The English Miscellany

The anecdotal jocularity of sexual frisson has never been far from Raine's World. A review of Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years by Brian Boyd (Chatto, 783 pp, £25.00, January 1992) is perhaps symptomatic: His private manner was utterly winning, particularly his comic mode. Boyd includes two anecdotes, both innocently revealing. In the late Sixties, Nabokov asked Alfred Appel if student unrest was disrupting his lectures. The only demonstrations were demonstrations of affection; I told him about a nun who sat in the back row of one of my lecture courses, and who one day complained after class that a couple near her were always spooning. ‘Sister,’ I said, ‘in these troubled times we should be grateful if that’s all they were doing.’ ... ‘Ohhh,’ moaned Nabokov, mourning my lost opportunity, clapping his hand to his head in mock anguish. ‘You should have said, “Sister, be grateful that they were not forking.’ ” ["Craig Raine fondles Vladimir Nabokov" ;

“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.” --- Charlie Chaplin. "Dramatic comedy, from which fictional comedy is mainly descended, has been remarkably tenacious of its structural principles and character types." (Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism ) "The days of Comedy are gone, alas! When Congreve's fool could vie with Moliere's bete :   Society is smooth'd to that excess,  That manners hardly differ more than dress." --- Byron "Man is the merriest species of the creation, all above and below him are serious." --- Addison “This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.” --- Horace Walpole. “Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.” --- Peter Ustinov “The duty of comedy is to correct men by amusing them.” --- Moliere. "In the hands of a comic genius the pretence of stupidity is the triumph of irony." "In my mind, the

Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) Thus from a mixture of all kinds began, That het’rogeneous thing, an Englishman: In eager rapes, and furious lust begot, Betwixt a painted Britain and a Scot. Whose gend’ring off-spring quickly learn’d to bow, And yoke their heifers to the Roman plough: From whence a mongrel half-bred race there came, With neither name, nor nation, speech nor fame. In whose hot veins new mixtures quickly ran, Infus’d betwixt a Saxon and a Dane. While their rank daughters, to their parents just, Receiv’d all nations with promiscuous lust. This nauseous brood directly did contain The well-extracted blood of Englishmen.       Which medly canton’d in a heptarchy, A rhapsody of nations to supply, Among themselves maintain’d eternal wars, And still the ladies lov’d the conquerors.       The western Angles all the rest subdu’d; A bloody nation, barbarous and rude: Who by the tenure of the sword possest One part of Britain,

Several quotations posted prior to witnessing the eclipse on this day, 20 March 2015, Smethwick, Birmigham, UK. "The sonne and mone eclipsen both." J. Gower, Confessio Amantis , 1393. "The Night-Hag .. comes ..to dance With Lapland Witches, while the labouring Moon Eclipses at thir charms" Milton, Paradise Lost Book 2, 666 "God oftentimes leaves the brightest men in an eclipse." Thomas Fuller, The Holy State , 1642 "Blind among enemies ... Irrecoverably dark, total Eclipse." John Milton, Samson Agonistes , 1671 " Þis eclipse . þat ouer-closeþ now þe sonne. " William Langland, Piers Plowman , 1393 "These late eclipses in the Sunne and Moone portend no good to us." Shakespeare, King Lear , 1608 Thy beams, so reverend and strong         Why shoulds't thou think? I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink, John Donne, The Sunne Rising The Sun Rising         Busy old fool, unruly Sun,         Wh

'Poststructuralism' is a bewildering combination of theoretical projects and their applications. At best I shall be contending that elements of the poststructuralist approach afford the possibility of an open and balanced approach to the twin dynamics of criticism and creativity; poststructuralism folds one into the other. Underpinning my 'methodology' is the sense that both criticism and creativity are required in the shifting process of performance and that they are inseparable as the twin strands of participatory drama. Moreover, a poststructuralist approach serves to interrogate all conventional binaries such as teaching/learning, or acting/observing. More than just turning them upside-down, or reversing them, a poststructuralist would uncover the trace, play, or spectre, of one inside the other. Accordingly, poststructuralism employs an exhilarating rigour to critical and creative work that involves individual and group, word and world. The prim

Gielgud as Hamlet People have become very grumpy about the use of -ize . We always spell several common words as follows: advertise, advise, arise, chastise, circumcise, compromise, despise, devise, disenfranchise, enterprise, excise, exercise, franchise, improvise, incise, merchandise, revise, supervise, surmise, surprise, televise. It is not true that -ize reveals an American usage, as it has been frequently used in British English for centuries. Those who want to be super-pedantic claim that -ize should be selected in cases where the classical Greek verb deployed the -izo ending. As far back as the thirteenth century we find examples of usages such as baptize . My preference is to use -ize . What's yours?   Dr Ian McCormick is the author of The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences and 11+ English    

This stimulating guide to Year 5/6 and 11+ English provides an excellent resource for children making the transition from primary to secondary school. 11+ English offers helpful and clear guidance for tutors and parents. The six test papers use multiple choice questions to ensure that a student’s answers can be marked efficiently and academic progress can be monitored effectively. Year 5/6 11+ English benefits from the following features: - 300 multiple choices questions - An introduction to communication skills for parents and tutors - How to improve reading and comprehension skills - Key skills for success in English comprehension tests - The critical and creative training zone - Pathways to success - Six English Tests examine comprehension and grammar - 52 Creative writing activities - A Glossary / 62 Key terms explained Available on Amazon . "An extremely engaging collection of texts and enquiries which serve as a catalyst to enable student

A Traditional Card Catalogue Critical evaluations and literature reviews employ an academic discourse. I've started to compose a list of the most frequently used words and phrases : Accentuated differences Acclaimed authors According to Account Acknowledge the issue Addresses Addresses the contradictions Adequate Adopts Advances the idea Almost all Analyses Arbitrary categories Argues Argument Assesses Attempts to challenge Bogged down Bold Breaks new ground Brief discussion Brings together By ignoring this Care with which Centres on Certain types of Challenges Charts Cited Combines analyses of Comments on Compelling argument Comprehensive Conceptual framework Concise Confesses Confides Connects Considered Contains Contradictions Contributors Trinity Library Dublin Conveys the sense Convincing Covers a range of topics Critics Debates about Dense literature Describes the

Fill in the missing letters to create common academic words: d__t__ct__d __ppr__c__ __t__ __n   d__v__ __t__ __n b__ __s __ h__rt __ l__r__ty c__nf__rm__ty __b__nd__n __cc__mp__n__ __d __ccumul__t__ __n   __mb__gu__us __pp__nd__x __rb__tr__ry   __ut__m__t__c__lly c__mpl__m__nt __ ruc__ __l __ urr__ncy d__n__t__      __ luctu__t__ __ns   d__spl__c__m__nt __ r__m__t__c c__nt__mp__r__ry __xpl__ __t__t__ __n   c__ntr__d__ct__ __n __v__ntu__lly   __xh__b__t __ u__d__l__n__s   c__mm__d__ty Check you answers in Sublist 8     The Academic Word List (AWL) was developed by Averil Coxhead at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington , New Zealand. The list contains 570 word families which were selected because they appear with great frequency in a broad range of academic texts. The list does not include words that are in the most frequent 2000 words of Engl