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PODCAST

The Classic English Literature Podcast

M. G. McDonough

Where rhyme gets its reason! In a historical survey of English literature, I take a personal and philosophical approach to the major texts of the tradition in order to not only situate the poems, prose, and plays in their own contexts, but also to show their relevance to our own. This show is for the general listener: as a teacher of high school literature and philosophy, I am less than a scholar but more than a buff. I hope to edify and entertain!

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All Episodes

13:42

Seditious Greetings!: The Political Code of "O Come...

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/12/21

Send us a text One of the most theologically and liturgically important Christmas carols may contain coded messages against the Throne of England! Additional Music: "Adeste Fidelis" by Bing Crosby with The Max Terr choir; John Scott Trotter and his orch.; Traditional; Decca (BM 03929) Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: classicenglishliterature@gmail.com Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, ...

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28:00

"Read All About It!": The Rise of the Public Press

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/11/26

Send us a text In the early 18th century, the public press came to dominate English writing. Pamphlets, newspapers, and periodicals fed the appetite for news and commentary of an ever-hungrier reading public. Richard Steele and Joseph Addison were the great innovators of the periodical essay, a quintessentially English genre of writing. Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: classic...

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36:52

The First English Novel? Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/11/09

Send us a text On this trip, we're looking at the conventional candidate for the first modern novel in English. Defoe's story of a resourceful man shipwrecked on a desert island is so much more than a ripping yarn: it speaks to the rise of a literary vernacular language, the values of an increasing bourgeois and expansionist society, and of spiritual awakening. Come aboard! Text: https://ia600207.us.archive.org/26/items/cu31924011498676/cu31924011498676.pdf Additional Music: "Them...

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21:58

The First Ghost Story? Daniel Defoe's "The...

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/10/26

Send us a text For you today, Trick or Treaters, a discussion of what some critics assert is the first modern ghost story in English: Daniel Defoe's 1705 "The Apparition of Mrs. Veal." The text: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/36587/36587-h/36587-h.htm Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: classicenglishliterature@gmail.com Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. If you enjoy the...

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31:59

Modish Men and the Way of the World: The Great...

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/10/10

Send us a text Well, I probably should have done this episode earlier, since it might have been good for it to precede our other discussions of Resto comedy. But I made a last minute decision and included a second play, which kind of threw off the old chronology. But it's good all the same! The Man of Mode by George Etherege: https://coldreads.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/the-man-of-mode.pdf The Way of the World by William Congreve: https://www.gutenberg.org/...

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30:49

"A Foolish Marriage Vow": John Dryden's Marriage a la...

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/09/21

Send us a text For our second episode on John Dryden, we'll talk about two of his plays which marked an innovation in the tragi-comic romance: Marriage a la Mode and Amphitryon. We'll discuss the "split-plot" play, the exorcising of Restoration political anxieties, and why we sometimes mock that which we cherish. Additional sound clip from Monty Python's Flying Circus. Text of Marriage a la Mode: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15349/15349-h/15349-h.htm#pag...

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37:43

"The Amendment of Vices": John Dryden's Satires

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/09/07

Send us a text Once hailed as the towering literary figure of the Restoration age, John Dryden is little known now by the general reader. Let's take care of that with a close look at his most enduring works, the poetical satires Mac Flecknoe and Absalom and Achitophel. Mac Flecknoe text: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44181/mac-flecknoe Absalom and Achitophel text: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44172/absalom-and-achitophel Mea culpa: ...

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42:29

Puritans in Arcadia: Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor,...

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/08/24

Send us a text Since they wrote in 17th century Massachusetts, poets Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor are often overlooked in surveys of English literature. Today, though, we'll bring them back into the fold as we look at how their puritanical religious beliefs engaged with the pastoral and metaphysical poetic traditions that celebrated "Arcadia," that vision of unspoiled Nature. The Works of Anne Bradstreet: https://archive.org/details/worksofannebrads00brad/page/n7/mode/2u...

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40:57

The Ambiguity of Wit: William Wycherly's The Country...

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/08/03

Send us a text Charles II reopened the theatres in 1660 and inaugurated the second golden age of the English stage. Today's show looks at one of the bawdiest plays to come from the period, a "comedy of manners" whose clever use of language points to the reality of style over substance. The Country Wife text: https://theater.lafayette.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/59/2021/03/The-Country-Wife.pdf The "What's Going On?" PodcastThink casual, relatable discussions like you'd overhear in a b...

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29:12

On The Battle of the Boyne

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/07/11

Send us a text Today marks the anniversary of one of the most mythologized battles in Anglo-Irish history: the Battle of the Boyne. In July of 1690, King William III soundly defeated James II and secured Ireland's Protestant supremacy while sowing the seeds for centuries of violent conflict. The battle also marks the debut of one of Ireland's most prominent writers, Dr. Jonathan Swift, whose poem "Ode to King William" celebrates the Orange victory. Text of "Ode to King William": h...

