INT - 111, Western Civilizations to 1648 Course Outline

Fall Semester, 2001, CL-315 10:10-11:00 MTRF

Paul Hillmer, Lead Instructor

Office:  Administration 240      Phone and voice mail - 651-641-8215

E-mail:  hillmer@csp.edu     Fax:  651-659-0207

Office hours:  MTRF 12:10 - 1:00  Other times by app’t.

Prerequisites/corequisites:  None.  

Credit hours:  4

Course Description:  This course traces the development and enumerates the many influences on what we have come to know as “Western Civilization.”  Cultural, religious, military, agricultural, artistic, literary, and other influences will be discussed in as much detail as possible (we’re covering 6000 years of human history in 14 weeks!).  Lectures, discussions, slides, films, videos, study guide assignments, textbook and other selected readings will all be employed to assist us in the endeavor of better understanding how the intersection of many cultures and peoples have brought Western culture to its present state.

 

Goals and Competencies from the Framework for Learning Covered by the Course:

1.  Aesthetic (a, b, d);  2.  Intellectual (a, c, d);  3.  Spiritual ( b(2), d);  4.  Communication (b);  5.  Interpersonal (a, c, d); 6.  Civic (a);  7.  Global (a, c)

 

Student Objectives       During this course the Student shall. . .

1.  familiarize her/himself with the origins of Western Civilization  (Spir., b2, d;  Gl., a).

2.  more fully understand the interrelationship of geographical, religious, social, cultural, economic, political and other forces that have shaped Western Civilization  (Intell., a, c, d;  Spir., b2, d;  Interp., a, c, d;  Civic, a).

3.  recognize distinct contributions of various civilizations to the history of Western peoples  (Interp., a, c, d;  Gl., a, c).

4.  cultivate a greater appreciation of history and its complexity  (Intell., a, c;  Comm., b).

5.  sharpen skills of inquiry, critical thinking  (Intell., a, c, d;  Comm., b;  Interp., a, c, d;  Gl., a, c).

6.  examine some of the great artistic works of Western Civilization  (Aesth., a, b, d;  Comm., b;  Interp., c)

 

Teaching Methods

This course will depend on a mixture of lecture from the instructor and careful, prepared, intellectually-based discussion between all the persons in class.  Lectures will provide introductory material and a general framework for discussion, while students will be provided ample opportunity to discuss specific issues related to the broad themes presented.  These discussions are intended to deepen the student’s understanding of Western historical development and provide a more complex view of the many issues examined.  Students are strongly encouraged to ask course-related questions of the professor at any time, and to participate fully in all discussions. 

 

Attendance and tardiness policies:

NO STUDENT MISSING MORE THAN FIVE CLASSES CAN ATTAIN A GRADE HIGHER THAN A “C”.  NO STUDENT MISSING MORE THAN EIGHT CLASSES CAN ACHIEVE A GRADE HIGHER THAN A “D”.   

Educational research has proven irrefutably that attendance is directly linked to student achievement.  If a student is not in class, participating to the fullest extent, the opportunity for learning and retention of course content is significantly impaired.   Therefore, the above policy is not one that is imposed on the student by the professor, but is simply a reflection of statistical fact.  While every person is a free agent and can make any decision s/he chooses, one should be aware that these choices can have a profound impact on student performance. 

 

Required texts, readings:

Kagan, D., Ozment, S., & Turner, F.  The Western Heritage,  Vol. I ,to 1715,  6th edition. 

  New York:  Macmillan, 1995

Mason, Herbert. Gilgamesh, A Verse Narrative   (due Sept  17)

Parable of the Cave  (handout) by Plato (due Sept. 20)

Sophocles. Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex)   (due Sept. 25)

Chaucer.  Canterbury Tales   (due Nov. 16)

Luther, Martin. Christian Liberty   (due  Dec. 11)

 

EVALUATION/GRADING

8 quizzes,  c. 20 questions each..............................................................................…….....      15%

8 study guide assignments (see assignment sheet for due dates).............………........     10%

Group Presentation....................................................................................……..................     10%

Midterm examination..............................................................................................……....      25%

Final examination....................................................................................................…….....     30%

Paper/Project (Optional but necessary   for an “A” grade)............................……..…. 10%

                                                                                                                                                            100%

All topics for project must be discussed and cleared with your instructor(s).  This project may take a variety of forms (book review, research paper, media essay, group presentation).  Written work must be double-spaced and typed or printed.  Any standard format is acceptable, but should be strictly followed.  College students are expected to write, spell, and edit  well.  Points up to but not exceeding 10% of the total grade will be deducted for spelling and grammatical errors.   Any use of direct quotation should be clearly noted.  Plagiarism will not be tolerated.  All projects will be due No later than Monday, November 19.

