Here's some really valuable Hamlet background information that I found online.

http://www.tk421.net/hamlet/hamlet.html

-Ryan Grosso

Minutes- 1/23/09

In the beginning of the period we received out Canterbury Tales test back so that we would now have the materials from all 5 of the subject matters that will be on the midterm (Toulmin Model of Arguement, Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, Sonnets & part of Hamlet.) Mr. Laz then told us we have 4 more grades remaining for this marking period, including our particpation grade both in class and on the blog.

We continued on the rest of the class period going over Hamlet.

Act 1, Scene 2
-Hamlet & Horation are friends even though their social classes are different. The fact that they are both scholars breaks down the class barriers that would prevent them from usually being friends.
-Everyone felt happiness at the funeral because they knew that a good thing would follow it (the wedding).
- They also felt sad at the wedding because the King's death is what caused the wedding to take place in the first place.
- Cornelius & Voltemond are ambassadors of the Court to Norway who are sent to try and stop the war that is brewing.
- Claudius is a more diplomatic king than Old Hamlet had been. Claudius believes that he should try and negiotiate and then go to war when it is absolutely necessary.
- Claudius sends Cornelius & Voltemond to Norway with letters because he believes the King does not know about the Mercenary army that Young Fortinbras is creating.

Act 1, Scene 3
-Laertes' warning to Ophelia has to do with the fact that although Hamlet may love Ophelia, she will not be the person that Hamlet will marry because she does not have what Denmark needs, which is an alliance with another country.
-During this time women were looked at as the property of their fathers
-Naiobi- a mythological character of mourning.
-Laertes is going to France to go to school, however, it isn't to become a philosopher like Hamlet. Laertes isn't really a scholarly type (Mr. Laz compared UPenn to UMiami)

-Celia Coltre

Class Minutes 1/12/08

Today in class we continued with our discussion of sonnets. We talked about the quiz on Tuesday in the beginning of class. Then we finished going over the rest of Shakespeare's sonnets for the rest of class.
We started by finishing #29; the sonnet was about someone who hates himself and wanted to to be someone else, but whenever he thinks of the other person he loves, he does not hate himself and does not want to change his life with anyone else.
For #55: the sonnet has a similar idea to #18 and it talks about how the poem about someone will outlast war, death, and the world's end, all the way until judgment day when the person in the poem will come back to life.
For #73: the sonnet is written in the first person and compares the subject (I), to fall, twilight, and the embers of a fire which are all symbols for aging and approaching death. The first person then says the second person's love for the first person stronger since the first person won't last forever.

Knight's tale

Possible sentence??

The lord and governor of Athens, Theseus, marries the ruler of the Amazons, Hippolyta, after defeating them and they return to Athens with her beautiful sister Emily who was loved by two wounded and jailed Thebesians, Arcita (gets exiled) and Palamon (drugs his jailer and escapes after Arcita) the two meet up and are found in the woods by Theseus who gives them 50 days to prepare for a fight to win Emily’s hand in marriage, they each pray to gods and in the end are awarded; Mars granted Arcita victory (he won), the god of love granted Emily to Palamond (Arcita died), and Emily was granted the person who loved her the most.

