4.

5.

The motions of his mind are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted.

SHAKESPEARE.

He was not of an age, but for all time!
And all the Muses still were in their prime,
When, like Apollo, he came forth to warm
Our ears, or like a Mercury to charm!
Nature herself was proud of his designs,
And joyed to wear the dressing of his lines!
From "To the Memory of Shakespeare." - BEN JONSON.
Like Dian's kiss, unasked, unsought,
Love gives itself, but is not bought.

-LONGFELLOW.

6. She, whom once the semblance of a scar Appall'd, an owlet's larum chill'd with dread, Now views the column-scattering bay'net jar, The falchion flash, and o'er the yet warm dead Stalks with Minerva's step where Mars might quake to tread.

7. Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens

8.

- BYRON.

That one day bloomed, and fruitful were the next.

O Proserpina,
For the flowers now, that, frighted, thou lett'st fall
From Dis's wagon! golden daffodils,

That come before the swallow dares, and take

The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes
Or Cytherea's breath.

9.

Her sunny locks

Hang on her temples like a golden fleece.

10.

And the Naiad-like lily of the vale,

SHAKESPEARE.

Whom youth makes so fair, and passion so pale,
That the light of its tremulous bells is seen
Through their pavilions of tender green.

-SHELLEY.

11.

Phoebus, arise!

And paint the sable skies

With azure, white, and red:

Rouse Memnon's mother from her Tithon's bed

That she may thy career with roses spread.

Now, Flora, deck thyself in fairest guise:
If that ye winds would hear

A voice surpassing far Amphion's lyre,
Your furious chilling stay;

Let Zephyr only breathe,
And with her tresses play.

*

- DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN.

SECTION XXXIX

Material from Literature

Allusions to classic stories and poems are so common that every one who reads must be familiar with many of them. The characters and incidents of fables, and of fairy and folk-lore tales are frequently referred to in everyday speech as well as in literature. The references to the "Fox and the Grapes," the "Ant and the Grasshopper," the "Arab and the Camel," "Cinderella," "Little Red Riding Hood,” and other fables and fairy stories are universally understood; and hence their use often adds clearness and vigor to the expression of thought.

Many characters that have been created in fiction so perfectly represent characteristics of certain types of character that they are regarded as distinct types, and thus are often referred to as such by those who are familiar with them. Romeo, Benedict, Fagan, Micawber, are examples of such character-types, and the application of the name of one of these to a person suggests his resemblance to the person named. For example, if we hear it said that a

certain man has become a "Benedict," we readily understand the reference, for it recalls the scoffing bachelor of Shakespeare's imagination, who became "Benedict the married man."

A number of words in common use had their origin in the names of persons and places that possess some characteristic in a marked degree. Thus we hear of a" Utopian idea," a "Quixotic undertaking." As you read literature, you will gradually make the acquaintance of these typical characters and places; but it is always best to find out something about all characters and incidents referred to, even though you may not at the time be able to read the original account. You will find a brief explanation of them and their place in literature in the explanatory notes on names of fiction, which all unabridged dictionaries contain; and these you should always consult when you are not familiar with the character to whom reference is made.

Exercises

I. Explain the following expressions, and use each in a

sentence:

"Pickwickian," a "Rip Van Winkle sleep," a "Bluebeard," an "Old man of the sea," the "Slough of despond,' Rowland for an Oliver," Open Sesame."

a

99.66

II. Select and explain the allusions to characters and incidents in the following:

1. Here is Poe with his raven, like Barnaby Rudge,

Three fifths of him reason, and two fifths of him fudge. - JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

2. The speaker was interesting, but his views were altogether Eutopian.

3. Addison showed the scoffers that the same gold which, burnished and polished, gives luster to the Æneid

T

and the odes of Horace, is mingled with the rude gross of Chevy Chase.

4. The mirth of Swift is the mirth of Mephistopheles; the mirth of Voltaire is the mirth of Puck. If, as Soame Jenyns oddly imagined, a portion of the happiness of Seraphim and just men made perfect be derived from an exquisite perception of the ludicrous, their mirth must surely be none other than the mirth of Addison; a mirth consistent with tender compassion for all that is frail, and with profound reverence for all that is sublime.

5. The vibrations of the judge's voice now reached the old gentlewoman in the parlor, where she sat with face averted waiting on her brother's slumber. She now issued forth, as would appear, to defend the entrance, looking, we must needs say, amazing like the dragon, which, in fairy tales, is wont to be the guardian over an enchanted beauty.

6. "Come, come, make haste! or he will start up, like Giant Despair in pursuit of Christian and Hopeful, and catch us yet!" HAWTHORNE.

7. A bound volume has a charm in my eyes similar to what scraps of manuscript possess for the good Mussulman: he imagines that those wind-wafted records are perhaps hallowed by some sacred verse, and that every new book or antique one may contain the "Open Sesame!" - the spell to disclose treasures hidden in some unexpected cave of Truth.

8. In one respect at least the place seemed like the Enchanted Ground through which the pilgrim traveled on his way to the Celestial City, for the idlers, one and all, felt a drowsy influence falling upon them, and here and there could be seen those who had already fallen asleep in their seats or upon the grass. — CARey.

9. All along the swamp-edge in the rain I go;

All about my head, thou the loosened locks doth blow;
Like the German goose-girl in the fairy tale,

I watch across the shining pond my flocks of ducks
that sail.

- CELIA THAXTER.

10. Although the heartbroken father had long ago come to regard his search as hopeless, yet, like the faithful maiden who sought her lost lover through the winters and summers of many a long year, he continued to wander from city to city where chance rumors of his son's presence directed him.

11. I do not agree with much modern criticism, in greatly preferring the Inferno to the two other parts of the Divina Commedia. Such preference belongs, I imagine, to our general Byronism of taste, and is like to be a transient feeling. - CAREY.

SECTION XL

Material from History

Figurative language suggested by well-known historical characters and events is often used. A number of these expressions have become. so common, that, like many of those taken from the Bible and mythology, they have at length come to have accepted meanings of their own, and are used by persons who may not know of the characters and events to which they refer. Doubtless many who use the words "plebeian," and "patrician" in their correct sense do not know that these words had their origin in the names of the two classes of society in early Rome, the Patricians who belonged to the noble families and had the full right of citizenship, and the Plebeians, the common people, who were not allowed to vote. The word "crusade" is often heard, and it has a deeper meaning for us if we have read of the famous crusades or expeditions. made by the kings and warriors of Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to rescue Jerusalem and the tomb of our Saviour from the Turks.

The language of literature contains many references to