what sense is India geographically a connecting link between the East and West, and North and
South?
3. What has been the role of India in the Economic field in the world?
4. Briefly bring out the role of India in the field of politics in the world.
5. What has been the role of India in promoting world unity?
31
Passage-7
WHAT I BELIEVE
No, I distrust Great Men. They produce a desert of uniformity around them and often a pool of blood too,
and I always feel a little man's pleasure when they come a cropper. Every now and then one reads in the
newspapers some such statements as: "The coup d'tat appears to have failed, and Admiral Toma's
whereabouts is at present unknown. ' Admiral Toma had probably every qualification for being a Great
Man—an iron will, personal magnetism, dash, flair, sexlessness—but fate was against him, so he retires to
unknown whereabouts instead of parading history with his peers. He fails with a completeness which no
artist and no lover can experience, because with them the process of creation is itself an achievement,
whereas with him the only possible achievement is success.
I believe in aristocracy, though—if that is the right word, and if a democrat may
use it. Not an aristocracy of power, based upon rank and influence, but an
aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate and the plucky. Its members are to be
found in all nations and classes, and all through the ages, and there is a secret
understanding between them when they meet. They represent the true human
tradition, the one permanent victory of our queer race over cruelty and chaos.
Thousands of them perish in obscurity, a few are great names. They are sensitive for
others as well as for themselves, they are considerate without being fussy, their
pluck is not swankiness but the power to endure, and they can take a joke. I give no
examples—it is risky to do that—but the reader may as well consider whether this is
the type of person he would like to meet and to be, and whether (going farther with
me) he would prefer that this type should not be an ascetic one. I am against
asceticism myself. I am with the old Scotsman who wanted less chastity and more
delicacy. I do not feel that my aristocrats are a real aristocracy if they thwart their
bodies, since bodies are the instruments through which we register and enjoy the
world. Still, I do not insist. This is not a major point. It is clearly possible to be
sensitive, considerate and plucky and yet be an ascetic too, if anyone possesses the
first three qualities, I will let him in! On they go—an invincible army, yet not a
victorious one. (E. M. Forster)
[Hints: The author's beliefs are unique in their own way. He says that he does not trust great men. The
great men, in his view, are self-centred and hard-hearted. They do not let common men live happily. But
the author loves and admires aristocracy. But by aristocracy he means aristocracy in matters of human
values, patronage of the poor, and aristocracy in knowledge and common sense. He also loves and
admires ascetics, but he defines an ascetic in his own way. According to him, an ascetic should not be a
kill-joy like the old Puritans; they should rather be polite, cultured, and open to moderate pleasures of
life.]

2. The author says that he does not trust great men. Why does he not trust them?
3. The author defines a really Great Man in his own way. What qualities should his Great Man possess?
4. The author likes and admires an Ascetic. What type of man is the real ascetic according to the author's
concept?
5. What type of man the author would like to meet or to be?
32
Passage-8
THE MOTION OF PLANETS
From time immemorial man must have looked at the clear night sky and wondered what the heavenly
objects were supposed to be. He must have compared and contrasted their appearance with that of the Sun
during the day. From where does the Sun appear in the East and where does it go in the West? Why do
most bodies move round a northerly direction, the direction of the Pole Star, whereas a few exceptional
ones seem to move in irregular ways? Why is the Moon, which apparently is of comparable size to the
Sun, considerably less bright than the Sun? These questions must have occurred to the curious among the
mankind in the past.
Now, there is a tendency in the human mind to ascribe strange natural phenomena to supernatural causes.
This tendency runs counter to the scientific approach which is born out of curiosity and thrives on a
critical assessment. We see an excellent example of the two tendencies in man's approach to the motion
of heavenly bodies. The questions raised above could not be answered straight way and so the former
tendency was dominant. It is not surprising, therefore, that man ascribed supernatural powers to the Sun,
the Moon and the stars. Of these those with the irregular motions were singled out as having greater
power because their irregularity implied that they could move across the sky 'at will'. These are none
other than the planets of our Solar System. Human imagination being what it is, it was but another step
from this to argue that these 'powerful planets' control human destiny. We could understand and
sympathise with this view, shared by most primitive cultures, because in those days, more than two
thousand years ago, the answers to the above questions were not in sight. But today, when the scientific
approach has provided the answers, the situation should be entirely different.
How the scientific outlook prevailed and led to the solution of the mystery is an
interesting story which I will briefly narrate. Among the primitive cultures records
were kept of the positions of some important heavenly bodies. The reason for these
records was primarily utilitarian. For man had learned to connect the changing of
seasons with the changing positions of these objects in the sky. Since agriculture
was strongly dependent on seasons, it was necessary to forecast these, and this is
where the primitive astronomical observations helped. (J. V. Narlikar)
[Hints: In this passage, the author says that man has been very curious to discover the secrets of the sun,
the moon, the planets and other heavenly bodies. What are they? Who moves them and controls them and
why? Why is, for example, the sun brighter than the moon? Why do some planets move in different
directions against most of the other planets. Are they more powerful and independent? Do they control
human destiny? The primitive tribes believed that these planets directly controlled human destiny.
Astronomy flourished on this belief. But this approach is against the scientific approach.]

2. What is the curiosity of man about the planets and other heavenly bodies?
3. In which direction do most of the planets move? What was the belief of the primitives about the
planets which moved in other directions?
4. What was the attitude of the primitive tribes about these planets?
5. How did scientific approach emerge out of the curiosity of the primitives?
33
Passage-9
THE ROOTS OF AGGRESSION
That great conqueror and destroyer Genghis Khan once asked his courtiers what was the greatest pleasure
in life. He listened to a number of conventional replies and then answered his one question. 'The greatest
pleasure in life', he said 'is to defeat your enemies, to chase them before you and rob them of their wealth,
and to see those dear to them bathed in tears'. All forms of conflict have an overspill of irrational
violence. A revolutionary movement whose manifest aim is benign is quite likely to end by killing a
number of innocent people whose sole crime is having been born into the wrong social group. Both mobs
and disciplined soldiers can be carried away by the excitement of combat and indulge in pillage, arson and
rape.
It is reasonable to ask at this point why, if the correct aggressive action for
survival is some kind of reward, flight is not similarly rewarded, because presumably
it is as likely to be the correct solution as aggression. The answer is, of course, that it
is. Fear and anxiety are unpleasant emotions, similar to pain, and when their cause
is removed we feel relieved. But these danger signals are being pumped out
automatically on receipt of information. They conflict with other signals ordering us
to stand fast and face the enemy, or even to rush at him and attack him. Therefore,
there is also a reward for making the correct response by overcoming fear. This is
because fear should never take complete charge, since paroxymal reactions defeat
the purpose of the mechanism. Extreme fear may lead either to a paralysis of the will
and immobility or to panic flight and death from accident; judging by the behaviour
of animals, if the fear is sufficiently intense the signals may suddenly become
reversed and panic flight turns into maniac aggression, which may be suicidal. For
instance, a snake's venom is a hunting device it uses for paralysing its prey. By
snapping in an unconsidered way at intrusive humans instead of slipping quietly
away, which even the great predators do when they are not actually seeking prey, it
invariably causes its own death, for its venom acts too slowly to kill a man before it
is killed itself. (Shelford Bidwell)
[Hints: Aggression is an act of heinous crime. It causes widespread cruelty, murders, blood-shed and
ruins over a large area. Aggression may be sometimes intentional and sometimes it may be an
unintentional outcome of a good and noble cause or movement. A conqueror like Genghis Khan takes
pride and pleasure in launching an aggression and defeating and ruining his adversary and his supporters.
A revolutionary movement may unintentionally end in widespread acts of cruelty and blood-shed. On the
battlefield soldiers attack and kill or get killed on a signal given by the commander. Extreme fear leading
to flight, or extreme boldness forcing one to attack ends in aggression. In either case the result is the
same. In any case, aggression should be avoided.]

2. What did Genghis Khan take greatest pleasure in?
3. How can a good-intentioned movement end in an act of aggression?
4. What prompts soldiers on the battlefield to launch aggression against the opponent?
5. How can extreme fear lead to aggression? Give an example.
34
Passage-10
ART AND SCIENCE
It has been one of the most destructive modern prejudices that art and science are different and somehow
incompatible interests. We have fallen into the habit of opposing the artistic to the scientific temper; we
even identify them with a creative and a critical approach. In a society like ours which practises the
division of labour there are of course specialized functions, as matters of convenience. As a convenience,
and only as a convenience, the scientific function is different from the artistic. In the same way the
function of thought differs from, and complements, the function of feeling. But the human race is not
divided into thinkers and feelers, and would not long survive the division.
Much of this quarrel between science and soul was trumped up by the religious apologists of Queen
Victoria's day, who were anxious to find science materialistic and unspiritual. The sneer that science is
only critical came from others. It was made by the timid and laboured artists of the nineties in order that
they might by comparison appear to be creative and intuitive. Yet this finesse could not hide their own
knowledge that the best minds were already being drawn to the more adventurous practice of the new
sciences: a movement which Peacock had foreseen seventy-five years before in the Four Ages of Poetry.
The arts and the sciences ever since have been in competition for the most lively
young brains. This competition is itself the clearest evidence that good minds can
fulfil themselves as well in one as in the other. Here in fact is one of the few
psychological discoveries of our generation to which we can hold with a reasonable
certainty: that the general configuration of intelligence factors which distinguish the
bright from the dull is the same in one man as another, in the humanist as in the
scientist. We are divided by schooling and experience; and we do differ, though we
differ less, in our aptitudes; but below these, we share a deeper basis of common
ability. This is why I write with confidence for laymen and scientists, because the
reader who is interested in any activity which needs thought and judgement is
almost certainly a person to whom science can be made to speak. It is not he who is
deaf, but the specialists who have been dumb—the specialists in the arts as well as
the sciences. (Jacob Bronowski)
[Hints: It is generally asserted that Art and Science are opposed to and incompatible with each other. Art
is said to belong to the heart, and science to the mind. Art is emotional and Science is intellectual. But to
a saner mind and judgement this so-called incompatibility between Art and Science cannot be acceptable.
The fact is that Art and Science are complementary to each other. Science without Art is soulless and Art
without Science is mindless. An enlightened Artist is a Scientist, and an enlightened Scientist is an artist.
Good and enlightened minds can fulfil themselves equally in one as in the other. The specialists in the
arts and in sciences are equally enlightened minds.]

2. On what grounds is it held that Art and Science are opposed to and incompatible with each other?
3. Justify on the basis of the above passage that Art and Science are complementary to each other.
4. Is it justified to believe that Art is exclusively the product of the heart, and science exclusively the
product of the mind?
5. Justify on the basis of the above passage that only the enlightened minds are the specialists in the arts
as well as in the sciences.
35
Passage-11
SCIENCE AND SENSIBILITY
The golden ages of literature were in fact times of greatness when science and the arts went forward hand
in hand. Has all this come to an end? Literary critics say Yes, it ended in England at the Industrial
Revolution, somewhere between 1760 and 1800. Yet these critics date the Romantic Revival from some
point between the death of Collins in 1759, which meant so much to Wordsworth, and the publication of
the Lyrical Ballads in 1798. These two sets of dates are almost identical, and can it be reasonable to keep
them in separate compartments of the mind? Is it really tenable to think of the Industrial Revolution as a
kind of death? It gave our world its structure. It turned science from astronomy to what are essentially its
modern interests, which hinge on the use of mechanical power. And it created in the romantic poets and
the reformers what has remained our sensibility.
I say created our sensibility, although of course I have pointed only to the coinci
dence of dates: that Blake and Coleridge and Wilberforce were after all contempo
raries of Arkwright and James Watt. Against this, those who hold the illusion that
pre-industrial England was more sensitive and cultured, point to the misery of the
manufacturing age: women in mines, children in factories, the disasters of enclo
sure, famine, the Napoleonic wars, and political reaction. These were very terrible
evils, but they are evils far older than 1800 and the machines. The labour of women
and children for endless hours in their own homes is a commonplace in Defoe's
journals in 1725. Yet the Augustan optimists of his day did not see it as matter for
protest. But in the factory these evils became naked and public; and the driving force
for reform came from the men of the mill, from Robert Owen and the elder Peel. We
today are scandalized that boys went on climbing in chimneys for nearly eighty years
after the heart-rending poems which Blake wrote about them around 1790; the last
of the climbing boys, Joseph Lawrence, is still alive as I write. But the boys had been
climbing for a hundred years before Blake without a line of protest from Addison or
Gay or Dr. Johnson. (Jacob Bronowski)
[Hints: In the golden ages science and literature existed and developed together without any hint of
incompability between them. But with the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the early years of the
nineteenth century, Science and Literature turned into opposite hostile forces. Literature condemned the
age of machinery as an agent of human drudgery, inhuman system of child-labour, woman's degradation
to the level of the labouring class, and division of the people into capitalist and labour classes. Quite a
number of poets, novelists and social reformers condemned the inhuman treatment meted out to child-
labour and women in mills and factories. However, these literary figures and social reformers forgot that
women and children were subjected to the same degradation, earlier too but their condition was not so
exposed.]

2. Since when did Science and Literature turn into hostile opposite forces and why?
3. What was the effect of the advent of the Industrial Revolution on literature?
4. To what level of degradation were children and women reduced in the Age of Machinery?
5. How did some literary figures and social reformers expose the degradation of women and children in
the Age of Machinery?
36
Passage-12
LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION
In general the same qualities are required for leadership in university administration as in other fields of
active life, but in some ways its conditions are peculiar. The university electorate (if it may be so
described) is kindly, generous, helpful, intelligent, and rational-probably more so than any similar body of
men— but it is a collection of individualists each of whom likes to do what is right in the sight of his own
eyes. Universities are democracies in excelsis, but without the machinery which makes a parliamentary
democracy work. I remember Graham Wallas saying to me when I was a young man, 'You will never get
any reforms in Oxford till you have a party system and party discipline'. The remedy would be worse than
the disease, and the statement is not quite accurate, but I know what he meant.
But the university electorate will not tolerate dictation and at any suggestion of it, becomes unmanageable.
Its members submit any proposals to careful and sometimes cautious scrutiny. Their acute and highly
trained minds foresee difficulties and discern objections which less intelligent persons would overlook and
they are further habituated to a critical habit of mind by continued practice in detecting the mistakes of
those they teach and in putting the opposite point of view to that advanced in their pupils' essays; while in
their discussions, as in oriental bargaining, the process sometimes excites as much interest as the result.
This is especially true of the Arts Faculties; the scientists, more creative and less critical, refine less, waste
less time, cleave and sometimes hack, their way through to a practical issue.
But, leaving administration, of which so far I have been speaking, what of
educational leadership in universities? At the university the army of school breaks
up into a mass of individuals who operate as individuals and cannot be coerced even
if their teachers wish to coerce them. But the teachers do not wish: coercion is not
part of a professor's inclination or duty, and the supervision of the schoolmaster is
replaced by the impersonal spur of examinations. If indeed there were leadership, it
would have lost its dangers. At school a boy may be overwhelmed by the dominating
personality of a man; at the university he is to all intents a man himself, with
character and intelligence largely formed, able to stand on his own legs and assert
himself. (R. W. Livingstone)
[Hints: The passage points out the basic difference between the university electorate and the general
electorate. The general electorate consists largely of uneducated or semi-educated and indifferent masses
who can be easily led away by propaganda or persuasion. Against it, the university electorate consists of
highly educated, enlightened and intellectual persons who cannot be led away by propaganda or
convassing. They are logical and critical and are capable of forming their own opinion about each
candidate contesting the election. They are in the habit of finding faults and mistakes and correcting
them. This habit is a part of their teaching profession and examining the answer books of their students.
The university students themselves become mature and responsible towards their duties and obligations.
They cannot be led away in masses like school children.]

2. What are the marked characteristics of the university electorate?
37
3. Why cannot the university electorate be led away by propaganda and persuasion?
4. How do the university electorate develop the habit of finding mistakes and correcting them?
5. What is the basic difference between university students and school students?
Passage-13
SCIENCE AND STABLE SOCIETY
What has science done to increase population? In the first place, by machinery, fertilisers, and improved
breeds it has increased the yield per acre and the yield per man-hour of labour. This is a direct effect. But
there is another which is perhaps more important, at least for the moment. By improvement in means of
transport it has become possible for one region to produce an excess of food while another produces an
excess of industrial products or raw materials. This makes it possible— as for instance in our own
country—for a region to contain a larger population than its own food resources could support. Assuming
free mobility of persons and goods, it is only necessary that the whole world should produce enough food
for the population of the whole world, provided the regions of deficient food production have something
to offer which the regions of surplus food production are willing to accept in exchange for food. But this
condition is apt to fail in bad times. In Russia, after the first world war, the peasants had just about the
amount of food they wanted for themselves, and would not willingly part with any of it for the purchase of
urban products. At that time, and again during the famine in the early thirties, the urban population was
kept alive only by the energetic use of armed force. In the famine, as a result of government action,
millions of peasants died of starvation; if the government had been neutral the town-dwellers would have
died.
Such considerations point to a conclusion which, it seems to me, is too often ignored. Industry, except in
so far as it ministers directly to the needs of agriculture, is a luxury: in bad times its proudcts will be
unsaleable, and only force directed against food-producers can keep industrial workers alive, and that only
if very many food-producers are left to die. If bad times become common, it must be inferred that
industry will dwindle and that the industrialisation characteristic of the last 150 years will be rudely
checked.
But bad times, you may say, are exceptional, and can be dealt with by exceptional methods. This has been
more or less true during the honeymoon period of industrialism, but it will not remain true unless the
increase of population can be enormously diminished. At present the population of the world is increasing
at about 58,000 per diem. War, so far, has had no very great effect on this increase, which continued
throughout each of the world wars. Until the last quarter of the ninteenth century this increase was more
rapid in advanced countries than in backward ones, but now it is almost wholly confined to very poor
countries. Of these, China and India are numerically the most important, while Russia is the most
important in the world politics. But I want, for the present, to confine myself, so far as I can, to biological
considerations, leaving world politics on one side.
(Bertrand Russell)
[Hints: To some extent, scientific discoveries are responsible for increase in population and uneven
distribution of food products. Science has made it possible for one region to produce excess of food
products and another region to produce
38
excess of industrial products. In normal days excess of food products are transported to the areas where
industrial products are produced in excess for exchange from region to region. But during wars and
famines the situation becomes critical. The government agencies intervene and force the food producing
regions to transport their food products to industrial regions even against their own needs. This situation
leads to starvation and deaths of millions of people in the food producing regions. If the government
agencies had not intervened, millions of people would have died in industrial and urban regions. Such
situations become unavoidable, though they should be avoided as far as possible. ]
2. How has science made it possible to produce excess of food products in some regions and excess of
industrial products in others?
3. What is the effect of transport facilities from food producing regions to industrial products regions in
normal days?
4. How does the situation become critical during wars and famines through the unwanted force of
government agencies?
5. What is the special situation in India, China and Russia regarding population distribution?
Passage-14
THE DANGER OF AGGRESSION
Sometimes there is a real cause for quarrelling such as religious oppression or economic exploitation
which naturally adds intensity to group hostility, but it is not an essential factor. The grievance is all too
often an excuse for deeper, irrational hostility. One feature common to all communal conflicts is the
distinction between the manifest, or declared, object of the two sides and the real, or subconscious one. It
is a common enough experience for those engaged in 'peace-keeping' 'internal security' or 'aid to the civil
power' operations that once the cause of a disturbance is identified and removed the factions rapidly invent
a new one. Very often both aggrieved parties jointly attack the person or agency who tries to pacify them.
Sometimes to be deprived of a grievance is a grievance in itself.
One of the most interesting of modern developments in this context is the rise of organized student
militancy. So far unstained by fatality, but judging by experience in other countries this can only be a
matter of time if tactics are used which involve close physical contact or riot. Students are a class well
above the average in intelligence by selection, and enthusiastic and idealistic by virtue of their youth.
Whatever political stance they may happen to adopt, their manifest motives are genuine and could
command respect. When it comes to practice, however, their attitudes are often a contradiction of the
values they themselves strongly hold and, indeed, are prepared to fight to defend; the right to free speech
and discussion, for instance, which ill accords with the breaking up of meetings or attacks on rival
political groups. The casus belli for some violent demonstration or militant action is sometimes either
absolutely trivial or on occasion totally imaginary; at worst it may have some degree of reality but is
something which could be cleared up by a simple inquiry. The legitimate objectives of students to have a
voice, to share in the management of their places of learning and so on—appear to have been achieved but
student militancy offers a classic example of the search for fresh objectives and grievances. Militant
students often appear to be rebels in search of causes.
39
The impulses which lead human beings into war operate on many different levels,
interact in different and complicated ways and with results which vary according to
circumstances. The sciences of human behaviour are as yet undeveloped and by no
means as easy to follow as the exact sciences. (Shelford Bidwell)
[Hints: The groups or parties interested in quarrelling or fighting may find many real or imaginary causes
or excuses for provoking group hostilities. The more common excuses are religious fanaticism or
economic exploitation. But the real cause of quarrelling is often different from those that appear on the
surface. The hostile groups do not allow any 'peace keeping' agency to function successfully. The efforts
of the peace keeping agency are thwarted by both the quarrelling parties. The militant students make their
own hostile groups which prove to be more powerful and difficult to control. Since the students as a
community are more intelligent and more enthusiastic, it is difficult to suppress their agitation for their
genuine demands. They justly demand their participation in the administration of the academic
institutions and in the formation of their syllabi. The science of human behaviour must probe into this
problem seriously.]

2. How do conflicting parties or factions find different excuses for quarrelling?
3. Why do both the quarrelling factions try to defeat the efforts of any peace making agency?
4. What are the special features of the militant students' groups?
5. What are the general demands of the agitating students' groups?
Passage-15
SCIENCE AND LIBERAL EDUCATION
But even if there be, in present fact, any such inferiority as is supposed in the educational value of science,
this is, I believe, not the fault of science itself, but the fault of the spirit in which science is taught. If its
full possibilities were realized by those who teach it, I believe that its capacity of producing those habits
of mind which constitute the highest mental excellence would be atleast as great as that of literature, and
more particularly of Greek and Latin literature. In saying this I have no wish whatever to disparage a
classical education. I have not myself enjoyed its benefits, and my knowledge of Greek and Latin authors
is derived almost wholly from translations. But I am firmly persuaded that the Greeks fully deserve all the
admiration that is bestowed upon them, and that it is a very great and serious loss to be unacquainted with
their writings. It is not by attacking them, but by drawing attention to neglected excellences in science,
that I wish to conduct my argument.
One defect, however, does seem inherent in a purely classical education—namely, a too exclusive
emphasis on the past. By the study of what is absolutely ended and can never be renewed, a habit of
criticism towards the present and the future is engendered. The qualities in which the present excels are
qualities to which the study of the past does not direct attention and to which, therefore, the student of
Greek civilization may easily become blind. In what is new and growing there is apt to be something
crude, insolent, even a little vulgar, which is shocking to the man of sensitive taste; quivering from the
rough contact, he retires to the trim gardens of a polished past, forgetting that they were reclaimed from
the wilderness by men as rough and earth-soiled as those from whom he shrinks in his own day. The habit
of being unable to recognize merit until it is dead is too apt to be the result of a purely
40
bookish life, and a culture based wholly on the past will seldom be able to pierce through everyday
surroundings to the essential splendour of contemporary things, or to the hope of still greater splendour in
the future.
My eyes saw not the men of old;
And now their age away has rolled.
I weep—to think I shall not see
The heroes of posterity.
So says the Chinese poet; but such impartiality is rare in the more pugnacious atmosphere of the West,
where the champions of past and future fight a never-ending battle, instead of combining to seek out the
merits of both.
(Bertrand Russell)
[Hints: It is sometimes argued that the study of science cannot sharpen the human mind as much as the
study of Greek and Latin literature. This assumption is absolutely baseless. But this does not mean that
Greek and Latin literature should not be studied or that it should be under valued. The author believes that
Greek and Latin literature contains treasures of knowledge and wisdom which must be thoroughly
explored and made use of. The author regrets that he has studied their literature only through translations.
However, there is one serious drawback in the study of classical literature which cannot be overlooked.
The classical literature deals only with the remote dead past which can never be revived. Our present or
future cannot be built upon the ruins of the remote past. Their study would result only into bookish
knowledge. It would not bring us into the stream of knowledge or experience of the present age around
us.]

2. What is the wrong assumption about the study of science today?
3. What is the principal benefit in the study of classical literature today?
4. What is the one great drawback in the study of classical Greek and Latin literature?
5. Can we improve our present or the future social structure by studying the classical Greek and Latin
literature?
Poetry
Passage-16
ON HIS BLINDNESS
When I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account , lest He returning chide—
Doth God exact day-labour, light denied
I fondly ask:—But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies; God doth not need
Either man's work, or His own gifts: who best
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best: His state
Is kingly; thousands at His bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:—
They also serve who only stand and wait.
(John Milton)
41
[Hints: Milton, the poet who wrote The Paradise Lost, was a highly religious poet. He had absolute faith
in the justice of God. He became totally blind at the age of forty-four, but he does not complain to God
why He made him blind at such an early age. He believes that even behind this curse of blindness there
must be some Divine plan to enable him to fulfil the mission of his life. This belief came out true when he
completed the Paradise Lost in the state of his total blindness.]
1. What is the central idea of this poem?

2. What is 'that one talent which is death to hide'?
3. What was the 'murmur' which was prevented by his 'Patience'?
4. What does his 'Patience' preach him?
5. Explain the line "They also serve who only stand and wait"?
Passage-17
THE PILGRIM
A pilgrim, going a lone high way

Came at evening, cold and gray
To a chasm, deep and vast and wide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim.
The chasm held no fear for him.
But he paused when he reached the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim near,
"Why waste your time in building here?
Your journey ends with the close of day
You never again will pass this way.
You have crossed the chasm deep and wide
Why build ye here at eventide?"
The pilgrim raised his old gray head,
"My friend in the path I've come," he said,
"There followed after me today
A fair haired youth who must pass this way.
The chasm which held no fears for me
To the fair haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim.
My friend, I am building this bridge for him. "(Anon)
[Hints: This is a highly inspiring anonymous poem. Its author is not known. It preaches a great lesson of
selfless service to humanity. The old man builds a bridge over a deep ditch which he has already crossed
without the bridge. The old man himself will never come back to use this bridge, but he has built it for the
use of those who may come to cross the ditch after him.]
1. Give the central idea of this poem.

2. What message does this poem give?
3. What was the old man's reply to the other pilgrim regarding the building of the bridge over the ditch?
4. What does 'the fair haired youth' symbolise in this poem?
5. Explain the meaning of the line: "I am building this bridge for him. "
42
Passage-18
LEAVE THIS CHANTING
Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads ! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner
of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee !
He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the path-maker is breaking stones. He is
with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust. Put off thy holy mantle and even
like him come down on the dusty soil!
Deliverance? Where is this deliverance to be found? Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the
bonds of creation; he is bound with us all for ever.
Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense ! What harm
is there if thy clothes become tattered and stained? Meet him and stand by him in
toil and in sweat of thy brow. (Rabindranath Tagore)
[Hints: Dr. Rabindranath Tagore has written this beautiful poem. What is true prayer? Where does God
live? How is God to be found? What is the significance of priestly garments or of the dark cave which is
believed to be a fitting place for prayer and meditation? These are the great question which the poet
answers in this highly meditative poem.]

2. Why does the old man count the beads on his rosary in a dark lonely cave, with all doors closed? Why
is the dark cave a fitting place for prayer and meditation?
3. Where is God to be found according to this poem?
4. Is it possible for man to get complete deliverance? What does the poet say on this point?
5. Explain the meaning of the line: "Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow . "
Passage-19
THE MAN HE KILLED
"Had he and I but met

By some old ancient inn,
We should have sat us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin !
"But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me.
And killed him in his place.
"I shot him dead because—
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was:
That's clear enough: although
"He thought he'd' list, perhaps,
Off-hand like—just as I—
43
Was out of work—had sold his traps—

No other reason why. "Yes: quaint and curious war is !
You shoot a fellow down You'd treat if met where any bar is,
Or help to half-a-crown. "
(Thomas Hardy)
[Hints: This poem is written by Thomas Hardy. In this poem the poet exposes the meaningless cruelty
and futility of war. In the war the soldiers kill or get killed by the soldiers from the other side without
even knowing each other. How can two persons become friends or enemies without even knowing each
other? The poem presents this ironical picture of the war.]

2. This poem presents an ironical picture of the war. Explain this irony.
3. Discuss in the light of this poem that war is not only cruel but futile also.
4. Explain the meaning of the line: "Yes: quaint and curious war is !"
5. Explain the meaning of the lines: "I shot him dead because— Because he was my foe. "
Passage-20
THE DAFFODILS
I wander'd lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
(William Wordsworth)
44
[Hints: This poem is written by William Wordsworth who is the greatest poet of nature. In this poem the
poet describes the beauty of a large field full of golden daffodils. The daffodils tossed their heads together
with the direction of the soft breeze blowing there. They seemed to be dancing together in a team. The
beautiful landscape made a deep impression on the mind of the poet. The recollection of this beautiful
landscape gave the poet great comfort and consolation in his lovely and pensive state of mind.]

2. How does the poet describe the beauty of the field of daffodils?
3. Explain the meaning of the following lines: "The waves beside them danced, but they Out-did the
sparkling waves in glee. "
4. Explain the meaning of the following lines: "A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company. "
5. "They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude. "
What do these lines suggest?
Passage-21
CROSSING THE BAR
Sunset and evening star,

And one clear call for me !
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea.
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark !
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson)
[Hints: This is one of the most popular short poems of Tennyson. The poet describes the eternal journey
of the soul across the ocean of eternity on death. The poet says that there should be no mourning or
weeping around a dying person. The soul of the dying person should be allowed to embark on the eternal
journey across the ocean in a peaceful atmosphere. The moment of death is the moment of twilight and
evening bells of life. There should be 'no sadness of farewell. ' The soul sails away beyond the limits of
'Time and Place' and soon reaches the Kingdom of Heaven and stands before God.]
45

2. Explain the meaning of the phrase "When I put out to sea. "
3. What do the following lines suggest? "Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark !"
4. Explain the meaning of the following lines:
"I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar. "
5. What kind of atmosphere should there be at the moment of one's death?
Passage-22
NIGHTINGALES
Beautiful must be the mountains whence ye come, And bright in the fruitful valleys the streams, where
from
Ye learn your song: Where are those starry woods? O might I wander there, Among the flowers, which in
that heavenly air
Bloom the year long ! Nay, barren are those mountains and spent the streams; Our song is the voice of
desire, that haunts our dreams,
A throe of the heart, Whose pining visions dim, forbidden hopes profound,
No dying cadence nor long sigh can sound,
For all our art. Alone, aloud in the raptured ear of men We pour our dark nocturnal secret; and then,
As night is withdrawn From these sweet-springing meads and bursting boughs of May
Dream, while the innumerable choir of day
Welcome the dawn.
(Robert Bridges)
[Hints: This beautiful poem is written by Robert Bridges. The poet believes that the nightingales sing so
sweet songs because they must be living amidst highly beautiful and sweet surroundings of mountains and
valleys. In reply the nightingales say that their sweetness does not issue from sweet surroundings. In fact,
the mountains and valleys where they live are barren and the rivers and lakes there are dry The sweetness
in their songs is not suggestive of their joy and happiness. On the contrary, the sweetness of their songs
issues from the agony of their hearts. They sing only in the darkness of the night . As the day dawns, they
disappear, and other birds sing in the morning. Their sweetness is expressive of the deep pain of their
heart. Their sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.]
46

2. What prompts the nightingales to sing such sweet songs?
3. Explain the suggestive meaning of the following lines: "Our song is the voice of desire, that haunts our
dreams A throe of the heart. "
4. Why do the nightingales sing only in the darkness of night? Who sings at the dawn of the day?
5. Describe the surroundings of the mountains and valleys where the nightingales live.
Passage-23
SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY
She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven trees,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
(Lord Byron)
[Hints: This poem written by Lord Byron is a sweet lyric describing an idealistic beauty of a woman. The
poet says that there is a beautiful and balanced combination of delicate colours and shades in her
personality. She appears like a cloudless starry night with various twinkling shades. In her eyes and face
there is the same delicacy of colours. Her cheeks and lips attract every onlooker. Yet there is an
imperishable Impression of peace and innocence on her face.]
1. Attempt a short critical appreciation of the poem.

3. In what way are the delicate Colours and shades balanced in the face of the beautiful lady?
4. What are the two imperishable impressions on her face that attract every onlooker?
5. Explain the meaning of the following lines: "One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired
the nameless grace. "
47
Passage-24
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller; long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning eqully lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day:
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
(Robert Frost)
[Hints: This beautiful lyric is written by the American poet Robert Frost. It contains the poet's philosophy
of life. What should be a bold man's attitude to life? There are two roads lying before every man. One
road is the easy and oft-beaten road that any ordinary man can easily adopt and follow. But there is
another road which only a bold, enterprizing and ambitious man would choose to follow. One who
chooses to follow this adventurous road must be a man of rare and matchless character. He must have an
high ideal to pursue and achieve. No man can tread on both the roads. The poet himself chooses the
untrodden and adventurous road to tread upon.]
1. Attempt a brief critical appreciation of the poem.

3. What are the two roads lying before every man, one of which every man is free to tread upon?
4. Which one of the two roads would an adventurous and bold person choose to adopt?
5. Which of the two roads the poet himself chooses to follow and why?
Passage-25
FROM—TO A SKYLARK
We look before and after,

And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.
48
Yet if we could scorn

Hate, and pride, and fear;
If we were things born
Not to shed a tear,
I know not how thy joy we ever should come near.
Better than all measures
Of delightful sound,
Better than all treasures
That in looks are found,
Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground !
Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow
The world should listen then, as I am listening now.
(P. B. Shelley)
[Hints: These stanzas have been extracted from Shelly's long lyric To A Skylark. These stanzas contain a
deep philosophy of life. Why do we have no contentment in life? Why are we not happy? Why are we
running breathlessly after shadows? The poet implores the skylark to tell him why it is so happy and glad
and sings such a sweet song. The skylark replies that man is unhappy because he is not contented with
what he has. He runs after that which he has not, nor will he ever be able to get. This is the main cause of
his discontentment and distress in life.]

3. Explain the meaning of the following lines: "We look before and after,
And pine for what is not. "
4. Why is the skylark able to sing in such a sweet melody?
5. Why is the skylark called "the scorner of the ground"?
Passage-26
FROM—THE ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Awaits alike th' inevitable hour:
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Nor you, ye Proud, impute to these the fault,
If Mem'ry o'er their tomb no trophies raise,
Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.
Can storied urn or animated bust
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
49
Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.
But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page
Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll;
Chill Penury repressed their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
(Thomas Gray)
[Hints: These stanzas have been extracted from Gray's famous Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.
In this famous elegy the poet exposes the vanity and futility of life. Nothing in life lasts for ever. Life is
just an empty dream. Our birth is but death begun. All our possessions, all our wealth and glory, all our
objects of pride and vanity are but mere shadows. Death will come when it will come; no human efforts
can hold it back even for a moment. The paths of glory lead but to the grave. Therefore those who have
power and wealth, name and fame, and occupy high positions in the world should not despise the poor and
the low, the simple ignorant and uneducated rural masses. Death is the great leveller; nobody is great or
small in the grave.]

3. Explain the meaning of the following line: "The paths of glory lead but to the grave. "
4. Explain the meaning of the following two lines quoted from the poem: "Can honour's voice provoke
the silent dust,
Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?"
5. In which stanza form is this poem written? What is its rhyme scheme?
Passage-27
FROM—DOVER BEACH
The sea is calm to-night,

The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the Straits:—on the French coast, the light
Gleams, and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night air !
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the ebb meets the moon-blanch'd sand,
Listen ! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves suck back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
50
Begin, and cease, and then again begin.

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegaean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
The sea of faith
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd;
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar.
Retreating to the breath
Of the night-wind down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
So various, so beautiful, so near,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
(Matthew Arnold)
[Hints: These lines have been quoted from Matthew Arnold's famous philosophical poem Dover Beach.
It has a deep pensive note in it. Arnold belonged to the Victorian Age when there arose a deep conflict
between Religion and Science, Faith and Scepticism, and the teachings of the Bible and the discoveries of
science. Man's faith in God and the teachings of the Bible was shaken to the roots. Man seemed to have
no rock to stand upon. It was an age of great uncertainty. Man stood perplexed between two Ages, one
dead and the other powerless to be born. This state of man's dilemma and predicament has been
powerfully brought out in this poem.]

3. State how has the conflict between Faith and Scepticism been brought out in this poem?
4. Explain the meaning of the following lines: "Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where
ignorant armies clash by night. "
5. What does Arnold mean by saying
"The sea of faith retreating to the breath"?
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Passage-28
THE SOLITARY REAPER
Behold her, single in the field,

Yon solitary Highland Lass !
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass !
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
0listen ! for the vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.
No nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.
Will no one tell me what she sings?
Perhaps the palliative numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again !
Whate'er the theme, the maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
1saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending:—
I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore
Long after it was heard no more.
(William Wordsworth)
[Hints: The Solitary Reaper is one of the sweetest lyrics that Wordsworth has written. It is believed that
Wordsworth once really saw and heard a solitary maiden reaping in a field and singing all alone. Her
melody was so sweet that the poet was enchanted and thrilled by it. Whoever heard her singing thus was
equally enchanted like the poet. There was something like a magical lore in her music. As she was
singing in her local dialect, the meaning of her song could not be understood. But it was the melody of
her song, and not its meaning, that enchanted every listener. The poet says that the melody of her song
kept ringing in his ears for a long long time. ]

2. Bring out the central idea of the poem.
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3. Who is the Solitary Reaper and what is she doing in the field?
4. Can the poet understand the meaning of her song? If not, why?
5. Explain the meaning of the following lines from the poem: "The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more . "
Passage-29
THE SLAVE'S DREAM
Besides the ungathered rice he lay,

His sickle in his hand:
His breast was bare, his matted hair
Was buried in the sand.
Again, in the mist and shadow of sleep,
He saw his Native Land.
Wide through the landscape of his dreams
The lordly Niger flowed:
Beneath the palm-trees on the plain
Once more a king he strode;
And heard the tinkling caravans
Descend the mountain-road.
He saw once more his dark-eyed queen
Among her children stand;
They clasped his neck, they kissed his cheeks,
They held him by the hand:
A tear burst from the sleeper's lids
And fell into the sand.
And then at furious speed he rode
Along the Niger's bank;
His bridle-reins were golden chains,
And, with a martial clank,
At each leap he could feel his scabbard of steel
Smiting his stallion's flank.
Before him, like a blood-red flag,
The bright-flamingoes flew;
From morn till night he followed their flight,
O'er plains where the tamarind grew,
Till he saw the roofs of Caffre huts.
And the ocean rose to view.
At night he heard the lion roar,
And the hyena scream,
And the river-horse, as he crushed the reeds,
Beside some hidden stream;
And it passed, like a glorious roll of drums,
Through the triumph of his dream.
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The forests, with their myriad tongues,

Shouted of liberty;
And the Blast of the Desert cried aloud,
With a voice so wild and free,
That he started in his sleep and smiled,
At their tempestuous glee.
He did not feel the driver's whip
Nor the burning heat of day:
For Death had illumined the Land of Sleep,
And his lifeless body lay
A worn out fetter, that the soul
Had broken and thrown away !
(H. W. Longfellow)
[Hints: The Slave's Dream is a very moving humanitarian poem written by H. W. Longfellow. It refers
to the age when the English men forcibly brought the African Negroes and kept them as slaves to work in
their fields. The slaves were kept in chains and forced to work as animals. They were flocked and kept
half-starved so that they may not revolt against their masters. In this poem the Negro who was captured
and brought to England as a slave was a Chieftain in his country. He was forced to work so hard that he
could not endure and fell asleep. In his sleep he saw a dream. In the dream he saw his country, his queen
and family, and all other things that he loved and admired in his country. He felt so shocked that he died
in his sleep. His master came and started flogging him, but death had already liberated him from the
chains of slavery.]

2. Bring out the humanitarian note in the poem.
3. What did the Slave see in his dream?
4. What liberated the Slave from the chains of slavery?
5. Explain the meaning of the line:
"For Death had illumined the Land of Sleep".
Passage-30
LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI
'O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.
"O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms !
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done.
'I see a lily on the brow
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.
' I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful-a fairy's child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light.
And her eyes were wild.
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'I made a garland for her head,

And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looke'd at me as she did love
And made sweet moan.
'I set her on my pacing steed
And nothing else saw all day long.
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery's song,
'She found me roots of relish sweets
And honey wild and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said
"I love thee true. "
'She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept and sigh'd full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.
'And there she lulled me asleep,
And there I dream'd-Ah ! woe betide !
The latest dream I ever dream'd
On the cold hill's side.
'I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all,
They cried—"La Belle Dame Sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall !"
'I saw their starv'd lips in the gloam
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here
On the cold hill's side.
'And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing'.
(John Keats)
[Hints: La Belle Dame Sans Merci is a very popular ballad written by John Keats. The title of the poem
means The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy. This beautiful lady is actually a witch who has enraptured and
bewitched a knight in the snares of her beauty. She has already snared a number of knights, princes and
young warriors like him and kept them in her captivity. In this poem the poet tells the pathetic tale of the
knight how he was enraptured and left bewildered in the lonely wood. The poem is marked with witchery,
enchantment and disillusionment which have left the knight in a state of utter frustration bordering on
lunacy. The tale is narrated by the knight himself.]
1. What is a ballad? What are its characteristics as a form of poetry?

2. Relate the tale of the knight in brief in your own words.
3. How does the Beautiful Lady enchant the knight?
4. What does the knight see in the dream? How does the dream affect him?
SECTION-II
Literary Terms, Schools and Movements

Discuss the following Literary Terms, Schools or Movements in not more than 30 words each:
1. What is meant by Renaissance?

Renaissance means 'revival' or 'rebirth' of Greek learning, art, literature and culture of the Middle Ages in
Europe. In England it came through Italy and flourished in the Elizabethan Age in the works of
Shakespeare, Spenser, Marlowe and Ben Jonson.
2. What is meant by Reformation?

Reformation was a religious Movement led by Martin Luther in the fifteenth century. It protested against
the practices of the Roman Catholic Church. It advocated complete faith in the Bible and in one's own
soul for salvation.
3. What is meant by Humanism?

The Renaissance scholars called Humanists revived the forgotten Greek and Roman authors and their
manuscripts and widely disseminated their ideas, materials and literary forms and styles over Europe.
This Movement is called Humanism.
4. The Greeks called the poets 'Vates'. Why?

The Greeks called the poets 'Vates', which meant a maker or a creator. The Greeks believed that after
God, the only creator is the Poet. He re-creates an imaginative and aesthetic world.
5. What do you know about Langland's The Vision of Piers the Plowman as a
dream allegory?
Langland's Piers the Plowman is an enormous dream allegory. Under the conventional device of a dream
the poet boldly attacks the greed and hypocrisy of the clergy and the people sitting in high places.
6. What is Tottel's Miscellany?

Tottel's Miscellany is the most representative anthology of the songs and sonnets of the Elizabethan Age.
Wyatt and Surrey are the chief poets represented in this anthology. It is known by the name of its
publisher, Richard Lottel.
7. How does Sir Philip Sidney defend poetry against the charges levelled
against it by Puritan Critics?
Sidney says, "Poetry is of all human learnings the most ancient and of most fatherly antiquity, from
whence other learnings have taken their beginnings. " He calls poetry the first mother and nurse of all
knowledge and wisdom.
8. What does Matthew Arnold say about the future of poetry?

According to Matthew Arnold, "The future of poetry is immense, because in poetry, where it is worthy of
its high destinies, our race, as time goes on, will find an ever surer and surer stay. "
9. How does Wordsworth define poetry?

According to Wordsworth, "Poetry is a criticism of life under the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty.
Poetry is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, taking its origin from emotions recollected in
tranquillity. "
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10. What is the relationship between Poetry, Life and Morality according to
Matthew Arnold?
According to Arnold, poetry consoles and sustains us. "A poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a poetry
of revolt against life; a poetry of indifference towards moral ideas is a poetry of indifference towards life.
"
11. What does Keats mean by "Negative Capability"?

Keats means to say that a poet has no personality of his own; he assumes the personality of the character
he creates. "The poet has none, no identity—he is certainly the most unpoetical of all God's creatures. "
12. On what basis does Shelley call the poets "unacknowledged legislators
of the world"?
Shelley calls the poets legislators of the world on account of the profound wisdom contained in their
poetry. "A great poem is a fountain forever overflowing with the waters of wisdom and delight—an
unconceived delight. "
13. What is meant by 'Poetic Justice'?

The term 'Poetic Justice' was coined by Thomas Rhymer. It means exact reward or punishment given to a
character according to his good or bad deeds. This exactness of justice is possible only in the world of
poetry.
14. What is meant by 'Poetic Licence'?

By 'Poetic Licence' is meant a certain amount of liberty enjoyed by the poets in the use of grammar, word-
order or coinage of words in order to produce greater poetic effect.
15. What is an Epic?

The Epic is the greatest and most sublime form of poetry. The Epic is a long poem, divided into several
Books, celebrating the life, heroic deeds and achievements of a national hero, whether historical or
legendary.
16. Define an Epic.

"An Epic is a long narrative poem on a great and serious subject, related in an elevated style, and centred
on a heroic or quasidivine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race.
" (M. H. Abrams)
17. What is a Mock Epic or Mock Heroic Poem?

The Mock Epic is a parody of the real Epic in a light nonserious mood. It is written on a very trivial or
funny incident on which a garb of classical conventions of a real epic is overlaid.
18. What is a Sonnet?

The term Sonnet is derived from the Italian sonneto which means 'a little sound'. It is a musical poem in
fourteen lines written in Iambic Pentameter and linked by an intricate rhyme scheme.
19. Define an Ode.

An Ode is a long lyrical poem, serious in subject, elevated in style and elaborate in its stanzaic structure.
It is in the form of an address to the object or the person about whom it is written.
20. What is a Pindaric Ode?

The Pindaric Odes are written on the model of the odes written by Pindar, the great Greek poet. They are
choric in character and designed to be sung by a troupe of dancers in churches or public halls.
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21. What is a Lyric?

A Lyric is a short musical composition meant to be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre by a single
singer. Now the term is used for any short non-narrative poem expressing a single thought or feeling of
the poet.
22. What is an Idyll?

The Origin of Idylls may be traced back to the Greek poet Theocritus. Idylls are small lyrical poems
generally describing the scenes and pleasures of rural countryside. They depict country life as realistically
and pictorially as possible.
23. What is a Pastoral?

The Idyll and the Pastoral have the same genetic root. Pastorals are conventional poems describing the
peace, simplicity, innocence and happy life of the shepherds in an idealized natural setting.
24. What is an Elegy?

An Elegy is essentially a poem of mourning or lamentation on the death of some particular person. In the
wider sense it may also be a poem of mourning on the mortality and vanity of human life in general.
25. What is a Pastoral Elegy?

It is an elegy cast into the conventional pastoral form. It is presumed that the poet is a shepherd mourning
the death of a fellow shepherd. The whole imagery of goats, sheep, pastures and pastoral gods and
goddesses is drawn in it.
26. What is a Ballad?

The word 'Ballad' literally means 'a dance-song'. Troupes of wandering singers used to sing them from
village to village. They generally sang of the brave deeds and heroic exploits of historical or legendary
heroes and knights.
27. Define a Satire.

Dryden defines the Satire as "a literary composition whose principal aim is to ridicule folly or vice. The
true end of Satire is the amendment of vices by correction. " A healthy satire good-humouredly exposes
one's follies or vices.
28. What is Drama?

Drama is a long literary composition in prose or verse, developed through dialogues and action to be
presented on the stage. While every other form of literature is complete in itself, drama remains
incomplete without a stage.
29. What is a Miracle Play?

A Miracle play is basically a religious play. They deal with the lives of saints and the miracles performed
by them. The life and martyrdom of a saint formed the central theme of a Miracle play.
30. What is a Mystery Play?

The Mystery Plays basically deal with the themes taken from the Bible. They present in chronological
order major events from the creation and fall of man through Nativity, Crucifixion, Resurrection of Christ
to the last Judgement.
31. What are Morality Plays?

