Honors English 12 Study Guide

Possible Identifications:

Thomas Becket
Arthur
Gawain
Mordred
Guenevere
Lancelot
Bedivere
Lucan
The Green Knight
Bercilak
The Lady of the Castle
The Wife of Bath
The Pardoner
The Manciple
Janekin
Phoebus
King Midas
Death
Barbara Allen
John Graeme


physiognomy
fabliau
frame
literary confession or apology
exemplum
allegory
medieval romance
courtly love
gentility
chivalry
folk ballad



Short answer questions:

1. Trace the steps in the Wife of Bath's arguments for the rightness of marriage (and, specifically, of her own five marriages). How does she use written authorities to support her own actions and world view? Based upon her own accounts and Chaucer's portrait of her in the General Prologue, what precisely is the Wife of Bath's "experience"? Given that there was a medieval tradition of extremely misogynistic writings, how can we understand the Wife of Bath as a defender of her sex? Why would women be particularly concerned with having experience recognized as carrying its own weight and authority?

2. What is the symbolism of the three beasts hunted by Bercilak? Which is most dangerous? Is there a relationship between the hunting exploits of Bercilak and the different sort of "hunt" going on in the bedroom? To what extent are the bedroom scenes a duel of chivalry?

3. Does the Green Knight play by the rules of chivalry? Is he ultimately a negative or a positive figure? At the end of the poem, the Green Knight declares that Gawain is the best of all Arthurian knights; this opinion is shared by the Arthurian court but not by Gawain. Why does he think so? Why does Gawain disagree?

4. What promises are made by Gawain? Which does he keep? What lesson(s) does Gawain learn from his ordeal? What elements of chivalry are tried?

5. What seem to be the motives offered for the pilgrimage that is about to begin in "The General Prologue" of The Canterbury Tales? In what way are the season and the nature imagery important factors? What is the relationship between fertility and religion?

6. Briefly explain how two of the three digressions in "The Wife of Bath's Tale" help develop the tale's overall theme.

7. How might you defend the Pardoner not as a good person but as a good preacher? What effect does Chaucer create with this discrepancy?

8. Note the destruction and self-destruction committed by Phoebus in "The Manciple's Tale." What comment is Chaucer making by having the god of poetry commit destructive acts?

9. How is the crow in "The Manciple's Tale" like each pilgrim on the way to Canterbury? What is Chaucer's message on the telling of tales? How is this advice ironic?

10. What can be learned about the nature of love from "Barbara Allen," "Lord Randall," and "Twa Corbies"? What is the theory of companionship in each ballad?

Honors English 12 Vocabulary List Week 5

01. encumber
02. epochal
03. eponymous
04. equivocate
05. ersatz
06. eschew
07. espouse
08. espy
09. euphemism
10. euthanasia
11. excoriate
12. exponent (n) - one who champions or advocates
13. expound
14. expunge
15. extrapolation
16. extrinsic
17. facetious
18. facile
19. fallacious
20. febrile

Homework Assignments Week 5

The following assignments are due on the dates specified.

CP 12:

02/24: pp. 238-244; Vocabulary Assignment; Prepare 3 possible research paper topic questions
02/25: pp. 256-262
02/26: Unit Test II (Sir Gawain, Morte d'Arthur, Medieval Ballads, the sonnets of Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare)
02/27: pp. 292-303; Vocabulary Quiz

Hon. 12:

02/23: pp. 160-184
02/24: pp. 194-200
02/25: pp. 238-244; 256-262
02/26: Vocabulary Quiz
02/27: Unit Test II (Arthurian Legend, Medieval Ballads)

Honors 12: Arthurian Legend

Pick a partner and answer the following questions using the links provided.

1. According to this site, how did Arthur discover he is the king?
2. What are two varying accounts of his death? Which account is reflective of the Malory's account in the textbook?

3. According to this site, how did Arthur retrieve the Sword in the Stone?
4. How did Arthur receive Excalibur?
5. How do artists typically represent Arthur's retrieval of the Sword in the Stone?
6. How do artists typically represent the reception of Excalibur?
7. What differences do you notice?

8. According to Ford, what is the code of chivalry for the Knights of the Round Table in Malory's work?
9. What is the code according to Boccaccio?
10. How many knights are of the Round Table?
11. Which knights show up in stories the most? (Check here and here).

12. According to Speller, what are some possible reasons for the creation of the Arthur legend?
13. What is the significance of Glastonbury Abbey to the legend?
14. What is the significance of Cadbury Castle to the legend?

Now look at Book II Stanzas 31-33 here.
15. What does Gawain do that makes him end up at the Castle of the Lady?

Move on the "next part" of Book II concerning his reception at the Castle.
16. What does Gawain ask the Lord (stanza 43)?
17. What does the Lord tell him?
18. What bargain does the Lord strike with Gawain (stanza 45)?

Move on to Book III
19. What does the Lord get on the first day of the hunt?
20. What does Gawain get on the first day at the castle?

Here the translation ends. Move to the prose translation here.
21. What does the Lord get on the second day of the hunt?
22. What does Gawain get on the second day at the castle?
23. What does the Lord get on the last day of the hunt?
24. What does Gawain get on the last day at the castle?
25. What is the relationship between the gains of the Lord and the gains of Gawain?

Jaunty Gentle Genteel Gentiles

From Bartleby:

French not only gave us hundreds of words, it sometimes gave us the same word more than once. A prime example is Old French gentil, “high-born, noble.” In the early 1200s, this was borrowed into Middle English and spelled as gentile, which later developed to mean “having the character of a nobleman, courteous,” and, by the 1500s, “soft, mild.” After some changes in spelling, the result was Modern English gentle. French gentil was borrowed again into English at the end of the 16th century, also in the spelling gentile and meaning “well-bred, belonging to or appropriate to the gentry.” In the ensuing century it came also to mean “courteous, elegant,” and continues to do so today as the word genteel. Since the spelling gentile did not accurately represent the word's French pronunciation, in the 17th century some people wrote it jantee or janty. This word took on a life of its own: while it originally meant “well-bred,” by the 1670s it meant “easy or unconcerned in manner,” and thence “spritely, lively, brisk.” Thus was born jaunty. The French gentil that spawned these words comes from Latin gentlis, which meant simply “belonging to (the same) gns or family.” It is from the original Latin meaning that we get the modern word gentile, borrowed in the 14th century (again through French) meaning, essentially, “belonging to the same family as all non-Jews.”

Reading and Homework Assignments Due Week 4

CP 12:

02/17: pp. 160-169; Vocabulary Assignment; Reading Quiz
02/18: pp. 169-175
02/19: pp. 176-184; Expect a Reading Quiz; Progress Reports Due
02/20: pp. 194-200; Vocab Quiz 4

Honors 12:

02/17: "The Manciple's Prologue" and "Tale;" Reading Quiz
02/18: pp. 160-184
02/19: 188, 194-200
02/20: 234-244; Vocab Quiz 4

Honors English 12 Vocabulary List Week 4

D and E!

01. declaim
02. demagogue
03. denizen
04. deride
05. diffuse (v.)
06. digress
07. dilapidated
08. diluvial
09. discomfit
10. discreet
11. discrete
12. disingenuous
13. disinterested
14. dissident
15. doctrinaire
16. doleful
17. dour
18. effluvia
19. elude
20. emulate

Homework Due This Week; Quiz/Test Schedule

CP English 12:

02/09: Quiz
02/10: Vocabulary and pp. 136-155
02/11: "Manciple's Tale" handout; quiz likely
02/12: Unit Test I
02/13: Vocab Quiz 3

Honors English 12:
02/09:
02/10: 122-133; quiz likely
02/11: "Wife of Bath's Prologue" handout; 136-155
02/12: "Manciple's Tale" handout; Vocab Quiz 3
02/13: Unit Test I

Honors English 12 Vocabulary Week 3

01. calumny
02. cantankerous
03. captious
04. caustic
05. celerity
06. cessation
07. chary
08. chimerical
09. circuitous
10. cloying
11. cogent
12. concomitant
13. conflagration
14. confluence
15. consanguineous
16. consternation
17. contiguous
18. convalesce
19. coquette
20. coterie

Honors English 12 Short Answer Questions

I like this guy's set of questions. Answer them.

Honors English 12 Homework Week 2

The following assignments are due on the days specified:

02/03 - Beowulf ll. 1645-2176; expect a quiz
02/04 - ll. 2177-2751
02/05 - ll. 2752-3182; expect a quiz
02/06 - text pp. 94-119; vocab quiz

CP English 12 Homework Week 2

The following assignments are due on the date specified:

02/03 - Read pp. 56-62; complete vocabulary assignment
02/04 - Read pp. 76-82; expect a reading quiz
02/05 - Read pp. 94-119
02/06 - Read pp. 122-133; vocab quiz week 2

Honors English 12 Vocabulary List Week 2

You will be responsible for these words by Friday, February 6th.

01. apposite
02. apprise
03. appropriate (v.)
04. arable
05. arcane
06. arrogate
07. askance
08. atavistic
09. aver
10. avuncular
11. balk
12. beatific
13. behemoth
14. beneficent
15. berate
16. bilious
17. bombastic
18. broach
19. bucolic
20. burnish