Kerala PSC HSA English Rank File Series – 3 Solved Model Question Paper

5. ...................reproduced King Lear with a comic ending.

Answer : Nahum Tate in 1681

• This version of King Lear was a tragicomedy in which the king regains his throne,Cordelia marries Edgar and ends happily.
• Major English writers like William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, Joseph Addison, and Anna Jameson condemned Nahum Tate's reproduction.
• Samuel Johnson approved  it. 
• In the play Edgar declares at the end: "Truth and virtue shall at last succeed"
• Tate's play also has V acts but the character fool was omitted. 

Shakespearean adaptations are plenty. A few important dramatic reproductions/adaptations are given below.

 

Shakespeare’s plays	Adaptations/ Reproduction
·         King Lear	·         The History of King Lear – Nahum Tate. ·         Lear – Edward Bond
·         Antony and Cleopatra	·         Caesar and Cleopatra – Bernard Shaw
·         Hamlet	·         Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard

6. .......................... is the longest of Shakespeare's plays.

Answer: Hamlet(4024 lines)

• Smallest Shakespeare play - Comedy of Errors
• Last play by Shakespeare ( swan song) - The Tempest.
• First ply - Henry VI, Part One. 1590-91

7. The autobiographical  poem written by Wordsworth is ..............................
Answer: The Prelude.

• Tintern Abbey is a poem in which Wordsworth develops his relationship with nature.
• Wordsworth, Coleridge and Robert Southey are described as 'Lake Poets' because they lived in the lake district of Cumbria in the early part of 19th century.
• The label 'Lake Poets' were first used in Edinburgh Review.

8. .................. defined poetry as 'the best words in the best order'
Answer: Coleridge.

•  Coleridge described prose and poetry as  Prose is the words in their best order. Poetry is the the best words in their best order.
• Philip Sidney commented that “Poetry…is…a speaking picture, with this end: to teach and delight.”
• “A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.” -Robert Frost
• "Poetry is a criticism of life"- Arnold

7. Who said of  Shelly: ''He is a beautiful and ineffectual angel beating in the void his luminous wings in vain?''
Answer: Mathew Arnold

• Mathew Arnold is a Victorian poet and critic.
• He was classicist and advocated reflective, thoughtful and intelligent poems than emotional outburst.
• According to Arnold, Shelly's poems lack reflection, stoicism, and austerity.