DOCSLIB.ORG

Staging Imagination: Transformations of Shakespeare in Wordsworth and Coleridge

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Staging Imagination: Transformations of Shakespeare in Wordsworth and Coleridge Durham E-Theses Staging imagination: transformations of Shakespeare in Wordsworth and Coleridge O'Boyle, Patricia Marie How to cite: O'Boyle, Patricia Marie (2008) Staging imagination: transformations of Shakespeare in Wordsworth and Coleridge, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2549/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Staging Imagination: Transformations of Shakespeare in Wordsworth and Coleridge Patricia Marie O'Boyle Ph.D. Thesis Department of English Studies Durham University The copyright of this thesis rests with the author or the university to which it was submitted. No quotation from it, or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author or university, and any information derived from it should be acknowledged. 2008 Acknowledgements This doctoral research could not have been completed without the kindness, guidance, and always timely help of Professor Michael O'Neill, to whom I give my warmest thanks and appreciation. I would also like to thank Durham University Graduate School for their support. The thesis is gratefully dedicated to my family, especially my husband Jim, my three daughters Jenny, Claire and Katherine, and my sister, Clare. ABSTRACT This thesis examines the ways that Wordsworth and Coleridge transform the works of Shakespeare, in order to stage the imagination as it functions in the lives of the characters in their poetry. I look especially at the importance ofthe play A Midsummer Night's Dream to their poetic project, and show how elements of the play resurface in various poems, prefaces and prose writings of the two poets over a span of nearly twenty years. I argue that Wordsworth's transformations of Shakespeare contribute to a democratising of poetry, and a valorising of' our common human heart'. Chapter one discusses Lyrical Ballads as a series of poems, which have Theseus' speech on Imagination as their unifying theme, emulating Shakespeare's staging of passion. Chapters two and three examine Alexander Tytler's Essay on Translation as a 'negative' stimulus for Wordsworth's challenging poetic theories, and a source for some of his earliest 'transformations' of Shakespeare. Chapter four is a detailed survey of the critical background, and the Romantic reception of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and examines key themes in the play to elucidate the poets' poetry and prose. Chapter five is a comparison between 'The Last of The Flock' and The Merchant of Venice, showing how Wordsworth 'imitates' the tale, and transposes the 'tone' ofthe comic play into a quieter and sadder 'music'. Chapter six analyses 'Michael', as a transformation of Gaunt in Richard II into the 'history homely and rude' of Michael the shepherd. Chapter seven is on Coleridge's Biographia Literaria, which re-tells the tale of the genesis of Lyrical Ballads, and Wordsworth's transformative poetics, as a 'translation' of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Chapter eight returns to Alfoxden, and Hazlitt's 'First Acquaintance with Poets', to revisit the poets as the protagonists of 'the dream' that was, and became, Lyrical Ballads. P. M. O'Boyle. Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1. Meetings and Divergences: Shakespeare as Presider......................... 26 Chapter 2. Translation as Practical Activity ..............................................57 Chapter 3. 'Imitating' Shakespeare: Imagination's Work of Translation ......... 82 Chapter 4. A Midsummer Night's Dream: The Poet's Eye, the Fairy Queen, and Bottom. The Wordsworths and Coleridge in Alfoxden Wood ... 110 Chapter 5. Imitation and Transposition. The Transformative Poetics of Lyrical Ballads ....................................................................................... 158 Chapter 6. Similitude in Dissimilitude: Michael, History, and Shakespeare..... 192 Chapter 7. Comic Transformations in Biographia Literaria ... ..................... 223 Chapter 8 'I desire you of more Acquaintance Good Master Mustard Seed': William Hazlitt's First Acquaintance with Poets ....................... 276 Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 303 Introduction This thesis examines the relationship between the works of Shakespeare and the poetry and prose of Wordsworth and Coleridge. I argue that in many of his poems Wordsworth employs a transformative method by re-creating Shakespearean themes and characters which often brilliantly disguises his original source material, and that this is done for purposes that are essentially, politically as well as aesthetically, radical in their intent. I examine particularly Lyrical Ballads 1798, The Prelude, Michael, and Coleridge's Biographia Literaria. The former poems I read closely as examples of Wordsworth's transformative method, and the latter as Coleridge's attempted exposition of their 'translations' of Shakespeare. I read this as Coleridge's implied criticism of both Wordsworth's failure to acknowledge their debt to Shakespeare, and his readers' and critics' inability to recognise it. I read Coleridge in Biographia Literaria