1
20
8
-
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Description
An account of the resource
Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe.
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis
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formallectureseriesannapolis
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CD
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01:20:36
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Petrich, Louis
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To meet with Macbeth
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2012-04-20
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mp3
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Audio recording of a lecture delivered on April 20, 2012 by Louis Petrich as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
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St. John's College
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Annapolis, MD
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A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission: To make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. To make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. To make an audio recording of my lecture available on the St. John's College web site."
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sound
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Macbeth.
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English
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Bib # 79986
Friday night lecture
Tutors
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/a704208e72c40428abc052f69004b701.mp3
edce5fa96846e8e65c88525d493057a2
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Description
An account of the resource
Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe.
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis
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formallectureseriesannapolis
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wav
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01:03:15
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<em>The Student</em>, by Anton Chekhov: A Story About Us Told and Glanced At
Description
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Audio recording of a lecture delivered on November 3, 2017, by Louis Petrich as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
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Petrich, Louis
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St. John's College
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Annapolis, MD
Date
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2017-11-03
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A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audio recording of my lecture available online. Make typescript copies of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a copy of my typescript available online."
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sound
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mp3
Language
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English
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Petrich_Louis_2017-11-03
Friday night lecture
Tutors
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/e8c29e112f8c44903fbd4e653a29d8e6.pdf
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lec Petrich 2018-11-03.pdf
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Description
An account of the resource
Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe.
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis
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formallectureseriesannapolis
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paper
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24 pages
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"The Student," by Anton Chekhov: A Story Told and Glanced At
Description
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Typescript of a lecture delivered on November 3, 2017, by Louis Petrich as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Creator
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Petrich, Louis
Publisher
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St. John's College
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Annapolis, MD
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2017-11-03
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A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audio recording of my lecture available online. Make typescript copies of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make typescript copies of my lecture available online."
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text
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pdf
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Reprinted from the St. John's Review, 59.1-2 (2017-2018).
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English
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lec Petrich 2018-11-03
Friday night lecture
Tutors
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/4d000da1b5789b6a5c38950c830ee337.mp3
83f176a9d5b54ef7a9ffbc97791bb5c1
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Description
An account of the resource
Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe.
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis
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formallectureseriesannapolis
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wav
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01:04:04
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Title
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Falstaff Riseth Up
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture delivered by Louis Petrich on April 12, 2019 as part of the Formal Lecture Series. The beginning of the recording includes music. A PowerPoint presentation was given at the beginning of the lecture.
A description of the lecture by the presenter is as follows:
My lecture Friday, on Henry IV, Part 1,
gives voice, image, and preponderant meaning to Falstaff,
that colossal comic genius of Shakespeare’s bosom.
It should at least succeed to entertain the willing.
If the matter in the lecture carries conviction,
as I fear it does, then what can’t be helped--
I mean the abominable misleading of youth—
and why not of elders still assailable?--
may nonetheless be stomached (one always hopes)
as affirmation of life—
lived large—
followed by re-edification, in the question period.
I’ve put enough in to risk everyone’s good opinion at least once,
and left plenty for imagination to assist good will to gratify.
The audience must rise or fall to the matter
on whatever staffing they’ve been provided to carry them
from bed to board, from board to bed.
To deliver the lecture any differently would not become my title,
Falstaff Riseth Up,
which, by the way, comes authorized by Shakespeare.
(Henry IV, Part 1, V. iv. 110—for those who like to text.)
I think this will do—
to usher in the sweet morsels of a Friday night
and not leave them unpicked,--
but that’s for taste in leisure to decide
and put to proof--
of eye and ear,
with tongue and thigh . . .
Creator
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Petrich, Louis
Publisher
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St. John's College
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Date
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2019-04-12
Rights
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A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library and to make an audio recording of my lecture available online."
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sound
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mp3
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English
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Petrich_Louis_2019-04-12
Relation
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<a href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/6656" title="Typescript">Typescript</a>
Friday night lecture
Tutors
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/4c34cdabed4601b65fd058a61871762a.pdf
cfdd83e059ea4542f09723a43cf6dd5b
PDF Text
Text
Falstaff Riseth Up
Louis Petrich
We should probably prepare ourselves. In this lecture, I shall go as
far as I can to present Falstaff, body and soul, as the center of meaning and
liveliness in Henry IV, Part One. 1 No doubt some will think I go too far in
my enthusiasms, not respecting boundaries, moralities, legalities, and even
the words of God and His saints. The trimming of my excesses I expect-later. For now, with the blessing of the Dean, and your prankish attention,
the hour belongs to Falstaff.
“Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?” 2 With these words, an old
fat man invokes his first presence on stage, accompanied by his “lad,”
named Hal, who happens to be Prince of Wales, heir to the crown. Only to
this man, not even to his father, is he affectionately known, almost always,
as “Hal,” his “boy,” his “lad.” The power to name, given by God to Adam
for his recognition of the essences of creatures, is the power to summon
them into presence for play or rule. As expected from first words, this
question opens up the characters and plot. Hal immediately replies, “What a
devil hast thou to do with the time of the day?” 3 After all, his selfsummoning time is simply “now”—whether it’s napping at noon or
carousing to the chimes of midnight hardly matters--but never is it the now
of paying back a debt, or keeping a promise made to expiring nobility; never
the now of chivalric contests and courtesies defunct; and never the nows that
creep coldly into oblivion to make room for the next bloodsucking
1
This essay, written for delivery to the community of St. John’s College, April 12, 2019, with discussion
afterwards, retains the style of the lively spoken word as intrinsic to the meaning of the whole.
2
I. ii. 1
3
I. ii. 6
1
�generation of warm bodies. The old fat man does, notwithstanding, inquire
about the future: “Sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in England
when thou art king?” 4 But his purpose here is to know when “the now” will
operate in the kingdom as it does in him, as a time of freedom from
reckoning of debts, laws, punishments, and sins. He exits this scene of
unspecified time and location to return to the Boar’s Head Tavern of
Eastcheap, his garden of pleasures, to the cry of Hal’s, “Farewell, the latter
spring! Farewell, all-hallown summer!” 5 His long-lived presence to youth
does not prohibit, on occasion, a current of melancholy, born of the
solicitations of autumnal reason, with its farewell looks and pinches towards
other times and places.
But must life succumb to this pinching reason, and be panted out in
short, laborious breaths of acquisition, regret, and anticipation? Falstaff, for
of course that’s the name of Hal’s unending summer friend, “recreates”
himself with riches acquired without back-bending work or mental anguish. 6
Stealing, in other words, avoids the labors that man incurs outside the garden
under sentence of death. The fatness of this thief is utterly shameless:
because his globular shape betokens the promised land--pregnant with wet
and sweet--to spectators stealing time from their hard labors to fill
themselves up at the tavern and (Globe) theatre; just as Joseph, that
shameless dreamer, able--like this man--to brook all things, preserves the
suffering house of Abraham by storing up of grain in the fleshpots of Egypt,
the laws thereof at his commandment. Thus does Falstaff, upon introduction
4
I. ii. 61
I. ii. 161
6
I. ii. 158
5
2
�as the fat “re-creator,” intent on stealing for sake of youth,7 manifest his
entire meaning: deathless play in the garden of the tavern with his friend,
Hal, and others who make the night as good as the day in the yielding up of
pleasures, as intended for man by God before law multiplied sin and the
knowing world became corrupt and political.
