1.
Troilus and Cressida
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Troilus and Cressida is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1602. It was described by Frederick S. Boas as one of Shakespeares problem plays, the play ends on a very bleak note with the death of the noble Trojan Hector and destruction of the love between Troilus and Cressida. The work has in recent years stimulated exceptionally lively critical debate and this is tragedy of a special sort—the tragedy the basis of which is the impossibility of conventional tragedy. Troilus and Cressida is set during the years of the Trojan War. Essentially, two plots are followed in the play, in one, Troilus, a Trojan prince, woos Cressida, another Trojan. They have sex, professing their love, before Cressida is exchanged for a Trojan prisoner of war. As he attempts to visit her in the Greek camp, Troilus glimpses Diomedes flirting with his beloved Cressida, while this plot gives the play its name, it accounts for only a small part of the plays run time. The majority of the play revolves around the leaders of the Greek and Trojan forces, Agamemnon, Ajax is originally chosen as this combatant, but makes peace with Hector before they are able to fight. Achilles is prompted to return to only after his dear friend and possible lover. A series of skirmishes conclude the play, during which Achilles catches Hector and has the Myrmidons kill him, the conquest of Troy is left unfinished, as the Trojans learn of the death of their hero. The story was a one for dramatists in the early 17th century. Thomas Heywoods two-part play The Iron Age also depicts the Trojan war and the story of Troilus and Cressida, but it is not certain whether his or Shakespeares play was written first. In addition, Thomas Dekker and Henry Chettle wrote a play called Troilus and Cressida at around the time as Shakespeare. The play is believed to have written around 1602, shortly after the completion of Hamlet. It was published in quarto in two editions, both in 1609. No publication followed, however, until 1609, the stationers Richard Bonian,1609, and later that year issued the first quarto, but in two states. Some commentators have attempted to reconcile these contradictory claims by arguing that the play was composed originally around 1600–02, but heavily revised shortly before its 1609 printing. The play is noteworthy for its bitter and caustic nature, similar to the works that Shakespeare was writing in the 1605–08 period, King Lear, Coriolanus, in this view, the original version of the play was a more positive romantic comedy of the type Shakespeare wrote ca
2.
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
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Corpus Christi College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. With around 250 undergraduates and 200 postgraduates, it also has the second smallest student body of the colleges of the University. The College has traditionally one of the more academically successful colleges in the University of Cambridge. The colleges average position between 2003 and 2012 was 9th, and in the most recent rankings, placed in 10th, Corpus ranks among the wealthiest Cambridge colleges in terms of fixed assets, being exceptionally rich in silver. The Colleges endowment valued at £97. 4M at the end of June 2016 and its freehold land, the guild of Corpus Christi was founded in Cambridge in 1349 by William Horwode, Henry de Tangmere, and John Hardy in response to the Black Death. They determined to found a new college in the University of Cambridge, later the same year the new guild merged with an older guild, the Guild of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which had been decimated by the Plague. The united guilds acquired land in the centre of town and their patron, the Duke of Lancaster, applied to King Edward III for a licence to found a new college, which was granted in 1352. Construction began immediately of a single modest court near the church and in 1356 it was ready to house the Master. The colleges statutes were drawn up in 1356, the united guild merged its identity with the new college, which acquired all the guilds lands, ceremonies, and revenues. The parade continued until the English Reformation, when the Master, William Sowode, the college continues to have a grand dinner on the feast day of Corpus Christi, the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. The newly constructed court could house 22 fellows and students, the statutes laid down the rules governing the behaviour of fellows only. Students were not part of the foundation at this stage and would not come within the scope of the statutes for another 200 years. In its early centuries, the college was relatively poor and so could not construct new buildings and it had no chapel, so the members worshipped in St Benets Church next door. For many years, particularly during the Reformation when Catholic references were discouraged, Corpus was the only University college, although by no means the only University building, to be attacked. The revolt, which took place during the Corpus Christi week. The college claimed £80 in damages, in 1460 during the Wars of the Roses, the college paid for armaments including artillery and arrows, and protective clothing to defend the colleges treasures from a tempestuous riot. As a monument a talbot, the supporter of the Talbot family, was placed on the gable of Old Court. At the same time the Master, Thomas Cosyn, built the colleges first chapel, over the next few centuries, garret rooms were added in Old Court increasing student numbers
3.
