ENG 331: Schedule of Readings, Meetings, Lectures, and Assignments

Yes, this is a very thorough schedule! All your time-sensitive responsibilities are laid out, in full detail, right here, week by week. Check back here after every class to make sure you know what you're responsible for doing next.

IMPORTANT: This schedule is subject to change, sometimes with small but significant adjustments being made only a week or two before a reading is due. Do not download or otherwise copy down this schedule—refer to this website directly, so you can be sure you're getting the most recent version. Do not start readings more than a week ahead of their due date.

IMPORTANT: For any assigned reading, I expect you to bring a copy of that reading to class on the day it is due, whether in hard copy or electronically on a tablet or laptop (never read off of a phone).

WEEK I

Before class on Mon Jan 6,

During class on Mon Jan 6, we’ll work from heavily glossed handouts/projections of Robin Hood and the Friar and Robin Hood and the Potter. There’s nothing to bring or read ahead of this class meeting—I’ll provide the readings and we’ll do them together.

Before class on Wed Jan 8,

  • Read Act I of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.



WEEK II

Before class on Mon Jan 13,

  • Read through Act V, Scene 1, line 107 of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. [We’ll read the rest in class (feel free to email me to claim a part!).]

  • Be ready to identify a word, line, or passage you find to be particularly good, whatever that means.

Before class on Wed Jan 15,



WEEK III

During this week: Start working on your Edition Critique.  

Before class on Mon Jan 20, you’ve got a series of short readings to do, including multiple takes on similar material. Be ready to identify particular moments (with line numbers) that you thought one play did better, or worse, than another:

Before class on Wed Jan 22,

  • Read Medwall’s Fulgens and Lucres (in your Broadview Anthology) , Part I, through line 687.

 

WEEK IV

During this week: Keep working on your Edition Critique.

Before class on Mon Jan 27,

  • Read the remainder of Medwall’s Fulgens and Lucres, consulting the ENG 331 corrigenda page (click here) page as you go.

  • Be ready to identify any particular moments (with line numbers!) at which the text makes particular use of, or creates possible problems with, the type of performance space for which it was written.

Before class on Wed Jan 29,

  • Read the Digby Mary Magdalene, through line 571+SD.


WEEK V

During this week: Keep working on your Edition Critique.

Before class on Mon Feb 3,

  • Read the remainder of the Digby Mary Magdalene, consulting the ENG 331 corrigenda page (click here) page as you go.

  • Be ready to identify any particular moments (with line numbers!) at which the text gives us clues about — or makes particular use of, or creates possible problems with — the type of performance space for which it was written, and to how that space may have been laid out.

Before class on Wed Feb 5,

  • Read Redford’s Play of Wit and Science (in your Broadview Anthology).

  • Be ready to identify specific words, lines, or passages that strike you as particularly good, or particularly enjoyable, or that give you information, or create problems, about how space, physicality, or any aspect of staging was handled (we’ll discuss this play in depth, including your selected passages, on Monday).


WEEK VI

The Edition Critique and Recitation is due this week; you must deliver it, this week, in person (or in real time remotely) at a One-on-One Presentation Meeting with Prof. Sergi. Reserve an appointment according to the instructions under “One-on-One Student Presentation” at the Resources page. This is an unusual assignment — be sure you have read the assignment instructions carefully.

Before class on Mon Feb 10,

  • Read the Towneley Second Shepherds Play (in your Broadview Anthology).

  • Be ready to identify specific words, lines, or passages that strike you as particularly good, or particularly enjoyable (especially in comparison to Wit and Science), or that give you information, or create problems, about how space, physicality, or any aspect of staging was handled.

Before class on Wed Feb 12,

  • Read the very short York Doubting Thomas Play, starting with the PLS modernization (skipping, if you wish, over the antisemitic first 13 lines, which we discussed last class).

  • Then, compare that PLS modernization briefly to two key passages in the TEAMS edition (click here) and the c. 1525-50 Sykes Manuscript (click here and scroll down to find the play at page 74): the Apostles’ initial expressions of shock (at lines 20-30 in the TEAMS edition) and Thomas’s lament (at lines 97-126 in TEAMS version).

  • [Optional: if you wish, you might also read either or both of the non-modernized editions in full; if you’re feeling confident in your early English, you can skip the modernization and just start by reading one of the non-modernized editions; I’d also recommend checking out, in the introductory matter to the Sykes manuscript version, pages 58-66 under “Some Variant Readings of S and A.”]

There is no class on Mon Feb 17 and Wed Feb 19 (Family Day/Reading Week).



