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British Literature 1: This Rough Magic . . . Literature, History, Culture and Magic in Medieval and Early Modern England
Cary Honig email: caryh@school-one.org
Nil sine magno vita labore dedit mortalibus
Completely updated for 2025
Welcome to the Brit. Lit. 1 homework hub. Hopefully, having an overview of what we will do and roughly when will make the class easier. This also allows me to make the suggested but not required readings available in a context that might make them more attractive and less harmful to trees. Two of the essays will be done in class within a class period as practice for college exams: the same level of mechanical proficiency will not be expected on these, and they won't require quotations, unlike the essays done at home.
Students can take this class for English or history credit. Because the class is so writing intense, there is a different workload for English and history students with history students writing fewer essays (and usually those that have more history or sociological content). The reading requirements are the same. The syllabi provide the details.
Every student even considering this class must read and sign the source policy and abide by it. Failure to do so will lead to no credit in the class. I am not interested in what anyone at wikipedia, Sparknotes, Shmoop or Harvard thinks about this literature. I am interested in what you think. You must think for yourself in this class. If you don't want to do that and perhaps occasionally struggle, don't take the class. You are always welcome to come discuss your ideas with me before writing if you are worried you are off track. I won't tell you what to write or think, but I am happy to ask you questions that might help you to focus or reorient. This is NOT a research class; it is a thinking class. Please respect that and trust that I respect ideas that may be flawed but original far more than ideas that are on more solid ground but aren't yours.
For a guide to proper citation within text and bibliography (works cited), go to
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/
Weekly sections below are split into two parts. The first paragraph is about classwork projected for that week, although we won't always be on target. Links under the weekly schedule are to note sheets we will use in class or that might be useful to you as well as to articles that are usually recommended but not required to add to your knowledge about what we are discussing in class.
Essays are due almost every week on Thursdays at class time. Revisions should be done soon after being returned but must be completed by the Monday after they are returned unless an earlier date is specified at the end of the trimester. On two occasions this trimester, students will do their essays in class on Thursdays to practice for college testing. They should be sure to have read the materials very carefully and to have given them some thought before taking these exams, but the questions are broad and don't require focus on one particular detail in the text(s). Students who are absent on these days will do the essays at home with the amount of evidence expected in an essay done at home, so that means considerably more work. If you're out on those days, I won't give you the in-class essay at a different time. In-class essays are generally not revised unless the student didn't do the reading. At-home essays need revision until I approve a draft as final because you have addressed the issues I identified in your draft(s).
Late work is not tolerated in this class. If a student is late on one essay, s/he will have to do an additional essay as well as the one that is late. If a second assignment is late, the student cannot earn credit. If a student is home sick, the essay must be emailed on time. Exceptions will only be made in a situation that is completely unavoidable by the student and for which there is clear evidence and that was pre-arranged.
Students should begin reading the materials as soon as they sign up for the class (if not sooner) even though the first essay about it isn't due until September 2, as they are expected to have read both Aucassin and Nicolette and Sir Orfeo (text links below) to do that essay. It would be a good idea to look at the essay assignments related to the texts before reading so that you can look for evidence and ideas as your read. As noted above in the source policy, DO NOT read materials related to these texts as I want your ideas. Using others' ideas won't improve your reading or analytical skills, and you will have trouble in college where they have great software to catch people doing that.
If you come to a link that isn't working, and I'm sure there are a couple in there somewhere, please let me know. I can easily fix it any time I'm at school, but I won't if I don't know about it.
Week 1: How did we get from ancient Greece and Rome last June to late medieval England now? We need to begin with some background about what happened in between and about Christianity, a rudimentary knowledge of which is essential for this trimester's reading. That will be this week's main focus in class, so as usual, I'll drone on a bit more the first week than other weeks. Grammar: Usage
Class materials:
Medieval Timeline and bibliography 21
(The article above is ostensively an article about Trump's popularity, but it introduces important themes for the next two years of this class.)
