Don Knotts

            On Friday morning after yoga I skipped song practice so I could finish my British Literature essay before the deadline of midnight. 

            I worked until 9:18 and took a siesta until 10:48. 

            I worked until lunch, had chips, salsa and yogourt and worked while eating. 

            I finished the essay at 16:00 but it took me another three hours to do all the citations. 

            We weren’t supposed to use external sources but since half my paper involved analyzing a section of “Bisclavret” by Marie de France, and since the translation they provided doesn’t rhyme or make use of assonance the way hers does, I thought it was silly not to explore the original Norman French text. When I uploaded the essay I added a note explaining that. If they penalize me they can go fuck themselves. 

            Here’s my essay: 

            Your father’s gone a-hunting for the beast he’ll never bind – Leonard Cohen 

            Predictions of Death in “The Hunting of the Hare” by Margaret Cavendish

            and of Salvation in “Bisclavret" by Marie de France 

            In “The Hunting of the Hare” by Margaret Cavendish and “Bisclavret" by Marie de France the outcomes of hunting expeditions are predicted throughout each poem. Cavendish utilizes setting, tense, imagery, assonance and word choice to communicate the inevitability of Wat’s death. France uses rhyme and assonance to connect Bisclavret to his destiny of survival. In both poems however the main key of predestination for the hunted is the absence of humanity in the hare and its presence in the werewolf. 

            In Cavendish’s poem the impendence of Wat’s annihilation is forecast by revealing his displacement by human agriculture; his disharmony with invented time; his relegation to being a sportsman’s prey; his poverty of poetic destiny; the death of the natural world around him; his lack of industry; and his inability to find harmonious community with humanity on human terms. 

            In de France’s poem Bisclavret’s survival is foreseen through the various techniques of rhyme and assonance employed by the author which always connect “Bisclavret” with his source of salvation, the king; it is ironically his role as prey that leads to his life being saved; it is his ability to think like a man that allows him to appeal to the king for mercy; proving that he has manlike intention and sense elevates him above the state of being prey; the ability of both werewolf and king to move their beasts to the rear brings them together as companions. 

            Both poems communicate that when humanity poses threats then the only animals than can survive must become pets. 

            In “The Hunting of the Hare” there is no lush, green, living, pastoral setting in which Wat can hide. The opening scene, “betwixt two ridges of plowed land” is not welcoming for a hare (Cavendish 1). The land has been disturbed and divided, there is no cover and no shelter and it is probable that Wat’s home has been plowed over. In a world overrun by human nature his habitat has been encroached upon and disrupted. This is the world of human agriculture in conflict with the wild world. Presenting Wat as not having a place to live that has not been broken by humans is the first occurrence of predestiny about his impending death. 

            Wat is already dead when the action of the poem begins. Animals live in the moment, while the past is a human invention. The first twelve lines of the poem are in the present in which Wat is alive and then it switches to the human cultivated past with “at last, poor Wat was found (Cavendish 1-12).” The change to the past, plus the use of the adjective “poor” combine to establish that he has ceased to exist before his story is told. “At last” instead of "and then" attaches predestined inevitability to Wat’s outcome of mortality (Cavendish 13). 

            Wat is compared to someone on their death bed who thinks that they are recovering while their life is burning out (Cavendish 49-50). He struggles with death, but death appears twice in one line, doubling its inevitability, and it is spoken of as if it were a person with intent and sense (Cavendish 52). Death is like a human judge presiding over “Wat’s case” in a trial in which the winds act in his defence. But while the winds are anthropomorphized enough to have pity they have not the authority of death (Cavendish 55-56). He is found guilty of squatting on land claimed and tamed by humans and sentenced to die by sport (Cavendish 2, 97). 

            Wat is silent throughout the poem but he is terrorized by the noises surrounding him, such as the calls of the men’s horns and the responding voices of the trained dogs. The baying of these hunting hounds is echoed in the firmament and rhymed as “cry" and "sky" (Cavendish 19-20). The heavens are barking an answer of agreement with the hunt, showing that fate is not on Wat’s side and he is bound to die. 

            The threat that Wat discerns from the human and dog sounds makes all he hears seem dangerous. Even the wind shaking the leaves of the bough under which he hides is perceived as imperilling his life. The bough being broken makes his shelter dead, and hiding beneath a dead thing becomes a symbolic marker that his death is imminent. The leaves on a dead bough would be dry, and would produce a rattling in his ears when blown by the breeze. The couplet rhymes “shake" and “ache" to emphasize the connection between this sound and his fear of death (Cavendish 33-34). Wat’s options for shelter in the plowed field, the sand pit and beneath a broken bough are all lifeless places (Cavendish 1, 25, 32). He is already in the land of the dead while running from death. 

