5. Sudden he stops; his eye is fixed; away, The skill that yet may check his mad career. With well-timed croupe the nimble coursers veer; On foams the bull, but not unscathed he goes; Streams from his flank the crimson torrent clear; He flies, he wheels, distracted with his throes; Dart follows dart; lance, lance; loud bellowings speak his woes. 6. Again he comes; nor dart nor lance avail, Nor the wild plunging of the tortured horse; Though man and man's avenging arms assail, Vain are his weapons, vainer is his force. One gallant steed is stretched a mangled corse; Another, hideous sight! unseamed appears, His gory chest unveils life's panting source; Though death-struck, still his feeble frame he rears; Staggering, but stemming all, his lord unharmed he bears. 7. Foiled, bleeding, breathless, furious to the last, Mid wounds, and clinging darts, and lances brast, And now the matadores around him play, Shake the red cloak, and poise the ready brand: Once more through all he bursts his thundering way Vain rage! the mantle quits the conynge hand, Wraps his fierce' eye-'tis past-he sinks upon the strand! 8. Where his vast neck just mingles with the spine, Four steeds that spurn the rein, as swift as shy, Hurl the dark bull along, scarce seen in dashing by. Byron. The lists were the place fenced off for a tournament or bull-fight, or such-like encounter. Prize-fighters call it "the ring." Ope'd is a word used by poets, meaning the same as opened. Ne in old English meant "no" or "not." Spenser uses it in his "Faëry Queene," and Byron imitates him. 66 Don is the Spanish word answering to our Mister," ," and grandees are noblemen. Wight is a person. Love's sad archery. Cupid, the god of love, is generally represented with a bow and arrows. The den expands; that is, the door of the place in which the bull is confined opens. Croupe is a vault or bound. Veer means swerve. Unseamed, literally "unsewn," rent open. Brast or brust is an old way of spelling burst. 1. Express the sense of the first stanza in your own words in prose. 2. Give the plurals of the nouns-cow, penny, box, ox, chief, thief, knife, potato, omnibus. 3. Parse: "Thousands on thousands piled are seated round." A-loof', far off. A'-re-a, open space. Cla-ri-on, a kind of trumpet. O'-gle, a meaning, roguish look. MEN OF ENGLAND. I. 'EN of England, who inherit Rights that cost your sires their blood! Men whose undegenerate spirit Has been proved on land and flood, 2. By the foes ye've fought uncounted, By the glorious deeds ye've done- 3. Yet remember, England gathers Hence but fruitless wreaths of fame, If the virtues of your fathers Glow not in your hearts the same. 4. What are monuments of bravery, 5. Pageants! let the world revere us 6. Yours are Hampden's, Russell's glory, Worth a thousand Agincourts! 7. We're the sons of sires that baffled For their birthrights-so will we ! Campbell. John Hampden was a celebrated English patriot, born in 1594, who resisted Charles I. in the matter of ship-money and was killed in the battle of Chalgrove Field, fighting on the side of the Parliament, in 1643. Lord William Russell, one of the most glorious martyrs of English liberty, was born in 1639, and unjustly executed for participation in the Rye House Plot in Charles II.'s reign, 1683, together with Algernon Sidney. Agincourt, or Azincourt, was the great battle, fought in 1415, in which Henry V. defeated the French. Crowned and mitred tyranny means the tyranny of the king and the bishops during the reigns of the Stuart kings. 1. Name some of the great patriots of English History, mentioning the deeds for which they were severally famous. 2. "Trophies captured," etc. Illustrate these two lines from your knowledge of English history. 3. Explain the terms, "wreaths of fame," " trophied temple, arch, "pageants," civic heroes, "martyrs," "field and and tomb," scaffold." 66 Breach'-es, holes made by cannon in fortifications. Breech'-es (pronounced britches), trousers. Nav'-ies, fleets of ships. Nav'-vies, workmen for canals, rail ways, roads. Pa'-geants, solemn triumphal processions. Tro'-phies, of victory. Un-de-gen'-er-ate, not fallen off from virtues of ancestors. Wreaths, garlands of leaves or flowers. ABOUT THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS: A CONVERSATION. Prudence. You seem out of sorts to-day, Matilda. What is the matter? Matilda. I am so tired of this constant learning. Arithmetic as far as fractions, decimals, and the rule of three, grammar, geography, history, repetition, domestic economy, and science, forsooth,-that is what we have before us, besides the useful subjects. Prudence. And what do you call "the useful subjects"? Matilda. Reading, writing, a little arithmetic, and sewing, with the knowledge of one's duty, of course, and of what the Bible tells us that ought to be enough for girls in our station of life. it. Prudence. You seem to have been thinking about Matilda. I have been thinking a great deal about it, and I find myself in this fix, or dilemma, if you like either all this superfluous learning runs off the memory and is mere waste of time, or else it lifts us above our station and unfits us for the duties of life. |