Podcasts – Critical Readings

Constance and Her Child Leaving Northumberland, by Warwick Goble

CR Episode 82: Canterbury Tales IV – The Man of Law’s Tale

14 June 2021 S. P. Cooper

The panel examines The Man of Law's Tale and scholarly arguments about whether it is suited to its putative teller, and consider the tale's depictions of crime and justice (temporal and divine), constancy, providence, misadventure, and religious strife.

CR Episode 81: Canterbury Tales III – The Miller’s, Reeve’s, and Cook’s Tales

7 June 2021 S. P. Cooper

Leaving behind the Knight's noble depictions of courtly love, the panel descends through bawdy, sexual misadventures in the form of 'quites'--narrative responses--offered by the drunken Miller and the vengeful Reeve, and the Cook's incomplete tale.

CR Episode 80: Canterbury Tales II – The Knight’s Tale

31 May 2021 S. P. Cooper

In the second part of the Canterbury Tales series, the panel reads selections from The Knight's Tale, with a focus on how the three shines--to Venus, to Mars, and to Diana--serve as an interpretive device, and on the connexion to Boethian philosophy.

CR Episode 79: Canterbury Tales I – General Prologue

24 May 2021 S. P. Cooper

In the first week of the Canterbury Tales series, the panel reviews the biography of Geoffrey Chaucer, introduces the Canterbury Tales in general, and then reads selections from the General Prologue, with emphasis on Chaucer's development of character.

CR Episode 78: Kipling, “If”, and The Great War

17 May 2021 S. P. Cooper

The panel discusses selections from the poetry of Rudyard Kipling, including his most famous poem, "If", and three poems related to The Great War and, its mechanised social aftermath: "Gethsemane", "The Benefactor", and "The Secret of the Machines".

CR Episode 77: Ben Jonson’s Critical Eye

10 May 2021 S. P. Cooper

The panel discusses Ben Jonson's role as critic and author of the Elizabethan age, and reads four of his poems, including several of his Epigrams, before concluding with his rhapsodic ode written in memory of his friend, William Shakespeare.

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