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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 50

University of New Zealand. — English Language and Literature. — Paper a. — English Language:—More's 'Utopia;' Bacon's 'New Atlantis;' Spenser's 'Faerie Queene,' Books I. and II

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University of New Zealand.

English Language and Literature.

Paper a.

English Language:—More's 'Utopia;' Bacon's 'New Atlantis;' Spenser's 'Faerie Queene,' Books I. and II.

1. Write a note or two upon the manner in which phonetic changes are now studied for elucidation of the history of language. Account for the d in "thunder," and the b in "humble."

2. Discuss the origin and structure of the English alphabet.

3. From which of the elements that join to form English is each of the following words derived:—mop, pail, hustings, street, preach, cleric, cherry, venison, summons, sausage, legal, loyal, renegade, serenade, yacht, alchemy, chess, cherub, tattoo, potato.

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4. Make a list of the chief Teutonic suffixes of the English nouns, and explain their origin and force.

5. Tell all that you know of the history of the third personal pronoun, he, she, it. How far is it to be called personal?

6. Distinguish between weak and strong verbs. Write a few notes on the origin and history of what is called the strong form of conjugation.

7. Analyse this sentence:—

"The wind had no more strength than this,
That leisurely it blew,
To make one leaf the next to kiss
That closely by it grew."

8. When, where, and why did Sir Thomas More write his 'Utopia'? Why was it in Latin? When did it first appear in English?

9. Give some evidences of the relation of More's 'Utopia' to the state of England and of Europe in the time when it was written.

10. Why is the 'New Atlantis' so called? Tell in a few words the substance of the story, and show its relation to the life of Francis Bacon.

11. When did Spenser publish the first three books of the 'Faerie Queene'? What was the aim of the first book? Tell the story of Una and the Lion. What do you suppose to be figured by that part of the allegory?

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12.

"And is there care in heaven? and is there love
In heavenly spirits to these creature base
That may compassion of their evils move?"

Tell the incident in the second book of the Faerie Queene with which this passage is associated.

13. Describe the structure of the verse of a Spenserian stanza.

14. Explain the italicised words in the following sentences:—" I nill thine offered grace;" "For they be two the prowest knights on ground;" "waves . . . engrossed with mud, which did them foul agrise." "But safe I have them kept in secret mew." "The rueful strich still waiting on the bier."