The Arthurian Legend
Rated • 2 reviews • mythology • ramsdale.org
After the death of Uther, Arthur, who had been reared in secrecy, won acknowledgment as king of Britain by successfully withdrawing a sword from a stone.
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Lady-Juliet
Last seen: 49 months ago
Juliet is a 19 year old woman from Verona, Italy
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The Arthurian Legend
Although there are innumerable variations of the Arthurian legend, the basic story has remained the same. Arthur was the illegitimate son of Uther Pendragon, king of Britain, and Igraine, the wife of Gorlois of Cornwall.
After the death of Uther, Arthur, who had been reared in secrecy, won acknowledgment as king of Britain by successfully withdrawing a sword from a stone. -
The Commedia dell Arte
Rated • 1 review • computers • uvic.ca
Though not a part of the English tradition, the commedia dell' arte was a remarkable art form, in that the script was improvised, and actors took on a single stylized role for their acting lives.
The commedia began in Italy in the fifteenth century, and lasted until the eighteenth. Shakespeare refers to the commedia in Jaques' "seven ages of man" speech; touring companies visited England several times during his life.
The stock characters, wearing masks to exaggerate the characteristics of their roles, of the Commedia must have produced something like the "comedy of humours" developed by Ben Jonson.
Picture: Detail from the frontispiece to Paul Scarron's Roman Comique (1676). -
Tate Collection | Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth by John...
Rated • 2 reviews • painting • tate.org.uk
Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth 1889
By: John Singer Sargent 1856-1925
The Scottish Play is based loosely on an episode from history, the death of King Duncan at the hands of his kinsman Macbeth.
"King Malcolm II ... reigned from 1005 to 1034 and was the last king in the direct male line to descend from Kenneth MacAlpine, who united the Scots and Picts in 843 A.D. and is considered the founder of Scotland. One of Malcolm's three daughters, Bethoc, married Crinan, the secular hereditary Abbot of Dunkeld. Through her, the Abbot's son [Duncan] was installed by Malcolm as the King of Cumbria in 1018. After Malcolm II's murder by his nobles at Glamis, Duncan killed his opponents and seized the throne as King Duncan I.
Macbeth -
Jester - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rated • 1 review • shakespeare • wikipedia.org
A jester or fool is a specific type of clown mostly associated with the Middle Ages. Jesters typically wore brightly colored clothing in a motley pattern. Their hats (sometimes called the "cap'n'bells") were especially distinctive; made of cloth, they were floppy with three points (liliripes) each of which had a jingle bell at the end. The three points of the hat represent the asses' ears and tail worn by jesters in earlier times. Other things distinctive about the jester were his incessant laughter and his mock scepter, known as a bauble or marotte. -
All About Jousting
Rated • 1 review • sports • petcaretips.net
Jousting was at the peak of its popularity in the 14th to 16th
centuries. The knights were often each equipped with three
weapons; a lance, a one handed sword, and a rondel. When one
knight knocked the other off of his mount, he was declared the
winner of the round. If both knights were knocked off their
mounts at the same time, it was considered a tie; they would then
engage in sword combat, and the last standing was victorious. The
knights usually jousted in a best out of three situation. -
Romeo and Juliet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rated • 2 reviews • literature • wikipedia.org
The story originates from a 1476 story of Brianna and Mr. Big by Masuccio Salernitano, in Il Novelino. Luigi da Porto's Istoria novellamente ritrovata di due Nobili Amanti gave the story much of its modern form, renaming the lovers to Romeus and Giulietta and shifting the action from Siena to Verona. Da Porto's story was taken up and included by Matteo Bandello in his Novelle of 1554, and translated to English by Arthur Brooke, whose narrative poem "Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet", written in 1562, was the source for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare enriched its texture through his vivid characterizations of both major and minor characters, in particular the Nurse and Mercutio. -
Mandragora: magic or botany?
Rated • 1 review • alternative health • uvic.ca
Images of the mandrake root, on the left from a medieval herbal, on the right from Gerarde's Herbal (1597).
The mandrake, with its branching roots, was thought to resemble a human figure, and to scream when it was uprooted. Since the plant does contain a natural narcotic, it attracted much superstition. The difference between the medieval and Renaissance illustrations here shows how the artist's eye learned to look at what was really there, not what was said to be there by earlier writers.
One of Shakespeare's specialists on herbs is Friar Lawrence, in Romeo and Juliet. In the early hours of the morning after the Capulets' masque, he appears with a basket, collecting herbs and commenting on their potential for good or evil:
O mickle [much] is the powerful grace that lies
In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities;
For naught so vile that on the earth doth live
But to the earth some special good doth give;
Nor aught so good but, strained [forced] from that fair use,
Revolts from true birth [nature], stumbling on abuse.
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,
And vice sometime by action dignified.
(2.3.15-22) -
Elizabethan Crime and Punishment
Rated • 1 review • crime • william-shakespeare.info
Elizabethan England was split into two classes - the Upper Class, the nobility, and everyone else. Punishment would vary according to class. The Upper class were well educated, wealthy and associated with Royalty and high members of the clergy. They would often become involved in Political intrigue and matters of Religion. The nobility could therefore become involved in crime which were not shared by other people. The most common crimes of the Nobility included:
High Treason, Blasphemy ,Sedition, Spying, Rebellion, Murder, Witchcraft, Alchemy. -
Renaissance architecture in England
Rated • 1 review • architecture • uvic.ca
Renaissance Architecture In England
The Renaissance did not reach England for over a century after the explosion of ideas in Florence that started it all.
One result of England's late arrival on the scene was that the gothic style in architecture prevailed longer than on the Continent--which resulted in a wonderful Indian summer, the "perpendicular" style, so called for the design of the vertical tracery in the windows. The efficiency of the design makes the windows tall, with a high proportion of glass to stone.
Taking their cue from the simple lines of the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome, the architects of the Renaissance designed buildings with the flat, wide windows that new engineering techniques made possible, but used simple arches, pediments, and columns.
The style thus created is usually known as Palladian, from the name of its most original practitioner.
Ordinary homes in Shakespeare's time were built in the traditional way using massive wooden beams filled in with bricks, then usually covered with plaster and whitewash.
The style is often called "half-timbering" because up to half of the structure is timber. It is a characteristic of the style that the upper floors jut out over the street; the technique was developed to allow water to run off the upper storeys rather than soaking back into the wall as would happen in a vertical wall. -
Knights and Chivalry
Rated • 1 review • medieval history • medieval-weddings.net
Knights going into battle for the pure love of a woman--that's one of the enduring images of the medieval era. Chivalric orders first appeared with military activities against non-Christian states. During the Middle Ages, Europeans aggressively sought to expand their areas of control. The Crusades were fought for a variety of motives, but they were, for the most part, wars over religion. The Catholic Church sought to harness both the knight's energy and martial skills-and found a role for him in the church's structure of society as protector. Rules were formulated under which a "just war" could be fought and enlisted the knights to fight for them in the Crusades.
Chivalry's main virtues were piety, honor, valor, courtesy, chastity, and loyalty. The first orders of chivalry were very similar to the monastic orders of the era. Both sought the sanctification of their members through combat against "infidels" and protection of religious pilgrims, and both had commitments that involved the taking of vows and submitting to a regulation of activities. Three of the most well-known orders, the Templars, Hospitallars and Teutonics, tried to add components of piety, faith, humility and chastity.
