And within the chapel can be seen the Coronation Chair and the tombs of five kings and four queens. At the eastern end is the tomb and Chantey Chapel of Henry Y, embellished with carvings including scenes of Henry Y’s coronation. The effigy of the king once had a silver head and silver regalia, and was covered in silver regalia, and was covered in silver gilt, but this precious metal was stolen in 1546.
Eleanor of Castle, first wife of Edward I, lies beside the Chapel. Her body was carried to Westminster from Lincoln, a memorial cross being erected at each place where the funeral procession rested.
Beside her lies Henry III, responsible for the rebuilding of the Abbey, in a tomb of Purbeck marble. Next to his tomb is that of Edward I. Richard II and Anne of Bohemia, Edward III and Philippa of Hainnault, and Catherine de Valois, Henry Y’s Queen, also lie in this chapel.
THE SOUTH TRANSEPT is lit by a large rose window, with glass dating from 1902. Beneath it, in the angles above the right and left arches, are two of the finest carvings in the Abbey, depicting sensing angels. In addition to the many monuments there are two fine late thirteen-century wall-paintings, uncovered in 1936, to be seen by the door leading into St Faith’s Chapel. They depict Christ showing his wounds to Doubting Thomas, and St Christopher. Beside the south wall rises the dormer staircase, once used by the monks going from their dormitory to the Choir for their night offices.
POET’S CORNER
One of the most well-known parts of Westminster Abbey, Poet’s Corner can be found in the south Transept. It was not originally designated as the burial place of writers, playwrights and poets; the first poet to be buried here, Geoffrey Chaucer, was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey because he had been Clerk of Works to the Palace of Westminster, not because he had written the Canterbury Tales. However, the inscription over his grave, placed there by William Caxton - the famous printer whose press was just beyond the transept wall - mentioned that he was a poet.
Over 150 years later, during the flowering of English literature in the sixteenth century, a more magnificent tomb was erected to Chaucer by Nicholas Brigham and in 1599 Edmund Spencer was laid to rest nearby. These two tombs began a tradition which developed over succeeding centuries.
Burial or commemoration in the abbey did not always occur at or soon after the time of death - many of those whose monuments now stand here had to wait a number of years for recognition; Byron, for example, whose lifestyle caused a scandal although his poetry was much admired, died in 1824 but was finally given a memorial only in 1969. Even Shakespeare, buried at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1616, had to wait until 1740 before a monument, designed by William Kent, appeared in Poet’s Corner. Other poets and writers, well-known in their own day, have now vanished into obscurity, with only their monuments to show that they were once famous.
Conversely, many whose writings are still appreciated today have never been memorialised in Poet’s Corner, although the reason may not always be clear. Therefore a resting place or memorial in Poet’s Corner should perhaps not be seen as a final statement of a writer or poet’s literary worth, but more as a reflection of their public standing at the time of death - or as an indication of the fickleness of Fate.
Some of the most famous to lie here, in addition to those detailed on the next two pages include BenJonson, John Dryden, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning and John Masefield, among the poets, and William Camden, Dr Samuel Johnson, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy among the writers.
Charles Dickens’s grave attracts particular interest. As a writer who drew attention to the hardships born by the socially deprived and who advocated the abolition of the slave trade, he won enduring fame and gratitude and today, more than 110 years later, a wreath is still laid on his tomb on the anniversary of his death each year.
Those who have memorials here, although they are buried elsewhere, include among the poets John Milton, William Wordworth, Thomas Gray, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Burns, William Blake, T.S. Eliot and among the writers Samuel Butler, Jane Austen, Oliver Goldsmith, Sir Walter Scott, John Ruskin, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte and Henry James.
By no means all those buried in the South Transept are poets or writers, however. Several of Westminster’s former Deans, Archdeacons, Prebendaries and Canons lie here, as do John Keble, the historian Lord Macaulay, actors David Garrick, Sir Henry Irving and Mrs Hannah Pritchard, and, among many others, Thomas Parr, who was said to be 152 years of age when he died in 1635, having seen ten sovereigns on the throne during his long life.
Coronation have taken place at Westminster since at least 1066, when William the Conqueror arrived in London after his victory at the battle of Hastings. Whether or not Harold, his predecessor as monarch, had been crowned in Edward the Confessor’s Abbey is uncertain - coronations do not seem to have had a fixed location before 1066, though several monarchs were crowned at Kingston-upon-Thames, where the King’s Stone still exists - but William was determined to reinforce his victory, which gave him the right to rule by conquest, with the sacred hallowing of his sovereignty which the coronation ceremony would give him. He was crowned in the old Abbey - then recently completed and housing Edward the Confessor’s body- on Christmas Day 1066.
The service to-day has four parts: first comes the Introduction ,consisting of: the entry of the Sovereign into the Abbey; the formal recognition of the right of the Sovereign to rule - when the Archbishop presents the Sovereign to the congregation and asks them if they agree to the service proceeding, and they respond with an assent; the oath, when the Sovereign promises to respect and govern in accordance with the lows of his or her subjects and to uphold the Protestant reformed Church of England and Scotland; and the presentation of the Bible to the Sovereign, to be relied on as the source of all wisdom and low. Secondly, the Sovereign is anointed with holy oil, seated on the Coronation Chair. Thirdly, the Sovereign is invested with the royal robes and insignia, then crowned with St Edward’s crown. The final ceremony consists of the enthronement of the Sovereign on a throne placed on a raised platform, bringing him or her into full view of the assembled company for the first time, and there he or she receives the homage of the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal and the congregation, representing the people of the realm.
