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On Friday, 93 days until the premiere of Game of Thrones new season, HBO decided to throw all of us GOT fans another bone with three 25 second videos promoting the new season. Let's take a look at each one of them individually, breaking down what they could mean for Season Six (Spoiler alert: if your not caught up through Season 5, stop reading now):
1. The North
@12_yazeeeed28 "Winterfell is mine." #GoTSeason6 #GameofThrones https://t.co/MatHGpeAuk
— Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) January 22, 2016
The voice in this one belongs to Iwan Rheon (you know him as Ramsay Bolton). The Bolton's further cemented their claim to the North by defeating Stannis at the end of Season 5. But that boat carrying the Banner of Stark looks ready to challenge the Bolton claim.
But who is left from the Stark house to pose any threat to the Roose and his crazy bastard son? Last we saw her, Sansa was fleeing Winterfell (assuming she survived the fall). Arya is blind in Braavos. And Bran is somewhere far North learning from the GOT version of Yoda. And Rickon (remember that guy???) hasn't been seen since Season 3. Could the threat to Bolton rule in the North be the "deader than dead" Jon Snow returning to life?
2. King's Landing
@bluntcuzicar365 "Together we can overthrow an empire." #GoTSeason6 #GameofThrones https://t.co/DLJ61pYW00
— Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) January 22, 2016
The voices here are the High Sparrow (played by Jonathan Price) and Septa Unella (Shame, shame, shame!!!). And that banner is obviously the Lion of Lannister. Could their be a showdown of peasants lead by the High Sparrow vs. the Lannisters and their place on the Iron Throne?
3. The Tattered Targaryen Banner
@lauriasdaniel "Queen of nothing." #GoTSeason6 #GameofThrones https://t.co/TgY4G9GcvR
— Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) January 22, 2016
Who out there also missed hearing Dothraki spoken on Game of Thrones? I'm not sure who this is, but it's clearly a Dothraki mocking Daenarys ("Queen of Nothing, Millionth of her Name") while a tattered Targaryen flag flies with smoke billowing in the background. Dany was in a very rough spot when we last left her, dragonless and surrounded by a Dothraki horde. Will Dany be made to pay for the death of Khal Drogo from Season 1? And who (or what) is responsible for all those flames that created that smoke in the background?
The clear theme is conflict:
Bolton vs. Stark(???)
Lannister vs. The High Sparrow
Dany vs. The Dothraki
But still missing from these promo pieces: actual footage!!! Never has HBO kept a tighter lid on scenes (or any actual information, for that matter) for an upcoming season of Game of Thrones than they have for Season 6. Let's all hope that changes soon.


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There are various forms of Avalokitesvara (Chenrezig in Tibetan). The four-armed form is shown here. There is also a 1000-armed form — the many arms symbolizing compassion in action. And in the far east, Avalokiteshvara turned into the female Bodhisattva, Kuan Yin.
Om, as I've explained before, has only a mystical meaning — suggesting primordial reality. Mani means jewel, while Padme means lotus. Hum, like Om, has no conceptual meaning. Overall, the mantra is suggestive of the bringing together of the qualities of wisdom (the lotus) and compassion (the jewel).
Just as the lotus can exist in muddy water without being soiled, so wisdom can exist in an impure world without becoming contaminated.
The mantra is often "translated" as "Hail to the jewel in the lotus" but the Sanskrit simply can't mean that. The central element, manipadme, seems properly to be a name, Manipadma ("The Jewel Lotus One") with the -e ending signifying the vocative case, meaning that Manipadma — is being invoked ("O Jewel Lotus One"). If this is the case, assuming that the mantra is in classical Sanskrit, then Manipadma would have to be a feminine figure, but it's unknown which figure that would be! Some have suggested that it might be an invisible consort of Avalokiteshvara. If the mantra was originally in a non-Sanskrit language with different grammatical rules, however, and the vocative -e ending was applicable in that language to a masculine figure, then Manipadma could be Avalokiteshvara himself. The mantra would them mean "Om, O Jewel Lotus One, Hum" — the "Jewel Lotus One" being Avalokiteshvara.
And the Dalai Lama points out that just as a jewel can relieve poverty, so the compassionate mind takes away the poverty of unhappiness that exists in the world and replaces it with the wealth of wellbeing.
This is probably the best known Buddhist mantra. I swear I remember hearing it chanted on an episode of the BBC Sci-fi series, Dr Who, when I was a young kid back in the 1960s, and even before that, in the 1940's it featured on an American radio show called the Green Lama.
This mantra is very widely chanted in Tibet, and not only chanted but carved onto stones, printed onto flags, and embossed onto prayer wheels. The illustration above shows the mantra's six syllables, which from left to right are: Om Ma Ni Pa Dme Hum.
Tibetans find Sanskrit hard to pronounce (so do westerners, actually, but in different ways) and so Tibetans pronounce "Padme" as "peh-may".

subset: commoncrawl


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378 years ago today, Galileo was convicted of heresy for the crime of contradicting Catholic teachings about geocentrism with his heliocentric model.
56 years ago today, Jonas Salk's Polio vaccine was declared to be safe and effective, ensuring the safety of infinity billion children.
50 years ago today, Yuri Gagarin made the first manned space flight in human history, dipping humanity's toe into the ocean of space. He is quoted as saying while in orbit, "I looked and looked and I didn't see God" (commonly mistranslated as "I see no God up here").
Some unspecified number of years thereafter, I was born.
No, but seriously, happy birthday, me.


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Mithra and Jesus I Can't Tell the Difference Can you?
Take this quiz. See can you tell the difference between Mithra and Jesus. What is really mind boggling is that I guarantee your minister / pastor / bishop / priest has no clue about this. The cover up is so old that even they don't know about it. But, I seriously want you to see if you can tell the difference between them. Keep in mind that Mithra was already 5,000 years old before Jesus suddenly appears out of nowhere. And, Mithra was the state religion of Rome. All celebrations were to Mithra. Now, take the quiz and see if you can tell a difference between Mithra and Jesus.
Happy Sun day!
Mithra vs Jesus Quiz
|Mithra Slays the Bull Who's Blood Gives Life
Jesus was born to The Blessed Virgin Mary in a stable in Bethlehem.
Mithra was born to the Blessed Virgin Myrrha in a stable (some tales state a cave, with these conflicting accounts we can't say for sure) in Bethlehem.
As per Legend Three wise men from the East bought gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh at Jesus birth
As per Legend Three wise men from the East bought gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh at Mithras birth
Jesus' Birth is celebrated between December 25 and January 6.
Mithras Birth is celebrated between December 25 and January 6.
Jesus had Twelve Disciples .
Mithra had twelve Disciples – symbolic of the Zodiac.
|Mithra with Lamb on His Shoulders
Jesus resurrection is celebrated every year. on Easter, at which time he was resurrected.
Mithra resurrection was celebrated every year. His principal festival on what was later to become Easter.
Jesus and Mithra were both buried in a tomb and resurrected after three days.
In both religions this is referred to as The Three days of Darkness.
Before being crucified Jesus had his Last Supper with his twelve disciples
Before returning to heaven, Mithra had his Last Supper with his twelve disciples, representing the twelve signs of the zodiac.
Catholics engage in a ritual Eucharist signed by a cross.
Mithraists engaged in a ritual Eucharist signed with a cross.
Catholics Celebrate a Mass in which they drink wine and eat bread to symbolize the body and blood of Jesus.
Mithraists Celebrated a Myazda in which they drank wine and ate bread to symbolize the body and blood of Mithra.
|Lamb, Mithra, 2 Fish
Purification through a ritualistic baptism was required of the faithful in both religions.
Jesus was identified with the Lamb & at times the Lion
Mithra was identified with the Lamb & at times the LionThe Mithraic Holy father wore a red cap and garment and a ring, and carried a shepherd's staff
The Pope wears a red cap and garment and a ring and carries a shepherds staff.
Priests of Mithraism bore the Title father.
Catholic priests bear the Title Father – despite Jesus specific proscription of the acceptance of such a title
An inscription in the Vatican states , "He who will not eat of my body, nor drink of my blood, so that he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved." This inscription is from the remains of the temple the Vatican was built over, a temple dedicated to Mithras.
Jesus is depicted with a Halo – Mithra is depicted with a Halo. Halo has synonymous meanings and relates to "The Light"
Both were referred to as "The light of the World."
|Birth of Sun God Mithra, All Were Celebrated on Dec 25th
Roman Emperor Constantine, who made Christianity legal throughout Rome, was a worshipper of Sol Invictus/ the invincible Sun. Sol Invictus is an amalgamation of trans-cultural solar deities including Mithras, and Apollo. Constantine recognized Jesus' status in that pantheon almost immediately. Many of the Stories of his life and activities are symbolic of celestial events.
In modern times, ancient solar symbols are plentiful in Christianity .
Heaven and Hell
- The worshippers of Mithras held strong beliefs in a celestial heaven and an infernal hell.
- They believed that the benevolent powers of the God would sympathize with their suffering and grant them the final justice of immortality and eternal salvation in the world to come.
- They looked forward to a final day of judgment in which the dead would resurrect, and to a final conflict that would destroy the existing order of all things to bring about the triumph of light over darkness.
- There is basically very little difference between the beliefs of the two systems, in respect to their concepts of Heaven, Hell and purgatory.
Many of the Catholic and Orthodox beliefs, and legends that do not arise out of the Bible or Apocrypha have their roots in Mithraism and related Pagan belief systems.
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Institutional Investment survey talking down precious metals likey to buoy contrarian Gold and Silver holders
An almost complete lack of negative sentiment among Precious Metals commentary over the past six weeks or so, may have worried contrarian investors in the yellow and white metals. With Gold and Silver having defied doom and gloom predictions up to now, and contrarians enjoying excellent gains, nothing is more worrying than when Institutions and mainstream media are telling you Gold and Silver are good.
However in an article by Adrian Ash of BullionVault, an institutional investors survey offers comfort to contrarian investors by declaring "Markets Grow Tired of Worries Over Euro Debt, Libyan War, Japan Crisis". The article goes on to describe Kevin Norrish of Barclays Capital quoting "[Investors] don't believe in the gold story anymore," while announcing the bank's latest commodity investment survey of institutional players. "Not one single respondent" chose gold bullion as the likely best performer in 2011, Norrish said.
However with the market having largely ignored the Portugal debt crisis, and rumours of frantic activity in Madrid to avoid a Spanish repeat of the Lisbon situation, it is likely that Eurozone debt worries will resurface in the precious metals markets soon.
At BullionSupermarket.com steady increases in traffic and click throughs to
Bullion product indicated renewed interest from smaller investors, with Silver in particular leading the way on Thursday.
At time of writing, premiums on 1 ounce Silver Eagles at auctions closing soon were priced at 13.5% over the Silver fix.