Whoever’s not attracted to the character of Falstaff—youthfully old,
prophetically fat, and instinctively thieving—has no taste for paradise.
We may now draw out the implications of Falstaff’s question, “Now,
Hal, what time of day is it, lad?” What kind of lad or lass are you, whose
days and hours are numbered? Are you a named maker of self who feeds on
the times? Or are you made by the times, “food for powder.”8 Are you
open, free of promises and their guilty burdens? Or are you hidden, trying
painfully to keep promises made by some other? Are you a counter-down of
the disappointing days until your release? Or are you a riser up to ever more
of the days and nights’ delights? These are the questions of the play for us
tonight.
The name, Falstaff, derives from his double essence. He’s staffed
upright (on two legs), and he’s extended laterally by a big belly, signifying
that the usual separation of rising and reclining, labor and rest, day and
night, youth and age, fertility and barrenness, subdivided tediously into
hours, minutes, and seconds until nothing is left, apply not at all to his
person. That is why the scenes in which he appears always last longer than
7
8
“Young men must live,” shouts Falstaff while robbing the pilgrims at Gad’s Hill. II. ii. 90
IV. Ii. 66
3
�historical dramaturgy warrants. The tavern scene of Act II-- the second
longest in all of Shakespeare--gives us the feeling that were it not for doors
registering the knockings of sheriffs, merchants, and politicians seeking to
prosecute, trade, and enlist, the plays and pleasures of the tavern would not
have to stop. The fat of Falstaff orients him towards the horizon, where his
breadth of character contrasts favorably with the vertical orientation of leanminded, ambitious men who populate Shakespeare’s history plays. His
fatness they incessantly ridicule, which merely arouses his potency, like
caresses, and they know it. Words that issue from the top end of his bowels,
the mouth, come from deep grounding within the concocting kitchen of his
guts, and that is how the Promethean fire catches and spreads as the great
and awful comedy of human life, in opposition to the death-lovers.
Warriors, in the heat of battle, are also present in “the now.” Any
reckoning of interest outside the present focus opens a gap for death to enter
and steal away young life. This happens to Hotspur, at the instigation of
Falstaff, who turns our heads away from the climactic sword fight between
the two Harrys, by occupying--alive and dead--their field of glory. Falstaff
is the reason that Hal is able to rob Hotspur of his youth and honor, which
Hal shares with him after his rising from the dead and claiming the body as
his own prize. These four actions--Falstaff’s entrance to the fight, his falling
down “as if” dead, his rising up from the ground, and his bearing off the
body of dead Hotspur on his back—manifest the mysteries and meanings of
the play, as I intend now to show you.
Let’s hasten to the battle of the Harrys at Shrewsbury, where these
four actions occur. In the rhythm of the first four scenes of Act V, a
4
�proposition is under contest: The breath of life does not have to be drawn
short and thin. We feel the beats of that rhythm in the entrances and exits of
Hotspur and Falstaff, whose motions are the moving joints of a
demonstration of that proposition’s truth.
Scene one opens with 117 lines of last-minute negotiation between
King Henry IV and the rebels. I’m about to recite the king’s attempt to
conclude the scene with a general exit. That’s what royalty like to do, make
everyone come and go according to their naming and timing.
King.
Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge;
For, on their answer, will we set on them,
And God befriend us as our cause is just!
Exeunt. Remain Prince and Falstaff.
Not once in three plays does Bolingbroke (Henry IV) utter a moving
battle speech, though he’s always at war. Listen to Falstaff take over from
this king who lacks inspiration, on that cue of divine friendship, which he
brings down to earth, to “set [Hal] on” to the work of human friendship, with
no invocations of justice:
Falstaff.
Hal, if thou see me down in the battle and
bestride me, so! ‘Tis a point of friendship.
Prince.
Nothing but a colossus can do thee that friendship.
Say thy prayers, and farewell.
5
�Falstaff.
I would ‘twere bedtime, Hal, and all well.
Prince.
Why, thou owest God a death.
Falstaff.
‘Tis not due yet: I would be loath to pay him before his
[Exit.]
day. What need I be so forward with him that calls not on me?
Well, ‘tis no matter; honor pricks me on. Yea, but how if
honor prick me off when I come on? How then? Can honor
set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of
a wound? No. Honor hath no skill in surgery then? No.
What is honor? A word. What is in that word honor?
What is that honor? Air—a trim reckoning. Who hath it? He
that died a Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he
hear it? No. ‘Tis insensible then? Yea, to the dead. But will it
not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not
suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it. Honor is a mere
scutcheon— and so ends my catechism.
Exit.9
This speech is a rhetorical masterpiece. Note how Falstaff keeps
plucking from himself in audience the word “no,” a pricking word of
obliteration. The disgrace of the no’s I leave for others to overcome in the
yeas of their virtue. But let me affirm that the speech is true to the action of
history that we have been witnessing since Richard II threw his warder down
marking the end of chivalry. Even the Chief Justice, Falstaff’s enemy, will
9
V. i. 118-141
6
�do Falstaff honor because of the report that he fought Hotspur at
Shrewsbury. (And Falstaff’s honor is of necessity Hotspur’s dishonor.)
Remember also this: the sources of feeling in a speech of negation, if
unchecked, may lead to the nothingness of tragic despair (as in King Lear).
For what is left to human dignity when honor is naught, friendship declines
to serve, God goes unheard, and the new science of politics puts you in the
company of men like Worcester and Westmoreland: traitors, time-servers,
lackeys, all? There is one other thing left: the tavern and its answer “anon,
anon” to the call of desire, all the humors of time present to entertain and
edify. Falstaff’s devastating speech of negation, stolen from the arsenal of
tragedy, serves the purpose of comedy, to affirm the goodness of life even in
a base modern world, in which surgery saves rotten bodies and slander plus
gunpowder equate all persons.
Now in scene two, it’s Hotspur’s turn to make clear to the audience
what he will have none of: “mincing poetry.” 10 He stands by the courtesies
of chivalry, to which he commends his soldiers briefly, not possessing, as he
says, “the gift of tongue,/ Can lift your blood up with persuasion.” 11 At this
precise moment of verbal and visceral self-denial, a messenger enters to
deliver Hotspur a letter. He drives off the messenger and delivers his
warrior’s creed:
Hotspur.
I cannot read them now.
O gentlemen, the time of life is short!
To spend that shortness basely were too long
10
11
“‘Tis like the forced gait of a shuffling nag,” (III. i. 133-134).
V. ii. 77-78
7
�If life did ride upon a dial’s point,
Still ending at the arrival of an hour.
And if we live, we live to tread on kings;
If die, brave death, when princes die with us!
……………………
Now, Esperance! Percy! And set on.
Sound all the lofty instruments of war,
And by that music let us all embrace;
For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall
A second time do such a courtesy. 12
The author and content of the dismissed letter remain unknown, like what
might have been. We do know, however, that at this moment of extreme
peril, Hotspur is deceived by his uncle, Worcester, who belies the King’s
offer of peace, and by his own first principles, now under contest with
Falstaff: that life must be short, since basely led, and therefore best ended in
battle with kings. The unopened letter presents a last-minute challenge to
Hotspur’s code, but he has not learned leisure to give letters a sound hearing.
