il Giardino Romantico

University of Liverpool

Semester One
Shakespeare and Co. - two hours, fortnightly
Sir Philip Sydney -The Defence of Poesy
William Shakespeare - The Tempest
Ben Jonson - The Alchemist
'To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author Mr William Shakespeare', 'To the Reader' and 'To My Book' (both from Epigrams), 'On My First Son',  'To John Donne', 'Inviting a Friend to Supper', 'An Ode. To Himself', 'An Epistle Answering to One that Asked to be Sealed of the Tribe of Ben', 'To Penshurst', the 'Preface' or 'Prefatory Epistle' to Volpone, the 'Prologue' to Every Man in his Humour (which begins: 'Though need make many poets')
Christopher Marlowe - Doctor Faustus
William Shakespeare - Richard II
Christopher Marlowe - Edward II
William Shakespeare - Henry VIII or All Is True, Sir Thomas  More
William Shakespeare - The Tragedy of King Lear or The History of King Lear
True Chronicle of King Leir
Nahum Tate - History of King Lear
William Shakespeare - Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Thomas Kyd - The Spanish Tragedy
David Garrick - Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Forms of Contest - one hour, weekly two hours, fortnightly
Sir Thomas Wyatt -'Caesar when that the traitor of Egypt', 'The long love that in my thought doth harbour', 'Whoso list to hunt', 'Was I never yet of your love grieved', 'Each man telleth me I change my most devise', 'If armorous faith, in heart unfeigned', 'Farewell love, and all the laws forever', 'My heart, 'I gave thee, not to do it pain', 'Some fowls there be', 'I find no peace', 'Though myself be bridled', 'My galley charged with forgetfulness', 'Ever mine hap', 'Like to these unmeasurable mountains', 'Unstable dream', 'You that in love find luck', 'If waker care', 'To rail or jest', 'Divers doth use', 'I abide and abide', 'Accused though I be', 'The pillars perished'
William Shakespeare - Sonnets 1, 5, 18, 20, 29, 30, 42, 57, 60, 65, 86, 87, 94, 104, 106, 116, 129, 130, 138, 144
Charlotte Smith - 'Sonnet Written at the Close of Spring', 'Sonnet Written in the Churchyard at Middleton in Sussex', 'Sonnet: the Sea View', 'Sonnet: On being cautioned against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, because it was Frequented by a Lunatic', 'To Hope', 'To Friendship', 'The Laplander', 'Written near a Port on a Dark Evening', 'To Fancy', The Gossamer', 'To the South Downs', 'To Melancholy'
William Lisle Bowles - First 14 sonnets
Edmund Spenser - 'The Shephearde's Calender'
John Milton - 'Lycidas'
Andrew Marvel - 'A Dialogue between Thyrsis and Dorinda', 'Ametas and Thestylis making Hay-Ropes', 'The Mower against Gardens', 'Damon the Mower', 'The Garden', 'The Nymph complaining for the Death of her Faun'
Alexander Pope - 'Pastorals', 'On Pastorals', 'A Discourse on Pastoral Poetry'
John Gay - 'The Shepherd's Week'
John Milton - Paradise Lost (Books 1, 2, and 6)
Alexander Pope - The Rape of the Lock
Robert Greene - Pandosto: The Triumph of Time
Horace Walpole - The Castle of Otranto
Contesting Worlds II: Science and Literature - two hours fortnightly
Stanton J. Linden -'Darke Hierogliphicks'
Robert Fludd - 'Mirror of the whole world of nature and the image of art'
Ben Jonson - Mercury vindicated from the alchemists at court, The Alchemist
John Donne - 'Love's Alchymie', 'Honour is so sublime perfection [to the Countesse of Bedford]', 'The Canonization', 'A nocturnall upon S. Lucies Day',
George Herbert - 'Easter', 'Man', 'The Elixir'
Henry Vaughan - ' Cock-crowing', 'The Starre', 'The Water-fall'
Edmund Spenser - The Faerie Queene (Book 3, canto 6, proem to Book 5, and the Mutabilitie Cantos)
Plato - extracts from 'Timaeus'
John Donne - 'First Anniversary'
John Milton - Paradise Lost
Francis Bacon - 'New Atlantis'
Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels, Book III, Chapters 1-6
Margert Cavendish - The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World
John Arbuthnot and others - The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus
Samuel Butler - 'The Elepahnt and the Moon, 'Will of a Virtuoso'
John Theophilus Desaguliers - The Newtonian System of the World, 'The Best Model of Government: An Allegorical Poem'
James Thomson - A Poem Sacred to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton, extracts from 'The Seasons'

