Second Semester

Second Day . . .No post on Day 1.

There HAD been homework, however-- to read the selection from Sir Thomas Malory's "Morte d'Arthur," which is actually the last piece in the Medieval unit of the book (176-184).  The portion in your book is actually from the ending, which really does feature "the death of Arthur" (as the title says)--but the book as a whole tracks Arthur's life from boyhood to becoming king to the end of his reign (and life).  It's actually a springboard into the Renaissance, because it's one of the first books published by William Caxton on his new moveable type printing press.  And it's the first work in your book that is given "as is" except for modernizing the spelling--in other words, it's not a Modern English translation of something originally written in Old English or Middle English.  It's actually "Early Modern English" from the dialect that has most influenced our language today.

TODAY IN CLASS
Some general overview discussion about Sir Bedivere and Wiglaf (sort of my "who read it??" gauge), and then students worked on informal note-taking answers to several questions at the end of the selection:  #2, #3, and #4 on p. 184, and #7 on page 185.  We'll finish talking about these tomorrow.

But FOR TOMORROW
Write out a smooth and accurate modern translation of the first paragraph of the selection (on 176).  Of course I don't mean the intro blurb in italics, I mean the actual first paragraph.  As part of what you do, REDUCE the number of "and"s that you see in the original passage (there are various ways to do that).

We'll look at this first, then you will do at least one more paragraph in class (different sections of the room doing different things, so we can cover more material).