Arbie's Unoriginally Titled Book Blog

The opposing forces clash and prominent folk on both sides die vividly violent and gruesome deaths. Athena fights for the Argives; Apollo for the Trojans. The first two odd, anachronistic mentions of iron appear - all the warriors are arrayed in bronze arms and armour but Homer mentions iron in metaphorical flights. Mistakes?

Microcynicon: Six Snarling Satires - a work having the honour of having been publicly burned!

Camels do not do well when pushed to haste across rain-storm generated muddy terrain. Inexperienced riders are lucky not to hurt themselves during falls.

Mannerism: I once saw an exhibition of Mannerist paintings. It was very...mannered.

Old-timer, Nestor, may not be the best for spear-fighting anymore, but his experience and calm mean he'll be a good general/tactician!

Michaelmass Term

This is a comedy reminiscent of Jonson, being set in London and featuring swindlers and conmen as the villains - Volpone and The Alchemist spring to mind. It doesn't have Jonson's extremely heavy reliance on Classical Greek and Latin literary references, though. It also reminds me of Shakespeare, with dense punning and daft romantic plot lines. Unfortunately, most of the wit and puns are focused on bawdy double-entendres and the like that have, over time, mostly become very obscure and opaque, requiring the copious glosses to be recognised and understood - and we all know that a joke that has to be explained isn't funny any more. Presumably circa 400 years ago everybody would have been smirking and sniggering throughout.

The story offers plenty of opportunity for other laughs, though, with hardly anybody recognisable to one or more others, including close family members (one character going through at least four aliases!) and the ensuing dramatic irony providing laughs and tension in equal measure.

It's structurally conventional, with main plot and sub-plot, but the sub-plot is poorly integrated and might have been better excised completely. The final Act resolves everything extremely abruptly, as was the usual fashion. But plot structure did not seem to have the same level of importance then that we tend to give it, now. For example, examine the structure of A Midsummer Night's Dream; it's a complete disaster! That doesn't stop performances being magnificently entertaining, though.

The Brits arrive in force.

Shout out to Heironymous Bosch, surely one of the most original painters we have the great good fortune to still have works by. Here's The Garden of Earthly Delights:

Aphrodite saves Paris from miserable defeat and death at the hands of Menelaus, tells Helen to quit moaning and the pair of elopers are shagging five minutes later...

Michaelmass Term, Scene 4.4: Quomodo, having conned and swindled his way into the landed gentry, wonders what his wife and son would do with their inheritance - so he fakes his own death!

Shout out to Albrecht Dürer and his Young Hare:

The idea of the war ending appeals to just about everyone, even if it's obvious Paris can't beat Menelaus.

Michaelmass Term, scene 4.2: A brief switch to the "poor country folk come to the city" sub-plot.

Shout out to Jan van Eyck and his picture of a cute doggy!