This is mostly how I felt about Shakespeare and Co. as well.
22 June 2009 ~ St. Catharines
Two things I have learned from Canto Seventeen…
21 June 2009 at 8.12 pm (General musings)
Tags: Tasso
of Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata:
I have successfully internalised the British claiming of Roman history (I found myself momentarily surprised that a line of Italian medieval kings and queens followed the catalogue of Latin ones. )
and
Epic catalogues make me sleepy.
Three more cantos left!
21 June 2009 ~ St. Catharines
Yet more Brome.
13 June 2009 at 12.10 am (General musings)
Tags: Richard Brome
The Novella proved much easier to follow along than A Mad Couple, though I think I am more confused by this, the second play in Brome’s works. At times The Novella seems to want to play with the structural similarities of comedy and tragedy; the errant letter trope, however, with which Brome produces effective comedy in A Mad Couple, and which Shakespeare uses to produce the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, is stillborn in The Novella. At the same instant in which Flavia, summarising the contents of her letter aloud, declares her intention to throw herself to her death should her lover fail to meet her at the appointed time, Francisco reveals himself as the messenger in front of her (4.1). Not only does he hold the potentially errant letter in his hand, but having already arrived to take Flavia away, eliminates the need for a plan depending on fortuitous timing (and so also elimainates the tragic potential of the plan). It’s somewhat disappointing: maybe that’s the point. In Romeo and Juliet the play destroys all hopes of a comic ending (and there’s something satisfying in that). The Novella gives us the comic ending, and it’s sudden, underwhelming, and absurd.
Or it’s possibly not the best play in the Brome collection. Shall write of the amusing The Court Beggar next.
13 June 2009 ~ St. Catharines
It’s more or less official…
12 June 2009 at 9.17 pm (MA studies.)
I’ve just accepted my new offer of funding, mailed out the necessary SSHRC forms, and, oh yes, graduated this morning. I’ve got my degree (it’s sitting on my shelf right now), my new thesis supervisor (very strange that), and hopefully, in the next week, a new apartment.
I think I’m a grad student.
12 June 2009 ~ St. Catharines
437!
11 June 2009 at 12.38 am (Ben)
Tags: Ben
The Muses’ fairest light in no dark time,
The wonder of a learned age; the line
Which none can pass; the most proportioned wit
To nature; the best judge of what was fit;
The deepest, plainest, highest clearest pen;
The voice most echoed by consenting men,
The soul which answered best to all well said
By others, and which most requital made;
Turned to the highest hey of ancient Rome,
Returning all her music with his own;
In whom, with nature, study claimed a part,
And yet who to himself owed all his art:
Here lies Ben Jonson. Every age will look
With sorrow here, with wonder on his book.
Thanks, Sidney Godolphin, for the superlatives. They’re all very true, I’m sure — especially that bit about the ages looking on in wonder (mostly they’re wondering who Ben Jonson is, but we’ll overlook that, just for today).
Happy birthday, Ben!
11 June 2009 ~ St. Catharines
Coffee at eight o’clock…
7 June 2009 at 9.31 pm (General musings)
Tags: coffee
is a silly idea[i]. Good thing I have lots of poetry to read.
7 June 2009 ~ St. Catharines
(Photo courtesy of Gaurav. He’ll grumble if I neglect the credit.)
End Notes.
[i] a silly idea. However, having coffee with soon-to-be-famous trombonist/trumpeter rock stars certainly is not silly.
