Our course is aimed at the novice, the student who has little or no experience with Shakespeare on the page, in the theater, or at the cinema. We'll study four plays, watching a film production of each.
We'll have a take-home midterm and final, and embark on five (5) weekly assignments.
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (the folks in Stratford)
Folger Shakespeare Library (the finest American resource available for Shakespeare study)
British Library (finest UK resource for Shakespeare)
Historical Editions of Shakespeare (a fairly complete run of all texts from the early quartos to the end of the nineteenth century)
Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive (all the engravings from the great nineteenth-century editions)
English L22001: Introduction to Shakespeare
Summer (1) 2021 MTR 10-12.20 LA 144
Office: LA 233 Hours: please contact me
email: stapletm@pfw.edu
webpage: www.elmlsteach.org
Text:
Greenblatt et al., eds., The Norton Shakespeare: Essential Plays. The Sonnets (vol. 3E)
Please note: this is the edition I'll be using, and some of the assigned reading for presentations is from this text. If you choose not to buy it, you are still responsible for the material. Perhaps a friendly classmate will help you out. But you can't be lackadaisical here.
Electronic Devices:
Yes, please. Feel free. I only ask that you use their magic powers for Good. E. g. don't use your phone as a textbook.
17 May (M): Introductions; Twelfth Night
18 May (T): Twelfth Night
20 May (R): Twelfth Night
21 May (F): First weekly due by 9 a.m.
24 May (M): Twelfth Night
25 May (T): Henry V
27 May (R): Henry V
28 May (F): Second weekly due by 9 a.m.
31 May (M): No class
1 June (T): Henry V
3 June (R): Henry V
Third weekly due by 9 a.m.
4 June (F): First exam due via Brightspace by 9 a.m. stapletm@pfw.edu
7 June (M): Polanski's Macbeth (1971)
8 June (T): Macbeth
10 June (R): Macbeth
11 June (F): Fourth weekly due by 9 a.m.
14 June (M) Macbeth
15 June (T) Macbeth
17 June (R) Julie Taymor's The Tempest (2010)
18 June (F): Fifth weekly due by 9 a.m.
21 June (M): The Tempest
22 June (T): The Tempest
24 June (R): The Tempest
25 June (F): Second exam due via Brightspace 11.59 p.m. stapletm@pfw.edu
You are allowed three (3) absences for any reason you choose. Students who miss more than this will fail the course, without exception, regardless of circumstances. I do not distinguish between “excused” and “unexcused” absences, nor am I responsible for material that you miss because you are absent. Students who miss the attendance call (the first five minutes of class) will be marked absent; students who get up and leave in the middle of class will be marked absent. Please take care of your rest room issues BEFORE class. If you must leave, give us the high sign. DON'T JUST GET UP AND WALK OUT.
NOTE: if you signed up for the class, it is understood that you can attend it regardless of family or employment obligations. If you have emergencies, this is why you have absences allowed. Doctors's notes, team travel letters, and other personal effects do not entitle students to extra absences. If circumstances prevent you from observing the attendance policy, drop the course.
Your take-home exams and weekly assignments are due on the scheduled non-class dates by 9 a.m. via email. Late papers = 0. No exceptions. These will be short, 3-4 pp. Your first exam may be revised after meeting with the instructor in the office and discussing your plans.
There will be five of these, 20 pts. each, 2 pp. Late = 0 Please see the instructions for success below. Like your first exam, you can revise them for a better grade after conferencing with me.
It should go without saying that students are also expected to do their own work; indebtedness to secondary materials (either printed or electronic) must be clearly indicated so as to avoid plagiarism:
—(piecemeal) using someone else’s words and phrases as if they were your own, not pararphrasing or summarizing properly, even with proper documentation;
—(grotesque) using someone else’s ideas as if they were your own, without proper documentation;
—(more grotesque) allowing someone else to write your paper for you.
PLEASE DO NOT BE A PLAGIARIST! THIS IS UNNECESSARY, AS WELL AS UNETHICAL
The course grade will be determined by an average of your take-home midterm, take-home final exam, and weekly writing assignments. I reserve the right to take into additional factors into account; improvement, class participation, and, of course, attendance. Grades are not negotiable, personal, or subject to the influence of extracurricular academic factors.
You may email me at any time. I will usually get back to you quickly: stapletm@pfw.edu
NOTE WELL:
I always acknowledge an email submission with a reply confirming receipt. If you DON'T hear from me after a reasonable period of time, it means I didn't get the paper. It is YOUR responsibility to follow up in this case, not mine.
Who said it? Where, and why?
Which words or phrases make reference to the concept you're trying to explain, and why does your evidence matter?