 

**** Quizzes, tests, and study guides cannot be taken/handed in late.  The burden of proof for an excused absence rests on the student.  If there is an excused absence the quiz/test/assignment must be completed no more than two school days after the due date.

 

 

COURSE  EVALUATION:

1.  Questions are welcome at any time, and can be asked during class, office hours, or via voice or e-mail.

2.  Time will be set aside after quizzes and tests to answer questions and receive feedback

3.  Evaluation will be solicited at regular intervals through an anonymous, brief questionairre

4.  At semester’s end, an evaluation will be distributed to all students by the dean’s office or the professors.

 

Grading Policies:

Written Work - You will be required to demonstrate an adequate command of edited standard written English in formal written assignments.  This means that excessive errors (in general, three or more errors per page) in the following areas will result in the paper being returned for mandatory revision before I will accept it.  Papers must follow the attached guidelines.

            The areas are:  verb forms, subject/verb agreement, pronoun usage, apostrophe usage, spelling, correct use of quotation marks, and sentence completeness.

 

Group Presentations - Groups of 3 -4 students will be assigned an ancient, medieval, Renaissance, or Reformation figure and be responsible for creating a project worthy of presentation in class.  The assignment has two parts:  first, an oral presentation that answers questions assigned by the professor;  second, a group report that presents the information in written form.  Further information about presentation criteria will be shared by the instructor during the first week.  If you do not wish to participate in a small group, see the professor about an alternative assignment.

 

Study Guides - Study guides may be handwritten unless your writing is illegible.  I cannot and will not grade what I cannot read.  Study Guides are designed to help students prepare for quizzes and tests, and will be evaluated based on the degree to which students accurately and thoroughly answer the questions given.  Students are encouraged to work cooperatively on these projects, but BE WARNED.  Sufficient time must be spent to not only write down the answers, but also to master them and commit them to memory.  Study guides will be an ineffective study tool if done in haste.

 

Quizzes and Examinations - Most quizzes and exams will be objective (multiple choice, true-false, matching), but some opportunity for writing will be provided.  Students who feel strongly about the advantages of essay tests may request one from the instructor.

 

Plagiarism -  Plagiarism is intellectual theft.  Any evidence of plagiarism will result in an automatic “F” on the assignment in question for any and all parties involved.  Expulsion from the university is possible.

 

Support Services:  Free assistance on questions of grammar, sentence structure, and essay organization is available in the Writing Center, located just south of the elevator in the tunnel.  Hours of operation are posted at the beginning of each term.  Do not hesitate to visit the lab if you have questions or problems -- the staff is there to help you.  Tutors for various subjects can be obtained through the Peer Tutoring Center.  

 

Western Civ I Preliminary Calendar

                (all dates subject to change)            

WEEK ONE

                Thur, 8/30 - Introduction, Course Outline, Syllabus, Grading Policy, etc.   Discussion on history, its

                meanings and implications

 

Fri, 8/31 -   Presentation groups meet and plan a course of action

WEEK TWO

                Mon, 9/3 - Labor Day – NO CLASS

 

                Tues, 9/4 - Lecture:  The Ancient Near East (TWH, Chapter One).  

 

                Thur, 9/6 - Ancient Art:  Stylization for Meaning;  Egyptian and Minoan Art  (Prof. Hunder)

 

                Fri, 9/7 - Discussion:  What is Civilization? Lecture:  Egyptian Civilization, Egyptian Mythology

WEEK THREE

                Mon, 9/10 -  Egypt (cont’d);

 

                Tues, 9/11 - VIDEO -  EGYPT:  Quest for Immortality

 

                Thur, 9/13 - Egypt and Nubia;  Connections between Egypt and Greece 

 

Fri, 9/14 - The Hebrews, Contribution of religion;  Minoan and Mycenaean cultures

WEEK FOUR

                Mon, 9/17 -  QUIZ # 1 (includes Gilgamesh)  Discussion of Gilgamesh;  FILM - Athens:  The Golden Age

 

                Tues, 9/18  -  The birth of Greece;  Lecture:  Athens and Sparta, the Greek City State  TWH, Chapters 2 & 3.

