The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare

PRIMARY SOURCE: The Winter's Tale (prod. 1609-1611, pub. 1623)
Context

• Publication: First produced in 1609. Published in collections: 1623 and 1632. Categorized with "comedies" in the Folio; same as The Tempest. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars are interested in the early romantic sensibilities of this play: the disruption of Aristotelian unity, the importance of magical intervention, and the plot of coincidences. Scholars are also interested in Shakespeare's modifications of Roland Greene's Pandosto, namely the addition of Paulina and the redemption of Leontes. Consequently, scholars have viewed Winter's Tale as a Christocentric play, newly structured around death, penitence, and resurrection. The passage from Winter to spring roughly matches the Lenten period, though the diptych may also signify a naturalist passage between seasons and ages. Mamilla is also of interest, as Shakespeare augmented his role and named him after the mammary--a sign of the kingdom contingent upon the mother's sustenance.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, formalism, the pastoral, statues, ballads.

Content

• Form: Mixed verse. Five acts.
• Genre: Romance, tragicomedy, comedy (Folio attribution). 
• Conceit: Polixenes (King of Bohemia) visits his boyhood friend, Leontes (King of Sicilia). When Polixenes tries to leave, Leontes sends his wife, Hermione to persuade him to stay. Unlike his normal response, Bohemia yields to Hermione. Leontes concludes that Polixenes has cuckholded him. Leontes doubts the legitimacy of his son, Mamillus, and orders the counselor Camillo to poison Polixenes  Camillo resists, but agrees to poison Polixenes on the condition that Leontes should trust and reconcile with Hermione. Polixenes asks Camillo about Leontes s change in spirit, and Camillo reveals the plot. Together, they flee for Bohemia. Leontes learns that they have fled and suspects more than ever that Polixenes is the father of Hermione's current pregnancy. Against his servants' protests, Leontes publicly accuses Hermione and orders her to be imprisoned. In prison, Hermione births Paulina. She takes Paulina to the Leontes, but Leontes orders Antigonus to abandon the baby on the shore. Leontes orders a messengers to the Oracle at Delphi to confirm Hermione's guilt, but they return with a scroll stating that Hermione is innocent, Leontes is a tyrant, and that he will live without an heir until that which is lost is found. Leontes ignores that and rails against Hermione. Suddenly, a servant tells him that Mamillus died overnight of anxiety for Hermione. Hermione swoons and dies in her chambers. Leontes realizes that the oracle was right, and vows penance.
  Antigonus takes Paulina to the shore, but lays a bag of gold with her, alongside instructions to call the baby Perdita (from his dream). Antigonus is killed by a bear, and his ship and crew are wrecked by a storm. A shepherd sees all of this, and finds Perdita.
  Time itself appears and explains the passage of 16 years. While the grown shepherdess Perdita allures Prince Florizel, heir to Bohemia, Leontes grieves alone in the palace. Polixenes and Camillo follow Florizel to a sheep-shearing festival, all in disguise. Polixenes recognizes the noble bearing of Perdita when she dances with Florizel, but forbids Florizel's marriage. Florizel plans to elope with Perdita. Camillo advises them to go to Sicilia as a goodwill ambassador from Bohemia, and so supplies them with letters of introduction. Camillo wants Polixenes to pursue them into Sicilia, so Camillo can retutrn home. The shepherd-father tells Polixenes how he found Perdita, but he is captured by Autolycus and taken away to Sicilia.
  Florizel and Perdita arrive in Sicilia, pursued by Polixenes and Camillo. The shepherd hears of Leontes' lost daughter, and describes Perdita's origin. Leontes is reunited with Perdita/Paulina, and Polixenes blesses her marriage to Florizel. Still, Leontes mourns Hermione.
  Paulina visits a statue of Hermione in Leontes' memorial chapel. All gather to view the statue, hear soft music, and marvel at the statue. The statue is in fact Hermione, who lived in the wilderness awaiting news of Paulina. The family is united, as are the friends. All celebrate the marriage of Florizel and Perdita.
• Other notes: Autolycus' ballad-selling is an interesting moment of economic ambiguity. The character is a masterless man, but he bases the authority of his ballads on the testimony of judges. Also, the shepherds buy these "true" tunes on the strength of the signed testimonies of other common people. The ballad market is represented as a self-sustaining system of myths, maintained by a con man's textual claim to authority.
  The statue scene is more fascinating. This seems like Renaissance move to secularize the power of the Resurrection, rather than represent it, because Hermione is (a) a transgressive female in Christ's role, and (b) not otherwise endowed with any sanctified qualities of Christ.
• Mneumonic: Pol(ixenes) Her(mione) Le(ontes) Mam(illus) Cam(illo) Ant(igonus) Pau(lina) Per(dita) Flo(rizel) Aut(olycus)
• Politicians and hermits, leaders and mamillists come anticipating polity, perish flourishing autonymy.

