Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 5, No. 0471. Saturday, 28 May 1994.
(1) From: David Evett <R0870%TAONODE@VMCMS.CSUOHIO.EDU>
Date: Thursday, 26 May 1994 16:25 ET
Subj: Light and Heat
(2) From: Pamela Bunn <BUNN@HWS.BITNET>
Date: Friday, 27 May 1994 17:35:51 -0500 (EST)
Subj: Re: Cordelia
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Evett <R0870%TAONODE@VMCMS.CSUOHIO.EDU>
Date: Thursday, 26 May 1994 16:25 ET
Subject: Light and Heat
Query to Wm. Godshalk (Godshawl, indeed--I'd try to make some joke about the
17th-century Anglo-Jewish playwright William Davening if I didn't suspect
somebody already got to it in the days before I joined the network): What's
with this reactionary humanist-enlightenment hierarchizing of light and heat?
As a brand-new grandfather thinking about my brand-new granddaughter and how
she had to come out of the warm dark place where she was into a world where
wicked deeds are carried out at least as often in daylight as in darkness, I
wonder. Our Author, of course, is not absolutely committed to the
conventional valorizing of light and darkness (if he subscribes to it much of
the time). As for heat (and I am grateful to W.G. for sending me off to the
concordance foran intellectual sauna) it's true that most of the uses of "hot"
seem to carry negative connotations. But as Paris observes, "hot thoughts
is hot deeds" (intemperate rockets to hmcook, no doubt), "and hot deeds is
love"--I write this as a brief respite from job applicants' writing samples,
most of which remind me of Miss Devlin in Joyce's "A Mother": they sit in the
chilly circle of their accomplishments waiting for some department to offer
them a brilliant life, and I long for a little scholarly and critical zip, a
little love, a little fire! ("O for a muse of," etc.) It has long seemed odd
to me that people living in a dank northern climate before central heating (I
think of early modern writing in general, not just Shakespeare) don't complain
more about the cold or praise warmth, even heat, more than they do. Does that
go along with their failure to complain much about headaches, or the common
cold? Is it only when relief from some at least of the thousand natural shocks
gets relatively easy to come by that the shocks themselves, the more modest
ones, at least, seem worth note?
In warmth,
Dave Evett
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Pamela Bunn <BUNN@HWS.BITNET>
Date: Friday, 27 May 1994 17:35:51 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Cordelia
This term, I have been taking a Performing Shakespeare class. Now that we
have reached the end, it is time to write our final papers. After reading
KING LEAR and observing some in-class interpretaions, I have decided to
focus my paper on Cordelia and the development of her character in the
first scene. In class, we have discussed the range of emotions she might
be experiencing: dismayed, hurt, frustrated, angry. Yet, conveying all
of these at once has been difficult. How could it be done, while she
still maintains her sincerety? What words, phrases, movements, emotions,
should be emphasized/explored? Her character must make strong impression,
because she does not appear again for a while. Any suggestions?