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Din varukorg är tom!
Freestyle Beast
Designed for pushing the boundaries of freestyle, the new Razor is a pedal-to-the-metal kite for those committed to fast, exhilarating riding and bold, fully powered kite loops. With over a decade and a half of pedigree, the Razor delivers over-driven power with instantaneous and precise handling for highly skilled riders.
Built for those on the extreme edge of kiteboarding who are well aware that the sport's most lucrative rewards can come with their own set of consequences. If that sounds like a dare, you might be ready for a Razor.


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Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Glowing Books
Thanks for visiting! Use the RSS feed or e-mail subscription to keep up to date on what's happening on this site.
Airan Kang is an South-Korean artist.At Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in New York, He present his collection of Lightning Books. These books are made of transparent resin containing LEDs inside which looks so amazing.
Posted by Unknown at 2:52 AM
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This character started as a speedsession on Zbrush and i decided to develop head a bit more, and after that i started the body.
I had a very good time working on this character, a lot of things could be improuved i know, but i want to move on to the next exercise
so i will leave it as it is. As i have made him as an sculpting exercise i did not open UVs and decided to do the render inside Zbrush,
I known that i could get a much better result in MAX or XSI using Mental Ray, but i will leave that to another exercise in the future.
BG is photomontage and floor under him is 3D.


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Fango recently caught up with former BLOODRAYNE comics writer Steven OConnell, who gave us the lowdown on his upcoming four-color chiller titled DARK 48. Coming January 30 from Digital Webbing Press, DARK 48 is a cross between RESIDENT EVIL and ALIENS by way of 28 DAYS LATER, according to OConnell, who says of the two-part series, Its based on an unfinished screenplay I wrote about two years ago, which after shelving he decided to approach again in printed form. Since Hollywood seems to be interested in [cinematic adaptations] of comics, I figured that was my chance.
DARK 48 features cover and interior art by Indro (who pencils) and colorist Joel Seguin, and OConnell elaborates on its storyline: The United States is plunged into darkness when a Soviet-engineered virus is accidentally let loose by terrorists who intercepted it. It attacks the Y chromosomes of males and induces rage. The writer adds that the comic revolves around more than the typical civilians on the run scenario (the conceit of so many similar tales): The [terrorist] cell doesnt know what they intercepted. Their intelligence claimed it was a virus bound for the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, but they soon realize too late that its a highly volatile, manmade plague the Soviets were going to use in Afghanistan back in the 1980s. The Russians had hoped the Afghan rebels would turn on each other. OConnell took a slightly Joss Whedon-esque approach to the subsequent narrative, which follows an all-female strike team named Battle Corp. Delta, whose mission is to traverse the contiguous lower 48 states searching for survivors, and hopefully a cure.
It certainly does sound like it would make a good movie, and OConnell agrees: A comic book is essentially a storyboard, so it seemed a natural fit to me. It would make a great franchise, and one Im sure would have legs for a few years to come. You can check out sample pages and more info at DARK 48s official website here.


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About The Author – Asya Pereltsvaig
From early on, I've been fascinated with languages, their diversity and history. Today I teach linguistics to as wide an audience as possible, including blogging about the world's languages here on this site. The world's languages is also the topic of my forthcoming textbook from Cambridge University Press.
I teach classes at Stanford's Department of Linguistics and the Continuing Studies Program, as well as at several Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes around the Bay Area.
You can also read more of my posts on GeoCurrents.info.
For more on Asya Pereltsvaig, see http://www.pereltsvaig.com


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About Erin
Erin got her start 17 years ago working as a retail freelancer representing several makeup lines while completing her studies in sculpture at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Working with clients of every age, gender, and ethnicity, she gained wide experience in application techniques and approaches and developed a deft touch with variations in taste and temperament. This multidimensional, multimedia creative background and her highly developed sense of color and texture have allowed her to move easily between film and commercial work and more fashion-forward work such as editorials and music videos. She is a natural collaborator, and her open, levelheaded approach makes her a valuable resource on any set. Erin is a local 706 IATSE member in good standing on the Industry Experience Roster.
Contact: email@example.com
Erin Walters on IMDB
Read Erin's article on Girls Are Awesome
Read Erin's interview in VoyageLA Magazine
Listen to Erin's interview on the Chasing Fashion podcast


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Such people reach dizzying heights in their chosen field, be it in the field of sports, entertainment, science, or business. These people are spread across all the fields and they create new definitions of achievement and success in their fields. They constantly keep reinventing themselves, moving from one success to another.
At such times we wonder if these people are exceptionally gifted, or they have special blessings of God, or they have been created by nature differently from a common or average person. We often believe that everyone is not so gifted and there the matter ends for most of us.
However friends, it is far from true. Nature has gifted everyone with something special. However, only few amongst us seem to recognize this gift and fewer still open these gifts and use them. So why does this happen, and how can we recognize our gifts, and create an exceptional experience of living our lives?
Well friends, the only thing that has ruined our ability to recognize our gift is "comparison." Why is it so? This is because the moment we start comparing ourselves with others we find that there is someone out there in that field who is better than us and then that stops us from seeing what "we" have. This act in itself makes us put a lock on our potential or our gift forever and we say to ourselves" I don't have it in me."
Friends just imagine if a seed would have seen a 100 year old giant tree and thought I am so small in comparison to this tree that I seem to have no potential to grow, then it would have withered and would never have become a tree. In that case it would have escaped the fact that 100 years back what looks like a gigantic tree now was also a small seed just like itself. Thankfully, the seeds don't think.
So the point here is that the moment we ignore our gift, we leave the pursuit of cultivating it and the fact is that all gifts need to be cultivated, developed, and nurtured like all seeds need to be nurtured if they have to grow into a big gigantic tree, and give fruits, and shadow to all, and be a home to many birds and life forms.
Every one of us is always given a special talent and if you just focus on what you have and keep working, learning, and improving in that direction then one day a small little talent would have become a huge talent, which will attract success, adulation, and wealth as well. Every gigantic talent today was once an aspiring but believing potential that consistently worked towards improving itself. So they are just the individuals who have commenced the journey of becoming a tree from a seed recognizing their potential to grow in their chosen fields and believing in it. The rest of us have simply discarded our gifts and are not nurturing them and our gifts are lying unused, unexplored inside us.
Now the question is why are we comparing ourselves with other grown giants? What is making us do this? The only reason why we are doing this is because we are asking a potentially damaging question regarding our gift and that question is "what is the benefit of my gift to me?" Friends, just imagine if the great Indian cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar would have asked this question what is the benefit of my playing cricket or Leonardo da Vinci would have thought what is the benefit of my painting? There would be no wonderful innings for the world to enjoy and there would we no "Mona Lisa" either. Fortunately for the rest of the world they did not ask this question. They simply saw that they have a gift, they liked it and they started nurturing it, giving it full expression.
The world always finds out meaning in our gifts as no gift is given by the nature in its infinite wisdom that has no use for someone out there in the world. Seeing someone play brilliant strokes can bring joy to many people or seeing a wonderful painting can enchant some people's spirits, or someone's business idea or invention can change the way the world lives like that of Bill Gates' or Thomas Edison's. No gift comes without its benefits for you as well as for others.
The important task is to recognize the investment before calculating the profit, as no profit comes without investment. All those who are profiting from their gifts are the ones who have first invested their time and energy in cultivating these gifts. It is only when we fail to recognize the investments that have been made before the profits are generated that we start viewing our small gifts lacking the potential of bringing big profits. This makes us discard our gifts as useless and we never develop them. Also, with this mindset one completely misses the opportunity of experiencing great joy that can be experienced only by nurturing ones talent and gifts, which is absolutely priceless. Also, if your gift is a source of joy for you, it will be a source of joy for others as well and therefore there will always be people needing your gift in this world.
So friends no matter where you live and what you do, you must start cultivating your gift, as one day it will grow into a gigantic talent and you will really enjoy the results. To do this you need to take the following steps:
1. Identify your gift without comparing it with what others have got.
2. Make a plan to nurture it.
3. Start nurturing and enjoy the process.
I wish all my readers deep inner joy and success at every step of finding and nurturing their gifts.


