29 May 2008
English 3I06 / The Age of Elizabeth I
All’s Well the Ends Well part deux
Lecture Outline
* the “problem” plays
* themes:
~Helena climbs the great chain of being (upward social mobility)
~Langue et Parolles (language)
~Bertram’s challenge
~The performance of masculinity
~The performance of virginity and pregnancy
Problem Plays
* All’s Well, Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida
* Term coined by F. S. Boas in 1896’s Shakespeare and His Predecessors
* a play that tackles a moral issue of its day
* the “problem” also lies in the play’s incomplete resolution / mixed tone
ACT 1
*Helena’s first long speech, 1.1.84-110 reveals her situation
*1.1.222-35 expresses her intention to climb the chain of being
* 1.3.130-270 The Countess sides with Helena, see esp. end of scene and 130-138
*140 Countess’s declaration: “You know, Helen, I am a mother to you.”
*173 “God shield you not mean it.”
* Helen’s confession 201
* Helen’s medical inheritance from her father 233-243
* Her less-than-detailed rationale as to why the king would accept Helen as a healer, 256-265
ACT 2
*The King’s warning against the girls of Italy, 2.1.21-24
*2.1.80 + LaFew’s introduction of Helen, esp. 110-114: “I am Cressid’s uncle”
* 2.1.190-94 Helen’s promise to the King
*2.1.214-221 Helen sets her terms
*The healing of the French king – how does it happen?
*2.3.114-116 Bertram protests
*2.3.128-155 The king’s redefinition of honour
*Parolles 2.3.201-280 – his fight with LaFew – note his downward trajectory in the play
Definition of “parole” in Saussure’s language theory:
The actual linguistic behaviour or performance of individuals on specific occasions, in contrast to language viewed as an abstract system (cf. LANGUE n. 3); the practice of using a language; spoken (or written) utterance.
*2.3.282-308 Bertram’s soldierly sexuality
*2.3.314 “A young man married is a man that’s marred.”
*2.5 LaFew warns Bertram against Parolles
*44-5 “The soul of this man is his clothes.”
*2.5.24-7 “tonight [I’ll] end ere I begin.”
ACT 3
*Bertram’s letter to his mom 3.2.19-26
*56-62 His challenge to Helen
*3.4.4-17 Helen leaves on pilgrimage
*3.5 Diana – see also Helen’s invocation to Diana 1.3.115 (in Steward’s speech 107-
121) Is Diana’s name evidence of Helen’s virginity?
*3.5 Ladies’ reaction to Parolles 105-109, and 110, hint of Helena’s plan
*3.6 the plot to embarrass Parolles
3.7 Helen plans while Diana is silent
ACT 4
*4.2 Diana’s deconstruction of Bertram 36-7 “your oaths / Are words”
*4.3.49-55 the report of the death of Helen
4.3.52-62 Parolles’s undoing and humilation
4.5.34-40 “All’s well that ends well.”
ACT 5
5.2 Parolles stripped
5.3 The end – is it well? Bertram’s sudden change (clip)
*the two rings, 5.3.85 and forward
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
How to Build an Essay
For several years, I've been developing a protocol for students as they approach the task of essay writing. My experience with the task of writing an essay is that it's much easier to produce something meaningful (and to have a nice time doing it) if you take it in stages. I'll probably discuss this protocol in class on Thursday, but if you're looking for some help right now, here are my two cents.
How to Build an Essay
1. Before you begin:
· choose a topic you like, applied to a work you enjoy or are interested in/challenged by
· read or re-read the text, jot down some first thoughts
· consider what the topic means to you
· let it ferment
2. Gathering evidence, preliminary thoughts, outlining:
· return to the text
This means skimming through it / rereading, and making notes (on paper or in a computer file) on passages that will help to formulate your opinion on the topic you've chosen. This means you don't begin with a thesis and then search for evidence to back it up. You let the text dictate the formation of your thesis.
· organize your findings
· build your essay outline from the evidence up
· let the text speak for itself
· tentative thesis statement
· let it ferment
Fermentation requires taking time in between stages so your mind can grind away at it. Go do something else instead: laundry, go for a hike, cook something. Repetitive tasks that don't engage your logical circuits are wonderful ways to give your brain room do what it needs to do to in order to formulate a good essay.
3. Writing
· compose a first draft, following your outline if possible, deviating from it where your developing ideas or discoveries dictate
· include the following components:
a) intro paragraph(s), with statement of topic, preliminary thesis, and brief outline of argument
b) as many body paragraphs as necessary to make your argument work. Each of these should include the following elements:
*a topic sentence telling your reader how the paragraph will fit into your overall argument *evidence from the text to support your point
*some discussion of why that evidence is significant
*and a mini-conclusion statement that wraps up the point of the paragraph
c) a conclusion
As you write, consider William G. Perry’s description of the writing process: “First you make a mess, then you clean it up.”
· LET IT FERMENT
4. Revision
· view revision as a distinct task from writing
· it’s better to remove items than to add during revision
· clean up loose ends—you can’t say everything in an essay
· make sure that each paragraph has what it needs
· focus on refining your thesis and making your introduction as strong as possible
· preserve forward momentum
· let it ferment
· re-read, revisit, and revise again
5. Notes on Style
· keep it simple: bigger is not better when it comes to vocabulary
· complex ideas can be explained simply
· explain yourself as clearly as possible
How to Build an Essay
1. Before you begin:
· choose a topic you like, applied to a work you enjoy or are interested in/challenged by
· read or re-read the text, jot down some first thoughts
· consider what the topic means to you
· let it ferment
2. Gathering evidence, preliminary thoughts, outlining:
· return to the text
This means skimming through it / rereading, and making notes (on paper or in a computer file) on passages that will help to formulate your opinion on the topic you've chosen. This means you don't begin with a thesis and then search for evidence to back it up. You let the text dictate the formation of your thesis.
· organize your findings
· build your essay outline from the evidence up
· let the text speak for itself
· tentative thesis statement
· let it ferment
Fermentation requires taking time in between stages so your mind can grind away at it. Go do something else instead: laundry, go for a hike, cook something. Repetitive tasks that don't engage your logical circuits are wonderful ways to give your brain room do what it needs to do to in order to formulate a good essay.
3. Writing
· compose a first draft, following your outline if possible, deviating from it where your developing ideas or discoveries dictate
· include the following components:
a) intro paragraph(s), with statement of topic, preliminary thesis, and brief outline of argument
b) as many body paragraphs as necessary to make your argument work. Each of these should include the following elements:
*a topic sentence telling your reader how the paragraph will fit into your overall argument *evidence from the text to support your point
*some discussion of why that evidence is significant
*and a mini-conclusion statement that wraps up the point of the paragraph
c) a conclusion
As you write, consider William G. Perry’s description of the writing process: “First you make a mess, then you clean it up.”
· LET IT FERMENT
4. Revision
· view revision as a distinct task from writing
· it’s better to remove items than to add during revision
· clean up loose ends—you can’t say everything in an essay
· make sure that each paragraph has what it needs
· focus on refining your thesis and making your introduction as strong as possible
· preserve forward momentum
· let it ferment
· re-read, revisit, and revise again
5. Notes on Style
· keep it simple: bigger is not better when it comes to vocabulary
· complex ideas can be explained simply
· explain yourself as clearly as possible
Essay Topics
Last night one of you asked me if I were planning to post essay topics online. All I can say is: oops! I handed essay topics out to the class a couple of weeks ago; I neglected to post them here. So here they are:
English 3I06 / The Age of Elizabeth I
Essay 1 Topics
Due date: June 12
Value: 15% of final grade
The completed essay should be 6-7 pages doublespaced. I will accept essays running between 5 ½ pages to 8 pages. If you are significantly under the 5 ½ page mark, I will deduct a percentage from your essay grade (based on the number of words you are underlength). If you have written more than 8 pages and they are less than totally brilliant, I will stop reading and grade what I have read up until that point. I encourage course participants to adapt topics or create their own. If you choose to adapt a topic or create your own, please you must do so in consultation with me.
1. One way to gauge a culture’s values is to consider where it draws the line between the natural and the cultural, artificial, unnatural, or supernatural. Choosing one or more of the course texts we have read so far, discuss the use of the terms “nature” and “natural” in them.
2. Consider the role of humour (i.e., satire, parody, statements intended to induce laughter) in one or more of the texts we’ve read so far this term. What sorts of things do 16th century authors hold up as amusing to their audiences? How is humour strategically used within a work? What does 16th century English humour indicate about English culture?
3. Analyse the role of self-presentation in one or more of the texts we’ve read so far this term. How do individuals strive to align themselves with, or break, social codes in this period? If you would like to look at portraiture or visual art as well as the readings, please do so.
English 3I06 / The Age of Elizabeth I
Essay 1 Topics
Due date: June 12
Value: 15% of final grade
The completed essay should be 6-7 pages doublespaced. I will accept essays running between 5 ½ pages to 8 pages. If you are significantly under the 5 ½ page mark, I will deduct a percentage from your essay grade (based on the number of words you are underlength). If you have written more than 8 pages and they are less than totally brilliant, I will stop reading and grade what I have read up until that point. I encourage course participants to adapt topics or create their own. If you choose to adapt a topic or create your own, please you must do so in consultation with me.
1. One way to gauge a culture’s values is to consider where it draws the line between the natural and the cultural, artificial, unnatural, or supernatural. Choosing one or more of the course texts we have read so far, discuss the use of the terms “nature” and “natural” in them.
2. Consider the role of humour (i.e., satire, parody, statements intended to induce laughter) in one or more of the texts we’ve read so far this term. What sorts of things do 16th century authors hold up as amusing to their audiences? How is humour strategically used within a work? What does 16th century English humour indicate about English culture?
3. Analyse the role of self-presentation in one or more of the texts we’ve read so far this term. How do individuals strive to align themselves with, or break, social codes in this period? If you would like to look at portraiture or visual art as well as the readings, please do so.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Lecture Notes, Tuesday, May 27: Shakespeare Background and Contexts
27 May 2008
English 3I06 / The Age of Elizabeth I
Lecture Notes
Shakespeare, All’s Well that Ends Well
Background on Shakespeare
All’s Well: Beginning and Contexts
Background on Shakespeare
Biographical details:
* Years: 1564-1616
* Born to a glovemaker, John Shakespeare, and Mary (Arden) in Stratford, England
* Grammar school education, classical education, Latin texts
* Married at 18 to Anne Hathaway (who was 26 and pregnant with their first daughter, Susanna
* Twins Hamnet and Judith followed (Hamnet d. 1596, age 11)
* 1585-1592 “lost years”
* Moved to London early 1590s (?), where he probably acted with the Queen’s Men, a theatre troup who worked and toured the provinces (plays included Famous Victories of Henry V and King Leir)
* Definitely there in 1592, when someone, probably fellow playwright Robert Greene, wrote a pamphlet that included an attack on Shakespeare:
“for there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tyger’s hart wrapped in a Player’s hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and beeing an absolute Iohannes fac totum [Jack-of-all-trades, Master of none], is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey. O that I might entreate your rare wits to be employed in more profitable courses: & let these Apes imitate your past excellence, and never more acquaint them with your admired inventions.” ~Groats Worth of Witte, 1592
* 1590s made the transition to the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (founded 1594), as part-owner, actor, and playwright—this troup became The King’s Men when James I took the throne (1603)
* 1613 retires to Stratford
* dies 1616, famously leaving his wife the “second-best bed”
A Few Important Contexts:
* the development of English drama – touring companies through to the establishment of the London theatre with “The Theatre” in Shoreditch, 1576, dismantled 28 December 1598 to build the Globe
* the company system of playwriting
* the status of the actor
* the “all-male” stage
* The Protestant Reformation
* Elizabeth (reg. 1558-1603) and James I (1603-1625)
* Elizabeth inspired some of Shakespeare’s thoughts on beauty. From Twelfth Night 1.5:
'Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and whiteNature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on
* Some critics argue James I is reflected in the Duke of Measure for Measure, and was the inspiration for Macbeth (the Scottish play)
Shakespeare Now
* Stephen Greenblatt: “How did Shakespeare become Shakespeare?”
* One answer: 1623 folio, collected by John Heminge and Henry Condell, two of Shakespeare’s fellow actors in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men/ King’s Men*
* Images of Shakespeare from the past: Chandos portrait*, Sanders portrait (???)*
* Shakespearean pop*
Shakespeare in Reverse
* Charles Dickens (letter to William Sandys, June 13, 1847):
“The life of Shakespeare is a fine mystery, and I tremble every day lest something should turn up!”
* Alexander Pope (1725):
“If ever any Author deserved the name of an Original, it was Shakespeare. Homer himself drew not his art so immediately from the fountains of Nature…The Poetry of Shakespeare was Inspiration indeed: he is not so much an Imitator as an Instrument of Nature; and ‘tis not so just to say that he speaks from her as that she speaks thro’ him.”
* John Oldmixon, on the habit of revising Shakespeare: an epilogue he wrote for the end of a performance of Measure for Measure (1700):
The Epilogue
Spoken by Shakespeare’s Ghost
Enough! Your Cruelty Alive I knew,
And must I Dead be Persecuted too?
Injur’d so much of late upon the Stage,
My Ghost can beear no more, but comes to Rage.
My Plays by Scriblers mangl’d I have Seen;
By Lifeless Actors Murder’d on the Scene.
* Charles Gildon, on the failure of Shakespeare to follow the unities (time, place, action) (1694):
[Gildon’s Question:]
Shall we therefore still admire Shakespeare, with these Learned and Ingenious Gentlemen…because he has not come close to the Rules Aristotle drew from the Practice of the Greek Poets…?
[His answer:]
The Vice of the Age it was that perverted many of his Characters in his other Plays. Nor cou’d it be avoided if he would have his Audience sit the Play out, and receivbe that Profit that is the chief end of all Poets.
* Thomas Rymer, from A Short View of Tragedy (1693), on the importance of Shakespeare’s language:
Many, peradventure, of the Tragical Scenes in Shakespeare cry’d up for the Action, might do yet better without words. Words are a sort of heavy baggage, that were better out of the way at the push of Action; especially in his bombast Circumstance, where the Words and Action are seldom akin, generally are inconsistent, at cross purposes, embarrass or destroy each other. Yet to those who take not the words distinctly there may be something in the buz [sic.] and sound that, like a drone to a Bagpipe, may serve to set off the Action.
* John Dryden, An Essay of Dramatick Poesie (1668):
To begin then with Shakespeare; he was the man who of all Modern, and perhaps Ancient Poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. All the Images of Nature were still present to him, and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily: when he describes any thing, you more than see it, you feel it too.
All’s Well: Beginning and Contexts
* Helena’s skill (1.1.18-24)
* Helena’s problem (1.1.84-103)
* Helena’s wit (1.1.111-171)
* The King’s illness (1.1.35)
* Source: Decameron
* Painter’s summary (Palace of Pleasures, 1575):
Giletta a phisician's doughter of Narbon, healed the Frenche Kyng of a fistula, for reward whereof she demaunded Beltramo Counte of Rossiglione to husbande. The Counte beying maried againste his will, for despite fled to Florence and loved an other. Giletta his wife, by pollicie founde meanes to lye with her husbande, in place of his lover, and was begotten with child of two sonnes: which knowen to her husbande, he received her againe, and afterwardes he lived in great honour and felicite.
* Boccaccio, Decameron (Florio’s 1620 translation)
It was noysed abroad by common report, that the King of France was in a very dangerous condition, by reason of a strange swelling on his stomacke, which failing of apt and convenient curing, became a Fistula, afflicting him daily with extraordinary paine and anguish, no Chirurgeon or Physitian being found, that could minister any hope of healing, but rather encreased the greefe, and drove it to more vehement extreamitie, compelling the King, as dispairing utterly of all helpe, to give over any further counsell or advice. Heereof faire Juliet was wondrously joyfull, as hoping that this accident would prove the meanes, not onely of her journey to Paris, but if the disease were no more then she imagined; she could easily cure it, and thereby compasse Count Bertrand to be her husband. Hereupon, quickning up her wits, with remembrance of those rules of Art, which (by long practise and experience) she had learned of her skilfull Father, she compounded certaine hearbes together, such as she knew fitting for that kinde of infirmity, and having reduced her compound into powder, away she rode forthwith to Paris.
Being there arrived, all other serious matters set aside, first shee must needs have a sight of Count Bertrand, as being the onely Saint that caused her pilgrimage. Next she made meanes for her accesse to the King, humbly entreating his Majesty, to vouchsafe her the sight of his Fistula. When the King saw her, her modest lookes did plainely deliver, that she was a faire, comely, and discreete young Gentlewoman; wherefore, he would no longer hide it, but layed it open to her view. When shee had seene and felt it, presently she put the King in comfort; affirming, that she knew her selfe able to cure his Fistula, saying: Sir, if your Highnesse will referre the matter to me, without any perill of life, or any the least paine to your person, I hope (by the helpe of heaven) to make you whole and sound within eight dayes space. The King hearing her words, beganne merrily to smile at her, saying: How is it possible for thee, being a yong Maiden, to do that which the best Physitians in Europe, are not able to performe? I commend thy kindnesse, and will not remaine unthankefull for thy forward willingnesse: but I am fully determined, to use no more counsell, or to make any further triall of Physicke or Chirurgery. Whereto faire Juliet thus replyed: Great King, let not my skill and experience be despised, because I am young, and a Maiden; for my profession is not Physicke, neither do I undertake the ministering thereof, as depending on mine owne knowledge; but by the gracious assistance of heaven, and some rules of skilfull observation, which I learned of reverend Gerard of Narbona who was my worthy Father, and a Physitian of no meane fame, all the while he lived.
