1.
Hamlet
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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is called to wreak upon his uncle, Claudius, by the ghost of Hamlets father, Claudius had murdered his own brother and seized the throne, also marrying his deceased brothers widow. It has inspired many other writers—from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Charles Dickens to James Joyce and he almost certainly wrote his version of the title role for his fellow actor, Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeares time. In the 400 years since its inception, the role has been performed by highly acclaimed actors in each successive century. Three different early versions of the play are extant, the First Quarto, the Second Quarto, each version includes lines and entire scenes missing from the others. The plays structure and depth of characterisation have inspired much critical scrutiny, the protagonist of Hamlet is Prince Hamlet of Denmark, son of the recently deceased King Hamlet, and nephew of King Claudius, his fathers brother and successor. Claudius hastily married King Hamlets widow, Gertrude, Hamlets mother, Denmark has a long-standing feud with neighboring Norway, which culminated when King Hamlet slew King Fortinbras of Norway in a battle years ago. Although Denmark defeated Norway, and the Norwegian throne fell to King Fortinbrass infirm brother, Denmark fears that an invasion led by the dead Norwegian kings son, Prince Fortinbras, is imminent. On a cold night on the ramparts of Elsinore, the Danish royal castle and they vow to tell Prince Hamlet what they have witnessed. As the court gathers the next day, while King Claudius and Queen Gertrude discuss affairs of state with their elderly adviser Polonius, after the court exits, Hamlet despairs of his fathers death and his mothers hasty remarriage. Learning of the ghost from Horatio, Hamlet resolves to see it himself, as Poloniuss son Laertes prepares to depart for a visit to France, Polonius gives him contradictory advice that culminates in the ironic maxim to thine own self be true. Poloniuss daughter, Ophelia, admits her interest in Hamlet, and that night on the rampart, the ghost appears to Hamlet, telling the prince that he was murdered by Claudius and demanding that Hamlet avenge him. Hamlet agrees and the ghost vanishes, the prince confides to Horatio and the sentries that from now on he plans to put an antic disposition on and forces them to swear to keep his plans for revenge secret. Privately, however, he remains uncertain of the ghosts reliability, soon thereafter, Ophelia rushes to her father, telling him that Hamlet arrived at her door the prior night half-undressed and behaving crazily. Polonius blames love for Hamlets madness and resolves to inform Claudius, as he enters to do so, the king and queen finish welcoming Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two student acquaintances of Hamlet, to Elsinore. The royal couple has requested that the students investigate the cause of Hamlets mood, additional news requires that Polonius wait to be heard, messengers from Norway inform Claudius that the King of Norway has rebuked Prince Fortinbras for attempting to re-fight his fathers battles. The forces that Fortinbras conscripted to march against Denmark will instead be sent against Poland, Polonius tells Claudius and Gertrude his theory regarding Hamlets behavior, and speaks to Hamlet in a hall of the castle to try to uncover more information. Hamlet feigns madness but subtly insults Polonius all the while, when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive, Hamlet greets his friends warmly, but quickly discerns that they are spies
2.
John William Waterhouse
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John William Waterhouse RA was an English painter known for working in the Pre-Raphaelite style. He worked several decades after the breakup of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, born in Italy to English parents who were both painters, he later moved to London, where he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Art. He soon began exhibiting at their annual exhibitions, focusing on the creation of large canvas works depicting scenes from the daily life. Later on in his career he came to embrace the Pre-Raphaelite style of painting despite the fact that it had out of fashion in the British art scene several decades before. The exact date of his birth is unknown, though he was baptised on 6 April, and his early life in Italy has been cited as one of the reasons why many of his later paintings were set in ancient Rome or based upon scenes taken from Roman mythology. In 1854, the Waterhouses returned to England and moved to a newly built house in South Kensington, London, in 1871 he entered the Royal Academy of Art school, initially to study sculpture, before moving on to painting. Waterhouses early works were not Pre-Raphaelite in nature, but were of classical themes in the spirit of Alma-Tadema, the painting was a success and Waterhouse would exhibit at the annual exhibition every year until 1916, with the exception of 1890 and 1915. He then went from strength to strength in the London art scene, perhaps due to his success, his paintings typically became larger and larger in size. In 1883 he married Esther Kenworthy, the daughter of an art schoolmaster from Ealing who had exhibited her own flower-paintings at the Royal Academy and they had two children, but both died in early childhood. In 1895 Waterhouse was elected to the status of full Academician and he taught at the St. Johns Wood Art School, joined the St Johns Wood Arts Club, and served on the Royal Academy Council. One of Waterhouses most famous paintings is The Lady of Shalott, a study of Elaine of Astolat and he actually painted three different versions of this character, in 1888,1894, and 1916. Like The Lady of Shalott and other Waterhouse paintings, it deals with a woman dying in or near water and he also may have been inspired by paintings of Ophelia by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais. He submitted his Ophelia painting of 1888 in order to receive his diploma from the Royal Academy, after this, the painting was lost until the 20th century, and is now displayed in the collection of Lord Lloyd-Webber. Waterhouse would paint Ophelia again in 1894 and 1909 or 1910, Waterhouse could not finish the series of Ophelia paintings because he was gravely ill with cancer by 1915. He died two years later, and his grave can be found at Kensal Green Cemetery in London, in total he produced 118 paintings. List of paintings by John William Waterhouse Moyle, Franny, Pre-Raphaelite art, simpson, Eileen, Pre-Raphaelites for a new generation, Letters,17 June, Pre-Raphaelite revival, The Daily Telegraph. Dorment, Richard, Waterhouse, The modern Pre-Raphaelite, at the Royal Academy – review, The Daily Telegraph
3.
William Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
4.
Polonius
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Polonius is a character in William Shakespeares Hamlet. He is chief counsellor of the king, and the father of Laertes, in Act II Hamlet refers to Polonius as a tedious old fool and taunts him as a latter day Jeptha. Polonius connives with Claudius to spy on Hamlet, Hamlet unknowingly kills Polonius, provoking Ophelias fit of madness, ultimately resulting in her early death and the climax of the play, a duel between Laertes and Hamlet. Father of Ophelia and Laertes, and counselor to King Claudius, he is described as a windbag by some and a rambler of wisdom by others. It has also suggested that he only acts like a foolish prating knave in order to keep his position and popularity safe. It is important to note that throughout the play, Polonius is characterized as a typical Renaissance new man, some adaptations show him conspiring with Claudius in the murder of King Hamlet. In Act 1, Scene 3, Polonius gives advice to his son Laertes and he finishes by giving his son his blessing, and is apparently at ease with his sons departure. However, in Act 2, Scene 1, he orders his servant Reynaldo to travel to Paris and spy on Laertes, Laertes is not the only character Polonius spies upon. He is fearful that Hamlets relationship with his daughter will hurt his reputation with the king and he and the king test his hypothesis by spying on and interrogating Ophelia. In his last attempt to spy on Hamlet, Polonius hides himself behind an arras in Gertrudes room, Hamlet deals roughly with his mother, causing her to cry for help. Polonius echoes the request for help and is heard by Hamlet, Polonius death at the hands of Hamlet causes Claudius to fear for his own life, Ophelia to go mad, and Laertes to seek revenge, which leads to the duel in the final act. The literary origins of the character may be traced to the Kings counselor found in the Belleforest, however, at least since the 19th century scholars have also sought to understand the character in terms of Elizabethan court politics. Polonius was first proposed as a parody of Queen Elizabeths leading counsellor, Lord Treasurer, israel Gollancz also suggested that Polonius might have been a satire on Burghley. The theory was often finessed with supplementary arguments, but also disputed, arden Hamlet editor Harold Jenkins, for example, criticised the idea of any direct personal satire of Burghley as unlikely and uncharacteristic of Shakespeare. Polonius is Latin for Polish or a/the Polish man, the English translation of the book refers to its author as a statesman of the polonian empyre. In the first quarto of Hamlet, Polonius is named Corambis and it has been suggested that this derives crambe or crambo, derived from a Latin phrase meaning reheated cabbage, implying a boring old man who spouts trite rehashed ideas. Whether this was the name of the character or not is debated. Various suggestions have been made to explain this, since Polonius is a parody of a pompous pseudo-intellectual, the name might have been interpreted as a deliberate insult
5.
Laertes (Hamlet)
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Laertes /leɪˈɜːrtiːz/ is a character in William Shakespeares play Hamlet. His name is taken from the father of Odysseus in Homers Odyssey, Laertes is the son of Polonius and the brother of Ophelia. In the final scene, he kills Hamlet with a sword to avenge the deaths of his father and sister. While dying of the poison, he implicates King Claudius. The Laertes character is thought to be originated by Shakespeare, as there is no equivalent character in any of the sources for the play. Before Laertes returns to France from Denmark, returning to Denmark only to attend the coronation of King Claudius, his father, Polonius, during Laertess absence, Hamlet kills Polonius in Gertrudes parlor. Laertes, informed of his fathers death, returns to Denmark, Laertes confronts the King, thinking he was responsible for Polonius death. The King explains to him who the killer was, and incites Laertes to kill Hamlet. When Ophelia appears in her mad condition, Laertes laments, saying if she had her wits she could not persuade him more to revenge. Later, Laertes is informed of her death and she had climbed into a willow tree that hung over a brook, and then fell into the water when a branch broke. Too insane to save herself, she drowned and his sisters death strengthens Laertess resolve to kill Hamlet. At her funeral, Laertes asks why the normal Christian burial ceremony is not being carried out for his sister and he leaps into her grave and begs the attendants to bury him with her. Hamlet, who was watching from afar, advances and himself leaps into Ophelias grave. When Laertes attacks Hamlet, the two have to be back to avoid a fight. In the next scene, King Claudius arranges a match between Hamlet and Laertes. Laertes uses his sharp, poisoned sword instead of a bated sword, the King provides a poisoned drink as a backup measure. Before the match begins, Hamlet apologizes publicly to Laertes for the wrongs he has dealt him, Laertes accepts the apology, so he says, but he proceeds with the scheme to kill Hamlet. Hamlet is eventually wounded with the poisoned sword, then, in a scuffle, the swords are switched
6.
