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Lovers' Leap

Sunday, February 17, 2008, beginning at 6:00 p.m.

At Bill and Juanita's Place

A literary evening for Valentine's Day in a bissextile /1/ February.

An account of the tragic story of Tristan and Isolde.

The story of the Dakota Indian maiden Winona as recorded by Mrs. Cordenio Severance in 1893, with elements of Mary Eastman (1849) and James Dory (1820).

Steven Jens

CHAUCER, "The Knight's Tale" from Canterbury Tales.

Juanita Tarnowski

DANTE ALIGHIERI, "So Gentle and So Virtuous She Appears" a poem about Beatrice, as translated in Introduction to Italian Poetry, Luciano Rebay, ed.).

Bill Tarnowski

OVID, "Nisus and Scylla" from Book VIII of Metamorphoses.

David Trumbull

The theme of lovers leap the ev'ning's plan--
Of love and leap what greater was, I thought,
Than down from Heav'n to Earth for love of man
The Son of God, and our salvation wrought?
How unlike that ungrateful shining son,
Whose fall and lie would our first parents cost
Their home; for love of self he was undone--
With which in mind I read from Par'dise Lost.

JOHN MILTON, Excerpt from Book I (lines 1-26, 34-49, and 242-263) of Paradise Lost.

/1/ Our calendars which number the days of the month sequentially from the first day of the month result in a 29th day added to the end of February in the "leap" year, however this is not strictly correct. The "leap" day is in fact, added after the 23rd. The 24th day of February is in roman usage ante diem sextum calendas martii (A.D. VI KAL. MAR.), the sixth day before the Kalends of March, every fourth year the Julian calendar adds a second February 24, or bis, meaning twice, sextum, meaning sixth, day before March.