Rules: You have three hours to answer any three of the questions. You will sit this paper in a room monitored by CCTV cameras linked to the Internet, so that anyone can watch to see that there is no cheating. Answers will also be published on the Internet under your name. The pass mark is 80 per cent. 20 per cent of your mark will be awarded for spelling, punctuation and grammar. If you fail this paper, you must leave the country for ten years before you can try again.
Bon chance mon ami, as the Frenchies say….
1. In what sense did the legal maxim “The King can do no wrong” lead to the development of parliamentary government in England after 1660?
2. To what extent, if at all, is Parliament sovereign?
3. Giving examples, say why 16th century attempts to write English verse in quantitative metres failed. (You may argue that they were, in fact, a success.)
4. “Much of the rhythmical force in Paradise Lost derives from Milton’s use of the caesura.” Discuss with close reference to Books 1 and 2.
5. Of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, explain which, in your view, was more important for the development of English classical liberalism as it emerged after about 1750.
6. Compare and contrast the rules for establishing adverse possession as set forth in the Land Registration Acts 1925 and 2002. You may refer to the judgment in Iam plc v Choudary (2012)
7. “The Welsh are the Irish who couldn’t swim.” Discuss.
8. “Parcere subiectis et debellare superbos.” Show how this would be entirely fair comment on the British Empire.
9. How would you have answered the Great Satan America when it told us to pull back from Suez in 1956?
10. Translate into rhymed octosyllabic modern English verse:
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,
monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra
ofer hronrade hyran scolde,
gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning!
ðæm eafera wæs æfter cenned,
geong in geardum, þone god sende
folce to frofre; fyrenðearfe ongeat
þe hie ær drugon aldorlease
lange hwile. Him þæs liffrea,
wuldres wealdend, woroldare forgeaf;
Beowulf wæs breme (blæd wide sprang),
Scyldes eafera Scedelandum in.
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