aphra behn

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Glorious Amok
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aphra behn

Post by Glorious Amok » March 6th, 2005, 6:28 pm

the first known harlot of english literature.

doing a presentation on her play "the rover" for my early modern theatre history class on wednesday. she's kind of a female christopher marlowe.... even worked as a spy for Charles I. and maybe i'll have some more interesting info to contribute after the presentation...

...but until then... yay, harlots!
"YOUR way is your only way." - jack kerouac

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Glorious Amok
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Post by Glorious Amok » March 7th, 2005, 12:47 am

ON HER LOVING TWO EQUALLY

written by: Aphra Behn


I.

HOW strongly does my passion flow,
Divided equally 'twixt two?
Damon had ne'er subdued my heart,
Had not Alexis took his part;
Nor could Alexis powerful prove,
Without my Damon's aid, to gain my love.

II.

When my Alexis present is,
Then I for Damon sigh and mourn;
But when Alexis I do miss,
Damon gains nothing but my scorn.
But if it chance they both are by,
For both alike I languish, sigh, and die.

III.

Cure then, thou mighty winged god,
This restless fever in my blood;
One golden-pointed dart take back:
But which, O Cupid, wilt thou take?
If Damon's, all my hopes are crossed;
Or that of my Alexis, I am lost.


'On her Loving Two Equally' first appeared as 'How Strangely does my Passion grow' in The False Count (1682). It was reprinted in Poems on Several Occasions (1684). The 1684 version is printed here.
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Glorious Amok
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Post by Glorious Amok » March 11th, 2005, 12:49 am

oh yeah.... nuthin' like great results!

Your presentation was well prepared, logically organized, and covered much of the historical context necessary for one’s understanding of Aphra Behn’s The Rover. The introduction, in particular, was strong and relevant: not only were your costumes clever, but your decision to start with poetry was an original one.

I am also very glad that you all appeared quite comfortable with your text and did not rely too much on written notes. A couple of facts were slightly imprecise, but in general the accuracy of your summaries was more than adequate. The anecdotes which you
used to illustrate your biography were a wonderful addition to your seminar as were the PowerPoint slides.

Perhaps the strongest aspect of your presentation was the selection of themes that you addressed: while some were obvious, your definition of smut and discussion of art in Restoration was well justified. I only have two regrets: first, that you didn’t spend a bit
more time on play analysis, and second, that you didn’t try to integrate rather than separate the various parts of your seminar. Other than this, a strong effort.

Accuracy of information: 35/40
Structure of seminar: 28/30
Organization of presentation: 28/30

Total: 91% (A) Very good!

so now let me tell you about our costumes.... we all dressed in beige, fleshtones, if you will... and then taped black bristol board bars over our 'naked' parts. all except one guy, who was our Puritan... he dressed completely in black, with a hat and tie, and stood at the door, protesting our performance, and threatening the people as they entered that they'd go straight to hell. as people entered, 5 of us stood on the stage, our backs to the audience, and then we all turned around, and each read a verse from the poem above, before commencing with our individual research topics. i fucking love university!
"YOUR way is your only way." - jack kerouac

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judih
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Post by judih » March 11th, 2005, 12:57 am

yeah, nothing like total permission to represent information in a purely individual context.
university when right, is so cool

and congratulations on getting the marks to show you're an okay student!

the performance sounds intriguing - hope it affected the audience.

judih

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