RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM (1788-1845)

THE JACKDAW OF RHEIMS 

THE CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE

• Practice-1:  Categories
  • Categorising Vocabulary according to meaning
  • Categorising Vocabulary Grammatically
• Practice-2:   Useful phrases
• Return to the index page for Classical Literature

RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM (1788-1845)

THE JACKDAW OF RHEIMS

The Jackdaw sat on the Cardinal's chair!
Bishop and abbot and prior were there;
Many a monk and many a friar,
Many a knight and many a squire,
With a great many more of lesser degree,
In sooth a goodly company;
And they served the Lord Primate on bended knee.
Never, I ween,
Was prouder seen,
Read of in books, or dreamt of in dreams,
Than the Cardinal Lord Archbishop of Rheims!

In and out
Through the motley rout,
That little Jackdaw kept hopping about;
Here and there
Like a dog in a fair,
Over comfits and cates,
And dishes and plates,
Cowl and cope and rochet and pall,
Mitre and crosier! He hopp'd upon all!
With saucy air,
He perch'd on the chair
Where, in state, the great Lord Cardinal sat
In the great Lord Cardinal's great red hat;
And he peer'd in the face
Of his Lordship's Grace,
With a satisfied look, as if he would say,
"We two are the greatest folks here to-day!"
And the priests, with awe,
As such freaks they saw,
Said, "The Devil must be in that little Jackdaw!"

The feast was over, the board was clear'd,
The flawns and the custards had all disappear'd,
And six little singing-boys--dear little souls!
In nice clean faces and nice white stoles,
Came, in order due,
Two by two,
Marching that grand refectory through!
A nice little boy held a golden ewer,
Emboss'd and fill'd with water, as pure
As any that flows between Rheims and Namur,
Which a nice little boy stood ready to catch
In a fine golden hand-basin made to match.
Two nice little boys, rather more grown,
Carried lavender-water, and eau de Cologne
And a nice little boy had a nice cake of soap,
Worthy of washing the hands of the Pope.
One little boy more
A napkin bore,
Of the best white diaper, fringed with pink
And a Cardinal's Hat mark'd in permanent ink.
The great Lord Cardinal turns at the sight
Of these nice little boys dress'd all in white:
From his finger he draws
His costly turquoise;
And, not thinking at all about little Jackdaws,
Deposits it straight
By the side of his plate,
While the nice little boys on his Eminence wait;
'Till, when nobody's dreaming of any such thing,
That little Jackdaw hops off with the ring!

There's a cry and a shout,
And a deuce of a rout,
And nobody seems to know what they're about,
But the Monks have their pockets all turn'd inside out.
The Friars are kneeling,
And hunting, and feeling
The carpet, the floor, and the walls, and the ceiling.
The Cardinal drew
Off each plum-colour'd shoe,
And left his red stockings exposed to the view;
He peeps and he feels
In the toes and the heels;
They turn up the dishes;  they turn up the plates,
They take up the poker and poke out the grates,

They turn up the rugs,
They examine the mugs:
But, no! - no such thing;
They can't find THE RING!
And the Abbott declared that, "when nobody twigg'd it,
Some rascal or other had popp'd in and prigg'd it!"

The Cardinal rose with a dignified look,
He call'd for his candle, his bell and his book!
In holy anger and pious grief,
He solemnly cursed that rascally thief!
He cursed him at board, he cursed him in bed;
From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head;
He cursed him in sleeping, that every night
He should dream of the devil and wake in a fright;
He cursed him in eating, he cursed him in drinking,
He cursed him in coughing, in sneezing, in winking;
He cursed him in sitting, in standing, in lying;
He cursed him in walking, in riding, in flying,
He cursed him in living, he cursed him in dying!--
Never was heard such a terrible curse!
But what gave rise
To no little surprise,
Nobody seem'd one penny the worse!

