Most active questions
54 questions from the last 30 days
6
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Is this Game of Thrones scene about the usage of "m'lord" in the novels too?
In GOT S02E07 when Arya Stark calls Tywin Lannister my lord he corrects her:
Tywin Lannister: Girl, m'Lord. Low-born girls say m'Lord, not my Lord. If you're going to pose as a commoner, you should ...
- 953
9
votes
2
answers
837
views
What does "agai" mean in Aitmatov's "To Have and to Lose"?
In Chingiz Aitmatov's To Have and to Lose - available in English through the Internet Archive - in the not-prologue, the truck driver addresses the speaker as "agai" a number of times. For ...
- 27.8k
4
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Why is the Macbeth quote about "doth unfix my hair" so important?
I'm confused about what this quote means and why it's popular. Could someone explain it?
From Act 1 Scene 3:
Macbeth If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
...
8
votes
1
answer
1k
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Why does Arrian always specify who was archon of Athens when giving a date?
In the Anabasis written by Arrian, when there is a mention of time, the author always mentions the archon of Athens. For example, from the English translation by E. J. Chinnock (1884):
It is said ...
- 325
8
votes
1
answer
373
views
Was his name really “Faustus” in “Clouds of Witness” by Dorothy L. Sayers?
In Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers, the Dowager Duchess of Denver makes the following remark:
“Well, dear, I thought so. What oft was thought and frequently much better expressed, as Pope says—...
- 68.9k
5
votes
1
answer
734
views
What was a "silver churn" in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera "Patience"?
In Gilbert and Sullivan's opera Patience we have a song of which the first verse is
A magnet hung in a hardware shop,
And all around was a loving crop
Of scissors and needles, nails and knives,
...
- 2,773
4
votes
1
answer
939
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Where does the quotation "Murder being once done" come from?
Spoiler alert: this question reveals a major plot point in Caroline Graham's The Killings at Badger's Drift.
In The Killings at Badger's Drift, Inspector Barnaby explains to his deputy Sergeant Troy ...
- 35k
4
votes
1
answer
581
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"Unarmed if any meet her" in Emily Dickinson's "The Past is such a curious Creature"
This is poem 1273 in The Poems of Emily Dickinson (1998), edited by R. W. Franklin:
The Past is such a curious Creature
To look her in the Face
A Transport may receipt us
Or a Disgrace -
Unarmed if ...
- 693
5
votes
1
answer
363
views
Which is right, “ever dreams of” or “dreams of ever”, in Byron’s ‘Don Juan’?
In the first (1821) publication of canto 5 of Byron’s Don Juan, stanza 48 reads:
Some talk of an appeal unto some passion,
Some to men’s feelings, others to their reason;
The last of these was ...
- 68.9k
5
votes
1
answer
442
views
Dostoevsky on Tyutchev
I read that Dostoevsky was the first one to call Tyutchev "a poet-philosopher", but no sources were given. Can you cite a reference where Dostoevsky called him that?
- 245
4
votes
1
answer
605
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Shakespeare's use of the word "excursion"
I've come across the word "Excursion" (and plural "Excursions") in stage directions by William Shakespeare, especially in battle or fight scenes. I am not sure I understand what he ...
- 143
7
votes
1
answer
383
views
What figure is "Each day seems long, and longs for long-stay'd night" in Sidney's sonnet 89?
My question is about the line "Each day seems long, and longs for long-stay'd night" in Sir Philip Sidney's 89th sonnet from Astrophil and Stella. In reality, it is the poet who is the ...
- 283
6
votes
1
answer
306
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Short story, possibly by Frank O'Connor, about a boy puzzled by Tennyson
I think, at the age of 9 in 1961, I read a comprehension piece in an English textbook by Ronald Ridout. It was an extract from a short story by, I think, possibly Frank O'Connor. It described the ...
- 417
6
votes
1
answer
227
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"There is no rock so senseless" in Petrarch's sonnet 162
I don't understand the last two lines in this sonnet from Petrarch, translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1903) (emphasis added):
O joyous, blossoming, ever-blessed flowers!
’Mid which my pensive ...
- 163
5
votes
2
answers
156
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‘Medusa’ by Countee Cullen
Here’s the sonnet ‘Medusa’ (1935) by Countee Cullen:
I mind me how when first I looked at her
A warning shudder in the blood cried, “Ware!
Those eyes are basilisk’s she gazes through,
And those are ...
- 68.9k