For each of the passages, you should:
(a) Identify the title of work from which the passage is drawn.
(b) Identify the speaker.
(c) The message is addressed to/or about whom?
There is no need to repeat the question-wording in your answer. Number your answers correctly. Something like this:
- a) Hamlet b) Hamlet c) Horatio and Guildenstern
- a) Othello b) Desdemona c) Iago
Here we go:
1
“If I can weave the Tale I have wrote into the Work I'm [about]—tis at the service of the afflicted—and a much greater matter; for in serious truth, it casts a sad Shade upon the World, That so great a part of it, are and have been so long bound in chains of darkness & in Chains of Misery.”
2“When night descended he went to seek out
the high house, to see how the Ring-Danes
had bedded down after their beer-drinking.
He found therein a troop of nobles
asleep after the feast; they knew no sorrow
or human misery.”
3For he that wynketh whan he sholde see
Al wilfully, God lat hym never thee
“Nay” quod the fox, “but God, yeve hym
meschaunce
That is so undiscreet of governaunce
That jangeth whan he sholde holde his pees!
4“The miracles that magic will perform
Will make thee vow to study nothing else.
He that is grounded in astrology ,
Enrich’d with tongues, well seen in minerals,
Hath all the principles magic doth require.
Then doubt not, . . . , but to be renown’d
And more frequented for this mystery
Than heretofore the Delphian oracle. “
5“Two loves I have, of comfort and despair
Which, like two spirits, do suggest me still
The better angel is a man right fair
The worser spirit a woman coloured ill.
[----]
Yet this shall I ne’er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.”
6“Busy old fool, unruly Sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers’ season run?
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
Late schoolboys and sour prentices,
Go tell court-huntsmen that the King will ride.”
7“Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky
The dew shall weep they fall tonight.”
8“ My good friend, you should remember from whom they learnt those vices: - the first Christian visitors found them a simple, harmless people - but the cursed avidity for wealth urged these first visitors (and all the succeeding ones) to such acts of deception - and even wanton cruelty - that the poor ignorant Natives soon learnt to turn the knavish - and diabolical arts which they too soon imbibed - upon their teachers.”
9“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;
Her lips suck forth my soul, see where it flies!
Come Helen, come, give me my soul again;
Here will I dwell, for heaven be in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.”
10“And homeward he shal tellen othere two
Of aventures that whilom han bifalle
And which of yow that bereth him best of alle
That is to seyn, that telleth in thi caas
Tales of best sentence and moost solaas
Shal have a soper at oure aller cost
Here in this place, sittynge by this post
Whan that we come agayn fro Caunterbury.”
11
“Time and again those terrible enemiessorely threatened me. I served then well
with my dear sword, as they deserved.
They got no joy from their gluttony,
those wicked maneaters, when they tasted me,
sat down to their feast on the ocean floor—
but in the morning, wounded by my blade,
they were washed ashore by the ocean waves,
dazed by sword-blows, and since that day
they never hindered the passage of any
sea-voyager.”
12“Whit was his heed as is a dayesye.
Of his complexioun he was sangwy.n;
Wel loved he by the morwe a sope in wyn.
To lyven in delit was evere his wone
For he was Epicurus owene sone”
13“Your letter gave me more pleasure than in truth I ever expected from your hand—but thou art a flatterer;--why dost thou demand advice from me? Young man, thou canst not discern wood from trees; --with awe look up to thy more than parents.”
14
“Wilt Thou forgive that sin where I begun,Which is my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt Thou forgive those sins through which I run,
And do them still, though still I do deplore?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,
For I have more”
15“For, after all the murders of your eye,
When, after millions slain, yourself shall die;
When those fair suns shall set, as set they must,
And all those tresses shall be laid in dust;
This lock the Muse shall consecrate to fame.”
16“The nymph grown furious roared, “by God!
The blame lies all in sixty odd”
And scornful pointing to the door
Cried, “Fumbler, see my face no more.”
17“Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deny’st me is;
It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.”
18“Your Sermons have touch'd me to the heart, and I hope have amended it, which brings me to the point.—In your tenth discourse, page seventy—eight, in the second volume—is this very affecting passage—‘Consider how great a part of our species - in all ages down to this—have been trod under the feet of cruel and capricious tyrants, who would neither hear their cries, nor pity their distresses.—Consider slavery—what it is—how bitter a draught—and how many millions are made to drink it!’”
19“The people of the Geats then prepared for him
a splendid pyre upon the earth,
hung with battle-shields and helmets
and bright byrnies, as he had bidden;
there in the middle they laid the mighty prince,
the heroes lamenting their dear lord.”
20“He was therefore no sooner got to his apartment, but he sent the royal veil to Imoinda, that is, the ceremony of invitation; he sends the lady, he has the mind to honour with his bed, a veil, with which she is covered and secured for the King’s use; and tis death to disobey, besides, held a most impious disobedience.”