The Classic English Literature Podcast
By M. G. McDonough
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Subscribers: 11
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Episodes: 102
Description
Where rhyme gets its reason! In a historical survey of English literature, I take a personal and philosophical approach to the major texts of the tradition in order to not only situate the poems, prose, and plays in their own contexts, but also to show their relevance to our own. This show is for the general listener: as a teacher of high school literature and philosophy, I am less than a scholar but more than a buff. I hope to edify and entertain!
| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
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The First English Novel? Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe
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Nov 09, 2025 |
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The First Ghost Story? Daniel Defoe's "The Apparition of Mrs. Veal"
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Oct 26, 2025 |
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Modish Men and the Way of the World: The Great Restoration Comedies of Manners
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Oct 10, 2025 |
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"A Foolish Marriage Vow": John Dryden's Marriage a la Mode and Amphitryon
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Sep 21, 2025 |
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"The Amendment of Vices": John Dryden's Satires
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Sep 07, 2025 |
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Puritans in Arcadia: Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, and Pastoralism
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Aug 24, 2025 |
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The Ambiguity of Wit: William Wycherly's The Country Wife
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Aug 03, 2025 |
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On The Battle of the Boyne
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Jul 11, 2025 |
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Tea and Revolution: Nahum Tate's "Panacea"
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Jul 03, 2025 |
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Aphra Behn's Oroonoko: Blurring History and Romance
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Jun 25, 2025 |
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Dear Diary: Samuel Pepys, John Evelyn, and Navel-Gazing as History
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Jun 01, 2025 |
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A Parody of Pomposity: Samuel Butler's Hudibras
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May 18, 2025 |
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Forward to the Past: John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress
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May 04, 2025 |
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Nasty, Brutish, and Naturally Free: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and the Social Contract
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Apr 20, 2025 |
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Early Science Fiction: Lunar Geese and Blazing Worlds
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Apr 02, 2025 |
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A Garden and a Coy Mistress: Andrew Marvell
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Mar 16, 2025 |
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The Earliest Tales of Robin Hood (Out of Time Episode 2)
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Mar 02, 2025 |
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To Justify the Ways of God: John Milton's Paradise Lost (episode 2)
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Feb 17, 2025 |
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Sexy Satan: John Milton's Paradise Lost (episode 1)
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Feb 02, 2025 |
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"Pastures New": John Milton's "Lycidas"
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Jan 12, 2025 |
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Christmas on Trial!
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Dec 23, 2024 |
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Cavaliers and Roundheads: The English Civil Wars
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Dec 19, 2024 |
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Thanksgiving in Plain Style
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Nov 27, 2024 |
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Carpe Diem!: The Cavalier Poets
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Nov 17, 2024 |
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"Death the Leveller" by James Shirley
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Oct 30, 2024 |
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Cant, Costume, and Cutpurses: Dekker and Middleton's The Roaring Girl
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Oct 26, 2024 |
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"The test of experience": The Philosophy of Sir Francis Bacon
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Oct 06, 2024 |
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Vikings Are A Thing! The Scandinavian Influence on English (Out of Time Episode 1)
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Sep 22, 2024 |
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Will the Real Hamlet Please Stand Up
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Sep 15, 2024 |
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An Unintended Episode: English Country House Poems
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Sep 02, 2024 |
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John Webster's Sensational The Duchess of Malfi
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Aug 20, 2024 |
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Flesh and Spirit: The Writing of John Donne
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Aug 05, 2024 |
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"Drink to me only with thine eyes": Ben Jonson's Lyrics
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Jul 21, 2024 |
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English Comes to America
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Jul 03, 2024 |
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"A Pretty Kind of Game": Ben Jonson's Volpone and The Alchemist
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Jun 17, 2024 |
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Humorous Humors: Ben Jonson's Early Comedies
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Jun 02, 2024 |
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The Bible in English
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May 19, 2024 |
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More than the Dark Lady: Aemilia Lanyer's "Eve's Apology in Defense of Women"
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May 05, 2024 |
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Fair Youths and Dark Ladies: Shakespeare's Sonnets
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Apr 20, 2024 |
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"You taught me language": Shakespeare's The Tempest
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Apr 07, 2024 |
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The Felix Culpa: George Herbert's "Easter Wings"
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Mar 31, 2024 |
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Shakespeare: The Narrative Poems
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Mar 10, 2024 |
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Shakespeare's The Tragedy of King Lear and the Absurdity of Suffering
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Feb 18, 2024 |
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Shakespeare's Problematic Plays
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Jan 28, 2024 |
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Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth: A Love Story
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Jan 15, 2024 |
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Who is There?: Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet
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Dec 29, 2023 |
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The First Anglican Christmas Carol
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Dec 24, 2023 |
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Honor, Ethics, and Assassination: Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
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Dec 10, 2023 |
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Happy 400th! Shakespeare's First Folio
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Nov 30, 2023 |
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"I am a woman; when I think I must speak": Shakespeare's Rosalind and Beatrice
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Nov 25, 2023 |
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Happy Thanksgiving! George Herbert's "Gratefulness"
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Nov 22, 2023 |
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Shakespeare's Henriad
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Nov 10, 2023 |
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Happy Halloween from Herrick's "The Hag"!