The Merchant of Venice
Act IV, Scene i, Lines 184~205

A Midsummer Night's Dream
Act I, Scene ii, Lines 226~245

Antony and Cleopatra
Act V, Scene ii, Lines 280~298

Macbeth Act I, Scene vi, Lines 47~59

Thank you for putting up with my wasting of cyberspace with these audio files.  I came up with the idea of recording these monologues and soliloquies mainly because I needed the opportunity to take a closer look at the different plays.  By recording these readings, I would first, have to find an interesting monologue/soliloquy, then read them repeatedly until I can do it as naturally as I possibly can.  Only after that, could I go about trying to record it. 
After repeated readings and attempts at recording, I find that by the end of the process, I can often easily recite the same passage.  This means that this exercise is extremely helpful for me, personally, because while searching for a suitable passage to read, I am skimming through the whole play, which give me a rough idea of the plot, especially the ones that I have never read before.  Through the repeated readings and attempts at recording, I am effortlessly memorizing the passages, which will undoubtedly become useful during my academic studies. 
Accidents do happen though.  After I had finally got used to listening to my own voice, sometimes things just don't go the way you want them to go.  The phone might ring, someone might yell at you, or your cat might start attacking you.
Here's a little blooper that resulted from a little kitten attack during the recording of King Lear's Cordelia, just to show you what I mean...
這些錄音檔其實還蠻浪費網路資源的。其實我知道有興趣的人很少。但最主要的目的其實是讓自己有機會深入探討莎老頭劇裡的一些主角。藉由閱讀＋錄音的方式認識以前沒有接觸過的作品並了解其中的角色。製作這些錄音檔，首先我要先快速的瀏覽我有興趣的作品並找出適合的段落。接下來，我還要自己先念過好幾次，練習到自己可以用最自然的語調念出來為止。之後，才開始錄音。
在念過數十次加上試錄之後，我發現我常常可以輕鬆的背出一段念過的獨白。這表示這系列的錄音檔對我的幫助不只是讓我了解莎老頭的作品，更讓我輕而易舉的背起一些重要的段落。這無疑對未來的學業一定會有幫助。
但意外難免會發生。練習之後開始錄音卻常常受到很多干擾。電話可能會響起。有人可能會按門鈴。你的貓也可能來攻擊你。
以下這個錄音檔就是在錄製過程中...被小貓攻擊的NG版...