Morality Plays are allegorical plays. They present on the stage personified Virtues and Vices. Everyman
is presented as the Hero, Satan personified as Vice, God or Christ as Virtue, and Death as the Reward of
Sin.
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32. What are called Interludes?

The Interludes were generally short entertainments inserted within a longer play or amidst some other
festivities or festivals. Their primary function was to entertain the audience by humour or even by farce.
33. What is a Tragedy?

The Tragedy is the tragic story of a good and great man who, on account of a slight flaw in his character,
passes through a harrowing emotional and spiritual crisis, and finally meets his doom and death.
34. How does Aristotle define a Tragedy?

Aristotle defines a Tragedy thus:
"Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude in the form of
action and not of narration; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions. "
35. What is meant by Catharsis?

Catharsis means cleansing of the heart from the harder passions by arousing the feelings of fear and pity
through the sufferings and death of the tragic hero, leaving the spectator in calm of mind, all passion
spent.
36. What is Hamartia?

Hamartia is the 'tragic flaw' in the character of the tragic hero who is basically a good and great man. This
'tragic flaw' becomes the cause of his fall, doom and death.
37. What is meant by Peripeteia?

Peripeteia means sudden change in the fortune or position of the hero from good to bad, or high to low.
This reversal of fortune happens due to Hamartia in the character of the hero.
38. What is meant by Catastrophe?

The final end of the tragedy is called catastrophe. At this point the hero or the heroine or both meet their
tragic death. The tragic end comes through Hamartia and Peripeteia.
39. What is meant by Recognition in a tragedy?

In a tragedy the hero remains in a state of deception or illusion to a great extent. Gradually he emerges
from this state of illusion, but by then it is too late to rectify his error. This realization of real facts is
called Recognition.
40. What is Soliloquy?

Soliloquy means 'talking to one's ownself or 'loud thinking'. A character expresses his secret thoughts and
feelings so loudly that the audience can hear him, but other characters on the stage are supposed not to
hear him.
41. What is a Melodrama?

Melodrama or Horror play is a crude type of tragedy. In this type of tragedy sensational scenes of
violence, cruelty, murders, bloodshed, and physical atrocities predominate.
42. What is a Tragi-Comedy?

A Tragi-Comedy is an artistic combination of both tragedy and comedy. It develops as a tragedy to the
point of climax, and then takes a happy turn and finally ends into a happy denouement.
43. What is meant by Denouement?

The conclusion of a comedy is called denouement. Here all the obstacles and tangles that came in the path
of true love are resolved and the lovers get happily married.
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44. What is a Comedy?

The Comedy is a type of drama characterized by romantic love, humour, pleasantry, light satire and cross
love finally leading to a happy denouement. Though fortune may be unkind to some stage, all ends
happily at last.
45. What is a Romantic Comedy?

The Romantic Comedy is basically a love comedy. There is usually a story of triangular love with two
heroes and one heroine, or two heroines and one hero, but finally the play ends in happy marriage.
46. What is a Comedy of Humours?

The Comedy of Humours is a classical satirical comedy developed on the concept of four 'Humours' found
in human physiology. The hero develops into a caricature or an eccentric figure due to the excess of any
one of these Humours.
47. What is a Comedy of Manners?

The Comedy of Manners exhibited the artificial manners of the high class society of the Restoration Age.
They largely displayed the intrigues, witty remarks, sparkling dialogues and verbal fencing between
gentlemen and ladies.
48. What is a Sentimental Comedy?

The Sentimental Comedy developed as a reaction against the immoral comedies of the Restoration Age.
These comedies replaced intrigues and foppish manners with pathetic heroines, distressing situations,
sincere lovers and honest servants.
49. What is a Farce?

Farce is a crude form of comedy. It seeks to cause boisterous horse-laughter. A Farce is rarely a full play.
It is an episode inserted within a play to please the lower class of spectators, or to relieve tragic tension.
50. What is a Masque?

Masque was a Royal theatrical entertainment. It combined poetic drama, music, dance, splendid costume
and a colourful stage spectacle. The characters wore masques and presented themselves as deities or
pastoral fairies.
51. What is a Poetic Play?

A Poetic Play is also called a Lyrical Play or a Closet Play. It is not meant to be acted on the stage. In
fact, it is a long poem cast into the dramatic form and can be read as a poem.
52. What is a Chronicle or Historical Play?

A Chronicle or Historical play deals with the life of a king or with some important historical event.
However, the dramatist weaves an imaginative or highly emotional garb around it to make it appealing to
the spectators sitting in the theatre.
53. What is a Dramatic Monologue?

'Monologue' literally means 'Dialogue with the self. ' In the Dramatic Monologue there is only one
character who expresses out his own innermost feelings and thoughts through a long poetic speech. It
offers a psychological analysis of the solo-speaker.
54. What is a Problem Play?

The Problem Play is a newly developed dramatic genre. It is so called because its central theme is a
social, economic, legal, political or humanitarian problem. This problem is dramatically presented.
55. What is a One-Act Play?
A One-Act Play is a short dramatic composition in one Act only. It can have several scenes in the same
Act. It is now a complete dramatic genre in itself. It generally deals with a contemporary problem.
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56. Define an Essay.

An Essay is a short composition in prose. Saintsbury calls it "a work of prose art". Dr. Johnson defines it
"as a loose sally of the mind, an irregular, indigested piece, not a regular and orderly performance. "
57. What is a Personal Essay?

True essay, according to Hudson, is essentially personal. Montaigne says, "I am myself the subject of my
book. " In the Personal essay the author gives his own experiences, impressions or reactions about the
subjects taken up for writing his essays.
58. What is an Aphoristic Essay?

Aphoristic Essays are impersonal essays. They are pithy and short essays pactful with the author's
knowledge, wisdom and philosophy of life. They are rugged and abrupt and difficult to understand on
account of their depth of thought.
59. What are Periodical Essays?

The Periodical Essays are journalistic essays which appear in local Dailies, Weeklies or Monthlies. These
essays are written on contemporary social or political problems. They are often written in humorous or
satirical vein.
60. What is a Novel?

A Novel is a long prose fiction having a plot, a number of characters, and the plot developing and coming
to a logical conclusion through the characters' interaction with one another.
61. What are Prose Romances?

Prose Romances, like Verse Romances, are simply fantasies in which the authors make the fullest use of
their imagination and fancy and create an ideal world which bears little or no semblance with real life.
62. What are the Travelogues?

The Travelogues are travel-stories relating the adventures of the travellers and voyagers in unknown and
unchartered seas. They often land on uninhabited islands or some islands inhabited by strange creatures.
Thus they are typical adventure stories.
63. What are Gothic Novels?

The Gothic Novels were written in the latter half of the eighteenth century. The Gothic novels are also
called horror or terror novels. They have Gothic atmosphere marked with supernatural horror, mystery
and suspense.
64. What are Picaresque Novels?

The Picaresque Novels have a wandering rogue for the hero. He is a bad character who wanders from
place to place and encounters many adversaries who are equally roguish. The novelist narrates these
episodes one by one. The whole plot becomes episodic or disjointed.
65. What is an Epistolary Novel?

The Epistolary Novel is a novel of which the plot develops through the medium of letters. The characters
exchange their thoughts and views through letters. There is very little dialogue face to face.
66. What is a Domestic Novel?

The Domestic Novels present the day-to-day domestic life of the middle-class families and their friends
and relations. The festivals and festivities, functions and celebrations, birthdays and marriages are
graphically described in them.
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67. What is a Historical Novel?

The Historical Novel draws its theme from some important historical event. But around this historical
event the novelist weaves some imaginative and artistic environment to make it an interesting and
arresting theme for a novel.
68. What is a Regional Novel?

The Regional Novel is a novel which describes the social and family life, customs and manners, language
and dress, occupations and professions of the people of a particular region. The entire novel is woven
around these factors of the region.
69. What is a Prophetic Novel?

The Prophetic Novels try to forecast what the future would be like. They do not claim to be absolutely
correct. They only give a tentative picture of the future on the basis of the tendencies prevailing in the
present.
70. What is a Psychological Novel?

The Psychological Novels are also known as the 'Stream of Consciousness Novels'. These novels probe
into the working of human psychology at the conscious, subconscious and unconscious levels. The plot is
developed on these psychological levels.
71. What is a Burlesque?

Burlesque is defined as 'an incongruous imitation. ' It imitates the matter or manner of a serious literary
work, or literary genre, but makes the imitations funny and amusing by a ridiculous disparity.
72. What is a Short Story?

A Short Story is a novel in a miniature form. All the component parts which we find in a novel are found
in the short story also, but they are found on a smaller scale in a compact form.
73. What is a Biography?

A Biography is the life-history of a person from his birth to death, judiciously highlighting his failings and
achievements, artistically written in prose by one of his admirers. It is now a distinct literary genre.
74. What is an Autobiography?

An Autobiography is the life-history of an individual written by himself. A good autobiography should be
a judicious and dispassionate self-assessment, which is indeed a difficult task.
75. What is a Memoir?

In the Memoir the writer does not write out his own life, but he recollects his personal contacts with
various people he meets in his personal or professional life.
76. What is Literary Criticism?

Criticism is the art of interpreting art. It serves as an intermediary between the author and the reader by
explaining the one to the other and expounding the inner meaning and beauty of a work of art.
77. What is Legislative Criticism?

Legislative criticism is that form of criticism which evaluates a work of literature by the rules or principles
laid down by the ancient Greek or Latin critics and authors. Modern authors are advised to follow or even
imitate them.
78. What is Aesthetic Criticism?

Aesthetic Criticism is that branch of criticism which discovers imaginative, emotional or aesthetic beauty
in a literary work. It does not believe in judging a literary work by the application of ancient rules and
principles.
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79. What is Descriptive Criticism or Practical Criticism?

Descriptive Criticism is a study or evaluation of individual works or authors. The critic evaluates their
aims, methods and effects, and brings out their aesthetic beauty, emotional effect and literary significance
by whatever criteria he deems fit.
80. What is Impressionistic Criticism?

Impressionistic Criticism is that branch of criticism in which the critic evaluates a work by the
impressions it makes upon his own mind. He expresses the attitudes and feelingful responses the work
evokes in him as an individual.
81. What is the special feature of New Criticism?

New Criticism lays emphasis upon the close study and appreciation of the text of a literary work. It seeks
to discover and expose its symbolical, allegorical, emotional, or interpretative implications as an
independent complete unit.
82. Who are known as Cavalier Poets?

The Cavalier Poets were associated with the Court of Charles I. They wrote witty and polished lyrics of
love and gallantry. The group included Richard Lovelace, John Suckling, Thomas Carew and Robert
Herrick.
83. What is Metaphysical School of Poetry?

The term 'Metaphysical' was first used by Dryden and further extended by Dr. Johnson. It refers to a
group of seventeenth-century philosophical poets who employed far-fetched imagery, abstruse arguments,
scholastic philosophical terms, and subtle logic.
84. What is Graveyard School of Poetry?

'Graveyard School of Poetry' is a term applied to a group of poets of the eighteenth century who wrote
poetry in the background of the grave. They wrote elegiac or meditative poems on the theme of death and
mortality of life.
85. Who were University Wits?

A group of pre-Shakespeare dramatists were known as University Wits. They were so called because they
were all university academicians. They paved the way for Shakespeare. They included Marlowe, John
Lyly, Thomas Kyd, Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene.
86. Who are called the Four Wheels of the Van of the English Novel?
The English Novel as a definite and well-defined literary genre was founded by four novelists in the
eighteenth century. They are called the four Wheels of the Van of the English Novel. They are Fielding,
Richardson, Smollett and Sterne.
87. What was the Pre-Raphaelite School of Poets?

A group of painter-poets led by D. G. Rossetti founded the Pre-Raphaelite School of poetry. Other poets
of this school were Christina Rossetti, Swinburne, and William Morris. They wrote highly sensuous,
pictorial and symbolical poems which could be painted with equal effect.
88. What was Oxford Movement?

The Oxford Movement was essentially a religious Movement started to reform the English Church, the
clergy and theology. Keble's Sermons and Poems started the reformatory Movement. However its
greatest champion was Henry Newman.
89. What is Didactic Literature?

Didactic Literature is that form of literature that directly seeks to teach some moral or religious lesson.
Allegorical works like Spenser's Faerie Queene or Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress are didactic literature.
Most of the eighteenth-century literature is didactic.
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90. What is Heroic Drama?

Heroic drama was mainly written in the Restoration Age principally by Dryden. It tried to emulate the
dimensions of Epic or Heroic poetry. Its hero was a great warrior whose fate affected the fate of an
empire, such as Dryden's All For Love.
91. What is a Chorus?

The term Chorus is taken from Greek drama. In English drama it is applied to a character who speaks the
Prologue and Epilogue and also communicates to the audience the expositon, setting and offstage events
in the play.
92. What type of Age was Chaucer's Age?

Chaucer belonged to the 14th century. It was an age of foreign conquests, expansion of trade, chivalry
and religious pilgrimages. In the same Age, however, Black Death, famine and plague swept away about
one-third of England's population.
93. What type of Age was Elizabethan Age?

Elizabethan Age is called the Golden Age in the national as well as literary history of England. It was the
Age of Renaissance and of unprecedented glory in all fields of national life and literary achievements.
94. What was Jacobean Age?

The reign of James I (in Latin 'Jacobus') from 1603 to 1625, which followed the Elizabethan Age, is called
Jacobean Age. It was an Age of decline in all fields of national life.
95. What was Caroline Age?

The reign of Charles I (in Latin 'Carolus') from 1625 to 1649 is called Caroline Age. It was the period of
the English Civil War which led to the murder of Charles I and establishment of Commonwealth under
Cromwell.
96. What was Restoration Age?

The Restoration implies the restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660 at the end of the
Commonwealth. This Age was characterized by high fashions, artificial manners and low morals which
Charles had brought from France.
97. What was the Neo-Classical or Augustan Age?

The eighteenth century in England is called Neo-Classical or Augustan Age because the leading writers of
this period followed the literary principles and models of the great Roman and Greek authors of the Age
of Emperor Augustus.
98. What is meant by the Romantic Movement?

The Romantic Movement in English Literature came in the nineteenth century. The literature of this
period is characterized by love of Nature, love of humanity, full display of the writer's imaginative and
emotional faculty.
99. How is the Victorian Age characterized in literature?

The Victorian Age covers the period from 1837 to 1901. Most of the literature of this period deals with
the current social, economic, industrial and intellectual problems including the conflict between science
and religion.
100. How is the literature of the Modern Age characterized?

The term 'Modern' is generally applied to the literature produced since the beginning of the World War I.
Since then so many experiments have been made both in the subject matter and literary form in all the
genres of literature.
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101. What is an Allegory?

An allegory is an extended literary work in prose, verse or dramatic form which has an underlying
meaning within or behind its outer meaning. Spenser's Faerie Queene, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress,
Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel or Orwell's Animal Farm are popular allegories.
102. What is an Ambiguity?

Ambiguity became a popular literary term after the publication of Empson's Seven Types of Ambiguity. It
applies to a work which has double or multiple meanings within it. The reader finds it difficult to
understand the real meaning intended by the author.
103. What is meant by Anagnorisis?

Anagnorisis is a literary term used by Aristotle in his discussion of the theory of Tragedy in his Poetics. It
indicates the moment of the hero's recognition and his awakening from ignorance to knowledge regarding
the cause of his tragic fall.
104. What is meant by Antagonist?

The Antagonist is a major character in a narrative poem or novel or drama, who rises against the hero. He
challenges the hero and often comes out victorious.
105. Who were called Decadents?

A group of poets including Ernest Dowson, John Davidson, Arthur Symons and Oscar Wilde in the last
decade of the nineteenth century came to be known as the Decadent poets. They challenged the Victorian
values of art and life and revolted against the Victorian morality. A spirit of pessimism prevailed over
them.
106. What is meant by 'unification of sensibility'?

The terms 'unification of sensibility' and 'dissociation of sensibility' were used by T. S. Eliot in his
assessment of seventeenth century poetry. By 'unification of sensibility' be meant 'a direct sensuous
apprehension of thought, or a recreation of thought into feeling. ' This is a mark of good poetry.
107. What is meant by Emotive Language?

By emotive language we mean a language that powerfully evokes or expresses the desired emotion. It is
opposed to the neo-classical poetic diction or the argumentative or intellectual language as practised by
the eighteenth century poets.
108. What is meant by Euphemism?

The term Euphemism is applied to a highly ornamental and affected literary style as opposed to the natural
style. The term originated from Lyly's Euphues which is known for its style rather than its contents.
109. What is meant by Erotic Literature?

The term Erotic Literature is applied to a literature which is highly characterized by erotic or sensual love.
It is used in a derogatory sense. The literature produced by the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite School is
largely erotic.
110. What is meant by Fin de Siecle?

It is a French term which means 'end of a century'. In English literature, it applies to the end of the 19th
century, when the Victorian Age was in its decline, and with its decline, literature also declined
considerably. It was a decade of decadent literature.
111. What is meant by Naturalism?

The term 'Naturalism' has nothing to do with Nature. It connotes extreme type of realism. The life of the
people dwelling in slums in extreme poverty and misery is generally described in this type of literature.
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112. What is meant by Objective Correlative?

T. S. Eliot uses this phrase in his essay 'Hamlet and His Problems'. He says that deep emotions cannot
be expressed merely through emotive words. Deep emotions can be best expressed through some concrete
symbols or images capable of evoking the same feelings.
113. What is meant by Satanic School of poets?

This derogatory term was applied by Robert Southey to the younger romantic poets including Shelley,
Byron, Moore and Leigh Hunt. He called them so because they revolted against the established moral and
Christian values and beliefs both in their life and literature.
114. Which Age is called the Age of Sensibility?

The period between the death of Alexander Pope (1744) and the publication of Wordsworth and
Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads (1798) is called the Age of Sensibility. This Age was marked by new
theories of literature and emergence of imagination and emotion in place of intellect and reasoning.
115. Who were called Angry Young Men?

There emerged a typical group of British novelists and playwrights around the middle of the twentieth
century. Their works expressed hostility towards established traditions, standards and institutions.
Therefore they were called Angry Young Men.
116. What is a Chorus?

Chorus was a typical character in some of the Elizabethan plays. His function was to speak the Prologue
or Epilogue to a play. He also introduced each Act in a play. He also explained to the audience the
offstage events.
117. What is Comic Relief?

Comic Relief was a dramatic devise used in the Elizabethan tragedy. It was the use of humorous
characters, speeches or scenes inserted in a tragic work. Its function was to provide some emotional relief
to the audience from the sustained tragic tension in the tragedy.
118. What is didactive literature?

Didactic literature seeks to impart some kind of moral or ethical lesson. It preaches some kind of religious
or philosophical thesis or doctrine. This literature is primarily written for the sake of life, not merely for
pleasure. Much of eighteenth-century poetry is didactic.
119. What is Heroic Drama?

Heroic drama was a typical drama of the Restoration Age. Dryden was the champion of the Heroic play.
Love and Valour were the principal themes of the Heroic play. Dryden himself says that "love and valour
ought to be the subject of it. "
120. What is the Imagist School of Poetry?

The Imagist school was a poetic movement that flourished in England and America between the years
1912 and 1917. The poets of this school were 'free to choose any subject and to create its own rhythms
and to paint an image that is hard, clear and concentrated. '
121. What is Literature of the Absurd?

This epithet is applied to works in prose fiction and drama which pleads that human condition is
essentially and unavoidably absurd. For the expression of this condition, literature also ought to be
absurd. It was a literature of revolt against traditional culture and traditional literature.
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122. What is meant by Local Colour?

Local Colour means a detailed representation in fiction of the setting, dialect, customs, dress and ways of
thinking and feeling which are characteristic of a particular region, such as Hardy's Wessex or D. H.
Lawrence's Mining Countryside of England.
123. What is Pantomime or Dumb Show?

Pantomime is acting without speech. It uses only posture, gesture, bodily movement, and facial
expressions to express a character's actions or feelings. It is a half-way between drama and dance.
124. What is meant by Setting?

The setting of a narrative or dramatic work is the general locale and the historical time in which its action
occurs. The setting of an episode or scene within a work is its particular physical location. For example,
the blasted heath is the setting where Macbeth meets the witches.
125. What are Stock characters?

Stock characters are character types that occur repeatedly in a particular literary genre. They are
conventional characters of the same type. The Fool in a Shakespearean Comedy, the Rogue in the
tragedy, the heroine disguised as a boy are examples of stock characters.
126. What are the Three Dramatic Unities?

The Greek and Roman critics recommended three Dramatic Unities which must be observed by a good
dramatist. They are Unity of Time, Unity of Place, and Unity of Action. The Unity of Time implies that
the Action in a play should not exceed the limit of twenty-four hours; Unity of Place means that the scene
should not change too often from place to place, and the Unity of Action means that Tragedy and Comedy
should not be intermixed.
127. What is meant by Aestheticism?

It is the science of study of the beautiful. There are two approaches to evaluate beauty—the philosophical
and psychological. In literature, it seeks to evaluate the element of beauty as against its utility. The
poetry of Keats and the Pre-Raphaelite group of poets has aesthetic beauty in abundance.
128. What is Aphorism?

Aphorism is a short, pithy and memorable statement full of deep meaning. The neo-classical poets such
as Dryden, Pope, Dr. Johnson are largely remembered for their aphorisms. "The proper study of mankind
is man" is a memorable aphorism in Pope's Essay on Man.
129. What is an Eclogue?

An Eclogue is a part or a section of a long poem. There may be several Eclogues in a long poem.
Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar, for example, has twelve Eclogues, one for each month of the year.
130. What is High Comedy?

High Comedy is pure or serious comedy, as contrasted with low or farcical comedy. High Comedy
appeals to the mind and arouses thoughtful laughter by exposing the follies and incongruities in human
nature or in social customs and manners. Most of the plays written in the Restoration Age have high
comic sense.
131. Who are called Lake Poets?

Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey are called Lake Poets. They are so called because at one time or
another each of them lived in the beautiful Lake Districts in
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the north-western part of England. These Districts made them lovers and worshippers of Nature.
132. What is an Opera?

An Opera is a musical drama in which dialogues are spoken in musical verse accompanied with orchestra.
Shakespeare's The Tempest is an opera, though the dialogues in it are not accompanied with orchestra.
133. What is a Parable?

A Parable is an allegorical story, containing a moral lesson. A parable is different from a fable in the
point that the characters in it are human beings, not animals as in the fable. Among the best known
parables are those in the New Testament, for example, the parable of the prodigal son.
134. What is a satiric Comedy?

The satiric Comedy is a dramatic satire on the disorders and ridiculous customs and manners of society. It
is a satire on the violators of standard social morals and established institutions. Ben Jonson's comedies
are satiric comedies.
135. What is the distinction between High and Low Comedies?

High Comedy evokes 'intellectual laughter'. The spectators remain emotionally detached from the action
of the comedy. The Low comedy, on the other hand, involves the spectators in its boisterous or clownish
laughter or ridiculous actions. It appeals to the taste of the lower class of the spectators.
136. What is Judicial Criticism?

Judicial criticism presents the critic's individual judgments on general standards of literary excellence.
The critic would analyse and explain the effects of a work in terms of its subject, organization and
techniques.
137. What is Mimetic Criticism?

Mimetic criticism views a literary work as an imitation, or reflection, or representation of the world and
human life. The touchstone of this criticism is 'Truth'. The critic would see how far the work under
review is a true representation of life and society.
138. What is Pragmatic Criticism?

Pragmatic Criticism judges a literary work on the basis of the effect it makes on the audience. The effect
may be the production of aesthetic pleasure, instruction, or any other kind of feeling or thought. The work
is judged on the basis of this effect.
139. What is Expressive Criticism?

Expressive criticism evaluates the work under review in relation to the author himself. It defines poetry as
the expression of the poet's own feelings or imagination relating to the subject. It judges a work on the
basis of the sincerity or genuineness of the poet's vision towards the subject.
140. What is Objective Criticism?

Objective Criticism judges a literary work as a unit complete in itself. It is free from the poet, the
audience, or the environing world. A literary work is a self-sufficient world in itself. As such, it must be
judged on its own merits, irrespective of its class or genre or conventions.
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Section III
Elective-V
LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM

Note—The Questions under this Section should be answered in about 200 words each.
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1. Theories of Criticism
Q. 1. What is Literary Criticism?

Ans. Criticism is a kind of bridge between the author and the reader. It brings home to the reader the
outer and the inner beauty and significance of a work of literature. It is concerned with defining,
classifying, expounding and evaluating works of literature. In the words of Walter Pater, "Criticism is the
art of interpreting art. It serves as an intermediary between the author and the reader by explaining the
one to the other. By his special aptitude and training, the critic feels the virtue of a master piece,
disengages it, and sets it forth. " Carlyle says, "Criticism stands like an interpreter between the inspired
and the uninspired; between the prophet and those who hear the melody of his words, and catch some
glimpses of their material meaning, but understand not their deeper import. " Thus the critic explains the
full meaning and value of a work to those who might not grasp them without his help.
Matthew Arnold defines criticism as a "disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is
known and thought in the world. " The reader looks to the critic to give a verdict on the merits of the book,
based on the basis of his knowledge of the subject and of the existing works upon it. He acts as an
authority on the subject and a judge. The reader would miss half the inner meaning and beauty of a work
of literature without the help of a good critic. In this context, a question is often raised as to who is
superior between the author and the critic. Undoubtedly the author is superior to the critic because no
critic can exist or function without the creative artist. The author is the base on which the critic stands.
Criticism derives its existence from literature, as literature does from life.
Q. 2. What are the major functions of a good critic?

Ans. Literary Evaluation—The basic function of a good critic is to appreciate and evaluate a literary
work. A literary critic is a link between the author and the reader. He explains, interprets and exposes the
inner meaning, the imaginative and emotional depth and aesthetic beauty of a given work of art. The
critic is an expert and the reader is a novice in comprehending and appreciating the intrinsic beauty of a
literary work. The critic brings out the symbolical, metaphorical, philosophical and psychological
connotations of the literary work under review. Thus the critic is a kind of guide and torch-bearer to
enlighten the reader.
His Two Major Functions—Thus the critic has to perform two major functions. First, he should be
concerned to see that the reader approaches the work under conditions appropriate to it. This involves
drawing the attention of the reader to whatever is original or individual in the author's work. The ciritic's
second major function is to arrive at and express a meaningful judgment of value. A good critic should
give his reader 'a few standards to go by. '
Disinterested Impartiality—A good critic should be disinterestedly impartial in evaluating and imparting
judgment on an author or a literary work. Matthew Arnold says that a good critic should make "a
disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thougnt in the world, and thus to
establish a current of fresh and true ideas. " Thus, knowledge and ever fresh knowledge must be the
critic's great concern for himself and the readers.
So Pope says about a critic:

"An ardent judge, who zealous in his trust,
With warmth gives sentence, yet is always just;
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Whose own example strengthens all his laws; And is himself that great Sublime he draws. "
Q. 3. What are the essential qualifications of a good critic?

Ans. A Great Scholar—A good critic must possess some very essential qualifications. In the first place,
he must be a great scholar. He must have full authority over the literature in which he specializes.
Further, besides his own literature, he must have full authority over at least one more literature so that he
may apply the method of comparison and contrast in assessing a literary work under his review.
Aesthetic Sense—A good critic must also have a highly developed aesthetic sense. Literature is the most
aesthetic of the fine arts. A good critic must be highly sensitive to literary cadence, rhyme, rhythm and
melody. All his fine senses must be highly sensitive to the impressions a literary work is likely to make
upon his mind and heart. He must be at the same time highly imaginative, emotional and intellectually
awakened in order to be able to identify himself with the sensibilities of the creative artist.
Disinterested Impartiality—A good critic must be absolutely impartial in awarding his judgment on a
literary work or an author. He must be 'disinterestedly impartial. ' According to Matthew Arnold, a good
critic must make "a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in
the world, and thus to establish a current of fresh and true ideas. " He should be absolutely free from any
kind of bias or prejudice and be able to pronounce his judgment impartially without any other
consideration, political, religious, ideological or personal.
Technical Knowledge—However, all these qualifications would not deliver the desired goods if the critic
is not well trained and thoroughly equipped with technical knowledge in his field. He must undergo a
long apprenticeship in learning the fundamentals of his trade. A good critic must unite his natural literary
talent with diligence and industry.
Q. 4. What are the principal types or Schools of criticism?

Ans. The following are the principal types or Schools of criticism:
(1) Classical or Legislative Criticism—The earliest form of criticism is the
Classical or Legislative criticism. This School of criticism advocates that the modern
poets and dramatists should follow the principles laid down by the classical Greek
and Latin critics like Aristotle, Horace, Longinus and their followers. Modern authors
are also advised to follow the models of Homer, Virgil, Aristophanes, Euripides,
Sophocles and other classical authors. Modern literary works are announced as right
or wrong in so far as they have been able to follow these models and rules.
(2) Romantic School of Criticism—The Romantic School of Criticism came into vogue in the nineteenth
century with the advent of the Romantic Movement. These critics liberated the creative writers from the
rigorous discipline, rules and imitation of the classical models. They were to follow their own
imagination, emotions and techniques. The literary works were adjudged on the basis of their emotional
fervour, imaginative flight and aesthetic art. The Romantic School of Criticism is also known as the
Aesthetic School of Criticism.
(3) Descriptive Criticism—Descriptive criticism is also known as Practical criticism. It evaluates the
individual works or authors by their aims, methods, and aesthetic effects. It brings out the aesthetic
beauty, emotional effect and significance of each work or each writer independently. The critic applies
his judgment on the basis of the intrinsic beauty or value of the work under discussion. This form of
criticism is by far the most popular form today.
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(4) Historical Criticism—The critics of the Historical School start on the presumption that every work of
literature is produced in the historical, social, economic or religious background of the age in which it is
produced. Therefore it can be correctly adjudged in its socio-historical background. It would be wrong to
judge a work without keeping into consideration its historical background.
Q. 5. What is Legislative Criticism?

Ans. Legislative criticism is that form of criticism which evaluates a work of literatvire by the rules or
principles laid down by the ancient Greek or Latin critics or authors. The principles to judge or evaluate
the merits or demerits of an epic or a tragedy are laid down by Aristotle in his Poetics. Here Aristotle
gives a standard definition of Tragedy which is accepted to the present day. He also lays down the
characteristics of the great tragic hero, the kind of external and internal sufferings that he undergoes, and
finally the Cathartic effect that a great tragedy leaves on the mind of the reader or the spectator.
Shakespeare's tragedies are judged on the basis of these principles. Aristotle also laid down the principles
of the Epic, on the basis of which Milton's Paradise Lost or Spenser's Faerie Queene is judged.
Shakespeare also had the models of the tragedies of Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus before him to
follow. Milton had the model for the epic in Homer's Iliad. In the same way, there were Greek or Latin
models for the Pastorals, Sonnets, Odes, Pastoral Elegies and Comedies. The great English legislative
critics enunciated these principles and strongly recommended that English poets and dramatists should
strictly adopt them to be able to write successful tragedies, epics or pastorals. The important English
Legislative critics are Ben Jonson, Dryden, Pope and Dr. Johnson.
Q. 6. What is Aesthetic Criticism?

Ans. Aesthetic criticism is that branch of criticism which discovers imaginative, emotional or aesthetic
beauty in a literary work without adopting the creed of application of ancient rules and principles as
practised by the Legislative critics. The aesthetic critics hold that aesthetic beauty in a work of literature
cannot be produced simply by adhering to the ancient rules or by slavishly imitating the ancient authors.
Aesthetic beauty cannot be governed by logic or reasoning. Aesthetic criticism developed with the growth
of Romantic type of literature in the nineteenth century. The whole of the Elizabethan criticism in
England, with the exception of Sidney and Ben Jonson, and leaving out a large part of eighteenth century
criticism, the whole of English criticism is aesthetic criticism. Aesthetic criticism treats literature as an
art, an independent work of emotional and imaginative beauty, and therefore it should be judged by its
own merits and not by ancient rules. Aesthetic criticism came into vogue with Wordsworth and Coleridge
in the Romantic Age, with Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde in the Victorian Age, and I. A. Richards and F.
R. Leavis in our own age. Practically the entire English criticism since the nineteenth century is aesthetic
criticism. The Impressionistic School of Criticism is also an offshoot of the Aesthetic School of Criticism.
Q. 7. What is the approach of the Historical School of Criticism?

Ans. The critics of the Historical School of Criticism hold the view that every great work of literature
reflects the historical and socio-cultural background of the age in which it is produced. Every great
literary work is deeply rooted in the socio-cultural life of its age. Consequently no literary work can be
rightly appreciated or evaluated without properly placing it in its background. Take, for example,
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales cannot be correctly evaluated unless
we place it in the socio-cultural life in England in the fourteenth century. The Prologue faithfully depicts
the religious and social customs and practices of the
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fourteenth century. Similarly, the literature of the Restoration Age reflects the moral depravity, crude
jokes, love duels, foppish manners and outlandish fashions brought in by Charles II from France. We
cannot correctly evaluate the literature of the Restoration Age without knowing these facts of the Age. In
the same way, Romantic Literature bears the clear stamp of the French Revolution. As such, the critics of
the Historical School evaluate a literary work keeping in mind the historical conditions of the age in which
it is produced.
2. Greek and Roman Critics and Their Critical Works
Name of the Critic His Critical Works

Plato 1. Republic
(427 B. C. -348 B.C.) 2. Symposium
3. Laws
4. Gorgias
5. Phaedrus
Aristotle 1. Poetics
(384 B. C-322 B. C. ) 2. Rhetoric
Longinus 1. On the Sublime
(Not definitely identified)
Horace 1. Ars Poetica
(65 B. C. -8 B. C. ) 2. Epistles (Three Books)
3. Satires (Two Books)
4. Odes (Four Books)
Q. 8. Discuss Plato's Theory of Ideas.

Or Discuss Plato's Theory of Mimesis or Imitation.
Or
On what basis does Plato hold that Art (including Literature) is twice removed from Reality?
Ans. Concept of Idea—Plato holds that when God first thought of creating the universe,
the conception of the universe came in His mind in the form of Idea. In fact, Plato held Idea as equivalent
to God. Therefore Idea became the Original or First Reality. This Idea was then transformed into various
concrete objects as we see in the universe, such as the firmament, oceans, mountains, rivers, plants, and all
living creatures including human species. All these concrete objects are the Imitation of the Original
Reality (i. e. , Idea). The Idea behind every object is the Original Reality, and the object itself is its
Imitation. As such every concrete object that exists in the universe is Once removed from Reality. Then
comes Art—literature, painting, sculpture. They imitate the concrete objects of the universe. Literature
imitates them in words, painting in colours, and sculpture in stone. So, Art imitates the imitation, copies
the copy, and thus it is twice removed from reality. As art is twice removed from reality, it is equally
removed from truth. So the productions of art neither help in moulding human character nor in promoting
the welfare of mankind. Furthermore, because the objects of art are charming and alluring, they are still
more dangerous to the individual and society.
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Q. 9. On what grounds does Plato condemn Poetry?

Ans. Poetry as Twice Removed from Reality—Plato condemns all forms of art on the ground that they
are twice removed from Reality. Poetry is the finest of the fine arts and therefore most condemned by
Plato. The ultimate reality is Idea. The objects of the universe are the copy of the Idea, and poetry being
the copy of these objects, is the copy of the copy, and therefore twice removed from Reality or Truth. As
such, it neither helps in moulding human character, nor in promoting human welfare. Therefore plats
proposed to banish the poets from his ideal Republic.
Poetic Inspiration—A poet is an 'inspired' being. The Muse suddenly inspires him and he begins to sing.
Such a sudden outpouring of the soul cannot be a reliable substitute for truth based on reason. Poetry
cannot take the place of philosophy. Poetic utterances are the impulse of the moment, and not the
pronouncements after cool deliberations like those of philosophy. Therefore poetry can do no good either
to an individual or to the human community.
Emotional Appeal—Poetry appeals to human emotions rather than to human reason. It affects the heart
rather than the intellect. Emotions being the impulses of the moment cannot be as safe guides to human
conduct as reason. Poetry feeds and nourishes human passions rather than controlling and preventing
them. It makes man impulsive, sentimental, irrational, and an inactive brooding philosopher.
Its Non-Moral Character—Poetry has little or no concern with morality. It treats vice and virtue alike
and doesn't bother which wins over the other. It has no regard for moral considerations. In tragedies
virtue comes to grief and evil triumphs. Very often poetry presents gods as unjust or revengeful. Thus
poetry corrupts both the citizens and the state.
Q. 10. Analyse Aristotle's observations on Poetry.

Ans. Instinct for Imitation—Man instinctively loves imitation. Man also instinctively loves melody.
From these two instincts, according to Aristotle, springs poetry. Therefore Aristotle calls the poet an
imitator. According to Aristotle, man instinctively imitates three things: 'Things as they were or are,
things as they are said or thought to be, or things as they ought to be. ' In other words, man loves to imitate
what is past or present, what is commonly believed, and what is ideal. What the poet imitates in the form
of poetry has deeper implications. He not only imitates but also recreates. He is a creator too. His poetic
creation is not 'twice removed from reality', as Plato believed it to be. The pictures of poetry are not mere
reproductions of facts but universal truths that apply to all places and times. Poetry is, therefore, more
philosophical and a nobler creation than history.
Aesthetic Pleasure—Since poetry originates from man's instinctive love for imitation and melody, it
gives permanent aesthetic pleasure. It gives pleasure both to the poet and the reader alike. According to
Aristotle, the poetic pleasure has civil morality too-'an aesthetic enjoyment which is not divorced from
civic ends. ' Poetry combines in itself both philosophy and morality.
Emotional Appeal—Poetry also makes an immediate emotional appeal and purifies and ennobles our
feelings and sensibilities. It elevates and humanises the reader imperceptibly.
Q. 11. Discuss Aristotle's definition of Tragedy.

Ans. Definition of Tragedy—Aristotle's definition of Tragedy has been accepted as the standard
definiton from his own times to the present day. He defines Tragedy thus: "Tragedy is an imitation of an
action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of
artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of
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narration; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions. " There is not a single
superfluous word in this definition. However, there are certain words or phrases which need to be
explained and clarified.
Action—The action or plot of a tragedy must be 'serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude. ' It means
that a tragedy cannot be written on a trivial subject. It should have a fairly large magnitude. It can be a
tragic story of a king, a prince or a general with whose fate may be bound the fate of a whole state or a
race. With the fall of the hero, the whole state or race should fall. Further, the action should be complete,
which means that it should have a proper beginning, development, and an end. Then only it would make a
powerful impact on the mind and heart of the spectator.
Pity, Fear, and Catharsis—The hero of the tragedy should be essentially a good man with a slight flaw
in his character. As such, his sufferings, fall and death should produce powerful currents of pity and fear,
which may purify or cleanse our own heart and feelings. The final impact of the tragedy must be
purifying and ennobling.
Q. 12. What are the constituent parts of a Tragedy according to Aristotle?

Ans. Six Parts—According to Aristotle, there are six constituent parts of a Tragedy. They are: Plot,
Character, Thought, Diction, Song and Spectacle. The Plot is the most important part of a tragedy. The
plot means 'the arrangement of the incidents. ' Normally the plot is divided into five Acts, and each Act is
further divided into several scenes. The dramatist's main skill lies in dividing the plot into Acts and
scenes in such a way that they may produce the maximum scenic effect in a natural development.
Characters are men and women who act. The hero and the heroine are two important figures among the
characters. Thought means what the characters think or feel during their career in the development of the
plot. The thought is expressed through their speeches or dialogues. Diction is the medium of language or
expression through which the characters reveal their thoughts and feelings. The diction should be
'embellished with each kind of artistic ornament. ' The song is one of these embellishments. The spectacle
is theatrical effect presented on the stage. The decoration of the stage is the major part of the spectacle.
But spectacle also includes scenes of physical torture, loud lamentations, dances, colourful garments of
the main characters, and the beggarly or jocular appearance of the subordinate characters or of the Fool on
the stage. These are the six constituent parts of a tragedy.
Q. 13. What are the characteristics of a good Plot in a Tragedy?

Ans. Artistic Arrangement—The Plot is 'the soul of a tragedy'. Therefore it should have a very
effective artistic arrangement. It should have, first, unity of action. No action should be presented on the
stage which may not help in the development of the plot towards its conclusion. Broadly speaking, the
plot is divisible into two parts—complication and catastrophe. The first part is called rising action, and
the second falling action ending into catastrophe.
Simple or Complex Plot—The plot may be simple or complex. A simple plot has no complications,
surprise or suspense. Therefore it falls flat on the spectator without arresting his attention. A good plot is
a complex plot. Its complications, sudden turns of events, and situations of suspense keep the spectator
spell-bound. The occurrence of Peripeteia and anagnorisis is possible only in a complex plot. Peripeteia
is reversal of fortune from good to bad, or from high to low. Anagnorisis is recognition of the cause of his
fall. These two elements arouse the emotions of pity and fear which constitute the real spirit of the
tragedy. Therefore a 'perfect tragedy'
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should be constructed not on the simple but on the complex plot. So Aristotle says: "For the plot ought to
be so constructed that, even without the aid of the eye, he who hears the tale told will thrill with horror
and melt to pity at what takes place. "
Q. 14. What are the characteristics of an ideal Tragic Hero according to Aristotle?
Ans. The ideal tragic hero, according to Aristotle, should be, in the first place, a man of eminence. The
actions of an eminent man would be 'serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude', as required by
Aristotle. Further, the hero should not only be eminent but also basically a good man, though not
absolutely virtuous. The sufferings, fall and death of an absolutely virtuous man would generate feelings
of disgust rather than those of 'terror and compassion' which a tragic play must produce. Neither should
the hero be a villain or a wicked person for his fall and death would please and satisfy our moral sense
without generating the feelings of pity, compasion and fear. Therefore the ideal tragic hero should be
basically a good man with a minor flaw or tragic trait in his character. The entire tragedy should issue
from this minor flaw or error of judgment. The fall and sufferings and death of such a hero would
certainly generate feelings of pity and fear. So Aristotle says: "For our pity is excited by misfortunes
undeservedly suffered, and our terror by some resemblance between the sufferer and ourselves. " Finally
Aristotle says: "There remains for our choice a person neither eminently virtuous or just, nor yet involved
in misfortune by deliberate vice or villainy, but by some error or human frailty; and this person should
also be someone of high fame and flourishing prosperity. " Such a man would make an ideal tragic hero.
Q. 15. Which is more important between plot and character in the Tragedy, according to Aristotle?
Ans. A question is often asked whether plot is more important or character in the Tragedy. According to
Aristotle, Plot is the very soul of the tragedy and therefore far more important than character. In his
definition of the tragedy Aristotle says that "Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete,
and of a certain magnitude. " Here he does not say that tragedy is an imitation of 'characters'. Again, in
the same definition he says, "in the form of action, not of narration. " Clearly enough, 'action' in this
definition means 'plot'. Characters are merely agents of the action or the plot, and therefore subordinate to
it.
From the above definition it follows that 'Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life,
and life consists in action. ' To the question whether plot makes a tragedy or character, Aristotle replies
that "without action there cannot be a tragedy; there may be without character. " It is, of course, a riddle
which is not easy to solve because actions themselves issue from characters. Resolving this riddle
Aristotle says, "character determines men's qualities, but it is by their actions that they are happy or the
reverse. " A plot imitates action, and character men. A tragedy is a representation of men in action.
Sometimes action can occur even without men or characters. A huge natural calamity like earthquake,
flood or storm may occur, causing incalculable devastation without any role of men or characters. Hence
it is the deeds or actions (or incidents woven into a plot) which make the tragedy, and not merely men or
characters in their inactive or passive state.
Q. 16. Which, according to Aristotle, is a higher and nobler literary work between an Epic and a
Tragedy?
Ans. To the question whether the Epic or the Tragedy is the better and nobler form of art, Aristotle gives
preference to the Tragedy. Those who hold the plea in favour of the Epic argue that it appeals to a more
refined class of society, the
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cultured few, and that it achieves its effect without the aid of any external paraphernalia such as the
theatrical stage and the spectacle and that its action is more varied. Aristotle concedes all these points and
still holds the view that tragedy is the better form of art. He argues that the tragedy equally appeals to the
more refined class, and that it can be appreciated and enjoyed in reading as well as in witnessing it on the
stage. Therefore it appeals to a wider section of society—to the section of reading class as well as to the
spectator or audience class. Theatrical performance is an additional accessory and no compulsory
equipment of its literary craft. On the contrary, its performance on the stage makes its appeal deeper and
wider. As for the varied action of the Epic, it is a drawback rather than a strong point, because unity of
tone and action makes a more concentrated effect than the varied one. The effect on a larger and more
varied scale dilutes the totality of effect. Therefore Aristotle holds the Tragedy on the higher level than
the Epic.
Q. 17. What is meant by 'Sublimity' in literature according to Longinus?

Ans. Before Longinus the function of great literature was summed up in a formula of three words—to
instruct, to delight, and to persuade. But Longinus found this formula of three words inadequate in
evaluating the total effect of the literature produced by the great Greek masters. He found that the epics of
Homer and tragedies of Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides, and the lyrics of Pindar transported the
reader or the spectator to ecstasy or emotional rapture. He called this ecstasy 'Sublimity'. Therefore he
added to the three-word formula a fourth word 'Sublimity'. Explaining this term, he said, "Sublimity
consists in a certain distinction and consummate excellence in expression, and it is from this and no other
source, that the greatest poets and prose-writers have gained their eminence and immortal fame. " Great
literature transports the reader out of himself, to ecstasy caused by an irresistible magic of speech. The
reader is so moved that he can neither think nor feel except what the writer thinks or feels. This kind of
literature has the quality of the sublime. This quality of sublimity, the power to transport or elevate is
irresistible—it irresistibly pleases, excites, moves, transports, and elevates all readers of all times. This is
the true test of the sublime in literature.
Q. 18. What are the sources of Sublimity in literature according to Longinus?

Ans. There are five sources of sublimity according to Longinus. They are: (1) Grandeur of thought, (2)
Capacity for strong emotion, (3) Appropriate use of Figures, (4) Nobility of diction, and (5) Dignity of
Composition. The first two of these five sources are gifts of nature, and the last three can be cultivated by
art.
Grand thoughts and strong emotions emanate from the lofty soul. "Sublimity is the echo of greatness of
soul. " It is impossible for those whose thoughts are mean and acts servile to produce anything worth
universal respect and admiration. Lofty thoughts and noble emotions belong to the noble soul and lofty
mind. Meanness and sublimity cannot dwell together. Great accents fall from the lips of those whose
thoughts have always been deep and majestic. However, they can be further enriched by proper discipline
and emulation of great men. Sublimity of expression is linked with sublimity of thought. A mean thought
is too low to be expressed through sublime diction. There is a natural synthesis between noble thoughts
and sentiments with appropriate use of Figures, nobility of diction and dignity of composition. Figures of
speech add to the dignity of expression. But they should be used judiciously so that they may not become
cumbersome. Sweet and suitable words add to the grandeur, beauty and dignity of expression. A proper
arrangement of all these elements would impart sublime harmony and grandeur to the whole work.
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Q. 19. Briefly discuss Horace's observations on Poetry.

Ans. Horace was the leading Roman critic whose observations on poetry and drama have their relevance
to the present day. In his observations on Poetry he begins with discussing what should be the proper
subject-matter for great poetry. He says, "I would advise the well-instructed imitator (poet) to take the
model from life and customs. " But this imitation should be enriched with imagination or even with some
"believable false. " Then he passes on to defining the function of poetry. He says that poets should
inculcate a love of all that is noble in life "so that our young men, like persons who live in a healthy place,
may be perpetually influenced for good. " He goes on to say, "Poets desire either to improve or to please,
or to unite the agreeable and the profitable, with what pleases and at once delight and instruct the reader. "
"It is not enough", he further says, "for poems to have beauty; they must also be pleasing and lead the
listner's soul whither they will. " Horace goes on to say, "He who chooses his subject wisely will find that
neither words nor lucid arrangement will fail him. " Passing on to metre he says that there is a fixed
appropriate metre for each kind of poetry whether epic, lyric, elegiac, pastoral and so on. In the use of
language for poetry, Horace accepts the verdict of Homer. A poet is free to use both familiar words and
new ones provided they give clearness and effectiveness to the poem. The poets should remember that
words also grow old and die in course of time, and many dead words come back to life. The poet should
be conscious of this fact while writing his poetry, His language should have "taste, beauty and charm. "
Q. 20. Analyse Horace's observations on Drama.

