my apologies

I’ve been slacking on the blog the past couple of days, and I apologize.  Had to turn in a paper on Wednesday, and then proceeded to have one of the worst Thursdays I’ve ever had at work (though I guess I should be thankful that I rarely have bad days, and that my boss was awesome throughout). I’ll try to be a better blogger next week.

In the meantime, I thought I’d share a passage from Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko, which I read for class on Wednesday. I’m writing my final paper about one of her plays, The Rover.  Oronooko isn’t a very happy tale, since it’s basically about an African prince who falls in love with a beautiful girl, but loses the girl when his grandfather the king decides to make her his sex slave.  He tries to save the beautiful girl, but this only angers the grandfather, who sells her into slavery. Later the prince is tricked into slavery, where he is reunited with his love, but their story ends violently and tragically.  Still, this passage from the beginning of Oroonoko and Imoinda’s courtship would make a great wedding vow (minus the whole possession part):

He made her vows she should be the only woman he would possess while he lived; that no age or wrinkles should incline him to change, for her soul would always be fine, and always young; and he should have an eternal idea in his mind of the charms she now bore, and should look into his heart for that idea, when he could find it no longer in her face.