EXAMINATION FOR THE SHAKSPEARE

SCHOLARSHIP.

PAPER NO. 1.

The Board of Examiners.

OTHELLO, RICHARD III., MUCH ADO ABOUT
NOTHING.

1. Is villainy a fit subject for artistic treatment? Can it be idealized ?

2. What was the source of the plot of Othello? What are the most important deviations from the original story?

What historical facts fix the date of the action?

3. How would you on ethical grounds account for the success of Iago's plot? Is Schlegel's position respecting Othello's nationality tenable ?

4. Quote

(a) Othello's farewell to his career.

(b) The elaborate oxymoron in Richard III. (c) The Scroll read at Hero's tomb.

5. Discuss the reading in

(a) Relent, and save your souls, et seqq.

(b) Chop off his head, man; somewhat we will do. (c) The bruised heart was pierced through the ear. (d) Does tire the ingener.

(e) A fixed figure for the time of scorn

To point his slow unmoving finger at.

(f) Bid sorrow wag.

6. Briefly explain, and refer to context

(a) That hold their honour at a wary
distance.
(b) He'll watch the horologe a double set.
I'll watch him tame.

(c)

(d) Give me a watch.

(e)

Even then this forkèd plague is fatal to us
When we do quicken.

(f) Unproper beds, which they dare swear peculiar. (g) God save the foundation.

(h) Play the flouting Jack, to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder.

7. Comment on—

(a) Men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders.

(b) The guards of the ever-fixèd pole.

(c)

Our new heraldry is hands, not hearts.

(d) If this poor trash of Venice whom I trash For his quick hunting, stand the putting on. Civil as an orange.

(e)

(f) Clap us into "Light o' Love": that goes without a burden.

(g) Elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog.

8. Make notes on-The cross-row-franked up-the formal Vice, Iniquity-cock-shut time-luscious as locusts a joint-ring-Humphrey HourSignor Montanto-Prester John-rabato-leets and law-days.

9. Give the meaning of the terms counter-caster, grise, exsufflicate, intentively, acknown, squarer, reechy, a non-com, collied, old coil.

In what special sense are the following words used-extravagant and wheeling, critical, propriety, demerits, obsequiously, expiate (hour)?

In what different senses are the following words employed by Shakspeare-jump, abuse, ecstasy, canker, misprision? Give examples of each use

10. What and where were The Sagittary, Chertsey, Baynard's Castle, Crosby House, Rougemont, The Sanctuary?

11. Quote, from the three set plays, passages parallel to the following:

(a) Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child.-(Eccl. x. 16.)

(b) And common is the commonplace,

And vacant chaff well meant for grain.-(In Memoriam.)

(c) "Stand on your guard, Sir!" Grenvile answered by slapping his own rapier home into the sheath with a quiet smile.-(Westward Ho!)

(d)

A wild wave in the wide North Sea.

with all

Its stormy crests that smoke against the skies.(Elaine.)

(e) 'E seeäms naw moor nor watter, an' 'e's the Divil's oän sen.-(Northern Cobbler.)

(f) I am in blood stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more,

(g)

Returning were as tedious as go o'er.(Macbeth III. 4.)

Ever bears about

A silent court of justice in his breast,
Himself the judge and jury, and himself

The prisoner at the bar, ever condemned.-(Sea
Dreams.)

(h) Men betrayed are mighty, and great are the wrongfully dead.-(Story of Sigurd.)

(i) Madam, you have bereft me of all words.(Merch. Ven. III. 2.)

PAPER NO. 2.

The Board of Examiners.

THE HISTORICAL PLAYS.

1. What is the probable date at which King John was written; what various sources supplied the materials for the play; and for what reason is it supposed that Shakspeare omitted any reference to the notable event of King John's reign, namely, the signing of Magna Charta ?

2. Institute a comparison between the two characters of King John and Faulconbridge. What principal character in another of the historical plays do you think bears a resemblance to that of Faulconbridge?

3. Explain the precise meaning of the words— Assured, modern, stumbling, eyeless, unhaired, as employed in the subjoined passages :—

For I am well assured

That I did so when I was first assured.”

"Which seems a modern invocation."

"The stumbling night did part our weary powers."

"Unkind remembrance thou and eyeless night."

"This unhaired sauciness and boyish troops."

4. Give the dates of the four quartos of Richard II., and say which of them is considered to be the most accurate. And in what especial particular did the 1623 folio differ from the quartos of this play; and what explanation has been given of the introduction of 160 lines into the folio, which did not appear in the quartos ?

5. The line in Act II., Sc. 1, of Richard II.

"Report of fashions in proud Italy"

refers to the custom of adopting in England continental modes of dress. Say whether such reference is chronologically exact as to the epoch of the play, or whether it is to be regarded as one of the anachronisms to be found in Shakspeare.