            Although she expresses compassion for Wat, the speaker’s thoughts about him are limited to sympathy for his plight. It is the dogs on which she heaps the highest admiration as she applauds their “quick industry” (Cavendish 61). She stops to advise the reader that if one applies oneself like these hounds one can find what one has lost, which in this case is Wat (Cavendish 62). Internally rhyming in the couplet with the end rhymes of “is not slack” and “lost things back” are “industry” and “witchery” (Cavendish 61-62). This communicates that the persistent intelligence of the dogs is like a magic spell that makes vanished scents reappear. Wat is described as a "shiftless" creature, which contrasts to the "industry" of the hounds. Unlike the dogs, Wat has no capacity to regain what he has lost, which in this case is his chance for life (Cavendish 61-62, 85). 

            The speaker further supplants Wat’s silent tragedy with her appreciation of an operatic recital by the dogs. The howling hounds are described as joyfully singing while the hunting horns keep time. Their chorus as they pursue Wat is like a human song being chanted in a round with the big dogs providing the bass parts, the fast hounds as tenors, and the beagles singing soprano (Cavendish 66-73). The hounds already show an affinity for cooperation with men but in giving them the ability to create art the speaker bestows upon them human qualities, so that in a sense they become were-canines like Bisclavret. 

            Having humanity within him Bisclavret can survive by appealing for sympathy in a manlike manner. Wat however can only behave as a hare and does not have the advantage of human attributes to save his life. His death is inevitable because he has no connection to humanity. 

            In the hunting scene from “Bisclavret” the phrases that connect the king to the werewolf all rhyme with “Bisclavret”. This is shown from the beginning of the hunt with lines 135 to 136 in which each two iambic feet rhyme with the next two so that there are four rhymes with “Bisclavret” before he appears in line 137. These rhymes translated are: “until the king / went out hunting / into the woods / he did go straight / which was where Bisclavret did wait.” And so a gauntlet of four rhymes are laid out, each in the shape of the sound of “Bisclavret” to lead the king to him. The rhyming of “He did go straight” with “Bisclavret” shows that while the king’s destination is “to the forest”, his destiny is to meet Bisclavret (de France 138-139)(Anglo-Norman Dictionary: AND). 

            The dogs serve as a link between the human king and the part canine and part human Bisclavret. We see this in the couplet of lines 139-140: “when the hunt hounds were unrestrained / t'was Bisclavret that they engaged." “Descuplé (unrestrained)” has an internal rhyme with “Bisclavret” and then with the end rhyme of “encuntré (encountered).” The rhyming of "unrestrained" with "Bisclavret" connects the king’s dogs to Bisclavret before they encounter him, thus showing another example of predestiny(AND). It is ironically Bisclavret’s role as beastly prey that allows him to reveal his humanity. 

            Bisclavret runs “until he they almost did claim / tear with their teeth, mortally maim (de France 141-144)(AND).” But instead of dying patiently like Wat (Cavendish 78), he is able to use his humanity to save his life. “Until he did the rein then see / to him he ran to beg mercy.” The internal rhyme of “de si (until)” and “ver lui (to him)” matches the end rhymes of “choisi” (then see) and “merci (mercy)”. The end rhyme that communicates the sighting of the king connects internally with “to him” and then with “mercy" at the end of the couplet (de France 145-146)(AND). Seeing the king is associated in rhyme with a future of mercy and so Bisclavret runs toward that destiny of survival. 

            The end rhymes of lines 153-154 connect humility as a quality of humanity. Line 157 continues this association when the king declares, “this beast has intention and sense,” which leads directly to the decision “Let’s go then, let the hunting end!" The assonance of intent and sense and the rhyming of "sense" and "end" help to emphasize the conclusion that one that thinks like a man should not be hunted (de France 157-158)(AND). 

             After the king commands, “Chase all my hounds back to the rear (line 155)” the only canine mentioned in the poem is Bisclavret. The werewolf also moves his beast to the rear to put the human forward when he approaches the king for mercy. The king does the same, as his dogs are a manifestation of his own animal violence, which he relinquishes in response to Bisclavret's humanity. The rhyming of “Arere (the rear)" and "la fiere (the fear)" predicts that Bisclavret's troubles are behind him (de France 155-156)(AND). 