Ans. Horace's observations on drama are largely influenced by Aristotle's views on drama. He expresses
his views under three heads: Plot, characterization, and style. He says that the plot for a play should be
borrowed from some well-known episode in Greek legend so that it may be easily comprehended by the
spectators. However, if a new theme is to be chosen, it should be developed consistently from the
beginning to the end. Structurally it should have a well demarcated beginning, a middle and an end. It
should not be a long chain of many events. Also, highly melodramatic events repugnant to sight should be
reported to have happened behind the stage. If a chorus has to be introduced, he should not disturb the
unity of the play. He should become one of the characters. The play, on the whole, should neither be very
lengthy nor very short. It should not have more than five Acts. As for the characters, it is safer to borrow
them from Greek legends. But characters can also be taken from life, but they should be natural and life-
like. A man should behave like a man and not like a woman or a boy, and vice-versa. Coming to style, a
drama should be written in iambic metre in easily comprehensible language and the style should be
adjusted to the spirit of the play whether tragic, comic or satirical.
3. Elizabethan Critics and Their Critical Works
Stephen Gosson (1555-1624) The Schoole of Abuse

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) Apologie for Poetrie
Ben Jonson (1573-1637) Prefaces and Dedications to all his plays, The
Poetaster, Conversations with Drummond, Timber
or Discoveries.
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Q. 21. On what grounds does Gosson condemn poets and dramatists?

Ans. All forms of literature blossomed and flourished luxuriantly in the Elizabethan Age. But detractors
and abusers of poetry and drama were also there. The leader of these abusers and detractors was Stephen
Gosson, accompanied by his Puritan companions. Gosson wrote a highly malicious treatise, The Schoole
of Abuse, and mischievously dedicated it to Sir Philip Sidney who was at that time the most celebrated
literary figure. He called this mischievous treatise "a pleasant invective against poets, pipers, players,
jesters and such like caterpillars of a commonwealth. " It denounces the poets as the "fathers of lies, pipes
of Vanities and schooles of Abuse. " He goes on to say, "These are the cuppes of Circes that turn
reasonable creatures into brute beasts. " He even more maliciously condemns drama and says that it has
abused "Greece of gluttony, Italy of wantonness, Spain of pride, France of deceit, and Dutchland of
quaffing. " Gosson further says, "I accuse the poets for bringing their cunning into theatres, that they have
wilfully left, or with ignorance lost those warlike tunes which were used in ancient times to stir up in us a
manly
motionand rocke us a sleepe in all ungodliness. " He sides with Plato and justifies
his stand in banishing all poets from his ideal Republic.
Gosson's Schoole of Abuse evoked two replies—one from Thomas Lodge titled A Defence of Poetry,
Music, and Stage-Play, and the other from Sidney entitled An Apologie for Poetrie, Sidney's Apologie has
become a landmark in the history of English criticism.
Q. 22. How does Sidney defend poetry against the major charges levelled against it by Gosson?
Ans. Gosson scandalously condemned poets and poetry in his notorious treatise entitled Schoole of
Abuse. He placed poets, pipers, players and jesters into one group and called them "caterpillars of a
commonwealth. " He called the poets "fathers of lies, pipes of Vanities, and schooles of Abuse. "
Principally he inducted poetry on four major grounds: one, that a man could employ his time more
usefully than in poetry; second, that it is the mother of lies; third, that it is the nurse of abuse; and fourth,
that Plato had very justly banished the poets from his ideal Republic. Sidney defends poetry against all
these charges in his Apologie for Poetrie in a very logical and scholarly way. He takes up his defence
point by point. Defending poetry against the first charge he says that man could not employ his time more
usefully than in poetry. He says that "no learning is so good as that which teacheth and moveth to virtue,
and that none can both teach and move thereto so much as poetry, then is the conclusion manifest that ink
and paper cannot be to a more profitable purpose employed. " Next, Sidney rebuts the charge of lying
levelled against it. He who does not seek to establish any fact, past or present, can never lie. The poet
creates something by emotion or imagination against which no charge of lying can be brought. The
question of truth or falsehood would arise only when a person insists on telling a fact. The poet does not
do so. He only probes into the human heart and pours out human feelings which can never be false. A
true poet can never be a liar even if he seeks to be one. The third charge that 'it abuses men's wit, training
it to wanton sinfulness and lustful love' may be partly justified, but for this a particular poet may be
blamed but not poetry. This charge may be levelled against comedy, lyric, sonnet or the epic into which
the element of love enters. But even if it is true, it is the poet and not the form of poetry that can be
inducted. It is not poetry that abuses man's wit, but man's wit that abuses poetry. A thing cannot be
blamed if it is misused by man, for poetry can be written without resorting to sinful love. The fourth
charge that a great philosopher like Plato proposed to banish the poets from his ideal Republic is also not
tenable because Plato sought to banish some bad poets
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of his times, and not poetry itself. Plato himself believed that poetry is divinely inspired. Sidney
concludes: "So as Plato, banishing the abuse, not the thing, not banishing it, but giving due honour unto it,
shall be our patron and not adversary. "
Q. 23. How does Sidney establish the superiority of poetry over all other branches of learning?
Ans. Sidney says that poetry is the first and most ancient source of learning and wisdom. It is "the first
light giver to ignorance, and first Nurse, whose milk by little and little enabled them to feed afterwards of
tougher knowledge. " Poetry is the better and nobler source of wisdom than even history and philosophy
which are believed to be the richest sources of knowledge and wisdom. Even philosophy was first taught
in verse. Wise Solomon was directly a poet. Plato's Dialogues are in spirit poetical because they are
imaginative and emotional. The Bible itself is written in poetical prose and its sayings are called verses.
All the ancient philosophers "walked into Apollo's Garden". In the like manner, the historians, too,
imitate poetic methods. Sidney says: "And even Historiographers, although their lips sound of things
done, and verities be written in their foreheads, have been glad to borrow both fashion and perchance
weight of poets. " So Sidney finally says: "Truly, neither philosopher nor historiographer could at the first
have entered into the gates of popular judgments, if they had not taken a great passport of Poetry. " The
Romans called the poets Vates meaning thereby 'creators' and believed that poets were the only creators
after God. Even the barbarous races such as Turks, Danes, Normans and Saxons admired their poets. The
poet even transcends nature and makes nature more beautiful than it is. So poetry is the mother and nurse
of all knowledge and wisdom. Even Plato said that poetry is divinely inspired. In the end Sidney says. '
"The philosopher teacheth, but he teacheth obscurely; he teacheth them who are already taught, the Poet is
indeed the right popular philosopher. "
Q. 24. How does Sidney defend various kinds or forms or species of poetry?
Ans. Sidney defends various kinds or forms or species of poetry. The various popular forms of poetry are
the Pastoral, Elegy, Satire, Comedy, Tragedy, Lyric and Epic. Sidney defends each type on its own merit.
He admires the Pastorals because they bring into light the miseries of the poorest section of society—the
shepherds, peasants, cottagers and the like living with their flocks of sheep and goats. The pastorals show
the generosity of the poets' hearts. The Elegy expresses human compassion accompanied with the causes
of lamentation. The elegies exhibit tender human feelings. The Satire humorously exposes human follies
and vanities without hurting anybody's personal feelings. The satirist functions as a reformer. The
Comedy is an imitation of the common errors of our life, so that no spectator will dare act that way or do
such a folly. Nothing can more open our eyes than to find our own actions so contemptibly exhibited.
Tragedies make the kings and tyrants realize their tyrannies and their outcome. Sidney says, "With
stirring the effects of admiration and commiseration, Tragedy teacheth uncertainty of this world, and upon
how weak foundations guilden roofes are builded. " The Lyric praises virtue in sweet tunes and pleasantly
gives moral precepts. And finally, the Epic unrolls before us the heroic exploits and victories of our great
ancestors and fills us with pride. "So the lofty image of such worthies most inflameth the mind with
desire to be worthy, and informs with counsel how to be worthy. "
Q. 25. Summarise the views of Sidney on the use of verse and metre in poetry.
Ans. In the use of verse and metre in poetry Sidney, oscillated between the classical concept and
Elizabethan practices. According to the classical concept, verse
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or metre is not indispensable for poetry, but according to Elizabethan practices metre was desirable, if not
indispensable. Sidney seems to reconcile the two extremes. Holding the classical view he says that metre
is "but an ornament and no cause to poetry, sith there have been many most excellent poets that never
versified, and now swarm many versifiers that need never answer to the name of poets. " He further says,
"It is not rhyming and versing that maketh a poet, no more than a long gown maketh an advocate, who
though he pleaded in armour should be an advocate and no soldier. " Invention is the soul of poetry, and in
this sense if prose is inventive, it should be classed with poetry.
Then comes on him the Elizabethan influence. This attracts him to favour the use of verse or metre in
poetry, though on other grounds. He says that verse being sweeter and more appealing to our aesthetic
sense should be used in poetry. Verse is a superior form of expression to ordinary prose. He says, "The
senate of poets hath chosen verse as their fittest raiment, weighing each syllable of each word by just
proportion according to the dignity of the subject. " He further says that on account of its sweetness and
orderliness verse is fittest for memory, and memory is the treasure-house of knowledge. Musical verse
can be more easily remembered and retained in the mind than prose. Therefore it is advisable to write
poetry in verse and metre.
Q. 26. Evaluate Sidney's views on the three Dramatic Unities.

Ans. Sidney was a strong advocate of the three Dramatic Unities of Time, Place, and Action. These three
unities must be observed if a play is believed to be a true copy of life. Sidney regretted that none of the
English plays, except Gorboduck to some extent, observed the three Dramatic Unities.
The Unity of Time requires that the plot or action of a play should not exceed the limit of one natural day
of twenty-four hours. If the action exceeds this time limit, the play would appear to be highly unnatural.
But English dramatists have most hideously violated this unity. "For ordinary it is", he says, "that two
young princes fall in love; after many traverses, she is got with child, delivered of a fair boy; he is lost,
groweth a man, falls in love, and is ready to get another child, and all this in two hours space. " Nothing
could be more absurd than this. Such an absurd situation should be avoided.
The Unity of Place requires that the action of the play should not shift frequently from one distant place to
another. The English dramatists violated the unity of place equally grossly. "You shall have Asia of the
one side, and Affrick of the other, and so many other under-kingdoms, that the player must ever begin
with telling where he is, or else the tale will not be conceived. " Also, the same stage has to be taken for a
garden, a graveyard, a palace or an island where there is a shipwreck, or a battle field. This is straining
the imagination of the spectator to the breaking point. This should be equally avoided.
The Unity of Action requires that there should be no admixture of the comic and the tragic scenes in the
most unnatural way. A comedy should be a comedy, and a tragedy should be a tragedy from the
beginning to the end. The tragic and comic scenes and situations should not be mixed up. The king and
the clown should not be mixed up on the stage. It is on this ground that Sidney harshly condemns the
vogue of tragi-comedies coming up in English drama.
Q. 27. On what grounds does Sidney disapprove of Tragi-Comedy?

Ans. Sidney disapproves of the Tragi-comedy in the strongest possible words. A tragi-comedy presents
the grossest violation of the Unity of Action in a play. A tragicomedy is neither a pure tragedy nor a pure
comedy but a mongrel breed of the two.
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Sidney says; "They are neither right Tragedies, nor right Comedies: mingling Kings and Clowns, not
because the matter so carrieth it: but thrust in clowns by head and shoulders, to play a part in majestical
matters, with neither decencie nor discretion. " Therefore neither the admiration nor commiseration nor
right sportfulness is produced by a tragi-comedy. In the right spirit a comedy should be full of delight,
and a tragedy should produce pity, fear and admiration. Delight has a joy in it, and tragic pleasure
compassion and admiration. A tragi-comedy produces neither pure delight nor pure compassion or
admiration. A comic scene in the midst of tragic scenes, or a tragic scene in the midst of comic scenes is
not fit for 'chaste ears'. In conclusion Sidney says, "The whole tract of a comedy should be full of delight,
as the tragedy should be still maintained in a well-raised admiration. " The tragi-comedy fails in both.
However, Sidney's observations on tragi-comedy are based on the plays which were available to him in
his time. Shakespeare's plays had not yet been written. We know that Shakespeare's tragi-comedies are
artistically developed highly successful plays. If Sidney had seen Shakespeare's plays, he might have
revised his views on tragi-comedies.
Q. 28. Analyse and state Ben Jonson's advocacy of Classical principles and models.
Ans. Ben Jonson was the first great classical English critic. He was a strong advocate of classical
principles and models in all branches of literature. He advocated that the famous classical models should
be kept in view by the English authors while writing their literary works in different genres. He specially
valued Aristotle's precepts and noted them down in his Discoveries for the guidance of English authors.
He earnestly wanted English literary works to be raised to the excellence of Greek and Latin works.
However, he advised to avoid 'excess' in any case, excess of passion, excess of imagination, and excess of
expression. He was a staunch advocate of 'discipline and order. '
Ben Jonson laid special emphasis on the unity of action in drama, epic or any type of long poem. In this
respect he lays down the following guide-lines for producing a powerful and unified 'fable' or 'plot'. He
writes: "The fable is called the imitation of one entire and perfect action, whose parts are so joined and
knit together, as nothing in the structure can be changed, or taken away, without impairing or troubling the
whole. " He further says that the Action should neither be too vast nor too small. If the Action be too
great, the audience would not be able to comprehend the whole, or if too small, it would not give
sufficient pleasure. The action should not exceed the compass of one day and it should be one and entire.
The classical models are Homer for epic, Virgil for pastoral, Seneca for tragedy, Plautus and Terence for
comedy, and Juvenal for satire. They should be constantly kept in mind.
Q. 29. What qualities should a person possess, according to Ben Jonson, to become a great poet?
Ans. It is popularly believed that poets are born, not made. But Ben Jonson does not subscribe to this
view. He holds that inborn talent alone would not make one a great poet unless he enriches and refines
that talent with industry and practice. Therefore, according to Ben Jonson, a person must possess or
cultivate the following qualities and qualifications in order to become a great poet.
Ben Jonson says that in the first place a poet must enrich, refine and enlighten the inborn spark of poetry
in him by study, exercise, art and imitation of renowned poets. Natural endowment must be sharpened by
training and practice. So Ben
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Jonson says, "First we require in our poet or maker a goodness of natural wit. The poet must be able by
nature and instinct to pour out the treasure of his mind. " If he fails to produce something great in his first
attempt, he must not lose heart or patience, and try again and again. He should not end up as a rhymer. A
rhymer and a poet are two different entities. Art and practice would turn a rhymer into a poet. The third
requisite for a great poet is his power of Imitation. According to Plato, a poet is an imitator, but he must
imitate either nature or a highly talented poet. Let him choose one great poet and imitate him. But he
must not imitate servilely but draw forth the best and choicest pearls from him. In the fourth place, he
must develop "an exactness of study and multiplicity of reading which maketh a full man. " A poet has to
be a full man. And finally, he must cultivate art. "It is art only can lead him to perfection. " Ben Jonson
sums up by saying that 'inborn poetic talent' is the basic condition, but it cannot come to fruition without
industry, practice and art.
Q. 30. Discuss Ben Jonson's attitude towards the classical theories and principles of literature.
Ans. Ben Jonson was the first classical critic of England. He held the ancient classical theories and
principles of literature as laid down by Plato, Aristotle and Horace in highest esteem. He equally loved,
admired and adored the ancient Greek and Latin poets. They were the models fit to be followed and
imitated by the moderns. The classical models were Homer and Virgil for epics, Virgil also for pastorals,
Seneca for tragedy, Plautus and Terence for comedy, and Juvenal for satire. Euripides, Sophocles and
Aeschylus were model dramatists before Shakespeare. However, with all his respect and admiration for
these ancient poets and critics, he did not undermine the genius of the English poets and dramatists. He
did not want the moderns "to rest in their sole authority, or take all upon trust from them. For to all the
observations of the ancients we have our own experience; which if we will use and apply, we have better
means to pronounce. It is true they opened the gates and made the way that went before us, but as guides,
not commanders. For rules are ever of less force and value than experiments. Nothing is more ridiculous
than to make an author a dictator, as the schools have done Aristotle. " Thus Jonson's admiration and
adoration of the classics did not shut the windows of his own mind. He admired the ancients for what
they were worth. At the same time he did not love and admire to any degree less the great English authors
like Shakespeare, Spenser, Bacon, Marlowe, Sidney, Donne and others. Thus we see that Jonson's neo-
classical creed did not blind him to the purely English genius and originality of the Elizabethan authors.
He was not to any degree blind to the glories of English Literature.
Q. 31. What is Ben Jonson's concept of Humours? How does he apply them in his comedies?
Ans. The term 'Humour', as used by Ben Jonson, is based on an ancient physiological theory of four
fluids found in human body. According to this theory there are four fluids in human body which
determine a man's temperament and mental state. These four humours are Blood, Phlegm, Choler (or
yellow bile) and Melancholy (or black bile). A normal man has these four humours in a balanced
proportion. But the excess of any one of these humours makes him eccentric in one way or the other. He
becomes abnormal and develops some kind of oddity in his temperament or behaviour and thus becomes
an object of fun and ridicule. The humour of Blood makes a man excessively optimistic or sanguine even
without the slightest chance of hope or success. Phlegm makes one excessively calm and docile, choler
makes one highly ill-tempered, and black bile makes one excessively melancholy and morbid. Ben
Jonson explains the theory of Humours in the
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Induction to his play Every Man in His Humour. Ben Jonson's comedies are called Comedies of Humours
because the principal characters in all his comedies are victims of one humour or the other. Bobadil, for
example, is characterized by his decorous manners, uttering improbable boasts. Asper in Every Man Out
of His Humour is a harsh and pitiless judge. Deliro is an idolizing husband consistently rebuffed by his
wife. There is a stream of satire in all Ben Jonson's principal characters.
Q. 32. Analyse Ben Jonson's observations on style.

Ans. Language and thought, according to Ben Jonson, are inseparable entities. Language without thought
is lame, and thought without language is dumb. Language owes its life to thought. It is also an index of
character: it 'most shows the man'. Style is the choice and arrangement of words to express one's thoughts
most effectively. Ben Jonson recommends three steps to develop an effective style; to read the best
authors, observe the best speakers, and much exercise of one's own style. One should remember that the
first word that comes to one's mind is not always the best word for his purpose, nor is the first construction
of the sentence or paragraph. They must be revised and reconstructed repeatedly to arrive at the best. "So
did the best writers in their beginnings; they imposed upon themselves care and industry. They did
nothing rashly. They obtained first to write well, and then custom made it easy, and a habit. So the sum
of all is: "Ready writing makes not good writing: but good writing brings on ready writing. " He says that
"it is fit for the beginner and learner to study others and the best. For the mind and memory are more
sharply exercised in comprehending another man's things than our own. " This is applicable to observing
and learning from the best authors and best speakers. Ben Jonson's concept of good style may be summed
up in his own words thus: "Choiceness of phrase, round and clean composition of sentence, sweet falling
of the clause, varying an illustration by tropes and figures, weight of matter, worth of subject, soundness
of argument, life of invention, and depth of judgement. "
Q. 33. "To judge of poets is only the faculty of poets. " Examine the qualifications of a good critic
on the basis of this remark by Ben Jonson.
Ans. Discussing the qualifications of a good critic, Ben Jonson says, "To judge of poets is only the
faculty of poets, and not of all poets but the best. . . such was Horace, an excellent and true judge upon
cause and reason, not because he thought so, but because he knew so, out of use and experience. " This
assertion of Ben Jonson should not be taken in its literal sense but in its essential spirit. For there have
been many great critics who have never been actually poets. The most important of them have been Plato
and Aristotle themselves. Plato and Aristotle have been universally recognized as the first and the greatest
critics, but they were not poets by vocation. Therefore what Ben Jonson means to say is that a good critic
must have poetic sensibilities, if not practising as a poet. He must be a great scholar possessing deep
understanding of the poetic art. Deep scholarship is the basic condition for being a great critic. Horace
was "an excellent and true judge upon cause and reason, not because he thought so, but because he knew
so, out of use and experience. " Jonson means to say that there must be 'solid and perfect learning' in a
critic and he should be a poet by perception if not by vocation. Further, a good critic must exercise
discipline and control upon his expression in awarding his judgment on a literary work. He must follow a
code of conduct in his literary judgments. He can be an adviser or a guide, but not a commander or a
hanging judge.
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4. Classical Critics and Their Critical Works

1. John Dryden 1. Prefaces or Epilogues prefixed to many of his
(1631-1700) Plays and Poems, specially Preface to the Fables,
Preface to the Indian Emperor, Preface to Troilus
and Cressida, Preface to the State of Innocence,
etc.
2. Joseph Addison 2. An Essay of Dramatic Poesy.
(1672-1719) 1. Papers Published in the Spectator On True and
False Wit (5 Papers) On Paradise Lost (18 Papers) On
The Pleasures of Imagination (11 Papers) On Tragedy
(5 Papers)
3. Alexander Pope 1. An Essay on Criticism (in Verse)
(1688-1744) 2. Preface to the Works of Shakespeare
3. Preface to the Translation of the Iliad
4. Dr. Samuel Johnson 1. Critical Papers published in the Rambler and the
(1709-1784) Rasselas 1. Preface to the Plays of Shakespeare 3.
Lives of the Poets
Q. 34. Why is Dryden called "the Father of English Criticism"?

Ans. Dr. Johnson called Dryden "the father of English Criticism who first taught us to determine upon
principles the merit of composition. " Dr. Johnson was very correct in giving Dryden this honour because
before him there was no consistent critic in England. Sidney and Ben Jonson were, of course, there but
they only made occasional observations without producing any consistent critical work or establishing any
critical theory. Dryden's principal critical work is his Essay of Dramatic Poesy, though his critical
observations are also found in the prefaces to several of his works, specially in the Preface to the Fables.
The Essay of Dramatic Poesy establishes him as the first historical critic, first comparative critic, first
descriptive critic, and the first independent English critic. The Essay of Dramatic Poesy is developed in
the form of dialogues amongst four interlocutors representing four different literatures or literary ages.
Crites speaks for the ancient Greek and Roman authors, Lisideius for the French, Eugenius for the English
literature of the 'last age', and Neander for England and liberty. In this way he develops historical,
comparative, and descriptive forms of criticism, and finally gives his own independent views through the
replies of Neander. He respects the ancient Greek and Roman principles but he refuses to adhere to them
slavishly, specially in respect of Tragi-comedy and observance of the three Dramatic Unities. Thus
Dryden began a great regular era of criticism, and showed the way to his countrymen how to be great as
creative authors as well as critical evaluators and what makes great literature. Thus he is indeed "the
father of English Criticism. "
Q. 35. Discuss the plan of Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy.

Ans. Dryden developed a very ingenious plan for writing his Essay of Dramatic Poesy. In 1665 great
plague broke out in London. In order to escape from the infection of the plague, many people left London
and moved out to the countryside.
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Dryden takes this situation and develops a plan to write a great treatise on the theory and practice of
dramatic poesy. He imagines that he and his three friends sail out of London in a boat on the river
Thames. The journey is long and tedious. Therefore in order to avoid the boredom of the journey, the
four friends decide to hold some useful discourse on the theory and practice of Drama in different ages in
Greece, Rome, France and England. The four friends by mutual agreement decide to allot one country or
one age to each of the four friends. Thus there are four interlocutors, each taking up the defence of
dramatic literature of one country or one age. Crites speaks for the Greek and Roman dramatists and their
principles. Lisideius defends the French, and Eugenius the English drama of the last age in England and
Neander (or Dryden himself) pleads for England and liberty. This ingenious device helps Dryden in
developing historical, comparative, descriptive, and independent methods of criticism. In final
conclusion, Dryden holds that ancient principles should be respected but they should not be followed
slavishly.
Note: It may be remembered that the four interlocutors were real persons to whom Dryden has given
imaginary names. Eugenius was Charles Sackville, Lisideius was Sir Charles Sedley, Crites was Sir
Robert Howard, and Neander was Dryden himself.
Q. 36. On what grounds does Crites defend the ancient Greek and Roman poets and dramatists?
Ans. Crites begins defending the ancient Greek and Roman poets and dramatists by observing at the very
outset that "it is our greatest praise to have imitated them well; for we do not only build upon their
foundations, but by their models. " He goes on to say that "all the rules by which we practise the drama of
this day were delivered to us from the observations which Aristotle made of those poets who either lived
before him, or were his contemporaries. " Horace's Ars Poetica is an excellent comment on the art of
poetry which our poets follow and feel honoured. Aristotle also laid down the principles of the three
dramatic unities—the Unities of Time, Place and Action. By the unity of time he meant that the action of
a play should not exceed "the compass of a natural day. " If the action is limited within this compass "it
would be thought the nearest imitation of nature. " By the unity of place he meant that the scene ought to
be continued in the same place from the beginning to the end for the stage is "but one and the same place.
" It is unnatural to shift the action from one place to another, specially to distant places. This will give the
greatest likelihood to untruth. By the unity of action he meant that there should be only one action, great
and complete enough, to cover the whole plot. Two or more actions should not go side by side in the play.
In this respect "both the best and worst of the modern poets will equally instruct you to admire the
ancients. " The ancients observed the three dramatic unities faithfully, and the Romans, the French, and
the English dramatists tried their best to observe them, though not always sucessfully. Thus the ancients
are our first law-givers as well as models for the moderns to follow.
Q. 37. How does Lisideius defend the French poets and dramatists?
Ans. Defending the French drama and dramatists Lisideius says that they far surpass the English and even
the Greek dramatists. Corneill and some other French dramatists have so reformed their theatre that no
European theatre stands comparison to it. So far as the three dramatic unities are concerned, the French
dramatists observe them more faithfully than the Greeks themselves who propounded them. In observing
the unity of time, they are so scrupulous that the action in some of their plays is limited to only twelve
hours. He says, "In all their dramas written within these last twenty years and upwards, I have not
observed any that have extended the time to thirty hours. " The French are equally faithful in
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observing the unity of place. Many of them limit it to the very spot of ground where the play is supposed
to begin. However, none of them exceeds the compass of the same town or city. Equally conspicuous is
the observance of the unity of action. There are no underplots in their plays. Denouncing the vogue of
tragi-comedies in England, he says: "There is no theatre in the world has anything so absurd as the English
tragi-comedy. " Further, the French generally write their tragedies on well-known historical facts which
the people can easily comprehend. They do not make their plots so complicated or lengthy that the
spectators may lose their patience. In their plays the hero is most important, and the rest of the characters
are subservient to him. Further, the tumultuous or heinous acts are reported to have occurred behind the
scenes so that the fine sensibilities of the spectators are not hurt. Finally, the French write their plays in
beautiful rhyming verse which is far sweeter than the blank verse in which the English plays are written.
To sum up, the French playwrights are superior to the English or Greek playwrights.
Q. 38. How does Eugenius defend the English dramatists of the last age?
Ans. Eugenius defends the English dramatists of the last age with a highly penetrating insight. It is true,
he says, that the ancient Greek and Roman scholars laid down many basic principles of drama. The
English authors gave due respect to them, but they adhered more to the rules of nature. The ancients had
no clear-cut concept of dividing a play into Acts. The English dramatists set the vogue of dividing a play
into Five Acts. Most of the ancient Greek playwrights wrote their plays on highly popular episodes of
Thebes or Troy on which many narrative poems, epics and plays had already been written. Therefore the
spectators found nothing new in them. Many times they spoke out the dialogues before the actors spoke
them. The English dramatists wrote their plays on new and interesting themes. In comedies the Greek as
well as Roman playwrights repeated a common theme of lost children coming back to their parents as
grown up gentlemen and ladies after a gap of many years. This oft-repeated theme lost its interest to the
spectators. The English dramatists invented new and interesting themes. So far as the dramatic unities are
concerned, even the Greek authors who gave their concept, did not always observe them. In point of
moral teaching too the ancients grossly erred. They often presented the wicked prospering and the
virtuous suffering and languishing. The English playwrights exhibited poetic justice whereby the virtuous
won and the wicked lost in the end. In all these respects the English dramatists of the last age were better
than the Greek or Roman dramatists.
Q. 39. How does Neander (or Dryden himself) defend English dramatists and plead for freedom
from rigorous classical principles and practices?
Ans. Dryden in the person of Neander rises up in defence of English dramatists and strongly pleads that
English dramatists are fully justified in not slavishly accepting the classical principles in many respects.
They have developed their own principles and proved themselves to be superior to the Greek and French
dramatists in many ways. In the first place, French drama, whether comic or tragic, lacks in emotion and
passion. English dramatists surpass them in both. English tragedies produce fear and pity more
powerfully, and their comedies excel in producing delightful humour and romantic love. Then Dryden
defends the vogue of tragicomedies in English. He does not agree with Lisideius that it is unnatural to
change over from a tragic scene to a comic one or vice versa. A scene is comprehended and enjoyed by
human mind and soul, and not by human organs. Those who object to this shifting of scenes seem to
presume "the soul to be more heavy than the senses. " Furthermore, it is well known that "contraries, when
placed near, set off each other. "
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In conclusion he says, "We have invented, increased, and perfected a more pleasant way of writing for the
stage than was ever known to the ancients or moderns of any nation, which is tragi-comedy. " He equally
defends the insertion of under-plots which highlight the main plot. Coming to the dramatic unities of time
and place, he says that their observance might adversely affect the total impact of a play. It is
unbelievable that sufficient incidents and situations may arise at a single spot within the compass of
twenty-four hours only to provide sufficient material for the plot of a good play. Finally, coming to
Shakespeare, he says, "He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and
most comprehensive soul. He was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read nature;
he looked inwards, and found her there. "
Q. 40. Discuss the views of Dryden on the use of rhyming verse in drama.
Ans. Dryden refutes the contention that rhyming verse is proper for the drama on the
stage. The central point of his argument is that normally we do not talk in rhyming verse. Dryden says: "I
am of opinion that rhyme is unnatural in a play, because dialogue there is presented as the effect of sudden
thought; for a play is the imitation of nature; and since no man without premeditation speaks in rhyme,
neither ought he to do it on the stage. " For this reason, says Aristotle, it is best to write tragedy in that
kind of verse which is the least such, or which is nearest prose. The verse nearest to prose for the ancients
was the Iambic, and with the moderns it is blank verse. A normal person would not speak in rhyme in
day-to-day conversation. Would it be natural to call a servant, or bid a door be shut in rhyme? Rhyme
may be a better form of writing, but not a more natural form. However, rhyming verse can be
recommended for an unmixed serious play. So Dryden says: "In serious plays where the subject and
character are great, and the plot unmixed with mirth, rhyme is there as natural and more effectual than
verse. " It may be remembered that Shakespeare wrote all his plays in blank verse, and therefore while
defending the use of blank verse, Dryden was actually defending Shakespeare and other contemporary
dramatists of England.
Q. 41. What is the true function of poetry according to Dryden?

Ans. There has been a great controversy amongst literary critics, poets and scholars on the true function
of poetry ever since Plato down to our own day. To Plato the function of poetry was 'to instruct', to
Aristotle 'to delight', to Horace both 'to instruct and to delight' and to Longinus 'to transport. ' Considering
all these views Dryden was led to conclude that the final end of poetry was 'to delight and transport' rather
than to teach and instruct. Dryden writes: "Delight is the chief, if not the only end of poetry; instruction
can be admitted but in the second place; for poesy only instructs as it delights. " As such a bare imitation
of nature cannot be great poetry. Poetry should imitate only that part of nature which is beautiful and
delighting. The poet is, therefore, not merely an imitator or even a teacher, but a creator, creating a new
thing out of life and nature. For this the poet needs to have 'the shaping spirit of imagination. His
imagination breathes life into the shapeless material from life and nature. But this fancy should not run
wild. To control this fancy the poet must have the restraining power of good sense, judgment and
discretion. Thus the poet presents the images of life and nature more perfect than the real life of man,
shorn of all its deformities or faults. The poet imitates the ideal pattern of life. The poet is the creator of
not the real but of the ideal.
Q. 42. What are Dryden's views on Satire as a literary form?

Ans. By 'Satire' we mean a specific form of composition in verse or prose designed to ridicule a particular
person or class or group of persons for some folly or
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eccentricity. Therefore satire is an employment of sarcasm, irony, or keen wit in ridiculing some
prevailing vices, absurdities, abuses or follies in an individual or social group. The satire has no ill
intention; it is meant only to draw the victim's attention to his folly with a view to reforming him. Thus
satire can be best defined in these words: "It is the expression, in adequate terms, of the sense of
amusement or disgust by the ridiculous or unseemly provided that humour is directly recognizable and
that the utterance is invested with literary form" (Garnett). In Dryden's satire there is a kind of good-
humoured scorn without any sense of triumph over the adversary. Dryden the satirist is no more an
enemy to the offender than the physician to the patient, when he prescribes harsh remedies to an inveterate
disease, because according to his conception, the true end of satire is the amendment of vice by correction
or his moral reformation.
Dryden wrote regular satires after he was personally attacked by Butler and Buckingham in their
Rehearsal for swindling the style of their heroic play. There upon Dryden wrote a series of satires the
most notable of which are Absalom and Achitophel, Mac Flecknoe, and The Medal. But in his satires
there is no personal malice, no rancour, no defamation. There is pure amusement.
Q. 43. What was Addison's approach to Criticism?

Ans. Addison was basically an essayist and a journalist. His critical observations are found in many of
his essays that appeared in the Spectator. As a critic, therefore, his approach is not that of an established
literary critic, but that of a popular observer and analyst of some literary works and literary genres. His
observations were intended, not for the learned readers or the authors themselves, but for the common
masses interested in literature as a pastime. His primary aim was to draw out 'philosophy out of closets
and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and in coffee-houses. "
His critical essays were meant 'for those who had yet their rudiments to learn and found it not easy to
understand their master. ' This gave a new turn to English Criticism. Normally, the classical critics like
Dryden, Pope and Dr. Johnson wrote their principles for different literary genres for the help and
guidance of poets, dramatists and other authors. They sought to teach them how to write correctly and
effectively. Against them, Addison turned to the readers and sought to teach them how to enjoy and
appreciate great literary works like The Paradise Lost. He enlightened the common reader and explained
to him the intrinsic beauty and grandeur of a work which might otherwise have escaped his attention and
appreciation. The important critical essays of Addison on popular topics are On True and False Wit, On
the Pleasures of Imagination, On Tragedy, and On Paradise Lost.
Q. 44. How does Addison differentiate between true wit and false wit?
Ans. Wit is an art of expression. It can be found in the use of words or in the use of ideas. It is produced
by combining similar or congruous ideas or words to produce pleasure and surprise at the same time. In
other words, true wit appears in "the assemblage of ideas wherein can be found any resemblance or
congruity to make up pleasant pictures and agreeable visions in the fancy. " Addison further says that this
assemblage must give Delight and Surprize. This will constitute true wit. If this assemblage gives only
one-either Delight or Surprize, it would produce false wit. For this it is necessary that ideas should not lie
too near or be very obvious in meaning, otherwise they would produce only false wit. If we compare a
white thing with milk or snow, it produces no wit. But if something more is added to it, which gives
delight and surprise, it will produce wit. Addison gives an example. If a poet says that the bosom of his
mistress is as white as snow, there is no wit. But when he adds, with a sigh, that it is as cold too, it is true
wit. False wit generally arises from the
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resemblance and congruity of letters, words or phrases. In this case, new words are framed by the
rearrangement of letters in a word; or by using words which have the same sound but different meanings
(as, rode, road), or one word having two meanings (as bat). They produce false wit. However, too much
use of wit often makes the meaning obscure.
Q. 45. Discuss Addison's concept of Imagination and how it gives pleasure to the reader.
Ans. Addison discusses his concept of Imagination and how it gives pleasure to the reader in eleven
papers of The Spectator. He discusses how imagination works and how it gives pleasure. He makes
imagination dependent on the sense of sight. He says, "It is this sense which furnishes the imagination
with its ideas; so that by the pleasure of imagination or fancy I mean such as arise from visible objects,
either when we have them actually in our view, or when we call up their ideas into our minds by paintings,
statues, descriptions or any the like occasion. " Therefore, according to Addison, the pleasures of
imagination are of two kinds: primary or those 'which entirely proceed from such objects as are before our
eyes'; and those secondary ones 'which flow from the ideas of visible objects when the objects are not
actually before the eye, but are called up in our memory, or formed into agreeable visions of things that
are either absent or fictitious. ' It is only the secondary pleasures of imagination that are aroused by works
of art or literature. As we know, the copy of an object is always more appealing than the original. The
copy makes a stronger appeal to the imagination than the original. The copy is free from any defects or
shortcomings that may be found in the original. It is natural for imagination to form the image of the
ideal. Imagination gives an aesthetic picture of the real, and therefore it is more appealing and delightful.
Q. 46. Discuss Addison's appraisal of Milton's Paradise Lost.

Ans. The most important part of Addison's literary criticism is his appraisal of Milton's Paradise Lost.
Addison has devoted eighteen Papers published in The Spectator on the appraisal of Paradise Lost. He
has judged Paradise Lost on the basis of classical principles, placing Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid for
his models. According to Aristotle, the fable or plot of the epic must be single, complete and great. The
plot of Paradise Lost fulfils all these three requirements. The fable is single because it has only one action
to relate—the fall of man from paradise; it is complete because it has a regular beginning, a middle, and
an end. The end is man's expulsion from heaven and his inevitable death. The action is great because it
involves the fate, not of a single person or a nation, but of all mankind. The characters are equally great—
God and His Archangels, Satan and his fiends, and our first parents—Adam and Eve. Milton's style has
unparalleled grandeur enriched with classical mythology and Homeric similes. There is only one
deviation from Aristotle's principles. The Epic, according to Aristotle, must end happily. But Milton's
Paradise Lost ends unhappily with the punishment to Adam and Eve and victory of Sin and Death. All
the same Paradise Lost is one of the greatest epics produced in the world.
Q. 47. Give an estimate of Pope as a classicist.

Or
Give an estimate of Pope as a critic.
Ans. Classicism is the antithesis of Romanticism. Prof. Grierson defines it as a "balance of matter and
form, a certain high degree of worth in both. " The classical artists took delight in "what oft was thought
but never so well expressed. " They were moralists who believed in the didactic, reformatory, or moral
function of literature. They believed in following nature (everyday human life). In classical literature,
reason
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overpowers imagination, logic replaces flight of fancy, and good sense prevails over sentiment. Pope was
a high priest of classicism who followed all these classical principles in his own poetry and in his critical
precepts. Pope has been regarded as "the splendid high priest of our age of prose and reason, of our
excellent and indispensable 18th century. "
Pope is a classicist also because he is a great wit, a great critic of artificial manners and society, a man of
sense with a keen relish for the elegancies of art and human nature. He was a staunch critic of
contemporary fashions, manners and morals of the aristocratic class of society.
Pope regarded ancient Greek and Roman writers as timeless models for all times to come:
"Immortal heirs of universal praise;
Whose honours with increase of ages grow. "
He was a blind adherent of Aristotle, Homer, Virgil, Longinus and such other ancients. So in his Esssay
on Criticism he writes:
His fable, subject, scope in every page;
Religion, country, genius of his age:
Cavil you may, but never criticise.
Thence form your judgment, thence your maxims bring,
Q. 48. Write a note on Pope's concept of "Nature".

Ans. Pope's concept of "Nature" was very different from the concept of the Romantic poets like
Wordsworth, Shelley or Keats. Wordsworth gave the call to "return to nature", while Pope exhorted man
to "follow nature". Both these concepts are diametrically opposed to each other. To Wordsworth nature
was the external phenomena of the Universe; to Pope nature was uncorrupted human nature controlled by
reason and approved by tradition. Pope spoke of "nature still, but nature methodized. " To Pope nature
means reason and commonsense. He says that the rules framed by the ancients were rules of nature and
poetry must submit to them:
"Those rules of old discovered, not devised,
Are nature still, but nature methodized. " This became the guiding principle of Pope and he strongly
asserted:
"Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem,
To copy nature is to copy them. "
Wit, taste and rules are all bound up with nature. Thus the dictum 'Follow Nature' meant to follow the
moral law which is the central reality. But even this concept of nature is bound up with its own laws:
"Nature, like liberty, is but restrained
By the same laws which first herself ordained. "
This nature is the fruitful source of life, the source of the inner light of intelligence. Hence it sees things
as in themselves they really are, and judges them correctly.
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Q. 49. Discuss Pope's concept of Judgment in literary criticism.

Ans. In the Essay on Criticism Pope states the principles of judgment which an ideal critic must follow in
evaluating a literary work. In the first place, he says that a literary work must be judged and evaluated as
a whole, not in parts. No single part should be separated from the whole. Beauty depends on the context
and totality of impression. Separated from the whole, a part may even appear 'monstrous and misshaped'.
It is the same in literature as in human beauty:
" 'Tis not the lip, or eye, we beauty call,

But the joint force and full result of all. "
Further, judgment should not be conditioned by one's prejudices or biases against or in favour of any
author or his work. He can best describe the beauties of a literary work who can best feel them. The
reader or the critic must pay due regard to the feeling behind the work. We must consider the aim or the
intention of the author.
Wit and judgment go united. Wit always has within it an elementary power of judgment. This power has
to be developed. This is possible through a deep study of the rules which express the practice of the great
poets of antiquity. This study strengthens and refines one's faculty of taste and judgment.
Balanced judgment can be passed only by a critic who is just and fearless. However, true judgment must
be expressed not bluntly and directly, but persuasively. So Pope says:
"Fear not the anger of the wise to raise:

Those best can bear reproof, who merit praise. "
Q. 50. Discuss Pope's concept of Wit.

Ans. In the Essay on Criticism, Pope defines Wit thus:
"True wit is Nature to advantage dressed,
What oft was thought, but never so well expressed. "
Elaborating this definition Pope wrote in a letter to a friend that "true wit is a justness of thought and a
felicity of expression, or propriety. " False wit, on the other hand, is what "conceit is to nature, or paint is
to beauty. " Referring to false wit, Pope writes:
"Some to conceit alone their taste confine,

And glittering thoughts struck out at every line. "
Wit is intimately bound up with the extra sensory experience, with the creative freedom of imagination
and invention:
"Fools admire, but men of sense approve. "
Men of sense put to the test the truths expressed. At the same time Pope wants "the generous pleasure to
be charmed with wit. " Also, "rapture must warm the mind. " Thus wit is intimately bound up with the
extra sensory experience with the creative freedom of imagination and invention. The ideal critic is "blest
with a taste exact, yet unconfined. " Wit is the spark or fire of poetic genius. This spark invigorates the
composition and gives life and vitality to it. Then the poem involves fire, invention and imagination. The
author needs sense and judgment because they provide the stuff; but it is wit which makes the work truly a
work of art. In other words, it is wit which makes a poem poetical. However, wit needs proper training.
This training involves a study of the rules and a careful study of "each Ancient's proper character. " Thus
wit is the power to find or evolve a form of expression that can embody effectively what it conceives. It
charms us as it makes us wiser.
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Q. 51. What are the qualifications of an ideal critic according to Pope?

Ans. Discussing the qualifications of an ideal critic, Pope begins with the remark that only a poet can be
an ideal critic:
"Let such teach others who themselves excel,
And censure freely who have written well. "
He further says about a poet and a critic:
"Both must alike from heaven derive their light,
Those born to judge, as well as those to write. "
Divine inspiration is essential equally to the critic and the poet:
"A perfect judge will reach each work of wit
With the same spirit that its author writ. "
The critic and the poet should both have wit, taste and judgment in equal measure.
All the same, the ideal critic is aware of his limitations. He knows "how far his genius, taste, and learning
go. " He will not launch "beyond his depth. "
Furthermore, the ideal critic would not be guided only by the prescribed rules. He should have an
instinctive sense to feel and understand the nameless graces which no methods or principles can teach. He
has the taste to notice "a grace beyond the reach of art. " His judgments are well nourished and developed.
He is not satisfied with a "little learning" which is "a dangerous thing. " He is blessed with an exact taste
and has a knowledge of books and humanity in right proportions. He is:
"Generous to converse, a soul exempt from pride,
And love to praise, with reason on his side. "
The ideal critic's duty is to give advice. He is pleased to teach and he ought to be proud of his knowledge
yet he should be unbiased and unprejudiced. In the true spirit of literary criticism there are no friends or
foes. So Pope says:
"Modestly bold, and humanely severe,
Who to a friend his faults can freely show,
And gladly praise the merit of a foe. "
Q. 52. Briefly discuss Dr. Johnson's Theory of criticism.

Ans. Dr. Johnson was a classicist with a certain degree of flexibility in his critical theory. He wrote no
regular critical treatise. His critical observations are found in some of his Papers published in the Rambler
and Rasselas, and in his Preface to the Plays of Shakespeare and Lives of the Poets. His critical theory
was basically classical but he did not adhere slavishly to the principles laid down by the ancients. To the
classical theory he also added his own personal views together with historical and biographical approach.
He himself said that he sought "to determine upon principles the merit of composition. " He equated
unguided taste with 'Caprice' and considered unprincipled criticism 'haphazard'. He believed that the rules
laid down by the ancients must be subject to change, for "every new genius produces some innovation
which, when invented and approved, subverts the rules which the practice of foregoing authors had
established. " He added, "The arbitrary edicts of legislators who, out of various means by which the same
end may be attained, selected such as happened to occur to their own reflection. " Their application cannot
be universal. He admitted that some of those principles were "fundamental and indispensable" and must
be adhered to. A true critic should "neither violate essential principles by a desire of novelty, nor debar
himself from the attainment of beauties within his view by a needless fear of breaking the rules. "
According to him, the historical conditions, the background of the age, and the biographical factors must
be taken into
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consideration when evaluating the work of an author. This is what he does in The Lives of the Poets
which is his most outstanding biographical and critical work.
Q. 53. Discuss Dr. Johnson's Historical approach to criticism.

Ans. Rising above the classical approach to criticism, Dr. Johnson also developed and practised
historical approach to criticism. This does not in any way mean that Dr. Johnson overruled the classical
principles: it only means that he added historical approach wherever this led to the better evaluation of a
literary work. He holds that every literary work is conditioned by the historical background and the
author's age and environment. No literary work can be correctly evaluated without taking into
consideration "the genius of the age and nation in which the author lived. " Dr. Johnson says, "To judge
rightly of an author, we must transport ourselves to his time, and examine what were the wants of his
contemporaries, and what were his means of supplying them. " What may be essential at one time may
become superfluous at another time. The author's biographical conditions, his opportunities and
limitations are essential to consider in order to form a correct estimate of his performance. In other words,
the historical estimate is an important factor in the real estimate of an author. If we examine Chaucer's
Prologue to the Canterbury Tales without taking into consideration the socio-religious conditions of
fourteenth century England, our evaluation of Chaucer would be grossly wrong. In the same way, we
cannot correctly evaluate the literature of the Restoration Age without placing it in the age of Charles II
and the morals he brought in from France. While evaluating Milton, we must know his handicaps, his
blindness, his opposition on religious and political grounds and how he overcame them simply by his
genius. Then only we would know his real greatness as a poet.
Q. 54. Discuss Dr. Johnson's comments on various forms of poetry.

