ENGL 4301 Spring 1997 Homework Assignments #2, 3, 4
Each of these three homework assignments will make use of the following passage from George Eliot's novel Middlemarch [1871-72]; the citation for the given version is (Boston: Houghton, 1956, p. 144)
Our moods are apt to bring with them images which succeed each other like the magic-lantern pictures of a doze; and in certain states of dull forlornness Dorothea all her life continued to see the vastness of St. Peter's, the huge bronze canopy, the excited intention in the attitudes and garments of the prophets and evangelists in the mosaics above, and the red drapery which was being hung for Christmas spreading itself everywhere like a disease of the retina.
Not that this inward amazement of Dorothea's was anything very exceptional: many souls in their young nudity are tumbled out among incongruities and left to "find their feet" among them, while their elders go about their business. Nor can I suppose that when Mrs Casaubon is discovered in a fit of weeping six weeks after her wedding, the situation will be regarded as tragic.
Homework #2; due in class, Mon. 10 Feb.
Using a historical / etymological dictionary, give the origin of each word in the Middlemarch passage. Using as simple a form as possible, give the original source language and the route into modern English.
Homework #3; due in class, Mon. 17 Feb.
Go back to your dictionary and note, for each relevant word in the Middlemarch passage, the significant changes in meaning that each word has undergone in the course of its history. Comment in a brief paragraph on the one single meaning change that you find most interesting.
Homework #4; due in class, Mon. 24 Feb.
Place the various words in the Middlemarch passage into some sort of chart or graphic form according to their original language and the genealogical relation of that original language to modern English. Comment in a brief paragraph, making historical observations on the nature of English as a hybrid language. What generalizations can you make about the origins of various parts of the English vocabulary that Eliot uses in this passage?