MATRICULATION ODDITIES

Evening Star, Issue 11627, 11 July 1902, Page 1

MATRICULATION ODDITIES

Dr P. C. Klobe -writes in tie ‘Catholic Magazine —The subjects of the examination, besmes ordinary,, grammar and analysis, were Shakespeare's ‘ Merchant pf Venice’ and Macaulay’s .‘Essay on Clive.’ How unprepared it is possible for candidates come up even:'in ordinary gammar may be seen from the analysis that one of them gives of the phrase “In terms of cnoipe. He calls it “an adverbial clause; subject, in terms; predicate, of choice.” It is almost inconceivable, yet it actually happened; that many of the candidates who were supposed-to have studied ‘ The Merchant of Venice’ for a whole year did not even knew the story of it. One had a vague -impression' that ' there Was a Hial in : the play, but thinks that it was Bassamo who was tried, and that Jessica took the lawyer’s part.' Another candidate—and I give his answer verbatim—says: “Jessica was clerk of Portia,dressed as a doctor in the trial scene, and Jessica was dressed as a lawyer’s clerk. She was afterwards the wife ofLorenzo, the son of Shylock the Jew ” Of course, as is unavoidable in a bi-lingual country, spelling is a yen- great difficulty, and I often ques° tion within myself whether perhaps we do not make too mnch of it. Be that as it may, even* year some candidates come up with intellectual abilities above the average who have never learned, and probably never will learn, to spell aright, abd who must envy the dear old days of the Tudors, when a. man might spell even his own name in three or four different ways and nobody mind it. Por example, a candidate, whose work was otherwise firstclass, gave me the words “musitions,” “effection,” “ passangers-,” and “phylosopher.” Again, it is pathetic to see, side by side, on the blotting paper, “ rincle.” and “rinkle.” It was a hard struggle, worthy of a better issue. It was also a good candidate who throughout the paper spoke of “Shilock” and "Lorenza.” Amongst the inferior candidates, “ Skylock ” was quite common, and surely it in dicates want of reading aloud that several call the hero “Bassano” instead of Bassanio. Poor S'erissa appears as Nareissa in the pages of a candidate, who also speaks of “ adjectivable clauses.” Somebody else says that Clive was an “ omnipotent reader.” An amusing set of errors came from anachron'sm, “ Shylock was invited out to tea,” “ Portia had her photo taken ” ; the Argo was “the steamer in which Jason set sail to search for the Golden Pleece ”; “Lorenzo and Jessica take the steamer from Genoa.”* Ancient history and mythology provide ns with a choice set. I was at first pmaled on seeing that Hercules returned from the Brazils, until I remembered the expedition of that hero against the Amazons—and from Amazon to Brazil is an easy Nestor, we are told, was King or Armenia, and of course it is true that Nestorians live in that part of the world. Poor Nestor’s reputation for wisdom suffered badly. The candidates had to explain what was meant by a jest which even Nestor would think laughable, and one of them says; “ Nestor was king, and a great jester; thus, they mean that whenever he swore the people laughed.” It was something of a climax to be told that Nestor was the Goddess of Laughter. Numbers mix up Virgil with Homer by telling me that Queen Dido’s love was Ulysses. Shakespeare refers to the transmigration of souls in rhe phrase “to hold opinion with Pythagoras.” Asked to explain this, one candidate says: “ Pythagoras was a sea monster, which lived on a large rock, and who drank in the sea water and again spat it out”—which, of course, was transmigration of a sort; Another says that he. was a Greek philosopher, to whom was entrusted the '“transmigration of souls.” According to another, he was a man who managed the transmigration of souls. Somebody else said he taught tiansubstantiatioq. Of course, we all knew that Pythagoras was . a mathematician, but it is interesting to heat- that “he was learned in algebra and Euclid.” It seems it was Xerxes, and not Hercules, who rescued tire Trojan maid, of which event someone remarks that the Virgin of Troy was released "by a gentleman named Hercules. “ The Virgin tribute paid by howling Troy" was interpreted as meaning the tax paid to Mary bv screaming Troy. - Character 'was another cause of trouble. We are told that Portia had a bad temper—a dreadful libel on Shakespeare’s most gracious creation. Another, after praising Portia throughout a whole paragraph, doses with the dhnai: “She was not guilty of any serious drhrie.” There is a shadow of a very severe Puritanism in the unconscious! y pathetic sentence : “ Portia was a virtuous lady, but, unlike many-ladies, of that sort,-'she bad a very mejry disposition.”' The' innocent sfcrata-

S®®.hy which Portia concealedher noble escapade- was seized upon by a whole class of candidates a* vitiating hcrwhole characand depriving her of all title to honor. grid; “Portia was. not worthy of admiration, because she was a In this case it was the teaching, and not tie candidates, that was at fault, and it affords an excellent example of yyiong ,to teachers to avoid jrogmeaste. . Unfamiliar terms cause a am ss cn y of fan. Jessica escaped out of a window. “ with - several of , and Shjiock expresses., the, wish teat he had his daughter hack “aid the in her ear.*; Lorenzo, escapes fnnn Venice to Genoa in a gondola.” Jessica “ stole 500' ducats aocL Sbylock’s tortoise course, ths -> turquoise ring. _ A delighted error concerns the essay on Clive. , A candidate says'that •Ommcbund ;was Secretary of the State of Adairs. . And I . suppose it was a girl v °° s,l d that Clive received as. Ms Meat of ribbon .and other’ gats. One guileless* youth says , that Lawrence ■ 1 ' ™ fi rst . JOW as junior cleric, i>oUo, a year for pocket money. One glorious error deserves a paragraph itself: Uive twice tried to 1 commit suiddef hut penshed hi the He afterwards grew to be a man.” Many are quite unconsoous that Italy is a Catholic counter. Lorenzo, we are told, was a ProtestantJessna preferred to be a Presbyterian wtW than > Jew.” Indeed,, one .of . them wntes down “Chaldi” for Catholics. Among xmscellaneom errors, one complained that Maranlay did not write an autobiography of Clive. Another writes: “MstraalaVs chief characteristic of style is the beautiful comparisons he draws between thinga-Lc. fresh eggs and rotten boroughs. 1 ” In a ■2^°“**“ Wy soa g ‘ Tell me, where is ™ that Portia starts a Mm beginning with these words. Portenro<^^ter “ Sammed «P in the sentence She was a woman to the T ” In "sought ought,, which completely puzzled me for it ™ Jr 6 ’ ratd 1386 1 divined that " LTl^,, the “ earest ; approach the hapless couW make to what his teacher had called “sorted.” A very common fre J qne3tly in the children’s lite a burr years ’ ]f . for “have” in such eilW^h 8 ! of hel Pod. 1! Somebody £ v ¥ ock the ruch due of Venice.” ? Tras a . vei 7 dubious compliment to Carve to say that “to a great extent* he increased the population during his stay ” A ranous instance of error in teaching comes m an oyer-literal translation of one of ShaSespeare s metaphors, Lorenzo says to Portia and Aerissa: “Fair ladies, yJu drop manna in the way of starved people,” nartSX" i aU the ®“ didates one particular place say that Lorenzo and Jesatßelm Epite of 311 fbeir ducats, arrived at Belmont in a famished condition. These are samples of the glints and gleams of SSeT hl6k he^ile the of weary