as taking translation as his leading idea, staging its various functions and forms in each chapter, almost on every page, (the very title stages it: Biographia Literaria or Sketches of my Literary Life and Opiniom), and as using this to 'stage' both Wordsworth's translational method, and Coleridge's own theory ofthe distinction between imagination and fancy. The relationship of translation to both his theory of the imagination and what Kathleen Wheeler has called Coleridge's metaphorical method, 1in Biographia stems from Coleridge's use ofthe translation of the Greek word metaphor into the renaissance Latin rhetorical figure of 'translation', and is, therefore, only one form of the process of translation amongst many which Coleridge uses in the book. It is the imagination wbichJranslates and,thecfancy which transforms.- 1 Kathleen M. Wheeler, Sources, Processes and Methods in Coleridge's Biographia Literaria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980). I argue, moreover, that in order to appreciate many of the nuances of Wordsworth's poetry of the imagination and his debt to Shakespeare we should look to Shakespeare's own staging of imagination and fancy, as well as 'the character of the poet', in this case Bottom, in A Midsummer Night's Dream. I trace the influence of this play on and in Wordsworth's poetry and Coleridge's theory. Wordsworth's later regret that 'the hiding places of my power' seem 'closed' and that 'when age comes on [he] may scarcely see at all ' 2 is a lament for the loss of a former relationship with something or someone which he envisages as essentially alien, as Kenneth Johnston also senses when he writes of the passages Wordsworth wrote in Goslar for The Prelude and Nutting: In each of them, it is not the part of the poem describing Nature that makes them uniquely Wordsworthian, but the parts he cannot describe, because it is not simply 'nature.' Each time he starts off 'going with nature,' but then that movement breaks, and something far greater than natural forms invades his consciousness ... Behind these ordinary Lake District scenes there was a landscape of imagination as threateningly alien as if it were another planet. 3 This visiting muse, one accidentally met, rather than a constant source of inspiration which may indeed be denied to him in future years, comes in the form of enlightenment or revelation. Imagination is often a trespasser, a usurper upon the senses who ambushes the poet 'unawares', and brings to Wordsworth the recognition that' ... in such visitings/ of awful promise, when the light of sense/ Goes out in flashes that have shown to us/ The invisible world, doth greatness make abode, there ~- -- ___,-~ --- 2 The Prelude 1805, XII 335-38. 3 Kenneth R Johnston, The Hidden Wordsworth: Poet, Lover, Rebel, Spy (New York; London: W.W. Norton, 1998). 460. 2 harbours whether we be young or old. ' 4 This process, involving, as he writes in the lines just prior to the above, in what for many critics is considered an intrusion, an abrupt halt in the progress of his song, is a translation of a translation. Describing the point when, on losing their guides in the mountains, Wordsworth and his companion ask for directions from a Swiss peasant: Hard of belief we questioned him again, And all the answers which the man returned To our enquiries, in their sense and substance Translated by the feelings which we had, Ended in this-that we had crossed the Alps. 5 This kind oftypically providential, accidental meeting so sensitively illuminated by Frederick Garber in Wordsworth and the Poetry ofEncounter, 6 is celebrated
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Journal of New Latin Poetry
    VATES The Journal of New Latin Poetry Issue 4, Autumn/Winter 2011-12 CONTENTS Editorial 2 Carmina Latina After the Raid (Brad Walton) 3 2 First World War Poems (Paul Murgatroyd) 7 Webicus Bacchus (Joseph Tusiani) 9 2 Carmina (J. Turner Brakeley) 10 Eoan Airs (Massimo Scorsone) 12 Uxor Tiresiae (Paul Murgatroyd) 26 Pro Senectute Mea (Joseph Tusiani) 29 Laus Bacchi (Raul Lavalle) 30 3 Carmina ex Hobbito Illo (Mark Walker) 32 Features Toiling Up Parnassus (Barry Baldwin) 37 Verba Inaudita (Mark Walker) 40 Book Review: Musa Pedestris (Barry Baldwin) 46 De gustibus non est disputandum 48 Contributors 50 Edited by Mark Walker email: [email protected] Vates is a Pineapple Publications publication Vates Issue 4 Editorial Welcome to this fourth edition of Vates, the free journal of new Latin poetry. I‟m delighted that we are reaching an ever wider and increasingly international audience. Poetry in this issue comes from Italy, Argentina the USA, Canada and the UK. We have readers in Europe, North America, Jamaica, Australia … and the generous contributions from our poets around the globe shows no sign of slowing down, either – quite the opposite, in fact, which is a gratifying indication that we must be doing something right! One issue that prompted me to set up this journal in the first place was the problem of finding a readership for new Latin verse: „Who reads Latin Poems written in these days!‟ wrote Walter Savage Landor‟s exasperated brother in 1820, scarcely able to believe his brother would waste his talents on such a quixotic endeavour, and the situation can hardly be said to have improved since then.
