Bryn Mawr College - Bryn Mawr Yearbook (Bryn Mawr, PA)

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London. Realize at last the But fate had it otherwise. Someone, I think it was a desperate plight of English woman, if not The Woman ftom New Zealand, urged men of letters. Have just me to lay a wreath on the dead Chatterton ' s dootknob. been to Chatterton ' s room. It was the anniversary of his coming of age, and I could Horror, horror, horror! not resist it. It was decidedly a blunder. After placing the wreath, I smelt something strange; I opened the door, looked in. The air was thick with opium smoke, even though the window was open ; table and floor were covered with manuscripts ; there were decanters of wine ; and an old pulpit lay fallen in one corner. And the men assembled there! It was a sight that haunts me yet: De Quincey was dreaming on a couch, Poe quaffed at a side table; Donne raised his voice into the silence, then ceased ; Pope and Swift sucked in the morning air, and Dickens leaned from the window, bowing to the pedestrians; Lamb mutely ques- tioned the floor; Herrick bound a rose garland at a withered desk. I saw Coleridge chasing the bats along the wall; I should have gone then, but I was magnetized, caught on the spot. I heard Pope calling them all together; they stood in a great ring around the table; each swore an oath; I listened carefully, hearing the words the pact, and even De Quincey, through the fog, was making a ptomise. I felt I was certainly done for this time — but they never noticed me at all. They wete drinking now — to their great and final enterprise, they were drinking to death ! Thete, in Chatterton ' s room, they were making it at last, the gesture they had never been able to make, they were cutting themselves off — I was witnessing the most famous suicide pact of all time. A movement behind me. Shelley had entered, breathless; he had almost forgotten, and missed the plane from Calais, but had just made it, and now he stood there as big as death, and they took him into the circle and gave him his drop of poison. He drank, they all drank, they dropped their wine glasses — I wrenched open the door, and fled down the stairs; it was too much! I had seen during one grand tour twenty great men meet their doom; the slaughter was magnificent but terrible, ominous, a warning to me, and to England, and to you also, fair readers, who may even now be contemplating the nimbus of glory approaching you, even now planning a summer in Greece. Remember and tremble, remember the doom of the poet, the scourge of the master. Lay your plans well, avoid New Zealand, and keep Cymbeline, if you must travel with it, locked in the depths of your trunk. Eat well, sleep well, have no traffic with the past; and, above all, write nothing. 23

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Questionnaires (submitted to all seniors) PHILOSOPHY What does the unmoved mover think about? How, according to Plato, do we come to know truths we have never experienced? Explain: to be is to be perceived. Explain: cogito ergo sum. Who won the race between Achilles and the tortoise? SCIENCE What is heavy water? What are chromosomes? What are seeds? Why does an electric light bulb light when the switch is turned on? What is a fossil? Why are there hills and valleys? Explain the phases of the moon. When you light a gas jet, why is it that the gas in the mains and tank does not take fire? HISTORY OF ART What is wrong with the Sistine Madonna? When, how and why did painting in oils become general? What is the real relation of Roman Art to Romanesque? ECONOMICS What is meant by the Gold Standard? What was the mediaeval Doctrine of Usury? What economic, social, or political groups have advocated the right to the whole product of labor ? What were the economic causes of the American Revolution ? ENGLISH What Eliabethan poet (non-dramatic) most influenced the poets of the Romantic period? Name an English writer who: a) Was drowned. b) Committed suicide. c) Was slain in a brawl. d) Died in Missolonghi. e) Lived in New Zealand. f) Died with Cymbeline in his hand. 25