[Milton-L] Paradise Lost memorized by British folk

Tue Nov 4 16:18:10 EST 2008

Hello Angelica, I have only just begun to scratch the surface of the poem, which I first came across while working as an actor at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, amongst other places. I have only seen the extracts as divulged on the site you refer to, but there is no doubt in my mind that he is not merely reciting the poem from memory, but acting it out: performing. In my experience it would not be possible to get an actor, in a live setting, to merely "recite" the piece: you know what they're like, always throwing in their interpretation. Actually I worked on a passage from book I years ago ( "Him the Almighty Power, Hurled headlong flaming from th' Ethereal sky...")  and asked a poet friend of mine ( who subsequently went on to plays and novels and was nominated twice for Booker prize) to give me his opinion. His sole criticism of my recital was it was not a recital but a performance: interestingly he said I had interposed myself between the text and the ear of the listener. Of course, I retorted, I'm an actooooor!, but his point was well made. As Tom stoppard so succinctly put it, in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" : We are actors. We are the opposite of people: we require an audience. Asking an actor not to perform in front of an audience is like asking a child to go on a diet in a sweetshop. About a year ago I committed Coleridge's  "Ancient  Mariner" to memory, thinking it would be a nice party piece, and came up against the same problem: where does recital end and performance begin? To date I have not recited it, except while driving or walking alone!

Regards,
Christy

Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 10:33:18 -0800
From: jefferyhodges at yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Paradise Lost memorized by British folk
To: milton-l at lists.richmond.edu

Angelica,

John Basinger performs the poem by not merely reciting but by also performing the parts.

He doesn't change costumes, and is dressed in simple, everyday clothes, but he strikes various attitudes and changes his position on a relatively bare stage that has only a structure in the middle with about three levels upon which to sit -- two steps and a central box, if I recall -- a podium to one side for the book Paradise Lost, which he occasionally consults (or sometimes carries), and some images on the back wall (or hanging above stage) that show Adam and Eve, the serpent and the tree, and perhaps something else.

That performance took place in 2001, I think, but he started memorizing the poem in 1993 or so. I presume that he's continued to work on polishing his performance of it, and I believe that he is performing this year, perhaps around Milton's actual birthday.

In the performance, he occasionally slips and consults the text, but the performance is not noticeably hampered by that and remains both impressive and well-done.

But John Basinger reads this listserve, so he could probably tell you more.

Jeffery Hodges

--- On Tue, 11/4/08, Angelica Duran <duran0 at purdue.edu> wrote:

From: Angelica Duran <duran0 at purdue.edu>
Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Paradise Lost memorized by British folk
To: "John Milton Discussion List" <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
Date: Tuesday, November 4, 2008, 11:16 AM

Dear Christy,

The website for the DVD, http://www.paradiselostperformances.com/history.html, notes that he committed the entire poem to memory in 1993. Perhaps you can clarify for me about your emphasis on performance?  Many thanks.

Adios,

Angelica Duran
Associate Professor
English and Comparative Literature
Purdue University
500 Oval Drive
West Lafayette, Indiana 47907
USA
(765) 496-3957
<duran0 at purdue.edu>
<http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/directory/?personid=80>

From: christy neary <christy.neary at hotmail.com>
Reply-To: John Milton Discussion List <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 17:08:52 +0000
To: John Milton Discussion List <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
Subject: RE: [Milton-L] Paradise Lost memorized by British folk

Dear Angelica, Don't know about others, but John Basinger's piece is a performance of the poem and is available,as you probably know, on DVD.

Regards,
Christy

Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 09:50:24 -0500
From: duran0 at purdue.edu
To: milton-l at lists.richmond.edu
Subject: [Milton-L] Paradise Lost memorized by British folk

Dear scholars,

Thank you for your overwhelming responses to my request for news about marathon readings of Paradise Lost.  I have tried to answer you each individually — I think I am up to date now.

I hope you can help me answer a question that has emerged from the responses: do you know of any recitations from memory of Paradise Lost by British folk or women?  I am following up on reports of memorized recitations by John Basinger (Three Rivers Community College), Harold Bloom (Yale), Douglas Pfieffer (SUNY-Stony Brook), Balachandra Rajan (U of Western Ontario), and even a spunky student in Singapore.

Off-list responses much
 appreciated.

Adios,

Angelica Duran
Associate Professor
English and Comparative Literature
Purdue University
500 Oval Drive
West Lafayette, Indiana 47907
USA
(765) 496-3957
<duran0 at purdue.edu>
<http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/directory/?personid=80>

Free upgrade for your Windows Live Messenger! Click here! <http://get.live.com> 

_______________________________________________
Milton-L mailing list
Milton-L at lists.richmond.edu
Manage your list membership and access list archives at http://lists.richmond.edu/mailman/listinfo/milton-l

Milton-L web site: http://johnmilton.org/
_______________________________________________
Milton-L mailing list
Milton-L at lists.richmond.edu
Manage your list membership and access list archives at
http://lists.richmond.edu/mailman/listinfo/milton-l

Milton-L web site: http://johnmilton.org/
_________________________________________________________________
Get the next generation of Free Windows Live Services
http://get.live.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.richmond.edu/pipermail/milton-l/attachments/20081104/c69dac89/attachment.html