“Sex, Spirits And Fairies"

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30366, 15 February 1964, Page 10

“Sex, Spirits And Fairies"

L AST year’s General. Certificate of Education examination in England produced its usual crop of howlers, particularly in the English literature paper.

Among the creamiest of those quoted in the latest “New Zealand Post-primary Teachers’ Journal,” with acknowledgements to “The Times Educational Supplement,” are:— “Of Cleopatra, Enobnabus said: ‘Age cannot wither her. Nor customers stale of her infinite variety.’ “Finally, Cleopatra kills herself by taking aspic. “The Rape of the Lock’ is an allegorical poem full of

references to sex, spirits, and fairies. “At college, Wordsworth was very much alone because he was so handsome: his friends regarded trim as the ‘Lady’ of the college and thus his Mends were almost nonexistent. “Wordsworth felt that in nature there was a ‘dark inscrutable workmanship.’ “Wordsworth reminds one of the dangers of endless stimulation. “‘Robinson Crusoe’ interests the modern reader because of its suggestive morals. “Hardy, in ‘Tess,’ pictures the ‘President of Immorals aniusing himself.’ "Because both the author, and the hero, of ‘Emma’ are woman . . . Jane Austin (sic) is unlikely to have been inti-

mate with many men. “Note in ‘Eve of St. Agnes,’ when Medeline took off her clothes in preparation, for retiring, how he sets the imagination to work instead of depicting real life. “Keats describes autumn as a ‘season of mists arid mellow fruitfulness, close bosom’d friend of the maturing sun.’ “Marriage is another social abuse Dickens deals with. “The cold, bleak, .highly intelligent but monotonous pages of ‘The Times’ cater for the old and sterile members of the population. “Smetana was one of the first Bohemians to be interested in nationalised music.

“Prospero, although he is normally human, often seems to behave like a schoolmaster.”