09:00 I spend the morning reading through lines 1-164 of
the prologue of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" (1392). Lynda's U3A
"Making of English" group is holding its regular monthly meeting this
afternoon at 2:30 pm in the town’s Everyman
theatre, and Chaucer's prologue is the group's current project.
I practice saying the text with an authentic Middle English
accent so that the group's other members do not laugh at me. They can be very scathing
from time to time and I am so sensitive
-
that's the cross I have to bear - yikes!
But I recall the example of our daughters' old English teacher, Mr.
Honing, who hit the headlines recently, when new regulations sadly prevented him from speaking Middle English while teaching his much-feared
"Chaucer curriculum" (source, my go-to local news site, Onion News).
Students at the local high-school ("Pates Grammar School") told the town’s
journalists how happy they were that a standardised curriculum had now been
introduced, which would mean that they could in the future be spared opportunities for role-playing exercises or
for specially invited guest speakers: and other "surprises" that
their eccentric English teacher might have planned for them.
"I'm just relieved that Mr. [Aaron] Honing just has
to prepare us for the test and hasn’t got time to do anything like recite an original poem out loud, and afterwards call on us to express ourselves through poetry too," said
16-year-old Peter Macpherson, adding that
if it were not for nationally laid-down performance standards, his teacher
would probably feel free to engage in all kinds of creative activities, such as
arranging a class trip to a colonial farmhouse during the class’s study of the
Scarlet Letter, or come into class dressed
as Mark Twain.
"Thank goodness we all have to take just one single,
nationwide exam at the end of the year, so there is no way he will be wasting
class time with inspirational speeches encouraging us to excel as unique
individuals."
The students confirmed that they were happy to memorise
as many facts as were needed, rather than have to listen to Mr Honing speaking
in Middle English for their entire Chaucer unit.
How sensible! And something to remember when we hear
people criticise today's youth, no doubt about that!
The kids are all right!
11:00 Lois and I relax with a cup of coffee on the couch,
and afterwards I start sorting through the piles of unwanted books we have collected in
the past 2-3 weeks in our adult daughters' old rooms. First, I put into plastic
bags those books we can throw out for recycling: books that no one would be
interested in, and books that are too worn to be passed on. It's all part of
our current downsizing mini-project.
Then I put into other bags those books we can donate to a charity shop, especially the Red Cross shop,
which has a reputation for selling intellectual books, textbooks, classical
literature, and the like.
12:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a
short afternoon nap. I get up at 1:30 pm and take the bus into town. Meanwhile,
Lois goes around the corner to the local library to help library staff lead the
weekly "Baby Bounce & Rhyme" session for very young children and
their mothers.
I get off the bus at the stop in front of the Marks &
Spencer's department store and walk around the corner to the Everyman Theatre. Then
I sit in the theatre café waiting for the other members to show up.
14:30 The meeting
starts in the theatre bar. The group members take turns to read about 20-30
lines of the prologue at a time, and then translate them into modern English, before discussing the content etc.
In the prologue, the author writes an account of his
first meeting with the 20+ pilgrims he ends up travelling to Canterbury with,
including (in these first 164 lines) the knight, the squire, the yeoman, and
the prioress.
We focus on the prioress, who does not seem particularly
religious, to put it mildly. Her name is Madame Eglantine, and the author
describes her impeccable table manners and soft-heartedness towards animals,
whom she seems to prefer to humans.
Her portrait suggests that she has probably taken up the
religious life as a means to social advancement, given her deliberately acquired aristocratic manners
and mangled pronunciation of French. She maintains a rather secular lifestyle,
including the keeping of lapdogs, whom she gives privileges to, in preference to
human beings.
She has a fancy rosary, and a brooch inscribed with the
words "Amor vincit omnia" (Love Conquers All) - but is it religious
love or secular love that she worships?
The author goes to great pains to describe her face - a
pretty nose, a beautiful forehead, and soft, red lips. And she seems to be a
flirtatious, buxom woman ("not
undergrown" in Chaucer's words), rather than like a skinny, "undergrown" photo model.
She sounds completely gorgeous, that’s for sure!
Our group’s members are unfortunately all very shallow, to put it mildly, and we
talk about the Hollywood stars we would choose to play the various roles in a
movie based on the Tales.
Someone suggests either Angelina Jolie or Judi Dench (one
or other of the two) would be the ideal choice when it comes to the prioress. I
do a little research on my smartphone, and I see that it was actually Charlotte
Kell who played the role in Pasolini's film version (1972). Charlotte, incidentally,
was the grandson of Vernon George Waldergrave Kell, who founded MI5, part of
Britain's intelligence service – not a lot of people know that.
My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!
