Critical Readings

The panel reads "The Boke of Phyllyp Sparowe" by the Tudor poet John Skelton, a poetic champion of Chaucer, and the inventor of Skeltonic verse, a roughly syllabic and strongly rhymed form of English poetry much beloved of the Henrician court. Continue reading

The panel reads three poems by A.E. Housman, the renowned British classicist and poet, and discusses the presence of death in his poetry, the influences of Romanticism, the importance of the speaker's role, and the poetic ironies of his biography. Continue reading

The panel reads Alexander Pope's "Messiah," based upon Virgil's Fourth Eclogue and the biblical Book of Isaiah, with a discussion of its formal qualities, its Late Augustan/pre-Romantic historical context, and its fusion of Classical and Hebraic imagery. Continue reading

The panel reads the final act, reflecting on the role of Brutus as a tragic figure, with attention given to his relationship with Cassius, his misunderstanding of Antony's magnanimity, his stoic leanings, and his role in the final battle at Philippi. Continue reading

The panel reads the fourth act, with special attention to the fraught relationship between Brutus and Cassius, the political situation in the late Roman Republic, and the declining fate of the conspiracy in the wake of Marc Antony's speech to the plebs. Continue reading

The panel discusses the play's self-awareness, its complexity of character, the presence of character flaws which serve to advance the action of the drama, and the contrast between reason and emotion, rhetoric and sophistry, and idealism and pragmatism. Continue reading

The panel discusses the the play's contrasts of public and private settings, its parallelism of scenes and characters (especially Calphurnia and Portia), and how Caesar's hubris, confidence, and superstition ultimately prove to bend the hinge of fate. Continue reading

The panel discusses the first act of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, with attention to Caesar's biographies, the fraught sociopolitical situation in Rome, the thread of ambition that runs through the play, and Cassius' crafty manipulation of Brutus. Continue reading

The panel discusses the biographical details of David Jones, and his participation in the Great War, before reading parts 5–7 of In Parenthesis, with attention to the role of mechanisation and the inversion of traditional forms of warfare and defence. Continue reading

The panel reads Parts 1–4 of David Jones' In Parenthesis, with attention to its Modernist and post-Romantic moves, its structure as a prose poem and its prose style, and its imagistic and impressionistic development of scenes and personal experiences. Continue reading

The panel discusses the conclusion of Wuthering Heights, with special attention given to the message of the novel; its place in the genres of Gothic, Romance, and Tragedy; and how its cycles of revenge and pain are eventually broken through acts of love. Continue reading

Guest expert Dr. Madeline Potter joins the panel to discuss chapters 17–24, with a focus on the cycles of violence and manipulation at Wuthering Heights, the symmetry of relationships, and the re-embodiments of abuse perpetuated by Heathcliff. Continue reading

The panel discusses chapters 10–16, from Catherine's marriage until her death, and examines Heathcliff's increased severity, the potential innocence of Isabella and Hareton, and the role that Nelly has played in escalating the fraught circumstances. Continue reading

Dr. Madeline Potter joins the panel to discuss the opening chapters of Emily Brontë's only novel, with attention to the influences of the gothic and romanticism, and the narrative's depiction of the unstable tension between civilisation and nature. Continue reading

The panel discusses the American Poet Laureate Robert Penn Warren—the only person to win the Pulitzer prize both for Poetry and for Fiction—reading two of his poems from the November 1979 Poetry Magazine volume issued in honour of Allen Tate. Continue reading

The panel reads Wordsworth's "Beggars" (and its sequel) examining the verses with attention to what they suggest about society and economics, beauty and physical attraction, national pride, the Romantic attitude towards nature, and Wordsworth scholarship. Continue reading

The panel discusses The Morte Arthur: Aggravayne and Mordred's entrapment of Launcelot and Guenevere, the death of Garyth and Gaherys, Gawayne's vengeance and death, Arthur's war with Mordred, and the end of Camelot, The Round Table, and the tale. Continue reading

The panel discusses the penultimate sequence of the Morte, 'Launcelot and Guinevere,' with attention to Launcelot's pledge to defend the Queen's honour in right or wrong and the increasing Orkney-led noyse of sclaundir and treson in the Arthurian court. Continue reading

The panel discusses the complysshment of the Sankgreal, Galahad's unwieldy role as a model of virtue, Gawain's manifest impurity, Launcelot's outward conversion, the effect of the Quest upon the Arthurian court, and Malory's conflicted theology. Continue reading

The panel discusses the first half of the Quest for the Holy Grail, including Galahad's knightly debut, the arrival of the Grail in the court, Gawain's impetuous vow, and King Arthur's sorrow—and what it means for the common good of the realm. Continue reading

The panel reads the conclusion of the Tristram sequence, including the begetting of Galahad, with special attention to the quality of worshypfulness and how it may be acquired and kept, including by women and through means other than knyghtly prouesse. Continue reading

The panel reads of the Tournament at Surluse and the strife of the Orkney brothers, and considers in detail what a question about the use of a single word—lette—might imply not only for the character of King Arthur but for the entire Malorian project. Continue reading

The panel reads the King Mark sections of Le Morte Darthur—presenting the first fully-realised villain of the piece, complete with motivations, personality, and an identifiable modus operandi—and discusses its implications for Malorian kingship. Continue reading

The panel reads three episodes from the Tristram section—"Le Cote Male Tayle", "The Madness of Sir Tristram", and "The Tournament at the Castle of Maidens"—and examines the actions of four malevolent characters: Mordred, Morgan, Mark, and Mellyagaunce. Continue reading

The panel discusses the first two tales in the Tristram section—Sir Tristram and la Beall Isode and Sir Lamerok de Galys—with attention to Malory's sources, the Lancelot-Tristram parallelism, and the apparent shift towards an interest in courtly love. Continue reading