Singing Potatoes
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Thursday, 12 December 2002
The Best Book in the World

...according to Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, at any rate. (Wow... I had no idea that book-jacket blurbs were that ancient an invention!) Tirant lo Blanc. Link stolen from Moira, who stole it from Mirabai.

Posted by godfrey (link)
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You wonder if Cervantes and Martorell had the same publisher.

"C'mon Miguel, just give me a bestselling quote I can put on the dust jacket."

My vote for underrated English Renaissance drama goes to John Webster's play, "The Duchess of Malfi". You just can't lose with a werewolf, a cardinal and a tragedy.

"I am not mad yet, to my cause of sorrow. The heaven over my head seems made of molten brass, the earth of flaming sulphur, yet I am not mad. I am acquainted with sad misery, as the tanned gallery slave is with his oar. Necessity makes me suffer constantly, and custom makes it easy."
-The Duchess

Posted by Darren on 12 Dec 2002 10:25
Thanks for the link! I see I shall have to read it at length; just scanning through it reveals quite a bit of wit:
CASTRUCHIO: It is fitting a soldier arise to be a prince, but not necessary A prince descend to be a captain.

FERDINAND: No?

CASTRUCHIO: No, my lord; He were far better do it by a deputy.

FERDINAND: Why should he not as well sleep, or eat by a deputy? This might take idle, offensive, and base office from him, Whereas the other deprives him of honour.

-----

CASTRUCHIO: Nor endure to be in merry company; for she says Too much laughing, and too much company, fills her Too full of the wrinkle.

FERDINAND: I would then have a mathematical instrument Made for her face, That she might not laugh out of compass.

-----

DUCHESS: I pray, sir, hear me: I am married--

FERDINAND: So.

DUCHESS: Happily, not to your liking: but for that, Alas, your shears do come untimely now To clip the bird's wings, that's already flown! Will you see my husband?

FERDINAND: Yes. If I could change eyes with a basilisk.
Great stuff!

Posted by Godfrey on 12 Dec 2002 11:19
Uh-oh, don't show the script to Severin; one of his pet peeves about the SCA's Knowne World Handbook actually has period precedent:
BOSOLA: I fell into the galleys in your service, Where, for two years together, I wore Two towels instead of a shirt, with a knot on the shoulder, After the fashion of a Roman mantle.

Posted by Godfrey on 12 Dec 2002 11:33
Hey, if people want to be kitchen help (the galleys), they can dress in a towel. If they come to court, dress at least as well as a street person.
Posted by Lunchbox on 12 Dec 2002 11:37
Maybe that's the Known World Handbook's documentation?
Posted by Karen on 12 Dec 2002 11:45
According to the annotated version, the galleys spoken of here are the kind that are rowed — but your comment is still valid, Lunchbox.

Posted by Godfrey on 12 Dec 2002 12:56
Ooooh, Duchess is so depressing, if that's the play I'm thinking of where the villain throws the heroine's lover's hand into the dungeon so she thinks he's alive -- she holds his hand, and then discovers there's um, nothing else to hold of his.
Posted by Moira on 23 Jan 2003 13:51
That's the one!

Posted by Godfrey on 23 Jan 2003 14:03
I remember reading that in grad school and thinking "Yaaaarggghghghuhh." Webster writes beautifully, but he's a bit of a sicko. (And what's that Elizabethan play where the hero stabs the heroine -- they are brother and sister in an incestuous relationship -- RIGHT on the couch in front of the audience?)
Posted by Moira on 24 Jan 2003 16:08
My vote for Most Underrated Play Not Written By Shakespeare would probably go to Volpone followed maybe by Every Man in His Humor (which gets a bit labored) or Doctor Faustus. I actually enjoyed Tamburlaine quite a bit, although it was heavy going. It was one of those rare grad school courses where you actually remember what you read afterwards, although I bet I have screwed up the time scheme some.
Posted by Moira on 24 Jan 2003 16:11