(NB: written with notes.)
Atchity, Kenneth John. "The Winter’S Tale." Masterplots, Fourth Edition(2010): 1-4. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Feb. 2013.

Shakespeare, William, Stephen J. Greenblatt, and Andrew Gurr. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. Print.

Paradise Lost by John Milton

PRIMARY SOURCE: Paradise Lost (pub. 1667 [10 book], 1674 [12 book])
Context

• Publication: Milton finished Paradise Lost at least two years before Samuel Simmons published it asa quarto in 1667. There are at least three political explanations: the Anglo-Dutch war caused a paper shortage in 1665 England. Milton had a reputation for controversy since Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce and his work in the Protectorate government. The Great Fire of 1666 disrupted the normal process of commerce in London. Simmons had several advantages: his presses seem to have been undamaged by the fire; his shop was close to Milton's house; he had a reputation for printing seditious literature. Milton tried to license his poem, and the Archbishop of Canterbury and licenser Thomas Tompkins objected on the basis of Milton's reputation and anti-monarchical themes. Nevertheless, Tompkins ultimately licensed the poem. Milton sold his poem (the license? perpetual rights?) to Simmons for ten pounds. 1667 EEBO link.
  After the 1667 edition, Milton and Simmons added more material with minimal changes to the 1667 typesetting. First, they experimented with varied title pages. In 1668, Milton added an argument for each book to the beginning of the volume. Simmons added a letter to the reader. By 1669, Milton fulfilled his contract for 1300 copies sold. In 1674, Simmons set an octavo edition with significant copy-corrections but no line numbers. In this edition, Milton divided the seventh and tenth books into two each, making the poem a twelve-book demi-epic. Simmons moved the arguments to their respective books, and added a portrait of the poet. 1674 EEBO link.
• Scholarship: In brief, critics are interested in the following attributes of Milton's poem: its nature as a Protestant English epic; Milton's conception of God; Milton's definition of marriage; Milton's description of the Son; Milton's theory of knowledge; and Milton's cosmology.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, history of religion, the history of science, formalism.

Content

• Form: Blank verse. 10 or 12 books.
• Genre: Epic.
• Conceit: 