Pasolin's film version of the
"Canterbury Tales" (1972)
16:15 The meeting ends and I take the bus home again. I
feel completely washed up, to put it mildly. I collapse on the sofa, and Lois gets me a cup of tea
and a piece of cake.
18:15 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening
listening to the radio and watching a bit of television.
We turn on the radio and listen to the second half of an
interesting programme, a musical
‘concert’ made up of 85-year-old Australian comedian Barry Humphries'
selection of forgotten popular songs from the first half of the 20th century.
Barry is even older than me, at 85 years – beside him I'm
just a kid, even though I turned 73 ten days ago. But it’s probably safe to say he's definitely become a bit of an old crow.
But old crows have a lot to teach us younger old crows about life, and Barry is
no exception.
He starts by recalling his youth in Melbourne. He
regarded Australia at that time as being very boring - and he believed that
the only country where exciting things happened was that wonderful place called
"Overseas".
But when he told his aunt Elsie that he had decided to
move to England, she replied, "Why do you want to go there? That's where all the convicts come from! ". My god,
what madness!
Barry tells us that the city of Melbourne was actually named
after one of Queen Victoria's favourite prime ministers, William Lamb, the 2nd
Viscount Melbourne. Melbourne's wife, Lady Caroline, had a very public affair
with Lord Byron, and it was she who characterised Byron as "mad, bad and
dangerous to know".
Lady Caroline Lamb with her lover, Lord
Byron
The resulting scandal hit all the newspaper headlines in
1812. Lady Caroline then went on to publish a Gothic novel, Glenarvon, in 1816,
in which she portrayed both her marriage and her affair with Byron in a saucy
and explicit way, causing even more embarrassment to her husband. Good grief,
what madness!
Among the many enjoyable Australian songs in this
evening's programme, we hear The Spooky Men's Chorale, with their iconic song "Don’t Stand Between a Man and His Tool", a tribute to power tools, a
particular obsession of Australian men, to put it mildly.
Tool, tool, tool,
tool, tool, tool, tool, tool,
Tool, tool, tool,
tool, tool, tool, tool, tool,
Tool, tool, tool,
tool, tool, tool, tool, tool,
Tool, tool, tool,
tool, tool, tool, tool, tool,
When I wake up in
the morning, I don’t make a sound,
I tiptoe to the
tool-shed, and take a look around,
There they are, all
hanging, in order of their size,
Like water to a
thirsty soul, a feast for hungry eyes,
I love the way they
whisper, I love the way they roar,
I love the way you
can use them, in and out of doors…
The Spooky Men
We also hear Harold Blair, an aboriginal operative tenor
(and activist), singing "How Great Thou Art". Humphries as a young
man once “acted” with Blair in a play, Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men",
in Melbourne.
Harold Blair, aboriginal tenor and activist
Humphries, during his long life, has appeared in numerous
films, plays and TV shows, but his career on stage began from humble beginnings
of course. His first experience on stage was as a member of the Melbourne
Theatre Company.
Blair, the aboriginal tenor, had numerous lines in the play “Of Mice and Men”,
but unfortunately, Humphries didn't - he had a very small role: he played a dog that could
be heard off stage. At a particular crucial moment during the performance he
had to bark in the wings, which he did every night.
Humphries 'role as an invisible dog was unfortunately his
last in that theatre company: he had noticed that the company leader was
shortening Humphries' roles more and more with every role he was assigned, and the
invisible dog part was the last straw for Humphries, I suppose, and he quit.
Poor Barry !!!!
22:00 We go to bed. I read about 30 pages of my bedtime
book, Ben Elton's "Two Brothers" (Danish version), before I drift off
to sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz !!!!!!
Danish
translation
09:00 Jeg bruger
formiddagen på at læse igennem linjerne 1-164 af prologen til Chaucers
”Canterbury-Fortælllingerne” (1392). Lyndas U3A ”Making of English” gruppe
holder sit regelmæssige månedlige møde i eftermiddag kl 14:30 i byens
Everyman-teater, og Chaucers prolog er gruppens nuværende projekt.
Jeg øver mig i
at udtale teksten med en autentisk middelengelsk accent, så gruppens andre
medlemmer ikke griner af mig. De kan være meget skadelige fra tid til anden, og
jeg er så følsøm –
det er det
kors, jeg bærer – yikes!
Men jeg mindes
om forbilledet af vores døtres gamle engelsklærer, Mr. Honing, der ramte
overskrifterne for nylig, da nye reglamenter desværre forhindrede ham i at tale
middelengelsk, mens han overviste sin meget frygtede ”Chaucer-læseplan” (kilde,
mit go-to lokale nyhedswebsted, Onion
News).