    [Show full text]
  • Towards a Poetics of Becoming: Samuel Taylor Coleridge's and John Keats's Aesthetics Between Idealism and Deconstruction
    Towards a Poetics of Becoming: Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s and John Keats’s Aesthetics Between Idealism and Deconstruction Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philosophischen Fakultät IV (Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften) der Universität Regensburg eingereicht von Charles NGIEWIH TEKE Alfons-Auer-Str. 4 93053 Regensburg Februar 2004 Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Rainer EMIG Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Dieter A. BERGER 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE DEDICATION .............................................................................................................. I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................... II ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... VI English........................................................................................................................ VI German...................................................................................................................... VII French...................................................................................................................... VIII INTRODUCTION Aims of the Study......................................................................................................... 1 On the Relationship Between S. T. Coleridge and J. Keats.......................................... 5 Certain Critical Terms................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Poematia Latine Partim Reddita Partim Scripta a Vincentio Bourne
    PICKERING'S .LDINE EDITION OF THE POETS. Beautifully printed, price 5s. or bound in morocco J"or presents, 10s. 6d. each volume. Vols. 1. 1*. 2. Poems of BURNS. With Memoir and Notes by Sir Harris Nicolas, Portrait, and Additional Poems. 3 vols. 3. 4. Poems of THOMSON. With Memoir by Sir H. Nicolas, and upwards of Twenty Additional Poems never before printed. 2 vols. 5. Poems of COLLINS. With Memoir by Sir H. Nicol4S. 6. Poems of H. KIRKE WHITE. With Memoir by Sir H. Ni- colas, and Additional Poems. 7. 8. 9. Poems of COVVPER. Including his Translations from Mil- ton, Madame Guion, &c. with Memoir by Sir H. Nicolas, and Portrait, the most complete edition extant. 3 vols. 10. 11. Poems of SURREY AND WYATT. With Memoirs by Sir Harris Nicolas, and Portraits. 2 vols. 12. Poems of BEATTIE. With Memoir by the Rev. A. Dyce, and Additional Poems. 13. 14. 15. Poems of POPE. With Memoir by the Rev. A. Dyce. 3 vols. 16. Poems of GOLDSMITH. With Memoir and Notes by the Rev. John Mitford, and Additional Poems. 17. 18. 19. Poems of MILTON. With Memoir, Notes, &c. by the Rev. J. Mitford. 3 vols. 20. Poems of SHAKESPEARE. With Memoir by the Rev. Alex- ander Dyce. 21—25. Poems of DRYDEN. With Memoir by the Rev. J. Mit- ford. 5 vols. 26. Poems of PARNELL. With Memoir by the Rev. J. Mitford. 27. 28. 29. Poems of SWIFT. With Life by the Rev. J. Mitford. 3 vols. 30. 31. Poems of YOUNG. With Memoir by the Rev.
    [Show full text]
  • The Lost Boy: Hartley Coleridge As a Symbol of Romantic Division
    Halsall, Martyn (2009) The Lost Boy: Hartley Coleridge as a Symbol of Romantic Division. In: Research FEST 2009, July 2009, University of Cumbria. Downloaded from: http://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/840/ Usage of any items from the University of Cumbria’s institutional repository ‘Insight’ must conform to the following fair usage guidelines. Any item and its associated metadata held in the University of Cumbria’s institutional repository Insight (unless stated otherwise on the metadata record) may be copied, displayed or performed, and stored in line with the JISC fair dealing guidelines (available here) for educational and not-for-profit activities provided that • the authors, title and full bibliographic details of the item are cited clearly when any part of the work is referred to verbally or in the written form • a hyperlink/URL to the original Insight record of that item is included in any citations of the work • the content is not changed in any way • all files required for usage of the item are kept together with the main item file. You may not • sell any part of an item • refer to any part of an item without citation • amend any item or contextualise it in a way that will impugn the creator’s reputation • remove or alter the copyright statement on an item. The full policy can be found here. Alternatively contact the University of Cumbria Repository Editor by emailing [email protected]. The Lost Boy: Hartley Coleridge as a Symbol of Romantic Division. Dr Martyn Halsall Late one freezing evening in 1798 the writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge was completing a poem.