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23:13

Tea and Revolution: Nahum Tate's "Panacea"

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/07/03

Send us a text As Americans celebrate Independence Day, I'm here once again to remind them of the debt American independence owes to English literature and history. Stick in the mud. Today, we look at a genuinely weird poem that allegorizes the Glorious Revolution of 1688 (an event that would lay the groundwork for the American Revolution nearly a century later) as a cup of tea. So, pour yourself one -- milk first or last, doesn't matter to me -- and enjoy the show! Text of ...

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36:05

Aphra Behn's Oroonoko: Blurring History and Romance

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/06/25

Send us a text In today's chinwag, we'll explore a candidate for the first novel in English by the first professional female writer in English: Oroonoko by Aphra Behn (1688). It's the story of an African prince and his beloved, who are betrayed into slavery and do not live happily ever after. The novel seems a modest heroic romance, but I think Ms. Behn has a more complex project up her sleeve . . . . Full text of Oroonoko: https://pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca/oroonoko/ch...

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40:29

Dear Diary: Samuel Pepys, John Evelyn, and...

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/06/01

Send us a text Today we look at the diary, a form of writing that became extraordinarily popular over the course of the 1600s. We'll especially look at famous diarists such as John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys, who not only chronicle details of their personal lives, but also give first hand accounts of the dramatic history of the period: the Restoration of the Monarchy, the Great Plague, and the Great Fire of London. Higher Listenings: Joy for EducatorsA new podcast from Top Hat delivering i...

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26:13

A Parody of Pomposity: Samuel Butler's Hudibras

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/05/18

Send us a text I'm back before you even had a chance to miss me! Today, a bit of a genealogy of a now little read mock epic -- Samuel Butler's Hudibras -- which takes Chaucer and Spenser and Jonson and Cervantes, mixes them all up into a gloopy goo, and sprays it all over lemon-sucking Puritans! Higher Listenings: Joy for EducatorsA new podcast from Top Hat delivering ideas, relief, and joy to the future of teaching.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Support the show Please like, subscr...

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3:16

An Unfortunate Announcement

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/05/11

Send us a text Just a quick heads-up. My teachers' union has voted to strike over unfair labor practices, and so I wanted you all to know that episodes may be a bit later than I would wish. There's still hope we can come to a settlement with the school board (and I certainly hope we do), but, if not, episodes may be pushed back a little bit. Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: cl...

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37:54

Forward to the Past: John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's...

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/05/04

Send us a text Put on your comfortable shoes and grab your walking stick because today we're embarking on the most famous allegory in the English language: John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress from 1678. We'll cross plains, endure temptations, descend valleys, fight monsters, and ford rivers in our quest for the Celestial City! Along the way, we'll talk about how this most Puritanical of texts is, ironically, deeply indebted to the ideas of the preceding religions it rejects. ...

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24:51

Nasty, Brutish, and Naturally Free: Thomas Hobbes,...

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/04/20

Send us a text The political upheavals of 17th century England demanded new answers for old political questions: what is the purpose of government, how is power legitimated, and who may wield it? Philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke reasoned from the same premises, but arrived at rather different conclusions. Balancing those conclusions is the primary task of liberal democracies to this day. Texts: Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes: https://gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm...

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33:54

Early Science Fiction: Lunar Geese and Blazing Worlds

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/04/02

Send us a text We often think of science fiction as a particularly modern genre of storytelling, born of the science and technology of the electronic and digital age. But speculative fiction goes back centuries, back to the beginning of what we now call the Scientific Revolution of the 1600s. On today's show, we look at two of the foundational books in the genre: Francis Godwin's The Man in the Moon and Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World. May the Force be with ...

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31:24

A Garden and a Coy Mistress: Andrew Marvell

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/03/16

Send us a text Which is better: the life of ascetic contemplation or one of passionate sensuality? Let's see what the last great poet of the Stuart era, Andrew Marvell, has to say about that. Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: classicenglishliterature@gmail.com Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting it with a small d...

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32:51

The Earliest Tales of Robin Hood (Out of Time Episode 2)

The Classic English Literature Podcast ·

2025/03/02

Send us a text Here's another episode in our foundling series "Out of Time." Today, I correct an oversight from our 15th century literature discussions and survey the very earliest surviving tales of the outlaw and all-around-swell-guy Robin Hood! Let's jump in the Wayback Machine! Here's a link to the Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester, where you can find the texts we're discussing today and a wealth of other resources! https://d.lib.rochester.edu/project/robin-hoo...

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