Ans. Dr. Johnson had his own views on the various forms of poetry. He graded different forms of poetry
according to his estimation of each. He considered the Epic to be the highest form of poetry. "By the
general consent of critics", he says, "the first praise of genius is due to the writer of an epic poem, as it
requires an assemblage of all the powers which are singly sufficient for other compositions. Epic poetry
undertakes to teach the most important truths by the most pleasing precepts, and therefore relates some
great events in the most affecting manner. " Tragedy comes next only to the epic. In fact, Aristotle
preferred tragedy even to the epic, primarily on account of its cathartic effect. But Dr. Johnson does not
go to that extent.
Among the verse forms which he placed lowest in their merit are the pastoral and the Pindaric Ode. The
pastoral may have pleased the public in ancient times by its realistic pictures of the countryside—hills,
valleys, streams, shepherds, and their flock. But now these objects have lost their charms. It is now
highly artificial to presume that the poet is a shepherd living in pastoral dales with his flock of sheep and
lambs and whiling away his time on his flute. It is on account of this artificial imagery that he condemns
Milton's famous pastoral elegy Lycidas. About Lycidas he says, "In this poem there is no nature, for there
is no truth; there is no art, for there is nothing new. Its form is that of a pastoral, easy, vulgar, and
therefore disgusting. " Almost for the same reason he considered the Pindaric ode unsuited to modern
conditions. It may have suited the particular occasions in ancient Greece, for which it was intended, but
now it is merely a form without any substance today.
Q. 55. Briefly analyse Dr. Johnson's views on Drama and its art.
Ans. In his analysis of dramatic art, Dr. Johnson has given his views on all debatable points such as the
dramatic unities, dramatic pleasure, and the tragicomedies. First of all he says that drama must be "a
faithful mirror of manners and
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of life. " It should present human sentiments in human language. The story of drama must be true to life,
but it must not be the story of one man or a few men, but of a wide section of humanity. Shakespeare's
plays are great because each play is a miniature picture of any one aspect of the whole of humanity.
So far as Dramatic Unities are concerned, Dr. Johnson approved of only one unity—the unity of Action.
This is necessary to make the plot complete and one whole. There would be utter chaos if there were
many actions leading to different ends. In a good play all the actions should join together and lead to one
desired end. So far as the unities of Time and Place are concerned, he finds them unnecessary and highly
undesirable. The stage in a play is an imaginary platform. It is neither a real Rome nor a real Alexandria,
and therefore the shifting of scenes from one place to another is also an imaginative process. So is the
case with the passage of time. The audience imaginatively travels from place to place, and passes days
and years through the same process of imagination. After all, a play is not a literal picture but an
imaginative recreation of life. In the same way he defends tragi-comedy. Life itself is a mingling of
tragic and comic occurrences. Moreover, tragic and comic scenes throw each other into greater relief by
contrast. Therefore there is nothing unnatural or inartistic in a tragi-comedy.
The Romantic Critics and Their Works

1. William 1. Advertisement of the Lyrical Ballads, 1798
Wordsworth 2. Preface to the Second Edition of the Lyrical Ballads,
(1770-1850) 3. 1800
Appendix to the above Edition, 1802
4. Essay Supplementary to the Edition of 1815
2. S. T. Coleridge 1. Biographia Literaria
(1772-1834) 2. Lectures on Shakespeare
3. The Table Talk
4. Miscellaneous Critical Articles in different Journals
3. P. B. Shelley 1. A Defence of Poetry
(1792-1822)
Q. 56. Why did Wordsworth write such a long Preface to his Lyrical Ballads?
Or
Wordsworth lays down the basic tenets of his poetry in the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads. Discuss.
Ans. When the first edition of Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads was published, it was discovered that
Wordsworth's poems were diametrically opposite to the standard poetical norms as preached and practised
by the Neo-classical poets like Ben Jonson, Dryden, Pope, Gray, and Dr. Johnson. There was a sort of
uproar in literary circles. Thereupon some of Wordsworth's friends advised him to publish a detailed
Preface to the Second Edition of his Lyrical Ballads explaining the basic tenets of his poetry.
Wordsworth says, "They have advised me to prefix a systematic defence of the theory upon which the
Poems were written. " Hence he published a detailed preface to the second edition of his Lyrical Ballads.
In the Preface, Wordsworth begins with the precept that poetry should be a 'spontaneous overflow' of
powerful feelings, not a laboured exercise. Secondly, the subject-matter of poetry should be the life of the
common men, because poets do not
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write their poetry for poets only but for the common public to read and enjoy. For the same reason, poetry
should be written, as far as possible, in the language of the common men really used by them, and not in
the highly artificial and stilted 'Poetic diction'. There should be no difference between the language of
prose and that of poetry. These are the basic tenets of Wordsworth's theory of poetry.
Q. 57. Give Wordsworth's definition of Poetry. How would you reconcile the two apparent
contradictions in it?
Ans. In the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth defines Poetry thus: "Poetry is the spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity. " In this
definition of poetry there are two apparent contradictions. The "spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings" on one side and "emotion recollected in tranquillity" on the other side are apparently two contra-
dictory statements. "Spontaneous overflow" must be immediate and unrestricted without any interval of
time between feeling and its expression. The expression "recollected in tranquillity" would suggest
intervention of time between feeling and its expression. "Recollection" means remembering some
impression after some lapse of time. Wordsworth himself has tried to reconcile this apparent
contradiction in his further elucidation of his definition. Immediate impression has a blending of both
important and unimportant impressions. When they are allowed to rest for some time, only the important
impressions remain in the memory, and the unimportant ones wash away. The poet would then express
those powerful impressions spontaneously with ease and felicity without any imposition of restriction in
point of language or poetic diction. The poet's expression of those powerful feelings must be easy,
smooth and natural.
Q. 58. Why does Wordsworth choose the life of rustics and common men for the subject of his
poetry?
Ans. In the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth says that the life of the rustics and common men
is the fittest subject for poetry. This concept is just contrary to the concept of Neo-classical poets who
chose the life and manners and morals of the urban people, specially of the aristocratic class, to be the
fittest subject for poetry. Pope's Rape of the Lock is the best example of this class of poetry. Against this
concept, Wordsworth chose the life of humble and rustic people for the subject of his poetry. Wordsworth
was basically a poet of Nature, and he considered the humble and innnocent villagers to be a part of
Nature. He writes, "Humble and rustic life was generally chosen because, in that condition, the essential
passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, because in that condition of
life our elementary feelings co-exist in a state of greater simplicity; because the manners of rural life
germinate from those elementary feelings; and from the necessary character of rural occupations the
passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature. "
On the same ground, Wordsworth also decried the fasion of writing poetry in the poetic diction
patronished by the Neo-classical poets. He not only chose the life of the rural folk for his subject, but also
their language for writing his poetry. He writes, "The language, too, of these men has been adopted
because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is
originally derived. " But in spite of all these considerations Wordsworth remains fully conscious that his
poetry may not sink to the level of triviality and meanness.
Q. 59. Discuss Wordsworth's views on the language in which poetry should be written.
Ans. In the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth says that principally the subject matter of his
poetry was the life, manners, interests and occupations of the
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rustics and common men of rural background because they were a part of nature. Consequently, he tried
to write his poetry in the language really used by them. So Wordsworth writes in the Preface: "The
principal object proposed in these poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to
relate or describe them as far as possible in a selection of language really used by men. " The language of
these men had been adopted because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the
best part of language is originally derived. Such a language, he holds "is a more permanent and a far more
philosophical language. " However, as a precautionary measure Wordsworth says that the language of the
common men would, of course, be "purified from what appear to be its real defects, from all lasting and
rational causes of dislike or disgust. " Wordsworth totally rejected the use of "poetic diction. " He believes
that the best of poems can be written in the normal language of a common man. He says, "Except for the
difference of metre, the language of poetry would in no respect differ from that of good prose. " On the
contrary, "some of the most interesting parts of the best poems will be found to be strictly in the language
of prose when prose is well written. " A large portion of the language of every good poem can in no
respect differ from that of a good prose. So Wordsworth concludes, "It may be safely affirmed that there
neither is, nor can be, any essential difference between the language of prose and that of metrical
composition. "
Q. 60. Wordsworth says: "There neither is, nor can be, any essential difference between the
language of prose and metrical composition. " Comment on this statement.
Ans. In the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth wrote that "There neither is, nor can be, any
essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition. " This statement of
Wordsworth was actually a reply to the advocates of Poetic Diction, according to whom the language of
poetry was basically different from that of prose. All the Neo-classical poets were advocates of Poetic
Diction. Poetic Diction was an assemblage of highly archaic, obscure and stilted words which were not
used in normal life. Referring to that type of language used by poets, Wordsworth says, "Some poets
think that they are conferring honour upon themselves and their art, in proportion as they separate
themselves from the sympathies of men, and indulge in arbitrary and capricious habits of expression. "
Refuting this concept Wordsworth chose incidents and situations from common life and related or
described them in a selection of language really used by men. The language of these men was adopted by
him because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is
originally derived. Defending his concept, Wordsworth says, "The language of a large portion of every
good poem, except with reference to the metre, in no respect differs from that of good prose when prose is
well written. " The poet thinks and feels in the spirit of human passions. How, then, can his language
differ in any material degree from that of all other men who feel vividly and see clearly? He must express
himself as other men express themselves. Wordsworth endeavoured to bring his language near to the real
language of men. As such there is no essential difference between the language of poetry and prose.
Summing up his views, Wordsworth says: "Whether the composition be in prose or in verse, they require
and exact one and the same language. "
Q. 61. On what grounds does Wordsworth condemn the use of Poetic Diction in poetry?
Ans. Poetic Diction was a highly artificial, stilted and unnatural mode of writing used by the Neo-
classical poets in writing their poetry. They took pride in using
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highly obscure, unfamiliar, quaint and high-sounding words and expressions which are hardly ever used in
day-to-day life. By using such words and expressions they sought to show off their highly scholastic
status and superiority. Wordsworth exploded this vanity of the Neo-classicists in the Preface to the
Lyrical Ballads. He decries the poets who think that "they are conferring honour upon themselves and
their art in proportions as they separate themselves from the sympathies of men and indulge in arbitrary
and capricious habits of expression. " Explaining his point of view, Wordsworth says that poets do not
write for poets alone, but for men. "The poet thinks and feels in the spirit of human passions. How, then,
can his language differ in any material degree from that of all other men who feel vividly and see clearly?"
A poet must express himself as other men express themselves. The poet should imitate, and as far as
possible, adopt the very language of men. The expressions used in Poetic Diction do not make any natural
or regular part of that language. A poet must bring his language as far as possible near to the language of
men. There neither is, nor can ever be, any essential difference between the language of prose and
metrical compositon. The language of a large portion of every good poem in no respect differs from that
of good prose. Therefore Poetic Diction is a cumbersome artifice which must be cast off.
Q. 62. Discuss Wordsworth's views on the universality of poetry and its moral force.
Or
"Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in
the countenance of all science. " Discuss.
Ans. Wordsworth says in the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads that "Poetry is the
most philosophic of all writing; its object is truth, not individual and local, but
general and universal. " It embodies truth which is its own testimony. "Poetry is the image of man and
nature. " The poet looks at the world in the spirit of love and beauty. The poet recognizes "the grand
elementary principle of pleasure, by which he knows, and feels, and lives, and moves. " So Wordsworth
holds that "Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is
in the countenance of all science. " The objects of the poet's thoughts are everywhere covering the vast
empire of human society. As a result, the reader of poetry must necessarily be in some degree
enlightened, and his affections strengthened and purified.
Wordsworth puts a question to himself: What is a poet? Then he replies: "He is a man speaking to men; a
man, it is true, endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater
knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among
mankind. " All these specialities of the poet pass into his poetry. Thus poetry humanises mankind. The
poet is chiefly distinguished from other men by a greater promptness to think and feel without immediate
external excitement, and a greater power in expressing such thoughts and feelings.
Thus "Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge—it is as immortal as the heart of man."
Q. 63. What is the function of Poetry according to Wordsworth?

Ans. In the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth also discusses the function of
poetry. The function of great poetry is "to please, to move, to transport". The three functions of poetry
fuse into one—aesthetic pleasure with moral elevation. However, the moral elevation far outweighs the
aesthetic pleasure. The moral function consists first 'in the refinement of feelings', second, 'in the
knowledge of
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Man, Nature, and Human life', and third, 'in the power that makes life richer and fuller':
"Truth, Grandeur, Beauty, Love and Hope—

And melancholy Fear subdued by Faith. "
The reader of poetry emerges saner and purer than before.
The second great function of poetry is to enable us to look 'into the life of things. ' While science sharpens
our intellect, poetry enriches our moral insight. The moral force of poetry 'is felt in the blood, and felt
along the heart. ' So Wordsworth says, "Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the
impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science. "
Finally, poetry provides shelter and succour to the afflicted human soul. It is a great force for good and
welfare. Wordsworth's own object in writing poetry was 'to console the afflicted; to add sunshine to
daylight by making the happy happier; to teach the young and the gracious of every age to see, to think,
and feel, and therefore to become more actively and securely virtuous. ' Thus Wordsworth concludes that
'every great poet is a teacher; I wish either to be considered as a teacher or as nothing. ' In this role, poetry
makes man "wiser, better, and happier. "
Q. 64. Discuss Coleridge's Theory of Imagination.

Ans. Imagination is the basic and most important creative faculty in a poet. No poet can write poetry
without the faculty of imagination. Imagination is the faculty by which a poet observes different forms
and objects in human life and nature and unifies them into one whole which is more beautiful and more
sublime than the original ones. With its 'plastic stress' it dissolves and diffuses different objects into one
'sweet solution. ' Therefore imagination is called 'shaping and unifying power. '
Coleridge divides Imagination into two forms or stages—the Primary and the Secondary. The primary
form of imagination is natural and involuntary. It uses only one sense—the sense of perception—and
observes the tangible forms of persons, places, things, and objects of nature. Then this primary
imagination fuses them into one whole, but only in the tangible form.
The more important form of imagination is the secondary form. It is a conscious form of imagination. It
is a composite faculty of the soul, using all faculties— perception, intellect, will, emotions, and
spirituality. As such, it is a more active and more comprehensive faculty than the primary imagination. In
its 'shaping and modifying' process the mind and nature act and react on each other. The mind acting on
nature becomes one with nature; and nature acting on the mind becomes one with the mind. Thus mind
and nature get identified. Thus, the primary and secondary forms of imagination have the same faculty of
're-creation' with a difference of only 'degrees' or 'range of comprehension', and not in essentials.
Q. 65. Discuss Coleridge's view of Art.

Ans. Coleridge refutes the Platonic concept that art is merely an imitation of nature, and therefore twice
removed from reality. Coleridge holds the view that art is not an imitation but an imaginative re-creation
of nature. As such, art is a product of imagination. In other words, art is the union of the soul with the
external world or nature. It represents nature as thought, and thought as nature. Therefore it is more than
the object it imitates. It is so because the artist's soul is added to it. Art is the fusion of the artist's soul
and the object viewed by him. The artist adds something from his own imaginative faculty. He illumines
what is dark, and raises high what is low. Thus, art is the balance or reconciliation of opposites or
discordant qualities. The contraries are reconciled in art. They signify the universalising power of art.
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There is the union of heart and head in every work of art. Coleridge agrees with Wordsworth that 'art
embodies the union of deep feeling with profound thought. ' In this process of reconciliation imagination
plays the vital role. Therefore, in Coleridge's view art is not an imitation of any object of nature. The
object of nature only ignites the soul of the artist, and then the artist's soul creates something that never
existed anywhere in the past, nor will it ever do in the future.
Q. 66. What is Poetry according to Coleridge?

Ans. Poetry, according to Coleridge, is the product of imagination working on the objects of life and
nature. It is an activity of imagination, idealizing the real and realising the ideal. As colours are to the art
of painting, words are to the art of writing poetry. Again, as the combination of colours decide the pattern
and quality of painting, so the arrangement of words aesthetically expressing the emotions and thoughts of
the poet decide the pattern and quality of poetry. But words arranged in the pattern of rhyme alone would
not make poetry. The following lines, for example, have rhyming ending, but they do not make poetry:
"Thirty days hath September, April, June and November. "
The real soul of poetry lies in its power of expressing and arousing emotions. However, rhyme and
rhythm add to the charm and pleasure of poetry. He says, "As a particular pleasure is found in
anticipating the recurrence of sounds and quantities, all compositions that have this charm super-added,
whatever be their contents, may be entitled poems. " But mere metre and rhyme, without imagination and
emotion for their basis would not make poetry.
But it should be remembered that pleasure and not truth is the immediate end of poetry. He does not
believe that moral preaching is the ultimate end of poetry. It is true that metrical form of composition has
more charm and pleasure. But they are merely apparel, and not the soul of poetry.
Q. 67. What was Coleridge's concept of Poetic Genius? How is it different from Poetic Talent?
Ans. Coleridge has very minutely differentiated between poetic genius and poetic talent. Poetic genius is
inborn, while poetic talent can be acquired and cultivated. He makes genius identical with imagination
and talent with fancy. Poetic genius is creative like imagination and talent merely combinatory like fancy.
Poetic genius is characterized by the following four factors:
(1) Power of Imagination—Poetry is the product of imagination working on the objects of human life and
nature. Therefore the first requisite of poetic genius is the power of imagination. It is this power of
imagination which infuses life, spark and beauty into the objects of the external world. The poetic genius
transforms the inanimate or cold objects into 'living entities' infused with life and light.
(2) Depth of Thought and Emotion—A poet of real genius is endowed with the deep power of thought
and emotion. Poetry is the expression of the poet's thought and emotion, and his genius gives them shape,
beauty, and grandeur.
(3) Shaping Power of Imagination—The poetic genius of the poet takes shape by his power of
imagination. The poet's genius would remain mute and submerged until his power of imagination gives it
shape and sound. Poetic genius cannot express itself except through his power of imagination.
(4) Instinct for Musical Delight—The basic function of poetry is to give aesthetic delight. Poetic genius
must be accompanied by the poet's natural faculty of musical delight.
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These four factors characterize the poet's poetic genius without which he cannot be a poet.
Q. 68. On what grounds does Coleridge criticise Wordsworth's theory of Poetic Language?
Ans. Though Wordsworth and Coleridge were co-poets in writing and publishing the Lyrical Ballads,
Coleridge did not agree with Wordsworth in his theory of Poetic Language enunciated by him in his
Preface to the Lyrical Ballads. There were two cardinal points in Wordsworth's theory. First, that poetry
should be written in the language of the common men as really spoken by them. Second, that there is no
essential difference between the language of prose and that of metrical composition. Coleridge did not
agree with either of these points.
Regarding the first point he says that there is an obvious contradiction in Wordsworth's own statement.
Wordsworth was conscious of the fact that a charge of 'triviality and meanness' may be brought against
poetry written in the language of the common men as really spoken by them. Therefore he adds that the
language of the common men should be "purified indeed from what appear to be its real defects, from all
lasting and rational causes of dislike or disgust. " Now Coleridge's contention is that when the language of
the common men has been so purified and corrected and improved upon, it no longer remains the
language of the common men as really used by them. Therefore there is no rational point in this part of
his theory of language. Moreover, all the major poems of Wordsworth himself are written in a language
which common men would even hardly understand.
Coming to the second point, Coleridge says that there will always remain an essential difference between
the language of prose and that of poetry. A poet has to write in rhyme or metre. This very fact would
change his choice of words and structure of sentences. Poetry cannot be written as prose. So long as
rhyme, rhythm and cadence remain essential requisites of poetry, its language will remain different from
prose. In conclusion Coleridge says, "There is and will always remain an essential difference between the
language of prose and that of metrical composition. "
Q. 69. On what basis does Shelley call the poets 'the unacknowledged legislators of the world'?
Or
How does Shelley defend poetry against the charges brought against it by Love Peacock in his Four
Ages of Poetry?
Ans. Shelley's A Defence of Poetry is a rejoinder to Love Peacock's charges levelled against it in his Four
Ages of Poetry. Peacock called poets 'semi-barbarians in a civilized community' and condemned Shelley's
own poetry as "querulous egotistical rhapsodies. "
Defending poetry, Shelley says that poetry is an embodiment of "beautiful idealism of moral excellence. "
The poet "excites a generous impulse, an ardent thirst for excellence. " He calls the poet 'a nightingale,
who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude, with sweet sound. " He says that poetry is the
creative impulse in man. Poets are "not only the authors of language and of music, of the dance and
architecture, and statutary, and painting, they are the institutors of laws, and founders of a civil society,
and the inventors of the arts of life. " They are "men of the most spotless virtue, the most consummate
prudence, the most fortunate of men. " They are "philosophers of the very loftiest power. " Poetry is 'the
record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds'. Poetry is 'the centre and
circumference of knowledge' and it 'comprehends all science. ' Consequently, Shelley calls the poets
"unacknowledged legislators of the world. " The poet reveals "those
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forms which are common to universal nature and existence. " Hence "a poem is the very image of life
expressed in its eternal truth. "
Thus "a poet, as he is the author of the highest wisdom, pleasure, virtue and glory, so he ought personally
to be the happiest, the best, the wisest, and the most illustrious of men. " So the poet is the legislator of the
moral, spiritual and intellectual life in the world.
The Victorian Critics and Their Critical Works

1. Matthew Arnold 1. Essays in Criticism (Two Series)
(1822-1888) 2. On Translating Homer
3. The Study of Celtic Literature
4. Preface to the Poems of 1853
2. Walter Horatio Pater 1. Appreciations
(1839-1894) 2. Studies in the History of the Renaissance
3. Plato and Platonism
4. Essays in The Guardian
Q. 70. What, according to Matthew Arnold, are the basic functions of a literary critic?
Ans. Matthew Arnold, himself a great critic, lays heavy responsibilities upon a literary critic. He says
that a critic is basically a teacher and he has a mission to fulfil. Holding that literature is a 'criticism of
life', the duty of the critic is to explain in what way this 'criticism' can ennoble life. The first duty of the
critic, therefore, is to make 'a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and
thought in the world, and thus to establish a current of fresh and true ideas. " This is the keynote of the
task of a critic. Arnold lays emphasis upon the word 'disinterested'. The critic must be absolutely
impartial without any prejudice or bias against or in favour of any particular author or literary school. He
must "see things as they really are. " The next function of the critic is to 'make the best ideas pervail. ' In
this respect the critic is a missionary. Thereafter his next function is to prepare an atmosphere favourable
for the production of creative literature. He must promote "a current of ideas in the highest degree
animating and nourishing to the creative power. " In his Culture and Anarchy he says that the critic as a
man of culture should be concerned with all aspects of living. In brief, the function of the critic in the
broadest sense of the term is to promote cultureto promote that part of culture
which depends upon knowledge of letters. He is motivated by the 'moral and social passion for doing
good. '
Q. 71. Discuss Matthew Arnold's Touchstone Method of Criticism.

Ans. Matthew Arnold's Touchstone Method of Criticism was really a comparative system of criticism.
Arnold was basically a classicist. He admired the ancient Greek, Roman, and French authors as the
models to be followed by the modern English authors. The old English authors like Shakespeare, Spenser
or Milton were also to be taken as models. Arnold took selected passages from the modern authors and
compared them with selected passages from the ancient authors and thus decided their merits. This
method was called Arnold's Touchstone Method.
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However, this system of judgment has its own limitations. The method of comparing passage with
passage is not a sufficient test for determining the value of a work as a whole. Arnold himself insisted
that we must judge a poem by the 'total impression' and not by its fragments. But we can further extend
this method of comparison from passages to the poems as whole units. The comparative method is an
invaluable aid to appreciation in any kind of art. It is helpful not merely thus to compare the masterpiece
and the lesser work, but the good with the not so good, the sincere with the not quite sincere, and so on.
Those who do not agree with this theory of comparative criticism say that Arnold is too austere, too
exacting in comparing a simple modern poet with the ancient master poet. It is not fair to expect that all
hills may be Alps. The mass of current literature is much better disregarded. By this method we can set
apart the alive, the vital, the sincere from the shoddy, the showy and the insincere.
Q. 72. Discuss Matthew Arnold's definition of poetry as 'Criticism of life'.

Or
Discuss Matthew Arnold's views on the relationship between poetry and morality.
Ans. Matthew Arnold defines Poetry "as a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism
by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty. " He adds, "The future of poetry is immense, because in
poetry, where it is worthy of its high destinies, our race, as time goes on, will find an ever surer and surer
stay. . . . The strongest part of our religion today is its unconscious poetry. " Quoting Wordsworth, he says
that poetry is "the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science. " But these
observations apply to the high and sublime poetry of high excellence. High poetry has a power of
'forming, sustaining, and delighting us as nothing else can. " This kind of poetry is, therefore, essentially
moral, not in the narrow didactic sense, but in the larger sense of conforming to the highest ideals of truth,
goodness, and beauty. In his essay on Wordsworth he says, "A poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a
poetry of revolt against life; a poetry of indifference towards moral ideas is a poetry of indifference
towards life. " But the term 'moral' should be used in its broadest sense, bearing upon the question "how to
live. " Wordsworth's poetry is essentially great in its 'noble and profound application of ideas to life. ' In
the true spirit it bears:
"On man, on nature, and on human life. " and sings of:
"Blessed consolations in distress,
Of moral strength and intellectual power,
Of joy in widest commonalty spread. "
Q. 73. On what type of subjects can great poetry be written?

Or
What type of subjects should be chosen to write great poetry upon?
Ans. "All Art", says Sciller, "is dedicated to joy, and there is no higher and no more serious problem than
how to make men happy. The right Art is that alone, which creates the highest enjoyment. " In order to
achieve this end, the first problem that comes before a poet is to choose a subject fit for high poetry. What
can be those subjects? Arnold himself replies: "Those, certainly, which most powerfully appeal to the
great primary human affections; to those elementary feelings which subsist permanently in the race, and
which are independent of time. " The modernness or antiquity of a subject has nothing to do with its
fitness for poetical representation. Its fitness depends upon its inherent qualities. The date or the age of
an action
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signifies nothing: the action or situation itself, its appeal to permanent human feelings, its power to please,
to move, and to elevate—these are the basic requisites of the subject fit for high class poetry. Whether
past or present the subject should be excellent because without an excellent subject excellent poetry
cannot be written. Quoting Aristotle, Arnold says, "All depends upon the subject: choose a fitting subject,
penetrate yourself with the feeling of its situation; this done, everything else will follow. " A trivial subject
cannot be raised to poetic excellence only by the art and craft of the poet. Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare,
Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth, Keats and all other great poets were able to write excellent poetry because
they were able to choose excellent subjects to write upon. The proper choice of subject is, therefore, a
matter of prime importance for a great poet.
Q. 74. Discuss Matthew Arnold's concept of Grand Style.

Ans. Discussing the essential ingredients of Grand Style, Arnold says that Grand Style 'arises in poetry
when a noble nature, poetically gifted, treats with simplicity or severity a serious subject. " The grand
style issues from rapidity of movement, plainness and directness of language, nobility of nature and
simple lucidity of mind. It is the same thing that Longinus calls Sublimity. There can be no sublimity
without sublime thoughts and sublime emotions issuing from a sublime heart. There can be no sublimity
without the sublimity of the soul. Great thoughts and great words issue only from great minds. At the
same time the subject treated therein also should be serious and grand enough to bear the weight of the
grand style. A trivial subject cannot bear the weight of grand style. The subjects fit for treatment in grand
style must 'powerfully appeal to the great primary human affections; to those elementary feelings which
subsist permanently in the race, and which are independent of time. " These are universal subjects that
cannot be bound down by any limits of time or place. They are fundamental with human nature sublimely
elevated. The action or situation to be treated under grand style must have the power 'to please, to move,
to elevate. ' The greatest practitioners of grand style are Homer in Greek, Dante in Latin, and Milton in
English. Arnold advises the modern poets to study and analyse their style and subject matter if they seek
to develop grand style in their own writings.
Q. 75. Which is higher between creative faculty and critical faculty?

Or
Which is higher between creative literature and critical literature?
Ans. Arnold holds that the creative faculty is better and higher than critical faculty. But the issue is not
so simple as it appears to be on the surface. The fact is that creative faculty and critical faculty are
interdependent on each other. One cannot exist without the other. It is true that creative power 'is the
highest function of man; it is proved to be so by man's finding in it his true happiness. ' Great poetry has
the power 'to please, to move, to elevate. ' Critical literature subsists on creative literature. Creative
literature is the foundation upon which critical literature is built, Arnold further says that 'for the creation
of a master-work of literature two powers must concur, the power of the man and the power of the
moment'.
This brings us to the other side of the issue. Who creates 'the power of the moment'? It is the critic. No
man, however gifted, can produce a great literary work without a proper intellectual atmosphere around
him. This proper atmosphere for the creation of a great creative work is prepared by the critic. It is the
basic and most important function of the critic to make 'a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate
the best that is known and thought in the world, and thus to establish a current of fresh and true ideas. '
The creative artist is enabled to produce his great works in the background and with the aid of this
atmosphere which Arnold calls 'the
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power of the moment'. As such the creative and the critical faculties are complementary to each other,
neither being better or higher than the other.
Q. 76. Discuss Walter Pater's Theory of Art.

Or
Discuss Walter Pater's Theory of Art for Art's Sake.
Ans. On the question of the function of Art in general, and of Poetry in particular, the Victorians were
divided into two camps. One camp represented by Carlyle and Ruskin advocated the theory of Art for
Life's Sake, and the other camp represented by Oscar Wilde and Walter Pater pleaded for Art for Art's
Sake. Pater became the champion of the theory of Art for Art's Sake. The central point of this theory was
that the only function of Art should be to 'give aesthetic pleasure', 'to give rapture to the soul', 'to give an
elevating excitement to the soul. ' Art should have nothing to do with moral preaching or teaching man
'how to live. ' Art should have no exterior motive beyond the aesthetic pleasure of the highest order that it
must give. Pater says that the true function of art is 'to give nothing but the highest quality of aesthetic
excitement to the moments of life as they pass. ' That art delights and enriches the soul is its sufficient
justification. Thus art is its own reward: it beholds the spectacle of life 'for the mere joy of beholding' and
for no other purpose. It is a delightful experience in itself. When applied to literature, it means literature
of power, as against the literature of knowledge. Literature of power gives new and beautiful shape to the
facts of life. Whether written in prose or verse, it must add to the grandeur of thought, to the nobility of
emotions, and to the elevation of the soul. This approach would make art 'not only good art, but also great
art. '
Q. 77. What are the salient features of good style according to Walter Pater?
Ans. Effective style is an essential feature of good and great literature. However, noble and sublime the
thoughts and emotions of the author may be, he will not be able to produce great literature if his style of
writing is weak or inartistic. Pater says that there are three factors which determine the style of an author.
They are: Diction, Design and Personality.
By diction Pater means vocabulary and choice of fitting words. The author must be able to apply 'a
vocabulary faithful to the colouring of his own spirit'. He must be able to express his thoughts and
sentiments through correct, precise and accurate words befitting the context of the mental situation. He
should not use obsolete and worn-out words. At the same time he should be economical in the use of
words. He must exercise self-restraint in the use of words. He should be cautious against using a single
superfluous or out-of-the context word. He should also avoid using uncommon, high-sounding and
difficult words.
Then comes the design of the whole work and its chapters. He should conceive of the total design and
structure of the work before starting it. He should have an architectural design before his mental eye. He
should "foresee the end in the beginning and never lose sight of it, and in every part remain conscious of
all the rest, till the last sentence occurs, with undiminished vigour unfold and justify the first. "
In the end comes the role of the personality of the author. The author should have a large heart, a broad
mind, and generous personality. It is rightly said that the style is the man himself: A mean mind cannot
conceive of sublime thoughts or expressions. A man's soul peeps out through his style. The author should
have 'the soul of humanity' in him.
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Q. 78. What is the function of criticism according to Walter Pater?

Ans. The primary function of the critic, according to Pater, is to understand the outer and inner meaning
of what an author has written, and to explain it to the reader. So Pater says that the critic must 'feel the
virtue of the poet or the painter, to disengage it, to set it forth—these are the three stages of the critic's
duty. ' Now, 'the virtue of the poet' means his sense of fact found in the content of his work and in the style
of his presentation. The critic's function is to discover wherein lies the poet's particularity and originality
both in his content and style. What is the distinctive mark in his work? The distinctive mark in
Tennyson's poetry, for example, is his attempt to reconcile the two opposite poles of faith and scepticism
in the Victorian Age. However, there may be something very ordinary, or even tedious and useless in the
poetry of the best of the poets. This calls in the second function of the critic. The critic must separate
these weaker parts from his poetry and present before the reader the best of his poetry. This is what
Matthew Arnold has done in his selections from Wordsworth's poetry. "To disengage the poet's virtue or
his sense of things from such commoner things" is the second task of the critic. Then comes the third task
of the critic. This is 'to indicate to the reader the source of the poet's impression, and under what
conditions it must have been experienced. ' Here the critic becomes 'a true student of aesthetics. '
Critics of the Modern Age and Their Works
1. T. S. Eliot (1888- 1. The Sacred Wood

1965)
2. Homage to John Dryden
3. Selected Essays
4. The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism
5. Elizabethan Essays
6. Essays Ancient and Modern
7. Poetry and Drama
8. The Three Voices of Poetry
2. I. A. Richards 1. The Foundation of Aesthetics (with C. K. Ogdan

and
(Born 1893) James Wood)
2. The Meaning of Meaning (with Ogdan)
3. The Principles of Literary Criticism
4. Practical Criticism
3. F. R. Leavis (Born 1. Scrutiny (a Quarterly Journal)

1895)
2. Towards Standards of Criticism
3. Revaluation
4. New Bearings in English Poetry
5. The Great Tradition
6. The Common Pursuit
7. Culture and Environment
8. Education and the University
4. Henry James (1843- 1. The Art of the Novel

1916) 2. The Art of Fiction
3. The House of Fiction
4. Seven Types of Ambiguity
5. William Empson 2. Some Versions of Pastoral

(Born
1906) 3. The Structure of Complex Words
108
Q. 79. What is the function of criticism according to T. S. Eliot?

Ans. In his essay The Function of Criticism, T. S. Eliot discusses the basic concept of literary criticism
and its function. He says that the primary function of criticism is an objective and impersonal
'commentation and exposition of works of art by means of written words. ' True criticism is a system of
scientific enquiry into the essential spirit of a work of art. The function of the critic is to see a work of art
as it is, and to present before the reader what he sees in it. Thus criticism is 'a disinterested exercise of
intelligence' bearing on a work of art. A good critic must aim at the clear 'elucidation of works of art and
the correction of taste. ' 'Elucidation' is needed because most of the readers are prone to 'confuse issues'
implied in a work of art. Similarly, 'correction of taste' is needed because every critical effort must act 'as
a kind of cog regulating the rate of change in literary taste. ' With his attention fixed solely and steadfastly
on the work before him, he has to dig deep into it for the law that can account for it fully. T. S. Eliot
further says that the most important critic of a creative artist is the author himself. No author can produce
a great literary work if he does not have an inherent critical faculty in himself. T. S. Eliot says, "I
maintain even that the criticism employed by a trained and skilled writer on his own work is the most
vital, the highest kind of criticism; and some creative writers are superior to others solely because their
critical faculty is superior. "
Q. 80. What are the essential qualifications of a perfect critic according to T. S. Eliot?
Ans. According to T. S. Eliot, an ideal critic performs two basic functions— 'elucidation of a work of art
under his review', and 'correction of taste. ' A perfect critic must possess a highly trained mind and refined
literary taste to be able to perform these two basic functions. He must have the taste and talent to
understand the true nature of poetry. He must possess a disciplined and analytical mind to 'elucidate' a
work of art through 'comparison and analysis. ' Furthermore, his judgments must be balanced and
impartial, unaffected by any kind of bias or prejudice. "Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is
directed not upon the poet, but upon the poetry. " He must not belong to any particular literary school or
movement. He must make disinterested endeavour to know and propagate the best that is known and
thought in the world. He must be able to overcome all his prejudices and also refrain from an excessive
quest for 'sources', 'influences' and such other extraneous information. For him a work of art must be
complete in itself. He must be able to 'bring permanent artistic values to bear upon contemporary art. ' He
must also have the moral courage to reject the wrong and uphold the true and genuine element in a work
of art. It is true that some biographical information about the author may be useful, but it should not be
explored too much. In his concluding remarks, Eliot says that a perfect critic should not merely be a
technical expert, but also "the whole man, a man with convictions and principles, and of knowledge and
experience of life. "
Q. 81. What is T. S. Eliot's meaning of Tradition, and what is the role of the individual talent in it?
Ans. The terms 'Tradition' and 'Traditional' are generally used in the derogatory sense. But with T. S.
Eliot they are hallowed with historical and cultural stream from antiquity to the modern times. It is a
stream that connects the past with the future through the present. So Eliot says, "It involves, in the first
place, the historical sense, which we may call nearly indispensable to anyone who would continue to be a
poet beyond his twenty-fifth year; and the historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness
of the past, but of its presence. " He continues to say, "This historical sense, which is a sense of the
timeless as well as of the temporal, and of the timeless
109
and of the temporal together, is what makes a writer traditional. " A great poet can conspicuously show his
talent in this stream of tradition. No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His
significance can be judged only when he is placed and evaluated in the stream of the great poets of the
past. So Eliot says, "You cannot value a poet alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison,
among the dead. This is a principle of aesthetic, not merely historical criticism. " A poet must know that
he has to be judged by the standards of the past. It is a comparison in which two things are measured by
each other. The poet must be very conscious of the main currents, past as well as the present. A great
poet must set himself in this tradition coming down since antiquity.
Q. 82. Discuss T. S. Eliot's Impersonal Theory of Poetry.

Ans. The central point of T. S. Eliot's Impersonal Theory of Poetry is that 'the poet, the man, and the
poet, the artist are two different entities. ' The poet has no 'personality' of his own. He submerges his own
personality, his own feelings and experiences into the personality and feelings of the subject of his poetry.
Eliot says, "It is not in his personal emotions, the emotions provoked by particular events in his life, that
the poet is in any way remarkable or interesting. ' The experiences or impressions which are obviously
autobiographical may be of great interest to the writer himself, but not to his readers. The more perfect
the poet, the more completely separate in him will be the man who experiences and creates. The mind of
the poet is like the shred of platinum without which a certain chemical reaction cannot take place, but the
platinum remains unaffected. In the same way the mind of the poet remains unaffected during his poetic
composition. So Eliot says, "Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is
not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. " He continues to say, "The emotion of
art is impersonal. And the poet cannot reach this impersonality without surrendering himself wholly to
the work to be done. " Impressions and experiences which are important for the man may take no place in
his poetry; and those which are important in his poetry may play a very negligible role in his life and
personality. The poet must suppress his personal feelings. "The progress of the artist is a continual self-
sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality. "
Q. 83. Explain T. S. Eliot's Theory of Objective Correlative.

Ans. T. S. Eliot enunciates his Theory of Objective Correlative in his famous essay Hamlet and His
Problems. Eliot calls Hamlet "an artistic failure" because it is wanting in Objective Correlative. Eliot
says that every powerful character in a play has a flood of powerful feelings and emotions within his heart
which force to express themselves. If the character raves or laments loudly all alone on the stage, the
scene would appear to be highly crude and inartistic. His powerful emotions must express themselves
through some suggestive objective symbols. These symbols may be objects or unconscious actions.
These objects or actions are called Objective Correlatives. Eliot says, "The only way of expressing
emotion in the form of art is by finding an objective correlative; in other words, a set of objects, a
situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the
external facts which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked.
" The innermost feelings of the character are objectified and externally presented on the stage through
these objective correlatives. The best example of objective correlative is found in the 'Sleep Walking'
scene in Macbeth, where Lady Macbeth walks holding a candle and rubbing her hands, as if washing
them, and murmuring 'all the perfumes of Arabia will not be able to sweeten this little hand. " She does
over again what she had done before in the scene of king
110
Duncan's murder. These actions of hers are objective correlative of her deeply suppressed feelings of
spiritual agony and repentance. In other words, the agony, unexpressed as such, is made so objective here
that it can be as well seen by the eyes as felt by the heart.
Q. 84. Which is superior between creative faculty and critical faculty according to T. S. Eliot?
Ans. T. S. Eliot does not agree with the general view that creative faculty is better and higher than the
critical faculty. He holds the view that the creative and critical faculties are complementary to each other.
While criticism cannot exist without creative literature, creative literature cannot flourish without critical
principles and evaluation. Neither can exist and flourish without the other. True criticism is the
institution of a scientific enquiry into a work of art to see it as it really is. The artist would learn much
from the analysis and evaluation of his work by a critic. Thus Eliot perceives the important role played by
critical faculty in the creative process. This invalidates the romantic notion of creation as being purely
inspirational. He upholds the importance of subtle manipulation of material by an ever-vigilant judgment
of a critic. Thus Eliot refutes Arnold's contention that creative faculty is higher and nobler. He
establishes the "capital importance of criticism in the work of creation itself. " To Eliot, on the contrary,
"the large part of the labour of an author in composing his work is critical labour; the labour of sifting,
combining, constructing, expunging, correcting, testing, and so on. " These are all products of critical
faculty. He goes on to say that the "criticism employed by a trained and skilled writer on his own work is
the most vital, the highest kind of criticism. " He concludes that "some writers are superior to others solely
because their critical faculty is superior. "
Q. 85. Discuss T. S. Eliot's views about Impressionistic or Aesthetic School of Criticism.

Ans. T. S. Eliot did not approve of the Impressionistic School of Criticism because it was purely
subjective without any definite norms or principles to evaluate a literary work. Mr. Symons initiated this
approach, which was further supported by Pater and Swinburne. T. S. Eliot called it "Imperfect Criticism.
" Explaining his approach, Symons says that "it is a faithful record of the impressions, more numerous or
more refined than our own, upon a mind more sensitive than our own. These impressions are as much
created as transmitted by the criticism. "
T. S. Eliot's objection is that an individual's personal impressions can neither be universal nor unbiased
nor unprejudiced. They cannot set a standard of evaluation for others. They would differ from person to
person according to one's taste, level of sensitivity, and power of discrimination. Eliot says that a critic is
concerned only with the principles and precepts of poetic communication, not with the man behind a work
of art. The main objective of criticism is 'the common pursuit of true judgment', unconditioned by any
'personal prejudices or cranks'. A true critic encounters in a work of art its intrinsic vision, embodied in a
well-organised system. In brief, T. S. Eliot launches a violent attack on all impressionistic critics who
seek a kind of "self-gratification through their subjective pronouncements on writers and their works. "
Q. 86. Discuss I. A. Richards' concept of Poetry and poetic composition.

Ans. I. A. Richards is the most influential literary theorist of the twentieth century. He is the pioneer of
what has come to be known as New Criticism. He judges every literary and aesthetic activity in the light
of the latest discoveries in the field of psychology and working of human mind. It is in the same light of
human
111
psychology and working of human mind that he gives his theory of Poetry and poetic composition. He
says that poetry is a 'system of impulses' produced in the mind by some stimulus leading to the production
of poetry. When the stimulus first occurs, it produces a large number of mixed impulses which pull the
mind in different directions. Gradually these impulses organise themselves in a state of poise and get
ready to follow a common course. In this state of mental and emotional poise poetry germinates. But it
should be remembered that by poetry Richards means not only verse but all imaginative literature. The
poet simply records the happy play of impulses on a particular occasion. The reader of poetry should not
seek any thought from a poem; he should only share the experience, the happy play of impulses working
in the mind of the poet. However, much that goes to produce a poem is, of course, unconscious. It should
be remembered, as the modern psychologists say, that the unconscious processes are more important than
the conscious ones. It is these unconscious impulses that lead the poet or any artist to produce a poetical
work or any other work of art.
Q. 87. Discuss I. A. Richards' theory of Poetic Communication.

Ans. Poetic Communication, for Richards, is an implied, not vocal, dialogue between the poet and the
reader. He says, "The arts are the supreme form of the communicative activity, since any attempt to
harness psychology to the service of criticism is bound to insist upon poetry as a strictly analysable human
activity. " However, communication is not the primary function of the poet. Communication of his
experience is no part of the poet's work. Eliot says, "Communication is an irrelevant or at best a minor
issue, and that what he is making is something which is beautiful in itself, or satisfying to him personally,
or something expressive of his emotions, or of himself, something personal and individual. That other
people are going to study it, and to receive experiences from it may seem to him a merely accidental,
inessential circumstance. " But this conscious neglect of communication does not in the least diminish the
importance of the communicative power. The extent to which his work accords with his experience can
be known only by the extent to which it arouses the same experience in others. If it fails to do so, the
experience has not been accurately embodied in the work. To that extent the poet has failed in his
mission. Man being accustomed to communication from infancy, each experience of his takes a
communicative form. Eliot says, "The emphasis which natural selection has put upon communicative
ability is overwhelming. " The poet uses 'emotive language' i. e. , language of emotions, and
communicates his experiences 'with his heart on fire. ' Thus communication is inseparable from his poetic
experience.
Q. 88. What is the value of Poetry according to I. A. Richards?

Ans. Thomas Love Peacock denounced poets and poetry in his notorious booklet The Four Ages of
Poetry. He wrote that poets were only exploring myths and legends and were thus "wallowing in the
rubbish of departed ignorance. ' He further wrote, "A poet in our times is a semibarbarian in a civilized
community. He lives in the ways that are past. His ideas, thoughts, feelings, associations, are all with
barbarous manners, obsolete customs, and exploded superstitions. The march of his intellect is like that of
a crab, backward. " Keeping these absurd allegations in his mind, Richards pleaded that even in this age of
science, scepticism and interrogation, poetry has its great value. It enlivens, ennobles and regenerates our
benevolent and humanitarian feelings and emotions. Thus it plays a vital role in the life of the individual
and society. In the mind and heart so enlightened by poetry there lies the hope of civilization.
112
Explaining his point of view, Richards says that experiences of life may be both good and bad. The poet
responds to and communicates only the good and pleasurable ones through the medium of his poetry.
Normally, in routine life, mind receives all kinds of experiences, impressions, and reactions. In course of
time the weaker and unpleasant impressions are washed away, and only the deeper, pleasurable and
benevolent ones get imprinted in the mind. The poet enshrines these deeper and nobler experiences in his
poetry and unconsciously communicates them to society. Thus poetic experiences and impulses take the
form of highest moral values. They create and spread currents of hope, delight, refinement, and highest
moral values in human environment. Nothing can be nobler than poetic experience and its dissemination.
Q. 89. What is the importance of criticism according to I. A. Richards?

Or
Discuss I. A. Richards' approach to literary criticism.
Ans. I.A. Richards is the most influential literary theorist of the twentieth century. He is the pioneer of
New Criticism which is primarily based on the scientific study of human mind and psychology. Before
him literary criticism was either purely legislative bound down by ancient rules and principles, or it was
largely subjective or impressionistic which admitted of no norms or standards, as it was governed by
individual whims, likings or personal reactions. It was I. A. Richards who based literary criticism upon
the latest scientific discoveries into the working of human mind, psychology and impulses. In the first
chapter of his Principles of Criticism he totally dismisses 'The Chaos of Critical Theories', and equips his
theories with 'experimental weapons. ' He says that there is a clearly definable 'impulse' behind every
literary creation, and this 'impulse' can be probed into by the modern experimental psychology. If this is
done, the 'mystery' of the literary art will no longer remain a mystery. The science that can really unravel
the secrets of literature is psychology. From the analysis of the writer's own work, its inner process cannot
be known. The inner process of the working of the artist's mind is largely unconscious. Until this
unconscious working is probed to its source, the criticism of this work will remain incomplete. Richards'
application of the experimental psychology in the evaluation of a literary work is a remarkable step in this
direction. "All other critical principles," he says, "are arbitrary, and the history of the subject is a record
of their obstructive influence. " His comments on a literary work "amount to a concise treatise on
psychology. " As such a lay reader cannot bear the burden of his analysis. He takes resort to a friendly
critic.
Q. 90. What was F. R. Leavis's Concept of Literature and its function?

Ans. Literature, for F. R. Leavis, is not merely an aesthetically written work of art designed to give
pleasure to the reader. It is not simply a document of 'language charged with meaning to the utmost
possible degree. ' According to Leavis, it is 'the storehouse of recorded values. ' it is the writer's
exploration of the cultural tradition of his age. It is a record of all that the age habitually thinks, feels, and
acts upon. Literature keeps the healthy moral and cultural traditions alive. Great literature does
something more too—it enriches a nation's cultural heritage and traditions in several ways. Great
literature age after age forms the literary tradition of a nation. It is in literature that the best of the nation's
culture, both of the past and the present, is kept alive and communicated to the future. It appeals to and
elevates not only the smaller section of educated people but also refines the masses. It exercises a
pervasive influence upon feeling, thought, culture, and standard of living. In brief, literature is not just an
aesthetic experience but a faithful record of the author's profoundest interests in life. Leavis says,
"Aesthetic is a term the literary critic would
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do well to deny himself. Opposed to moral, it certainly doesn't generate light. " Leavis also says that
literature is higher than history even in preserving the culture of the past. History only maintains the
record of the past; literature infuses life into it. Literature re-lives the life and culture of the past for us.
Leavis calls it 'the exploratory-creative use of words upon experience. "
Q. 91. What is the function of criticism according to F. R. Leavis?