    [Show full text]
  • Travel Writing 1700–1830 an Anthology
    OXFORD WORLD’ S CLASSICS TRAVEL WRITING, 1700–1830 DURING the eighteenth century British travellers fanned out to every corner of the world, driven by diverse motives: scientific curi- osity, exploration, colonization, trade, diplomacy, and tourism, which began to flourish during this period. Those at home read voraciously in travel literature, which informed curious Britons about their nation’s activities overseas. The Empire, already estab- lished in the Caribbean and North America, was expanding in India and Africa and founding new outposts in the Pacific. Readers also enjoyed reports of travel closer to home: tours of the Continent and the British Isles themselves, whose beauty spots fuelled the rising fashion for picturesque and sublime scenery. Travel writing fed readers’ desire for adventure and exoticism and reinforced their pride in their nation’s achievements. It addressed scientific questions and gave philosophers food for thought. Political controversies were fought out in travel books, including the slavery question and the French Revolution debate. Above all, travellers’ descriptions of the wider world reveal their perception of themselves. Selected authors include Daniel Defoe, Joseph Addison, Mary Wortley Montagu, Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, James Cook, William Bartram, Mary Wollstonecraft, Dorothy Wordsworth, Walter Scott, Olaudah Equiano, Mungo Park, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew ‘Monk’ Lewis, and Frances Trollope. ELIZABETH A. BOHLS is Associate Professor of English at the University of Oregon. She is the author of Women Travel Writers and the Language of Aesthetics, 1716–1818, recently translated into Japanese, and of articles on travel writing and the novel. She is currently finishing a book on identity and place in writings from the colonial British Caribbean.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Frost at Midnight' and Al-Sayyab's 'Marha Ghail
    METATHESIS: JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LITERATURE AND TEACHING p-ISSN: 2580-2712 Vol. 5, No. 1, April 2021 PP 93-102 e-ISSN: 2580-2720 DOI: 10.31002/metathesis.v5i1.3420 A Comparative Analysis of the Conversational Elements in Coleridge’s ‘Frost at Midnight’ and Al-Sayyab’s ‘Marha Ghailan’ Taymaa Hussein Kheirbek* Department of English Language, College of Education, Charmo University Alsulaimanya, Iraq [email protected]* *corresponding author Received: Revised: Accepted: Published: 19 November 2020 02 May 2021 25 May 2021 5 June 2021 Abstract The conversation poem is a genre of poetry mostly associated with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It is usually characterized by being personal, emotional in nature, and often drawing on real events from the poet's life. This paper presents a comparative study of the conversational elements in S. T. Coleridge’s ‘Frost at Midnight’ and Badr Shaker Al-Sayyab’s ‘Marha Ghailan’. Similarity in focus, content, and style are going to be studied. In addition to that, certain points are going to be discussed and compared like; the minimalistic setting, the subjective experiences of both poets, the role of nature, the use of religion and myths, and the role given to the conversational partners. Keywords: Arabic Poetry, English Romantic poetry, Free verse, Conversation poetry Introduction The experience of being a father is not something that can be easily put into words. Therefore, any attempt to do so should be celebrated like S. T. Coleridge ‘s ‘Frost at Midnight’ and Badr Shaker Al-Sayyab’s ‘Marha Ghailan’. They succeeded in turning the very special moments they spent with their sons, Hartley and Ghailan, into beautiful poems.
    [Show full text]
  • Courtly Love in Shakespeare's Sonnets and Plays
    University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 5-1921 Courtly love in Shakespeare's sonnets and plays. Rebbie Doty University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Recommended Citation Doty, Rebbie, "Courtly love in Shakespeare's sonnets and plays." (1921). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 368. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/368 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILlE COURTLY LOVE IN SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS AND PIA YS. A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty Of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirementa..1'or the Degree Of Master of Arts , Department of English , ! ": ':'"' . ~ ".,.- by "",) '}" , Rebbie Doty 1921 TABLE OF CONTENTS. -" , , ," Table of Contents. Chapter I. The System of Courtly Love. Page 1. Chapter II. Modifications of Courtly Love in the Age of" Elizabeth. 12. Chapter III. The Element of Courtly Love in Shakespeare's Sonnets and Plays. 24. " Sonnets. Love's Labour's Lost. " The Two"Gentlemen of Verona. Romeo and Juliet. A MidsUBner Night's Dream. The Merchant of ¥enice. The Taming of the Shrew. The MerrY'Wives of Windsor. Much Ado About Nothing.
