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1. City Hall. South Bank near Tower Bridge

2. St Paul’s Cathedral

3. Tower Bridge

4 The Tower of London

5 The Globe theatre, South Bank, opposite St Paul’s

QUIZ !!!

Here are some photos of London as a preview of what we’ll be watching next Friday in our meeting at 8 o’clock p.m, at the Bar le Progrès, Epernay.

Can you name the sights pictured below?

The answers will be posted tomorrow.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Ce message pour vous confirmer la prochaine réunion du cercle
au Bar Le Progrès, place de la République à Epernay

le vendredi 30 novembre à 20 heures.

Au programme :

- Nouvelles et projets pour décembre et pour l’an prochain.

- Ecoute d’un dialogue et discussion sur le Londres moderne. Voir le dernier numéro de Vocable anglais. Des infos complémentaires seront publiées bientôt sur le blog.

- Une partie rapide du jeu linguistique New Amigos. (Voir la description et les règles du jeu sur ce même blog: référence catégorie: Nouvelles du cercle, titre “Le jeu linguistique New Amigos”, note du 16/01/2007.)

Sur le blog, par ailleurs, vous pouvez retrouver le compte rendu de notre réunion de novembre et toute la documentation sur Guy Fawkes et Bonfire night

Gunpowder treason and plot …

Read the story of Guy Fawkes and learn about the tradition attached to Bonfire night on the fifth of November.

England at the time of Elizabeth I
The queens and kings of England
Mary Tudor 1553-1558,
aka “Bloody Mary”

• She was a Catholic and her husband was the king of Spain.
• During her reign, Protestants were persecuted: some were imprisoned, tortured, hanged or burnt to death.

English Protestants
The queens and kings of England
Elizabeth I 1558-1603

• She was a Protestant queen. Now it was the turn of Catholics to suffer.
• The Catholic mass was forbidden and people were fined if they did not attend Protestant services.
• Catholics who disobeyed the Law could be jailed or executed for treason.

The queens and kings of England
James I 1603-1625

• As soon as he came to power, there were attempts to murder him.
• King James was a devout Protestant with no time for Catholic or Puritan ideas.
• He was a very intelligent but unpopular king.

Catholic “recusants” [= réfractaires]
It was a crime to hear or to say Catholic prayers or masses.

The King’s soldiers would even enter private homes to harass or arrest Catholics.

Catholics and Protestants in Europe

Who was he?

Guy Fawkes was a devout Catholic.

Guy Fawkes’s life

In his 20s Guy left England to join the king of Spain’s army in the Netherlands.

A soldier of fortune
When the Spanish attacked fortified towns they used cannons and gunpowder to break down the walls. Guy Fawkes soon became an expert soldier, especially at manipulating gunpowder.

A secret mission
But Guy or Guido as he was then called never forgot his Catholic friends in England.
• One of his Catholic friends came to visit him in the Netherlands.
• This friend Thomas Wintour told Guido about a plot to assassinate king James I.
• Guy knew many of the other plotters as he had been to school with them.
• Guido finally returned to England to join the conspiracy.
The plotters
There were 13 plotters in all.

The Conspiracy
The plot was to blow up the king, the members of his Parliament and the Lords.

The Plan
They rented a house near Parliament Hall and stocked the gunpowder in the cellars.

They rowed the gunpowder barrels across the Thames River at night.

The tunnel in the cellar
… they dug a tunnel from their house cellar to the cellars under Parliament House.

All set
Once everything was ready, Guido would light the fuse to blow up the barrels.
The plotters waited for the King to open Parliament to give Guido his orders.

The mysterious letter
But there was a traitor in the group.

An anonymous letter warned the King that a plot to assassinate him was underway.

The plotters were stopped
Guy Fawkes was arrested by the King’s guards just as he was ready to light the gunpowder barrels.

Guy Fawkes was arrested
Guy was taken before the King but refused to talk.

Guy Fawkes was tortured…
Guy Fawkes was brutally tortured for 4 days…

He finally cracked up…

And signed a confession…

His tortures had been so extreme that he could hardly sign his confession.

Public execution
The other plotters were either arrested or killed. The survivors were sentenced to death with Guy Fawkes.

Executions were public in order to set a terrifying example for any would-be terrorists.

That was how the King made sure his people would learn the lesson.

How the English reacted
On the night of November the 5th, the King’s supporters celebrated the failure of the Gunpowder Plot.
They lit bonfires and made a model of Guy. Then they threw this dummy into the flames!

A penny for the guy!
Ever since, children have been going from door to door asking for money to make a dummy of Guy and to buy fireworks.

Bonfire Night today
Then they make huge bonfires and put the “Guy” on top of the fire.

• The air is filled with smoke, flashes and flames.
• You can hear fireworks exploding too.
• This reminds people what would have happened if Guy Fawkes had not been found!

They chant around the fires a very old rhyme:

“Remember, remember,
The 5th of November
The gunpowder treason and plot.

I see no reason,
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.”

Opening Parliament today
Before any monarch can “open Parliament” tradition asks that special security checks are made…

… Yeomen of the Guard [= hallebardiers de la garde royale] search the cellars of the Houses of Parliament before the Queen opens Parliament.
But the ceremony is kept secret!

Two rhymes to be sung or chanted:

about Guy Fawkes:

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent
To blow up King and Parli’ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s providence he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Catch the Guy and play a game

Oh, the grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men;
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.
And when they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only half way up,
They were neither up nor down.

Listen to the rhyme

On 9 november we watched part of the film:

“Based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore, V for Vendetta takes place in an alternate vision of Britain in which a corrupt and abusive totalitarian government has risen to complete power. During a threatening run in with the secret police, an unassuming young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman) is rescued by a vigilante named V (Hugo Weaving) — a caped figure both articulate and skilled in combat. V embodies the principles of rebellion from an authoritarian state, donning a mask of vilified would-be terrorist of British history Guy Fawkes and leading a revolution sparked by assassination and destruction. Evey becomes his unlikely ally, newly aware of the cruelty of her own society and her role in it.”

watch the trailer

La dernière réunion du cercle d’amitié franco-britannique au domicile de l’un des membres du groupe s’est passée dans un excellent climat d’amitié et de bonne humeur.

Nous fêtions le 5 novembre et la tradition anglaise associée au complot des poudres de Guy Fawkes, en 1605!

Au menu garlic bread, pommes de terre cuites sous la cendre, saucisses, gâteau à la carotte et crumble.

On trouvera sur le blog les textes sur Guy Fawkes ainsi que quelques recettes.

La prochaine réunion est fixée au Café Le Progrès le vendredi 30 novembre à 20h. Jeux linguistiques et conversations à l’ordre du jour. Nous parlerons aussi de la visite d’un groupe d’anglais de Clevedon à l’occasion des habits de lumière.