Monday, November 29, 2010

from Julius Caesar (2.1) 1599

Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar, 61
I have not slept.
Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream: 65
The Genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council; and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection.

from Richard II (5.1) 1595

I have been studying how I may compare
This prison where I live unto the world:
And for because the world is populous
And here is not a creature but myself, 5
I cannot do it; yet I'll hammer it out.
My brain I'll prove the female to my soul,
My soul the father; and these two beget
A generation of still-breeding thoughts,
And these same thoughts people this little world, 10
In humours like the people of this world,
For no thought is contented. The better sort,
As thoughts of things divine, are intermix'd
With scruples and do set the word itself
Against the word: 15
As thus, 'Come, little ones,' and then again,
'It is as hard to come as for a camel
To thread the postern of a small needle's eye.'
Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders; how these vain weak nails 20
May tear a passage through the flinty ribs
Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls,
And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves
That they are not the first of fortune's slaves, 25
Nor shall not be the last; like silly beggars
Who sitting in the stocks refuge their shame,
That many have and others must sit there;
And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
Bearing their own misfortunes on the back 30
Of such as have before endured the like.
Thus play I in one person many people,
And none contented: sometimes am I king;
Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar,
And so I am: then crushing penury 35
Persuades me I was better when a king;
Then am I king'd again: and by and by
Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke,
And straight am nothing: but whate'er I be,
Nor I nor any man that but man is 40
With nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased
With being nothing. Music do I hear?
Music
Ha, ha! keep time: how sour sweet music is,
When time is broke and no proportion kept!
So is it in the music of men's lives. 45
And here have I the daintiness of ear
To cheque time broke in a disorder'd string;
But for the concord of my state and time
Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me; 50
For now hath time made me his numbering clock:
My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they jar
Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,
Whereto my finger, like a dial's point,
Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears. 55
Now sir, the sound that tells what hour it is
Are clamorous groans, which strike upon my heart,
Which is the bell: so sighs and tears and groans
Show minutes, times, and hours: but my time
Runs posting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy, 60
While I stand fooling here, his Jack o' the clock.
This music mads me; let it sound no more;
For though it have holp madmen to their wits,
In me it seems it will make wise men mad.
Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me! 65
For 'tis a sign of love; and love to Richard
Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world.

from Richard III (5.3) 1592

It is now dead midnight.
Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.
What do I fear? myself? there's none else by:
Richard loves Richard; that is, I am I.
Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am: 190
Then fly. What, from myself? Great reason why:
Lest I revenge. What, myself upon myself?
Alack. I love myself. Wherefore? for any good
That I myself have done unto myself?
O, no! alas, I rather hate myself 195
For hateful deeds committed by myself!
I am a villain: yet I lie. I am not.
Fool, of thyself speak well: fool, do not flatter.
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale, 200
And every tale condemns me for a villain.
Perjury, perjury, in the high'st degree
Murder, stem murder, in the direst degree;
All several sins, all used in each degree,
Throng to the bar, crying all, Guilty! guilty! 205
I shall despair. There is no creature loves me;
And if I die, no soul shall pity me:
Nay, wherefore should they, since that I myself
Find in myself no pity to myself?
Methought the souls of all that I had murder'd 210
Came to my tent; and every one did threat
To-morrow's vengeance on the head of Richard.

Gigantic Hamlet Paper

AP English Paper
Hamlet


1. I want you to write a 3-4 page paper on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This paper must be typed. It should have the following:

*title clearly explaining its subject

*thesis in the first paragraph explaining the subject explored in the paper

*citations from the text itself supporting all general statements

*parentheses citing act, scene, and line, ie, (4.2.122-115)

Additionally:

*your paper will be graded on the quality of your analysis as well as the logical presentation and defense of the thesis

*if you write a summary of the play, your grade will be very low

*if your analysis is superficial, your grade will be low


_____________________________________________________________

2. Possible Topics:

a. Hamlet and Purgatory
b. Hamlet’s character/personality/temperament
c. The metaphor of the body politic
d. Soliloquies in Hamlet: Purpose and Dramatic Design
e. Horatio’s role as confidante
f. The Fortinbras Frame: Keep or Drop?
g. Hamlet’s Relationship to Ophelia
h. Doubling in Hamlet
i. Why does Hamlet delay?
j. Hamlet’s Madness and its Consequences
k. The tone of suspicion in Hamlet
l. Hamlet’s collapse of the social hierarchy
m. The metaphor of “play” in Hamlet
n. The nature of Hamlet’s transformation in Act Five
o. Hamlet as Revenge Play
p. Is Gertrude in on the Murder of her husband?
q. Hamlet’s view of Death
r. Hamlet as Tragic Hero
s. Do we admire Hamlet? Why? Why not?

Gravedigger's Scene

Monday, November 22, 2010

Hamlet 3.3

Hamlet 3.4

Hamlet 4.7

from Keats' Letters (September 1819)

The Composition of "To Autumn"

Keats wrote "To Autumn" after enjoying a lovely autumn day; he described his experience in a letter to his friend Reynolds:

"How beautiful the season is now--How fine the air. A temperate sharpness about it. Really, without joking, chaste weather--Dian skies--I never lik'd stubble fields so much as now--Aye better than the chilly green of the spring. Somehow a stubble plain looks warm--in the same way that some pictures look warm--this struck me so much in my Sunday's walk that I composed upon it."


http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/autumn.html

Manuscript "To Autumn"

http://englishhistory.net/keats/images/toautumn1.jpg

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Monday, November 15, 2010

Edward Alleyn

http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/alleyn.htm

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Henslowe's Diary

http://www.henslowe-alleyn.org.uk/index.html


http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary01hensuoft#page/n7/mode/2up