The New Murrey and Blue blog

The play’s the thing

Pop-up theatres and the history of car parks….

Feb 4, 2019

anniversaries, archaeology, buildings, Events, The play’s the thing

car parks, Detroit, Leicester dig, Michigan Theatre, Richard III, Rose Theatre, York

Am I alone in thinking that in this instance, “pop up” describes the Rose Theatre in York well? The Rose resembles something that pops up in a children’s book. However, this article is actually more about the history of car parks, which is very interesting. The one below is in Detroit, and is quite astonishing!…
Terry Jones’ opinion of Richard III….

Feb 1, 2019

anniversaries, battles, Book Reviews, sources, The play’s the thing

“Medieval Lives”, “Tudor” propaganda, Battle of Bosworth, bigamy, bones, Bootham Bar, Coronation, Council of the North, Edward IV, Edward V, Garden Tower, Henry VII, illegitimacy, John Howard Duke of Norfolk, John Rous, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Lord Protector of the Realm, Louis VII, motive, plots, pre-contract, Ralph Shaa, Richard III, Tanner and Wright, Terry Jones, Wars of the Roses, wine merchants, Wydevilles, York

I am a great fan of Terry Jones’ writing/opinions when it comes to medieval history, and today just happens to be Terry’s birthday. That he supports King Richard II I already knew, but I did not know he also thinks highly of King Richard III. What I write below is taken from a book, which…
A question of age

Jan 22, 2019

battles, humour, The play’s the thing

“Tudor” propaganda, age, Battle of Bosworth, Edward IV, Francis Viscount Lovell, Henry of Buckingham, Henry VII, NPG, portraits, Richard III, Shakespeare

Drifting in and out of various history groups on the net, a very strange thing has become apparent. There are some out there who truly believe Richard III’s death was ‘the end of the Middle Ages’ and that he stood in the way of the wonderful, burgeoning Renaissance like some great big dinosaur with both…
How we went around the mulberry tree….

Jan 14, 2019

art, buildings, The play’s the thing

Black Death, burial sites, James Boswell, London Charterhouse, mulberries, New Place, Reverend Francis Gastrell, Shakespeare, Stratford, trees

Well now, apart from the old nursery rhyme, “Here we go round the mulberry tree”, what else do we know about the history of mulberries in England, except that the colour “murrey” is a contraction of the name? Here is a link (that contains other links) to tell you all about it, including that Shakespeare had…
I wonder …

Dec 31, 2018

anniversaries, humour, religion, The play’s the thing

A Hard Day’s Night, Clarence Sale, Josephine Tewson, Laurence Olivier, Peter Sellers, Plantagenet Evans, rhyming slang, Ronnie Barker, Seven of One, The Two Ronnies

Was the late Ronnie Barker a Ricardian? He made something of a habit of referring to Richard’s family. In “The Two Ronnies”: His rhyming slang vicar spoke of “a small brown Richard III” (bird), The pair did a Shakespeare scene mentioning as many television programmes as they could (eg “…the Tyrannies…” for themselves), Peter Sellers…
The “naughty” corpse of Henry VI….

Nov 30, 2018

art, Events, The play’s the thing

Anne Neville, Ellen Terry, exhibitions, Hamlet, Henry VI, John Everett Millais, John Singer Sargent, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth, medieval clothes, Ophelia, Peter Brook, Richard III, Shakespeare, USA, Victoria and Albert Museum

The link below concerns an exhibition entitled ‘Costuming the Leading Ladies of Shakespeare: From Stratford to Orange County’ at UC Irvine’s Langson Library, West Peltason and Pereira drives, Irvine; www.lib.uci.edu/langson. The exhibition is there through to the end of September. Several amusing anecdotes are described in the article, including one about Lady Anne’s apparent effect…
Discovered in Norwich

Oct 26, 2018

anniversaries, battles, buildings, The play’s the thing, travel

archery, Azincourt, Harfleur, Harriet Martineau, Henry IV, Henry V, JD Wetherspoon, John of Gaunt, John Sell Cotman, Kett Rebellion, Lancastrians, Norwich, Norwich Cathedral, Norwich School artists, pubs, Shakespeare, Sir Thomas Erpingham, stained glass, Tomblands

Whilst visiting Norwich to see the Whitefriars plaque to Lady Eleanor Talbot, Richard’s sister-in-law, in Tomblands near the Cathedral, I happened to take lunch in a particular hostelry, the Glass House. It is principally named for the city’s stained glass industry and various panels, also commemorate the author Harriet Martineau, the rebel Robert Kett, Cotman…
Why Shakespeare repeated the Tudors’ fake news….

Oct 6, 2018

The play’s the thing

“Tudor” propaganda, “Tudors”, More, Richard III, Shakespeare

As Ricardians, we all know that Shakespeare toed the Tudor line. He repeated the falsehoods of More and the like, and labelled Richard III for all time as a deformed monster. But this article discusses the circumstances that compelled the Bard to write as he did. Well worth a read.
Snow at Tewkesbury, and a pile of bodies for Richard III….

Oct 3, 2018

anniversaries, battles, The play’s the thing

BBC, drama, Henry VII, inaccuracy, Margaret of Anjou, Richard III, Shakespeare, snow, Tewkesbury, Towton

Believe it or not, the above is supposedly the Battle of Tewkesbury. At least, it is according to the BBC website. Tewkesbury was in May. Silly author. The picture is of Towton, which took place in the middle of a snowstorm. The article itself is referring to Henry VI, Part 3 – first transmitted in the UK:…
Peter Benson portrayed Henry VII perfectly…as a weasel to end all weasels.

Sep 17, 2018

humour, The play’s the thing

Blackadder, Casualty, Heartbeat, Henry V, Henry VII, obituaries, Peter Benson, Shakespeare

The first time I actually remember Peter Benson as an actor was in the first series of Blackadder, when he hid in a four-poster bed as the craven, sneaky Henry Tudor, making copious notes as he eavesdropped on Edmund and his idiot cronies. Oh, and pretended to be a sheep when Edmund’s mother realized there…