NIGHT AND MORNING AT A FRENCH CHATEAU. Château, country-house. The O. | Conventionally, by usual under Fr. form was chastel, from Lat. castellum, a little castrum, or fort. Cognates: Castle, castellated; châtelaine (the mistress of a château). Balustrade, a row of balusters (or small columns) topped by a rail. From Fr. balustre; from Lat. balaustium, the flower of the wild pomegranate, from the similarity in form. Gorgon, a monster, in ancient fable, of aspect so terrible as to turn the beholder to stone. There were said to be three, the best known being Medusa, who had hair of snakes. Flambeau-preceded, preceded by a torch. From Fr. flamber, to flame; from Lat. flammula, a little flame. Cognates: Flame, flamelet; flamboyant (with flame-like curves-a term in architecture). Elicit, call forth. From Lat. elicio (elicit-um), I entice or allure. stood agreement. From Lat. con, together, and venio (ventum), I come. Cognates: Convention; convenience; convent; convene, convener. Trenchant, cutting and ready to cut. From O. Fr. trencher; from Lat. truncare, to cut off. (The French present participle, as in marchant, regardant, couchant, etc., in heraldry.) Cognates: Trench, trencher; intrench; trunk. Trivial, common and of small importance. From Fr. trivial; from Lat. trivialis; from Lat. trivium, a place where three ways (via) meet. Hence the word came to be applied to the kind of gossip and remark usually made at such places. Routine, ordinary course. From Fr. route, a path; from Lat. rupta (via), a broken or beaten way. Cognates: Corrupt; interrupt; disruption; eruption. 1. It was a heavy mass of building, that château of Monsieur the Marquis, with a large stone court-yard before it, and two stone sweeps of staircase meeting in a stone terrace before the principal door. A stony business altogether, with heavy stone balustrades, and stone urns, and stone flowers, and stone faces of men, and stone heads of lions, in all directions. As if the Gorgon's head had surveyed it, when it was finished, two centuries ago. 2. Up the broad flight of shallow steps, Monsieur the Marquis, flambeau-preceded, went from his carriage, sufficiently disturbing the darkness to elicit loud remonstrance from an owl in the roof of the great pile of stable building away among the trees. All else was so quiet, that the flambeau carried up the steps, and the other flambeau held at the great door, burned as if they were in a close room of state, instead of being in the open night-air. 3. Other sound than the owl's voice there was none, save the falling of a fountain into its stone basin; for it was one of those dark nights that hold their breath by the hour together, and then heave a long, low sigh, and hold their breath again.. The stone faces on the outer walls stared blindly at the black night for three heavy hours; for three heavy hours the horses in the stables rattled at their racks, the dogs barked, and the owl made a noise with very little resemblance in it to the noise conventionally assigned to the owl by men-poets. But it is the obstinate custom of such creatures hardly ever to say what is set down for them. 4. For three heavy hours, the stone faces of the château, lion and human, stared blindly at the night. Dead darkness lay on all the landscape, dead darkness added its own hush to the hushing dust on all the roads. The burial-place had got to the pass that its little heaps of poor grass were undistinguishable from one another; the figure on the Cross might have come down, for anything that could be seen of it. 5. In the village, taxers and taxed were fast asleep. Dreaming, perhaps, of banquets, as the starved usually do, and of ease and rest, as the driven slave and the yoked ox may, its lean inhabitants slept soundly, and were fed and freed. The fountain in the village flowed unseen and unheard, and the fountain at the château dropped unseen and unheard-both melting away, like the minutes that were falling from the spring of Time-through three dark hours. Then, the gray water of both began to be ghostly in the light, and the eyes of the stone faces of the château were opened. 6. Lighter and lighter, until at last the sun touched the tops of the still trees, and poured its radiance over the hill. In the glow, the water of the château fountain seemed to turn to blood, and the stone faces crimsoned. The carol of the birds was loud and high, and, on the weather-beaten sill of the great window of the bedchamber of Monsieur the Marquis, one little bird sang its sweetest song with all its might. At this, the nearest stone face seemed to stare amazed, and, with open mouth and dropped under-jaw, looked awe-stricken. 7. Now, the sun was full up, and movement began in the village. Casement windows opened, crazy doors were unbarred, and people came forth shivering-chilled, as yet, by the new sweet air. Then began the rarely lightened toil of the day among the village population. Some to the fountain; some to the fields; men and women here, to dig and delve; men and women there, to see to the poor live-stock, and lead the bony cows out to such pasture as could be found by the roadside. In the church and at the Cross, a kneeling figure or two; attendant on the latter prayers, the led cow, trying for a breakfast among the weeds at its foot. 8. The château awoke later, as became its quality, but awoke gradually and surely. First, the lonely boarspears and knives of the chase had been reddened as of old-then, had gleamed trenchant in the morning sunshine; now, doors and windows were thrown open, horses in their stables looked round over their shoulders at the light and freshness pouring in at doorways, leaves sparkled and rustled at iron-grated windows, dogs pulled hard at their chains, and reared impatient to be loosed. All these trivial incidents belonged to the routine of life, and the return of morning. Dickens, 'A Tale of Two Cities' (1811–1870). EXERCISES.-1. Write a short SUMMARY of the above lesson. 2. Write a short paper on 'The Sounds and Sights of Night and Morning' from your own summary. 3. Explain the following sentences and phrases: (1) Two sweeps of staircase. (2) As if the Gorgon's head had surveyed it. (3) Flambeau-preceded. (4) Sufficiently to elicit loud remonstrance from an owl (5) The noise conventionally assigned to the owl. (6) The sun poured its radiance over the hill. (7) Movement began in the village. (8) The boar-spears gleamed trenchant in the morning sun. (9) All these trivial incidents belonged to the routine of life. 4. Parse the words in the following sentence: ‘The château awoke later, as became its quality, but awoke gradually and surely.' 5. Analyse the following sentence: As when, upon a tranced summer night, Which comes upon the silence, and dies off, So came these words and went. 6. Give all the words you know connected with the following English words: Night; light; heave1; fore; stone; fly2; dig3; toil; flow; evero ̧ 1 Heavy, heaven, etc. 2 Flight, etc. 5 Flood, etc. 3 Dike, ditch, etc. 7. Give all the derivatives you know from the following Latin words: Finio, I finish (root fin, stem finit), compound with in; flamma, a flame; distinguo, I distinguish (root disting, stem distinct); habito, I dwell (root habit, stem habitat), compound with in; radius, a ray; populus, the people (the adjective populicus was contracted into publicus); cado, I fall (root cad, stem cas), compound with ad (ac) and in. 8. Make sentences containing the following words: Guide, direct; insist, persist; obstinate, stubborn. 9. Make sentences containing the following phrases: It was hard to believe; the ordinary routine; made comments on; no sign of life. HAMLET AND HORATIO. [The following dialogue describes the first meeting between Hamlet and Horatio, on the return of the latter from the university. Horatio has to report to him that his father's ghost walks the ramparts of the castle every night. The other characters in the scene are Marcellus and Bernardo.] |