“Cuck” has become a favorite insult amongst alt-right types. In today’s post I trace literary references to cuckolds going back to Chaucer.
Tag Archives: Othello
A Literary History of the Insult “Cuck”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged alt-right, As You Like It, Canterbury Tales, Christopher Marlowe, Country Wife, cuckold jokes, cuckolds, cuckservatives, Doctor Faustus, Donald Trump, Geoffrey Chaucer, Miller's Tale, William Shakespeare, William Wycherley Comments closed
In Defense of The Merchant of Venice
Percy Shelley believes that great art transcends the prejudices of its time, even when it is cloaked in them. If he is right, then “Merchant of Venice” is less of a problem play than many people consider it.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged anti-Semitism, Defence of Poetry, Merchant of Venice, Percy Shelley, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare Comments closed
The Complex Inner Life of Teachers
Lily King’s “The English Teacher” is filled with literary lllusions, most of them thematically important.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Voice", Annabelle Lee, Beowulf, Edgar Allen Poe, Homer, Huckleberry Finn, Love Song of J. Alfred Pruforck, Mark Twain, Odyssey, Rose for Emily, T. S. Eliot, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Robert Durst’s Iago-Like Soliloquy
How to interpret suspected murderer Robert Durst’s enigmatic words on “The Jinx”? Shakespeare’s villains point the way.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Jinx, King Lear, moral consciousness, Robert Durst, soliloquies, Soul, William Shakespeare Comments closed
The Bard Could Improve Lawyer Behavior
A judge makes his case about how Shakespeare can improve lawyer professionalism.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged courts of law, Hamlet, Henry VI Part II, judges, King Lear, lawyers, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, Richard II, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Debating Whether Lit Is Useless
I take issue with a “New Yorker” blog on whether or not literature can be considered “useful.”
Petraeus: Karenina, Oedipus, or Antony?
The David Petraeus affair–is it 19th century melodrama or high tragedy?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Anna Karenina, Antony and Cleopatra, David Petraeus, Leo Tolstoy, Macbeth, Notre Dame de Paris, Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Reading for Fun, the Best Education
In “Northanger Abbey,” Jane Austen advocates the ideal way to raise one’s kids: encourage them to read good literature and they will learn the life lessons that they need.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady", Alexander Pope, Alice in Wonderland, James Thompson, Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Measure for Measure, Northanger Abbey, Reading to children, Seasons, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare Comments closed