Studenter på den lokale
højskole (”Pates Grammar School”) fortalte byens journalister, hvor glade de var
for, at en standardiseret læseplan var blevet indført, hvilket ville betyde, at
de fremover kunne undvige muligheder for rollespiløvelser eller for specielt
inviterede gæsttalere: og for andre ”overraskelser”, som deres ekcentriske
engelsklærer kunne have planlagt for dem.
"Jeg er bare lettet over, at Mr. [Aaron] Honing bare er nødt til at
forberede os på testen og ikke kan gøre noget som at recitere et originalt digt
højt og bagefter opfordre os til at udtrykke os selv gennem poesi også",
sagde den 16-årige Peter Macpherson og tilføjede, at hvis det ikke var
nationalt etablerede præstationsnormer, ville hans lærer sandsynligvis føle sig
fri til at engagere sig i alle former for kreative aktiviteter, såsom at
arrangere en klassetur til et kolonialt stuehus under deres læsning af The
Scarlet Letter eller komme ind i klasse klædt som Mark Twain.
"Gudskelov, vi skal alle tager en enkelt, landdækkende eksamen i
slutningen af året, så der er ingen måde, han vil spilde klassetiden med
inspirerende taler, der opfordrer os til at udmærke os som unikke
individer."
Eleverne
bekræftede at de var glade for at lære udenad på remse så mange fakta som
nødvendigt snarere end at lytte til hr. Honing tale i middelengelsk for hele
deres Chaucer-læseplan.
Hvor
fornuftigt! Og noget man kan mindes om, når vi hører mennesker kritisere
nutidens ungdom, ingen tvivl om det! The kids are all right!
11:00 Lois og
jeg slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen, og bagefter går jeg i gang med at
sortere de bunker af uønskede bøger, vi har samlet i de seneste 2-3 uger i
vores voksne døtres gamle værelser. Først putter jeg i plastikposer de bøger vi
kan smide ud til genbrug: bøger, som ingen ville interessere sig for, og bøger,
der er for slidte til at blive videregivet. Det hele er en del af vores
nuværende downsise-miniprojekt.
Så sætter jeg
i andre poser de bøger vi kan donere til en eller anden velgørenhedsbutik, i
sær Røde Kors-butikken, der har et ry for at sælge intellektuelle bøger,
lærebøger, klassisk litteratur, og lignende.
12:00 Vi
spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en kort eftermiddagslur.
Jeg står op kl 13:30 og tager bussen ind i byen. I mellemtiden går Lois rundt
om hjørnet til det lokale bibliotek for at hjælpe bibliotekets personale med at
styre den ugentlige ”Baby Bounce & Rhyme”-sessionen for meget unge børn og
deres mødre.
Jeg står af
bussen ved busstoppestedet foran Marks & Spencers stormagasinet, og går hen
rundt om hjørnet til Everyman-teatret. Jeg sætter mig i teatrets café og venter
på, at de andre medlemmer dukker op.
14:30 Mødet
starter på teatrets bar. Gruppemedlemmerne skiftes til at læse 20-30 linjer af
prologen og oversætte dem til moderne engelsk.
I prologen skriver
forfatteren en beretning af sit første møde med de 20+ pilgrimme, han ender med
at rejse til Canterbury sammen med, herunder (i disse første 164 linjer)
ridderen, væbneren, tjeneren og priorinden.
Vi fokuserer
på priorinden, der ikke synes ret religiøs, for at sige mildt. Hun hedder
Madame Eglantine, og forfatteren beskriver hendes upåklagelige bordskik og
blødsødenhed over for dyr, som hun virker at foretrække til mennesker.
Hendes portræt
antyder, at hun er sandsynligt i det religiøse liv som et middel til social
fremgang, i betragtning af hendes aristokratiske manerer og forvrængede franske
udtale. Hun opretholder en sekulær livsstil, herunder at holde skødehunde, som
hun giver privilegier til over mennesker.
Hun har en
dekorativ rosenkrans og broche, indskrevet med "Amor vincit omnia"
(Love Conquers All) - men er det
religiøs kærlighed eller sekulær, som hun prioritiserer? Forfatteren gør umage
for at beskrive hendes ansigt – en køn næse, en smuk pande, og bløde, røde
læber. Og hun virker at være en koket,
også frodig kvinde (”not undergrown” i
Chaucers ord), snarere, end en mager fotomodel. Hun lyder pragtfuld, ingen
tvivl om det!
Gruppemedlemmer
er meget overfladiske, for at sige mildt, og vi snakker om Hollywood-stjernerne
vi villle have til at spille de forskellige roller i en film om fortællingerne.
