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 A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,

GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

Charles Dickens

PSAT is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit Scholarship
Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT is a registered trademark of the College
Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE, AP and Advanced Placement are registered
trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT is a
registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book
nor endorses this book, LSAT is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither
sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.
 A Christmas Carol
Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

Charles Dickens

PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered trademark of the
College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are
registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book,
GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated
with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council
which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.
ii

ICON CLASSICS

Published by ICON Group International, Inc.

7404 Trade Street
San Diego, CA 92121 USA

www.icongrouponline.com

A Christmas Carol: Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®, GMAT®, and AP®
English Test Preparation

This edition published by ICON Classics in 2005

Printed in the United States of America.

Copyright ©2005 by ICON Group International, Inc.

Edited by Philip M. Parker, Ph.D. (INSEAD); Copyright ©2005, all rights reserved.

All rights reserved. This book is protected by copyright. No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a
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contact us to request permission (E-mail: [email protected]). ICON Group often grants permission
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research. Such reproduction requires confirmed permission from ICON Group International, Inc.

PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered
trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and
Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither
sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management
Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a
registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses
this product. All rights reserved.

ISBN 0-497-01021-6
 iii

Contents
PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR .......................................................................................... 1
PREFACE.......................................................................................................................... 3
STAVE I: MARLEY'S GHOST............................................................................................. 5
STAVE II: THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS............................................................... 25
STAVE III: THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS ......................................................... 43
STAVE IV: THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS ........................................................................... 67
STAVE V: THE END OF IT .............................................................................................. 83
GLOSSARY ..................................................................................................................... 91
 Charles Dickens 1

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR

Designed for school districts, educators, and students seeking to maximize performance on
standardized tests, Webster’s paperbacks take advantage of the fact that classics are frequently
assigned readings in English courses. By using a running thesaurus at the bottom of each page, this
edition of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was edited for students who are actively building
their vocabularies in anticipation of taking PSAT®, SAT®, AP® (Advanced Placement®), GRE®,
1
LSAT®, GMAT® or similar examinations.

Webster’s edition of this classic is organized to expose the reader to a maximum number of
synonyms and antonyms for difficult and often ambiguous English words that are encountered in
other works of literature, conversation, or academic examinations. Extremely rare or idiosyncratic
words and expressions are given lower priority in the notes compared to words which are “difficult,
and often encountered” in examinations. Rather than supply a single synonym, many are provided
for a variety of meanings, allowing readers to better grasp the ambiguity of the English language,
and avoid using the notes as a pure crutch. Having the reader decipher a word’s meaning within
context serves to improve vocabulary retention and understanding. Each page covers words not
already highlighted on previous pages. If a difficult word is not noted on a page, chances are that it
has been highlighted on a previous page. A more complete thesaurus is supplied at the end of the
book; Synonyms and antonyms are extracted from Webster’s Online Dictionary.

Definitions of remaining terms as well as translations can be found at www.websters-online-

dictionary.org. Please send suggestions to [email protected]

The Editor
Webster’s Online Dictionary
www.websters-online-dictionary.org

1
PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered trademark of the
College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are
registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book,
GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated
with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council
which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.
 Charles Dickens 3

PREFACE

I HAVE endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea,
which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other,
with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one
wish to lay it.
Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C. D.
December, 1843.
 Charles Dickens 5

STAVE I:

MARLEY'S GHOST

MARLEY was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.
The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker,
and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon
'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a
door-nail.%
Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is
particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard
a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of
our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or
the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that
Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise?
Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge was his
sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee,
his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut
up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day
of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.

Thesaurus
chose: (v) choose, opt, decide; (n) executioner, trustee, executrix, miser, grabber, peasant, hoarder,
thing. perpetrator, trustee in bankruptcy. Goth, crosspatch, crank, penny
don't: (adv) not; (n) taboo, prohibition. ironmongery: (n) hardware, shop, pincher.
dreadfully: (adj, adv) frightfully, store. simile: (n) figure of speech, analogy,
shockingly; (adv) fearfully, legatee: (n) heir, legatary, recipient, comparison, compare, resemblance,
appallingly, hideously, horrendously, inheritor, successor, devisee, donee, likeness, similarity, allegory,
horribly, atrociously, ghastly, owner. similitude, parable; (adj) metalepsis.
tremendously, horridly. mourner: (n) sorrower, bearer, griever, unhallowed: (adj) ungodly, impious,
ANTONYMS: (adv) pleasantly, unfortunate, pallbearer, wailer, profane, demonic, unsanctified,
wonderfully, happily, hardly, weeper. diabolic, sinful, wicked, infernal,
superbly, well. residuary: (adj) surplus, superfluous. impure, unchaste. ANTONYM: (adj)
executor: (n) doer, fiduciary, agent, scrooge: (n) niggard, churl, skinflint, holy.
6 A Christmas Carol

The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to the point I started from.
There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or
nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. 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.%
Scrooge never painted out Old Marley's name. There it stood, years
afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was
known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called
Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names. It was
all the same to him.
Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, Scrooge! a squeezing,
wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp
as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-
contained, and solitary as an oyster. 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. A frosty rime
was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low
temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn't
thaw it one degree at Christmas.
External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could
warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no
falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to
entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and
snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one
respect. They often "came down" handsomely, and Scrooge never did.
Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, "My dear
Scrooge, how are you? 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

Thesaurus
astonish: (adj, v) astound; (adj, n, v) suit, demand, desire, invocation; (v) heedlessly, wildly. ANTONYMS:
surprise; (adj) astonishing, surprised; solicitation. (adv) thoughtfully, prudently, late,
(v) flabbergast, daze, confound, gladsome: (adj) cheerful, blithe, joyful, pensively, sensibly, responsibly,
dazzle, stun, alarm, nonplus. gleeful, happy, jolly, joyous, cautiously, deliberately, patiently.
ANTONYMS: (v) expect, bore. pleasurable, winsome, gay, festal. rime: (n, v) rhyme; (n) hoarfrost, hoar,
covetous: (adj) avid, envious, greedy, pelting: (n) successiveness, cleft, rift, chink, crack, assonance,
grasping, acquisitive, miserly, chronological sequence, alliteration, consonance; (v) alliterate.
hungry, jealous; (adj, n) desirous; (adj, chronological succession, hail, rain. sleet: (n, v) rain; (n) hail, snift,
v) sordid, mercenary. ANTONYMS: rashly: (adj, adv) hastily, headlong; downfall, glaze, metabolic residue,
(adj) giving, benevolent, sharing. (adv) thoughtlessly, recklessly, moment; (v) come down.
entreaty: (n) plea, prayer, request, impetuously, imprudently, tight-fisted: (adj) close, sparing,
petition, adjuration, supplication, carelessly, indiscreetly, headily, greedy.
 Charles Dickens 7

woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of
Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw
him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then
would wag their tails as though they said, "No eye at all is better than an evil eye,
dark master!"
But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way
along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its
distance, was what the knowing ones call "nuts" to Scrooge.%
Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve--old
Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. 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. The city clocks had only just gone three, but it
was quite dark already-- it had not been light all day--and candles were flaring
in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable
brown air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so
dense without, that although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite
were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring
everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing
on a large scale.
The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open that he might keep his eye
upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying
letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire was so very much
smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn't replenish it, for Scrooge kept
the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel,
the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. 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.
"A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice. 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.

Thesaurus
chink: (v) jingle, tinkle; (n) cleft, blazing, tawdry, ablaze, garish, fiery; gasping, out of breath, panting,
crevice, Chinaman, aperture, hiatus, (v) glaring; (n) flare; (adv) flaringly. puffed, puffing, reedy, wheezy,
scissure, blunt; (n, v) clink, break. intimation: (n) hint, inkling, winded.
comforter: (n) blanket, muffler, implication, insinuation, suggestion, wherefore: (adv, conj) therefore; (adv,
comfortable, pacifier, reliever, clue, allusion, indication, cue, notice, n) why; (n) reason, proof; (adv)
bedclothes, bedding, dummy, innuendo. accordingly, consequently, so,
coverlet, cover, communicator. narrowest: (n) minimum. wherefor, hence, whence; (conj) then.
drooping: (adj) flabby, pendulous, replenish: (adj, v) fill; (v) refill, recruit, withal: (adv) nevertheless,
limp, flaccid, cernuous, flagging, fill up, make good, refresh, furnish, notwithstanding, however, even so,
languid, floppy, lax, tired; (n) droop. supply, fill again; (adj) load, charge. all the same, nonetheless, with; (adj)
ANTONYMS: (adj) taut, firm. ANTONYM: (v) deplete. likewise; (n) sufficiency, adequacy,
flaring: (adj) flared, flaming, burning, wheezing: (adj) breathless, asthmatic, enough.
8 A Christmas Carol

"Bah!" said Scrooge, "Humbug!"

He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and frost, this
nephew of Scrooge's, that he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and
handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again.%
"Christmas a humbug, uncle!" said Scrooge's nephew. "You don't mean that, I
am sure?"
"I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry?
What reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough."
"Come, then," returned the nephew gaily. "What right have you to be dismal?
What reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough."
Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment, said,
"Bah!" again; and followed it up with "Humbug."
"Don't be cross, uncle!" said the nephew.
"What else can I be," returned the uncle, "when I live in such a world of fools
as this? Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! 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? If I
could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with
'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and
buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!"
"Uncle!" pleaded the nephew.
"Nephew!" returned the uncle sternly, "keep Christmas in your own way,
and let me keep it in mine."
"Keep it!" repeated Scrooge's nephew. "But you don't keep it."
"Let me leave it alone, then," said Scrooge. "Much good may it do you! Much
good it has ever done you!"
"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I
have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew. "Christmas among the rest.

Thesaurus
boiled: (adj) intoxicated, poached, sunnily, blithely, lively. sullen, blue, dejected. ANTONYMS:
stewed; (v) sodden. ANTONYMS: (adv) sadly, anxiously, (adj) happy, cheery, stable.
dismal: (adj) cheerless, dejected, dully, despondently. ruddy: (adj) cherry, rubicund, rosy,
dreary, gloomy, desolate, humbug: (n) deceit, cheat, claptrap, flushed, florid, sanguine, reddish,
disconsolate, depressing, melancholy, fake, faker, deception, boloney; (n, v) glowing, blooming, crimson; (adj,
black, dim, dull. ANTONYMS: (adj) hoax, cant, duplicity; (v) hum. adv) blushing.
bright, happy, lively, uplifting, indignantly: (adv) irately, angrily, sternly: (adv) severely, strictly,
sunny, pleasant, light, cheery, strong, wrathfully, enragedly, sorely, austerely, harshly, rigidly, grimly,
soulful, wonderful. acrimoniously, cynically, sulkily, rigorously, stringently, seriously,
gaily: (adv, v) happily; (adv) gladly, hotly, exasperatedly, furiously. relentlessly, solemnly. ANTONYMS:
jovially, joyfully, cheerfully, morose: (adj) grim, dismal, glum, dark, (adv) leniently, lightheartedly, kindly,
mirthfully, joyously, gleefully, moody, grumpy, dour, depressed, warmly, cheerfully.
 Charles Dickens 9

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. 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!"
The clerk in the Tank involuntarily applauded. Becoming immediately
sensible of the impropriety, he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail
spark for ever.%
"Let me hear another sound from you," said Scrooge, "and you'll keep your
Christmas by losing your situation! You're quite a powerful speaker, sir," he
added, turning to his nephew. "I wonder you don't go into Parliament."
"Don't be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us to-morrow."
Scrooge said that he would see him--yes, indeed he did. He went the whole
length of the expression, and said that he would see him in that extremity first.
"But why?" cried Scrooge's nephew. "Why?"
"Why did you get married?" said Scrooge.
"Because I fell in love."
"Because you fell in love!" growled Scrooge, as if that were the only one thing
in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. "Good afternoon!"
"Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before that happened. Why give it
as a reason for not coming now?"
"Good afternoon," said Scrooge.
"I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be friends?"
"Good afternoon," said Scrooge.

Thesaurus
applauded: (adj) famous, highly boundary, bound, close, appendage, impropriety: (n) barbarism, obscenity,
praised, commended. limit, limb, ending, fringe, indecorum, error, rudeness,
dine: (v) feed, lunch, breakfast, dining, conclusion. ANTONYMS: (n) trunk, indelicacy, incorrectness, solecism,
meal, give, have supper, take tea, average, minimum, head, leniency. wrongness; (adj) immorality,
grub, consume, entertain. forgiving: (adj) compassionate, inaptitude. ANTONYMS: (n)
ANTONYM: (v) abstain. lenient, tolerant, charitable, decency, correctness.
extinguished: (adj) extinct, out, dead, remissive, humane, kind, veneration: (n) respect, awe, honor,
quenched, allayed, destroyed; (n) magnanimous, generous, merciful, devotion, esteem, adoration,
defunctness, complete annihilation, mild. ANTONYMS: (adj) deference, estimation, worship,
experimental extinction, unforgiving, hardhearted, impatient, admiration, thaumatolatry.
extermination, extinction. strict. ANTONYMS: (n) contempt,
extremity: (n) end, member, hearts: (n) Black Maria, spades. disapproval.
10 A Christmas Carol

"I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never had any
quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial in homage to
Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas humour to the last. So A Merry
Christmas, uncle!"
"Good afternoon!" said Scrooge.%
"And A Happy New Year!"
"Good afternoon!" said Scrooge.
His nephew left the room without an angry word, notwithstanding. 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.
"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. I'll retire to Bedlam."
This lunatic, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had let two other people in.
They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with their hats
off, in Scrooge's office. They had books and papers in their hands, and bowed to
him.
"Scrooge and Marley's, I believe," said one of the gentlemen, referring to his
list. "Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. Marley?"
"Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years," Scrooge replied. "He died
seven years ago, this very night."
"We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving
partner," said the gentleman, presenting his credentials.
It certainly was; for they had been two kindred spirits. At the ominous word
"liberality," Scrooge frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials
back.
"At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," said the gentleman, taking
up a pen, "it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight
provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time.

Thesaurus
bestow: (v) give, confer, grant, impart, bankrupt, broke, poor, helpless, liberality: (n, v) charity, almsgiving;
contribute, donate, apply, award; impecunious, penniless, necessitous; (adj, n) bounty; (n) largess,
(adj, v) accord, allow, present. (adj, v) forlorn, devoid. ANTONYMS: munificence, benevolence,
ANTONYMS: (v) deprive, refuse, (adj) wealthy, privileged, prosperous, beneficence, generousness, tolerance;
withhold, retrieve, withdraw. solvent. (adj) largesse, gift. ANTONYM: (n)
cordially: (adv) warmly, genially, greetings: (n) greeting, respects, illiberality.
kindly, sincerely, heartfeltly, compliments, consolation, regards, marley: (n) Robert Nesta Marley.
ardently, friendly, jovially, earnestly, commend, good wishes, portly: (adj) plump, stout, corpulent,
affectionately, harmoniously. commendation, induction, draft. heavy, obese, chubby, fleshy,
ANTONYMS: (adv) disagreeably, kindred: (adj) cognate, akin, similar, overweight; (adj, adv) burly, stately;
frostily. allied, related; (n) kin, consanguinity, (adv) plumply. ANTONYMS: (adj,
destitute: (adj) impoverished, needy, relation, folk, folks, kin group. adv) thin, slim; (adj) skinny.
 Charles Dickens 11

Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are

in want of common comforts, sir."
"Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge.%
"Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
"And the Union workhouses?" demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in
operation?"
"They are. Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish I could say they were not."
"The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?" said Scrooge.
"Both very busy, sir."
"Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to
stop them in their useful course," said Scrooge. "I'm very glad to hear it."
"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, and means of warmth. We
choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and
Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?"
"Nothing!" Scrooge replied.
"You wish to be anonymous?"
"I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge. "Since you ask me what I wish,
gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I
can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I
have mentioned--they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there."
"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."
"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease
the surplus population. Besides--excuse me--I don't know that."
"But you might know it," observed the gentleman.

