ASSIGNMENTS: Essays and Activities
Click a unit or assignment below:
1. THE ENGLISH REFORMATION
- Transgressive Translation: The Bible in English
- Religion and Rebellion
- Representing Martyrdom: Anne Askew
2. LOVE, SEX, AND GENDER
- Petrarchan Love and the English Sonnet
- Cross-Dressing, Convention, and Controversy in Twelfth Night
3. SPENCER'S THE FAERIE QUENNE
- The Kingdom of Our Own Language
- Reading Book 1 of The Faerie Queene
- Spenser's View of Ireland
4. THE WIDER WORLD
- Looking for Utopia
- New World Encounters
- Visions of the Golden Age
5. WITCHCRAFT AND STAGECRAFT: MARLOWE'S DOCTOR FAUSTUS
- Marlowe's Mighty Line
- Faustus and the Witch Hunters
6. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AND KING LEAR
- Shakespeare and the Fetishism of Dress
- Nature in King Lear
- King Lear and the "Division of the Kingdoms"
7. WOMEN IN POWER
- Writing Mary Queen of Scots: The Casket Letters
- The Cult of Queen Elizabeth and the Queen's Two Bodies
1. THE ENGLISH REFORMATION
- Transgressive Translation: The Bible in English
Read carefully the cluster of texts on the Bible, and then describe, in your own words, Tyndale's justification for doing a new translation. What seems to you to be at stake in his choice of "love" instead of "charity"? What other words in Tyndale's and the three other translations seem particularly laden with meaning or potentially controversial?
- Religion and Rebellion
Like the Homily Against Disobedience, the "Song of the Pilgrims of Grace" and Aske's defense of the rebellion purport to uphold sacred values against those who would desecrate or deny them. Make a close comparison between the Homily and one of these two documents of rebellion. What values, language, and images do they seem to have in common?
- Representing Martyrdom: Anne Askew
Compare The First Examination of Anne Askew with "I am a Woman Poor and Blind." What signs suggest that they are or are not the work of the same woman? What aspects of Askew's beliefs and her sufferings are emphasized in each?
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2. LOVE, SEX, AND GENDER
- Petrarchan Love and the English Sonnet
Choose one of the following:
- Conduct a close comparison between Wyatt's "The long love that in my thought doth harbor" and Surrey's "Love, that doth reign and live within my thought," both of which translate the same poem by Petrarch. How do these two translations differ, stylistically and expressively, and what is the source of these differences? How, on the basis of these two translations, would you define Petrarchan poetry?
- What similarities do you find between Castiglione's idea of the "Ladder of Love" in The Courtier and Sidney's idea of love in Astrophil and Stella? What is the relation of courtliness to love in both cases?
- Cross-Dressing, Convention, and Controversy in Twelfth Night
In what ways does Twelfth Night indicate that gender is a matter of biological fact? In what ways does the play suggest that gender is no more essential than the clothes one wears? Which point of view, if either, seems to prevail? Is your answer to this question at the end of the play the same as it is at the end of Act 3?
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3. SPENSER'S THE FAERIE QUEENE
- The Kingdom of Our Own Language
Imagine a debate between Edmund Spenser and Thomas Nashe over how to reform the English language. How do you think Nashe would respond to Spenser's archaisms, and Spenser to Nashe's Latin coinages? Which approach to language do you find more attractive or convincing? Do you see any political implications in the way these writers describe the language (for instance, in Spenser's description of Chaucer's English as "undefiled")?
- Reading Book 1 of The Faerie Queene
As you read Book 1 of The Faerie Queene, try to translate the allegorical events into a historical narrative, using the notes as a guide. Don't worry about not having all of the necessary historical information. How much of the action in Book 1 seems to represent real and specific events? Are there any characters or events that are not allegorical in any way? If so, what is their function?
- Spenser's View of Ireland
Compare the passage from A View that deals with the "degeneration" of the Old English with Book 2, Canto 12 of The Faerie Queene, which describes Acrasia's "Bower of Bliss" where men are turned into beasts. What images appear in both texts? Does Spenser's account of the "degeneration" of the Old English shed light on this canto? If so, what does Guyon's behavior in the Bower of Bliss imply for the future of Ireland?
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4. THE WIDER WORLD
- Looking for Utopia
What images of Utopia—or the perfected society—are prevalent today? If you were to create your own Utopia, what would its chief features be, and what faults in contemporary society would it redress?
- New World Encounters
The accounts of the voyages of Ralegh, Frobisher, Drake, Amadas and Barlowe, and Hariot all purport to describe New World settings and New World peoples. What do they succeed in telling us, directly and indirectly about the Old World and English society? Focus on one or two texts.
- Visions of the Golden Age
Write on one of the following themes:
- Compare the qualities that Montaigne finds admirable in the Brazilians with those that Barlowe describes in the Virginians and with those that, according to Ovid, characterize the inhabitants of the Golden Age.
- Montaigne writes of the Brazilians: "I find (as far as I have been informed), there is nothing in that nation that is either barbarous or savage, unless men call that barbarism which is not common to them." On what basis does Montaigne come to this conclusion about these people, one of whose common practices—cannibalism—had for centuries been for Western Europeans the very definition of barbarism and savagery?
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5. WITCHCRAFT AND STAGECRAFT: MARLOWE'S DOCTOR FAUSTUS
- Marlowe's Mighty Line
In your own words, describe the differences you perceive between the passages from Cambyses and Doctor Faustus. Take note of stylistic differences, dramatic impact, and emotional effect. Is one more realistic than the other—and if so, which?
- Faustus and the Witch Hunters
Why might low comedy be considered suitable in a story of sorcery? Is there a relation between the diabolic and the comic? Compare the selection from News from Scotland in which Doctor Fian summons the cow with scenes from Doctor Faustus such as Scene 8, in which Robin and Rafe summon Mephastophilis. Do the scenes serve similar purposes? How would our experience of each text differ if such passages were lacking?
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6. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AND KING LEAR
- Nature in King Lear
Try to note all the references to "nature" in King Lear. What different meanings are assigned to the word? Does any one sense seem to predominate throughout, or at the end?
- King Lear and the "Division of the Kingdoms"
King Lear has been read as an endorsement of a united Britain, one of King James's fondest ambitions. Yet the play has also been read as a critique of dreams of unity. What arguments can be mustered on each side of this debate? What aspects of the play might have struck King James, particularly as he watched it performed in the Christmas celebrations of 1606?
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7. WOMEN IN POWER
- Writing Mary Queen of Scots: The Casket Letters
Imagining that you are a lawyer at the trial of Mary Queen of Scots. Compose a legal opinion arguing either that the Casket Letters are her own writings or that they are forgeries designed to implicate her in adultery and murder. Whichever argument you choose, make sure it is based on evidence from the text of "Casket Letter Number 2."
- The Cult of Queen Elizabeth and the Queen's Two Bodies
What aspects of "On Monsieur's Departure" mark it out as a Petrarchan poem? In what ways does it diverge from the tradition set out by Wyatt, Surrey, and Sidney? Do these divergences seem to have more to do with the fact that the writer is a monarch, or that she is a woman?
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