En eller anden medlem foreslår Angelina Jolie, eller Judi Dench ville være et
godt valg, når det kommer til priorinden. Jeg gør lidt forskning på min
smartphone, og jeg ser, at det var faktisk Charlotte Kell, der spillede rollen
i Pasolinis filmversion (1972). For øvrigt var hun barnebarn af Vernon George
Waldergrave Kell, der grundlagde MI5, en del af Storbritanniens
efterretningstjeneste. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!
Pasolinis
filmversion af ”Canterbury-fortællingerne” (1972)
16:15 Mødet
slutter og jeg tager bussen hjem igen. Jeg føler mig helt slået ud, for at sige
mildt. Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te og et stykke kage.
18:15 Vi
spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at lytte til radio og se lidt
fjernsyn.
Vi tænder for
radioen og lytter til den 2. halvdel af et interessant program, der består af
den Melbourne fødte 85-årige eks-komiker Barry Humphries’ udvalg af glemte
populærsangklassikere fra det 20. århundredes første halvdel.
Barry er endnu
ældre om mig, på 85 år – jeg er bare en unger, på 72 år, selvom jeg fyldte 73
for 10 dage siden), så derfor er det sikkert at sige, at han er blevet til lidt
af en gammel krage. Men gamle krager har meget at lære os yngre gamle krager om
livet, og Barry er ingen undtagelse.
Han starter
ved at minde om hans ungdom i Melbourne.
Han betragtede Australien dengang som en
meget kedeligt land – og han troede, at de eneste steder, hvor der skete
begejstrende ting, var det vidunderlige sted, man kaldte ”udlandet”.
Men da han
fortalte sin tante Elsie, at han havde besluttet sig for at flytte til England,
svarede hun, ”Hvorfor for fanden flytter du til England? Det er det sted, alle
de straffefanger kommer fra!”. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!
Barry
fortæller os, at byen Melbourne blev faktisk opkaldet efter en af dronning
Victorias yndlings-premierministrer, William Lamb, 2. viscount Melbourne.
Melbournes kone, Lady Caroline, havde en offentlig affære med Lord Byron, og
det var hun, som karaktiserede Byron som "mad, bad and dangerous to
know".
Lady
Caroline Lamb og Lord Byron, hendes elsker
Den
resulterende skandale ramte alle de avisoverskrifterne i 1812 . Lady Caroline
udgav en gotisk roman, Glenarvon, i 1816; dette skildrede både sit ægteskab og
sin affære med Byron på en fræk og eksplicit måde, hvilket voldede endnu større
pinliggørelse til sin mand. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!
Blandt de
mange behagelige australske sange i aftenens program hører vi Spooky Men’s
Chorale, med deres ikoniske ”Don’t Stand Between a Man and his Tool”, en
hyldest til elværktøjer, en ejendommeligt obsession af australske mænd, for at
sige mildt.
Tool, tool, tool,
tool, tool, tool, tool, tool,
Tool, tool, tool,
tool, tool, tool, tool, tool,
Tool, tool, tool,
tool, tool, tool, tool, tool,
Tool, tool, tool,
tool, tool, tool, tool, tool,
When I wake up in
the morning, I don’t make a sound,
I tiptoe to the
toolshed, and take a look around,
There they are, all
hanging, in order of their sise,
Like water to a
thirsty soul, a feast for hungry eyes,
I love the way they
whisper, I love the way they roar,
I love the way you
can use them, in and out of doors…
The Spooky Men
Vi hører
Harold Blair, en indfødt operatisk tenor (og aktivist), synge ”How Great Thou
Art”. Humphries som ung mand engang påtrådte sammen med i Blair i et
teaterstykke, Steinbecks ”Mus og mænd” i Melbourne.
Harold
Blair
Humphries, i
løbet af sit lange liv, har påtrådt i talrige film, teaterstykker og
tv-programmer, men hans karriere på scenen startede fra ydmyige begyndelser
selvfølgelig. Hans første oplevelser på scenen var som et medlem af Melbourne
Theatre Company.
Blair havde
talrige linjer i stykket, men det havde Humphries desværre ikke – han havde en
meget lille rolle: som en hund, som hørtes i kulissen. På ét afgørende
tidspunkt i løbet af forestillingen, skulle han gø, hvilket han gjorde, hver
aften.
Humphries’
rolle som en usynlig hund var desværre hans sidste i teatetrupen: han havde
bemærket, at trupens leder har været i gang med at forkorte mere og mere
Humphries’ roller, og dette bragte bageret til at flyde over, formoder jeg.
Stakkels Barry
!!!!
22:00 Vi går i
seng. Jeg læser ca 30 sider af min sengetidbog, Ben Eltons ”To brødre” (danske
version), før jeg glider over i søvnen. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!
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