            In lines 161-162 “at this the rein he turned to go / but Bisclavret he did follow", the first two iambic feet of the first line rhyme with the first two of the second, thereby connecting the rein and Bisclavret before they become inseparable. The rhyme predicts and mirrors the future narrative of togetherness. In the Norman French “li reis s'en est” relates to the king's presence before his action of turning to go. This is rhymed internally with “le Bisclavret" and adds another moment of predestiny as the king’s being is matched with that of Bisclavret (AND). 

            Imagine if Wat had possessed the intention and sense to leap onto the horse of one of the hunters and to behave as Bisclavret did towards the king. If it had been possible for him to engage with a human hunter and to appeal directly to his humanity then the hunter may have been shocked into mercy as was Bisclavret’s king (de France 146-148) . 

            In “The Hunting of the Hare” Wat is alone while the dogs and men that hunt him have community. Humanity wins in the Margaret Cavendish poem. Bisclavret is also alone but then so is the king. There is only one werewolf and only one king and they find each other in their unique humanity. Humanity also wins in the Marie de France poem. 

 Work cited 

“Anglo-Norman Dictionary.” Universities of Aberystwyth and Swansea, http://www.anglo-                                  norman.net/gate/, accessed 1 December 2020. 

            “tant que li reis ala chacier / a la forest ala tut                    dreit / la u li Bisclavret esteit (136-                   138)” 

            “quant li chiens furent descuplé / le Bisclavret unt encuntré (139-140)” 

            “tant que pur poi ne l’eurent pris / e tut deciré e maumis (143-144)” 

            "de si qu’il ad le rei choisi / vers lui curut quere merci (145-146)” 

            “il l’aveit pris par sun estrié / la jambe li baise e le pié (147-148)” 

            “cum ceste beste se humilie / ele ad sen de hume, merci crie (153-154)”

            “chacez mei tuz ces chiens arere / si gardez quë hum ne la fiere! (155-156)"

            “ceste beste ad entente e sen / espleitez vus! alum nus en! (157-158)” 

            “li reis s’en est turné atant / le Bisclavret li vet sewant (161-162)” 

Cavendish, Margaret. “The Hunting of the Hare.” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: 

             Concise edition, Volume A, 3rd Edition, Edited by Black Joseph, L. Conolly, K. Flint, I.                         Grundy, D. LePan, R. Liuzza, J. McGann, A. Prescott, B. Qualls, C. Waters, Broadview, 2019,               pp. 1155-1156, lines 1-85. 

de France, Marie.“Bisclavret.” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Concise edition, 

             Volume A, 3rd Edition, Edited by Black Joseph, L. Conolly, K. Flint, I. Grundy, D. LePan, R. 

             Liuzza, J. McGann, A. Prescott, B. Qualls, C. Waters, Broadview, 2019, pp. 183-184, lines 1-

             85. 

            I got an email from my Canadian Literature professor in response to my saying I can’t type as fast as the younger students and so the exam should be longer. She said the longest option they gave her was three hours and so I have to talk to the Accessibility office if I want a longer time. I think it’s pretty funny and sad too that people that were born before personal computers are considered “special needs” students. When I went to high school the only people that learned to type were the ones that entered the “Commercial” program. I was in “Academic” before quitting. Anybody that learned to type later must have taken a course. 

            I roasted a small chicken and had part of it with a small potato and gravy while watching the third episode of The Andy Griffith Show. 

            In this story a young guitarist named Jim Lindsey keeps getting reluctantly arrested by Andy for playing on the street which is technically disturbing the peace. When Jim is in jail he and Andy jam together and they have a good time but Andy is beginning to worry that Jim is wasting his time in Mayberry when he is good enough to be famous. Jim however is not very ambitious and so when a big city band called Bobby Fleet and his Band with a Beat passes through town, Andy decides to have them arrested and to also arrest Jim again so Bobby can hear Jim play. At first Jim refuses to play but Andy tricks him by untuning his guitar. While Jim is tuning the instrument it sounds horrible and Bobby and his boys laugh until Jim starts really playing and the band joins in. Jim is hired to be their new guitarist.              Barney Fife as everyone know was played by Don Knotts. He started out as a ventriloquist while still in high school. He started his long time professional relationship with Andy Griffith when he appeared as a psychiatrist in the Griffith starring film “No Time for Sergeants." That movie became the basis of the Andy Griffith spin-off "Gomer Pyle" in which Jim Nabors played a similar character on TV to that of Andy’s in the movie. Before Andy Griffith Knotts played a character called "The nervous man on the street” on the Steve Allen Show in which he was being interviewed but he was too nervous to be coherent on the topic. 

            Knotts became so popular on Andy Griffith that he went on to become a movie star with films such as “The Incredible Mr Limpit”. He even had his own variety show for a while.