Thesaurus
comforts: (n) amenities, bread and disengaged. ANTONYMS: (adj) passively, halfheartedly, vaguely.
butter, convenience, conveniences. active, employed, industrious, merry: (adj) joyful, lively, cheerful,
establishments: (n) establishment. energetic, meaningful, productive, glad, jolly, facetious, frolicsome,
furnish: (v) afford, provide, worthwhile, diligent; (v) change, run, lighthearted, festive; (adj, n)
contribute, render, offer, work. convivial, jovial. ANTONYMS: (adj)
accommodate, supply, outfit, yield, keenly: (adv) eagerly, zealously, gloomy, miserable, serious, uptight.
decorate; (n, v) give. ANTONYM: (v) piercingly, acutely, cuttingly, necessaries: (n) necessary, necessaries
divest. ardently, strongly, lively, of life, necessity, must.
gentlemen: (n) sirs, messieurs. penetratingly, fervently, avidly. thousands: (n) myriad, much, many.
idle: (adj) lazy, indolent, inactive, free, ANTONYMS: (adv) vigour: (n) force, strength, vigor,
unfounded, fruitless, baseless, unenthusiastically, apathetically, energy, power, potency, vim, vitality,
groundless, frivolous, empty, faintly, reluctantly, patiently, athleticism, verve, intensity.
12 A Christmas Carol

"It's not my business," Scrooge returned. "It's enough for a man to understand
his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies me
constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!"
Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point, the gentlemen
withdrew. Scrooge resumed his labours with an improved opinion of himself,
and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him.%
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. 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. The cold became intense. 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. The water-plug
being left in solitude, its overflowings sullenly congealed, and turned to
misanthropic ice. 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.
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. 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.
Foggier yet, and colder. Piercing, searching, biting cold. 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. The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the

Thesaurus
bloodthirsty: (adj) murderous, brutal, frivolous, funny, comic, whimsical, ANTONYM: (adj) feeble.
bloody, barbarous, cruel, savage, laughable, jocose, jocular; (adj, n) misanthropic: (adj) cynical,
fierce, ferocious, violent, witty; (n) amusing. ANTONYMS: pessimistic, misanthropical,
slaughterous, sanguineous. (adj) grave, lugubrious, sober, antisocial, standoffish, solitary,
ANTONYM: (adj) pleasant. somber, formal. reserved, reclusive, distrustful,
carriages: (n) carriage. garret: (n) cockloft, loft, attic, house crabby, unfriendly.
congealed: (adj) firm, solidify, frozen, top, storey, level, upper story, story, proffering: (n) bidding, oblation.
jelled, jellied, stiff, thick, concrete. dome, noggin, classical Greek. slily: (adj) on the sly.
crackled: (adj) alligatored, crazed, gnawed: (v) gnow, eroded. winking: (n) twinkling, wink, blink,
barmy, damaged, crackers, chapped, lusty: (adj) energetic, stout, lustful, New York minute, jiffy, instant,
buggy, bonkers, batty, bats, balmy. corpulent, potent, virile, vigorous, nictation, nictitation, trice, blink of an
facetious: (adj) humorous, comical, hearty, sturdy, bouncing, dynamic. eye; (adj) pink ribbons.
 Charles Dickens 13

hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge's keyhole to
regale him with a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of—

"God bless you, merry gentleman!

May nothing you dismay!"

Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in
terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.%
At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house arrived. With an ill-will
Scrooge dismounted from his stool, and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant
clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle out, and put on his hat.
"You'll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?" said Scrooge.
"If quite convenient, sir."
"It's not convenient," said Scrooge, "and it's not fair. If I was to stop half-a-
crown for it, you'd think yourself ill-used, I'll be bound?"
The clerk smiled faintly.
"And yet," said Scrooge, "you don't think me ill-used, when I pay a day's
wages for no work."
The clerk observed that it was only once a year.
"A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of December!"
said Scrooge, buttoning his great-coat to the chin. "But I suppose you must have
the whole day. Be here all the earlier next morning."
The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge walked out with a growl. The
office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends of his white
comforter dangling below his waist (for he boasted no great-coat), went down a
slide on Cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in honour of its being
Christmas Eve, and then ran home to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to
play at blindman's-buff.

Thesaurus
congenial: (adj, v) concordant, ANTONYMS: (adj) uninterested, batter, pour.
consonant, accordant; (adj) apathetic, indifferent. regale: (v) entertain, treat, feed, divert,
compatible, affable, kindred, genial, growl: (adj, n, v) snarl; (n, v) roar, bark, amuse, crop, browse, graze; (n)
kind, pleasant, pleasing, delightful. howl, yap, moan, thunder; (v) gnarl, banquet, regalia; (adj) refreshment.
ANTONYMS: (adj) uncongenial, mutter, complain, croak. tacitly: (adv) unspokenly, implicitly,
unfriendly, disagreeable, hostile, ill-will: (n) enmity. impliedly, wordlessly, stilly,
incompatible, despicable, keyhole: (n) hole, mousehole, voicelessly, assumedly,
abominable, unsavory, reserved. pigeonhole, porthole, loophole, free unexpressedly.
expectant: (adj) hopeful, enceinte, throw line, peephole, knothole, twinkling: (n) moment, jiffy, minute,
anticipative, big, gravid, eager, pinhole, small hole. second, flash, trice, twinkle, wink,
heavy, confident, with child, pelt: (n) hide, skin, fell, coat; (v) split second, breath; (adj) sparkling.
watchful; (adj, v) pregnant. pepper, bombard, hurry, beat, hit, ANTONYM: (adj) dull.
14 A Christmas Carol

Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and
having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening with his
banker's-book, went home to bed. He lived in chambers which had once
belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a
lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so little business to be, that one
could scarcely help fancying 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. It
was old enough now, and dreary enough, for nobody lived in it but Scrooge, the
other rooms being all let out as offices. The yard was so dark that even Scrooge,
who knew its every stone, was fain to grope with his hands. The fog and frost so
hung about the black old gateway of the house, that it seemed as if the Genius of
the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the threshold.%
Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker on
the door, except that it was very large. 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. Let
it also be borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley,
since his last mention of his seven years' dead partner that afternoon. And then
let any man explain to me, if he can, how it happened that Scrooge, having his
key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any
intermediate process of change--not a knocker, but Marley's face.
Marley's face. It was not in impenetrable shadow as the other objects in the
yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar. It
was not angry or ferocious, but looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with
ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. The hair was curiously
stirred, as if by breath or hot air; and, though the eyes were wide open, they were
perfectly motionless. That, and its livid colour, made it horrible; but its horror
seemed to be in spite of the face and beyond its control, rather than a part of its
own expression.
As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a knocker again.

Thesaurus
beguiled: (adj) entranced, rapt, regularly, intently, stably, setly, blue, gray, ghastly, leaden, colorless,
fascinated, infatuated, enchanted, permanently, rigidly, unwaveringly, angry, enraged. ANTONYMS: (adj)
delighted, charmed, captive, surely, resolutely. flushed, happy, pleased.
captivated. grope: (v) fumble, finger, grabble, mournful: (adj) sad, miserable,
bestowed: (adj) presented, conferred, search, handle, scrabble, paw, melancholy, funereal, dolorous, dark,
awarded, accurate. mishandle; (n, v) touch; (adj) groping; pensive, gloomy, lugubrious,
fain: (adj) willing, prepared, ready, (adv) gropingly. lamentable; (adj, n) plaintive.
favorable, heart and soul, prone; (adv) knocker: (n) boob, tit, breast, ANTONYMS: (adj) joyful, happy,
gladly, lief, readily, willingly; (v) doorknocker, nipple, knock, door- emotionless.
optative. knocker, depreciator, disparager, tavern: (n) hotel, saloon, bar, inn, pub,
fancying: (n) daydream, fantasy. detractor, hatemonger. public house, pothouse, taphouse,
fixedly: (adv) steadily, steadfastly, livid: (adj) furious, irate, ashen, mad, cabaret, khan, hostelry.
 Charles Dickens 15

To say that he was not startled, or that his blood was not conscious of a
terrible sensation to which it had been a stranger from infancy, would be untrue.
But he put his hand upon the key he had relinquished, turned it sturdily,
walked in, and lighted his candle.%
He did pause, with a moment's irresolution, before he shut the door; and he
did look cautiously behind it first, as if he half expected to be terrified with the
sight of Marley's pigtail sticking out into the hall. But there was nothing on the
back of the door, except the screws and nuts that held the knocker on, so he said
"Pooh, pooh!" and closed it with a bang.
The sound resounded through the house like thunder. Every room above,
and every cask in the wine-merchant's cellars below, appeared to have a
separate peal of echoes of its own. Scrooge was not a man to be frightened by
echoes. He fastened the door, and walked across the hall, and up the stairs;
slowly too: trimming his candle as he went.
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. There
was plenty of width for that, and room to spare; which is perhaps the reason
why Scrooge thought he saw a locomotive hearse going on before him in the
gloom. Half-a-dozen gas-lamps out of the street wouldn't have lighted the entry
too well, so you may suppose that it was pretty dark with Scrooge's dip.
Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that. Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge
liked it. But before he shut his heavy door, he walked through his rooms to see
that all was right. He had just enough recollection of the face to desire to do that.
Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room. All as they should be. Nobody under
the table, nobody under the sofa; a small fire in the grate; spoon and basin ready;
and the little saucepan of gruel (Scrooge had a cold in his head) upon the hob.
Nobody under the bed; nobody in the closet; nobody in his dressing-gown,
which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude against the wall. Lumber-room as

Thesaurus
appeared: (n) appearing. irresolution: (n) indecisiveness, thin spun tobacco.
broadwise: (adv) breadthways. hesitation, doubt, irresoluteness, relinquished: (adj) forsaken, deserted,
cask: (n) bucket, butt, tun, tub, drum, indetermination, shilly-shally, derelict, unoccupied, given,
vat, hogshead, keg, coffin, uncertainty, hesitancy, incertitude, surrendered.
containerful, vessel. dubiety, suspense. ANTONYMS: (n) sturdily: (adv) strongly, firmly, stoutly,
cellars: (n) cellar. resolution, decisiveness, solidly, robustly, hardily, powerfully,
gruel: (n) mess, congee, loblolly, paste, determination. soundly, hardly, substantially,
waste, porridge, mush, pap, skilly, peal: (n) ding, noise, clang, dingdong, stalwartly. ANTONYMS: (adv)
wet feed. blast; (v) chime, knell, toll, echo; (adj, lightly, flimsily, slightly.
hearse: (n) catafalque, coffin, entomb, n) swell; (n, v) bang. trimming: (n) decoration, dressing,
urn, shell, sarcophagus, pall, cinerary pigtail: (v) braid, tail, flap, skirt, train; adornment, ornament, fringe, border,
urn, auto, car, automobile. (n) ponytail, tress, coil, pendulum, clipping, cutting, frill, edging, lace.
16 A Christmas Carol

usual. Old fire-guard, old shoes, two fish-baskets, washing-stand on three legs,
and a poker.%
Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked himself in; double-locked
himself in, which was not his custom. 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.
It was a very low fire indeed; nothing on such a bitter night. 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. The fireplace was an old one, built by some
Dutch merchant long ago, and paved all round with quaint Dutch tiles, designed
to illustrate the Scriptures. There were Cains and Abels, Pharaoh's daughters;
Queens of Sheba, Angelic messengers descending through the air on clouds like
feather-beds, Abrahams, Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in butter-boats,
hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts; and yet that face of Marley, seven
years dead, came like the ancient Prophet's rod, and swallowed up the whole. 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.
"Humbug!" said Scrooge; and walked across the room.
After several turns, he sat down again. As he threw his head back in the
chair, his glance happened to rest upon a bell, a disused bell, that hung in the
room, and communicated for some purpose now forgotten with a chamber in the
highest story of the building. It was with great astonishment, and with a strange,
inexplicable dread, that as he looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. It swung
so softly in the outset that it scarcely made a sound; but soon it rang out loudly,
and so did every bell in the house.
This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it seemed an hour. The
bells ceased as they had begun, together. 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. Scrooge then remembered to have heard that
ghosts in haunted houses were described as dragging chains.
Thesaurus
brood: (n, v) breed; (v) sulk, think, muddled. ANTONYMS: (adj) jointed, preternatural. ANTONYMS: (adj)
incubate; (n) offspring, issue, united, affiliated, attached, understandable, explicable,
progeny, young, posterity, family; connected, continuous. mundane, apparent, explainable,
(adj, n) herd. ANTONYMS: (v) disused: (adj) antiquated, old, straightforward, natural, legible.
reassure, delight, console. outmoded, deserted, ancient, antique, nightcap: (n) drink, dram, game, cap,
cravat: (n) neckerchief, neckcloth, neglected, derelict, unoccupied, old- mobcap, drop.
stock, ascot, collar, handkerchief, fashioned, abandoned. paved: (adj) cobbled.
scarf, neckwear, necktie, ruff. inexplicable: (adj) incomprehensible, quaint: (adj) odd, funny, picturesque,
disjointed: (adj) disconnected, mysterious, unaccountable, comical, fanciful, curious, whimsical,
confused, split, broken, dislocated, inscrutable, unfathomable, enigmatic, strange, queer, peculiar, droll.
rambling, unconnected, disordered, baffling, indecipherable, ANTONYMS: (adj) modern,
fragmentary, discontinuous, unexplained, incognizable, ordinary, dull.
 Charles Dickens 17

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.%
"It's humbug still!" said Scrooge. "I won't believe it."
His colour changed though, when, without a pause, it came on through the
heavy door, and passed into the room before his eyes. Upon its coming in, the
dying flame leaped up, as though it cried, "I know him; Marley's Ghost!" and fell
again.
The same face: the very same. 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. The chain he drew was clasped about his middle. It
was long, and wound about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge
observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy
purses wrought in steel. His body was transparent; so that Scrooge, observing
him, and looking through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his coat
behind.
Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had never
believed it until now.
No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he looked the phantom through
and through, and saw it standing before him; though he felt the chilling
influence of its death-cold eyes; and marked the very texture of the folded
kerchief bound about its head and chin, which wrapper he had not observed
before; he was still incredulous, and fought against his senses.
"How now!" said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever. "What do you want with
me?"
"Much!"--Marley's voice, no doubt about it.
"Who are you?"
"Ask me who I was."

