June 1950 School Magazine

June, 1950

June, 1950

Brisbane Girls' Grammar Scho.ol Magazine

Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

"And through ye woode there came a sounde Mcste thunderous and cleare, It was a belle whose strident notes, Dide crash upon the summer aire. "Sir Marmy hastened to the spote, And in a tower talle did spye A demoselle mos t beautiful, Who helde a battered belle on high . "Ah! here at laste! my knight," she cried .... etc., etc.

ENGLISH WITHOUT TEARS. or HOW TO PASS EXAMS (The Easy Way)

PREFACE : This book is neither intended for those rare specimens whose main and lasting object in life is work, nor for the infant prodigies who hp:ve never had to do any. . It is simply for the rest of us -the pale-faced zombies, the like of whom can be seen to wander unsteadily down the passages any exam morning, muttering incoherently and flap- p ing over the pages steadily at the rate of one a second until the assembly be ll, when according to their natures, they either lay down the book with a sigh of regret, o r smuggle it in under cover of their b lazers and . regale the pre-hymn period with fevered and surreptitious g lances at "etre" and Pythagoras . But girls take hope ! This paper is exactly designed for your needs. It can be digested in the tram, looked over in the Terrace Bus a nd repeated on the way to school. Now what could be more effective for a start that a little demonstration of literary style through the centuries. And what more appropriate to sh ow it, than our own silver-tongued school bell as a central th eme? For instance here is an extract from the orig ina l Greek Drama of Socrates and Sons 5000 BC, a t present being carefully preserved in that resting place of all the ·old and venerable-the Brisbane Museum. HERO (name untranslatable) : "Hear in yonder fleecy- coated mists of heaven the \inklings of Apollo's golden cover- ed bell" (We have it on relia ble information that a thunder- storm was going on at the time. But anyway you see the origin of the bell) . l s t Chorus: "Hark! !! " "Hist!! Who comes here?" Woe is me!!!" Oh ! pipE? down! I was just going to say that. ENTER ZEUS : As we are not particularly interested in what Zeus has to say and after a ll this is supposed to be a concise account, let us pass on to Chaucer's Golden Age, where every second labourer is an outlawed noble in distress, and wronged princesses and fair demoselles abound . Here is a good exampl e of what he has to say upon the matter. (The speaker-Sir Marmaduke de Fitzpies is of course a knight errant of the usual order and so far, has 23 assassins and 14 dragons to his credit). 40 2nd Ditto: 3rd Ditto: 4th Ditto:

Here the records become a little b lurred but we are left to imagine t~at she gracefully fa inted, was rescued by the dou9hty S1r Marmaduke and lived happ ily ever a fter. We hope so anyway. But now on without a pause to the most gloriou s age of our English Literature - the Era of Good Queen Bess - the age of Shakespeare, Marlowe and Jonson . Here without reservations is an unexpurga ted edition of one of Shakespeare's earliest and least known plays (presum- ably written while still a lad). Lord Crabapple and Sir Cuthbert Shanklegs a re conversing amicably in an a n teroom of the palace. , Lord C. (banging down his beer mug, and pointing to the mev1table bell which has a place of honour on a wine keg). "If a mug be a mug, and a bell yet a bell, And ye be not a bell, Sir Cuthbert (heatedly) : "Marry ! thou lusty knave thy scurvy wit doth stretch my none too steady temper to its ~dge, a~ doth the clamour of unruly school girls! Defend thyself th1s day! They draw. Enter two pages. Lo~d C. (hastily) : "Pu t up thy rapier brother lest our hornd mfluence may taint these youths as yet untutored in the ways of this great world. To the pages-Well, what do ye want? Speak up now! I can't bear mumbling-" Therefore by the seven good rules. Of that learned ancient Theopopilous, Thou must be a mug my worthy Cuthbert !!!

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