Right now, I'm working on Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale (1611)in between chunks of The Faerie Queene (1590), Chartier's The Origin of the Book, and other miscellaneous works. As of right now, I've made it through the IV.3. So, I do not have anything substantial to say at this point; however, I have noticed a few things that I want to kind of point out so I will not forget them. To begin with, I am intrigued by Leontes' unsubstantiated jealousy concerning Hermione. He even becomes suspicious of one of his Lords, Camillo. This jealousy arises because Leontes enlists Camillo to kill Polixenes, Hermione's suspected lover. Camillo defaults and informs Polixenes of the plot, and they both leave Leontes' Sicilia under the cover of night. Leontes, enraged now, has Hermione arrested and put on trial. The trial proclaims her innocent; however, a prophecy also gets passed down, that Leontes will not have an heir until his "bastard" daughter is found. His son dies, and Hermione also dies.
What interests me here is the jealousy that Leontes feels. It really reminds me of Malbecco and his wife in Book III cantos ix and x of The Faerie Queene. Here, Malbecco fears that his wife, Hellenore, will run away with any man who enters his castle. She does, with Paridell. There is more to the story than this, but the idea of sequestering the maid and feeling jealousy without evidence to support the feeling really intrigues me. At the end of canto x, Malbecco actually turns into jealousy. Along with Malbecco, I also think about Leantio in Thomas Middleton's Women Beware Women (1616). Here, Leantio marries Bianca and essentially keeps her in his house while he is away because he is afraid of her possibly inconstancy. While he is away for work, she does get out of the house, with the help of Leantio's unwitting mother, and she does become inconstant by messing around with, and eventually marrying, the Duke.
In conjunction with the sequestered nature of women, I also started thinking about the idea of foundlings, especially since this concept appears over and over again in Spenser's epic with characters such as Arthur, Belphobe, and Amoret. What to make of this right now, I don't know, but I like the idea.
Finally, I really enjoy the fact that Act I of Shakespeare's play begins with Polixenes' to leave Sicila. Leontes cannot convince him to stay, but Hermione can. At the beginning of Act IV, after 16 years have passed, Camillo attempts to leave Polixenes and Bohemia. However, Polixenes convinces him to say. Along with this conjunction between the first and second halves of The Winter's Tale, I also found the Shepherd's opening comments in the play (III.3) interesting. He says,
I would there were no age between ten
and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the
rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting
wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing,
fighting.
While these lines convey real wisdom from a rustic, they also, at least as far as I have read, convey a foreshadowing of Florizel's departure from court to visit Perdita. He's sixteen at the time. There may not be anything here, but I think the the Shepherd's comments then Polixenes' argument to keep Camillo in Bohemia have some type of connection. I could make something out of the pastoral setting, especially in relation to reading Spenser right now, but I will not.
The Fire Next Time
What can I say? Nothing really. Whatever I write here will utterly fail to do any justice to James Baldwin's words and ideas. So, I will begin with a brief clip from a speech he gave circa 1979 at UC Berkley.
When I get a better idea of what I want to say about the two work in The Fire Next Time, I will post them. Until then, let me know what thoughts you may have.
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