At the hearing of these words, the King began somewhat to admire at her gracious carriage, and saide within himselfe. What know I, whether this Virgin is sent to me by the direction of heaven, or no? Why should I disdaine to make proofe of her skill? Her promise is, to cure me in a small times compasse, and without any paine or affliction to me: she shall not come so farre, to returne againe with the losse of he labour, I am resolved to try her cunning, and thereon saide. Faire Virgin, if you cause me to breake my setled determination, and faile of curing me, what can you expect to follow thereon? Whatsoever great King (quoth she) shall please you. Let me be strongly guarded, yet not hindered, when I am to prosecute the businesse: and then if I do not perfectly heale you within eight daies, let a good fire be made, and therein consume my body unto ashes. But if I accomplish the cure, and set your Highnesse free from all further greevance, what recompence then shall remaine to me?
* Context: John of Arderne and the alternative placement of the fistula
* King’s description of his illness, 2.1.132-142
* “backward” (1.1.194-206; 1.2.51-54)
English 3I06 / The Age of Elizabeth I
Lecture Notes
Shakespeare, All’s Well that Ends Well
Background on Shakespeare
All’s Well: Beginning and Contexts
Background on Shakespeare
Biographical details:
* Years: 1564-1616
* Born to a glovemaker, John Shakespeare, and Mary (Arden) in Stratford, England
* Grammar school education, classical education, Latin texts
* Married at 18 to Anne Hathaway (who was 26 and pregnant with their first daughter, Susanna
* Twins Hamnet and Judith followed (Hamnet d. 1596, age 11)
* 1585-1592 “lost years”
* Moved to London early 1590s (?), where he probably acted with the Queen’s Men, a theatre troup who worked and toured the provinces (plays included Famous Victories of Henry V and King Leir)
* Definitely there in 1592, when someone, probably fellow playwright Robert Greene, wrote a pamphlet that included an attack on Shakespeare:
“for there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tyger’s hart wrapped in a Player’s hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and beeing an absolute Iohannes fac totum [Jack-of-all-trades, Master of none], is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey. O that I might entreate your rare wits to be employed in more profitable courses: & let these Apes imitate your past excellence, and never more acquaint them with your admired inventions.” ~Groats Worth of Witte, 1592
* 1590s made the transition to the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (founded 1594), as part-owner, actor, and playwright—this troup became The King’s Men when James I took the throne (1603)
* 1613 retires to Stratford
* dies 1616, famously leaving his wife the “second-best bed”
A Few Important Contexts:
* the development of English drama – touring companies through to the establishment of the London theatre with “The Theatre” in Shoreditch, 1576, dismantled 28 December 1598 to build the Globe
* the company system of playwriting
* the status of the actor
* the “all-male” stage
* The Protestant Reformation
* Elizabeth (reg. 1558-1603) and James I (1603-1625)
* Elizabeth inspired some of Shakespeare’s thoughts on beauty. From Twelfth Night 1.5:
'Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and whiteNature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on
* Some critics argue James I is reflected in the Duke of Measure for Measure, and was the inspiration for Macbeth (the Scottish play)
Shakespeare Now
* Stephen Greenblatt: “How did Shakespeare become Shakespeare?”
* One answer: 1623 folio, collected by John Heminge and Henry Condell, two of Shakespeare’s fellow actors in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men/ King’s Men*
* Images of Shakespeare from the past: Chandos portrait*, Sanders portrait (???)*
* Shakespearean pop*
Shakespeare in Reverse
* Charles Dickens (letter to William Sandys, June 13, 1847):
“The life of Shakespeare is a fine mystery, and I tremble every day lest something should turn up!”
* Alexander Pope (1725):
“If ever any Author deserved the name of an Original, it was Shakespeare. Homer himself drew not his art so immediately from the fountains of Nature…The Poetry of Shakespeare was Inspiration indeed: he is not so much an Imitator as an Instrument of Nature; and ‘tis not so just to say that he speaks from her as that she speaks thro’ him.”
* John Oldmixon, on the habit of revising Shakespeare: an epilogue he wrote for the end of a performance of Measure for Measure (1700):
The Epilogue
Spoken by Shakespeare’s Ghost
Enough! Your Cruelty Alive I knew,
And must I Dead be Persecuted too?
Injur’d so much of late upon the Stage,
My Ghost can beear no more, but comes to Rage.
My Plays by Scriblers mangl’d I have Seen;
By Lifeless Actors Murder’d on the Scene.
* Charles Gildon, on the failure of Shakespeare to follow the unities (time, place, action) (1694):
[Gildon’s Question:]
Shall we therefore still admire Shakespeare, with these Learned and Ingenious Gentlemen…because he has not come close to the Rules Aristotle drew from the Practice of the Greek Poets…?
[His answer:]
The Vice of the Age it was that perverted many of his Characters in his other Plays. Nor cou’d it be avoided if he would have his Audience sit the Play out, and receivbe that Profit that is the chief end of all Poets.
* Thomas Rymer, from A Short View of Tragedy (1693), on the importance of Shakespeare’s language:
Many, peradventure, of the Tragical Scenes in Shakespeare cry’d up for the Action, might do yet better without words. Words are a sort of heavy baggage, that were better out of the way at the push of Action; especially in his bombast Circumstance, where the Words and Action are seldom akin, generally are inconsistent, at cross purposes, embarrass or destroy each other. Yet to those who take not the words distinctly there may be something in the buz [sic.] and sound that, like a drone to a Bagpipe, may serve to set off the Action.
* John Dryden, An Essay of Dramatick Poesie (1668):
To begin then with Shakespeare; he was the man who of all Modern, and perhaps Ancient Poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. All the Images of Nature were still present to him, and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily: when he describes any thing, you more than see it, you feel it too.
All’s Well: Beginning and Contexts
* Helena’s skill (1.1.18-24)
* Helena’s problem (1.1.84-103)
* Helena’s wit (1.1.111-171)
* The King’s illness (1.1.35)
* Source: Decameron
* Painter’s summary (Palace of Pleasures, 1575):
Giletta a phisician's doughter of Narbon, healed the Frenche Kyng of a fistula, for reward whereof she demaunded Beltramo Counte of Rossiglione to husbande. The Counte beying maried againste his will, for despite fled to Florence and loved an other. Giletta his wife, by pollicie founde meanes to lye with her husbande, in place of his lover, and was begotten with child of two sonnes: which knowen to her husbande, he received her againe, and afterwardes he lived in great honour and felicite.
* Boccaccio, Decameron (Florio’s 1620 translation)
It was noysed abroad by common report, that the King of France was in a very dangerous condition, by reason of a strange swelling on his stomacke, which failing of apt and convenient curing, became a Fistula, afflicting him daily with extraordinary paine and anguish, no Chirurgeon or Physitian being found, that could minister any hope of healing, but rather encreased the greefe, and drove it to more vehement extreamitie, compelling the King, as dispairing utterly of all helpe, to give over any further counsell or advice. Heereof faire Juliet was wondrously joyfull, as hoping that this accident would prove the meanes, not onely of her journey to Paris, but if the disease were no more then she imagined; she could easily cure it, and thereby compasse Count Bertrand to be her husband. Hereupon, quickning up her wits, with remembrance of those rules of Art, which (by long practise and experience) she had learned of her skilfull Father, she compounded certaine hearbes together, such as she knew fitting for that kinde of infirmity, and having reduced her compound into powder, away she rode forthwith to Paris.
Being there arrived, all other serious matters set aside, first shee must needs have a sight of Count Bertrand, as being the onely Saint that caused her pilgrimage. Next she made meanes for her accesse to the King, humbly entreating his Majesty, to vouchsafe her the sight of his Fistula. When the King saw her, her modest lookes did plainely deliver, that she was a faire, comely, and discreete young Gentlewoman; wherefore, he would no longer hide it, but layed it open to her view. When shee had seene and felt it, presently she put the King in comfort; affirming, that she knew her selfe able to cure his Fistula, saying: Sir, if your Highnesse will referre the matter to me, without any perill of life, or any the least paine to your person, I hope (by the helpe of heaven) to make you whole and sound within eight dayes space. The King hearing her words, beganne merrily to smile at her, saying: How is it possible for thee, being a yong Maiden, to do that which the best Physitians in Europe, are not able to performe? I commend thy kindnesse, and will not remaine unthankefull for thy forward willingnesse: but I am fully determined, to use no more counsell, or to make any further triall of Physicke or Chirurgery. Whereto faire Juliet thus replyed: Great King, let not my skill and experience be despised, because I am young, and a Maiden; for my profession is not Physicke, neither do I undertake the ministering thereof, as depending on mine owne knowledge; but by the gracious assistance of heaven, and some rules of skilfull observation, which I learned of reverend Gerard of Narbona who was my worthy Father, and a Physitian of no meane fame, all the while he lived.
At the hearing of these words, the King began somewhat to admire at her gracious carriage, and saide within himselfe. What know I, whether this Virgin is sent to me by the direction of heaven, or no? Why should I disdaine to make proofe of her skill? Her promise is, to cure me in a small times compasse, and without any paine or affliction to me: she shall not come so farre, to returne againe with the losse of he labour, I am resolved to try her cunning, and thereon saide. Faire Virgin, if you cause me to breake my setled determination, and faile of curing me, what can you expect to follow thereon? Whatsoever great King (quoth she) shall please you. Let me be strongly guarded, yet not hindered, when I am to prosecute the businesse: and then if I do not perfectly heale you within eight daies, let a good fire be made, and therein consume my body unto ashes. But if I accomplish the cure, and set your Highnesse free from all further greevance, what recompence then shall remaine to me?
* Context: John of Arderne and the alternative placement of the fistula
* King’s description of his illness, 2.1.132-142
* “backward” (1.1.194-206; 1.2.51-54)
Monday, May 26, 2008
Reminder
Don't forget that if you haven't signed up for a pedagogy workshop yet, you should do so soon! I want to have the workshops solidified by Thursday the 29th. Info on which workshops are still available is here. If you have decided to be a wild card (i.e., you don't mind which workshop you end up in), please drop me a line and let me know that's what you've decided.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Information about the test on May 27th
For those of you who are visiting here in search of test info, I've collected all of the sample questions I went over in lecture and info about the test's format here.
If you're looking for lecture notes, they are posted under the date on which the lecture took place. Check the "Archive" listing in the left sidebar.
The test will take place in the first hour of class. You'll have an hour to write, and then we'll take a break and come back for some introductory info about All's Well that Ends Well.
The test will include six short answer questions (1 point each), and two medium answer questions (two points each), for a total of 10 points. The test is worth 5% of your final mark.
Note that the test is open book. That means open text and open notebook. Anything that has been assigned reading so far is fair game for the test, whether I discussed it in detail in lecture or not. So, bring your Broadview anthology and your copy of Thomas Nashe's works (including Pierce Penniless and The Terrors of the Night) so you can research your answers.
Sample Test Questions
These are the sample questions I gave you to try last week on Tuesday and Thursday.
Sample Short Answer Questions
On page 221 of The Terrors of the Night, Nashe writes, “If [a man] chance to kill a spider, he hath suppressed an enemy; if a spinner creep upon him, he shall have gold rain down from heaven. If his nose bleed, some of his kinsfolks is dead; if the salt fall right against him, all the stars cannot save him from some immediate misfortune.” What is the purpose of this list of supersitions in the context of his overall argument?
Note that this question in particular is asking you to look not just at the passage itself, but at the surrounding discussion. You should go into the test having some idea of the overarching arguments / ideas at work in the readings we've done so far, so that you can recognize where the author is putting forward a point of view that stands in contrast to his own point.
On pages 60-62 of Pierce Penniless, just before the beginning of the section called The Description of Greediness, Pierce states, “I know a great sort of good fellows that would venture far for his freedom, and a number of needy lawyers, who now mourn in threadbare gowns for his thraldom, that would go near to poison his keepers with false Latin, if that might procure his enlargement…” Who is the prisoner in this statement?
On pages 79-80 in Pierce Penniless, Pierce composes a “Commendation of Antiquaries”. He gives (at least) two reasons why Antiquaries are able to convince people to buy old stuff. What are they?
Examining the section on “The Fruits of Poetry” from Pierce Penniless (91-2), name two of the fruits of poetry.
In “Of Plantations”, what does Bacon identify as the main cause of the failure of most colonies?
Sample Medium Answer Questions
Examine The Tunning of Elinour Rumming, lines 1-90. Identify three features of Skelton’s verse in this passage. In one or two sentences, using one of the features you’ve identified, state how it amplifies or undercuts the content of the passage.
In Pierce Penniless pages 71-2, Pierce describes “The Base Insinuating of Drudges and their Practice to Aspire”. What is a “drudge”? What warning advice does he give to drudges? In one or two sentences, theorize what this advice suggests about the role of women in 16th century society.
Considering the sections on “The Defence of Plays”, “The Use of Plays”, and “The Confutation of the Citizens’ Objections Against Players” in Pierce Penniless, compose three or four sentences about the place of plays and players in the social order.
Using Bacon’s essay “Of Truth”, compose three or four sentences noting his technique(s) for discussing his topic.
If you're looking for lecture notes, they are posted under the date on which the lecture took place. Check the "Archive" listing in the left sidebar.
The test will take place in the first hour of class. You'll have an hour to write, and then we'll take a break and come back for some introductory info about All's Well that Ends Well.
The test will include six short answer questions (1 point each), and two medium answer questions (two points each), for a total of 10 points. The test is worth 5% of your final mark.
Note that the test is open book. That means open text and open notebook. Anything that has been assigned reading so far is fair game for the test, whether I discussed it in detail in lecture or not. So, bring your Broadview anthology and your copy of Thomas Nashe's works (including Pierce Penniless and The Terrors of the Night) so you can research your answers.
Sample Test Questions
These are the sample questions I gave you to try last week on Tuesday and Thursday.
Sample Short Answer Questions
On page 221 of The Terrors of the Night, Nashe writes, “If [a man] chance to kill a spider, he hath suppressed an enemy; if a spinner creep upon him, he shall have gold rain down from heaven. If his nose bleed, some of his kinsfolks is dead; if the salt fall right against him, all the stars cannot save him from some immediate misfortune.” What is the purpose of this list of supersitions in the context of his overall argument?
Note that this question in particular is asking you to look not just at the passage itself, but at the surrounding discussion. You should go into the test having some idea of the overarching arguments / ideas at work in the readings we've done so far, so that you can recognize where the author is putting forward a point of view that stands in contrast to his own point.
On pages 60-62 of Pierce Penniless, just before the beginning of the section called The Description of Greediness, Pierce states, “I know a great sort of good fellows that would venture far for his freedom, and a number of needy lawyers, who now mourn in threadbare gowns for his thraldom, that would go near to poison his keepers with false Latin, if that might procure his enlargement…” Who is the prisoner in this statement?
On pages 79-80 in Pierce Penniless, Pierce composes a “Commendation of Antiquaries”. He gives (at least) two reasons why Antiquaries are able to convince people to buy old stuff. What are they?
Examining the section on “The Fruits of Poetry” from Pierce Penniless (91-2), name two of the fruits of poetry.
In “Of Plantations”, what does Bacon identify as the main cause of the failure of most colonies?
Sample Medium Answer Questions
Examine The Tunning of Elinour Rumming, lines 1-90. Identify three features of Skelton’s verse in this passage. In one or two sentences, using one of the features you’ve identified, state how it amplifies or undercuts the content of the passage.
In Pierce Penniless pages 71-2, Pierce describes “The Base Insinuating of Drudges and their Practice to Aspire”. What is a “drudge”? What warning advice does he give to drudges? In one or two sentences, theorize what this advice suggests about the role of women in 16th century society.
Considering the sections on “The Defence of Plays”, “The Use of Plays”, and “The Confutation of the Citizens’ Objections Against Players” in Pierce Penniless, compose three or four sentences about the place of plays and players in the social order.
Using Bacon’s essay “Of Truth”, compose three or four sentences noting his technique(s) for discussing his topic.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Lecture Notes, Thursday, May 22, 2008: Peirce Penniless and Bacon's Essays
22 May 2008
English 3I06 / The Age of Elizabeth
Lecture Notes
Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penniless and Francis Bacon, Essays
Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penniless
*The situation
*The structure of the Supplication
Begins with a description of vices, who are versions of one of the deadly sins, Avarice: Greediness (61) and Dame Niggardize
What is a Vice?
*a personification of wrongdoing
*usually fashioned after a variation on one of the seven deadly sins
*a type of character often seen in moral interludes in the 16th century
The images of vices below can be found through the Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts pages at the National Library of the Netherlands: http://www.kb.nl/manuscripts/browser/index.html. Browse by clicking through "Abstract Ideas and Concepts" to "Morality" and click on the image link beside "Good and Bad Behaviour, Moral Qualities." Playing around with the different categories can provide you with hours of entertainment.
