7/7/08

I learned last night that I really do have a greater productivity in doing this at the end of a day rather than at the beginning, partially because I've done a whole day of reading and thinking. Also: that was teh first place I wrote any thoughts about the Baron's War, so I guess I had a lot on my mind.

Before going to bed, I went ahead and read the first section of the Heroick Epistles: the letters between Henry II and Rosamond. I wasn't immensely impressed, but more was as stake here than in the discurscive passages of the BW. And it was interesting how the strings of commonplaces built up towards, if not all the way to, character--I didn't sense much flow to the arguments, really, in the way that I would with Ovid, but I also don't know these stories very well. I believe Rosamond gets killed by the wife shortly after.

Aha. Wikipedia'd it. Wikipedia reminded me that not only does Daniel write a Complaint for Rosamond, Delaney did an earlier Ballad for her. It makes me wonder if part of what Drayton is doing is recasting popular cultural materials into the Ovidian shape. I'll have to keep reading to see who he picks for the others.

I bet this is cribbing from the Mirror for Magistrates. I'm going to have to read that, unpleasant as it will be. It'll give me a better grip on the history, and I'll better be able to position pieces like this in relation to that monstrosity. I do find myself wanting better dates for Drayton's pieces. I mean, I know I'm reading 1619 versions, but I believe these are 1590's pieces, and the difference in dates is throwing me off. I feel like I'm trying to tell myself something with this--that I want to work in a very tightly delineated time period? That, for now, at least, I feel like period is a crucial question? But in what regard is it crucial here? I'm not particularly working on anything in reading this stuff--unlike the verse satire stuff, the ballads, the sonnets, or the bad poetry, this is really an attempt to read the work of a poet that I'm not very familiar with. A very slow attempt, it seems like. I'm going to need to preclude myself from Internet time wasting until I make some progress into this big thick book, I believe.

First, though--German test, article, Joel Stein, and some organization. Tonight I have more translation to do, too. I think I'm going to need to make my no-blogs, no-news rule for the next two weeks except on weekends. Deal? Deal.

Part of what's good about this is that it gets thoughts out of my head so I don't keep dwelling on them. (I wonder why I feel the need to keep talking about the process. It's an easy way of getting words, I suspect, and maybe I'm a little anxious about myself, too? I think it's a too-good-to-be-true feeling.)

As I keep reading, I want to be looking out for how commonplaces get twisted into character.