Archive for the ‘British Rennaisance’ Category »
William Shakespeare
There are obviously a lot of works by Shakespeare that could potentially show up on the GRE. My advice would be to read a few of the most famous plays if you haven’t already (Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, The Tempest and Romeo and Juliette) and review characters and synopses on the Spark Notes website. You should also be familiar with the most famous sonnets, and be able to recognize the form of the Shakespearean sonnet.
Audio Books
Here are sonnets 51-60. You don’t have to know them by heart, but you should have a good sense of Shakespeare’s style.
Shakespeare’s Sonnets, 51-60
Shakespeare Links
For more Shakespeare sonnets and audio books, check out the following sites.
Speak The Speech – a great site offering free audio books of Shakespeare plays performed by actors.
wired for books – William Shakespeare this site contains free and pretty decent audio recordings of Shakespeare’s major plays.
ShakespeareCast.com A William Shakespeare podcast.
William Shakespeare – Macbeth – They met me in the day of success (Act 1, Scene 5) Audio Book
William Shakespeare – Macbeth – They met me in the day of success (Act 1, Scene 5) Audio Book
William Shakespeare - Macbeth - They met me in the day of success [2:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadChristopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
Christopher Marlowe was the most famous Elizabethan tragedian next to William Shakespeare. He is best known for his work in blank verse, as well as his colorful life and mysterious death. Although little of it can be proved, Marlowe was reputedly an atheist, a homosexual, and a government spy. He was eventually murdered after the discovery of threatening and libelous documents attributed to him.
For GRE purposes, I recommend you check out my previous post on Marlowe, which contains an audiobook of his poem, The Passionate Shepherd to his Love. Also take note of the post prior to that, which contains a recording of “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd,” by Sir Walter Raleigh.
Marlowe’s most famous work is The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, a play composed in blank verse about a protagonist who sells his soul to the devil in return for worldly power. (Not to be confused with Faust, which is Goethe’s dramatization of the same German legend.) I haven’t included an audiobook of Doctor Faustus, because I personally find audiobooks of plays to be extremely confusing, especially if you happen read them before. That said, Doctor Faustus is very likely to appear on the GRE, so I’d recommend you read it. Read the wikipedia summary here.
Other works of note
Tamburlaine the Great
Hero and Leander
Further reading
Christopher Marlowe site at luminarium.org
The Faerie Queen is a big one on the GRE, but it’s pretty easy to recognize if you know your Spensarian stanza. You should also take some time learning the characters and their allegorical significances. I hate to even suggest it, but Spark Notes is good for this. I know you’re going for a Ph.D. and all, but just remember: the GRE is not about how well you know things, its about how much you know.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find many great audiobooks for The Faerie Queen, but here are three of the cantos just to give you a sense of it. In the meantime, you can download the free e-book of at Project Gutenberg.
Listen to the Audio recording of: The Legende of the Knight of Redcrosse – Book 1, Canto 07
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
Sir Philip Sidney isn’t a huge figure on the GRE, but “Astrophel and Stella” is likely to appear. This was the first of the famous English sonnet sequences, and was composed sometime in the early 1580s. It is also referred to as a “sonnet cycle, ” because, taken as a whole, the sonnets contain a narration of a romantic relationship from its beginning to its decline.
The names of the protagonists are derived from the Greek words ‘aster’ (star) and ‘phil’ (lover), and the Latin word ’stella’ meaning star. Thus Astrophel is the star lover, and Stella is his star. There are 108 Sonnets in all, and 11 songs. I’ve included links to the first 60 of them, which is more than enough to give you a sense of the form. If you’d like to hear them all, they’re available here.
Sidney’s form is (with a few exceptions) a variation on the Petrarchan sonnet: 14 lines, rhyme scheme abababab cdcd ee, with a rhyming couplet at the end. Here’s the text of the first sonnet.
1
Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,
That the dear She might take some pleasure of my pain:
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe,
Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain:
Oft turning others’ leaves to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sun-burned brain.
But words came halting forth, wanting Invention’s stay,
Invention, Nature’s child, fled step-dame Study’s blows,
And others’ feet still seemed but strangers in my way.
Thus great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes,
Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite,
‘Fool’ said my Muse to me, ‘look in thy heart and write.’
Other texts to look out for are A Defense of Poesy and The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia.
Further Reading:
Sir Philip Sidney page at Vade Mecum
Luminarium Site – includes full text of selected works.
Listen to Sir Philip Sidney’s “Astrophel and Stella,” sonnets 1 – 30.
Sir Philip Sidney: "Astrophel and Stella" sonnets 1 - 30 [27:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download