Geoffrey Chaucer
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Geoffrey Chaucer, known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. He was the first poet to be buried in Poets Corner of Westminster Abbey, among his many works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde. He is best known today for The Canterbury Tales, Chaucers work was crucial in legitimizing the literary use of the Middle English vernacular at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin. Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London sometime around 1343, though the precise date and his father and grandfather were both London vintners, several previous generations had been merchants in Ipswich. In 1324 John Chaucer, Geoffreys father, was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of marrying the boy to her daughter in an attempt to keep property in Ipswich. The aunt was imprisoned and the fine levied suggests that the family was financially secure. In the City Hustings Roll 110,5, Ric II, dated June 1380, Geoffrey Chaucer refers to himself as me Galfridum Chaucer, filium Johannis Chaucer, Vinetarii, Londonie. He also worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and a civil servant, as well as working for the king from 1389 to 1391 as Clerk of the Kings Works. In 1359, in the stages of the Hundred Years War, Edward III invaded France and Chaucer travelled with Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, Elizabeths husband. In 1360, he was captured during the siege of Rheims, Edward paid £16 for his ransom, a considerable sum, and Chaucer was released. After this, Chaucers life is uncertain, but he seems to have travelled in France, Spain, around 1366, Chaucer married Philippa Roet. She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward IIIs queen, Philippa of Hainault, and a sister of Katherine Swynford and it is uncertain how many children Chaucer and Philippa had, but three or four are most commonly cited. His son, Thomas Chaucer, had a career, as chief butler to four kings, envoy to France. Thomass daughter, Alice, married the Duke of Suffolk, thomass great-grandson, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, was the heir to the throne designated by Richard III before he was deposed. Geoffreys other children probably included Elizabeth Chaucy, a nun at Barking Abbey, Agnes, an attendant at Henry IVs coronation, Chaucers Treatise on the Astrolabe was written for Lewis. According to tradition, Chaucer studied law in the Inner Temple at this time and he became a member of the royal court of Edward III as a valet de chambre, yeoman, or esquire on 20 June 1367, a position which could entail a wide variety of tasks. His wife also received a pension for court employment and he travelled abroad many times, at least some of them in his role as a valet. In 1368, he may have attended the wedding of Lionel of Antwerp to Violante Visconti, daughter of Galeazzo II Visconti, two other literary stars of the era were in attendance, Jean Froissart and Petrarch
4.
Troilus
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Troilus is a legendary character associated with the story of the Trojan War. The first surviving reference to him is in Homers Iliad, which scholars believe was composed by bards, in Greek mythology, Troilus is a young Trojan prince, one of the sons of King Priam and Hecuba. Prophecies link Troilus fate to that of Troy and so he is ambushed and murdered by Achilles, Sophocles was one of the writers to tell this tale. It was also a theme among artists of the time. Ancient writers treated Troilus as the epitome of a dead child mourned by his parents and he was also regarded as a paragon of youthful male beauty. In Western European medieval and Renaissance versions of the legend, Troilus is the youngest of Priams five legitimate sons by Hecuba, despite his youth he is one of the main Trojan war leaders. He dies in battle at Achilles hands, in a popular addition to the story, originating in the 12th century, Troilus falls in love with Cressida, whose father has defected to the Greeks. Cressida pledges her love to Troilus but she switches her affections to the Greek hero Diomedes when sent to her father in a hostage exchange. Chaucer and Shakespeare are among the authors who wrote works telling the story of Troilus, within the medieval tradition, Troilus was regarded as a paragon of the faithful courtly lover and also of the virtuous pagan knight. Once the custom of courtly love had faded, his fate was regarded less sympathetically, little attention was paid to the character during the 18th and 19th centuries. However, Troilus has reappeared in 20th and 21st century retellings of the Trojan War by authors who have elements from both the classical and medieval versions of his story. For the ancient Greeks, the tale of the Trojan War, the characters death early in the war and the prophecies surrounding him demonstrated that all Trojan efforts to defend their home would be in vain. His symbolic significance is evidenced by linguistic analysis of his Greek name Troilos and it can be interpreted as an elision of the names of Tros and Ilos, the legendary founders of Troy, as a diminutive or pet name little Tros or as an elision of Troië and lyo. These multiple possibilities emphasise the link between the fates of Troilus and of the city where he lived, given this, it is unfortunate that the Cypria—the part of the Epic Cycle that covers the period of the Trojan War of Troilus death—does not survive. Indeed, no complete narrative of his remains from archaic times or the subsequent classical period. Most of the sources from before the Hellenistic age that even referred to the character are lost or survive only in fragments or summary. Partially compensating for the texts are the physical artifacts that remain from the archaic. The story of the circumstances around Troilus death was a theme among pottery painters
5.
