An examination of the stanzas of The Faerie Queene reveals a structural complexity that prosodists have not previously discovered. In the prosody of Spenser's epic, two formal prosodic orders function simultaneously. One is the visible structure that has long been acknowledged and studied, eight decasyllabic lines and an alexandrine bound into a coherent entity by a set meter and rhyme scheme. The second is an order made apparent by an oral reading and which involves speech stresses, syntactical groupings, caesura placements, and enjambments. In an audible reading, elements are revealed that oppose the structural integrity of the visible form. The lines cease to be iambic, because most lines contain some irregularities that are incongruent with the meter. The visible structure is further counterpointed by Spenser's free use of caesura and frequent employment of enjambment to create a constantly varying structure of different line lengths in the audible form. This study also examines precedents that Spenser could have known for the union of music and poetry. English lyric poetry written for existing melodies is analyzedand the French experiments with quantitative verse supported with musical settings are discussed. Special emphasis is given to the musical associations of the Orlando furioso, particularly its …

The purpose of this thesis is to propose a theory of language acquisition which could serve as a basis for further studies in this area. The thesis is divided into two sections, the first dealing with the psycholinguistic aspects of language and its acquisition, and the second dealing with the activities of the brain which relate to language ability, behavior, and acquisition.

It is the purpose of this thesis to examine and compare three Restoration and eighteenth century adaptations of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure: William Davenant's The Law Against Lovers, acted in 1662; Charles Gildon's Measure for Measure: or, Beauty the Best Advocate, acted in 1700; and John Philip Kemble's Shakspeare's Measure for Measure, acted in 1794. The plays are discussed with regard to their divergence from Shakespeare's play. In addition, they are examined from the standpoint of their ability to reflect the theatrical practices, audience preferences, and social conditions of the time in which they were performed.

The purpose of this study is to examine two plays by Nicholas Rowe, eighteenth-century English poet, dramatist, editor, and translator, in order to ascertain their historical content, as opposed to their mythological and fictional content.

The novel concerns the massacre of a small village in Viet Nam and its effects upon those involved, attempting to show that selfishness in men overrides any other concern, even during war.

Some of the most interesting facets of Edgar Allan Poe's fiction are his imaginative speculations concerning the metaphysical experiences of the soul, the individual psychic "identity." His interest focuses primarily on three related aspects of the soul's experiences (1) metempsychosis (or reincarnation and transmigration); (2) suspension between "death" and the after-life or states of unconsciousness and consciousness, sleep and waking; and (3) the terrors, real or imagined, of premature burial.

Because his search for self is such a dominant and important theme of his work and because it grows out of a rich tradition in western thought, it is the purpose of this thesis to examine this search and to clarify Aiken's ideas concerning the self and the methods and form he used to communicate these ideas.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether each of the nine introduced tales in Pickwick Papers was written at the same time as the main narrative of the number in which the tale appears.

One of the three-fold purposes of this study is to indicate the relationship between the cultural advancements of the Cherokees and the development and implementation of a written, printable language into their culture. In fulfilling a second purposes, the study emphasizes the influence of literacy on the social values of the Cherokees. The third purpose is to consider the idea of the Cherokees themselves that bi-lingual education, first in Cherokee, then in English, and a renewed national pride and productivity in literacy could go far in solving the problems of social alienation and educational negativism that exist among un-assimilated Cherokees.

Throughout the poetry of Thomas Hardy, excluding The Dynasts, there reappears a characteristic and constant narrator device which Hardy employs to force the reader to maintain perspective and objectivity upon the action of the poems and to provide a framework of attitudes and conclusions by which the reader can judge the content of the poems.

One goal of the present study is to emphasize Johnson's "talent for fiction, the range of his comic invention, and the subtlety of his tone." A substantial group of essays from all three serials, those written in the form of letters ostensibly submitted to the essayist by his readers, appears to offer many examples of the inventiveness of Johnson's mind, and it is to this group that the term epistolary essays refers. Johnson was following a well-established tradition in utilizing the device of the imaginary correspondent, but the main objective of this dissertation is to analyze the various personae which Johnson adopted in these essays.