Thursday Mar 13, 2008

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Finished Malory -- finally. Brief thoughts: on the whole (this was my first reading of the work entire), I was exceedingly enamored of the book, which I had not expected. I thought it was mostly about the Sangreal and the war with Mordred (as those are the excerpts everyone is forced to read in sophomore surveys). These incidents always seemed a little dull to me, so I assumed that was the nature of the whole. Really, though, the great mass of the book is given up to Launcelot, Tristram, and Lamorak. I loved the huge section on Tristram in the middle. I also very much enjoyed the self-contained story of Gareth's first adventure as a knight. Also, Sir Dinadan (perhaps best titled the Cautious), had me laughing out loud. For the record though, fuck Galahad and Percivale: what a pair of boring twunts. They can keep their silly Jesus Cup and the painfully dry moralizing that characterized their entire story. Well, that wasn't so brief, but I had to get some of that off my chest.

Also, in breaks between chapters, I got through a reasonable chunk of medieval drama, excerpts from Julian of Norwich (suck) and Margery Kempe (fascinating), and a bunch of filthy, fun Middle English lyrics. At the end, I squeezed in just a taste of the Scottish Chaucerians with a few hundred lines each of Henryson and Dunbar. I'm now officially out of the Middle Ages and into the Sixteenth Century.

Today I read selections from Skelton, Wyatt, and Surrey. The longer-form read for the afternoon was Utopia, which really does get richer every time I take it up again. Also, in the vein of More, I read the excerpt on Shore's wife in his History of King Richard III, which is the definition of multum in parvo in English prose.

Tomorrow I need to get through Ascham (only excerpts: I'm not crazy), Queen Elizabeth, Gascoigne, Whitney, and Ralegh before I sink deep into Spenser, Sidney, and Greville. The last three will eat me for a while; so, if I don't post before I start them, I probably wont get around to it again till after I finish them.

In closing, here's a bit of bawdy Middle English double entendre:

SPOILERS! (Click to view)


I have a gentil cok,
Croweth me day;
He doth me risen erly,
My matins for to say.

I have a gentil cok,
Comen he is of gret;
His comb is of red corel,
His tayel is of jet.

I have a gentil cok,
Comen he is of kinde;
His comb is of red corel,
His tail is of inde.

His legges ben of asor,
So gentil and so smale;
His spores arn of silver white,
Into the worte-wale.

His eynen arn of cristal,
Loken all in aumber;
And every night he percheth him
In min ladyes chaumber. *



* Text courtesy of the Longman Anthology of British Literature
nopantsdave:
Which Malory did you read? The book I have is the Complete Works and I'm working my way through all of it. The Sankgreal and Le Morte are both near the end, so it will be awhile before I even get to them. This book is over 700 pages, if you've really made it through all of Malory's works in this short of time.....wow, I'm impressed. It's taking me a long while. Right now I am working on The Book of Sir Tristram de Lyones.
nopantsdave:
My Malory is based on the Winchester manuscript. It does inculde Caxton's preface, though. I have Tristram's Madness and Exile up next, but I am taking a break to read Marmion by Sir Walter Scott. I don't know how you made it through all of Malory in so short of time. After about 40 or 50 pages, I just need to take a break.

The store I went to had a couple of translations of Piers and only abridgements of Richardson's novels, so I held off on those.

By the way....have fun with Spenser. I read Faerie Queene last summer. I'm glad he died. Apparently he was intending it to be over twice as long as it ended up being. I really enjoyed Book 1, but after that it just went downhill for me.

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