Thesaurus
bowels: (n) gut, compassion, pity, ANTONYMS: (adj) gentle, kind, ANTONYM: (adj) convinced.
inside, bowel, viscera, innards, belly, soothing, smooth, nice, sweet, calm, kerchief: (n) napkin, neckerchief,
guts, insides, intestines. complimentary, constructive. hood, snood, headscarf, muffler,
bristling: (n) brisling; (adj) thorny, chilling: (adj) icy, bloodcurdling, scarf, shawl, coif, babushka, Kercher.
muricated, pectinated, studded, wintry, macabre, ghastly, cold, scary, phantom: (n, v) apparition, phantasm,
thistly, bristled, bushy, teeming, apathetic; (n) cooling, freezing, vision, phantasma; (n) spectre,
horrid, horrent. refrigeration. ANTONYM: (adj) specter, appearance, shade, shadow,
buttons: (n) bellboy, peyote. reassuring. wraith, spirit.
caustic: (adj, v) acrid, sharp, severe; incredulous: (adj) dubious, doubtful, wrapper: (n) cover, wrap, cloak,
(adj) bitter, acrimonious, corrosive, suspicious, unbelieving, faithless, peignoir, housecoat, neglige,
sarcastic, acerbic; (v) acute; (adj, n, v) skeptical, doubting, lacking faith, envelope, wrapping, covering, dust
pungent; (adj, n) trenchant. questioning, cynical, mistrustful. cover, mantle.
18 A Christmas Carol

"Who were you then?" said Scrooge, raising his voice. "You're particular, for a
shade." He was going to say "to a shade," but substituted this, as more
appropriate.%
"In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley."
"Can you--can you sit down?" asked Scrooge, looking doubtfully at him.
"I can."
"Do it, then."
Scrooge asked the question, because he didn't know whether a ghost so
transparent might find himself in a condition to take a chair; and felt that in the
event of its being impossible, it might involve the necessity of an embarrassing
explanation. But the ghost sat down on the opposite side of the fireplace, as if he
were quite used to it.
"You don't believe in me," observed the Ghost.
"I don't," said Scrooge.
"What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?"
"I don't know," said Scrooge.
"Why do you doubt your senses?"
"Because," said Scrooge, "a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the
stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of
mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of
gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"
Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking jokes, nor did he feel, in his
heart, by any means waggish then. The truth is, that he tried to be smart, as a
means of distracting his own attention, and keeping down his terror; for the
spectre's voice disturbed the very marrow in his bones.
To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence for a moment, would play,
Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him. There was something very awful, too, in
the spectre's being provided with an infernal atmosphere of its own. Scrooge
could not feel it himself, but this was clearly the case; for though the Ghost sat

Thesaurus
crumb: (adj, n) morsel, seed; (n) (v) riveting, exciting. underdone: (adj) raw, undercooked,
fragment, speck, scrap, grain, atom, gravy: (adj) juice, sap, blood, sanies, meshugge, bloody, thinly scattered,
trace, spot, iota; (adj) scantling. rheum, ichor; (n) godsend, bunce, uncooked, crazy, nearly raw, not
ANTONYMS: (n) pile, mass, lot, bonus, dressing, incentive. frequent, meshuga, pink.
heap, chunk. infernal: (adj) devilish, fiendish, ANTONYM: (adj) overcooked.
deuce: (n) devil, couple, two, dyad, diabolical, demonic, damned, cursed, undigested: (adj) indigestible,
demon, duo, duet, Twain, Dickens, blasted, unholy, wicked; (adj, v) unconcocted, raw, not resolved, not
brace, craps. diabolic, satanic. digested, indigest, immature, crude,
distracting: (adj) unsettling, marrow: (adj, n) gist, pith, not methodical.
vociferous, unruly, troublesome, quintessence; (n) substance, heart, waggish: (adj) jocular, humorous,
troublemaking, misleading, kernel, core, content, center, jocose, funny, comical, droll, comic,
embarrassing, divulsive, disruptive; backbone; (adj) quiddity. sportive, witty, arch, farcical.
 Charles Dickens 19

perfectly motionless, its hair, and skirts, and tassels, were still agitated as by the
hot vapour from an oven.%
"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.
"I do," replied the Ghost.
"You are not looking at it," said Scrooge.
"But I see it," said the Ghost, "notwithstanding."
"Well!" returned Scrooge, "I have but to swallow this, and be for the rest of
my days persecuted by a legion of goblins, all of my own creation. Humbug, I
tell you! humbug!"
At this the spirit raised a frightful cry, and shook its chain with such a dismal
and appalling noise, that Scrooge held on tight to his chair, to save himself from
falling in a swoon. But how much greater was his horror, when the phantom
taking off the bandage round its head, as if it were too warm to wear indoors, its
lower jaw dropped down upon its breast!
Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands before his face.
"Mercy!" he said. "Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me?"
"Man of the worldly mind!" replied the Ghost, "do you believe in me or not?"
"I do," said Scrooge. "I must. But why do spirits walk the earth, and why do
they come to me?"
"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. It is doomed to
wander through the world--oh, woe is me!--and witness what it cannot share, but
might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!"
Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain and wrung its shadowy
hands.
"You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell me why?"

Thesaurus
agitated: (adj) upset, excited, nervous, ANTONYM: (v) undress. spectre: (n) phantasm, shadow, shade,
restive, tumultuous, distressed, tense, frightful: (adj, v) fearful; (adj) phantom, apparition, ghost, spook,
jumpy, overwrought, anxious, formidable, awful, fearsome, wraith, revenant, terror, eidolon.
alarmed. ANTONYMS: (adj) calm, appalling, gruesome, horrible, stony: (adj) rocky, hard, rough,
lethargic, tranquil, relaxed, assured, terrible, dread, frightening, grim. callous, cold, pitiless, flinty,
cool, still. ANTONYMS: (adj) wonderful, unfeeling, obdurate, bleak, icy.
apparition: (n) ghost, phantom, spirit, calming, soothing, pleasant, lovely, ANTONYMS: (adj) smooth, kind.
spectre, hallucination, spook, shade, fair. swoon: (adj, n, v) faint; (adj, n)
eidolon, wraith, advent; (n, v) vision. knees: (n) knee. collapse; (n) fainting, syncope,
bandage: (v) bind, wrap, dress, persecuted: (adj) downtrodden, prostration, deliquium; (v) conk,
envelop; (adj, n) truss, tie; (n) swathe, aggrieved, laden, mistreated, black out, pass out, die; (adj) puff.
binding, roller, gauze; (adj) string. wronged.
20 A Christmas Carol

"I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by link,
and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I
wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?"
Scrooge trembled more and more.%
"Or would you know," pursued the Ghost, "the weight and length of the
strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven
Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!"
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.
"Jacob," he said, imploringly. "Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak comfort
to me, Jacob!"
"I have none to give," the Ghost replied. "It comes from other regions,
Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men.
Nor can I tell you what I would. A very little more is all permitted to me. I
cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked
beyond our counting-house--mark me!--in life my spirit never roved beyond the
narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me!"
It was a habit with Scrooge, whenever he became thoughtful, to put his hands
in his breeches pockets. Pondering on what the Ghost had said, he did so now,
but without lifting up his eyes, or getting off his knees.
"You must have been very slow about it, Jacob," Scrooge observed, in a
business-like manner, though with humility and deference.
"Slow!" the Ghost repeated.
"Seven years dead," mused Scrooge. "And travelling all the time!"
"The whole time," said the Ghost. "No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of
remorse."
"You travel fast?" said Scrooge.
"On the wings of the wind," replied the Ghost.

Thesaurus
breeches: (n) knickers, inexpressibles, frequent. ANTONYMS: (adj) pondering: (adj) pensive, musing,
knickerbockers, brogues, short, intermittent, occasional, sporadic, meditative, contemplative,
smalls, overalls, small clothes, pants, broken, finite. thoughtful, reflective; (n)
trousers, pantaloons. laboured: (adj) labored, forced, consideration, deliberation,
conveyed: (v) borne, sent. arduous, hard, strained, difficult, cogitation, reflection, lucubration.
imploringly: (adv) beseechingly, laborious, grievous, grave, weighty, ponderous: (adj) heavy, grave,
pleadingly, importunately, unnatural. onerous, burdensome, massive,
beggingly, suppliantly, appealingly. linger: (v) loiter, delay, dally, hover, unwieldy, bulky, stodgy, hard,
incessant: (adj) endless, continual, stay, hesitate, hang around, tedious, dull. ANTONYMS: (adj)
everlasting, eternal, constant, procrastinate, dawdle, tarry, saunter. elegant, graceful, lively, brisk,
continuous, perpetual, unremitting, ANTONYMS: (v) hurry, end, rush, manageable.
interminable, persistent; (adj, v) depart, lead. pursued: (n) hunted person.
 Charles Dickens 21

"You might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years," said
Scrooge.%
The Ghost, on hearing this, set up another cry, and clanked its chain so
hideously in the dead silence of the night, that the Ward would have been
justified in indicting it for a nuisance.
"Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed," cried the phantom, "not to know,
that ages of incessant labour by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into
eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know
that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be,
will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know
that no space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused! Yet
such was I! Oh! such was I!"
"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who
now began to apply this to himself.
"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my
business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance,
and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a
drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"
It held up its chain at arm's length, as if that were the cause of all its
unavailing grief, and flung it heavily upon the ground again.
"At this time of the rolling year," the spectre said, "I suffer most. 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! Were
there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!"
Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the spectre going on at this rate,
and began to quake exceedingly.
"Hear me!" cried the Ghost. "My time is nearly gone."
"I will," said Scrooge. "But don't be hard upon me! Don't be flowery, Jacob!
Pray!"

Thesaurus
abode: (n) dwelling, house, residence, ANTONYMS: (n) impatience, tremble, shudder, shake; (adj, n, v)
place, domicile, lodge, abidance, intolerance. shiver; (v) quail, flutter, flicker,
mansion, lodging, address, seat. hideously: (adv) dreadfully, ghastly, vibrate, fluctuate.
flowery: (adj, v) florid; (adj) bloomy, awfully, loathsomely, horrendously, unavailing: (adj) fruitless, bootless,
floral, blossomy, figurative, fancy, fearfully, odiously, gruesomely, useless, ineffectual, inefficacious,
verbose, rhetorical, elaborate, shockingly, repulsively, heinously. otiose, inutile, ineffective, idle, vain,
ornamented; (v) gay. ANTONYM: ANTONYMS: (adv) pleasantly, pointless.
(adj) concise. wonderfully, appealingly. wringing: (adj) saturated, soaked,
forbearance: (n) patience, clemency, misused: (adj) tainted, perverted, lost, soaked to the skin, soaking wet,
pardon, abstention, abstinence, changed, misrepresented. sodden, sopping, sopping wet, wet,
mercy, longanimity, avoidance, ANTONYMS: (adj) unchanged, used. wet through, wringing wet, soaking.
postponement, indulgence, restraint. quake: (n) earthquake; (n, v) tremor, ANTONYM: (adj) dry.
22 A Christmas Carol

"How it is that I appear before you in a shape that you can see, I may not tell.
I have sat invisible beside you many and many a day."
It was not an agreeable idea. Scrooge shivered, and wiped the perspiration
from his brow.%
"That is no light part of my penance," pursued the Ghost. "I am here to-night
to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A chance
and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer."
"You were always a good friend to me," said Scrooge. "Thank'ee!"
"You will be haunted," resumed the Ghost, "by Three Spirits."
Scrooge's countenance fell almost as low as the Ghost's had done.
"Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob?" he demanded, in a
faltering voice.
"It is."
"I--I think I'd rather not," said Scrooge.
"Without their visits," said the Ghost, "you cannot hope to shun the path I
tread. Expect the first to-morrow, when the bell tolls One."
"Couldn't I take 'em all at once, and have it over, Jacob?" hinted Scrooge.
"Expect the second on the next night at the same hour. The third upon the
next night when the last stroke of Twelve has ceased to vibrate. Look to see me
no more; and look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed
between us!"
When it had said these words, the spectre took its wrapper from the table,
and bound it round its head, as before. Scrooge knew this, by the smart sound its
teeth made, when the jaws were brought together by the bandage. He ventured
to raise his eyes again, and found his supernatural visitor confronting him in an
erect attitude, with its chain wound over and about its arm.
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.

Thesaurus
ceased: (adj) finished. irresolute, hesitant, uncertain, flee, refuse, shirk, ostracize, banish,
confronting: (n) braving, facing, unsure; (adv) falteringly. parry; (adj, v) eschew. ANTONYMS:
tackling, opposition, grappling, ANTONYMS: (adj) decided, firm, (v) befriend, invite, seek, welcome,
coping with; (adj) opposed. eloquent, decisive, sure. woo, court, participate, include.
countenance: (n) aspect, expression, hinted: (adj) veiled, roundabout, not supernatural: (adj) mystical,
brow, complexion; (n, v) face, explicit, implicit, coded, oblique. preternatural, weird, superhuman,
sanction, support, favor; (v) allow, perspiration: (n) diaphoresis, hidrosis, eerie, uncanny, unnatural,
tolerate, uphold. ANTONYMS: (v) sudor, sweating, extravasation, mysterious, ghostly, divine; (n)
reject, oppose, discourage, secretion, exertion, exudation, effort, occult. ANTONYM: (adj) normal.
disapprove, prohibit. lather, water. vibrate: (v) shake, shiver, oscillate,
faltering: (n) falter, pause, vacillation; procuring: (v) procure. tremble, quiver, shudder, swing,
(adj) tentative, vacillating, doubtful, shun: (v) evade, escape, elude, dodge, wobble, palpitate, thrill, throb.
 Charles Dickens 23

It beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did. When they were within two
paces of each other, Marley's Ghost held up its hand, warning him to come no
nearer. Scrooge stopped.%
Not so much in obedience, as in surprise and fear: for on the raising of the
hand, he became sensible of confused noises in the air; incoherent sounds of
lamentation and regret; wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and self-accusatory.
The spectre, after listening for a moment, joined in the mournful dirge; and
floated out upon the bleak, dark night.
Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his curiosity. He looked out.
The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless
haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley's
Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; none
were free. Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. He had
been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous
iron safe attached to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a
wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step. The
misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in
human matters, and had lost the power for ever.
Whether these creatures faded into mist, or mist enshrouded them, he could
not tell. But they and their spirit voices faded together; and the night became as it
had been when he walked home.
Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door by which the Ghost had
entered. It was double-locked, as he had locked it with his own hands, and the
bolts were undisturbed. He tried to say "Humbug!" but stopped at the first
syllable. And being, from the emotion he had undergone, or the fatigues of the
day, or his glimpse of the Invisible World, or the dull conversation of the Ghost,
or the lateness of the hour, much in need of repose; went straight to bed, without
undressing, and fell asleep upon the instant.

Thesaurus
dirge: (n) coronach, threnode, lateness: (n) slowness, delay, recreation, relaxation; (v) lay.
threnody, requiem, lamentation, sluggishness, timing, dilatoriness, ANTONYMS: (n, v) work; (n)
epicedium, elegy, song, monody; late, slothfulness, earliness, late activity, panic, agitation.
(adj) deep death song, nenia. maturity, tarriance, posteriority. sorrowful: (adj) melancholy, doleful,
hither: (adv) here, whither, ANTONYMS: (n) promptness, sad, rueful, lugubrious, gloomy,
hitherward, thither. punctuality, earliness. dreary, grievous, piteous, unhappy,
inexpressibly: (adv) unspeakably, piteously: (adj, adv) sadly; (adv) mournful. ANTONYMS: (adj)
indescribably, beyond words. pitifully, wretchedly, ruefully, cheerful, content, joyful, successful.
lamentation: (n) dirge, grief, woefully, poorly, plaintively, sorrily, thither: (adv) hither, whither, on that
mourning, plaint, regret, complaint, grievously, sorrowfully, dolefully. point, in that respect, at that place, in
cry, crying, wail, moan, condolence. repose: (n, v) recline, peace, lie, calm; that location; (adj) further, ulterior,
ANTONYM: (n) celebration. (n) composure, ease, quiet, leisure, remoter, succeeding, more distant.
 Charles Dickens 25

STAVE II:

THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS

WHEN Scrooge awoke, it was so dark, that looking out of bed, he could
scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque walls of his
chamber. He was endeavouring to pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes, when
the chimes of a neighbouring church struck the four quarters. So he listened for
the hour.%
To his great astonishment the heavy bell went on from six to seven, and from
seven to eight, and regularly up to twelve; then stopped. Twelve! It was past two
when he went to bed. The clock was wrong. An icicle must have got into the
works. Twelve!
He touched the spring of his repeater, to correct this most preposterous
clock. Its rapid little pulse beat twelve: and stopped.
"Why, it isn't possible," said Scrooge, "that I can have slept through a whole
day and far into another night. It isn't possible that anything has happened to the
sun, and this is twelve at noon!"
The idea being an alarming one, he scrambled out of bed, and groped his
way to the window. He was obliged to rub the frost off with the sleeve of his
dressing-gown before he could see anything; and could see very little then. All
Thesaurus
alarming: (adj) scary, alarm, awful, icicle: (n) ice, ickle, isicle. monstrous, inconsistent; (adj, v)
formidable, shocking, appalling, opaque: (adj) dense, muddy, obscure, extravagant. ANTONYMS: (adj)
awesome, dire, horrid, horrible, cloudy, hazy, murky, thick, sensible, reasonable, impressive,
dreadful. ANTONYMS: (adj) unintelligible, milky, misty, vague. plausible.
soothing, lovely, normal. ANTONYM: (adj) transparent. repeater: (v) floater, Indian giver,
awoke: (adj) awakened. pierce: (n, v) cut, prick, stick; (v) keener; (n) repeating firearm,
chimes: (n) bells, echo, refrain, perforate, bore, enter, thrust, habitual criminal, revolver, criminal,
repetend, ritornello, glockenspiel. puncture, penetrate; (adj, v) stab, soul, master clock, somebody,
ferret: (n) detective, Mustela nigripes, wound. ANTONYM: (v) seal. someone.
foulmart, fitch, musteline, mustelid; preposterous: (adj) absurd, irrational, scrambled: (adj) twisted, snarled,
(v) grub, ferret out, search, seek, ludicrous, nonsensical, foolish, miscellaneous, knotted, jumbled.
ransack. ridiculous, laughable, derisory, went: (v) walked, proceeded.
26 A Christmas Carol

he could make out was, that it was still very foggy and extremely cold, and that
there was no noise of people running to and fro, and making a great stir, as there
unquestionably would have been if night had beaten off bright day, and taken
possession of the world. This was a great relief, because "three days after sight of
this First of Exchange pay to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge or his order," and so forth,
would have become a mere United States' security if there were no days to count
by.%
Scrooge went to bed again, and thought, and thought, and thought it over
and over and over, and could make nothing of it. The more he thought, the more
perplexed he was; and the more he endeavoured not to think, the more he
thought.
Marley's Ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he resolved within
himself, after mature inquiry, that it was all a dream, his mind flew back again,
like a strong spring released, to its first position, and presented the same problem
to be worked all through, "Was it a dream or not?"
Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone three quarters more, when
he remembered, on a sudden, that the Ghost had warned him of a visitation
when the bell tolled one. He resolved to lie awake until the hour was passed;
and, considering that he could no more go to sleep than go to Heaven, this was
perhaps the wisest resolution in his power.
The quarter was so long, that he was more than once convinced he must have
sunk into a doze unconsciously, and missed the clock. At length it broke upon
his listening ear.
"Ding, dong!"
"A quarter past," said Scrooge, counting.
"Ding, dong!"
"Half-past!" said Scrooge.
"Ding, dong!"
"A quarter to it," said Scrooge.

