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NOTES AND QUESTIONS

Biography. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was the greatest English poet, and was one of the greatest poets the world has ever known. He wrote for all times and all peoples. He was born at Stratford-on-Avon, where fifty-two years later he died. At the age of twenty-two he removed to London, where for twenty years he wrote poems and plays, was an actor, and later a shareholder in the theater. The last six years of his life he spent quietly at Stratford.

This song is from the comedy As You Like It, a story of the adventures of a group of courtiers and rustics in the forest of Arden. A charming element in Shakespeare's romantic comedies is the introduction of songpoems or lyrics. All the writers of those days, the days of Good Queen Bess, wrote songs. England was "a nest of singing birds." They were real songs, too, filled with joy and musical language, and all the people sang them to the accompaniment of the quaint musical instruments of the time. And all the people took part in games and pageants in "Merrie England," and listened to the strange tales of seafarers, and went to the playhouse to see Shakespeare's As You Like It.

Discussion. 1. Why is the thought of green holly appropriate in connection with the winter wind? 2. What feeling does ingratitude arouse? 3. Why does the poet say the "tooth" of the wind is not so keen as man's ingratitude? 4. What change of feeling do you notice after line 6? 5. What do you think caused the change? 6. In the second stanza read lines that show the poet did not really think that "life is most jolly." 7. Which lines explain the poet's distrust of friendship? 8. Which word in stanza 1 is explained by line 3 of stanza 2? 9. Find a word in stanza 1 that gives the same thought as the second line of the second stanza. 10. Give the meaning of "warp" in stanza 2 (an old Saxon proverb said, "Winter shall warp water").

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10

Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tu-whit;

Tu-who-a merry note,

While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

When all aloud the wind doth blow,

And coughing drowns the parson's saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,

And Marian's nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tu-whit;

Tu-who-a merry note,

While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

For Biography, see page 85.

This is the second part of a song of four stanzas, found in the comedy Love's Labor's Lost. The first two stanzas are descriptive of spring, and introduce the song of the cuckoo. The last two stanzas are given here.

Discussion. 1. Do these lines describe life in the city or in the country? 2. What does the use of names, Dick, Tom, Joan, and Marian, add to the poem? 3. For what use were logs brought into the hall? 4. Can you see fitness in the use of the word "greasy"? 5. What is the song of the owl? 6. Explain the second line of stanza 2. 7. Why is the owl called "staring"?

blows his nail, 85, 2

ways be foul, 85, 5

staring owl, 86, 1

Phrases

keel the pot, 86, 4
parson's saw, 86,

brooding in the snow, 86, 7

PART II

ADVENTURES OLD AND NEW

"Some say that the age of chivalry is past. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth, or a man or woman left to say, 'I will redress that wrong or spend my life in the attempt.” -Charles Kingsley.

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Copyright by Edwin A. Abbey (from a Copley Print, copyright by Curtis & Cameron, Boston)

THE ROUND TABLE OF KING ARTHUR

(Galahad is taking his place next to Sir Lancelot, while King Arthur rises to receive the new knight)

ADVENTURES OLD AND NEW

INTRODUCTION

Along with our interest in the world of animals and the plant world and the seasons, we are curious to know about people. A good deal of our conversation is about what others say or do. And when we say of a man, "He does things," we pay him the highest possible compliment.

Ever since man came on the earth he has been "doing things." Centuries ago, a man found out how to make fire by striking pieces of flint together. Then other men discovered strange. things that might be done by means of the mysterious flame that sprang up. Another man ventured over the hill or mountain out into the unknown world beyond, or far across the blue water that seemed to reach to the end of the world. And when the traveler returned, men listened eagerly to his stories. So from earliest days men who ventured beyond the beaten track and did things their fellows were too lazy or too timid to think of doing have been interesting to those who stayed at home. In such ways ships were built to carry voyagers to strange places. In such ways commerce sprang up, for these adventurers brought back new foods and new objects, and knowledge of men who lived in strange places. In such ways islands and continents were discovered and settled, and men made war for the possession of rich territories, and life for all men became more varied and interesting through the adventures of the daring ones. For life is full of zest and interest only in proportion as the spirit of adventure enters into it.

The men in former times who stood out above their fellows because of their deeds were the subjects of song and story. Minstrels and poets in all times have put into words the wonder and admiration of the people for the doer of great deeds. Some stories of this kind you will read in the pages that follow-just a few of the thousands of stories of adventure that men have

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