Most important is this dramaturgical fact: we’re more impressed by
Falstaff’s catechism to bury honor, because it’s a better and truer speech
than Hotspur’s. Honor is going to stay buried until Henry V makes use of
“the gift of tongue” to inspire his soldiers at Agincourt to seek a fellowship
12
V. ii. 79-86, 96-100
8
�in blood that will story time until “the ending of the world.” 13 He learned
the rhetorical tricks of raising up the blood to do miraculous things from
letters, and the fat man who makes letters dance from his tongue like light.
In scene three, the battle begins. Falstaff is summoned to military
presence twice by Hotspur’s words, as (dramaturgically) they continue to
contest the proposition concerning life. He first appears when the rebels are
winning; Douglas is killing the counterfeit kings one by one. He and
Hotspur exit in confidence to Hotspur’s words: “Up and away!/ Our soldiers
stand full fairly for the day.” 14 On this cue Falstaff enters to “stand full
fairly” in Hotspur’s vacated place and to point demonstratively, like
someone at the blackboard, to the dead Sir Walter Blunt: “There’s honor for
you! Here’s no vanity!” 15 If you find this disrespectful of the brave dead,
he is quick to point out that modern war uses lead, shot from pistols and
canons, saying: “I need no more weight than mine own bowels,” as if he
were a defender of heroic chivalry. 16 A desperate Prince objects to his
idleness, but not to his critique of modern killing:
Enter the Prince.
Prince.
What, stands thou idle here? Lend me thy sword. 17
13
Henry V, IV. iii. 58
V. iii. 28-29
15
V. iii. 33
16
V. iii. 35
17
V. iii. 39
14
9
�Three times the Prince demands Falstaff’s sword. He offers him his pistol in
its case, the sword being reserved, he claims, for Hotspur, on whose dead
body he will indeed use it. Hal accepts the case , but finds inside not a
pistol, but a bottle of sack, a joke, to those who get it, on what war has
become. But Hal becomes angry and shouts a version of the play’s opening
question:
Prince.
What, is it a time to jest and dally now?
He throws the bottle at him.
Exit.18
He does not stay for Falstaff’s answer:
Falstaff.
I like not such grinning honor as Sir Walter hath. Give
me life; which if I can save, so; if not, honor comes unlooked
[Exit.]19
for, and there’s an end.
Falstaff’s “so,” one of his tricks of speech--we heard it before (“Hal, if
thou see me down in the battle and bestride me, so!”20)--is like the action of
a postulate. Of course life is to be saved—that’s a begged and given power,
“so,” just as “there’s an end” is a given limit, if you don’t accept that life is
to be saved. “Grinning honor,” which sounds like “winning honor,” is the
iconic grin of death, out-jesting human dalliance with winning. Hal gets
angry (only this once in the two Henry IV plays) because he does not like
Falstaff dramatizing the best alternative to the powder and pistol time of
18
V. iii. 55
V. iii. 58-61
20
V. i. 121-122
19
10
�history: namely, drinking sack, for the free play of intellect in the tavern of
delights. You must bear in mind that Falstaff never drinks in order to get
wasted--that’s Sir Walter’s condition—but quite the opposite: to quicken and
prolong his performances.
Somewhere in scene four, the Prince finds his sword, which he uses to
save his father from Douglas. This fight, a prelude to his showdown with
Hotspur, comes first for reasons we need to understand.
King Henry IV has many counterfeits dressed like him on the
battlefield. The fierce Scotsman, Douglas, is expert in killing counterfeits.
When he finally “fall’st on” Henry IV, he doubts the presence of royal
character and articulates, by then, a familiar principle:
Douglas.
I fear thou art another counterfeit;
And yet, in faith, though bearest thee like a king.
But mine I am sure thou art, whoe’er thou be,
And thus I win thee.
They fight, the King being in danger, Enter Prince of Wales 21
We know that the exiled Bolingbroke came back to England to claim his
patrimony; but he wins the crown because Richard II, though never losing
the bearing of a king, does lose the power to keep himself his. That little
word, “win,” is Henry IV’s virtu on the eve of battle with the rebels under
21
V. iv. 32, 34-37
11
�foul-looking skies: “Nothing can seem foul,” he says, true to himself, “to
those that win.” 22 Thus in less than four lines given to Douglas,
Shakespeare retells the progress of recent history under Bolingbroke.
The king is struck down to the ground. This action cues the entrance
of the Prince, who arrests Douglas as he stands over the prostrate king, about
to strike him mortally.
Prince.
Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like
Never to hold it up again. The spirits
Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt are in my arms.
It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee,
Who never promiseth but he means to pay.
They fight: Douglas flieth.23
The Prince, by means of the spirits of the dead in him, turns Douglas’s head
away from his prize by promising a worthily named fight. He thus takes the
side of nobility to save his father and his ignoble principle that foulness
(ugliness) does not apply, so long as you win. The Prince “redeems” his
“lost opinion” right here, and his father pronounces that redemption right
away. 24 So the Prince’s fight with Hotspur, sixteen lines later, is not about
redeeming himself. That’s already been done. This is important to realize,
along with the curious stage direction that Douglas (who’s no coward)
22
V. i. 8
V. iv. 38-42
24
V. iv. 47
23
12
�flees. 25 The fact is that Shakespeare needs Douglas, the counterfeit killer, to
remain alive to fight Falstaff, the “lying counterfeit,” hence the real thing.
Now, let’s put these two points together: the fight between the Prince and
Hotspur proceeds on another plane, according to Falstaffian principles of
redemption, timeliness, and life-saving, not Henry IV principles or chivalric
principles--although the outcome of that fight does similarly depend on the
influence of the dead, the turn of the head, and authority over names. So
here’s how the fight starts.
The Prince, about to exit the stage, is arrested by a voice relished for
its exuberant, guileless urgency to cross danger for honor’s sake:
Hotspur.
If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.
Prince.
Thou speak’st as if I would deny my name.
Hotspur.
My name is Harry Percy.
Prince.
Why, then I see a very valiant rebel of the name.
I am the Prince of Wales, and think not, Percy,
To share with me in glory any more.
Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere,
Nor can one England brook a double reign
Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.
25
After all, he did not flee from Hotspur, though “discomfited” in three previous battles and taken prisoner
once (III. ii. 114).
13
�Hotspur.
Nor shall it, Harry, for the hour is come
To end the one of us; and would to God
Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!
Prince.
I’ll make it greater ere I part from thee,
And all the budding honors on thy crest
I’ll crop to make a garland for my head.
Hotspur.
I can no longer brook thy vanities.
They fight.26
As they fight over their names and the rule of England, something
extraordinary happens that breaks the expectations of heroic stage combat:
Enter Falstaff.
Falstaff.
