November 2011
17 posts
2 tags
The living record of your memory
‘Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room,
Even in the eyes of all prosperity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 55, Lines 8-12
In this sonnet the idea of human mortality is put into question and here Shakespeare lets his beloved know that he will remain immortal in this...
2 tags
But if that flow’r with base infection meet,
The basest weed out braves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 94, Lines 11-14
In this sonnet we see that power is often disguised so that the common people can not tell who is really pulling the strings. In this section of the poem, we find that power...
3 tags
LADY MACBETH Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst...
2 tags
A bliss in proof, and prov’d, [a] very woe,
Before, a joy propos’d, behind, a dream.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 129, Lines 11-12
This sonnet by William Shakespeare shows the power struggle between people who are in relationships that are built on lust. In these lines we see that this situation at time can be a blissful one and one that can hide the true nature of this kind of relationship. We...
4 tags
First Witch All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis! Second Witch All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! Third Witch All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!
Macbeth, William Shakespeare, Act1.Scene3 (48-50)
The three witch foretell Macbeth’s future to him and meddle in his life as he knows it. Their involvement will forever change Macbeth’s...
2 tags
MACBETH [Aside] Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme.—I thank you, gentlemen. Aside Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor: If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated...
3 tags
LADY MACBETH O, never Shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t. He that’s coming Must be provided for: and you shall put This night’s great...
3 tags
LADY MACBETH We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep— Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey Soundly invite him—his two chamberlains Will I with wine and wassail so convince That memory, the warder of the brain, Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason A limbeck only:...
To Professor Dodson
I would like you to pay particular attention to the links: Power of Women, Effects of the Supernatural, Power Struggle, trickery, and Female Appeal/Seduction. I believe these links connect the reading together that we have read over the semester the best.
Enjoy!
3 tags
MACBETH One cried ‘God bless us!’ and ‘Amen’ the other; As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands. Listening their fear, I could not say ‘Amen,’ When they did say ‘God bless us!’ LADY MACBETH Consider it not so deeply. MACBETH But wherefore could not I pronounce ‘Amen’? I had most need of blessing,...
1 tag
MACBETH Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ the olden time, Ere human statute purged the gentle weal; Ay, and since too, murders have been perform’d Too terrible for the ear: the times have been, That, when the brains were out, the man would die, And there an end; but now they rise again, With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, And push us from our...
3 tags
HECATE Have I not reason, beldams as you are, Saucy and overbold? How did you dare To trade and traffic with Macbeth In riddles and affairs of death; And I, the mistress of your charms, The close contriver of all harms, Was never call’d to bear my part, Or show the glory of our art? And, which is worse, all you have done Hath been but for a wayward...
2 tags
LADY MACDUFF Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes, His mansion and his titles in a place From whence himself does fly? He loves us not; He wants the natural touch: for the poor wren, The most diminutive of birds, will fight, Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. All is the fear and nothing is the love; As little is the wisdom, where the flight So...
3 tags
MALCOLM But I have none: the king-becoming graces, As justice, verity, temperance, stableness, Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, I have no relish of them, but abound In the division of each several crime, Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, Uproar the universal...
3 tags
MACBETH Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, For it hath cow’d my better part of man! And be these juggling fiends no more believed, That palter with us in a double sense; That keep the word of promise to our ear, And break it to our hope. I’ll not fight with thee.
Macbeth,William Shakespeare, 5.8. 17-22
Macbeth finally realizes that the supernatural...
2 tags
MALCOLM We shall not spend a large expense of time Before we reckon with your several loves, And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland In such an honour named. What’s more to do, Which would be planted newly with the time, As calling home our exiled friends abroad That fled the snares of watchful...
2 tags
MACBETH I have almost forgot the taste of fears; The time has been, my senses would have cool’d To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir As life were in’t: I have supp’d full with horrors; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts Cannot once start me. Re-enter SEYTON Wherefore was that cry?
