27th October 2009 - Witches, Fairies, Pagans and True Believers (Kate Harvey)
10th November 2009 - Addictions (Edel Semple)
24th November 2009 - Lawyers and Courtrooms (Derek Dunne)
8th December 2009 - Lies and Dissimulation (Kate Roddy)
~~~~~Christmas Break~~~~~
19th January 2010 - Newfangledness (Darragh Greene)
2nd February 2010 - Private Lives (Emily O'Brien)
16th February 2010 - Love and Tragedy (Andrew Power)
2nd March 2010 - Schools, Universities, Guilds, Inns (Andrew Power)
16th March 2010 - Home, the Nation and the Other (Erin de Young)
30th March 2010 - Sonnets and Literary Artifice (Derek Dunne)
13th April 2010 - Audience and Reception (Rory Loughnane)
27th April 2010 - Art and Architecture (Darragh Greene)
11th May 2010 - Transvestites, Hermaphrodites, Eunuchs (Edel Semple)
from Lines on the Mermaid Tavern
I have heard that on a day
Mine host’s sign-board flew away,
Nobody knew whither, till
An astrologer’s old quill
To a sheepskin gave the story,
Said he saw you in your glory,
Underneath a new old-sign
Sipping beverage divine,
And pledging with contented smack
The Mermaid in the Zodiac.
- John Keats (1795–1821)
The Sun which doth the greatest comfort bring
- Beaumont's epistle to Jonson (1605?)
Mine host’s sign-board flew away,
Nobody knew whither, till
An astrologer’s old quill
To a sheepskin gave the story,
Said he saw you in your glory,
Underneath a new old-sign
Sipping beverage divine,
And pledging with contented smack
The Mermaid in the Zodiac.
- John Keats (1795–1821)
On Ben Jonson and a Country Man
Ben Johnson in a tavern once began
Rudely to talk to a plain Country man.
And thus it was, Thou dull laborious Moyle
That I beleeve wert made for nought but toyle
For every Acre of thy Land I have
Twenty of wit: Such Acres Sir, are brave,
Replyed the Country man: What great Mistakers
Have we been of your wealth, Mr Wise-Acres.
- Thomas Jordan (from Jewels of Ingenuity. 1660?)
The Sun which doth the greatest comfort bring
...what things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid: heard words that have been
So nimble, so full of subtil flame …
Then when there hath been thrown
Wit able enough to justifie the Town
For three days past, wit that might warrant be
For the whole City to talk foolishly
Till that were cancell'd, and when that was gone,
We left and Air behind us which alone,
Was able to make the two next Companies
Right witty; though but downright fools, more wise.