Denmark
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Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Scandinavian country in Europe and a sovereign state. The southernmost and smallest of the Nordic countries, it is south-west of Sweden and south of Norway, Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark has an area of 42,924 square kilometres. The country consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, the islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. The unified kingdom of Denmark emerged in the 10th century as a proficient seafaring nation in the struggle for control of the Baltic Sea, Denmark, Sweden and Norway were ruled together under the Kalmar Union, established in 1397 and ending with Swedish secession in 1523. Denmark and Norway remained under the monarch until outside forces dissolved the union in 1814. The union with Norway made it possible for Denmark to inherit the Faroe Islands, Iceland, beginning in the 17th century, there were several cessions of territory to Sweden. In the 19th century there was a surge of nationalist movements, Denmark remained neutral during World War I. In April 1940, a German invasion saw brief military skirmishes while the Danish resistance movement was active from 1943 until the German surrender in May 1945, the Constitution of Denmark was signed on 5 June 1849, ending the absolute monarchy which had begun in 1660. It establishes a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary democracy, the government and national parliament are seated in Copenhagen, the nations capital, largest city and main commercial centre. Denmark exercises hegemonic influence in the Danish Realm, devolving powers to handle internal affairs, Home rule was established in the Faroe Islands in 1948, in Greenland home rule was established in 1979 and further autonomy in 2009. Denmark became a member of the European Economic Community in 1973, maintaining certain opt-outs, it retains its own currency, the krone. It is among the members of NATO, the Nordic Council, the OECD, OSCE. The etymology of the word Denmark, and especially the relationship between Danes and Denmark and the unifying of Denmark as a kingdom, is a subject which attracts debate. This is centred primarily on the prefix Dan and whether it refers to the Dani or a historical person Dan and the exact meaning of the -mark ending. Most handbooks derive the first part of the word, and the name of the people, from a word meaning land, related to German Tenne threshing floor. The -mark is believed to mean woodland or borderland, with references to the border forests in south Schleswig. The first recorded use of the word Danmark within Denmark itself is found on the two Jelling stones, which are believed to have been erected by Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth
7.
Laertes (character)
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Laertes /leɪˈɜːrtiːz/ is a character in William Shakespeares play Hamlet. His name is taken from the father of Odysseus in Homers Odyssey, Laertes is the son of Polonius and the brother of Ophelia. In the final scene, he kills Hamlet with a sword to avenge the deaths of his father and sister. While dying of the poison, he implicates King Claudius. The Laertes character is thought to be originated by Shakespeare, as there is no equivalent character in any of the sources for the play. Before Laertes returns to France from Denmark, returning to Denmark only to attend the coronation of King Claudius, his father, Polonius, during Laertess absence, Hamlet kills Polonius in Gertrudes parlor. Laertes, informed of his fathers death, returns to Denmark, Laertes confronts the King, thinking he was responsible for Polonius death. The King explains to him who the killer was, and incites Laertes to kill Hamlet. When Ophelia appears in her mad condition, Laertes laments, saying if she had her wits she could not persuade him more to revenge. Later, Laertes is informed of her death and she had climbed into a willow tree that hung over a brook, and then fell into the water when a branch broke. Too insane to save herself, she drowned and his sisters death strengthens Laertess resolve to kill Hamlet. At her funeral, Laertes asks why the normal Christian burial ceremony is not being carried out for his sister and he leaps into her grave and begs the attendants to bury him with her. Hamlet, who was watching from afar, advances and himself leaps into Ophelias grave. When Laertes attacks Hamlet, the two have to be back to avoid a fight. In the next scene, King Claudius arranges a match between Hamlet and Laertes. Laertes uses his sharp, poisoned sword instead of a bated sword, the King provides a poisoned drink as a backup measure. Before the match begins, Hamlet apologizes publicly to Laertes for the wrongs he has dealt him, Laertes accepts the apology, so he says, but he proceeds with the scheme to kill Hamlet. Hamlet is eventually wounded with the poisoned sword, then, in a scuffle, the swords are switched
8.
Prince Hamlet
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Prince Hamlet is the title character and protagonist of William Shakespeares tragedy Hamlet. He is the Prince of Denmark, nephew to the usurping Claudius, and son of King Hamlet, at the beginning of the play, he struggles with whether, and how, to avenge the murder of his father, and struggles with his own sanity along the way. By the end of the tragedy, Hamlet has caused the deaths of Polonius, Laertes, Claudius and he is also indirectly involved in the deaths of his love Ophelia and of his mother Gertrude. The play opens with Hamlet deeply depressed over the recent death of his father, King Hamlet, one night, his fathers ghost appears to him and tells him that Claudius murdered him in order to usurp the throne, and commands his son to avenge his death. Claudius sends for two of Hamlets friends from Wittenberg, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to find out what is causing Hamlet so much pain, Claudius and his advisor Polonius convince Ophelia—Polonius daughter and Hamlets true love—to speak with Hamlet while they secretly listen. Ophelia greets him, and offers to return his remembrances, upon which Hamlet questions her honesty and tells her to get thee to a nunnery. Hamlet devises a test to see whether Claudius is guilty, he hires a group of actors to perform a play about the murder of a king in front of the royal court, Claudius demands the play be stopped half through because it is the cause of his guilty conscience. When Claudius leaves the audience deeply upset, Hamlet knows that the ghost was telling the truth, a second attempt on Claudius life ends in Polonius accidental death. Claudius, now fearing for his life, sends Hamlet to England, accompanied by Rosencrantz, alone, Claudius discloses that he is actually sending Hamlet to his death. Prior to embarking for England, Hamlet hides Polonius body, ultimately revealing its location to the King, meanwhile, her fathers death has driven Ophelia insane with grief, and Claudius convinces her brother Laertes that Hamlet is to blame. He proposes a match between the two. Laertes informs the king that he will poison the tip of his sword so that a mere scratch would mean certain death. Claudius plans to offer Hamlet poisoned wine if that fails, Gertrude enters to report that Ophelia has died. In the Elsinore churchyard, two clowns, typically represented as gravediggers, enter to prepare Ophelias grave, Hamlet arrives with Horatio and banters with one of them, who unearths the skull of a jester whom Hamlet once knew, Yorick. Ophelias funeral procession approaches, led by Laertes, Hamlet interrupts, professing his own love and grief for Ophelia. He and Laertes grapple, but the fight is broken up by Claudius, later that day, Hamlet tells Horatio how he escaped death on his journey, disclosing that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been sent to their deaths instead. A courtier, Osric, interrupts to invite Hamlet to fence with Laertes, despite Horatios warnings, Hamlet accepts and the match begins. After several rounds, Gertrude toasts Hamlet, accidentally drinking the wine he poisoned, between bouts, Laertes attacks and pierces Hamlet with his poisoned blade, in the ensuing scuffle, Hamlet is able to use Laertes own poisoned sword against him
9.
King Claudius
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King Claudius is a fictional character and the primary antagonist of William Shakespeares tragedy Hamlet. He is the brother to King Hamlet, second husband to Gertrude and uncle and he obtained the throne of Denmark by murdering his own brother with poison and then marrying the late kings widow. He is loosely based on the Jutish chieftain Feng who appears in Chronicon Lethrense, there had never been an actual Danish King of that name. Claudius is seen at the beginning of the play to be a monarch as he deals diplomatically with such issues as the military threat from Norway. It is not until the appearance of King Hamlets Ghost in the courtyard that the reader questions his motives, during the plays progression he takes a turn for the worse by first resorting to spying, and, when that fails, murder. It is in Act III Scene 3, when Claudius forestalls Hamlets revenge by confessing his sins to God in his own private chapel and he is shown to be discontent and unhappy with the events taking place. If he were to truly repent, he would have to confess his sin and give up all he achieved through it, which he chooses not to do. Despite his remorse, the King still seeks Hamlets death in an effort to both his throne and his life, as he believes the prince is now aware of his part in Old King Hamlets death. When Laertes seeks revenge for his father Polonius death at Hamlets hands, Claudius finally concocts a plan to deal with Hamlet once. He arranges a match between Hamlet and Laertes, but plots with Laertes to poison his foil and give Hamlet a poisoned drink. The character Claudius is both the major antagonist of the piece and complex and he is the villain of the piece, as he admits to himself, O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven. Yet his remarkable self-awareness and remorse complicates Claudiuss villain status, much like Macbeth, Claudiuss fratricide is the corruption permeating the plays world – that which is, in the words of Marcellus, something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Claudius cruelty is reflected in his schemes to kill Hamlet – sending him to England to be killed, Claudius is also a heavy drinker, proposing numerous toasts and presiding over a rowdy court, he appropriately succumbs to his own poisoned wine. The king is not without redeeming virtues, though and he is seen to be an able monarch as well as a quick thinker and smooth talker, who in Act IV, Scene 5 converts Laertes from rebel to accomplice. In Act III, Scene 1 he fleetingly shows remorse for his crimes, and attempts to pray in Scene 3, even as he realizes that he cannot sincerely repent, and eventually continues in his evil ways. Most commentators agree that the evil nature is evident. The king is named after the Roman emperor Claudius I, who was considered the archetype of a ruler in Shakespeares time. / O heart, lose not thy nature, let not ever / The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom, although the character is referred to as Claudius, King of Denmark in one stage direction, the name Claudius is never spoken by any character in the play
10.
Nunnery
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A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers or religious sisters, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion. The term derives via Old French from Latin conventus, perfect participle of the verb convenio, meaning to convene, the original reference was to the gathering of mendicants who spent much of their time travelling. Technically, a monastery or nunnery is a community of monastics, whereas a friary or convent is a community of mendicants, and a canonry a community of canons regular. The terms abbey and priory can be applied to both monasteries and canonries, an abbey is headed by an Abbot, and a priory is a dependent house headed by a Prior. In English usage since about the 19th century the term convent almost invariably refers to a community of women, in historical usage they are often interchangeable, with convent especially likely to be used for a friary. When applied to houses in Eastern Orthodoxy and Buddhism, English refers to all houses of male religious as monasteries. Christian monasticism Enclosed religious orders Herbermann, Charles, ed. Convent, carmelite Monastery of the Sacred Hearts —- an example of a modern-day convent Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Convent
11.
To be, or not to be
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To be, or not to be is the opening phrase of a soliloquy spoken by Prince Hamlet in the so-called nunnery scene of William Shakespeares play Hamlet. Even so, Hamlet seems to consider himself alone, in the speech, Hamlet contemplates death and suicide, bemoaning the pain and unfairness of life but acknowledging that the alternative might be worse. The meaning of the speech is heavily debated but seems concerned with Hamlets hesitation to directly and immediately avenge his fathers murder on his uncle, stepfather and this version preserves most of the First Folio text with updated spelling and five common emendations introduced from the Second Quarto. Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep, To sleep, perchance to Dream, aye, theres the rub, for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come, soft you now, The fair Ophelia. Nymph, in thy Orisons Be all my sins rememberd, although the First Quarto was the earliest edition of Hamlet in print it is considered a bad quarto rather than a first or earlier draft. Some parts of Q1 reflect the text well, its version of To be does not, being much shorter. For ease of comparison the spelling here is updated as above, to be, or not to be, Ay theres the point, To Die, to sleep, is that all. But for this, the hope of this, Whod bear the scorns and flattery of the world, Scorned by the right rich. Which puzzles the brain, and doth confound the sense, Which makes us rather bear those evils we have, aye that, O this conscience makes cowards of us all, Lady in thy orizons, be all my sins remembered. Q1, as mentioned above, differs from its source material, a puzzling example is that dread is changed to hope in the line, But for a hope of something after death. In the lines above this, Hamlet questions why one would suffer the calamites of life when a bare bodkin could quiet that suffering. In the Second Quarto, Halmlet suggests that humanity endures life because we dread what comes after death, the change from dread to hope makes the phrasing nonsensical, since he is now suggesting that we refuse death because of a hope of something after death. The Second Quarto is considered the earliest and authoritative version of the play, soft you now, The faire Ophelia, Nimph in thy orizons Be all my ſinnes remembred. The differences in To be are mostly typographic, with increased punctuation and capitalization, tis a consummation Deuoutly to be wiſhd. To dye to sleepe, To sleep, perchance to Dream, I, theres the rub, For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come, When we haue ſhufflel’d off this mortall coile, soft you now, The faire Ophelia. Nimph, in thy Orizons Be all my ſinnes remembred, to be, or not to be is one of the most widely known and quoted lines in modern English, and the soliloquy has been referenced in innumerable works of theatre, literature and music. In 1963 at a debate in Oxford, Black liberation leader Malcolm X quoted the first few lines of the soliloquy to make a point about extremism in defense of liberty, james dystopian novel The Children of Men refers to expected or forced mass suicides of the elderly as Quietus
12.