Paragraphs should be focused on a single topic, with topic sentences, evidence, and analysis. They should not consist of a series of broad, unrelated statements.
This is where we see what you've got. Which words and phrases seem especially important in each quotation as they relate to the other quotations?
What each quotation says is fairly clear. So there's no need to rehash or summarize the Shakespeare. Assume we can all read it. Why does it matter? Why is it important? What insight can you bring to the material?
Go up to the site menu and click on Writing. Pay special attention to the sections on analysis, lead-ins and quotations, and quoting poetry.
We cite Shakespeare in parentheses by (Play abbr. act.scene.line-numbers). TN, H5
Your first paper should be 3-4 pp., double-spaced. Your second essay should be 4-6 pp., double-spaced.
You are allowed to revise your first exam, provided that you meet with me in the office to discuss it first. You are welcome to turn in the revision at any time before the due date for your second exam.
Choose one of these passages and write about at least one significant detail in it.
TN 2.2.16-40 ("I left no ring"); TN 3.1.1-48 (the Clown's lines)
Choose one of these passages and write about at least one significant detail in it.
TN 3.4.60-75 ("Oh, ho, do you come near me now?"); TN 4.3 (How do the lines seem to illustrate the main motif of the play? "So full of shapes is fancy / That it alone is high fantastical?" [1.1.14-15]).
What happens in Act 1 of Henry V? What is the main point of Henry's longish speech in 2.2? i.e., "The mercy that was quick in us but late, / By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd."
Choose one of these passages from Henry V and write about at least one significant detail in it.
"Once more unto the breach" (3.1). "How yet resolves the governor of the town?" (3.3)
"Upon the king!" (4.1.180-238); "If we are marked to die" (4.3.22-69)
Choose one of these passages from Macbeth and write about at least one significant detail in it.
The first scene; Macbeth's soliloquy "If it were done when 'tis done" (1.7) ; Does it matter that only Macbeth can see the ghost of Banquo in 3.4? What is the point of the conversation between Lady Macduff and her son? Why is it in the play? (4.2) How does the Lady's soliloquy (1.5) echo in the last part of the play?
Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked, I cried to dream again. (Tmp. 3.2.135-43)
If someone told you this was the most important speech in the play, how would you respond?
This seems like an obvious thing for the disguised Viola to say while fending off the advances of the lovesick and beguiled Olivia.
Are the players somehow unaware of who they project themselves to be? Is there any discrepancy between what a person says about herself and who she really might be? Do his actions somehow contradict her words?
Which words or phrases in Twelfth Night make reference to this concept, and why does your evidence matter?
Paragraphs should be focused on a single topic, with topic sentences, evidence, and analysis. They should not consist of a series of broad, unrelated statements.
Shakespeare's conqueror is clearly not at all times the blameless "mirror of all Christian kings" (H5 2.Pr.6). Apply the idea from the first question to Henry, but with a twist: is he aware of this discrepancy in himself?
Which words or phrases in Henry V make reference to this concept, and why does your evidence matter?
Paragraphs should be focused on a single topic, with topic sentences, evidence, and analysis. They should not consist of a series of broad, unrelated statements.
Late papers = 0
3-4 pp.
Be sure that I acknowledge the receipt of your exam in responding to the email including your exam.
Microsoft Word only.
"The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and
ill together: our virtues would be proud, if our
faults whipped them not; and our crimes would
despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues." (AWW 4.3)
Let's take this splendid observation and apply it to our two plays.
How does it apply to each of the six passages below? Please be specific and use words and phrases to make your point.
Paragraphs should be focused on a single topic, with topic sentences, evidence, and analysis. They should not consist of a series of broad, unrelated statements.
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,
Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury
Do I take part: the rarer action is
In virtue than in vengeance (5.1)
You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition,
Expell'd remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian,
Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,
Would here have kill'd your king; I do forgive thee,
Unnatural though thou art (5.1)
By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune,
Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies
Brought to this shore; and by my prescience
I find my zenith doth depend upon
A most auspicious star, whose influence
If now I court not but omit, my fortunes
Will ever after droop (1.2)
Whence is that knocking?
How is't with me, when every noise appalls me?
What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,
Making the green one red. (2.2)
Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. (5.5)
O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under't. He that's coming
Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night's great business into my dispatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. (1.5)
Late papers = 0
4-6 pp.
Be sure that I acknowledge the receipt of your exam in responding to Brightspace or to the email including your exam.
Microsoft Word only.
© Copyright M. L. Stapleton 1998-2030 All rights reserved.
good for nothing else, be wise. --Rochester