NOTE: The "Shakespeare" group will answer these questions and respond on Friday.
Answer TWO of
the following:
Q1: The
Maxims are collections of proverbs and wisdom and may be from widely disparate
authors writing ages apart. Or they could be from a single writer. So assume
that each set (A, B, and C) are by a single author. What kind of poet wrote ‘A’?
Who wrote ‘B’? And who wrote ‘C?’ What personality shapes the ideas and sayings
of each one? You might even connect it to the author of one of the poems we’ve already
read (which one did the Battle of Maldon poet
write, for example)?
Q2: Would you
say these maxims are more philosophical or pragmatic in nature? In other words,
do they deal with poetic abstractions that require deep thought and
speculation; or are they mostly practical sayings for the guidance of the
common folk? Discuss a short passage that supports this view.
Q3: How do
these maxims illustrate the social rules and expectations of women in the Anglo
Saxon world? How might this shed some light on the fate of women in such poems
as “The Wife’s Lament” and “Wulf and Eadwacer”?
Q4: Are there
moments of contradiction in these Maxims? Do they more or less advocate the
same ideals and truths? Or are these sentiments impossible to follow due to
conflicting ideas and values? Do the contradictions (if there are any) occur in
a single poem, or only in one vs. the other? (A vs. C, for example?).
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