Marie de France's lai Bisclavret text
Recommended Reading:
A (likely medieval) textual mystery 24
Huge new discovery near Stonehenge 20
How Pandemics Both Damage and Improve the World 20
How St. Augustine Invented Sex by Stephen Greenblatt
For an excellent seminar about Petrarch, one of those who sparked the Italian (and hence all subsequent) Renaissance(s), go to https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox?projector=1
Week 1 assignment: This week's assignment is about comparing the views of two reasonably short mid-14th Century texts: one English (Sir Orfeo) and one from southern France, known by historians of that period as Occitania (Aucassin and Nicolete). I am providing a link to the texts below. You can read them online or print them if that's easier. The essay is due by class time on Thursday, September 4 whether you're taking this class for history or English with no exceptions. Begin reading Sir Gawain immediately when you finish as it's long and you'll enjoy it more if you're not rushing. The notes are not being collected on these readings, but even if you don't take notes, they will help guide your reading if you use them. Be aware that while they were written down in this period, oral versions are likely older, and most people who were familiar with them heard them rather than read them (like The Iliad and The Odyssey in Greece before the mid 6th Century, B.C.) These texts were originally in Middle English (like Sir Gawain, the ballads we're reading and The Canterbury Tales, which is why these texts are translations. We look at Middle English when we begin The Canterbury Tales. You have a choice of Orfeo texts: both are strong translators.
Exercise 1 Aucassin and Orfeo 25
Sir Orfeo text.translated by Jesse Weston
Week 2: When we're done with our introduction to the Middle Ages and Christianity, we will read some medieval ballads in class while you're reading Sir Gawain and The Green Knight at home. I'll provide some introduction to both Sir Gawain and Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales. If we have time, we'll get a sense of Middle English by looking at The General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales in Middle English.
Grammar: Apostrophes
Classwork:
Thomas the Rhymer better version
Canterbury Tales Prologue in Middle English.doc
Canterbury Tales Gen Prologue notes
Chaucer's Life and Innovations
Chaucer's pilgrims' route today with photos 25
Recommended:
Frank Kermode on translating Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Lack of Chivalry in the movie "The Green Knight" 21
Scientists use DNA to hone in on where and when the Black Death began 22
article about Boccaccio, Chaucer's main source for The Canterbury Tales 25
Assignments: This week's assignment requires reading all of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. The text is linked below. It is a much harder essay than the first one, so start early. It is due by Thursday, September 11 at class time. History students need not do this one, but they should definitely read Gawain. Notes will be really helpful as Sir Gawain will be important on the final essay as well as this one.
Gawain and the Green Knight text translated by Jesse Weston
Week 3: If we haven't begun already, we will be focusing this week in class on The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales. You will only appreciate what Chaucer is up to if you fully understand The General Prologue, which is why we're reading it in class together. To do this week's essay, you will need to be familiar with The General Prologue as well as The Knight's Tale, which you will be reading at home.
I have linked the text of The Canterbury Tales below, but I also have books if you prefer. You must cite to page numbers either from the book or, if noted, the pdf, which has page numbers. Note sheets about the tales are for your guidance and, if you're smart, note-taking. As in college, it's up to you whether you take notes, but you would be foolish not to (especially because you're likely to encounter The Canterbury Tales again in college). Shakespeare fans will want to know that one of his final works was a collaboration with John Fletcher in 1613 based on The Knight's Tale called The Two Noble Kinsmen.