Gluttony and Hypocrisy
Pride borne by Flattery
Treachery and Calumny borne by Envy
The Seven Deadly Sins
Source: http://www.le.ac.uk/arthistory/seedcorn/faq-sds.html
Pope Gregory the Great (d. 604) described Seven Deadly Sins in his Moralia in Job.
1. Superbia
Pride
2. Invidia
Envy
3. Ira
Anger
4. Avaritia
Avarice
5. Tristia
Sadness
6. Gula
Gluttony
7. Luxuria
Lust
(Moralia in Job, XXXI cap. xlv).
The sin ‘Tristia’ was later replaced by ‘Accidia’, or Sloth (Wenzel (1967), 38). This sin was taken from earlier catalogues of vice, in particular, the eight evil thoughts listed by Evaagrius (346-99), and the eight principal vices proposed by the mid fourth-century writer Cassian (Wenzel (1967), 14-21). Some of the iconography of the Sins was derived from the descriptions of the Battles between the Virtues and Vices in the Psychomachia by the fourth-century poet Prudentius.
The church made a division between sins which were venial and could be forgiven without the need for the sacrament of Confession and those which were capital and merited damnation. Capital or Deadly Sins were so called because they could have a fatal effect on an individual’s spiritual health. British wall paintings stressed the connection between committing the Deadly Sins and ending up in Hell.
A fourteenth-century text, known as Dan Jon Gaytrygge’s Sermon, associated with the Constitutions issued by Archbishop Thoresby for the Diocese of York in 1357, stated:
‘For als the venym of the neddire (adder) slaas manes body, swa the venym of syn slaas manes saule’.
(Perry (1867), 12)
Addendum
In class I mentioned that I had come across an article claiming that the Vatican had recently revised the list of deadly sins. Note that the revision entailed adding seven new deadly sins; not replacing the original seven. So you can still run into trouble by preening, envying, lusting, wrathing, slothing, coveting, or gluttonizing.
You can read the list of new sins here.
An article about the revision can be found here.
A brief commentary by BBC broadcaster William Crawley on the list and probable motivations behind it can be found here.
Some good info on the Bosch painting of the wheel of the seven deadly sins I showed in class can be found here. Includes images of details from the painting and some brief commentary that explains each of the sections. You can look at some of the segments of the wheel closely enough to see the name of the sin written on the picture and see that there are sneaky devils in some of the images encouraging the sinners to keep going.
Pierce Penniless moves on to the remaining six deadly sins:
Pride (64-80)
*The Nature of an Upstart; pg 69 The Pride of Peasants sprung up of nothing; The Pride of Merchants’ Wives; The Base Insinuating of Drudges and their Practice to Aspire (upward social mobility)
*The Prodigal Young Master (off on adventures)
*Pg 68, The Pride of the Learned: “These are but the suburbs of sin we have in
hand: I must describe to you a large city, wholly inhabited with this damnable
enormity.”
*international flavour: Pride of the Spaniard, Italian, Frenchman, Dane!
*pg. 77-8 “the painted faces here at home”: Pride morphing into gender critique
Envy (with a revision to his personification) (80-94)
*pg. 83 “O Italy, the academy of manslaughter…”
*Wrath, in which Pierce Penniless himself gets entangled (84-98)
*The anecdote about the Queen’s Men, 85-6
*89-90 the “Invective Against Enemies of Poetry” – new-fangled verse
Gluttony, including a discourse on drunkenness (88-109)
Sloth, including The Defence of Plays (109-116) – question below
Lechery (116-118)
Constructs a social map of London and the international scene:
To view a large version of this map, click here.
More info on this map and others like it, including others by Sebastian Muenster who made this map of London in 1574, go here.
Francis Bacon, Essays
*reflecting a scholarly rather than a popular perspective on culture
*What does “Of Marriage and Single Life” suggest about Bacon? About the nature of patriarchy in his day?
* “Of Studies” and the humanist ideal
*”Of Masks and Triumphs”
http://www.elizabethancostume.net/masque/index.html
http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/guided_tours/drama_tour/renaissance/court_masque.php
Sample Test Questions
Short Questions:
On pages 60-62 of Pierce Penniless, just before the beginning of the section called The Description of Greediness, Pierce states, “I know a great sort of good fellows that would venture far for his freedom, and a number of needy lawyers, who now mourn in threadbare gowns for his thraldom, that would go near to poison his keepers with false Latin, if that might procure his enlargement…” Who is the prisoner in this statement?
On pages 79-80 in Pierce Penniless, Pierce composes a “Commendation of Antiquaries”. He gives (at least) two reasons why Antiquaries are able to convince people to buy old stuff. What are they?
Examining the section on “The Fruits of Poetry” from Pierce Penniless (91-2), name two of the fruits of poetry.
In “Of Plantations”, what does Bacon identify as the main cause of the failure of most colonies?
Medium Questions:
In Pierce Penniless pages 71-2, Pierce describes “The Base Insinuating of Drudges and their Practice to Aspire”. What is a “drudge”? What warning advice does he give to drudges? In one or two sentences, theorize what this advice suggests about the role of women in 16th century society.
Considering the sections on “The Defence of Plays”, “The Use of Plays”, and “The Confutation of the Citizens’ Objections Against Players” in Pierce Penniless, compose three or four sentences about the place of plays and players in the social order.
Using Bacon’s essay “Of Truth”, compose three or four sentences noting his technique(s) for discussing his topic.
English 3I06 / The Age of Elizabeth
Lecture Notes
Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penniless and Francis Bacon, Essays
Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penniless
*The situation
*The structure of the Supplication
Begins with a description of vices, who are versions of one of the deadly sins, Avarice: Greediness (61) and Dame Niggardize
What is a Vice?
*a personification of wrongdoing
*usually fashioned after a variation on one of the seven deadly sins
*a type of character often seen in moral interludes in the 16th century
The images of vices below can be found through the Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts pages at the National Library of the Netherlands: http://www.kb.nl/manuscripts/browser/index.html. Browse by clicking through "Abstract Ideas and Concepts" to "Morality" and click on the image link beside "Good and Bad Behaviour, Moral Qualities." Playing around with the different categories can provide you with hours of entertainment.
Gluttony and Hypocrisy
Pride borne by Flattery
Treachery and Calumny borne by Envy
The Seven Deadly Sins
Source: http://www.le.ac.uk/arthistory/seedcorn/faq-sds.html
Pope Gregory the Great (d. 604) described Seven Deadly Sins in his Moralia in Job.
1. Superbia
Pride
2. Invidia
Envy
3. Ira
Anger
4. Avaritia
Avarice
5. Tristia
Sadness
6. Gula
Gluttony
7. Luxuria
Lust
(Moralia in Job, XXXI cap. xlv).
The sin ‘Tristia’ was later replaced by ‘Accidia’, or Sloth (Wenzel (1967), 38). This sin was taken from earlier catalogues of vice, in particular, the eight evil thoughts listed by Evaagrius (346-99), and the eight principal vices proposed by the mid fourth-century writer Cassian (Wenzel (1967), 14-21). Some of the iconography of the Sins was derived from the descriptions of the Battles between the Virtues and Vices in the Psychomachia by the fourth-century poet Prudentius.
The church made a division between sins which were venial and could be forgiven without the need for the sacrament of Confession and those which were capital and merited damnation. Capital or Deadly Sins were so called because they could have a fatal effect on an individual’s spiritual health. British wall paintings stressed the connection between committing the Deadly Sins and ending up in Hell.
A fourteenth-century text, known as Dan Jon Gaytrygge’s Sermon, associated with the Constitutions issued by Archbishop Thoresby for the Diocese of York in 1357, stated:
‘For als the venym of the neddire (adder) slaas manes body, swa the venym of syn slaas manes saule’.
(Perry (1867), 12)
Addendum
In class I mentioned that I had come across an article claiming that the Vatican had recently revised the list of deadly sins. Note that the revision entailed adding seven new deadly sins; not replacing the original seven. So you can still run into trouble by preening, envying, lusting, wrathing, slothing, coveting, or gluttonizing.
You can read the list of new sins here.
An article about the revision can be found here.
A brief commentary by BBC broadcaster William Crawley on the list and probable motivations behind it can be found here.
Some good info on the Bosch painting of the wheel of the seven deadly sins I showed in class can be found here. Includes images of details from the painting and some brief commentary that explains each of the sections. You can look at some of the segments of the wheel closely enough to see the name of the sin written on the picture and see that there are sneaky devils in some of the images encouraging the sinners to keep going.
Pierce Penniless moves on to the remaining six deadly sins:
Pride (64-80)
*The Nature of an Upstart; pg 69 The Pride of Peasants sprung up of nothing; The Pride of Merchants’ Wives; The Base Insinuating of Drudges and their Practice to Aspire (upward social mobility)
*The Prodigal Young Master (off on adventures)
*Pg 68, The Pride of the Learned: “These are but the suburbs of sin we have in
hand: I must describe to you a large city, wholly inhabited with this damnable
enormity.”
*international flavour: Pride of the Spaniard, Italian, Frenchman, Dane!
*pg. 77-8 “the painted faces here at home”: Pride morphing into gender critique
Envy (with a revision to his personification) (80-94)
*pg. 83 “O Italy, the academy of manslaughter…”
*Wrath, in which Pierce Penniless himself gets entangled (84-98)
*The anecdote about the Queen’s Men, 85-6
*89-90 the “Invective Against Enemies of Poetry” – new-fangled verse
Gluttony, including a discourse on drunkenness (88-109)
Sloth, including The Defence of Plays (109-116) – question below
Lechery (116-118)
Constructs a social map of London and the international scene:
To view a large version of this map, click here.
More info on this map and others like it, including others by Sebastian Muenster who made this map of London in 1574, go here.
Francis Bacon, Essays
*reflecting a scholarly rather than a popular perspective on culture
*What does “Of Marriage and Single Life” suggest about Bacon? About the nature of patriarchy in his day?
* “Of Studies” and the humanist ideal
*”Of Masks and Triumphs”
http://www.elizabethancostume.net/masque/index.html
http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/guided_tours/drama_tour/renaissance/court_masque.php
Sample Test Questions
Short Questions:
On pages 60-62 of Pierce Penniless, just before the beginning of the section called The Description of Greediness, Pierce states, “I know a great sort of good fellows that would venture far for his freedom, and a number of needy lawyers, who now mourn in threadbare gowns for his thraldom, that would go near to poison his keepers with false Latin, if that might procure his enlargement…” Who is the prisoner in this statement?
On pages 79-80 in Pierce Penniless, Pierce composes a “Commendation of Antiquaries”. He gives (at least) two reasons why Antiquaries are able to convince people to buy old stuff. What are they?
Examining the section on “The Fruits of Poetry” from Pierce Penniless (91-2), name two of the fruits of poetry.
In “Of Plantations”, what does Bacon identify as the main cause of the failure of most colonies?
Medium Questions:
In Pierce Penniless pages 71-2, Pierce describes “The Base Insinuating of Drudges and their Practice to Aspire”. What is a “drudge”? What warning advice does he give to drudges? In one or two sentences, theorize what this advice suggests about the role of women in 16th century society.
Considering the sections on “The Defence of Plays”, “The Use of Plays”, and “The Confutation of the Citizens’ Objections Against Players” in Pierce Penniless, compose three or four sentences about the place of plays and players in the social order.
Using Bacon’s essay “Of Truth”, compose three or four sentences noting his technique(s) for discussing his topic.
Office Hours Adjustment
If you wish to meet me during the hour before class in my office, please do let me know at least 24 hours in advance. Because most people tend to contact me via email or meet with me during class breaks, I find my office hours a bit under used. I will therefore only be in my office in the hour before class should someone request a meeting.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Lecture Notes, Tuesday, May 20, 2008: The Terrors of the Night and The Tunning of Elinour Rumming
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
3I06 / The Age of Elizabeth
Lecture Notes
John Skelton, The Tunning of Elinour Rumming
Thomas Nashe, The Terrors of the Night
Lecture Outline
*test details - see post here.
The Tunning of Elinour Rumming
*A celebration of the exuberant (low)life of London
*Repicated in Jane Holland’s work, here: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/04/poem_of_the_week_36.html
Note the kinds of responses people give to the poem!
*“Skeltonic” verse
*blazon (definition courtesy of http://www.columbia.edu/itc/english/w3263y/poetry_defs.html )
Blazon. (Fr. Shield or “coat of arms”). As a literary term it was used by the followers of Petrarchanism to describe verses which dwelt upon and detailed the various parts of a woman’s body; a sort of catalogue of her physical attributes. Such a catalogue was a convention established in the 13th c. and often used after Marot published his Blason du Beau Tetin (1536). As a rule there was nothing original in this form of conceit
Spenser, Epithalamion (1595)
Her goodly eyes like sapphires shining bright,
Her forehead ivory white
Her cheeks like apples which the sun hath rudded,
Her lips like cherries charming men to bite
And it was easily mocked
Greene, Menaphon (1598)
Thy teeth like to the tusks of the fattest swine,
Thy speech is like the thunder in the air:
Would God thy toes, thy lips, and all were mine.
Compare to the description of Elinour Rumming, lines 1-90
Question (similar to medium answer question on test):
Identify three features of Skelton’s verse in this passage. Using one of the features you’ve identified, state how it amplifies or undercuts the content of the passage.
Why does Skelton use such detail?
*the catalogue of worldly goods
*alehouse as women’s space
* “Fit the Seventh” and the sense of community
Terrors of the Night
*The core ideas of the text: Nashe’s text is poised between the supernatural belief systems of medieval Christian and earlier pagan thought on the one hand, and a newly developing scientific perspective
*although these two categories of thought seem like they might be in conflict, Nashe holds them simultaneously
*this is evident through his exploration of the different sources of apparitions / bad dreams:
208 “The night is the devil’s Black Book, wherein he recordeth all our transgressions”
Devils / The Devil
209 “the devil is a special predominant planet of the night, and…our creator for our punishment hath allotted it him as his peculiar signory and kingdom
212 “There is not a room in any man’s house but is pestered and close-packed with a camp-royal of devils”
Transitions into the idea of “spirits”, 214 and following, a discourse on the spirits of fire, water, earth, and air
Representation of the four types of spirits that can possess men closely mirroring the core ideas of the Galenic medical model - this is the source for Nashe's ideas about the emotional and physiological dispositions produced by the spirits of fire, air, earth, and water.
The Galenic medical model
Galen, 129-200-ish AD
*idea of the four humours
*composition of the body - a porous bag of fluids
*can be disrupted by a large number of factors – environment, food, emotional disturbance
*reciprocally, an imbalance in the humours can cause emotional disposition or disturbance
Detailed info on the four humours and how they work, including the diagrams I showed in class, can be found here.
Find out what your predominant humour is! Take the quiz found here.
*in Terrors, note that the story of the “gentleman of good worship and credit”, beginning pg 241, ends with an explanation that combines a number of factors (central paragraph pg. 246)
*a note on “quintessence” pg 245
*Nashe also works to debunk the idea that some people have access to the secrets of the future / association with devils, in the example of the “conjurors and cunning men”, pg. 226-230 “In secret be it spoken, he is not so great with the devil as you take it. It may be that they are near akin, but yet you hae many kindrid that will do nothing for one another; no more will the devil for him, except it be to damn him.
*231 Association / collapse of the devil with old ideas of household fairies
*234 collapsing the superstition of dreams
Physical illness / disturbance
*Overlap with the idea of devil / devils:
211 “even as ruptures and cramps do then most torment a man when the body with any other disease is distempered, so the devil, when with any other sickness or malady the faculties of our reason are enfee bled and distempered, will be most busy to disturb us and torment us.”
*Note that there is an intimate connection in the period between sin and physical illness; evident from Lady Margaret Hoby’s Diaries, Broadview antho 103-104
From her entry marked 1599 [Friday August 17]
As well as page 104, 1601, December 26
*218 physical disturbance is noted as being the predominant influence on dreams: “A dream is nothing else but a bubbling scum or froth of the fancy, which the day hath left undigested; or an after-feast made of the fragments of idle imaginations”
*219 dreams as the echo of outside noises or influences
*220 food: “Any meat that in the daytime we eat against our stomachs, begetteth a dismal dream. Discontent also in dreams hath no little predominance; for even as from water that is troubled, the mud dispersingly ascendeth from the bottom to the top, so when our blood is chased, disquieted and troubled all the light imperfect humours of our body ascend like mud up aloft into the head.”
Guilty conscience / psychological reasons
Sample short question:
On page 221 of The Terrors of the Night, Nashe writes, “If [a man] chance to kill a spider, he hath suppressed an enemy; if a spinner creep upon him, he shall have gold rain down from heaven. If his nose bleed, some of his kinsfolks is dead; if the salt fall right against him, all the stars cannot save him from some immediate misfortune.” What is the purpose of this list of supersitions in the context of his overall argument?
*236+ like long sickness is to death, fear is to the reality
*241 And as the firmament is still moving and working, so uncessant is the wheeling and rolling on of our brains, which every hour are tempering some new piece of prodigy or other
3I06 / The Age of Elizabeth
Lecture Notes
John Skelton, The Tunning of Elinour Rumming
Thomas Nashe, The Terrors of the Night
Lecture Outline
*test details - see post here.