Thesaurus
chime: (n) carillon, melody; (adj) murky, blurred, bleary, fuzzy, up, dashed.
harmonize; (v) go, jingle, clang, peal, opaque, thick, indefinite, nebulous. unquestionably: (adv) certainly,
tinkle, buzz, ring, chimb. ANTONYMS: (adj) precise, sunny. definitely, indubitably, decidedly,
ding: (n, v) ring, chime, dingdong, din, perplexed: (adj) confused, puzzled, indisputably, positively, surely, of
veto; (v) jingle, peal, dong, strike, baffled, confounded, doubtful, course, assuredly, no doubt; (adj)
sound, tinkle. distracted, disconcerted; (adj, v) doubtless. ANTONYMS: (adv)
doze: (n, v) snooze, sleep, slumber, intricate, complicated, lost, involved. doubtfully, possibly, arguably.
drowse, siesta, forty winks, rest; (v) ANTONYMS: (adj) unperplexed, visitation: (v) visit, examination; (n)
catnap, nod, coma, nod off. assured, clear, knowing. tribulation, calamity, annoyance,
ANTONYM: (v) wake. sunk: (adj) sunken, undone, finished, misfortune, irritation, infliction,
ebenezer: (n) virginal. ruined, profound, immersed, inspection, test, ordeal.
foggy: (adj) hazy, misty, brumous, damaged, lowed, lying flat; (v) cut worked: (adj) elaborated, beaten.
 Charles Dickens 27

"Ding, dong!"
"The hour itself," said Scrooge, triumphantly, "and nothing else!"
He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with a deep, dull,
hollow, melancholy ONE. Light flashed up in the room upon the instant, and the
curtains of his bed were drawn.%
The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a hand. Not the
curtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his back, but those to which his face was
addressed. The curtains of his bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge, starting up
into a half-recumbent attitude, found himself face to face with the unearthly
visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am now to you, and I am standing in the
spirit at your elbow.
It was a strange figure--like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man,
viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of
having receded from the view, and being diminished to a child's proportions. Its
hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was white as if with age; and
yet the face had not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The
arms were very long and muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold were of
uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were, like those
upper members, bare. It wore a tunic of the purest white; and round its waist
was bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held a branch of
fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular contradiction of that wintry
emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the strangest thing
about it was, that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of
light, by which all this was visible; and which was doubtless the occasion of its
using, in its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held
under its arm.
Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing steadiness, was
not its strangest quality. For as its belt sparkled and glittered now in one part
and now in another, and what was light one instant, at another time was dark, so
the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness: being now a thing with one arm,
now with one leg, now with twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now
Thesaurus
distinctness: (n) clearness, sharpness, steadiness: (adj, n) stability, firmness, acceptable, normal, human.
definition, otherness, perspicuity, steadfastness; (n) regularity, wintry: (adj, v) frosty, glacial, freezing,
discreteness, articulate sound, equilibrium, consistency, resolution, icy; (adj) arctic, frigid, wintery,
separation, uncloudedness, permanence, persistence, sureness; frozen, chilly, chill, hibernal.
dissimilarity; (adj) conspicuousness. (adj) stableness. ANTONYMS: (n) ANTONYMS: (adj) mild, summery,
ANTONYM: (n) indistinctness. unsteadiness, instability, hot, vernal, autumnal, balmy,
extinguisher: (n) device, asphyxiator. unreliability. tropical, warm.
lustrous: (adj, v) bright, splendent; unearthly: (adj) weird, ghostly, wrinkle: (n, v) crease, crinkle, fold,
(adj) glossy, brilliant, lucid, shiny, uncanny, ethereal, unworldly, rumple, crumple, furrow, pucker; (v)
shining, light, luminous, sleek, preternatural, spectral, eerie, ruffle; (n) gather, line; (adj, v) curl.
radiant. ANTONYM: (adj) unhealthy. spiritual, strange, heavenly. ANTONYMS: (v) unfold, straighten;
sounded: (adj) measured, oral. ANTONYMS: (adj) natural, physical, (n) smoothness.
28 A Christmas Carol

a head without a body: of which dissolving parts, no outline would be visible in

the dense gloom wherein they melted away. And in the very wonder of this, it
would be itself again; distinct and clear as ever.%
"Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?" asked Scrooge.
"I am!"
The voice was soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if instead of being so close
beside him, it were at a distance.
"Who, and what are you?" Scrooge demanded.
"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past."
"Long Past?" inquired Scrooge: observant of its dwarfish stature.
"No. Your past."
Perhaps, Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if anybody could have
asked him; but he had a special desire to see the Spirit in his cap; and begged him
to be covered.
"What!" exclaimed the Ghost, "would you so soon put out, with worldly
hands, the light I give? Is it not enough that you are one of those whose passions
made this cap, and force me through whole trains of years to wear it low upon
my brow!"
Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend or any knowledge of
having wilfully "bonneted" the Spirit at any period of his life. He then made bold
to inquire what business brought him there.
"Your welfare!" said the Ghost.
Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not help thinking that a
night of unbroken rest would have been more conducive to that end. The Spirit
must have heard him thinking, for it said immediately:
"Your reclamation, then. Take heed!"
It put out its strong hand as it spoke, and clasped him gently by the arm.
"Rise! and walk with me!"

Thesaurus
dissolving: (n) dissolution, breakup, ANTONYM: (v) answer. reverently: (adv) reverentially, piously,
dissipation, disintegration, observant: (adj) mindful, watchful, religiously, devoutly, deferentially,
destruction, cancellation, alert, cautious, circumspect, careful, worshipfully, solemnly, godly,
adjournment; (adj) solvent, diffluent, aware, heedful, vigilant, awake, keen. courteously, politely, obsequiously.
deliquescent. ANTONYMS: (adj) unobservant, ANTONYM: (adv) irreverently.
dwarfish: (adj) stunted, dwarfed, dreaming, insensitive, unprepared, wherein: (adv) in what, in which,
short, scrubby, little, tiny, puny, oblivious. where.
midget, miniature, small, petty. reclamation: (n) claim, reclaim, wilfully: (adv) willfully, designedly,
foretold: (adj) foreseen; (v) annunciate. retrieval, reformation, recovery, deliberately, knowingly, frowardly,
inquire: (v) demand, ask, explore, rectification, improvement, redress, headstrongly, consciously,
enquire, inspect, research, consult, requisition, renewal, rehabilitation. stubbornly, purposefully,
pry, request, wonder; (n, v) question. ANTONYMS: (n) loss, return. persistently, on purpose.
 Charles Dickens 29

It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the weather and the hour
were not adapted to pedestrian purposes; that bed was warm, and the
thermometer a long way below freezing; that he was clad but lightly in his
slippers, dressing-gown, and nightcap; and that he had a cold upon him at that
time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand, was not to be resisted. He
rose: but finding that the Spirit made towards the window, clasped his robe in
supplication.%
"I am a mortal," Scrooge remonstrated, "and liable to fall."
"Bear but a touch of my hand there," said the Spirit, laying it upon his heart,
"and you shall be upheld in more than this!"
As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall, and stood upon an
open country road, with fields on either hand. The city had entirely vanished.
Not a vestige of it was to be seen. The darkness and the mist had vanished with
it, for it was a clear, cold, winter day, with snow upon the ground.
"Good Heaven!" said Scrooge, clasping his hands together, as he looked
about him. "I was bred in this place. I was a boy here!"
The Spirit gazed upon him mildly. Its gentle touch, though it had been light
and instantaneous, appeared still present to the old man's sense of feeling. He
was conscious of a thousand odours floating in the air, each one connected with a
thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares long, long, forgotten!
"Your lip is trembling," said the Ghost. "And what is that upon your cheek?"
Scrooge muttered, with an unusual catching in his voice, that it was a
pimple; and begged the Ghost to lead him where he would.
"You recollect the way?" inquired the Spirit.
"Remember it!" cried Scrooge with fervour; "I could walk it blindfold."
"Strange to have forgotten it for so many years!" observed the Ghost. "Let us
go on."
They walked along the road, Scrooge recognising every gate, and post, and
tree; until a little market-town appeared in the distance, with its bridge, its

Thesaurus
clad: (adj) dressed, attired, clothed, precipitant, swift, momentaneous, thermometer: (n) thermocouple,
coated, garbed; (n) cladding; (prep) quick. ANTONYMS: (adj) gradual, thermograph, telethermometer,
gowned; (v) costume, shod, dress, delayed, considered. cryometer, pyrometer, platinum
attire. ANTONYMS: (adj) undressed, pimple: (n) boil, pustule, blister, thermometer, heat indicator, gas
unclothed. hickey, symptom, whitehead, papula, thermometer, candy thermometer; (v)
clasping: (adj) tendril. problem, preoccupation, eruption; (n, heliometer, galvanometer.
fervour: (n) ardour, fervidness, v) spot. upheld: (adj) supported, bolstered,
fervency, fervor, ardor, enthusiasm, recollect: (v) recall, remember, swelled out.
eagerness, zest, elan, ardency, fire. recognize, call to mind, remind, vestige: (n, v) trace, remains, track,
instantaneous: (adj) immediate, mind, think, call up, reminisce, token, footprint; (n) relic, shadow,
prompt, sudden, precipitate, refresh, retrieve. ANTONYM: (v) remnant, indication, evidence,
momentary, abrupt, precipitous, forget. remainder.
30 A Christmas Carol

church, and winding river. Some shaggy ponies now were seen trotting towards
them with boys upon their backs, who called to other boys in country gigs and
carts, driven by farmers. All these boys were in great spirits, and shouted to each
other, until the broad fields were so full of merry music, that the crisp air
laughed to hear it!
"These are but shadows of the things that have been," said the Ghost. "They
have no consciousness of us."
The jocund travellers came on; and as they came, Scrooge knew and named
them every one. Why was he rejoiced beyond all bounds to see them! Why did
his cold eye glisten, and his heart leap up as they went past! Why was he filled
with gladness when he heard them give each other Merry Christmas, as they
parted at cross-roads and bye-ways, for their several homes! What was merry
Christmas to Scrooge? Out upon merry Christmas! What good had it ever done
to him?
"The school is not quite deserted," said the Ghost. "A solitary child, neglected
by his friends, is left there still."
Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed.%
They left the high-road, by a well-remembered lane, and soon approached a
mansion of dull red brick, with a little weathercock-surmounted cupola, on the
roof, and a bell hanging in it. It was a large house, but one of broken fortunes; for
the spacious offices were little used, their walls were damp and mossy, their
windows broken, and their gates decayed. Fowls clucked and strutted in the
stables; and the coach-houses and sheds were over-run with grass. Nor was it
more retentive of its ancient state, within; for entering the dreary hall, and
glancing through the open doors of many rooms, they found them poorly
furnished, cold, and vast. There was an earthy savour in the air, a chilly bareness
in the place, which associated itself somehow with too much getting up by
candle-light, and not too much to eat.
They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a door at the back of the
house. It opened before them, and disclosed a long, bare, melancholy room,

Thesaurus
bareness: (n) nakedness, nudity, decayed: (adj) spoiled, corrupt, glance, shimmer, glitter, glister; (v)
austerity, starkness, emptiness, dilapidated, rank, rusty, rotting, glimmer, beam, coruscate, glint.
nudeness, bleakness, baldness, decaying, rotted, putrid; (adj, v) jocund: (adj) happy, merry, glad,
blankness, barrenness, plainness. wasted; (v) stale. ANTONYMS: (adj) cheerful, lively, joyous, joyful, blithe;
ANTONYMS: (n) lushness, clothed, matured, restored, strengthened. (adj, v) jovial, jolly, brisk.
cheerfulness, warmth. fowls: (n) poultry. mossy: (adj) floral, mosslike, moldy,
cross-roads: (n) intersection, crossing, gladness: (n) joy, gaiety, pleasure, hoary, musty, covered, musciform,
crossroad. delight, bliss, glee, happiness, stodgy, hoar, chromatic, canescent.
cupola: (adj, n) dome; (adj) turret, exhilaration, joyfulness, mirth, retentive: (adj) strong, retaining,
column, campanile, tower, minaret; cheerfulness. ANTONYMS: (n) absorbent, adhesive, glutinous,
(n) furnace, eaves, balcony, cupola unhappiness, dismay, displeasure. closefisted, cohesive; (v) fast, closely
furnace, lookout. glisten: (n, v) gleam, sparkle, flash, adhering, deep, dissipated.
 Charles Dickens 31

made barer still by lines of plain deal forms and desks. At one of these a lonely
boy was reading near a feeble fire; and Scrooge sat down upon a form, and wept
to see his poor forgotten self as he used to be.%
Not a latent echo in the house, not a squeak and scuffle from the mice behind
the panelling, not a drip from the half-thawed water-spout in the dull yard
behind, not a sigh among the leafless boughs of one despondent poplar, not the
idle swinging of an empty store-house door, no, not a clicking in the fire, but fell
upon the heart of Scrooge with a softening influence, and gave a freer passage to
his tears.
The Spirit touched him on the arm, and pointed to his younger self, intent
upon his reading. Suddenly a man, in foreign garments: wonderfully real and
distinct to look at: stood outside the window, with an axe stuck in his belt, and
leading by the bridle an ass laden with wood.
"Why, it's Ali Baba!" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. "It's dear old honest Ali
Baba! Yes, yes, I know! One Christmas time, when yonder solitary child was left
here all alone, he did come, for the first time, just like that. Poor boy! And
Valentine," said Scrooge, "and his wild brother, Orson; there they go! And what's
his name, who was put down in his drawers, asleep, at the Gate of Damascus;
don't you see him! And the Sultan's Groom turned upside down by the Genii;
there he is upon his head! Serve him right. I'm glad of it. What business had he to
be married to the Princess!"
To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature on such subjects,
in a most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying; and to see his
heightened and excited face; would have been a surprise to his business friends
in the city, indeed.
"There's the Parrot!" cried Scrooge. "Green body and yellow tail, with a thing
like a lettuce growing out of the top of his head; there he is! Poor Robin Crusoe,
he called him, when he came home again after sailing round the island. 'Poor
Robin Crusoe, where have you been, Robin Crusoe?' The man thought he was
dreaming, but he wasn't. It was the Parrot, you know. There goes Friday,
running for his life to the little creek! Halloa! Hoop! Halloo!"
Thesaurus
clicking: (n) tick. frivolousness, cheerfulness, leafy.
despondent: (adj) desperate, dejected, insincerity, flippancy. scuffle: (n, v) tussle, fight, scrap,
depressed, hopeless, disappointed, expending: (n) outlay, spending, struggle, disturbance, encounter; (v)
desolate, gloomy, downcast, disbursement, consumption, grapple, shuffle; (n) melee, scramble,
downhearted, forlorn, low. disbursal, expenditure; (v) spend. fighting.
ANTONYMS: (adj) hopeful, cheerful, halloa: (v) shout, bawl, brawl, cry, upside: (n) crest, crown, poll, top side,
optimistic, joyful, elated, euphoric. roar. upper side, pate, round top, acme,
earnestness: (n) seriousness, sincerity, hoop: (n) circle, band, ring, loop, summit, superlative, teetotum.
gravity, fervor, devotion, graveness, annulus, round, sphere, wheel, yonder: (adv) beyond, further, farther,
staidness, honesty; (adj, n) ardor, zeal, circlet, halo; (v) encircle. abroad, thither, further away, at that
intentness. ANTONYMS: (n) leafless: (adj) bald, bare, aphyllous, place; (adj) distant, yond, furious,
slackness, lightness, carelessness, leaveless, hairless. ANTONYM: (adj) fierce.
32 A Christmas Carol

Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his usual character, he said,
in pity for his former self, "Poor boy!" and cried again.%
"I wish," Scrooge muttered, putting his hand in his pocket, and looking about
him, after drying his eyes with his cuff: "but it's too late now."
"What is the matter?" asked the Spirit.
"Nothing," said Scrooge. "Nothing. There was a boy singing a Christmas
Carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something: that's all."
The Ghost smiled thoughtfully, and waved its hand: saying as it did so, "Let
us see another Christmas!"
Scrooge's former self grew larger at the words, and the room became a little
darker and more dirty. The panels shrunk, the windows cracked; fragments of
plaster fell out of the ceiling, and the naked laths were shown instead; but how
all this was brought about, Scrooge knew no more than you do. He only knew
that it was quite correct; that everything had happened so; that there he was,
alone again, when all the other boys had gone home for the jolly holidays.
He was not reading now, but walking up and down despairingly. Scrooge
looked at the Ghost, and with a mournful shaking of his head, glanced anxiously
towards the door.
It opened; and a little girl, much younger than the boy, came darting in, and
putting her arms about his neck, and often kissing him, addressed him as her
"Dear, dear brother."
"I have come to bring you home, dear brother!" said the child, clapping her
tiny hands, and bending down to laugh. "To bring you home, home, home!"
"Home, little Fan?" returned the boy.
"Yes!" said the child, brimful of glee. "Home, for good and all. Home, for
ever and ever. Father is so much kinder than he used to be, that home's like
Heaven! He spoke so gently to me one dear night when I was going to bed, that I
was not afraid to ask him once more if you might come home; and he said Yes,
you should; and sent me in a coach to bring you. And you're to be a man!" said

Thesaurus
brimful: (adj) teeming, brimfull, full, Sally. sorrow, despondency, displeasure,
packed, replete, topful, abundant, full despairingly: (adv) forlornly, misery, boredom.
to the brim, brimful of, crowded, desperately, despondently, rapidity: (n) expedition, quickness,
overfilled. dejectedly, sadly, desolately, promptness, dispatch, celerity, haste,
clapping: (n) clap, acclaim, hand, disconsolately, resignedly, velocity, pace, fleetness,
clapping of hands, cheering, sorrowfully, frantically, franticly. promptitude, speed. ANTONYM: (n)
handclap, ovation, slapping, plaudit, ANTONYMS: (adv) energetically, tardiness.
round, approval. expectantly, cheerfully. shrunk: (adj) contracted, wizened,
cuff: (n, v) hit, knock, clout, punch, glee: (n) delight, cheerfulness, mirth, withered, shrivelled, shriveled,
slap, whack, manacle, handcuff; (v) fun, gaiety, hilarity, joy, rejoicing, wizen, insipid, drawn grain, wearish.
box, buffet, beat. frolic, jubilation, happiness. waved: (adj) undulating, wavy, curly,
darting: (adj) arrowy, moving; (v) ANTONYMS: (n) sadness, gloom, not dated, undated.
 Charles Dickens 33

the child, opening her eyes, "and are never to come back here; but first, we're to
be together all the Christmas long, and have the merriest time in all the world."
"You are quite a woman, little Fan!" exclaimed the boy.%
She clapped her hands and laughed, and tried to touch his head; but being
too little, laughed again, and stood on tiptoe to embrace him. Then she began to
drag him, in her childish eagerness, towards the door; and he, nothing loth to go,
accompanied her.
A terrible voice in the hall cried, "Bring down Master Scrooge's box, there!"
and in the hall appeared the schoolmaster himself, who glared on Master
Scrooge with a ferocious condescension, and threw him into a dreadful state of
mind by shaking hands with him. He then conveyed him and his sister into the
veriest old well of a shivering best-parlour that ever was seen, where the maps
upon the wall, and the celestial and terrestrial globes in the windows, were waxy
with cold. Here he produced a decanter of curiously light wine, and a block of
curiously heavy cake, and administered instalments of those dainties to the
young people: at the same time, sending out a meagre servant to offer a glass of
"something" to the postboy, who answered that he thanked the gentleman, but if
it was the same tap as he had tasted before, he had rather not. Master Scrooge's
trunk being by this time tied on to the top of the chaise, the children bade the
schoolmaster good-bye right willingly; and getting into it, drove gaily down the
garden-sweep: the quick wheels dashing the hoar-frost and snow from off the
dark leaves of the evergreens like spray.
"Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have withered," said the
Ghost. "But she had a large heart!"
"So she had," cried Scrooge. "You're right. I will not gainsay it, Spirit. God
forbid!"
"She died a woman," said the Ghost, "and had, as I think, children."
"One child," Scrooge returned.
"True," said the Ghost. "Your nephew!"
Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind; and answered briefly, "Yes."
Thesaurus
bade: (v) bid, command, bad. flagon, amphora, cag, drum, firkin, postboy: (n) charioteer, coachman,
chaise: (n) shay, carriage, equipage, cask, butt. driver, Jehu, wagoner, drayman,
rig, coach, daybed, chaise longue, gainsay: (v) disavow, negate, whip, carter.
bed, cabriole chair, chair. contradict, deny, refute, controvert, tiptoe: (v) tip, tippytoe, creep, patter,
condescension: (n) arrogance, disclaim, impugn, oppose, contest, skirt, skip, tilt, sidle, lean; (adj) alert;
lordliness, disparagement, patronage, contravene. ANTONYMS: (v) agree, (n) quieter. ANTONYM: (v) clump.
affability, disdain, pride, correspond. veriest: (adj) of mark, pointed,
superciliousness, contempt, stoop, loth: (adj) disinclined, averse, remarkable.
depreciation. ANTONYMS: (n) reluctant, unwilling, indisposed, waxy: (adj) waxen, soft, waxlike,
respect, acceptance, admiration. antipathetical, antipathetic, not impressionable, soapy, like wax,
dainties: (n) delicacies, food, cates. content, shy of, repugnant; (v) averse slippery, saponaceous, sallow,
decanter: (n) carafe, jar, flask, jug, from. waxed, resembling wax.
34 A Christmas Carol

Although they had but that moment left the school behind them, they were
now in the busy thoroughfares of a city, where shadowy passengers passed and
repassed; where shadowy carts and coaches battled for the way, and all the strife
and tumult of a real city were. It was made plain enough, by the dressing of the
shops, that here too it was Christmas time again; but it was evening, and the
streets were lighted up.%
The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door, and asked Scrooge if he
knew it.
"Know it!" said Scrooge. "Was I apprenticed here!"
They went in. At sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh wig, sitting behind
such a high desk, that if he had been two inches taller he must have knocked his
head against the ceiling, Scrooge cried in great excitement:
"Why, it's old Fezziwig! Bless his heart; it's Fezziwig alive again!"
Old Fezziwig laid down his pen, and looked up at the clock, which pointed to
the hour of seven. He rubbed his hands; adjusted his capacious waistcoat;
laughed all over himself, from his shoes to his organ of benevolence; and called
out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice:
"Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick!"
Scrooge's former self, now grown a young man, came briskly in,
accompanied by his fellow-'prentice.
"Dick Wilkins, to be sure!" said Scrooge to the Ghost. "Bless me, yes. There he
is. He was very much attached to me, was Dick. Poor Dick! Dear, dear!"
"Yo ho, my boys!" said Fezziwig. "No more work to-night. Christmas Eve,
Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's have the shutters up," cried old Fezziwig, with a
sharp clap of his hands, "before a man can say Jack Robinson!"
You wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it! They charged into the
street with the shutters--one, two, three--had 'em up in their places--four, five,
six--barred 'em and pinned 'em--seven, eight, nine--and came back before you
could have got to twelve, panting like race-horses.

Thesaurus
apprenticed: (adj) articled, ignorant, expansive. ANTONYMS: (adj) small, ablaze, bright, ignited, burn, burning,
indented, unfree, indentured. confined, squeezed, tiny. ignite, kindled, lighten.
benevolence: (n) beneficence, clap: (n, v) blast, boom, slam, rumble; streets: (n) street.
affection, favor, mercy, compassion, (n) applause, clapping, gonorrhoea, tumult: (adj, n, v) hubbub, disturbance;
favour, kindness, benefaction, pity, smash; (v) acclaim, applaud, hit. (n) stir, commotion, bustle, din, fuss,
kindliness, generosity. ANTONYMS: ANTONYMS: (v) hiss, jeer. excitement; (n, v) clamor, disorder,
(n) malevolence, meanness, cruelty, jovial: (adj, n) gay; (adj) jolly, genial, brawl. ANTONYMS: (n) peace, push,
misanthropy, wickedness, nastiness, glad, festive, joyful, gleeful, merry, serenity, order, calm.
malice. jocund, cheerful, blithe. waistcoat: (n) CHUDDER, barbe,
capacious: (adj) large, big, ample, ANTONYMS: (adj) miserable, garment, jerkin, jubbah, oilskins,
roomy, broad, extensive, vast, gloomy, frosty, serious, hostile. pilot jacket, pajamas, cardigan,
commodious, voluminous, wide, lighted: (adj) illuminated, lit, light, singlet, talma jacket.
 Charles Dickens 35

"Hilli-ho!" cried old Fezziwig, skipping down from the high desk, with
wonderful agility. "Clear away, my lads, and let's have lots of room here! Hilli-
ho, Dick! Chirrup, Ebenezer!"
Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away, or couldn't
have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in a minute. Every
movable was packed off, as if it were dismissed from public life for evermore;
the floor was swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped
upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug, and warm, and dry, and bright a
ball-room, as you would desire to see upon a winter's night.%
In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the lofty desk, and
made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomach-aches. In came Mrs.
Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs, beaming
and lovable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they broke. In came
all the young men and women employed in the business. In came the
housemaid, with her cousin, the baker. In came the cook, with her brother's
particular friend, the milkman. In came the boy from over the way, who was
suspected of not having board enough from his master; trying to hide himself
behind the girl from next door but one, who was proved to have had her ears
pulled by her mistress. In they all came, one after another; some shyly, some
boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling; in they
all came, anyhow and everyhow. Away they all went, twenty couple at once;
hands half round and back again the other way; down the middle and up again;
round and round in various stages of affectionate grouping; old top couple
always turning up in the wrong place; new top couple starting off again, as soon
as they got there; all top couples at last, and not a bottom one to help them!
When this result was brought about, old Fezziwig, clapping his hands to stop the
dance, cried out, "Well done!" and the fiddler plunged his hot face into a pot of
porter, especially provided for that purpose. But scorning rest, upon his
reappearance, he instantly began again, though there were no dancers yet, as if
the other fiddler had been carried home, exhausted, on a shutter, and he were a
bran-new man resolved to beat him out of sight, or perish.

Thesaurus
chirrup: (v) cheep, peep, sing, trill, twiddler, tinkerer, drummer. ANTONYMS: (adj) immovable,
tweet, warble, emit, cuckoo; (adj, v) heaped: (adj) dense, cumulative, unchangeable.
carol, lilt; (n) twitter. concentrated, collective, coacervate, reappearance: (n) emersion,
evermore: (adj, adv) always, forever, thick. recurrence, repetition, resurrection,
ever; (adv) everlastingly, housemaid: (n) amah, maid, homecoming, reanimation,
forevermore, perpetually, ever and handmaiden, handmaid, comeback, egress, restoration,
again, for all time, until the end of maidservant, cleaning woman, girl, revival, reproduction.
time. ANTONYMS: (adv) ayah, charwoman, biddy, maiden. shutter: (n, v) close, shade; (n) curtain,
temporarily, suddenly. movable: (adj) portable, transferable, shut, blind, window, skylight,
fiddler: (n) Fiddler's money, mercurial, adjustable, ambulatory, deadlight, lid, louver, jalousie.
trumpeter, fifer, instrumentalist, changeable, transportable, moveable, watered: (adj) irriguous, dewy,
musician, player, piper, violin player, flexible, active; (v) shifting. watermarked, moist.
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
Op ,;,-, tr. VI. sect. i, c. i, dub. n. n. 68, t. il, p.236;Bucceroni,
Institutiones theologi ■ ■ decalogi prtucepto, § 4, n. 172, t. i. p. 23o
g Les mêmes conclusions s'appliquent à la divination parle sort, par
le jeu de dés, la courte paille, etc ,x,tr. XXI. e xi, p. H, n. 80-98. t. v.
P. 22s-u:«i ligione, tr. III, l. H, c. XII, n. 1-30, Op t xui p. 536-547:
Schmal/. miverSum, 1. V, t,.. xx,. n. 24-48 t. prompta bibl itheca,
Sors, t. vu. p. Val170; - Uphonsi ' ' "*• *' c' '' dub. H, n. 11-13, t. i. p.
364 sq.; D'Annibale, i>ummula theologise. n. 30-31.: mien, Opus
theol i t. n. p. 237-239: «V|-:-;ti. 5 p. 565; Bucceroni, Institutiones,
JambUqui divination ' 9' ,. III. 8 . ... Ti{"uve,H«.;i.l ' ' *XVI,41;V■ ■
187G; Maury, NeA-Y.i'k, 1877; Sai: 1877; Regel, D ' / 1878; M-
Clément. ; ; .'. M ;. . The astronomy and isact. ofth . ns, in-8 , .,,
dans l'antiquité, ■ cepto, c. m, a- i, S DeAngelis, Prxlectiones ju ■
Vnnibale, S : II, |. I, tr. Il, c. n seuil dn mystère, in-8', in-8-, Paris,
1891; Kiesewetler, Gesctochte des m kaltismus in-8'.Lei] ,„„. t, VI De
decalogi, ,■ 7 in-8-: Pral in*, Leipzig. 189 . . 1. III. sect il. a. 2, n. .3.
8 1901,1.11.., ' noroîts, 1.1. tr- H. c „ a 2 n. 351-364, 2 in-8,
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1 155 M \ [NATION DIVORCE 1456 li relitjwtii-, a. 1. |Tn]i.

