and their retinues; (6) the entrance of Lady Rowena; (7) the entrance of the Jew; (8) the final situation in which the Palmer and the Templar are brought into violent opposition. This is plot in a simple form, an incident or situation gradually unfolding itself, arousing expectation and increasing the interest as it develops. Is the order the natural order of climax?

Not only is this final situation the culmination of the first five chapters; it also starts a new thread of story and looks forward to a second climax. Such is the usual plot method of romance a series of situations each leading

up to the next.

CHAPTER VI. What hints in this chapter suggest the identity of the Palmer?

CHAPTER VII. What do you learn here of the character (1) of Prince John? (2) of Athelstane? (3) of Cedric ? How do the actions of each illustrate his character? Begin to gather material about the treatment of Jews, and add to your information from subsequent chapters.

CHAPTER VIII. This chapter contains the second climax. How was the first climax a preparation for this? Read aloud the account of the tournament. Describe the encounter in your own words. What effect is produced by the delay in the tournament? For a modified form of the tournament still surviving in the South, see the account in John Fox, Jr.'s A Knight of the Cumberland. Fox's account is based on facts. Are the words Scott uses specific or general? What effect is thus produced?

CHAPTER X. How do you account for the actions of Rebecca?

CHAPTER XI. What is the purpose of this chapter in the development of the story? Look up, in any good history of English literature, the story of Robin Hood and his

famous band of outlaws; and, as you go on with the reading of Ivanhoe, note any points of resemblance between Scott's outlaws and Robin Hood's band.

CHAPTER XII. Let no fact about the Black Sluggard escape notice. When did you first feel certain that the Palmer, the Disinherited Knight, and Ivanhoe are one and the same person? Go back and trace all the hints that led to the discovery. To conceal the identity of a character and thus arouse curiosity about him is one of the ways of increasing the plot interest.

CHAPTER XIII. Why is the yeoman, Locksley, so often brought into prominence?

CHAPTER XIV. What has this chapter to do with the development of the story? How does the chapter illustrate climax?

CHAPTER XV. The author is preparing his third situation. What were the first two? What events previously related have a bearing on this new situation?

CHAPTERS XVI AND XVII. These chapters contain Scott's version of an old story called The Kyng and the Hermite. Why does he introduce it here? Look up all references to the Bible.

CHAPTER XIX. Who is the sick man in the litter? Why is his identity not revealed? Why do Cedric and Rowena show no curiosity?

CHAPTER XX. How are the persons who take part in the siege of the castle brought together? Point out how they have all been made to sympathize with the persons confined in the castle. How soon can you discover the identity of the Black Knight? Trace all the hints which lead to the discovery.

CHAPTER XXI. What contrast in character between Cedric and Athelstane is brought out by their conversation?

CHAPTER XXII. Do you admire the Jew because he ist noble, or merely pity him because the Norman is inhumanly cruel? Explain how the Jew's feelings are gradually wrought up to a passionate climax.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Does the last page and a half seem out of place in the text? If you were the author, where would you put this material?

CHAPTER XXIV. Whom do you Rebecca or Rowena? Explain why.

admire the more, What is the purpose

of referring to the bugle-call at the climax of each of the scenes in the last four chapters?

CHAPTER XXV. What is the effect of a half-comic challenge in a story so serious?

CHAPTER XXVII. Good plotting often requires that the events be prepared for. For what is the scene between Cedric and Ulrica a preparation?

CHAPTERS XXIX, XXX, XXXI. Study carefully the culmination of the third stage in the development of the story. It is more complicated than either of the earlier climax situations, but all the elements of the plot are skillfully adjusted. Is there any artistic advantage in describing the assault in Chapter XXIX from a single point of view? What is the effect of so much specific detail? Is the movement brisk or slow? Find places where the effect of the scene upon Rebecca is made to intensify the reader's interest. Explain the dramatic climax of Chapter XXX. Of what action earlier in the book does the Black Knight's whispering to De Bracy remind you?

CHAPTER XXXII. A master of plot makes events come about in a natural way. Is the rescue of the Jew so managed?

CHAPTER XXXIV. A new situation is being prepared. Notice how it grows out of the preceding situation. Stories

often contain more than one element of plot. Sometimes two or three enter, cross and recross one another, or are woven together into a plot pattern, just as the threads of a tapestry are worked into figures. Pick out the story threads and explain how they are woven together.

CHAPTER XXXV. What is the purpose of the talk about Beaumanoir?

CHAPTER XXXVII. Explain the reasons why BoisGuilbert takes up arms against Rebecca's cause.

CHAPTER XL. How does the author prepare for Ivanhoe's recovery in time to fight for Rebecca? Why does Scott make Wamba the one to blow the bugle?

CHAPTER XLII. Is Athelstane's reappearance sufficiently prepared for, or does it seem improbable and unreasonable? CHAPTER XLIII. Why is Ivanhoe made to win by chance rather than by prowess?

TOPICS FOR ESSAYS AND REPORTS

.1. The Treatment of the Jews in the Middle Ages as depicted in Ivanhoe.

2. Robin Hood.

3. Rebecca and Rowena.

4. The Trial of Rebecca.

5. Richard the Lion-Hearted.

6. The Knights Templars.

7. Thackeray's Continuation of Ivanhoe in his Rebecca and Rowena.

8. Brian de Bois-Guilbert.

9. A Description of the Storming of the Castle of Torquilstone.

SILAS MARNER

Silas Marner is one of the best of George Eliot's novels, and thoroughly illustrates her theories of the novelist's art. The author has not chosen unusual characters, and put them

in a remote place and time. The story is a story of modern life in the midland country of England, where George Eliot lived for many years, and where she had an intimate personal acquaintance with people very like those presented in the book. Moreover, emphasis is placed upon character rather than upon plot. To appreciate Silas Marner, one must study the nature of the characters, understand the circumstances in which they are placed, and realize how the events happen just as they do, because characters of that kind under the given circumstances could not well act otherwise.

This novel is not a mere photograph of life; it is an interpretation. The point of view of the author is not objective and impersonal. We are not allowed to look upon the events as upon a pageant which is intended to explain itself. The author must needs interpret. She insists upon explaining the motives which control conduct, and upon making clear that the events happen, not because the author so wills it, but because they must so happen in the very nature of things. Silas Marner, as the author carefully explains, illustrates the law of life that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." It shows how a person, quite shut out from life by bitter neglect, is, through the agency of a little child, brought again into natural and sympathetic relations with other human beings. George Eliot is especially interested in what goes on in the minds and hearts of her characters; and unless the reader also can become interested in these things, he will find much of the book slow and stupid. He who cares only for the events, and expects the story to move as briskly as a romance, will be disappointed. Let him rather question the truth of the action. Do the characters think and act naturally? Are they right or wrong? What makes them think and act as they do? Are they made to suffer the natural consequences of their blunders and their sins?