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Magic has been lost to those inhabiting the Three Lands for hundreds of years. Now, a forgotten place called the Hollow is found within the realm of Ciyula, and it is in need of a successor. The Hollow has chosen Rosaleen Forlain to become its new Keeper. There is just one catch.
She must usurp the tyrannical Queen Asta in favor of crowning a mysterious young woman possessing an ancient bloodline long thought lost to the world. In addition to her burdens, Rosaleen must find this woman before Asta has a chance to join forces with the enemy in order to wage war against a kingdom that has long been Ciyula's ally. Rosaleen must betray her country and her House, forsaking everything for the Hollow and her new destiny. She must do this quest as a fugitive, avoiding forces sent to capture her by the queen and her own father.
Can she find the girl and stop the impending war before it is too late?
Buy the Book: Smashwords Barnes & Noble
I am a first time author finally publishing a book that I have been haltingly working on for the past few years. My grandmother has been the kick in the pants I needed to keep going after she read what I had and said I had to continue to follow my dream and get my works out there. I am a recent college graduate with a Bachelors degree in Animal Science looking to pursue a career in horse breeding. Writing has always been a passion of mine, but it has become second to my primary choice of career. However, I have chosen this time to publish something I have wanted to for a long time whilst tiptoeing out in the real world to officially begin my life.
Read Arielle LeClair's Smashwords Interview
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Foam Sclerotherapy Patient #22
Click a Before/After Image to enlarge it
Foam Sclerotherapy Patient #22
This 52 year old patient came to The First Glance to see Dana DeBoer regarding varicose veins. Her main problem on the left is a system of large GSV tributaries Her main problem on the left is a system of large GSV tributaries measuring approximately 4-5mm beginning at the knee and extending down until the level medial malleolus. There is a small posterior arc from the system of GSV tributaries on the left. beginning at the knee and extending down. There is a small posterior arc from the system of GSV tributaries on the left as well. This patient has had five foam sclerotherapy treatments in a total of seven months.
Over 80% of patients will have no trace of staining after Foam Sclerotherapy at the one-year-post-treatment mark. In fact, we have had patients who two weeks after treatment have no staining what so ever. Whether or not staining occurs really depends on a few factors. One factor being skin pigment, another factor of staining is the proper and diligent use of stockings after the Foam Sclerotherapy Treatment. Last but not least proper follow through of the given post care instructions is another way to avoid staining.
Foam Sclerotherapy is a procedure used to treat blood vessels or blood vessel malformations (vascular malformations) and also those of the lymphatic system. A medicine is injected into the vessels, which makes them shrink. It is used for children and young adults with vascular or lymphatic malformations. In adults, sclerotherapy is often used to treat spider veins, smaller varicose veins.Foam Sclerotherapy is one method, along with surgery, radiofrequency and laser ablation, for treatment of spider veins, occasionally varicose veins, and venous malformations. In ultrasound-guided sclerotherapy,ultrasound is used to visualize the underlying vein so the physician can deliver and monitor the injection. Foam Sclerotherapy is often done under ultrasound guidance after venous abnormalities have been diagnosed with duplex ultrasound.
If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact our wonderfully experienced staff here at The First Glance Aesthetics Clinic and we will do our best to assist you with any of your issues.
The First Glance Aesthetics Clinic
1851 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg Manitoba R3N 1Z2
Phone: 204-885-1419
Toll Free: 1-866-379-7919
If you like the results you see here, request your appointment to learn more about how this procedure can help you achieve your ideal appearance. We encourage you to print your favorite photos and bring them with you during your consultation to help communicate your goals and expectations.
Keep in mind that each patient is unique and results may not occur for all patients. These photos are of an actual patient of our practice who has provided consent to display their pictures online.


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Alex Rivera: Sleep Dealer
a special film screening event for Digital Latin America
The near future. Like tomorrow. The world is divided by closed borders, but connected by a digital network that ties together people around the world. Memo Cruz lives in the small, dusty Mexican village of Santa Ana del Rio. Santa Ana is the kind of place that seems frozen in time – except for the hi-tech, militarized dam that was built by a corporation, and now controls Santa Ana's water supply. Memo dreams of leaving his small pueblo and finding work in the hi-tech factories in the big cities in the north. To escape, at night, in his room alone, Memo uses a homemade radio intercept to eavesdrop on conversations of people who, unlike him, have been able to leave – and who've made it to the big cities, where almost anything is possible. One night, while using his homemade radio, Memo stumbles across something he's never heard before–the communications of the security forces that control the area around his village, hunting "Aqua-Terrorists."
Filmmaker Alex Rivera says, "I made Sleep Dealer first and foremost because I love science fiction. As a teenager I was fascinated by films like Brazil and Blade Runner. However, as I got older, I realized that despite the genre's wild stories and countless special effects, there were some things that were unimaginable – and that maybe there was an opportunity to do something radically new with sci-fi... Sci-fi films almost always tell outsider stories, critical stories, yet so often the heroes are police or other authority figures. With Sleep Dealer, I wanted to put a new outsider – a would-be-immigrant – at the center of the story."
LOCATION: National Hispanic Cultural Center
1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque
Bank of America Theatre inside Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts
Info: Randall Gann, 505-252-6869 or the NHCC Box Office, 505-724-4771


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Free forum : Travian US8 forum for Vipers
A Runescape Pking Team
Come RP as your own character or an actual Member of Kill bill. This is before the bride was screwed over. COME HAVE FUN!
action!, kill, bill, (rp), samurai!, guns, assassination!, before, bride, screwed, over, this, when, deadly, #vipers, were, together, doing, there, dirty, work
Free forum : MuOnline Info foruM. ۞ Vipers MuOnline Forums ۞ە
Free forum : ~Vipers of War~
Vipers Clan. [V]ipers. [V]ipers. [V]ipers. [V]ipers Vipers Clan. [V]ipers. [V]ipers.
free, forum, [v]ipers, #vipers, clan., [v]ipers.., [v]ipers.


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Varsity Basketball
Basketball notes: Holthaus powers Douglass
Even before Ty Unrau became the Douglass coach this season, he knew about senior Jared Holthaus. Unrau had watched him while a Garden Plain assistant.
And if there's one thing to know about Holthaus, he's difficult to stop.
"What's nice about Jared is he's athletic enough to create his own shot, to get to the basket, and they have to respect his outside shooting," Unrau said. "He can get the three going and get to the rim for quality looks every possession."
Holthaus is averaging 24.5 points. Against Belle Plaine last week, he had 18 points in the first quarter and finished with 31 in three quarters.
"He can hit a tough shot, but he's so much more effective when he gets to the basket," Unrau said. "He's athletic enough to finish. He's had six dunks this year."
At 6-foot-4, Holthaus has moved from point guard, where he played as a junior, to shooting guard. He's Douglass' tallest player and is effective in the team's motion offense.
"There's a lot of space for him in the paint to attack," Unrau said. "And it opens up a lot for others. We've seen box-and-one (defense) and diamond-and-one (defense). We've had six games like that with junk defenses."
When the defenses collapse on Holthaus, his teammates have come through, including Ronnie Sobanek (10.3 points), Jason Piha and Payton Fraley.
"We have guys that can knock down shots and it gets (opponents) out of the junk defenses," Unrau said.
CPL title decided? _ The Central Plains League boys title could be decided in the next week.
Heading into the game between Garden Plain and Trinity Academy on Thursday, four teams were undefeated in the league — Garden Plain (9-5, 3-0), Trinity (11-3, 3-0), Cheney (11-4, 4-0) and Douglass (11-3, 3-0).
Douglass plays host to Cheney tonight, is at Trinity on Monday and at Garden Plain on Tuesday. Trinity plays host to Cheney on Tuesday.
"It will be a tough road for us," Douglass' Unrau said. "But we're ready for the challenge."
Scoring machine — There are many reasons why the Heights boys are undefeated this season. One is their offensive efficiency.
The Falcons are shooting 58 percent from the field.
"Nobody cares who the leading scorer is after the game," Heights coach Joe Auer said. "They just want to get good shots for the team, and they know that what a good shot is changes throughout the game."
Heights has such a variety of scorers that it is hard for defenses to predict where the points are going to come from. Auer, however, pointed out that the team knows to start from the inside out.
Perry Ellis, Heights' leading scorer with 22 points per game, is shooting a staggering 75 percent. And Heights' primary ballhandlers, E.J. Dobbins and Evan Wessel, know how to find the open man.
Dobbins averages six assists while Wessel can be counted on for about five. Their leadership in the backcourt has led to a 2-1 team assist-to-turnover ratio.
Heights will try to keep up its efficiency tonight against West.


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[Update: A new version of SkyShellEx is available. Read more about it here: https://janhannemann.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/sync-any-folder-to-skydrive-reloaded/]
With the arrival of the new SkyDrive app we are finally able to take advantage of the 25GB online storage. The new app https://apps.live.com/skydrive allows you to sync a specific folder to your online storage like Dropbox. It is very simple; just drop whatever you want into the SkyDrive folder and it's up to the cloud. But it also comes with the same limitations like Dropbox. If you are a Live Mesh user then you probably appreciate that you can sync any folder on your hard drive to the cloud not matter where it is located. This is a very nice feature because it allows you to keep your existing folder structure. For some reason this feature didn't make it into the SkyDrive app and Live Mesh will be discontinued soon.
NTFS to the rescue
Fortunately NTFS has some nice features that we barely use but can be very useful. One of them is symbolic links or folder junctions. Basically it allows you to mount a folder into another folder, so it looks like the folder is physically located there. So my thought was – if the Explorer can't see it then SkyDrive can't see it and will handle them as regular folders. The command to create such a link is:
MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target.
The /D parameter creates a symbolic directory link and it was my first try because they are recommended over directory junctions /J but SkyDrive crashed with symbolic links while directory junctions worked with no problems. Plus, we don't need admin rights to create junctions. If you execute the command then a junction will be created that like a folder and SkyDrive starts syncing its content.
While the command line just works fine I wanted a more convenient way to sync my folders; a perfect match for a shell extension. So I spent a couple of hours on implementing a little helper that can be downloaded as 64 bit version here SkyShellEx_x64 and 32 bit version here SkyShellEx_x32 If you want to have a look at the source code first then you can find it here SkyShellEx_Project.
[Update: the original version has a bug that prevents syncing of folders that have one or more spaces in there full path. The version 1.01 fixes that problem. SkyShellEx_x64_1.01, SkyShellEx_x32_1.01, SkyShellEx_Project_1.01 You have to reboot to apply the changes.]
After installing the extension you will see one of two possible menu items when you right click a folder. The first one starts syncing a folder and shows up on any folder except ones that are already in the SkyDrive folder. The second menu stops the syncing of a folder and shows up on any ones that are already in the SkyDrive folder and is a directory junction. See screenshot below.
I found the shell extension very useful but it has some limitations. Currently I can't detect whether a folder is already syncing to SkyDrive. So you won't see the "Stop Sync to Skydrive" menu but the "Sync to Skydrive" when you at the physical location of a folder that has already a junction to SkyDrive. It's no problem to execute the command again but it's confusing. It would be also useful to have an icon overlay on folders that sync to SkyDrive. If there is enough interest I would try to improve the tool but for now it works well enough for me.
Let's go crazy – Cloud to Cloud Sync
You maybe get the same idea as I did when I played around with this and yes it works. You can sync folder between Dropbox and SkyDrive.
[Disclaimer: The approach presented in this blog post is not officially supported. My software is provided "as is," and you use the software at your own risk.]