...
October 2011
35 posts
3 tags
Gaveston
Do. These are not men for me; I must have wanton poets, pleasant wits, Musicians, that with touching of a string May draw the pliant king which way I please: Music and poetry is his delight; Therefore I’ll have Italian masks by night, Sweet speeches, comedies, and pleasing shows; And in the day, when he shall walk abroad, Like sylvan nymphs my...
3 tags
Mortimer Junior
Madam, return unto the court again. That sly inveigling Frenchman we’ll exile, Or lose our lives; and yet, ere that day come, The king shall lose his crown; for we have power, And courage too, to be reveng’d at full.
Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, Scene 2 Lines 56-60
Mortimer tells Queen Isabella of their plans to get rid of Gaveston and talks...
1 tag
Edward
Nay, then, lay violent hands upon your king. Here, Mortimer, sit thou in Edward’s throne; Warwick and Lancaster, wear you my crown. Was ever king thus over-rul’d as I?
Christoper Marlow, Edward II, Scene 4 Lines 35-38
Edward sarcastically gives the nobles what they want which is to rule over England because they believe they can do a better job than Edward. He...
1 tag
Isabella O miserable and distressed queen! Would, when I left sweet France and was embark’d, That charming Circe, walking on the waves, Had chang’d my shape, or at the marriage-day The cup of Hymen had been full of poison, Or with those arms that twin’d about my neck I had been stifled, and not liv’d to see The king my lord thus to...
1 tag
Spencer Junior Then, Baldock, you must cast the scholar off, And learn to court it like a gentleman. ’Tis not a black coat and a little band, A velvet-cap’d coat, fac’d before with serge, And smelling to a nosegay all the day, Or holding of a napkin in your hand, Or saying a long grace at a table’s end, Or making low legs to a...
1 tag
Kent My lord, I see your love to Gaveston Will be the ruin of the realm and you, For now the wrathful nobles threaten wars, And therefore, brother, banish him for ever. Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, Scene 6 Lines 205-208
Edward’s brother, Kent, comes to terms with the fact that he may have let Edward and Gaveston’s love affair interfere too much with the...
1 tag
Isabella Heavens can witness I love none but you: From my embracements thus he breaks away. O that mine arms could close this isle about, That I might pull him to me where I would! Or that these tears that drizzle from mine eyes Had power to mollify his stony heart, That when I had him we might never part. Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, Scene 8...
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Mortimer Junior Thou proud disturber of thy country’s peace, Corrupter of thy king, cause of these broils, Base flatterer, yield! and were it not for shame, Shame and dishonour to a soldier’s name, Upon my weapon’s point here should’st thou fall, And welter in thy gore. Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, Scene 9 Lines 9-14
Mortimer becomes more open out his...
1 tag
Gaveston I thank you all, my lords: then I perceive, That heading is one, and hanging is the other, And death is all. Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, Scene 9 Lines 29-31
Gaveston is being sentenced to death by the nobles and realizes that it doesn’t matter how he dies because death doesn’t know the difference. Although heading was deemed a noble death, death is death...
1 tag
Spencer Junior My lord, refer your vengeance to the sword Upon these barons; hearten up your men; Let them not unreveng’d murder your friends! Advance your standard, Edward, in the field, And march to fire them from their starting holes. Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, Scene 11 Lines 123-127
Spencer is telling Edward to finally take his rightful place as king and...
Edward By earth, the common mother of us all, By Heaven, and all the moving orbs thereof, By this right hand, and by my father’s sword, And all the honours ’longing to my crown, I will have heads, and lives for him, as many As I have manors, castles, towns, and towers. Treacherous Warwick! traitorous Mortimer! If it be England’s king, in...
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Edward What, Gaveston! welcome!—Kiss not my hand— Embrace me, Gaveston, as I do thee. Why should’st thou kneel? Know’st thou not who I am? Thy friend, thyself, another Gaveston! Not Hylas was more mourn’d of Hercules, Than thou hast been of me since thy exile. Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, Scene 1 Lines 139-144
Edward displays his affection for...
