Blog posts related to topics from emails, students, and Google Alerts.
Dates/Times/Assignments February 16 February 2022, 6 o'clock p.m. ET: Part I, Chapters 1-3 Across the Narrow Sea. 1500.Paternity. 1527.At Austin Friars. 1527 March 2 March 2022, 6 o'clock p.m. ET: Part 2, Chapters 1-3 Visitation. 1529.An Occult History of Britain. 1521-1529Make or Mar. All Hallows 1529. 16 March 2022, 6 o'clock p.m. ET: Part 3,… Continue reading Wolf Hall 2022 Reading Schedule
When Adam delved and Eve span / Who was then the gentleman? (24): The first time we heard this ditty was at the end of Wolf Hall (in Part 6, 'Supremacy'). This is taken from a sermon by John Ball, a 14th century priest who predates the better-known John Wycliffe as a reforming influence in… Continue reading TM&tL: Part I, Chapter 2, ‘Salvage’
This post also includes notes to some of the front material, too.
Discussion of Part I, Chapter 1, of Bring Up the Bodies
All page numbers refer to the 2012 hardback edition of Bring Up the Bodies, published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Chapter I ‘Am I not a man like other men? Am I not? Am I not?’ (ix) Before we get to the novel, before we even get to the Dramatis Personæ or table of… Continue reading Mike’s Marginalia: Bring Up the Bodies, Part I, Chapter 1
Part 1 ("Across the Narrow Sea" | "Paternity" | "At Austin Friars") Playback | Notes Part 2 ("Visitation" | "An Occult History of Britain" | "Make or Mar") Playback | Notes Part 3 ("Three-Card Trick" | "Entirely Beloved Cromwell" | The Dead Complain of Their Burial") Playback | Notes Part 4 ("Arrange Your Face" | "Alas, What Shall I… Continue reading Wolf Hall: Notes and Recordings
A thesis that I carry to everything I read is this: all writing -- literally ::all:: writing -- has an agenda. Whether it's a novel, a historical account, a shopping list, or an essay. History is not fact, it's conjecture.
A friend sent me a recent(ish) article from the Times Literary Supplement titled, "In defence of Thomas More." My quick answer is: that guy doesn't need a defense. But I put a little more work into it, and that's what follows. It's long, by the way, for those who like a warning.
(I literally do not understand why anyone would want to be a monarch, by the way. Everyone wants you to die. Everything about your existence is rounded by prescription and proscription. Let me be a peasant who dies at 35 if I have to be time-traveled to the 16th century.)
"Supremacy" ...and Charles Brandon is in the fens shouting at a door: For one thing, this just makes me laugh. But as a reminder, the door Brandon is shouting at is Katherine's. She refuses to be moved from Buckden. "She will go nowhere, she says, unless he is prepared to break down the door and bind… Continue reading Mike’s Marginalia for Part VI
The Cromwell Trilogy 