Wlll, n 'i-Ji', s,, .. ■.;i,. Berardi 1 1 gecl. i. De : . ..i ., i-i ■ . i ..'n .i.
1905, '. n. i 152-I8:t in, moralium i ! i \ Divtnatio, I,] 65 : B InstitutU
s theoi. n. 468-478, Durerai» rg et Saglio, 8 in [i i . Paris, 1S77-1909,
t. Il, T. Ortolan. DIVINITÉ. Voir Dur. DIVORCE.— 1. Définition. II.
L'institution primitive. III. Le divorce dans l'Évangile. IV. Le divorce
dans les lois séculières, romaines et barbares. V. La pratique du
divorce aux temps mérovingiens et caro\ [. Le divorce dans le cas de
matrimonium ummatum. VII. Le divorce en droit naturel. VIII. Le
divorce civil spécialement en France. I. Définition. — En latin et dans
le langage canonique, le mot divortium désigne à la fois et la rupture
ibsolue du lien conjugal et une certaine rupture in plète qui permet
ou la simple séparation de corps ou la séparation de corps et de
biens. On distingue donc en latin le divortium pur et simple ou
divortium pleraum.el ledivoi ttum semiplenum. Dans l'histoire
disciplinaire ou canonique, on n'a pas toujours bien marqué cette
distinction entre le divurimm i
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1457 DI VO tirer, si elle est en deuil de ses père et mère

depuis moins de trois ans. si elle a enrichi son mari qu'elle j avait
épousé pauvre. Ibid., p. 110 sq. — En r.gypte, où | la femme
demeurant l'égale de son mari conserve l'administration de ses
biens, le mari parait cependant avoir seul le droit de répudiation;
mais ce droit fut i très restreint par la pratique : en répudiant, le
mari devait restituer la dot, souvent fictive, que sa femme était
censée lui avoir apportée . de plus, i ertaines cond usage courant
décidai, ni que le n du divorce serait dépossède de ses bii as dont
l'administration passait au fils aine; enfin lèsl i finireo par se réserver
presque le monopole de la répudiation. .< La femme dotée, dit M.
Maspero, s'émancipait donc on à peu près de par la vertu de son
argent. Comme son départ appauvrissait la maison d'autant, et
parfois de plus que son arrivée ne l'avait mise à l'aise, on se gardait
bien de rien faire qui la décidât à se retirer, j ou qui fournît à son
père ou à sa mère un prétexte pour la rappeler près d'eux. > Hist. a
ne. des peuples de l'Orient, c. x. La civilisation chaldéenne, p. 738.
Cf. J. Cauvière, loc. cit. ; Paturet, La condition juri\a femme dans
l'ancienne Egypte; I ug. Ré\ illou t. La question du divorce chez les
Égyptiens, dans la Revue égyptologique, 1880, n. 2 et 3. — Les
Grecs demeurèrent plu longtemps fidèles à l'indissolubilité du lien
conjugal, le divorce parait à peu près inconnu chez eux à l'origine et
même au temps d'Homère. Il devient au contraire très fréquent à
l'époque classique. 11 y avait, en particulier, un cas universellement
reconnu : celui de la femme, unique héritière légitime de son père
décédé qui, pour ce motif, était attribuée à l'agnat le plus proche.
D'autre part, le père pouvait toujours reprendre sa fille, même pour
la donner à un autre mari. Enfin, à Athènes, quand la femme avait
commis l'adultère, le mari était contraint de lui imposer le divorce, et
une peine déterminée sanctionnait cette obligation. En dehors de ces
espèces, on en connaissait une foule d'autres, non seulement le
divorce par consentement mutuel et, dans ce cas, en certaines
régions, le mari n'avait de compte à ,, n,],, à pei onne, mais le
divorce parla volonté d'un seul, surtout du mari, a condition,
généralement, qu'il le fit par devant témoins. On vit des maris
donner leur is, ou même à des personi; inférieur, tel, Péricli donne à
Satyre, un de ses esclaves libéré. La femme pi ul répudierson mari,
quand elle croit que ,,, ^,,.. ... sanM ou ses mœurs sont en péril;
dans ce .., trouver l'archonl ■ le divorce après qu'elle a justifié dans
une n avait de bonnes raisons pour divorci i Cependant limites sont
mises par des circonst u rieures à cette liberté extrême : c'était,
d'une part, ion de restituer la dot quand on répudiait s., femme sans
motif suffisant, d'autre part, celui qui se ■ i divorce avait contre
l'autre un inion publique t I"""' ll ' liaient leur mari, et des p mari qui
renvoyait sa fi mme sans motil ou qui lui donnait motif de lé repu '. .
i,dansle Diclionn. ,m.,de Darembi r| Romains, lé divorceparai
antiquité. La loi atti udiation, droit qu'on lui abandonnai! ■ adultère,
supposises cl :fs pour p i estime on lient l'indisso EICE 1458
mariage: l'union conjugale des flamines de Jupiter co» sacré.'' par !..
é. , ■ ■ ifa Ho est indissoluble. La loi dés XII râbles admet aussi !
réservant au mari le droit de répudiation. Encore la répudiation était-
elle soin, usé à quelques formalités, en particulier celle de soumet h
au tribunal domestique, et, d'après Valère Ma: I H c. | „ i, ce lut pour
av.nr répudié sa femme '. .. . ,i ;,i m, Q| i . é mse au tribunal du j
exclu du Sénat par - 'urs, puis la iser les fragiles bar.,,l(1.,.. ; Il -j
avait déjà obligation pi n li nculpé lui-même de laissant la lémme
nmiué ,„ I | '-Ha potestas de s., ramille d'origine, pei retirer celte
femme àson gendri ind a lu c'est la femme dem répudiation et qui
peut conti la manus, c'est-à-d re à i ' M" j1 avalt passe . Plus iél les
leur caprice; . - - ■•■■'• " "é- p.u» -i si contagieux que lacession n
utui le di pour chose courante, au ti : . ligl - '■ encori . est déclaré
immoral le pacte époux conviennent de ne pas divorcer, Loi 2, Cod.
8, 39- et le divorce par consentement mutuel n'est limité par aucune
réglementation. On en est venu au degri que flagellera Juvi n il ; i Tu
te mouches trop souvent, dit le mari a sa femme; prends tes ,,.:. el
va-t-en. Une plus jeune la remplacera! Satir., VI, 146-148. Tout ce
qu'Auguste osa comme réforme, ce fut que la volonté de div< vrait
être maiiil'ési, e d.'-orrnais devant sepl , .... pri ud que devant ces
mœurs I tuses radie ait vante spécialement la fidélité conjugale des
Gerd que nous puissions craindn ait fait un si brillant tableau que
pour mieux faire bonté aux Romains Di ' llr feurs iatrimoniales à
cette époque nous ne dirons pas plus; nous en savons si peu de
choses précises. t, . que devait aboutir peu pratique du divorce ; au
mariageà I souvent, à l'abolition du m n que nous constatons chez
certaines peuplades d ■ I \menque du I ainsi qu'en t. . consultations
adressées par les mi S. C. de la Propagande. I écrivait l'évéque de
Saint- \ pour ainsi dire a l'essai, un essai en quelque manu re
perpétuel, i ' "nl> ne se croit lie ,, ['autre, L'homn te sa femme -ans
i„i demander d dure tanl t1" li mari n a i orii use el I en prend m
bitation n ° ' ll"" :'""encore un vrai n i femmei d'eu changer comme
on . : édii., n. llïï | truction du Saint l évéque de Nesqualh. ièid., n. 1
165. hei les Juifs. - I l
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I 159 DIVORCE 1 460 ,1 tant la morale natui elli i I sociale

est pratique ni infirme si on ne la rattachi menl à un i pi pieure, t efoi
i, - i la fui déjà . iol. i . d'api - le i cil 'i. ! m sait la r iponse immédiate
du Maître, réponse qui se terminait par ces i mis; ■ Unsi, ils ne sont
plus «r. Ce que Dieu a uni, que ic pas. ■■ A cette sentence, les
Pharisiens font une objection empruntée à leurs traditions etau texte
de la Loi. Ils lui dirent : Pourquoi \l ..i il prescrîl de donner à la
femme une lettre de divorce el de la renvoyer? Il leur dit : C'est à
cuise ib la dure:.', de votre cour que Moïse vous a permis iil ne dit
[ias : vous a prescrit) de renvoyer vos femmes; mais il n'en était pas
ainsi au commencement. » Puis il continue par une nouvelle
affirmation de l'indissolubilité. A cause des discussions qu'ont
soulevées les différences de texte entre les trois synoptiques on
donnera ici le triple texte parallèle. Matth., xix, 9. Marc, x, 11, 12.
Luc, xvi, 18. il disque Celui qui renvoie Quieunque renvoie celui qui
renvoie sa safemmeetenépou- sa femme et en femme, si ce n'est
Beuneautre,commet épouse une autre, pour infidélité, et un adultère
envers commet uu adultère,
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1401 DIVORCE enépouse une aube, elle (à l'égard de et

celui qui épouse commet un adultère celle-là); et si elle une fcm.
(ou, selon une autre {ou une femme), par son a devenir ayant
renvoyé son met un adultère. adultère), et celui qui mari, en épouse
un épouse une femme autre, elle commet renvoyée, commet un
adultère. un adultère. Ces trois textes parallèles, auxquels i n celui
desaint Paul, 1 Cor., vu, 10, II. un: i [mi i commune et, quant nu
sens, entièrem ni identique : i Quiconque renvoie sa femme et en
épouse une autre commet un adultère, o et i celui qui épouse une
femme renvovée par son mari commet un adultère. » Sur ce point
aucune difficulté : la répudiation ne brise pas absolument le liendu
mariage. La doctrine esti xtrêmement claire, et sous cetle forme
n'aurait donné lieu à aucune controverse. Le divorce est contraire à
l'institution primitive : il laisse intact dans son principe le lien
conjugal; après comme avant la répudiation ni l'un ni l'autre époux
ne peut contracter, l'autre vivant, un nouveau mariage. Mais il y a
dans le texte de saint Matthieu une incise : « si ce n'est pour
infidélité, i qui a une grande importance, puisque sur elle on a établi
toute une discipline chrétienne, la discipline de l'Église grecque.
Aussi a-t-elle donné lieu à des discussions infinies. D'aucuns ont
prétendu y couper court en affirmant que l'incise : « si ce n'est pour
infidélité n'est pas historiquement authentique, mais une
interpolation. Cf. la leçon de WestcottHort qui omet les mots
receoey.TÔ; Xôvo-J îtopvs x;. dont on ne retrouverait pas l'équivalent
dans les p textes, et qui paraissent contraires non si l'enseignement
des autres synoptiques et de saint Paul, Rom., vu. 8; I Cor., vu, 10,
11, 39; mais à celui de l'ancienne tradition chrétienne, Hermas,
Hand., IV, 1, 4-10; Tertullien, De int Cyprien, Testimonia, m,
62,90;De lapsis,6. Cf. Perrone.op. i it., c. n, a. 1. Pourtant l'incise
n'en est pas moins très ancienne, car on la retrouve dans Théophile
d'Antioche, A 1. III, c. xm; Origène, Comment, in Math., v, 32, et six,
9; Clément d'Alexandrie, etc. - Bien que la théorie de l'interpolation
ait été reprise par M. Loisy, Les Évangiles siinnpinju,'*, 1. 1. p. 575-
578, elle n p un assentiment assez complet pour que nous puissions
nous appuyer sur elle sans hésitation. En ad ttant donc l'authenticité
de l'incise, il nous reste son vrai sens. 11 ne faudra [as nous étonner
que l'on en ait donné des interprétations très différentes, dont
quelques-unes sont peut-être conditionnées par des faits extérieurs
au teste considéré' en lui m L s protestants ont admis assez
communément que. d'après l'incise napexTÔ? Uyov nopvJta;,
l'adultère de vrai divorce avec faculté de se remarier; ques-uns ont
donné au mot îtopvEfa un son i'il s'éti ml à t. .n t acte honteux de i
ou de genre analogue. Le I Orientaux ont compris l'inci seulement le
divorce, mais aussi un mariage subséquent; toutefois ils so -ont
tenus plus strictement au sens de nopvefa: 5t dans le cas d'adultère
seulement qu'ils ont permis au conjoinl avec toutes ses
conséquences. Voir Adi i n DIVORCE DANS LES ÉGLISES
ORIENTALES, t. I, col. 505. la discipline de concile de Trente, et ce
fut là un des motifs pour lesquelsondonnaaiican.7. / £-;/.) i\: Xpiovov
xal ûe, ~.t;> 'ExxXr,. ',.. t. xm, col. 15 d'ailleurs si pieuse, qui s'était
sépan e i de vices (S. Jérôme, Epist., i.xxvn, ad Oceanum, e. m. P.
/... t. xxii. col. 692 "" a,ll'v' et le rude censeur qu'était saint Jérôme
se, m pour elle les circonstances atténuantes. C'était d'ailleurs un
cas fréquent, connue en témoigne sa lettre lum, lv, ibid., col. 563, ou
il résumail ainsi l'enseignement ecclésiastique : lanl est vivant, qui
Iqu ci qu il aitcoi '-^' q souillures qu'il se soit couvert, si on peul
lequitter, on ne peut cependant en épouser un autre. IV. LE
DIVORCE DANS i i ioiMaim:s , . ur bien compn a romaines soit chez
les nations gouverni es par les loi moins pénétrées de droit romain, il
est née. poseï en [i "' législation. On a vu plus haut à quel degré de
honteux relâchement en étaient Rome quant au divorce. Il faut
noter, en boli le divorce ; il demeurait i pou pn étal qu'à l'époque
d'Auguste. En plus de la réduction en • libre un motil légitime de
divorce, Constantin reconnais ail encore la légitimité du divorce dan-
un certain nombre de cas quand le mai i esl homù ida, m
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•liGi pulcrorum violator; en faveur di |uand la Ce le e (ou

lena). Loi l. Cod. théod., I. [II, tit. xvi. Longtemps aussi on maintinl
le divorce par consentement mutuel ; et dans le: produisait ai c les
formes légales, il était frappé de peines, dont l'une pouvait être i m.
ip ier de i veau . mais ordinairement les [n-iiu ■- . i .Lu. m, u h- _i
.1-. . s, des amende 1, la perle des donations faiti i en ■ u i du mai
iage . les autres effets civils du divon demi ui 1 m la dissolution du
lien coi •- I et la facull le se remarier. roui . . que crut pou roir I I u
tinien dans le cas où poux tomb u' u . cla' âge, 1 u 1 .1 exij 1 r que
Il COnj I atti miit .m u ins ■ inq ans avant de contracter une autre
union. .Y.. ''.'//es. XXII. c. vu. seulement 1 lonté d'un 1 1 av. 111s \
u a l.r.r Romai fi divorce la 1 raciliti I 1 II,30;FÔ>'m«l Merovingici et
Ai histoi ica, Leges, 1 ate parmi le consentemi ni seul, l'incompatib
tance médiocre (1 même la simple a des motifs l. gaux le divorce fail
po ji.-i|n :i,ns tec loedejustinu n,« es, . mi.c.wii, i:\XXIV.. 1 1. :i v, al
. m sister pour l'observance de sa doctrine. On n'a pas à revenir sur
les textes des Pères des 1 onci es du r. 1 : - tou inl .'. lie maii. a'- I ',
. 1 11 om 1 1 ai chrétien, le seul point disi al 1 tai celui d l'adultère,
parce que seul il se n clan, .ni .1 un texte . or, on a montré plus
haut, arl io ltère, Orien 1 ti ici idi ul u d utn ,n. pai les peupl -
insuffisamment con; 1 , 1 . 1 1 pa tronage , .m, .1-, il, un ni
condamnés . . . ■ ■ . mai ,, ,1 it n fusé au capot ne pouvai 1 Uerin.,
u, 16. Cf. an. 102. il.MI-s IIÉRO GI1 autres peines comme la perte
des donatio propler nuplias, etc. 1 in a dit, Lôning, loc. cit., p 624,
qu'à l'époque mérovingienne l'Eglise n'a fail aucun efforl pour
appliquer -es principes sévères d'autrefois relativement au divorce et
au remariage; et on ajoute, comme preuve, que parmi les canons
des conciles francs un seul à peine s'occupe de cette question; ce ne
fui que lors de la "i-ande reforme religieuse entreprise en France par
les lils de Charles Martel que l'on parut s., soucier vraiment de
mettre en pratique l'in1. rdiction absolue du divorce. Il y aurait
l.oaucoup à dire en réponse à des affirmations si générales. Quelque
importants et considérables que fussent les pays occupés par les
Mérovingiens, ils n'étaient pas toute 1 glise, et on ne peut rendre
l'Église universelle responsable des fautes ou des négligences qui
purent ■v.ition faite, l'ecnnai — n- que la disciriage dans le- États
francs subit durant les ■!■ - ait, iule- regrettables. La preuve khi pa-
précisément en ce que le can. 11 Orléans de 533 est le seul, comme
le dit ccuper du divorce et à l'interdire, sous jtnunication, même avec
le prétexte d'inmaladie survenant au mariage ; car trop nents
conciliaires de cette époque nous s en trouve du concile Lôning, à s
is. et parfois ei L'1 C cest Uonc reconnaître .pi. 1, s ,1. viseraient une
sorte de conciliation où 1 se feraient des concessions mutuelles
gnant législativement la pratique du 1 n'urgeanl pas outre mesure sa
doctrine et nous li s a\ i- qu'évêques et - . la preuve s'en peut e
certains textes synoeu qu'aucun texte de it synodale, composée s.
ne permet le divorce [u'il soit permis. Les sont empruntées aux
impiègne et appartienMais p.ii importe ce nporte beaucoup plus, on -
d concile et de . - --■ ml Les ne fut résentants de l'Église, ces deux -
modes « le 'atténuer autant que a discipline ecclésia /., mariage en
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1465 ême en faveur de la lierem de ipso beneficio, et liabuit