Ans. Great literature is the store-house and preserver of the highest moral, cultural, ideological and
aesthetic values and traditions of mankind. The really good and serious literature of the present is a
'continuation and development of the really good and serious literature of the past. ' Therefore really great
literature combines the highest moral and cultural values of the past with those of the present and thus
paves the way to the future. Then comes the function of the critic. The primary function of the critic is
first to disengage the really good and great literature from the weaker one, and then to analyse the highest
and best moral and cultural values contained in the great literature. His function is to explain and
disseminate those great qualities of literature to the masses. The critic has to see what is still alive of the
literature of the past, and further to explain the modifications made in it by the present ideologies. The
critic has to judge a work 'as in itself it really is'. He has not to worry about outside norms, rules, or
theories of art. He should be concerned with the work in front of him as complete in itself. He has to
explore, bring out and present the best thoughts contained in it without considering whether the artist has
applied the established literary rules and theories or not. He has not to take into consideration any
extraneous information. He has not to consider or give weightage to any established reputation. No
matter if the established reputation of an author is disturbed. The critic has to remain detached in
evaluating a work of literature before him. Leavis says, "The business of the critic is to perceive for
himself, to make the finest and sharpest relevant discriminations, and to state his findings as responsibly,
clearly and forcibly as possible. "
Q. 92. What are the criteria of good literary criticism according to F. R. Leavis?
Ans. F. R. Leavis does not adhere to any prescribed 'Rules' or the 'Principles-coming down from the
ancients for judging the value of a literary work. For him the 'Literary Work' formulates its own criteria
for its evaluation. Its value must be sought in the work itself, in 'the words on the page. ' When this is
done, balanced judgment will automatically follow. In this respect the reader's own literary and aesthetic
sense has to play a great role. The reader must be trained from the very beginning that he should not be
led away by propaganda or mass media. He must apply his own 'sensitive and scrupulous use of
intelligence. ' Then 'even if he is wrong, he has forwarded the business of criticism—he has exposed
himself as openly as possible to correction; for what criticism undertakes is the profitable discussion of
literature. " F. R. Leavis also believes in intelligent discrimination amongs good, bad or ordinary authors
and their works. It is not worthwhile evaluating every author as the historian does. He recommends the
evaluation of only those authors and their works which qualify for 'the great tradition' in each genre. This
view is in conformity with the view of Longinus who recommends that only those works should be
studied and evaluated which are 'truly beautiful and sublime' and 'which always please and please all. ' He
recommends the close study and evaluation of the text of the work itself. The critic must be self-reliant,
free from all prejudices and biases in his approach to any individual author. The American critics
belonging to the so-called 'School of New Criticism' also follow Leavis's method of 'Textual analysis and
evaluation. '
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Q. 93. Discuss Henry James as a Critic.

Ans. Henry James was pre-eminently a critic of the novel. There was a lot of systematic criticism of
poetry before him, but practically no systematic criticism of the novel was there before him. He was
himself a great novelist, and therefore he knew what problems normally come before a novelist and how
to overcome them. Therefore he stands out as the first great critic of the art of novel writing. His
criticism is contained in a series of eighteen Prefaces and a large number of his notebooks. They were all
collected in a book-form under the title The Art of the Novel published in 1934. His object in his criticism
was ambitious and clear; it was to create from nothing an English tradition in the criticism of the novel.
No such systematic criticism of the art of novel existed before it.
Jame's criticism falls into three stages. In the first stage almost all his criticism is about contemporary
authors, English, American and French. Secondly, there is the magnificent central phase that opens with a
manifesto-like The Art of Fiction. Thirdly, there are the Prefaces of 1907-9, composed in a single,
confined period of preparation for the collected edition of his works. They are nearly a total statement of
his views on the novel. James holds that without a properly connected and artistically developed form, the
novels are merely 'fluid puddings. ' Life, for Emerson, is not just an untidy system, it is a moral
imperative. James's heroes make their bid for life and meet defeat at the end, and yet they are justified in
their attempt. James developed the technique we now call 'the central intelligence. ' The extent of
revolution that James brought in the criticism of the novel is difficult to overstate.
Q. 94. Write a note on William Empson as a Critic.

Ans. William Empson is primarily remembered for his famous critical work Seven Types of Ambiguity.
This is his first and most influential work. It appeared in 1930, and again, heavily revised and enlarged, in
1947. There have been only three books of criticism since, and two very slim volumes of neo-Metaphical
Verse largely written in the thirties. There were only two chief pre-occupations of the New Criticism—
Verbal and Structural. The Seven Types represents rising 'stages of advancing logical disorder. ' The
ambiguities emerge from the use of words.
With his second critical book, Some Versions of Pastoral, his interest shifts to the total meaning of whole
works, with many evidences of powerful Marxist and Freudian influence. Empson himself admits that his
Marxism in the thirties and later was more serious than his writings reveal. The Some Versions assumed
the class-analysis of society and the ideal status of the 'proletariat': though he frankly admits that the book
is 'not a solid piece of sociology'. He says that Pastoral is one of the conventions out of which 'ambiguity'
emerges because it consists in 'simple people expressing strong feelings in learned and fashionable
language. '
With his third book, The Structure of Complex Words (1951) Empson returns to verbal analysis of an even
more rigorous kind than that of Seven Types. He says, "I think a critic should have an insight into the
mind of his author, and I don't approve of the attack on "The Fallacy of Intentionalism. "
Of all the English critics, he is the most variously ingenious, and the readiest to make new ventures. His
mind sparks off original ideas with frightening rapidity.
Q. 95. Write a note on the Moralist Critics of the Mid-Twentieth Century.

Ans. There emerged a School of Moralist Critics in the mid-twentieth Century. George Watson says:
"Most English critics before Arnold and Ruskin assumed that all good poetry is morally edifying, and that
it is always a writer's duty to make the world better. But there is a tradition in twentieth century criticism
stemming from Arnold which is distinct from all previous moral theories of literature. The difference
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may be simply stated: Johnson like other Renaissance and eighteenth-century critics took it for granted
that everyone is more or less agreed about the difference between right and wrong, and that the moral duty
of the poet lies simply in observing a recognized code. Justice is a virtue independent of time and place.
Modern moralism, by contrast, is more often agnostic, exploratory, and self-consciously elitist. Its tone is
more often embittered. Its very dogmatism is based upon the uncertainty of its dogma and the difficulty
of finding an audience. " John Middleton proclaimed that criticism depended on values—a delineation of
what is good for man. George Orwell and F. R. Leavis offer an unusually pure example of critical
moralism. The vast school of Shakespearean criticism inspired by Wilson Knight has enthusiastically
interpreted dramatic characters as if they were typical philosophers. The critic's business is to assert what
the morally best poems are.
The moralists are the prophetic figures in modern criticism. They must readily excite discipleship. Their
influence may even extend to matters of conduct; in some cases the critical interest is a late extension of
some wider moral purpose. George Orwell may be taken as a model of modern English moralist.
Raymond Williams's Culture and Society and its sequel The Long Revolution are both scholarly and
prophetic. Hoggart belongs to the tradition of Arnold. Thus we see that moralism is as common today as
ever before, but it is less sharp than in the past.
Q. 96 Write a note on New Criticism.

Ans. During the nineteen-thirties there emerged in America a group of critics who came to be known as
the founders of the so-called New Criticism. Its pioneer was John Crowe Ransom. Other critics who
belonged to this new concept in literary criticism were Robert Graves, William Empson, Kenneth Burke,
Allen Tate, and Robert Penn Warren. George Watson says: "In the American New Critics, contempt for
late nineteenth-century values is general, not only for historical criticism and its accompanying pedantries,
but for agnostic enlightenment, democratic optimism, industrialism, and such international ideals as
Marxism. It is a frankly reactionary movement, and the word 'New' must always have held for it an air of
pleasing paradox. " In the late nineteen-thirties a general attack on historical criticism was fiercely
mounted. The New Critics condemned poetry for its use for any other purpose beyond itself. It should
not be studied for any other purpose whether historical or moralistic. These critics declared that if poetry
is worth reading at all, it is worth reading as poetry only, not for any purpose beyond it.
The detailed explanation of the basic doctrines of the New Criticism appeared as late as 1946-49 in two
articles published in the Sewanee Review by W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe C. Beardsley. The articles
were entitled 'The International Fallacy' and 'The Affective Fallacy'. Two of the assumptions of romantic
criticism are held up to the light in these articles and pronounced fallacious: "The design or intention of
the author is neither available nor desirable as a standard for judging the success of a work of literary art.
" Their slogan was 'Poetry is poetry only, and not another thing. ' However, some of the New Critics were
a little tolerant too. They said: "We must accord to critics the right of free choice as between different
basic methods. "
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SECTION IV
Essay-Writing
Question: Write an Essay on one of the following topics in upto 1000 Words.
(1)
Chaucer as the Father of English Poetry
"Father of Verse; who in immortal song

First taught the Muse to speak the English tongue. "
Dryden rightly called Chaucer 'the Father of English poetry' and held him in highest reverence. He wrote,
"In the first place, as he is the Father of English poetry, so I hold him in the same degree of veneration as
the Grecians held Homer, or the Romans Virgil. " "With him", says Matthew Arnold, "is born our real
poetry. " He is the first of the great English poets and 'the earliest of the great moderns. ' He is acclaimed
as the first realist, the first humanist, the first humorist, the first narrative artist, the first great character-
painter, the first metrical artist in England, and the first architect of English language.
Architect of English Language: The first requirement for any author to produce any form of literature is
to have an effective language. Before Chaucer English was not given the honour of being a standard
national language. Before him the native tongue was taken to be the language of the uneducated country
folk or even of the ruffians. Chaucer took the East Midland dialect and reformed, reshaped, and
popularised it as a national language. He wrote his famous Canterbury Tales in this language. So Lowes
says, "Chaucer found his native tongue a dialect and left it a language. " Spenser called him "our well of
English undefiled. " So Chaucer is not only the Father of English poetry, but also of English language.
The First Realist: Chaucer was the first realist faithfully depicting the social, cultural and religious life of
the people of the fourteenth century. The Prologue is certainly most valuable as a picture of contemporary
society. Religious pilgrimages in small groups and parties were really an important practice of social life
in those days. His characters are truly realistic portraits. The men and women he depicted in The
Prologue are as real today as they were in Chaucer's days. In fact, they are universal characters belonging
to different social classes and professions. Therefore Dryden rightly said, "Here is God's plenty. " In this
respect, Blake's observation is final: "Of Chaucer's characters some of the names or titles are altered by
time, but the characters themselves ever remain unaltered, and consequently they are physiognomies or
lineaments of universal human life beyond which nature never steps. " That the first great poet should
have achieved so much is really praiseworthy.
Chaucer's Character-Portraits: Chaucer is also a great portraitist of characters. His characters are life-
like. He portrays them in words as a painter would portray them in colours. He has created living human
figures as contrasted with the pale shadowy characters of the old metrical romances. Each of the
characters in The Prologue has his individual traits. While each character is sufficiently individualized, it
has the basic enduring qualities of the class to which he belongs. Thus each of his
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characters acquires something of universality. Such is the creative art of Chaucer as no poet before him
had acquired. Chaucer's art and genius bestowed immortality upon these characters. This art goes a long
way in recognizing him as the Father of English poetry.
Chaucer's Humour: Chaucer's humour and mild satire were also unprecedented. The great quality of his
humour is his detachment. There is no malice in his mild satire or irony. His humour is allied with his
humanism and gives a new zest to life. After all there must be something to make life worthwhile, to
relieve it of its tedium and sharp pangs. It is the holiday mood; it is the indulgent comic outlook. He has
the gift of laughter, and because he has the gift of large-hearted tolerance, he is amongst the greatest
comic writers—the father of English humour. It is his human-heartedness and tolerance that make his
humour so genial. His humour has no spirit of the reformer which takes away the zest of humour. His
Monk, the Friar, the Pardoner, the Wife of Bath—they have all their eccentricities which Chaucer exposes
without the slightest touch of malice or morbidity. Thus Chaucer's poetry has the glow of sunshine all
around it—a glow that was unknown before him.
Chaucer's Genius: Chaucer stands between the two worlds, one dead and the other struggling to be born.
He is a modern among the medievals and a medieval among the moderns. Chaucer did not, of course,
write a regular drama or a regular novel, but his Canterbury Tales contains the seeds of both the modern
drama and the novel. Therefore he has been justly called the 'fountain-source of the vast stream of
English Literature. ' Chaucer found his country without a national literature, he left it rich in the
possession of great literature. His Canterbury Tales not only rival the greatest productions of human
genius, but they also influenced in a direct and powerful degree his great successors like Shakespeare and
Milton. Shakespeare delightfully borrowed from him, and Milton expressed his heart-felt desire to be able
to write like him. A whole generation of poets in the fifteenth century imitated him, who came to be
known as the Scottish and English Chaucerians. In the Elizabethan Age, he was praised and imitated by
Spenser, Sidney, Shakespeare and Fletcher. Even in the Neo-Classical age he was praised and admired by
Dryden and Pope. So much so that his fame never stood higher than it does today.
The First National Poet: Chaucer was the first great national poet of England. He gave expression to the
new hopes and aspirations of the people of his times. He voiced through his poetry that national unity
which had been brought by the fusion of the Normans and the Anglo- Saxons. He reflects his age in his
work. He represents the medieval England as Pope represented the eighteenth century and Tennyson the
Victorian England. "He reflects his century not in fragments, but completely. His truthful pictures of his
age and country contain truth which is of all time and of all ages. " (Legouis) He broke away from the
spirit of Italian Renaissance and stood out for modern humanism. It was through him that the free secular
sprit of England expressed itself. His wide sympathy, gentle humanity, tolerance, and generosity make
him the first of the great modernists. On account of these traits he was hailed as "the Morning Star of the
Renaissance. " Legouis says, "Of all writers of genius Chaucer is the one with whom it is easiest to have a
sense of comeradeship. "
Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales is in reality a Prologue to several forms of modern literature.
Lowell calls his Prologue as the 'Prologue to modern fiction'. G. K. Chesterton says, "If Chaucer is the
Father of English poetry, he is the Grandfather of the English novel. " Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde is
called 'a novel in verse. ' S. D. Neill says, "Had Chaucer written in prose, it is possible that his Troilus
and Creseyede, and not Richardson's Pamela, would be celebrated as the first English novel. "
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So Dryden was right in calling Chaucer 'The Father of English poetry. ' He further said, "With Ovid ended
the Golden Age of the Roman tongue; with Chaucer the poetry of the English began. " Spenser hailed him
as:
"The Morning Star of song who made

His music heard below:
Don Chaucer, the first warbler, whose sweet breath
Precluded those melodious bursts that fill
With sounds that echo still. "
(2)
The Renaissance
The Renaissance as Re-birth of Learning: The term Renaissance literally means re-birth or revival. In
art and literature it meant the re-birth or revival of Greek art, literature, culture and pattern of life which
had partly or largely been destroyed by the repeated invasions of the Turks. The Turks were a barbarian
tribe who not only plundered the wealth of the Greeks, but also destroyed their art, literature and centres
of their culture and education during the fifteenth century. The death knell of the Greek art and literature
was wrung when Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turks in 1453. The Greek artists, scholars,
poets, and philosophers fled from Greece and carried with them their own books, manuscripts and other
objects of art together with those of their ancestors and found shelter in Italy. In Italy they found a very
favourable atmosphere for the revival and further enrichment of their art and literature. Therefore this
event may be taken as the starting point of the Renaissance.
The Spread of the Renaissance: The Greek learning was revived by the scholars of the Classics called
Humanists. They revived the knowledge of the Greek language, discovered and disseminated a great
number of Greek manuscripts, and added considerably to the number of Roman authors and works which
had been known to the Middle Ages. The result was enlarging immensely the stock of ideas, materials,
literary forms, and styles available to the Renaissance writers. In the mid-fifteenth century there also
came the invention of the Printing Machine. This invention led to the publication of cheap and good
books in plentiful numbers. A flood of publications, ancient and modern, poured from the presses all over
Europe which satisfied the demands of the rapidly expanding literate population. From Italy the
Renaissance spread through Germany, Spain, France, the Netherland and finally reached England. It took
nearly two centuries before the Renaissance reached England.
Renaissance in England: Though the Renaissance touched the shores of England during the reign of
King Henry VIII towards the close of the fifteenth century, it did not make any discernible impact on
English life or literature. The Renaissance became a national movement only during the reign of Queen
Elizabeth. During her reign it became a mass movement and flourished and came to fruition and reached
its zenith in the sphere of both life and literature. Its slow decline began during the reign of King James I
and it came to its end during the reign of King Charles I. Some scholars, however, hold the view that
Milton, in spirit, was the last of the Elizabethans and therefore the last of the Renaissance authors of
England.
Impact of Renaissance on English Life and Literature: The Renaissance had its powerful impact on
practically all aspects of English life and literature.
of Man as Man: The spirit of the Renaissance is first felt in recognizing the dignity of man as man.
According to the Renaissance concept, man should be a
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'completely rounded' or 'universal man'. He should be developed in all his faculties and skills, physical,
intellectual, and artistic. He should be trained to be a warrior and statesman, and also to be capable as
athlete, philosopher, artist, conversationalist, and man of society. He should be chivalrous in his attitude
to women. Sir Philip Sidney was an embodiment of such an ideal man in England. Sir Walter Raleigh, to
whom Spenser dedicated his Faerie Queene, was another such ideal man. So in the Letter dedicated to
him, Spenser proposed "to fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline. "
Upholding the dignity of man as man, Shakespeare writes in Hamlet: "What a piece of work is man ! How
noble in reason ! how infinite in faculties ! in form and moving, how express and admirable ! in action,
how like an angel, in apprehension, how like a god ! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals !"
This was the ideal of the Renaissance man often portrayed in Elizabethan literature.
Patriotic Zeal: England was at the climax of her power and glory during the Elizabethan Age. She had
subdued Spain in the historic battle of Armada. Now England was as proud as Greece had been before the
invasions by the Turks. Therefore the Renaissance spirit of patriotism animated the English men.
Patriotic zeal was generated by the Renaissance. This patriotic zeal finds expression in the Elizabethan
literature, specially in the Historical plays of Shakespeare. In Richard II, Gaunt speaks of England thus:
"This royal throne of kings, this sceptr'd isle,

This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings. "
This patriotic zeal was inspired by the true spirit of the Renaissance literature.
Beauty and Love: Beauty and love were the cardinal principles of the Renaissance. The concept of
superb feminine beauty and Platonic love was derived from Greek poetry. The Princess of Troy, Helen,
became an emblem of beauty, and her love for Paris became an example of Platonic love. Much of
Elizabethan lyrical poetry and practically all the comedies and Romances of Shakespeare revolved around
the theme of love and beauty. In Marlowe's Doctor Faustus the spirit of Helen is invoked and adored
thus:
"Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss !
………………………………………………
Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena. "
Adventure and Discovery of New Lands: Adventure and hazardous voyages over unchartered seas were
a part of both Greek life and literature. This spirit inspired the life and literature of all European countries,
specially of France, Portugal and England. This spirit led to the discovery of America and India. This
spirit had its impact on English literature too. Plato's Republic inspired Sidney to write his Arcadia, Lyly
to write his Euphues, and Bacon to write his New Atlantis. Shakespeare's Romances are also set in
imaginary newly discovered islands and countries.
Revival of Greek and Roman Literary Forms: The Renaissance also led to the revival and
popularization of all principal literary forms and genres introduced by
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Greek and Roman authors. They set the models and our English authors followed or even imitated their
patterns. Milton in The Paradise Lost and Spenser in The Faerie Queene followed the pattern of Homer's
Iliad. Milton's sonnets are called Petrarchan sonnets because Milton in his sonnets adopted the pattern of
the fourteenth century Italian poet Petrarch. Spenser in his pastoral poetry adopted the pattern of Virgil's
Pastorals. The Pindaric odes of Gray were written on the pattern of the odes written by the Greek poet
Pindar. The origin of even the lyrics can be traced back to the songs sung by the Greeks in
accompaniment of the lyre. Plato laid down the Theory of Imitation, Aristotle the Theory of Tradgedy
and of the Epic, Longinus prescribed the five principles of Sublimity in literature, and Aeschylus,
Euripides, and Sophocles laid down the models of Tragedy for Shakespeare. Ben Jonson's concept of
'Humours' also came from classical sources.
In all these different ways the Renaissance gave new life and grandeur to English Literature.
(3)
The Elizabethan Age
A Golden Age: The Elizabethan Age is rightly called the Golden Age in the history of England. England
made astonishing progress in all fields of national life. With the accession of Queen Elizabeth on the
throne of England in 1558, the whole country blossomed forth like a fresh flower radiating in a thousand
petals and sweet fragrance. Before the accession of Queen Elizabeth the whole country was shaken with
numerous internal upheavals and turmoils. The Queen suppressed all internal rebels and restored public
safety, confidence and freedom from care. The external powers invading the country were also crushed
down and England became a great power, sepcially as a Navy power. England took a sigh of relief and
Englishmen set down to develope their own trade and industry. The people got their long coveted leisure
to sit and study and meditate over the deeper truths of human life and the universe. Men of science
devoted themselves to explore further the mysteries of nature and artists and authors displayed their great
genius in different forms. The Renaissance was in its full swing in all spheres of life—Renaissance not
only in literature but also in religion, society, politics, commerce and science alike.
An Age of Peace and Prosperity: Under the above noted conditions England came to be widely known
as a great country flourishing in peace and prosperity. It was an age when trade and commerce of the
country were revolutionised. With the dissolution of monasteries there was a huge increase in the national
wealth. The manufacture of glassware, pillows, cushions and carpets were newly introduced in the
country. People were overjoyed to have such unprecedented and undreamt of comforts and luxuries.
England exported her industrial products to foreign countries. England became a centre of foreign trade.
In the field of religion too the long consuming controversy between Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism
was also settled and peace established. The Reformation in religion had been accomplished and therefore
perfect peace and calm prevailed in the country. The Authorised Version of the Bible was published,
which was accepted by all churches.
Age of High Adventure and Energy: It was also an age of overflowing energy and high spirits. Man
sought to break away from the fetters of human bonds and social and political bondages to face the sun, to
touch the moon and to talk to the stars. The key-note of the age was 'adventure. ' The voyagers and
navigators discovered new countries and islands and established their colonies there. Shakespeare
describes the spirit of man of this age in Hamlet in these lines:
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"What a piece of work is man ! How noble

in reason ! how infinite in faculties, in
form how moving ! how express and
admirable in action ! how like an angel in
apprehension, how like a god ! the beauty
of the world ! the paragon of animals !"
Age of National Victories: It was also an age of great and glorious national victories. England defeated
France and subdued Spain in the historic Battle of Armada. A number of internal Dukes and Barons who
had been revolting from time to time against the British sovereignty and claimed their independence, were
all crushed. England enjoyed internal peace and order on the one hand, and on the other foremost respect
and influence abroad over the continent. Tidal waves of nationalism flowed over the country. This
accounts for so many historical plays written by Shakespeare. Songs of glory were sung in praise of
England. Shakespeare speaks through the lips of Gaunt in praise of England thus:
"This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,

This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
" The narrow geographical boundaries were melting away and new islands and continents were discovered
in quick succession. The vast continent of America together with her rich gold mines was discovered and
they were added to the dominion of England. Sailors and navigators returned from their long and
hazardous voyages and brought with them factual or fictitious tales of their meetings with fairies or
demons and filled the English atmosphere with unprecedented thrill and romance. The Tempest, The
Midsummer Night's Dream of Skakespeare, The Arcadia of Sidney and several other such works derived
their inspiration from these stories of adventure.
Along with all these new discoveries and inventions, there also emerged a new and fresh study of
astronomy. Human spirit yearned to soar higher above the mundane plane of the earth and discover the
secrets of the stars. Scholars were irresistibly drawn by the lore of the luminary heavenly bodies:
"A star looks down at me

And says, 'Here I and you
Stand, each in our degree;
What do you mean to do?"
And man replied, "I mean to conquer you. " Stars were really conquered in the Elizabethan Age, revealing
new mysteries of heaven and earth.
With all these favourable conditions for the growth of arts and literature, there came a vogue of classical
studies and scholarship. The curiosity, excitement, wonder and imagination having been roused by the
above factors, a literary shape was given to them by the supreme and perfect examples of the great Greek
and Roman Classical masters like Homer and Virgil. In no time, England was turned into a vernal grove
of sweet singing birds.
The Literary Achievement of the Age: Art and literature can grow only in an atmosphere of peace,
order, and prosperity. The Elizabethan Age provided this favourable atmosphere to a remarkable degree.
As a result, the Elizabethan Age
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excelled in producing all forms of literature of the highest quality. It was an age in which 'men lived
intensely, thought intensely, and wrote intensely. ' "By virtue of its wonderful fertility and of the variety
and splendour of its production, this period as a whole ranks as one of the greatest in the annals of the
world's literature. " (W. H. Hudson) The greatest glory of this age was Shakespeare, who remains to this
day the greatest dramatist the world has produced. Coleridge said about him, "The greatest genius that
perhaps human nature has yet produced, our myriad-minded Shakespeare. " Dryden praised him in these
words: "He was the man, who of all modern and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and the most
comprehensive soul. " The greatest non-dramatic poet of the age was Spenser, the author of the Faerie
Queene and The Shepheardes Calender. Spenser was rightly hailed as 'the Poets' Poet. ' As an allegorical
epic the Faerie Queene remains unbeaten in the history of English poetry. Turning to prose literature, we
come to Sidney's Arcadia, a romance of unparallelled imaginative flight. Bacon is rightly celebrated as
'the Father of the English Essay. ' The same level of excellence we find in the field of lyrics, sonnets,
ballads and pastorals.
Thus the Elizabethan Age remains unsurpassed in all respects in the history of England.
(4)
The University Wits
The Immediate Predecessors of Shakespeare: The University Wits were a group of Oxford and
Cambridge University scholars who came to London to try their luck as professional playwrights
immediately before Shakespeare. It was the earliest stage of the development of drama as a popular
means of entertainment in public theatres and playhouses. George Sampson says: "During the sixteenth
century, the drama, now settled into a regular entertainment, seemed at first to be developing along two
divergent lines, which we may loosely describe as courtly drama acted by young gallants and choir
children in halls and noble houses, and popular drama acted by common players of interludes in the yards
of inns and later at the Theatre, the first London playhouse, erected in 1570. The literary men from
Oxford and Cambridge took the drama as their special province. " These scholars wrote plays for the
common public and they were acted in the public playhouses. The University Wits included John Lyly
(1544-1606), George Peele (1558-97), Robert Greene (1558-92), Christopher Marlowe (1564-93),
Thomas Kyd (1558-94), Thomas Nashe (1567-1601) and Thomas Lodge (1558-1625). The leader of the
University Wits was John Lyly, but the most powerful of them was Marlowe.
John Lyly: The leader of the University Wits was John Lyly. He chose themes for his plays from
classical deities. This is evident from the titles of his plays. His important plays are—A Most Excellent
Comedy of Alexander, Campaspe, and Diogenes, Sapho and Phao, Endimion the Man on the Moone,
Galathea, Midas, The Woman in the Moone, and Love's Metamorphosis. Most of these plays are believed
to have been played by 'Choir Children' before the Queen. Love is the principal theme in all of them.
They have all a touch of courtly life and behaviour. There is allegorising of current politics in them.
There is profuse use of lyrical songs in them. An important contribution of Lyly is that he has written his
comedies in prose. Sampson says, "Lyly was the first master of prose style in English comedy. He was
essentially a court dramatist, and added to drama the feminine qualities of delicacy, grace, charm, and
subtlety. The English drama was masculine already to the point of swaggering. Lyly refined it and took it
out of the alehouse into the presence-chamber. "
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Geroge Peele: George Peele was the next member of the group of the University Wits. His plays are The
Araygnement of Paris: A Pastoral, The Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First, The Battell of
Alcazar, The Old Wives' Tale, and The Love of King David and Faire Bethsabe. Though Peele's dramatic
career was very short, his work shows great variety. His Arraignment of Paris is a pastoral-masque,
Edward I a chronicle-history play, King David and Faire Bethsabe, a miracle play, and The Old Wives'
Tale a satirical drama. This last one is his most memorable play. This play seems to be a forecast of
Milton's Comus. The absurdities and impossibilities of romantic drama are pleasantly ridiculed in it.
Robert Greene: Robert Greene had been a scholar of both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. He had
travelled widely over Europe. He was deeply indebted to Italian authors. His plays are The Comicall
History of Alphonus King of Aragon, A Looking Glass for London and England, The History of Orlando
Furioso, The Honourable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bongay, and History of James the Fourth.
Alphonus seems to be an imitation of Marlowe's Tamburlaine. James TV is not a chronicle play, but just a
story of a king. Friar Bacon is a sort of idyllic romance. Greene developed a regular plot expressing deep
human feelings. His contribution to the development of regular and well-constructed English drama is
commendable.
Thomas Lodge: Thomas Lodge was a facile writer. His two plays which came in quick succession are
The Wounds of Civil War and A Looking Glasse for London and. England. This latter one was written in
collaboration with Greene. The Wounds of Civil War has some weak scenes of thrills and horrors.
However, Lodge added practically nothing to the development of the English drama.
Thomas Nashe: Thomas Nashe was basically a pamphleteer and story writer. He entered the arena of
English drama as one determined to leave no form untried. His plays are Dido Queene of Carthage and
Summers Last Will and Testament. Summers in this play is the name of a jester. The Unfortunate
Traveller, another play has some element of interest. His contribution to the development of English
drama is also negligible.
Thomas Kyd: Thomas Kyd was a very important member of the group called the University Wits. His
contribution to drama is great both intrinsically and historically. Sampson says, "He was the first English
dramatist to discover the bearing of episode and of dramatic movement upon the character, and the first to
give the audience a hint of the development that follows from this interaction. In other words, he is the
first English dramatist who writes dramatically. " His Spanish Tragedy is still considered to be a famous
tragedy. It is believed that he wrote a play Hamlet also which has been lost. His other plays are The
Tragedy of Solyman and Perseda, Jeronimo, and Apology for Actors. His importance in the group of
University Wits is next only to Marlowe.
Christopher Marlowe: Marlowe is the most outstanding figure amongst the University Wits. His
importance can be judged from the opinion of many critics that Marlowe was the model for Shakespere.
Had there been no Marlowe, there would have been no Shakespeare. Shakespeare learnt from Marlowe at
least two major dramatic techniques—his Theory of Tragedy and his Blank Verse. He learnt the concept
of the Tragic Hero and the spiritual conflict through which the hero passes from Marlowe's Dr. Faustus
and King Edward II. Marlowe's important plays are The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus, Tamburlaine,
The Jew of Malta, Edward II, The Massacre at Paris and Dido Queene of Carthage.
Marlowe was the prime creative force in English literature. Marlowe's heroes confront the fates; they are
not the sport of destiny. His Edward II was a model before Shakespeare for his historical plays. Edward
II was the first complete
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historical play. Doctor Faustus is the best example of the blending of the Morality play and spiritual
tragedy. The tragic lamentation of Dr. Faustus immediately before his death is an unparallelled example
of spiritual conflict in the soul of the tragic hero:
"See, see, where Christ's blood streams in the firmament!

One drop would save my soul, half a drop: ah, my Christ !
And rend not my heart for naming of my Christ !
……………………………………………
Mountains, hills, come, come, and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God !
……………………………….................
O soul, be changed into little water-drops,
And fall into the ocean, never be found !"
Marlowe's next great contribution was the Blank Verse, his Mighty Line. Sampson says, "His dramatic
blank verse unites the formal dignity of Gorboduc with the musical fluency of the Faerie Queene; and so
it is rhythmically free and inventive, capable alike of magic and of majesty, always the master and never
the slave of its metrical pattern. "
Thus Marlowe, the most powerful member of the University Wits laid down the strong foundation on
which English drama was built on in the ages to come.
(5)
Shakespeare's Conception of Tragedy
No Pre-Conceived Conception: Shakespeare had no pre-conceived conception of an ideal Tragedy

before he took to writing his Tragedies. He had, of course, before him Aristotle's theory of Tragedy, and
also the models of the great tragedies written by the great Greek dramatists like Euripides, Aeschylus, and
Sophocles. To these principles and practices of the great Greeks, Shakespeare added his own keen
observations on life, its grandeur, its mystery and terror, and the supernatural forces working upon it. He
employed more or less the same processes and the same effects in his different tragedies to bring about the
same or similar ends. It is on the correctness of our own analysis and assessment of the common factors
employed by Shakespeare in his different tragic plays that we can form an idea of his conception of
tragedy.
His Themes: The first main point common to all his tragedies is that the themes of all his tragedies are
essentially stirring and often melodramatic. The ghost, the madness or semi-madness of Hamlet, Lear, or
Ophelia; the graveyard scene in Hamlet, the witches, ghosts, apparitions, and numerous murders in
Macbeth, the drunken scenes and riots in Othello, the blinding of Gloucester in King Lear—these are all
sensational or melodramatic scenes common to all his great tragedies. This is, however, only the outward
framework. Beyond and within the external sensationalism Shakespeare has woven a more subtle, a more
poetical, a more overpowering and awe-inspiring spiritual tragedy which is the very soul of the
Shakespearean tragedy. A Shakespearean tragedy should be judged not by its outward melodramatic
scenes, but by its essential spiritual crisis from which the real effects of fear and pity issue.
The Tragic Hero: The Shakespearean tragedy is primarily and centrally the life-story of the tragic hero.
The heroine in the tragedy also plays an important role, but
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she is subordinate to the hero. She is only a foil to the hero. Shakespeare's heroes, one and all, are men of
high eminence and nobility. They are kings, princes, or generals. Lear is the king of Great Britain,
Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark, Macbeth is a great general of Scotland, and Othello an unchallenged
warrior. This accords with Aristotle's view that "The tragic hero should be someone of high fame and
flourishing prosperity. " Prof. Nicoll says, "The presence of a person of eminence as a hero gives the
sense that more is involved than is apparent on the surface. " With the fate of a king or an emperor is
attached the fate of the millions and therefore his fall implies the fall of a whole nation. This gives a deep
impression of universality of appeal to a Shakespearean Tragedy. Bradley says, "His fate affects the
welfare of a whole nation or empire, and when he falls suddenly from the height of earthly greatness to the
dust, his fall produces a sense of contrast, of the powerlessness of man, and of the omnipotence-perhaps
the caprice—of the Fortune or Fate, which no tale of private life can possibly rival. "
Fatal Flaw: The Shakespearean tragic hero is not only a great man, but also basically a good man caught
into the most adverse circumstances. With all his greatness and nobility, the hero possesses a fatal flaw in
his character—his 'tragic trait'—which leads him to his tragic end. The 'tragic flaw' in itself is not a vice
nor a serious fault, but only a weakness which under the peculiar circumstances in which the hero is
placed, becomes the cause of the tragedy. The 'tragic trait' in Macbeth is his insatiable ambition; in
Othello it is suspicion, in Hamlet his brooding nature, and in Lear his pride and vanity. The calamities,
therefore, do not simply happen, nor are they sent from above—they are the direct and inevitable
consequences of the heroe's own deeds, and these deeds issue out of his own character. There is,
therefore, someting inevitable in every tragedy of Shakespeare.
Fate and Supernatural Powers: To this 'tragic trait' Shakespeare adds an element of fate and
supernatural powers to make the tragedy possible and complete. The tragic trait, though not very great in
itself, becomes fatal to the hero in the circumstances in which he is placed. Hamlet in Othello's place, and
Othello in Hamlet's place would have led to no tragic action. Bradley says, "Shakespeare's conception of
tragedy involved, over and above character, the suggestion of fatal forces operating on the actions of
mankind, placing these men of power, nobility, strength and courage in just those situtations with which
they are incapable of dealing. " His tragedy implies "the ruin of a grave and noble nature through the
existence of some serious inherent weakness brought into contact with the special hostile circumstances
calculated to defeat it. " The element of fate so subtly introduced is intensified by other more supernatural
elements. The ghosts in Hamlet, the many references to the divine in King Lear, the free use of tragic
irony in Othello-all call fourth visions of the supernatural agencies operating on the actions of man. Fate
appears above the stage like an invisible actor, playing a principal part, cheating, deceiving, betraying and
watching with a grim smile the blundering actions of the miserable hero.
Internal and External Conflict: The Shakespearean tragedy is, above all, a drama of conflict. The inner
conflict operates along with the outer conflict, but rarely coincides with it. The conflict may be between
two individuals or two groups or between two principles, passions, or ideals animating the two groups. To
one of these groups belongs the hero, and the hero is defeated in the conflict. But the inner conflict is
infinitely more intense than the outer one. The inner conflict is psychological, moral or spiritual, and it
takes place in the mind or the soul of the hero. The mind or the soul of the hero is made an arena of
powerful and torturing opposite thoughts and passions. The defeat and death of the hero is nothing in
comparison to the storm of torments rising in the soul of the hero. Shakespeare lays
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bare before us the hero's soul torn by inner conflict and we know not whether we hate or pity the hero.
"Better be with the dead", says Macbeth as if bitten at once by a hundred scorpians. Othello is torn
between two powerful passions of love and suspicion, Lear between pride and filial ingratitude, and
Hamlet between desire for revenge and moral scruples. The real impact of the Shakespearean tragedy lies
in this spiritual conflict.
The Shakespearean tragedy offers no final solution to the conflict between good and evil. It leaves us in
the midst of the deepest mystery of life. Having exalted our deepest emotions so far, Shakespearean
tragedy leaves us in a solemn atmosphere of awe and grandeur. Dwelling upon this point Dowden says,
"Tragedy as conceived by Shakespeare is concerned with the ruin or restoration of the soul and the life of
man. Its subject is the struggle of good and evil in the world. No great deliverer of mankind descends
from the Heavens. Here, upon the earth, evil is; it does exist. There is also on the earth a sacred passion
for deliverance. Good also does exist. Good and evil are in perpetual conflict. " While we feel deep
sympathy for the nobility and grandeur of life, we can hardly say that the gods are on the side of good. On
the contrary:
"As flies to wanton boys,

Are we to the gods,
They kill us for their sport !"
Awe and Pity: The Shakespearean tragedy finally leaves two kinds of feelings— those of awe and pity.
We feel awe at the fall of the great hero, while the feeling of pity is aroused by the way in which the hero
meets his end. When a Shakespearean hero dies "a medley of emotions is left in our heart, pain at his
tragedy, admiration for the noble qualities in him, and the promise of better things to come. " It is 'a state
of calm of mind, all passion spent. ' "The weary calm of Hamlet, Othello's great last soliloquy, Lear's
innocent awakening, and the tired musings of Macbeth—on these, and not on death alone, the curtain-
folds sweep down. "
(6)
Shakespeare's Conception of Comedy
What is Comedy?: Comedy, in general, is a play of love, romance and marriage, joy and delight, wit and
humour, light satire and irony exposing the follies and foibles of man good humouredly. It deals with the
light and trivial occurrences of life which are treated in such a manner that the ludicrous and comic
element predominates. What excites laughter in our daily life, excites laughter on the stage too. So
Gervinus defines comedy thus: "Comedy is concerned with exposing self-love, vanity and conceit, with
unmasking vanity in fanciful ways in such a manner that the comic aspect of life continually asserts itself
as supreme. " Shakespeare has written a number of comedies which possess all these elements and
something more. His comedies are of various types which present all these elements more artistically and
aesthetically. The common characteristics of the Shakespearean comedies are given below:
Love and Marriage: The Shakespearean comedy is basically a story of love and marriage. Each comedy
introduces several pairs of lovers. The course of their love never runs smooth. The love of each pair is
crossed and thwarted by a number of hindrances and adverse circumstances. But in the course of the play
the obstacles are gradually removed and the comedy finally ends with the ringing of marriage bells. In As
You Like It there are four pairs of lovers, in A Midsummer Night's Dream three pairs, in Twelfth Night also
three pairs, in The Merchant of Venice two, and in The
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Tempest only one. In each comedy one pair of lovers, sometimes two, become the centre of interest, and
other pairs, like their satellites, revolve around them. The Shakespearean comedy, therefore, abounds in
love-making, gaiety, jesting, singing and dancing. Somtimes fairies also join them in their singing and
dancing. Indulgence in love is the primary occupation of the Shakerpearean comic hero and heroine.
Dowden says,"The comedies are all marked by the presence of vivacity, cleverness, delight in beauty, and
a quick enjoyment of existence. " All his comedies are lyrical in character and are steeped in the gaiety of
youthful love.
Romantic Atmosphere: All the comedies of Shakespeare are romantic in their tone, spirit and
atmosphere. They are all removed from this material world of 'sick hurry and divided aims. ' Thus, the
plot of As You Like It largely takes place in the beautiful and romantic Forest of Arden. This is a favourite
haunt for love and romance. Here the lovers lie under the greenwood tree and turn their merry note 'unto
the sweet bird's throat. ' The world of A Midsummer Night's Dream is again a pastoral resort peopled with
fays and faery folk. Here the town bred people shake off their artificial masks and freely mix with rustic
artisans. Here human beings and fairies come together and frolic and dance as in a dreamland. It is a
sweet dream from which to awake is to crash on the hard rock of reality. The Tempest takes us to a world
of magic and enchantment. Here everything is wrought through supernatural agency. Here is a sweet
make-believe world in which the supernatural is under the control of man. Here is a beautiful island in
which sweet odour and sweeter music rain from the atmosphere. Twelfth Night is set in the country of
Illyria where music is the food of love. "Such is the romantic scene in which the action of the play takes
place. Its very atmosphere is enchanting and intoxicating. It is a dream-world in which the people live as
though in the garden of Elysium. "
Role of Women: Another important feature of the comedies of Shakespeare is that it is the heroine rather
than the hero who guides and governs the action of the play. The heroes are thrown in the background in
these comedies. Commenting on this feature of the Shakespearean comedy Ruskin says, "Shakespeare has
no heroes; he has only heroines. " George Gordon, likewise, says, "All lectures on Shakespeare's comedies
tend to become lectures on Shakespeare's women, for in the comedies they have the front of the stage. " In
none of Shakespeare's other plays such feminine predominance can be asserted. The woman is almost
absent from his English Historical plays and from most of his tragedies also. His portraits of women in
comedies have never been surpassed. In brief, Shakespearean comedies are dominated by women.
Rosalind in As You Like It, Portia in The Merchant of Venice, Viola in Twelfth Night, Miranda in The
Tempest, Herrnia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing far outshine their
respective heroes.
Music and Dance: Music and dance are also prominently introduced in the comedies of Shakespeare.
There are beautiful light-hearted songs in every comedy. Music adds to the enchantment of the comedy.
Hazlitt says, "It has been observed that there is a peculiar charm in the songs introduced in Shakespearean
comedies, which without conveying any distinct image, seem to recall all the feelings connected with
them, like snatches of half-forgotten music heard indistinctly and in intervals. " Coleridge also speaks in
the same tone. He says, Songs in Shakespeare are introduced as songs only, just as songs are in real life
beautifully used. Some of them are characteristic of the person who has sung, or called for them. "
Humour and Pathos: Humour governs the tone of the Shakespearean comedy. It is animated by
vivacity, wit, humour, pranks, and harmless jesting. The wit in Shakespearean comedy is harmless. It is
not calculated to satirize any individual or any class of society. In this respect Shakespeare differs from
Ben Jonson, Dryden or Pope whose Comic Muse is pungent and biting. Shakespeare's humour is genial,
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innocent and harmless. It is marked with youthful vigour and vivacity. Shakespeare employs different
kinds of humour with equal ease, from the ravings of a drunkard to the dedicated strokes of a Viola.
Dowden says, "The genial laughter of Shakespeare at human absurdity is free from even that amiable
cynicism which gives to the humour of Jane Austen a certain piquant flavour; it is like the play of summer
lighting which hurts no living creature, but surprises, illuminates and charms. " In almost every comedy
there is a professional 'fool' or jester. Touchstone in As You Like It, Feste in Twelfth Night, Launcelot in
The Merchant of Venice, Trinculo in The Tempest are professional jesters. Yet Shakespearean comedy is
not farcical. There is always an undertone of serenity, earnestness, and even pathos. There is a beautiful
blending of humour and pathos in the comedies of Shakespeare. Dowden says, "The traditions of English
dream have favoured the juxtaposition of the serious and the comic; but it was reserved for Shakespeare to
make each a part of the other; to interpenetrate tragedy with comedy and with tragic earnestness. " This
blending of humour and pathos is a marked feature of every comedy of Shakespeare.
Blending of Realism and Fantasy: Though the world of the comedies is highly romantic and visionary, it
is not totally cut off from the world of reality. Though the background and atmosphere are romantic, they
are all built on the solid rock of realism. In spite of all their romance and enchantment "life keeps
hovering over it and enters into it. " The characters, 'though fancy-free no more' are the inhabitants of this
world. They are not airy spirits. Charlton says, "Though the ultimate world of Shakespeare's Comedy is
romantic, poetic, and imaginative, it is by no means unsubstantial and fantastic. " The union of fantasy and
realism is a peculiar characteristic of the comic world of Shakespeare.
These are the marked characteristics common to all the comedies of Shakespeare.
(7)
Shakespeare's Historical or Chronicle Plays
An Important Group of Plays: Shakespeare's Historical or Chronicle plays form an important group of
his plays. Shakespeare wrote them in different stages of his dramatic career. But taken together they form
a group of nine plays. They are: King John, King Richard the Second, King Henry the Fourth, Part I,
King Henry the Fourth, Part II, King Henry the Fifth, King Henry the Sixth, Part I, King Henry the Sixth,
Part II, King Henry the Sixth, Part III, King Richard the Third, and King Henry the Eighth. These plays
were not written in historical sequence, but they cover a long period of British history from the middle of
the eleventh century to the middle of the sixteenth century. King Henry the Eighth was the father of
Queen Elizabeth. During these centuries England passed through so many internal riots and feuds which
led to the dethronement and execution of several monarchs. Therefore Shakespeare's historical plays are
important both historically as well as artistically.
Shakespeare's Sources: There was no consistent history of England when Shakespeare wrote his
historical plays. He derived his sources from the random writings of antiquarians and chroniclers. They
were not equal to the task they had taken up. They largely wrote anecdotes of history rather than regular
history. Therefore Shakespeare had to weave these anecdotes into history by his art and imagination. The
first Tudor Chronicler was Edward Hall. He was supremely patriotic, holding Henry to be the greatest of
English monarchs. Therefore he could not be historically objective. However, Shakespeare had to use his
chronicles as one
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of his important sources. Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1577,
enlarged 1586) were much wider in scope and more authentic. They were Shakespeare's principal source
for his historical plays. Harrison's Description of England was also there. With William Camden the
chronicles reached their point of climax. Shakespeare made use of all these sources, using them
judiciously for his subject matter. There was also Marlowe's Edward II which could serve as a model for
Shakespeare.
Some Common Characteristics: The historical plays of Shakespeare have some common characteristics.
They deal with the medieval period of the British history, roughly from the eleventh to the fifteenth
century. They are all largely tragic plays striking the great irony of kingship. With the exception of
Henry V, they all end tragically. Each begins with the display of the magnificence and autocratic rule of
the monarch, and each ends with the imprisonment and murder of the king. In each, the base is the
historical fact, but the events of history are suitably moulded and even changed to suit the demands of the
stage and dramatic effect. The queen plays an important role in each play, generally in bringing about the
tragic end of the monarch. Each play displays the magnificence and grandeur of medieval England, and
very effectively creates an old-world atmosphere. Each play is, thus, a product of the patriotic spirit that
ruled supreme in the Elizabethan England.
Two Types of Kings: The historical plays fall into two distinct groups, the one presenting studies of
kingly weakness, the other of kingly strength. To the first group belong King John, King Richard II, and
King Henry VI; to the second group belong King Henry TV, King Henry V, and King Richard III. King
John, royal criminal, is weak in his criminality, while Henry VI, a royal saint, is weak in his saintliness.
King Richard II, a graceful, sentimental monarch, is too feeble to assert his authority and impose his will
on his nobles. On the other hand, Henry IV, who usurps the throne of Richard II, is a man of resolution
and action, and knows how to take advantage of his opportunities. The strength of Henry V comes from
his unique courage and political sagacity, and his ability to dominate over both men and circumstances.
Lastly, Richard III, though a criminal, is strong in his criminality, and is, in this respect, an antithesis to
King John.
Predominance of Action: The underlying thought in all the historical plays of Shakespeare is the
predominance of action in life. It is man's action that brings success or failure in life. He presents the
problem of success or failure in life. "The characters in the historical plays are conceived chiefly with
reference to action. The world represented in these plays is not so much the world of feeling or of
thought, as the limited world of the practicable. Shakespeare studies in them not what man is but what he
does. It is his success or failure in the world which determines his worth for him. " King Henry V is a
great king, because he achieves great victories, because he is the hero of Agincourt. He is gifted with
those qualities which enable him to subdue his enemies both at home and abroad. Henry V is great
because of his great actions and achievements.
Patriotic Note: Every historical play of Shakespeare is deeply instilled with patriotic passion. The feeling
of patriotism is particularly notable in Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V. When Bolingbroke is exiled, he
leaves his country with these feelings:
"Then England's ground, farewell; sweet soil, adieu;

My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet!
Where'er I wander, boast of this I can:
Though banished, yet a trueborn Englishman. "
In the same play, Gaunt's feelings are even more passionately expressed:
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"This royal throne of kings, this scept'rd isle,

………………………………………………
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings. "
Even Nature loves England so dearly, for she is
"……. a fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war. "
The patriotic note continues to exist in Henry IV. The dying king is grieved to anticipate his country's
sorry plight after his death. Since his son is incorrigibly dissolute, what will happen to his kingdom after
his death?
"O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows !

