Chaucer Celebration 2010: List of events
Thursday, April 1
The Wakefield Master, The Second Shepherds' Play, 3-4 p.m., stage area by Memorial Union
Cast (in order of appearance): First Shepherd: Professor Robert Sturges; Second Shepherd: Professor Richard Newhauser; Third Shepherd: Nathaniel Bump; Mak (a sheep thief): Samuel Estabrooks; Gill (his wife): Jenna Steigerwalt; Angel: Alaya Kuntz; Virgin Mary: Mellissa Sawyer. Shepherd costumes by Kristin Burris.
This nativity play by the so-called Wakefield Master was composed in the mid- to late 15th century and is one of the most famous plays to survive from the Middle Ages. In its dramatic action of sheep stealing, a feigned birth, the mercy shown by the shepherds to the sheep thief, and the shepherds' witnessing of the nativity of Jesus, one can see the subtle interweaving of the playwright's poetic individualism with the theology of the Incarnation.
The dramatic action moves from the farce of concealing a stolen sheep in a cradle and representing it as a baby, in a parody of the holy family and the Incarnation, to the shepherds' presence at the actual Incarnation. The fulcrum on which the plot moves is mercy: the shepherds' mercy in not punishing Mak severely and God's mercy in providing the Incarnation.
Early music concert by the Early Music Chamber Choir, Ryan Olsen, director, 5-6 p.m., Organ Hall, School of Music
Program to be selected from the following: 1. Blow Thy Horn Hunter – Cornysh; 2. Jesu Christes milde moder – Anonymous, 13th century; 3. Man mei longe – Anonymous, 13th century; 4. Edi beo thu hevene quene – Anonymous, 14th century; 5. Sumer is icumen in – Anonymous, 14th century; 6. Alas departynge is ground of woo – Anonymous, 15th century; 7. Worldes blis ne last – Anonymous, 13th century; 8. Of All the Birds – Bartlet; 9. Ah Robin, gentle Robin – Cornysh; 10. Christus resurgens – Sarum chant; with settings of Christ Rising Again, an Easter anthem for the early Reformed Church of England from the mid- to late-16th century.
Choir: Travis Clement, April Cound, Daniel Gerwig, Josiah Hagstrom, Devon Howard, Joe Kim, Ilona Kubiaczyk-Adler, Alaya Kuntz, Thomas Kushibab, Kristen Larue, Lizzie Lee, Biruta Melessa, Mike Nesvold, Ryan Olsen, Colby Picton, Dr. Catherine Saucier, Cheryl Tucker.
Medieval feast, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Durham Language and Literature Building room 165. Potluck – bring a medieval dish!
Medieval film festival I: “The Name of the Rose” (1986), 8-10 p.m., Durham Language and Literature Building room 316.
Friday, April 2
Roundtable discussion on “Chaucer and Religion,” 5:30-7 p.m., Durham Language and Literature Building room 316
Participants: professors Roger Dahood (University of Arizona), Richard Newhauser, and Rosalynn Voaden.
Medieval film festival II: Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1984), 7:30-9:30 p.m., Durham Language and Literature Building room 316.
On both days
An exhibition of the library's rare holdings of Chaucer editions and related material will be on display in the Hayden Library rotunda exhibit area near the main entrance and in the Luhrs Reading Room (Special Collections) in Hayden Library. The Chaucer display will be exhibited from March 22 to April 5. The items in the exhibit include:
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer: Now Newly Imprinted. [Upper Mall, Hammersmith, in the county of Middlesex, Printed by me William Morris at the Kelmscott Press. Finished on the 8th day of May, 1896] (the Kelmscott Chaucer)
The Canterbury Tales: the New Ellesmere Chaucer Facsimile (of Huntington Library MS EL 26 C 9) by Geoffrey Chaucer; edited by Daniel Woodward and Martin Stevens. Tokyo: Yushodo Co.; San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library Press, 1995.
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, compared with the former editions, and many valuable mss. out of which, three tales are added which were never before printed; by John Urry, student of Christ-Church, Oxon. deceased: together with a glossary by a student of the same college. To the whole is prefixed the author's life, newly written, and a preface, giving an account of this edition. London, Printed for B. Lintot, 1721.
The Canterbury tales of Chaucer / modernis'd by Mr. Betterton ... [et al.] ; published by Mr. Ogle ; to which is prefixed the life of Chaucer, written by Mr. Urry. Includes: Characters of the pilgrims, by Betterton, Ogle, and Dryden, and prologues and tales by Betterton, Boyse, Brooke, Cobb, Dryden, Grosvenor, Markland, Pope, and Ogle. Dublin : Printed by and for George Faulkner, 1742.
Canterbury chimes, or, Chaucer tales retold for children by Francis Storr and Hawes Turner. London (1 Paternoster Square): C.K. Paul, 1878.
The Canterbury tales of Geoffrey Chaucer, together with a version in modern English verse, by William van Wyck, illustrated by Rockwell Kent. New York, Covici-Friede, 1930.
The book of Geoffrey Chaucer; an account of the publication of Geoffrey Chaucer's works from the fifteenth century to modern times. [San Francisco] Book Club of California, 1963.
The prologue to the Canterbury tales of Geoffrey Chaucer: with an engraving of the pilgrims in the following sequence: the reve, Chaucer, Clerk of Oxford, the cook, the miller, wife of Bath, the merchant, parish priest, serjeant of law, the plowman, the doctor, the franklin, two citizens, the seaman, the host, the sumner, the steward, the pardoner, the monk, the fryar, a citizen, the prioress, the nun, three priests, the yeoman, the knight, the squire / by William Blake. Los Angeles: Plantin Press, 1975.
Special thanks to Katherine Krzys, Curator, and Karrie Porter Brace, Curatorial/Museum Specialist, ASU Libraries, for making the rare holdings of Chaucer texts available during the Chaucer Celebration.