    [Show full text]
  • Poematia Latine Partim Reddita Partim Scripta a Vincentio Bourne
    LIFE OF VINCENT BOURNE. BY THE REV. J. MITFORD. T has been the general'lomplaint of the bio­ I graphers of literary men, that the lives which they have to examine and record possess few cir­ cumstances that can sufficiently diversify their narrative, 80 as to make it engage the attention of the public mind. OfVincent Bourne, how­ ever, it may be said, not that what is known of him is devoid of interest, for that is far from being the case, but that scarcely any remem­ brance of his life has been preserved. "Qui bene latuit, bene vixit," seems to have been the motto of his easy and unambitious mind: and his scholars, eager perhaps to lose sight of the tutor, subsequently ceased to recollect the poet and the man. We might almost lIay, that we are better acquainted with the lives of Shakespeare and Spenser, than with that ofa poet who lived in times so near to our own. A few meagre dates, which only mark some unimportant alras of his life, have alone been handed down to WI, without any accompanying facts; as if the B ii THE LIFE OF enumeration of the milestones on a road were to form a satisfact.ory description of the fea­ tures and scenery ofa country. Subsequently, '!lOme casual aud familiar touches, which dropped from the pen of Cowper, added to the resem­ blance; but the likeness, though pleasantly, was hastily and slightly sketched, and the por­ trait remaills still unfinished. The present Editor has been perhaps a little more success­ ful than those who have preceded him, in the materials he has collected; but they are so few, as to make him confess himself disappointed as to the success ofhis research.
    [Show full text]
  • The Magic Casement : an Anthology of Fairy Poetry
    THE MAGIC CASEMENT A BOOK OF FAERY POEMS GIVING GLIMPSES OF THE WORLD BEYOND THE CASEMENT: SELECTED AND ARRANGED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY ALFRED NOYES Of THE UNIVERSITY/ or / sgALjf^ PHn REVO tyai/TTTO JM! KH l"| V'^^^W^IW\^5% 'V A Midsummer's Night: The Quarrel ANTHOLOGY P PAIRY POETRY DITED-WTnAflMDUCTIOH- ALFRED /10YES NOTE Ti/TY thanks are due to the authors and publishers whose !** kindness has permitted the use of copyright poems in this book: to Mr. Swinburne, Mr. Watts-Dunton, Mr. G. K. Chesterton (and Messrs. Dent), Mr. Rudyard Kipling, Mr. R. C. Lehmann (and the proprietors of Punch], Sir Theodore Martin (and Messrs. William Black- wood and Sons), Mrs. William Sharp (for extracts from " the poems of Fiona Macleod "), Mr. W. B. Yeats, and Dr. John Todhunter. ALFRED NOYES VII " AND IF THAT THE BOWLE OF CURDS AND CREAME WERE NOT DULY SET OUT FOR ROBIN GOOD-FELLOW, WHY, THEN, 'WARE OF BULL-BEGGARS, SPIRITS," ETC. " FROM GHOULIES AND GHOOSTIES, LONG- LEGGETY BfrASTIKS, AND THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT, " GOOD LORD, DELIVER us ! Quaint Old Litany Vlll CONTENTS THE FAIRY LIFE PAGE I KNOW A BANK Wit/lam Shakespeare 3 THE URCHINS' DANCE John Ly/y 4 WHERE THE BEE SUCKS William Shakespeare 5 NURSLINGS OF IMMORTALITY "Percy Bysshe Shelley 6 NIMPHIDIA Michael Dray ton 7 MORGANA George Darky 3 1 PUCK'S SONG Rudyard Kipling 33 MODERN ELFLAND G. K. Chesterton 35 A FAIRY TALE Tom Hood 37 A FAIRY MUSTER George Darley 41 THE ELF-KING'S VICTORY R.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 6: S. T. Coleridge
    Romanticism Chapter 6: S. T. Coleridge “The Eolian Harp” “Frost at Midnight” “To a Young Ass” 2011 Fall Sehjae Chun Life of S. T. Coleridge 1772 born in the country town of Ottery St Mary, Devon 1791-1794 attended Jesus College, Cambridge. a plan to found a utopian commune-like society, called Pantisocracy 1798 published Lyrical Ballads with Wordsworth 1800 returned to England and shortly thereafter settled with his family and friends at Keswick in the Lake District of Cumberland to be near Grasmere 1808 separated from his wife Sarah 1810 quarrelled with Wordsworth 1817 finished his major prose work, Biographia Literaria 1834 died in Highgate, London 2 S. T. Coleridge Major Works of Poetry Biographia Literaria The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Christabel, Kubla Khan, a Vision, The Pains of Sleep Fears in Solitude Lyrical Ballads, with a few Other