On Sunday morning I worked out the chords to almost all of “Belinda” by Serge Gainsbourg. There are just a few repetitions of “Belinda” at the end but it should only take a couple of minutes to figure that out on Tuesday morning.
I weighed 87.8 kilos before breakfast.
I worked on my Shakespeare essay.
I weighed 87.5 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five year old cheddar and a glass of fruit punch.
I took a siesta from 10:30 to 12:00.
I worked on my essay. At 15:00 I checked the word count and found I was 1244 words over, so now I had to start paring it down.
I tried to take a siesta for an hour at 17:00 but couldn't sleep, so I just lay in the dark recharging my brain batteries for half an hour.
At 19:00 my word count was at 1558 and so probably acceptable, but I still had lots of work to do to make it into a formal essay.
At 19:11 I laid down again for half an hour. I don't think I slept but I did dream for a few seconds of myself standing alone outside at night on the steps in front of of a tall building. I knew I was dreaming and I knew I was awake.
I worked some more and then I went to bed with my clothes on at around 22:30.
I got up at around 1:30. The computer screen was blinding when I began to look at it again. I wrote a conclusion for my essay and saw that I was 215 words short. I still had to write a connecting paragraph after the thesis, outlining where the play would be going in its argument. That would bring the word count back up.
I went back to bed at around 2:15, but kept the essay open for after yoga, when I would have three hours before the deadline to finish the paper. But I still couldn't sleep and so I got up at 3:00 and worked until 3:30, then went back to bed. I was still awake at 4:00 and so I rose and worked until 4:15. Back to bed. I didn't expect to sleep and didn't but I just focused on resting until the alarm went off.
I did yoga and then worked on my essay. Except for posting my Shakespeare email assignment I worked for three hours. I needed the last hour to work out the citations. I considered it as finished as it was going to be and uploaded it at 8:43 but it was rejected because it was not in DOC or DOCX format. When I uploaded my last US Lit assignment my Open Office document was accepted but not for Shakespeare. I wonder why. I had to upload my document to CloudConvert to convert it to DOC and it only took a few seconds so I was still able to hand it in with ten minutes to spare.
Here it is:
The frontiers are my prison – Hy Zaret
Autolycus’s Ability to Cross Boundaries Robs Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale of Tragedy
In Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale Autolycus has the ability to effortlessly cross political, cultural, emotional, seasonal, geographical, and generic borders. It is because of this that he not only presides over the comedy of the play but also causes the resolution of the tragic events of the first three acts.
A study of Autolycus's border crossing must begin with a look at the dangerous barrier building that is instigated in the first three acts by King Leontes when he loses hold of his own nature, resulting in devastating thefts of freedom and love (2901-2931). This causes the tragedy that Autolycus will eventually repair with his border crossing wizardry that he maintains by remaining true to his own nature. We will follow Autolycus across boundaries as he travels in vehicles of disguise and then hear how he furthers his bridging of borders through the instruments of song. He greets the audience and guides them in the crossing from winter and tragedy to spring and comedy. After this it becomes evident that he is the audience's best friend in this play because when he addresses the Fourth Wall he is never deceptive to his viewers. Finally it is shown how Autolycus seemingly accidentally, and with comic indifference carries the play to its resolution and heals the wounds that were inflicted by Leontes.
In the first three acts of The Winter's Tale, the main problems arise because of the inability of King Leontes to traverse certain crucial boundaries. For him the barrier between the real and the feared becomes tenuous, leading to confusions of friendship and betrayal; marriage and cuckoldry; and doubts about his own children (2901-2931). His belief that he is being deceived culminates in self deception. Because he is a king his weakening grip on psychological perimeters results in a tightening fist of limits being imposed on those around him. These restrictions are thefts of freedom and the harmful removals of loved ones. He steals his Queen Hermione's liberty, royal status and baby (2915); he robs his son Prince Mamillius of his mother (2915); he snatches Paulina's husband Antogonus from her by forcing him to go on a border crossing mission that results in his death (2913, 2932). Devastating thefts are caused by the artificial boundaries imposed by Leontes. When they result in deaths in his own family his walls crumble in tragedy and he bounds himself in a cocoon of remorse over what he has stolen from himself.
