Answer to the Third Question.-These are the Unities of (1) Time (2) Place and (3) Action. The time occupied by the plot must not be more than twenty-four hours-it must be confined to the same place or at least must not change to very distant places-and there must be continuity in the Action (i. e.) the action must be one and not composed of detached events. The Tempest is the only play in which all these are strictly adhered to. The time taken up between the commencement of the Tempest and the restoration of Ferdinand to the longing eyes of his father is not more than three hours and Shakespeare has been anxious to display this in the clearest manner as appears from the speeches of Alonso and others. -Thus in the concluding scene Alonzo says to Prospero that it was but three hours since they gave themselves up for lost. The Botswain repeats the same information "which but three glasses since, &c." The scene lies all along in the same small island. The unity of the action is also strictly adhered to, in the Tempest. From the beginning it was tending to the same conclusion, viz., the marriage of Ferdinand and Miranda and the restoration of Prospero to his dukedom. The unities are very ill preserved in the historical plays of Shakespeare particularly the unity of Time. In the Henry VIII.the play commences with the accusation of Buckingham in 1521, and ends with the death of Katharine in 1536-and includes a period of 15 years. In this play Shakespeare has made the birth of Elizabeth succeed the death of Katharine, though really she was born in 1533 and the queen died in 1536. In Ant. and Cleo. the places changes from Egypt to Rome and Rome to Egypt and occupies a long period. In Othello, the scene changes from Venice to Cyprus. I could point out many more breaches in the unities if I had time. MOHENDRO LAUL SHOME, Hindu College, First Class. Answer to the Fourth Question.-Corollary-(from corolla) something superadded. In the Tempest it means-something in superabundance. Trash-from old Fr. trasher (cotgreve)-Afterwards trasser which means to intrace (i. e.) to put to traces or under confinement or restraint The thing (whether man, dog or hawk) that thus required to be trashed by reason of its being otherwise ungovernable was hence called trash. Thus anything become useless, any rubbish ing thing-(e. g.) an ill-trained hound, a hot simpleton like Roderigo-was denominated trash. Harmand a divine of the reign of Charles the first almost defines its meaning in a sentence which I quote. "This contracty" says he "always interposes some obstacles to hinder or trash you from doing things you would." Thus Shakespeare also makes Iago say of Roderigo : This poor trash of Venice whom I trace For his swift hunting. Some editions make the trace, trash, but seeing that Iago does not mean to restrain Roderigo in his wild goose chase but rather halloes and encourages him to it, we cannot accept the latter. Again the same play Iago says Who steals my purse, steals trash 'Tis something nothing. State was formerly something exhibited at a public showThus in the Taming of the Shrew—she says Sir, is it your will To make me a state among these mates. Afterwards it came to mean something put forth as a bait a decoy duck. Impediment, from impedimenta-baggage-and thence any hinderance or obstacle. Canker-from cancer a crab and thence an ulcer that crawls like a crab-it also means a disease in plants. Teen is grief. Deck-from deckon to cover-afterwards to dress-and thence to ornament. Patch originally meant and still means-to cover a rent in a cloth, by means of a small piece of cloth-hence it came to mean a counterfeit one who assumes a guise which does not belong to him. Ditty-from Ango-Saxon-dihton (whence also Modern German-dichton-hence their poets are called dichter) to inditeto compose; therefore ditty means any thing indited. Welkin-Anglo-Saxon Velkin (whence also German wolking) closed--and therefore means the cloudage of the heavens. Sincere is sine (without) and cera (wax)—means without alloy. Trench says that the honey which the Romans were in the habit of using when without wax were called sincere, Hence it means, honest, without the alloy of falsehood. K Or it may be derived from the custom of showing the statues on certain days by taking off their waxen covering-and thence sincere may mean-anything without disguise or undisguise. MOHENDRO LAUL SHOME, Hindu College, First Class. Answer to the Fifth Question.