 

                Thur, 9/20 - Lecture and discussion:  Greek philosophy - Plato and Aristotle;  Parable of the Cave  due

 

                Fri, 9/21 - VIDEO:  Architecture of the Western World:  Greece

WEEK FIVE         

                Mon, 9/24 - Greek Art and Architecture (SH)

 

Tues, 9/25 - QUIZ # 2 (covers Parable of the Cave, Oedipus Rex, lectures, films);

Discussion:  Oedipus Rex

 

Thur, 9/27 -  Lecture: Alexander the Great and the Dissemination of the Greek Ideal ;  TWH, Chapters 4 & 5

 

Fri, 9/28 - Lecture: Roman Political and Social Development.  VIDEO - Art of the Western World:   Rome

WEEK  SIX

                Mon, 10/1 -  Discussion:  the Roots of Modern Christianity - where did we come from and where are we now?

                Lecture:  the Rise of Christianity

                Tues, 10/2 -  Roman and Early Christian Art (SH)

 

Thur, 10/4 - Lecture:  Constantine and Christian culture;  The Bishop of Rome and Barbarian Germans.  

 

Fri, 10/5 - Formation of “Western” culture.

WEEK SEVEN

                Mon, 10/8 - QUIZ #3;  Lecture:  The Byzantine Empire and Islam

 

                Tues, 10/9 - VIDEO: Byzantium;  lecture on Byzantine Empire cont’d

 

Thur, 10/11 & Fri, 10/12 - MID-TERM BREAK -- NO CLASSES

WEEK EIGHT

                Mon, 10/15 - Lecture:  The basic tenets of Islam and its importance to Western Culture

 

                Tues, 10/16 - Byzantine Art, Tensions between Old and New Rome (SH)

 

                Thur, 10/18 - Lecture:  Islam (cont’d);  VIDEO:  Islam

 

                Fri, 10/19 - Lecture:  Charlemagne/Clovis/Charles Martel - The Merovingians & Carolingians.  TWH, Chapter 6.

WEEK  NINE

                                Mon, 10/22 -  Lecture:  Society of the 11th Century - Feudalism and the Age of Chivalry - Economic, Political, and Religious Thought 

 

                Tues, 10/23 - TECHNOLOGY (“Connections”)  DAY

 

                Thur, 10/25 -  QUIZ #4 ;  Conflict in the Church;  questions concerning midterm answered

 

                Fri, 10/26  -  Monasticism and the Transmission of Knowledge;  questions re  midterm answered

WEEK  TEN

                Mon, 10/29 - MIDTERM  - covers everything presented, discussed, & read up to 10/12.

 

                Tues, 10/30 - FILM - Crusades:  Saints and Sinners;    Lecture:  The Crusades:  Aims/Popularity/Famous

                Crusades TWH Chapter 9

 

                Thur, 11/1 -  Guest presenter -- Sting -- initiates discussion of Children’s Crusade

 

                Fri, 11/2 -   Lecture: 1066 - William the Conqueror and King Harold  FILM:  The Norman Invasion

WEEK ELEVEN

                Mon, 11/5 -  The Plantagenet Line; Henry II and Thomas Becket; King John and the Magna Carta, TWH Chapters

                7&8.

 

                Tues, 11/6 -  Discussion:  The origin, concept, development, and changing practice of the legal system;  Conflicts

                between church and state (Dictatus Papae)

 

                Thur, 11/8 - Medieval Science;  The Rise of the Medieval University,  Scholasticism.

 

                Fri, 11/9 - QUIZ # 5 ;  Lecture and slides:  The gothic cathedral and the age of faith

WEEK    TWELVE              

                Mon, 11/12 -  Gothic Architecture (cont’d); Lecture: Europe in Transition.  Review of the Intellectual Changes

                and Problems of the High Middle Ages;  VIDEO: The Black Death

 

Tue, 11/13  -  The Hundred Years’ War, Joan of Arc/Albigensian Heresy/Inquisition/ Boniface VIII & Philip the

                Fair TWH,  Chapter 9.

 

Thur, 11/15 - Medieval Art;  the Proto-Renaissance (SH)

 

Fri, 11/16 - Canterbury Tales - Prologue, Wives of Bath, Pardoner’s Tale MUST be read by today.

