Below are a few solid answers written by your peers. They are not perfect; I don’t expect anyone to be able to write perfect historical essays under the pressure of a 50 min period.. I have changed only some of the wording and indicated in brackets where improvements might be added.

Group A

• [2] Humans should not concern themselves with the traditional concept of sin [and salvation] any longer. Coppe critiques his own society of mid 17th century England. First he expresses his dissatisfaction of private property, positing universal equality and the destruction of social hierarchies. However, his main point is that people must no longer judge the behavior of men as sinful. To Coppe, those who have been judging sinners, i.e. the Church and its righteous ministers/bishops, are the truly “arrogantly wicked” ones. Coppe was a Ranter, the atheists of their time, who believed in free love, [and free expression] among other things [which?]. Ranters were also the first nudists. Coppe and his fellow Ranters believed that ‘sin’ and suffering were entirely man-made constructs used by the Church to control the poor. The Ranters came to prominence around the year 1649, after the execution of King Charles I, a potentially revolutionary period. They were just one of the many radical groups that emerged [especially among the so-called ‘Masterless Men’] during the late 1640s early 1650s.
• [3] The song discusses the cultural changes effected in England following the Parliamentary victory over Charles I in 1649 [and Cromwell’s increasingly tight grip upon the state]. More specifically, the song tells how, after the abolition of kingship and episcopacy, which meant the rule by a Puritan-inspired army and Rump Parliament, traditional cultural phenomena such as holy days and “Old Christmas” were appreciably — the song references the 1645 Battle of Naseby, where [the man responsible for the strict regulation of social behavior, Cromwell, came to prominence] and changed the cultural world [of ‘merry olde England]. The political [and social] world of Cromwell’s England changed and the world has been “turned upside down” because the king has gone [and with him the pleasures of traditional England].

Group B

• [4] In this quotation, King Louis XIV of France says that pageantry and display are often more effective than rewards in creating and maintaining the loyalty of the court. The idea behind Louis’ statement is that nobility of the court can be easily attracted and controlled by being part of an important institution full of pomp and circumstance in place of financial rewards. This idea seems rather Machiavellian in nature, especially with its assumptions concerning the manipulation of human affections. If a king rewards his followers, he must continuing doing it of risk the loss of loyalty [which will ultimately lead him to ruin]. However, if he fills his court with ceremony [and opulent display], a king makes his courtiers feel important without gifting them anything of real significance [lands, monopolies, commands, etc]. Louis XIV’s reign (1642-1715) was full of pageantry and display. Court favorites vied daily for the honor of watching him eat and sleep at Versailles. Such things created loyalty in the court and helped him consolidate absolute authority over all of France.
• [6] By illuminating the ultimate selfishness of human beings, Thomas Hobbes argues that progress in art, philosophy, and economics cannot occur unless some body regulates human behavior. Hobbes defines competition, glory, and diffidence all as egocentric values, principle causes of human conflict. If this ‘nature of man’ goes unrestrained, Hobbes predicts that cultural values including a robust economy, a positive arts scene, and even human life, cannot safely exist. Implicitly the passage argues for the creation of some institution [a strong executive/monarch] that can control human behavior, making lives less “nasty, brutish, and short”. The tone of the message results from the context within which Hobbes wrote, i.e. the crisis of the mid 17th-century wars. Particularly, he wrote in the wake of the English Civil War which brought about a terrible loss of life [including the execution of a king] between 1642 and 1649]. [Hobbes witnessed first hand the chaos that ensued after dissolving the traditional bonds to the powerful sovereign.]