Poems Poems on Various Subjects Sibylline Leaves: A Collection of Poems Sonnets from various authors The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge 3 S. T. Coleridge • A Poet of Supernatural Nature • A Poet of Conversation Poems • A Poet of Radicalism • A Poet of Imagination 4 A Poet of Supernatural Nature • willing suspension of disbelief • experiencing nature as an integral part of the development of a complete soul and sense of personhood • nature's capacity to teach joy, love, freedom, and piety, crucial characteristics for a worthy, developed individual. • a respect for and delight in natural beauty • guarded against the pathetic fallacy, or the attribution of human feeling to the natural world • an
    [Show full text]
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream Adaptation by Francis Xavier Norton
    A Midsummer Night's Dream Adaptation by Francis Xavier Norton DRAMATIS PERSONAE THESEUS, Duke of Athens EGEUS, father to Hermia LYSANDER, in love with Hermia DEMETRIUS, in love with Hermia PHILOSTRATE, Mistress of the Revels to Theseus QUINCE, a carpenter SNUG, a joiner BOTTOM, a weaver FLUTE, a bellows-mender SNOUT, a tinker STARVELING, a tailor HIPPOLYTA, Queen of the Amazons, bethrothed to Theseus HERMIA, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander HELENA, in love with Demetrius OBERON, King of the Fairies TITANIA, Queen of the Fairies PUCK, or ROBIN GOODFELLOW, head fairy to Oberon PEASEBLOSSOM, fairy COBWEB, fairy MOTH, fairy MUSTARDSEED, fairy PROLOGUE, PYRAMUS, THISBY, WALL, MOONSHINE, LION are presented by: QUINCE, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, STARVELING, AND SNUG Other Fairies attending their King and Queen Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta UNIT 1 (To begin as the audience approaches the gates of our world) PUCK If we shadows shall offend, Think but this, and all will mend, That you will but slumber here While these visions do appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream! A knock of Puck’s creation, a knock back in response. The gates open. PROLOGUE (to be developed with moment work) The fairies grant the human spectators the gift of sight. The audience enters a room that was once a theatre, but is now overrun by nature in her various forms. The fairies play. The child sleeps. The Lovers sleep, hands locked together. A woman of light blesses the space. The roles are given. The sleeping wake and depart. The storm approaches.
    [Show full text]
  • Coleridge's Imperfect Circles
    Coleridge’s Imperfect Circles Patrick Biggs A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Literature Victoria University of Wellington 2012 2 Contents Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 4 Note on Abbreviations 5 Introduction 6 The Eolian Harp 16 This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison 37 Frost at Midnight 60 Conclusion 83 Bibliography 91 3 Abstract This thesis takes as its starting point Coleridge’s assertion that “[t]he common end of all . Poems is . to make those events which in real or imagined History move in a strait [sic] Line, assume to our Understandings a circular motion” (CL 4: 545). Coleridge’s so-called “Conversation” poems seem to conform most conspicuously to this aesthetic theory, structured as they are to return to their starting points at their conclusions. The assumption, however, that this comforting circular structure is commensurate with the sense of these poems can be questioned, for the conclusions of the “Conversation” poems are rarely, if ever, reassuring. The formal circularity of these poems is frequently achieved more by persuasive rhetoric than by any cohesion of elements. The circular structure encourages the reader’s expectations of unity and synthesis, but ultimately these expectations are disappointed, and instead the reader is surprised by an ending more troubling than the rhetoric of return and reassurance would suggest. Taking three “Conversation” poems as case studies (“The Eolian Harp,” “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison,” and “Frost at Midnight”), this thesis attempts to explicate those tensions which exist in the “Conversation” poems between form and effect, between structure and sense.
    [Show full text]