Well said, Hal! To it, Hal! Nay, you shall find
No boy’s play here, I can tell you. 27
The fight that Shakespeare promotes through five acts, with mounting
anticipation, is interrupted by the voluble entrance of the old fat jester, who
keeps a bottle of sack in his case, makes money by impressing the classes
who buy out their services, and leads the impoverished as “food for
powder.”28 What is Shakespeare doing by admitting this very man to the
climactic scene of martial glory? Again we notice that Falstaff is summoned
26
V. iv. 58-73
V. iv. 74-75
28
IV. ii. 66
27
14
�from absence to presence by Hotspur, this time with the words, “brook thy
vanities,” and the blows that are supposed to put the end to vanity. “To
brook” is to put up with something that one would prefer not to, and that is
what we feel when Falstaff enters on that word. Do we have to put up with
laughter during blood and tears? Do we have to hear cheerful prosaic words
louder than the music of brave blows? Do we have to witness fat tripping
unbecomingly over soldiers’ graves? Must we, really, now, when all we
want is to see a good fight, put up with Falstaff? Yes, emphatically, now is
the time to jest and dally at the things demanding life’s payment, honor and
title.
Thus our eyes turn from the solemnity of mortal combat to the maker
of wit and fellowship. This turning of attention, which the Prince forced
upon Douglass to save his father, matters a lot. Notice that the Prince is
named “Hal” again; blows are made words again, as in the tavern (“Well
said, Hal! To it, Hal!” “I can tell you.”); and Hal’s mortal danger (”no boy’s
play here”) is reduced to commentary by an expert showman. The worst
thing you can do to a man like Hotspur, wholly devoted to the beauty of
honor, is to turn the heads of onlookers (that’s us) towards the opposite--the
fat man to whom honor is nothing. Falstaff’s entrance thus begins to fulfill
the Prince’s promise to “crop” Hotspur’s honors and wear them in costume.
Theatrically speaking, Falstaff “steals the scene” from the warriors.
He does this, not simply because he’s that kind of pig, but with full authorial
warrant, beloved of the creator. In a moment, Hotspur will affirm the theft
of his scene, when he feels the sword enter and leave his body: “Thou hast
15
�robbed me of my youth!” he accuses the Prince. 29 But the robbing could not
have happened without Falstaff the head-turner, who makes robbing his
“vocation” and sport for Princes. 30
But I’m getting ahead of things. So, patiently, look at what next
happens to our attention:
Enter Douglas. He fighteth with Falstaff, [who] falls down as if we
were dead. [Exit Douglas.] The Prince killeth Percy.
The great question of the play now arrives: Is Falstaff dead, or faking death
when we see him fall down? He convinces the experienced Douglas and the
Prince that he’s quite dead—“breathless and bleeding.” 31 We lookers-on
simply do not know, unless the actor makes obvious that he’s faking, but
that I think is wrong. Additional questions now steal our attention from the
fight that continues. Shall we feel bad that the fat man is cut off, or hope
that he’ll come back? Could we be witnessing a third outcome to the Lord
and Bondsman encounter not imagined by Hegel?--that is, neither master nor
slave, could Falstaff be a free player outside the determinations of logic and
history? Does Falstaff’s fight with Douglas represent how every human
encounter puzzles us with this question: how much of my own body and soul
must I raise up or let fall to play with this person for a while at politics, war,
or love? Is this or that person who faces me alive or dead?--and to what
extent? These questions open up a gap in the prescribed flow of historical
29
V. iv. 76
I. ii. 107
31
V. iv. 133
30
16
�events. There is room in that gap for surprises. Our attention, stolen again
from the combatants, goes toward the belly that now lies in profile on stage,
a rotund symbol of “all the world.” Falstaff is down, looking dead, his belly
still rises, as the fight goes on. Let us get some help at this point from the
tavern scene (mentioned earlier) to determine that belly’s powers as
guardian.
Recall that Falstaff has run away from the disguised Prince and Poins
at Gadshill. They try to trap him with reason, which keeps track of what’s
fantastic and contradictory in his storytelling. When they think they’ve got
him to confess that he ran from cowardice, he escapes the trap of reason by
uttering this meta-theatrical profundity: “By the Lord, I knew ye as well as
he that made ye.” 32 Hal’s maker (after God and Bolingbroke) is
Shakespeare, via the chronicles. Falstaff is almost entirely Shakespeare’s
invention, and as such, offers freedom from the compulsory history of the
chronicles. His name is elaborated more times than any other name in
Shakespeare by people who think they know him and how to peg him. But
the questions of who he is and what will become of him are the ones most
freely alive in the English history plays, and they put us in close touch with
the maker, and with our own cause of freedom.
Listen now to some of the attempted naming of Falstaff, with Hal
impersonating his biological father, Henry IV, and Falstaff playing Hal:
32
II. iv. 267
17
�Prince [as Henry IV].
There is a devil haunts thee in the likeness
of an old fat man….Why dost thou converse with that trunk of
humors, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swoll’n parcel of
dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloakbag of
guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly,
that reverend vice, that gray iniquity, that father ruffian, that
vanity in years? Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink
it? Wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon and eat it?
Wherein cunning, but in craft? Wherein crafty, but in villainy?
Wherein villainous, but in all things? Wherein worthy, but in
nothing?
Falstaff [as Hal]. I would your Grace would take me with you.
Whom means your Grace?
Prince.
That villainous abominable misleader of youth, Falstaff,
that old white-bearded Satan.
Falstaff.
My lord, the man I know.
Prince.
I know thou dost.
Falstaff.
But to say I know more harm in him than in myself were
to say more than I know. That he is old, the more the pity, his
white hairs do witness it….If sack and sugar be a fault, God
help the wicked! If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an
old host that I know is damned. If to be fat be to be hated, then
18
�Pharaoh’s lean kine are to be loved. No, my good lord: banish
Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins; but for sweet Jack
Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack
Falstaff, and therefore more valiant being, as he is, old Jack
Falstaff, banish not him thy Harry’s company, banish not him
thy Harry’s company, banish plump Jack, and banish all the
world!
Prince.
I do. I will. [A knocking heard.] 33
Falstaff urges his own company in the voice of youth, ruled by
bigness of heart and capacity of enjoyment, knowing no harm in its urgings.
Good for “nothing,” says the Prince; all the world, sweet and wet, says
Falstaff. The Prince’s double banishment in double time and character (“I
do. I will.”) provokes silent wonder at the cold commitment of politic man.
And then the politic world comes knocking: the sheriff and his watch are
looking for a “gross fat man.” 34
Is now the time for Hal to turn the fat man over to law? “Dost thou
hear, Hal?”--Falstaff asks him to reckon the time that knocks. 35 In the
privileged intimacy of friendship, he continues: “Never call a true piece of
gold a counterfeit. Thou art essentially made without seeming so.” 36 Their
shared essence, as players who know their own makings-up, persuades the
Prince to send the sheriff away with a “good morrow” to the latter’s “good
33
II. iv. 446-481
II. iv. 512
35
II. iv. 491
36
II. iv. 491-492
34
19
�night” (it is 2 o’clock). 37 The time in the tavern is all one, as all come
knocking, morning and night, wanting what’s in Falstaff’s belly of theirs.
That belly, presiding over the battle of the Harrys, has much of Hal invested
in it to be saved from arrest by whatever comes knocking. Death knocks for
Hal at Shrewsbury. How does the belly that he saved, save him?
Hal is down and out of breath, just as his father was before Douglas.