WEEK VII

Before class on Mon Feb 10,

  • Read Gammer Gurton’s Needle (in your Broadview Anthology) before class, through Act 5, Scene 2, line 207. Be ready to identify one word, phrase, or line (use the OED to dig beyond editorial glosses and notes) that has a secondary denotation or connotation particularly meaningful to the text.

In class on Wed Feb 26, you will take the midterm Early English History/Geography test. No reading is due on the day of the midterm test. Remote attendance is not available for the midterm; there will be no CQs at, nor audiorecording of, the midterm.



WEEK VIII

Class on Mon Mar 3 will meet at an unusual location: JHB 616 (Jackman Humanities Building, 170 St George St), from which we will travel to our REED (Records of Early English Drama) visit, where we will introduce the Archival Research essay assignment. No reading is due on the day of the field trip.

Before class on Wed Mar 5,

  • Read Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus A text through Scene 5.


WEEK IX

During this week: Keep working on your Archival Research Essay.

Before class on Mon Mar 10,

  • Read Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus A text up to, but not including, Faustus’s final speech.

  • Be ready to identify one word, phrase, or line that affects the play’s sense of time, tempo, pace, or rhythm, or its position in relation to greater timelines – real lives, real histories.

Before class on Wed Mar 12,

  • Set a timer for one hour. Read as far as you can, in that hour, into Lindsay’s Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estatis (click here) in early Scots English, skipping the introductory matter and Proclamation, and starting at “The Play: Part One” (on page 546). This reading is in very difficult language (and the edition’s layout doesn’t help, but it’s the best available) — do your best with it, using the glosses at the bottom of the page to make sense of what’s happening; mark any lines you couldn’t at all penetrate and we’ll bring them up in class. This language practice might be frustrating, but it will give you some helpful skills for your self-directed search through REED. Some quick tips: (1) if there’s a word you don’t recognize, try switching out some of the vowels for other vowels (som riplacmeante vuels er moor leikli en surtene caysis then outhres, so try to get a feel for those tendencies as you read); (2) try reordering the words in a sentence (or supply a “that,” “so that,” or “may”) to help it make sense; (3) keep calm and read on — don’t get caught up on, or dwell too long on, words or lines you can’t penetrate (getting stressed will make it harder to read).


WEEK X

During this week: Keep working on your Archival Research Essay.

Before class on Mon Mar 17,

Before class on Wed Mar 19,

In class on Wed Mar 19, Prof. Sergi will be away at a conference — and so we will welcome PhD Candidate Morgan Moore as guest instructor. Morgan, an expert in medieval Celtic texts and cultures, will give a guest lecture on Welsh history and performance.

WEEK XI

During this week: Keep working on your Archival Research Essay.

Before class on Mon Mar 24,

  • Read the Towneley Creation Play (in your Broadview Anthology).

  • Read the Norwich Grocers Play (link TBA).

  • Be ready to identify any passages that need to be staged live to be understood.

Before class on Wed Mar 26,

  • Read the Chester Shepherds Play (in your Broadview Anthology).


WEEK XII

During this week: Finish your Archival Research Essay.

In class on Mon Mar 31,

  • Remember, as part of the assignment we have been discussing for weeks, that during this class session each of you must present your on ongoing archival research (that is, your work on your essay in progress) within two minutes.  We will start our class session on time (on the hour) just this once, rather than waiting the usual ten minutes; you can still get here ten minutes after if need be, but we’ll start getting some presentations underway early, so try to arrive early if you can.  No tech allowed: just you and your words (students who have arranged alternate avenues for participation can have me read a script for them).  Practice your presentation ahead of time to make sure it lasts only two minutes (or less)!  And please be ready to go as soon as I call your name—we’ll need to make quick transitions so everyone will get a chance to speak; I’ll say a very few words after each presentation, so use that time (while I’m talking) to move from your seat to the front of the room. 

  • Instead of our usual CQs, you are responsible during class for generating two substantial and helpful questions or comments about two of your fellow students’ presentations.  You have to submit those questions to me by email within three hours of when our class ends, with the first name of the student in the title of your email (so you have to make sure you know at least two classmates’ first names!).  I’ll forward each student-generated comment or question to the student you name in your email title (and just so you know, I won’t be reading the comments and questions closely myself—this is between the two of you!); I’ll mark your CQs as fully answered once you’ve sent two, but you can send more if you wish.

  • Other than all that, there are no readings due.

Before class on Wed Apr 2,

  • No readings due.

The Archival Research Essay is due the week after our last class; you must deliver it, during that week, in person (or in real time remotely) at a One-on-One Presentation Meeting with Prof. Sergi. Reserve an appointment according to the instructions under “One-on-One Student Presentation” at the Resources page. Be sure you have read the assignment instructions carefully.