WEEK THIRTEEN

Mon, 11/19 - Lecture:  Wycliffe and Hus:  Seeds of the Reformation

 

Tue, 11/20 - Lecture and slide presentation:  The Renaissance, “Man, the Measure of all Things”

TWH, pp. 355-399.  Papers/Projects Due.

 

Thur, 11/22 & Fri, 11/23 - THANKSGIVING BREAK

WEEK  FOURTEEN

Mon, 11/26 -  QUIZ # 6 ; Renaissance Presentations

 

Tues, 11/27 - Catch-up day, presentations, TWH, Chapter 10

 

Thur, 11/29 - Exploration and Colonialism:  Its antecedents and effects.

 

Fri, 11/30 - The High Renaissance in Art (SH)

WEEK  FIFTEEN

                Mon, 12/3 -  Columbus and the Age of Discovery

               

                Tue, 12/4 - Columbus and the New World

 

                Thur, 12/6 -    QUIZ # 7   Lecture:  Luther and the Reformation 

 

                Fri, 12/7 - The Northern Renaissance, Baroque (SH)

WEEK SIXTEEN

                Mon, 12/10 - FILM - Where Luther Walked;  Luther (cont’d)  TWH, Chapter 11.

 

                Tues, 12/11 -   Discussion – Luther’s Christian Liberty ;  Zwingli, Calvin, and the broader Reformation

 

                Thur, 12/13 - QUIZ # 8 ; Lecture cont’d.

 

                Fri, 12/14 - Course evaluation;  questions concerning final answered.

 

            FINAL  EXAM will be held at                                                       

               

 

 

 

 

Study Guide Assignments

Chapter 1 (Quiz 1) -   DUE  Sept. 17

 Chapter 2  & Chapter 3 (Quiz 2) -   DUE  Sept. 25

Chapter 4 & Chapter 5 (Quiz 3) - DUE  Oct. 8

Chapter 6 (Quiz 4) - DUE  Oct. 25

Chapter 7 & Chapter 8 (Quiz 5) - DUE  Nov. 9

Chapter 9 (Quiz 6) - DUE  Nov. 26

Chapter 10 (Quiz 7) -  DUE   Dec. 6

 

Chapter 11 (Quiz 8) - DUE  Dec. 13
INT - 111,  Western Civilizations to 1648          Study Guide                                                         Hillmer

 

Chapter 1, TWH

1.  What differences/similarities existed between lifestyles in the Paleolithic and the Neolithic Ages?  Did all civilizations make the jump from one to the other?

2.  Why was the development of food production important?  Why was the innovation of clay pottery significant?

3.  What was (were) the first identifiable civilization(s)?

4.  Describe the influx of nations to the area of ancient Mesopotamia.  How was the native population affected?

5.  What are the most important characteristics/contributions of:                           a) Ancient Egypt?    

                                                                                                                                            b) the various peoples of Mesopotamia?

6.  What was important/unique about the Hebrew religion?

7.  Identify each of the following:  a) Gilgamesh  b) Enkidu  c) Utnapishtim  d) Ishtar   e) Humbaba 

f) The Bull of Heaven   g) Uruk

8.  What, in your opinion, is the main theme of The Epic of Gilgamesh?

 

 

Chapters 2 &3, TWH

1.  Describe the characteristics and development of pre-Greek (Minoan, Mycenaean) civilization.  What were the reasons for the formation of the polis?

2.  What is Socrates challenging in Parable of the Cave?

3.  Describe the evolution of political form and thought in Spartan and Athenian society.  Who were the major actors in this process and why do we remember them?

4.  Why was the Battle of Marathon important?

5.  Describe the Athenian “Golden Age.”  How did it come to an end?

6.  Give at least five reasons why Greek culture is considered to have had such a profound impact on modern Western Civilization.

7.  Identify each of the following:    a) Sophocles     b) Creon     c) Oedipus     d) Jocasta     e) Tiresias     f) Laius

8.  Define hubris and catharsis and give an example of both from Oedipus Rex.

 

 

Chapters 4 & 5, TWH

1.  Which civilization has the most profound influence on early Roman development?

2.  Why is Pyrrhus remembered?  With what is his name associated today?

3.  Describe the relationship between Rome and Carthage, the conflict that developed, and how this conflict finally ended.

