Mid-Term Update

All grades have been posted and your current average on PowerSchool represents your up-to-date average at the midpoint of the semester. The grades on the Mid-Term Exam reflect a bonus 3 points, added to account for the most frequently missed items on the test.

You should be reading Hamlet (Act Two for Tuesday; Act Three for the following Monday) and your independent selection.

Enjoy the long weekend!

FYI

I'm leaving the computer at 9:30.

Richard III

from Richard III (Act One, Scene One)

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barded steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

Richard II

from Richard II, Act 5, Scene 5

I have been studying how I may compare
This prison where I live unto the world:
And for because the world is populous
And here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it; yet I'll hammer it out.
My brain I'll prove the female to my soul,
My soul the father; and these two beget
A generation of still-breeding thoughts,
And these same thoughts people this little world,
In humours like the people of this world,
For no thought is contented. The better sort,
As thoughts of things divine, are intermix'd
With scruples and do set the word itself
Against the word:
As thus, 'Come, little ones,' and then again,
'It is as hard to come as for a camel
To thread the postern of a small needle's eye.'
Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders; how these vain weak nails
May tear a passage through the flinty ribs
Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls,
And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves
That they are not the first of fortune's slaves,
Nor shall not be the last; like silly beggars
Who sitting in the stocks refuge their shame,
That many have and others must sit there;
And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
Bearing their own misfortunes on the back
Of such as have before endured the like.
Thus play I in one person many people,
And none contented: sometimes am I king;
Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar,
And so I am: then crushing penury
Persuades me I was better when a king;
Then am I king'd again: and by and by
Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke,
And straight am nothing: but whate'er I be,
Nor I nor any man that but man is
With nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased
With being nothing.

Shakespeare for Days - Weeks - Months!

The next few weeks are fairly straightforward: we'll be reading Twelfth Night and then Hamlet (and taking a few quizzes and writing a few essays along the way). We'll also take a look at as many examples as I can find of Shakespeare questions (both multiple choice and essay) that have appeared on the AP Exam in the past. Finally, you should be thinking about which Shakespearean play you are planning to read independently.

"My Picture"

Please use this post to discuss the Abraham Cowley poem "My Picture."

Questions about this poem will be included on Wednesday's Renaissance Poetry Test, but we will not spend any class time discussing this particular poem.

The Four-Day Week

We'll finish up our sonnet presentations Tuesday (I hope). We need to hear the rest of both Austin's and Kyle's presentations and then we'll enjoy Rudi's presentation in its entirety. After that, we'll talk about the upcoming Sonnet Test and then have a little fun with some Shakespearean multiple choice!

The aforementioned Sonnet Test will take place on Wednesday. (Since there will also be poems other than sonnets on the test, I guess I should change the name of the even to "Renaissance Poetry Test.")

On Thursday, we'll move right into Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night. I will provide copies of the play, but some of you might want to purchase copies of your own if you want to highlight key lines and take notes in the script.