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fall; but, as he stooped to give a fatal blow, Peter Stuyvesant dealt him a thwack over the sconce1 with 320 his wooden leg, which set a chime of bells ringing triple bob majors in his cerebellum." The bewildered Swede staggered with the blow, and the wary Peter, seizing a pocket pistol which lay hard by, discharged it full at the head of the reeling Risingh. Let not 325 my reader mistake; it was not a murderous weapon loaded with powder and ball, but a little sturdy stone pottle charged to the muzzle with a double dram of true Dutch courage, which the knowing Antony Van Corlear carried about him by way of re-330 plenishing his valor, and which had dropped from his wallet during his furious encounter with the drummer. The hideous weapon sang through the air, and true to its course as was the fragment of a rock discharged at Hector by bully Ajax,5 en-335 countered the head of the gigantic Swede with matchless violence.

6

This heaven directed blow decided the battle. The ponderous pericranium of General Jan Risingh sank upon his breast; his knees tottered under him; 340 a deathlike torpor seized upon his frame, and he tumbled to the earth with such violence, that old

1 Sconce, head.

2 Cerebellum, brain.

3 Dutch courage, gin.

4 Hector, the leader of the Trojans in the Trojan War.
Ajax, the strongest of the Greeks.

6 Pericranium, skull.

Pluto started with affright, lest he should have broken through the roof of his infernal palace.

345 His fall was the signal of defeat and victory: the Swedes gave way, the Dutch pressed forward; the former took to their heels, the latter hotly pursued. Some entered with them, pell mell, through the sally port; others stormed the bastion, and others scram350 bled over the curtain. Thus in a little while the fortress of Fort Christina, which, like another Troy, had stood a siege of full ten hours, was carried by assault, without the loss of a single man on either side. Victory, in the likeness of a gigantic oxfly, 355 sat perched upon the cocked hat of the gallant Stuyvesant; and it was declared, by all the writers whom he hired to write the history of his expedition, that on this memorable day he gained a sufficient quantity of glory to immortalize a dozen of the greatest heroes 360 in Christendom!

WASHINGTON IRVING.

QUESTIONS FOR STUDY

Which paragraph in this story do you regard the most amusing? Why?

Line 27. Jupiter's chief weapon was the thunderbolt. What humorous use does Irving make of that fact?

Lines 279-283. Look up the stories of these famous battles.

Point out as many places as you can in the story in which the author satirizes war.

Is the secret of Irving's humor in this story the same as in the preceding sketch? What is the difference? How much has exaggeration to do with it? Justify your opinions by referring to passages that prove it.

JOHN DRYDEN

(1631-1700)

Dryden is one of the great figures in the history of English literature, and yet there are but two or three of his poems that any one reads today. This is partly because of his style, but chiefly because he wrote political satires which were interesting to people of his own time, but have since lost their interest. He was a prominent figure during the days of Cromwell and of Charles II. During Cromwell's power he was the poet of the Puritans, and praised Cromwell most highly. As soon as Charles II was crowned and the Puritans were defeated, he became the eulogist of the Restoration; he praised the party in power, whichever it might be, with equal grace and equal lack of sincerity, apparently.

His poems that will last are occasional poems that had nothing to do with the political conditions of his time. Among these is the poem here given.

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ALEXANDER'S FEAST; OR THE POWER OF MUSIC

This is Dryden's best known poem now. Its motive, as indicated in its title, is to show the power of music to rouse the passions. The poet relies largely on the sounds of the words used to produce his effects, in this respect resembling our American poet, Poe. Observe the repetitions of phrases, "None but the brave" used three times in the first stanza. The poem, like the most of Poe's poetry, should be read aloud to be appreciated.

'Twas at the royal feast for Persia won By Philip's warlike son:1

Aloft in awful state

The godlike hero sate

On his imperial throne;

His valiant peers were placed around,

Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound.

(So should desert in arms be crowned;)

The lovely Thais by his side

Sate like a blooming Eastern bride

In flower of youth and beauty's pride:-
Happy, happy, happy pair!

None but the brave,

None but the brave,

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None but the brave deserves the fair!

2

Timotheus, placed on high

Amid the tuneful quire,

With flying fingers touched the lyre:

The trembling notes ascend the sky
And heavenly joys inspire.

The song began from Jove,3
Who left his blissful seats above,
Such is the power of mighty love!

A dragon's fiery form belied the god; 4

1 Philip's warlike son, Alexander the Great, who had recently defeated Darius, the Persian emperor.

2 Timotheus, a famous musician.

3 Jove, Jupiter, the king of all the gods.

4 This refers to the story that Jove assumed the form of a dragon and came to earth to woo Olympia.

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