In contrast to Leontes, Autolycus's thefts cause no harm because he understands boundaries. He is the antithesis of Leontes and his ability to manoeuvre around and penetrate the frontiers of those he encounters allows him to blend into their midst. One of the ways he does this is through the wearing of disguises. Costumes are also borders but they are portable and when they are carefully chosen they become vehicles for the crossing of greater frontiers. Autolycus is always in disguise and is continuously ready to change the boundaries and deceptions that he wears when the need arises. One must understand the nature of borders to effectively disguise oneself. His masquerades cross cultural, professional and class boundaries. It is his deftness at passing through borders that allows him to reach into the coverings of personal space and ply his trade as a master pickpocket. But unlike the clumsy robberies committed by Leontes that by force of authority rip away life and freedom, Autolycus only steals what is in pocket and no one is ruined by his tricks.
Another trick that Autolycus uses for the crossing of borders is his repertoire of songs, with lyrics set to stolen tunes. His lyrics and melodies move their listeners and cause them to relax the guarding of their borders. The song “Get Thee Hence” is sold to Clown, and once he has learned it the trivial melody puts listeners' attentions in their ears to provide the distraction that Autolycus requires for castrating their codpieces of coin (2955).
Autolycus's trade of thievery is the metier that most fits his nature and the use to which he applies his talent for phasing through borders. But his stealing over boundaries with song and disguise serves more than just his professional interests. He also traverses the boundaries between himself and the audience; and between tragedy and comedy.
Autolucus carries the play across the generic border in his first interaction with another character as the comedy is born with the picking of Clown's pocket (2937-2938). Autolycus shows we are in a world where harm is light and playful, because the tragic weapon of winter has little edge here. The comedy of Autolycus is a mockery of the tragedies that take place in this play. In his song of the celebration of spring he references the tragedy of winter. In the line, “For the red blood reins in the winter's pale” the last three words rhyme with “the winter's tale”, indicating that the winter's tale we have been witnessing is colourless and void of life. The white sheet bleaching and becoming paler on the hedge or boundary between winter and spring is a death shroud (2936).
It is on the spring side of that seasonal frontier that Autolycus first greets the audience and escorts us to the comedy (2936). He enters the play singing of spring even though it is mid-summer. Perhaps he does this because he knows that a song of the celebration of “the sweet of the year” serves as a more fitting welcome to an audience that has recently experienced the bitter sting of winter (2936). Through his many asides Autolycus crosses the barrier of the Fourth Wall to maintain an intimate communication with the audience. It is clear in his first scene that he is undisguised in his behaviour because there is no one around to deceive for profit. This also means that the song “When Daffodils Begin to Peer” is one that serves no opportunistic purpose and is sung entirely for his and the audience's enjoyment. It is in the middle this song that he first reaches across the Fourth Wall to share details of his personal history. In his song he says that wandering here and there makes him go right, meaning he gains direction from aimlessness (2936). He does seem to go right at the end of the play. He later sings another happy tune called “Jog On, Jog On the Footpath Way” in which he chants of merrily crossing fences. The lyrics further advise that if one does not have fun in the crossing of borders it will be a tiring journey (2938-2939). Not only does Autolycus never deceive the audience nor conceal from us his thefts and deceptions, he also often tells us about them in detail, making us complicit in his crimes.
Autolycus is not only true to the audience but also to the god of Fortune. He never denies his calling of thievery and knavery because Fortune also requires the dishonest for its purposes (2960). Because of this every exit until his last one finds him optimistic and full of the hope in his plans. By contrast Leontes is shown to be in continuous sorrow that he performs in penance for having not been true to his god Apollo (2960).
When Autolycus is asked to provide a disguise for Florizel he senses a deception is being planned (2956). The Prince, in sneaking across boundaries in disguise is also crossing the border into the world of knavery and so now Autolycus feels affinity with him and decides to help him to escape (2957). This leads Autolycus to move away from the pastoral realm of rural Bohemia across the oceanic boundary into the serious world of the Sicilian court. He carries with him the comedy with which to colour that winter world, not only by himself but he also brings with him the comic figure of the rustic Clown. As a result of tricking the Shepherd and Clown onto Florizel's Sicily bound vessel with their proof that Perdita is a princess, Autolycus becomes also the indifferent cause of the fulfillment of the Oracle (2960, 2968).
Autolycus's unconscious actions, or his “wandering here and there” are the cause of the reunions that resolve the play and make it “go right” with an ending that results in the dissolution of borders. As the boundary between tragedy and comedy fades away in the finish, there is no longer a need for a crosser of borders, and therefore so too does Autolycus dissolve from our periphery (2969).
Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. “The Winter's Tale.” The New Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works: Modern Critical Edition. Editors Gary Taylor, John Jowett, Terri Bourus, Gabriel Egan, PDF, Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 2897-2973.
At that point I stayed on Quercus to log onto my Shakespeare lecture.
I weighed 88.4 kilos before breakfast.
Lecture:
It will take about two weeks to mark the essays we handed in today.