ipsam al : ris s«i mortui, et accepit ibi u habeteam ' '/»",/ illam quai
arr.nnt.ipsamhahrat.c.ix. 2» Siun sa fern. 'il- a d dans un,,, : «dre le
voile dans le monde, afin de mieux servir Dieu, cet ouïra m'
remarier; de 1 i 'est elle qui a donné à son mari la permission
d'entrer en religion. Le texte note qui geon es - véque d'Ostie, légat
du pape) a consenti -.btquis 0 ,servireaut foras monasterium dederit
Usent profiter Deum, vir illius accipiat mulierem legih,,,,,, et millier
facial. Georgius consenti, c xvi 3» Si le mari est lépreux et la femme
saine et nue le mari veuille bien donner congé à sa femme d'épouser
un autre homme, la femme pourra le faire. De même pour l'homme
dans le cas inverse : Si guis leprosus mulierem habeat sanam, si vult
• ■um, ipsa femtna accipiat. Similiter et vir, c. six. Le concile de
Verberie DIVORCE U66 donné par le légat du saint-siège au c. x.x de
Corn] (consente,,, e que dans une mevult, plus sévère et plus
correct -dit .M. Esmein, loc.cit., suretrès restreinte comme on te vern
I -""' ' ,,i, ,,„..,,,. ,,!. ,,niciellrmenl ecclésiastiques ...„i le divorce ou
tout àfaitou faite pour le cas d'adultère, les textes qui, n le divorce,
interdisent aux époux sépares de contracter du vivant de l'autre un
nouveau ,, , |,,„[ d'abord le c. xi du concile d'Orléans r«b. de citer
ceux dllereford 6 Tolède (081,. c. vin; Soissons (744 . c. rx; Leptmes
i; le capitulaire d'Aix-la-Cliapelle i /89), c. xi.ni ; \. pour nous i
époque ; et : n i d elarations aul le Grégoire 11 Bavière : Alligatu$ es
uxori, i,l est. supers-file ■ ■ tum non vt lie tra Pippinum... et i qui
renvoie au cai in K i communication le i conjoint: du pape Etienne I,,
légat Georges icetl du pape Zaeliarie ad resp. vu. apôtres et punit
d'exu vivant d'un premier II, le même que re. et qui, à au point de
vue ecclésiastique ,, tir, p.rmet aussi le divorce en certains cas.
autres que celui de l'adultère. C'est: 1» dans le cas ou une femme a
comploté avec d'autres hommes la mort de son mari : celui-ci en se
défendant a tué un de ses agresseurs, et il peut faire la preuve du
complot; il peut renvoy. c sa fi et en prendre une autre M aux millier
mortem viri sui cuni alns h, conciliavit et ipse vir ipsius hominem se
d occiderit, et hoc probare polest, ill uxorem dimittere, et, si voluerit,
aliam c v. Cf. aussi c. vi. qui vise le cas où l'un des deux époux est
tombé en esclavage. 2» Voici un autl complexe. Sous le coup d'une
inévitable nécessi homme a fui dans un autre duché OU une autre
province, ou suivi son seigneur à qui l'engageail femme, qui pourrait
aisément le suivre. retenue par l'amour de ses parents ou de son
bien . elle ne pourra contracter un nouveau mai vivant de son mari:
lui, au contraire, qui n'a fui que sous la contrainte de ta nécessité,
pourra, s'il ne peut contenir ses sens, épouser une autre fei.u,, se
soumettant à une pénitence publique. Si guis nécessitai inevitabili
cogente in alium ducatui vinciam fugerit, aut seniorem mum, ■ » ,
(iri hou p„lcnl. scclus fuerit, ei valet et pot is suis, eum sequinoluerit,
ipsa omni tempore, quamdiu vir e/us, -, utanon fuerit, vivet, semper
mn ij neat. Nam Me vir ejus, gui, necessilate cogente m ,em fugit, s,
se abstinere non potest, allai contractée: du même Etienne qui du
enc< conjoints marie- et ti\ ml , nsemble, s'il i d'eux ne puisse plu- '
malade, il ne leur est pas permis de se parle même pas de divorcer à
devienne possédédu démon. ou lépreux conjugio copulaverit et uni
et , re non possit, reque deux ■■ ive que l'un i qu'il tombe réparer (il
ne l'un d'eux ne Si qui contigerit ut debiliceat eus separare, nec , ,,
,.i t imi bem.. uxorem c psenitentia potest acciper c. tx. C'est la aux
veux du synode, un cas de force majeure, car ne fini que devant une
vengeance privée, le concile avait décidé que ni l'un ni l'autre des
époux ne pouvait, du fait de cette absence, contracter i D mariage.
On ne parlera pas du c. xvil : il ne simple cas consommé suivi
aprèsquel c'est un exemple dune discipline que noi verons plus loin.
Les autres cas de divord Qes fautes partiel, rattachent à la discipline
de la péni l en a été- brièvement question dans 1 art. AD1 t relève
de la conceptiol des empêchements de mariage. En face de ces
textes, on l'on ne peut pn ,„„„. que par le seul con "Ht infirmitas aut
'leprx mac, '■ » l!,'sP- "• Mentionnons statuts de saint Boniface,
archevêque de ,, .. d'après 1 squels chaque prêtre doil avertir son |
pie rpi" dans un mariage légitime aucune séparation - il s'agit de
séparation et non de divorce - ne doit intervenir sinon en cas
d'adultère ou bien pour le el alors avec mutuel cone presbyte ce, c"
laquam posse nite cepta causa fornicationis, nisi , et hoc propter
Ù
servitium Dei. suivant. OÙ la discipline interdit le divorce ne fait plus
aucun doute, on citera sen ïement ce texle du concile romain tenu
sous - s-ii-827): Nulli U , ,,, ,-elig nterseconsensermtwla,nullatenus
^ZcoVscutitia episcopifi< ^tarifer Ire matrwiomun endant un autre
texte, LiBcal plusieurs L pape Grégoire II* ius. XXXII, l ';■ *"Z saisi.
'*■'•,;" tontine* I.U. si mieux epta ...,nubatmagis;n
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1 167 DIVORCE 1468 saisie par la maladie ne peul rendre

le dei oir i son m conjoint? — Le meilleur serai) qu'il demeurât ainsi
ci gardât la i clin i|ui demande haute vertUi que celui qui ne pourra
garder la continence se marie pendant qu'il ne pri\ e pas de ses
secours celle que la maladie seule empêche, el qui n'est pas exclue
île ses droits par une faute détestable. » — Quelle est cette infirmité
au sujel de laquelle saint lioniface a consulté le pape? I ce l'ii ; «fia
antecedens, ou ['itnpotentia superveniens, l'impuissance antérieure,
ou l'impuissance postérieure au mariage? La consultation ni la
réponse ne distinguent, nous n'avons donc pas ici d'éléments qui
nous permettent de dire à laces deux s'applique exclusivement la
réponse. \pplique à l'i m puissance antérieure au mariage, créi
aucune difficulté et n'aurait pas été allégué comme une objection.
Avouons qu'on l'a plutél compris comme résolvant un cas
d'impuissance postémariage. C'est le sentiment de Gratien dans son
dictuni : lllud Gregorii sacris canonibus, immo et aposlolicie doch inœ
penitus invenilur adversum. La Glose s'escrime à lui donner un sens
acceptable, en parlant soit d'impuissance antérieure, soit de
restitution de dot, pour en arriver enfin à cette solution: Vel intellige
de juvene, qui continere non ii permittitur contrahere cum
unapermissiva lone neadplures accédât, en ajoutant qu'une ilecisii.n
semblable esl donnée par le c. Si quod, 9, • ans. XXXIII, q. il, où
saint Augustin parlant d'un mari, qui ne pouvant, suivant la loi
chrétienne, épouser une autre femme du vivant de sa femme
adultère, esl I eut disposé à se libérer par un meurtre, dit : Si enim
facturus est quod non licet, jam faciat adulterium, cl non iiu-ini lui, ,
a, iJn',11. C'est que la Glose s'exprimait à une époque où la doctrine
tranchait clairement entre l'impuissance antécédente el l'impuissance
subséquente. Inutile de remarquer que cette permission n'était qu
une explication désespérée. Peut-être ta vraie solution sera-t-elle de
reconnaître dans la réponse de Grégoire II non pas une dispense,
mais une simple tolérance, analogue à tani d'autres nécessaires à
cette époque, tolérance d'autant plus explicable que si l'on savait
que l'impuissance est une cause de nullité de mariage, la théorie
canonique n'avait pas encore poussé jusqu'à son terme la distinction
entre impuissance antécédente et subséquente. Enfin, n'oublions
pas, en rappelant ce texte, le commentaire indirect que lui donna
saint Boniface dans le statut qu'on a cité plus haut, et qui i, e bien
que. vingt ans après la réponse de lin guiiv, I indissolubilité du
mariage consomiué ne faisait pour lui aucun doute ; n'oublions pas
la réponse d'1 tienne III que l'on a citée aussi et qui rend le même
son. Nous avons parlé plus haut des pénitentiels comme attestant
que la discipline du mariage avait subi dans Êta fi m - des atteintes
regrettables. 11 ne failli conclure que ions les pénitentiels se sont
rendus complices de ce relâchement. Freisen, Ges. hii hte des
canonischen Eherechts,p.7S!>sq.,a fait à ce point de vue une
distinction entre pénitentiels romains i pénitentiels francs cl anglais,
on verra plus loin distinction, qui repose sur les théories de il"
Schmitz, a un fondement ruineux. Il n'est pas moins vrai que
plusieurs textes de pénitentiels affirment l'indissolubilité du mariage
et : il iti rdiction du divorce en toutes hypothèses. Qu'il iter du
pénitentiel de Vinniaus les§§ 11, 12, i i isen, loc. cit.; on en pourrail
apporter beaucoupd autres. Mais, à coté de ceux-là. onl les textes de
pénitentiels qui reconi - i ni le iii orce, en soumettant parpénitence
l'époux qui aurait conlracté du fois vivant de son conjoint un autre
mariage. Et, ce qui esi intéressanl dans l'espèce, c'est que les
décisions seul souvent 1res diverses suivant les pénitentiels. Ainsi [e
Panitentiale Theodori, n, 12, § 19 : Si mulier discesserit a oiro suo
dispiciens eum nolens revertere el reconciliari viro, posj V annos cum
comensu episcopi aliam accipere licebit uxorem. Or ce même
pénitentiel, en un autre endroit, donne la solution suivante : Si ab
aliquo sua discesserit. 1 annum pseniteal ipsa, si impolluta revertatur
ad eum, ceterum 111 annos, ipse unum si aliam duxerit, i. 14, § 13.
Le même, n. 12, S >s. Maritus, si se ipsum in furto nui fornicatione
servum facit vel quocumque peccato, mulier, si prius mm habuit
conjugium, habet potestatem post annum alterum accipere virum,
digamoautem non licet. De mêmeau §23: Si cujus uxorem hostis
abstulerit et ipseeam iterum adipisci mm potest, licet aliam tollere .
melius est quam fornicari. Et on pourrait citer d'autres textes dans
les Capitula Theodori, les Canones Gregorii, le Psenitentiale
Cummeani, le Confessiouale Pseudo-Egberli. .Mais ces textes
n'impliquent pas la responsabilité officielle de l'Église. Il faut nous
souvenir d'une part des protestations élevées contre les pénitentiels,
par divers conciles comme celui de Chalon 813) précisément a
propos des solutions de ce genre : repudiatis ne penitus eliminatis
libellis, i/u,,s pn ntlculiatcs vacant, quorum sunt cci-ti errores,... de
quibus recte dici />otest : mot'ti(icabant animas quse non mortel,
antur, et vivificabanl animas q nie non vivebanf, e qui... consuunt
pulvillos secundum propheticum sermonem sut, muni cubito manus
et faciunt cervicalia sub eapile universœ setalis ad capiendas
a>,imas, c. xxxvm; ou comme celui de Paris (829) qui ordonnait aux
évêques de rechercher ces livres et inventas igni tradat; d'autre part,
quoi qu'en ait affirmé Min Schmitz, Die Bussbùcherunddie
Bussdisciplinder Kirche, M.Paul Fournier a prouvé qu'il fallait reléguer
au rang des mythes « le pénitentiel romain qui aurait conservé, au
vin* siècle, la tradition de la discipline canonique primitive, telle que
l'appliquait l'Église universelle. » A ceux qui voulaient encore couvrir
leurs débordements de la perient les lois séculières ou de la lait la
coutume, Ilincmar réponires : i Qu'ils se défendent tant sont
chrétiens, qu'ils sachent nenl ce □ est pas d'après la loi bette qu'i
mission que leur de tolérance que leur ai dait par ces paroles qu'ils
voudront.... s bien qu'au jour du j romaine, la loi saliq jugés, mais
d'après les lois divines ou apostoliques : Defendant se quantum
volant, quiejusmodi sunt... Tamen si christiani sunt, sciant se in
diejudidi nec Romanis neC salicis nec Gundobadis, sed ilivinis el
apostolicis legibus judicandos. P. L., t. cxxv, col. 658. Défait, on
réussit peu à peu à supprimer en pratique le divorce. » En principe,
à la fin de l'époque carolingienne, dit M. Fahrner, Geschichte der
Ehesckeidung im kanonischen Hechl, t. i. p. 92, la victoire était
assurée dans l'empire franc à la doctrine orthodoxe de l'Église
romaine sur le divorce, bien que l'on n'eût pas encore surmonté en
pratique tous les courants contraires. » Cette victoire fut le fruit de
luîtes nombreuses et violentes contre les personnages les plus
considérables, contre les princes, les rois et les empereurs dont
quelques-uns étaient des bienfaiteurs de l'Église : contre Pépin le
Bref qui répudiait Bertrade pour épouser Angla, contre Charlemagne
qui renvoyait Ihuitrude pour épouser la fille de Didier, roi des
Lombards, contre Lothaire qui renvoyait Teutberge sous divers
prétextes et se servait à cette fin d'imputations calomnieuses contre
elle pour épouser Waldrade. Cette démonstration pratique de
l'indissolubilité du mariage était pour les peuples d'un plus frappant
exemple que les déclarations de principe et contribua notablement
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Ii6«.) DIVORCE discipline. D 1470 it plus aucune défailli esl