Grammar: Agreement
Recommended:
Assignment: This week's assignment is an in-class essay on September 18 focusing on The General Prologue and The Knight's Tale. This is test practice for college, so the question isn't posted ahead of time. Students can't use their books during the exam. It will not be a gotcha question. If you have read thoughtfully, it should not be too hard to say something intelligent about it. It is a good idea to try to anticipate possible questions about the material so that you can be better prepared. Thanks to AI, in-class essays will be handwritten, which will prepare you for the fact that many professors are now doing this to combat AI in college. If you are absent, I will send you an at-home version of the essay, which is more work, so it's smart to be there. History students need not do this one. The revision of the Auccasin/Orfeo essay is due by Monday, September 18 at class time with the graded draft, but there's no good reason to wait this long.
The revision of exercise 1 is due on Monday, September 15 by class time with the marked up draft.
Canterbury Tales full online text
Week 4: In class, we will discuss The Knight's Tale: how it helps us understand Chaucer's overall structure in terms of what the tales tell us about the tellers, how it sets up key themes of the rest of the book and section, how it draws on the wise philosophy of Boethius and how it relates to the odd medieval notion of courtly love. This discussion should help get a deeper understanding of what's going on and what's being satirized in the tales you'll be reading at home this week. Grammar: Commas and adverbial clauses.
Historical Debates about medieval peasants' lives 22
Boccaccio's fabliau of Alibech and Rustico
Assignments: This week's essay, which is due on September 25 by class time, is an assessment of justice in Chaucer focusing on the tales of the Man-of-Law, the Shipman, the Prioress, the Miller and the Reeve. These are much shorter than The Knight's Tale, and three of them (Miller, Reeve, Shipman) are a lot more fun. However, this is not a one night's reading assignment. If you read a tale per night or do a lot on the weekend, you'll have no trouble with this assignment. Warning: The Man of Law's Tale is longer and drier than the others in this group, but there's a lot worth thinking about there, especially the relationship between the teller and the tale. All students write this essay. As you don't have to include all of the tales in your essay, you do need to hand in the note sheet for any tale not discussed in your essay. Your revision of the Gawain essay is due on Monday, September 22 at class time with the graded draft.
Week 5: Now that we should have a good bearing on what's going on in general in The Canterbury Tales, I'm going to move ahead in class to subjects that will come up in the later stages of the tales but also in the two Early Modern (Renaissance) plays we will be reading in class over the next few weeks: Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and Shakespeare's The Tempest. Those subjects are an understanding of magic as they existed in the Middle Ages and especially in the Renaissance. While the latter is generally seen as a time of great enlightenment and the re-emergence of science after a long sleep introduced by Socrates and Plato way back in the 5th Century B.C. (and this is true among some folks at this time), it's also a time when alchemy, "witch"-burning and attempted magic through the summoning of powerful spirits, both good and evil, were at their height and not primarily among the poor and uneducated. King James I was a leading "expert" on witchcraft, and no less a light than Sir Isaac Newton was a very active alchemist. Queen Ellzabeth's lead cartographer in the exploration of America and personal astrologer, Dr. John Dee, wrote a crucial introduction to Euclidian math for workers that was in active use for hundreds of years and also spent a lot of time trying to summon angels through his con-man assistant. In fact, alchemical principles led to significant improvements in medicine led by Paracelsus and his followers, and alchemists were preparing the way for chemistry. We will address the backgrounds of these movements in class this week and hopefully begin Doctor Faustus. Grammar: Commas and Subordinate Conjunctions
Note that we will be using the A text of Doctor Faustus as it is now clear that the B text was a revision done by others roughly ten years after Marlowe's tragically early death. Only use the copy of Doctor Faustus that I give out: I don't want references either to the B text or a combined text like the one edited by Gregg because they aren't as accurate to what Marlowe's likely wrote. You can read the A text online at Project Guttenberg, and here's the link: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/779/779-h/779-h.htm. If you use the Guttenberg tests, notes must be to line numbers, which are in that text.