-(d) As bewitched dew as ever my dam gathered with raven's feather from pestilential moors, fall on Prospero. Wicked from Anglo-Saxon Wiccia to enchant-whence Wicca an enchanter. (e) Having given you here my heart-string or the thread by which I am bound to this world. (f). Seb. But for the pangs of your conscience— Ant. Conscience say you, where lives that if it were a blister on my hiles, it would have some effect, viz., force me to use slippers-but for this divinity-I do not find myself conscious of his existence in my breast-twenty such things that interposed between me and the possession of Milan, would thaw and dissolve themselves--yea, even if they were congealed hard before they could annoy or obstruct me. MOHENDRO LAUL SHOME, Answer to the Sixth Question. Hindu College, First Class, True beauty dwells in deep retreats Till heart with heart in concord beats Wordsworth. The character of Miranda resolves itself into the very elements of womanhood. She is gentle, mild, and unassuming; she is these only. We find nothing in her character which is rough or which does not harmonize with the rest of her character. She is so perfectly unsophiscated, so tenderly susceptible of love, that all the other female characters, imagined by any other poet, cannot stand the comparison for a moment with her. Even let us suppose Shakspeare's, one of loveliest and sweetest creatures, it cannot for a moment be brought into contact with this pure child of Nature, with this Eve of an enchanted Paradise. The only being with whom she can be contrasted is Ariel. Beside the subtle essence of this etherial sprite, this child of elemental light and air, Miranda herself appears a palpable reality, a woman breathing thoughtful breath; a woman walking the earth with a heart as passion-touched and as frail-strung as ever glittered in a female bosom. But do we therefore compare her with any of those fancied beings with the ancient poets filled the forest depths, the fountains and the rivers? No; Miranda is a perfectly consistent human being. And if we presuppose all the circumstances in which she is placed, can we wonder that she should be such as she is represented to be, and that she cannot be otherwise. She has sprung to beauty under the immediate care of the princely magician Prospero; her companions have been rocks and woods, the many-shaped and many-tinted clouds: her play-mates have been the ocean billows; the very air had been made vocal by her father, to comfort and solace her; Ariel and all his fellows ministered duteous to her very command. Being placed in such a situation, she is exactly as Shakespeare had represented her to be; the impulses which have come to her are of nature; and when she meets Ferdinand, she is at once enchanted; and as Wordworth says, her heart with his heart in concord beats. RADHAGOBIND Doss, Hindu College, First Class. Answer to the Seventh Question. - Our festivity is now at an end, these actors as I told you before are all sprites and are all dissolved into air-the unsubstantial air: and exactly like the unfounded superstructure of this dream, the sky-reaching turrets, the splendid domes of kings, the holy fanes-the mighty earth itself - aye with every thing that it holds shall vanish, and dissolving like this immaterial show, leave behind them no trace of their existence. Man and dreams are made of kindred stuff and the narrow sphere of our existence is compassed by a dreamful slumber. Rack is a small cloud and in that sense Bacon uses it in his history of the winds. MOHENDRO LAUL SHOME, Hindu College, First Class. Answer to the Eighth Question. -Thy ducal coronet I give back to thee and with all my heart do beseech thee to forgive me the injuries that I have done thee. Do makes the verb following emphatic and is a verb.-Entreat is in the infinitive mood, the to being understood. In the Saxon and German languages where the infinitive causes the verb to change its form-this becomes very evident and the analogy may be extended to the English. MOHENDRO LAUL SHOME, Hindu College, First Class. Answer to the Ninth Question.-O ye sprites of mountains, fresh pools and brakes and ye that do follow the retiring ocean, along the sands when it ebbs and fly back-when it flows, you tiny forms that cause the fairy ring on the green grass, by moon-light, so that the grass being made sour the sheep nibbles not. The popular belief is that these circles are formed by the dancing of the fairies in the night. I prefer to keep it green sour that being the original text and making complete sense I deem it unnecessary to make any change. To make a double adjective of green sour is not quite correct. Greensward would be unobjectionable were we sure that Shakespeare wrote it. MOHENDRO LAUL SHOME, DRYDEN. Answer to the Tenth Question.-Villiers, duke of Buckingham, is here alluded. The versatility of his genius, his bigoted adherence to principles which though often changed were seldom preferred for their truth. His changes were the effects of sudden impulse and not deliberate judgment, so that it was impossible to expect that he would stick long to anything. He was not only often changing opinions but his occupations also. All this is historically true and happily delineated. He was banished with Charles, returned with him, took possession of a very large estate on his return, stuck for sometime to the court, was a member of the Cabal-encouraged the French alliance, was privy to the secret money treaty, took disgust with the Government, went into opposition with Shaftsburyspent all his large fortune in dissoluteness and died In the worst inn's worst room with mats half hung Pope. |