Week 7 Reading Guides

2.15 Reading Guide to Doctor Faustus (pp. 1025-55)
Due before class on September 27. 10 points.
Please note: No reading guide is due for Friday, September 24, although your assignment is to read pages 1023-41 of Doctor Faustus by then. This is a double reading guide on the entire play, and is due on Monday.

1. Faustus opens Scene 1 of the play on pages 1025-26 by rejecting, in turn, four major fields of study. What are these four, as represented by Aristotle, Galen, Justinian and Jerome?

2. What is the danger of studying magic, according to the Good Angel? What, according to the Evil Angel, is the reward?

3. On page 1031, Faustus suggests a deal with Lucifer. What does he ask the devil to give him? What does he promise in return?

4. What question does Faustus ask that Mephastophilis refuses to answer? Why won't he answer?

5. Here's the big question: Why would anyone make a deal with the devil? Specifically, why do you think Faustus made a deal with the devil? Support your answer by referring to anything you noticed in the Prologue or scenes 1-5.

6. In what European city does Scene 7 take place? What spell does Faustus ask Mephistophilis to put on him? Name two tricks Faustus plays on the Pope.

7. Look back over scenes 7, 9 and 11. In general, how does Faustus use his powers in these passages? How do his actions in these scenes compare to his comment in the opening speech (page 1026) that "A sound magician is a mighty god."

8. What famous beauty does Faustus conjure up in Scene 12? By what name is she more commonly known? One of the most famous lines in British literature occurs in Scene 12. Locate this line and fill in the blanks below:

"Was this the __________ that launched a thousand __________,
And burnt the topless _______________ of _______________?"

9. The three scholars appear in Scene 13. What is their dramatic purpose? (In other words, what action do they urge?) Looking back over the play and the list of characters on pages 1023-24, what other characters have urged the same action?

10. The final speech of Faustus on pages 1054-55 is an example of a soliloquy. Why do you think Faustus waits until his last moment on earth to say, "I'll burn my books"? What does the Chorus warn the audience against in the Epilogue on page 1055?

Week 6 Reading Guides

2.13 Reading Guide to Astrophil and Stella
Sonnets 1, 15, 16, 20, 37, 41, 47, 71, and 91 (pp. 975-76, 978-79, 982-83, 986, 989-90)

Due before class on September 20. Five points.

1. (Sonnet 1) The key to these sonnets is realizing that each is concerned with the love of "Astrophil" (the male speaker of the poem) for Stella (a woman). One way to look at Sonnet 1 (pp. 975-76) is to say that it is about writer's block. This poem has a clear octave and sestet. How many sentences are in the octave? In the sestet? Why does the speaker say he wants to write? What sorts of things does he do, unsuccessfully, to assist him in his writing?

2. (Sonnet 15) This poem could be interpreted as advice to a rival poet. What resources does the rival poet use to improve his writing? What advice does the speaker of this poem give him?

3. (Sonnet 16) What two things did the speaker think he knew before he met Stella? To what does he compare being in love in the final lines of the poem?

4. (Sonnet 20) Here we have a tiny dramatic scene. Why does the speaker advise his friends to "Fly, fly" (that is, run) in the first line? Who is the "murth'ring boy" and how does he wound the speaker? What object in the poem is black in color?

5. (Sonnet 37) What pun and riddle are contained in the last line, "[She] Hath no misfortune, but that Rich she is." (But sure to read the note at the bottom of the page.)

6. (Sonnet 41) In this poem, the speaker tells of his success in a tournament. What do other people say was the cause of his success? What was the real cause, according to the speaker?

7. (Sonnet 47) In one sentence, what does the speaker of this poem vow to do? What prevents him from keeping his vow?

8. (Sonnet 71) Of what is Stella a perfect example? What new abstraction appears in the last line? What is your interpretation of line 14?

9. (Sonnet 91) Complete the following comparison: Stella is to other women as the skies are to a ______________.

10. This is a freebie so long as you answer at least one of the following questions. How are things going for you in English 205 so far? Which activities and materials are helping you? Which aren't? What would you like to more of in class? What, if anything, are you having trouble understanding?

2.14 Reading Guide to The Faerie Queene
(Book I, Cantos 1 and 2, pp. 719-42)
Due before class on September 22. Five points.

1. In the short introduction to his poem (pp. 719-20), Spenser asks for help. From whom is he asking help? For what does he need help? What does he say, in stanzas 1-4, will be the subject matter of his poem?

2. What is the name of the "Gentle Knight" mentioned in the first line of Canto 1? How is he dressed?

3. Name two companions who ride with the knight (p. 721).

4. Why do the travelers go into the forest? Why don't they return to their original path?

5. On pages 723-26, the knight fights his first battle. What is the allegorical name of the monster he defeats? To the disgust of the knight, what do her offspring do when the monster is killed?

6. After the battle, an old man appears and invites the knight and his companions to his home. What sort of person does the "aged Sire" appear to be on pages 726-27? What does the reader learn about him after everyone else is asleep? What is his name (p. 729)?

7. What is a Spright (p. 728)? Why does the first spright visit Morpheus, the god of sleep?

8. Name two tricks that the wicked magician plays on the knight, the first on pages 731-32 and the second on pp. 733-34. What does the knight do because of the deception?

9. Pages 735-37 tell of the knight's encounter with a Sarazin and his lady. What is written on the Sarazin's shield? What name does the Sarazin's lady use (p. 738)? What is her real name
(p. 742)?

10. On pages 739-42, we meet Fradubio. Into what has he been transformed? Where and in what form is his lady love? What is the name of the "false sorceresse" who tricked Fradubio and where is she while he tells his story?