Tudor England Research Articles

New Books across the Disciplines

New Books across the Disciplines

Skin diseases in a 19th century English workhouse: analysis of the admission book for the Wakefield Workhouse Infirmary, 1826-1857.

Infectious diseases in the form of 'typhus' (74.2%) and 'fevers' (17.2%) were the commonest conditions accounting for entry to the Wakefield Workhouse Infirmary between 1826 and 1857, as recorded in the admissions book. Skin diseases were noted for 3.2% of admissions, principally scarlet fever (1.5%) and smallpox (0.8%). The mean age for primary dermatological admissions was 20 years (compared with 24 years for patients overall), with a mortality rate of 0.3%. The low number of smallpox cases may be the result of successful vaccination campaigns. The absence of admissions because of scabies (then known as 'the itch') might be as a result of exclusion of such patients from entry because of the known extreme infectivity of the condition. Workhouses played an important role in medical care in 19th century Britain but, in this example, skin diseases did not feature highly as causes of admission.

Frank Klaassen and Sharon Hubbs Wright. The Magic of Rogues: Necromancers in Early Tudor England. Magic in History Series. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2021. Pp. 161. $22.95 (paper).

Frank Klaassen and Sharon Hubbs Wright. The Magic of Rogues: Necromancers in Early Tudor England. Magic in History Series. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2021. Pp. 161. $22.95 (paper). - Volume 62 Issue 2

G. W. Bernard. Who Ruled Tudor England: Paradoxes of Power. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. Pp. 240. $115.00 (cloth).

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Lyndsay Galpin, Male Suicide and Masculinity in 19th Century Britain

Suicide is a catastrophic event. The ripples of a death extend through surrounding communities, bringing into question previously held certainties—about others, about relationships, about health, behaviour and identity. Speculation abounds in newspapers, magazines and official reports as writers search for meaning in the lives and deaths of those who die by their own hand. It is this focus on the process of forging meaning from the tragic deaths of others that informs Lyndsay Galpin’s book. Galpin offers a new perspective on suicide in Victorian England by interrogating these historical deaths for what they can tell us about ideas and ideals of masculinity. Galpin’s monograph draws critically on previous histories of suicide and attempted suicide in England, from the classics (Olive Anderson and Barbara Gates) to more recent work by Victor Bailey and John Weaver.1 She argues that suicide was not necessarily feminised, as others have assumed, with the lives and deaths of male suicides often compared to other men, rather than to women. While suicide, she explains, is a gendered experience, it cannot be labelled as either inherently masculine or inherently feminine.

Book review: John Heywood: Comedy and Survival in Tudor England by Greg Walker

Book review: <i>John Heywood: Comedy and Survival in Tudor England</i> by Greg Walker

Elegant anthems by Thomas Tallis

The intricate polyphony of the early Tudor era has stirred up some strong opinions over the past 500 years. Here is one of those opinions: In the end, the music of Fayrfax, Sheppard and John Taverner will not yield all of its mystery, however scrupulously we analyse it. It is not simply that the music is technically complex, though it often is. Rather it is the case that this repertory signals the kind of high mannerism possessed by a style in a stage of late decline, opaque and impenetrable. That was written in 1991. It appears in a review of another edition in the Early English Church Music series, a volume of Masses by Taverner. ‘A style in a stage of late decline, opaque and impenetrable’: those words recall the well-known complaints of Erasmus upon encountering pre-Reformation English singing. They evoke a musical language not just overwrought and overgrown but having already reached an advanced state of decay. Of course Erasmus could be grumpy about practically all the genres and registers of English polyphony. Virtuosic music, to him, was ‘lascivious whinnying’ from ‘agile throats’; simple faburden was ‘perverse’; other types of group singing distorted the liturgical chant in the manner of an officious reader who is incapable of just reading something out loud without paraphrasing it or adding his own clever asides. Erasmus had little time for any of this, but he (like his late 20th-century successor—John Aplin in Journal of the Royal Musical Association, cxvi/2 (1991), pp.304–6, for those who wish to read more) saved his most vicious invective for music in high style. The book under review here is a monument of Tudor high style: David Skinner’s beautiful volume of Tallis’s votive antiphons and related works, the newest addition to the Early English Church Music (EECM) family.

‘A rancour and a passion would be introduced into politics’: Perceptions of the Woman MP in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Britain*

AbstractOn 21 November 1918, the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act was passed, which enabled women over the age of 21 to stand for parliamentary election. Unlike women's suffrage, there was no sustained campaign to allow women to sit in parliament. However, this does not mean that the issue was ignored in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This article traces perceptions of the woman MP in the pre‐1918 period and offers the first detailed exploration of the topic. It argues that although discussions on the matter were not widespread like women's suffrage, there is value in examining these lesser‐known debates. This article studies the parliamentary candidacy of Helen Taylor in the 1885 General Election, in addition to how male politicians, the press, suffrage, and anti‐suffrage organisations engaged with the idea of women sitting in parliament. Women's supposedly emotional nature played an integral role in how contemporaries approached the subject of women MPs. Indeed, women's emotions, and more specifically their passionate temperament, were often used to discredit their political capabilities and portray women as emotionally, intellectually and physically inferior to men.

