The play’s the thing

More Royal ancestry

Apr 8, 2022

anniversaries, battles, buildings, genealogy, law, religion, Science, television reviews, The play’s the thing

actresses, Alexander Armstrong, Arthur Capell Baron Hadham, astronomy, Barings Bank, Battle of Surbiton, bigamy, burials, Careys, Clare Balding, comedians, Dame Judi Dench, Danny Dyer, Dartmoor, Denmark, Duke of Hamilton, Edict of Nantes, Edward IV, Elsinore, English Civil War, executions, France, Frank Gardner, Groom of the Stool, Guildenstern, Hamlet, Henry Earl of Holland, Henry VIII, Hugenots, illegitimacy, Ireland, Joe Sugg, Josh Widdicombe, Lettice Knollys, Mark Wright, Mary Boleyn, Military Cross, Normandy, Ophelia, religious persecution, Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, Rosencrantz, royal palaces, Sabine Baring-Gould, secret marriage, Tom Stoppard, Trenchard Manor, Tycho Brahe, Westminster Abbey, Who do you think you are?, Will Kemp, William Shakespeare

Who do you think you are? has now completed eighteen series as British television’s predominant genealogy programmes. In that time, with an average of eight episodes per series, they have uncovered many celebrities with interesting lineage and some unexpected royal descendants, including Alexander Armstrong, Clare Balding, Danny Dyer, Frank Gardner and Sir Matthew Pinsent. Now…
KING JOHN AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

Apr 6, 2022

anniversaries, buildings, genealogy, law, religion, sources, The play’s the thing

AA Milne, Angevin bloodline, Anglicanism, annulment, Arthur of Brittany, Ascension Day, authorship, avarice, Barons, burials, Cardinal Pandulph, character, charles forker, clergymen, Crowland Chronicle, Defender of the Faith, Earls of Essex, Edward Hall, Edward VI, Elizabeth I, Eucharist, excommunication, Fauconbridge brothers, Geoffrey Plantagenet, George Peel, graham Seel, Henry, Henry the Young King, Henry VIII, Historiography, House of York, Hubert de Bergh, Innocent III, John, john Bale, John Dover-Wilson, John Gillingham, John Harvey, John Matusiak, John Wycliffe, Kit Marlowe, Lackland, Louis VIII, Magna Carta, male primogeniture, Mary I, Maude Plantagenet, Mirabeau, morality plays, Phillip Augustus, plays, Polydore Vergil, Ralph Holinshed, recusants, Reformation, Richard Green, Richard Hunne, Richard I, Robin Hood, royal burials, sir brian vickers, Sir James Holt, Six Articles, Softsword, Staffords, stephen langton, Stuarts, Tillyard, Walt Disney, Wilfred Warren, William Shakespeare, William Tyndale, Worcester Cathedral

KING JOHN AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION King John was not a good man, He had his little ways. And sometimes no one spoke to him For days and days and days. And men who came across him, When walking in the town, Gave him a supercilious stare, Or passed with noses in the air, And…
Who gave up on the Royal Touch….?

Apr 3, 2022

anniversaries, buildings, culture, religion, The play’s the thing

angels, coins, Edward IV, Elizabeth I, Henry III, Henry VII, Macbeth, Royal Touch, scrofula, Shakespeare Schools Foundation, St. Edward the Confessor, Winchester Cathedral

According to this article, “….The Royal Touch and King Edward the Confessor’s healing powers were so well known that, during the reign of Elizabeth I, Shakespeare referenced them in his play Macbeth. This is unsurprising however, as Elizabeth’s grandfather, Henry VII, had reintroduced the concept in the late 15th century….” So, if the Royal Touch was known to have…
The “Gentle Villainy” of Richard III….?

Mar 7, 2022

Events, The play’s the thing

Blithe Spirit, Cleveland State Theatre, Noel Coward, Ohio, Outcalt Theatre, Shakespeare, USA

The following is an extract from this site. :- “….The season wraps up with “The Gentle Villainy of Richard III, Troubler of the Poor World’s Peace,” an adapation of William Shakespeare’s “Richard III” running April 21-May 1 at the Outcalt Theatre….” Oh, dear (heavy sigh). Shoving the word “gentle” in front of “villainy” doesn’t…
Henry VIII and Oedipus had something in common….

Feb 11, 2022

anniversaries, genealogy, law, religion, Science, The play’s the thing

Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII, J.C. Flugel, marriages, Oedipus complex, psychoanalysis

Did you know that Henry VIII had an Oedipus complex? Nor did I, but according to J.C. Flugel, a psychologist with an interest in psychoanalysis, that was always Henry’s problem. In a 1920 work entitled On the Character and Married Life of Henry VIII Flugel described how, in an attempt to “uncover a…
Another Shakespeare scene rewritten

Jan 28, 2022

anniversaries, humour, television reviews, The play’s the thing

Anne Boleyn, Carry On Don’t Lose Your Head, Charles Hawtrey, Henry VIII, ITV, Ray Winstone, Thomas Cromwell

Following our previous dialogues, here we have some alternative dialogue from Henry VIII, as used in the ITV version with Ray Winstone: HENRY VIII: Cor blimey, Cromwell me old china, that Enn Blin aint half a right pain in the Gregory, and no mistake. {By the end of the show, both “Enn Blin” and Cromwell…
Gawain and the Green Knight, Hollywood style….

Jan 3, 2022

anniversaries, battles, films, The play’s the thing

anonymous, Arthurian legend, books, Camelot, Hollywood, J.R.R. Tolkein, Shakespeare, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Gawain and the Green Knight has been given “the Hollywood treatment”! See this article. You can also read about the film here and here It’s directed by David Lowery and stars Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander. Well, having now seen it, I fear that if the anonymous author had too, he’d be taking serious steps…
From St Nicholas to Sir Christmas to Old Father Christmas to Santa Claus….

Dec 23, 2021

art, buildings, culture, Events, religion, The play’s the thing

Bacchus, carols, Charles Dickens, Christmas, Coca Cola, Coventry plays, Ebeneezer Scrooge, Father Christmas, Father Time, Green, King Frost, King Winter, Norse gods, pagan festivals, Puritans, red, St. Nicholas, Winchester Cathedral

“….the beautiful, unspoiled Mediterranean town of Patara is the birthplace of the bearded gift-giver, who we look out for with such excitement on Christmas Eve. Or rather, the birthplace of the third century Christian saint whose life of kindness and miraculous do-goodery created a legend which has evolved down the centuries, and given us the…
A Cheshire Wetherspoon’s link to Richard III (via Shakespeare)….

Dec 10, 2021

buildings, religion, The play’s the thing

Augustinian Friars, Cheshire, Friar Penketh, JD Wetherspoon, pubs, Richard III, Shakespeare, Warrington

Here is an article about the histories of some Wetherspoons pubs in Cheshire. One of them, the Friar Penketh in Barbauld Street, Warrington, is said to stand on the site of a 13th-century Augustinian friary, and nearby Friars Gate and St Augustine’s Lane are reminders of the long-gone religious house. Why am I posting about…
THE SECRETS OF STRAWBERRIES

Dec 5, 2021

Science, sources, The play’s the thing

anaphylactic shock, Claude Paradin, council chamber, love, Low Countries, perfection, strawberries, symbolism, treachery, urticaria, Venus, Virgin Mary

The use of strawberries in the works about Richard III written by Thomas More, Edward Hall, and William Shakespeare has always been puzzling to me, and I suspect, many others. The fact that strawberry are given such a prominent mention in the ‘council chamber’ scene where Richard reveals an, ahem, withered arm, is well known…