The day was gone,
The night came on,
The Monks and the Friars they search'd till dawn;
When the Sacristan saw,
On crumpled claw,
Come limping a poor little lame Jackdaw!
No longer gay,
As on yesterday;
His feathers all seem'd to be turn'd the wrong way;
His pinions droop'd - he could hardly stand,
His head was as bald as the palm of your hand;
His eye so dim,
So wasted each limb,
That, heedless of grammar, they all cried, "THAT'S HIM!
That's the scamp that's done this scandalous thing!
That's the thief that's got my Lord Cardinal's Ring!"
The poor little Jackdaw,
When the Monks he saw,
Feebly gave vent to the ghost of a caw;
And turn'd his bald head, as much as to say,
"Pray, be so good as to walk this way!"
Slower and slower
He limp'd on before,
Till they came to the back of the belfry door,
Where the first thing they saw,
Midst the sticks and the straw,
Was the ring in the nest of that little Jackdaw!

Then the great Lord Cardinal call'd for his book,
And off that terrible curse he took;
The mute expression
Served in lieu of confession,
And, being thus coupled with full restitution,
The Jackdaw got plenary absolution!
When those words were heard,
That poor little bird
Was so changed in a moment, 'twas really absurd.
He grew sleek and fat;
In addition to that,
A fresh crop of feathers came thick as a mat!
His tail waggled more
Even than before;
But no longer it wagg'd with an impudent air,
No longer he perch'd on the Cardinal's chair.
He hopp'd now about
With a gait devout;
At Matins, at Vespers, he never was out
And, so far from any more pilfering deeds,
He always seem'd telling the Confessor's beads.
If any one lied, - or if any one swore,
Or slumber'd in pray'r-time and happen'd to snore,
That good Jackdaw
Would give a great "Caw!"
As much as to say, "Don't do so any more!"
While many remark'd, as his manners they saw,
That they "never had known such a pious Jackdaw!"
He long lived the pride
Of that countryside,
And at last in the odour of sanctity died;
When, as words were too faint
His merits to paint,
The Conclave determined to make him a Saint;
And on newly-made Saints and Popes, as you know,
It's the custom, at Rome, new names to bestow,
So they canonized him by the name of Jim Crow!

GRAMMAR & VOCABULARY PRACTICE by Bibi Baxter

• Practice-1:  Categories: 

  • Categorising Vocabulary according to meaning (Scroll to next box)

  • Categorising Vocabulary Grammatically

• Practice-2:  Useful phrases

• Level:  Post Intermediate  & Advanced

• Instructions:  List suitable words in the poem under the categories provided. 

CATEGORISING VOCABULARY ACCORDING TO MEANING

1.  Find 5 words in the poem which are used to describe people, but not people of the church

.............................................................................................

2.  Find 2 words in the poem which are used to describe people of standing:

.............................................................................................

3.  Find 9 words in the poem which are used to describe people of the cloth (religious):

.............................................................................................

.............................................................................................

4.  Find 2 words in the poem which are used as forms of address:

.............................................................................................

5.  Find 2 words in the poem which are used to describe different areas within a church.

.............................................................................................

6.  Find 2 words in the poem which are used to describe religious ceremonies

.............................................................................................

7.  Find 8 words in the poem which are used to describe parts of the human body:

.............................................................................................

.............................................................................................

8.  Find 3 words in the poem which are used to describe parts of a bird's body

.............................................................................................

9.  Find 5 words in the poem which are used to describe colours:

.............................................................................................

10.  Find 2 words in the poem which are used to describe living creatures:

.............................................................................................

11.  Find 1 word in the poem which is used to describe a non-human sound:

.............................................................................................

12.  What 'time of day' is mentioned?

.............................................................................................

13.  Find 4 words in the poem which are used to describe the surroundings:

.............................................................................................

.............................................................................................

CATEGORISING VOCABULARY GRAMMATICALLY

14.  Find 57 common nouns and 4 proper nouns

15.  Find 30 adjectives

16.  Find 25 verbs

17.  Find 3 adverbs.  

The answer key

USEFUL PHRASES & CONSTRUCTIONS

• to  be w_ _ _ _ _  o_  something

• i_ _ _ _ _  o_ _

• to give v_ _ _ t_ one's f _ _ _ _ _ _ _

• c_ _ _ o_ s_ _ _

• to be e_ _ _ _ _ _ t_ v_ _ _  (no 'the')

• i_ a_ _ _ _ _ _ _ t_ something

• m_ _ _ t_ m_ _ _ _

• i_  l_ _ _  o_ something

• a_  t_ _ s_ _ _ _ o_ something

The answer key

1. ...................................................... his sister's expression, Jake stopped talking.

