Well, spring term is finally over. That was 10 weeks. Here's a recap of what I did (in case I forget down the road): I translated the first 10 chapters of Dante's de Vulgari Eloquentia from the Latin. There was some interesting information in there.
The book's argument is that the Italian's should use their own language as opposed to the Latin as it is superior, being descended from Seth.
The most interesting take-away was that he believed, or at least wrote, that at Babel the languages were distributed by trade so that all blacksmiths or coopers had the same language and were able to freely communicate within trade groups.
I also took an intensive seminar on the poetry and major prose of John Milton. I ended up focusing my research there on Samson Agonistes. Written as a Greek/Attic tragedy, most critics evaluate it against that model. What I looked at was the way he employed aspects of Early Modern culture as well. Specifically, the genre of revenge tragedy made so popular by Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, a genre which owes its existence to Seneca—a Roman— and his Ten Tragedies which were translated into English in 1558.
I also looked at how certain of his characters resembled figures from the emblem books that were so popular at the time.
All of this was to prove that though clearly influenced by Greek drama, Milton was still a man of his time,
The next class was 17th Century Drama in which I focused my research on Oberon, Ben Jonson's masque for Prince Henry given in New Year's Day 1611.
Often thought of as poetry our unsatisfying drama, I argued that the masque was an enormous spectacle that could not be captured in the Jonson's librettos.
I managed to find Inigo Jones' sketches for the stage pieces, including measurements for the carpenters; I found Robert Johnson and Alfonso Ferrabosco's music for the dances and songs; I found an eyewitness account of the performances that included such details as the images on the stage curtains and facts that are reported no where else, for instance, King James called it to quits early because he was tired.
All of this was simply to show the masque for what it was, a celebration of the power of the Englsih Monarchy.
Well, I'm tired. Any questions, just ask.