But the head-turning comic presence of Falstaff operates as usual to turn
things to their opposites: cowardice to meta-knowledge, reason to invention,
traps to freedom, son saving real father to adopted father saving son, by this
means (foreshadowed in a name-calling contest in the tavern): “this huge hill
of flesh” turns into the “vile standing tuck” (an upright rapier) that will
pierce Hotspur into “food for worms.” 38 How? Like this : Hotspur,
impetuous, never pausing for letters, untaught in comedy (where desire
stands up though the man be down)—this very Hotspur rushes the fallen
Prince, who raises his rapier from the ground, exampled by the nearby “hill
of flesh,” 39 and on the instant of death’s knocking impales Hotspur on his
own momentum; he falls, and the rapier is withdrawn as we hear surprised
accusation in Hotspur’s first words of unbecoming: “O Harry, thou hast
robbed me of my youth!” 40 That is how the “madcap” lad of sweets defeats
the “mark and glass” knight of honor in a fashion that actually makes sense
by taking account of the decisive comic presence of Falstaff.41
37
II. iv. 524-525
II. iv. 243, 247; V. iv. 85
39
As the embattled Israelites were advantaged by the upheld staff of Moses on a hill. Exodus, 17:9
40
V. iv. 76
41
I. ii. 146, IV. i. 94; Part Two, II. iii. 31
38
20
�Hotspur gasps for breath: “O, I could prophesy,/ But that the earthy
and cold hand of death/ Lies on my tongue.” 42 I think Hotspur intends to
say that the line of Bolingbroke will not continue long to occupy the throne
of England. And he would be right.
Hotspur’s image of the “hand” of death lying on the “tongue,”
stopping access to a cut-off future, reminds me of a disturbing image that
opens the play. The Welshwomen, serving as the “rude hands” of Owen
Glendower, performed a “beastly shameless transformation” upon the
thousand “butchered” soldiers of Mortimer, “as may not be/ Without much
shame retold or spoken of.” 43 It is clear from Shakespeare’s source and the
tone and reactions to this speech that the dead soldiers were castrated and
their genitals put inside their mouths, on their silent tongues, by the women.
Think about that.
What does it mean? The tongue cannot, by speaking, provide for its
own continuity in life; words alone are not potent of life. The tongue must
not be cut off from the body’s business of generating life, nor should the
lower body be cut off from the tongue’s business of transforming low to
high. Henry IV acts as if a man could issue seed from his mouth, for he
thinks that he can become the legitimate king and father of kings in an act of
speech, without the help of blood. He is wrong. Henry V will think that the
French and English, two different tongues, can be united as one through an
act of blood, with no common speech. He is wrong. Henry VI, last of the
line to reign, lacks powers both of speech and blood, and so he loses France
42
43
V. iv. 82-84
I. i. 45-46
21
�and the throne of England. By contrast, as we’re about to witness, Falstaff,
after being cut off, “riseth up,” in blood and speech, the “true and perfect
image of life indeed.” 44 He stabs Hotspur in the thigh, gives rise to him on
his back, impregnated with Hotspur’s honor in reports to come. This proves
that honor, unlike life, is generated by the tongue of the “double man,” who
mouths his own rising to posterity. 45 The oral genital imagery that opens the
play, thus closes it as well. In between, while we are on the subject,
remember how Kate, Hotspur’s adoring and spirited wife (would you prefer
honor to a woman like that?), grabs his little finger and tries to break it off to
make him return to her bed and share his manly business with her. He
responds by calling for his horse:
Hotspur.
And when I am a-horseback, I will swear
I love thee infinitely. 46
After the battle, we see Hotspur a-horseback the fat lover of life, who’s
sworn infinitely, in every lie he utters, to give unbroken ride to body that
steals him a hold on life’s pleasures.
Hotspur articulates his passing as a stoppage of time in its survey of
“all the world,” so little of which he got to see.47 Ironically, he uses
Falstaff’s words “banish plump Jack, and banish all the world!”). So as we
hear Hotspur speak these dying words, we turn our heads again to the great
belly of desire, still seeming dead on stage, but from its prominence we feel
44
V. iv. 118
V. iv. 137
46
II. iii. 100-102
47
V. iv. 81
45
22
�less sad over Hotspur, as the Prince covers his “mangled face.” 48 Dying
courtesy mingles thus strangely with the stronger will to comedy. Falstaff
listens, as always, for his cue to return to presence:
The Prince spieth Falstaff on the ground.
Prince.
What, old acquaintance? Could not all this flesh
Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!
I could have better spared a better man.
O, I should have a heavy miss of thee
If I were much in love with vanity.
Death hath not struck so fat a deer today,
Though many dearer, in this bloody fray.
Emboweled will I see thee by-and-by;
Till then in blood by noble Percy lie.
Exit.
Falstaff riseth up.
Falstaff.
Emboweled? If thou embowel me today, I’ll give you
leave to powder me and eat me too tomorrow. ‘Sblood, ‘twas
time to counterfeit….Counterfeit? I lie ; I am no counterfeit.
To die is to be a counterfeit, for he is but the counterfeit of a
man who hath not the life of a man; but to counterfeit dying
when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true
and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valor is
48
V. iv. 95
23
�discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life. 49
Notice how hard it is for the Prince to keep his love for the old fat
man down. Hal has the cold-heartedness to cut people off once their use has
run out. But his love of the “fat deer” goes deeper than he knows, and we
hear it struggle here with the political. Why disembowel Falstaff? To
preserve him flattened in burial is to level the hills and mountains of human
nature, in other words, to suppress the rebelliousness of comedy, of
disrupting desire, for the sake of a smooth-running unified politics of
Christian empire. The Prince will “brook” no “double reign” in England, as
we heard him say to Hotspur, nor on the continent, as he will say later: “No
king of England, if not King of France.” 50 So Hal’s victory at Shrewsbury
and his plans to disembowel Falstaff, herald his dream as Henry V, to restore
imperial Rome under a new English Caesar. (It cannot be a mere
coincidence that Shakespeare’s next play after Henry V is Julius Caesar.)
Falstaff’s rising maintains the hills and mountains that make life a wondrous
surprise of opposites, a disunity of differences that keep it rich and strange.
Sack instills the wit to know and express these riches with spontaneous
acuity. Falstaff’s rising is thus a triumph over the “cold and settled,” “dull
and cruddy” sameness of death and empire; 51 it is a triumph over making
fine ladies the same as irascible men (Kate, bless her, refuses to learn
Hotspur’s swearing lessons); it is a triumph over the spirited ambition that
fits, shrunk by death, into a vile hole of earth. The honor-loving Hotspur,
about to descend that hole, professes to “better brook the loss of brittle life/
49
V. iv. 101-119
Henry V, II. ii. 193
51
Part Two, IV. iii. 101, 107
50
24
�Than those proud titles” lost in conquest.52 Again this word “brook” directs
our attention to Falstaff, who was summoned by that word, and whose life,
opposite brittle, brooks anything—including death, which he plays to
perfection.
The stage direction, Falstaff Riseth Up, perhaps the greatest in
dramatic literature, is a paradox and pun with Biblical, sexual, and historical
resonances. Its performance touches the still tingling splinters left in the
soul from original creation out of the ground and into the garden. There is
something counterfeit in a soul that does not feel risen with Falstaff to mate
the savory stuff of earth with the articulate spirit of air. Thus of him may it
truly be said: “he dost raise up himself whom he himself hath filled, and
death he swallows up in the victory.” 53
We read eight of Shakespeare’s plays in sophomore seminar. Do we
raise ourselves up to read them fluidly and merrily, or declining the body,
dryly and soberly? Old photos of our dear college show that seminars used
to be lubricated and smoky, like the tavern. Much has changed, as we
become more politic, less seminal, but one Falstaffian practice has endured.
