55. DEATH OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. SHE rejected all consolation; she even refused food1 [and sustenance]; and throwing herself on the floor she remained sullen and immoveable, feeding her thoughts on her afflictions, and declaring life and existence an3 insufferable burden to her. Few words she uttered, and they were all expressive of some inward grief, which she cared not to reveal; but5 sighs and groans were the chief vent which she gave to her despondency, and which, though they discovered her sorrows, were never able to ease or assuage them. Ten days and nights she lay upon the carpet, leaning on cushions which her maids brought her; and her physicians could not persuade her to allow herself to be put to bed, much less to make trial of any remedies which they prescribed for her. Her anxious mind at last had so long preyed on her frail body that her end was visibly approaching; and the Council [being] assembled, sent the keeper, admiral, and secretary, to know her will with regard to her successor. She answered with [a] faint voice, that as she had held a regal sceptre, she desired no other than a royal successor. Cecil requestings her to explain herself more particularly, she subjoined that she would have a king to succeed her ;9 and who should that be but her nearest kinsman, the King of Scots ? Being 10 then advised by the Archbishop of Canterbury to fix her thoughts upon God, she replied that she did so, nor did her mind in the least wander from him. Her11 voice soon after left her; her senses failed, she 1 Say the most necessary food. : 2 Say: thought exclusively of (an) her affliction and declared. 3 Say: for a for her insufferable burden. 4 Say these expressed all an inward grief. : 5 Say: but chiefly in sighs and groans she gave vent to her despondency, and though these discovered her sorrows, so could they yet not ease or assuage them. 6 Translate zu Bette bringen. ? Say: commander of the fleet and secretary to her, in order to know, etc. 8 Say: When Cecil requested her. 9 Translate zum Nachfolger. 10 Say: When then (darauf) the Archbishop of Canterbury advised her (Dat.). 11 Say: Soon after she lost the voice. fell into a lethargic slumber, which continued some hours, 12 and she expired gently, without further struggle or convulsion; in the seventieth year of her age and forty-fifth of her reign. DAVID HUME. 12 See 19, 1. 56. THE BLIND BOY. O SAY ! what1 is that thing called light What are the blessings of the sight? 4 O tell your poor blind boy! You talk of wond'rous things you see, I feel him warm, but how can he With heavy sighs I often hear Then let not, what I cannot have, 1 Translate wie beschaffen ist das Ding. 3 See 36, 8. 5 Say that he is warm. : COLLEY CIBBER. 2 Say: can. 4 See 18, 7. "Say my days or nights. 7 Translate für immer wach bleiben, so wäre es für mich. 8 Translate: Darum erlaubet nicht, daß das was, etc. 9 The peace of my mind. 57. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. ABOUT two hours before midnight, Columbus, standing1 on the forecastle, observed a light at a distance, and privately pointed it out to Pedro Gultierez, a page of the Queen's wardrobe. Gultierez perceived it, and calling [to] Salcedo, comptroller-of[the]-fleet, all three saw it in motion, as if it were carried from place to place.2 A little after midnight, the joyful sound of Land land!' was heard from the Pinta, which kept always ahead of the other ships. But having been so often deceived by fallacious appearances, every man was now become slow of belief, and waited in all the anguish of uncertainty and impatience for return of day. As soon as morning dawned, all doubts and fears were dispelled. From every ship an island was seen about two leagues to the north, whose flat and verdant fields, well stored with wood, and watered with many rivulets, presented the aspect of a delightful country. The crew of the Pinta instantly began the Te Deum, as [a] hymn-of-thanksgiving to God, and were joined by those of the other ships with tears of joy and transports of congratulation. This office-of-gratitude to heaven was followed by an act of justice to their commander. They threw themselves at the feet of Columbus with feelings of self-condemnation, mingled with reverence. They implored him to pardon their ignorance, incredulity, and insolence, which had created him so much unnecessary disquiet, and had so often obstructed the prosecution of his well-concerted plan and passing,10 in the warmth of their admiration, from one extreme 5 1 Use a Relative Clause. 3 Say: as they had been. : 2 Say from one spot to the other. 7 Translate: die Mannschaften der anderen Schiffe stimmten, Freudenthränen weinend und sich gegenseitig mit Begeisterung beglückwünschend, ein. 8 Say To this... followed an act. 9 Translate: Columbus zu Füßen. 10 Say: whilst they passed. to another, they now pronounced the man11 whom they had so lately reviled and threatened, to be [a person] inspired by Heaven with 12 sagacity and fortitude more than human in order to accomplish a design 13 [so] far beyond the ideas and conception of former ages.-WILLIAM ROBERTSON. 11 Say that the man. . . was. : 12 Say: with superhuman sagacity. 13 Say: stretching (hinausgehen) so far beyond (über). See 24, 9. 58. THE LARK AND THE NIGHTINGALE. 'TIS sweet to hear the merry lark, That bids1 a blithe good-morrow; But sweeter to hark in the twinkling dark, Oh nightingale! What doth her ail ? And is she sad2 or jolly? For ne'er on earth was sound3 of mirth So like to melancholy. The merry lark [he] soars on high, Yet ever and anon a sigh Peers through her lavish mirth; 1 Insert 'us' after 'bids.' 2 Translate freud- oder leidvoll. 3 Say: a to melancholy so like sound of mirth to hear. 4 Use the Plural. 5 Translate in . . . hinein. ... 6 Translate by vor, which generally follows words denoting fear, protection, caution, abhorrence, etc. 7 Say which is not less than that of the lark. : 8 Say: but ever and anon a sigh becomes audible through all her lavish mirth. For the lark's bold song is of the sky, By night and day, she tunes her lay, For 10 bliss, alas! to-night must pass, And woe may come to-morrow.-H. COLERIDGE. 9 Say: day and night. 59. LITERARY RIDICULE.1 RIDICULE may be considered as a species [of] eloquence; it has all its vehemence, all its exaggeration, all its power-of-diminution; it is irresistible. Its business is not with truth, but with its appearance; and it is this similitude, in perpetual comparison3 with the original, which, raising contempt, produces the ridiculous. There is nothing real in ridicule: the more exquisite, the more it borrows from the imagination. When directed towards an individual, by preserving a character of unity in all its parts, it produces a fictitious personage, so modelled on the prototype that we know not to distinguish the true one from the false. Even with an intimate knowledge of the real object, the ambiguous image slides into our mind, for we are at least as much influenced in our opinions by our imagination as by our judgment. Hence some great characters have come down to us spotted with the taints of indelible wit; and a satirist of this class, sporting with distant resemblances and fanciful analogies, has made the fictitious accompany for ever the real character. 1 Say: Ridicule in Literature. 2 Translate: Er hat es nicht. . . zu thun. 3 Translate: die stets den Vergleich mit dem Original herausfordert, welche dadurch, daß sie Verachtung erweckt. 4 Translate: dadurch, daß er . . . bewahrt. : 5 Say which is modelled so similar to the prototype, that we cannot distinguish the true from the false man. 6 Say: Even when we know intimately the true object. 7 Say: been handed down spotted by the taint of an indelible wit. 8 Say: who sported. 9 Say: has been the cause, that the fictitious remains bound for ever to (mit) the real character. |