startle gentlemen of the old school by their direct expressiveness, rise to his pen continually. And he talks to his readers, out of the pleasant page he gives them, with a playful, genial artlessness which not unfrequently changes to a sudden shower of sharp, satiric hits. That which especially distinguishes his works among the crowd of English novels that load our shelves and tables lies in his portrayal of human character as it is. Painting men and women as he meets them at a dinner or watches them in the Park, he gives us no paragons of perfection, forms of exquisite beauty enshrining minds of unsullied purity, or that opposite ideal so familiar to the readers of romance; but men and women, with all heir faults and foibles, with their modest virtues shrinking from exhibition, or their meanness well deserving the censor's lash. GEORGE III. NOTE.-The following extract is taken from Thackeray's Lectures on the Four Georges. George III. was king of England from the year 1760 to the year 1820. In 1810 he became insane, and remained so mostly to the time of his death. WE have to glance over sixty years in as many minutes. To read the mere catalogue of characters who figured during that long period would occupy our allotted time, and we should have all text and no sermon. England has to undergo the revolt of the American col- 5 onies; to submit to defeat and separation; to shake under the volcano of the French Revolution; to grappie ANALYSIS.-1. Give the grammatical construction of have to glance. 2, 4. To read.... sermon. What figure? What is the subject of the sentence? 5. What figure in the line? 5-8. Name the modifiers of has. Notice the peculiar grammatical construction running through the paragraph. and fight for the life with her gigantic enemy Napoleon; to gasp and rally after that tremendous struggle. The old society, with its courtly splendors, has to pass away; 10 generations of statesmen to rise and disappear; Pitt to follow Chatham to the tomb; the memory of Rodney and Wolfe to be superseded by Nelson's and Wellington's glory; the old poets who unite us to Queen Anne's time to sink into their graves; Johnson to die, and Scott 15 and Byron to arise; Garrick to delight the world with his dazzling dramatic genius; and Kean to leap on the stage and take possession of the astonished theatre. Steam has to be invented; kings to be beheaded, banished, deposed, restored; Napoleon to be but an episode, 20 and George III. is to be alive through all these varied changes, to accompany his people through all these revolutions of thought, government, society-to survive out of the old world into ours. His mother's bigotry and hatred George inherited with 25 the courageous obstinacy of his own race; but he was a firm believer where his fathers had been free-thinkers, and a true and fond supporter of the Church of which eral who was killed in the battle of Quebec, Canada, in 1759. Nelson was a celebrated English admiral. NOTES.-11. Pitt. This was Sir | 13. Wolfe was an English genWilliam Pitt the younger, an English statesman. 12. Chatham. This was William Pitt the elder, the first earl of Chatham. was the father of Sir William Pitt the younger. Rodney was an admiral of the English navy. He Wellington. This was Arthur, duke of Wellington, an English general and statesman. ANALYSIS.-14. What poets belonged to Queen Anne's time? 20. What is the meaning of episode as here used? 25, 26. His . . . . race. Reconstruct the sentence. he was the titular defender. Like other dull men, the king was all his life suspicious of superior people. He 30 did not like Fox; he did not like Reynolds; he did not like Nelson, Chatham, Burke: he was testy at the idea of all innovations, and suspicious of all innovators. He loved mediocrities: Benjamin West was his favorite painter; Beattie was his poet. The king lamented, not 35 without pathos, in his after life, that his education had been neglected. He was a dull lad, brought up by narrow-minded people. The cleverest tutors in the world could have done little probably to expand that small intellect, though they might have improved his tastes 40 and taught his perceptions some generosity. George married the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and for years they led the happiest, simplest lives, sure, ever led by married couple. It is said the king winced when he first saw his homely little 45 bride; but, however that may be, he was a true and faithful husband to her, as she was a faithful and loving wife. They had the simplest pleasures, the very mildest and simplest little country-dances, to which a dozen couple were invited, and where the honest king would 50 stand up and dance for three hours at a time to one tune; after which delicious excitement they would go ANALYSIS.-29. What is the meaning of titular defender? dull men. What figure? 30-33. What is gained by the repetition of did not like? 31. Who were Fox and Reynolds? 32. Who was Burke ? What is the meaning of testy? 37. What figures in the line? 44. Is sure an adjective or an adverb? 45. Is homely used here with its former or its present signification? 49. Give the meaning of simplest as used here. 50. Give the meaning of honest. 52. Is delicious a good word here? to bed without any supper (the court-people grumbling sadly at the absence of supper), and get up quite early the next morning, and perhaps the next night have an- 55 other dance; or the queen would play on the spinnet -she played pretty well, Haydn said-or the king would read to her a paper out of the Spectator, or perhaps one of Ogden's sermons. O Arcadia! what a life it must have been! 60 The theatre was always his delight. His bishops and clergy used to attend it, thinking it no shame to appear where that good man was seen. He is said not to have cared for Shakespeare or tragedy much; farces and pantomimes were his joy; and especially when the clown 65 swallowed a carrot or a string of sausages he would laugh so outrageously that the lovely princess by his side would have to say, "My gracious monarch, do compose yourself." But he continued to laugh, and at the very smallest farces, as long so his poor wits 70 were left him. George, be a king!" were the words which his mother was for ever croaking in the ears of her son; and a king the simple, stubborn, affectionate, bigoted man tried to be. He did his best, he worked according to his lights: what virtue he knew he tried to practice; what knowledge he could master he strove to acquire. But, as one thinks of an office almost divine, performed by ANALYSIS.--58. By whom was the Spectator founded? 59. Arcadia. A mountainous district in the heart of Peloponnesus. 63, 64. He is . . . . much. Criticise. 72. "George, be a king," were the words. Parse. 73. Is croaking a good word as used here? 76. he worked, etc. Explain. Parse what. 78-90. Rewrite the sentence. Show what each infinitive phrase modifies. 75 any mortal man-of any single being pretending to 80 control the thoughts, to direct the faith, to order inplicit obedience of brother millions; to compel them. into war at his offence or quarrel; to command, "In this way you shall trade, in this way you shall think; these neighbors shall be your allies, whom you shall help- Sã these others your enemies, whom you shall slay at my orders; in this way you shall worship God;"-who can wonder that, when such a man as George took such an office on himself, punishment and humiliation should fall upon people and chief? 90 Yet there is something grand about his courage. The battle of the king with his aristocracy remains yet to be told by the historian who shall view the reign of George more justly than the trumpery panegyrists who wrote immediately after his decease. It was he, with the 95 people to back him, that made the war with America; it was he and the people who refused justice to the Roman Catholics; and on both questions he beat the patricians. He bribed, he bullied, he darkly dissembled on occasion; he exercised a slippery perseverance and a vin- 100 dictive resolution, which one almost admires as one thinks his character over His courage was never to be beat. It trampled North under foot; it bent the stiff neck of the younger Pitt; even his illness never conquered that indomitable spirit. As soon as his brain 105 was clear it resumed the scheme, only laid aside when ANALYSIS.-94. Give the meaning of trumpery panegyrists. Is the term used here in a complimentary or a disparaging sense? 98. What is the meaning of patricians? What is the opposite Lerm? 102. thinks his character over. Substitute a better expression. 104. Notice the use of even as an emphatic adverb. 105, 106. his brain was clear. What figure? Explain. 106. it.... only laid aside. Is the position of only correct? |