Falstaff, like us, speaks prose all the time, even in the presence of his versespeaking superiors, whom he questions. There is no other major character in
Shakespeare who does this so conspicuously, to his credit and ours. He does
not respect the measured endings of lines, the debt-paying schedule of verse.
Do not mistake what you read on the printed page. The arbitrary line breaks
you see there are the falsifications of the bookish medium. Falstaff’s lines,
52
53
V. iv. 77-78
Cf. Augustine, Confessions, Book X, xxviii, xxx
25
�like his girth, intend “out of all compass,” off the page.54 The margins on
the page, like knockers at the door, are stoppages of speech to be sent away.
The word that is mediated by the print medium imprisons the tongue that
consents to its silent setting down on the page. Falstaff makes the chains on
the tongue drop. Henry V banishes Falstaff by mediating him at a ten mile
distance, to be covered by messengers who report on his amendment in the
respecting of margins. The Chief Justice in Part Two--the letter of the law,
external to human feeling, the same monotonous text over and over again--is
precisely the one to supervise Falstaff’s banishment. 55 Thus the fountain of
living speech turns into reported text, safely distant from the source. This is
the meaning for us of Falstaff’s banishment: breathless, bloodless, flattened,
papered words, whose pockets are picked by sneaky textual accountants
scorning the expenses and risks of full-bodied fluidity.
Now you can understand why Falstaff’s death in Henry V is mediated
by report of how he becomes “cold as any stone.” 56 Shakespeare does not
dare to let Falstaff appear and speak in person at his death, for then he would
steal the scene again and never consent to die. Richard II is like that, for he
refuses to be turned into text when he declines to read over his sins and
subscribe to them in public. The Prince knows this danger of the intact man,
and thus intends to disembowel him, which means to reduce him to skinny,
hunger-less script. Falstaff’s rising is the reincarnation of speech as
situational, agonistic, and powerful to raise the blood and make life perform
true to its embodied self.
54
III. iii. 22
It is my hunch that he fathers the invasion of France by teaching Henry to abide by the analysis of
ancient genealogical and geographical texts in the keeping of churchmen favorably disposed to kings.
56
Henry V, II. iii. 25
55
26
�Here’s how he teaches us to read plays seminally, for purposes of life,
not banishment. First, you must fall down as if dead, which means shut
down on the surface and go silently inward to the sources of verbal and
gestural creation. Throw everything historical and mediated into doubt and
rediscover the first principle of believable performance: “I am no
counterfeit, but the self-knowing thing itself—life--embodied here, now.”
The activities of reading and writing require this temporary absence from the
world, in imitation of death, in order to overhear its violent sounds and
agonized confessions, unsure of the side of victory, but longing for it,
sometimes even crying out for the maker to warm the feet back to the
standing of life. To fall into likeness of death is merely to imitate the author:
alert in ear, outwardly naught, “smiling upon his finger’s end,” touching the
world, like God, point by point, making “green fields” appear on stage for
bodies to act in love thereon with life.57 Although the politic world imposes
tribulations of counterfeiting on every human soul, Falstaff, in good cheer,
teaches how to overcome that world. 58
The poetic truth in the historical lie that Falstaff kills Hotspur, I hope
now to have persuaded you to take seriously. To the wounding and the
carrying off of the body, a brief closing look is in order. The resurrection
speech continues:
Falstaff.
Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he
be dead. How if he should counterfeit too, and rise? By
57
58
Henry V, II. iii. 9-24
Cf. John, 16:33
27
�my faith, I am afraid he would prove the better counterfeit.
Therefore I’ll make him sure; yea, and I’ll swear I killed
him. . . . Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me.
Therefore, sirrah [stabs him], with a new wound in your thigh,
come you along with me.
He takes up Hotspur on his back. 59
We witness here how myths and religions get going. Imagine for a
moment that after Achilles kills Hector, he leaves the body for Thersites to
desecrate, haul away on his back, and misreport as his own conquest. That
is the kind of action Shakespeare gives us here. It’s offensive to witness this
treatment if we still carry shining Homeric heroes in our heads. Apropos of
that, after the Henriad, Shakespeare wrote the modern (that is to say, the
true) version of the Trojan War. In it, Achilles is fat and out of breath, for
that is what happens when you stop exercising and keep eating, and
Thersites is the wit who persuades Achilles, with much malicious delight,
that to fight for a cuckold like Menelaus, or the adulterer, Paris, is no honor.
But to my point: “gunpowder Percy” properly belongs to Falstaff, on his
back. The horses of chivalry are no more; the embracing of knights has
yielded to the arguments of “vile politicians,” as Hotspur himself says.60
And besides, honor always rides the backs of the living, who lay the world
full of rising lies to give standing and estimation to dust.
What good news does Falstaff rise up from the dust to announce? I shall
speak for him one last time, and there an end. Be confident to play the
59
60
V. iv. 120-128
I. iii. 239
28
�coward to save a life too goodly rare to spare. There are plenty of lives less
good in their own estimation, counterfeit kings and queens, ready to make
brave sacrifice for those who know themselves to be the real things. Let
them do what makes them grin. Take the offer of sweet and wet; outstretch
the margins in merriment. Let the reputation of corruption and villainy serve
as a breeze to better your countenance and quicken your wit to weigh the
value of things. Listen for the cue to raise the belly to its standing mouth,
there to perform the miracle of transforming guts into speech. Hoist on your
back--or front-- the beauties of a lost world and use them shamelessly to
make modern life less ugly. If you’ve got it, flaunt it baby, flaunt it! Anon,
anon come the props to serve all turns. The stage is set. The time to make
answer—whom to love, whom to banish--is now. The matter worth
listening to is not derived from the compulsions of reason that would pin you
to the wall. Stand there amazed at the fatness of this unreasonable matter.
Staff yourself on legs warmed foot to thigh by touch, with eyes burning like
fire to do it again, after falling to bed or earth, rising up to flames of
laughter. Halt not for halters. You will find that all this that I’ve been
saying (and he could on all night), it takes some discretion. Paradise—is
true, and don’t I know it, but it’s not for everyone—
no, it’s not for everyone—
as it is for him—elevated and big as the horizon—
drinking it all up—life—
oh, bother the mending—
his face turns, but not to crack.
Thank you.
29
�Falstaff.
Gallants, lads, lasses, hearts of gold, all the titles of
good fellowship come to you! What, shall we be merry?
Shall we have a lecture intemperate?
Prince.
Content—and the argument shall be your rising up!
cf. Henry IV, Part 1, II. iv. 277-280
��Falstaff.
Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?
I. ii. 1
�Falstaff.
Prince.
Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?
What a devil hast thou to do with
the time of the day?
I. ii. 1, 6
�We have heard the chimes of midnight.
--Falstaff
��Falstaff.
Sweet wag, shall there be gallows
standing in England when thou art king?
I. ii. 61
�Prince.
Farewell, the latter spring!
Farewell, all-hallown summer!
