Knowledge Commons | Pete Kirwan | Activity https://hcommons.org/members/drpetekirwan/activity/ Activity feed for Pete Kirwan. Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:50:37 -0400 https://buddypress.org/?v=10.6.0 en-US 30 hourly 2 a81febd9d3ddba54ddff4a8dd0859e0b Pete Kirwan replied to the topic Act Five in the discussion The Birth of Merlin Reading Group https://hcommons.org/groups/the-birth-of-merlin-reading-group/forum/topic/act-five/#post-31391 Tue, 19 May 2020 09:56:31 -0400 Also Nora - definitely agree about Artesia. Head held high, marching off, 'Call that torture?!'

]]> 603d148318b8c9f68308332110265c95 Pete Kirwan replied to the topic Act Five in the discussion The Birth of Merlin Reading Group https://hcommons.org/groups/the-birth-of-merlin-reading-group/forum/topic/act-five/#post-31390 Tue, 19 May 2020 09:54:59 -0400 What a climax! I love 5.1.

The moment that stands out in my memory from the Read Not Dead reading was the final confrontation between the Devil and Merlin. I mentioned this in a previous thread, but those of you who know James Wallace will hopefully be able to imagine his voice as he channelled Inigo Montoya and Darth Vader in a low, slow, snarl…[Read more]

]]> 444b1cf8f4ee9bd51ba029a72f2313a5 Pete Kirwan replied to the topic Act Four in the discussion The Birth of Merlin Reading Group https://hcommons.org/groups/the-birth-of-merlin-reading-group/forum/topic/act-four/#post-31206 Tue, 12 May 2020 05:59:42 -0400 Anna - just a right-click copy-and-paste worked for me!

David - love this: 'In his Catalogue, Martin Wiggins points out that since the dragons are able to stop and start fighting on cue, they are probably performed by actors in costume.' And there was me thinking they'd trained real dragons (young ones of course) - maybe they used those in court…[Read more]

]]> 4e03e71b54e5d7e8243c1e8c7be06d3f Pete Kirwan replied to the topic Act Four in the discussion The Birth of Merlin Reading Group https://hcommons.org/groups/the-birth-of-merlin-reading-group/forum/topic/act-four/#post-31179 Mon, 11 May 2020 10:51:11 -0400 To give some slightly more serious thoughts, what I take away from Act IV is just how important the Clown is. This is the most conventionally Arthurian material so far - it's telling the oft-retold story of the dragons and the castle, Merlin's early prophecies, and the promise of Uter's line. With the subplots and the Devil sidelined, the material…[Read more]

]]> b81d2647c22ca1ff7db7efbc57c7143d Pete Kirwan replied to the topic Act Four in the discussion The Birth of Merlin Reading Group https://hcommons.org/groups/the-birth-of-merlin-reading-group/forum/topic/act-four/#post-31178 Mon, 11 May 2020 10:43:07 -0400 Also strong Han Sol0-chasing-stormtroopers energy to 'Enter Edol, driving all Vortiger's Force before him'.

]]> 575f4380f3a6870258d8f3d74d2c31b2 Pete Kirwan replied to the topic Act Four in the discussion The Birth of Merlin Reading Group https://hcommons.org/groups/the-birth-of-merlin-reading-group/forum/topic/act-four/#post-31176 Mon, 11 May 2020 10:38:00 -0400 Genuine live footage of Proximus.

Managing Anxiety: The Coyote and Roadrunner | Care for the Pack ...

]]> 251e50aa19420b6c3bccdf278f3591f6 Pete Kirwan replied to the topic Act Three in the discussion The Birth of Merlin Reading Group https://hcommons.org/groups/the-birth-of-merlin-reading-group/forum/topic/act-three/#post-30973 Mon, 04 May 2020 09:58:56 -0400 A miscellany of thoughts today - what an act!

3.1 is a great scene. I love how Joan is speaking verse while her brother is in prose; she's sustaining the narrative of being in a courtly romance while he repeatedly undermines it. In this sense, when the Devil appears, I feel like he's continuing to play into Joan's narrative, and at this stage -…[Read more]

]]> ea596266a687788af2934a821c678ab0 Pete Kirwan replied to the topic Act Two in the discussion The Birth of Merlin Reading Group https://hcommons.org/groups/the-birth-of-merlin-reading-group/forum/topic/act-two/#post-30716 Mon, 27 Apr 2020 13:35:04 -0400 Couple of initial thoughts:

One of the interesting recurring features when working on the 'Shakespeare Apocrypha' was the recurrent forests - see also Mucedorus and Locrine - and what happens within those forests. In 2.1, aside from the misogyny (wow) that Nora has noted, I was struck by the coincidence of the location and the focus on naming. I…[Read more]

]]> ff7694447edfece4cc7e56f3c8076091 Pete Kirwan replied to the topic Act One in the discussion The Birth of Merlin Reading Group https://hcommons.org/groups/the-birth-of-merlin-reading-group/forum/topic/act-one/#post-30518 Tue, 21 Apr 2020 12:06:39 -0400 In relation to David's point about Artesia being like Tamora, I'd also compare Estrild from Locrine. Edwin's 'She was woo'd afore she came, sure' is a great cynical line, and I love these set-ups where everyone onstage apart from one person (who is the most powerful) can see exactly what's going on.

Picking up on Anna's comment about Aurelius…[Read more]

]]> 6fa4cf5083d55f7ec8264431bc1856ce Pete Kirwan replied to the topic Act One in the discussion The Birth of Merlin Reading Group https://hcommons.org/groups/the-birth-of-merlin-reading-group/forum/topic/act-one/#post-30514 Tue, 21 Apr 2020 10:45:19 -0400 [For interest, I'm reading this in the 1908 Shakespeare Apocrypha; will be interested to see if any of C.F. Tucker Brooke's editorial idiosyncrasies show themselves, though he's usually pretty diplomatic.]

One thing I appreciate is how straightforward the opening is. The deference to Constantia's wishes; the banter about 'He is a man, I hope.' /…[Read more]

]]> 769e53469ef21f843c87e562dbe96b26 Pete Kirwan replied to the topic Welcome! Introduce Yourself in the discussion The Birth of Merlin Reading Group https://hcommons.org/groups/the-birth-of-merlin-reading-group/forum/topic/welcome-introduce-yourself/page/2/#post-30486 Mon, 20 Apr 2020 08:05:36 -0400 Hi all,

Latecomer, sorry, but very excited by this group! I’m Pete (he/him), I’m based in Nottingham, and I research the contemporary and historical performance and text of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

I wrote a PhD and a book on the so-called Shakespeare Apocrypha, in which The Birth of Merlin only tangentially featured as it as a real…[Read more]

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