4.  How did Rome’s political system develop and change?  Describe how the efforts of the Gracchi, Marius and Sulla, and the First and Second Triumvirate affected this development.

5.  According to your text, what was the center of Roman life (no, it wasn’t law or the military)?

6.  What is THE most important contribution of Roman culture to the Western heritage?

7.  List several explanations for the fall of the Roman empire.

8. What were the characteristics of the early Christian church?

 

 

Chapter 6, TWH  

1.  Why did barbarian tribes originally enter the Roman empire?  Describe the political, legal, religious, and cultural make-up of the early post-Roman empire. 

2. Name the tribe to which each of the following belonged and explain why each is significant: 

a)  Theodoric     b)  Clovis   c)  Alaric   

3.  Explain the significance of the Merovingian and Carolingian houses of the Frankish kingdom.  Name the first OFFICIAL Carolingian ruler.

4.  Why was Charlemagne’s kingdom so significant?  What was the Carolingian Renaissance?

5.  Who were Justinian and Theodora?  What are the main reasons that the Byzantine Empire is remembered?

6. What are the five signs of Islam?

  

 

 

Chapters 7 & 8, TWH  pp. 256-327

1. Describe the relationship between Otto the Great and the papacy.

2. What caused the Crusades?  Give a brief description of the First through Fourth Crusades and the Children’s Crusade.  What were some of the lasting effects of the Crusades?

3. Compare the political structure of France and England prior to the Norman invasion.  When did the Battle of Hastings occur and what consequences did William’s victory have for both France and England?

4. Give a summary of the significant events surrounding and effects of:

a) the struggle between Henry II and Thomas Becket

b) the signing of the Magna Carta (what did this document mean to the people of that age?  How is it seen today?)

5. How were early university students treated by the people in university towns?  How do you explain this?

6.  Define the following:   a) feudalism;     b) manorialism;     c) scholasticism;     d) Dictatus Papae;

e) Concordat of Worms;  f) the Cluny Movement     g) regular and secular clergy

 

 

Chapter 9, TWH  pp. 328-353

1. Describe the importance of scholastic theology in the planning and building of Gothic cathedrals.

2. Describe the demographic, medical, spiritual, intellectual, political, economic, and artistic effect of the Black Death on Western Europe.

3. Cite several reasons for the Hundred Years’ War.  What is Joan of Arc’s contribution to France’s war effort?

4.  Describe the people and reasons behind the Peasants’ revolt in England and the Jacquerie in France.

5.  Describe the relationship between Pope Boniface VIII, Edward I of England and Philip the Fair of France. 

6. Who were John Wycliffe and Jan Huss?

7.  Define the following:     a) The Babylonian Captivity of the Church;     b) Unam Sanctam;     c) Estates General;

d) Treaty of Troyes;     e) The Great Schism;     f) The Conciliar Movement

 

 

Chapter 10, TWH  pp. 354-399

1. By the late fifteenth century, how had Europe dealt with:  a) loss of population;   b) breakdown of the church;

c) political chaos?

2.  Identify each of the following:   a) Machiavelli;   b) Savanarola;   c) Erasmus;   d) Thomas More;   e) Cortez;

f) Pizarro;   g) Petrarch;  h) Dante;   i) Cervantes;  j) Christopher Marlowe;   k) William Shakespeare

3)  Give a brief listing of the Renaissance artists presented in class

 

 

Chapter 11, TWH  pp. 400-441

1.  Describe the religious and political conditions that made Luther’s attempts to reform the church possible.

2.  What were indulgences?  Why was the church selling them and why did Luther object to them?

3.  What was the purpose of Luther’s Ninety-five Theses?  What were their short- and long-term effect?

4.  What was “new” about Luther’s theology?

5.  What did Luther accomplish while hiding in Wartburg castle?

6.  Identify the following:  

a) Frederick the Wise  

b) Charles the Great  

c) John Tetzel  

d) John Eck  

e) Philip Melanchthon 

f) John Calvin 

g) Ulrich Zwingli 

h) Ignatius Loyola  

i) William Tyndale 

j) The Peace of Augsburg

k)The Modern Devotion  

l) the Augsburg Interim  

m) Council of Trent

The World According to Student Bloopers

(an amalgamated history based on certifiably genuine bloopers collected by teachers across the country)

The inhabitants of Egypt were called mummies.  They lived in the Sarah Dessert and traveled by Camelot.  The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere, so certain areas of the dessert are cultivated by irrigation.  The Egyptians built the Pyramids in the shape of a huge triangular cube.  The Pyramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain.

