Apparently the 17th century experienced a small boom in sex toys–which brings John Wilmot’s poetry to mind.
Tag Archives: Aphra Behn
Wilmot, Women, and Sexual Pleasure
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Signior Dildo", "To a Lady in a Lady", John Wilmot, Rover, sexuality Comments closed
Who’s Afraid of a Feuding Couple?
Is Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” a feuding couples comedy? Perhaps yes if you add the adjective “dark.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Edward Albee, feuding couples comedy, Much Ado about Nothing, Rover, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Verbal Combat Trumps Soft Romance
Shaw contributed some great plays to the feuding couples comedy genre, including Man and Superman and Pygmalion.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged C. S. Lewis, feuding couples comedy, George Bernard Shaw, Horse and His Boy, Man and Superman, Marriage, Much Ado about Nothing, Pygmalion, Rover, Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Feuding Beats Shrew-Taming
“Taming of the Shrew” may have set the stage for the far more egalitarian “Much Ado about Nothing,” which launched the feuding couples comedy.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged feuding couples comedy, John Fletcher, Much Ado about Nothing, Rover, Tamer Tamed, Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Couples Fighting: It Must Be Love
Tuesday I read plays all day yesterday with an eye toward an upcoming class on “Battling Couples in Theatre and Film (the Comic Version).” The September course is part of Sewanee’s “Lifelong Learning” series. As the course runs for four weeks, I will teach four plays and four movies, pairing a play with a film […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged couples comedy, Edward Albee, George Bernard Shaw, His Girl Friday, It Happened One Night, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Much Ado about Nothing, Pillow Talk, Pygmalion, Romantic Comedy, Rover, screwball comedy, Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Caution against Purity Policing
Monday One of my conservative readers wrote me recently asking me how I felt about leftist insistence that Virginia governor Ralph Northam resign for having posted a racist picture in his medical school yearbook years ago. After all, hasn’t Northam lived a fairly exemplary life since then? The reader also sent me a Quillette article […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Henry Fielding, Merchant of Venice, Oroonoko, purity policing, Tom Jones, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Women Battling the Marriage Plot
Although men got the quest plot while women were relegated to the marriage plot in the 18th century, a number of women writers found imaginative ways to circumvent it. Among these were Aphra Behn, Eliza Haywood, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Lover", Country Wife, Haywood (Eliza), John Wilmot, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Marriage Plot, quest plot, Rover, To a Lady in a Letter, William Wycherley Comments closed
Lit for Handling a College’s Race Problems
After a series of arson fires and racist incidents, I turned to works in each of my courses to address the situation. In Intro to Lit, Lucille Clifton’s poetry; in Early British Literature survey, Aphra Behn’s “Oroonoko”; in British Fantasy, “Perdido Street Station.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "wishes for sons", China Miéville, college life, Lucille Clifton, Oroonoko, Perdido Street Station, race tension, racism, St. Mary's College of Maryland Comments closed
10 Memorable Poetic Pick-Up Lines
10 memorable pick-up lines from poetic greats. Try them at a bar near you.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Flea", "Phyllis Be Gentler", "The Lover", "To His Mistress Going to Bed", "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time", Andrew Marvell, Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond de Rostand, Jane Austen, John Donne, John Wilmot, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Pride and Prejudice, Robert Herrick, Rover, To His Coy Mistress, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare Comments closed