Ophelia (painting)
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Ophelia is a painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais, completed between 1851 and 1852. It is held in the Tate Britain in London and it depicts Ophelia, a character from William Shakespeares play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark. The work was not highly regarded when first exhibited at the Royal Academy, the painting depicts Ophelia singing while floating in a river just before she drowns. The scene is described in Act IV, Scene VII of Hamlet in a speech by Queen Gertrude, the episode depicted is not seen onstage, but exists only in Gertrudes description. Ophelia has fallen into the river from a tree overhanging it and she lies in the water singing songs, as if unaware of her danger. Her clothes, trapping air, have allowed her to stay afloat. But eventually, her garments, heavy with their drink, / Pulld the poor wretch from her melodious lay down to muddy death, Ophelias death has been praised as one of the most poetically written death scenes in literature. Ophelias pose—her open arms and upwards gaze—also resembles traditional portrayals of saints or martyrs, the painting is known for its depiction of the detailed flora of the river and the riverbank, stressing the patterns of growth and decay in a natural ecosystem. Despite its nominal Danish setting, the landscape has come to be seen as quintessentially English, Ophelia was painted along the banks of the Hogsmill River in Surrey, near Tolworth, Greater London. Millais close colleague William Holman Hunt was at the working on his The Hireling Shepherd nearby. The flowers shown floating on the river were chosen to correspond with Shakespeares description of Ophelias garland and they also reflect the Victorian interest in the language of flowers, according to which each flower carries a symbolic meaning. The prominent red poppy—not mentioned by Shakespeares description of the scene—represents sleep, at an early stage in the paintings creation, Millais painted a water vole—which an assistant had fished out of the Hogsmill—paddling next to Ophelia. In December 1851, he showed the painting to Holman Hunts relatives. He recorded in his diary, Hunts uncle and aunt came, the male relation, when invited to guess at it, eagerly pronounced it to be a hare. Perceiving by our smiles that he had made a mistake, a rabbit was then hazarded, after which I have a faint recollection of a dog or a cat being mentioned. Millais painted the water out of the final picture, although a rough sketch of it still exists in an upper corner of the canvas hidden by its frame. In keeping with the tenets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, of which he was a member, Millais used bright colours, gave high attention to detail, also, Millais utilizes bright, intense colours in the landscape to make the pale Ophelia contrast with the nature behind her. All this is evident in the attention to detail in the brush and trees around Ophelia, the contouring of her face
13.
John Everett Millais
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Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. A child prodigy, at the age of eleven Millais became the youngest student to enter the Royal Academy Schools, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded at his family home in London, at 83 Gower Street. Millais became the most famous exponent of the style, his painting Christ in the House of His Parents generating considerable controversy, by the mid-1850s Millais was moving away from the Pre-Raphaelite style and developing a new and powerful form of realism in his art. His later works were successful, making Millais one of the wealthiest artists of his day. Millaiss personal life has played a significant role in his reputation. His wife Effie was formerly married to the critic John Ruskin, Millais was born in Southampton, England in 1829, of a prominent Jersey-based family. His parents were John William Millais and Emily Mary Millais, most of his early childhood was spent in Jersey, to which he retained a strong devotion throughout his life. The author Thackeray once asked him when England conquered Jersey, the family moved to Dinan in Brittany for a few years in his childhood. His mothers forceful personality was the most powerful influence on his early life and she had a keen interest in art and music, and encouraged her sons artistic bent, promoting the relocating of the family to London to help develop contacts at the Royal Academy of Art. He later said I owe everything to my mother and his prodigious artistic talent won him a place at the Royal Academy schools at the unprecedented age of eleven. While there, he met William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti with whom he formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in September 1848 in his home on Gower Street. Millaiss Christ in the House of His Parents was highly controversial because of its portrayal of a working class Holy Family labouring in a messy carpentry workshop. Later works were controversial, though less so. Millais achieved popular success with A Huguenot, which depicts a couple about to be separated because of religious conflicts. He repeated this theme in later works. All these early works were painted with great attention to detail, in paintings such as Ophelia Millais created dense and elaborate pictorial surfaces based on the integration of naturalistic elements. This approach has been described as a kind of pictorial eco-system, Mariana is a painting that Millais painted in 1850-51 based on the play Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare and the poem of the same name by Alfred, Lord Tennyson from 1830. In the play, the young Mariana was to be married and this style was promoted by the critic John Ruskin, who had defended the Pre-Raphaelites against their critics
14.
Tate Gallery
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Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdoms national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is a network of four art museums, Tate Britain, London, Tate Liverpool, Tate St Ives, Cornwall and Tate Modern, London, Tate is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The name Tate is used also as the name for the corporate body. The gallery was founded in 1897, as the National Gallery of British Art, the Tate Gallery was housed in the current building occupied by Tate Britain, which is situated in Millbank, London. Tate Liverpool has the purpose as Tate Modern but on a smaller scale. All four museums share the Tate Collection, one of the Tates most publicised art events is the awarding of the annual Turner Prize, which takes place at Tate Britain. The original Tate was called the National Gallery of British Art, situated on Millbank, Pimlico, the idea of a National Gallery of British Art was first proposed in the 1820s by Sir John Leicester, Baron de Tabley. It took a step nearer when Robert Vernon gave his collection to the National Gallery in 1847, a decade later John Sheepshanks gave his collection to the South Kensington Museum, known for years as the National Gallery of Art. Henry Tate also donated his own collection to the gallery and it was initially a collection solely of modern British art, concentrating on the works of modern—that is Victorian era—painters. It was controlled by the National Gallery until 1954, in 1926 and 1937, the art dealer and patron Joseph Duveen paid for two major expansions of the gallery building. His father had paid for an extension to house the major part of the Turner Bequest. Henry Courtauld also endowed Tate with a purchase fund, by the mid 20th century, it was fulfilling a dual function of showing the history of British art as well as international modern art. In 1954, the Tate Gallery was finally separated from the National Gallery, later, the Tate began organising its own temporary exhibition programme. In 1979 with funding from a Japanese bank a large extension was opened that would also house larger income generating exhibitions. In 1987, the Clore Wing opened to house the major part of the Turner bequest, in 1988, an outpost in north west England opened as Tate Liverpool. This shows various works of art from the Tate collection as well as mounting its own temporary exhibitions. In 2007, Tate Liverpool hosted the Turner Prize, the first time this has been held outside London and this was an overture to Liverpools being the European Capital of Culture 2008. In 1993, another offshoot opened, Tate St Ives and it exhibits work by modern British artists, particularly those of the St Ives School
15.
Kenneth Branagh
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Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh is a Northern Irish actor, director, producer, and screenwriter originally from Belfast. Branagh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and he has directed or starred in several film adaptations of William Shakespeares plays, including Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, Hamlet, Loves Labours Lost, and As You Like It. He also narrated the BBC documentary miniseries Walking with Dinosaurs, Walking with Beasts, Branagh has been nominated for five Academy Awards, five Golden Globes, and has won three BAFTAs, and an Emmy. He was appointed a knight bachelor in the 2012 Birthday Honours and was knighted on 9 November 2012, at the age of nine, he moved with his family to Reading, Berkshire, to escape the Troubles. He was educated at Grove Primary School, Whiteknights Primary School, then Meadway School, Tilehurst, at school, he acquired Received Pronunciation to avoid bullying. On his identity today he has said, I feel Irish, I dont think you can take Belfast out of the boy, and he attributes his love of words to his Irish heritage. He is known to have attended the Reading Cine & Video Society as a member and was a member of Progress Theatre for whom he is now the patron. Branagh went on to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Branagh was part of the new wave’ of actors to emerge from the Academy. Others included Jonathan Pryce, Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman, Anton Lesser, Bruce Payne, in 1984 he appeared in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Henry V, directed by Adrian Noble. The production played to full houses, especially at the Barbican in London and it was this production that he adapted for the film version of the play in 1989. This Twelfth Night was later adapted for television, on the negative side, he has not got the magnetism of Olivier, nor the mellifluous voice quality of Gielgud nor the intelligence of Guinness. A year later in 1989 Branagh co-starred with Emma Thompson in the Renaissance revival of Look Back in Anger, Judi Dench directed both the theatre and television productions, presented first in Belfast then at the London Coliseum and Lyric Theatre. In 2002, Branagh starred at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield as Richard III, in 2003 he starred in the Royal National Theatres production of David Mamets Edmond. Branagh directed The Play What I Wrote in England in 2001, from September to November 2008, Branagh appeared at Wyndhams Theatre as the title character in the Donmar West End revival of Anton Chekhovs Ivanov in a new version by Tom Stoppard. His performance was lauded as the performance of the year by several critics and it won him the Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Male Performance but did not get him a Laurence Olivier Award nomination, to the surprise of critics. In July 2013 he co-directed Macbeth at Manchester International Festival with Rob Ashford, with Branagh in the title role, Alex Kingston played Lady Macbeth and Ray Fearon featured as Macduff. The final performance of the sold out run, was broadcast to cinemas on 20 July as part of National Theatre Live. He repeated his performance and directorial duties opposite Ashford and Kingston when the production moved to New York Citys Park Avenue Armory in June 2014, the production marked his New York stage debut
16.
Gertrude (Hamlet)
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In William Shakespeares play Hamlet, Gertrude is Hamlets mother and Queen of Denmark. Her relationship with Hamlet is somewhat turbulent, since he resents her marrying her husbands brother Claudius after he murdered the King, Gertrude reveals no guilt in her marriage with Claudius after the recent murder of her husband, and Hamlet begins to show signs of jealousy towards Claudius. According to Hamlet, she mourned her husbands death before marrying Claudius. Gertrude is first seen in Act 1 Scene 2 as she tries to cheer Hamlet over the loss of his father and her worry over him continues into the second act, as she sides with King Claudius in sending Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to raise the spirits of her son. In the next act, Gertrude tells Claudius of Polonius murder and she also shows genuine compassion and affection as she watches along with others as Ophelia sings and acts in absolute madness. At Ophelias burial, she expresses her hope that the young woman might have married her son. When Hamlet appears and grapples with Laertes, she asks him to stop and for someone to hold him back—saying that he may be in a fit of madness now, but that will alleviate soon. At the beginning of the play, Gertrude lies more with her husband than her son, in the final scene, Gertrude notices Hamlet is tired during the fight with Laertes, and offers to wipe his brow. She drinks a cup of poison intended for Hamlet by the King, against the Kings wishes, and dies, shouting in agony as she falls, No, no, the drink, --O my dear Hamlet--The drink, other characters views of the Queen are largely negative. When the Ghost of her husband appears to Hamlet, he describes her as a seeming virtuous queen. However, he expresses that his love for her was benevolent as he states that he would have held back the elements if they visited her face too roughly. Hamlet sees her as an example of the weakness of women, Gertrudes last words show affection towards her son. She does not confess to any sins before she dies which suggests she was naïve about the corruption in Denmark. Therefore, Gertrude is most likely an honest queen and a mother as she makes no attempts to ease her conscience regarding whether she would be sent to Heaven or Hell. Other considerations point to Gertrudes complicity in the murder of Hamlets father, S. Eliot suggests that the main cause of Hamlets internal dilemma is Gertrudes sinful behaviour. He states, Shakespeares Hamlet. is a play dealing with the effect of a guilt upon her son. In the 1940s, Ernest Jones—a psychoanalyst and Freuds biographer—developed Freuds ideas into a series of essays that culminated in his book Hamlet and Oedipus. Influenced by Joness psychoanalytic approach, several productions have portrayed the closet scene, in this reading, Hamlet is disgusted by his mothers incestuous relationship with Claudius while simultaneously fearful of killing him, as this would clear Hamlets path to his mothers bed
17.
