Professor Borges - A Course on English Literature

en Dieu sont creant.”
12. See Class 7.
13. John Lockwood Kipling (1837–1911). He wrote a book called
Beast and Man in India.
14. Quintus Fabius Maximus (ca. 280–203 BC), Roman general and statesman, confronted Hannibal during the Second Punic War (218–201 BC). His strategy consisted of keeping the enemy busy while avoiding large confrontations.
The Montoneros was an Argentine leftist guerilla group active during the nineteen sixties and seventies.
15. Borges is referring here to the tactics used by Hugh O’Neill (1550–1616), who between 1595 and 1603 led a revolt against the English control of Ireland.
16. Morris founded his first decorating firm, Morris & Company, decorator, in 1859. Two years later he expanded the project with the creation of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., which in 1875 became Morris & Co.
17. Kelmscott Press was founded at the end of 1890. The first book Morris published was his own book,
Story of the Glittering Plain
, 1891.
18. This collection was published in London by Bernard Quaritch between 1891 and 1905. It includes the following volumes: Vol. 1:
The Story of Howard the Halt. The Story of the Banded Men. The Story of Hen Thorir
; Vol. 2:
The Story of the Ere-dwellers (Eyrbyggja saga)
, with
The Story of the Heath-Slayings (Heidarviga saga)
, as appendix; Vols. 3 to 6:
The Stories of the Kings of Norway called the Round world (Heimskringla)
, by Snorri Sturluson.
19. Borges is referring to the book titled
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer
, designed by Morris and illustrated by Burne-Jones, published in 1896. This book, considered a masterpiece for the exquisite harmony of its design, typography, and illustrations, represents the culmination of Morris’s work at the head of Kelmscott Press.
20. The lines Borges is remembering come from the epilogue of
The Earthly Paradise
, where Morris says goodbye to his book: “Here are we for the last time face to face / Thou and I, Book.” Morris warns his book that it might encounter Chaucer in its travels: “Well, think of him, I bid thee, on the road / And if it hap that midst of thy defeat / Fainting beneath thy follies’ heavy load, / My Master, Geoffrey Chaucer, thou do meet, Then shalt thou win a space of rest full sweet / Then be thou bold, and speak the words I say, / The idle singer of an empty day!”
21. Adolfo Morpurgo (1889–1972), Argentine musician, born in Trieste, Italy. He was a violinist and the director of an orchestra. He studied cello in Budapest with David Popper and then toured Italy, Austria, and France. He settled in Argentina in 1913, where he played with many orchestras and chamber groups and also directed opera and ballet. He shared the stage with Macagni, Respighi, Wanda Landowska, Honegger, and Villa-Lobos, among other. He organized productions of operas and ancient cantatas. He was professor of the
Conservatorio Nacional de Música
, the
Conservatorio Municipal de Buenos Aires
, and the Universidad de La Plata. In 1937 he founded the
Agrupación Argentina de Instrumentos Antiguos
, which he conducted as a musician on the viola da gamba, and the viola del perdón. (This instrument was made in Paris at the end of the sixteenth century, and according to the legend, its creator was a prisoner condemned to death who was pardoned for inventing it. It has twenty-six chords: seven real and nineteen that vibrate sympathetically, producing a peculiar sound effect). Morpurgo owned an exceptional collection of two thousand ancient instruments, which he bought during his travels, given to him by embassies, or obtained under interesting circumstances. One example is an old oboe that Morpurgo found in an antique store in Buenos Aires, listed in the catalogue as a “candelabra.” Morpurgo is mentioned in
Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians
, edited by Eric Blom.
22. Morris made this trip in 1871.
23. Grettir is the central character of
Grettir’s Saga
. This saga, by an anonymous author, has been dated to around 1300 and is the latest of the Sagas of Icelanders. Grettir was an historical character; the saga that carries his name combines many real events with fiction. Borges transcribes several paragraphs of this saga and comments on them in
Medieval Germanic Literature
, OCC, 934 and 938.
24. Morris’s translation of
Beowulf
was first published in 1895.
25.
Story of Sigurd the Volsung
and
The Fall of the Niblungs
(1876).
Borges analyzes the
Völsunga Saga
in
Medieval Germanic Literature
, OCC, 966–70.
26.