Alquin 18th century 54-63

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 6

Dear students, 

This LessonUp contains background information and the answers to the questions are provided. 

Please make sure you put some serious  effort into the note-making exercise about the very useful lecture of the famous poem "Elegy written in a country churchyard". 

Goodluck!

• Playwright
  
• Theatrical Licensing Act (too many plays criticised or             mocked the govenment)

• Became a barrister and a political jouralist
  
• Married the love of his life: Charlotte Cradock (Sophia Western in Tom Jones)
  
• Tom Jones
  
• “Nobody’s perfect”: describing human traits with humour and irony
  

Henry Fielding (1707 – 1754)

• Mock-epic style
  
• A foundling, raised by Squire Allworthy
  
• Sophia Weston
  
• Blifil
  
• Adventures on his way to London (and many affairs, even with his own mother….who turned out not to be his mother after all)
  
• Almost hanged
  
• Turned out to be Squire Allworthy’s nephew, and thus true heir.
  

Tom Jones (1749)

Fielding Answers to the assignments on Tom Jones

• 1a He promises to tell the truth.
  
• b It is not in Tom Jones’ favour because it means he will make a less favourable first impression than one might expect of the book’s leading character.

• 2 It is not advisable to take the narrator’s word too seriously, as his commentary is highly ironic. While Tom Jones comes across as a born thief, it transpires that he actually stole food to feed a poor family (final line of the first excerpt).
  

• 3 According to the eighteenth century view of the ideal marriage, the woman was in charge of the home, while the man took care of business outside. There was therefore no question of equality between the sexes. Squire Western shows his wife no respect whatsoever, however, treating her more like a servant, ‘a faithful upper Servant’, than an equal as his spouse.
  

4 The introduction to the article on Sir Roger de Coverley explains the following about this legendary character and the circle in which he moves: In The Spectator, Addison & Steele created a fictitious group of characters, who represented the opinions of the various social classes at the time: people from the world of trade (Sir Andrew Freeport), the army (Captain Sentry), city life (Will Honeycomb), the church and the landed gentry (Sir Roger de Coverley). A so-called objective outsider, Mr Spectator, passed their opinions on to the readers, whilst sometimes also commenting upon them. […] The fictitious character from the newspaper who proved by far the most popular among readers was Sir Roger de Coverley, invented by Steele and perfected by Addison. This squire, an epigone of the Tories, the ruling class at the time, made his party ridiculous by presenting outdated views, wearing old-fashioned clothes (dating from the 17th century!) and uttering prejudiced opinions. As a lay justice, he knew only about game law; other laws did not interest him at all. However, he remained amiable regardless of the circumstances.

Squire Western was more or less cast in the mould of Sir Roger de Coverley, although Fielding did apply far more irony and humour.

Fielding Answers to the assignments on Tom Jones

5 This depends very much on the social status of the reader in question! People from Squire Western’s own class considered him amusing and sympathetic. However, to all the poor who had dealings with Western, he must have appeared an intolerant, quick-tempered and an obstinate despot.

Fielding Answer to in-depth assignment on Tom Jones

1a This novel portrays a large number of characters from the various social classes and occupations.

b It provides us with an accurate impression of English society at the time when Fielding wrote his novels.

c Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 to 1400). The Canterbury Tales.

Fielding Answer to Internet assignment on Tom Jones

1 The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

2a 18 b 6

c Part 1 covers a period of twenty years; parts 2 and 3 just 38 days (journey to London and Tom’s adventures there).

• 13 poems 
• (in English, next to some in Latin and Greek)
  
• Unhappy childhood
  
• Interested in literature
  
• Grand Tour (with Walpole)
  
• Started writing poetry in English after his friend Richard West died.
  
• Subjects: nature, countryside and human condition (therefore forerunner for The Romantic Movement)
  
• Not: heroic couplets or satires
  

Thomas Gray (1716 – 1771)

POETRY: Thomas Gray

The ideas behind Early Romantic poetry were a reaction against the rules and regulations of the Neo-Classicism of the eighteenth century. The Neo-Classicists rejected originality; Early Romantic poets, on the other hand, believed in individualism, imagination and emotion.  Thomas Gray was one of their precursors [=voorlopers]. He is remembered for one poem: "Elegy Written In a Country Churchyard" (1751). It reflects the growing interest in nature, solitude and the common man. Its theme is Death and the vanity of human life and achievements. It's a melancholic poem written by a man who suffered from melancholia.

• Took him almost 10 years to write!
  
• Old Churchyard at Stoke Poges (where he and his mother would be buried later)
  
• Elegy: mourning the death of someone. In this case the ordinary village people.
  

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

• 32 stanzas; 
• quatrain structure 
• a-b-a-b- rhyme scheme 
• ten syllables per line 
• = heroic quatrain

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

Next a lecture about this poem. 

Improve your knowledge about the poem as well as your note-making skills. 

-> Watch and make notes. 

-> after watching upload a picture of your notes into the LessonUp. 

Your notes should at least mention 5 facts about the poem. 

Here upload your notes about the poem.

ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD

1     The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

2     The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,

                3     The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,

         4      And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

De avondklok slaat het laatste uur van de dag,

De loeiende koeien lopen langzaam over het veld,

de ploeger loopt vermoeid naar huis,

en laat de wereld in duisternis en voor mij.

                      5    Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,

6    And all the air a solemn stillness holds, 

                   7     Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,

     8     And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds;

Nu vervaagt het glimm'rend landschap voor de ogen,

en heel de lucht is plechtig stil,

behalve waar de kever zoemt door de lucht,

en waar hun bellen de verre kuddes in slaap wiegt.

9   Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower

   10    The moping owl does to the moon complain

    11    Of such, as wandering near her secret bower,

12    Molest her ancient solitary reign.

9   Behalve dat van verre klimop-bedekte toren

   10    De boze uil zich bij de maan beklaagt

    11    Over hen, die haar beschutte slaapplek te dicht naderen,

12    En haar aloude, eenzame recht verstoren.

13  Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,

14  Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,

15  Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,

16  The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

Answers to the assignments on Elegy Written in a Churchyard

• 1 An atmosphere of tranquillity, contemplation and melancholy
  
• 2a Slow, languid b Due to their numerous drawn-out sounds and syllables.
  
• 3 Alliteration. Line 3 contains P and W sounds, which conjure up images of the ploughman stumbling home again.
  
• 4 The contours of the surrounding countryside gradually disappear.
  
• 5a Line 1: the curfew, Line 2: the lowing cattle, Line 7: the buzz of beetles, Line 8: the bells on (the necks of) the sheep Line 10: the owl
• b Despite all these sounds, there is nevertheless a sense of peace and tranquillity.
  
• c Line 6: And all the air a solemn stillness holds
  

Answers to the assignments on Elegy Written in a Churchyard

• 6 About people coming too close to her nest
  
• 7 Dilapidated and neglected (line 14): there are no plaques or gravestones, only dilapidated mounds (where the grass rises slightly)
  
• 8 Sleep (line 16)
  
• 9 1 Morn (line 17) as opposed to the description of the evening (stanzas 1 to 4 and line 1 in particular)
  
• 2 The tempo rises in stanzas 5 to 7
  
• 3 Different choice of words in stanzas 5 to 7. More positive words (jocund, incense-breathing, etc.) 4 They conjure up a livelier, active impression
  

Answers to the assignments on Elegy Written in a Churchyard

• 10a The fresh morning breeze, the swallows’ call, the cock and the horn of the post chaise b Lowly bed refers to the grave, in contrast to the bed in which they used to sleep 
• 11 Line 3 describes the farmer as someone who is worn out, staggering homeward.
  
• The emphasis of lines 23/24 is placed on a happy and affectionate homecoming. While the farmer in this case may also be worn out, his homecoming is a pleasurable event. The farmer in lines 23/24 is at least not very old, as his children are still small. 

• 12a The hard work in the fields and woods
  
• b The strength and the cheerfulness with which the work was carried out (jocund and sturdy)
  

• 13a Ambition, Grandeur, These, Memory, Honour, Flattery, Knowledge, Penury b Personification
  
• c Abstract words are presented as though they were people
  

Answers to the assignments on Elegy Written in a Churchyard

• 14 1 (During a period of industrialisation) there are plenty of ambitious people willing to ridicule the simple farmer’s hard work
  
• 2 Many people of higher rank (aristocracy and/or politicians) look down upon the simple lives of the lower classes; lives which are both very short and devoid of future prospects. Gray cautions these two categories change their tune.
• 15 The lesson to be learned from lines 33 to 36 is that everyone – whether they are of noble blood, hold a high position within society, are extremely beautiful, or terribly rich – is eventually destined to die.
  
• 16a Alliteration (pomp/power). The P sound expresses a sense of contempt.
  
• b e’er / th’inevitable. Elision is used to lose a syllable: ever = two syllables, e’er = 1 syllable. Gray does so in order to retain ten syllables per line.
  
• 17a The farmers, villagers b A capital letter ‘raises’ a word as it were, making it more significant.
  
• 18 Their (i.e. the villagers’) final resting places are not marked by impressive memorials
  
• 19 Large, magnificent cathedrals
  

Answers to the assignments on Elegy Written in a Churchyard

• 20a A rhetorical question is one to which the answer is already evident.
• b No! Neither an urn bearing one’s life story, nor a lifelike bust can bring a body back to life. Neither can honourable words or flattery for that matter.
  
• c To indicate that such questions are superfluous (or perhaps even foolish).
  

• 21 Priests, the clergy

• 22 A brilliant, highly talented person might be buried at this spot.
  

• 23 A lack of education and poverty
  

• 24 Because no-one can ever see or smell such beautiful things. Their splendour is therefore pointless.
  

Answers to the assignments on Elegy Written in a Churchyard

• 25 The use of the adjective ‘little’ together with ‘tyrant’ indicates that the person in question is a minor official; perhaps someone such as a mayor, tax-collector or policeman.

• 26 Mute in this case implies that he has never had anything published.
  

• 27a Positive
  
• b Gray is emphasising that the isolated nature of the villagers’ lives (far from the major cities) has always been the same, and that they have never endeavoured to change them.
  

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