The Classic English Literature Podcast

By M. G. McDonough

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Episodes: 78

Description

Where rhyme gets its reason!In a historical survey of English literature, I take a personal and philosophical approach to the major texts of the tradition in order to not only situate the poems, prose, and plays in their own contexts, but also to show their relevance to our own. This show is for the general listener: as a teacher of high school literature and philosophy, I am less than a scholar but more than a buff. I hope to edify and entertain!

Episode Date
"Death the Leveller" by James Shirley
Oct 30, 2024
Cant, Costume, and Cutpurses: Dekker and Middleton's The Roaring Girl
Oct 26, 2024
"The test of experience": The Philosophy of Sir Francis Bacon
Oct 06, 2024
Vikings Are A Thing! The Scandinavian Influence on English (Out of Time Episode 1)
Sep 22, 2024
Will the Real Hamlet Please Stand Up
Sep 15, 2024
An Unintended Episode: English Country House Poems
Sep 02, 2024
John Webster's Sensational The Duchess of Malfi
Aug 20, 2024
Flesh and Spirit: The Writing of John Donne
Aug 05, 2024
"Drink to me only with thine eyes": Ben Jonson's Lyrics
Jul 21, 2024
English Comes to America
Jul 03, 2024
"A Pretty Kind of Game": Ben Jonson's Volpone and The Alchemist
Jun 17, 2024
Humorous Humors: Ben Jonson's Early Comedies
Jun 02, 2024
The Bible in English
May 19, 2024
More than the Dark Lady: Aemilia Lanyer's "Eve's Apology in Defense of Women"
May 05, 2024
Fair Youths and Dark Ladies: Shakespeare's Sonnets
Apr 20, 2024
"You taught me language": Shakespeare's The Tempest
Apr 07, 2024
The Felix Culpa: George Herbert's "Easter Wings"
Mar 31, 2024
Shakespeare: The Narrative Poems
Mar 10, 2024
Shakespeare's The Tragedy of King Lear and the Absurdity of Suffering
Feb 18, 2024
Shakespeare's Problematic Plays
Jan 28, 2024
Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth: A Love Story
Jan 15, 2024
Who is There?: Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet
Dec 29, 2023
The First Anglican Christmas Carol
Dec 24, 2023
Honor, Ethics, and Assassination: Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
Dec 10, 2023
Happy 400th! Shakespeare's First Folio
Nov 30, 2023
"I am a woman; when I think I must speak": Shakespeare's Rosalind and Beatrice
Nov 25, 2023
Happy Thanksgiving! George Herbert's "Gratefulness"
Nov 22, 2023
Shakespeare's Henriad
Nov 10, 2023
Happy Halloween from Herrick's "The Hag"!
Oct 31, 2023
Despair and Damnation: Marlowe's The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus
Oct 29, 2023
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: A Tragedy of Sonnet-Lovers
Oct 15, 2023
Concord of this Discord: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream
Sep 30, 2023
History, History Plays, and Historiography: Shakespeare's Richard III
Sep 17, 2023
Spillin' the Tea on Marlowe and Kyd
Sep 01, 2023
"Violence Prevails": Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy
Aug 22, 2023
The Sum of Glory: Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great Parts 1 and 2
Aug 13, 2023
An Overview of Renaissance Theatre
Aug 04, 2023
A Still Queer Voice: Richard Barnfield's "The Affectionate Shepherd"
Jul 27, 2023
Live with Me, Be My Love: Pastoral Eclogues
Jul 20, 2023
Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene: The Legend of the Redcrosse Knight
Jul 12, 2023
American Independence: Tudor Roots
Jul 04, 2023
The Perfect Pattern of a Poet: Edmund Spenser's Lyrics
Jun 27, 2023
The Queen's Two Bodies: Elizabeth I's Poetry
Jun 17, 2023
Defending Poetry: Sir Philip Sidney
Jun 10, 2023
Nowhereland: Sir Thomas More's Utopia
Jun 03, 2023
On Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey
May 27, 2023
Venus, Venison, and Venom: The Poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt
May 20, 2023
John Skelton: The Last Medieval (or First Renaissance) Poet
May 13, 2023
For the Coronation of King Charles III
May 06, 2023
The Mysteries and the Miller's Tale (The Canterbury Tales, Part 3.75 [?])
Apr 30, 2023
The Birth of English Drama: Mystery and Morality
Apr 22, 2023
Weal and Woe: Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur (The Matter of Arthur, Part 4)
Apr 15, 2023
William Dunbar's "Done is the Battle": An Easter Hymn
Apr 09, 2023
The Great Vowel Movement
Apr 01, 2023
Medieval Mysticism: The Book of Showings and The Book of Margery Kempe
Mar 25, 2023
Three Doctors and a Razor: Medieval English Philosophers
Mar 19, 2023
Keep the Faith: Moral John Gower
Mar 11, 2023
Mock Chivalry: "The Tournament of Tottenham"
Mar 05, 2023
Love and Loss in Anglo-Saxon Poetry
Feb 26, 2023
Revolting Peasants: 1381 and All That
Feb 23, 2023
The Endless Knot: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (The Matter of Arthur, Part 3)
Feb 11, 2023
"Noble Preaching": The Wife, The Lollards, and Chaucer's Retraction (The Canterbury Tales Part 3.5)
Jan 28, 2023
"Beaten for a Book": Chaucer's Wife of Bath (The Canterbury Tales Part 3)
Jan 23, 2023
Going Blackberrying: Swearing in "The Pardoner's Tale" (The Canterbury Tales Part 2.5)
Jan 14, 2023
"A Wholly Vicious Man": Chaucer's Pardoner (The Canterbury Tales Part 2)
Jan 08, 2023
Mary's Christmas!
Dec 25, 2022
"Pilgrims were they all": Chaucer's "General Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales (The Canterbury Tales Part 1)
Dec 23, 2022
Encountering the Divine: Medieval Dream Vision Poetry
Dec 08, 2022
Avian Agitation: "The Owl and the Nightingale"
Nov 19, 2022
"Wise, Worthy, and Belle": Marie de France's "Lanval" (The Matter of Arthur, Part 2)
Nov 05, 2022
The King Arthur of Pseudo-History (The Matter of Arthur, Part 1)
Oct 23, 2022
1066 and All That: Anglo-Norman English
Sep 29, 2022
Black and White and Read All Over: The Exeter Book Riddles
Sep 09, 2022
Those Who Wander: The Anglo-Saxon Elegies
Aug 26, 2022
Wherefore Beowulf?
Aug 12, 2022
Why Think About Literature?
Aug 04, 2022
The Coming of the Anglo-Saxons
Jul 29, 2022
Hello and Welcome!
Jul 25, 2022