The SuperV had his Inaugural last evening: Lunatics, Lovers, and Poets: Some Compact Imaginations. The reference is to A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act 5 Sc. 1): 'The lunatic, the lover, and the poet | Are of imagination all compact'. It was a fine analysis of medieval literary theory as it can illuminate Chaucer's poetics, in particular the House of Fame, which he describes as the most revolutionary piece of poetry in the English language.
It all made me want to go and work. That's encouraging. For me. The work is coming along, but it needs to come along a little faster. These last couple of weeks have been busy, hence the radio silence.
I'm writing a lecture for the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Trinity College Dublin (the alma mater), which I'm giving on Tuesday. The subject will be: 'Chaucer and Italy'. I'm looking forward to it. Very much.
3 comments:
oh so that's where you've been! ignore the e-mail, so. Good luck with the paper for the ingrates at Trinity...
..but why the hell wasn't it in the Exam schools? Standing room only and not much at that! I thought I was going to pass out in that overheated, stuffy, airless, windowless space...very unpleasant and such a shame because, it was, as you say, a great lecture. What were they thinking? And surely it was a bit disrespectful to both Tolkien and Gillespie to have it in lecture theatre bloody two?
The Statler and Waldorf joke was his best yet, though. : D
Mary
I know, Statler and Waldorf were the stars of the show really. Especially because they were both actually there!
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