By an anonymous artist, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. Source
Head of an Old Woman, by an anonymous artist.
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‘Age’, showing the head of an old woman, by an anonymous artist. Fortunately for the old Woman in Southey’s tale, as she was being scolded for sleeping the Wee Bear’s bed she spotted that the family had left their bedroom window open. “Out the little old Woman jumped; and whether she broke her neck in the fall; or ran into the wood and was lost there; or found her way out of the wood, and was taken up by the constable and sent to the House of Correction for a vagrant as she was, I cannot tell. But the Three Bears never saw any thing more of her.” It was an end less grim than the end Eleanor Mure had planned for her.
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Head of an Old Woman, by an anonymous artist.
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By an anonymous artist, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
‘Age’, showing the head of an old woman, by an anonymous artist. Fortunately for the old Woman in Southey’s tale, as she was being scolded for sleeping the Wee Bear’s bed she spotted that the family had left their bedroom window open. “Out the little old Woman jumped; and whether she broke her neck in the fall; or ran into the wood and was lost there; or found her way out of the wood, and was taken up by the constable and sent to the House of Correction for a vagrant as she was, I cannot tell. But the Three Bears never saw any thing more of her.” It was an end less grim than the end Eleanor Mure had planned for her.
And while they were walking, a little old Woman came to the house. She could not have been a good, honest old Woman; for first she looked in at the window, and then she peeped in at the keyhole; and seeing nobody in the house, she lifted the latch. The door was not fastened, because the Bears were good Bears, who did nobody any harm, and never suspected that any body would harm them. So the little old Woman opened the door, and went in; and well pleased she was when she saw the porridge on the table. If she had been a good little old Woman, she would have waited till the Bears came home, and then, perhaps, they would have asked her to breakfast; for they were good Bears, — a little rough or so, as the manner of Bears is, but for all that very good natured and hospitable. But she was an impudent, bad old Woman, and set about helping herself...*
* The old woman proceeds to go through the Bears’ house trying out the bowls of porridge, the chairs and the beds all in turn, finding one from each that suited her, while grumbling with a ‘bad word’ about everything that was not to her liking. Eventually the Bears came back, and Southey goes through the reassuring routine again, how they detected some interference in the porridge, then the chairs and lastly the beds. It was in the Wee Bear’s bed that they found the old Woman.
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author
aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that
strike you. How do they help the author communicate his
ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you?
How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939)
by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at
Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn,
Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University,
USA.
Précis
The Bears were out walking, when an old Woman came upon their cottage. A furtive examination satisfied her that no one was inside, and she went in — for the unsuspicious Bears did not lock their doors. There she saw three bowls of steaming porridge, and instead of waiting to be invited the old Woman sat down and began to eat. (60 / 60 words)
The Bears were out walking, when an old Woman came upon their cottage. A furtive examination satisfied her that no one was inside, and she went in — for the unsuspicious Bears did not lock their doors. There she saw three bowls of steaming porridge, and instead of waiting to be invited the old Woman sat down and began to eat.
Edit | Reset
Variations:
1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words.2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words.3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, despite, if, must, or, otherwise, unless, until.
About the Author
Robert Southey (1774-1843) was Poet Laureate from 1813 to his death, a scholar of Spanish and Portuguese history, and also a biographer and essayist. He was a close friend of poets Samuel Coleridge Taylor and Robert Lovell, experimented with laughing gas for Sir Humphrey Davy, and published a diary of his travels in Scotland with engineer Thomas Telford; however, although he championed the working man Southey’s politics were conservative, tending towards socialist-style Utopian state control, which alienated many of his more libertarian friends and colleagues. Southey asked that his name be pronounced with the ‘south’ as it is in ‘south’ rather than ‘southern;’ Byron, who objected to his views, rhymed his surname with ‘mouthy.’
Suggest answers to this question. See
if you can limit one answer to exactly
seven words.
What did the old Woman peep through the keyhole?
Suggestion
To confirm that the house was empty.
(7 words)
Variations:
1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words.2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words.3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
JigsawsBased on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single
sentence, using different words as much as possible.
Do not be satisfied with the first answer you
think of; think of several, and choose the best.
She saw a bowl of porridge. She ate greedily. She did not ask permission.
Variation:
Try rewriting your sentence so that it uses one or more of
these words:
1.Eye 2.If 3.Tuck
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1Ask.But.One.
2Open.Soon.Would.
3Hospitable.Pour.Till.
Variations:1.include direct and indirect speech2.include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who3.use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
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