The Tunning of Elinour Rumming
*A celebration of the exuberant (low)life of London
*Repicated in Jane Holland’s work, here: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/04/poem_of_the_week_36.html
Note the kinds of responses people give to the poem!
*“Skeltonic” verse
*blazon (definition courtesy of http://www.columbia.edu/itc/english/w3263y/poetry_defs.html )
Blazon. (Fr. Shield or “coat of arms”). As a literary term it was used by the followers of Petrarchanism to describe verses which dwelt upon and detailed the various parts of a woman’s body; a sort of catalogue of her physical attributes. Such a catalogue was a convention established in the 13th c. and often used after Marot published his Blason du Beau Tetin (1536). As a rule there was nothing original in this form of conceit
Spenser, Epithalamion (1595)
Her goodly eyes like sapphires shining bright,
Her forehead ivory white
Her cheeks like apples which the sun hath rudded,
Her lips like cherries charming men to bite
And it was easily mocked
Greene, Menaphon (1598)
Thy teeth like to the tusks of the fattest swine,
Thy speech is like the thunder in the air:
Would God thy toes, thy lips, and all were mine.
Compare to the description of Elinour Rumming, lines 1-90
Question (similar to medium answer question on test):
Identify three features of Skelton’s verse in this passage. Using one of the features you’ve identified, state how it amplifies or undercuts the content of the passage.
Why does Skelton use such detail?
*the catalogue of worldly goods
*alehouse as women’s space
* “Fit the Seventh” and the sense of community
Terrors of the Night
*The core ideas of the text: Nashe’s text is poised between the supernatural belief systems of medieval Christian and earlier pagan thought on the one hand, and a newly developing scientific perspective
*although these two categories of thought seem like they might be in conflict, Nashe holds them simultaneously
*this is evident through his exploration of the different sources of apparitions / bad dreams:
208 “The night is the devil’s Black Book, wherein he recordeth all our transgressions”
Devils / The Devil
209 “the devil is a special predominant planet of the night, and…our creator for our punishment hath allotted it him as his peculiar signory and kingdom
212 “There is not a room in any man’s house but is pestered and close-packed with a camp-royal of devils”
Transitions into the idea of “spirits”, 214 and following, a discourse on the spirits of fire, water, earth, and air
Representation of the four types of spirits that can possess men closely mirroring the core ideas of the Galenic medical model - this is the source for Nashe's ideas about the emotional and physiological dispositions produced by the spirits of fire, air, earth, and water.
The Galenic medical model
Galen, 129-200-ish AD
*idea of the four humours
*composition of the body - a porous bag of fluids
*can be disrupted by a large number of factors – environment, food, emotional disturbance
*reciprocally, an imbalance in the humours can cause emotional disposition or disturbance
Detailed info on the four humours and how they work, including the diagrams I showed in class, can be found here.
Find out what your predominant humour is! Take the quiz found here.
*in Terrors, note that the story of the “gentleman of good worship and credit”, beginning pg 241, ends with an explanation that combines a number of factors (central paragraph pg. 246)
*a note on “quintessence” pg 245
*Nashe also works to debunk the idea that some people have access to the secrets of the future / association with devils, in the example of the “conjurors and cunning men”, pg. 226-230 “In secret be it spoken, he is not so great with the devil as you take it. It may be that they are near akin, but yet you hae many kindrid that will do nothing for one another; no more will the devil for him, except it be to damn him.
*231 Association / collapse of the devil with old ideas of household fairies
*234 collapsing the superstition of dreams
Physical illness / disturbance
*Overlap with the idea of devil / devils:
211 “even as ruptures and cramps do then most torment a man when the body with any other disease is distempered, so the devil, when with any other sickness or malady the faculties of our reason are enfee bled and distempered, will be most busy to disturb us and torment us.”
*Note that there is an intimate connection in the period between sin and physical illness; evident from Lady Margaret Hoby’s Diaries, Broadview antho 103-104
From her entry marked 1599 [Friday August 17]
As well as page 104, 1601, December 26
*218 physical disturbance is noted as being the predominant influence on dreams: “A dream is nothing else but a bubbling scum or froth of the fancy, which the day hath left undigested; or an after-feast made of the fragments of idle imaginations”
*219 dreams as the echo of outside noises or influences
*220 food: “Any meat that in the daytime we eat against our stomachs, begetteth a dismal dream. Discontent also in dreams hath no little predominance; for even as from water that is troubled, the mud dispersingly ascendeth from the bottom to the top, so when our blood is chased, disquieted and troubled all the light imperfect humours of our body ascend like mud up aloft into the head.”
Guilty conscience / psychological reasons
Sample short question:
On page 221 of The Terrors of the Night, Nashe writes, “If [a man] chance to kill a spider, he hath suppressed an enemy; if a spinner creep upon him, he shall have gold rain down from heaven. If his nose bleed, some of his kinsfolks is dead; if the salt fall right against him, all the stars cannot save him from some immediate misfortune.” What is the purpose of this list of supersitions in the context of his overall argument?
*236+ like long sickness is to death, fear is to the reality
*241 And as the firmament is still moving and working, so uncessant is the wheeling and rolling on of our brains, which every hour are tempering some new piece of prodigy or other
Monday, May 19, 2008
Pedagogy Workshops Info
As you all know, the pedagogy workshops will take place on July 29 and 31. Based on the class size I've worked out the following protocols for them:
3-4 people per workshop
4 workshops on the 29th; 4 on the 31st
20-30 minutes per workshop
On the day of the presentation, groups will go in the order listed below. If you wish you may use any of the equipment available in the room. There is an in-house computer and projector that you can use to display any electronic file. I display my notes each class by bringing them on a flash drive (the computer in the cabinet has USB ports on the front of it), or by emailing them to myself as an attachment. There is also a hookup that you can connect to your own laptop computer, although I haven't tested that myself. The in-house computer is hooked to the internet, so if you want to display online content, you can do that. Those of you who bring laptops to class probably know already whether wireless is available in the room. There is a DVD player and a VCR if you want to show a film clip. There may or may not be an overhead projector (I can't recall). And don't forget about the almighty blackboard. You are by no means obligated to use the equipment in your presentations.
SIGNUP FOR THE WORKSHOPS IS VIA EMAIL; WORKSHOPS WILL BE ASSIGNED ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED BASIS. DEADLINE FOR SIGNING UP IS MAY 29TH.
I will upgrade the workshop list with the names of those who have signed up for them as your messages come in. If you have specified a workshop already and I have acknowledged your email, but you don't see your name here, please send me a message and I'll correct it.
Pedagogy Workshop Categories
July 29
RELIGION AND DEVOTIONAL LIFE (full)
Willie S.
Shivana R.
Hailey V.
Dan S.
CULTURE AND ENTERTAINMENT (full)
Karen M.
Sonya S.
Claudia S.
Nicole T.
THE ELIZABETHAN SONNET and/or LYRIC (full)
Ryan B.
Shayan A.
Stef M.
Scott C.
July 31
TRAVEL AND COLONIZATION (full)
Reagan
Jen
Alex
Amanda S.
THE FAERIE QUEENE Book 3
Jessica P.
James B.
Joseph K.
Sonya V.
THE AGE OF ELIZABETH
Danielle L.
Elizabeth L.
Myra M.
Brent T.
3-4 people per workshop
4 workshops on the 29th; 4 on the 31st
20-30 minutes per workshop
On the day of the presentation, groups will go in the order listed below. If you wish you may use any of the equipment available in the room. There is an in-house computer and projector that you can use to display any electronic file. I display my notes each class by bringing them on a flash drive (the computer in the cabinet has USB ports on the front of it), or by emailing them to myself as an attachment. There is also a hookup that you can connect to your own laptop computer, although I haven't tested that myself. The in-house computer is hooked to the internet, so if you want to display online content, you can do that. Those of you who bring laptops to class probably know already whether wireless is available in the room. There is a DVD player and a VCR if you want to show a film clip. There may or may not be an overhead projector (I can't recall). And don't forget about the almighty blackboard. You are by no means obligated to use the equipment in your presentations.
SIGNUP FOR THE WORKSHOPS IS VIA EMAIL; WORKSHOPS WILL BE ASSIGNED ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED BASIS. DEADLINE FOR SIGNING UP IS MAY 29TH.
I will upgrade the workshop list with the names of those who have signed up for them as your messages come in. If you have specified a workshop already and I have acknowledged your email, but you don't see your name here, please send me a message and I'll correct it.
Pedagogy Workshop Categories
July 29
RELIGION AND DEVOTIONAL LIFE (full)
Willie S.
Shivana R.
Hailey V.
Dan S.
CULTURE AND ENTERTAINMENT (full)
Karen M.
Sonya S.
Claudia S.
Nicole T.
THE ELIZABETHAN SONNET and/or LYRIC (full)
Ryan B.
Shayan A.
Stef M.
Scott C.
July 31
TRAVEL AND COLONIZATION (full)
Reagan
Jen
Alex
Amanda S.
THE FAERIE QUEENE Book 3
Jessica P.
James B.
Joseph K.
Sonya V.
THE AGE OF ELIZABETH
Danielle L.
Elizabeth L.
Myra M.
Brent T.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Lecture Notes, Thursday, May 15, 2008: Religion and Devotional Life
15 May 2008
English 3I06 / The Age of Elizabeth
Lecture notes
RELIGION AND DEVOTIONAL LIFE
Outline
*info on the pedagogy workshops
*techniques of research
*some tips for reading early material
*practice: Anne Askew
*Book of Common Prayer (1559)
For complete and up-to-date info on the pedagogy workshops, go here.
Techniques of research
*accessing the MLA database and EEBO via McMaster University Libraries
From the McMaster University Libraries main page, click on the databases tab.
EEBO
To access EEBO: use "eebo" as a title keyword search term on the databases tab. That will take you here:
http://library.mcmaster.ca/search/see.php?in1=Title&f=goba&ss1=eebo&x=28&y=11
Click on the link to go to EEBO's site. You'll have to enter your MacID and password. EEBO is the singlemost helpful resource to find early print material. So if you think you might like to write a paper (especially the term 2 research paper) on a comparison between one of our readings and other early printed texts, this is the place to find those other resources. Hundreds of texts that have not seen modern edited editions can be found on EEBO. The advantage here is that you get online access to the complete printed work.
Early English Books Online (EEBO) is specifically helpful for students of early literature. The database covers works from 1473 AD-1700.
MLA bibliography
To access the MLA database: use "mla" as a title keyword search term on the databases tab on the library's main page. That should take you here:
http://library.mcmaster.ca/search/see.php?in1=Title&f=goba&ss1=mla
Click on "MLA International Bibliography", the second entry. (NOT the directory of periodicals!) That will take you to the MacID login page, and then on to the database. The MLA bibliography is the singlemost handy tool an English major can have. It will direct you to much of the scholarship that's available on any given literary work. That means articles in journals, book chapters, and entire books. If you need secondary resources, especially if you're interested in researching where current critical opinion stands on a given text, this is the place for you. Critical work on a primary text also comes in handy if you're having trouble formulating an opinion on the text you're working with.
Many, but not all, of the items you'll find through the MLA are available online. Clicking the "Get it" button under the item listing will take you to a page that will tell you whether it's online or not. McMaster has print copies of many of the books and journals that are listed on MLA; those that aren't available can usually be ordered via RACER (the interlibrary loan ordering service).
One more helpful tool:
JSTOR: accessible by searching "jstor" via the databases tab. That search will take you here:
http://library.mcmaster.ca/search/see.php?f=goba&ss1=jstor&in1=Title
Click on the title to enter your MacID and go on to JSTOR. Like the MLA bibliography, JSTOR is a resource for secondary sources on literary texts. Helpful if you need something fast, since all of the items listed via JSTOR are available online. JSTOR's search engine operates a little bit differently than the MLA database's engine, so you might find items on JSTOR that weren't listed on your MLA search.
Some tips for reading early material
*one word at a time
*sound it out
*put it all together
*translate into the language of your own understanding
Practice: Anne Askew
Pages 21 and 22 from the pdf file.
We used pages 21 and 22 from the Latter Examinacion of Anne Askew to practice reading a very eary printed text (the font is called "blackletter").
To practice your blackletter reading skills and take a look at the complete text of the first and latter examinations of Anne Askew, click here.
The Book of Common Prayer (1559)
We read sections 15-17, available here.
A handy record not only of the system of belief, but of the role of the individual in society:
Aunswere. My dutye towardes God is, to beleve in him, to feare him [=to hold him in awe], and to love hym with all my harte, with al my mynde, with al my soule, and with all my strengthe. To worship hym. To geve hym thanckes. To putte my whole truste in hyrn. To call upon hym. To honour hys holy name and hys woorde, and to serve hym truely all the dayes of my lyfe. Question. What is thy dutye toward thy neighbour? Aunswere. My dutye towardes my neyghbour is to love hym as my selfe: And to do to all men as I would they should do unto me. To love, honour, and succour my father and mother. To honour and obey the Kyng, and his minysters. To submitte my selfe to al my governours, teachers, spiritual Pastours and Maisters. To order my selfe lowly and reverently to all my betters. To hurte no body by worde, nor dede. To be true and juste in all my dealyng. To beare no malice nor hatred in my harte. To kepe my handes from pickyng and stealyng, and my tongue from evil speakyng, liyng and slaunderyng. To kepe my body in temperaunce, sobernes, and chastitie. Not to covet nor desire other mennes goodes. But learne and labour truely to get myne awne livyng, and to do my dutye in that state of life, unto whiche it shal please God to cal me. Question. My good child know this, that thou art not able to do these thinges of thy self, nor to walke in the commaundementes of God, and to serve hym, wythout hys specyall grace, whyche thou must learne at al tymes to cal for by diligent prayer. Let me heare therfore, if thou canst saye the Lordes praier.
Communion (a core distinction between Protestant and Catholic):
Question. HOW many Sacraments hath Christ ordained in his Church? Answer. Two onely as generally necessary to salvation; that is to say, Baptisme and the Supper of the Lord. Question. What meanest thou by this word Sacrament? Answer. I meane an outward and visible signe of an inward and spirituall grace given unto us; ordained by Christ himselfe, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof. Question. How many parts be there in a Sacrament? Answer. Two; the outward visible signe, and the inward spirituall grace. Question. What is the outward visible signe or forme in Baptisme? Answer. Water: wherein the person baptized is dipped or sprinkled with it, In the name the Name of the Father, and of Sonne, and of the holy Ghost. Question. What is the inward and spirituall grace? Answer. A death unto sinne, and a new birth unto righteousnesse: for being by nature borne in sinne, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace.
From Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas (13th century)
I answer that, The presence of Christ's true body and blood in this sacrament cannot be detected by sense, nor understanding, but by faith alone, which rests upon Divine authority. Hence, on Luke 22:19: "This is My body which shall be delivered up for you," Cyril says: "Doubt not whether this be true; but take rather the Saviour's words with faith; for since He is the Truth, He lieth not."
Now this is suitable, first for the perfection of the New Law. For, the sacrifices of the Old Law contained only in figure that true sacrifice of Christ's Passion, according to Hebrews 10:1: "For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things." And therefore it was necessary that the sacrifice of the New Law instituted by Christ should have something more, namely, that it should contain Christ Himself crucified, not merely in signification or figure, but also in very truth. And therefore this sacrament which contains Christ Himself, as Dionysius says (Eccl. Hier. iii), is perfective of all the other sacraments, in which Christ's virtue is participated.
Secondly, this belongs to Christ's love, out of which for our salvation He assumed a true body of our nature. And because it is the special feature of friendship to live together with friends, as the Philosopher says (Ethic. ix), He promises us His bodily presence as a reward, saying (Matthew 24:28): "Where the body is, there shall the eagles be gathered together." Yet meanwhile in our pilgrimage He does not deprive us of His bodily presence; but unites us with Himself in this sacrament through the truth of His body and blood. Hence (John 6:57) he says: "He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me, and I in him." Hence this sacrament is the sign of supreme charity, and the uplifter of our hope, from such familiar union of Christ with us.
Thirdly, it belongs to the perfection of faith, which concerns His humanity just as it does His Godhead, according to John 14:1: "You believe in God, believe also in Me." And since faith is of things unseen, as Christ shows us His Godhead invisibly, so also in this sacrament He shows us His flesh in an invisible manner.
Some men accordingly, not paying heed to these things, have contended that Christ's body and blood are not in this sacrament except as in a sign, a thing to be rejected as heretical, since it is contrary to Christ's words. Hence Berengarius, who had been the first deviser of this heresy, was afterwards forced to withdraw his error, and to acknowledge the truth of the faith.
Matrimony
"signiflyng unto us the mistical union that is betwixt Christ and his Churche: which holy state Christe adourned and beautified with his presence and firste myracle that he wrought in Cana of Galile"
John 2:1-11
[1] And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:[2] And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.[3] And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.[4] Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.[5] His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.[6] And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.[7] Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.[8] And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.[9] When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,[10] And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.[11] This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.
Concept of marriage between Christ and the faithful:
Emblem book of Francis Quarles: Emblems, divine and moral, together with Hieroglyphicks of the life of man
I used the example of Quarles's book to show how the soul in the period we're studying is gendered female, and is imagined (if everything goes well) to be destined for a marriage with Christ in the afterlife. Quarles's emblem book illustrates the pitfalls and perils and triumphs of that journey. You can look at the complete book here.