The service has changed little - English replaced Latin as the main language used during the ceremony following Elizabeth Ist coronation, and from 1689 onwards the coronation ceremony has been set within a service of Holy Communion although indeed this was a return to ancient custom rather than the creation of a new precedent).
Coronations have not always followed an identical pattern. Edward YI, for example, was crowned no less than three times, with three different crowns placed in turn upon his head; while at Charles I’s coronation there was a misunderstanding and, instead of the congregational assent following the Recognition Question, there was dead silence, the congregation having finally to be told to respond - an ill omen for the future, as it turned out. Charles II’s coronation, following on the greyness of the puritan Commonwealth, was a scene of brilliant colour and great splendour. As the old regalia had been destroyed, replacements were made for the ceremony, and the clergy were robed in rich red copes - the same copes are still used in the Abbey
George IY saw his coronation as an opportunity for a great theatrical spectacle and spent vast sums of money on it. He wore an auburn wig with ringlets, with a huge plumed hat on top, and designed his own robes for the procession into the Abbey. After the coronation, because Queen Caroline had been forcibly excluded from the ceremony, the crowds in the streets were extremely hostile to him and he had to return to Carlton House by an alternative route.
In complete contrast, William IY took a lot of persuading before he would agree to have a coronation at all, and the least possible amount of money was spent no it - giving it the name the «penny coronation». Despite his dislike of extravagant show and ceremony, he still brought a slightly theatrical touch to the scene by living up to his nickname of the «sailor king» and appearing , when disrobed for the Anointing, in the full-dress uniform of an Admiral of the Fleet.
The last three coronations have demonstrated continuing respect for the religious significance of the ceremony and recognition of the importance of such a public declaration by Sovereign of his or her personal dedication to the service of the people.
At the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 , for the first time the service was televised and millions of her subjects could see and hear the ceremony taking place. It is possible that few watching realised just how far back into history the roots of that historic ceremony starched, and how little fundamental change had occurred over the centuries.
LIST OF WORDS
mention упоминание
stock хранилище
masterpiece шедевр
mankind человечество
satisfy удовлетворять
aesthetic эстетический
to be in touch with быть в контакте с
script рукопись
humdrum суета
acquire обретать
LIST OF WORDS
rank among быть в ряду с
tаke up поглощать
stretch простираться
arrangement расположение
fabulous сказочный
span миг, пролет
applied art прикладное искусство
enamel эмаль
lace кружево
ivory слоновая кость
excavation раскопки
scope размах
LIST OF WORDS
accessible доступный
merchant купец
purchase покупка
favourable благоприятный
due to the care благодаря заботе
fill up заполнять
gap пробел
deficiencies недостаток
accumulation накопление
at smb’s disposal в чьем-либо распоряжении
LIST OF WORDS
portraiture портретная живопись
landscape пейзаж
potteryware фарфор
possess обладать
vanquish преодолевать
presumably вероятно
gain получать
vividness очевидность
merge граничить
ascribe приписывать
WORD OF LIST
reflect отражать
spirit дух
permanent постоянный
rapidly быстро
intrinsic присущий
amass собирать
hereby при сем
distinctive очевидный
LIST OF WORDS
intend намереваться
palatial дворцовый
carry out осуществлять
substitute заменять
scheme схема
throng трон
lavish щедрый
wing крыло
lay out располагать
ill-fated несчастливый
attempt попытка
mulberry tree шелковица
dignity достоинство
suitor поклонник
eccentrisity эксцентричность
remedy лекарство
LIST OF WORDS
chain of fortification цепь укреплений
access доступ
proximity близость
timber строевой лес
alteration перемена, изменение
improvement улучшение
reddent of chivalry носитель рыцарства
non-metropolitan нестоличный
austerity строгость
sequence последовательность
wainscot обшивка
inspiration вдохновение
marble мрамор
association ассоциация
inherit наследовать
apogee апогей
LIST OF WORDS
reorient переориентировать
legitimate законный
descendant потомок
spiritual духовный
inlaid инкрустированный
depict описывать, отражать
disuse неупотребление subsequent последовательный
LIST OF WORDS
monk монах
consecration посвящение
burial погребение
demolish разрушать
shrine храм
reerect перестроить
clumsy неуклюжий
fan-vaulting веерный свод
predecessor предшественник
buttress опора
underneath под
grave могила
chaplain капеллан
confer присуждать
bequeath завещать
intricate сложный
embelish украшать
effigy портрет
regalia регалия
depict отражать
dormitory спальня
LIST OF WORDS
commemoration память
occur at иметь место в
vanished исчезнувший
obsqurity препятствие
deprive лишать
abolition уничтожение
reinforce укреплять
conquest завоевание
sovereignty монархия
accordance соответствие
insignia знаки различия
congregation община
realm власть
EXERCISES
I. Choose the correct definition to the following:
1. take up a) careful study or investigation, esp.in order to