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Oct 31, 2023 |
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Despair and Damnation: Marlowe's The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus
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Oct 29, 2023 |
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Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: A Tragedy of Sonnet-Lovers
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Oct 15, 2023 |
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Concord of this Discord: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Sep 30, 2023 |
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History, History Plays, and Historiography: Shakespeare's Richard III
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Sep 17, 2023 |
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Spillin' the Tea on Marlowe and Kyd
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Sep 01, 2023 |
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"Violence Prevails": Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy
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Aug 22, 2023 |
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The Sum of Glory: Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great Parts 1 and 2
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Aug 13, 2023 |
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An Overview of Renaissance Theatre
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Aug 04, 2023 |
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A Still Queer Voice: Richard Barnfield's "The Affectionate Shepherd"
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Jul 27, 2023 |
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Live with Me, Be My Love: Pastoral Eclogues
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Jul 20, 2023 |
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Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene: The Legend of the Redcrosse Knight
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Jul 12, 2023 |
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American Independence: Tudor Roots
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Jul 04, 2023 |
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The Perfect Pattern of a Poet: Edmund Spenser's Lyrics
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Jun 27, 2023 |
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The Queen's Two Bodies: Elizabeth I's Poetry
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Jun 17, 2023 |
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Defending Poetry: Sir Philip Sidney
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Jun 10, 2023 |
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Nowhereland: Sir Thomas More's Utopia
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Jun 03, 2023 |
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On Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey
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May 27, 2023 |
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Venus, Venison, and Venom: The Poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt
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May 20, 2023 |
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John Skelton: The Last Medieval (or First Renaissance) Poet
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May 13, 2023 |
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For the Coronation of King Charles III
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May 06, 2023 |
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The Mysteries and the Miller's Tale (The Canterbury Tales, Part 3.75 [?])
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Apr 30, 2023 |
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The Birth of English Drama: Mystery and Morality
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Apr 22, 2023 |
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Weal and Woe: Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur (The Matter of Arthur, Part 4)
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Apr 15, 2023 |
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William Dunbar's "Done is the Battle": An Easter Hymn
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Apr 09, 2023 |
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The Great Vowel Movement
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Apr 01, 2023 |
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Medieval Mysticism: The Book of Showings and The Book of Margery Kempe
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Mar 25, 2023 |
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Three Doctors and a Razor: Medieval English Philosophers
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Mar 19, 2023 |
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Keep the Faith: Moral John Gower
|
Mar 11, 2023 |
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Mock Chivalry: "The Tournament of Tottenham"
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Mar 05, 2023 |
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Love and Loss in Anglo-Saxon Poetry
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Feb 26, 2023 |
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Revolting Peasants: 1381 and All That
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Feb 23, 2023 |
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The Endless Knot: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (The Matter of Arthur, Part 3)
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Feb 11, 2023 |
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"Noble Preaching": The Wife, The Lollards, and Chaucer's Retraction (The Canterbury Tales Part 3.5)
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Jan 28, 2023 |
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"Beaten for a Book": Chaucer's Wife of Bath (The Canterbury Tales Part 3)
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Jan 23, 2023 |
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Going Blackberrying: Swearing in "The Pardoner's Tale" (The Canterbury Tales Part 2.5)
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Jan 14, 2023 |
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"A Wholly Vicious Man": Chaucer's Pardoner (The Canterbury Tales Part 2)
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Jan 08, 2023 |
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Mary's Christmas!
|
Dec 25, 2022 |
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"Pilgrims were they all": Chaucer's "General Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales (The Canterbury Tales Part 1)
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Dec 23, 2022 |
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Encountering the Divine: Medieval Dream Vision Poetry
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Dec 08, 2022 |
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Avian Agitation: "The Owl and the Nightingale"
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Nov 19, 2022 |
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"Wise, Worthy, and Belle": Marie de France's "Lanval" (The Matter of Arthur, Part 2)
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Nov 05, 2022 |
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The King Arthur of Pseudo-History (The Matter of Arthur, Part 1)
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Oct 23, 2022 |
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1066 and All That: Anglo-Norman English
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Sep 29, 2022 |
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Black and White and Read All Over: The Exeter Book Riddles
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Sep 09, 2022 |
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Those Who Wander: The Anglo-Saxon Elegies
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Aug 26, 2022 |
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Wherefore Beowulf?
|
Aug 12, 2022 |
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Why Think About Literature?
|
Aug 04, 2022 |
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The Coming of the Anglo-Saxons
|
Jul 29, 2022 |
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Hello and Welcome!
|
Jul 25, 2022 |