The Classic English Literature Podcast

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Today, we'll wrap up our Jonsonian mini-series by looking at some his lyrics, including poems from the 1616 Works and songs from his plays.  If you'd like to read along, just ask Uncle Google to serve up these titles:

"On Something, that Walks Somewhere"
"On My First Daughter"
"On My First Son"
"Song: To Celia"
"Still to be Neat"

Additional music from Internet Archive:
"Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes" perf. Paul Robeson, 1938.
"In Town Tonight" by Eric Coates, perf. Reginald Dixon.

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Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber Orchestra
Subcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish Guards
Sound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
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It's Independence Day here in America, so today's show takes the opportunity to look at some of writing of early English colonists in New England and how their ideas contributed to the national ethos that would emerge in the coming centuries.

Additional music from Internet Archive: 
"Stars and Stripes Forever." John Philip Sousa.  perf Twentieth Century Fox Orchestra
"The Love Boat Theme." perf Jack Jones

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Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber Orchestra
Subcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish Guards
Sound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
My thanks and appreciation to all the generous providers!

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We'll finish our look at Ben Jonson's comedies today with perhaps his most well-regarded efforts: Volpone, or The Fox and The Alchemist.

Additional music: "In Town Tonight" by Eric Coates, perf. Reginald Dixon.  From the Internet Archive.

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Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber Orchestra
Subcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish Guards
Sound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
My thanks and appreciation to all the generous providers!

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Today, I look askance at two plays by Ben Jonson, whom many see (not me, though) as the greatest English playwright bar Shakespeare: Every Man In His Humour and Every Man Out of His Humour.  These have become the paradigmatic examples of the 17th century "comedy of humours."

Thank you to the Internet Archive for providing public domain recordings of The Benny Hill Show and Fawlty Towers theme songs.

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Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber Orchestra
Subcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish Guards
Sound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
My thanks and appreciation to all the generous providers!

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Today, we take a historical survey of the Bible in English, from early partial translations and paraphrases in the 7th century through the magnificence of King James I's Authorized Version of 1611.

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Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber Orchestra
Subcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish Guards
Sound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
My thanks and appreciation to all the generous providers!

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Today we look at Aemelia Lanyer's pioneering and influential work, "Eve's Apology in Defense of Women" from 1611's Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum.

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Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber Orchestra
Subcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish Guards
Sound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
My thanks and appreciation to all the generous providers!

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For our final episode focusing on Shakespeare, we look at his sonnets, arguably the most famous collection of lyric poems in the language.

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Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber Orchestra
Subcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish Guards
Sound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
My thanks and appreciation to all the generous providers!

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For our (probably) final episode on Shakespeare's plays, we sail through The Tempest, a late romance which has attracted historical and psychoanalytical interpretations, but stands out for many readers as perhaps a play in which a version of Shakespeare himself appears as the protagonist.  

Audio clip from The Tempest ; 2004 Naxos AudioBooks.  Taken from The Internet Archive

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Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber Orchestra
Subcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish Guards
Sound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
My thanks and appreciation to all the generous providers!

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To mark the Easter holiday, we return to George Herbert, Jacobean poet and priest, and his most famous work, the pattern poem "Easter Wings."

Here's a link to an image of the poem:

https://clinicalpsychreading.blogspot.com/2016/03/easter-wings-george-herbert-15931633.html

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Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber Orchestra
Subcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish Guards
Sound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
My thanks and appreciation to all the generous providers!

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While most people know Shakespeare as a playwright, he saw himself as a poet in the quite traditional sense.  Today, we'll look at his two major narrative poems: Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece.

clip from "Mrs. Robinson" by Paul Simon; perf. by Simon and Garfunkel. 1968.  Taken from We Got Good at It: A Wrecking Crew Anthology 1962-1971.  The Internet Archive.

Support the show

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Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber Orchestra
Subcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish Guards
Sound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
My thanks and appreciation to all the generous providers!