Brown and White Vol. 5 no. 28

              notices absence limits for the first term have been posted on the bulletin boards re examination in locomotives on saturday jan 22 at 2 p m l o danse the dates and special titles of the lectures to be given by the english department are as follows jan 25 — langland's vision of piers the plowman feb 1 — gower feb 8 — the unproductive period after the death of chaucer and early scottish poetry examinations for the third quarter will be held in the mathe matical department as follows sophomore calculus saturday jan 22 at 9.30 a m physical laboratory freshman trigonometry satur day jan 22 at 9.30 a m physi cal laboratory senior astronomy monday jan 24 at 8 a m physical laboratory junior mathematics jan 25 at 8 a m in physical laboratory . notice to sophomores students having more than tea absences from lectures and recita tions are excluded from examina tions students who by reason of peculiar circumstances clain ei emption from this rule should pe tition the faculty stating reasons these petitions must be handed in for consideration by 11.30 mon day jan 24 students grading less than five oil the work of the term will be required to have special per mi ssioo from the head of the department before being admitted to examina tions w s franklin an intercollegiate shoot has been arranged between pennsylva nia and the university of virginia to take place in march dr semple's lecture tuesday evening dr semple gave the third lecture of the series on early english literature the subject being " chaucer's canter bury tales a brief synopsis of the lecture is as follows : it is interesting to compare chaucer's earliest work the poem written in memory of blanche the duchess with the prologue of the ' canterbury tales which repre sents his latest or english period the first resembles the romances fashionable at the time in setting in indirectness and in the absence of sympathetic feeling the second has many of the characteristics of the best literature of our own day (( the author brings together at the tabard inn in southwark representatives of all classes of englishmen except the highest and lowest and sends them on a pilgrimage to the shrine of thomas a becket in canterbury " the setting of the canterbury tales is therefore thoroughly national within the compass of a few lines chaucer describes the pilgrims so well that as dryden says we can see them as dis tinctly as if we had supped with them at the tabard so severely are the church people handled that the question has been dilated whether chaucer was not a lollard it is more than likely he took no side in the famous religious controversy ; but realizing the necessity of reform in the church was writing to let the representatives of that institution speak for themselves in the end pehaps he accomplished as much as the most violent reformers if one part of the prologue is better than another precedence must be given to the account of the parson it is significant as showing that chaucer could see and was willing to acknowledge the good in the system in which there was so much to condemn this passage is one of the gems of english literature and has never been improved upon although attempts to that end have been made " the incidents of the journey set forth in the minor prologues make the whole realistic the miller records chaucer's own protest against class distinctions when he rudely asserts that he knows a story and means to tell it or leave the company although the order originally agreed upon is then broken of the tales themselves some are romantic some were current at the time and concern the time few are original three have special significance : the ' eime of sir thopas was designed to satirize the romantic tales popular when chaucet began to write • the ' tale of meliberis ' is an early declaration of ' wonian's rights ; the ' parson's i tale was written towards the end of the author's life to correct errors the brown and white lehigh university south bethlehem pa thursday january 20 1898 vol y no 28 f judgment of which he may have been guilty and to crush out any bad effect that his earlier works may have had " chaucer took an important part in developing standard eng lish his services consist princi pally in showing how a large body of french words really needed in order to express the few senti ments could be brought in without doing violence to the nations idi oms english literature owes much more to him he early discovered the essentials of literary excellence and saw the direction that the de velopment of literature was to take human nature is an open book to him he confines himself to man in every day intercourse with man the pilgrims are real englishmen of the time whom chaucer met again and again chaucer is our first realist ; no ' setter-forth of unexampled themes but the first englishman to find for pure literature a firm and broad base in humanity calendar thursday jan 20 — eegular meet ing of the c e society in the physical laboratory at 7 p m meeting of s c c at sig ma phi house at 7 p m saturday jan 22 — ec examina tion in locomotives at 2 p m sophomore calculus and freshman trigonometry ex amination at 9.30 a m , in physical laboratory sunday jan 23 — eegular meeting of christian association in christmas hall at 6.15 p m monday jan 24 — senior astrono my examination 8 a m ir physical laboratory meeting of the mandolin club at delta u house at 2.30 p m tuesday jan 25 — lecture in saucon hall at 8 p m on " langland's vision of piers plowman junior mathematical exam ination at 8 a m in physical laboratory wednesday jan 26 term exam inations begin lecture a lecture for the benefit of the athletic association will be de livered by colonel c h french thursday jan 20 at 8 p m in the lecture room of the physical labor atory an " illustrated journey through alaska and the golden eegions of the klondike " is the interesting title of colonel french's lecture and as part of the proceeds of the door will go to the treasury of the athletic association all the students should attend the price of admission has been put at the low figure of twenty-five cents colonel french is one of the leading educators in the united states a gentleman of ripe and extensive experience in the man agement of schools a traveler of national reputation and a lecturer whose fame has reached every region of our coun try he has turned his vast experience as a traveler and explorer to the use of the children of our schools believing that he can make his knowledge of people and their surroundings their customs lives civilizations and manners of greater value to more people than in any other way junior german com mittee the following men have been selected as the junior german committee dornin pettit,<thurs ton eeed wood and farnham junior banquet the junior banquet committee met tuesday in christmas hall all the members of the committee were present with the exception of homer and capriles hannum was elected chairman of the com mittee after some discussion it was decided to hold the banquet on the first friday in march the chairman then appointed sub com mittees to look after the business details of the banquet c m knight and l t kainey were appointed to look up all the matters pertaining to the banquet proper carman and homer are to attend to the programs and hannum and capriles are to get estimates on the printing matter there be ing no further business the meet ing adjourned lehigh minstrel club now that all the college is alive to the interests of athletics there is no reason why something more than merely asking subscriptions from the students cannot be done the idea of a minstrel show for the benefit of the athletic associa tion was suggested and has been taken up by a number of men these men want to make the show a success both as a minstrel show and financially and to do this they must have the support and hearty co-operation of the students will all those men who have any ability whatever do all they can to make it a success ? let all those who have or think they have any musical ability kindly see jackson 99 and those who have any spec iaities,farnham,'99 there is plenty of good material in college and all that is needed is the support of all the men in college to have a first class show a meeting will be called after the examinations and it is hoped that every man that can help at all will be on hand «, it is estimated that gifts amount ing to 40,000 have been made to the yale law school during the past year one hundred and thirty candi dates have come out for the cornell freshman crew fourteen of whom are candidates for coxswain chicago university recently re ceived from jonn d eockafeller a gift of 200,000 which increases the annual income of the institution to 729,000 junior oratorical con test the latest date on which ora tions will be received has been set at jan 26 and nothing will be accepted after the examinations begin football election the election for manager and assistant manager of the football team resulted as follows : manager j f midclledith ; assistant mana ger 1 h canfield