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[oursin]

James Fenton, Was Shakespeare, or was his father, a Catholic, or a crypto-Catholic?:
Were they connected to Jesuit missionaries operating undercover in Warwickshire? These questions are asked in an article in the TLS of March 16. The answer to the latter question appears to be a resounding raspberry, which is interesting, since the authors of the

Comments

[lalouve]

I seem to be one of the few people who read Gissing, ever since I was handed The Odd Women in a class on the Victorian novel.

[movingfinger]

With regard to cleanliness in the 18c, many sources I've read praise English housekeeping as exemplarily clean. Hm.

As for houses falling in, in the 18c at least that could be more due to shoddy, rushed building practices than crap plastering; for example, brick walls (required by law) were often not tied, thus they could become unstabilized easily and sagged, and foundations not properly laid.

[ankaret]

I tried to read the Shakespeare-as-crypto-Catholic thing three times, but my eyes kept misting over. I think I've developed a permanent block on the subject.