I. ii. 161
��While robbing the pilgrims at Gad’s Hill:
Falstaff.
Young men must live.
II. ii. 90
�����������The Four Determinative Actions of Falstaff:
•Entrance to the fight of the Harry’s
•Falling down dead
•Rising up
•Bearing Hotspur on his back
�A Proposition:
The breath of life does not have to be drawn short
and thin.
�King.
Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge;
For, on their answer, will we set on them,
And God befriend us as our cause is just!
Exeunt. Remain Prince and Falstaff.
Falstaff.
Hal, if thou see me down in the battle and
bestride me, so! ‘Tis a point of friendship.
Prince.
Nothing but a colossus can do thee that friendship.
Say thy prayers, and farewell.
V. i. 118-124
�Falstaff.
I would ‘twere bedtime, Hal, and all well.
Prince.
Why, thou owest God a death.
[Exit.]
Falstaff.
‘Tis not due yet: I would be loath to pay him
before his day. What need I be so forward with him that
calls not on me? Well, ‘tis no matter; honor pricks me on.
Yea, but how if honor prick me off when I come on? How
then? Can honor set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or
take away the grief of a wound? No. Honor hath no skill
in surgery then? No.
V. i. 125-134
�Falstaff.
What is honor? A word. What is in that word honor?
What is that honor? Air—a trim reckoning. Who hath it? He
that died a Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he
hear it? No. ‘Tis insensible then? Yea, to the dead. But will it
not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not
suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it. Honor is a mere scutcheon—
and so ends my catechism.
Exit.
V. i. 135-141
��Hotspur. (on poetry)
‘Tis like the forced gait of a shuffling nag.
III. i. 133
(on speech-making)
. . . I that have not the gift of tongue,
Can lift your blood up with persuasion.
V. ii. 77-78
�•
Hotspur.
I cannot read them now.
O gentlemen, the time of life is short!
To spend that shortness basely were too long
If life did ride upon a dial’s point,
Still ending at the arrival of an hour.
And if we live, we live to tread on kings;
If die, brave death, when princes die with us!
……………………
Now, Esperance! Percy! And set on.
Sound all the lofty instruments of war,
And by that music let us all embrace;
For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall
A second time do such a courtesy.
V. ii. 79-86, 96-100
��Hotspur.
Up and away!
Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day.
[Exeunt.]
V. iii. 28-29
Falstaff.
Soft. Who are you? Sir Walter Blunt.
There’s honor for you! Here’s no vanity! . .
God keep lead out of me. I need no more
weight than mine own bowels. . . .
V. iii. 32-35
�Prince.
Prince.
What, stands thou idle here? Lend me thy sword.
V. iii. 39
What, is it a time to jest and dally now?
He throws the bottle at him. Exit
V. iii. 55
Falstaff.
I like not such grinning honor as Sir Walter hath.
Give me life; which if I can save, so; if not honor comes
unlooked for, and there’s an end.
[Exit]
V. iii. 58-61
����Douglas.
I fear thou art another counterfeit;
And yet, in faith, though bearest thee like a king.
But mine I am sure thou art, whoe’er thou be,
And thus I win thee.
They fight, the King being in danger, Enter Prince of Wales
V. iv. 34-37
�interpreting the foul-looking skies before battle:
King.
Nothing can seem foul to those that win.
V. i. 8
�Prince.
Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like
Never to hold it up again. The spirits
Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt are in my arms.
It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee,
Who never promiseth but he means to pay.
They fight: Douglas flieth.
V. iv. 38-42
��Hotspur.
If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.
Prince.
Thou speak’st as if I would deny my name.
Hotspur.
My name is Harry Percy.
Prince.
Why, then I see a very valiant rebel of the name.
I am the Prince of Wales, and think not, Percy,
To share with me in glory any more.
Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere,
Nor can one England brook a double reign
Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.
Hotspur.
Nor shall it, Harry, for the hour is come
To end the one of us; and would to God
Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!
V. iv. 58-70
�Prince.
I’ll make it greater ere I part from thee,
And all the budding honors on thy crest
I’ll crop to make a garland for my head.
Hotspur.
I can no longer brook thy vanities. They fight.
V. iv. 70-73
�Enter Falstaff.
Falstaff.
Well said, Hal! To it, Hal! Nay, you
shall find no boy’s play here, I can tell you.
V. iv. 74-75
�Hotspur.
O Harry, thou hast robbed me of my youth!
V. iv. 76
�Enter Douglas. He fighteth with Falstaff, [who] falls down
as if we were dead. [Exit Douglas.] The Prince killeth Percy.
���Falstaff.
By the Lord, I knew ye as well as he that made ye.
II. iv. 267
�Prince [as Henry IV].
There is a devil haunts thee in the likeness of an old
fat man….Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humors,
that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swoll’n parcel of
dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloakbag of
guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his
belly, that reverend vice, that gray iniquity, that father ruffian,
that vanity in years? Wherein is he good, but to taste sack
and drink it? Wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon
and eat it? Wherein cunning, but in craft? Wherein crafty, but
in villainy? Wherein villainous, but in all things? Wherein
worthy, but in nothing?
II. Iv. 446-459
�Falstaff [as Hal].
I would your Grace would take me with you. Whom
means your Grace?
Prince [as Henry IV].
That villainous abominable misleader of youth, Falstaff,
that old white-bearded Satan.
II. Iv. 460-463
�Falstaff [as Hal].
Prince [as Henry IV].
My lord, the man I know.
I know thou dost.
Falstaff.
But to say I know more harm in him than in myself were to say
more than I know. That he is old, the more the pity, his white hairs do witness it….If
sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked! If to be old and merry be a sin, then
many an old host that I know is damned. If to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh’s
lean kine are to be loved.
II. Iv. 464-474
�Falstaff [as Hal].
No, my good lord: banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins;
but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant
Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff,
banish not him thy Harry’s company, banish not him thy Harry’s
company, banish plump Jack, and banish all the world!
Prince .
I do. I will.
[A knocking heard.]
II. iv. 474-481
�Falstaff.
Dost thou hear, Hal? Never call a true
piece of gold a counterfeit. Thou art essentially made
without seeming so.
II. iv. 491-492
�Prince.
. . . This bed-presser, this horsebackbreaker, this huge hill of flesh—
Falstaff.
. . . You starveling . . . You bull’s
pizzle . . . you vile standing tuck!
II. iv. 241-245
(pizzle = penis)
(standing tuck = upright rapier)
�Hotspur.
O Harry, thou hast robbed me of my youth!
V. iv. 76
�Hotspur.
O, I could prophesy,
But that the earthy and cold hand of death
Lies on my tongue.
V. iv. 82-84
�Westmoreland.
A thousand of his people butchered;
Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse,
Such beastly shameless transformation
By those Welshwomen done, as may not be
Without much shame retold or spoken of.
I. i. 42-46
����Hotspur (to his wife, Kate).
And when I am a-horseback, I will swear
I love thee infinitely.
II. iii. 100-101
����The Prince spieth Falstaff on the ground.
Prince.
What, old acquaintance? Could not all this flesh
Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!
I could have better spared a better man.
O, I should have a heavy miss of thee
If I were much in love with vanity.
Death hath not struck so fat a deer today,
Though many dearer, in this bloody fray.