Grief
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Grief is a multifaceted response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or something that has died, to which a bond or affection was formed. Although conventionally focused on the response to loss, it also has physical, cognitive, behavioral, social, cultural. While the terms are used interchangeably, bereavement refers to the state of loss. Grief is a response to loss. It is the suffering one feels when something or someone the individual loves is taken away. Crying is a normal and natural part of grieving and it has also been found, however, that crying and talking about the loss is not the only healthy response and, if forced or excessive, can be harmful. Lack of crying is also a natural, healthy reaction, potentially protective of the individual, Science has found that some healthy people who are grieving do not spontaneously talk about the loss. Pressing people to cry or retell the experience of a loss can be harmful, berger identifies five ways of grieving, as exemplified by, Nomads, Nomads have not yet resolved their grief and do not seem to understand the loss that has affected their lives. Memorialists, This identity is committed to preserving the memory of the one that they have lost. Normalizers, This identity is committed to re-creating a sense of family, activists, This identity focuses on helping other people who are dealing with the same disease or with the same issues that caused their loved ones death. Seekers, This identity will adopt religious, philosophical, or spiritual beliefs to create meaning in their lives, in Bonannos book, The Other Side of Sadness, What the New Science of Bereavement Tells Us About Life After a Loss, he summarizes his research. His findings include that a natural resilience is the component of grief. The first researcher to use data, he outlined four trajectories of grief. Bonannos work has demonstrated that absence of grief or trauma symptoms is a healthy outcome, rather than something to be feared as has been the thought. Recovery, When normal functioning temporarily gives way to threshold or sub-threshold psychopathology, usually for a period of at least several months, chronic dysfunction, Prolonged suffering and inability to function, usually lasting several years or longer. Delayed grief or trauma, When adjustment seems normal but then distress, researchers have not found evidence of delayed grief, but delayed trauma appears to be a genuine phenomenon. The Kübler-Ross model, commonly known as the five stages of grief, is a theory first introduced by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book, On Death, kubler-Ross actually applied the stages to persons who were dying, not persons who were grieving. Her studies involved her work with the ill and it was not until much later in her career did she give into the notion that it could be applied to those grieving
18.
Rue
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Ruta graveolens, commonly known as rue, common rue or herb-of-grace, is a species of Ruta grown as an ornamental plant and herb. It is native to the Balkan Peninsula and it is now grown throughout the world in gardens, especially for its bluish leaves, and sometimes for its tolerance of hot and dry soil conditions. It is also cultivated as a herb, as a condiment. The Tacuinum Sanitatis, a handbook on wellness, lists these properties of rue, Nature, Warm. Optimum, That which is grown near a fig tree, usefulness, It sharpens the eyesight and dissipates flatulence. Dangers, It augments the sperm and dampens the desire for coitus, neutralization of the Dangers, With foods that multiply the sperm. The refined oil of rue is an emmenagogue and was cited by the Roman historian Pliny the Elder, Rue has a culinary use, but since it is bitter and gastric discomfort may be experienced by some individuals, it is used sparingly. Although used more extensively in former times, it is not an herb that is found in modern cuisine. Today it is unknown to the general public and most chefs. It is a component of berbere, the characteristic Ethiopian spice mixture and it has a variety of other culinary uses, It was used extensively in ancient Near Eastern and Roman cuisine. Rue is used as a flavouring in Greece and other Mediterranean countries. In Istria, and in Northern Italy, it is used to give a flavour to grappa/raki. This is called grappa alla ruta, seeds can be used for porridge. The bitter leaf can be added to eggs, cheese, fish, or mixed with damson plums, in Italy in Friuli Venezia-Giulia, the young branches of the plant are dipped in a batter, deep-fried in oil, and consumed with salt or sugar. They are also used on their own to aromatise a specific type of omelette, used in Old World beers as flavouring ingredient. Rue is also grown as a plant, both as a low hedge and so the leaves can be used in nosegays. Most cats dislike the smell of it, and it can, therefore, caterpillars of some subspecies of the butterfly Papilio machaon feed on rue, as well as other plants. The caterpillars of Papilio xuthus also feed readily on it, in South India, rue is recommended for home gardens to repel snakes
19.
Alexandre Cabanel
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Alexandre Cabanel was a French painter born in Montpellier, Hérault. He painted historical, classical and religious subjects in the academic style and he was also well known as a portrait painter. According to Diccionario Enciclopedico Salvat, Cabanel is the best representative of the Lart pompier, Cabanel entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris at the age of seventeen, and studied with François-Édouard Picot. He exhibited at the Paris Salon for the first time in 1844, Cabanel was elected a member of the Institute in 1863. He was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1864 and he was closely connected to the Paris Salon, He was elected regularly to the Salon jury and his pupils could be counted by the hundred at the Salons. Through them, Cabanel did more than any other artist of his generation to form the character of belle époque French painting, Cabanel won the Grande Médaille dHonneur at the Salons of 1865,1867, and 1878. A successful academic painter, his 1863 painting The Birth of Venus is one of the best known examples of 19th-century academic painting, the picture was bought by the emperor Napoleon III, there is also a smaller replica at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It was given to them by Wolf in 1893. com
20.
Heaven
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According to the beliefs of some religions, heavenly beings can descend to earth or incarnate, and earthly beings can ascend to Heaven in the afterlife, or in exceptional cases enter Heaven alive. Some believe in the possibility of a Heaven on Earth in a World to Come, another belief is in an axis mundi or world tree which connects the heavens, the terrestrial world, and the underworld. In Indian religions, Heaven is considered as Svarga loka, and this cycle can be broken after a soul achieves Moksha or Nirvana. Any place of existence, either of humans, souls or deities, the modern English word heaven is derived from the earlier heven, this in turn was developed from the previous Old English form heofon. By about 1000, heofon was being used in reference to the Christianized place where God dwells, all of these have been derived from a reconstructed Proto-Germanic form *Hemina-. In Ancient Egyptian religion, belief in an afterlife is much more stressed than in ancient Judaism, Heaven was a physical place far above the Earth in a dark area of space where there were no stars, basically beyond the Universe. Their heart would finally be weighed with the feather of truth, almost nothing is known of Bronze Age Canaanite views of Heaven, and the archeological findings at Ugarit have not provided information. The 1st century Greek author Philo of Byblos may preserve elements of Iron Age Phoenician religion in his Sanchuniathon, in the Middle Hittite myths, Heaven is the abode of the gods. In the Song of Kumarbi, Alalu was king in Heaven for nine years before giving birth to his son, Anu was himself overthrown by his son, Kumarbi. The Baháí Faith regards the description of Heaven as a specific place as symbolic. The Baháí writings describe Heaven as a condition where closeness to God is defined as Heaven. For Baháís, entry into the life has the potential to bring great joy. Baháulláh likened death to the process of birth and he explains, The world beyond is as different from this world as this world is different from that of the child while still in the womb of its mother. Accordingly, Baháís view life as a stage, where one can develop. The key to progress is to follow the path outlined by the current Manifestation of God. Baháulláh wrote, Know thou, of a truth, that if the soul of man hath walked in the ways of God, it will, assuredly return, in Buddhism there are several Heavens, all of which are still part of samsara. Those who accumulate good karma may be reborn in one of them, however, their stay in Heaven is not eternal—eventually they will use up their good karma and will undergo rebirth into another realm, as a human, animal or other being. Because Heaven is temporary and part of samsara, Buddhists focus more on escaping the cycle of rebirth, Nirvana is not a heaven but a mental state
21.
Hell
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Hell, in many mythological, folklore and religious traditions, is a place of torment and punishment in an afterlife. Religions with a divine history often depict hells as eternal destinations while Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations. Typically these traditions locate hell in another dimension or under the Earths surface, other afterlife destinations include Heaven, Purgatory, Paradise, and Limbo. Hell is sometimes portrayed as populated with demons who torment those dwelling there, many are ruled by a death god such as Nergal, Hades, Hel, Enma or Satan. Subsequently, the word was used to transfer a pagan concept to Christian theology, Some have theorized that English word hell is derived from Old Norse hel. However, this is unlikely as hel appears in Old English before the Viking invasions. Furthermore, the word has cognates in all the other Germanic languages and has a Proto-Germanic origin, Hell appears in several mythologies and religions. It is commonly inhabited by demons and the souls of dead people, a fable about hell which recurs in folklore across several cultures is the allegory of the long spoons. Hell is often depicted in art and literature, perhaps most famously in Dantes Divine Comedy, punishment in Hell typically corresponds to sins committed during life. In many religious cultures, including Christianity and Islam, Hell is often depicted as fiery, painful and harsh, despite these common depictions of Hell as a place of fire, some other traditions portray Hell as cold. Buddhist - and particularly Tibetan Buddhist - descriptions of hell feature a number of hot. Among Christian descriptions Dantes Inferno portrays the innermost circle of Hell as a lake of blood. At death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of forty-two divine judges, if they had led a life in conformance with the precepts of the Goddess Maat, who represented truth and right living, the person was welcomed into the Two Fields. If found guilty the person was thrown to a devourer and would be condemned to the lake of fire, the person taken by the devourer is subject first to terrifying punishment and then annihilated. These depictions of punishment may have influenced medieval perceptions of the inferno in hell via early Christian, purification for those considered justified appears in the descriptions of Flame Island, where humans experience the triumph over evil and rebirth. For the damned complete destruction into a state of non-being awaits but there is no suggestion of eternal torture, the weighing of the heart in Egyptian mythology can lead to annihilation. The Tale of Khaemwese describes the torment of a man, who lacked charity. Divine pardon at judgement always remained a concern for the Ancient Egyptians
22.
