In the main street at the corner of the court, some labourers were repairing the gas-pipes, and had lighted a great fire in a brazier, round which a party of ragged men and boys were gathered: warming their hands and winking their eyes before the blaze in rapture. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!’ `But don’t be hard upon me! THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS. The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to `Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.’ Subscribe Now Fred, Scrooge’s young and … As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a knocker again. `But I suppose you must have the whole day. The spectre, after listening for a moment, joined in the mournful dirge; and floated out upon the bleak, dark night. `That is no light part of my penance,’ pursued the Ghost. They often `came down’ handsomely, and Scrooge never did. Pray!’ `How it is that I appear before you in a shape that you can see, I may not tell. `Without their visits,’ said the Ghost, `you cannot hope to shun the path I tread. `Much good may it do you! 3. Scrooge never painted out Old Marley’s name. `The whole time,’ said the Ghost. An animated summary of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"Stave I of VA Digital Arts & Humanities Project/The University of Texas at Dallas Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk’s fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. It is also a fact, that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the city of London, even including -- which is a bold word -- the corporation, aldermen, and livery. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. Assess your knowledge of Stave 1 of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol using this combination quiz and worksheet. Scrooge trembled more and more. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! They were succeeded by a clanking noise, deep down below; as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine merchant’s cellar. never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good. `I wonder you don’t go into Parliament.’, `Don’t be angry, uncle. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. Mind! Lumber-room as usual. `You are not looking at it,’ said Scrooge. The apparition walked backward from him; and at every step it took, the window raised itself a little, so that when the spectre reached it, it was wide open. `I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be friends?’ Sons and Lovers I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the … The Circumlocution Office 2018-10-17T14:45:17+01:00 . A Christmas Carol Chapter 1 | Marley’s Ghost (Part 1) 10. as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. `Don’t be cross, uncle!’ said the nephew. a small fire in the grate; spoon and basin ready; and the little saucepan of gruel, Nobody under the bed; nobody in the closet; nobody in his dressing-gown, which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude against the wall. `There’s another fellow,’ muttered Scrooge; who overheard him: `my clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. We have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. partners for I don't know how many years. What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? Scrooge stopped. `I do,’ said Scrooge. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. I’ll retire to Bedlam.'. Scrooge glanced about him on the floor, in the expectation of finding himself surrounded by some fifty or sixty fathoms of iron cable: but he could see nothing. ˈʌndərteɪkər. `I wear the chain I forged in life,’ replied the Ghost. The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor’s household should; and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets, stirred up to-morrow’s pudding in his garret, while his lean wife and the baby sallied out to buy the beef. What right have you to be merry? `My time is nearly gone.’ `Mercy!’ he said. A Christmas Carol Chapter 1 | Marley’s Ghost (Part 1) 10. Stave 2. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. The ancient tower of a church, whose gruff old bell was always peeping slily down at Scrooge out of a Gothic window in the wall, became invisible, and struck the hours and quarters in the clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards as if its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!’ `Good afternoon,’ said Scrooge. Search all of SparkNotes Search. It beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did. `It comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men. a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years. A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas Carol. `Seven years dead,’ mused Scrooge. A Christmas Carol - Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis Charles Dickens This Study Guide consists of approximately 75 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of A Christmas Carol. he walked through his rooms to see that all was right. Scrooge is a skinflint businessman who represents the greediest impulses of Victorian England's rich. `Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. There is no doubt Scrooge never painted out Old Marley’s name. The mention of Marley’s funeral brings me back to the point I started from. 23 A Christmas Carol: Stave 1 Charles Dickens. Thus secured against surprise, he took off his cravat; put on his dressing-gown and slippers, and his nightcap; and sat down before the fire to take his gruel. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. Their faithful Friend and Servant, C. D. December, 1843. answer choices . A Christmas Carol Chapter List. `Let me leave it alone, then,’ said Scrooge. Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. He stopped at the outer door to bestow the greetings of the season on the clerk, who cold as he was, was warmer than Scrooge; for he returned them cordially. Scrooge could not feel it himself, but this was clearly the case; for though the Ghost sat perfectly motionless, its hair, and skirts, and tassels, were still agitated as by the hot vapour from an oven. Come! Of course he did. I have sat invisible beside you many and many a day.’, Couldn’t I take `em all at once, and have it over, Jacob?’ hinted Scrooge. It was double-locked, as he had locked it with his own hands, and the bolts were undisturbed. Edit. If each smooth tile had been a blank at first, with power to shape some picture on its surface from the disjointed fragments of his thoughts, there would have been a copy of old Marley’s head on every one. 16 terms. `You see this toothpick?’ said Scrooge, returning quickly to the charge, for the reason just assigned; and wishing, though it were only for a second, to divert the vision’s stony gaze from himself. Out upon merry Christmas! Poulterers’ and grocers’ trades became a splendid joke; a glorious pageant, with which it was next to impossible to believe that such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do. Chapter Text. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had never believed it until now. It was not an agreeable idea. The third upon the next night when the last stroke of Twelve has ceased to vibrate. He was obliged to sit close to it, and brood over it, before he could extract the least sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel. boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. `I don’t.’ said Scrooge. External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. `Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,’ returned the gentleman, `a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink. `You’ll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?’ said Scrooge. `What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?’ Scrooge signed it. and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that. Scrooge returned his labours with an improved opinion of himself, and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him. Merry Christmas! Marley’s face. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. He thinks he sees the dead Marley in his door knocker. Marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights and boots; the tassels on the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair upon his head. `No rest, no peace. `Tell me why?’ Suggestions. `Good afternoon,’ said Scrooge. Foggier yet, and colder! Scrooge and Marley. `I can.’ If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet’s Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot -- say Saint Paul’s Churchyard for instance -- literally to astonish his son’s weak mind. A Christmas Carol Stave 1 DRAFT. `Mankind was my business. Scrooge was not a man to be frightened by echoes. `You’ll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?’ said Scrooge. A chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer.’ If the good Saint Dunstan had but nipped the Evil Spirit’s nose with a touch of such weather as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose. God save you!’ cried a cheerful voice. `How now!’ said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever. `Why did you get married?’ said Scrooge. About This Quiz & Worksheet. I might have been inclined, myself, to Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking jokes, nor did he feel, in his heart, by any means waggish then. God save you!’ cried a cheerful voice. Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; beguiled the rest of the evening with his banker’s-book, He lived in chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner, it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and forgotten the way out again. Of course he did. Stave 2. It is a ponderous chain! `Who were you then?’ said Scrooge, raising his voice. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. The smoldering ashes in the fireplace provide little heat even for Bob's tiny room. literally to astonish his son's weak mind. Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed. as if that were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. The cellar-door flew open with a booming sound, and then he heard the noise much louder, on the floors below; then coming up the stairs; then coming straight towards his door. When will you come to see me?’ No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. ... Once upon a time of all the good days in the year, upon a Christmas eve old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. It was the voice of Scrooge’s nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his approach. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. AP Human Geography Chapter 7 & 8. Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it. the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? His nephew left the room without an angry word, notwithstanding. There is no doubt that Marley But the ghost sat down on the opposite side of the fireplace, as if he were quite used to it. Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!’ Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked himself in; double-locked himself in, which was not his custom. `It is required of every man,’ the Ghost returned, `that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. You’re poor enough.’ `Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years,’ Scrooge replied. Rock321333. `Slow!’ the Ghost repeated. Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so, that people ran about with flaring links, proffering their services to go before horses in carriages, and conduct them on their way. `But you don’t keep it.’ You’re poor enough.’, `Come, then,’ returned the nephew gaily. `Bah!’ said Scrooge, `Humbug!’ The door of Scrooge’s counting-house was open so that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, Bob Cratchit, who, in a sad little room, was copying letters. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever. And `But I see it,’ said the Ghost, `notwithstanding.’ Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, `My dear Scrooge, how are you? Scrooge stopped. The brightness of the shops where holly sprigs and berries crackled in the lamp heat of the windows, made pale faces ruddy as they passed. › Lesen › Literatur › Christmas Carol › Chapter 1 - Marley's Ghost. `If they would rather die,’ said Scrooge, `they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. His colour changed though, when, without a pause, it came on through the heavy door, and passed into the room before his eyes. Whether these creatures faded into mist, or mist enshrouded them, he could not tell. `Thank ’ee!’ Every one of them wore chains like Marley’s Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; none were free. You may talk vaguely about driving a coach-and-six up a good old flight of stairs, or through a bad young Act of Parliament; but I mean to say you might have got a hearse up that staircase, and taken it broadwise, with the splinter-bar towards the wall and the door towards the balustrades: and done it easy. After several turns, he sat down again. door: Scrooge and Marley. Page 1 of 27. Scrooge said that he would see him -- yes, indeed he did. `Or would you know,’ pursued the Ghost, `the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? Oh! `Christmas a humbug, uncle!’ said Scrooge’s nephew. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry.