OXFORD:

BY T. COMBE, M.A., E. B. GARDNER, AND E. PICKARD HALL,

PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.

TAYLORIAN SCHOLARSHIP AND EXHIBITION.

MICHAELMAS TERM, 1870.

I.

Thursday, Nov. 10, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

1. Translate into German :

Those who know how many volumes have been written on the poems of Homer and Virgil will easily pardon the length of my discourse upon Milton. The Paradise Lost is looked upon by the best judges as the greatest production, or at least the noblest work of genius, in our language, and therefore deserves to be set before an English reader in its full beauty. For this reason, though I have endeavoured to give a general idea of its graces and imperfections in my first six papers, I thought myself obliged to bestow one upon every book in particular. The first three books I have already dispatched, and am now entering upon the fourth. I need not acquaint my reader that there are multitudes of beauties in this great author, especially in the descriptive parts of this poem, which I have not touched upon; it being my intention to point out those only which appear to be the most exquisite, or those which are not so obvious to ordinary readers. Every one that has read the critics who have written upon the Odyssey, the Iliad, and the Æneid, knows very well, that though they agree in their opinions of the great beauties in those poems, they have nevertheless each of them discovered several master-strokes, which have escaped the observation of the rest. In the same manner, I question not but any writer who shall treat of this subject after me, may find several beauties in Milton which I have not taken notice of. I must likewise observe, that as the greatest masters of critical learning differ among one another as to some particular points in an epic poem, I have not bound

myself scrupulously to the rules which any of them have laid down upon that art, but have taken the liberty sometimes to join with one, and sometimes with another, and sometimes to differ from all of them, when I have thought that the reason of the thing was on my side.

We may conclude the beauties of the fourth book under three heads. In the first are those pictures of still-life, which we meet with in the description of Eden, Paradise, Adam's Bower, &c. In the next are the machines, which comprehend the speeches and behaviour of the good and bad angels. In the last is the conduct of Adam and Eve, who are the principal actors in the poem.

In the description of Paradise, the poet has observed Aristotle's rule of lavishing all the ornaments of diction on the weak inactive parts of the fable which are not supported by the beauty of sentiments and characters. Accordingly the reader may observe, that the expressions are more florid and elaborate in these descriptions, than in most other parts of the poem. I must further add, that though the drawings of gardens, rivers, rainbows, and the like dead pieces of nature, are justly censured in an heroic poem, when they run out into an unnecessary length-the description of Paradise would have been faulty, had not the poet been very particular in it, not only as it is the scene of the principal action, but as it is requisite to give us an idea of that happiness from which our first parents fell. The plan of it is wonderfully beautiful, and formed upon the short sketch which we have of it in holy writ. Milton's exuberance of imagination has poured forth such a redundancy of ornaments on this seat of happiness and innocence, that it would be endless to point out each particular.

I must not quit this head without further observing, that there is scarce a speech of Adam or Eve in the whole poem, wherein the sentiments and allusions are not taken from this their delightful habitation. The reader, during their whole course of action, always finds himself in the walks of Paradise. In short, as the critics have remarked, that in those poems wherein shepherds are the actors, the thoughts ought always to take a tincture from the woods, fields, and rivers; so we may observe that our first parents seldom lose sight of their happy station in anything they speak or do; and if the reader will give me leave to use the expression, that their thoughts are always 'paradisaical.'

2. Translate the following verses either into German Elegiacs or the metre of the original.

When by my solitary hearth I sit

And hateful thoughts enwrap my soul in gloom;
When no fair dreams before my mind's eye flit,
And the bare heath of life presents no bloom;
Sweet hope! ethereal balm upon me shed,
And wave thy silver pinions o'er my head.

Whene'er I wander, at the fall of night,

Where woven boughs shut out the moon's bright ray,
Should sad Despondency my musings fright,
And frown, to drive fair Cheerfulness away,

Peep with the moonbeams through the leafy roof,
And keep that fiend Despondence far aloof.

Questions on the History of German Literature.

1. Mention the political and religious events which prepared the Swabian Period. Who were the fosterers of the poetry of that period?

2. Did the epic poets of that period draw their topics from ancient German sources? Who are the principal poets? What are the subjects of the poems on the Sant Gral?

3. What do you know of Walther von der Vogelweide? 4. The influence exercised by Gottsched as a reformer in German literature.

5. Why has Wieland never become so popular as the other great poets of the eighteenth century?

6. Was Lessing a poet in the truest sense of the word?

7. Why did the attempts of German poets to create a national epic poem meet with little success? Name the principal Epics written in the eighteenth century, and classify them.

8. Of late years, there has been a tendency in Germany to place Schiller higher than Goethe. What are the causes of this preference?

9. What do you know of the Göttinger Dichterbund?

10. Who are the principal representatives of the Romantische Schule, and what aims did they pursue in literature? Have they exercised a lasting influence on the poetry of the present century?

III.

Friday, Nov. 11, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

Translate into English.

Für Ein Ding, sage ich, hat Homer gemeiniglich nur Einen Zug. Ein Schiff ist ihm bald das schwarze Schiff, bald das hohle Schiff, bald das schnelle Schiff, höchstens das wohlberuderte schwarze Schiff. Weiter läßt er sich in die Mahlerey des Schiffes nicht ein. Aber wohl das Schiffen, das Abfahren, das Anlanden des Schiffes, macht er zu einem ausführlichen Gemälde, zu einem Gemählde, aus welchem der Mahler fünf, sechs besondere Gemählde machen müßte, wenn er es ganz auf seine Leinwand bringen wollte.

Zwingen den Homer ja besondere Umstände, unsern Blick auf einen einzeln körperlichen Gegenstand länger zu heften: so wird dem ohngeachtet kein Gemählde daraus, dem der Mahler mit dem Pinsel folgen könnte; sondern er weiß durch unzählige Kunstgriffe diesen einzelnen Gegenstand in eine Folge von Augenblicken zu sehen, in deren jedem er anders erscheinet, und in deren leztem ihn der Mahler erwarten muß, um uns entstanden zu zeigen, was wir bey dem Dichter entstehen sehn. 3. E. Will Homer uns den Wagen der Juno sehen lassen, so muß ihn Hebe vor unsern Augen Stück vor Stück zusammen seßen. Wir sehen die Räder, die Achsen, den Sig, die Deichsel und Riemen und Stränge, nicht sowohl wie es beysammen ist, als wie es unter den Händen der Hebe zusammen kömmt. Auf die Räder allein verwendet der Dichter mehr als einen Zug, und weiset uns die ehernen acht Speichen, die goldenen Felgen, die Schienen von Erzt, die silberne Nabe, alles insbesondere. Man sollte sagen: da der Räder mehr als eines war, so mußte in der Beschreibung eben so viel Zeit mehr auf sie gehen, als ihre besondere Anlegung deren in der Natur selbst mehr erforderte.

Will uns Homer zeigen, wie Agamemnon bekleidet gewesen, so muß sich der König vor unsern Augen seine völlige Kleidung