Tuesday, 4 August 2020

Tuesday August 4th 2020


09:00 Lynda, leader of the local U3A Middle English group, has at last emailed us group members to tell us what we will be looking at during Friday’s monthly meeting of the group, on zoom. It’s always nice to get her cheery emails, but what a pity she waits so long before telling us what we have to read and comment on: if she sent out the email after the previous meeting we would have a full 4 weeks to do the work – damn!!!!

We’ll be looking at Malory’s “Morte d’Arthur”, published in 1485, by William Caxton’s shiny-new printing press company, the first in the world to publish books in the English language.

Malory’s “Morte d’Arthur”

At last we will find out about the origins of the famous King Arthur, who was apparently conceived due to a case of mistaken identity – his mother, Igrayne, Duchess of Cornwall, was in bed with Uther, the king of Britain, in the mistaken belief that the King was her husband, the Duke. Oh dear!

Igrayne: went to bed with the King due to a misunderstanding

By coincidence the Duke just happened to die on the night of the Duchess’s tryst with the King, so the King married poor Igrayne when it became clear she was now a widow. So it all ended happily – except for in the Duke’s case – oh dear, poor Duke!


synopsis of the first part of the story – thanks, “Cliff Notes” !!!

There is some discussion apparently as to whether Morte d’Arthur is in Middle English or Early Modern English, but I think that’s pointless – there was no set date where everybody was told to stop talking Middle English and convert to Early Modern – that would be ridiculous! It must have been a gradual process, to my way of thinking – call me crazy if you like!!!

Lois says that 30 years ago she walked into our little local branch of the County Library and asked if they'd got a copy of Morte d'Arthur, but they said they'd never heard of it. What nonsense!

Do you remember Nigel Molesworth's books about his experiences at his prep school, St Custards (as told to Geoffrey Williams)? At the beginning of the autumn term, the headmaster, Mr Grimes, asked the class to say what they had been reading in the school summer holidays. 

Nigel said he'd been reading some Proust -  "A la recherche du temps perdu". He hadn't actually read it but had memorised the "Cliff Notes". 

The headmaster far from being impressed, was furious, saying that there was no such writer - and poor Nigel got 6 lashes for his pains! What a crazy world it was in those times!!!!

12:45 While we are having lunch, Mark comes to do some gardening, and after lunch Lois joins in online with the class of Unitarian Iranian immigrants who want to study her sect’s beliefs. Meanwhile I take a gigantic afternoon nap, followed by a 5-mile ride on my exercise bike.


20:00 We feel like something light and frothy tonight, so we watch a look-back at typical summer TV programmes from the 1950’s onwards.


Much of it comes down to lots of beauty contests and girls in bikinis, with commentators getting more and more iffy about presenting these from the 1970’s onwards.









Presenter Terry Wogan, trying to preempt
possible criticisms - poor Terry !!!!!

But nostalgic to see some of the old tourist-brochure programmes, with their wide choice of countries as holiday destinations, some of them I suspect countries that most people would avoid nowadays – oh dear!


 22:00 We go to bed – zzzzzzzz!!!!


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