Chapter 1 of Queen Mary is here in full — 378 sentences across 76 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter I
Chapter 1 of Queen Mary is here in full — 378 sentences across 76 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
MARSHALMAN. Stand back, keep a clear lane! When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason. Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth! Shout, knaves!
Chapter 1 of Queen Mary is here in full — 378 sentences across 76 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/75 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
coming next after the seventh and just before the ninth in position
From this reading “Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth!”
plural of “horn” — a noisemaker (as at parties or games) that makes a loud noise when you blow through it
From this reading “When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.”
plural of “knave” — a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel
From this reading “Shout, knaves!”
conformable to or allowed by law
From this reading “Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth!”
of marriages and offspring; recognized as lawful
From this reading “Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth!”
plural of “tongue” — a mobile mass of muscular tissue covered with mucous membrane and located in the oral cavity
From this reading “When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.”
a crime that undermines the offender's government
From this reading “When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.”
an old word meaning “why” or “for that reason”
From this reading “When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading Stand back, keep a clear lane!
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
in or to or toward a former location
From this reading Stand back, keep a clear lane!
used with a past participle to form the passive, or with -ing for continuous tenses
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
earlier than; in front of
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
terminate
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
rid of obstructions
From this reading Stand back, keep a clear lane!
a female human offspring
From this reading Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth!
cause to move by pulling
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
coming next after the seventh and just before the ninth in position
From this reading Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth!
divisible by two
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
annoy continually or chronically
From this reading Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth!
plural of “head” — the upper part of the human body or the front part of the body in animals; contains the face and brains
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
belonging to a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
plural of “horn” — a noisemaker (as at parties or games) that makes a loud noise when you blow through it
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
cause to continue in a certain state, position, or activity; e.g., “keep clean”
From this reading Stand back, keep a clear lane!
plural of “knave” — a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel
From this reading Shout, knaves!
a narrow way or road
From this reading Stand back, keep a clear lane!
conformable to or allowed by law
From this reading Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth!
of marriages and offspring; recognized as lawful
From this reading Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth!
be an inhabitant of or reside in
From this reading Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth!
primarily temporal sense; being or indicating a relatively great or greater than average duration or passage of time or a duration as specified
From this reading Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth!
impressiveness in scale or proportion
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
engage in
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading MARSHALMAN.
the mother of Jesus; Christians refer to her as the Virgin Mary; she is especially honored by Roman Catholics
From this reading Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth!
sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant sound)
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
used to make a word, phrase, or sentence negative
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
in the historical present; at this point in the narration of a series of past events
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth!
go across or through
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
the only fertile female in a colony of social insects such as bees and ants and termites; its function is to lay eggs
From this reading Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth!
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
utter in a loud voice; talk in a loud voice (usually denoting characteristic manner of speaking)
From this reading Shout, knaves!
for that reason; with the result that
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
be standing; be upright
From this reading Stand back, keep a clear lane!
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth!
the people or things already mentioned, as the object
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
an old word for “you”, as the subject, speaking to one person
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
plural of “tongue” — a mobile mass of muscular tissue covered with mucous membrane and located in the oral cavity
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
a crime that undermines the offender's government
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
used to ask for information about something
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
at the time that
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
an old word meaning “why” or “for that reason”
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
the cause or intention underlying an action or situation, especially in the phrase “the whys and wherefores”
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
used to talk about the future, or about willingness
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
in the company of; together with
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
belonging to the person or people being spoken to
From this reading When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason.
Chapter 1 of Queen Mary by Alfred Tennyson, Baron Tennyson holds 378 sentences, grouped into 76 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 1 holds 378 sentences of Queen Mary, unabridged, divided into 76 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of Queen Mary by Alfred Tennyson, Baron Tennyson exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 378 sentences, grouped into 76 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 76 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 76 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 1 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
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Project Gutenberg eBook #?, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 5 minutes of reading across 0 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
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Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in Queen Mary, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