When that my care could not withhold thy riots,
What will thou do when riot is thy care?
O, thou wilt be a wilderness again,
Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants !"
Henry V is a glorification of the national ideal. This play is praised as a national anthem in five Acts.
There are numerous passages in this play which eulogize England and Englishmen:
"On, on, you noblest English,—

Whose blood is set from fathers of war-proof—
Fathers that like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought,
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument. "
The Elizabethan age was marked by a strong patriotic feeling which was, to a great extent, responsible for
the rise of the English nation to power. The historical plays of Shakespeare reflect the patriotic feeling of
that age.
(8)
Shakespeare's Dramatic Romances

Or
Shakespeare's Last Plays
The Last Phase of Shakespeare's Dramatic Career: The Dramatic Romances were written by
Shakespeare in the last phase of his dramatic career. It was the phase when Shakespeare's dramatic
powers were declining, but his philosophical phase was at the highest level. The Dramatic romances
written in this last phase are Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest. All these four
romances have some striking common characteristics and similarities. So much so that some critics are of
the view that the true spirit of any one of these plays cannot be understood or truly appreciated without
reading all the four together. It has been said that "they are so closely connected that the prospect of
understanding Cymbeline without The Winter's Tale and The Tempest is poor indeed, and whether this is
accepted or not, it must certainly be agreed that these plays are of the same kind."
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Romances in the Elizabethan Sense: These romances are true romances in the Elizabethan sense. The
Elizabethans believed that true Romances must deal with love in people of high estate, and events must be
controlled by supernatural agency and by chance, and heroic adventures must occur in both courtly and
Arcadian settings. Virtue, beauty, and happiness must be there in them. At the same time there must be
evil and treachery too to thwart the way of virtue and beauty. The romances must develop to the
borderline of tragedy, but integrity, constancy and courageous love aided by good fortune must come out
triumphant in the end. These four romances of Shakespeare fulfil all these expectations to the highest
degree.
Theme of Reconciliation: There is general agreement amongst critics that the basic theme in all these last
plays is the theme of reconciliation. The mental horizon of Shakespeare had become broad and wide by
this time. He sought a broader theme. The theme of reconciliation needs broader space and time. There
must be two friendly parties which must become estranged by some misunderstanding. Gradually this
misunderstanding is removed and the two parties are reconciled, but this reconciliation takes time. This is
what Shakespeare wanted, and the theme of reconciliation gave him this time and space. In The Winter's
Tale Leontes, king of Sicilia and Polixenes, king of Bohemia are first estranged through some
misunderstanding, and are finally reconciled. In The Tempest Prospero, Duke of Milan and Antonio, the
usurping Duke of Milan are first estranged and then reconciled. A remarkable feature of this reconciliaton
is that it is brought about through their children who fall in love with each other and decide to marry.
Theme of Loss and Finding: The theme of reconciliation is allied with the theme of loss and finding. In
each of them children are lost at the early stage of the plot and are found as grown up young persons at the
end of the plot. Thus loss and finding, restoration and reunion are major and related themes in all the last
plays. Son and daughter are lost and found in Cymbeline, son alone in The Tempest, and husband and
wife in Pericles, Cymbeline, and The Winter's Tale. Along with them are also found kingdoms,
possessions, honour, good name, self-knowledge, and happiness. Thus Time, Growth, Decay, and
Regeneration are related themes found in all these last plays of Shakespeare. In these processes of loss,
finding and reconciliation in all these plays women play the leading role. A new spirit is infused in them
by the presence of young women, with their feminine beauty, purity, and constancy. Therefore all these
plays finally end in the sunshine of love, joy, glamour and jubilation.
Philosophical Allegory and Symbolism: The most important part of these romances is their
philosophical allegory and symbolism. In the opinion of some critics these plays have profound
philosophical significance which is largely expressed through their imagery and symbolism in word and
structure. To many critics these plays are myths and allegories. F. R. Leavis regards the last plays as
developments from the tragedies, showing not only destruction but also reconstruction and rebirth brought
about by virtue and time. According to Traversi the plot of The Winter's Tale is a perfect example of
Shakespeare's symbolic technique. D. G. James discovers in them non-Christian myths on the theme of
finding something, both material and spiritual, which had been lost, recovered through virtue, sacrifice
and nobility. Wilson Knight says that "the last plays are allegories of great creating nature and myths of
immortality. " He says that the argument on grafting in The Winter's Tale is a microcosm of the whole
play. He believes that the whole of Shakespeare's work offers nothing greater than The Winter's Tale in
tragic psychology, humour, pastoral, and romance. It is the allegory of creating nature. He further says
that the symbolism of The Winter's Tale revolves
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round the life-death-life pattern of nature and of human existence. The play is an allegorical philosophy
of creation and growth. It symbolises a 'planned spiritual Rebirth or Revelation through time. ' Further
more, the last plays, except Pericles, deal with forgiveness and reconciliation which are certainly
Christian virtues. Prospero in The Tempest is the very embodiment of all Christian virtues—love,
generosity, forgiveness, and reconciliation. He forgives all his enemies, for according to his philosophy of
life:
"The rarer action is

In virtue than in vengeance; they being penitent,
The sole drift of my purpose doth extend
Not a frown further.
My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore,
And they shall be themselves. "
Like a great saint-philosopher he meditates upon the mutability and futility of human life and its
munificence:
"The gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself.
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. "
Happy Ending: The last characteristic common to all these plays is that they all end happily with a sense
of gratification and fulfilment. Their ultimate effect is one of happiness and satisfaction. All causes of
estrangement, suspicion, jealousy, hostility, and annoyance melt away. The gods, good fortune and even
magic and supernatural powers help to proceed to this end. Suffering, tolerance, forgiveness, and virtue in
its widest sense contribute to this end. The principal characters win their reward and we rejoice with
them. It is this combination of fine human quality and the good forfune which comes to human aid and
gives these plays an atmosphere of happiness and vitality.
(9)
The Comedy of Humours
The Concept of 'Humours': Ben Jonson was the principal exponent of the Comedy of Humours. The
Comedy of Humours was actually satirical comedy based on the classical concept of Humours.
According to the ancient or classical Theory, the 'Humours' were held to be the four primary fluids—
blood, phlegm, choler (or yellow bile), and melancholy (or black bile) found in human physiology. These
'humours' are normally held in a balance in a normal human being. Their admixture determines both a
man's physical state and his character type. An imbalance of one or another humour in a temperament
produced one of the four kinds of disposition. The excess of the humour of 'blood' makes one too
optimistic, the excess of 'phlegm' makes him too quiet and tolerant. The excess of 'choler' makes him too
angry by temperament, and the excess of 'melancholy' makes one too morbid and depressed. In Ben
Jonson's comedies of 'humours' each of the major characters, in stead of being a balanced individual, has a
preponderance of one 'humour' which gives him a
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characteristic distortion or eccentricity of disposition. Jonson expounds his theory in the 'Induction' to his
play Every Man in His Humour. In Jonson's own words:
"When some one peculiar quality

Doth so possess a man, that it doth draw
All his affects, his spirits and his powers
In their confluctions, all to run one way;
This may be truly said to be a humour. '
As such all his major characters are caricatures or satirical character portraits who amuse us without
offending any one. So in the same 'Induction' to Every Man in His Humour, Ben Jonson says:
"But deeds, and language, such as men do use;

And persons, such as Comaedie would chuse,
When she would shew an Image of the times,
And sport with humane follies, not with crimes. "
Eccentric Characters: Ben Jonson's comedies present "a gallery of sixteenth century oddities. He was a
profound scholar of human nature to stop at such a superficial stage. He knew the point at which
eccentricity shades off into vice, and discerned the subtle links whereby crime is connected with moral
weakness. Therefore in the noblest of his plays dominant passions tower above the undergrowth of
'humours'. Lust, hunger for gold, jealousy, brutal egotism, vulgar ambition, and control sway the
multiform prism of minor aberrations brought before our notice in bewildering profusion. The robust
power of characterization and of maintaining the gradations of dramatic interest is Jonson's highest
quality. " Therefore Ben Jonson's characters tend to be 'types* rather than individuals. There are no
varieties, but only types or patterns. However, Ben Jonson's plays begin a new chapter in the history of
English drama. A satirical representation of life on the stage was, of course, no new thing. The earlier
drama was full of it, though never so systematized as here. But this simplification of complex human
nature to a leading typical trait was only a part of the poet's more general theory.
Ben Jonson's 'Humorous' Comedies: Ben Jonson's most important humorous comedy is Every Man in
His Humour. This play established his reputation as a dramatist. It was considered to be an epoch-
making play, for it was this play in which Jonson set forth in practice his theory of 'Humours. ' The
novelty of the comedy lies in the conception of the characters, each governed by some salient trait or
characteristic. Brainworm with his passion for "gulling everybody" is gulled in the end himself. Bobadil,
eager to appear the supreme duellist, is at heart a coward. Knowell and Downright often betray
themselves by their names. Jonson's characters largely reveal themselves by their names. Kitley is a
jealous young lady, jealous even of her sister.
Every Man Out of His Humour is a continuation of Every Man in His Humour. Here we have a
vainglorious knight, a public jester, an affected courtier, a doting husband and others who all exhibit their
humours, and are finally forced out of their affectations through the agency of Macilente, who, also, is
cured of his besetting envy. Sampson says, "Every Man Out of His Humour is long-winded, didactic, and
over-charged with satirical criticism of his contemporaries. " Its characters, Deliro, Fallace, Asper, and the
rest bear Italian names which are teasing to the reader.
The Cynthia's Revells completes the trio of his famous plays with the above named two plays. It
resembles Every Man Out of His Humour in its general plan of a group of would-be gallants and ladies
whose follies are exposed to ridicule and
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shame through the efforts of a censor representing the author's attitude. Its song "Queen and Huntress" is
highly appreciated. His censor of contemporaries ridiculed in this play brought a storm of opposition
against him.
This was followed by four more comedies. They are Volpone or the Foxe, The Silent Woman, The
Alchemist, and the Bartholomew Fayre. The chief character of Volpone is Volpone himself. He is a miser
and sensualist. He works on the greed of his acquaintances, and exposes their hypocrisy. Its plot,
characters, and blank verse are unusually vigorous and flowing, which show Jonson at his best. The Silent
Woman is less intent on moral castigation and therefore more agreeable. In The Alchemist Jonson brings a
larger canvas of tricksters and gulls. The entire play is in blank verse, which is most carefully adapted to
rapid dialogue and orations. The important characters, specially Sir Epicure Mammon and the two
Puritans are masterly sketched. The satire on alchemy flavours the fun without destroying it, and the
picture of Elizabethan London is without an equal in its graphic presentation. In the presentation of
manners and characters, Bartholomew Fayre outranks even The Alchemist. It has all the fun of the fair, its
bustle and disorder. The principal characters are drawn with remarkable exactness and unflagging
animation. It is all written in remarkable prose.
Some Other Writers of Comedies of Humours •. Jonson set the vogue of writing 'Humour' comedies.
A few other Elizabethan dramatists also tried their hand at Humour Comedies. In fact, even Shakespeare
drew some of his characters on the same theory. The notable amongst such characters are Falstaff, Jaques,
Touchstone, and Malvolio. Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor is written on the pattern of 'Humour'
comedies. Chapman's Humorous Day's Mirth, Day's Humour Out of Breath, an anonymous play Every
Woman in Her Humour, Marston's The Scourge of Villainy are some of the Elizabethan plays written on
the theory of Humours. The vogue of Humour Comedies ended with Ben Jonson and some of his
contemporaries.
(10)
The Sonnets of Milton
A Great Sonneteer: Milton is second only to Shakespeare as a sonnet-writer. The remarkable thing
about him as a sonneteer is that in all he wrote only twenty-four sonnets. Out of these five are written in
Latin, and one sonnet is not a sonnet in the proper form. As such his fame as a sonneteer is based only on
eighteen sonnets properly written in English. Against him Wordsworth wrote hundreds of sonnets, and
Shelley and Keats also wrote many more sonnets than Milton. Yet Milton's fame as a sonneteer is much
higher than that of these Romantic poets. This fact evidently shows that there must be something really
great and remarkable about his sonnets which brought him so much fame and recognition. In spite of such
a scanty production of sonnets, he has come to be recognized as the second greatest sonneteer in English.
The Structure of His Sonnets: There are two major structural forms of sonnets in English. They are—
(I) The Shakespearean or the English form, and
(II) The Miltonic or the Petrarchan form,
The Miltonic sonnet is divisible into two parts. The first eight lines make the first part and it is called
'Octave'. The last six lines make the second part called the 'Sestet'. The rhyme scheme in the Octave is:
135
ab ba ab ba
The Sestet can have one of the following three schemes:
cdc dcd
cde cde
cdc eed
Occasions of the Sonnets: Milton wrote his sonnets at intervals throughout the period of his
pamphleteering and his work for the Commonwealth. They were mostly 'occasional' poems, about his
own circumstances or some contemporary events or poems of compliments to friends or public figures.
While some of his sonnets show us Milton in his personal life, the most of them are formal poems in
which for the most part a deliberate dignity of tone is sought and achieved through a careful handling of
devices he had largely learned from the Italian sonneteers. J. S. Smart calls Milton's sonnets "essays on a
small scale, in the magnificent style, and he has convincingly shown how, by manipulation of word order
as well as by cunning counterpointing of the pattern of sense and the pattern of quatrains and tercets of
which the sonnet form is composed, he manages to transform occasional verse into singular and vivid
poetry. " His sonnets are completely balanced and steadily flowing utterances. In the control of the
cadence, the handling of the pause, and drawing the sense out variously from line to line, Milton in his
sonnets was developing a kind of skill which was to stand him in good stead in his epic blank verse.
The most popular of Milton's sonnets is his autobiographical sonnet On His Blindness. It is a sonnet
written in Milton's Puritanic spirit expressing deep faith in God. Milton complained to God why He had
made him blind at such an early age. But soon his conscience consoles and pacifies him by saying that
God does not need any service from man. God only judges a man by his faith, devotion, and intentions to
serve Him selflessly. So he concludes the Sonnet with these words:
"………..But patience to prevent

That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts, who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best……..
They also serve who only stand and wait. "
The sonnet entitled On His Deceased Wife is also autobiographical. It is written in the memory of his
second dear wife Catherine Woodcock, who died not long ago. Milton remembers her highly emotionally.
He says that love, sweetness and goodness appeared blended in her with the result that her face appeared
sweeter and more delightful than any other face he had ever seen:
"Love, sweetness, goodness in her person shined

So clear as in no face with more delight.
But, oh ! as to embrace me she inclined,
I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night. "
The sonnet entitled When the Assault was Intended to the City is a half-humorous political sonnet. It was
written in 1642, when it appeared that the Royalists were about to take London. The poet appeals to the
invaders in a light tone that they should spare his house because it is Muses' Bower:
"Lift not thy spear against the Muses' Bower,

The great Emathian Conqueror did spare
The house of Pindarus, when Temple and Tower
Went to the ground. "
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Milton wrote a number of sonnets on contemporary great personalities. The most important of them is To
the Lord General Cromwell. Other sonnets belonging to this group are To the Lord General Fairfax, To
Sir Henry Vane the Younger, To Mr. H. Lawes, To the Lady Margaret Ley, To Mrs. Catherine Thomson,
and To Mr. Lawrence. Another celebrated sonnet On the Late Massacre in Piedmont expresses his deep
agony and wrath on the massacre of true Christians by the order of the Duke of Savoy. So the poet says in
great fury that God will punish the fanatic Catholics for their fanatic persecution of the Protestants:
"……..Their martyred blood and ashes sow

O'er the Italian fields, where still doth sway
The triple tyrant; that from these may grow
A hundred-fold, who, having learnt thy way,
Early may fly the Babylonian woe. "
The sonnet addresed to Cromwell was of great political value when it was written. Cromwell was the
hero of the Civil War which ended in the execution of King Charles I and the establishment of
Commonwealth under Cromwell. Milton was Cromwell's ideological support. So in the Sonnet Milton
addresses him thus:
"Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud

Not of war only, but detractions rude,
Guided by faith and matchless Fortitude
To peace and truth thy glorious way hast ploughed
And on the neck of crowned Fortune proud
Has rear'd God's Trophies. "
The sonnet to Vane, comparing him to a noble and patriotic Roman senator, is more conventional in
general tone and imagery, but the manipulation of pauses and word-order is as skilled as in the best ones.
The advice here is more general and is part of the compliment:
"Therefore on thy firm hand religion leans

In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son. "
The sonnet to the memory of Mrs. Catherine Thomson is a more conventional piece of compliment,
deftly enough turned, but couched throughout in distant generalities:
"When faith and love, which parted from thee never,

Had ripened thy just soul to dwell with God,
Meekly thou didst resign this earthly load
Of Death, call'd life, which us from life doth sever. "
Thus, amongst the sonneteers Milton holds a position next only to Shakespeare, and in sublimity and
dignity of thought and expression he is inferior to none. In loftiness of thought, splendid dignity of
expression and rhythmical felicity, Milton has few peers and no superiors. In a Sonnet on Sonnet
Wordsworth says that Milton wrote only a few sonnets but those few sonnets awakened the sleeping and
dozing soul of England:
"Scorn not the Sonnet; critics you have frowned

……………………………………..
When a damp……………………….
Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand
The thing became a trumpet, whence he blew
Soul-animating strains-alas, too few !"
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(11)
The Metaphysical School of Poets
Meaning of the Term 'Metaphysical: The term 'Metaphysical' was first used by Dryden in his
assessment of the poetry of John Donne. Later on the term was popularized by Dr. Johnson when he
applied it to a group of poets who are now known as the poets of the Metaphysical School. Explaining the
term 'Metaphysical Poets', Dr. Johnson says, "The metaphysical poets were men of learning, and to show
their learning was their whole endeavour. They neither copied nature nor life. Their thoughts are often
new, but seldom natural; they are not obvious, but neither are they just; and the reader, far from
wondering that he missed them, wonders more frequently by what perverseness of industry they were ever
found. " Their poetry was deeply religious, spiritual, philosophical and symbolic which they tried to make
as difficult and unintelligible as possible.
Characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry: The central creed of the Metaphysical poets is that they tried
their best to make their poetry as obscure, deep and mysterious as possible. Their primary aim was to
startle the reader by their obscure and unpredictable imagery and conceit. Their poetry is packed with
affectations and conceits. In their effort to surprise the reader by the boldness and novelty of their images,
they indulged in strained metaphors, far-fetched similes, and the most extravagant hyperboles. They
cultivated ingenuity at any cost. They substituted philosophical subtleties and logical hair-splitting against
the natural expression of feeling. They employed their vast out-of-the-way learning without the slightest
regard to propriety or naturalness. As a result they are in general violent, harsh, cold, and obscure. Their
poems are hard nuts to crack. Their poetry was misled 'by voluntary deviation from nature in pursuit of
something new and strange. ' Sir Walter Scott said: "They played with thoughts as the Elizabethans had
played with words. " They carried the Elizabethan freedom of imagination and delight in verbal fancies to
a point at which it became difficult for the average reader to grasp their meaning. A comparison is often
instituted between objects that have ostensibly little in common with each other. Cowley, for example,
compares being in love with different women to travelling through different countries:
"Hast thou not found each woman's breast

(The land where thou hast travell'd)
Either by savages possesset,
Or wild, and uninhabited?
What joy could'st take, or what repose
In countries so uncivilised as those?"
John Donne (1573-1631): John Donne was the first poet to whom the epithet 'Metaphysical' was first
applied by Dryden. Donne wrote many types of poems— lyrics, elegies, satires, and religious and
philosophical poems. But we are concerned here only with his religious and philosophical poems. His
religious and philosophical poems are marked with subtlety, conceits, odd imagery, and obscure allusions
which make them beyond the comprehension of the reader. They are an amalgam of wit, vagueness,
obscurity and incongruity. But they have a remarkable depth of meaning if they can be explored with
labour and insight. Ben Jonson esteemed him to be the first poet in the world, but he was not likely to be
remembered long for not being understood by the common reader. Leisman observes in his book The
Monarch of Wit: "Donne had, above all, wit; often deliberately outrageous and impudent and coat-trailing,
often breath-taking, ingenious in the discovery of comparisons and
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analogies, but nearly always, in one way or another, argumentative whether in defence of preposterous
paradoxes or in the mock-serious devising of hyperbolic compliments. " Here is a typical example:
"Go, and catch a falling star,

Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me, where all past years are,
Or who cleft the Devil's foot. " It is difficult to understand what the poet wants to convey through these
lines.
Abraham Cowley (1618-1667): Abraham Cowley is regarded as the chief representative poet of the
Metaphysical School. In his own day he was considered to be the greatest of English poets. He
influenced a large number of poets, specially three important metaphysical poets-Crashaw, Herbert, and
Vaughan. Cowley started as a typical metaphysical poet with highly intricate conceits, symbols and
imagery. But in his later poetry he discarded much of his former extravagance and wrote in restrained and
sobre style. Here is a sample of his poetic art:
"Gentle Henrietta then,
And a third Mary next began;
Then Joan and Jane and Audria,
And then a pretty Thomasine
And then another Katharine,
And then a long et cetera. "
Richard Crashaw (1613-1649): The religious and sacred poetry of Crashaw has greater fire and passion,
though it is sometimes ruined by highly intricate conceits. He was influenced by Spanish mystic poets
and he wrote much of his poetry after their fashion. He published his religious poems in a volume entitled
The Step to the Temple. His poetry is marked with the typical conceits, symbols, imagery and
extravagances of the Metaphysical School. Here is a sample of his religious spirit:
"Still live in me this loving strife,

Of living Death and dying life,
For while Thou sweetly slayest me,
Dead to myself, I live in thee. "
George Herbert (1593-1633): Herbert's collection of lyrics entitled The Temple breathes the spirit of
purest poetry. Herbert is called the saint of the Metaphysical School. By profession also he was a priest,
and he believed that a man should dedicate all his gifts to the service of God. A poem entitled Pilgrimage,
which was included in his collection The Temple, is probably the best of his lyrics. He describes his
poetry as "a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt God and soul, before I could
subject mine, to the will of Jesus, my Master, in whose service I have now found perfect freedom. " In
spite of his perfect sincerity and devotion to religion, he could not liberate himself from the prevailing
conceits, oddities, quaints and crabbed metaphors which characterized the poetry of the Metaphysical
School. At times, of course, his poetry is simply appealing to the reader:
"Judge not the preacher; for He is thy Judge:

If thou mislike him, thou conceiv'st him not,
God calleth preaching folly. Do not grudge
To pick out treasures from an earthen pot,
The worst speak something good ; if all want sense,
God takes a text, and preacheth patience. "
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Henry Vaughan (1622-1695): Vaughan was greatly influenced by Herbert. Even sometimes he copies
Herbert directly. Vaughan was basically a mystic. His piety is much more mystical and his thoughts
deeper. He is meditative to the level of dullness. His most famous and successful poem is "They are all
gone into a world of light:"
"They are all gone into the world of light!

And I alone sit lingering here;
Their very memory is fair and bright
And my sad thoughts doth clear. "
Another of his famous poems is The World remembered for its wonderful opening:
I saw Eternity the other night

Like a great ring of pure and endless light
All calm as it was bright. "
The great age of the Church of England finds in Vaughan its best poetical exponent.
Andrew Marvell (1621-1678): Andrew Marvell was the only Puritan among the Metaphysical poets.
Yet, strangely enough, he was a passionate lyrical poet of love and nature. Though a poet of the
Metaphysical School, he does not share the quaintness and obscurity of his fellow poets. He is a
Metaphysical poet only in the sense that there is religious ardour in his poetry. Even his religious poetry
has a touch of humanism. Even his poems of love have the streak of mysticism:
"Thy beauty shall no more be found;

Nor in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song: then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity:
……………………………………..
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace. "
Thomas Traherne (1637-1674): Traherne was the last of the Metaphysical poets. He was a mystic, and
it is his mysticism that links him with the Metaphysicals. His poetry had remained lost for more than two
hundred years, and was recovered and published in 1903. Then he was at once recognized as one of the
greatest religious and metaphysical poets. Although Traherne's work presents much of the difficulty
common to the metaphysicals, it has also much beauty and eloquence as well as profundity of thought and
spiritual insight.
(12)
The Restoration Comedy

Or
The Comedy of Manners
The Restoration Age: On the execution of King Charles I during the Civil War, his son Charles II fled to
France and found shelter in the French Court. He remained there during the period of the Commonwealth
from 1649 to 1659. After the death of Cromwell in 1659, Charles II was called back to England and
restored to the throne in 1660. With this event came in the Restoration Age. Charles II brought with him
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the depraved and immoral manners, fashions and mode of life of the French aristocracy. The follies and
affectations, outlandish manners and fashions, wanton pleasures and morals, ridiculous amorous intrigues,
and witty duels of the high aristocratic society became the order of the day.
Restoration Comedy as the Mirror of the Age: Drama in general, but comedy in particular, holds the
mirror to the age. As such, amorous intrigues and witty duels, frank and debonair pranks in love, false
challenges and artificial duels, hollow chivalry and gallantry, and fickle pairs of lovers mark the advent of
the Restoration Comedy. For these traits we cannot blame the dramatists of this age because they had to
present the contemporary age as it was. Allardyce Nicoll says, "If we condemn the society of the
Restoration Court, we need not thereby condemn the dramatists of that period; their object was to display
the fashionable life of their time, not to indicate the superior mental and moral qualities of a past age or to
prophesy the improvements of the future. On a first reading, therefore, these Comedies of Manners may
strike many as being immoral and vulgar, but for students of literature a true historical perspective must be
gained. " All the same their obscene and immoral character cannot be ignored. Dr. Johnson blamed these
dramatists in these words:
"Themselves they studied, as they felt they write,
Intrigue was plot, obscenity was wit,
Vice always found a sympathetic friend,
They pleased their age, and did not aim to mend.
William Congreve: William Congreve was the most important of the comedians of this age. His first
comedy The Old Bachelor was first staged in 1693 with remarkable success. "When I wrote it", he said,
"I had little thought of the stage; but did it to amuse myself in a slow recovery from a fit of sickness. " In
this play the old Bachelor is Heartwell who professes to be a woman-hunter. But he is himself entrapped
by Silvia. Thus its plot is the familiar theme of intrigue in love. His next comedy, The Double Dealer is
better constructed. The central theme of this play is also love thwarted by villainy and intrigue. Maskwell
is the villain in this play, but he does not succeed in his designs. His next play, Love For Love marks the
triumph of Congreve's artistry and construction of plot. It has a multitude of characters. The character of
Valentine is delineated with elaborate care and rare delicacy. Congreve comes near perfection in this
play. However, Congreve is best remembered for The Way of the World. It is a remarkable demonstration
of Congreve's technical skill as a playwright. The action of the play takes place in three settings—a
chocolate house, St. James' Park, and the home of a lady of quality. All these three settings are symbolic.
Lady Millament is the most engaging character. She is a tease, a wit, a woman of the world, but she is
chaste and determined to remain so. She does not easily yield to the persuasions of Mirabell. In the end
they marry. They stand out as symbols of a new order. Commenting on this play, Collins says,
"Congreve's The Way of the World, commonly considered the finest of Restoration Comedies, is also their
quintessence, hardly an incident or character or dialogue being original. Congreve perfects the common
mode, adding to it a nicety to feeling and phrasing. His main contemporaries are individuals in their
divergencies from the mode. " F. E. Schelling sums up the contribution of Congreve in these words: "The
comedies of Congreve are of a literary excellence that overtops not only the comedies of their own age but
that quality in all his imitators. There is no parallel in English to the directness, incisiveness, brilliancy,
and ease of his stage dialogue. "
George Etherege: George Etherege faithfully copied the life around him in his comedies. His two
important comedies are The Comical Revenge and The Man of Mode. In these comedies he paints a true
picture of the graceful, but heartless and
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licentious life of the aristocractic class. His comedies are decidedly immoral and vulgar, strikingly marred
with indecency. But they are faithful presentations of the courtly life. But much of his indecency and
vulgarity is relieved by his fine style and artistic plot construction.
William Wycherley: William Wycherley wrote four comedies—Love in a Wood, The Gentleman
Dancing Master, The Country Wife, and The Plain Dealer. His characters belong to the stock-in-trade of
the Restoration Age. They are fashionable fops pursuing women and often coming to disgrace. We have
in his comedies boisterous and riotous gangs of persons belonging to aristocratic families. Every simple
man is a fool and every clever man a rogue and a rake. All his women characters are equally indecent and
indulge in vulgar repartees. They are all intriguing and indulging in hypocrisy.
John Vanbrugh: John Vanbrugh wrote several comedies, but three of them are popularly known. They
are—The Relapse, The Provoked Wife, and the Confederacy. All these three plays deal with unhappy
marriages. Though Vanbrugh does not have the art and flavour of Congreve, he surpasses him in energy
and genial humour. His humour often sinks down into farce. There is an unhappy mixture of personal
gaiety, conventional adultery and intrigue. His characters have to face two human plights— unhappy
marriages, and spoilt sons. His plots are not artistically constructed. He fails to organize his material into
a rounded plot.
John Farquhar: John Farquhar is the author of Love and a Bottle, The Recruiting Officer, and The Beaux
Stratagem. Of these the last one is his best comedy. This play deals with the theme of unhappy marriage.
His plots are better constructed. His wit is as sparkling as that of Congreve. His range is wider and more
comprehensive than that of the typical Comedy of Manners. In some of his plays he includes humble folk
and a more diversified life. There is also found some respect for moral standard and discipline. His
heroes and heroines are good-natured, normal and lively young men and women. They are hardly cynical
or demoralised persons unlike the conventional heroes and heroines of the Comedy of Manners.
Criticism of the Comedy of Manners: In course of time the conscience of the people was hurt by the
immorality, vulgarity and intrigues so widely spread by the Restoration Comedies. Voices were raised
against them. People got fed up with their unrestrained vulgarity. Jeremy Collier made a powerful attack
on them with a pamphlet under the title A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English
Stage. Gradually the vogue of the Comedy of Manners or the Restoration Comedy came to an end.
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The Graveyard School of Poetry
The Graveyard School of Poetry: The term 'Graveyard School of Poetry' is applied to a group of
eighteenth-century poets who wrote meditative poems, usually set in the background of a graveyard, on
the theme of human mortality and in moods which ranged from elegiac pensiveness to profound grief and
gloom. These poets were the forerunners of romantic melancholy that appeared in the poets of the next
generation. To some poets these poems were a kind of safety valves to escape from the agonies and
sorrows of life. Their poems ranged from melancholy to the mortality of life, inevitability of death, and
vanity of human wishes and ambitions. These poems are different from elegies, for elegies are written on
the death of some particular person, but the graveyard poems deal with the mortality of human life in
general. The poems of this School have the tone of despair, the odour of the charnel-house,
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meditation on the shortness of life, and inevitability of death. They are steeped in what we call
'melancholy pleasure' or 'pleasing gloom. ' There are four important poets who belong to this School.
They are Thomas Parnell, Robert Blair, Edward Young, and Thomas Gray. Let us consider them one by
one.
Thomas Parnell (1679-1718): The Graveyard School was initiated by Thomas Parnell with his well-
known poem A Night Piece on Death. With this poem set in the vogue of Graveyard or Churchyard
poems. Parnell deeply meditated on life and death in this meditative mood:
"Those graves, with bending osier bound

That nameless have the crumbled ground. "
In the same poem, Parnell cautions man against the inevitable approach of Death:
"Ha ! while I gaze, pale Cynthia fades,

The bursting Earth unveils the Shades !
All slow, and won, and wrap'd with Shrouds,
They rise in visionary Clouds,
And all with sober Accent cry,
Think, Mortal, what it is to die. "
The poet further calls man to hear the subdued groans of the dead from their tombs:
Now from yon black and fun'ral yew,

That bathes the Charnel House with dew,
Methinks I hear a voice begin:
(Ye Ravens, cease your croaking Din,
Ye tolling clocks, no Time resound
O'er the long lake and midnight Ground)
It sends a Peal of hollow Groans,
Thus speaking from among the Bones. "
These lines draw an eerie image of the Graveyard in the night. Words like Yew, Charnel House, ravens,
hollow groans, and bones create an uncanny atmosphere in the mind of the reader.
Robert Blair (1699-1746): Robert Blair, a Scottish poet, also joined the group of the Graveyard poets.
His long poem, The Grave, is a meditation on death. This is the only poem that Blair wrote. It is written
in blank verse in the Elizabethan style. This poem has the deep spirit of the Graveyard School. The
following lines may be quoted to illustrated this eerie tone of the poem:
"Tell us, ye dead ! will none of you, in pity

To those you left behind, disclose the secret?
Oh ! That some courteous ghost would blab it out
What 'tis you are, and we must shortly be,
I've heard that souls departed have sometimes
Forewarned men of their death. 'Twas kindly done
To knock and give the alarm. But what means
This stinted charity? 'Tis but lame kindness
That does its work by halves. Why might you not
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Tell us what 'tis to die? Do the strict laws

Of your society forbid your speaking
Upon a point so nice? I'll ask no more. "
Edward Young (1683-1765): With Edward Young we come to a poet of greater originality and force. He
is primarily remembered for his Night-Thoughts. Its central theme is mortality of man. Its unbroken
gloom tires one to the extreme degree. Its moral is more apparent than real. Young reflects on the death
of his wife and of his step daughter and her husband during nine nights, and in each one gloom is
expressed with all the artistry of an amorist stroking a shroud. He pours his broodings in the gloomy
context of night:
"Night, sable goddess ! from her above throne,

In rayless majesty now stretches forth
Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world.
Silence, how dead ! and darkness, how profound !
Nor eye nor listening ear an object finds;
Creation sleeps. "
In the darkness of the night, there is darkness of the grave. In this darkness of the grave man is a helpless
creature:
"How poor, how rich, how abject, how august,

How complicate, how wonderful is man !"
In these circumstances the only consoling force is religion.
Thomas Gray (1716-1771): By far the most important poet belonging to the Graveyard School of Poetry
was Thomas Gray. His representative poem, An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard was believed to
be the greatest poem of the century of its class. In the opinion of some critics it is the most powerful
elegiac poem in the world. Its influence was felt immediately, not only in England but all over Europe.
Edmund Gosse says, "The Elegy has exercised an influence on all the poetry of Europe, from Denmark to
Italy, from France to Russia. With the exception of certain works of Byron and Shakespeare, no English
poem has been so widely admired and imitated abroad. " It is the most widely quoted poem in English.
Its Melancholy Setting: The Elegy is set in a highly uncanny and melancholy atmosphere at dusk hour in
a country Churchyard. It is believed that in order to instil in himself the real atmosphere of the
Churchyard while writing this poem, Gray placed a human skull on his table and stuck two burning
candles in the eye-holes of the skull and wrote in their light. W. H. Hudson says, "There is the
Churchyard scene, the twilight atmosphere, and the brooding melancholy of the poem, which at once
connect it with one side of the romantic movement. The contrast drawn between the country and the
town—the peasants' simple life and 'the madding crowd's ignoble strife', needs to be noted. The tender
feelings shown for 'the rude forefathers of the hamlet' and 'the short simple annals of the poor' reach out to
include humble aspects of life hitherto ignored by the neo-classicists. "
Mortality and Vanity of Human Life:
The Elegy exposes the mortality and vanity of human life:

"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Awaits alike th' inevitable hour:—
The paths of glory lead but to the grave. "
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Therefore there is no use building memorial monuments or inscribing tales of one's glories on them. None
of these can call back the departed soul:
"Can storied urn or animated bust

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice invoke the silent dust,
Or flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?"
Therefore the rich and the proud should not deride the poor commoners because Death, the leveller, makes
them all equal in the grave:
"Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,

Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile,
The short and simple annals of the poor. "
Death is a fearful but inevitable end of life. Nobody likes to leave his dear and near ones and sink into the
grave:
"For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,

This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing lingering look behind?"
This is the whole story of life. We all come and play our part on the stage of the world, and then depart
without leaving even the foot-prints on the sands of time.
This is the melancholy, morbid, and vainglorious, but absolutely true story of life, which the poets of the
Graveyard School presented.
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The Classical Age in English Literature

Or
The Augustan Age in English Literature
The Classical or the Augustan Age: The Classical or the Augustan Age historically refers to the glorious
period of Emperor Augustus of Rome. The roots of Roman literature can be traced back to Greek
literature through the Renaissance. Their principles and ideals in literature were adopted and practised by
English authors of the eighteenth century, roughly from Dryden to Dr. Johnson. Strictly speaking,
therefore, in English literature this Age should be called Neo-Classical or Neo-Augustan Age. It covers
the whole of our 'indispensable Eighteenth Century. "
Adherence to Classical Rules: The most important factor of the literature of the Neo-Classical School is
its adherence to the original classical rules and models in all forms of literature. The authors of this period
had great respect for rules and discipline both in inspiration and form. Classical conventions governed
every variety of literature—drama, poetry, epic, satire, ode, or pastoral. They laid more emphasis on form
than on thought or emotion. Seneca provided the model for tragedy, Terence for comedy, Virgil for epic
and pastoral, Juvenal for satire, and Horace for literary taste and criticism. They laid more emphasis on
intellectual and artistic craftmanship than on imaginative or emotional fervour. Dryden's Prefaces to his
plays and Fables, Pope's Essay on Criticism, several of Addison's literary essays and Dr. Johnson's Lives
and Preface to Shakespeare enunciate these classical principles for the guidance of the English classical
authors.
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Satirical and Didactic Spirit: The literature of the classical school is basically satirical or didactic.
Pope's Dunciad, An Essay on Man, Satires and Epistles; Dr. Johnson's The Vanity of Human Wishes;
Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard; the poetry of the Churchyard School and of the
Metaphysical School, and Dryden's Mac Flecknoe are all typical Neo-Classical poems and plays.
Intellectual Quality: Classical literature was predominantly intellectual rather than emotional or
imaginative. These authors avoided all extravagance and emotionalism. They laid emphasis on
correctness, or what Pope called 'nature methodized'. The ideals of order and restraint were so over-
emphasised that art degenerated into artifice. Poetry of love, beauty, emotional fervour and humanism
which flourished in the Elizabethan Age was rigorously suppressed. In its place satirical poetry
flourished. The poetry of these poets was bred more in the head than in the heart, and was addressed to
the intellect, not to the soul. Even the drama of Dryden which might have roused deep emotions was
chilled down by classical discipline and sharp intellect. Wit was their strongest point. These poets had a
gift for pregnant and memorable phrases and critical and philosophical terms.
Use of Poetic Diction: According to the classical poets, the language of everyday life is not a language fit
for poetry. They wrote their poetry in what is called Poetic Diction. Their concept was that the farther the
language of poetry is removed from the language of real life, the better it is. Dr. Johnson defined Poetic
Diction
thus:
"A system of words at once refined from the grossness of domestic use, and free from the harshness of
terms appropriate to particular arts. " As such the language of poetry tended to be stilted and standardized.
Use of Heroic Couplet: The Heroic couplet was the standard verse form and stanza for the classical
poets. The Heroic couplet was a two-line rhyming stanza written in Iambic Pentameter. It was believed
to be suitable for all types of literature, epic, drama, and satire. The Heroic couplet was initiated by
Waller and Denham, and systematized by Dryden and Pope. It ousted all other verse forms, metres and
stanza forms which were so popular in the Elizabethan Age. Even the Blank Verse of such mighty poets
and dramatists as Marlowe and Shakespeare was replaced by it. Even the Spenserian stanza had become
outdated. The Heroic couplet came to be recognized as the natural expression of the intellectual mood of
the author.
Treatment of Aristocratic Life: The classical literature, specially poetry, primarily dealt with town life.
It presented the aristocratic life of big cities, highlighting their fashions, manners, morals and outlandish
style of living: London became the centre for all poets and authors. Fashionable clubs and coffee-houses
became the haunts of all literary figures. Men of different tastes, temperaments and professions
assembled there. They usually discussed literary problems on the coffee tables. At one time there were as
many as three thousand coffee houses in London alone. These coffee-houses served to establish contact
not only between the author and the reader, but also between author and author. Dryden and Pope, for
example, met for the first time at a coffee-house. As a result, life of the common men was completely
neglected by the classical authors. Nature was also no proper subject for their poetry. There is no first
hand description of any object of nature or any landscape. Satire on aristocratic life became the stock
subject for poetry; Pope's Rape of the Lock is the representative example of the Classical School of poetry.
The major engagements of the aristocratic lords and ladies were display of fashions, playing cards, flirting
with women, and passing their time in clubs. Here is a graphic description of Belinda's Toilet:
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"The inferior Priestess, at her altar's side,

Trembling begins the sacred rites of Pride.
Unnumber'd treasures ope at once, and here
The various offerings of the world appear;
From each she nicely culls with curious toil,
And decks the Goddess with the glitt'ring spoil,
This casket India's golden gems unlocks,
And all Arabia breathes from yonder box.
Puffs, Powders, Patches, Bibles, Billet-doux
Now awful Beauty puts on all its charms. "
Imitation of the Classics as their Creed: The neo-classical poets measured their success in proportions
as they succeeded in imitating the great classical poets. They sought to adhere to their principles, their
styles, their mannerisms, their themes and even their thoughts and sentiments. This is what Pope advised
his contemporary authors to follow the ancients slavishly. In the Essay on Criticism he advises every poet
and every critic thus:

His fable, subject, scope in e'ry page;
Religion, country, genius of his Age:
Cavil you may, but never criticize.
Thence your judgments, thence your maxims bring,
And trace the Muses upwards to their spring. "
These were the major characteristics of the Neo-Classical authors of the eighteenth century. But because
of the basic fact that their poetry and plays were satirical and intellectual exercises, shorn of emotion and
imagination, their vogue could not last long. Their decline started in the latter half of the eighteenth
century and with the publication of Wordsworth and Caleridge's Lyrical Ballads, the Neoclassical poetry
was totally replaced by Romantic poetry.
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The Four Wheels of the Van of the English Novel

Or
The Four Pillars of the English Novel
The Forerunners of the English Novel: The English Novel proper came into being in the eighteenth
century. Its four originators were Samuel Richardson (1689-1751), Henry Fielding (1707-1754), Tobias
George Smollett (1721-1771), and Lawrence Sterne (1713-1768). These four novelists are called the Four
Pillars or the Four Wheels of the Van of the English Novel. Prose Romances, though not novels proper,
had been written by several eminent authors even in the sixteenth century. These prose Romances can be
called the forerunners of the English novel. The earliest of the prose romances was Sidney's Arcadia. It
was purely an imaginative creation, modelled on Plato's Republic. A similar imaginative creation was
Bacon's New Atlantis which also belongs to the same category. Bunyan had made a story out of his
religious convictions in The Pilgrim's Progress. Lyly, Lodge, and Greene had
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also created purely imaginative romances. Daniel Dafoe had written out a travelogue in The Life and
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. The novel proper with realistic and well-planned plots and
individualistic characters came into vogue with the above named four novelists.
Let us briefly discuss these novelists one by one:
Samuel Richardson: Richardson was the first real novelist. His first novel Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded
was published in two volumes in 1740. Two more volumes were added to it later on, so the complete
novel ran into four volumes. The novelty of this novel is that its plot has been developed through the
medium of letters or epistles. With this method of developing the plot, Richardson started a new type of
novel called the Epistolary novel. Though some critics called it a highly artificial and unnatural method of
developing the plot of a novel, Richardson handled this method and technique so skilfully that the reading
public received it with approval and appreciation. Through this novel Richardson had given what the
novel-reading public had demanded, namely, realism and romance nicely blended. Though this novel had
some weak points and shortcomings as the first attempt in any field is bound to have, it laid a strong
foundation for the growth of the English novel. Sampson says: "With all its faults, Richardson's first
novel belongs to an order of artistic achievement and psychological truth which English literature had
scarcely known since the decay of Elizabethan drama. " Richardson's next two novels were Clarissa
Harlowe and Sir Charles Grandison. Clarissa Harlowe is Richardson's masterpiece. It gave him a
European reputation. It is still regarded as one of the greatest eighteenth-century novels. These two
novels are also written in the same epistolary form. W. H. Hudson says, "For patient, microscopic
analysis of motive and passion, Richardson still holds a pre-eminent place. " Thus Richardson is the first
pillar of the English novel.
Henry Fielding: The second of our eighteenth-century novelists, and by far the greatest of them all, was
Henry Fielding. He was a man of a very different type. His was a virile, vigorous, and adventurous
nature, and his knowledge and experience of life was deep and wide. There is thus a strength and a
breadth in his work which was not there in the works of Richardson. Strangely enough, his first
experiment in the novel was a direct offshoot of Richardson's Pamela. An idea occurred to him to take
advantage of the popularity of Pamela by turning it into a burlesque. This idea led him to write his first
novel The Adventures of Joseph Andrews. As Richardson's heroine had been tempted by his master, so
Fielding's hero is tempted by his mistress. But this burlesque is not carried beyond the tenth chapter.
Thereafter the story becomes an 'epic of the highway', full of adventures, horseplay, and coarse fun. With
this he founded what is called Picaresque Novel. This was followed by The History of Tom Jones. This is
again a picaresque novel. It is called the greatest novel of the eighteenth century. Here Fielding takes an
enormous canvas, and crowds it with a large number of characters. His hero is a foundling, who wanders
on his way to London and meets all types of characters. The novel gives us the fullest and richest picture
of English life about the middle of the eighteenth century. Fielding's third great novel, Amelia appeared in
1751. The story tells of the courage and patience of a devoted wife towards her ill-intentioned and weak-
willed husband. Fielding laid utmost stress on the construction of an artistic plot. Fielding himself called
his Joseph Andrews a comic epic in prose. The same epithet is applicable to his Tom Jones. However a
charge of immorality was brought against Tom Jones. Defending Fielding against the charge of
immorality, Sampson says: "A book must be judged by its general tendency, not by particular details.
That Tom Jones is sometimes despicable and sometimes disgusting will hardly be denied, but Fielding
quite honestly made his hero fallible that he might make him human. Fielding had
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not a great soul, but he had a great heart. " Thus Fielding was the second and the greatest pillar of the
English novel.
Smollett: Tobias Smollett is the third pillar or the third wheel of the English novel. He was a novelist of
much lower level than Fielding or even Richardson. He had a long experience of the drudgery and
hardships of naval service. He made full use of this knowledge and experience in his novels. He wrote
about half a dozen novels of which only three are popularly known. They are The Adventures of Roderick
Random, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker. Smollett
considered novel as 'a large diffused Picture' of life. His stories are simply strings of adventures, and
whatever unity is there in them is the personality of the hero. He seeks to preserve the interest of the
reader by a perpetual succession of incidents. His characters are crudely drawn. His novels are also of the
picaresque type. The world as he pictures is a dirty and dingy place, and the people are for the most part
dirty and disagreeable. Humphry Clinker is somewhat better and more artistically developed. Smolett
was avowedly a satirist and reformer, and his purpose was to expose the darker and uglier side of life and
to attract the attention of the people towards them with a view to reforming them. It is believed that
Roderick Random led to many reforms in naval life.
Sterne: Laurence Sterne was the fourth pillar or the fourth wheel of the van of the English novel. His first
novel, Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy appeared in nine volumes from 1759 to 1767. It is not a
well-constructed novel. A work in nine volumes cannot possibly have a well-constructed plot.
"It is only a medley of unconnected incidents, scraps of out-of-the way learning, whimsical fancies,
humour, pathos, reflection, impertinence, and indecency. " However he had a wonderful power of
character delineation. Sterne took a long European journey in 1762. On the basis of his European
journey, he wrote A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy by Mr. Yorik. It is a delightful literary
product. Legouis says, "The Sentimental Journey refines the cult of emotion, and puts the finishing touch
on its highly elaborate, artificial character, but in no way does it abjure this cult. "
These are the four pillars on which the entire edifice of the English novel has been developed.
Metaphorically it has been rightly observed that the vehicle of the English novel first started moving on
the wheels represented by these four novelists.
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Critical Value of Wordsworth's Preface to the Lyrical