3 tags
Lancaster My lord, mine’s more obscure than Mortimer’s. Pliny reports there is a flying fish Which all the other fishes deadly hate, And therefore, being pursued, it takes the air: No sooner is it up, but there’s a fowl That seizeth it; this fish, my lord, I bear: The motto this: Undique mors est. Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, Scene 6 Lines 22-28
...
4 tags
In married life I mean to use my gadget
As generously as my Maker gave it.
If I be grudging, the Lord punish me!
My husband’s going to have it night and day,
At any time he likes to pay his dues.
I shan’t be difficult! I shan’t refuse!
The Canterbury Tale: The Wife of Bath’s, Geoffrey Chaucer, page 222-223.
Alice lets it be know that she is not afraid of her...
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When my good husband from the world is gone, Some Christian man shall marry me anon; For then, the apostle says that I am free To wed, in God’s name, where it pleases me. He says that to be wedded is no sin; Better to marry than to burn within.
The Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath’s, page 224.
The Wife of Bath’s expresses her opinion of marriage, which is that she...
3 tags
Lo, such it is not to be on your guard Against the flatterers of the world, or yard, And if you think my story is absurd, A foolish trifle of a beast and bird, A fable of a fox, a cock, a hen, Take hold upon the moral, gentlemen.
The Canterbury Tale: The Nun’s Priest Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer, page 231.
The Nun Priest finally tells, us the readers, the true meaning behind his story, which is...
3 tags
‘And now, let’s talk of fun and stop all this. Dear-Madam, as I hope for Heaven’s bliss, Of one thing God has sent me plenteous grace, For when I see the beauty of your face, That scarlet loveliness about your eyes, All thought of terror and confusion dies. For it’s as certain as the Creed, I know, Mulier est hominus confusio (A Latin tag, dear Madam, meaning this:...
2 tags
Hanged, then, was Croesus, this tremendous king; His royal sceptre was of no avail. Tragedy is no other kind of thing Nor tunes her song save only to bewail How Fortune, ever fickle, will assail With sudden stroke the kingdoms of the proud, And when men trust in her she then will fail And cover her bright face as with a cloud ….
The Canterbury Tales: The Monk’s Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer,...
3 tags
Of Samson I will say no more; but gain A warning from his story, old and plain: Men should keep counsel and not tell their wives Secrets that it concerns them to retain, Touching the safety of their limbs and lives.
The Canterbury Tales: The Monk’s Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer, Page 192
The monk explicitly states that women are nothing but trouble. I can’t say if this is just because he is...
2 tags
Must we be seruile, doing what he list?
No, seeke some hoste too harbour thee: I flye
Thy babish tricks, and freedom doe professe;
But O my hurt makes me lost heart confesse:
I loue, and must; so farewell liberty.
Sonnet from Urania, Lady Mary Wroth, Lines 9-14
There seems to be this tug-o-war between being a slave to love or being free throughout this poem. This part of the sonnet shows she...
3 tags
THE loue which me so cruelly tormenteth,
So pleasing is in my extreamest paine:
that all the more my sorrow is augmenteth,
the more I loue and doe embrace my bane.
Sonnet 42, Edmund Spenser, Lines 1-4
This poem is similar to that of Sidney’s Sonnet 1, where they both are enduring pain for loving a woman. The woman in it poem too seems to realize that he has a hold over Spenser and lets...
4 tags
Queen Virtue’s court, which some call Stella’s face,
Prepar’d by Nature’s choicest furniture,
Hath his front built of alabaster pure;
Gold os the covering of that stately place.
Sonnet 9, Sir Philip Sidney, lines 1-4
Sidney goes to extra lengths to describe the beauty of Stella as perfection in his eyes. It seems to me that he thinks of her more like a goddess than...