King Lear
Act I, Scene i, Lines 95~104
Cordelia: Good my lord,
              You have begot me, bred me, lov'd me: I
              Return those duties back as are right fit,
              Obey you, love you, and most honor you.
              Why have my sisters husbands, if they say
              They love you all? Happily, when I shall wed,
              That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
              Half my love with him, half my care and duty.
              Sure I shall never marry like my sisters,
              [To love my father all].
I had not encountered King Lear either during high school or even in college.  It is understandable, however, since every single one of Shakespeare's works play a significant role in the world of English literature.  As a teacher, the task of selecting one or two works for analysis and discussion is extremely difficult.  Most would choose to begin with the more popular ones because students might have already been familiar with the plot, like 'Romeo and Juliet', 'Julius Caesar', 'Macbeth', or 'Hamlet'.
My reading of King Lear began only recently, though the character of Cordelia have already made an impressive impression on me.  King Lear has decided to divide his assets among his daughters according to their declaration of his three daughters' love towards him.  Without surprise, the two elder ones who covet their father's property, begin flattering him by bragging how much they love him.  Cordelia, however, chooses a more noble action - to tell the truth.  These few lines epitomize what father-daughter relationships should really be like, however, in King Lear, it is the cause of the tragedy of both King Lear and Cordelia.
Although she is not the protagonist, she is definitely one of the most interesting characters in this play.
高中至大學的過程中，從來沒有接觸過李爾王。但不可否認，莎翁的每一個作品都非常具有代表性。身為一位老師，要從眾多大作中選出一兩個來深入探討，一定是選劇情大家已經熟悉的『羅密歐與朱麗葉』、『凱薩大帝』、或是悲劇中的經典之作『馬克白』、『哈母雷特』。
最近才開始翻閱李爾王。其中對李爾王小女Cordelia的正直與勇氣真是佩服不已。李爾王為了想要分配財產，叫三位女兒當著眾人面前告知她們對父親的愛。由她們的告白來決定誰能得到財產，誰能得到多少財產。此時，貪圖遺產的大女兒與二女兒當然是卯出全力說出自己對父親的愛有多少！李爾王聽了當然是高興的不得了。不料，到了他平時戴愛的小女，竟然不願為了爭霸財產而誇大自己對父親的愛。簡單的兩三句，其實透露出這世間原本的定律，但卻造成父親與他自己的悲劇。
雖然稱不上是主角，但此劇中最受矚目的女角色，一定就非Cordelia莫屬了！

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Epilogue：The version consulted for these audio readings: The Riverside Shakespeare.  2nd ed. Houghton Mifflin.1997.
收場白：錄音檔參考版本為：The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Houghton Mifflin. 1997.

Semester One
Forms and Contest
England's Helicon
Shepheard's Calendar [Spenser]

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Act III, Scene ii, Lines 150~161
Ophelia: O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
              The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword,
              Th' expectation and rose of the fair state,

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Act II, Scene ii, Lines 33-48
Juliet: O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
          Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
          Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
          And I will no longer be a Capulet.
Romeo: [Aside] Shall hear more, or shall I speak at this?
Juliet: 'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
          Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
          What's Montague? It is neither hand nor foot,
          Nor arm nor face, [or any other part]
          Belonging to a man.  O, be some other name!
          What's in a name?  That which we call a rose
          By any other word would smell as sweet;
          So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
          Retain that dear perfection which he owes
          Without that title Romeo, doff thy name,
          And for thy name, which is no part of thee,
          Take all myself.
This monologue happens after the first meeting of the two star-crossed lovers at the masque.  They have already fallen in love at first sight, thus brings us to the famous 'balcony scene',  Juliet is unaware that Romeo is beneath the balcony, overhearing her speaking.  This is basically her declaration of love towards Romeo, claiming that she loves him even though she finds out only after parting him earlier, that he is, in fact, a Montague.
出自羅密歐與朱麗葉第二幕第二場著名的『balcony scene』。兩人已經在舞會上碰面而一見鍾情。此時的朱麗葉並不知道羅密歐正在陽台下放傾聽她這段告白。這段獨白基本上就是她對世界宣示即使她以知道羅密歐身為對敵家族的蒙特鳩獨子，她依然愛他。

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收場白：這是『Conversations with Shakespeare's Women』系列中的首部曲。藉由此方式認識莎翁筆下的出色女角色們。如果對於閱讀方式、語調、速度有認何疑問或是建議，歡迎留言交流。
Epilogue: This is the first of 'Conversations with Shakespeare's Women' series.  The purpose of this series is so that the female characters can be introduced through the readings of their monologues.  If you have any questions or suggestions concerning the intonation and speed of the readings, feel free to leave a message.