au rétablissement de la vraie l'interdiction du divorce ne s lance, et
les sévères leçons i1.mii ; ' '■ 'v"'"'.'' ',' .'' l'empereur Henri IV, par
Urbain 11 • I l'a-cal 11 a nlippe-Auguste montrèrent que l'Eglise
savait taire p i aux saintes lois du mariage les plu- - r ! VI. Ll. l.lV'lu
!-'■■■■ I " ''' ' ' '■'■""■N" " ''' " v,,v coa'si »'/"/ if. - si l'on veut
comprendre exac tomenl la prali,, ne actuelle de l'Église vis-à- :
taines formes du divorce en la coniparanl déclarations incessamment
répétées en laveur . e 1 indissolubilité, .1 esl Qécessaire de connaître
les théories qui en forment la base. Une question que l'on pose
toujours en etu mari ige est celle-ci : Quand le constitué? Et l'on
répond ' :' deux sponsi ont échangé leur mutuel coiiseiiieinem ,,,_
prœsenti. Le prêtre, témoin officiel requis par 1 Eglise, pose
successivement a chacun d'eux la question rituelle : Voulez-vous
prendre un tel, ou une telle, pour votre époux, ou épouse'.' etc.
Chacun répond en donnant son assentiment. Le mariage est
constitue, bi le prêtre ne peut être présent, le mariage est constitue
par l'échange du consentement des deux parties lait devant les
"témoins. Autrefois, la réponse n était pas aussi nette. La cause de
l'hésitation ou de l'imprécision provenait des circonstances dans
lesquelles le mariage était contracté. En droit romain, à l'époque ou
le christianisme faisait ses premières conquêtes, le mariage était un
contrat familial qui i ii ni dans l'acte mêl L'Église, sans doute, cons i ,
, , ini à ses fidèles de n . ,1er "poui'in.iueurer leur union, la
bénédiction sacerdotale voir BANS, t. n, col. 161 sq.; mais comme
elle n en faisait pas une obligation stricte et juridique, que le
consentement des époux n'était pas émis en sa pre' de ce contendait
après coup n'avoir voulu faire qu'un concubinage? traiter comme des
enfants illégitimes Ceux qui I cette union '.'Qu'en serait-il advenu
dans , | publique ' et quelles facilités ,.,ns! Ne pouvant faire parfois ,.
. .,n attacha d'autant plus il'iine à aucune publicité légale, illait très
instamment dès pas se marier sans demansenre. q 'elle tait pas
témoin nécessaire e e ■ , ipi , liait pas que des deux conni its n,, fui
parfois in ; l'en.l.unenlaux du la discipline reconna u , cas . on
pouvait considérer ce maria' l.:u\ pas. On ne creusait pas plus
profond. 101 .,11 mie preuve assez ce taii ■ du no iriag e ec le
consensus seul le mariage dl on, pouvait ster : avec le concubitus en
plus 1 oui ,i dou ,1 existence. Le fait de la oh . ga ,, complétait la
preuve restée jusque-là indécise. De là, à faire de la consommation
le req ti< 1 du mariage, il n y avait qu'un pas ; il fut bientôt fr nchi.
Le mot latin nubere signil la lois contracte mai iage el accomplir
l'acte e uni gal. - D'autre PI ri. ['union conjugale n'était dit lissoluble
dans n criture i lorsque les époux e taie il devenus una près avoir
appliqué à 1 homme et à la f( luo in carne una de l'Écriture, que :,-
l'Épître aux Éph uinait le 1 .m, ,n du Chrisl . ], l'Église et celle ',' esl -
rau.l dan Christ et dans ., 1. ell.le' : .s ramenlum ho> Chr sin et in
Ecelep l'union charnelle disait-on, que les - m! oie e r inion du Christ
,], i ■ d'une tradition , m.D ntement, il advint souvent que ces
unions étaient consacrées sans qu'elle fut appelée à les bénir, sans
qu'elle fût officiellement informée. 1 t'autre part, ce qu'on pourrait
nommer les alentours du mariage, les cérémonies qui en précédaient
et acco a. célébration '' éléments multiples: pourparlers avec le
pèrede lajeune lille. remise de l'anneau, constitution de dot, ./.,'".(."
<>< ''"'"""' accompagnée de solennités, etc. Quand parmi tous ces
élémi émis un consentement actuel, tout était clair. décomposait ces
éléments, on en supprimait une partie plus ou moins notable. Le
droit romain disait bien : nuptias consensus, i'u-u< mais ce
consentementétail présumé de la lille quand le père a> ut donné le
sien, on ne le lui demandait pas toujours. I-lle était présumée
consentir quand elle n avait pas refusé et qu'elle se soumettait a la ,
' ' ,,,„„.. Or les cérémonies étaient parfois réduites a la seule
cohabitation. Un homme prenait unef. ,, chez lui, vivait avec elle,
sans faire précéder son acte .l'aucune .les cérémonie» nlu donc
distinguait cette cohabitation d'un simple concubinat? Si après une
cohabitation plus ou moins longue il se séparait de ce tt qu'il l'avait
réellement épousée et qu'il était lie a elle indissolublement? Sans
doute, ils avaient dû ntement. Peul être s'étaient-Us promis, par
devant témoin promesse d'un fait futur l. ver que leur cohal ; .i m
lice pré( . mais une toute cett. impossible, qu'un consentement
matrimonial avait été échangé on ml qui pré■ | ,, ,,. que l'uni m conl
était un vrai mai - 1 .i i i oii discipli était tout à làil in celui que les
unsecond ordre. T. ou l'affirmation n'existait entre i . L..t. cxxv, col.
fc>2. ^choses, un i ment éta.,ur complètement indissoluble que le \;
, prèsq I ■ milit .lethéories , u ,: uni i',,i t, _n, . , t. de l'autre, Pierre
après avoir nt convenu , , , , initiatw qu'une que lie I île, on ne p i la
constatation mmé, on ne pouiucun lien ni ib'-ja faitinter70, venir
pour examine concile d'Af • ,-niiale pseudo-Theodori, c. iv, iderdela ,
„nu sous le n.nu de dispense de • ' -'"' il accord» r.On ■ cette disienl
aussi le droit ., " I '■ tront'à l'autre époux de contracter unnouve i , ■
;,,, ,,,,,, conjug.
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1471 DIVORCE \ il. i i 01 - s \ m rei . - I" /■■■ divorce i qu i

on a dit jusqu'ici s'applii|iif s|i lien, c'est-à dire au i i ni co ti nu des
chrétiens, el qui en ■ ' lèle qu'il a dans I I i e i '•■ niai i.'--'. i-..ii |i
temenl indissoluble aucune raison, aucun jamais de briser le lien
matrimonial lais er pos sible un nouveau mariage iiii l'un des
conjoints il» vivanl de l'autre, Mais qu'en est-il du mariage qui ne
parfail pas cet admirable et i ond le il in . qui n esl pas sanctifié par
la i ipi ésente l'union du Christ t de l'Église I t-il indissoluble ' Qu'il ne
soit pas indissoluble au même degré que le mariage consommé des
chrétiens, c'est pour ainsi dire une vérité évidente, on I a \ il le
mariage non consommé des ehréliens, bien qu'il réalise en quelque
manière, d'une manii'ie spirituelle, le symbole du Christ et de l'Église,
n .. qu'une indissolubilité de second ordre, à plus forte ivrons-
nousdiredu mariage des non-chrétiens, ful-il consommé, parce que,
n'axant pas iv, n le lu pli ils sont incapables, le représenter ni te
union, sinon grossièrement et d'une manière matérielle. Il n'y a donc
euh le mariage de- inlidi les qu'une indissolubilité d'ordre inférieur,
eu soi, à l'indissolubilité secondaire du mariage chrétien non
consommé. Cette fermeté d'ordre inférieur esl-ce encore de
l'indissolubilité? Oui, certainement. Le mariage des infidèles est de
même ordre que le mariage contracté par les pain arches et par les
.liiit's de l'ancienne loi. C'est celui que Hieu établit a l'origine du
monde. Or de ce mariage Jésus-Christ a dit : ii N'avez-vous pas lu
que celui qui créa l'homme au commencement créa un homme et
une femme et qu'il dit : Pour cela l'homme quittera son père et sa
mère el s'attachera à sa femme, et ils seront les deux i n une seul,-
chair? Ainsi, ils ne sont plus deux, mais une si aie .leur. Ce que Dieu
a uni que l'homme ne le sépare donc pas. \latlb., \i\, i-i'i. C'est de ce
mariage obligatoire devant les Juifs et les Pharisiens; c'est ce
mariage qu il voulait ramènera son indissolubilité primitive. Moïse,
leur affirme-t-il, Moïse ne vous a pas livorce; il vous l'a simplement
ne il n'en était pas ainsi. C'est la i di trim que rappelle l'exposé
doctrinal sur le mariag qui ouvre la session XXIV du concile de
Trente, la Doett ina de tacramento matrimonii : Matrimonii
perpetuum indissolubilemque nexum primus humani generis parera
divini Spiritui instinctu pronuntiavit, l'un dixit : Hoc nunc os, etc.
L'indissolubilité est a la base de tout mariage. Jésus-Christ, en
faisant du mariage un sacrement, n'a pas créé cette indissolubilité, il
l'a confirmée: gratiam vero, quse... indissolubilitaleni , unitatem
confirmaret. C'est la doctrine unanime des théologiens catholiques,
et en particulier de saint Thomas : l'indissolubilité appartient à tout
mariage. Mais [puisque ce caractère ne lui vient pas du symbole
sacramentel, pourquoi Dieu a-t-il voulu que le mariage fût de soi
indissoluble? Est-ce uniquement parce qu'il plaisait a sa volonté qu'il
en fui une foule d'autres raisons saint i c'esl que les parents sont
tenus • ■ leurs enfants et de les préparer m .n cette vie. (n IV Sent.,
I. IV, i. •!, q. i. C'est l'enseignement de îe que le mariage, au simple
poinl de toul nvenance, soit pour its ml pour conserver les autres t
indissoluble. Matrimonii finliis juatenus natures officium '""'"' a ii tgue
matrimonii CSJ.V (■(,«presc perm venil. Const. Dei il.- Pie VI 1 le
1,1. M dissoluble, esl de\ sacre nts. Dogn ante ad ventum Ci bilis
quidam coni lis. EpUt. m celui de Pie 1 sitions conda naturel le
mariagi celui que rappelai cyi lique Yrcanum. I i selon Be
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1478 DIVORCE •1474 chrétiens, la question n'esl pas aussi

claire. Sanchez. De sancto matrim. sacram., 1. Ml. disp. 111, n. .'. »■
devant quel juge les infidèles qui demanden le divorce doivent
comparaître, et il répond quee est .levant I.- in-' sérulierqui est pour
euxseul compétent, l-aut-il en .I.M. .ire qu'il reconnaît à ce juge le
droit de porter une sentence de divorce? Peut-être, quoiquil De [e
dise pas; ne rausserait-on pas sa pensée en l'admettant Plus près
,1e nous. Carrière, D,' >»atrimonio. part. II. sect. III, c. t. a. 1. n.
227, après avoir refuse nettement aux parties le droit de divorcer de
par leur lonté, n'ose pas refuser aussi nettement au ,,; le droit de
porter une sentence de divorce: il y a là, dit-il, plus de difficulté à se
prononcer, parce que l'on peut concevoir que l'intervention et la
limitation des cas par l'autorité civile supprime ou diminue quelques-
uns des inconvénients du divorce. Major adest difficultas, quia
concipitur per publicam audoritatem ita posse restrùv.n ■■>
■■'■•ihi„ri divortu facultatem, ut tollantur aut minuantur quxdam ex
non ita aperte auderemus I. Rosset, op. cit., n. .-,;,i;. !,._■■■
rement; il lui objecte la proposition 67 du Syllabus, qui, toutefois,
n'est peut-être p, rtinente ad rem, car, d'une part, admettre que
l'autorité civile puisse en certains cas pi divorce m [u'i Ile nie
l'indissolubilité du l ,, admettant le divorce ,1 un mariage non
consommé entre chrétiens dans les deux cas que nous avons
mentionnés, ne nie l'indissolubilité générale de ce mariage, et.
d'autre part, l'allocution J-yrfw, n du 27 septembre 1852, à laquelle
on renvoie aussi comme àl'undes documents auxquels est
empruntée cette proposition 67, paraît bien parler snrtout du
mariage chrétien. Il parait donc malaisé d'englober cette théorie de
Carrière parmi celles qui ontété condamnées dans la proposition 67
du 11 n'en est pas moins vrai que l'opinion courante relus,' ce droit à
l'autorité civile. I avagnis n'en parle pas quand il examine la question
de savoir si l'autorité civile peul établir des empêchements dirimanls
de mariage pour les infidèles, question à laquelle il donne une
réponse affirmative, Institut, jurispv part. II. I. II. c. il, § 1; mais
Gasparri dit très nette ment que i autori le permettre même infidi i- .
Prin, ; am in casibus in quibus divortium proprie dictw contra natti ""'
sandre ncc pro nfidelibuf. Tract, canon. ,,. 1320. Cf. Lehmkuhl, T) I.
mor., Paris, 1902, n. 701. . tm. - On a vu que 1 Eglise autorise
légitimement, en deux cas déterminés, le di vorce du mariage
chrétien non consommé. Puisquele i s i , . , i , baptisés n'a qu uni
indiss ilubilité du mariage chn tien, il s'ensuivra logiquem, i . " 'n'a
dans une mesure plus large en autoriser et sanctionner la
dissolution. Mais là encore une longue discipline a déterminé
d.insquel sens ou pour quel motif cette dissolution | C'esl
uniquemenl in l don el l'extension de ce bien supérieur qu est la
pratique de la vraie religion. Le premiei ce droit et de cette discipline
se lii dans écrit l'apôtre, a une femme non chrétienne et qu'elle
consente à habiter avec lui. qu'il ne la renvoie pas. Et . tienne a un
mari non qui cons.a i elle, qu'elle m pas; car le mari non chrétien est
sancti femme, i ajoint non chrétien se sépare, ni enchaînés dans la
paix que Dieu nou UICT. DE THÊOL. CATHOL. I Cor., vil, 12-15.
Letextei I ; '" même. I pès la conversion de I un di i poux l'autre t
avec lui i t se sépan converti n'esl pastenu de le suivn ni n ., joint
celui 01 "'•'' infidèle veut bien euhahiler avec le conjoint lui imposer
en cette cohabitati o ] - contraires à la religion chrétienne ou aux di
mariage ; el rielle est pire que la i suivi, et qui eSl mentaire de
l'Ambn - si r, h, I Cor., vu; 1 homélie xix de saint Jean 1 1ht - si une,
fn I Coi tionnée par les p, , 12, s 17, 18; pseiido-lgheil . etc.,
reconnue p et ses successeurs, fut enfin canonisée par Innocent III,
c. Quant n°ni a 'é'1 nitivement jusqu'où s'étendait le pi i ■ i saint
Paul. Depuis lors les détails pratiques ont élt précisés, soit en ce qui
concerne l'interpellation s adressera l'autre conjoint, soit en ce qui
dispense de cette interpellation : ce sont là questions dans lesquelles
il n'y a pas lieu d'entrer pour notre sujet. On voulait simplem sure
l'Église, inteq turel, admet le divi Cette décrétale d'Inm à la fois une
pratique un momen question s'était en efii I p osi il ne visait que le
maria,, , , n, deux époux dont 1 un s était] n'était pas applical le
.paiement époux chrétiens, marias dans I I _l: tasiait ou tombait
refusai! de ci habiti r, ou s dans -'s erreurs, celui-ci > lien
matrimonial i can. 6, De divort.,e\ l'autre de Ci 1 r dans quelle n ,1
du droit unies non b ait et restreignait cas où de deux l'un d eux
apos perverti , l'autre délié du un autre ■: va 1 in [H, can. 1. De
fidel. (le texte se trouve dans "JêcisiE, Friedherg. i» /or.) l'avaient
admi -lasie, celui-là dans le cas ,1 hérésie, assensu archidiacoi dans
son édition des Décrétâtes, saint Raymond de Pennafort laissa
tomber !■■ pa.sa-e de l.elest.n 111. .'t. à l'occasion de celui d'Urbain
111,1a Gloser n sed hoc, quod in / licitur, corrigit r sequens, c'est-à-
dire le c. Qu Enfin on ne s'étonnera pas que le 1 ,.„!,.,. deux infidèles
pu. -se. nelle du converti. VIII Le divobce civil spécialement en
France. di disparu de la législation chréHenne sous les effi à
l'éclosion du pro ttaienl la lég l'adultère é ments. uni lité d'hum
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