Author Archives: Michael Hendry

Curculio 2: ‘Pervert the Present Wrath’: a Conjecture on Cymbeline

Posted on Monday: August 26, 2013 by Michael Hendry

I am experimenting with publishing original scholarly notes on this site. My first attempt, a week ago, was a single page on the structure of Silius Italicus’ Punica. I have just uploaded a PDF file of my second paper, two … Continue reading →

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Curculio 1: Silius Italicus: Why Seventeen Books?

Posted on Monday: August 19, 2013 by Michael Hendry

The unusual length of Silius Italicus’ Punica has often caused puzzlement. Antony Augoustakis discusses the point in the first chapter of the recent Brill companion to Silius. He credits Michael von Albrecht with noting that the number of books “corresponds … Continue reading →

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Anachronistic Joke

Posted on Wednesday: August 14, 2013 by Michael Hendry

The hero of John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi, the only decent adult other than the title character, is her steward, Antonio Bologna. With a name like that, I can’t help wondering if his middle-school classmates called him ‘Tony Baloney’.

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Shakespeare Puzzle

Posted on Wednesday: August 14, 2013 by Michael Hendry

Legal Disclaimer: There is no prize, and if there were, employees and customers of the American Shakespeare Center would not be eligible for it, since anyone who has seen the production already knows the answer. Can you identify the play … Continue reading →

Posted in Blackfriars, Culture: Plays | Tagged | 2 Comments

Too Bad About the Gender

Posted on Wednesday: August 14, 2013 by Michael Hendry

I love puns, even (or especially) the unintentional and bilingual kind. Browsing Cicero’s Verrines recently, I was very glad to run across a ‘most experienced and hardworking ploughman’ (experientissimus ac diligentissimus arator) named ‘Nympho’ (2.3.53-54).

Posted in Jokes, Latin Literature | Tagged | 1 Comment

A Significant Anniversary

Posted on Saturday: May 18, 2013 by Michael Hendry

Today is the 100th birthday of Nicolás Gómez Dávila. If you don’t know his work, probably the best place to start is this page. If you don’t think you have time to take on a new author, you’re wrong: he … Continue reading →

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Where’s the Party?

Posted on Monday: April 29, 2013 by Michael Hendry

Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Constantine Cavafy, and the 80th anniversary of the death of . . . Constantine Cavafy. I can think of many better ways to celebrate one’s 70th birthday than dying on it, … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture: Poetry, Nachleben | Leave a comment

Best Name for the Next Pope?

Posted on Wednesday: March 6, 2013 by Michael Hendry

As a Latinist inordinately fond of puns, I’m hoping whoever is elected will take the name Sixtus. Since the last Sixtus was Sixtus V, he would be Sixtus VI.

Posted in Jokes | 1 Comment

Typecasting Joke

Posted on Thursday: February 28, 2013 by Michael Hendry

In the last two years, Patrick Earl of the American Shakespeare Center‘s touring troupe has played Giovanni in John Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore and Ferdinand in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi. Each one is the brother of … Continue reading →

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Happy Birthday, M. R. James

Posted on Wednesday: August 1, 2012 by Michael Hendry

Today is the 150th birthday of M. R. (Montague Rhodes) James. If you haven’t already done so, go to this University of Adelaide website and read at least one of his ghost stories.

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Announcement: Numeri Innumeri

Posted on Friday: June 29, 2012 by Michael Hendry

I haven’t posted much in the last few months because I’ve been working on three web-based projects, each one larger than the one before. All three are classics-related, and use PHP and MySQL. Though the basic kernels of the ideas … Continue reading →

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Happy Birthday, Ivan Alexandrovich

Posted on Monday: June 18, 2012 by Michael Hendry

I’d been thinking of tackling some long novel I’d never read over the summer break, and having trouble deciding which of the many such books to begin with, when I noticed that today is Ivan Goncharov’s 200th birthday. That settled … Continue reading →

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Maybe I’ve Been Reading LanguageHat Too Long . . .

Posted on Monday: May 28, 2012 by Michael Hendry

. . . since I misread Tim Blair’s post about a Prince concert in Sydney as saying that it took place at “Allophones Arena”. I suppose Allphones is an Australian telephone company. (Don’t tell me. If I cared I could … Continue reading →

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Testimonial

Posted on Sunday: December 11, 2011 by Michael Hendry

Last Sunday, I inadvertently washed a SanDisc Cruzer USB drive with a load of laundry and plenty of soap. To my great surprise, it still worked after I found it rattling around in the bottom of the washing machine. I … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 1 Comment

How Do You Make Hamlet Even More Tragic?

Posted on Sunday: November 13, 2011 by Michael Hendry

Do what the grad students in Shakespeare Studies at Mary Baldwin did in the performance I saw tonight (directed by Zach Brown): 1. Leave out Fortinbras entirely. 2. Have Horatio ignore Hamlet’s plea at the end of the play, drink … Continue reading →

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This Takes Me Back

Posted on Saturday: November 5, 2011 by Michael Hendry

In a post at The Volokh Conspiracy, Stewart Baker includes a picture of the statue that stands outside the Federal Trade Commission (he credits JoeInSouthernCA): When I worked in D.C. 20+ years ago, I often walked past the statue. My … Continue reading →

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Truer Today, But Already True Then

Posted on Saturday: November 5, 2011 by Michael Hendry

Dicaearchus, that great and prolific Peripatetic, wrote a work called On the Extinction of Human Life. Having assembled the other causes – floods, epidemics, ravages of nature, sudden invasions by hordes of wild beasts, the onset of which he demonstrates … Continue reading →

Posted in Latin Literature | Tagged | 1 Comment

Best Unintentional Pun Ever

Posted on Thursday: September 29, 2011 by Michael Hendry

Volume II of The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker, edited by Fredson Bowers (Cambridge, 1955), contains these five titles: The Honest Whore, Parts I and II The Magnificent Entertainment Westward Ho Northward Ho The Whore of Babylon Four out of … Continue reading →

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Blackfriars Quiz

Posted on Saturday: September 24, 2011 by Michael Hendry

The following eight foodstuffs represent eight different plays presented at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia in the last three years. Can you identify them all? These are not verbal jokes, and the quantities (such as the three apples in … Continue reading →

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D. M. G. K. Chesterton and J. L. Borges

Posted on Tuesday: June 14, 2011 by Michael Hendry

Two more author anniversaries today, and again authors best known for their short stories. It is the 75th anniversary of the death of G. K. Chesterton, and the 25th anniversary of the death of Jorge Luis Borges. Here’s a bit … Continue reading →

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