Work for next week: Venus and Adonis

Read

Venus and Adonis (available in the handouts given out in the lecture)

If you weren't in the lecture, my recommended online edition is at http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/plays/Ven.html- though there are hundreds of sites out there, so find one that reads well to you.

Research

As revision, look back through the earlier texts we've studied (Canterbury Tales, sonnets and songs, Faerie Queene, Hero and Leander) and find as many references to the Venus and Adonis myth as you can. Think about how this myth and these characters are being used by the various authors and in different kinds of narrative, and compare this with Shakespeare's use of them in Venus and Adonis. They're two of the most important mythic figures in Renaissance literature, and this will help shape some of your revision reading.

Optional Translation

If you would like some extra translation practice, translate the following and I'll be happy to mark it and give you feedback. Either e-mail your work to me, or just bring it to next week's seminar.

Franklin's Tale 4592-4603

Now, goode men, I prey yow herkneth alle:
Lo, how Fortune turneth sodeynly
The hope and pryde eek of hir enemy!
This cok, that lay upon the foxes bak,
In al his drede unto the fox he spak,
And seyde, "Sire, if that I were as ye,
Yet sholde I seyn, as wys God helpe me,
'Turneth agayn, ye proude cherles alle!
A verray pestilence upon yow falle!
Now I am come unto the wodes syde;
Maygree youre heed, the cok shal heere abyde.
I wol hym ete, in feith, and that anon!'"

Maugree youre heed: in spite of all you can do

: 30 Apr 2010 16:03 |  Tags: Narrative Poems |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem