"Wilder allegedly finished his most famous work, Our Town, the drama of Grover's Corners, after going for a long walk in the rain with his lover, English professor, tattoo artist, and pornography writer Samuel M. Steward." -- from Queers in History.I hope that Steward had a business card with those three things on it, because if you are a ( Read more... )

Since we are doing 14th-c Europe in Western Civ tomorrow, and I am going to talk about the Rising of 1381 ("are you an unfair poll tax? 'Cause I -- " ...yeah.) as an example of the intersection of social upheaval in the (somewhat distant) wake of the Black Death and the religious controversies of the later 14th century, I present to you one of my ( Read more... )

Normally I hate "when you see this, do foo" memes, but I will always make an exception when "foo" = "quote Shakespeare." So:

When you see this, quote from Shakespeare in your journal.
A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege ( Read more... )

It was about this time that a memorable Dumb Crammer and one of Henry VIII's wives called Fatimer, who had survived him, got burnt alive at Oxford, while trying to light a candle in the Martyr's memorial there: it was a new candle which they had invented and which they said could never be put out.

I was perusing just now a book of various Hamlet-related anecdotes, and it had some notes given by Sir John Gielgud when he directed the play in 1964 (this is the production starring Richard Burton), courtesy of William Redfield's Letters from an Actor. They are awesome, so I will share them with you all.

To Polonius (Hume Cronyn): It's a bit spry ( Read more... )

Things that amuse me in a stupid kind of way: the emphasis placed in this passage on Woodstock's lack of pants.

( The arrest of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, as described by Holinshed )

You know, I am a little shocked that it was only just now that I realized that the Bastard Faulconbridge really ought to be included in the rolls of "Shakespeare Characters Who Sum Up the Graduate Student Experience."

And why rail I on this Commodity ( Read more... )

I mentioned this in a post last night, or I suppose really very very early this morning, and now the post I said was coming is done (it took absolutely forever).

The following images are from England's Parnassus, a book of quotations published in 1600. According to EEBO the compiler's name is Robert Abbott, whom I assume is the "R.A." who signs ( Read more... )

Because this sort of thing is always fun.

From an old complete works, which does not have a date on it, annoyingly, but from the appearance of the book I would guess was probably published between 1860 and 1900:

No man of sound sense ever writes unintelligibly, and no true poet ever makes inharmonious verses. Shakespeare was both; and yet in his ( Read more... )

Today's totally random pre-modern historiographical quote is from the St. Alban's Chronicle. Thomas Walsingham notes the death (in 1392) of notorious royal favorite Robert de Vere:

The death of Robert, formerly earl of Oxford
At that present time Robert de Vere, formerly earl of Oxford, who had jumped many ranks to gain the name of duke of Ireland ( Read more... )