In my college US history class we’re learning about the context in England that led to Puritan groups colonizing the New World. About the feuding between the more High-Church Anglican and the more Puritan factions.
What share of the English public in the late 1500s and early 1600s held explicitly Puritan views? I understand polling (as we know it at least) didn’t exist at the time, but I’m curious if we have a general idea.
Is the image supposed to be satirical? Was it propaganda? What are the different sects pictured? One of them is titled as “Arian”, didn’t the Arian heresy end in like 700 A.D.? Also, another is listed as “Arminian” - are they referring to the Armenian Apostolic Church? The figure described as being an “Adamite” is nude; was that an early form of nudism? What’s a “Soule Sleeper”?
Obviously religious tensions were an integral part of English society since the Reformation, with much blood eventually spilt as a result. But to what extent did the average person need to hide their religious beliefs with other strangers? Did the relative peace in the Elizabethan era allow for freedom to relate issues of religion? Did it depend on class?
I'm not an architect, historian, or architectural historian by training, but my research has led me to consider these popular (in my city) revival styles for how they differ and overlap. Google Image searches are unfruitful. What are the best ways - ornamentation, materials forms - to identify these?
The concept of dictionaries didn't exist. Paper obviously cost a lot of money. Books were mostly expensive. Ink, I'm guessing, wasn't cheap. There weren't as many real libraries as today. And it's not like you could just walk into one and check out a book.
Yet, some of the greatest writing ever took place during the time with writers like Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, John Webster, Edmund Spenser, John Donne, and others. Presumably, these people had extremely significant access to books and writing materials. Presumably there had to be a primitive "book culture" where people (or at least a select few) were reading extremely extensively and talking about their ideas.
Yet I can't find too many sources talking about this.
How did these writers work exactly in an era where everything was so fragmented, scarce, and just starting to take off the ground? How could someone like Shakespeare develop a vocabulary that rivals and even trumps current writers who have access to dictionaries and fast computers? How could the resources of the time period have supported such achievements from all these writers exactly? Did bookshops even exist?
Would it have been an important town like York, or more minor?
I want a general list of important/interesting works. So far I read Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World. And I know Tillyard's Elizabethan World Picture is an important text. I heard Ben Johnson's biography was good from reviews. Are there any others that people would recommend to better understand Shakespeare or the Elizabethan/Jacobean world of writing in general? Really, I'm up for anything, no matter the popularity, as long as it's interesting at some level.
In this work, the two male leads, Proteus and Valentine have a long lasting, intense bond. While some modern speculators have posited a homosexual relationship, the different but intense love they have for their respective female love interests is seen as strong evidence against that by most analyses. But assuming a purely platonic friendship, it is still incredibly strong and intense, with them willing to exchange wives as a gesture of goodwill in restoring their friendship. Although this is a work of dramatic fiction, would close friendships between men in this period be anywhere near that strong and intense emotionally? Especially if these friends had known each other for most of their lives?
I know Ford tackled controversial topics such as Incest ('Tis Pity She's a Whore) so his works have only recently been explored by critics, and many of Shakespeare's works were diluted by editors between 17-1800 because they were deemed too depressing for Victorian audiences (King Lear, Titus Andronicus) but were they the most popular writers of their time? Are there any that have actually become less popular in modern years and so are relatively lesser known than they would've been in the late C16th - early C17th?
Something that popped into my head because I was rereading the Two Gentlemen of Lebowski and I also know that a Shakespeare-ified Mean Girls book just came out. I'm not sure about the latter, but what makes the Lebowski interesting (and better than other efforts) is that it's not just a Shakespearean verse retelling of the movie. It actually recasts the characters as Elizabethans (madcap noblemen and noblewomen) and has mock scholarly annotations
So, with that in mind, I was thinking of other works that would work well if given the same treatment.
The first one that popped into my head was Die Hard. You could have Beatrice and Benedick style repartee between Bonnie and John, and Hans Gruber is a really good fit for the kind of calculating evil foreigner characters that were as common in Elizabethan and Jacobean works as they are in contemporary ones. Granted, they were usually Spaniards or Italians but a German wouldn't be out-of-place, especially because Spain ruled German-speaking regions during Shakesspeare's lifetime.
My other thought was that more generally, gangster dramas and spaghetti Westerns would probably fit as well, as they have a lot of stylistic elements in common with Tragedies (especially revenge tragedies) and History plays.
Interested to get other peoples' thoughts. If you can think of dialogue, that would be even better.
I've been search everywhere but it's difficult to find even Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, which i'd assume to be an easy find.
Examples of Plays by Elizabethan/Jacobean Playwrights:
- Hamlet, Shakespeare
- 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Ford
- Volpone, Jonson
- The Revenger's Tragedy, Tourneur
- Julius Caesar, Shakespeare
Bonus points if it's a revenge play!
I recently inherited a large couch (~74" by 33" by 34" tall) and two matching arm chairs (34" by 33" by 34" tall). My grandparents bought the set in New Zealand in 1972 (they were an antique at this time and pretty pricey) and they were originally from England. I am having trouble finding any similar pieces to compare to for age or value (there is a very recent rip unfortunately on the couch). I would really appreciate any help in learning more about them! [Couch & Chairs pics] (https://imgur.com/a/HKGsF)
No matter what I just can’t really remember the timelines. I need ideas on how to essentially relearn them both in a way that will stick in my head.