The Bible is full of interesting caricatures.  In the first book of the Bible, Guinesses, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree.  One of their children, Cain, once asked, “Am I my brother’s son?”  God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Montezuma.  Jacob, son of Isaac, stole his brother’s birth mark.  Jacob was a patriarch who brought up his twelve sons to be patriarchs, but they did not take to it.  One of Jacob’s sons, Joseph, gave refuse to the Israelites.

Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves to make bread without straw.  Moses led them to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients.  Afterward Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the Ten Commandments.  David was a Hebrew skilled at playing the liar.  He fought the Philatelists, a race of people who lived in biblical times.  Solomon, one of David’s sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines.

Without the Greeks we wouldn’t have history.  The Greeks invented three kinds of columns,  Corinthian, Dorian and Ironic.  They also had myths.  A myth is a female moth.  One myth says that the mother of Achilles dipped him in the River Stynx until he became intolerable.  Achilles appears in the Iliad, by Homer.  Homer also wrote The Oddity, in which Penelope was the last hardship that Ulysses endured on his journey.  Actually, Homer was not written by Homer, but by another man of that name.

Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice.  They killed him.  Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock.  In the Olympic games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled the biscuits and threw the java.  the reward to the victor was a coral wreath.  The government of Athens was so democratic because people took the law into their own hands.  There were no wars in Greece, as the mountains were so high that they couldn’t climb over to see what their neighbors were doing.  When they fought with the Persians, the Greeks were outnumbered because the Persians had more men.

Eventually, the Ramons conquered the Geeks.  History calls people Romans because they never stayed in one place for very long.  At Roman banquets, the guests wore garlics in their hair.  Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul.  The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king.  Nero was a cruel tyranny who would torture his poor subjects by playing fiddle to them.

Then came the Middle Ages.  King Alfred conquered the Dames, King Arthur lived in the Age of Shivery, King Harold mustarded his troops before the Battle of Hastings, Joan of Arc was cannonized by Bernard Shaw, and victims of the Black Death grew boobs on their necks.  Finally, Magna Carta provided that no free man should be hanged twice for the same offense.

In midevil times most of the people were alliterate.  The greatest writer of the time was Chaucer, who wrote many poems and verses and also wrote literature.  Another tale tells of William Tell, who shot an arrow through an apple while standing on his son’s head.

The Renaissance was an age in which more individuals felt the value of their human being.  Martin Luther was nailed to the church door at Wittenberg for selling papal indulgences.  He died a horrible death, being excommunicated by a bull.  It was the painter Donatello’s interest in the female nude that made him the father of the Renaissance.  It was an age of great inventions and discoveries.  Gutenberg invented the Bible.  Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes.  Another important invention was the circulation of blood.  Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world in a 100-foot clipper.

The government of England was a limited mockery.  Henry VIII found walking difficult because he had an abbess on his knee.  Queen Elizabeth was “the Virgin Queen.”  As a queen she was a success.  When Elizabeth exposed herself before her troops, they all shouted “hurrah.”  Then her navy went out and defeated the Spanish Armadillo.

The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespear.  He never made much money and is famous only because of his plays.  He lived in Windsor with his merry wives, writing tragedies, comedies, and errors.  In one of Shakespear’s famous plays, Hamlet rations out his situation by relieving himself in a long soliloquy.  In another, Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to kill the king by attacking his manhood.  Romeo and Juliet are an example of a heroic couplet.  Writing at the same time as Shakespear was Miguel Cervantes.  He wrote Donkey Hote.  The next great author was John Milton.  Milton wrote Paradise Lost.  Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.  During the Renaissance America began.  Christopher Columbus was a great navigator who discovered America while cursing the about the Atlantic.  His ships were called the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Fe.  Later, the Pilgrims crossed the ocean, and this was known as the Pilgrim’s Progress.  When they landed at Plymouth Rock, they were greeted by Indians, who came down the hill rolling their war hoops before them.  The Indian squabs carried porpoises on their backs.  Many of the Indian heroes were killed, along with their cabooses, which proved very fatal to them.  The winter of 1620 was a hard one for the settlers.  Many people died and many babies were born.  Captain John Smith was responsible for all this. . . . .