2 tags
Now even that footstep of lost liberty
Is gone; and now, like slave-born Muscovite,
I call it praise to suffer tyranny;
Sonnet 2, Sir Philip Sidney, lines 9-11
Again the woman of these sonnet has Sidney in such a hold that he doesn’t mind being her slave. He actually enjoys her tyranny which is quiet odd in itself. A woman that can do that must be some kind of woman just for the simple...
4 tags
Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,
That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,—
Sonnet 1, Sir Philip Sidney, lines 1-4
In this sonnet, it seems that Sidney is trying to obtain the affections of a women that seems to have little interest in him....
2 tags
“I have heard moreover that the monster scorns
in his reckless way to use weapons;
therefore, to heighten Hygelac’s fame
and gladden his heart, I hereby renounce
sword and the shelter of the broad shield,
the heavy war-board: hand-to-hand
is how it will be, a life-and-death
fight with the fiend. Whichever one death fells
must deem it a just judgement by God.”
Beowulf,...
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“The Almighty Judge
of good deeds and bad, the Lord God,
Head of the Heavens and High King of the World,
was unknown to them. Oh, cursed is he
who in time of trouble has to thrust his soul
in the fire’s embrace, forfeiting help;
he has nowhere to turn. But blessed is he
who after death can approach the Lord
and find friendship in the Father’s embrace.”
Beowulf,...
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Fortune hath taken away my love,
My life’s joy and my soul’s heaven above.
Fortune hath taken thee away, my princess,
My world’s joy and my true fantasy’s mistress.
Raleigh to Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh, Lines 1-4
Here Raleigh shows how much power Queen Elizabeth has over him and that she have a great...
2 tags
Her roundness stand
With veritie:
In honour and
Integrite:
Her mayden raigne
And womanhead
Parts that maintain
Chapter and head,
Her just renowne
Garnish the crowne
Her trymest top all ye see,
Is bliss with immortalitie.
George Puttenham, Lines 1 - 12
George Puttenham makes sure that he describes Queen Elizabeth I in an admiring light that shows off her power and grace. This...
2 tags
It was no dream, I lay broad waking,
But all is turned, thorough my gentleness,
Into a strange fashion of forsaking;
And I have leave to go, of her goodness,
And she also to use newfangleness.
“They flee from me”, Sir Thomas Wyatt, Lines 15 -18
This part of the poem displays how the woman who seems to seduce him in the poem makes it so seductive that he doesn’t...
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“Beowulf was quickly brought to the chamber:
the winner of fights, the arch-warrior,
came first-footing in with his fellow troops
to where the king in his wisdom waited,
still wondering whether Almighty God.”
Beowulf, Norton, Page 35 - 36 Lines 1310-1314
· There is a clear belief that God is the Supreme Ruler and that what ever happens in life or death is because God...
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“What’s more,I’ll order my own comrades
on their word of honor to watch your boat
down there on the strand – keep her safe
in her fresh tar, until the time comes
for her curved prow to preen on the waves
and bear this hero back to Greatland.”
Beowulf, Norton, Pg.10 Line 293-297
· I like how they personified the boat, which shows how important it was to travelers. By giving...
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“Then a powerful demon, a prowler through the dark,
nursed a hard grievance. It harrowed him
to hear the din of the loud banquet
every day in the hall, the harp being struck
and the clear song of a skilled poet
telling with mastery of man’s beginnings,
how the Almighty had made the earth
a gleaming plain girdled with waters;
in His splendour He set the sun and the moon
to be...
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“There was uproar in Heorot. She had snatched their trophy,
Grendel’s bloodied hand. It was a fresh blow
to the afflicted bawn. The bargain was hard,
both parties having to pay
with the lives of friends. And the old lord,
the grey-haired warrior, was heartsore and weary
when he heard the news: his highest-placed adviser,
his dearest companion, was dead and gone.”
...