June 17– John Elliot’s “Brief Narrative” (1670)

 It's hard work finding stuff for these after a while.

June 17– John Elliot’s “Brief Narrative” (1670)

Summary: The Indians are Christian now.

Commentary: I feel like calling this a "historical document" is a pretty big stretch. It's an interesting enough account of conversion and establishing a church, but not super historical. All in all, worth reading, but I don't have a ton to say about it.

June 16– From "Manfred" (1817) by Lord Byron

 Tchaikovsky, yes!

June 16– From Manfred (1817) by Lord Byron

Summary: It's Faust on top of a mountain, but shorter.

Commentary: We need more closet dramas. If nothing else, they fit better for T5FSOB since you can just read them, but it's also just a neat idea. Come on over, hang out and drink at your friend's house, read a play. Good time.

Beyond that, Manfred is Faust, and I like Faust, so that's a plus. Summon some demons, try to get them to help you get a dead woman (who's probably your sister), die while demons try to drag you to hell. It's all very dramatic.

June 15– From “Wat Tyler’s Rebellion” Froissart’s "Chronicles" (1300s) translated by Lord Bernes and edited by G.C. Macaulay

 Yay rebellion music

June 15– From “Wat Tyler’s Rebellion” Froissart’s Chronicles (1300s) translated by Lord Bernes and edited by G.C. Macaulay

Summary: Commoners revolt. How rude.

Commentary: It's been a while since I talked about the "liberal" in liberal education. The gist being that liberal here denotes a free person, and a liberal education is the type someone deserved/would need to be free. Froissart is not a fan of freedom for the lower classes.

 all because of the ease and riches that the common people were of, which moved them to this rebellion, as sometime they did in France, the which did much hurt, for by such incidents the realm of France hath been greatly grieved.

 [...]

There was an usage in England, and yet is in divers countries, that the noblemen hath great franchise over the commons and keepeth them in servage, that is to say, their tenants ought by custom to labour the lords' lands, to gather and bring home their corns, and some to thresh and to fan, and by servage to make their hay and to hew their wood and bring it home. All these things they ought to do by servage, and there be more of these people in England than in any other realm

Another thing I haven't mentioned in a while is Elliot's explanation that you're not supposed to agree with everything in T5FSOB, but that it's supposed to demonstrate the range of human thought. I think this is a great exercise in general, but I especially appreciate Froissant "saying the quiet part out loud" as the saying goes here. There are people out there who 100% think we'd be better off going to 1-10% of the population owning the rest of us, they just aren't generally as forthright about it as Froissant is.

I guess I should note that this is an edited translation, so it's possible Froissant's original was less critical of the rebels.

 

 

 

June 14– From "Crito" by Plato translated by Benjamin Jowett

 As an audio

June 14– From Crito by Plato translated by Benjamin Jowett

Summary: Socrates is going to die, but not today.

Commentary: I've said before that I don't really care for these philosophical dialogues, since they inevitably devolve into one of the characters mindlessly agreeing that the other is such a genius while the other rambles on. This one was okay for the first half or so, but then it lapses into the usual. I thought the beginning was going to be unexpected hanging paradox, but no.

StarWarsClassics has it's own blog now!

 If you cared about them before, you can find them here now. If you didn't, there won't be any more cluttering up your regularly scheduled Harvard Classics.

June 13– "Aristides" from Plutarch’s "Lives" translated by John Dryden and “corrected” by Arthur Hugh Clough

 R.O.B.O.T. V.O.I.C.E.

June 13– Aristides from Plutarch’s Lives translated by John Dryden and “corrected” by Arthur Hugh Clough

Summary: Dude gets banished, then gets unbanished to help fight the Persians.

Commentary: The readings have been hard to follow this week. I feel like that's normal for the Plutarchs. They're just these weird, rambly biographies that jump all around.

  And, showing the sun to those who came from Mardonius, "as long as

  that retains the same course, so long," said he, "shall the citizens

  of Athens wage war with the Persians for the country which has been

  wasted, and the temples that have been profaned and burnt by them."

Frank Miller should've found a way to work that into 300. 

 

June 12– From "The Bhagavad-Gita" by Vyasa translated by Sir Edwin Arnold

 I haven't done an anthem in a while.

June 12– From The Bhagavad-Gita by Vyasa translated by Sir Edwin Arnold

Summary: I honestly don't really know.

Commentary: This is a challenging one. I remember reading part of it in undergrad, and I don't feel like I struggled this much. I also don't really remember much of what I read, so who knows. Let's go to the pull quotes:

Better to live on beggar's bread

With those we love alive,

Than taste their blood in rich feasts spread,

And guiltily survive!

We often get the opposite of this in T5FSOB (ex. St. Crispin's Day speech in Henry V) and I feel like this is closer to how most people feel in real life. We don't generally want to die dramatically, or for our family too. We'd rather they be meek, but alive.

Know naught! Life cannot slay. Life is not slain!

Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never;

Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams!

Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit for ever;

Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems!

I'm less enthused with this one, though I feel like I've been seeing the sentiment a lot lately.  Even if we assume the existence of an immortal soul, I'm not a fan of discarding the value of this individual life/death cycle. If this life is pointless, what's the point of all of them together?