Emboweled will I see thee by-and-by;
Till then in blood by noble Percy lie.
Exit.
V. iv. 101-109
�Falstaff riseth up.
Falstaff.
Emboweled? If thou embowel me today, I’ll
give you leave to powder me and eat me too
tomorrow. ‘Sblood, ‘twas time to counterfeit….
Counterfeit? I lie; I am no counterfeit. To
die is to be a counterfeit, for he is but the counterfeit
of a man who hath not the life of a man; but to
counterfeit dying when a man thereby liveth, is to be
no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life
indeed. The better part of valor is discretion, in the
which better part I have saved my life.
V. iv. 110-119
�Hotspur.
I better brook the loss of brittle life
Than those proud titles thou hast won of me.
V. iv. 77-78
�Prince.
Emboweled will I see thee by-and-by;
‘Till then in blood by noble Percy lie.
Exit.
Falstaff riseth up.
Falstaff.
Emboweled?
V. iv. 108-110
�He dost raise up himself whom he himself hath
filled, and death he swallows up in the victory.
--Augustine, Confessions, X. xxviii. xxx
��If I tell you a lie, spit in my face, call me horse.
�The first humane principle of orals: forswear thin potations
and addict yourselves to sack.
�What is honor?
��������In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of
good cheer; I have overcome the world.
--John, 16:33
�Falstaff.
Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy,
though he be dead. How if he should counterfeit too,
and rise? By my faith, I am afraid he would prove the
better counterfeit. Therefore I’ll make him sure; yea,
and I’ll swear I killed him. . . . Nothing confutes me
but eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore, sirrah
[stabs him], with a new wound in your thigh, come
you along with me.
He takes up Hotspur on his back.
V. iv. 120-128
�����������������Do thou amend thy face, and I’ll amend my life.
�
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Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe.
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St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis
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formallectureseriesannapolis
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126 pages
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Falstaff Riseth Up
Description
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Typescript of a lecture delivered by Louis Petrich on April 12, 2019 as part of the Formal Lecture Series. A PowerPoint presentation was given at the beginning of the lecture and is included at the end of the typescript.
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Petrich, Louis
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St. John's College
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Annapolis, MD
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2019-04-12
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text
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pdf
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<a href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/6571" title="Audio recording">Audio Recording</a>
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English
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Petrich_Louis_2019-04-12_Typescript
Friday night lecture
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https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/c3f54aaf96a8b474b0dbc5107c5f0841.pdf
282945520a69dbe9701b5ca5807f088f
PDF Text
Text
����������������������������������������������������������
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Description
An account of the resource
Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe.
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St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis
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formallectureseriesannapolis
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paper
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58 pages
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The Questions of Lear and Cordelia
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Typescript of a lecture delivered on September 7, 2007, by Louis Petrich as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
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Petrich, Louis
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St. John's College
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Annapolis, MD
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2007-09-07
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text
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pdf
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. King Lear
Cordelia (Legendary character)
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English
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Petrich_Louis_2007-09-07
Friday night lecture
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https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/bd6487e82acfe8726db960deda07e3d6.mp4
55db992185ffeafadba895149dd31c73
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Continuing the Conversation
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Continuing the Conversation is a web and podcast series produced by St. John's College. Episodes 1-20 were released in 2023. <br /><br />More information about the series is available on the Continuing the Conversation page of the St. John's College website: <a href="https://www.sjc.edu/continuing-conversation">https://www.sjc.edu/continuing-conversation</a>.
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St. John's College
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2023
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moving image
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English
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Annapolis, Md.
Santa Fe, NM
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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mp4
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52:52
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Louis Petrich + Jonathan Badger: Pursuing the Eternal Present
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Louis Petrich + Jonathan Badger: Pursuing the Eternal Present is episode 4 of the Continuing the Conversation series and podcast. The episode was published on February 15, 2023.
Does a contemplative life bring us closer to the divine, as Aristotle believed? Is it the highest form of human life or is it self-centered and lived at the expense of others? Can one lead a contemplative life while living in the real world? Philosophers, artists, mystics, and students have long pursued lives of solitude, contemplation, and creative exploration, only to encounter a recurring set of practical obstacles and vexing moral questions. In this episode of Continuing the Conversation, Annapolis host Louis Petrich and tutor Jonathan Badger explore a conversation that honors the pursuit of “the eternal present” in Somerset Maugham’s The Moon and Sixpence (based on the life of the painter Gauguin), while exploring its attendant questions with equal concern and gravity. This episode also includes conversation on works by Goethe, Rousseau, Thoreau, and Aristotle.
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Badger, Jonathan N.
Petrich, Louis
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
St. John's College (Santa Fe, N.M.)
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Annapolis, Md.
Santa Fe, N.M.
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2023-02-15
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St. John's College owns the rights to this video.
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moving image
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mp4
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Maugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset), 1874-1965. Moon and sixpence
Solitude in literature
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778. Rêveries du promeneur solitaire
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English
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CtC_Ep4_Badger_ac
Tutors
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https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/295a7dfbfb0fa180b73c1ddea0e95edf.mp4
7f1c10307f55a00c31bbdde170cfd438
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Continuing the Conversation
Description
An account of the resource
Continuing the Conversation is a web and podcast series produced by St. John's College. Episodes 1-20 were released in 2023. <br /><br />More information about the series is available on the Continuing the Conversation page of the St. John's College website: <a href="https://www.sjc.edu/continuing-conversation">https://www.sjc.edu/continuing-conversation</a>.
Creator
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St. John's College
Date
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2023
Type
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moving image
Language
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English
Coverage
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Annapolis, Md.
Santa Fe, NM
Contributor
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
Moving Image
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Original Format
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mp4
Duration
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00:55:00
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Louis Petrich + Michael Grenke: The Limitations & Possibilities of Sight: Euclid’s Optics
Description
An account of the resource
Louis Petrich + Michael Grenke: The Limitations & Possibilities of Sight: Euclid’s Optics is episode 1 of the Continuing the Conversation series and podcast. The episode was published on January 19, 2023.
What are the limitations and possibilities of perception—and what do ancient mathematics and modern literature have to say about this question? Written in 300 BC, Euclid’s Optics is a foundational work of mathematics on the geometry of vision, while Swann’s Way, the first book in Proust’s multi-volume Remembrance of Things Past, published in 1913, states: “Even with respect to the most insignificant things in life, none of us constitutes a material whole. Even the very simple act that we call ‘seeing the person we know’ is, in part, an intellectual one; we fill in the physical appearance of the individual we see with all the notions we have about him, and of the total picture that we form for ourselves, these notions certainly occupy the greater part.” These works are the jumping off points for a conversation between Annapolis tutor Michael Grenke and host Louis Petrich, on the limitations and possibilities of perception.
Creator
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Grenke, Michael W.
Petrich, Louis
Publisher
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
St. John's College (Santa Fe, N.M.)
Coverage
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Annapolis, Md.
Santa Fe, N.M.
Date
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2023-01-19
Rights
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St. John's College owns the rights to this video.
Type
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moving image
Format
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mp4
Subject
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Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922. Du côté de chez Swann
Euclid. Optics
Perception (Philosophy)
Vision
Language
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English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
CtC_Ep1_Grenke4k_ac
Tutors
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