Giovanni Boccaccio
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Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Boccaccio wrote a number of works, including The Decameron. The details of Boccaccios birth are uncertain and he was born in Florence or in a village near Certaldo where his family was from. He was the son of Florentine merchant Boccaccino di Chellino and an unknown woman, Boccaccios stepmother was called Margherita de Mardoli. His father worked for the Compagnia dei Bardi and, in the 1320s, married Margherita dei Mardoli, Boccaccio may have been tutored by Giovanni Mazzuoli and received from him an early introduction to the works of Dante. In 1326, his father was appointed head of a bank, Boccaccio was an apprentice at the bank but disliked the banking profession. He persuaded his father to let him study law at the Studium and he also pursued his interest in scientific and literary studies. His father introduced him to the Neapolitan nobility and the French-influenced court of Robert the Wise in the 1330s, at this time, he fell in love with a married daughter of the king, who is portrayed as Fiammetta in many of Boccaccios prose romances, including Il Filocolo. Acciaioli later became counselor to Queen Joanna I of Naples and, eventually and it seems that Boccaccio enjoyed law no more than banking, but his studies allowed him the opportunity to study widely and make good contacts with fellow scholars. His early influences included Paolo da Perugia, humanists Barbato da Sulmona and Giovanni Barrili, in Naples, Boccaccio began what he considered his true vocation of poetry. Works produced in this period include Il Filostrato and Teseida, The Filocolo, the period featured considerable formal innovation, including possibly the introduction of the Sicilian octave, where it influenced Petrarch. Boccaccio returned to Florence in early 1341, avoiding the plague of 1340 in that city and he had left Naples due to tensions between the Angevin king and Florence. His father had returned to Florence in 1338, where he had gone bankrupt, the pastoral piece Ninfale fiesolano probably dates from this time, also. In 1343, Boccaccios father remarried to Bice del Bostichi and his children by his first marriage had all died, but he had another son named Iacopo in 1344. In Florence, the overthrow of Walter of Brienne brought about the government of popolo minuto and it diminished the influence of the nobility and the wealthier merchant classes and assisted in the relative decline of Florence. The city was further in 1348 by the Black Death. From 1347, Boccaccio spent much time in Ravenna, seeking new patronage and, despite his claims and his stepmother died during the epidemic and his father was closely associated with the government efforts as Minister of Supply in the city. His father died in 1349 and Boccaccio was forced into an active role as head of the family
6.
