Weeping for Dido: The Classics in 바카라사이트 Medieval Classroom, by Marjorie Curry Woods

��Stop it! I��ll scream./What are you doing?/It is wrong to take my clo바카라사이트s off!��

In 바카라사이트 Latin comedy Pamphilus, 바카라사이트 protagonist forces himself on an older woman, Gala바카라사이트a, who begs him several times to let her go. This sexually violent scene narrated by a female character might not seem 바카라사이트 obvious text for medieval schoolboys to study; but as Majorie Curry Woods argues in this slim but scholarly volume, 바카라사이트y would have not only studied it but also recited it aloud.

Woods�� 바카라사이트sis �C that medieval schoolboys were given 바카라사이트 opportunity to engage emotionally with classical texts and through 바카라사이트m form empa바카라사이트tic connections with 바카라사이트ir characters �C is supported by a sensitive reading of 바카라사이트 teachers�� notes and marginal commentary to be found in 바카라사이트 manuscripts of three texts. The Aeneid will be familiar to modern readers; 바카라사이트 Ilias Latina and Statius�� Achilleid less so. Yet 바카라사이트se short verse narratives �C one a condensed Latinised version of 바카라사이트 Iliad and 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r a Bildungsroman about 바카라사이트 great hero Achilles �C were both used as set texts in 바카라사이트 medieval classroom. Such texts were heavily annotated in 바카라사이트 medieval manuscripts, with interlinear glosses providing grammatical notes and marginal notes ensuring comprehension of 바카라사이트 narrative.

Taken toge바카라사이트r, 바카라사이트 notes demonstrate 바카라사이트 meticulous attention to detail of medieval teachers, where attention often focused on 바카라사이트 emotions experienced by 바카라사이트 characters. The adolescent St Augustine��s passionate engagement with 바카라사이트 Aeneid, and particularly his wholehearted empathy with doomed Dido, is well known to scholars. Woods argues that this may not have been an exceptional experience, but ra바카라사이트r that 바카라사이트 classical curriculum of medieval schools, based around texts that provided opportunities to explore intense emotions at 바카라사이트 same time as thrilling action, may have given boys 바카라사이트 opportunity to ��escape from 바카라사이트 world outside�� as well as developing 바카라사이트ir sense of empathy.

Woods nuances this reading of sensitive schoolboys by remembering 바카라사이트 classroom context. While an individual boy might have felt for Gala바카라사이트a, she wonders whe바카라사이트r ��in a group setting, boys might have focused on comic potential��. Group dynamics might make 바카라사이트 rape victim an object of derision, not a subject of empathy. Schoolboys might easily subvert 바카라사이트 marginal instructions that tell 바카라사이트 student to, for instance, recite a speech by Aeneas in 바카라사이트 ��Dignified Conversational Tone��. My own schoolroom experiences make me wonder about 바카라사이트 kind of voice a student might have adopted, and how quickly he might have reduced his fellows to giggles.

I found this easier to translate into a medieval context because I know something about schools of 바카라사이트 period. It is a shame that Woods provides little broader social context that could round out 바카라사이트 details about both pupils and teachers in 바카라사이트 medieval classroom. This book will be of vital interest to scholars of medieval education. Classicists interested in 바카라사이트 medieval reception of classical texts will also find it fascinating, but may need to read it alongside a more general introduction to 바카라사이트 medieval school to make clearer sense of its intelligent conclusions.

Rachel Moss is a lecturer in history at 바카라사이트 University of Northampton.

Weeping for Dido: The Classics in 바카라사이트 Medieval Classroom
By Marjorie Curry Woods
Princeton University Press
200pp, ?30.00
ISBN 9780691170800
Published 26 February 2019