Reflected also in the ceremony:
Loke mercifully upon these thy servauntes, that both this man may love his wife, accordyng to thy worde (as Christe did love his spouse the Churche, who gave himselfe for it, lovyng and cherishing it, even as his owne fleshe).
Purposes of marriage:
duely consideryng the causes for the which matrimony was ordeined. One was the procreation of children, to be brought up in the feare and nurtoure of the Lorde, and praise of God. Secondly, it was ordeined for a remedy agaynste sinne and to avoide fornication, that suche persones as have not the gifte of continencie might mary, and kepe themselves undefiled membres of Christes body. Thirdly, for the mutual societie, helpe, and comfort, that the one ought to have of the other, bothe in prosperity and adversitye, into the whiche holy state these two persones present, come nowe to be joyned.
Gender asymmetry in the marriage ceremony
Man’s vow:
I N. take the. N. to my wedded wyfe, to have and to hold from thys day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for porer, in sickenes, and in healthe, to love and to cheryshe, tyll death us departe; according to Gods holy ordinaunce, and therto I plight the my trouth.
Woman’s vow:
I N. take the. N. to my wedded husbande, to have and to holde, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickenes, ad in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us departe, accordynge to godes holy ordinaunce: and therto I geve the my trouth.
End bit, duties of husbands:
Ye housbandes love your wives, even as Christ loved the Churche, and hath geven hymselfe for it, to sanctifie it, purgyng it in the fountaine of water, throughe the worde, that he might make it unto hym selfe a glorious congregacion, not havyng spot or wrincle, or any suche thyng, but that it shoulde be holy and blameles. So men are bounde to love their owne wyves, as their owne bodies. He that loveth his owne wife loveth hym selfe. For never did any man hate his owne fleshe, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Londe doeth the congregacion, for we are membres of his body: of his flesh and of hys bones.
Duties of wives:
Saincte Paule (in the forenamed Epistle to the Ephesians) teacheth you thus: Ye women, submit youre selfes unto youre owne housbandes as unto the Lorde: for the housbande is the wyves headde, even as Christe is the headde of the Churche. And he is also the savioure of the whole bodye. Therefore as the Churche or congregacion, is subjecte unto Christe. So likewyse lette the wyves also be in subjection unto their owne housbandes in al thinges. And againe he sayeth : Let the wife reverence her housbande. And (in his Epistle to the Collossians) Sayncte Paule geveth you thys shorte lesson, Ye wyves submitte youre selves unto youre own housbandes, as it is convenient in the Lorde.
But also consider the final paragraph:
Saincte Peter also doeth instructe you verye godly, thus saiynge, Let wyves be subject to their owne housbandes, so that if anye obey not the woorde, they may be wonne withoute the woorde, by the conversacion [=behavior] of the wyves, whyle they beholde your chaste conversacion coupled with feare, whose apparell let it not be outward, with broided [braided] haire and trymmyng about with golde, eyther in puttinge on of gorgeous apparell, but let the hidde manne whiche is in the harte, be without all corruption, so that the spirite be milde and quiete, whiche is a precious thynge in the sighte of God. For after thys maner (in the olde tyme) did the holy women whiche trusted in God apparell them selves, beynge subject to their owne housbandes, as Sara obeyed Abraham callyng hym Lorde; whose daughters ye are made, doynge well, and beyinge not dismayde with any feare.
Woman’s role in determining the shape of the ceremony:
This prayer next folowyng shal be omitted where the woman is past chide birth.
The Visitation of the Sick
http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1559/Visitation_Sick_1559.htm
English 3I06 / The Age of Elizabeth
Lecture notes
RELIGION AND DEVOTIONAL LIFE
Outline
*info on the pedagogy workshops
*techniques of research
*some tips for reading early material
*practice: Anne Askew
*Book of Common Prayer (1559)
For complete and up-to-date info on the pedagogy workshops, go here.
Techniques of research
*accessing the MLA database and EEBO via McMaster University Libraries
From the McMaster University Libraries main page, click on the databases tab.
EEBO
To access EEBO: use "eebo" as a title keyword search term on the databases tab. That will take you here:
http://library.mcmaster.ca/search/see.php?in1=Title&f=goba&ss1=eebo&x=28&y=11
Click on the link to go to EEBO's site. You'll have to enter your MacID and password. EEBO is the singlemost helpful resource to find early print material. So if you think you might like to write a paper (especially the term 2 research paper) on a comparison between one of our readings and other early printed texts, this is the place to find those other resources. Hundreds of texts that have not seen modern edited editions can be found on EEBO. The advantage here is that you get online access to the complete printed work.
Early English Books Online (EEBO) is specifically helpful for students of early literature. The database covers works from 1473 AD-1700.
MLA bibliography
To access the MLA database: use "mla" as a title keyword search term on the databases tab on the library's main page. That should take you here:
http://library.mcmaster.ca/search/see.php?in1=Title&f=goba&ss1=mla
Click on "MLA International Bibliography", the second entry. (NOT the directory of periodicals!) That will take you to the MacID login page, and then on to the database. The MLA bibliography is the singlemost handy tool an English major can have. It will direct you to much of the scholarship that's available on any given literary work. That means articles in journals, book chapters, and entire books. If you need secondary resources, especially if you're interested in researching where current critical opinion stands on a given text, this is the place for you. Critical work on a primary text also comes in handy if you're having trouble formulating an opinion on the text you're working with.
Many, but not all, of the items you'll find through the MLA are available online. Clicking the "Get it" button under the item listing will take you to a page that will tell you whether it's online or not. McMaster has print copies of many of the books and journals that are listed on MLA; those that aren't available can usually be ordered via RACER (the interlibrary loan ordering service).
One more helpful tool:
JSTOR: accessible by searching "jstor" via the databases tab. That search will take you here:
http://library.mcmaster.ca/search/see.php?f=goba&ss1=jstor&in1=Title
Click on the title to enter your MacID and go on to JSTOR. Like the MLA bibliography, JSTOR is a resource for secondary sources on literary texts. Helpful if you need something fast, since all of the items listed via JSTOR are available online. JSTOR's search engine operates a little bit differently than the MLA database's engine, so you might find items on JSTOR that weren't listed on your MLA search.
Some tips for reading early material
*one word at a time
*sound it out
*put it all together
*translate into the language of your own understanding
Practice: Anne Askew
Pages 21 and 22 from the pdf file.
We used pages 21 and 22 from the Latter Examinacion of Anne Askew to practice reading a very eary printed text (the font is called "blackletter").
To practice your blackletter reading skills and take a look at the complete text of the first and latter examinations of Anne Askew, click here.
The Book of Common Prayer (1559)
We read sections 15-17, available here.
A handy record not only of the system of belief, but of the role of the individual in society:
Aunswere. My dutye towardes God is, to beleve in him, to feare him [=to hold him in awe], and to love hym with all my harte, with al my mynde, with al my soule, and with all my strengthe. To worship hym. To geve hym thanckes. To putte my whole truste in hyrn. To call upon hym. To honour hys holy name and hys woorde, and to serve hym truely all the dayes of my lyfe. Question. What is thy dutye toward thy neighbour? Aunswere. My dutye towardes my neyghbour is to love hym as my selfe: And to do to all men as I would they should do unto me. To love, honour, and succour my father and mother. To honour and obey the Kyng, and his minysters. To submitte my selfe to al my governours, teachers, spiritual Pastours and Maisters. To order my selfe lowly and reverently to all my betters. To hurte no body by worde, nor dede. To be true and juste in all my dealyng. To beare no malice nor hatred in my harte. To kepe my handes from pickyng and stealyng, and my tongue from evil speakyng, liyng and slaunderyng. To kepe my body in temperaunce, sobernes, and chastitie. Not to covet nor desire other mennes goodes. But learne and labour truely to get myne awne livyng, and to do my dutye in that state of life, unto whiche it shal please God to cal me. Question. My good child know this, that thou art not able to do these thinges of thy self, nor to walke in the commaundementes of God, and to serve hym, wythout hys specyall grace, whyche thou must learne at al tymes to cal for by diligent prayer. Let me heare therfore, if thou canst saye the Lordes praier.
Communion (a core distinction between Protestant and Catholic):
Question. HOW many Sacraments hath Christ ordained in his Church? Answer. Two onely as generally necessary to salvation; that is to say, Baptisme and the Supper of the Lord. Question. What meanest thou by this word Sacrament? Answer. I meane an outward and visible signe of an inward and spirituall grace given unto us; ordained by Christ himselfe, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof. Question. How many parts be there in a Sacrament? Answer. Two; the outward visible signe, and the inward spirituall grace. Question. What is the outward visible signe or forme in Baptisme? Answer. Water: wherein the person baptized is dipped or sprinkled with it, In the name the Name of the Father, and of Sonne, and of the holy Ghost. Question. What is the inward and spirituall grace? Answer. A death unto sinne, and a new birth unto righteousnesse: for being by nature borne in sinne, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace.
From Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas (13th century)
I answer that, The presence of Christ's true body and blood in this sacrament cannot be detected by sense, nor understanding, but by faith alone, which rests upon Divine authority. Hence, on Luke 22:19: "This is My body which shall be delivered up for you," Cyril says: "Doubt not whether this be true; but take rather the Saviour's words with faith; for since He is the Truth, He lieth not."
Now this is suitable, first for the perfection of the New Law. For, the sacrifices of the Old Law contained only in figure that true sacrifice of Christ's Passion, according to Hebrews 10:1: "For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things." And therefore it was necessary that the sacrifice of the New Law instituted by Christ should have something more, namely, that it should contain Christ Himself crucified, not merely in signification or figure, but also in very truth. And therefore this sacrament which contains Christ Himself, as Dionysius says (Eccl. Hier. iii), is perfective of all the other sacraments, in which Christ's virtue is participated.
Secondly, this belongs to Christ's love, out of which for our salvation He assumed a true body of our nature. And because it is the special feature of friendship to live together with friends, as the Philosopher says (Ethic. ix), He promises us His bodily presence as a reward, saying (Matthew 24:28): "Where the body is, there shall the eagles be gathered together." Yet meanwhile in our pilgrimage He does not deprive us of His bodily presence; but unites us with Himself in this sacrament through the truth of His body and blood. Hence (John 6:57) he says: "He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me, and I in him." Hence this sacrament is the sign of supreme charity, and the uplifter of our hope, from such familiar union of Christ with us.
Thirdly, it belongs to the perfection of faith, which concerns His humanity just as it does His Godhead, according to John 14:1: "You believe in God, believe also in Me." And since faith is of things unseen, as Christ shows us His Godhead invisibly, so also in this sacrament He shows us His flesh in an invisible manner.
Some men accordingly, not paying heed to these things, have contended that Christ's body and blood are not in this sacrament except as in a sign, a thing to be rejected as heretical, since it is contrary to Christ's words. Hence Berengarius, who had been the first deviser of this heresy, was afterwards forced to withdraw his error, and to acknowledge the truth of the faith.
Matrimony
"signiflyng unto us the mistical union that is betwixt Christ and his Churche: which holy state Christe adourned and beautified with his presence and firste myracle that he wrought in Cana of Galile"
John 2:1-11
[1] And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:[2] And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.[3] And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.[4] Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.[5] His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.[6] And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.[7] Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.[8] And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.[9] When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,[10] And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.[11] This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.
Concept of marriage between Christ and the faithful:
Emblem book of Francis Quarles: Emblems, divine and moral, together with Hieroglyphicks of the life of man
I used the example of Quarles's book to show how the soul in the period we're studying is gendered female, and is imagined (if everything goes well) to be destined for a marriage with Christ in the afterlife. Quarles's emblem book illustrates the pitfalls and perils and triumphs of that journey. You can look at the complete book here.
Reflected also in the ceremony:
Loke mercifully upon these thy servauntes, that both this man may love his wife, accordyng to thy worde (as Christe did love his spouse the Churche, who gave himselfe for it, lovyng and cherishing it, even as his owne fleshe).
Purposes of marriage:
duely consideryng the causes for the which matrimony was ordeined. One was the procreation of children, to be brought up in the feare and nurtoure of the Lorde, and praise of God. Secondly, it was ordeined for a remedy agaynste sinne and to avoide fornication, that suche persones as have not the gifte of continencie might mary, and kepe themselves undefiled membres of Christes body. Thirdly, for the mutual societie, helpe, and comfort, that the one ought to have of the other, bothe in prosperity and adversitye, into the whiche holy state these two persones present, come nowe to be joyned.
Gender asymmetry in the marriage ceremony
Man’s vow:
I N. take the. N. to my wedded wyfe, to have and to hold from thys day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for porer, in sickenes, and in healthe, to love and to cheryshe, tyll death us departe; according to Gods holy ordinaunce, and therto I plight the my trouth.
Woman’s vow:
I N. take the. N. to my wedded husbande, to have and to holde, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickenes, ad in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us departe, accordynge to godes holy ordinaunce: and therto I geve the my trouth.
End bit, duties of husbands:
Ye housbandes love your wives, even as Christ loved the Churche, and hath geven hymselfe for it, to sanctifie it, purgyng it in the fountaine of water, throughe the worde, that he might make it unto hym selfe a glorious congregacion, not havyng spot or wrincle, or any suche thyng, but that it shoulde be holy and blameles. So men are bounde to love their owne wyves, as their owne bodies. He that loveth his owne wife loveth hym selfe. For never did any man hate his owne fleshe, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Londe doeth the congregacion, for we are membres of his body: of his flesh and of hys bones.
Duties of wives:
Saincte Paule (in the forenamed Epistle to the Ephesians) teacheth you thus: Ye women, submit youre selfes unto youre owne housbandes as unto the Lorde: for the housbande is the wyves headde, even as Christe is the headde of the Churche. And he is also the savioure of the whole bodye. Therefore as the Churche or congregacion, is subjecte unto Christe. So likewyse lette the wyves also be in subjection unto their owne housbandes in al thinges. And againe he sayeth : Let the wife reverence her housbande. And (in his Epistle to the Collossians) Sayncte Paule geveth you thys shorte lesson, Ye wyves submitte youre selves unto youre own housbandes, as it is convenient in the Lorde.
But also consider the final paragraph:
Saincte Peter also doeth instructe you verye godly, thus saiynge, Let wyves be subject to their owne housbandes, so that if anye obey not the woorde, they may be wonne withoute the woorde, by the conversacion [=behavior] of the wyves, whyle they beholde your chaste conversacion coupled with feare, whose apparell let it not be outward, with broided [braided] haire and trymmyng about with golde, eyther in puttinge on of gorgeous apparell, but let the hidde manne whiche is in the harte, be without all corruption, so that the spirite be milde and quiete, whiche is a precious thynge in the sighte of God. For after thys maner (in the olde tyme) did the holy women whiche trusted in God apparell them selves, beynge subject to their owne housbandes, as Sara obeyed Abraham callyng hym Lorde; whose daughters ye are made, doynge well, and beyinge not dismayde with any feare.
Woman’s role in determining the shape of the ceremony:
This prayer next folowyng shal be omitted where the woman is past chide birth.
The Visitation of the Sick
http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1559/Visitation_Sick_1559.htm
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Lecture Notes, Tuesday, May 13 2008: Thomas More's Utopia
Lecture Notes
13 May 2008
Thomas More’s Utopia
Lecture Outline
* “Eutopia” vs. “Outopia”
*the meaning of More’s Utopia
*what does Utopia assume about people? – in other words, what are the “natural” qualities of humanity?
*Satire?
*the great chain of being and its social implications
*microcosm and macrocosm
“Eutopia” vs. “Outopia”
*two different source words in Greek that could be referenced by “utopia”
* Eu-topos means “good place”
* Ou-utopos means “no place”
*a joke? Is “Utopia” a good place that can never be? (see the other place names in More’s book) or is it a place that should never be? Is this work satirical?
The meaning of More’s Utopia
From Wikipedia article on More:
“The novels principal message is the social need for order and discipline, rather than liberty.”
From http://www.apostles.com/utopeuth.html
(from their “About” page:
Mission Statement
Apostles.com is dedicated to providing information on the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, current events of interest to Catholics and other Christians, and important issues of concern to all people of faith. )
“It is important to remember that More did not agree with everything in Utopia. There is no doubt that More was opposed euthanasia, yet it was practiced by the Utopians.
“Utopia is an imaginary society where people have designed the best society they could conceive of with the use of natural reason. However, they have been denied the truths of divine law. As Peter Ackroyd points out in his recent biography of More (The Life of Thomas More, Nan A. Talese, Doubleday, 1998.), "That is why they encourage euthanasia, condone divorce and harbour a multiplicity of religious beliefs- all of which actions were considered dreadful by More himself and by Catholic Europe. This may be no ideal commonwealth, after all, but a model of natural law and natural reason taken to their unnatural extreme."
From the BL’s website on Utopia and art,
http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/utopia/more1/celebration1/celebration.html
* "The Utopian's attitude towards death reflected their attitude towards religion and reason. It also reflected the pursuit of pleasure and the common good; a less individualistic society meant individual death mattered less. English people in the 16th century would have been familiar with death in a way that modern people, for the most part, are not."