Tanya

Hey everyone, here's The Sailor's Tale

The Sailor/Shipman
General Prologue (line 390 to line 412)
• Rode a carthorse
• Wore a gown of thick rough cloth that fell to his knees
• Wore a dagger around his neck and under his arm
• Had a golden brown tan from the sun
• When on his ship, he would steal wine from the merchant while he slept
• Did not have a conscience
• Was a very experienced sailor; knew all of the harbors
Sailor’s Prologue
• Host decides that the priest will preach to everyone and tell a tale
• The sailor interrupts the conversation between the host and the priest, and says that HE will tell the next tale
• He also makes it clear that the tale will not be about philosophy, physics or law
• The tale will be about Latin
Sailor’s Tale
• About a rich merchant from Saint Denys who had a very beautiful wife
• They lived in a very nice house and often had guests
• His wife loved to go to social events and wear fine clothing
• All of this was very expensive for the merchant and he ended up losing his money because of it
• One of the merchant’s guests was a very handsome, 30-year old monk named Dan John
• Dan John told the merchant that they were cousins
• The two men became very close, and the merchant thought of the monk as a brother
• Whenever he was at the merchant’s house, Dan John was always very generous and kind to the servants
• When the merchant had to make a trip to Bruges, he insisted that Dan John stop by and spend some time with him and his wife
• He brought wine and food for the group to enjoy together
• On the monk’s third day with the merchant, the merchant decided to spend time going over his finances and didn’t want anyone to disturb him
• At the same time, Dan John rose and wandered into the garden where he ran into the merchant’s wife
• Noticing the paleness of the woman’s face, Dan John asked her what was wrong
• The wife promised to tell the monk her problems as long as he kept it a secret
• The woman told him that she is unhappy with her husband, but felt bad for speaking so badly of the monks cousin
• Dan John then told her that the two men really weren’t related at all
• The merchant’s wife continued and said that there were six things that every woman desired a husband to be: hardy, wise, rich and therewith free, obedient to the wife and fresh in bed
• The wife then said she needed to borrow 100 francs from him. She was adamant about paying him back at some point and/or give him whatever pleasure or service he desired
• She said that if she didn’t pay him back, then God take vengeance on her
• The monk said he would give her the money when her husband left on his trip to Bruges and told her not to worry
• Then he hugged her and kissed her
• The wife then went to find her husband to have supper with and found him still looking over his finances, not eating or doing anything else
• She asked him how long he would stay there and he said that out of 12 merchants, 2 may survive financially. Therefore, he had to pay attention and take special care of his business
• He then said that merchants must always live in dread and fear in case of chances and mishaps that could affect their business
• The merchant then told his wife that he was leaving in the morning for his trip and she had enough food, clothing, etc. to last his absence
• The group had dinner and the monk pulls the merchant aside and tells him to have a safe, healthful journey
• Dan John then asked the merchant to lend him 100 francs to buy cattle and to keep the loan a secret
• The merchant nobly replied that the merchant’s gold was the monk’s as well and he told him to take what he like or need
• He told Dan John to pay it back when he was able to and gave him the money
• They walked around drinking and talking, and then the monk left for the abbey
• The merchant went on his journey the next day, but did not gamble or dance at all
• On the Sunday after the merchant left, Dan John traveled back to the merchant’s home with the 100 francs
• He and the merchant’s wife agreed that he would give her the 100 francs if she would spend the night in bed with him
• The next day, the monk returned to the abbey
• When all of the merchant’s business was done, he returned to his wife in Saint Denys
• He then visits the monk to see how he is doing and to tell him that he needs his 100 francs back to invest in his business
The monk then tells the merchant that he already gave the money back to his wife. The merchant returns home and asks his wife about it. She tells him that she spent the money on clothes and to repay him, she will do whatever he wants in bed. He forgives her and tells her not to do it again.

That's the Sailor's/Shipman's Tale
-Sarah

The Nun's Priest's Tale

THANKS KEN!!

The Nun's Priest's tale is about a male rooster who after having a bad dream (premonition about being killed by a fox) actually almost gets killed by this fox in really life and then learns not take his wife's advice becuase she had said the dream was meaningless.

Emily

The friar's tale is basically this:

"Summoners are all corrupt and would gladly befriend the devil, which makes it easier for him to fool them and drag them down to hell, so you better repent and turn away from your sins and stuff and avoid summoners because they're evil."

Or something like that.

~Ken

Favor!

I was absent when Mr. Lazarow went over the rest of the knight tale and the squire's so if anyone has notes on them i'd really appreciate if you could post them thanks!
Emily Wallace

Minutessss for JANUARY 2ND!

I don't really think I'm the right person for this but whatever so many people were absent so I guess it can't hurt. (And I don't think anyone else is planning to do the minutes?? sooo here they are)
We started off class with a reminder that our Canterbury Test is coming up.....next wednesday and that we probably should study.
The first part of the test is on historical background (what he lectured in class) and the second part is on the general prologue. He said he's going to pick lines out of the prologue and we are going to have to tell which character those lines refer to. Another part of the test is the one line about each character's tale. Mr. Lazarow said it doesn't have to be a smooth sentence. Then we also have to write the first 18 lines of the general prologue again.
After that we reviewed and we should know some of the following
1. relationships between characters (ex: summoner and friar, miller and reeve, shipmen and merchant, and manciple and man of law.)
2. all the humors and how they relate to the particular characters (blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm)
When we review more in class on monday and tuesday Mr. Lazarow said NOT to ask questions directly from the review sheets because those questions will not help us. (we can answer them on our own.)
So we couldn't really spend all the time in class thinking of questions so Mr. Lazarow started teaching about sonnets and here are those notes
sorry that they are a bit weird (they made sense when I wrote them down, i'll try to explain as much as I can)

Sonnets- two compoents; content and form(or structure)
the characteristics of a sonnet
it Rhymes and has 14 lines
two types of sonnets we will be focusing on: English and Italian
English sonnets:
a
b
a
b
c
d
c
d
e
f
e
f
g
g
each 4 lines (a,b,a,b) is a quatrain except for the last two lines which are a couplet. the quatrains have a purpose like paragraphs in an essay, while the couplet is kind of like the conclusion.
Italian sonnets are similar but have a different sequence
a
b
b
a
a
b
b
a
(variable)
c
d
e
c
d
e
OR
c
c
d
d
e
e
OR
c
d
c
d
e
e
Variable meaning the ending six lines could have one of those three different sequences.

And that was allllll! Have questions ready for review!!!
-Emily Wallace