scholarly journals Irish Bards in Shakespeare’s Richard III and As You Like it

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 129-136
Author(s):  
Andrew Breeze ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Richard Iii ◽  
As You Like It ◽  
The Future ◽  
Imminent Death ◽  
Ancient Times

Shakespeare alludes twice to Irish bards. In Richard III, the king mentions a prophecy by one of his imminent death; in As You Like It, Rosalind jokes on how Irish bards can supposedly rhyme rats to death. Both refer to supposed bardic powers of seeing the future and of ritual cursing of enemies. A survey of the literature shows satire and prophecy as going back to ancient times. There is in addition ample material on the (sometimes deadly) effects of satire in medieval and later Ireland, where it is known from chronicles, legal tracts, handbooks of poetry, and various surviving poems. There are in addition comic tales on how bards exploited their power, including an eleventh-century one on King Guaire's Burdensome Company, wherein the poet Senchán rhymes to death certain mice that had spoiled an egg reserved for him. Shakespeare's references can thus be related to traditions well-known in Gaul and medieval (or early modern) Ireland and Scotland.

Shakespeare Afoot

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kerrigan
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Richard Iii ◽  
Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
As You Like It ◽  
A Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

That Shakespeare adds a limp to the received characterization of Richard III is only the most conspicuous instance of his interest in how actors walked, ran, danced, and wandered. His attention to actors’ footwork, as an originating condition of performance, can be traced from Richard III through A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It into Macbeth, which is preoccupied with the topic and activity all the way to the protagonist’s melancholy conclusion that ‘Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player | That struts and frets his hour upon the stage’. Drawing on classical and early modern accounts of how people walk and should walk, on ideas about time and prosody, and the experience of disability, this chapter cites episodes in the history of performance to show how actors, including Alleyn, Garrick, and Olivier, have worked with the opportunities to dramatize footwork that are provided by Shakespeare’s plays.

Ritual Time and Popular Expectations of Papal Rule in Early Modern Rome

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-49
Author(s):  
John M. Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Moral Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
The Future ◽  
Imminent Death ◽  
Early Modern Rome ◽  
The City

The political and ritual life of early modern Rome provided its inhabitants ample opportunities not only to express grievances with papal government but also to voice expectations of newly elected pontiffs. Three ritual moments in particular—each linked as a cycle related to the pope’s reign—looked toward the future. These were the papal election, the possesso (the newly elected pontiff’s procession to San Giovanni in Laterano), and the pope’s death. As the papal election commenced in the conclave, Romans communicated their hopes for a pontiff who would adhere to a traditional moral economy by keeping the city abundantly supplied with grain and other foodstuffs. The ceremonies connected to the possesso reinforced these concerns; during the pope’s procession from Saint Peter’s to San Giovanni, the people greeted him with placards, statues, and ritual shouts, which reminded him to uphold this sacred duty. A pope who failed to abide by this moral economy faced popular discontent. This took the form of murmuring and pasquinades that wished for his imminent death, thus anticipating an end to his odious reign and to the future freedoms of the vacant see, a time in which the machinery of papal government and justice halted, allowing the people to vocalize their anger. Immediately on the heels of the pope’s death came the papal election, starting the cycle anew. This paper will argue that the rhythms of papal government enabled the people to articulate their expectations of papal rule, both present and future, grounded in traditional paternalism.

Shakespeare's Representation of Weather, Climate and Environment

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Chiari
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Romeo And Juliet ◽  
Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
The Tempest ◽  
As You Like It ◽  
Ability To Act

While ecocritical approaches to literary texts receive more and more attention, climate-related issues remain fairly neglected, particularly in the field of Shakespeare studies. This monograph explores the importance of weather and changing skies in early modern England while acknowledging the fact that traditional representations and religious beliefs still fashioned people’s relations to meteorological phenomena. At the same time, a growing number of literati stood against determinism and defended free will, thereby insisting on man’s ability to act upon celestial forces. Yet, in doing so, they began to give precedence to a counter-intuitive approach to Nature. Sophie Chiari argues that Shakespeare reconciles the scholarly views of his time with more popular ideas rooted in superstition and that he promotes a sensitive, pragmatic understanding of climatic events. She pays particular attention to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, Othello, King Lear, Anthony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest. Taking into account the influence of classical thought, each of the book’s seven chapters emphasises specific issues (e.g. cataclysmic disorders, the dog days’ influence, freezing temperatures, threatening storms) and considers the way climatic events were presented on stage and how they came to shape the production and reception of Shakespeare’s drama.

