=Biography.= Charles Lamb (1775-1834) was an English writer who spent his entire life in London. He was a classmate of the poet Coleridge. His father was a clerk in a lawyer’s office, and Charles was an accountant until he was fifty years of age. He was, however, a great reader and spent his hours of leisure at the bookstalls and printshops or at home reading with his sister Mary. He and Mary wrote _Tales from Shakespeare_, giving the story or plot of many of Shakespeare’s plays. In a letter to his friend Mr. Manning, Lamb said of his sister: “She is doing for Godwin’s bookseller twenty of Shakespeare’s plays, to be made into children’s tales. Six are already done by her: _The Tempest_, _Winter’s Tale_, _Midsummer Night_, _Much Ado_, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, and _Cymbeline;_ and the _Merchant of Venice_ is in forwardness. I have done _Othello_ and _Macbeth_, and mean to do all the tragedies. I think it will be popular among the little people, besides money. It is to bring in sixty guineas. Mary has done them capitally, I think you’d think.” Lamb’s rich personality gave flavor and enduring fame to his writings. =Discussion.= 1. Be prepared to tell the story in the fewest possible words. 2. Make an outline giving the principal events of the story. 3. Note all that is said of the forest of Arden; where may such a forest be found? 4. Is the forest described a real one? 5. What impression of the elder duke’s character do you get from the story? 6. What evidences of true friendship did Celia show? 7. Who are the important characters? The most important? 8. Give your opinion of these: Rosalind, Celia, Orlando. 9. Are the characters real and lifelike or are they improbable? 10. What humorous situations do you find? 11. Pronounce the following: haunts; wrestling; fatigue. =Phrases= usurper, who had deposed, 259, 3 voluntary exile, 259, 8 uneasy splendor, 259,11 dappled fools, 259, 17 adverse fortune, 260, 3 humane office, 261, 11 to forego his purpose, 261, 15 malice suddenly broke, 263, 4 defray their expenses, 263, 36 recompense for this, 264, 6 malice knew no bounds, 265, 36 shady covert, 267,10 sacred pity, 267, 33 venerable burthen, 268, 5 fantastic ways, 269, 6 bent on his destruction, 270, 27 counterfeited the swoon, 271, 9 wondering and conjecture, 272, 20 ratified the consent, 273, 12 respected in his adversity, 273, 25 wonderful interposition, 273, 28 newly-conceived penitence, 273, 35 THE TEMPEST CHARLES AND MARY LAMB There was a certain island in the sea, the only inhabitants of which were an old man, whose name was Prospero, and his daughter Miranda, a very beautiful young lady. She came to this island so young that she had no memory of having seen any other human face than her father’s.