John Philip Kemble
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John Philip Kemble was an English actor. He was born into a family as the eldest son of Roger Kemble. His elder sister Sarah Siddons achieved fame with him on the stage of the Theatre Royal and his other siblings Charles Kemble, Stephen Kemble, Ann Hatton and Elizabeth Whitlock also enjoyed success on the stage. The second child of Roger Kemble – the manager of the theatre company the Warwickshire Company of Comedians – he was born at Prescot. His mother being a Roman Catholic, he was educated at Sedgley Park Catholic seminary, near Wolverhampton, in 1781 he obtained a star engagement at Dublin making his first appearance there on 2 November as Hamlet. He also achieved success as Raymond in The Count of Narbonne. In this role he awakened interest and discussion among the critics such as Harriet Evans Martin rather than the approval of the public. As Macbeth on 31 March 1785 he shared in the enthusiasm aroused by Sarah Siddons, brother and sister had first appeared together at Drury Lane on 22 November 1783, as Beverley and Mrs Beverley in Edward Moores The Gamester, and as King John and Constance in Shakespeares tragedy. Between 1785 and 1787 Kemble appeared in a variety of roles, in December 1787 he married Priscilla Hopkins Brereton, the widow of an actor and herself an actress. He was also able to experiment with whatever parts might strike his fancy, in 1785 the well-known actor, John Henderson, asked his friend, the critic Richard Conversation Sharp, to go and see the newcomer, Kemble, and to report back to him. Very careful study appears in all he says and all he does, excepting in serious parts, I suppose he will never put on the sock. His elocutionary art, his sense of rhythm and emphasis, enabled him to excel in declamation. In all the other great Shakespearean characters he was, according to the best critics, inferior to them, least so in Lear, Hamlet and Wolsey and his production of Cymbeline was staged regularly from 1801 on. In 1803 he became manager of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, Kemble had been nearly ruined by the fire, and was only saved by a generous loan, afterwards converted into a gift, of £10,000 from the Duke of Northumberland. Kemble took his leave of the stage in the part of Coriolanus on 23 June 1817. His retirement was hastened by the rising popularity of Edmund Kean. The remaining years of his life were spent chiefly abroad, although Kemble was interred at Lausanne, a life-size marble statue of him stands in the chapel of St Andrew in Westminster Abbey, close to that of his sister, Sarah Siddons. He is also commemorated in the name of a street in his place of birth, a bust of Kemble by Charles Molloy Westmacott was exhibited at the Royal Academy, London in 1822
23.
Richard Burbage
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Richard Burbage is considered the first great actor of English theatre. He is one of the most famous actors of the Globe Theatre of his time, in addition to being a stage actor he was also a theatre owner, entrepreneur and painter. He was the brother of Cuthbert Burbage. They were both actors in drama, Burbage was a business associate and friend to William Shakespeare. The son of James Burbage, a joiner who became a theatrical impresario, Burbage was a popular actor by his early 20s. He excelled in plays with the theme of tragedies and his early acting career is poorly documented. As many young actors of his time, he may have played the part of women in productions before taking any of the roles he is known for. It has been suggested that he spent time working with the Earl of Leicesters company and he played the title role in the first performances of many of Shakespeares plays, including Hamlet, Othello, Richard III, and King Lear. But he was in demand and also appeared in the plays of many of the great contemporary writers, such as Ben Jonson, John Marston, John Webster and Beaumont. Burbages power and scope as an actor is revealed in the size of the roles he played. He was a box office draw. Of the hundreds of plays and thousands of roles for actors that date from the 1580–1610 era and his acting style is closely compared with the method that actors use today called method acting, it would be another four centuries before this came into popularity. He was described as being short and stout, but said to be an impressive figure, Burbage was baptised at St Stephen in London on 7 July 1568. He was the son to his parents, followed by three younger sisters, Alice, Joane, and Ellen. His father brought Burbage to the theatre and became the greatest influence for his career and it gave him a great starting advantage in the theatre world by being the son of a builder and owner of the first successful permanent playhouse. After the death of their father in February 1597, Richard, the Blackfriars Theatre they kept but leased to lawyer and impresario Henry Evans, who used it for a troupe of child actors. The other, called simply The Theatre, was dismantled when they could not resolve terms for a new lease with Giles Allen, the landowner. The beams, posts, and other remnants of The Theatre were moved to a new location on the side of the Thames River
24.
Elizabethan England
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The Elizabethan era is the epoch in English history marked by the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Historians often depict it as the age in English history. In terms of the century, the historian John Guy argues that England was economically healthier, more expansive. This golden age represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music, the era is most famous for theatre, as William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of Englands past style of theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home and it was also the end of the period when England was a separate realm before its royal union with Scotland. The Elizabethan Age may be viewed especially highly when considered in light of the failings of the periods preceding Elizabeths reign, the Protestant/Catholic divide was settled, for a time, by the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, and parliament was not yet strong enough to challenge royal absolutism. England was also compared to the other nations of Europe. The Italian Renaissance had come to an end under the weight of Spanish domination of the peninsula, France was embroiled in its own religious battles due to significant Spanish intervention, that would only be settled in 1598 with the Edict of Nantes. The one great rival was Spain, which England clashed both in Europe and the Americas in skirmishes that exploded into the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604 and this drained both the English Exchequer and economy that had been so carefully restored under Elizabeths prudent guidance. English commercial and territorial expansion would be limited until the signing of the Treaty of London the year following Elizabeths death, economically, the country began to benefit greatly from the new era of trans-Atlantic trade, persistent theft of Spanish treasure, and the African slave trade. The Victorian era and the early 20th century idealised the Elizabethan era, the Encyclopædia Britannica maintains that he long reign of Elizabeth I, 1558–1603, was Englands Golden Age. Merry England, in love with life, expressed itself in music and literature, in architecture and this idealising tendency was shared by Britain and an Anglophilic America. In popular culture, the image of those adventurous Elizabethan seafarers was embodied in the films of Errol Flynn, in response and reaction to this hyperbole, modern historians and biographers have tended to take a more dispassionate view of the Tudor period. Elizabethan England was not particularly successful in a military sense during the period, having inherited a virtually bankrupt state from previous reigns, her frugal policies restored fiscal responsibility. Her fiscal restraint cleared the regime of debt by 1574, and this general peace and prosperity allowed the attractive developments that Golden Age advocates have stressed. The Elizabethan Age was also an age of plots and conspiracies, frequently political in nature, high officials in Madrid, Paris and Rome sought to kill Elizabeth, a Protestant, and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic. That would be a prelude to the recovery of England for Catholicism. In 1570, the Ridolfi plot was thwarted, in 1584, the Throckmorton Plot was discovered, after Francis Throckmorton confessed his involvement in a plot to overthrow the Queen and restore the Catholic Church in England
25.
Walsingham (music)
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Walsingham was a popular Elizabethan ballad tune. There are various versions of the lyrics, which relate to a pilgrimage site, the tune provided inspiration for Elizabethan composers, notably William Byrd. Byrd wrote a set of variations called Have with Yow to Walsingame. In some sources it is called As I went to Walsingham, Walsingham is a pilgrimage site in Norfolk, England, where, according to Catholic belief, a Saxon noblewoman, Richeldis de Faverches, had a vision of the Virgin Mary. The shrine was dismantled in 1538 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, in the sixteenth century attitudes towards pilgrimages varied, reflecting the Catholic/Protestant divide. Ophelia in Hamlet sings a version of the Walsingham lyrics in which a woman asks about her pilgrim lover, Byrd composed 22 variations on the Walsingham tune. The composition takes about 9 or 10 minutes in performance and it is included in two of the most important collections of keyboard music of the Renaissance, My Ladye Nevells Booke and the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. In these variations, which Byrd wrote in the 1570s or 1580s, he shows his mastery of the keyboard, musicologist Margaret Gynn described how Byrd had taken what was originally a love-song of the road and transformed it by giving it the serious religious character of a pilgrimage. According to Bradley Brookshire, the form a sort of covert speech addressed to Catholic recusants in Elizabethan culture. He argues that it includes musically encoded symbols of Catholic veneration, Byrds younger rival John Bull also composed variations on Walsingham for keyboard. It is the first composition in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, and our Lady of Walsingham My Ladye Nevells Booke, digitised version at the British Library Have with Yow to Walsingame on YouTube, performed by Rosemary Blandford Thoma
26.
Hamlet Q1
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Q1 of Hamlet, or the First Quarto as it is also called, is a short early text of the Shakespearean play. The intended publication of the play is entered in the Stationers Register in 1602 by James Roberts and it was published by the booksellers Nicholas Ling and John Trundell, and printed by Valentine Simmes. Roberts later printed the Second Quarto, the other two early printed texts of Hamlet are the Second Quarto and First Folio. Both Q2 and F1 are more than 1600 lines longer than Q1, Q1 was unknown until 1823, when the first of only two known copies was discovered by Sir Henry Bunbury. Since then the relationship between Q1 and the other early texts of the play, as well as its origin as a text, has been extensively debated. In addition to the fact that Q1 is much shorter than both Q2 and the F1 version of the play, it has a number of unique characteristics, there are many oddities and unexplained bits of action, consistent with crude cutting of the text. There is a scene between Horatio and Gertrude in which Horatio tells her that Hamlet has escaped from the ship after discovering Claudius plan to kill him. Gertrude says that she now recognises Claudius villany, but she will soothe, another significant difference is that the character of Polonius is called Corambis while his servant Reynoldo is named Montano. Various suggestions have been made to explain this, G. R. Hibbard argues that these last changes were made because Q1 derives from a touring version of the play, which was intended to include a performance at Oxford university. Hibbard believes that the names were too close to those of two famous Oxford scholars, the universitys founder Robert Polenius and the Puritan theologian John Rainolds. Since Polonius is a parody of a pompous pseudo-intellectual and his servant acts as a spy, the title page of Q1 specifically states that the play was recently performed in the Cittie of London, as also in the two Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and else-where. This view became increasingly prominent in the 20th century and it was one of the publications named by the bibliographer Alfred W. Pollard as a bad quarto in 1909, a term he coined to distinguish several texts that he judged significantly corrupt. In 1915 Henry David Gray analysed Q1 using the model of memorial reconstruction and he concluded that the actor who played Marcellus was responsible for the reconstruction. He explained the fact that the scene, in which Marcellus does not appear, was also accurate by suggesting that the same actor must have also played one of the roles in that scene. Grey argued that hired actors playing minor roles would be susceptible to bribery than established actors in the company. An anonymous writer filled out the missing verses. In 1943 G. I. W. W. Greg had argued that the actor may also have played another role, that of Voltemar. The publication of the so-called good quarto of Hamlet so soon after Q1 has been explained as the result of the fact that Q1 was so corrupt, possibly Shakespeare or his company thought it necessary to publish the true text to preserve the authors reputation
27.