2.  Mrs. Ramsbottom said that no young man  ...................................................... being her daughter's husband.

3.  Coffins from the local graveyard  ...................................................... after the landslide.

4.  Mr. Entwhistle  ...................................................... of anger by breaking a window.

5.   ...................................................... whales, we must also save the Albatross.

6.  The curtains were  ...................................................... the furnishings.

7.   ...................................................... slipped out of Gertrude's hands as she was having a shower and she wished she had used shower gel.

8.  Did you know your jumper is  ....................................................?  The label is on the the outside.

9.  Elaine was given credit vouchers  ...................................................... a refund when she returned the jumper to the store.  

VOCABULARY

What is the difference between a JACKDAW and a CROW?

ANSWER KEYS

CATEGORIES (Meaning)

1. People in general:  freak, rascal, scamp, thief, devil
2. People of standing:  knight, squire
3. People of the cloth: cardinal, bishop, abbot, priest, monk, friar, archbishop, prior, sacristan
4. Forms of address:  his Eminence, his Lordship ('your' is used when addressing someone this way)
5. Areas of a church:  refectory, belfry
6. Religious Ceremonies:  Matins, Vespers
7. Parts of the human body:  toes, heels, sole, foot, crown of his head, palm of the hand, eye, limb
8. Parts of a bird's body:  claw, feathers, tail
9. Colours:  golden, pink, turquoise, plum, red
10. Living Creatures:  jackdaw, dog
11. Non-human sound: caw
12. Time of day:  dawn
13. Surroundings:  carpet, wall, floor, ceiling

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES OF WORDS USED IN THE POEM

• abbot

• absolution

• archbishop

• beads

• belfry

• bishop

• cardinal

• carpet

• ceiling

• claw

• confession

• crown

• custom

• dawn

• deed

• devil

• dishes

• dog

• expression

• eye

• feathers

• floor

• foot

• freak

• friar

• fright

• grate

• grief

• hand

• head

• heels

• jackdaw

• knight

• limb

• manners

• merits

• monk

• odour

• palm

• plates

• poker

• priest

• prior

• rascal

• refectory

• restitution

• sacristan

• sanctity

• scamp

• sole

• squire

• sticks

• straw

• tail

• thief

• toes

• wall

14b-Proper Nouns

• Eminence

• Lordship

• Matins

• Vespers

• absurd
• bald
• crumpled
• devout
• dignified
• dim
• embossed
• faint
• fresh
• fringed
• gay
• golden
• heedless
• holy
• impudent
• lame
• mute
• newly-made
• pink
• pious
• plum
• pure
• red
• saucy
• scandalous
• sleek
• terrible
• thick
• turquoise
• wasted

• bear
• cannonize
• caw
• cough
• curse
• deposit
• dream
• examine
• feel
• hop
• hunt
• kneel
• limp
• peer
• perch
• pilfer
• remark
• rise
• slumber
• sneeze
• snore
• swear
• wag
• wake
• wink

• feebly
• solemnly

ANSWER KEY TO USEFUL PHRASES & CONSTRUCTIONS

1. At the sight of his sister's expression, Jake stopped talking.

2.  Mrs. Ramsbottom said that no young man was worthy of being her daughter's husband.

3.  Coffins from the local graveyard were exposed to view after the landslide.

4.  Mr. Entwhistle gave vent to his feelings of anger by breaking a window.

5.  In addition to whales, we must also save other endangered creatures.

6.  The curtains were made to match the furnishings.

7.  The cake of soap slipped out of Gertrude's hands as she was having a shower and she wished she had used shower gel.

8.  Did you know your jumper is inside out?  The label is on the the outside.

9.  Elaine was given credit vouchers in lieu of a refund when she returned the jumper to the store.  

24.04.05:  In response to feedback from a  reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, this page has been reviewed and slightly revised as follows: One small section regarding obsolete and current vocabulary has been removed.

R-Z

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