Reception
*enormously popular, initiated an entire genre of literature still enormously popular today, especially in its darker twin format, dystopia, and most popular of all, “false utopia”
*Bacon’s New Atlantis; Erewhon (“nowhere”) but also much of science fiction (Star Trek; Blade Runner; Logan’s Run; Brazil; 1984)
*Vasco de Quiroga, 1537-1565 governed as Bishop of Michoacán, instituted Utopian principles following More’s book
Read more about Vasco de Quiroga here.
Vasco de Quiroga image source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Vasco_de_Quiroga.jpg
What does Utopia assume about people? – in other words, what does it presume are the “natural” qualities of humanity?
*The two books of the Utopia cover the current state of England from a Utopian perspective (represented by Raphael Hythlodaye), and the description of Utopia itself. What perspective on England does Utopia offer?
*describes Europe as a dystopia:
pg 20L: on the death penalty for robbery: “no penalty that can be devised is sufficient to restrain from acts of robbery those who have no other means of getting a livelihood. “
Pg. 21 L: many Western states destroyed by their own standing armies
Pg. 21 R: cannibal sheep
Pg. 22 L: buying foreign livestock and raising and selling it in England: “I think the whole mischief of this system has not yet been felt.”
Pg. 23 R: the example of the Polylerites (people of much nonsense): those who are convicted of theft are “sent unguarded to do public works” – tip of the ear cut off.
Pg 26 L: reason why Raphael won’t advise kings:
“doubtless Plato was right in foreseeing that if kings were not philosophical themselves, they would never approve of the advice of real philosophers; from their youth they are usually infected and saturated with wrong ideas…. So if I gave clever advice to some king, and tried to uproot the seeds of evil and corruption from his mind, do you not think that as a result, I would be immediately banished or ridiculed?
Beginning of description of Utopia, page 30 R:
“here we have the right of private property, while there everything is held in common.”
31 R, after describing how happy the Utopians are,
“I doubt that such well being could be achieved where private property exists. For when everyone aims to have as much property as possible, even where there is a great abundance of wealth, it is all still shared by a few, while the rest are in poverty. And it generally happens that the one class deserves the lot of the other, for the rich tend to be greedy, unscrupulous and useless, while the poor tend to be well behaved, simple, and by their daily labor more useful to the community than to themselves. I am utterly convinced that no just and even distribution of goods can be made, nor any perfect happiness be found among humans, unless private property is utterly abolished. While it lasts, there will remain a heavy and intolerable burden of poverty and anxieties for the greatest and best part of mankind. I admit that this can be relieved to some extent, but I maintain it cannot be removed.”
32 L: opposing view, from More’s narrator:
“Life can never be happy or satisfactory, where all things are held in common. How could a sufficient supply of goods be kept up? Each person would spend less time working. If personal gain does not motivate the individual, he becomes lazy and relies on the industry of others.”
BOOK 2
Pg 34 L: the people from the city all spend 2 years working in the country, and are then rotated back into the city (to provide food via agriculture)
Pg. 35 R: Every ten years they actually exchange their houses by lot
39 L, on work: “The constitution of the state has one objective: that so far as public needs permit, as much time as possible should be withdrawn from the service of the body and devoted to the freedom and culture of the mind. It is in this that they deem the happiness of life to consist.”
42 L, on travel: “Now you can see how there is no chance of evading work, and no pretext for idleness – no wine shop, no ale house, no house of prostitution, no opportunity of corruption, no unlawful places of resort. Everything is open to everyone, and everyone is bound either to perform the usual work or to be taking lawful and respectable recreation.
46 L, on virtue: “They define virtue as a life according to nature, for which God intends us. Humans, they say, in following the guidance of nature in desiring one thing and avoiding another, obey the dictates of reason. Reason first of all inspires in humans a love and veneration of the Divine Majesty, to which we owe both our existence and our capacity for happiness; secondly, it urges and admonishes us to lead lives as free from care and as full of joy as possible, and because of our natural fellowship with other people, to help them to also obtain that end.
*Pleasure as a key foundation of Utopian society – pleasure defined as of the soul and of the body (pg. 48 R).
“To the soul they ascribe intelligence and the delight that is bred of contemplation of the truth; to this is added the pleasant recollection of a well-spent life, and the confident hope of happiness to come. Bodily pleasure they divide into two categories. The first is that which fills the sense with perceptible sweetness…The second category of bodily pleasure, they say, is that which consists in a calm and harmonious state of the body; this occurs when a person’s health is not interrupted by any disorder.”
Pg. 50 L: In any other case they think it makes no sense for a person to be hard on himself.”
Pg 54 R, on law and politics: “in their opinion a just law must be easily understood.”
55 L, on treaties: “What is the use of a treaty, they say; did Nature herself not sufficiently bind one person to another?”
57 L and R on warfare: they first try to encourage the enemy to kill its own leader; sow the seeds of dissension by trying to encourage a relative of the king in his hopes for the throne; they hire a foreign militia to fight for them.
Satire?
39 R: on colonization: “Wherever the natives have a lot of unoccupied waste land, they found a colony as a branch of the parent stem, under their own laws, joining with the native population, wherever they are willing to dwell with them. When they do join with them, the two groups easily grow into the same way of life and manners, to the great advantage of both peoples. By their arrangements they make the land sufficient for both, which previously seemed barely adequate for the one. If the natives refuse to live according to their laws, they drive them out of the territory that they define for themselves. If they resist, they fight against them; for they think the most just cause for war is when people does not use its soil but keeps it void and vacant, and still forbids the use and possession of it by others, who by the law of nature ought to be supported by it.”
43 R on gold:
“their chamber-pots are made from gold and silver, as are certain other containers for the humblest of uses….those who are to be shamed on account of some offence must wear gold earrings, finger rings, chains around their necks, and gold circlets on their heads.” (Anemolian ambassadors)
52 R-53, on choosing mates (included in the section on “Slavery”):
“In choosing mates they favor seriously and strictly a custom that seemed to us very foolish, and extremely ridiculous. The woman, whether a maiden or a widow, is shown naked to the suitor by a worthy and respectable matron, and similarly the suitor is presented naked before the maiden by a discreet man. We laughed at this custom and condemned it as foolish, but they on the other hand marveled at the notable folly of other nations.” (Pony analogy)
pg 61 L and R on the Christian convert
“Only one of the Christians got into trouble, while I was there. As soon as he was baptized, in spite of our protests, he began to speak publicly of Christ’s religion with more zeal than discretion, and began to be so heated in his preaching that he not only declared that he preferred our religion to any other, but also condemned all others as profane in themselves. He loudly declared the followers of other religions impious and sacrilegious, and said that they were worthy of eternal punishment. After he had been preaching in this style for some time, they arrested him, not for despising their religion, but for stirring up strife among the people. They tried and convicted him, and sentenced him to exile. Among their most ancient principles, is a rule that no one shall be attacked for his religion.”
67 R, the narrator’s response to Raphael’s story:
“When Raphael had finished his story, I couldn’t help thinking that many of the manners and laws of that people are absurd – not only their way of waging wars, their ceremonies, their religion, and their other institutions, but most of all that which is the chief foundation of their whole structure, the way in which they live communally and share goods, without any money dealings. By this alone all the nobility, magnificence, splendor and majesty, the true glories and ornaments of a commonwealth, are utterly overthrown. Yet since I knew Raphael was wearied from telling his tale, and I was not certain that he could brook any opposition to his views…Therefore I praised the Utopian way of life, and also Raphaels’s account of it, and took him by the hand and led him into supper….I cannot agree with all that he said, but I readily admit that there are many things in the Utopian commonwealth that are worth wishing for in our own states – much as there may be little hope of ever seeing them realized.
The great chain of being and its social implications (microcosm and macrocosm)
Image source: http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/history/carnegie/aristotle/chainofbeing.html
A great chain of being from 1579, Didacus Valades, Rhetorica Christiana
For info on the philosophical meanings and consequences of the Great Chain of Being concept of the social order, see Peter Suber's webpage on the topic:
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/courses/re/chain.htm
Note for the purposes of this course that the chain connects all life and even inanimate objects -
everything in creation - in a hierarchical order that is stable and constant. The social order was thought to mirror the order of the great chain of being.
Microcosm and Macrocosm
The social order (a part of the entire world) mirrors the order of all of creation (the whole).
In the same way, a family (with the husband at its head, and the wife and children and servants underneath) echoes the order of the whole.
The animal kingdom (ranging from lions to worms and insects) is also arranged according to such an order.
The social order (king to beggar), family, and animal kingdom are microcosms. The whole of creation is a macrocosm.
It is part of early modern belief systems that a part of a system can be expected to display the same hierarchical pattern as the whole. This is the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm.
Read more about the relationship between the Great Chain of Being, and the parts of the whole in the section on the Great Chain of Being, here. Note that this entire page is worth reading and is helpful if you're struggling with some of the core ideas of the period.
The following hierarchy is taken from jackytappet's website:
http://jackytappet.tripod.com/chain.html
God
Angels
Kings
Queens
Archbishops
Dukes/Duchesses
Bishops
Marquises/Marchionesses
Earls/Countesses
Viscounts/Viscountesses
Barons/Baronesses
Abbots/Deacons
Knights / Local Officials
Ladies-in-Waiting
Priests Monks
Squires
Pages
Messengers
Merchants/Shopkeepers
Tradesmen
Yeomen Farmers
Soldiers/Town Watch
Household Servants
Tenant Farmers
Shepherds/Herders
Beggars
Actors
Thieves/Pirates
Gypsies
Animals
Birds
Worms
Plants
Rocks
*See Utopia page 19, left column, where the narrator tells Raphael that he should become a counselor to “some great prince”, because “from the prince, as from a never failing spring, flows a stream of all that is good or evil over the whole nation.”
13 May 2008
Thomas More’s Utopia
Lecture Outline
* “Eutopia” vs. “Outopia”
*the meaning of More’s Utopia
*what does Utopia assume about people? – in other words, what are the “natural” qualities of humanity?
*Satire?
*the great chain of being and its social implications
*microcosm and macrocosm
“Eutopia” vs. “Outopia”
*two different source words in Greek that could be referenced by “utopia”
* Eu-topos means “good place”
* Ou-utopos means “no place”
*a joke? Is “Utopia” a good place that can never be? (see the other place names in More’s book) or is it a place that should never be? Is this work satirical?
The meaning of More’s Utopia
From Wikipedia article on More:
“The novels principal message is the social need for order and discipline, rather than liberty.”
From http://www.apostles.com/utopeuth.html
(from their “About” page:
Mission Statement
Apostles.com is dedicated to providing information on the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, current events of interest to Catholics and other Christians, and important issues of concern to all people of faith. )
“It is important to remember that More did not agree with everything in Utopia. There is no doubt that More was opposed euthanasia, yet it was practiced by the Utopians.
“Utopia is an imaginary society where people have designed the best society they could conceive of with the use of natural reason. However, they have been denied the truths of divine law. As Peter Ackroyd points out in his recent biography of More (The Life of Thomas More, Nan A. Talese, Doubleday, 1998.), "That is why they encourage euthanasia, condone divorce and harbour a multiplicity of religious beliefs- all of which actions were considered dreadful by More himself and by Catholic Europe. This may be no ideal commonwealth, after all, but a model of natural law and natural reason taken to their unnatural extreme."
From the BL’s website on Utopia and art,
http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/utopia/more1/celebration1/celebration.html
* "The Utopian's attitude towards death reflected their attitude towards religion and reason. It also reflected the pursuit of pleasure and the common good; a less individualistic society meant individual death mattered less. English people in the 16th century would have been familiar with death in a way that modern people, for the most part, are not."
Reception
*enormously popular, initiated an entire genre of literature still enormously popular today, especially in its darker twin format, dystopia, and most popular of all, “false utopia”
*Bacon’s New Atlantis; Erewhon (“nowhere”) but also much of science fiction (Star Trek; Blade Runner; Logan’s Run; Brazil; 1984)
*Vasco de Quiroga, 1537-1565 governed as Bishop of Michoacán, instituted Utopian principles following More’s book
Read more about Vasco de Quiroga here.
Vasco de Quiroga image source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Vasco_de_Quiroga.jpg
What does Utopia assume about people? – in other words, what does it presume are the “natural” qualities of humanity?
*The two books of the Utopia cover the current state of England from a Utopian perspective (represented by Raphael Hythlodaye), and the description of Utopia itself. What perspective on England does Utopia offer?
*describes Europe as a dystopia:
pg 20L: on the death penalty for robbery: “no penalty that can be devised is sufficient to restrain from acts of robbery those who have no other means of getting a livelihood. “
Pg. 21 L: many Western states destroyed by their own standing armies
Pg. 21 R: cannibal sheep
Pg. 22 L: buying foreign livestock and raising and selling it in England: “I think the whole mischief of this system has not yet been felt.”
Pg. 23 R: the example of the Polylerites (people of much nonsense): those who are convicted of theft are “sent unguarded to do public works” – tip of the ear cut off.
Pg 26 L: reason why Raphael won’t advise kings:
“doubtless Plato was right in foreseeing that if kings were not philosophical themselves, they would never approve of the advice of real philosophers; from their youth they are usually infected and saturated with wrong ideas…. So if I gave clever advice to some king, and tried to uproot the seeds of evil and corruption from his mind, do you not think that as a result, I would be immediately banished or ridiculed?
Beginning of description of Utopia, page 30 R:
“here we have the right of private property, while there everything is held in common.”
31 R, after describing how happy the Utopians are,
“I doubt that such well being could be achieved where private property exists. For when everyone aims to have as much property as possible, even where there is a great abundance of wealth, it is all still shared by a few, while the rest are in poverty. And it generally happens that the one class deserves the lot of the other, for the rich tend to be greedy, unscrupulous and useless, while the poor tend to be well behaved, simple, and by their daily labor more useful to the community than to themselves. I am utterly convinced that no just and even distribution of goods can be made, nor any perfect happiness be found among humans, unless private property is utterly abolished. While it lasts, there will remain a heavy and intolerable burden of poverty and anxieties for the greatest and best part of mankind. I admit that this can be relieved to some extent, but I maintain it cannot be removed.”
32 L: opposing view, from More’s narrator:
“Life can never be happy or satisfactory, where all things are held in common. How could a sufficient supply of goods be kept up? Each person would spend less time working. If personal gain does not motivate the individual, he becomes lazy and relies on the industry of others.”
BOOK 2
Pg 34 L: the people from the city all spend 2 years working in the country, and are then rotated back into the city (to provide food via agriculture)
Pg. 35 R: Every ten years they actually exchange their houses by lot
39 L, on work: “The constitution of the state has one objective: that so far as public needs permit, as much time as possible should be withdrawn from the service of the body and devoted to the freedom and culture of the mind. It is in this that they deem the happiness of life to consist.”
42 L, on travel: “Now you can see how there is no chance of evading work, and no pretext for idleness – no wine shop, no ale house, no house of prostitution, no opportunity of corruption, no unlawful places of resort. Everything is open to everyone, and everyone is bound either to perform the usual work or to be taking lawful and respectable recreation.
46 L, on virtue: “They define virtue as a life according to nature, for which God intends us. Humans, they say, in following the guidance of nature in desiring one thing and avoiding another, obey the dictates of reason. Reason first of all inspires in humans a love and veneration of the Divine Majesty, to which we owe both our existence and our capacity for happiness; secondly, it urges and admonishes us to lead lives as free from care and as full of joy as possible, and because of our natural fellowship with other people, to help them to also obtain that end.
*Pleasure as a key foundation of Utopian society – pleasure defined as of the soul and of the body (pg. 48 R).
“To the soul they ascribe intelligence and the delight that is bred of contemplation of the truth; to this is added the pleasant recollection of a well-spent life, and the confident hope of happiness to come. Bodily pleasure they divide into two categories. The first is that which fills the sense with perceptible sweetness…The second category of bodily pleasure, they say, is that which consists in a calm and harmonious state of the body; this occurs when a person’s health is not interrupted by any disorder.”
Pg. 50 L: In any other case they think it makes no sense for a person to be hard on himself.”
Pg 54 R, on law and politics: “in their opinion a just law must be easily understood.”
55 L, on treaties: “What is the use of a treaty, they say; did Nature herself not sufficiently bind one person to another?”
57 L and R on warfare: they first try to encourage the enemy to kill its own leader; sow the seeds of dissension by trying to encourage a relative of the king in his hopes for the throne; they hire a foreign militia to fight for them.
Satire?
39 R: on colonization: “Wherever the natives have a lot of unoccupied waste land, they found a colony as a branch of the parent stem, under their own laws, joining with the native population, wherever they are willing to dwell with them. When they do join with them, the two groups easily grow into the same way of life and manners, to the great advantage of both peoples. By their arrangements they make the land sufficient for both, which previously seemed barely adequate for the one. If the natives refuse to live according to their laws, they drive them out of the territory that they define for themselves. If they resist, they fight against them; for they think the most just cause for war is when people does not use its soil but keeps it void and vacant, and still forbids the use and possession of it by others, who by the law of nature ought to be supported by it.”
