I. Revised schedule of readings:
FEBRUARY
9
CASTIGLIONE: EXCERPTS FROM THE COURTIER (704-06)
11 SIDNEY: Sonnet 1 (1084), Sonnet 9 (1086), Sonnet 31
(1090)
18 & 23 SPENSER:
From The Faerie Queeen, Book 2, Canto 12 (934)
25
SHAKESPEARE: Sonnet 116 (1182), Sonnet 73 (1187),
Sonnet 129 (1183)
MARCH
2 Sonnet 130 (1184),
Sonnet 138 (1184)
4 & 9 SHAKESPEARE, Twelfth
Night (1187)
10
ESSAY ONE DUE
11
SUCKLING, Love is the Fart (on website); DONNE :
The Flea (1373), The
Indifferent (1377),
16 DONNE: The Sun Rising (1376), Women’s Constancy (on website), Go
and Catch (1374),
18 DONNE: A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning (1385), Elegy 19 (1383),
Holy Sonnet 13 (1413), Holy Sonnet 14 (1413)
23 MIDTERM EXAM
25 SWETNAM: The
Arraignment. . . . (1650)
30 JONSON: Volpone
APRIL
1 Volpone
13 JONSON: On my first son (1542), On my first
daughter (1541), Epitaph for SP (1545) ,
Inviting
a friend for supper
15 BACON: From The Advancement of Learning (1675)
From
Novum Organum (1677)
20 & 22 FORD: ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore (New Mermaids edition)
27
HOBBES: from Leviathan (1856)
29
MARVELL: To His Coy Mistress (1796), The Mower Against Gardens (1800)
MAY
4 MARVELL: The Garden
(1804), A Dialogue Between the Body and the Soul (1792)
6 HERBERT, The Collar (1720), Easter
Wings (1709), The Pulley (1721)
11
TBA
13
Summary and review
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II. First essay assignment:
II. First essay assignment:
ENGLISH 4102 ESSAY #1
ASSIGNMENT
The first essay is
due any time on Thursday, March 10th. It
should be emailed to me at richardhorwich1@gmail.com. Send it formatted, as an attachment (Word is preferred),
but as a fail-safe, also copy it into the body of the text as well.
The essay will be
read for form (organization, clarity, correct syntax and grammar) as well as
content; be sure to proofread it carefully before submitting it.
Keep the essay’s focus
tight. It should be deep, not broad; it
should leave out anything extraneous and concentrate on details.
Choose one of the
prompts below, and write an essay of 1250-1500 words on it.
1. Read any of Sidney’s sonnets that we have not
studied in the light of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 (“My mistress’ eyes are
nothing like the sun”). Show how and why
Sonnet 130 can be read as a comment on the Sidney poem.
2. Explain how Acrasia in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene as an archetype of the
women described in one or two sonnets by Wyatt, Sidney, or Shakespeare.
3. Examine Act 1, Scene 5 of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and trace its connections
to the poetic tradition we have been studying.
4. Describe and analyze the view of beauty
expressed in Castiglione’s The Courtier,
and relate it to two or more poems we have read.
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III. Excerpts from a modern translation, of The Courtier, including the passage concerning sprezzatura:
Count Lodovico:
“I hold that the principal and true profession of the Courtier must be
that of arms; which I wish him to exercise with vigor; and let him be known
among the others as bold, energetic, and faithful to whomever he serves. And the repute of these good qualities will
be earned by exercising them in every time and place, inasmuch as one may not
ever fail therein without some great blame. . . . However, we do not wish him to make a show
of being so fierce that he is ever swaggering in his speech, declaring that he
has wedded his cuirass [sword], and glowering with dour looks, for to such as
these one may rightly say what in polite society a worthy lady jestingly said
to a certain man whom she sought to honor by inviting him to dance, and who not
only declined this but would not listen to music or take any part in the other
entertainments offered him, but kept saying that such trifles were not his
business. And when finally the lady said
to him: ‘What then is your business?’ he
answered with a scowl, ‘Fighting!’
Whereupon the lady replied at once:
‘I should think it is a good thing, now that you are not away at war or
engaged in fighting, for you to have yourself greased all over and stowed away
in a closet along with all your battle harness, so that you shall not grow any
rustier than you already are,’ and so, amid much laughter from those present,
she ridiculed him in his stupid presumption.
Therefore, let the man we are seeking be exceedingly fierce, harsh, and
always among the first, where the enemy is, and in every other place, humane,
modest, avoiding ostentation and above all things that impudent praise of
himself for which a man always arouses hatred and disgust in all who hear him.”
[Then he goes
on to describe the ideal courtier’s physical attributes:] the face should be “agreeable and pleasant to
all, although the features of it are not very delicate: it has something manly about it, and yet is
full of grace, not so soft and
feminine as many attempt to have who not only curl their hair and pluck their
eyebrows, but preen themselves in all those ways that wanton women adopt. In bodily frame, neither extremely small nor
big, because either of these conditions causes a certain contemptuous wonder, yet, of the two extremes, it is less bad to be on the small side than to be
excessively big; because men who are huge are often not only obtuse of spirit,
but are also unfit for every agile exercise, which is something I very much
desire in every courtier. And hence I
would have him show strength and lightness and suppleness, and know all the
bodily exercises that befit a warrior.
As it is the peculiar excellence of the Italians to ride well with the
rein, to manage wild horses, to tilt and joust, let him be among the best of
the Italians in this. In tourneys, in
holding a pass, in attacking a fortified position, let him the be among the
best of the French. In stick-throwing,
bull fighting, in casting spears and darts, let him be outstanding among the
Spaniards. He should also know how
to swim, jump, run, and throw stones.
Another noble exercise and most suitable for a man to court is the game
of tennis, which shows off the disposition of the body, the quickness and
litheness of every member. But I
think he ought to put aside all others, such as vaulting, ropewalking,
wrestling and the like, which smack of the juggler’s trade and little befit a
gentleman. But above all, let him temper
his every action with a certain good judgment and grace. . . . [And] having thought many times already about
how this grace is acquired (leaving out those who have it from the stars), I
have found quite a universal rule which in this matter seems to me valid above
all others and that is to avoid affectation in every way possible and (to pronounce a new word perhaps)
to practice in all things a certain sprezzatura
so as to conceal all art and make whatever is done or said appear to be without
effort and almost without any thought about it. Therefore we may call that art true
art that does not seem to be art. And I
remember certain orators in ancient
times who, among the other things they did, tried to make everyone believe
that they had no knowledge whatever of
letters, and dissembling their knowledge, they made their orations appear to be
composed in the simplest manner. . . .”
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