Early modern
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The early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages of the post-classical era. Historians in recent decades have argued that from a worldwide standpoint, the period witnessed the exploration and colonization of the Americas and the rise of sustained contacts between previously isolated parts of the globe. The historical powers became involved in trade, as the exchange of goods, plants, animals, and food crops extended to the Old World. The Columbian Exchange greatly affected the human environment, New economies and institutions emerged, becoming more sophisticated and globally articulated over the course of the early modern period. This process began in the medieval North Italian city-states, particularly Genoa, Venice, the early modern period also included the rise of the dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism. The European colonization of the Americas, Asia, and Africa occurred during the 15th to 19th centuries, the early modern trends in various regions of the world represented a shift away from medieval modes of organization, politically and economically. Historians typically date the end of the modern period when the French Revolution of the 1790s began the modern period. Early modern themes Other In 16th century China, the Ming Dynastys economy was stimulated by trade with the Portuguese, Spanish. China became involved in a new trade of goods, plants, animals. Trade with Early Modern Europe and Japan brought in massive amounts of silver, during the last decades of the Ming the flow of silver into China was greatly diminished, thereby undermining state revenues and the entire Chinese economy. This damage to the economy was compounded by the effects on agriculture of the incipient Little Ice Age, natural calamities, crop failure, the ensuing breakdown of authority and peoples livelihoods allowed rebel leaders such as Li Zicheng to challenge Ming authority. The Ming Dynasty fell around 1644 to the Qing Dynasty, which was the last ruling dynasty of China, during its reign, the Qing Dynasty became highly integrated with Chinese culture. The Azuchi-Momoyama period saw the unification that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Edo period from 1600 to 1868 characterized early modern Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period gets its name from the city, Edo. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle from 1603 until 1868, in 1392, General Yi Seong-gye established the Joseon Dynasty with a largely bloodless coup. Joseon experienced advances in science and culture, King Sejong the Great promulgated hangul, the Korean alphabet. The period saw various other cultural and technological advances as well as the dominance of neo-Confucianism over the entirety of Korea, during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, invasions by the neighboring Japanese and Qing Chinese nearly overran the Korean peninsula
28.
Emblem
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An emblem is an abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a king or saint. Although the words emblem and symbol are used interchangeably, an emblem is a pattern that is used to represent an idea or an individual. An emblem crystallizes in concrete, visual terms some abstraction, a deity, an emblem may be worn or otherwise used as an identifying badge or patch. For example, in America, police officers badges refer to their personal metal emblem whereas their woven emblems on uniforms identify members of a particular unit. A real or metal shell, the emblem of St. James the Apostle, sewn onto the hat or clothes. In the Middle Ages, many saints were given emblems, which served to them in paintings and other images, St. Catherine had a wheel, or a sword, St. Anthony Abbot, a pig. These are also called attributes, especially when carried by or close to the saint in art. Kings and other grand persons increasingly adopted personal devices or emblems that were distinct from their family heraldry. The most famous include Louis XIV of Frances sun, the salamander of Francis I of France, the boar of Richard III of England, pisanello produced many of the earliest and finest of these. A symbol, on the hand, substitutes one thing for another, in a more concrete fashion, The Christian cross is a symbol of the Crucifixion. The Red Cross is one of three representing the International Red Cross. A red cross on a background is the emblem of humanitarian spirit. The crescent shape is a symbol of the moon, it is an emblem of Islam, the skull and crossbones is a symbol identifying a poison. The skull is an emblem of the nature of human life. A totem is specifically an animal emblem that expresses the spirit of a clan, heraldry knows its emblems as charges. The lion passant serves as the emblem of England, the lion rampant as the emblem of Scotland, an icon consists of an image, that has become standardized by convention. A logo is an impersonal, secular icon, usually of a corporate entity, since the 15th century the terms of emblem and emblematura belong to the termini technici of architecture. They mean an iconic painted, drawn, or sculptural representation of a concept affixed to houses, Emblem in this sense refers to a didactic or moralizing combination of picture and text intended to draw the reader into a self-reflective examination of his or her own life
29.
Melancholia
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Melancholy was one of the four temperaments matching the four humours. In the 19th century, melancholia could be physical as well as mental, the name melancholia comes from the old medical belief of the four humours, disease or ailment being caused by an imbalance in one or other of the four basic bodily liquids, or humours. Personality types were similarly determined by the dominant humor in a particular person, in astrology it showed the influence of Saturn, hence the related adjective saturnine. Melancholia was described as a disease with particular mental and physical symptoms in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Hippocrates, in his Aphorisms, characterized all fears and despondencies, when a patient could not be cured of the disease it was thought that the melancholia was a result of demonic possession. In his study of French and Burgundian courtly culture, Johan Huizinga noted that at the close of the Middle Ages, a sombre melancholy weighs on peoples souls. Among those of his contemporaries so characterised by Vasari were Pontormo and Parmigianino, but he not use the term of Michelangelo. A famous allegorical engraving by Albrecht Dürer is entitled Melencolia I and this engraving has been interpreted as portraying melancholia as the state of waiting for inspiration to strike, and not necessarily as a depressive affliction. Amongst other allegorical symbols, the picture includes a magic square, the image in turn inspired a passage in The City of Dreadful Night by James Thomson, and, a few years later, a sonnet by Edward Dowden. The most extended treatment of melancholia comes from Robert Burton, whose The Anatomy of Melancholy treats the subject from both a literary and a medical perspective, Burton wrote in the 17th century that music and dance were critical in treating mental illness, especially melancholia. Ismenias the Theban, Chiron the centaur, is said to have cured this and many other diseases by music alone, as now they do those, saith Bodine, during the later 16th and early 17th centuries, a curious cultural and literary cult of melancholia arose in England. Another major English author who made extensive expression upon being of a disposition is Sir Thomas Browne in his Religio Medici. Night-Thoughts, a poem in blank verse by Edward Young was published in nine parts between 1742 and 1745, and hugely popular in several languages. It had a influence on early Romantics in England, France. William Blake was commissioned to illustrate a later edition and these portraits were often set out of doors where Nature provides the most suitable background for spiritual contemplation or in a gloomy interior. In music, the cult of melancholia is associated with John Dowland, whose motto was Semper Dowland. The melancholy man, known to contemporaries as a malcontent, is epitomized by Shakespeares Prince Hamlet, the medieval condition of acedia and the Romantic Weltschmerz were similar concepts, most likely to affect the intellectual. It has been identified in medical writings from antiquity and was best characterized in the 19th Century, in the 20th Century, with the interest in psychoanalytic writing, major depression became the principal class in psychiatric classifications
30.
Discourse
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Discourse denotes written and spoken communications, In semantics and discourse analysis, Discourse is a conceptual generalization of conversation within each modality and context of communication. The totality of codified language used in a field of intellectual enquiry and of social practice, such as legal discourse, medical discourse, religious discourse. In the work of Michel Foucault, and that of the social theoreticians he inspired, discourse describes an entity of sequences, of signs, therefore, a discourse is composed of semiotic sequences between and among objects, subjects, and statements. The term discursive formation conceptually describes the regular communications that produce such discourses, as a philosopher, Michel Foucault applied the discursive formation in the analyses of large bodies of knowledge, such as political economy and natural history. In the first sense-usage, the discourse is studied in corpus linguistics. In the second sense and in the sense, the analysis of a discourse examines and determines the connections among language and structure. Discourse affects the persons perspective, it is impossible to avoid discourse, for example, two notably distinct discourses can be used about various guerrilla movements describing them either as freedom fighters or terrorists. In other words, the chosen discourse provides the vocabulary, expressions, discourses are embedded in different rhetorical genres and metagenres that constrain and enable them. Discourse is closely linked to different theories of power and state and this conception of discourse is largely derived from the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault. Modernist theorists were preoccupied with obtaining the truth and reality and sought to develop theories which contained certainty and predictability, modernist theorists therefore viewed discourse as being relative to talking or way of talking and understood discourse to be functional. Discourse and language transformations are ascribed to progress or the need to develop new or more words to describe new discoveries, understandings. In modern times, language and discourse are dissociated from power and ideology, in other words, it is the structure itself that determines the significance, meaning and function of the individual elements of a system. Structuralism has made an important contribution to our understanding of language, saussures theory of language highlights the decisive role of meaning and signification in structuring human life more generally. Following the perceived limitations of the era, emerged postmodern theory. Postmodern theorists rejected modernist claims that there was one approach that explained all aspects of society. Rather, postmodernist theorists were interested in examining the variety of experience of individuals and groups and emphasized differences over similarities, in contrast to modern theory, postmodern theory is more fluid and allows for individual differences as it rejected the notion of social laws. Postmodern theorists shifted away from truth seeking and instead sought answers for how truths are produced and sustained, postmodernists contended that truth and knowledge is plural, contextual, and historically produced through discourses. Postmodern researchers therefore embarked on analyzing discourses such as texts, language, French social theorist Michel Foucault developed a notion of discourse in his early work, especially the Archaeology of knowledge
31.
Mignon Nevada
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Mignon Nevada was an English operatic soprano. She was born in Paris, daughter of the American operatic soprano Emma Nevada and she was named after the title character of the 1866 opera Mignon, written by her godfather, French composer Ambroise Thomas. Her voice was light and agile, and her mother trained her to be a coloratura soprano, although Sir Thomas Beecham thought this was a mistake and her debut was in February 1908 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome as Rosina in Rossinis Il barbiere di Siviglia. The New York Times reported that her mothers friends, Adelina Patti and her performances were so well received that she was engaged to sing eight more times beyond her original four performances. Her success led her mother to request an audience for Mignon with Pope Pius X, in 1917 she appeared as Desdemona in Verdis Otello with Frank Mullings in the title role and Frederic Austin as Iago. Beecham described her portrayal of Desdemona as the best I have seen on any stage and her other roles in London included Olympia in Offenbachs The Tales of Hoffmann, Zerlina in Mozarts Don Giovanni, and Marguerite in Gounods Faust. Her last appearance there was in 1922, other venues included the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1920, La Scala in Milan in 1923, and the Opéra in Paris in 1932. She also appeared at the Royal Opera in Lisbon, at the Aldwych Theatre in London, later in her career she became a vocal teacher. One of her students was Kyra Vayne, in 1938 Mignon Nevada made a recording of Le Soir, a song by Ambroise Thomas which had been given its premiere by her mother. This is the recording which she is known to have made. It was first issued on a 12-inch 78 rpm record with a introduction by her mother. Raymond Ericson of The New York Times described her performance of it as quite charming, all of the recordings date from 1910 to 1938. The Annual Register, A Review of Public Events at Home, London, Longmans, Green and Co.1917. The World To-Day, A Monthly Record of Human Progress, Volume XVII, the New Grove Dictionary of Opera
32.
