1 The Maypole… was an old building, with more gable ends than a lazy man would care to count on a sunny day; huge zig-zag chimneys, out of which it seemed as though even smoke could not choose but come in more than naturally fantastic shapes, imparted to it in its tortuous progress; and vast stables, gloomy, ruinous, and empty…. 2 With its overhanging stories, drowsy little panes of glass, and front bulging out and projecting over the pathway, the old house looked as if it were nodding in its sleep. 3 Indeed, it needed no very great stretch of fancy to detect in it other resemblances to humanity. 4 The bricks of which it was built had originally been a deep dark red, but had grown yellow and discoloured like an old man's skin; the sturdy timbers had decayed like teeth; and here and there the ivy, like a warm garment to comfort it in its age, wrapt its green leaves closely round the time-worn walls.

Why does the author liken the house to a person?

There are days which occur in this climate, at almost any season of the year, wherein the world reaches its perfection, when the air, the heavenly bodies, and the earth, make a harmony, as if nature would indulge her offspring; when, in these bleak upper sides of the planet, nothing is to desire that we have heard of the happiest latitudes, and we bask in the shining hours of Florida and Cuba; when everything that has life gives sign of satisfaction, and the cattle that lie on the ground seem to have great and tranquil thoughts. 2. These halcyons may be looked for with a little more assurance in that pure October weather, which we distinguish by the name of the Indian Summer.  3. The day, immeasurably long, sleeps over the broad hills and warm wide fields. 4. To have lived through all its sunny hours, seems longevity enough. 5. The solitary places do not seem quite lonely. 6. At the gates of the forest, the surprised man of the world is forced to leave his city estimates of great and small, wise and foolish. 7. The knapsack of custom falls off his back with the first step he makes into these precincts. 8. Here is sanctity which shames our religions, and reality which discredits our heroes. 9. Here we find nature to be the circumstance which dwarfs every other circumstance, and judges like a god all men that come to her. 10. We have crept out of our close and crowded houses into the night and morning, and we see what majestic beauties daily wrap us in their bosom. 11. How willingly we would escape the barriers which render them comparatively impotent, escape the sophistication and second thought, and suffer nature to intrance us. 12. The tempered light of the woods is like a perpetual morning, and is stimulating and heroic. 13. The anciently reported spells of these places creep on us. 14. The stems of pines, hemlocks, and oaks, almost gleam like iron on the excited eye. 15. The incommunicable trees begin to persuade us to live with them, and quit our life of solemn trifles. 16. Here no history, or church, or state, is interpolated on the divine sky and the immortal year. 17. How easily we might walk onward into the opening landscape, absorbed by new pictures, and by thoughts fast succeeding each other, until by degrees the recollection of home was crowded out of the mind, all memory obliterated by the tyranny of the present, and we were led in triumph by nature.

Judging by the evidence in this passage, the author believes:

I. Beauty, nature, and God are interconnected.
II. Nature is the foundation of all human institutions.
III. Nature both enhances and erases human experience.

1 Two households, both alike in dignity,
  In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
  From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
  Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
5 From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
  A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
  Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
  Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
9 The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
  And the continuance of their parents' rage,
  Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
  Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
13 The which if you with patient ears attend,
     What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

(1595)  

Which of the following provides evidence that the feuding households are stubborn and slow to give up their hatred?

MEPHISTOPHELES: Tut, Faustus,

Marriage is but a ceremonial toy;

And if thou lovest me, think no more of it.        

I’ll cull thee out the fairest courtesans,

And bring them every morning to thy bed;(5)

She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,

Be she as chaste as was Penelope,

As wise as Saba, or as beautiful        

As was bright Lucifer before his fall.

Here, take this book peruse it thoroughly:  [Gives a book.] (10)

The iterating of these lines brings gold;

The framing of this circle on the ground

Brings whirlwinds, tempests, thunder and lightning;

Pronounce this thrice devoutly to thyself…

(1592)

In lines 11-14, what is the speaker describing?

PROLOGUE.

     Now, luck yet sends us, and a little wit

     Will serve to make our play hit;

     (According to the palates of the season)

     Here is rhime, not empty of reason.

… thus much I can give you as a token    (5)

     Of his play's worth, no eggs are broken,

… The laws of time, place, persons he observeth,

     From no needful rule he swerveth.

     All gall and copperas from his ink he draineth,

     Only a little salt remaineth,    (10)

     Wherewith he'll rub your cheeks, till red, with laughter,

     They shall look fresh a week after.

(1606)

According to the passage, what ingredients are necessary to make the play successful?

PROLOGUE.

     Now, luck yet sends us, and a little wit

     Will serve to make our play hit;

     (According to the palates of the season)

     Here is rhime, not empty of reason.

… thus much I can give you as a token    (5)

     Of his play's worth, no eggs are broken,

… The laws of time, place, persons he observeth,

     From no needful rule he swerveth.

     All gall and copperas from his ink he draineth,

     Only a little salt remaineth,    (10)

     Wherewith he'll rub your cheeks, till red, with laughter,

     They shall look fresh a week after.

(1606)

What is the meaning of line 6?

PROLOGUE.

     Now, luck yet sends us, and a little wit

     Will serve to make our play hit;

     (According to the palates of the season)

     Here is rhime, not empty of reason.

… thus much I can give you as a token    (5)

     Of his play's worth, no eggs are broken,

… The laws of time, place, persons he observeth,

     From no needful rule he swerveth.

     All gall and copperas from his ink he draineth,

     Only a little salt remaineth,    (10)

     Wherewith he'll rub your cheeks, till red, with laughter,

     They shall look fresh a week after.

(1606)

Based on context, what does line 9 mean?

PROLOGUE.

     Now, luck yet sends us, and a little wit

     Will serve to make our play hit;

     (According to the palates of the season)

     Here is rhime, not empty of reason.

… thus much I can give you as a token    (5)

     Of his play's worth, no eggs are broken,

… The laws of time, place, persons he observeth,

     From no needful rule he swerveth.

     All gall and copperas from his ink he draineth,

     Only a little salt remaineth,    (10)

     Wherewith he'll rub your cheeks, till red, with laughter,

     They shall look fresh a week after.

(1606)

Based on context, what is meant by “From no needful rule he swerveth” (line 8)?

PROLOGUE.

     Now, luck yet sends us, and a little wit

     Will serve to make our play hit;

     (According to the palates of the season)

     Here is rhime, not empty of reason.

… thus much I can give you as a token    (5)

     Of his play's worth, no eggs are broken,

… The laws of time, place, persons he observeth,

     From no needful rule he swerveth.

     All gall and copperas from his ink he draineth,

     Only a little salt remaineth,    (10)

     Wherewith he'll rub your cheeks, till red, with laughter,

     They shall look fresh a week after.

(1606)

What is the main function of this prologue?

TROILUS: Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, rude sounds!

Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair,

When with your blood you daily paint her thus.

I cannot fight upon this argument;

It is too starved a subject for my sword.    (5)

How does the speaker prove that Helen is beautiful?