Ballads
Preamble to the Romantic Movement: Wordsworth's Preface to the Second Edition of the Lyrical
Ballads published in 1800 is believed to be the Preamble to the Romantic Movement in English literature.
The beginning of no literary Age or Movement can be precisely dated, but for the sake of convenience
some important historical or literary event is taken to be its starting point. It is from this point of view that
the Romantic Movement in English literature is believed to have started from the publication of
Wordsworth's Preface to his Lyrical Ballads. In this Preface Wordsworth explains his conception and
theory of poetry and poetic language.
Essential Qualities of a Poet: Wordsworth begins his Preface by first discussing the essential qualities of
a poet. In what respects is a poet distinct from a common man? The difference between a poet and a
common man is only one of degree. The poet is "endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm
and tenderness. " The poet has "a more comprehensive soul" and he is "habitually impelled to create." He
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has "a disposition to be affected more than other men by absent things as if they were present. " And
finally, the poet has "more lively emotions and faculty of imagination."
Definition of Poetry: Wordsworth defines poetry thus:
"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotions recollected in
tranquillity. " In this definition there are two apparent contradictions. The expression 'spontaneous
overflow' would suggest immediate expression without any interval of time between the moment of
receiving the impression and the moment of expressing it. Against it, the expression 'emotions recollected
in tranquillity' would suggest a sufficient gap of time for recollecting the impressions received some time
ago. However, this contradiction is only apparent, not real. Wordsworth himself explains it thus: "The
emotion is contemplated till, by a species of reactions, the tranquillity gradually disappears, and an
emotion, kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does
itself actually exist in the mind. " When the emotion is thus recollected, it is expressed as naturally and as
spontaneously as possible. The poem thus composed should not appear to be a laboured exercise. This
definition lays emphasis on two points—profusion of emotions, and their natural and spontaneous
expression.
Subject Matter of Poetry: The subject matter fit for poetry, according to Wordsworth, is the life of the
common men. This view is contrary to the classical view according to which the proper subject for poetry
was the life of the aristocratic class of people. Wordsworth believes that a poet cannot cut himself off
from the larger section of humanity. He says, "Humble and rustic life was generally chosen, because, in
that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity,
are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language; because in that condition of life
our elementary feelings co-exist in a state of greater simplicity. " Wordsworth further says: "The principal
object, then, proposed in these poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to
relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible, in a selection of language really used by men. "
Wordsworth considers man and nature as essentially adapted to each other, and the mind of man as
naturally the mirror of the fairest and most interesting properties of nature.
The Language of Poetry: Wordsworth further says that poetry should be written in a language really
spoken by men in their day-to-day life. Wordsworth says that "the poet thinks and feels in the spirit of
human passions. How then can his language differ in any material degree from that of all other men who
feel vividly and see clearly?" The poet must express himself as other men express themselves. This is for
the simple reason that poets do not write for poets alone, but for men. Since he had chosen for the subject
matter of his poetry incidents and situations from common life, he also decided to relate or describe them
in a selection of language really used by men. Of Course, some obvious defects that may cause dislike or
disgust should be judiciously removed. This much care would keep poetry free from the charge of
triviality and meanness. Thus Wordsworth made his best efforts to bring the language of his poetry as
near as possible to the language of men.
Language of Poetry and Prose: Then Wordsworth goes a step further and says that there is no essential
difference between the language of poetry and that of prose. He says that the language of even the best
poetry will be found to be strictly the language of prose when prose is well written. A large portion of the
language of poetry can in no respect differ from that of good prose. So he concludes that "there neither is,
nor can be, any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition. "
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Poetry and Verse: However, Wordsworth believes that verse is essential for poetry. It is the use of metre
and verse that distinguishes poetry from prose. Verse makes poetry more attractive, sonorous and
memorable. Verse supplies "endless combinations of forms and imagery. " The end of poetry is to
produce excitement in co-existence with an overbalance of pleasure. Words metrically arranged will long
continue to impart the extent of that pleasure with excitement. Pathetic situations can be better expressed
in verse than in prose. So Wordsworth concludes, "Of two descriptions, either of passion, manners, or
characters, each of them equally well executed, the one in prose and the other in verse, the verse will be
read a hundred times where the prose is read once. "
Poetry as the Mother of all Knowledge: Referring to the value of poetry, Wrodsworth says, "Poetry is
the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance
of all science. " The poet is the rock of defence for human nature, an upholder and preserver, carrying
everywhere with him relationship and love. "The poet binds together by passion and knowledge the vast
empire of human society. The objects of the poet's thoughts are everywhere. " So Wordsworth says,
"Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge—it is as immortal as the heart of man. " The poet is endowed
with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, and has a greater knowledge of human
nature, and a more comprehensive soul. Quoting Aristotle, Wordsworth says, "Poetry is the most
philosophic of all writing; its object is truth, not individual and local, but general and operative. " Poetry is
the image of man and nature. It is an acknowledgement of the beauty of the universe. It is the grand
elementary principle of pleasure, by which the poet knows, and feels, and lives, and moves.
The poet does not isolate his objects of experience. He 'looks before and after'. He discovers the
interrelationships of the objects, and he relates this interrelated field of experience to human feelings and
affections. He creates unity of life and unity of universe. He does not discriminate. Instead of dividing,
analysing and classifying as the scientist does, the poet unifies, synthesises "the vast empire of human
society. " It embodies truth "which is carried alive into the heart by passion. "
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The Romantic Movement
The Background of the Romantic Movement: The Romantic Movement in literature and the
Revolutionary idealism in European politics were both generated by the same human craving for freedom
from traditions and tyranny. W. H. Hudson says, "At bottom both the political and the literary movements
were inspired by the same impatience of formulas, traditions, conventions, and the tyranny of the dead
hand, by the same insistence upon individuality, and by the same craving for freedom and the larger life.
The long accepted rules of art, in fact prescribed rules of any kind, were treated with open contempt; the
reaction against Pope and the Augustan School became aggressive; and the principle of spontaneity was
everywhere thrust to the front. " Keats wrote, "The genius of poetry must work out its own salvation in a
man. It cannot be matured by law and precept, but by sensation and watchfulness in itself. That which is
creative must create itself. " It came as the prophecy of a new day; humanity at large was to pass forward
immediately into an era of realised democratic ideals—of liberty, brotherhood, and the rights of man. A
wonderful humanitarian enthusiasm and gorgeous dreams of progress and perfection were thus kindled in
ardent young souls. The Romantic Movement in literature encompassed all these ideals and aspirations of
mankind.
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Romantic Movement Defined: Romanticism has been variously defined by various critics and scholars.
Each definition emphasises one or the other aspect of the Romantic Movement in literature. According to
Walter Pater, "Romanticism is the addition of curiosity to the desire of beauty: it is strangeness added to
beauty. " In the words of Walter Hugo, "Romanticism is liberalism in literature, impatient of formulas, but
generous and tolerant in every other way. " W. J. Long says, "The Romantic Movement was marked and
is always marked by a strong reaction and protest against the bondage of rule and custom, which in
science and theology, as well as in literature, generally tend to fetter the free human spirit. " Another critic
calls it "a renaissance of wonder. " On the adventurous side, as Wordsworth remarks, it deals with "old
unhappy far off things and battles long ago. "
The Romantic Revival: The Romantic Movement is popularly known by two terms-The Romantic
Revival and The Romantic Revolt. The Romantic Movement is called Romantic Revival because it seeks
to revive the poetic ideals of the Elizabethan Age. Love, beauty, emotion, imagination, romance and
beauty of Nature were the ideals of Elizabethan poetry. The poets and dramatists of the Elizabethan Age
such as Marlowe, Shakespeare, Lyly, Sidney, Spenser and others became sources of inspiration, though
not models, for the Romantic poets and authors. Keats came to be celebrated as the poet of beauty,
Shelley as the poet of love, Wordsworth as the poet of Nature, Byron as the poet of humanism, Scott as
the poet of medieval lore, and Coleridge as the poet of the supernatural. Therefore the Romantic
Movement was called the Romantic Revival.
The Romantic Revolt: The Romantic Movement is also called Romantic Revolt because it revolted
against the ideals, principles, intellectualism, aristocracy and such other practices of the Neo-Classical or
Augustan School of poetry, drama and satire. The neo-classical poetry was mechanical and artificial to
the last degree. It was "the product of the intellect playing upon the surface of life. " It conspicuously
lacked in emotion and imagination. It was largely written in 'Poetic Diction' in Heroic couplet. The
Romantic poetry was basically emotional and imaginative. It was 'emotions recollected in tranquillity' or
'spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. ' Wordsworth depicted the life of the common men in "a
language really spoken by men in their daily life. " Romantic poetry was written in blank verse or in
different metres and stanza forms. Thus Romantic poetry was in revolt against all restrictions and fetters
of the Neo-Classical School. Therefore it was termed as the Romantic Revolt.
Salient Features of Romantic Poetry: The following are the salient features of Romantic poetry:
Emotionalism: The most important feature of Romantic poetry is emotionalism. In Romantic poetry
there is effusion of feelings, emotions, and heart-felt appreciation of beauty in all forms—human or
natural. It springs from the heart and makes an appeal to the heart. It is spontaneous and natural, and no
laboured exercise. It has fervour and vitality, 'a free, onward impulse. ' The French Revolution infused a
new spirit into young English poets. W. H. Hudson says, "It came as the prophecy of a new day,
forwarding immediately into an era of realised democratic ideals—of liberty, brotherhood, and the rights
of man, A wonderful humanitarian enthusiasm and gorgeous dreams of progress and perfection were thus
kindled in ardent young souls. " This was the central creed of Romantic poetry.
Lyricism: Romantic poetry is largely lyrical rather than intellectual or satirical. Lyrical poetry gives
expression to one's own personal feelings and sentiments towards an object. As such there is an
abundance of lyrics, songs, sonnets, odes, and egotistical poems in Romantic poetry. Wordsworth,
Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, and Byron are all famous lyrical poets. All these lyrical poets favoured
subjectivity,
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emotionalism, impulse and free play of imagination. They 'ransacked the ages and spoiled the climes. '
The Romantic poets were individuals: The work of one could not be taken for another's, even though the
subject may be the same. Poetry once again became musical, sensuous and impassioned. Love poetry
came into prominence. See what intensity of feeling is there in Shelley's To a Skylark:
"We look before and after,

And pine for what is not;
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught.
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. "
Love of Nature: Nature was the central theme of Romantic poetry. The Romantic poets took Nature in
the widest possible connotation. Nature, for them, included natural landscapes, trees, plants, hills, valleys,
rivers, mountains as well as rural folks together with their cottages, sheep, goats and rural festivities.
Nature also had a deeper meaning for them. Nature was the abode of God. It was a source of supreme
joy, consolation and sublime moral teaching. Wordsworth was the worshipper and high priest of Nature.
He sees the presence of God in every phenomenon of Nature. He felt the presence of God in the light of
the setting sun, the round ocean, and the living air and the blooming spring. In the presence of these
phenomena 'he was laid asleep in body and became a living soul.’ So Wordsworth says:
'One impulse from the vernal wood,

Can teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can. "
Love of Medievalism: The Romantic poets were also drawn towards the medieval ages. There was
'magic of distance' which fascinated them. The spirit of adventure, knight-errantry, duels, battles and
tournaments, and voyages over unchartered seas offered a storehouse of fascination for them. The
medieval ages were also associated with mysterious supernatural powers. Coleridge and Walter Scott
were great medieval poets. Scott's poetry as well as novels were surcharged with medieval spirit.
Coleridge presented the supernatural as natural by the power of his imagination. He created 'a make-
believe world' on the doctrine of 'willing suspension of disbelief. ' Keats explored the Greek mythology
for his poetic themes, so that he was said to be 'a Greek born in England. '
These were the marked characteristics of Romantic literature which differentiated it both in manner and
matter from the literature of the Augustan Age. Formally, the age of Romantic literature ended with the
accession of Queen Victoria to the throne of England in 1837, but the romantic spirit continues to exist to
the present day.
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The Pre-Raphaelite School of Poetry
Its Historical Background: In 1810 two German painters, Cornelius and Overbeck, founded a society in
Rome, called the German Pre-Raphaelite Brethren. They gave this name to their society because they
drew their inspiration from the Italian painters before Raphael. In the painters before Raphael they "found
a sweetness, depth, and sincerity of devotional feeling, a self- forgetfulness and humble adherence to
truth, which were absent from the sophisticated art of Raphael
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and his successors. " Following their example, three English painters, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett
Millais and William Holman Hunt founded a similar society in 1848 and called it Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood, But D. G. Rossetti and some of his companions, notably William Morris and A. C.
Swinburne, were poets too. Therefore they sought to give 'painting effect' to their poetry. This gave rise
to a corollary literary society which came to be known as The Pre-Raphaelite School of Poetry. These
poets sought to escape from the excessive materialism and dreariness of the Victorian Age and to satisfy
their urge for art and creation of beautiful things. They sought refuge in the romance and mysticism of the
Middle Ages. They sought to create pure art, art for art's sake only, not for any ulterior motive.
Main Characteristics: The following are the main characteristics of the Pre-Raphaelite School of Poetry.
Art for Art's Sake: The Pre-Raphaelite poets were pure artists. They created Art for Art's Sake, both in
poetry and painting. Their poems could be painted in colours, and their paintings could be rendered into
poetry. They refused to employ poetry for moral or didactic purposes. Their poetry displayed rare
combination of details, colours, picturesqueness, sensuousness, lavish imagery, and precision. In doing so
they paid little regard to the approval of the moralists.
Pictorial Effect: The Pre-Raphaelite poetry is also marked with rare pictorial effect. It is highly
picturesque, giving the minutest details of colours and shades. Rossetti, for instance, gives a graphic
picture of himself as he sat in the grass in a pensive mood:
"My eyes, wide open, had the run

Of some ten weeds to fix upon;
Among these few, out of the sun,
The woodspurge flowered, three cups in one.
From perfect grief there need not be
Wisdom or even memory;
One thing then learnt remains to me,—
The woodspurge has a cup of three. "
Again we may quote a stanza from Rossetti's The Blessed Damozel for a similar pictorial effect:
"The blessed damozel leaned out

From the gold bar of Heaven;
Her eyes were deeper than the depth
Of waters stilled at even;
She had three lilies in her hand,
And the stars in her hair were seven.
" Medieval Lore: Fed up with the excessive materialistic pursuits and psychological and moral confusion
of the Victorian Age, the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite School were drawn towards the lore and
enchantment of the Medieval Ages. The medieval culture and spirit of adventure allured them. The
romance, chivalry, superstition, mysticism of the medievl times had a very powerful fascination, specially
for Rossetti. There is a revival and glorification of the Middle Ages. Legouis says:
"These poets added to the charm of medieval literature, which they thus revived, a subtle something which
differentiates it from medieval literature itself. It is constantly complained that the graceful and
labyrinthine stories, the sweet snatches
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of songs, the quaint drama and legend of the Middle Ages lack life, that they are shadowy, unreal, tapestry
on the wall, not alive even as living pageants are. By the strong touch of modernness which these poets
and the best of their followers introduced into their work, they have given the vivification required. "
Rossetti's The Blessed Damozel, Rose Mary, Sister Helen, and My Sister's Sleep are steeped in medieval
spirit. Equally medieval in theme and spirit are Morris's Guinevere and Other Poems, The Life and Death
of Jason, The Havstock in Flood, and the Earthly Paradise. A. C. Swinburne's The Garden of
Prosperpine, Venus and Adonis, Hero and Leander are equally medieval in their themes and presentation.
Their Musical Sense: The Pre-Raphaelite poetry is not only pictorial and sensuous but also highly
musical. It is lyrical not only in its form but also in its musical quality. It can be put to music. It is rich in
melody. Legouis says, "Vowels call to vowels, and consonants to consonants, and there links often seem
stronger than the links of thought or imagery. " With Swinburne the flow of musical language is so swift
and profuse that it hardly appears to be the result of any conscious process. The alliteration and the
onomatopaeic effects seem to arise quite spontaneously. See the musical effect in the following lines:
"The wild vine slips with the weight of its leaves,

But the berried ivy catches and cleaves
To the limbs that glitter, the feet that scare
The wolf that follows, the fawn that flies. "
Sometimes the Pre-Raphaelite poets sacrificed sense at the altar of sound. This charge is specially
brought against Swinburne. In his poetry words and phrases are employed for musical effect without
adding to the sense or meaning of the lines. Music is the food on which they feed.
Charge of Voluptuousness: Robert Buchanan called the Pre-Raphaelite poetry 'The Fleshly School of
Poetry. ' He so called it because it is too sensuous, often degenerating to the level of sensuality and
voluptuousness. Rossetti very often gives the impression of sensuality and voluptuousness in his
description of feminine beauty. See, for instance, the following passage:
"Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem,

No wrought flowers did adorn
But a white rose of Mary's gift,
For service meetly worn;
Her hair that lay along her back
Was yellow like ripe corn. "
Or see again the following passage in which the heroine herself speaks:
"See my breast how like it is,

See it bare for the air to kiss;
Is the cup to thy heart's desire
O for the breast, O make it his. "
Such passages frequently occur in Rossetti's Troy Town, The House of Life, and Jenny.
"Why, Jenny, as watch you there,

For all your wealth of loosened hair,
Your silk ungirdled and unlac'd,
And warm, sweets open to the waist
And golden in the lamp light gloom. "
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One more passage may be quoted from Troy Town:

"Heaven-born Helen, Sparta's queen,
Had two breasts of heavenly sheen,
The sun and moon of the heart's desire,
All Love's lordship lay between. "
However, it should be remembered that the Pre-Raphaelite poets only continued some of the streams of
Romantic poetry. Shelley, Keats, Coleridge and Scott were their forerunners from whom they drew their
inspiration. The Pre-Raphaelites only further enriched the Romantic streams and left a rich harvest of
poetry for the posterity to enjoy and preserve.
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The Oxford Movement
A Religious Movement: The Oxford Movement was basically a religious Movement. It was an outcome
of a long controversy and ideological conflicts amongst different Christian sects and churches. Since the
battle-ground of these controversies was Oxford, this Movement came to be known as Oxford Movement.
Again, since these controversies were carried through tracts and pamphlets, this Movement was also
called the Tractarian Movement. It was in the course of its devlopment that it took a literary turn too.
This happened because some of its leaders were poets and prose-writers too. These literary men
supported the cause of the English Church and the Prayer Book through their writings. But this
Movement did not remain confined to Oxford city only. Soon it spread out over the whole country. So
Sampson says, "Viewed from afar the Oxford Movement appeared to be a theological dispute among the
local clergy in a university city; in the course of a few years it was to shake the whole church of England
and change the very nature of its being. " The aim of the Movement was to rehabilitate the dignity of the
church, to defend the church against the interference of the State, to fight against liberalism, to defend the
religion against the onslaught of scientific discoveries, and to preserve faith against rationalism.
Opposition of Religion by Science: The scientific discoveries challenged the age-old institutions, Divine
laws and faith in religion. In science every fact is proved by reason, experiment and factual observation.
The traditional religious beliefs and theories of the creation of the world and living species and vegetation
world were challenged by different branches of science. The most powerful of these scientific discoveries
which shook the very foundations of religion was Darwin's Origin of Species. This discovery challenged
the very basis of Divine Order that God created the universe. Several other scientists including Wallace,
Herbert Spencer, T. H. Huxley, and John Tyndall threw similar challenges to religion in other fields.
Religion had to be saved because man cannot live without faith in some higher Power. This challenge
was accepted by the leaders of the Oxford Movement.
Literary Figures Associated with the Oxford Movement: We shall now consider only the literary
figures who were associated with the Oxford Movement. Though the most influential of them was John
Henry Newman, the originator of the Movement was John Keble. Other important literary figures were
two brothers Richard Hurrell Froude and James Anthony Froude, Edward Pusey, Isaac Williams, Richard
William Church, and a few more. We shall consider the contribution of the more important of them.
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John Keble: John Keble was the originator of the Oxford Movement. The most popular of his books of
verses was The Christian Year published anonymously in two volumes in 1827. It bore the sub-title
Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays Throughout the Year. These verses embody something
of the spirit of the English Book of Common Prayer.
John Henry Newman: Newman was the most notable figure in the Oxford Movement. He was a talented
writer. He had no great learning, but he had remarkable charm and grace. His first important work was
Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine published in 1845. He wrote several Tracts, but his
Tract No. 90 raised a storm against him. This storm compelled him to join the Roman Catholic Church.
His famous literary works include Apologia pro Vita Sua, Sermons Preached Before the University of
Oxford, Sermons Bearing upon the Subjects of the Day, Discourses Addressed to Mixed Congregations,
Sermons Preached on Various Occasions, The Idea of a University, and Discourses on the Scope and
Nature of University Education. His writings present Newman at his best, polished, urbane, persuasive,
and delicately humorous. Newman wrote verses too. The Collections of his verses are Verses on Various
Occasions, Lyra Apostolica and Dream of Gerontius. However, his poems are not of high quality.
Froude Brothers: Richard Hurrell Froude and James Anthony Froude were two poet brothers. James
Froude took orders. He wrote History of Henry VIII. The elder brother, Richard Froude was glowing
with religious ardour. He published a volume of poems called Lyra Apostolica. The collection of his
tracts was called Tracts for the Times. After his death was published his Remains in two volumes. Mr. J.
L. May said about him, "Froude's part in the Movement was brief, but it was all important. He was the
match that fired the train. He brought Keble and Newman to understand each other, and that was an
achievement pregnant with consequences. "
Edward Pusey: Edward Pusey originated Puseyism. It was a form of Anglicanism which was akin to
Roman Catholicism. He was a learned man and a great protagonist of the Movement. Comparing him to
Newman, Compton-Rickett says, "He is far less attractive as a personality, more questionable in his
methods and immeasurably inferior as a literary craftsman. " He published The Library of the Fathers of
the Holy Catholic Church.
W. G. Ward and R. W. Church: They were the followers of Newman. They attained much celebrity
in literature. Church was Dean of St. Paul's. W. G. Ward wrote Idea of Christian Church and Church
wrote A History of Oxford Movement. Both of them were among the pillars of the Oxford Movement.
The Religious and Literary Importance of the Oxford Movement: The Oxford Movement has a great
importance in the religious as well as literary sense. During the eighteenth century the church had sunk
into stagnation. Its liturgy was reduced to the minimum. The church had lost its life and vitality. The
Oxford Movement rejuvenated it. Concluding his observations oh the value of the Oxford Movement,
Sampson says: "The chief aim of the Oxford Movement was to make plain to the Englishmen the
historical continuity of the national Church. The glamour of the Oxford Movement touched many who
were far from the time and place of conflict. In the poetry of Christina Rossetti it kindled a new life
exuberant and aflame. To Christina Rossetti the Catholic theology of the English Church was the very
breath of life, and she accepted its sternness without dispute. This was the spirit of the Oxford Movement.
The real teaching of the Church would be found if you went back to the right sources. "
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Major Trends in Modern Literary Criticism
Major Critical Trends: It can be safely asserted that modern trends in literary criticism started with T. S.
Eliot. Some other major critics who introduced new theories or new approaches to literary criticism
include I. A. Richards, William Empson, F. R. Leavis, Herbert Read, Lionel Trilling, Edmund Wilson,
and Kenneth Burke. Modern Criticism also came under the impact of such psychologists and sociologists
as Sigmund Freud, C. G. Jung, Marx and such others. The major theories or Schools of Criticism that
have developed in the Modern Age are the Impersonal Theory of Criticism, the Impressionistic School,
the Expressionistic School, the Psychological School, the Aesthetic School, the Marxist School, and
several smaller ones. Let us briefly consider them one by one:
The Impersonal Theory: The Impersonal Theory of Poetry and consequently of criticism was enunciated
by T. S. Eliot. The central point of the Impersonal Theory of Poetry is that 'the poet, the man, and the
poet, the artist are two different entities. " The poet has no 'personality' of his own. The impressions and
experiences which are important for the man have no importance for his poetry. The poet must suppress
his personal feelings. "The progress of the artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of
personality. ' Therefore, according to T. S. Eliot, a poem should be judged on its own merits, and not in
the context of the poet's life and personality. A literary work should be considered and judged as a work
complete in itself. Therefore T. S. Eliot says, "Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape
from emotions; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. " Art is impersonal,
and therefore the evaluation of a work of art should also be detached and impersonal.
Impressionistic School of Criticism: The impressionistic school of criticism judges a work of art by the
impressions the work makes on the mind of the critic. It is a subjective type of criticism. This system was
initiated by Mr. Symons, and it was further supported by Walter Pater and Swinburne. Explaining this
approach, Symons says, "It is a faithful record of the impressions, more numerous or more refined than
our own, upon a mind more sensitive than our own. These impressions are as much created as transmitted
by the criticism. " He further says, "The critic, first ridding his mind of all prejudices and arbitrary canons
and rules, should make appreciative contact with the work of art before him, then eschewing judgment and
putting aside all temptation to praise or blame, he is to describe the impression made by the work of art on
his own mind in untrammelled appreciation. " T. S. Eliot, however, did not favour this system of critical
appreciation and called it "Imperfect Criticism. "
Expressionistic School of Criticism: This School seeks to probe into the emotions expressed by the poet.
"It regards the work primarily in relation to the author himself. It defines poetry as an expression, or
overflow, or utterance of feeling, or as the product of the poet's imagination operating on his perceptions,
thoughts, and feelings; it seeks to judge the work by its sincerity, or genuineness, or adequacy to the poet's
individual vision or state of mind. " (M. H. Abrams) This approach was first adopted by Wordsworth and
other Romantic critics, but it is equally applicable to the present day because it is impossible to conceive
of poetry without emotions.
Aesthetic Criticism: The Aesthetic approach to creative and critical literature was enunciated first by
Walter Pater and supported by Oscar Wilde. They believed in
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the literary theory of Art for Art's Sake as against the theory of Art for Life's Sake. Art must give highest
aesthetic pleasure. The function of art is to give aesthetic pleasure, and not to preach or moralise.
Preaching moral values is the function of religion, not of art. A work of art should be adjudged by its
power of giving pure aesthetic pleasure, and nothing beyond it. Pater says, "The function of art is to give
nothing but the highest quality of aesthetic excitement to the moments of life as they pass. " It is literature
of power as against literature of knowledge. Whether written in prose or verse, it must add to the
grandeur of thought, to the nobility of emotions, and to the elevation of the soul. This would make art
"not only good art, but also great art. "
Psychological School of Criticism: The critics of the Psychological School try to be more scientific by
probing deep into the mind of the artist at the time of creating the work of art. They adopt the
psychological method of Freud and Jung and apply it in analysing and evaluating a work of art before
them. It is presumed that the Freudian approach will better explain the underlying thought and emotion in
the mind of the artist as expressed in his work of art. The study of what takes place in the mind of the
artist during the creation of a work is certainly an interesting branch of psychology. According to Freud,
psycho-analysis "can do nothing towards elucidating the nature of the artistic gift, nor can it explain the
means by which the artist works—artistic technique. " But the emotional background of the artist can be
well explained and experienced. Jung also makes a similar observation. He says, "Any reaction to
stimulus may be a casual reaction, and will for ever elude the human understanding. " But this method will
certainly discriminate the bad artist from the good one, as also the bad critic from the good critic.
However, the most powerful argument in favour of this school of criticism is that by exposing the mental
working of the artist, we can better understand and evaluate the underlying thought in a work of art.
Marxist Theory of Criticism: The Marxist Theory of criticism is also called the Sociological Theory of
Criticism. It is based on the sociological theory of Marx. It is based on the idea that every work of art or
literature is the product of the social and political conditions of the age in which it is produced. It believes
that literature is inseparably related with the social, political and economic background of the period.
"This sociological approach to literature is particularly cultivated by those who profess a specific social
philosophy. Marxist critics not only study those relations between literature and society, but also have
their clearly defined conception of what these relations should be both in our present society and in a
future classless society. They tell us not only what were and are the social conditions and implications of
an author's work, but what they should have been or ought to be. They are not only students of literature
and society but prophets of the future, monitors, propagandists, and they have no difficulty in keeping
these two functions separate. " (Rene Wellek). Some important critics who belong to this School are
Edmund Wilson, F. O. Mathiessen, Christopher Caudwell, and H. B. Parkes. All these critics believe
that no author can keep himself detached from those broad currents of thought and feeling which are
shared by the other members of his society. A work of literature and contemporary society are
interdependent on each other. As such we cannot correctly evaluate a work of literature without placing it
in its social background.
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Spenser as Poets' Poet
As Poets' Poet: A large number of rare epithets have been bestowed upon Spenser as a poet. Charles
Lamb calls him the "Poets' Poet. " He was also called "The
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Prince of poets", "The Sunrise of English Poetry", "The Rubens of English Poetry", "The second Father of
English Poetry" after Chaucer and the "Most poetical of all poets. " The epithet "Poets' Poet" has been
interpreted in many ways. Some commentators hold that it means that he was the greatest of all poets. It
may also mean that he was a model for all great poets who came after him. Lastly, the epithet means that
his language and stanza form were most sonorous and musical. In the words of David Daiches "England
awaited a poet who could pull together the diverse elements that had been operating in Tudor Verse, who
could profit by Renaissance Latinists, by Italian and French developments in the Vernacular, by new ideas
about the function and prestige of the poet, by classical example, by new currents in religious and
philosophical thought as well as by the exercising of the English language that had been going on in his
age. Such was the poet the times now required if the full riches of Elizabethan England were to find
adequate expression in poetry. " Spenser is the poet who satisfies the above description, and hence he is
regarded as 'the Poets' Poet. '
A Great Poet: Spenser was a great poet who embraced all currents of knowledge and poetic excellence of
his times. His Faerie Queene is the first great ideal poem that England has produced. It is really the
source of all subsequent poetry. The main purpose of the poem is "to fashion a gentleman or noble person
in virtuous and gentle discipline. " Arthur is that ideal person around whom the entire poem is woven.
The spirit of Elizabethan Renaissance is embodied in this great poem. Here he teaches a moral philosophy
that a man's life is beset with difficulties, and therefore, he has to strive to overcome them bravely. Here
Spenser took for his subject all that concerns man in all his faculties and desires and relations, and
expended all his native power and all his acquired knowledge and skill on the construction of the ideal and
its embellishment. Here he fused together feeling, intuition, tradition, learning, the sense of beauty, the
sense of right, the sense of divinity, all combined in the ideal, as well as the philosophy of the ancients, the
teaching of the Church, the custom of English nobility, in fact, the best he found in the Renaissance, the
Reformation and the Chivalry of the Middle Ages. And this is indeed a great and unparallelled
achievement that only a great poet could accomplish.
As a Pure Poet: Spenser was also a pure poet in the sense that, if we overlook his allegorical overtones,
his poetry remains unparallelled in its imaginative beauty, emotional fervour and musical quality. He
gives us the quintessence of poetry-poetry that is most poetical. G. L. Craik writes, "Without calling
Spenser the greatest of poets, we may still say that his poetry is the most poetical of all poetry. Other
poets are all of them something else as well as poets, and deal in reflection, or reasoning, or humour, or
wit, almost as largely as in the proper conduct of the imaginative faculty: his strains alone, in the Faerie
Queene, are poetry, all poetry, and nothing but poetry. It is vision unrolled after vision to the end of
endlessly varying music. The 'shaping spirit of imagination,' considered apart from moral sensibility,
from intensity of passion on the one hand, and grandeur of conception on the other— certainly never was
possessed in the like degree by any other writer, nor has any other evinced a deeper feeling of all forms of
the beautiful, nor have words ever been made by any other to embody thought with more wonderful art.
On the one hand, invention and fancy in the creation or conception of his thoughts, on the other, the most
exquisite sense of beauty, united with a command over all the resources of language, in their vivid and
musical expression, these are the great distinguishing characteristics of Spenser's poetry. " Thus Spenser is
the most exquisite pure poet, an embodiment of art and sweet melody.
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As a Model for Other Poets: Spenser was called a "Poets' Poet" also in the sense that he became a model
for many great poets through centuries. He exercised considerable influence upon other poets, upon his
contemporaries as well as later poets upto the nineteenth century. Fletcher and Cowley admitted their
indebtedness to Spenser in many ways. Cowley confessed that he was thrilled by the story as well as the
poetry of the Faerie Queene: "I believe I can tell the particular little chance that filled my head first with
such chimes of verse as have never since left ringing there; for I remember I was infinitely delighted with
the stories of knights and giants, and monsters, so that I had read him all before I was twelve years old,
and was thus made a poet. " Milton was profoundly influenced by Spenser's moral earnestness, and so he
called him "Our sage and serious poet. " Bunyan and Dryden were equally impressed by his allegorical
moralization. Dryden paid homage to him as his master in poetic speech. In the eighteenth century James
Thomson and Robert Burns highly admired his metrical skill and melody. Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats
and Byron in the Romantic Age tried to write some of their longer works in the Spenserian stanza. The
Spenserian stanza was employed by Shenstone in his School Mistress, by Thomson in his Castle of
Indolence, by Byron in his Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, by Shelley in his Revolt of Islam and Adonais, by
Walter Scott in Don Roderick, by Wordsworth in his Female Vagrant, and by Keats in Eve of St. Agnes.
If Spenser has been the model for the poetical compositions by so many notable poets through centuries,
he certainly deserves to be called the "Poets' Poet". His love of beauty and adventure, his moral and
spiritual allegories, his poetical vision, his pictorial fancy, and his artistic skill in verse and melody would
remain a source of inspiration for all poets in all ages. Thus he is indeed the 'Poets' Poet', the 'Prince of
the Poets'.
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The Faerie Queene as an Allegory
As the Greatest Allegorical Poem:

The Faerie Queene is the greatest allegorical poem in English literature. It is a long poem developed
through a highly intricate and interwoven allegorical network. The more pronounced and interwoven
allegories are moral, spiritual, religious and political. They are all set in the background of romance.
Therefore these allegories do not make the poem didactically dull or artistically weak in any way. H. M.
Percival says, "The frost of the allegory that may have benumbed the imagination of the reader vanishes in
an instant before the glow of romance in the Faerie Queene. Stories of knights with magic sword and
shield, ladies armed with the still more potent magic of beauty, human forms with superhuman powers,
castles and palaces, forests and lakes, with all their natural terrors or beauties heightened by enchantment,
giants and dwarfs, fire-breathing dragons and winged horses, place us in a charmed sleep in which we lose
both power and desire to reason and analyse, to ask wh2re we are, or what it all means. But viewed with
the waking eye of criticism, this strange population, dwelling in what Wordsworth calls 'the hemisphere of
magic fiction' range themselves into the two great standards of War and Love. "
Allegorical Characters and Events: All the characters and events in the Faerie Queene are allegorical.
The human characters, heroes and heroines, knights, monsters, giants, witches and monstrous women are
all allegorical figures. Prince Arthur is the model of perfect manhood. Aspiring to union with his ideal of
a perfect Womanhood typified by Gloriana, he creates an ideal of perfect manhood in Arthur. Arthur is
the supreme hero of the poem. All other heroes are subordinate to him. He eclipses all the other knights
and proves himself worthy of Gloriana. The character of
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Arthur grows upon us with the progress of the design from Book to Book, while that of each knight fades
in its impression after the particular action of which he is the hero has been performed.
Spenser's women characters are equally allegorical in their different roles. Some of his heroines are
models of perfect womanhood, while others are embodiments of different vices. It is in the beauty of
womanhood that Spenser most divinely blends sense with spirit. All of Spenser's heroines are types of
pure abstract virtues. In Una we have innocence personified. In her there is union of innocence and
wisdom. All her life can be summed up in two words: innocence and wisdom, innocence ever suffering
and wisdom ever guiding. Gloriana is glory personified, standing for Queen Elizabeth. Una is Truth on
the one hand and the Church of England on the other. Duessa is Religious Error or the Church of Rome.
The other minor characters also represent allegorical symbols. Most of them represent Vices—Pride,
Idleness, Gluttony, Lechery, Avarice, Envy and Wrath. These are the Seven Deadly Sins personified by
different characters. The disciplined and nobly directed courage of the Red-Cross knight is contrasted
with the reckless daring Sansjoy; the animal passion of Duessa is contrasted with the purer love of Una.
Prince Arthur is guided and controlled by his love of Gloriana.
A Picture Gallery: Even though the Faerie Queene is allegorical, its allegorical situations are
picturesquely painted. The Cave of Despaire is an allegory, but it is remarkable for its graphic and
elaborate description. No trees are there, but withered stocks on the ragged rocks, where lie scattered
many carcases. And inside the cave there is 'that cursed man' musing sadly, his face half-hidden by grisly
locks, his hollow eyes looking deadly dull and staring wildly, his cheeks shrunk and shrivelled, his clothes
patched and stitched with thorns, and by his side lies a dead body with a knife sticking in it, and blood
gushing from it. It is always as a painter that he sketches a scene or a character. Referring to this
picturesque quality, Legouis says, "Many stanzas of the Faerie Queene are descriptions of tapestries and
pictures, and the line and colour of words compete with those on the canvases of the masters. When
Spenser purports to draw a person or a scene from nature, he is still inspired by the painter's method. He
is unendingly enthralled by the human body, especially woman's body: no one of its details wearies his
patience, or escapes his observation. The horrible dragon who is slain by the Red-Cross Knight is as
much a masterpiece of painting as the nymph Belphoebe. " These picturesque passages take away much of
the boredom and obscurity of the allegory.
Its Popularity: Normally, an allegorical poem is hardly ever liked by a common reader. An allegorical
literary work can hardly ever become popular. But Spenser's Faerie Queene is an exception to this
general observation. The reason is that the Faerie Queene can be equally enjoyed with or without
understanding its allegorical meaning. It can be equally enjoyed as a series of adventurous incidents or
episodes without interpreting its allegorical implications. In this connection Hazlitt says: "Some people
would say that all this may be very fine, but they cannot understand it on account of its allegory. They are
afraid of the allegory as if they thought it would bite them; they look at it as a child looks at a painted
dragon, and think it will strangle them in its shining folds. If they do not meddle with the allegory, the
allegory will not meddle with them. Without minding it all, the whole is as plain as pick-staff. " Hazlitt
means to say that the readers can enjoy the poem by understanding its broad ethical features and without
breaking their heads with the full purport of the allegory. Grierson suggests a better middle course
regarding its allegory. He says that without exploring the full implications of its allegory, a Christian can
well understand by broad ethical virtues of Christianity, such as
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Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice, and Courtesy which lie at the base of every
allegorical episode. It is on these ethical virtues rather than doctrinal grounds that the Faerie Queene can
be studied and enjoyed.
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The Blending of Renaissance and Reformation Elements in Paradise Lost
The Blending of Renaissance and Reformation Elements: In Milton's poetry we find a harmonious
blending of the major elements of two opposite Movements— The Renaissance and the Reformation. The
Renaissance spirit was infused in his poetry under the Hellenic or humanistic influences that caught
Milton's imagination, and the Reformatory or Puritanic spirit came through his Hebraic or Biblical studies
and beliefs. Milton blended these two opposite streams so harmoniously that not only do they exist
together but they also prove complementary to each other. Milton, the staunch Puritan was at heart a great
humanist. He employed the art and learning of the Renaissance in the service of those religious and moral
truths which were the creed of his faith and philosophy. He harmoniously combines these two
contradictory streams in his master-work, The Paradise Lost. This unique combination is not found in any
other English poet. It is rightly asserted that "the greatest of England's Puritans was also the greatest of
her artists. "
The Renaissance Elements: The following are the major elements of the Renaissance which we find in
the Paradise Lost in abundance:
(a) Love of Beauty: Love of beauty is the central creed of the Renaissance. The Renaissance artists were
great lovers of Beauty—Beauty of Nature and Beauty of the human form. In Paradise Lost, Book IV, we
find memorable description of the beauty of the garden of Eden. In a long passage of about two hundred
lines, Milton describes the beauty of the heavenly garden. Summing up his description of Eden, Milton
concludes:
"Thus was this place,

A happy rural seat of various view:
Graves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm;
Others whose fruit, burnished with golden rind,
If true, here only—and of delicious taste,
Down the slope hills dispersed, or in a lake,

That to the fringed bank with myrtle crowned
Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams. "
Human Beauty
Milton's description of human beauty far surpasses his description of nature. His description of Adam and
Eve in the garden of Eden far surpasses the description of human beauty by the most sensuous of the
Romantic poets. Here is the description of the beauty of Eve:
She, as a veil down to the slender waist,

Her unadorned, golden tresses wore
Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved
As the vine curls her tendrils—which implied
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Subjection, but required with gentle sway,

And by her yielded, by him best received
Yielded, with coy submission, modest pride,
And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay.
And then comes the superb passage in which the poet describes the first nuptial bed and the first nuptial
meeting of Adam and Eve:
Here in close recess,
With flowers, garlands and sweet smelling herbs,
Espoused Eve decked first nuptial bed,
And heavenly choirs the hymenaean sung,
What day the genial Angel to our sire
Brought her, in naked beauty more adorned,
More lovely, than Pandora, whom the gods
Endowed with all their gifts………………….
………………………………………………..
These, lulled by nightingales, embracing slept,
And on their naked limbs the flowery roof
Showered roses, which the morn repaired. "
Here is the high water-mark of sensuous beauty in poetry. There is no wonder then if Keats and the Pre-
Raphaelite poets took Milton for a model for picturesque sensuous beauty. The Renaissance love of
beauty could go no further. Hilaire Bellock, commenting on the element of sensuous beauty in Milton's
poetry, says: "Beauty was for him all his life an appetite, an object and a guide. He knew that he was a
vehicle, and after a fashion, the priest of beauty, and he worshipped at that shrine all his life—to our
immense advantage. "
The Reformation Elements: But at the same time Milton was an avowed Puritan and a champion of
Reformation. His Paradise Lost is his poetical offering on the altar of God. He was an inspired
mouthpiece of God. He believed that God had blessed him with 'that one talent'—the poetical genius—
with which he had vowed 'to serve my Maker. ' He believed that as a poet he was the spokesman of God.
Therefore at the very beginning of Paradise Lost he prays to "that eternal spirit who can enrich with all
utterance and knowledge", and he invokes this deity thus:
"Shine inward, and the mind through all his powers

Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence
Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight. "
With this prayer he observes, in the true spirit of a Puritan, that his primary purpose in writing Paradise
Lost is that:
"I may assert Eternal Providence,

And justify the ways of God to men. "
It was Milton, the Puritan poet, living in a Puritan environment,who selected the Fall of Man as the theme
for his great epic, for in the treatment of the Fall he meant to condemn the mental levity of Man, who is
prone to forget the importance of his own actions. Adam and Eve casually commit what they imagine is a
trifling error, and for which they are punished with a doom out of all proportion to their crime:
"Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
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Brought death into the World, and all our woe,

With loss of Eden. "
This moral ardour is present from the very beginning in all his poetry, but in Paradise Lost it comes to the
forefront.
Divine Order
Submission to Divine Order is another corner stone of Puritanism. Divine Order infallibly prevails in the
universe. Milton holds that God is the supreme commander of the universe, under whose benevolent
command there is a perfectly ordered universe with all its parts not only interconnected but also properly
balanced:
"Obedience to the Law of God, imposed

On penalty of death, and suffering death,
The penalty to thy transgression due.
And due to theirs which out of thine will grow. "
Thus Milton brought out a fusion and synthesis of the two great Movements of his age—Renaissance and
Reformation. Like the great Elizabethan writers, he succeeded in combining a passionate love of beauty
with religious fervour and a strenuous moral idealism. His Paradise Lost, though written with the express
purpose of "justifying the ways of God to men", is the great surviving monument of immense mass of
Renaissance writing dealing with Biblical material.
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Bacon as the Father of the English Essay
Bacon as the First Essayist: Bacon has been justly called the Father of the English Essay. He was the
first author who introduced the 'Essay' as an independent genre in English Prose literature. Some authors
like Thomas Nash and Thomas Dekker had written some tracts in prose before Bacon, but their tracts were
not essays proper, nor were they meant to be so. Bacon first wrote the 'Essays' proper on the model of the
"Essais" written by the French author Montaigne. Montaigne wrote his Essais seventeen years before the
earliest of Bacon's. Bacon certainly borrowed the form of the Essay from Montaigne. Hugh Walker says:
"Bacon was extraordinarily discursive in his interests: he took all knowledge for his province; and while
several contemporaries surpassed him in depth of insight into subjects which they had specially studied,
few in any age have rivalled him in the capacity to utter pregnant thoughts on almost any theme. To a
man thus endowed, and thus thrifty of time, the essay was a godsend. "
Publication of Bacon's Essays: Three different editions of Bacon's Essays appeared in his lifetime. The
first edition of his Essays appeared in 1597 in which he published only ten essays. The second edition
appeared in 1612, which contained thirty-eight essays, twenty-nine of them new, and nine of the earlier
edition much altered and enlarged. The third and last edition of his essays appeared in 1625, which
contained fifty-eight essays including the revised versions of the essays published earlier.
Master of Double Styles: Bacon is basically known for his aphoristic style. But he developed this highly
admired style gradually. His style in the first edition of his essays was faulty to the extreme. It was
obscure, ungrammatical, pedantic and Latinised to the extreme. He even coined new words from Latin
and French, which the common reader could hardly understand. But gradually he improved upon his
language and style, and in his later editions his style changed considerably. His style
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in the 1612 edition became less faulty and more ornate. His sentences ran more smoothly and
continuously. But force and precision are still his forte. The last edition of 1625 brings out his language
and style in their final and most refined stage. Now there are long sustained passages of easy eloquence.
Now there are unaffected long sentences marked with ease and admirable literary beauty. But the basic
quality of his style, his aphorisms and maxims packed full of worldly knowledge and wisdom, in as few
words as possible, still persists and it is for this quality that Bacon is still remembered and held in
reverence as an essayist.
Bacon's character as revealed in his essays: Bacon's character is clearly reflected in his essays. Bacon
believed in the Machiavellian philosophy of life. He believed in the philosophy of success. Success must
come by any means possible— honest or dishonest, moral or immoral. Bacon was a great man of very
low character. Alexander Pope called him "the wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind. " Lord Macaulay
also graded him as a man of very low and deplorable character. He held him as a remarkably worldly
man, cold, calculating, selfish; a sycophant and a flatterer, greedy, careless, false: climbing power by base
subserviency; betraying friends and courting enemies. " Gibbon says that "Bacon sought to combine
philosophy and politics, the active and speculative life, to reconcile prerogative and privilege,
statesmanship and opportunism; to effect a compromise between dogmatism and free inquiry, morality
and worldly prudence. " All these traits of his character can be found in the aphoristic sayings, maxims
and pithy observations with which all his essays are filled.
Characteristics of his essays: Bacon's own judgment of his essays was that they might last as long as
books last. His essays "come home to men's business and bosom" in a universal way. They appeal to men
at all times. They discourse on great subjects in a grand manner. Hugh Walker says: "That Bacon
regarded the essay as a receptacle for detached thoughts is evident both from the essays themselves and
from his own words about them. He speaks of them as "dispersed meditations. " He ranks them but as
recreations in comparison with his more serious studies. Yet he is conscious of and pleased with their
popularity. " He wrote in a letter to Bishop of Winchester, "I am not ignorant that those kind of writings
would, with less pains and embarrassment yield more lustre and reputation to my name than those others
which I have in hand. " Indeed Bacon's own estimate of his essays was largely correct. Few books of the
kind have been so widely read, and probably no volume of prose in the English language has furnished so
many popular quotations. Bacon was not only pleased with their popularity but also convinced of their
importance. In a letter to Buckingham he speaks of them as "of the best fruits that, by the good increase
which God gives to my pen and labours, I could yield. "
His aphoristic sayings and maxims: Bacon's essays are full of aphoristic syaings and maxims which are
so often quoted. Metaphors and similes are very frequent, and very often they have a poetic quality. He
writes, "Virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed, for prosperity
doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue. "
"It is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles
of truth. " In the essay Of Truth he writes, "A mixture of falsehood with truth is like alloy in coin of gold
and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it. " In the essay Of Revenge he
says, "Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed
it out. " He further says, "We are commanded to forgive our enemies, but we are never commanded to
forgive our friends. " In another essay he writes, "A wise son rejoiceth the father, but an ungracious son
shames the mother. "
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"Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of
business. " "Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. " "Reading maketh a full man,
conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. " "He that hath wife and children hath given hostages
to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises either of virtue or mischief. " Such maxims can
be endlessly quoted from the essays of Bacon.
Matheson says, in his final evaluation of Bacon as an essayist: "The Essays have won him a place apart,
and are the source of his fame with the world at large. They introduce a new form of composition into
English Literature which was destined to have a varied and fruitful development. They are for the most
part detached and impersonal, and there is nothing in them to mark the tragedy of his life. "
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Dryden as the Father of English Criticism
As the Father of English Criticism: Dr. Johnson in The Lives of the English Poets calls Dryden "the
Father of English Criticism. " He says, "Dryden may be properly considered as the Father of English
Criticism, as the writer who first taught us to determine upon principles the merit of composition. "
George Saintsbury says that "Dryden established the English fashion of criticising, as Shakespeare did the
English fashion of dramatizing. " George Watson holding the same view says, "The first English man to
attempt any extended descriptive criticism was John Dryden. " In the same vein T. S. Eliot says, "The
geatest work of Dryden in criticism is that at the right moment he became conscious of the necessity of
affirming the native element in literature. " All these opinions are basically correct because before Dryden
critical principles were in the hands of a few, who had gathered them partly from the ancients and partly
from the Italians and French. Dryden was the first critic who took to criticism seriously and thought
deeply over the problems of literature. Earlier critics—Sidney and Ben Jonson—did only fragmentary
work. It was Dryden who first of all took a comprehensive view of literature as a whole. So Dryden's
main virtue as a critic is that at a time when literature was pestered and cramped with formulae, he found
it impossible to write otherwise than freely. He changed the tastes. He decried bombast at the drama,
conceits and false wit in poetry, and revealed fresh beauties in the great writers of English.
As the First Judicial Critic: Dryden was the first Judicial Critic. His criticism is just, judicious and
impartial. It is neither exaggerated nor prejudicial. His main critical works include the Essay of Dramatic
Poesy, Prefaces to His Plays and Fables, Epistles and his brilliant appreciation of Chaucer, Shakespeare,
Beaumont, Fletcher and Ben Jonson. In the words of Prof. Saintsbury, "It is in criticism that Dryden best
shows that original faculty which has often been denied to him elsewhere. " About his famous Prefaces to
his own Plays, Swift justly says:
"Read all the Prefaces of Dryden,