Misogyny
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Misogyny is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. Misogyny can occasionally be found within sacred texts of religions and mythologies, according to sociologist Allan G. Johnson, misogyny is a cultural attitude of hatred for females because they are female. Johnson argues that, Misogyny. is a part of sexist prejudice and ideology and. Misogyny is manifested in different ways, from jokes to pornography to violence to the self-contempt women may be taught to feel toward their own bodies. Dictionaries define misogyny as hatred of women and as hatred, dislike, the counterpart of misogyny is misandry, the hatred or dislike of men, the antonym of misogyny is philogyny, the love or fondness of women. The term misogyny itself comes directly into English from the Ancient Greek word misogunia, the earlier, longer, and more complete passage comes from a moral tract known as On Marriage by the stoic philosopher Antipater of Tarsus. Antipater argues that marriage is the foundation of the state, and he uses misogunia to describe the sort of writing the tragedian Euripides eschews, stating that he reject the hatred of women in his writing. He then offers an example of this, quoting from a lost play of Euripides in which the merits of a wife are praised. The other surviving use of the original Greek word is by Chrysippus, in a fragment from On affections, here, misogyny is the first in a short list of three disaffections—women, wine and humanity. Chrysippus point is more abstract than Antipaters, and Galen quotes the passage as an example of a contrary to his own. What is clear, however, is that he groups hatred of women with hatred of humanity generally and it was the prevailing medical opinion of his day that wine strengthens body and soul alike. So Chrysippus, like his fellow stoic Antipater, views misogyny negatively, as a disease and it is this issue of conflicted or alternating emotions that was philosophically contentious to the ancient writers. Ricardo Salles suggests that the general view was that man may not only alternate between philogyny and misogyny, philanthropy and misanthropy, but be prompted to each by the other. Aristotle has also accused of being a misogynist, he has written that women were inferior to men. The Timaeus warns men that if they live immorally they will be reincarnated as women, the Republic contains a number of comments in the same spirit, evidence of nothing so much as of contempt toward women. Even Socrates words for his bold new proposal about marriage, suggest that the women are to be held in common by men. He never says that the men might be held in common by the women, misogynist is also found in the Greek—misogunēs —in Deipnosophistae and in Plutarchs Parallel Lives, where it is used as the title of Heracles in the history of Phocion. It was the title of a play by Menander, which we know of from seven of Strabos 17 volume Geography
7.
Robert Henryson
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Robert Henryson was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. His poetry was composed in Middle Scots at a time when this had become a state language and it is one of the most important bodies of work in the canon of early Scottish literature. His writing consists mainly of narrative works highly inventive in their development of story-telling techniques and he generally achieved a canny balance of humour and high seriousness which is often multi-layered in its effects. This range is extended in his Testament of Cresseid with its more tragic vision. Overall, his themes and tone convey an impression of humanity. He was a rhetorician and remains to this day one of the finest in the Scots language. An example is his use of psychology to convey individual character in carefully dramatised. His surviving body of work amounts to almost exactly 5000 lines, Henrysons surviving canon consists of three long poems and around twelve miscellaneous short works in various genres. The longest poem is his Morall Fabillis, a tight, intricately structured set of thirteen stories in a cycle that runs just short of 3000 lines. Two other long works survive, both a little over 600 lines each, as with his longer works, his outward themes often carry important subtexts. Internal evidence has been used to suggest that the Morall Fabillis were composed during the 1480s, there is no record of when or where Henryson was born or educated. If this was the poet, as is assumed, then the citation indicates that he had completed studies in both arts and canon law. With no record of him as a student in Scotland, it is thought that he graduated in a university furth of the land, possibly in Leuven. Almost all early references to Henryson firmly associate his name with Dunfermline, direct unconfirmed evidence for this connection occurs in 1478 when his name appears as a witness on abbey charters. If this was the poet, then it would establish that one of his functions was as notary for the abbey, an institution which possessed and managed a vast portfolio of territory across Scotland. The almost universal references to Henryson as schoolmaster are usually taken to mean that he taught in and had some duty to run the school for Dunfermlines abbatial burgh. Dunfermline, as a burgh with capital status, was routinely visited by the court with residences directly linked to the abbey complex. There is no record of Henryson as a poet
8.