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Yaakov Yaakobson is Dror, a police that works in the worst neighbourhoods in his country. When he killed enough criminals he get's a free passport out of the country... and now that times has come. But by mistake he discovers that there's a price on his head, and it's the police that's behind it all! Why?
It's a nice story actually, not bad at all - and very typical short film subject. The concept has been used before, but with different twists, and this is one that I like. It feels logical for once. Florentine fills the screen with ruins and old cars, lots of concrete and dust, and in this some good and violent action sequences. The first fight is a bit silly, with to much speed up to make it look serious, but the second one between Dror and one of the criminals looks great and is very brutal. I can see how he got the chance of directing bigger movies after just this little scene.
But the story focuses on the drama and the secret behind it all, even here Florentine manages to hold up a good pace and brings some good performances from the actors. I'm happy I finally got to see Isaac Florentines debute movie and it's a pity it's not easier to find. It could have been a perfect bonus movie on one of his feature length movies. If you get a chance to see it, take it - and I'm quite sure you will like it, at least if you are fans of obscure post-apocalypse or the talent of one of the best action directors in the world right now!


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"A richly rewarding read for anyone with a foothold in this dramatic landscape. Aguilar speaks with the authority of a person who has lived the Indian life from his earliest years. He also demonstrates a solid command of the academic literature of non-Indian ethnographers, folklorists, and historians and writes clear and often moving English prose. This is a powerful combination. Aguilar's insider account offers a uniquely valuable Native perspective on our region's history."
"Part memoir, part history, part a selection of primary source materials, this text is a meditation on the importance of the mid-Columbia River and its environs to the region's Indian people. It is a both a record of the past and a how-to manual for those who would like to resurrect traditional practices. Perhaps most significantly, it is a superb model for documenting place-specific Native history."
-Pacific Northwest Quarterly


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Diabetes is hard to manage. You can get a comprehensive understanding of the disease here and get the information about the latest treatments and get professional advices. read more
Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy is a brand-new therapy based on traditional Chinese herbal medicines dating back thousands of years ago. It combines the essences of herbal medicines read more
Hormonal therapy is commonly used to treat Kidney Disease in clinic. It refers to use one or more than one hormone medicines to suppress the over-reactive immune reaction read more
Patients are suggested to treat kidney disease first before they get pregnant read more
If you are diagnosed with Kidney Disease, you should talk to your doctor about starting an exercise read more
Foods and Drinks play an important role in Kidney Disease patients read more
Kidney Disease News and Events read more
In every week, a famous experienced renal medicine specialist will be invited to help diagnose and evaluate inpatient's disease condition, offering detailed therapeutic schedule. read more
Provided by Expert Zhang Youkang on 2013-11-07 10:59
Creatinine 9.0 is very higher than the normal value. In this case, doctors usually prescribe some medications like ketosteril or even use dialysis. Moreover, diet and natural remedies also play an indispensable effect to lower high creatinine level.
Diet to lower creatinine 9.0
With creatinine 9, it is more likely that patients' kidney disease has developed into end stage, in which their diet is quite strict. As for the diet to reduce serum creatinine, we give out some suggestions:
- Drink correct amount of water: The amount is decided by patients' remaining kidney function and urine output.
- Eat foods high in vitamin C: According to the research of Turkey, vitamin C has an effect of increasing kidney filtration rate and protecting kidneys. A lot of fruits and vegetables are great and natural source of vitamin C.
- Consume herbal tea: Some herbs including dandelion root, nettle leaf and salvia are proven to be effective on prompting the kidneys to remove more wastes and toxins from the body.
- Avoid creatine supplement: Creatine is the source of creatinine, so staying away from this supplement can help lower creatinine level.
Natural remedies to reduce creatinine level 9.0
Natural remedies refers to the treatments with few side effects. To lower creatinine level, we indeed have some natural remedies including:
- Medicated bath: Compared with western medicines herbal medicines are more safe. When patients take a bath, put some useful herbs into the water. This method can help expand blood vessels and increase the blood flow through the kidneys, so as to remove more creatinine from the body.
- Acupuncture: Without any medicine, acupuncture is usually suitable for most kidney disease patients unless they have bleeding.
- Avoid strenuous exercise: As creatinine is produced by muscle metabolism, strenuous exercise can lead to the increase of creatinine level.
At last, we should notice that not all people with high creatinine level can use the above diet and remedies. To be responsible for your safety, we suggest you to tell us more about your case by leaving a message below or sending email to email@example.com, so we can give you some individual suggestions.
If you send us email, please leave your phone number or WhatsApp/Viber (with country code) in email so that our renal expert can communicate with you timely and directly. We will do utmost to help you solve the problems.
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Out & About
Discover places to see and things to do whilst in and around Oakham, Rutland to truly enhance your stay come rain or shine!
Country Life There are plenty of activities on offer at The Dragonwood Estate, where country lovers can partake in archery, shooting and falconry and watch incredible bird of prey displays by an expert local falconer (please note that shooting is not available when there is a wedding event taking place at the main house).
Unique Boutiques From antique hunting in Uppingham and Stamford to designer clothes shopping in Oakham, the local area fuses a country market town appeal with a quality London shopping experience.
Country Club Relaxation Spend a day at nearby Stapleford Park, where you can indulge in some deluxe pampering at their award winning spa. With its beautiful landscaped gardens, tea room and championship golf course, there is plenty for everyone at this luxury country house.
The Equine Kind The pretty village of Somerby has a friendly equestrian centre which is a must for horse lovers wanting to go riding during their stay. With the luxury of an indoor and outdoor school, there are opportunities for lessons whatever the weather.
On The Water With your very own lake on the doorstep, enjoy a gentle paddle in the kayak provided whenever you please. The more adventurous might like get involved with some water sports on Rutland Water, the largest reservoir in England.
Catch Your Supper Get back to nature and impress your loved one by serving up your catch of the day after an afternoon fishing on the lake. The less experienced are guaranteed success fly fishing on Rutland Water, where tens of thousands of trout are released every year.
Luxury Self-Catering Cottages » UK » Rutland » Oakham » Dragonwood Boat House » Out & About
Disclaimer: These particulars, whilst believed to be accurate, are set as a guideline only. They are intended to give a fair description, but should not be relied upon as being a statement of fact. The photographs appearing on this website show only certain parts and aspects of the property at the time when the photographs were taken and it should not be assumed that the property remains precisely as displayed in the photographs. If there are any points of particular importance that need clarifying before you confirm your booking please do not hesitate to ask.