Hamlet (opera)
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On 11 September 1827 the Irish actress Harriet Smithson played the part of Ophelia in Hamlet. Her mad scene appeared to owe little to tradition and seemed almost like an improvisation and her performances produced an extraordinary reaction, men wept openly in the theater, and when they left were convulsed by uncontrollable emotion. I recognized the meaning of dramatic grandeur, beauty, truth, even the wife of the English ambassador, Lady Granville, felt compelled to report that the Parisians roar over Miss Smithsons Ophelia, and strange to say so did I. It wasnt long before new clothing and hair styles, à la mode dOphélie and modeled on those of the actress, not everything about the performance or the play was considered convincing. The supporting players were conceded to be weak, the large number of corpses on the stage in the final scene was found by many to be laughable. The moment in the Play Scene when Claudius rises up and interrupts the proceedings, then rushes from the stage, provoked a long and enthusiastic ovation. The journal Pandore wrote about that English candour which allows everything to be expressed and everything to be depicted, the composer Berlioz was soon totally infatuated with Miss Smithson. His love for her, initially unrequited, became an obsession and his Tristia, Op. Berlioz married Smithson in 1833, although their relationship ultimately fell apart. Although Harriet Smithsons stardom faded within a year and a half of her debut there, besides in music, it also manifested itself in art. Auguste Préaults relief Ophélie depicted a young woman wading into water with her hair let down, by the early 1840s Alexandre Dumas, who had become a personal friend of Berlioz and Smithson, had achieved international fame with his historical novels and dramas. An earlier verse translation of Hamlet into French by Jean-François Ducis, first performed in 1769, was still being given at the Comédie-Française, the Ducis play bore very little resemblance to the Shakespeare original. There were far fewer characters, no ghost, no Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, no players, there was no duel, and Hamlet did not die at the end. Modifications such as these were necessary to gain performances in the French theaters of his time, Ducis had told the English actor-impresario David Garrick that a ghost which speaks, itinerant players, and a fencing duel were absolutely inadmissible on the French stage. Dumas realized that Ducis play was not the same as the original, Pierre Le Tourneur had published a relatively faithful prose translation, not intended for performance, nevertheless, moral propriety and politesse dictated that only such highly sanitized versions as that of Ducis could be performed on stage. The French referred to these performing editions as imitations, and most knew that they were modified versions of the original. All the same, Ducis was at first accused of polluting French theaters with Shakespeare, Dumas could not speak or read English well. He needed help, so he selected a younger writer by the name of Paul Meurice from among his coterie of protégés and assistants. Meurice had earlier collaborated with Auguste Vacquerie on Falstaff, a combination of Parts I and II of Shakespeares Henry IV, the Dumas-Meurice Hamlet was performed at Dumas Théâtre Historique in 1847 and had an enormous success
33.
Augustan drama
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In poetry, the early 18th century was an age of satire and public verse, and in prose, it was an age of the developing novel. The Augustan stage retreated from the Restorations focus on cuckoldry, marriage for fortune, Augustan drama has a reputation as an era of decline. One reason for this is there were few dominant figures of the Augustan stage. Instead of a genius, a number of playwrights worked steadily to find subject matter that would appeal to a new audience. In addition to this, playhouses began to dispense with playwrights altogether or to hire playwrights to match assigned subjects, and this conspired with the publics taste for special effects to reduce theatrical output and promote the novel. As for prose and poetry, there is no beginning to the Augustan era in drama. Augustan-era drama ended definitively in 1737 with the Licensing Act, prior to 1737, the English stage was changing rapidly from Restoration comedy and Restoration drama and their noble subjects to the quickly developing melodrama. George Lillo and Richard Steele wrote the plays of the early Augustan period. Lillos plays consciously turned from heroes and kings toward shopkeepers and apprentices and they emphasized drama on a household scale rather than a national scale, and the hamartia and agon in his tragedies are the common flaws of yielding to temptation and the commission of Christian sin. The plots are resolved with Christian forgiveness and repentance, steeles The Conscious Lovers hinges upon his young hero avoiding fighting a duel. These plays set up a new set of values for the stage, instead of amusing or inspiring the audience, they sought to instruct the audience and ennoble it. Further, the plays were popular precisely because they seemed to reflect the audiences own lives, Joseph Addison also wrote a play entitled Cato in 1713, but it did not inspire followers. Cato concerned the Roman statesman who opposed Julius Caesar, both groups were in contact with Annes exiled brother James Francis Edward Stuart. Londoners sensed this anxiety, for Anne had no surviving children, therefore, the figure of Cato was a transparent symbol of Roman integrity. The Whigs saw in him a Whig refusal to accept a monarch from the House of Stuart. Further, Catos claim that Caesar profited by illegal war echoed the Tory accusations against Marlborough, both sides cheered the play, even though Addison was himself clearly Whig and had meant the play as something near propaganda. John Homes play Douglas would have a similar fate to Cato in the generation after the Licensing Act. As during the Restoration, economic reality drove the stage during the Augustan period, under Charles II court patronage meant economic success, and therefore the Restoration stage featured plays that would suit the monarch and/or court
34.
Decorum
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Decorum was a principle of classical rhetoric, poetry and theatrical theory that was about the fitness or otherwise of a style to a theatrical subject. The concept of decorum is also applied to prescribed limits of social behavior within set situations. In classical rhetoric and poetic theory, decorum designates the appropriateness of style to subject, both Aristotle and Horace discussed the importance of appropriate style in epic, tragedy, comedy, etc. Let each of these styles be kept to the role allotted to it. Hellenistic and Latin rhetors divided style into, the style, the middle style. A discussion of this division of styles was set out in the pseudo-Ciceronian Rhetorica ad Herennium, modeled on Virgils three-part literary career, ancient, medieval and Renaissance theorists often linked each style to a specific genre, epic, didactic and pastoral. In the Middle Ages, this concept was called Virgils wheel, for stylistic purists, the mixing of styles within a work was considered inappropriate, and a consistent use of the high style was mandated for the epic. However, stylistic diversity had been a hallmark of classical epic, poetry, perhaps more than any other literary form, usually expressed words or phrases that were not current in ordinary conversation, characterized as poetic diction. With the arrival of Christianity, concepts of decorum became involved with those of the sacred, the Catholic Council of Trent specifically forbade, among other things, the indecorous in religious art. In continental European debates on theatre in the Renaissance and post-Renaissance, in their emulation of classical models and of the theoretical works by Aristotle and Horace, certain subjects were deemed to be better left to narration. I shall turn in disgust from anything of this kind that you show me, in Renaissance Italy, important debates on decorum in theater were set off by Sperone Speronis play Canace and Giovanni Battista Giraldis play Orbecche. In seventeenth-century France, the notion of decorum was a key component of French classicism in both theater and the novel, as well as the visual arts - see hierarchy of genres. Social decorum sets down appropriate social behavior and propriety, and is linked to notions of etiquette. The word decorum survives in Chesterfields severely reduced form as an element of etiquette, have you no wit, manners nor honesty, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night. Is there no respect of persons, place nor time in you. The place of decorum in the courtroom, of the type of argument that is within bounds, remains pertinent, during Model United Nations conferences the honorable chair may have to announce, Decorum delegates. If delegates are not adhering to parliamentary procedure dictated by the rules and this often happens if a delegate speaks out of turn or if the delegation is being disruptive. Language in literature A first introduction to some basics
35.
Sarah Siddons
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Sarah Siddons was a Welsh-born actress, the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century. She was the sister of John Philip Kemble, Charles Kemble, Stephen Kemble, Ann Hatton and Elizabeth Whitlock. She was most famous for her portrayal of the Shakespearean character, Lady Macbeth, a character she made her own, the Sarah Siddons Society continues to present the Sarah Siddons Award in Chicago every year to a prominent actress. Acting was only just becoming a profession for a woman. In 1774, Siddons won her first success as Belvidera in Thomas Otways Venice Preservd and she was, in her own words, banished from Drury Lane as a worthless candidate for fame and fortune In 1777, she went on the circuit in the provinces. For the next six years she worked in companies, in particular York. Her first appearance at Baths Old Orchard Street Theatre was in autumn 1778 at a salary of £3 per week and she lived with her husband and children at number 33 The Paragon until her final performance in May 1782. Having gradually built up a reputation, her next Drury Lane appearance, on 10 October 1782 and she was an immediate sensation playing the title role in Garricks adaptation of a play by Thomas Southerne, Isabella, or, The Fatal Marriage. Her most famous role was that of Lady Macbeth, it was the grandeur of her emotions as she expressed Lady Macbeths murderous passions that held her audiences spellbound, in Lady Macbeth she found the highest and best scope for her acting abilities. She was tall and had a figure, brilliant beauty, powerfully expressive eyes. She once told Samuel Johnson that Catherine was her favourite role and it was the beginning of twenty years in which she was the undisputed queen of Drury Lane. Her celebrity status has been called mythical and monumental, and by the mid-1780s Siddons was established as an icon, along with Hannah Murphy. She mixed with the literary and social elites of London society, and her acquaintances included Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, Hester Thrale Piozzi and she nevertheless continued to act in the provinces, appearing at The Theatre, Leeds in 1786 and on several other occasions. In a 1785 visit to her earliest friend the Hon and her approbation and unremitting kindness, when we were both very young indeed, kindled the latest sparks of genius to a flame, which she now gazes on with wonder and delight. Let this not appear like vanity, recollect what I am, and you will find it proceeds from a better source. In 1802 she left Drury Lane and subsequently appeared from time to time on the stage of the establishment, Covent Garden. It was there, on 29 June 1812, that she gave perhaps the most extraordinary farewell performance in theatre history and she was playing her most famous role, Lady Macbeth, and the audience refused to allow the play to continue after the end of the sleepwalking scene. Mrs. Siddons formally retired from the stage in 1812, and her last appearance was on 9 June 1819 as Lady Randolph in John Homes Douglas
36.
Helen Faucit
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Helena Saville Faucit, Lady Martin was an English actress. Born in London, she was the daughter of actors John Saville Faucit and her parents separated when she was a girl, and her mother went to live with William Farren in 1825. With her elder sister Harriet, she was trained for the stage by her step-uncle and she debuted as Juliet at a small theater in Richmond in 1833. Her performance was praised by critics of The Athenaeum, but Farren delayed her debut to give her further training. Faucits first professional appearance was made on 5 January 1836 at Covent Garden as Julia in James Sheridan Knowless The Hunchback. Her debut, a success, placed her at once among the leading actresses in London. Her success in The Hunchback was followed by turns as Belvidera in Thomas Otways Venice Preservd, though her interpretation of Belvidera was received coldly by critics, she remained a favorite of playgoers, already in that first season, she was signed to a three-year contract at Covent Garden. William Charles Macready joined the Covent Garden company in the middle of 1836, in the following year, Faucit played numerous Shakespearean roles, among them Juliet, Imogen, Hermione, and Beatrice, alongside both Macready and the soon-to-retire Charles Kemble. Faucit followed Macready to the Haymarket Theatre in 1840, in December of that year, however, while she recuperated at the coast, rumors circulated that she was pregnant with Macreadys child, her physicians published diagnoses that scotched these rumors. She returned to the Haymarket the next year, when she performed in Zouch Troughtons Nina Sforza, after a visit to Paris and a short season at the Haymarket, she joined the Drury Lane company under Macready early in 1842. There she played Lady Macbeth, Constance in King John, Desdemona, and Imogen and she was, moreover passed over for Rosalind in favour of Louisa Cranstoun Nisbett, this role would later become one of her best-known Shakespearean roles. Nevertheless, Macready considered her beyond all compare the best English actress of the period, when Macready left for America in 1843, Faucit emerged as an even greater celebrity. In the mid-1840s she toured in Scotland and Ireland and her most celebrated roles included Pauline in Lady of Lyons at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, Antigone at Dublin, and various Shakespearean roles, including a revamped and now-successful Lady Macbeth. Acting with Macready in Paris in 1845, she received so much applause that Macready was jealous, Faucit occasionally returned to London, but her main activity for the remainder of her career was touring, especially in Manchester and in Sheffield, where her brother owned a theater. In 1846 she returned to Dublin to perform in Euripides Iphigenia at Aulis, in October 1846 she took the part of Juliet to the Romeo of Gustavus Brooke at Dublin. In 1850, she acted in the role of Iolanthe in Theodore Martins adaptation of King Renés Daughter. The last time she assayed the role was in 1876 at the Lyceum Theatre, London, Martin, the official biographer of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, had begun courting her as early as 1843, she finally accepted his proposal in 1851. In 1851 she married Theodore Martin, who was later knighted and she continued to act occasionally for charity
37.