Classwork:
A Brief Introduction to Renaissance Mages
Timeline Chaucer to Shakes.doc
Recommended:
Giordano Bruno - the Renaissance's coolest martyr
Assignment: This week's essay is the second in-class essay, and it will occur on October 2. All students do this one. It focuses on the tales of the Monk, the Nun’s Priest, the Physician and the Pardoner. Thanks to AI, in-class essays will be handwritten, which will prepare you for the fact that many professors are now doing this to combat AI in college You can to skim The Monk's Tale to some extent: the point is to figure out the Monk's main view based on these short tales and the appropriateness of this viewpoint. That tale and The Physician's Tale aren't too entertaining, although the latter is quite interesting to analyze in a number of ways; the other two are among the best tales in the book. I think The Nun's Priest's Tale is the most clever juxtaposition of the the teller to the tale of them all, but figure it out for yourself by thinking about what the Nun's Priest's life must be like. (The nun in question here is the Prioress.) Everyone is doing this essay. Again, I'm not collecting these notes, but they can at least help guide you through the tales even if you don't add to them.
Week 6: We will focus on reading Doctor Faustus in class this week with maybe a little time to compare The Miller's Tale and The Reeve's Tale to The Knight's Tale and to look at the interrelationship between the three and what this might tell us about Chaucer's views and about the pilgrims who tell the tales. Please have your play in class every day.Grammar: Commas and Coordinating Conjunctions
Recommended:
4 medieval women writers including Christine de Pizan 25
Mary Wellesley on Medieval Women 24
Mary Wellesley on the earliest medieval Women writers 20
Women in Early Modern Philosophy 17
Zadie Smith's Wife of Bath Play '21
Assignment: This week's essay is due on October 9. It's an assessment of views about women in The Middle Ages, focusing on the tales and prologues of the Wife of Bath, the Clerk, the Merchant and the Franklin as well as on Christine de Pizan's The Book Of The City Of Ladies, of which you will be reading a significant excerpt, so begin this week's reading early. The Wife of Bath's prologue and tale are awesome, and the Franklin's is very good as well, and they're the first in which magic is central. Notes on them would be a good idea as you'll need them for the final essay. I also think you'll really enjoy The Merchant's Tale, which is rated X. You might find Hilary Mantel's article about royal bodies, particularly female royal bodies, of interest here. Mantel is a great novelist whose latest award-winning trilogy is about the court of Henry VIII and particularly his advisor Thomas Cromwell. Everyone is doing this essay. Your revision of the Justice essay is due by 9 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 6.
Another lai by Marie de France, Eliduc, is quite surprising in terms of its treatment of gender: https://www.yorku.ca/inpar/eliduc_mason.pdf
For a talk between Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley from the London Review of Books about the Wife of Bath, go to https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/close-readings/encounters-with-medieval-women-storyteller?utm_campaign=1537081_20250609CloseReadings&utm_medium=email&utm_source=LRB%20email&dm_i=7NIQ,WY0P,2MIQHO,2KRBN,1
The Wanton Wife of Bath (a medieval ballad about Chaucer's character) : An awesome medieval ballad about the Wife of Bath attempting to get into Heaven
For a much more obscene poem from a woman's point of view (if not necessarily written by a woman - we don't know) that demonstrates what women may have chatted about when hangin' with friends, see A Talk of Ten Wives on Their Husbands' Ware: https://metseditions.org/read/0pp3VjzQu2mXqh3ZXHV371h8Nz0e1BWv
It's in Middle English, but you can understand it because this copy provides the key vocabulary you wouldn't know.
Week 7: This week in class, we will finish up with Doctor Faustus if we're not already done, and we will begin The Tempest. We will discard the popular notion that The Tempest is Shakespeare's final play and his farewell to his art as he wrote (or co-wrote) at least three plays after The Tempest (one based on The Knight's Tale). Rather, we will look at it in the context of New World exploration, colonialism and slavery, in context with his other Romances and especially in the context of its view of magic, which we will contrast with that in Doctor Faustus, as this play is one of Shakespeare's numerous replies to Marlowe throughout his career and as both plays were at least partly glancing at the career of Dr. John Dee, who had just died when Shakespeare wrote his play and who was at his most controversial and famous when Marlowe was writing his. Please have your play in class every day.Grammar: Commas and Non-Essential Clauses
This is the bye week: there is no essay due this week, so students should get any revisions or re-revisions done immediately or the chance of credit will disappear. Those who are all caught up (hopefully everyone) should relax and get ahead on the reading and, if you're doing the creative alternative to the next essay, to get an early start so it will be awesome. I'm attaching the note sheets for next week here to encourage an early start.