The future indicative in the early modern Cornish of Tregear

1998 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-231
Author(s):  
Charles Penglase
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
The Future

CHOICE ARCHITECTURE IN SHAKESPEARE’S PUBLIC MEETINGS: NUDGE THEORY AND RICHARD III, CORIOLANUS, AND JULIUS CAESAR

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ceri Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Behavioural Economics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Julius Caesar ◽  
Choice Architecture ◽  
Group Norms ◽  
Richard Iii ◽  
Public Meetings

Abstract The political and dramatic intentions behind the use of appeals to the early modern public (on and off stage) have already been examined by Shakespeareans. This article points out the technical workings of such appeals by using two new areas of research on decision-making: the ethnography of public meetings and behavioural economics on how to influence choosers. These theories can illuminate the strategies used by the tribunes in handling the citizens of Coriolanus, by Antony in dealing with the plebeians in Julius Caesar, and by Buckingham and Richard when gathering support from the Londoners in Richard III. Using six common psychological biases (anchor-and-adjust, availability, representativeness, priming, arousal, and group norms), Shakespeare’s politicians prompt their hearers to change their minds: a celebrity warrior is recast as a wily tyrant, an execution as a murder, and a regent as the legitimate king.

Early Accusations of Well Poisoning against Jews: Medieval Reality or Historiographical Fiction?

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 517-539
Author(s):  
Tzafrir Barzilay
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Reliable Evidence

This article reexamines the idea prevalent in existing historiography that Jews were accused of well poisoning before 1321. It argues that the historians who studied the origins of such accusations were misled by sources written in the early modern period to think that Jews were charged with well poisoning as early as the eleventh century. However, a careful analysis of the sources reveals that there is little reliable evidence that such cases happened before the fourteenth century, much less on a large scale. Thus, the conclusions of the article call for a new chronology of well-poisoning charges made against Jews, starting closer to the fourteenth century.

scholarly journals Alternative Pasts and Colonial Engagements in the North: The Materiality and Meanings of the Pajala ‘Runestone’ (Vinsavaara Stone), Northern Sweden

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 613-628
Author(s):  
Vesa-Pekka Herva ◽  
Janne Ikäheimo ◽  
Matti Enbuske ◽  
Jari Okkonen
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
General Level ◽  
Northern Sweden ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Cosmological Context ◽  
Ancient Times

The unknown and exotic North fascinated European minds in the early modern period. A land of natural and supernatural wonders, and of the indigenous Sámi people, the northern margins of Europe stirred up imagination and a plethora of cultural fantasies, which also affected early antiquarian research and the period understanding of the past. This article employs an alleged runestone discovered in northernmost Sweden in the seventeenth century to explore how ancient times and northern margins of the continent were understood in early modern Europe. We examine how the peculiar monument of the Vinsavaara stone was perceived and signified in relation to its materiality, landscape setting, and the cultural-cosmological context of the Renaissance–Baroque world. On a more general level, we use the Vinsavaara stone to assess the nature and character of early modern antiquarianism in relation to the period's nationalism, colonialism and classicism.

scholarly journals Porcelain enamel coatings, from the past to the future: solved and unsolved issues for the improvement of their mechanical properties.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Rossi ◽  
Francesca Russo
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Chemical Degradation ◽  
Protective Properties ◽  
The Past ◽  
Enhanced Resistance ◽  
Mechanical Study ◽  
The Future ◽  
Ancient Times

Porcelain enamel coatings have their origins in ancient times when they were mainly used for decorative and ornamental purposes. From the industrial revolution onwards, these coatings have started to be used also as functional layers, ranging from home applications up to the use in high-technological fields, such as in chemical reactors. The excellent properties of enamel coatings, such as fire resistance, protection of the substrate from corrosion, resistance to atmospheric and chemical degradation, mainly depend and originate from the glassy nature of the enamel matrix itself. On the other side, the vitreous nature of enamel coatings limits their application in many fields, where mechanical stress and heavy abrasion phenomena could lead to nucleation and propagation of cracks inside the material, thus negatively affecting the protective properties of this coating. Many efforts have been made to improve the abrasion resistance of enamelled materials. On this regard, researchers showed encouraging results and proposed many different improvement approaches. Now it is possible to obtain enamels with enhanced resistance to abrasion. Differently, the investigation of the mechanical properties of enamel coatings remains a poorly studied topic. In the literature, there are interesting methodological ideas, which could be successfully applied to the mechanical study of enamelled materials and could allow to have further insights on their behaviour. Thus, the path that should be followed in the future includes the mechanical characterization of these coatings and the search for new solutions to address their brittle behaviour.

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