King Lear

What ancient Celtic wonders did the Romans encounter beyond the estuary of the Severn….?

Feb 26, 2024

buildings, religion

Arthur, Celtic myths, Christianity, Cotswolds, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, J.R.R. Tolkein, King Lear, Lludd Llaw Ereint, Lydney, Lydney Park, Mary Stewart, Merlin, Nennius, Nodens, novels, Nuada, R.E.M. Wheeler, Roman Britain, Severn bore, Severn Estuary, Shakespeare, temples, Wales

Before I go any further, let me say that the above image is more or less the first view I had back in the 1970s of the Romano-British temple of Nodens, at Lydney Park near the town of Lydney in Gloucestershire. The temple is on a hillfort site on a bluff where the River Severn…
Useful Shakespearean Insults for every Occasion….

Dec 24, 2020

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

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As you like it, Henry IV, Henry V, Holy Trinity Church Stratford upon Avon, insults, King Lear, Macbeth, monuments, Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri sparkypus.com William Shakespeare @Abdul Rahim One, or two, of these may come in useful the next time you find yourself lost for words……. “Villain, I have done thy mother” (Really rude and should only be used in the event you don’t mind your lights being punched out..) Titus Andronicus (Act 4,…
History and cultural history (III)

Jan 9, 2020

anniversaries, genealogy, heraldry, The play’s the thing

Claudius, Cordelia, Council of the North, curtains, Earls of Salisbury, Earls of Warwick, Elizabeth I, executions, Hamlet, Henry Earl of Huntingdon, Henry Lord Montagu, I Claudius, King Lear, kyphosis, names, Polonius, Richard III, Robert Cecil, scoliosis, Shakespeare

We have already shown how Shakespeare was inadvertently influenced by contemporary or earlier events in setting details – names, events, badges or physical resemblance – for his Hamlet, King Lear and Richard III. What of Romeo and Juliet, thought to have been written between 1591-5 and first published, in quarto form, in 1597? The most…
Coming Upon the King: My Accidental Path Toward Becoming a Ricardian

Dec 10, 2019

anniversaries, archaeology, battles, buildings, genealogy, Science

“Eleanor”, “Princes”, Alaska, Anglo-Saxons, Anne Mowbray, Castillon, denialists, dental evidence, dishonesty, Edward IV, Elizabeth Wydeville, Garden Tower, Henry VII, John Ashdown-Hill, John Earl of Shrewsbury, Josephine Josepha Wilkinson, King Lear, Leicester dig, Magna Carta, mtDNA evidence, Nevilles, Richard III, Richard III Society, Shakespeare, Stuarts, Tanner and Wright, Weir, Westminster Abbey

I’ll be perfectly honest with you: I was never really that interested in Richard Plantagenet, later Richard III. In school I had avoided the Anglo-Saxons like the plague, and Richard, well, perhaps like a round of the flu. He wasn’t quite as intimidating, despite the double-murder allegation lodged, and I got away with not having…
A year of anniversaries

Dec 23, 2016

battles, television reviews, The play’s the thing

Anglo-Saxons, anniversaries, Battle of Hastings, burial, Canterbury Cathedral, Channel Four, Cnut, Cordelia, drama, Edmund Ironside, epitaph, Ethelred II, feet, Ground Penetrating Radar, Helen Castor, House of Wessex, inaccuracy, John Morton, King Lear, Richard III, Shakespeare, skulls, Stamford Bridge

2016 has been the 1000th anniversary of Edund Ironside’s accession and death, also of the death of his father Ethelred Unraed and the double accession of Cnut of Denmark. It has also been the 950th anniverary of the battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings, being the end of the House of Wessex after its interruption.…
History and cultural history (II)

Dec 16, 2016

The play’s the thing

Anne of Denmark, Caligula, Claudius, Cordelia, curtains, David Starkey, Denmark, executions, Hamlet, John Ashdown-Hill, King Lear, Polonius, Richard III, Robert Cecil, Robert Graves, Shakespeare, symbolism, Wars of the Roses

In this piece, we introduced the idea that Shakespeare, although a very inaccurate historian, accurately reflected the cultural history of his time with respect to the political execution of women. We have also discussed how the Bard’s Richard III may actually have been a portrayal of Robert Cecil. Another piece showed the uncertainty as to…
History and cultural history (I)

Dec 14, 2014

battles, heraldry, The play’s the thing

David Starkey, Edmund Duke of Somerset, executions, Fotheringhay, Henry VI, King Lear, red rose, Richard Duke of York, Shakespeare, white rose

As we have observed before, Shakespeare’s plays tend to be historically inaccurate but they make good cultural history for his own lifetime. As an example, we took King Lear (probably written 1605-6), in which Cordelia was executed for political reasons, something that almost never happened to women before 1536, in England or Scotland. Similarly, the…