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Echoes of Boethius and Dante in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde
An Sonjae (Brother Anthony)
While the connections between Chaucer and the literary works serving as his immediate sources are now familiar, more complex, indirect and hidden references to other writers are less easily recognized. This is particularly true of the echoes of Dante that scholars have identified at certain points in his rewriting of Boccaccio's Filostrato as Troilus and Criseyde. This may in part be because, while the way in which Chaucer uses Dante's Commedia shows a quite remarkable depth of understanding, many scholars of Chaucer in recent decades have not had an equivalent familiarity with Dante's work. It is all the more striking that Chaucer nowhere in Troilus
refers to Dante's Commedia explicitly. It remains a secret, private subtext, providing depths and complexities of meaning to Troilus that have only recently begun to be recognized.
The topic was initially discussed by Morton W. Bloomfield, in a PMLA article "Distance and Predestination in Troilus and Criseyde" (1957). Richard Neuse begins his essay "Troilus and Criseyde: Another Dantean Reading" (Shoaf 1992 199-210) with a list of previous studies that refers to Monica MacAlpine's The Genre of Troilus and Criseyde (1978), R. A. Shoaf's Dante, Chaucer, and the Currency of the Word (1983), Winthrop Wetherbee's Chaucer and the Poets (1984), and Karla Taylor's Chaucer Reads the Divine Comedy (1989). Other major studies of Chaucer's knowledge of Dante include those by J. A. W. Bennett, "Chaucer, Dante and Boccaccio," and by Piero Boitani, "What Dante meant to Chaucer," both in Boitani's 1983 collection of studies on Chaucer and the Italian Trecento, and pages 125 – 137 of Barry Windeatt's 1992 Troilus and Criseyde in the Oxford Guides to Chaucer. In 1997, David Wallace opened his Chaucerian Polity with a lengthy chapter on "Chaucer in Florence and Lombardy," which studies mainly social and political issues. Finally, Winthrop Wetherbee's 1998 essay "Dante and the Poetics of Troilus and Criseyde," a radical revision of the last chapter of his 1984 Chaucer and the Poets, is the most recent and perhaps the most insightful discussion of Dante's relationship to Chaucer's Troilus so far published.
Windeatt (1992, 126-7) provides a list of over 30 points in Troilus and Criseyde where Chaucer is clearly translating directly from Dante's Commedia. At the same time, all the critics named above agree that Chaucer owes Dante much more than mere details. In his article on Chaucer for the Dante Encyclopedia (160-2), Winthrop Wetherbee suggests that in Troilus,
a historically localized story of earthly love is played out against the background of the spiritual journey of the Commedia. The relationship is of course largely parodic: though the idealistic lover Troilus has much
of the buono ardor of Dante's pilgrim, Criseyde is an all-too-worldly Beatrice – emmeshed in desire, politics, and history—and Pandarus, the guide who leads Troilus to the 'hevene blisse' of sexual union, is a cynical and self-interested Virgil.
It might seem at first sight impossible to prove that Chaucer was conscious of these precise ironic parallels. It is clear, however, that the references to Dante found throughout the poem are sufficiently numerous and deliberate to show that Chaucer had an amazingly profound knowledge of the Commedia and was constantly recalling it as he was writing his version of Boccaccio's story.
The depth of Chaucer's knowledge of Dante's Commedia and the complexity of his references to it becomes clear from the very first lines of the poem.
The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen,
That was the king Priamus sone of Troye,
In lovinge, how his aventures fellen
Fro woe to wele, and after out of joie,
My purpos is, er that I parte fro ye.
Thesiphone, thou help me for t'endite
These woful vers, that wepen as I write.
These lines seem self-explanatory, and in one sense they are. Yet, in view of what we shall see in the following pages, it cannot be mere coincidence that the words 'double sorwe' echo lines in Dante's Purgatorio (22.55-6) where Virgil uses the phrase 'le crude armi / della doppia tristizia di Iocasta' (the cruel arms / of the double sorrow of Jocasta) as a summary of the contents of Statius's Thebaid. He is formulating a question in which he asks Statius how he can reconcile the pagan darkness of his epic with the Christian faith he has just revealed he held in secret. One fundamental theme
of Chaucer's work, like Dante's, is the problematic continuity between pagan and Christian writing; another is the question of how much pessimism a writer can have without despairing of both humanity and literature.
On the other hand, Chaucer may very well not have realized when he was writing 'double sorwe' that Dante was probably consciously echoing an expression found in St. Augustine's Confessions, where Augustine says he 'lamented his mother's death with a duplicia tristitia' (Patterson 132 note 118) because he was deeply tormented at her death—sad because she was dead and sad not to be able to rejoice at her salvation as he thought a Christian should. For Chaucer, the doubly hidden reference to Statius's Thebaid would have been sufficient. As Patterson, says, Troilus is 'massively saturated with Thebanness' (131) and Chaucer uses versions of the term 'double sorrow' several times in his "Theban" works, but nowhere else in his writing (Patterson 132 note 118).
In the following lines of the opening stanza quoted above, Troilus is given a double literary dimension. First, he is Priam's son, therefore destined to be a heroic warrior as brother of the better known Hector, linked by blood and his very name to the tale of the sorrowful end of Troy; second, he is to be seen experiencing joys and sorrows in loving as the main male character of a heroic, chivalric romance. That may be what Chaucer's 'double sorrow' refers to, or it may be explicated by the pattern of his love story that is summarized in the next line: 'Fro woe to wele, and after out of joie.' In this lapidary summary of the familiar Boethian pattern of Fortune's wheel turning there is also a double sorrow, that which comes before and after joy. The theme of the impermanence of human happiness, so lightly introduced here, can be considered to lie at the very core of the poem. Wetherbee points out that everyone knows how short-lived human happiness is, and everyone always forgets it, including Troilus and the narrator of his story; history is a tragic story that constantly repeats itself ― 'the Theban legend (is) Chaucer's chosen model of the fatally repetitive character of secular history' (1998, 253).
In closing the first stanza, Chaucer invokes Tisiphone to be his inspiring
spirit. The reader needs first to recall that Tisiphone is not a classical muse but one of the furies, the dreadful keeper of Tartarus, the place of torment, glimpsed by Aeneas during his journey to the infernal regions in Book 6 of Virgil's Aeneid. Boccaccio (in his commentary on the Inferno) and other commentators interpret the name Tisiphone to mean 'voice of anger' or 'evil speech,' which is hardly what we expect to find inspiring a love story. Chaucer must also have known that in the opening lines of Statius's Thebaid, this same Tisiphone is summoned from Hell by blind Oedipus and sent to make his sons mad at the start of the action that leads to disaster. In this way, the first stanza of Troilus opens and closes with hidden references to Statius's Thebaid.
The Furies also have their role in Dante, although Tisiphone is given no separate role there. Dante and Virgil are threatened by the three Furies in Inferno 9, in a passage that stresses their malevolent, hellish nature. Remorse, despair and darkness are suggested by these parallels, and recalled by the line in the next stanza where Chaucer establishes a parallel between himself as weeping narrator and the Fury: 'Thou cruel Furie, sorwing ever in peyne.' Why, after all, should the narrator of a love story, even a sad one, weep as he writes the opening lines? Pity, perhaps, would be a reason. But why then would he suggest a parallel with the infernal sorrows (see Wetherbee 1998 266 note 13) of a tormenting Fury? Discussing this question, Wetherbee (1998 250) affirms that 'In both the Troilus and Dante's Commedia the influence of this 'infernal' vision, dominated by the sense of individual tragedy and historical fatalism, coexists with an idealizing poetics of love.' We are made aware by this of the delicate nature of the responsibilities facing a story's narrator, and of the risk that a narrator too may misread the tale he is telling. It is dangerously true, as the proverb says, that 'All the world loves a lover' for not all lovers should be loved, and excessive love of tales about loving can lead, as Paolo and Francesca know, to Hell.
Chaucer's dialogue with Dante is far more subtle than his more familiar dialogue with Boethius, and it is rarely discussed in part because the
'Boethian' language of Fortune, freedom and necessity is so much simpler to spot. Yet even when he mentions such 'Boethian' topics as the theme of Fortune, Chaucer should not be too quickly assumed to be referring directly to Boethius. Before him, Dante had undertaken his own thoughtful re-reading of Boethius' Consolation in the light of Augustine and Aquinas (see: Dante Encyclopedia 405: 'Fortune'). Editors have already noted, as J.A.W. Bennett points out (Boitani 1983 99), an echo of Dante in Troilus (Book 5.1541-7) in a passage which is concerned with defining the role of Fortune in the loss of joy:
ffortune -- which that permutacioun
Thorough purueyaunce and disposicioun
Of heighe Ioue, as regnes shal be flitted
ffro folk in folk or when they shal be smytted –
Gan pulle away the fetheres brighte of Troie
ffro day to day til they ben bare of ioie.
This passage clearly contains echoes from a major passage in Dante's Inferno (7.61-96), where Virgil instructs Dante on the relationship between Fortune and material fortunes (i.e. worldly wealth):
Who made the heavens and who gave them guides
was He whose wisdom transcends everything;
75 that every part may shine unto the other,
He had the light apportioned equally;
similarly, for wordly splendors, He
78 ordained a general minister and guide
to shift, from time to time, those empty goods
from nation unto nation, clan to clan,
81 in ways that human reason can't prevent;
just so, one people rules, one languishes,
obeying the decision she has given,
84 which, like a serpent in the grass, is hidden. (Trans. Allen Mandelbaum)
The most important lines in Italian, which Chaucer drew on and echoes directly, are:
Similemente a li splendor mondani
78 ordinò general ministra e duce
che permutasse a tempo li ben vani
di gente in gente e d'uno in altro sangue,
81 oltre la difension d'i senni umani
( . . . )
Vostro saver non ha contasto a lei:
questa provede, giudica, e persegue
87 suo regno come il loro li altri dèi
Le sue permutazion non hanno triegue:
necessità la fa esser veloce;
90 sì spesso vien chi vicenda consegue.
It may or may not be a coincidence that Chaucer, after having stressed like Dante (and Virgil in the Aeneid) that Fortune is not always mere 'blind chance' but ultimately proves to be a source of blessing and is subject to the will of 'high Jove,' says that the fall of Troy was the work of Fortune. For that is what Dante says explicitly in Inferno 30:
E quando la fortuna volse in basso
l'altezza de' Troian che tutto ardiva,
15 sì che 'nsieme col regno il re fu casso
The presence of Dante in this passage of Chaucer's may be still more
complex. As Bennett remarks, Dante always makes a clear distinction between 'Giove,' used in naming the pagan god and the planet Jupiter, and 'sommo Giove,' designating the Christian God. In Purgatorio 6.118 Dante refers to 'sommo Giove che fosti in terra per noi crucifisso' (you, high Jove who were crucified here on earth for us). Likewise, there is no other passage in Troilus in which the name of Jove is qualified with 'high' and no other where the name Jove is clearly used to refer to the Christian God. Chaucer, with his strong interest in Boethius, must have been particularly struck by Virgil's teaching about Fortune in Inferno 7, for he also echoes it in adapting the Knight's Tale (1663-6):
The destinee, ministre general,
That executeth in the world over al
The purveiaunce that God hath seyn biforn,
So strong it is . . .
Another clear echo of Dante in Troilus, that (like the one just discussed) has no parallel in Boccaccio's text, is particularly intriguing. Near the center of the poem, in Book 3, at the climax of the poem's love tale, as Troilus finds himself in bed with a willing Criseyde, he bursts into a hymn of praise to Love: 'O Loue, O Charite' (3.1254) that includes a stanza meditating on Love's generosity:
Benigne Love, thou holy bond of thinges,
Who-so wol grace, and list thee nought honouren,
Lo, his desyr wol flee with-outen winges.
For, noldestow of bountee hem socouren
1265 That serven best and most alwey labouren,
Yet were al lost, that dar I wel seyn, certes,
But-if thy grace passed our desertes. (3.1261-67)
What is challenging and troubling is the fact that, after opening with a strongly Boethian notion (cf. Chaucer's translation Boece 2.metrum 8 'al this accordaunce and ordenaunce of thynges is bounde with love, that governeth erthe and see and hath also commandement to the hevene') this stanza includes slight but certain echoes from the highest spiritual climax of Dante's Commedia, the prayer addressed to the Virgin Mary by St. Bernard in Paradiso 33.13-21:
Donna, se' tanto grande e tanto vali,
che qual vuol grazia e a te non ricorre,
sua disïanza vuol volar sanz'ali.
La tua benignità non pur soccorre
a chi domanda, ma molte fïate
liberamente al dimandar precorre.
In te misericordia, in te pietate,
in te magnificenza, in te s'aduna
quantunque in creatura è di bontate.
(Lady,you are so high, you can so intercede,
that he who would have grace but does not seek
your aid, may long to fly but has no wings.
Your loving-kindness does not only answer
the one who asks, but it is often ready
to answer freely long before the asking.
In you compassion is, in you is pity,
in you is generosity, in you
is every goodness found in any creature.)
To take words spoken in highest Heaven describing the spiritual love manifested in the Virgin Mary and put them in the mouth of Troilus at the moment he achieves sexual union with Criseyde might be considered a gross
breach of literary decorum. J. A. W. Bennett (Boitani 1983 93-4) quotes J. A. Symonds and J. H. Whitfield before making his own comments on how Boccaccio used echoes of Dante in indecorous, inappropriate and inept ways. Symonds, he comments, even ventured to write that Boccaccio 'was incapable of comprehending the real character of [Dante] the man he deified.' Chaucer seems to be laying himself open to similar accusations of a complete lack of decorum here. However, we might rather want to suggest with Winthrop Wetherbee that these shocking lines form part of a deliberate, but hidden strategy that culminates in the final lines of the poem, by which Troilus's trajectory is deliberately and constantly contrasted ironically with Dante's.
