Due Nov 18

The Dance of Courtly Graces

In Humanities this week you've read Book 1 and part of Book 4 from Castiglione's Courtier. For class today I want to focus on passages that strike you as significant for thinking about Shakespeare's portrait of court life in Hamlet. Go back through your Humanities reading, and then transcribe a short but significant passage from Castiglione into the comment box below. Then reply to that comment with a 2-¶ writeup. Use the first ¶ to discuss what Castiglione is arguing in that passage, perhaps clarifying its meaning by reference to the issues and concerns in the larger context of that section of the book. Use the second ¶ to discuss how this passage is relevant for Shakespeare's play.

People not enrolled in Humanities have my permission to do this assignment focusing on JUST the passages I've excerpted from Castiglione on the Unit 4 Assignment Page—look down in the comments. But before doing the assignment, see if you can get someone who IS in Coffman Humanities to give you a brief run-down on what Castiglione is up to in The Book of the Courtier.

Finally, as an aid for anyone who doesn't have the Humanities reader, I've scanned a large portion of The Courtier and uploaded it to the CourseDocs site. Note that my upload includes a brief excerpt from Book 2 that is NOT in the Humanities reader. We will discuss this decision in class.