For these our critics must confide in,
Though merely writ at first for filling
To raise the volume's price a shilling. "
The most important quality of Dryden as a critic is his broad outlook on great authors and their works. He
was an original critic. He was no slave to ancient Greek or Roman critics. He did not like to tie down
literature to the rules of the ancients. He said that it was not enough that Artistotle has said so. He refused
to pay blind allegiance to any authority however great. He had independence of mind and of
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judgment. As P. W. Ker says, "He is sceptical, tentative, disengaged, where most of his contemporaries,
and most of his successors for a hundred years, are pledged to certain dogmas and principles. " The most
impressive qualities of Dryden as a critic are his breadth of view, his skill of comparison, his sense of
changing artistic conventions, his readiness to hear new evidence and, if necessary, to change his mind,
and his gentlemanly tone.
As a Liberal Critic: The most distinctive quality of Dryden as a critic is his liberal outlook on literature
which widened more and more as his critical powers developed and matured. His "changing tastes and
interests helped to make him responsive to different kinds of literary skill and of artistic conventions, thus
giving him that primary qualification of the good practical critic—the ability to read the work under
consideration with full and sympathetic understanding. " Though a keen admirer of the classical
achievement, Dryden was never a servile imitator of the rules of classical writing. He was highly
sensitive to the changing tastes of the people and to the requirements of his own age. He refused to pay
blind allegiance to any authority howsoever great he may be. He substituted Reason for the ancients as
the authority for literary judgments. At one place he wrote: "It is not enough that Aristotle has said so, for
Aristotle drew his models of tragedy from Sophocles and Euripides; and if he had seen ours, might have
changed his mind. " He was always conscious of his own freedom. In his Defence of the Epilogue, he
wrote, "For we live in an age so sceptical that as it determines little, so it takes nothing from antiquity on
trust. "
Dryden's Free Approach: Dryden's critical approach was free and independent, yet it was logical and
convincing. Tillyard says that "there emerged in Dryden a free critical disposition which was both
admirable in itself and which achieved positive results of a very high quality. " Dryden's best contribution
to criticism lies in the modification of the ancient doctrines in the light of modernity rather than in the
creation of some radically new theories. He believed that too strict an observance of the rules is fatal to
many artistic effects. In the same way, he is against the servile observance of the Unities of Time, Place
and Action because they circumscribe the scope of the dramatist and often 'force him to resort to absured
contrivances'. It is for the same reason that he strongly defends the cause of 'Tragi-Comedies' written by
Shakespeare and several other English dramatists.
Historical Method of Criticism: Dryden was also the first critic to make use of the Historical Method of
criticism. He believed that every literary work bears the stamp of the age in which it is produced. A
literary work can be best evaluated by placing it in the socio-historical background in which it is
produced. Many plays of Shakespeare or Spenser's Faerie Queene, or Ben Jonson's Comedies of
Humours,or Bacon's Essays cannot be correctly evaluated without placing them in the background of the
Elizabethan Age. Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, or Langland's The Vision of Piers the
Plowman cannot be rightly appreciated without placing them in the socio-historical background of
Medieval England. Dryden was the first critic to apply this historical method of criticism.
Comparative Method of Criticism: Dryden was also the first English critic who introduced the
comparative method of criticism. He introduced this comparative method through his famous Essay of
Dramatic Poesy. This is developed through long interlocutions among four scholars named Crites,
Eugenius, Lisideius and Neander (who is Dryden himself). They bring to comparison the ancient Greek
and Roman dramatists, the French dramatists, the English dramatists of the last age, and the English
dramatists of Dryden's own age. Crites speaks for the ancient dramatists, Lisideius for the French
dramatists, Eugenius for the English dramatists of the last
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age, and Neander for Dryden's own age. Through their interlocutions they bring to comparison the merits
and demerits of the dramatists whom they represent. This was Dryden's own method of comparative
criticism. Thus he brought to comparison the mertis and demerits of the dramas written in different ages
and nationalities. Dryden's reputation as a critic, therefore, rests on sure and lasting foundations. His
works are the legacy of one of the greatest English critics.
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Victorian Compromise between Science and Religion
Conflict between Science and Religion: There arose a serious conflict between science and religion,
Theology and new discoveries in different branches of science, and consequently between faith and
scepticism in the nineteenth century. The unchallenged authority of religion was challenged by the
scientists. Religion had controlled and guided human society since the very beginning of human
civilization. Religious beliefs and institutions, even its dogmas and superstitions were accepted with awe
and veneration until the eighteenth century. The Middle Ages had seen the universe solely as the creation
of the free will of God. The universe was believed to have been created at the command of God. The
human race and all other living species were also believed to have been created at the command of God.
All these religious beliefs and God's authority came to be challenged by the scientists.
Challenges by Science: The scientists challenged the concepts of God's will and Biblical authority by
their factual scientific discoveries, logic and arguments. Superstitious beliefs were exploded by logic and
reasoning. The dogmas of Christianity collapsed one after the other before the ruthless logic and
principles of science. Lyell's Principles of Geology (1830) and his Antiquity of Man (1863) adduced
evidence to show that the human race came into existence ages before the records of Scriptures. Darwin's
Origin of Species (1859) and his Descent of Man (1871) gave a dashing blow to the authority of the Bible.
Then came in the same stream Robert Chambers's The Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. His
Testimony of the Rocks maintained the same thesis. All the Christian doctrines of the Incarnation, Virgin
Conception, Redemption, Hell, Heaven and the Divine Will were exploded. The philosophical writings of
J. S. Mill, Huxley, Spenser, Strauss, Leslie Stephen and such other utilitarian philosophers further added
ideological strength to the discoveries of the scientists. The result was that the people at large felt the rock
of religious shelter slipping from under their feet. They felt like rudderless mariners wandering in the
unchartered sea of scepticism. They felt being tossed between two worlds—'one dead, the other
powerless to be born. "
People in the State of Dilemma: Under the conflict between these two rival forces—Science and
Religion—people found themselves in a state of peculiar dilemma. They felt hopeless, helpless and
aimless, knowing not what to do in such a situation. Matthew Arnold expresses this dilemma in these
words:
"Wandering between two worlds, one dead,

The other powerless to be born,
With nowhere yet to rest my head.
Like these, on earth I wait forlorn
Their faith, my tears, the world deride—
I come to shed them at their side. "
Matthew Arnold regrets that under the onslaught of science, faith in religion is declining:
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"The sea of Faith

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd,
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating………………………………
This is the shocking state of things. There is no shelter for man without faith. So Arnold further says:
'Ah, love, let us be true
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Where ignorant armies clash by night. " This was the outcome of conflict between science and religion in
the Victorian Age.
Efforts to bring about compromise between Science and Religion: Some

sane and moderate thinkers, philosophers and poets sought to bring about compromise between science
and religion, knowledge and faith, and theology and scepticism. Tennyson was one of the strongest
advocates of this compromise. He said that science without religion is soulless, and religion without
science is brainless. These two equally powerful forces must co-exist and support each other. Tennyson
swung between the two extremes of science and religion. Life seemed to him a movent between two
extremes. In In Memoriam he says:
"But what am I,
An infant crying in the night:
An infant crying for the light,
With no language but a cry. "
This was the cry of not Tennyson alone but of the whole generation whose faith had been rudely shaken
by the discoveries of science.
Tennyson was deeply impressed by the importance of the human mind before the eternal enigmas of
things. He was also keenly alive to the discoveries of science and at the same time he was passionately
anxious to conserve the hopes of man. He was thus peculiarly fitted to become the poetic interpreter of
the spiritual unrest of the age; its two voices of faith and doubt. But against scientific materialism, he
always asserted his belief in God and immortality.
Science left its mark on Maud also. The evolutionary tendencies of the poet are unmistakably seen here:
"So many a million of ages have gone

To the making of man
He now is first, but is he the last?
Is he not too base?"
The same evolutionary thought is reflected in the following lines quoted from In Memoriam:
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"A soul shall draw from out of the vast;

And strike his being into bounds,
And, moved through life of lower phase
Result in man. "
In such a situation, Tennyson sought to preach a compromise between science and faith. This
compromise was indeed the need of the hour. According to Nicholson, "The Victorians desired to be
assured that all was for the best; they desired to discover some compromise which, without outraging their
intellect and their reason, would nonetheless soothe their conscience and restore their faith, if not
completely, at least sufficiently to allow them to believe in some ultimate purpose and, more important
still, in the life after death. " Tennyson attempted to arrive at the compromise which the Victorians had
desired him to do. They craved for law, order and stability . Thus the dominant note of Tennyson's
thought is his sense of law and order. In an oft-quoted passage from In Memoriam, he says:
"Let knowledge grow from more to more,

But more of reverence in us dwell,
That mind and soul according well,
May make one music as before. "
Thus Tennyson does not run down the claims of science. Of course, he preferred honest doubt to blind
faith:
"There remains more faith in honest doubt,

Believe me than in half the creed. "
According to Tennyson, the function of the poet is not to delight only, but to teach the masses, the
statesmen, and even the intellectuals. In hours of perplexity, statesmen turned to him for light and
wisdom. He taught people to be moderate, patient and tolerant. His message to all men was to "strive to
seek, to find, and not to yield. "
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Robert Browning's Dramatic Monologues
What is a Dramatic Monologue: A Dramatic Monologue is a miniature drama. Literally it means a

'dialogue with the self. There is only one character who stands on the stage all alone and delivers a long
soliloquy, expressing his deep feelings in a certain situation that agitates his mind and heart. It is a kind of
emotional safety valve that relieves his agitated heart and brings emotional tranquillity to the speaker. It is
generally in the nature of a reminiscence descriptive of some exciting experience or event, some doubt or
puzzle, unfolding the soul's history of the speaker. A Dramatic Monologue differs from an ordinary
soliloquy at least in two respects. First, it is longer, more comprehensive and searching than a soliloquy.
Secondly, a dramatic monologue is generally meant to be heard, while a soliloquy can only be overheard.
In a genuine dramatic monologue the presence of listeners, connected with the speaker, is necessary
because it is a kind of confession or justification to the listeners. In a dramatic monologue like Rabbi Ben
Ezra the listeners are the entire human race, because it expresses the speaker's philosophy of life in which
the entire human race may be interested. Thus, the dramatic monologue is not essentially the expression
of the inner feelings of the poet himself, but of the character created by him. However, a dramatic
monologue like Prospice is the expression of the inner feelings of the poet himself.
171
Browning's Dramatic Genius: Browning became conscious of his dramatic genius since his early
literary career. Though he did not succeed in writing plays for the stage, he wrote highly successful
dramatic monologues which were meant to be read and enjoyed in one's parlour. Dramatic monologues
were the literary form which best suited his genius. He was profoundly interested in character-
delineation, and cared little for action. He subordinated action to psychological analysis of the characters.
His characters do not express themselves in action, but they are always pre-occupied with introspection
and their own psychological analysis.
Characteristics of His Dramatic Monologues: Browning's dramatic monologues have some common
characteristics. In the first place, they are all written in Blank Verse. His Blank Verse as used in these
Monologues has a strength, rhythm and variety of its own. Its rhythm rises and falls and varies according
to the intensity of his emotions. He certainly made the Blank Verse flexible according to the sentiments
and demand of the situation.
He uses this dramatic form for the study of characters, of different mental states and moral crises in the
soul of the characters concerned. These monologues present an amazingly wide range of characters, taken
from all walks of life. Artists, scholars, philosophers, dejected lovers, beautiful maidens, saints and sages,
all appear in the picture gallery of these monologues. These characters belong to different countries and
different ages.
The speakers' thoughts range from the past to the future, and the unity is emotional rather than logical.
The language used is that of the formal talk—'brother's language'. It is often telegraphic, and the niceties
of grammar and syntax are ignored. The narration is often reflective and reminiscent. T. S. Young says:
"It is worth noting that the monologues are written mostly in verse, free and vigorous in rhythm, racy and
actual, bristling with colloquialisms. "
It is sometimes said that Browning's monologues are satires upon their respective speakers. But the fact is
quite otherwise. In fact, they are defences of the speakers. They are not by any measure harsh or
unsympathetic. His characters plead and argue their cases logically like advocates. The poet "lends his
own mind to his characters, to enable them to defend their actions. "
Browning's Famous Dramatic Monologues: Browning wrote a large number of Dramatic Monologues.
The more famous of them are: My Last Duchess, The Last Ride Together, Prospice, A Grammarian's
Funeral, Andrea Del Sarto, Fra Lipo Lippi, Porphyria's Lover, By the Fire-Side, Rabbi Ben Ezra, Evelyn
Hope, Home-Thoughts from Abroad, The Lost Leader, Love in a Life, Life in a Lore, and The Patriot.
Prospice is remarkable in the sense that it is autobiographical and the speaker is the poet himself.
Browning's wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, herself a great poetess, had died some time back. Browning
remembers her and hopes to meet her in God's kingdom after his own death. Therefore he longs for his
own death:
"I was ever a fighter, so—one fight more,

The best and the last !" He hopes to meet his wife on his death:
"Then a light, then thy breast,
O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again,
And with God be the rest. "
Rabbi Ben Ezra is a highly philosophical monologue. Rabbi Ben Ezra was a renowned old grey-haired
philosopher. He says that we should not fear being old, because old age is the best and most fruitful stage
of life:
172
"Grow old along with me !

The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
………………………………………………
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid. "
Porphyria's Lover is a monologue of perverted psychology of a fanatic lover. He loves his beloved and
the golden lock of her hair so much that out of jealousy he strangles her to death by her own lock of hair:
"and all her hair

In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her. No pain felt she;
I am quite sure she felt no pain. "
Just opposite to this perverted love-lyric, there is Evelyn Hope of immortal love. Evelyn Hope, a beautiful
maiden dies at the age of sixteen. Her lover, having lost his beloved so early, hopes to win her back in
some other life after his death. He says:
"No indeed ! for God above

Is great to grant, as mighty to make,
And creates the love to reward the love:
I claim you still, for my own love's sake !
Delayed it may be for more lives yet,
Through worlds I shall traverse, not a few:
Much is to learn, much to forget
Ere the time be come for taking you. "
The Last Ride Together is a monologue of extreme optimism. This monologue finds success even in the
event of utter failure. The speaker fails in winning the love of his beloved, but she agrees to ride with him
for the last time before parting finally. The lover is satisfied even with this and says that he has not failed
totally in his love. The very fact that he is riding with his beloved, even though for the last time, is not a
little success:
"Fail I alone, in words and deeds?

Why, all men strive and who succeeds?
We rode, it seemed my spirit flew,
…………………………………………
Look at the end of work, contrast
The petty done, the undone vast,
The present of theirs with the hopeful past!
I hoped she would love me; here we ride. "
Thus we see that though the monologues are dramatic, yet they have a subjective note in as much as they
reveal his philosophy of life, his views on God and the immortality of soul, etc. Such subjectivity is
unavoidable in a verse-form which requires the poet "to lend his own mind to his characters, to enable
them to defend their actions."
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Thomas Hardy's Wessex

Or
Hardy as a Regional Novelist
Hardy is a Regional novelist in the sense that he has set all his novels in the socio-cultural and
geographical background of Wessex. He confines himself to only one district of England which he calls
Wessex (the land of West Saxons). In fact, he gave this name to the district in which he was born and
with which he was most intimately associated. He resurrected the old name of the locality, Wessex, which
was the land of the West Saxons, which comprises Dorset, Wiltshire, parts of Berkshire and Somerset.
There are certain natural and other features of the country within this boundary, which distinguish it from
the northern and eastern districts. The land abounds with relics of the past—the ancient Roman roads,
walls, ruined amphitheatres, fortifications, burial vaults, mounds, the stonehenge, and altars of the ancient
Britons. The surface of the earth is varied and undulating, valleys alternating with uplands, heaths with
deep woods, barns with luxuriant vegetation. The soil is chalky and white, and the principal occupation is
agriculture.
It is rarely seen that a man of genius ties himself to his native place as closely as Hardy has done. What
he has lost in variety of scenery, he has gained in accuracy of observation and sureness of touch. Many
writers have been influenced by local patriotism and antiquarian spirit, but nobody has produced such rare
creations of art. Scott, the Wizard of the North, brought to life the romance of the dead past, but Hardy
shows vividly how the present grows out of the past. Like Wordsworth, Hardy has the power of
penetrating beneath the familiar surface, and shows that in spite of his restricted field of observation of
human nature, he is not wanting in richness or variety: He presented the towns, villages, rivers, hills and
valleys of his chosen district in a thinly veiled nomenclature, which any native of the place can identify
with exactness. Thus, his Casterbridge is Dorchester, his Budmouth is Weymouth; his King's Bere is Bere
Regis; his Wintoncester is Winchester, and so forth. Within this area every road is known to Hardy, every
legend, every relic of antiquity, together with hosts of family histories and traditions.
In reviving the old name of the kingdom of Wessex, Hardy suggests a historical continuity from the time
of the Britons and Saxons to our own; the march of time has left many trees upon the land while at bottom
it is the same land. Historical vision is strong in Hardy. The whole sweep of Hardy is present before his
mind; the Saxons preceded by the Romans and Celts, followed by the Danes and Normans. The
succession of races, their fusion and amalgamation is vividly presented before the reader with scientife
accuracy and artistic beauty.
Dorset, the portion of Wessex upon which Hardy concentrates, has a character distinct from its
neighbours. Here each influence of history has sunk deeply into the land; the military spirit of the
Romans, the ecclesiastical spirit of the Saxons and the feudal spirit of the Normans; whilst the aboriginal
character reacted to these influences in its own way. Hardy is fond of tracing ancient racial characteristics
in the features of the present inhabitants. The memory of Pagan times still survives in his Wessex, and the
men and women of today still mingle their dust with those "who held in their mouths coins of Hadian,
Posthumus and Constantines. "
A Roman feeling pervades the countryside. Like the echoes of the Roman Empire, those of the Roman
church also linger here. Wessex is associated with many saints,
174
whose remains are still preserved in its churches and cemeteries. Many ancient Roman families like the
D'Urbervilles and Paridelles, at one time feudal lords, have degenerated into labourers upon the soil of
Wessex. The very names of the places proclaim their Saxon, Celtic or Norman origin.
In a land like Wessex no wonder that Hardy should find dominant emotions and potent passions behind
the use and want of every day. It is not necessary to take much help from rare accidents of Romance. So
wonderful a thing is common life, considered by the artist. In this simple love for simple, ancient varieties
of life, Hardy has the manner of the great classical poets.
Hardy always keeps the spirit of the Wessex alive before our mind in his novels. As we read them, we see
before us the pasture valleys, the high downs, the long white roads, the wooded hills, stretches of wood-
land, a dreamy cluster of little houses—the villages, the deep meadows, fields full of sheep or cows, the
clear rivers, the two kinds of desolate country; the gray, green downlands, and the brown, dark heaths.
Lionel Johnson conjures up the followng vision of Wessex:
"A rolling down country, crossed by a Roman Road, here a gray standing stone of what sacrificial or ritual
origin, I can but guess; there is a grassy barrow, with its great bones, its red and brown jars, its rude gold
ornaments, still safe in the earth; a broad sky burning with stars, and a solitary man. "
About the Wessex life and its impact on Hardy, Lord David Cecil writes: "There was plenty of tragedy in
the life of the Wessex labourers with its poverty and passion. Life to them was life in the raw. Dependent
and ignorant, exposed alike to the oppressions of the social system and the caprices of the weather, at
every moment of their existence the people among whom Hardy was brought up, were made conscious of
man's helplessness in the fall of circumstances. Hardy was the man to realize the tragedy implicit in such
a life. He had a tender heart usually sensitive to the spectacle of suffering. As a little boy he even hated
to see the boughs lopped off the trees; the first time he saw a dead bird, he was struck by an appalling,
unforgettable chill of horror. By the time he was fifteen, a shadow had already fallen across his vision of
life. He tells us he remembers lying back in the sun and wishing that he need not grow up. He wanted to
stay just as he was, in the same place, with the same few friends. The infinite possibilities the mature life
seemed to hold for failure and for suffering appalled him and made him shrink back into such security as
he knew already. This shrinking from life embodied itself in the form of spectral fear. He fancied, he
says, that a figure stood in his van, with arm uplifted to knock him back from any pleasant prospect he
indulged in as probable. And not only him, it was the enemy of mankind in general. For Hardy's was a
speculative mind, instinctively reasoning from particular observation to a general conclusion. Since the
world he looked at seemed so full of pain and disappointment, then, he argued, pain and disappointment
were outstanding characteristics of human existence. " In the words of Edmund Gosse, "Abandoned by
God, treated with scorn by Nature, man lies helplessly at the mercy of those 'purblind Doomsters',
accident, chance and time, from which he has to endure injury and insult from the cradle to the doom. "
Against such a desolate and uncompromising background of Wessex, Hardy wrote all his great novels.
(29)
The Function of Criticism according to Matthew Arnold
A Critic of Criticism: Arnold was not only a critic of literature, he was equally a critic of criticism. He
not only laid down the function of literature, but also laid down
175
the function of criticism. He not only criticised art and literature himself, he also taught others how to
criticise them. In his famous essay The Function of Criticism, Arnold clearly defined and laid down the
importance and role of a critic in respect of society and in respect of art and literature. According to
Arnold, the function of a critic is three-fold. First, the duty of the critic is to "see things as they really are.
" His second function is to pass on his idea to others, to convert the world, to 'make the best ideas prevail".
His third function is to create an atmosphere favourable for the creative genius of the future, "promoting a
current of ideas in the highest degree animating and nourishing to the creative power. "
Criticism Defined: Matthew Arnold defines criticism as "a disinterested endeavour to learn and
propagate the best that is known and thought in the world. " Thus we see that Arnold's critic is a critic of
life, society, religion, culture, national character, and all aesthetic activity. In the purely literary sense, his
function is to promote that part of culture which depends upon the knowledge of letters.
Critical Literature Vs. Creative Literature: Sometimes it is falsely believed that critical literature is
inferior and subordinate to creative literature. Even a poet like Wordsworth believed that critical literature
is of a lower rank than creative literature. He said, "If the quantity of time consumed in writing critiques
on the works of others were given to original composition of whatever kind it may be, would be much
better employed. A false and malicious criticism may do much injury to the minds of others; a stupid
invention, either in prose or verse, is quite harmless. " But Arnold did not believe in the inherent
superiority of the creative effort of the human spirit over its critical effort. To hold criticism as "a baneful
and injurious employment" was nothing short of a blasphemy.
Role of Criticism in Creative Art: Arnold says that great literature cannot be created without a great
critical effort behind it. Criticism makes an intellectual atmosphere in which the creation of great
literature becomes possible. No man, however gifted, can produce a great literary work without a proper
intellectual atmosphere around him. It is criticism that makes the desired intellectual atmosphere. Arnold
says that criticism "tends to establish an order of ideas, if not absolutely true, yet true by comparison with
that which it displaces; to make the best ideas prevail. Presently these new ideas reach society; the touch
of truth is the touch of life, and there is a stir and growth everywhere; out of this stir and growth come
creative epochs of literature. " A conducive intellectual atmosphere created by a critic is, therefore,
absolutely necessary for the creation of great literature. Arnold says, "In the Greece of Pindar and
Sophocles, in the England of Shakespeare, the poet lived in a current of ideas in the highest degree
animating and nourishing to the creative power; society was, in the fullest measure, permeated by fresh
thought, intelligent and alive. " This lead to the creation of immortal literary works of Pindar, Sophocles,
Shakespeare and others.
Disinterestedness of the Critic: A critic cannot accomplish his great task without cultivating a cerain
attitude of mind. A critic must be alive to the thought currents around him without involving himself in
any particular school of thought. The critic must refuse to lend himself to any ulterior motive. Arnold
advises that "the critic must be kept out of the region of immediate practice in the political, social or
religious matters. He needs to set his face against "ulterior political considerations about ideas and set
himself to communicate fresh knowledge, in the light of the best that is known and thought in the world. "
The critic's business is to do this with inflexible honesty, with due ability, and to leave alone all questions
of practical consequences and applications. A healthy criticism is not the hand maid of any particular
school or group or party. It is absolutely and entirely independent of them. Knowledge, and ever fresh
knowledge must be the critic's great concern for himself.
176
All the same, the critic must not be a silent spectator. He must go out into the world to break a lance on
behalf of the authors whom he esteems, or to smash reputations which have undeservedly been won. It is
here that his social obligations begin. This will be a pleasurable activity, and not 'a baneful and injurious
employment. ' So Arnold says, "To have the sense of creative activity is the great happiness and the great
proof of being alive, and it is not denied to criticism to have it; but then criticism must be sincere, simple,
flexible, ardent, ever widening its knowledge. Then it may have, in no contemptible measure, a joyful
sense of creative activity: a sense which a man of insight and conscience will prefer to what he might
derive from a poor, starved, fragmentary, inadequate creation. "
Insistence on Excellent Action: Saintsbury says that Arnold's "insistence on the character of the subject
was his critical being's very end and aim. " Arnold says that "the modernness or antiquity of an action has
nothing to do with its fitness for poetical representation. " The date of an action signifies nothing: what
matters is that it must be grand. So he says, "All depends upon the subject; choose a fitting action,
penetrate yourself with the feeling of its situations; this done, everything else will follow. " What are,
then, the great or excellent actions? Arnold replies that those actions are the most excellent "which most
powerfully appeal to the great primary human affections; to those elementary feelings which subsist
permanently in the race, and which are independent of time. " A great poem cannot be written on trivial
subjects which are doomed to failure. Here again the critic comes as a guide to the creative artist. He
must eulogise a grand subject and run down a trivial one for the help and guidance of the creative artist.
Propagation of Knowledge: Criticism, as we have said above, is a disinterested endeavour to learn and
propagate the best that is known and thought in the world. Now, "the best that is known and thought in
the world "cannot be the monopoly of any one nation or one language. A critic must, therefore, study at
least one more literature beside his own. A comparative study of more than one literature will help him
acquire fresh, and ever fresh knowledge. Then a critic's concern should be to propagate this ever fresh
knowledge in the world, and let his own judgement pass along with it. Arnold believed that the function
of a great critic was to prescribe a high standard of excellence for literature and to play the role of "a
recognized authority, imposing a high standard in matters of intellect and taste. " Without this supervising
and guiding patronage of a critic, the intellectual life of society will run the risk of falling easily into
"haphazardness, crudeness, provincialism, eccentricity, violence, blundering. " Behind every great
creative work, Arnold believes, lies a great amount of intellectual efforts of critics. So that the creation of
great literature without great criticism preceding it is not possible.
Arnold as a Patriarch of Criticism: "English criticism", says Jones, "may be said to have begun and
ended with Arnold. Before him there was a splendid chaos and after him an overwhelming flood. " Scott-
James compares him with Aristotle himself. "For half a century", he says, "Arnold's position in this
country was comparable with that of the venerable Greek in respect of the wide influence he exercised, the
mark he impressed upon criticism, and the blind faith with which he was trusted by his votaries. "
Saintsbury went to the extent of saying that Arnold was the greatest critic of Europe in the nineteenth
century. He says, "As I look back over European criticism for the years which have passed since his birth,
I cannot find one critic, born since that time, who can be ranked above or even with him in general critical
quality and accomplishment. " In the field of criticism he was an apostle. He was not merely a critic of
literature but also a critic of criticism. Nobody after reading Essays on Criticism has any excuse for not
being a critic.
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Sociological or Problem Plays of Galsworthy

Or
Galsworthy as a Writer of Sociological Tragedies
Galsworthy's Concept of Tragedy: Galsworthy's concept of tragedy was quite different from the
conventional concept of tragedy. He can hardly be said to be a writer of tragedy in the ordinary sense of
the term. Scott-James says that "Galsworthy was an actual force in awakening Edwardian England from
intellectual lethargy: a man of letters devoted to the conception of literature as an art, yet equally
convinced that it has a social function to fulfil, a man of great strength of purpose, of generous impulses,
modest in his thought and in his manner to others, chivalrous in his sympathy for the weak, but with the
sense never to confine his sympathy to a class. " These characteristics of his personality determine the
special character of his plays. In brief, all his plays can be termed as sociological tragedies.
Sociological Plays: The basic characteristic feature of Galsworthy's plays is that each of them deals with a
social problem. Galsworthy the social reformer and philanthropist is Galsworthy the dramatist. He
primarily deals with the problems of industrialism, imperialism, aristocracy and legal system. The evils of
legal system occupy by far the most important place in his sociological problem plays. Coats says, "No
less than ten of his dramas are in some way connected with justice, and six of them with a criminal case
with its essential thrills and pursuit of the law, and obvious injustice meted out at the hands of the court of
justice. "
Galsworthy's Sympathies: Galsworthy says that "The world outside is full of urgent problems,
clamouring for dramatic expression. " He took the themes for his plays from the life that he saw around
him. He saw that the society with its unjust laws and powerful institutions, its distinction of wealth and
power, crushed down a large number of poor and helpless invdividuals. Galsworthy looked at this scene
in society as impartially as possible, but his sympathies were always with the poor, the oppressed and the
down-trodden. In all these plays the dramatist is the judge and society the criminal. "The community as a
whole is often much harsher and more cruel than the individuals who compose it. Such a community, in
devising institutions and setting up machinery for its own protection and the punishment of the offenders,
may inflict incalculable misery and even injustice upon innocent persons, although the officials
administering such institutions may themselves be the humanist and most kind-hearted of men. Such
instances of conflict between communal rights and individual claims naturally provide admirable material
for drama. "
The Major Social Problems dealt with in his plays: Galsworthy has written about thirty plays and each
of them deals with a striking problem. We shall here expose the social problem taken up by Galsworthy
in each of his major plays. The Silver Box, Justice, Escape, Windows deal with the injustice and cruelty of
law and imprisonment. They show that law does not provide real justice. The system of imprisonment,
specially solitary confinement, is inhuman to the last degree. Law does not spare the convict even after
his release from the prison after the term of his imprisonment. It is unfortunately true that there is one law
for the rich and the powerful and another for the poor and the weak. There is great disparity between the
'haves' and the 'have-nots' in the eyes of law. The Show criticises journalists who delight in spreading
scandals about the private lives of important people. The Forest
178
exposes the financers who ruin ordinary people by their unscrupulous speculations. The Escape shows the
cruelty of society towards a person who comes out of prison after completing his term. The Joy, The
Fugitive, A Family Man bring out the problem of family relations. "The loyalties or antagonisms of
husband and wife, the struggle to escape from an unhappy marriage, the revolt of youth against parental
authority, these provide Galsworthy with admirable subjects for dramatic treatment. " The Fugitive brings
out the problem of unhappy marriages. A Family Man exposes the disaster when excessive authority
takes the place of love and affection in the family. The idealists who are visionaries are persecuted by the
public. The Mob shows the conflict between an idealist who wants peace and the mob that wants war. In
A Bit of Love also an idealist has to face oppression and persecution. Class conflicts make the central
theme of several plays. The Eldest Son shows how it is below the dignity of a baronet's son wanting to
marry a maid-servant. The Skin Game depicts the conflict between the landowning aristocrats and the
owners of industry. The Strife also deals with the conflict between capital and labour. Loyalties exposes
the conflict of various loyalties of the people, including the conflict between the Christians and the Jews.
The Weavers also exposes the conflict between capital and labour Foundations also analyses the problem
of class divisions. The Pigeon deals with the problem of the Poor Law and Shelter Homes.
As we know, conflict is the soul of drama. There can be no action without conflict. There is a peculiar
type of conflict in the plays of Galsworthy. His conflicts are always of a social nature; individual coming
in conflict with society, or class with class, or one ideology with another. Galsworthy's conflicts are
always of a social nature based on social problems which needed to be remedied at the earliest. It is a
well-known fact that some radical reforms were made in the system of imprisonment after the publication
of Galsworthy's plays.
His Sincerity and Impartiality: Sincerity is the most prominent trait in the plays of Galsworthy. The
author strives after sincerity and fidelity to truth. He gives us the correct picture of society and social
problems. Coats says, "The first thing we notice in reading the plays of Galsworthy is the evident
sincerity of the writer, his desire to maintain artistic integrity of soul. " The author sets down without fear,
favour or prejudice the problem and leaves the public to draw the moral if any independently. However,
sincerity is not possible without the complementary quality of impartiality. Galsworthy tries to remain
strictly impartial in his presentation and analysis of the two conflicting sides of a situation or problem. He
maintains a detached impartiality to both the sides. There are always two sides of a problem or situation.
He tries his utmost to do justice to both, Galsworthy himself says, "Let me try to eliminate any bias, and
see the whole thing as one should, purged of all the prejudices, passions and predilections of mankind. "
His Sympathy: Sincerity and impartiality are not possible in the outlook of an author unless he has
profound sympathy too. Galsworthy was a political philosopher, social reformer and philanthropist with a
profound human zeal. He was very large-hearted, tolerant and sympathetic. His zeal did not turn him into
a fanatic. Therefore, his heart melted with pity at the miseries and sufferings of every created being. He
was the champion of Humanism. He had deep reverence for all life. He believed in universal fraternity
and love. This spirit determines the special tone of the plays of Galsworthy.
179
Model Papers
Model Paper 1
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given on it in upto 30 words each:
On Familiar Style
A peculiar charm of familiar style consists in the proper application of the words to their context. In the
words of Hazlitt, "The proper force of words lies not in the words themselves, but in their application. A
word may be a fine-sounding word, of an unusual length, and very imposing from its learning and novelty,
and yet in the connection in which it is introduced may be quite pointless and irrelevant. It is not pomp or
pretension, but the adaptation of the expression to the idea that clenches a writer's meaning; as it is not the
size or glossiness of the materials, but their being fitted each to its place, that gives strength to the arch. "
Precision is the key-note of the familiar style. Hazlitt hates anything that occupies more space than it is
worth. He hates to see a load of bandboxes go along the street, and he hates to see a parcel of big words
without anything in them. Hazlitt further does not like those who hoard up and make a cautious display of
nothing but rich and rare phraseology. The style of such writers is loaded with archaic expressions and
obsolete words. He does not say that he would not use any phrase that had been brought into fashion
before the middle or the end of the last century; but he should be shy of using any that had not been
employed by any approved author during the whole of that time. Words, like clothes, get old-fashioned,
or mean and ridiculous, when they have been for some time laid aside.
He rejects Dr. Johnson's style because Dr. Johnson's style lacks discrimination, selection and variety; it
uses opaque words, becoming pompous without meaning. Lamb's style on the contrary is pleasant. There
is an inward reaction, a marrowy vein both in the thought and feeling, an intuition deep and lively of his
subject, that carries off any quaintness or awkwardness arising from an antiquated style and dress.
If there are words and only words and there is no substantial matter then that style is gaudy. It is as easy
to write a gaudy style without ideas, as it is to spread a pallet of showy colours, or to smear in a flaunting
transparency.
The florid style is the reverse of the familiar. The latter is employed as an unvarnished medium to convey
ideas; the former is resorted to as a sprangled veil to conceal the want of them. When there is nothing to
be set down but words, it costs little to have them fine. A thought, a distinction is the rock on which all
this brittle cargo of verbiage splits at once. Such writers have merely verbal imaginations, that retain
nothing but words. Or their puny thoughts have dragon-wings, all green and gold.
Hazlitt sought to give in prose what Coleridge gave in verse —an informal, but literary talk. This is a
difficult task. It needs a clear mind, a mastery of diction, and an alert and sensitive approach to the words.
The writer of the familiar style has to shower a personal care on words. Hazlitt was able to do this and so
he was successful in cultivating the familiar style of his own conception. (R. L. Stevenson)
180
Q. 1. What is the importance of the choice of words in a good style of writing?

5
Q. 2. What is the importance of precision in expression in an effective style
of writing? 5
Q. 3. Why should the use of archaic and obsolete words and expressions be
avoided in a good style of writing? 5
9. 4. Why does Stevenson, the auther of this passage , disapprove of the style of writing of Dr.
Johnson? 5
Q. 5. Give the central idea of the above passage in your own words. 5
Or
Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead
Home they brought her warrior dead;

She nor swooned, nor uttered cry:
All her maidens watching said,
'She must weep or she will die.
Then they praised him, soft and low,

Called him worthy to be loved.
Truest friend and noblest foe;
Yet she neither spoke nor moved.
Stole a maiden from her place,

Lightly to the warrior stept,
Took the face-cloth from the face;
Yet she neither moved nor wept.
Rose a nurse of ninety years,

Set her child upon her knee—
Like summer tempest came her tears—
'Sweet my child, I live for thee. '
(Alfred Lord Tennyson)
Q. 1. Why did not the warrior's wife weep on her husband's death? What
was the risk in it? 5
Q. 2. Why did the maidens praise the heroic deeds of the dead warrior in
the presence of his wife? 5
Q. 3. What efforts were made by the maidens to make the dead warrior's
wife weep? Did they succeed in their efforts? 5
Q. 4. Who succeeded at last in making the warrior's wife weep? 5
Q. 5. Summarise the thought contained in the above poem. 5
Directions—(Q. 6-20) Answer each of the following questions in upto 30 words each:
6. What is meant by Renaissance? 5
7. What is Tottel's Miscellany? 5
8. Why did the Greeks call the poets 'Vates'? 5
9. On what basis does Shelley call the poets "unacknowledged legislators of the world"? 5
10. What is meant by 'Poetic Licence'? 5
181
11. What is an Idyll? 5

12. What is a Ballad? 5
13. Define an Ode. 5
14. What is a Sonnet? 5
15. What is meant by Hamartia? 5
16. What is a Tragi-Comedy? 5
17. What is a Chronicle play? 5
18. What is an Aphoristic Essay? 5
19. What is a Farce? 5
Directions—(Q. 21-25) Answer each of the following questions inupto 200
words each:
21. What are the essential qualifications of a good critic? 12
22. On what grounds does Plato condemn Poetry? 12
23. How does Sidney defend poetry against the charges levelled against it by Gosson and other
Puritan critics? 12
24. How does Dryden (or Neander) defend English dramatists and plead for their freedom from
classical principles? 12
25. Give an estimate of Pope as a critic. 12 Directions—Write an essay on one of the following topics
in upto 1000 words. 40
26. Shakespeare's Conception of Tragedy
Or
The Metaphysical Poets.
Or
The Pre-Raphaelite School of Poetry.
182
Model Paper 2
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given on it in upto 30 words each:
True Wisdom
Can wisdom in this sense be taught? And, if it can, should the teaching of it be one of the aims of
education? I should answer both these questions in the affirmative. We are told on Sundays that we
should love our neighbour as ourselves. On the other six days of the week, we are exhorted to hate him.
You may say that this is nonsense, since it is not our neighbour whom we are exhorted to hate. But you
will remember that the precept was exemplified by saying that the Samaritan was our neighbour. We no
longer have any wish to hate Samaritans and so we are apt to miss the point of the parable. If you want to
get its point, you should substitute Communist or anti-Communist, as the case may be, for Samaritan. It
might be objected that it is right to hate those who do harm. I do not think so. If you hate them, it is only
too likely that you will become equally harmful; and it is very unlikely that you will induce them to
abandon their evil ways. Hatred of evil is itself a kind of bondage to evil. The way out is through
understanding, not through hate. I am not advocating non-resistance. But I am saying that resistance, if it
is to be effective in preventing the spread of evil, should be combined with the greatest degree of
understanding and the smallest degree of force that is compatible with the survival of the good things that
we wish to preserve.
It is commonly urged that a point of view such as I have been advocating is incompatible with vigour in
action. I do not think history bears out this view. Queen Elizabeth I in England and Henry IV in France
lived in a world where almost everybody was fanatical, either on the Protestant or on the Catholic side.
Both remained free from the errors of their time and both, by remaining free, were beneficent and
certainly not ineffective. Abraham Lincoln conducted a great war without ever departing from what I
have been calling wisdom.
I have said that in some degree wisdom can be taught. I think that this teaching should have a larger
intellectual element than has been customary in what has been thought of as moral instruction. I think that
the disastrous results of hatred and narrow-mindedness to those who feel them can be pointed out
incidentally in the course of giving knowledge. I do not think that knowledge and morals ought to be too
much separated. It is true that the kind of specialized knowledge which is required for various kinds of
skill has very little to do with wisdom. But it should be supplemented in education by wider surveys
calculated to put it in its place in the total of human activities. Even the best technicians should also be
good citizens; and when I say 'citizens', I mean citizens of the world and not of this or that sect or nation.
With every increase of knowledge and skill, wisdom becomes more necessary, for every such increase
augments our capacity of realizing our purposes, and therefore augments our capacity for evil, if our
purposes are unwise. The world needs wisdom as it has never needed it before; and if knowledge
continues to increase, the world will need wisdom in the future even more than it does now.
(Bertrand Russell)
Q. 1. Why, according to this passage, should we not hate any one? 5

Q. 2. Can wisdom be taught in the course of normal education? 5
Q. 3. What is Bertrand Russell's concept of a good citizen? 5
Q. 4. Why is wisdom more important than knowledge and skill? 5
183
Q. 5. Give the central idea of the above passage in your own words. 5
Or
Leisure
What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.
(W. H. Davies)
Q. 1. Why do we have no time to enjoy the beauty of nature? 5

Q. 2. What beauties are there in nature which we have no time to watch and
appreciate? 5
Q. 3. What beauties of a young maiden do we miss to appreciate in our
excessively busy life? 5
Q. 4. Why does the poet call the life of the modern man poor and joyless? 5
Q. 5. Summarise the thought contained in the above poem. 5
Directions—(Q. 6-20) Answer each of the following questions in upto 30 words each:
6. What is meant by Humanism? 5
7. How does Wordsworth define poetry? 5
8. What does Keats mean by 'Negative Capability'? 5
9. What is an epic? 5
10. What is a Pastoral Elegy? 5
11. What is meant by Catharsis? 5
12. What is meant by denouement? 5
13. What is a Masque? 5
14. What is a Novel? 5
15. What is a Domestic Novel? 5
16. What is a Burlesque? 5
184
17. What is Legislative criticism? 5

18. What is the function of the Chorus in drama? 5
19. Who were the University Wits? Why were they so called? 5
20. What is a Short story?5 Directions—(Q. 21-25) Answer each of the following questions in upto 200
words each:
21. What are the major functions of a good critic? 12
22. What is meant by 'Sublimity' in literature according to Longinus? 12
23. Discuss Wordsworth's views on the language in which poetry should be
written.
12
24. Discuss Coleridge's Theory of Imagination. 12
25. Discuss Matthew Arnold's Touchstone Method of Criticism. 12 Directions—Write an essay on
one of the following topics in upto 1000 words. 40
26. Chaucer as the Father of English Poetry.
Or
The Comedy of Humours.
Or
The Oxford Movement.

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UPKAR'S UGC NET/JRF/SET ENGLISH

(Paper - II & III)

Part-II: Covering Paper-III

The New Structure of the Paper

The Paper is divided into four Sections:

Section I: Comprehension of a given Passage

Section II: Very Short Questions and Answers

Section III: Elective/Specialization Choice

Section IV: Essay-Writing

Chapter 1: The Period upto Chaucer.

— The Age at a Glance 2

Chapter 2: The Age of Shakespeare.

— The Age at a Glance 12

Chapter 3: Jacobean to Restoration Period.

— The Period at a Glance 23

Chapter 4: The Augustan Age.

— The Age at a Glance 33

Chapter 5: The Romantic Period.

— The Age at a Glance, 46

Chapter 6: The Victorian Period.

— The Age at a Glance 59

Chapter 7: The Modern Age.

— The Age at a Glance 73

Chapter 8: American, Indo-Anglian and Other Non-British Literatures

(1) American Literature 88

Chapter 9: Literary Theory and Criticism.

Chapter 10: Rhetoric and Prosody.

— Multiple-Choice Questions 104

- Now Test Yourself 107-132

Test Paper 1 107

Section I: Comprehension of Prose and Poetry Passages

Prose and Poetry Passages for Practice

Prose Passages from 1 to 15 25-40

Section II: Short Questions and Answers

Section III: Electives/Specializations

Elective V: Literary Theory and Criticism

1. What is Literary Criticism? 71

Greek and Roman Critics: Plato, Aristotle, Longinus and Horace

8. Discuss Plato's Theory of Ideas or Mimesis 74

21. On what grounds does Gosson condemn Poetry and Drama? 80

The Neo-Classical Critics: John Dryden, Joseph Addison, Alexander

34. Discuss Dryden as the Father of English Criticism 86

The Romantic Critics: William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, P. B. Shelley

56. Explain Wordsworth's principles of poetry as enunciated by him in his

63. Discuss Wordsworth's views on the function of poetry 99

The Victorian Critics: Matthew Arnold, Waiter Pater

The Critics of the Modern Age: T. S. Eliot, I. A. Richards, F. R. Leavis

79. What is the function of Criticism according to T. S. Eliot? 108

Section IV: Essay-Writing

1. Chaucer as the Father of English Poetry 116

-Model Paper 1 179

1. British Literature from Chaucer to the present day

1. Which novel has a nameless narrator?

2. Samuel Beckett wrote—

3. Which one of the following author book pair is correctly matched?

4. The Plough and the 'Stars' was written by-

5. Willy Loman is a character in—