Winthrop Wetherbee writes of the transfer of St. Bernard's address to the sexually triumphant Troilus (Dante Encyclopedia 162): 'The barrier separating human from divine love is for a moment virtually translucent, but the context makes plain that Troilus is self-deceived and is destined in the end to be betrayed by the 'grace' that seems to inform his experience.' It is hard to believe that Chaucer was unaware of the ironic patterning he was introducing into his poem by these intertextual moments, yet they are never identified as such. He knew he was using words from Dante; he knew where the words came from; we should not doubt that he knew exactly why he was using them as he did.
Finally, one of the stanzas in Troilus that most clearly contains Dantean echoes is found near the end of Book 5, as he is preparing to conclude the tale of Troilus with a brief account of his death and momentary ascension:
Go, litel book, go litel myn tragedie,
Ther God thy maker yet, er that he dye,
So sende might to make in som comedie!
But litel book, no making thou nenvye,
1790 But subgit be to alle poesye;
And kis the steppes, wheras thou seest pace
Virgile, Ovyde, Omer, Lucan, and Stace.
Commentators often point out that the first recorded uses in English of the word 'tragedy' occur in Chaucer's translation of Fortune's rhetorical question in Boethius (Boece Book 2, Prosa 2): 'What other thynge bywaylen the cryinges of tragedyes but oonly the dedes of Fortune, that with an unwar strook overturneth the realmes of greet nobleye? (Glose. Tragedye is to seyn a dite of a prosperite for a time, that endeth in wrecchidnesse).' Chaucer also used the word with a similar meaning in the opening lines of the Monk's Tale (1991-4):
I wol biwaille, in manere of tragedie,
The harm of hem that stoode in heigh degree,
And fillen so that ther nas no remedie
To brynge hem out of hir adversitee.
Readers naturally identify those uses of the word with that found in this stanza, the only use of the word in Troilus. Kelly (39-50) offers a helpful survey of the ways other writers of the age used the word, stressing Chaucer's originality. In particular, in pages 50-51 he stresses the significant absence from Boethius' definition, and from the glose as formulated by Chaucer, of any notion of a moral fault serving as the cause of the tragic disaster. Fortune, after all, wishes to stress the entirely arbitrary nature of her operations, and so too does Chaucer.
It is not correct to see the story of Troilus simply as a 'tragedy' in the De casibus sense in which the word is defined and used in the Boece and the Monk's Tale. More precisely, the 'dedes of Fortune' mentioned in both seem always to involve the fall of powerful men from high positions of social, 'political' power ('the realmes of greet nobleye' or 'in heigh degree'). This reflects Dante's view of the role of Fortune, quoted above, in the fall of Troy. It could be argued that there is no precedent before Chaucer for applying the word 'tragedy' to the story of a lover made unhappy by losing the woman he
loved to another man. It is surely significant that this stanza is placed before the account of Troilus's death, which is thus clearly marked off as being perhaps unrelated to the story of Troilus's 'tragic' love for Criseyde. The connection between tragedy and personal unhappiness derives, surely, from that same Book 2 of Boethius, where Boethius is mainly focussing on his own loss of human happiness, but his loss was political in nature and cause. Troilus, in that case, would be the first tragic lover.
True, an awareness of Chaucer's knowledge of Dante opens another possible interpretation of the use of the word 'tragedie' in this stanza of Troilus. It could be suggested that the rather unexpected 'litel' applied to the 'book' and to 'myn tragedie' represents a self-deprecating, contrasting echo of the passage in the Commedia (Inferno 20.113) where Virgil refers to the Aeneid as L'alta mia tragedia (my high tragedy), the only use of the word tragedia in the whole Commedia and one of only a few instances in Dante's entire Opus. Chaucer would then be claiming epic status for his poem by linking it through Dante to Virgil.
Dante never uses the word tragedia in the 'Boethian' sense of a story of a fall from power (or happiness), but only to designate works written in the 'high,' most elevated poetic style, although in such works the story itself may not be specifically 'tragic' in the more modern sense, as can be seen in the quotation from the Inferno, for the Aeneid does not tell a 'tragic story.' Indeed, Dante refers to the Canzone 'Donne, ch'avete intelletto d'amore' in Vita Nuova 19 as a model of 'tragic style' (DVE 12.3) yet this poem is entirely a celebration of the love for Beatrice while she is still alive on earth. It could then possibly be argued that Chaucer is here consciously using the word in Dante's stylistic sense, rather than that, more familiar to us today through the De casibus tradition, found in Chaucer's Boece, and in the Monk's Tale. In the De vulgari eloquentia, which virtually no one in the 14th century had heard of or read, Dante wrote:
When dealing with the various subjects that are suitable for poetry,
we must know how to choose whether to treat them in tragic, comic, or elegiac style. By 'tragic' I mean the higher style, by 'comic' the lower, and by 'elegiac' that of the unhappy. If it seems appropriate to use the tragic style, then the illustrious vernacular must be employed, and so you will need to bind together a canzone. (2.4.6)
This passage shows that for Dante, the 'tragic style' merely corresponds to what otherwise might be termed the 'high' or even 'epic' style.
As regards the sense in which Chaucer uses the word near the end of Troilus, Boitani (1983 128) refuses to make a choice:
Tragedy it is because of Fortune's operations and Troilus' death; unlike Dante's 'Comedy', it has what Dante would call a 'foul and horrible' end. Stylistically it may be classed as a 'tragedy', for it uses at appropriate points the 'high' style of Virgil's 'alta tragedia'.
He ought perhaps to have considered more closely Chaucer's originality in writing his 'tragedy' as a story about loss of happiness, rather than a fall from power. In the end, it almost seems as though Chaucer, in using the term 'tragedy,' was deliberately doing what Dante had done in using the word 'commedia' for his poem. The Dante Encyclopedia discusses the meaning of the title at length (184-8) and underlines that 'There is no doubting the importance of the Commedia's title as a means to understanding the poem; just as there is little doubt that Dante's choice of 'comedia' is deeply problematic . . . . the title's very idiosyncrasy is meant to be a spur to its interpretation.' In this context it should be remembered that Dante's original title was simply 'Comedia' (given an additional 'm' in modern spellings) and that divina was only added to the title by the editors of the 1555 edition. It seems that Dante was strongly conscious of the importance of redefining such terminology in his attempts to establish a quite new way of writing. Chaucer may have understood that.
Windeatt (1992 133) points out that this stanza in Troilus is also the only place where Chaucer uses the word 'poesye' and notes the coincidence that Dante, too, only uses the word 'poesi' once (Purgatorio 1.7). The initial humility topos of 'litel book' is sometimes contrasted (Windeatt 1992 306) with the apparent presumption of Chaucer in putting his Troilus and himself on an equal footing with the great works and writers of the past. To this it might be replied that Chaucer is expressing a sense of literary tradition and fraternal community as well as profound respect and veneration in the invitation to 'kiss the steps' of the named writers. The list of what would today be seen as 'great' writers in the last line of that stanza should surely be read as a list of 'ancient, defining authorities' of what 'poesye' means, since it is not sure that today's notions of fame, status and prestige were current in Chaucer's time.
So much can be adduced from within the text. But reference to Dante shows that the list is in fact a far richer line than a cursory reading might suggest. Dante was intensely conscious of his own position as a poet within the great classical literary tradition. He lists the recognized classical auctores in the Vita Nuova 25.9 and in the DVE 2.6.7, when he is discussing the best that the new, vernacular poetry can achieve, and its relationship to the classical Latin canon. Still, it is in the Commedia that we find the most significant correspondence to Chaucer's line, in a passage that Chaucer was surely recalling. In Inferno 4.85ff Dante's journey with Virgil as his guide has hardly begun when they enter Limbo, the place of those who cannot enter Heaven since they died before the completion of Christ's redemption and knew nothing of the Christian faith. There, they encounter the spirits of four of the great figures of classical antiquity in poetry and philosophy, wrapped in light amidst the darkness. The highest poets, masters of the various styles, are named: Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan; in the midst of sorrow there are smiles of greeting and the six poets discuss their craft in words so sublime that Dante says he will not report them.
Dante expects the reader to notice that Terence, the great writer of
comedies, is absent from the list in which he traditionally figures; here it is Dante himself, author of this very different kind of Christian comedy, who is the sixth figure (Dante Encyclopedia 180-1). In his note to this canto, Sinclair (Inferno page 70) stresses that poetry 'is the utterance in terms of the imagination of truth which cannot otherwise be known or told and its functions are the loftiest of all that belongs to human speech; 'For Dante and his contemporaries, poetry was wisdom' (V. Rosi), and he pleads here, partly for himself, but far more for poetry.' Beyond this echo of a most significant image of what was above termed the 'community of poets,' Windeatt (1984 557) also notes a reference to Purgatorio 21 130. Here we find a key to the inclusion in Chaucer's list of Statius. Dante has imagined this surely pagan poet to have been converted to Christianity; he is therefore located away from the other, non-Christian poets in their Limbo. His place is high up in Purgatory, and he is ready to rise (together with Dante) to Paradise later in the poem. For Dante, Statius's Thebaid displays at certain moments 'an embryonic spirituality' that sanctioned his promotion to an almost doctoral role; Dante gives him the task of explaining 'how the powers of the natural organism are transformed and reoriented when informed by divine vertù' (Wetherbee 1998 252). The Thebaid as such, with its darkness and violence, fades away into insignificance. Wetherbee argues:
It is by an essentially similar shift of perspective that the heroic and even the 'Dantean' dimensions of the experience of Chaucer's Troilus are finally revealed as devoid of meaning, save insofar as their articulation has been a necessary catalyst for the narrator's progress, through poetry, to that spiritual perspective from which Troilus and his world, like Statian Thebes, will suddenly become all but invisible. Chaucer goes beyond Dante to show us the actual stages of the narrator's rejection of his story, punctuated by the invective that reduces the hero's love and bravery to worldly folly and subject his pagan beliefs to a virtual exorcism.
In the closing lines (12: 817-8) of his Thebaid, Statius had addressed his poem directly, as Chaucer does his:
uiue, precor; nec tu diuinam Aeneida tempta,
sed longe sequere et uestigia semper adora.
(Live, I pray. Do not seek to rival the divine Aeneid
but follow from afar and ever venerate its footsteps)
Dante, writing the scene of the meeting with Statius in the Purgatorio, surely recalled those lines. Statius tells him how much he owed to the Aeneid and how he wishes he had lived at the time of Virgil. He naturally cannot recognize the shade of Virgil standing beside them, since they never met, but Dante cannot help smiling at the irony of the moment and, questioned by Statius, identifies Virgil. Statius at once bends to kiss the feet of Virgil, who stops him.
Chaucer, in writing the words 'kis the steppes,' was presumably conscious of these two, quite distinct moments in Dante's Commedia, and perhaps also of the words from Statius that probably suggested the Purgatorio scene to Dante. His 'no making thee no envie' might equally be thought to derive from Statius's 'tempta.' More, though, it must suggest a realization that, just as Dante places himself as the humble sixth in the company of Great Ancient Poets, so too Chaucer is here placing himself and his little tragedy as a humble sixth.
All these moments are concerned with community and indebtedness within the poetic tradition. With that comes an awareness that Chaucer's use of the word 'poesye' is likewise fraught with meaning. As Windeatt remarks (1992 132-3), Dante and Petrarch are the only 'modern' writers whom Chaucer ever calls 'poet' (though neither is named in the Troilus) and they, together with Boccaccio, whom he never names anywhere, are his main modern
references in Troilus. The mere mention of the word 'poesye' in that context should make the reader alert to Chaucer's hidden reference here to the parallel theme of the nature of modern, vernacular poetry, expressed in Dante's Convivio and De vulgari eloquentia, evoked by Windeatt (1992 133). Yet nothing in Chaucer's text expressly indicates such multiple dimensions and it is indeed very unlikely that any of his 14th-century English readers could have been aware of them.
Likewise, it may be wondered what Chaucer's initial audience made of his stated wish at this point to 'make in som comedie.' It is possible to find critics who see in this a reference to plans for the Canterbury Tales (Boitani 1983 128) but Windeatt (1992 132) identifies the 'comedie' with what follows directly, the rise of Troilus's soul to the Eighth Sphere after his death; the 'litel myn tragedye,' containing the story of Troilus's passionate union with Criseyde, has been sent on its way, what remains is comedy. The narrator of this ardent love story seems to want to publish it in an unfinished form. He presents the story of Trolius's unhappy love as a 'tragedy' complete in itself, without any mention of his death and the final closure of the poem. The next stanza seems equally final, concerned only with the technicalities of copying the finished book accurately.
All commentators have noted the laconic way in which Troilus is finally killed, after all this, within two lines (V, 1805-6), and by Achilles, who has no relationship with the love affair. The choice of Achilles as the agent of Troilus's death takes readers back to the death of Hector (V, 1555-61), who was likewise killed by Achilles; Chaucer encourages this reference by mentioning Hector in line V, 1804. The heroic death of Hector comes immediately after the stanza mentioned previously, where the fall of Troy is attributed to Fortune. Immediately prior to that, Cassandra had interpreted Troilus's dream of the boar by telling the entire story of the Thebaid before concluding that Diomede has taken Criseyde from him. Although he cannot believe her because she is telling the truth, her words combine with the death of Hector to plunge Troilus into what is effectively a 'double sorrow' in
which he longs for death.