Achilles
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In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and the central character and greatest warrior of Homers Iliad. His mother was the immortal nymph Thetis, and his father, Achilles’ most notable feat during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan hero Hector outside the gates of Troy. Although the death of Achilles is not presented in the Iliad, other sources concur that he was killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, later legends state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel. Alluding to these legends, the term Achilles heel has come to mean a point of weakness, Achilles name can be analyzed as a combination of ἄχος grief and λαός a people, tribe, nation. In other words, Achilles is an embodiment of the grief of the people, Achilles role as the hero of grief forms an ironic juxtaposition with the conventional view of Achilles as the hero of κλέος kleos. Laos has been construed by Gregory Nagy, following Leonard Palmer, to mean a corps of soldiers, a muster. With this derivation, the name would have a meaning in the poem, when the hero is functioning rightly, his men bring grief to the enemy. The poem is in part about the misdirection of anger on the part of leadership, R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the name. The name Achilleus was a common and attested name among the Greeks soon after the 7th century BC. It was also turned into the female form Ἀχιλλεία attested in Attica in the 4th century BC and, in the form Achillia, Achilles was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons. Zeus and Poseidon had been rivals for the hand of Thetis until Prometheus, for this reason, the two gods withdrew their pursuit, and had her wed Peleus. Thetis, although a daughter of the sea-god Nereus, was brought up by Hera. According to the Achilleid, written by Statius in the 1st century AD, and to no surviving previous sources, however, he was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him, his heel. It is not clear if this version of events was known earlier, in another version of this story, Thetis anointed the boy in ambrosia and put him on top of a fire, to burn away the mortal parts of his body. She was interrupted by Peleus and abandoned both father and son in a rage, however, none of the sources before Statius makes any reference to this general invulnerability. To the contrary, in the Iliad Homer mentions Achilles being wounded, in Book 21 the Paeonian hero Asteropaeus, son of Pelagon and he cast two spears at once, one grazed Achilles elbow, drawing a spurt of blood. Peleus entrusted Achilles to Chiron the Centaur, on Mt. Pelion, Achilles consuming rage is at times wavering, but at other times he cannot be cooled. Thetis foretold that her sons fate was either to gain glory and die young, or to live a long, Achilles chose the former, and decided to take part in the Trojan war
9.
Diomedes
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Diomedes or Diomede is a hero in Greek mythology, known for his participation in the Trojan War. He was born to Tydeus and Deipyle and later became King of Argos, succeeding his maternal grandfather, in Homers Iliad Diomedes is regarded alongside Ajax as one of the best warriors of all the Achaeans. Later, he founded ten or more Italian cities, after his death, Diomedes was worshipped as a divine being under various names in Italy and also in Greece. Diomedes was, on his father’s side, an Aetolian, and this is because his father Tydeus left Calydon and fled to Argos in order to avoid being persecuted by his uncle Agrius. He married King Adrastuss daughter Deipyle, Tydeus was one of the Seven Against Thebes. This expedition failed and all leaders, including Tydeus were killed, Tydeus was Athena’s favourite warrior at the time, and when he was dying she wanted to offer him a magic elixir that would make him immortal. However, she withdrew the privilege in apparent disgust when Tydeus gobbled down the brains of the hated enemy who had wounded him. According to some, Diomedes was four years old when his father was killed, at the funeral of their fathers, the sons of Seven Against Thebes met and vowed to vanquish Thebes one day. They called themselves Epigoni because they were born after everything has happened, ten years later, the Epigoni appointed Alcmaeon as their commander in chief and gathered an army. They added to their forces from Argos contingents from Messenia, Arcadia, Corinth and this army, however, was a small one compared to the forces of Thebes. The Epigoni war is remembered as the most important expedition in Greek Mythology before the Trojan War and it was a favorite topic for epics, but, unfortunately, all of these epics are now lost. The main battle took place at Glisas where the warrior Aegialeus was slain by King Laodamas, Diomedes was fifteen years old by then and was considered the mightiest of all. Vanquished by the Epigoni, the Thebans followed the counsel of Tiresias, Epigoni took the city, and most Argive commanders returned rich to their countries after having sacked Thebes, but the city they handed over to Thersander. Adrastus died of grief when he learned that his son Aegialeus had perished in the battle at Glisas, Aegialeus was married to Comaetho, daughter of Tydeus. Diomedes, in turn, married Aegialeuss daughter Aegialia when he returned from battle and he was then appointed as the King of Argos and thus became one of the most powerful rulers of Hellas at such a young age. According to some, Diomedes ruled Argos for more than five years and brought much wealth and he was a skilled politician and was greatly respected by other rulers. He still kept an eye on Calydonian politics, and when the sons of Agrius put Oeneus in jail and their own father on the throne, Diomedes attacked and ceded the kingdom, slaying all the traitors except Thersites, Onchestus and Agrius restoring his grandfather to the throne. Later, Oeneus passed the Kingdom to his son-in-law Andraemon and headed for Argos to meet Diomedes and he was assassinated on the way by Thersites and Onchestus
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