Dorothea Jordan
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Dorothea Jordan was an Anglo-Irish actress, courtesan, and the mistress and companion of the future King William IV of the United Kingdom, for 20 years while he was Duke of Clarence. Together they had ten children, all of whom took the surname FitzClarence. Dorothea Bland was born near Waterford, Ireland, on 22 November 1761 and she was the third of six children born from Francis Bland and his mistress, Grace Phillips. Her older siblings are George Bland and Hester Bland, and her siblings are Lucy Bland, Francis Bland. Her paternal grandparents were Nathaniel Bland, Vicar General of Ardfert and Aghada, and Judge of the Prerogative Court of Dublin, Ireland, before April 1774, when she was 13, Dorotheas father, who worked as a stagehand, abandoned the family to marry an Irish actress. However, he continued to support the family by sending them meagre sums of money and this situation forced Dorothea to work to help her siblings. Her mother, an actress by profession, saw potential in Dorothea and she became a famous actress of the day and was said to have the most beautiful legs ever seen on the stage. She made her first appearance in 1777, in Dublin, as Phoebe in As You Like It, after acting elsewhere in Ireland she appeared in 1782 at Leeds, and other Yorkshire towns, in a variety of parts, including Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal. It was at time that she began calling herself Mrs Jordan. In 1785, she made her first London appearance at Drury Lane as Peggy in A Country Girl and her engagement at Drury Lane lasted until 1809, and she played a large variety of parts. But gradually it came to be recognized that her talent lay in comedy, her Lady Teazle, Rosalind. Audiences also enjoyed her performances in roles such as William in Rosina. During the rebuilding of Drury Lane she played at the Haymarket, here, in 1814, she made her last appearance on the London stage, and the following year, at Margate, retired altogether. She had an affair with her first manager, Richard Daly, the manager of the Theatre Royal, Cork, who was married, in England, she had a short lived affair with an army lieutenant, Charles Doyne, who proposed marriage. But she turned him down and went to work for the company operated by Tate Wilkinson. It was at this point she adopted the name Mrs. Jordan – a reference to her escape across the Irish Sea and she appeared at Wilkinsons York Circuit theatres, including The Theatre, Leeds, where she complained of uncomfortable working conditions. Shortly after her affair with Wilkinson was over, she began an affair with George Inchbald, according to Claire Tomalin, Dorotheas biographer, Dorothea would have married Inchbald, so greatly was she in love with him, but he never asked. Broken-hearted, she left him in 1786 to begin an affair with Sir Richard Ford, a police magistrate and she moved in with Ford when he promised to marry her
38.
Frances Abington
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Frances Fanny Abington was a British actress, known not only for her acting, but her sense of fashion. She was born Frances Barton or Frances Fanny Barton, the daughter of a soldier, and began her career as a flower girl. She was also rumored that she would recite Shakespeare in Taverns at the age of 12, later she became a servant to a French milliner. She learned about costume and acquired a knowledge of French which afterward stood her in good stead and her early nickname, Nosegay Fan, came from her time as a flower girl. Her first appearance on the stage was at Haymarket in 1755 as Miranda in Mrs Centlivres play, in 1755, on the recommendation of Samuel Foote, she became a member of the Drury Lane company, where she was overshadowed by Hannah Pritchard and Kitty Clive. Her first success was in Ireland as Lady Townley, and it was only five years, on the pressing invitation of David Garrick. Her Shakespearean heroines – Beatrice, Portia, Desdemona and Ophelia – were no less successful than her comic characters – Miss Hoyden, Biddy Tipkin, Lucy Lockit and Miss Prue. Mrs. Abington’s Kitty in High Life Below Stairs put her in the foremost rank of comic actresses and this cap was soon referred to as the “Abington Cap” and frequently seen on stage as well as in hat shops across Ireland and England. Adoring fans donned copies of this cap and it became a part of the well-appointed woman’s wardrobe. The actress soon became known for her fashion and she even came up with a way of making the female figure appear taller. She began to wear this tall-hat called a ziggurat complete with long flowing feathers and it was as the last character in Congreves Love for Love that Sir Joshua Reynolds painted the best-known of his half-dozen or more portraits of her. In 1782 she left Drury Lane for Covent Garden, after an absence from the stage from 1790 until 1797, she reappeared, quitting it finally in 1799. Her ambition, personal wit and cleverness won her a position in society. Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Abington. London, Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 53–54
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Peg Woffington
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Margaret Peg Woffington was a well-known Irish actress in Georgian London. Woffington was born of humble origins in Dublin and her father is thought to have been a bricklayer, and after his death, the family became impoverished. Her mother was obliged to take in washing while Peg sold watercress door to door and it is said that she was walking through a marketplace as a pre-teen and happened upon Madame Violante, a famous tightrope walker. Signora Violante was so enthralled by Peg’s beautiful face that she accompanied Peg home. Around 1730, Madame Violante featured Peg as Polly Peachum in a production of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, Woffington enjoyed success in the role of Sylvia in The Recruiting Officer. She performed at Drury Lane for several years and later returned to Dublin and her most well-received performances were in comic roles, such as elegant women of fashion like Lady Betty Modish and Lady Townley, and breeches roles. She was impeded in the performance of tragedy by a tone in her voice that she strove to eliminate. She lived openly with David Garrick, the foremost actor of the day, though she was popular with society figures, having entertained such illustrious names as Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding, Peg Woffington was not always favored by her competition. She tended to create rivalries with similar-type actresses at Drury Lane and she even managed to offend “tragediennes for whom Peg’s comic powers posed no threat” with her “ queenly ways”. Her fiercest rivalry was with “equally peppery” actress Kitty Clive. According to Garrick biographer Thomas Davies, “No two women in high life ever hated each other more unreservedly than these two great dames of the stage. ”When she returned to Covent Garden, rivalries with these women and with the manager, Mr. Rich, eventually sent her back to Dublin, where she was unrivaled and celebrated at the Smock Alley Theatre. John Rich, manager of Covent Garden in London, decided to start a Beefsteak Club in 1749, also known as the Sublime Society of Steaks or “the Club. ”Some of its members included Garrick and William Hogarth, as well as many other London celebrities. Not only was Peg Woffington the first female member of a all male dining club and she also educated and supported her sister Mary, and cared for and pensioned her mother. For whatever reason, Woffington left Garrick in about 1744 and moved to Teddington, in 1754 she became the beneficiary of the will of the Irish impresario Owen Swiny. In 1756, she performed the part of Lady Randolph in Douglas, on 3 May 1757, she was playing the part of Rosalind in As You Like It when she collapsed on stage. She rallied, but would never act again, lingering with a wasting illness until 1760 and she built and endowed by will some almshouses at Teddington, and was buried in St. Marys Church, the parish church. A beauty, Woffington appeared in portraits and paintings by artists of the day, including Jacobus Lovelace in 1744, Peter van Bleeck in 1747. She was eulogised in a sketch by the dramatist Henry Jones
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Tate Wilkinson
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Tate Wilkinson, English actor and manager. He was the son of a clergyman and was sent to Harrow and his first attempts at acting were badly received, and it was to his wonderful gift of mimicry that he owed his success. His imitations, however, naturally gave offence to the important actors and managers whose peculiarities he hit off to the life, as an actor, Wilkinson was most successful in Footes plays, but his list of parts was a long one. In Shakespearian characters he was popular in the provinces. In 1766 he became a partner of Joseph Baker in the management of several Yorkshire theatres and he became sole manager after his partners death in 1770 of a number of theatres on what was then called the Yorkshire Circuit, and he was both liberal and successful. The Theatre, Leeds, built to his order in 1771, was part of the circuit, in 1769 he took over York Theatre Royal, where he also had living quarters. An engraving of him in the role of Mr Popeseye was made, Wilkinson directed with excellent judgment and prosperity for over 30 years. His oddities were notorious, but he was a generous manager, see his Memoirs and The Wandering Patentee. Among Wilkinsons actors were Miss Farren Bridge Frodsham Julia Glover Dorothea Jordan from 1782 to 1785, elizabeth Satchell Mrs. Siddons and the other Kembles Dicky Suett This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Wilkinson, Tate. Wm. Archer, Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and the United States, edited by Matthews and Hutton H. B
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Susannah Maria Cibber
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Susannah Maria Cibber, also known as Susannah Maria Arne, was a celebrated English singer and actress and the sister of the composer Thomas Arne. Although she began her career as a soprano, her voice lowered in the part of her career to that of a true contralto. She was universally admired for her ability to move her audiences emotionally both as an actress and vocalist. Possessing a sweet, expressive, and agile singing voice with a vocal range, Cibber was an immensely popular singer. In the mid-1730s she began appearing in plays in addition to appearing in operas and she became the greatest dramatic actress of the eighteenth century London stage and at the time of her death was the highest paid actress in England. Cibber was born in the Covent Garden area of London to Thomas and her father and grandfather were upholsterers and office holders in the Worshipful Company of Upholders. As a child she studied singing with her brother Thomas, who would become one of the most important composers of the era. Her other brother, Richard, also worked as a singer and actor, on 13 March 1732 Susannah made her professional debut in the title role of John Frederick Lampes setting of Henry Careys Amelia to positive reviews, at the Little Theatre. Her performances over the two years included roles in Handels Acis and Galatea, and her brothers Rosamund, The Opera of Operas and Dido. The year 1733 proved to be a year for Cibber. She met Handel while rehearsing and performing the role of Jael in the production of his oratorio Deborah. It was the beginning of a close and lifelong friendship between the two, Handel patiently taught her parts note by note as she could not read music. Also that year, Cibbers name appeared in the playbills offering entracte songs ‘by popular demand at the Haymarket, in April 1734, Susannah married actor and playwright Theophilus Cibber, the son of playwright Colley Cibber, whose company of players was in residence at Drury Lane. The marriage proved beneficial to her career and position in the London theatre as she became a regular at that house for many years, now performing under the name Mrs Cibber. Her brother Thomas also benefited from the marriage as he became house composer at Drury Lane, in 1736 Cibber made her début as a dramatic actress in the title role of Aaron Hills Zara, with great success. She went on to portray numerous Shakespearean roles to critical acclaim, in 1737 a much noted dispute with Kitty Clive over the part of Polly in The Beggars Opera erupted and inspired a satire, The Beggars Pantomime, or The Contending Columbine. The following year, Cibber portrayed the role of David in the production of Handels oratorio Saul. Sadly Cibbers marriage was not a happy one, in order to pay rent, the Cibbers took in a wealthy tenant named William Sloper
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