Week 8: We will largely be plowing through The Tempest in class, but we'll take at least one day to discuss justice in The Canterbury Tales, particularly those included in that essay. We will also note that justice is a key theme in both Doctor Faustus and The Tempest, so they will come into this discussion as well. Grammar: Commas and initial words and phrases and comma review
This week's essay is due on October 23. As noted, there are two choices this week. You can do the essay about religion or the creative alternative, which is to rewrite one of the tales as if another one of the pilgrims told it. I strong suggest that if you choose the latter, you choose an pilgrim who is clearly rather than subtly different from the original teller to increase your chances of success. These can be funny, and they can be in verse if you would like, but they don't have to be. The religion essay is an assessment of Chaucer’s view of religion in his day, focusing on the tales and prologues of the Wife of Bath, the Friar, the Summoner, the Miller, the Prioress and the Pardoner. That means there are only two new tales to read for this essay, but you need to go back to a number of the others. History students need not do this essay. The revision of the women essay is due on Monday, October 20 by class time with the graded draft
Ex. 6 Religion essay or creative alternative 25
Week 9: We will hopefully complete The Tempest in class this week. Once we have done that, we will discuss sin in The Canterbury Tales, particularly those included in that essay, but there's plenty of sin to go around in many of the tales as well as in Sir Gawain, Doctor Faustus and The Tempest.Grammar: Quotations and Punctuation
There is no essay due this week unless you owe the extra essay, and shame on you if you do. The extra essay is due on October 30 by class time, and if it or its revision is late or inadequate, it will mean no credit with no exceptions. The revision of the religion essay/creative alternative is also due by class time on Monday, November 10 as are any re-revisions from earlier in the trimester. Note that the Essay 2 revision must be in by Thursday, November 13 by class time and hopefully earlier. There will be no exceptions.
Week 10: If we are done with The Tempest, we will discuss women in these texts at some length with special and loving attention to the Wife of Bath and her amazing prologue as well as The Nun's Priest's Tale and what's really at stake there. We will also look at religion in these texts and see whether we think Chaucer had Lollard leanings. Grammar: Colons
There is no essay due this week unless you owe the extra essay, and shame on you if you do. The extra essay is due on Thursday, October 30 by class time even if we don't have class due to an RDay, and if it or its revision is late or inadequate, it will mean no credit with no exceptions. The revision of the religion essay/creative alternative is also due by class time on Monday, November 6 as are any re-revisions from earlier in the trimester.
The final essay of the trimester is due by November 6 by class time. It is one of the more challenging and longer ones, as it requires you to tie together many of the trimester's themes and texts with its main focus on magic. Everyone does this essay, and the revision is due by Thursday, Nov. 13. This will allow me sufficient time to grade them before starting evaluations.
Spenser's Faery Queene assessed
Week 11: We're always a bit behind at this point, so we'll catch up and finish up by comparing magic in the various texts we have read with special attention to The Franklin's Tale and The Canon's Yeoman's Tale. Grammar: Semi-colons
Just get that final revision in by Wednesday, Nov. 13 at class time and you'll have a restful end of the trimester.
Week !2: We'll wrap up, answer questions and preview next trimester. Jeopardy will take place on the final day of class: November 20. Grammar: Semi-colons
Everything needed to be completed by Nov. 13 to earn credit. Don't test me or you'll think the Green Knight was a softie!
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