1. The speaker invokes the muses to sing of man's first disobedience, the fruit, exile from Eden, and redemption through Christ. The action begins in the infernal pit, in darkness visible. Satan addresses Beelzebub and describes how Beelzebub looks different than in Heaven. Then Satan recalls the rebellion against God, and Beelzebub admits that he's worried about their current state. Satan commits to only doing evil from now on, and moves to the burning plain to assemble the fallen. The fallen assemble into squadrons, represented by their leaders: Moloch, Chemos, Baalim, Ashtaroth, Thammuz, Dagon, Rimmnon, Isis, Osiris, Orus, and Belial. Many of the fallen angels are the false gods worshiped by the ancients. Satan proposes that the angels corrupt God's newly created world. The angels build Pandemonium and assemble for a great debate.
2. Moloch proposes open war with God. Belial argues that hell is better than outright destruction, and that God may show leniency. Mammon counters that leniency is an unacceptable form of slavery, but Hell can still prove profitable. Beelzebub observes that they survive in Hell only on God's leniency, so peace is impossible. Instead, he says the angels should corrupt the newly created Earth. The angels approve, but Beelzebub can't find a volunteer to go first. Satan volunteers to go through the "unessential Night." The angels pursue their natural tendencies in Hell once Satan is gone. Satan makes it past Sin and Death, though learning that Sin is his daughter, and Death is their incestuous son. Sin is always consumed by her incestuous hell-hound offspring, fathered by Death. Sin opens the gates to Chaos. Satan passes by Chaos, and sees the world hanging from Heaven by a golden chain.
3. Milton invokes the celestial light. God looks down on Adam and Eve, and also Satan, and explains that everyone has free will. He has made himself known to all creation, and all are capable of Grace. The Son volunteers to be sacrificed for man's sin. God makes the Son ruler of the universe, and explains his plan for the Last Judgment. Just as God made the universe through the Son, and defeated the rebel angels through the Son, God will send the Son to judge all the dead before closing the gates of Hell forever. Angels boogie in Heaven. Satan checks out the gates of Heaven, the Sun, and chats with Uriel, who relays the location of Paradise.
4. The narrator laments Man's ignorance. Satan acts surly around the Sun, Paradise, the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge. He despairs, "Which way I fly is Hell; my self am Hell" and vows "Evil be thou my Good." Nevertheless, Paradise is really nice. Satan spies on the perfect relationship of the first couple, who cannot be tempted for lack of curiosity. The sun sets, Gabriel begins the search for Satan, and once Eve is in bed, Satan becomes a toad and poisons her dreams. Gabriel faces off against Satan, and Satan splits.
5. Eve tells Adam of her dream: a bite of the fruit takes her up to Heaven. Adam reassures her, and they set to work in the Garden. God sends Raphael to warn Adam. They lunch, and Raphael explains the cosmology. Importantly, Raphael warns against disobedience. Raphael explains that Satan rebelled to avoid subservience to the Son. Abdiel refuses.
6. The battle begins. God sends Michael and Gabriel to fight Satan's legions. Abdiel scorns and fights Satan. The battle is super huge. On the first night, Satan claims that the stalemate is proof of God's fallibility. The next day, God's angels whoop the rebels.On the third day, God sends his Son to drive the rebels to the Deep. The Son scares the rebels into fleeing Heaven. They fall nine days to Hell. The angels praise Jesus. Satan remarks that Raphael's lesson is instruction in Disobedience.
7. The speaker  invokes Urania, the pre-pagan muse. Adam asks Raphael about the creation of the world. Raphael explains, with reservation, that God will have one man give birth to the human race. The Son divided the world (the universe) from Chaos with the golden compass, diving light from dark.  God creates the firmament to divide the waters of the earth and heaven. God creates the vegetation on the third day. God creates the heavenly bodies on the fourth day. On the fifth day, he creates the creepy-crawly vertebrates. On the sixth day, he creates the beasts of the Earth, then Adam & Eve.
8. Adam asks Raphael about cosmology. Raphael gives a couple options, then tells Adam not to worry about it. Adam tells Raphael about his own creation, his first minutes in the Garden, and the creation of Eve. God warns Adam not to be over-awed by Eve. Adam asks Raphael about angelic sex. Raphael explains how awesome it is, reminds Adam not to disobey God, and splits.
9. The speaker changes his notes to tragic. Satan returns to the Garden through the river Tigris, then enters the serpent. Eve convinces Adam to divide their labor--so that they don't flirt all day--by saying that temptation is important for testing virtue. Satan moves in on Eve, but he's stunned by her beauty. When he does speak, he convinces the surprised Eve that a serpent can speak thanks to the Tree of Knowledge. In a couple of appeals, he convinces her that the Tree will make her like God. Eve stuffs her face and Nature shudders. Eve realizes that God will give Adam a replacement Eve once she dies, so she explains the situation to him. Adam decides to die with Eve, and stuffs his face, too. The earth is fallen. They have the first bad sex, and realize they're naked. They spend the rest of the day blaming each other.
10. The angels give God the bad news, but God explains the master plan. The Son descends to Paradise and questions Adam. Adam is guilty of submitting to his wife. Eve is guilty for the first sin. The earth, birth, and the serpent are cursed. Sin and Death realize that Satan has succeeded, and they start building a bridge to Earth. Satan laughs it up with them, then sneaks into Hell before announcing his victory. All the rebel angels turn into serpents, and the torture increases. Adam realizes the consequences of his actions, and the justice of God's judgment. Adam and Eve reconcile and pray to God.
11. God sends Michael to banish the humans, but to tell them about the future. The humans observe that the beasts eat each other. Michael gives Adam the eviction notice, and Eve cries. Then Michael promises that God will remain on earth, and introduces him to Biblical history: Cain & Abel, sickness and death, the ascension of prophets, Noah, and the God's promise to never destroy the world again until the final fire.
12. Michael gives Adam a breather, then covers the Tower of Babel, Abraham and the Israelites, Moses, the Commandments, the Promised Land, David, Babylonian Captivity, Roman rule, and Jesus. Adam rejoices in the Son's triumph over Satan. Michael explains future persecutions, and Adam takes away the moral of obedience. Adam wakes Eve from Michael's pleasant dreams, and the humans leave the Garden.

• Other notes: Where to begin?

(NB: written with notes.)
Moe, Alison G., and Thomas H. Luxon. "Publication History of Paradise Lost." Milton Reading Room. Dartmouth, 1 Mar. 2008. Web. 4 Feb. 2013. <http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/intro/index.shtml>.

Philaster by Beaumont & Fletcher

PRIMARY SOURCE: Philaster (prod. 1609)
Context

• Publication: Printed in 1620 by Nicholas Okes for Thomas Walkley. Transferred to Hawkins in 1638, and then quickly to Mead & Meredith, then Leake. Printed in 7 quartos total. The 1620 title page exists in two states. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars read Philaster as the first tragicomical collaboration between Beaumont and Fletcher. Fletcher is believed to have turned the play into a tragicomedy, "not so called in respect of mirth and killing, but in respect it wants deaths, which is enough to make it no tragedy, yet brings some near it, which is enough to make it no comedy, which must be a representation of familiar people, with such kind of trouble as no life be questioned" (quoted in Strauss).
  Scholars also like to compare Philaster to Cymbeline, Arcadia, and Othello.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, illustrated title page, the court, formalism.