Readers today know through scholarly footnotes, although Chaucer naturally makes no mention of the fact, that the incident of Troilus's ascent after his death does not figure in Boccaccio's Filostrato but is transferred by Chaucer from his Teseida, where it happens to Arcita. Boccaccio was almost certainly inspired there by the ascent of Dante with Beatrice from Purgatory at the start of the Paradiso. It might be possible to suggest that Chaucer's word 'comedie' applied to the episode constitutes a verbal wink, indicating that he has recognized the parallel with the Commedia and hopes a few good readers may do likewise.
Probably nothing in Chaucer's Troilus troubles and challenges modern readers so much as what is said in the four stanzas following Troilus's ascent and vision; the first is a series of reductive, dismissive exclamations: 'Swich fyn hath, lo, this Troilus for love;' the second addresses a group of potential contemporary readers in moralizing tones: 'O yonge fresshe folkes, he or she, / In which that love up groweth with your age, / Repeyreth hoom from worldly vanitee;' the third continues the exhortation to live sincerely Christian lives that began in the previous stanza; the fourth returns with greater explicitness to the rejection of the pagan world implied in the first:
Lo here, of Payens corsed olde rytes,
1850 Lo here, what alle hir goddes may availle;
Lo here, these wrecched worldes appetytes;
Lo here, the fyn and guerdon for travaille
Of Iove, Appollo, of Mars, of swich rascaille!
One reason for modern surprise and even disappointment must be the contrast between these lines and the seemingly positive, sympathetic tone in which the narrator has hitherto told his tale. This corresponds to the positive response to sexual expressions of 'romantic' love that passes for normal in today's world, and a dislike for any indication that salvation might not
automatically be open to everyone. It seems to such permissive readers that whoever has been responsible for the narrative up to this point has done an abrupt about-turn in order to end on an irreconcilably different, orthodox Christian, even puritan key. These stanzas are sometimes seen as an aesthetic blemish, a failure to preserve the unity of the work to the end.
In the light of what has been seen in the preceding pages, another, quite different reading of Troilus might be (and has indeed been) proposed, one which sees these concluding stanzas as integral to a full understanding of the poem. It would begin with the invocation of Tisiphone in the opening stanza, and relate the entire course of the action of Chaucer's poem to the role of the references to Statius, the pagan and Christian literary traditions, and the nature of love in Dante's Commedia. That is the principle focus of Wetherbee's 1998 essay.
Essentially, he says, we are sent back by the ending to reexamine our reading of the poem as a whole, and particularly its moral status as a love story. We now notice that the hymn of joy that Troilus utters as he lies in bed with Criseyde, (3.1254-74) which includes the words of Dante's St. Bernard already noted, begins with the double exclamation 'O Love! O Charite!' Now these are regular Christian names for God but the very next line shows that Troilus is blessing Eros, not the Christian God of whom he can of course know nothing, for he includes 'Thi moder ek, Citheria the swete' in his praises. For him, erotic, physical love is God and the highest bliss. From a Christian perspective, he is wrong about everything important: the nature of love, the nature of bliss, and the identity of God.
A few lines later, still in sexual ecstasy, he will tell Pandarus, 'Thow hast in hevene ybrought my soule at reste (III, 1599). To this, only a few lines later, Pandarus responds with a truly wise warning of the mutability of all earthly joys: 'For of fortunes sharpe adversitee / The worste kynde of infortune is this, / A man to han ben in prosperitee, / And it remembren whan it passed is.' (III, 1625-8) Troilus takes no notice of this essential truth, which echoes lines in Chaucer's Boece: 'For in alle adversities of fortune the most
unzeely kynde of contrarious fortune is to han ben weleful' (II, pr. 4 noted by Windeatt 1984, 331). Windeatt, designating the notion 'proverbial,' notes another possible parallel, quoting lines from Dante Inferno V: 'nessun maggior dolore / che ricordarsi del tempo felice / nella miseria' (V, 121-3) (there is no greater pain than to recall the happy time in misery). The full significance of this Dantean parallel can only be sensed if we recall that those are the words of Francesca, who tells how she committed adultery with her husband's brother after reading with him about Lancelot and Guinevere's first kiss. That moment of physical passion and 'bliss' has brought them to everlasting torment. Troilus, we might begin to suspect, is blinded by folly; he believes that he has reached 'rest' and permanence when he has in fact only reached the midpoint of his story (Kaylor). The readers may recall better than the narrator that what follows is the movement 'out of joie,' (I, 4) announced in the very first stanza of the poem.
Once that movement is complete, Troilus dies as a heroic warrior, not as a lover, and is granted his final moment of insight into the truth of the matter. Here he is out of joy indeed. Looking down from the inner surface of the eighth sphere, high indeed, but not as high as God in heaven, he 'fully gan despyse / This wrecched world, held al vanitee / To respect of the pleyn felicitee / That is in hevene above' (V, 1814-7) but that Heaven with its true felicity is not for him. Then 'Ther he was slayn, his loking doun he caste; / And in him-self he lough right at the wo / Of hem that wepten for his deeth so faste,' (V, 1820-2) which is not a very positive response to the expressions of human affection and friendship common in heroic poetry. At last he admits his moral failure as a too physical lover: '"And dampned al our werk that folweth so / The blinde lust, the which that may not laste, / And sholden al our herte on hevene caste' (V, 1823-5). But such a glimpse of Christian and moral truth can have no redemptive effect on him now, for what is represented in these lines is not some kind of apotheosis or special grace, but Troilus's 'Particular Judgement.'
Catholic doctrine teaches that each human soul without exception,
Christian or not, receives knowledge of its eternal destiny at the moment of death. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia says: 'Theologians suppose that the particular judgment will be instantaneous, that in the moment of death the separated soul is internally illuminated as to its own guilt or innocence and of its own initiation takes its course either to hell, or to purgatory, or to heaven.' There may be a double irony in the location of Troilus' final moment of insight. The seventh heaven is that of Saturn, the last of the planets, of whose character the Knight's Tale paints an appalling picture (2454-69). Rising to the sphere of Saturn is for Troilus a brief experience of the full scope of 'the erratik sterres' (V, 1812), the planets that influence humanity by their constant changes. Above him lie only the unmoving sphere of the fixed stars and the Empyrean, beyond which lies the Christian Heaven, not a place but the eternal 'mind' of God.
The judgement is not only for Troilus. The narrator who has so long sided with him must share in it, and the readers too. From the height of the sphere of Saturn the soul of Troilus must be imagined to make an abrupt fall, to the sphere lying immediately above that of the moon, for the text says it is Mercury who is to take him away to where he must go, to Limbo, as one who lived before the coming of Christ. In the eighth sphere, too, there is no resting place for Troilus. The delightful tale of romantic love's joys and pains has suddenly been denounced as 'blinde lust.' Naturally, the narrator speaks with a radically changed, repentant voice the denunciatory stanzas that follow.
As Wetherbee stresses, 'the story adumbrated in the opening stanzas of the Troilus—the story, ultimately, of Troilus's double sorrow for love of a Criseyde who 'forsook hym er she deyde' (1.56)—conforms in its prevailing emphases to the representation of human love in canto 5 of Dante's Inferno, the canto of Dido, Francesca, and all the 'donne antiche e'cavalieri' whose love proved stronger than reason' (1998, 250-1). In view of what we have so far seen, it seems almost unthinkable that Chaucer did not realize the parallel and difference between his own way of telling the story of Troilus and Dante's response to the tale of Paolo and Francesca. Never explicitly mentioned,
Chaucer's awareness of this parallel is perhaps revealed in the lines from Purgatorio echoed in Pandarus's words quoted above: 'nessun maggior dolore / che ricordarsi del tempo felice / nella miseria' (V, 121-3 (there is no greater pain than to recall the happy time in misery). For these are the words by which Francesca begins her account of her sexual encounter with Paolo. We cannot fail to note that she says she 'diro come colui che piange e dice' (V, 126) (will tell as one who weeps and tells) which might perhaps underlie the last line of Chaucer's poem's first stanza: 'for t'endite / These woful vers, that wepen as I write.'
Chaucer's narrator weeps, surely, out of pity for the human condition in which love can be experienced at the same time as both the highest bliss and utter vanity, indeed a cause of damnation. His tears could be seen, Wetherbee suggests, as 'something closer to true charity than Dante's self-regarding pity' (1998 250). Francesca recalls how she and Paolo, both married adults, were brought to commit adultery while reading a romance about Lancelot. She tells, her companion weeps, and Dante falls unconscious in one of the most emotional moments of his entire journey: 'si che di pietade / io vienni men cosi com'io morisse; / e caddi come corpo morto cade' (Inferno V, 140-2) (While the one spirit said this the other wept so that for pity I swooned as if in death and dropped like a dead body). While telling the story of the union of Troilus and Criseyde, Chaucer's narrator maintains his distance. Arriving at the end of his task, he is brought back to the emotions indicated in the opening lines of the poem, and to a fuller understanding of where such a passion must lead.
The complexity of Chaucer's debt to Dante in Troilus is nowhere clearer than in the words that close the poem (V, 1863-9):
Thou oon, and two, and three, eterne on-lyve,
That regnest ay in three and two and oon,
1865 Uncircumscript, and al mayst circumscryve,
Us from visible and invisible foon
Defende; and to thy mercy, everichoon,
So make us, Iesus, for thy grace digne,
For love of mayde and moder thyn benigne! Amen.
The stanza owes nothing to Boccaccio. The first three lines are a close translation of words from Dante's Commedia (Paradiso 14.28-30) while Boitani (1983, 127) links the final line with the opening line of Paradiso 30. The lines celebrating the Trinity are taken from Canto 14 of Paradiso, which is set in the Sphere of the Sun, which Dante entered in Canto 10, and the singers are the spirits encountered in the first two circles of the wise. Eighth among the wise doctors forming the First Circle introduced by Beatrice in Canto 10 is 'the holy soul who makes plain the world's deceitfulness to one that hears him rightly; the body from which he was driven lies below in Cieldauro, and he came from martyrdom and exile to this peace.' Did Chaucer realize that this meant that one of the voices joining in this hymn is none other than that of his favorite philosopher, Boethius? Given the difficulty of the reference, we might wonder. Yet, in order to attain such a full understanding of the Commedia as we have been suggesting, Chaucer must have been introduced to Dante's work by someone with a very deep knowledge of it during his visit to Italy. They may have helped him here. It is certainly a fitting final, hidden link to a Boethius already dear to Chaucer but now made more significant by the role assigned to him by Dante, as he dances in eternal bliss above, so very unlike Troilus.
Sogang University
Works Cited
Primary sources
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri with translation and comment by John D. Sinclair. 3 Volumes. London: John Lane The Bodley Head. 1946.
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Translated by Allen Mandelbaum. New York: Everyman's Library, Alfred A. Knopf. 1994.
The Riverside Chaucer. Third Edition. General Editor Larry D. Benson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1987.
Troilus and Criseyde: 'The Book of Troilus' by Geoffrey Chaucer. Edited by B. A. Windeatt. London: Longman. 1984.
Chaucer and the Italian Trecento. Edited by Piero Boitani. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1983.
Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde: "Subgit to alle Poesye." Essays in Criticism. Edited by R. A. Shoaf. Binghampton, New York: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies. 1992.
Critical Essays on Geoffrey Chaucer. Edited by Thomas C. Stillinger. New York: G. K. Hall & Co. 1998.
The Dante Encyclopedia. Edited by Richard Lansing. New York: Garland Publishing. 2000.
The European Tragedy of Troilus. Edited by Piero Boitani. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. 1989.
Jefferson, B. L. Chaucer and the 'Consolation of Philosophy' of Boethius. Princeton: Princeton UP. 1917.
Kelly, Henry Ansgar. Chaucerian Tragedy. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer. 1997.
Patterson, Lee. Chaucer and the Subject of History. London: Routledge. 1991.
Stroud, Theodore A. "Boethius' influence on Chaucer's Troilus," Modern Philology, 49 (1951-2), 1 – 9.
Taylor, Karla Chaucer Reads the Divine Comedy. Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford University Press. 1989.
Wallace, David. Chaucerian Polity: Absolute Lineages and Associational Forms in England and Italy. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1997.
Wetherbee, Winthrop. Chaucer and the Poets: An Essay on Troilus and Criseyde. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1984.
Windeatt, Barry. Troilus and Criseyde (Oxford Guides to Chaucer). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1992
Scholars have identified over 30 points in Troilus and Criseyde where Chaucer is clearly translating directly from Dante's Commedia. Yet he never indicates his debt or refers to Dante explicitly. The echoes of Dante's text are particularly dense in the poem's opening lines in Book 1, at the moment in Book 3 when Troilus and Criseyde acheive physical union, and above all in the closing section of Book 5. Close examination of these sections suggests that Chaucer was pursuing a deliberate, but hidden strategy that culminates in the final lines of the poem, by which Troilus's trajectory is deliberately and constantly contrasted ironically with Dante's. While Troilus and the poem's narratorial voice identify the sexual union of Book 3 with achieved bliss, the Dantean references and Boethian elements invite a quite different reading. The references to Statius in Chaucer's poem, in particular, cannot be fully understood without reference to the role he plays in Dante's Commedia, as the archetype of the Christian poet confronting his religious and moral responsibilities in a pagan literary tradition. A brief survey of the echoes of Boethius' Consolation in Troilus shows a similar strategy of indirect, ironic commentary on Troilus' notions of happiness.
Key words: Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, Dante, Commedia, Boethius, Consolation, tragedy, happiness, irony, hidden echoes.