We begin our long march through Othello. We are taking a lot of time because it is a complicated play and that will pay off. It's a great play and the longer study of it will help articulate why it's great. There are no objective criteria of greatness but Othello is one of the most ambitious and formally adventurous dramatic experiments of his time. That is also true in relation to his own work. He set out to surprise himself and wrote something that is challenging on all levels. It is challenging to read, see, act and think about. He was not certain from the outset of what kind of play it would be. Any Shakespeare play could turn into 2 or 3 kinds of plays. He was good at putting red herring gestures in his plays and unfolding the possibilities of multiple outcomes and generic forms that could take place.
We are taking a leisurely pace to read the play. Act 1 today and Wednesday.
There were good questions in the emails, with race the primary question. Was it racist? Were his contemporaries racist? How do we think of race in the play? There are no satisfying answers. It is important to say the same response to general methodological assumptions of people by English class teachers. A Shakespeare play is not journalism or propaganda. His purpose was not to record certain conditions of his present and comment on them. His purpose was not to achieve an ideological perspective on the audience. It's art. The character of art is multi vocality. Many voices. Multi perspectival. Many effects. A simultaneous and manipulative way. Any circumstance is incidental. Art is self indulgent. Whether good or bad it exists unto itself. Artists are not trying to talk of issues. The artistic impulse is there. One can't help but create. So it draws into itself the material around it and uses it for art. One writer said, “The only reason I write a novel is to finish it as soon as possible.” He was joking but it's kind of true. A process has its own momentum. Get it out. To see the form completed. Now out in the world there are complex energetic challenges. After Othello Shakespeare wrote other things. maybe All's Well That Ends Well. They have different forms. We will talk of race but we'll get to it within the play and will not start with it.
Start at the beginning in 1.1. We are naive attendees in 1603 seeing The Tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice. We'll talk more about the word “Moor” later. It would signal a mercenary fighter, darker than a European, from North Africa or Arabia. Such men enlisted by the Venetian military was common at the time, fighting for Venice. It is billed as a tragedy so we think he will die, probably in battle. Those are the general assumptions. There are two people on stage, Rodorigo and Iago talking about something specific, but we don't know what they are talking about. There is a dispute. This has to do with “such a matter” relating to “him.” Things have been happening before the play starts. Shakespeare maybe more than most of his peers puts us where we have to figure out who they are talking about. “He” and “him” is a person who is hated but his identity is ambiguous. But we learn he could have promoted Iago but he already chose Cassio. We get the name after Iago. Shakespeare delays identification of an important person. It is important to remember that we don't know at first. Other important people asked Othello to promote Iago but he chose Cassio, a Florentine, damned with a fair wife. He has a good looking wife and suffers for it. He has no military experience. We wait in Othello. What is the problem? Maybe lack of military experience is the issue. We don't know Rodorigo's name yet. Rodorigo is mad about something and Iago is angry about something else. Someone put in an unexpected place comes back in the play again and again. Cassio is elected. Cassio got lieutenantship but Iago was cast aside.
“He” being Othello is as yet unknown. In 1.1.24 “he” is Cassio but in 1.1.25 “his eyes” refers to Othello. One could get the two mixed, merging indistinctness between Cassio and Othello. There is also indistinctness between what Rodorigo and Iago are upset about. It will serve well as an analytical framework going forward that the play is about difference in society, role, skin colour, distinct social morays, and Othello's honesty. Everything Iago says makes it hard to tell the difference between people. Cassio has an attractive wife. The position the play puts us in is trying to figure differences and organize them in relation of priority.
At 1.1.30 we hear “his Moorship.” Iago is an ensign, which is a servant but also represents that the general in standing while holding the flag. But he is not like a lieutenant who could step in for the general. “Moorship” is an ironic play on “lordship.” “Above me” indicates that there is racial hostility. He is just a moor. A mercenary and likely not part of society. Maybe he is religiously Muslim, but that is ambiguous. Maybe he's a converted Christian. Iago has infused “Moorship” with racial hostility. Below when above but Iago is overlooked. We are tied to Iago's perspective and so through him we see a difference.