Content

• Form: Mixed prose with iambic pentameter. Five acts. 
• Genre: Tragicomedy.
• Conceit: The King of Calabria has deposed the King of Sicily, but the heir to the Sicilian throne, Philaster, remains at court. Brash Philaster is supported the people and the courtiers Lord Dion, Cleremont, and Trasilene. The King of Calabria has no male heir, but plans to marry his daughter Arethusa to Pharamond, a Spanish prince. Arethusa loves Philaster and hates Pharamond, who is conceited. Philaster sends his servant, Bellario, to serve Arethusa and to carry their romance.
  Pharamond "attempts the virtue of Galathea" (Strauss), and while she leads him on, she refuses the rude stuff. Arethusa exposes Pharamond's affair with a loose courtier, Megra. Pharamond spreads the rumor that Arethusa has an affair with Bellario. Philaster is fooled by Pharamond's rumor, so during a hunt, he stabs Arethusa. A passing country gentleman discovers them. He fights Philaster, and they wound each other. Other nobles from the court discover Arethusa. Arethusa and Philaster recover.
  Philaster is discovered and sentenced to death. The King puts Philaster under Arethusa's guardianship.  Arethusa marries Philaster, so the King orders both to be executed.
  The citizens rebel and capture Pharamond. Bellario reveals herself to be Eufrasia, Lord Dion's daughter in love with Philaster. Pharamond leaves for Spain. Philaster is now the King's heir, and is restored to the crown.
• Other notes: Okes used a highly unique woodcut on the cover, depicting the scene of Philaster in the forest, ready to duel the gentleman.
• Mneumonic: Si(cily) Ca(labria) Phar(amond) Are(thusa) Phi(laster) Bell(ario) Eu(fasia) Meg(ra)
  Since callous pharoahs are fickle, belles utilize megalomania.

(NB: written with notes.)
Strauss, Gerald H. "Philaster." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-4. Literary Reference Center. Web. 4 Feb. 2013.

The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser

PRIMARY SOURCE: The Faerie Queene (pub. 1590-6)
Context

• Publication: The Faerie Queene was written in Ireland, first, during the employ of Lord Grey of Wilson, then, in Kilcolman castle in Munster; partially published (three books) in 1590; rewarded with a pension from the Queen of fifty pounds per year; more fully published (six books with the Mutability Cantos) in 1596; ultimately published (seven books) in a 1609 edition (Greenblatt and Abrams 706). EEBO link 1, 2, and 3,
• Scholarship: Scholars read the poem for the complexity of its allegory, for the tension between its prophetic message and political production, for the formal inspiration taken from the Tasso and Ariosto, for the representation of Ireland and imperialism.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, book history, formalism, tapestries, and ekphrasis.

Content

• Form: 
• Spenserian stanza: eight lines iambic pentameter with an alexandrine, rhymed ababbcbcc. 
• Forty-eight stanzas per canto (432 lines per canto [12^2 x 3 = 4^2 x 3^3]), twelve cantos per book (5184 lines per book [72^2], 576 stanzas per book), and twelve announced books. 
• Genre: Epic. Moral allegory.
• Conceit: Six private virtues, six public virtues. Private virtues: Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice, Courtesy (mneumonic: Horses Try Chewing Fake Jello Carrots). Knights: Redcrosse, Guyon, Britomart, Campbell & Triamond, Artegall, and Calidore (mneumonic: Rudolf Gently Bathes Conneticut Army Captains).
• Other notes: 

Knight	Maid	Quest	Enemy	Squire / Ally
Redcrosse, of Holiness	Una (truth)	Free Una's parents from the dragon	Archimago & Duessa (idolatry & false faith)	Arthur (Britain is the ally of Holiness)
Guyon, of Temperance	Medina (moderation)	Destroy Acrasia's Bower of Bliss	Cymochles & Pyrochles (indecision & temper)	Palmer (trustworthy pilgrim)
Britomart, of Chastity	Artegall (like Arthur)	Return Amoretta to Scudamore	Malbecco, Busirane (jealousy, the captor of hearts)	Glauce (elderly woman)
Campbell & Triamond, of Friendship	Canacee & Cambina (healing & concord)	Aid the honor of Canacee & Cambina	Blandamour, Paridell, Duessa, & Ate (jealous friends, false faith & strife)	Each other
Artegall, of Justice	Eirene (peace)	Rescue Eirene from Grantorto	Grantorto (great wrong is the enemy of justice)	Talus (iron justice)
Calidore, of Courtesy	Pastorella (shepherdess courtier)	Slay the Blatant Beast	The Blatant Beast (slander)	Tristram (noble lineage)

(NB: Written with anthology notes.)
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2012. Print.