English Study Buddy

1. Dr. Johnson argued that Samson Agonistes had a beginning and an end, but no middle. Discuss this criticism, referring to the play in detail.

2. In what ways does Milton engage our sympathy for Samson in Samson Agonistes?

3. Discuss Milton’s treatment of temptation in Samson Agonistes.

4. Does Samson Agonistes justify Milton’s claim that it is “Of that Sort of Dramatic Poem which is Called Tragedy”?

5. Do you agree that the interest of-the dramatic interactions between Samson and other characters more than compensates for the play’s lack of physical action?

6. “Samson’s fate is inevitable, yet he is free to determine his own state of mind and soul.” How important is this to the play Samson Agonistes?

7. In Samson Agonistes, how does Milton seek to establish Samson’s worthiness as a tragic hero?

8. “Samson Agonistes is seriously weakened by the lack of a firmly developed Plot.” Discuss.

1. How does Marlowe present Queen Isabella and her relationship with Edward?

2. Look again at the beginning of the play and study carefully Gaveston’s first soliloquy and his attitude to the three poor men who enter at line 23 and depart at line 50. Then look at his second soliloquy ending at line 73. How do the language and imagery of these soliloquies and the way he deals with the three poor men reveal his character, and prepare the audience for his relationship with Edward in the play?

3. Can we find anything heroic in the character of Edward II?

4. Why would you consider Edward II to be a tragedy?

A. Re-read Act 1, Scene 1, lines 70-90 (Volpone); lines 1-33 (Mosca) and Act 4, Scene 1, lines 100-126 (Sir Politique Would-Bee). What is striking about Johnson’s use of language to portray character in these passages?

B. Look again at the Prologue. How far do you agree with the assertion that

 ”All gall and copperas from his ink he draineth
Only a little salt remaineth”

seriously understates the harshness of Jonson’s attack on the wide range of human vices?  You will also need to refer to other evidence from the play.

A. “Volpone,” said Coleridge, ” shows how impossible it is to keep up any pleasurable interest in a tale in which there is no goodness of heart in any of the prominent characters.”  Would you agree?

B. Discuss the view that Volpone is nearer tragedy than comedy.

C. “Jonson’s world, though complete in itself, is not a large one. You cannot live in it for long at a time. In a sense its very completeness is against it.  Nothing breaks through from the hidden world of longing or suffering.”  Does this comment reflect your experience of Volpone?

D. In Volpone, the villains are energetic and captivating while the virtuous characters are few and unconvincing.  How, then, does Jonson preserve the moral balance of the play?

A. Write a close critical commentary on the language and tone of this speech, showing its significance at this point in the play:

Prospero:  Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves;
And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid
Weak masters though ye be - I have bedimm’d
The noontide sun, call’d forth the mutinous winds,
And ‘twixt the green sea and the azur’d vault
Set roaring war. To the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove’s stout oak
With his own bolt; the strong-bas’d promontory
Have I made shake, and by the spurs pluck’d up
The pine and cedar. Graves at my command
Have wak’d their sleepers, op’d, and let ‘em forth,
By my so potent art. But this rough magic
I here abjure; and, when I have requir’d
Some heavenly music - which even now I do
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound I’ll drown my book.
[Here enters ARIEL before; then ALONSO, with a frantic gesture, attended by GONZALO; SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO in like manner, attended by ADRIAN and FRANCISCO. They all enter the circle which Prospero had made, and there stand charm’d; which Prospero observing, speaks.]
A solemn air, and the best comforter
To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains,
Now useless, boil’d within thy skull! There stand,
For you are spell-stopp’d.
Act V, Scene 1, lines 33-61

A. In The Tempest, Shakespeare penetrates deep into the motives which animate human behavior.” Discuss.

B. How do the play’s striking visual and musical effects contribute to its overall meaning?

C. Consider the dramatic effectiveness of Shakespeare’s use of the supernatural in The Tempest.

D. A simple tale for sophisticated tastes.” In what ways is The Tempest more than “a simple tale”?

E. Now my charms are all o’erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint. . .

To what extent is The Tempest about human frailty and susceptibility?

A. Compare and contrast the roles of Ariel and Caliban in the play.

B. In what ways, and how successfully, does Shakespeare blend comedy, magic and the spectacular with serious concerns in this play?

C. “Prospero may be the best that humanity can offer in the play but he is by no means an ideal figure.”  Do you agree with this assessment?

D. Discuss the view that The Tempest is an imaginary tale about real human problems.

E. At one point in the play Caliban exclaims, “This island’s mine”. Discuss the symbolic significance of the struggle for control of the island in The Tempest.

1. Write about the way Shakespeare presents King Henry, as a king and as a leader. You should consider some or all of the following:

A. How he responds to important events

B. How he appears and speaks in public

C. How he speaks to individual people

D. His private feelings.

2. Answer both parts of the question. You should spend half your time on part B.

A. Read King Henry’s speech before the Battle of Agincourt, near the start of Act Four, Scene 3, which begins:

What’s he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmorland? No, my fair cousin;

How does Henry inspire his troops in this speech?

B. How do other characters (French and English) compare with Henry in their ideas of honor and their behavior in the play as a whole?

A. “Shakespeare has an unlikely story to tell, and in its unlikelihood lies not only its charm, but largely its very being; nevertheless it has deep inner truths.” Discuss.

B. In what way can this play be categorized as a romance?

C. What reasons would you give as to why this particular Shakespearean play should be studied by A-level students.

Cytherea,
How bravely thou becomest thy bed! fresh lily!
And whiter than the sheets! That I might touch!
But kiss; one kiss! Rubies unparagon’d,
How dearly they do’t! ‘Tis her breathing that
Perfumes the chamber thus: the flame o’ the taper
Bows toward her, and would under-peep her lids
To see the enclosed lights, now canopied
Under these windows, white and azure, laced
With blue of heaven’s own tinct. But my design,
To note the chamber: I will write all down:
Such and such pictures; there the window, such
The adornment of her bed; the arras, figures,
Why, such and such; and the contents o’ the story
Ah, but some natural notes about her body
Above ten thousand meaner moveables
Would testify, to enrich mine inventory.
O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her!
And be her sense but as a monument,
Thus in a chapel Iying! Come off, come off:
[Taking off her bracelet.]
As slippery as the Gordian knot was hard!
‘Tis mine; and this will witness outwardly,
As strongly as the conscience does within,
To the madding of her lord. On her left breast
A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops
I’ the bottom of a cowslip: here’s a voucher,
Stronger than ever law could make: this secret
Will force him think I have pick’d the lock and ta’en
The treasure of her honour.

A. Explain briefly how this situation arose.
B. Discuss the imagery in lines 6-10 (”the flame o’ the taper…heaven’s own tinct”).
C. Explain the reference to the Gordian knot (line 21).
D. What does this speech reveal of the character of the speaker?
E. Consider the impact that the episode would have on an audience.