What Iago is doing is trying to convince Rodorigo that he does not like Othello and that he didn't like Othello before. But the play starts with conflict between Rodorigo and Othello and Iago uses his own conflict to say I'm on your side. But know-how is no reward. People who know the right people get promoted. Cassio can't fight but he knows people. The “curse of service” is a key note. Shakespeare uses it again all through the play. Rodorigo says “if you don't like him don't follow him.” But we can't all be masters. These servants serve willingly but are put out to pasture. Iago says he's his own master and that's why he serves. This is complicated. “Were I the moor I would not be Iago.” “Would” also means a wish. I wish I was not a servant. If I was the Moor I wouldn't be Iago. The curse of service involves a qualitative distinction between master and servant. To be a winner a servant must be performing. He is a loyal servant throughout the play. Iago is talking a lot about his own position. He represents his distinct framework with Othello to persuade Rodorigo he doesn't like him. But in verbosity and persistence he speaks of himself and about antagonism between master and servant. One can be self interested and disloyal. There is no genuine loyalty for Iago and no service he would gladly abuse or perform. In Shakespeare's time service was a pervasive organizing principle of society. Society relied on it. People needed masters. Iago has a satirical and idiosyncratic attitude to service.
Rodorigo hates Othello and his racist “thick lips” is different from “Moor.” “Moor” could be an honourific or racial term but “thick lips” is different. It is meant to differentiate someone physically and morally from the dominant culture. Rodorigo is rich but unsophisticated. Rodorigo is preoccupied and fixated on race to express disbelief in what has been done. Iago now uses racism to convince Roderigo. Call her father? Whose father? “Her” is the first feminine pronoun in the play. Maybe Rodorigo is in love with someone and Othello also. In 1.1.67 Iago says “Rouse him” and that is Brabanzio. Iago refers to Othello. It is hard to keep track of who is being talked of. In 1.1.86 “old black ram” is language to rouse Brabanzio against Othello. In the same vein as “thick lips” but above Moorship. You may conclude that Iago is racist but add that Iago is speaking with Rodorigo in mind. He's trying to show Rodorigo he's against Othello. “Thick lips” in 1.1.64 is the cue for more racist language at 1.1.86. There is a current of racial hostility between Rodorigo and Iago that differs from Iago's issue. Rodorigo loves Brabanzio's daughter who is with Othello. It's a rivalry. Iago assists by sympathizing even while promising to help for pay. Even as essential racist language of bestiality is spoken there is a complex social situation. Rodorigo wants Brabanzio's daughter but Othello gets the girl. Social history with many levels of intent and desire.
We took a ten minute break.
To sum up and reiterate the first 100 lines, the first scene has essential ideas of identity and the articulation of essential feelings. Despise me if I do not hate him. I hate him as hell pain. Strong language in a racial context. Physical characteristics of the identity of someone unseen who is different ethnically and physically. Essential differences. A strong current in the first scene as if an elemental force. Identity in racial terms. Absolute barrier of experience. It's a tragedy so we know what will be unleashed, but there is a detailed social context in the first scene. Servant, master, Cassio. Big shots decide.
Elevated relationship of Brabanzio the senator. They are throwing rocks at his window Rodorigo and Iiago are nobodies. Rodorigo has been hanging round. Rodorigo is paying Iago to perform the function of go-between. It's a tragedy so there is no reason one wouldn't think Othello coerced Desdemona. Iago sexualizes to upset the performative but his status is uncertain. She could be coerced and tempted. It's sexual and not marriage at this point.
At end of Act 1 Rodorigo thinks it is hopeless and gives up because Desdemona is married. Rodorigo gives up. Iago says he's an idiot and it won't be long before the marriage is finished. These Moors are changeable. Genetically or dispositionally and so he does not like forever. She will not like an old guy for long. A sarcastic line saying that Othello is an erring barbarian, a stranger, and an outsider. Desdemona is a good girl who fooled everyone by running away with the Moor under dad's nose. She convinces the senate but Iago says it's a game and when it's over then Rodorigo can have her. Iago says he needs money to send her presents on Rodorigo's behalf, but we find out Iago keeps the money. He says “I hate him” but it is framed in performance.
The elemental part is framed in the social. Rodorigo leaves and Iago is alone saying “I make a fool my purse.” He wouldn't hang out with Rodorigo but for money. He's parallel to Othello. He says to the audience “I hate the Moor.” It's of a piece with the feeling throughout the act. Then he says Othello may have slept with his wife. He says “Tis thought abroad” meaning other people think it. He's not even saying he believes it, but people talk. He's not saying he hates him more because of it. He says “and.” Potential jealousy that is not necessarily jealousy. Not fully realized. Essential elemental feeling revealed to the audience. He hates him purely but then pulls back. There is no definite connection. That's Shakespeare all over. One can't pin him down.
The most important thing in this lecture. Signals of essential language in the first act are tragic. Iago hates the Moore and Rodorigo's race differences. In the scene at the Duke's court he says that Othello is more fair than black. This is different from his equalizing. He still assumes blackness implies moral failure. He is virtuous and fair so don't think he is black. It is unattractive language because it is absolute. The association of skin tone with moral character. The Duke is not progressive but tolerant. People will think Othello is different even when they accept him.