text:
Foxconn will display their new Nano-PC range at CeBIT 2012 in partnership with German distributor WAVE.
Foxconn will launch models featuring the new Intel Atom D2500 and D2700 processors. This will also be the first opportunity to see the fan-less aluminium Nano-PC due for launch in Q2 2012.
To see the current and future Nano-PC products, come to Stand F44 in Planet Reseller (Hall 14/15) from Wednesday 6th to Saturday 10th March.
To arrange a business meeting with Foxconn, please email to:firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
It's all a bit of a blur. We just roamed around freaking out at everything and having a great time.
We met up with Rosie's brother Will, who is living in Tokyo. He showed us some of his favourite spots and ordered all our food for us in a very gentlemanly fashion.
It's a bit of a complicated place to get around.
One of Will's best spots was this shrine. Will explained a particular thing you had to do with clapping and praying and flipping a coin into a thing. I did it all but stuffed up the flipping of the coin - bad luck for eternity.
We ate at a little place in Piss Alley and it started raining.
Managed to get the cover shot for Will's next album while we were there.
Maybe he'll be the next Sexy Zone! These trucks are rolling around everywhere blasting songs by pop bands. Our favourite is 'Follow Me' by the E-Girls.
We took a train or three out to the Studio Ghibli museum, which was completely booked out. This was as close as we got. Totoro!
Cool area near the museum.
Missing Tess
More Shibuya
Will took us to his favourite restaurant on our last night. They cook everything on the spot and hand your food to you on a big wooden paddle. Such impressive knees. It was delicious.
That intersection again. What a great trip.