43 R on gold:
“their chamber-pots are made from gold and silver, as are certain other containers for the humblest of uses….those who are to be shamed on account of some offence must wear gold earrings, finger rings, chains around their necks, and gold circlets on their heads.” (Anemolian ambassadors)
52 R-53, on choosing mates (included in the section on “Slavery”):
“In choosing mates they favor seriously and strictly a custom that seemed to us very foolish, and extremely ridiculous. The woman, whether a maiden or a widow, is shown naked to the suitor by a worthy and respectable matron, and similarly the suitor is presented naked before the maiden by a discreet man. We laughed at this custom and condemned it as foolish, but they on the other hand marveled at the notable folly of other nations.” (Pony analogy)
pg 61 L and R on the Christian convert
“Only one of the Christians got into trouble, while I was there. As soon as he was baptized, in spite of our protests, he began to speak publicly of Christ’s religion with more zeal than discretion, and began to be so heated in his preaching that he not only declared that he preferred our religion to any other, but also condemned all others as profane in themselves. He loudly declared the followers of other religions impious and sacrilegious, and said that they were worthy of eternal punishment. After he had been preaching in this style for some time, they arrested him, not for despising their religion, but for stirring up strife among the people. They tried and convicted him, and sentenced him to exile. Among their most ancient principles, is a rule that no one shall be attacked for his religion.”
67 R, the narrator’s response to Raphael’s story:
“When Raphael had finished his story, I couldn’t help thinking that many of the manners and laws of that people are absurd – not only their way of waging wars, their ceremonies, their religion, and their other institutions, but most of all that which is the chief foundation of their whole structure, the way in which they live communally and share goods, without any money dealings. By this alone all the nobility, magnificence, splendor and majesty, the true glories and ornaments of a commonwealth, are utterly overthrown. Yet since I knew Raphael was wearied from telling his tale, and I was not certain that he could brook any opposition to his views…Therefore I praised the Utopian way of life, and also Raphaels’s account of it, and took him by the hand and led him into supper….I cannot agree with all that he said, but I readily admit that there are many things in the Utopian commonwealth that are worth wishing for in our own states – much as there may be little hope of ever seeing them realized.
The great chain of being and its social implications (microcosm and macrocosm)
Image source: http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/history/carnegie/aristotle/chainofbeing.html
A great chain of being from 1579, Didacus Valades, Rhetorica Christiana
For info on the philosophical meanings and consequences of the Great Chain of Being concept of the social order, see Peter Suber's webpage on the topic:
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/courses/re/chain.htm
Note for the purposes of this course that the chain connects all life and even inanimate objects -
everything in creation - in a hierarchical order that is stable and constant. The social order was thought to mirror the order of the great chain of being.
Microcosm and Macrocosm
The social order (a part of the entire world) mirrors the order of all of creation (the whole).
In the same way, a family (with the husband at its head, and the wife and children and servants underneath) echoes the order of the whole.
The animal kingdom (ranging from lions to worms and insects) is also arranged according to such an order.
The social order (king to beggar), family, and animal kingdom are microcosms. The whole of creation is a macrocosm.
It is part of early modern belief systems that a part of a system can be expected to display the same hierarchical pattern as the whole. This is the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm.
Read more about the relationship between the Great Chain of Being, and the parts of the whole in the section on the Great Chain of Being, here. Note that this entire page is worth reading and is helpful if you're struggling with some of the core ideas of the period.
The following hierarchy is taken from jackytappet's website:
http://jackytappet.tripod.com/chain.html
God
Angels
Kings
Queens
Archbishops
Dukes/Duchesses
Bishops
Marquises/Marchionesses
Earls/Countesses
Viscounts/Viscountesses
Barons/Baronesses
Abbots/Deacons
Knights / Local Officials
Ladies-in-Waiting
Priests Monks
Squires
Pages
Messengers
Merchants/Shopkeepers
Tradesmen
Yeomen Farmers
Soldiers/Town Watch
Household Servants
Tenant Farmers
Shepherds/Herders
Beggars
Actors
Thieves/Pirates
Gypsies
Animals
Birds
Worms
Plants
Rocks
*See Utopia page 19, left column, where the narrator tells Raphael that he should become a counselor to “some great prince”, because “from the prince, as from a never failing spring, flows a stream of all that is good or evil over the whole nation.”
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Lecture Notes, Thursday, May 8, 2008: Lady Jane Grey, Elizabeth I, and Mary, Queen of Scots
Lecture Notes English 3I06/ The Age of Elizabeth I
8 May 2008
A Tale of three Queens:
Lady Jane Grey, Elizabeth I, and Mary, Queen of Scots
Lecture Outline
*The Tudor and Stuart royal lines
*Lady Jane Grey and the culture of death
*Queen Elizabeth and warrior culture
*Mary Queen of Scots and the sonnet tradition
The Tudor and Stuart royal lines
*Family tree
For a fullsized version of the family tree, click here.
*the six wives of Henry VIII
interactive learning tool for 7-10 year olds:
http://www.brims.co.uk/tudors/wives.html
Lady Jane Grey and the culture of death
*Edward VI’s Device for Succession
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S04myNs_C8
Jane Grey’s death and martyrdom
*From A Certain Prayer of the Lady Jane in the Time of her Trouble (pg. 133-4 in your antho)
“I beseech Thee; which, with Solomon, do cry unto Thee, humbly desiring Thee, that I may neither be too much puffed up with prosperity, neither too much depresssed with adversity; lest I, being too full, should deny Thee, my God; in being too low brought, should despair and blaspheme Thee, myLord and Saviour. O merciful God, consider my misery, best known unto Thee; and be Thou now unto me a strong tower of defence, I humbly require Thee. Suffer me not to be tempted above my power, but wither be thou a deliverer unto me out of this great misery, or else give me grace patiently to bear Thy heavy hand and sharp correction.”
To her Sister Lady Katherine Immediately Before she Suffered (pg 133)
“Live still to die, that you (by death) may purchase eternal life. And trust not, that the tenderness of your age shall lengthen your life. For as soon (if God call) goeth the young, as the old and labour always to learn to die, defy the world, deny the devil, and despise the flesh, and delight yourself only in the Lord.”
*memento mori
Death and the Bride
Death and the Shepherdess
Death and the Bride and Death and the Shepherdess are both from The Danse Macabre of Women. You can find a copy in Mills Library here.
Rene d’Anjou
Source: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/TourPopup.asp?TourID=159
Cadaver tomb with flesh (1400s)
Cadaver tombs are a good example of church art that survived the purgation of decoration from the churches of England. We might speculate that somehow these images of death continued to be useful or merely a part of the background to a culture that is fascinated by the idea of decay and continues to celebrate a good death as a sign of moral rectitude.
For more examples, visit the Churchmouse at:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.fairweather/docs/cadavertombs/cadavertombs.htm
Holbein’s Danse Macabre, 1538
Death and the Rich Man
Holbein was the court portrait artist for the Tudors under Henry VIII. He painted many of the portraits of the royal family that you'll see today. He also published an enormously popular series of woodcuts that depict the fall of Adam and Eve, their expulsion from paradise, and the rise of death as a prime mover in society. Holbein's Dance of Death was enormously popular and reprinted many times. You can buy or borrow the book in an edition by Dover:
http://morris.mcmaster.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?view=items&aspect=basic_search&uri=full%3d3100001%7e%21405597%7e%210&menu=search&profile=endeca#focus
The Dover edition features an English translation of the French images.
Some good info on it is available here.
An 1892 reprint of the woodcut images and accompanying text in French can be viewed here.
Holbein, The Ambassadors, 1533
*ars moriendi
For some fabulous info on the art of dying, visit here.
*Jane Grey as Protestant martyr
Idea of death as a battle, pg. 134, A Certain Prayer:
“plague me what way Thou wilt. Only, in the meantime, arm me, I beseech Thee, with Thy armour, that I may stand fast, my loins being girded with verity, having on the breast-plate of righteousness, and shod with the shoes prepared by the gospel of peace; above all things, taking to me the shield of faith, wherewith I may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; and taking the helmet of salvation, and the sword of Thy spirit, which is Thy most holy word; praying always, with all manner of prayer and supplication, that I may refer myself wholly to Thy will”.
*Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (aka Acts and Monuments)
If you go to EEBO and search "Acts and Monuments", I recommend taking a look at the 1583 edition.
*The debate with Fecknam (in your books, 135-8)
Queen Elizabeth and warrior culture
*Elizabeth’s response to imprisonment, pg. 293, Written on a Wall at Woodstock
*the combination in Elizabeth of female virtue and warrior strength, at times combined with the Protestant tendency to wish to strongly differentiate the Protestant faith from the Catholic
*also true of her in images
The sources of these images of Elizabeth with commentary may be found at Marilee Cody's excellent and comprehensive website, here. This is a terrific site to begin with if you're interested in investigating Elizabeth in portraits.
Portrait with Verses, 1565
Elizabeth at Prayer, 1569, from the frontispiece of her personal prayer book
Compare to this image of St. Birgitta at prayer, from a 1492 manuscript:
Or Judith and Holofernes, an illumination from a medieval manuscript:
Allegory of the Tudor Succession, 1575
Note Elizabeth on the Right with Peace (stepping on the sword) and Plenty (holding the cornucopia):
Source: http://ladysarafina.home.att.net/allegorytudor.JPG
For more portraits, see http://ladysarafina.home.att.net/elizabethan_portraits.htm
Compare to the 1590-5 copy:
The Doubt of Future Foes, 294
Armada Portrait, 1588
Three versions of the Tilbury speech:
An interesting essay topic would be to examine how these 20th- and 21st-century depictions of Elizabeth have been derived from the historical and literary records. From the Tilbury speech, for example, we have three radically different representations here.
Tilbury speech with Glenda Jackson
With Helen Mirrin
With Anne-Marie Duff
But other ways to image Elizabeth, and ways in which she imaged herself:
The Pelican Portrait, 1575 (Source: Marilee Cody's website, URL above)
Compare to the Golden Speech, 1601
And the Sieve Portrait, 1583 (Image and commentary from Marilee Cody)
Background: roundels on curtain Aeneas and Dido; the Sieve is inscribed with Latin phrase meaning, “The good falls to the ground while the bad remains in the saddle”; the globe pictures ships passing into the West, and the phrase, “'I see all and much is lacking”; the portrait itself is inscribed with “'Weary I am and, having rested, still am weary.”
Mary Queen of Scots and the sonnet tradition
*the Petrarchan tradition
*some background on Petrarch and the Petrarchan mode
For more info on Petrarch and the sonnet form, go here.
*1555 Louise Labé’s Oeuvres including 24 sonnets, published in France
To read some samples of Louse Labé's poetry in English translation, go here.
To view some facsimile pages from her Works and read more, go here.
*Mary’s sonnets in French related to this tradition?
*Mary’s life as Theatre of God’s Judgements
A biographical page of Mary's life and some primary sources relevant to the Tudor dynasty is available here.
A fun page that treats Darnley's death as a murder mystery for you to solve is available here.
A critique of the casket letters and a link to transcriptions of the letters can be found here.
8 May 2008
A Tale of three Queens:
Lady Jane Grey, Elizabeth I, and Mary, Queen of Scots
Lecture Outline
*The Tudor and Stuart royal lines
*Lady Jane Grey and the culture of death
*Queen Elizabeth and warrior culture
*Mary Queen of Scots and the sonnet tradition
The Tudor and Stuart royal lines
*Family tree
For a fullsized version of the family tree, click here.
*the six wives of Henry VIII
interactive learning tool for 7-10 year olds:
http://www.brims.co.uk/tudors/wives.html
Lady Jane Grey and the culture of death
*Edward VI’s Device for Succession
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S04myNs_C8
Jane Grey’s death and martyrdom
*From A Certain Prayer of the Lady Jane in the Time of her Trouble (pg. 133-4 in your antho)
“I beseech Thee; which, with Solomon, do cry unto Thee, humbly desiring Thee, that I may neither be too much puffed up with prosperity, neither too much depresssed with adversity; lest I, being too full, should deny Thee, my God; in being too low brought, should despair and blaspheme Thee, myLord and Saviour. O merciful God, consider my misery, best known unto Thee; and be Thou now unto me a strong tower of defence, I humbly require Thee. Suffer me not to be tempted above my power, but wither be thou a deliverer unto me out of this great misery, or else give me grace patiently to bear Thy heavy hand and sharp correction.”
To her Sister Lady Katherine Immediately Before she Suffered (pg 133)
“Live still to die, that you (by death) may purchase eternal life. And trust not, that the tenderness of your age shall lengthen your life. For as soon (if God call) goeth the young, as the old and labour always to learn to die, defy the world, deny the devil, and despise the flesh, and delight yourself only in the Lord.”
*memento mori
Death and the Bride
Death and the Shepherdess
Death and the Bride and Death and the Shepherdess are both from The Danse Macabre of Women. You can find a copy in Mills Library here.
Rene d’Anjou
Source: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/TourPopup.asp?TourID=159
Cadaver tomb with flesh (1400s)
Cadaver tombs are a good example of church art that survived the purgation of decoration from the churches of England. We might speculate that somehow these images of death continued to be useful or merely a part of the background to a culture that is fascinated by the idea of decay and continues to celebrate a good death as a sign of moral rectitude.
For more examples, visit the Churchmouse at:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.fairweather/docs/cadavertombs/cadavertombs.htm
Holbein’s Danse Macabre, 1538
Death and the Rich Man
Holbein was the court portrait artist for the Tudors under Henry VIII. He painted many of the portraits of the royal family that you'll see today. He also published an enormously popular series of woodcuts that depict the fall of Adam and Eve, their expulsion from paradise, and the rise of death as a prime mover in society. Holbein's Dance of Death was enormously popular and reprinted many times. You can buy or borrow the book in an edition by Dover:
http://morris.mcmaster.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?view=items&aspect=basic_search&uri=full%3d3100001%7e%21405597%7e%210&menu=search&profile=endeca#focus
The Dover edition features an English translation of the French images.
Some good info on it is available here.
An 1892 reprint of the woodcut images and accompanying text in French can be viewed here.
Holbein, The Ambassadors, 1533
*ars moriendi
For some fabulous info on the art of dying, visit here.
*Jane Grey as Protestant martyr
Idea of death as a battle, pg. 134, A Certain Prayer:
“plague me what way Thou wilt. Only, in the meantime, arm me, I beseech Thee, with Thy armour, that I may stand fast, my loins being girded with verity, having on the breast-plate of righteousness, and shod with the shoes prepared by the gospel of peace; above all things, taking to me the shield of faith, wherewith I may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; and taking the helmet of salvation, and the sword of Thy spirit, which is Thy most holy word; praying always, with all manner of prayer and supplication, that I may refer myself wholly to Thy will”.
*Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (aka Acts and Monuments)
If you go to EEBO and search "Acts and Monuments", I recommend taking a look at the 1583 edition.
*The debate with Fecknam (in your books, 135-8)
Queen Elizabeth and warrior culture
*Elizabeth’s response to imprisonment, pg. 293, Written on a Wall at Woodstock
*the combination in Elizabeth of female virtue and warrior strength, at times combined with the Protestant tendency to wish to strongly differentiate the Protestant faith from the Catholic
*also true of her in images
The sources of these images of Elizabeth with commentary may be found at Marilee Cody's excellent and comprehensive website, here. This is a terrific site to begin with if you're interested in investigating Elizabeth in portraits.
Portrait with Verses, 1565
Elizabeth at Prayer, 1569, from the frontispiece of her personal prayer book
Compare to this image of St. Birgitta at prayer, from a 1492 manuscript:
Or Judith and Holofernes, an illumination from a medieval manuscript:
Allegory of the Tudor Succession, 1575
Note Elizabeth on the Right with Peace (stepping on the sword) and Plenty (holding the cornucopia):
Source: http://ladysarafina.home.att.net/allegorytudor.JPG
For more portraits, see http://ladysarafina.home.att.net/elizabethan_portraits.htm
Compare to the 1590-5 copy:
The Doubt of Future Foes, 294
Armada Portrait, 1588
Three versions of the Tilbury speech:
An interesting essay topic would be to examine how these 20th- and 21st-century depictions of Elizabeth have been derived from the historical and literary records. From the Tilbury speech, for example, we have three radically different representations here.
Tilbury speech with Glenda Jackson
With Helen Mirrin
With Anne-Marie Duff
But other ways to image Elizabeth, and ways in which she imaged herself:
The Pelican Portrait, 1575 (Source: Marilee Cody's website, URL above)
Compare to the Golden Speech, 1601
And the Sieve Portrait, 1583 (Image and commentary from Marilee Cody)
Background: roundels on curtain Aeneas and Dido; the Sieve is inscribed with Latin phrase meaning, “The good falls to the ground while the bad remains in the saddle”; the globe pictures ships passing into the West, and the phrase, “'I see all and much is lacking”; the portrait itself is inscribed with “'Weary I am and, having rested, still am weary.”
Mary Queen of Scots and the sonnet tradition
*the Petrarchan tradition
*some background on Petrarch and the Petrarchan mode
For more info on Petrarch and the sonnet form, go here.
*1555 Louise Labé’s Oeuvres including 24 sonnets, published in France
To read some samples of Louse Labé's poetry in English translation, go here.
To view some facsimile pages from her Works and read more, go here.
*Mary’s sonnets in French related to this tradition?
*Mary’s life as Theatre of God’s Judgements
A biographical page of Mary's life and some primary sources relevant to the Tudor dynasty is available here.
A fun page that treats Darnley's death as a murder mystery for you to solve is available here.
