Episode 34: “A Winter’s Tale” Act 1

On today’s episode of The Literary Life podcast, Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks talk about Act 1 of The Winter’s Tale by Williams Shakespeare. After sharing their commonplace quotes, our hosts begin by discussing the form of nearly ever Shakespeare play. They discuss the “problem” of the combination of tragic and comedic elements in this play. Other themes discussed are the presence of so many doubles in the characters, the way Shakespeare uses the setting, and how the kings represent their entire kingdoms.

Cindy goes on to point out the way Leontes accepts the idea he has about Hermoine and Polixenes and runs with it. Angelina expounds on the way that people in Shakespeare’s time thought about having properly ordered mind versus one that is disordered. She and Thomas also highlight the way the Renaissance person saw disorder in the individual as connected to disorder in the universe. To close, Cindy also points out the way Shakespeare “plays” with words, so be watching for that as we read on!

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The Winter’s Tale Show Schedule:

February 4: Act II
February 11: Act III
February 18: Act IV
February 25: Act V
March: Live Q&A for Patreon Fellows

Love Is Not All

by Edna St. Vincent Milay

Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution’s power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It well may be. I do not think I would.

Book List:

A Dish of Orts by George MacDonald

Range by David Epstein

The Meaning of Shakespeare, Vol. 2 by Harold Goddard

The Personal Heresy by C. S. Lewis and E. M. Tillyard

The Elizabethan World Picture by E. M. Tillyard

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Connect with Us:

Find Angelina at https://angelinastanford.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/

Find Cindy at https://cindyrollins.net, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy’s own Patreon page also!

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