Brabanzio says women are deceitful, and Desdemona in particular. Othello says she is faithful on my life. In plays women are often deceitful. Many emotions point to tragedy here. Fairness and blackness: and Moorish. These cue. Social framing is powerful but depends on what social context. Venice depends on mercenary soldiers to fight against the Turks. Othello is equated with Turks. Transactional relations. Othello gives up part of himself for Venice in service. A senator with a daughter wooed by Rodorigo but also by Othello. Nobody suspects and she likes him. They have to deceive Brabanzio. Iago doing interference. He probably does not know at first that Othello is with Desdemona. He is surprised by their marriage. Iago gets Rodorigo on the hook for money. Iago suspects Othello might have had sex with his wife. Cassio compared with Iago. He also has marital problems. Almost damned in a fair wife, Cassio might have the same problem, that his wife has been with someone else.
In Venice Brabanzio has a daughter who is wooed by Rodorigo and Othello. Iago thinks Othello slept with his wife. Cassio compared with Othello. Iago's wife becomes Desdemona's servant. Desdemona goes away with Othello and Iago's wife. It's a marriage between an errant barbarian and a gentle Venetian. Competitions of potential adultery deceive faith. All that is generic is comic. The play builds tragedy from material of comedy. But how it gets to the tragedy is through the machinery of comedy. Old deceived dad, clever daughter, and master with servant are all material of comedy. Certain movements, rivalries and revelations move to unleash clashes. 1.2 gives Iago having left Rodorigo at the end. He needs to show that Othello is loyal.
With Othello read the first fifteen lines to figure who they are talking about. Someone says something and Shakespeare is tactful. Something is withheld. Iago uses that method too. Iago talks up Brabanzio's importance. The Duke treats it like it's not important. Iago exaggerates Brabantio's power. My services I have been loyal and I will be rewarded. Othello says it works but Iago says it doesn't. They are both wrong. We hear Desdemona's name for the first time. Othello admits he's been a wanderer but will change for Desdemona. The play will work out the conflict between these absolutes. Lights come and we think it's Brabanzio's men but they are servants of the Duke and the lieutenant. Instead a different entrance of Iago and one conflict gives way to another as Iago sees the lieutenant he wanted to be. The Turkish fleet recapitulates. We will talk of the word “Moor” more on Wednesday.
I shaved my essay beard and took a shower.
I weighed 87.8 kilos before lunch.
I took a bike ride in the cool evening. It was almost cold enough for winter gloves and a second scarf. I rode to Yonge and Bloor and south to Richmond, then headed west for home. I could still go up Portland to Queen but shortly after Trinity Bellwoods Park Queen street was fenced off until almost Ossington. I rode along the sidewalk until I was free to get back on the street but it looks like I'll have to take Yonge to King and ride all the way to Dunn to get home for the next several weeks.
As I rode I was thinking of As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner again. It seems to me this hillbilly family might be a microcosm of the United States. Darl almost sounds like he's talking in African American vernacular sometimes and Vardaman sounds like Dadaist when he says “My mother is a fish.”
I weighed 88.3 kilos when I got home.
I worked on editing my lecture notes.
I had a potato with gravy and a chicken breast while watching an episode of Gomer Pyle.
In this story Sergeant Carter is a nervous wreck from dealing with Gomer. He decides to go home to Witchita for the weekend. Gomer gives him a ride to the airport and Carter tells him it's because of him he needs to get away. Gomer helps him take his things onto the plane but on the way out he accidentally gets shoved into a closet, falls and hits his head. When he wakes up the plane is flying to Wichita. Gomer doesn't have the money to take a plane back but he doesn't want to let Carter know he is there because it will upset him. He tries to keep out of sight while following Carter but Carter keeps thinking he sees Gomer in his periphery and his eye starts to twitch. Carter stays at his mother's place and when he goes out for a walk Gomer knocks on the door and tells his story to Mrs. Carter. She says she'll lend Gomer the money to fly back tomorrow but meanwhile insists that he stay there for the night. She sets Gomer up a cot in the attic but Carter decides to go up there and look for something. He sees Gomer standing in a white nightshirt and thinks he's seen a ghost. Gomer gets back to the base but when Carter returns he is still not relaxed.
I didn't finish editing my lecture notes and get caught up on my journal until after 23:00. I was still exhausted from writing my essay, even though I'd taken a siesta. I kept dozing off while typing and pressing keys that caused long runs of letters and symbols.
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