A critique of the casket letters and a link to transcriptions of the letters can be found here.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Eliza is the Fairest Queen - Epideictic
Listen to "Eliza is the Fairest Queen". To download, right click and choose "Save Target As" (Windows).
While you're reading some of the poetry and speeches written by Queen Elizabeth I, I thought you might like to hear a bit of music in praise of her. This song is epideictic in form - "epideictic" is a type of oratory or rhetoric. Literally, "epideictic" translates from the Greek as "fit for display". An epidiectic poem is written for the purpose of praising or blaming the subject. Obviously Johnson's song lyrics are praising Queen Elizabeth. (You really only ever want to blame royalty from a distance.)
You can read more about epideictic here.
The music is by Pantagruel. If you're at all interested in Renaissance music that's got a bit of a kick to it, I highly recommend them. The original lyrics to Eliza is the Fairest Queen, below, are interlaced with lyrics from another song in this piece.
Eliza is the Fairest Queen ~ Edward Johnson 1572-1601
Eliza is the fairest Queen
That ever trod upon the green.
Eliza's eyes are blessed stars,
Inducing peace, subduing wars.
O blessed be each day and hour
Where sweet Eliza builds her bower.
Eliza's hand is crystal bright,
Her words are balm, her looks are light.
Eliza's breast is that fair hill,
Where virtue dwells, and sacred skill.
O blessed be each day and hour
Where sweet Eliza builds her bower.
While you're reading some of the poetry and speeches written by Queen Elizabeth I, I thought you might like to hear a bit of music in praise of her. This song is epideictic in form - "epideictic" is a type of oratory or rhetoric. Literally, "epideictic" translates from the Greek as "fit for display". An epidiectic poem is written for the purpose of praising or blaming the subject. Obviously Johnson's song lyrics are praising Queen Elizabeth. (You really only ever want to blame royalty from a distance.)
You can read more about epideictic here.
The music is by Pantagruel. If you're at all interested in Renaissance music that's got a bit of a kick to it, I highly recommend them. The original lyrics to Eliza is the Fairest Queen, below, are interlaced with lyrics from another song in this piece.
Eliza is the Fairest Queen ~ Edward Johnson 1572-1601
Eliza is the fairest Queen
That ever trod upon the green.
Eliza's eyes are blessed stars,
Inducing peace, subduing wars.
O blessed be each day and hour
Where sweet Eliza builds her bower.
Eliza's hand is crystal bright,
Her words are balm, her looks are light.
Eliza's breast is that fair hill,
Where virtue dwells, and sacred skill.
O blessed be each day and hour
Where sweet Eliza builds her bower.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Textbook available for someone to borrow
I have an extra copy of the Broadview Anthology that I could loan to a student in the course. The condition is that it has to be returned to me at the end of the summer course, since it has to go back to the bookstore, which means it should come back in approximately the same shape it's in now. If you would like to borrow this book, just email me (mesmith@mcmaster.ca or smithmk2@gmail.com) and I will bring the book to the next class for you to have.
Lecture Notes, Tuesday, May 6 2008: Introduction to the Course
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For a printer-friendly version of these notes, click here.
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English 3I06 / The Age of Elizabeth I
6 May 2008
Introductory Lecture
Lecture Outline
*communication
*course outline overview
*whirlwind tour of the 16th century: Elizabeth’s inheritance and legacy
*400 years: a long time ago, or no time at all?
Communication
*email: as noted on the course outline – use smithmk2@gmail.com as a default, since McMaster email is not as reliable as one might like
*course website: link is available via WebCT, or go directly to:
http://elizabethrex.blogspot.com/
For a complete course outline including a print version, see the post before this one.
Course Outline Overview
Key points for future reference:
*If for any reason you can't reach me at the McMaster email address, don't hesitate to use the gmail account. Or, just use the gmail account anyway.
*Re: assignments: watch in the next few days for details on the workshop topics you'll be able to choose from. I'll post them online and bring a signup sheet to class. The details of the assignment will be configured in a way that's appropriate for our relatively small class size. If there are people in the class with which you definitely want to work, let me know now.
*I will also try to post term 1 essay topics ASAP.
Whirlwind Tour of the 16th Century: Elizabeth’s Inheritance and Legacy
Protestant Reformation
*A timeline can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_English_Reformation
Note I advise using wikipedia with caution. It can be cheesy and/or wrong at times, but it can also be a useful way to access more in-depth materials. The timeline I'm linking to here is okay.
*Major break between Henry VIII and the Catholic Church, 1533-35
*Made more plausible by the existence of an alternative to Catholicism with the European Protestant Reformation, begun by Marin Luther in 1517 with his protest document, the Ninety-Five Theses
*Edward VI becomes King after Henry VIII’s death, 1547 at age nine; rules 1547 until his death on 6 July 1553; under Edward, Protestantism becomes more confirmed with the establishment of the Book of Common Prayer (which we’ll read a bit about on May 15)
*Lady Jane Grey (the Nine Days Queen), daughter of the younger sister of Henry VIII, succeeds to the throne; is executed nine days later when support for her rule erodes
*Mary I (“Bloody Mary”) gains the throne; restores Catholicism and persecutes prominent Protestants
*17 November 1558, Mary dies at age 42; Elizabeth I, her younger sister, takes the throne, restores Protestantism with some modifications (lesser penalties for dissenters, maintenance of some elements of Catholic church hierarchy and ceremony – see Broadview intro pages XLIX-L)
*Elizabeth rules for the next 45 years, until 1603
Tenents of (English 16th Century) Protestantism
*a greater emphasis on the individual’s relationship with God and the Bible
*a de-emphasis of the role of clergy in mediating the relationship with God
*a focus on the trinity rather than on the Saints and auxiliary figures (especially Mary)
*the belief that most church decorations are “idols” and need to be removed in order to bring the focus back to God
*in the Eucharist ritual, a belief that the bread and wine are not literally transformed into the body and blood of Christ, but are signs or symbols or contain the spirit of Christ
*a strong emphasis on the fallen nature of humanity (i.e., original sin)
*the focus on original sin as the cause of most human problems, including illness
*in some versions (esp. Calvinism) a belief in predestination, meaning God decides whether you are going to go to hell or heaven
*therefore, the individual does not control his or her fate
*in this model, sinful behaviour or good works are a sign or symptom of the direction the person is going to go, but don’t cause the person to go to hell or heaven
Humanism
*Another thread within 16th century culture, strongly linked to the concept of the “Renaissance” *the rediscovery and close reading of classical texts (ancient Greek and Roman) placed an emphasis on the human capacity to rationally explore the world around us
*an emphasis on beauty, truth, the value of the liberal arts (poetry, painting, sculpture, music, grammar, rhetoric, history, oratory); the potential for good or evil as inherent in humanity; at its extreme in the classical period, humanism led at least one major philosopher to reject the notion of original sin (Pelagius, 354 AD-440-ish)
Economy
*a movement from the country to urban centres, especially London, driven by the practice of “enclosure”
*a dramatic increase in the urban poor
*the rise of the middle class, and a precursor to the modern concept of banking
Exterior Exploration/Colonization
*colonization begins at home: during the period we’ll study, England continued to try to dominate Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, with varying success
*foundation of colonies in North America (esp. Virginia, which we’ll read about in more detail in June)
*a question: given that Britain later became the most successful empire on the planet (i.e., “the sun never sets on the British empire), was this dominance determined by her early policies and attitudes toward her colonies, or could it have gone another way?
Gender
*all over the map
*cardinal rule number one when dealing with issues of gender and power in this period: class is often if not always a greater determinant of power than gender. While the period is incredibly misogynist, generally speaking much less power came along with being a lower-class woman or man than an upper-class woman
*with Protestantism, a greater emphasis on marriage over chastity
*simultaneously, the emphasis on the direct relationship between God and the individual enables some women to step forward to speak directly about their faith; some women become prophets – although traditionally there have always been women saints and martyrs
*Queen Elizabeth herself occupies a peculiar, perhaps completely unique space on the gender map
See especially the Clopton portrait, circa 1560, where she appears dressed more as a scholar than a feminine woman (contrast to the miniature portrait from approximately the same era, above)
For reference, a picture of Erasmus, a well-known Dutch humanist scholar, painted in 1523:
*during the 16th century, the seeds are sown for women to begin to speak back to their oppression in more direct ways, resulting in something called the “woman controversy” an early 17th-century pamphlet war
*forms of gender as always generated exceptional people, like Moll Cutpurse, a famous cross-dressing woman / drag king who emerged from the London underworld in the early 1600s
Her years were 1584-1659; she is the main character of a play about her called The Roaring Girl by Thomas Dekker, in which she unites a couple who is being prevented from marrying by the man’s father.
*a good practice is to try to see the gender landscape, like every other conceptual landscape of the period, as foreign to our own, and try to remap your ideas of what is “masculine” and “feminine” in the period. The answers may surprise you, especially in terms of the erotic content of a lot of what we’ll study
For your consideration, Christopher Marlowe, 1564-1593, swaggering intellectual, playwright, poet, possible spy, and lover of boys:
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, 1550-1604, excessively fertile and most often cited as the guy who “really” wrote Shakespeare’s plays:
Art and Entertainment
*books in print
Genres:
*prose fiction
*prose non-fiction
*poetry (lyrical and narrative)
*drama
*miscellaneous: music, puppet shows, ritualized entertainments (mummers, morris dances, maypole dances), various forms of public humiliation
400 years: a long time ago, or no time at all?
Now: a family portrait
And some others:
And then:
This portrait is in your Broadview anthology: The Saltonstall Family, 1636-7
The Tongue: a case study
Now(-ish):
Then: George Wither’s Emblem Book 1635. You can view the complete book as well as others at http://emblem.libraries.psu.edu/home.htm (main page). Wither's book begins here: http://emblem.libraries.psu.edu/withea01.htm. Flip forward to the emblem pages. A fullsize version of the flying tongue emblem is here: http://emblem.libraries.psu.edu/withe042.htm
Further reading / information:
Some info on crime and punishment in the period:
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/punishment.htm
On mummers, including some cool pictures of mummers:
http://library.efdss.org/cgi-bin/textpage.cgi?file=aboutMummers&access=on
On maypoles, see a good version of the maypole dance from the original, far superior Wicker Man film:
For a printer-friendly version of these notes, click here.
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English 3I06 / The Age of Elizabeth I
6 May 2008
Introductory Lecture
Lecture Outline
*communication
*course outline overview
*whirlwind tour of the 16th century: Elizabeth’s inheritance and legacy
*400 years: a long time ago, or no time at all?
Communication
*email: as noted on the course outline – use smithmk2@gmail.com as a default, since McMaster email is not as reliable as one might like
*course website: link is available via WebCT, or go directly to:
http://elizabethrex.blogspot.com/
For a complete course outline including a print version, see the post before this one.
Course Outline Overview
Key points for future reference:
*If for any reason you can't reach me at the McMaster email address, don't hesitate to use the gmail account. Or, just use the gmail account anyway.
*Re: assignments: watch in the next few days for details on the workshop topics you'll be able to choose from. I'll post them online and bring a signup sheet to class. The details of the assignment will be configured in a way that's appropriate for our relatively small class size. If there are people in the class with which you definitely want to work, let me know now.
*I will also try to post term 1 essay topics ASAP.
Whirlwind Tour of the 16th Century: Elizabeth’s Inheritance and Legacy
Protestant Reformation
*A timeline can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_English_Reformation
Note I advise using wikipedia with caution. It can be cheesy and/or wrong at times, but it can also be a useful way to access more in-depth materials. The timeline I'm linking to here is okay.
*Major break between Henry VIII and the Catholic Church, 1533-35
*Made more plausible by the existence of an alternative to Catholicism with the European Protestant Reformation, begun by Marin Luther in 1517 with his protest document, the Ninety-Five Theses
*Edward VI becomes King after Henry VIII’s death, 1547 at age nine; rules 1547 until his death on 6 July 1553; under Edward, Protestantism becomes more confirmed with the establishment of the Book of Common Prayer (which we’ll read a bit about on May 15)
*Lady Jane Grey (the Nine Days Queen), daughter of the younger sister of Henry VIII, succeeds to the throne; is executed nine days later when support for her rule erodes
*Mary I (“Bloody Mary”) gains the throne; restores Catholicism and persecutes prominent Protestants
*17 November 1558, Mary dies at age 42; Elizabeth I, her younger sister, takes the throne, restores Protestantism with some modifications (lesser penalties for dissenters, maintenance of some elements of Catholic church hierarchy and ceremony – see Broadview intro pages XLIX-L)
*Elizabeth rules for the next 45 years, until 1603
Tenents of (English 16th Century) Protestantism
*a greater emphasis on the individual’s relationship with God and the Bible
*a de-emphasis of the role of clergy in mediating the relationship with God
*a focus on the trinity rather than on the Saints and auxiliary figures (especially Mary)
*the belief that most church decorations are “idols” and need to be removed in order to bring the focus back to God
*in the Eucharist ritual, a belief that the bread and wine are not literally transformed into the body and blood of Christ, but are signs or symbols or contain the spirit of Christ
*a strong emphasis on the fallen nature of humanity (i.e., original sin)
*the focus on original sin as the cause of most human problems, including illness
*in some versions (esp. Calvinism) a belief in predestination, meaning God decides whether you are going to go to hell or heaven
*therefore, the individual does not control his or her fate
*in this model, sinful behaviour or good works are a sign or symptom of the direction the person is going to go, but don’t cause the person to go to hell or heaven
Humanism
*Another thread within 16th century culture, strongly linked to the concept of the “Renaissance” *the rediscovery and close reading of classical texts (ancient Greek and Roman) placed an emphasis on the human capacity to rationally explore the world around us
*an emphasis on beauty, truth, the value of the liberal arts (poetry, painting, sculpture, music, grammar, rhetoric, history, oratory); the potential for good or evil as inherent in humanity; at its extreme in the classical period, humanism led at least one major philosopher to reject the notion of original sin (Pelagius, 354 AD-440-ish)
Economy
*a movement from the country to urban centres, especially London, driven by the practice of “enclosure”
*a dramatic increase in the urban poor
*the rise of the middle class, and a precursor to the modern concept of banking
Exterior Exploration/Colonization
*colonization begins at home: during the period we’ll study, England continued to try to dominate Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, with varying success
*foundation of colonies in North America (esp. Virginia, which we’ll read about in more detail in June)
*a question: given that Britain later became the most successful empire on the planet (i.e., “the sun never sets on the British empire), was this dominance determined by her early policies and attitudes toward her colonies, or could it have gone another way?
Gender
*all over the map
*cardinal rule number one when dealing with issues of gender and power in this period: class is often if not always a greater determinant of power than gender. While the period is incredibly misogynist, generally speaking much less power came along with being a lower-class woman or man than an upper-class woman
*with Protestantism, a greater emphasis on marriage over chastity
*simultaneously, the emphasis on the direct relationship between God and the individual enables some women to step forward to speak directly about their faith; some women become prophets – although traditionally there have always been women saints and martyrs
*Queen Elizabeth herself occupies a peculiar, perhaps completely unique space on the gender map
See especially the Clopton portrait, circa 1560, where she appears dressed more as a scholar than a feminine woman (contrast to the miniature portrait from approximately the same era, above)
For reference, a picture of Erasmus, a well-known Dutch humanist scholar, painted in 1523:
*during the 16th century, the seeds are sown for women to begin to speak back to their oppression in more direct ways, resulting in something called the “woman controversy” an early 17th-century pamphlet war
*forms of gender as always generated exceptional people, like Moll Cutpurse, a famous cross-dressing woman / drag king who emerged from the London underworld in the early 1600s
Her years were 1584-1659; she is the main character of a play about her called The Roaring Girl by Thomas Dekker, in which she unites a couple who is being prevented from marrying by the man’s father.
*a good practice is to try to see the gender landscape, like every other conceptual landscape of the period, as foreign to our own, and try to remap your ideas of what is “masculine” and “feminine” in the period. The answers may surprise you, especially in terms of the erotic content of a lot of what we’ll study
For your consideration, Christopher Marlowe, 1564-1593, swaggering intellectual, playwright, poet, possible spy, and lover of boys:
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, 1550-1604, excessively fertile and most often cited as the guy who “really” wrote Shakespeare’s plays:
Art and Entertainment
*books in print
Genres:
*prose fiction
*prose non-fiction
*poetry (lyrical and narrative)
*drama
*miscellaneous: music, puppet shows, ritualized entertainments (mummers, morris dances, maypole dances), various forms of public humiliation
400 years: a long time ago, or no time at all?
Now: a family portrait
And some others:
And then:
This portrait is in your Broadview anthology: The Saltonstall Family, 1636-7
The Tongue: a case study
Now(-ish):
Then: George Wither’s Emblem Book 1635. You can view the complete book as well as others at http://emblem.libraries.psu.edu/home.htm (main page). Wither's book begins here: http://emblem.libraries.psu.edu/withea01.htm. Flip forward to the emblem pages. A fullsize version of the flying tongue emblem is here: http://emblem.libraries.psu.edu/withe042.htm
Further reading / information:
Some info on crime and punishment in the period:
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/punishment.htm
On mummers, including some cool pictures of mummers:
http://library.efdss.org/cgi-bin/textpage.cgi?file=aboutMummers&access=on
On maypoles, see a good version of the maypole dance from the original, far superior Wicker Man film:
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