Enfeoffment to Use, Legalism, and Humanism in Gower's Mirour de l'Omme

Enfeoffment to Use, Legalism, and Humanism in Gower's <i>Mirour de l'Omme</i>

New Books across the Disciplines

New Books across the Disciplines

The Cave of Spleen from a Feminist's Perspective: An Insight into the Status of Women in Early 18Th Century England

The Cave of Spleen from a Feminist's Perspective: An Insight into the Status of Women in Early 18Th Century England

The Magic of Rogues: Necromancers in Early Tudor England. Frank Klaassen and Sharon Hubbs Wright. Magic in History Sourcebooks. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2021. x + 162 pp. $22.95.

The Magic of Rogues: Necromancers in Early Tudor England. Frank Klaassen and Sharon Hubbs Wright. Magic in History Sourcebooks. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2021. x + 162 pp. $22.95.

Marginality in the Brontë sisters’ novels

The Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne have left their mark on the literary landscape of Victorian England. Beyond the fact that they belong to the same family and are all three remarkable writers in the same period, a unique fact in literary history, these sisters fully express their genius through the sensitive and aesthetic dimension of the various themes they address in their novels. One of the major themes common to their novels is the question of marginality in a highly stratified society of 19th-century Britain. Using Marxist, new historicist, feminist, and psychoanalytical reading grids, we aim to examine this theme of marginality precisely in Jane Eyre, The Professor and Shirley by Charlotte and Wuthering Heights by Emily. This work thus reveals the multiple faces and implications of marginality in these novels in a context of economic, political and social revolution.

The Influence of William Hogarth on Later Generations

The Influence of William Hogarth on Later Generations

‘Pierced and Perforated Carving, as Fine as the Best Cathedral Screen Work’: Antiquarianism and Faking Tudor Furniture in the 1840s

Collecting ancient furniture — or furniture thought to be ancient — for display in ‘romantic interiors’ proliferated in 18th-century Britain; such pieces became so popular that by the 1840s it was easy to purchase generic examples across the country. This essay explores the output of George Shaw (1810–76), a particularly industrious early Victorian antiquary, who, besides working as an architect, restorer and supplier of Gothic-style interiors, also peddled fake ancestral furniture made for specific victims. He claimed his modern forgeries were from the time of Henry VII or Henry VIII, and this essay demonstrates how they were indebted to his long-term antiquarian research into medieval architecture, heraldry and woodwork. Some of Shaw’s forgeries, particularly those for the 4th duke of Northumberland, have been considered at length recently; however, this essay demonstrates that our understanding of his corpus is far from complete given the recent emergence of his until now forgotten work for the Mosleys of Rolleston Hall in Staffordshire. It also shows how the family’s important collection of ancient furniture, some of it gifted by Elizabeth I, had a direct influence upon his work, and that we should consider him to be a more significant figure in the history of Victorian furniture and forgery than we currently understand him to be.

A Later Tudor Joggle-Head King-Post Roof in The Abbey Barn at Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire

Joggle-head king-post roofs from the mid Tudor period are not well known, but at Lacock there are four of them. This paper examines the constructional details of this form of roof and the benefits they provided in transferring compression laterally and maximising usable loft space. It focuses on one roof, that over the Abbey Barn, recently tree-ring dated to 1575-80. That such an expensive type of roof should be present over a utilitarian building, a stable block, has attracted some comment but no explanation has hitherto been forthcoming. Close examination of the roof suggested it had been re-used and a sketch of the abbey buildings made in 1684 suggests that it might have belonged to the now lost west range of Lacock Abbey.

Reassertions of Class Consciousness and Tragic Vision in John Galsworthy’s Strife

John Galsworthy, a contemporary playwright of G. B. Shaw, established realism in drama in the early 20th century England. Through his plays, he exposed the socio-economic, socio-political, socio-cultural, and socio-legal problems in a realistic, sincere and impartial way, providing implied solutions to those problems as an objective observer of the contemporary English life. With objective impartiality, he exposed the wrong-headedness of some traditional beliefs and advocated social reform. The objective of the present paper is to expose the metaphors of tragic vision on account of class consciousness in John Galsworthy’s Strife followed by some implied solutions. The reasons of tragic vision are pride, lack of human insight, extreme and fanatical approach, rigidity, class consciousness, uncompromising stands, warring faction, obstinacy, and desire to win and dominate, etc. Through this play the playwright wishes to establish the notion that human beings should be ruled by logic and reason and his testimony lies in portraying the futility and stupidity of quarrelling over conceptual differences, which might have been settled by compromise or arbitration.

REVISITING GENTLEMANLINESS IN 20TH CENTURY BRITAIN: KAZUO ISHIGURO’S THE REMAINS OF THE DAY

New Historicism is a literary approach that came into prominence in the 1980s owing to Stephen Greenblatt’s studies based on Renaissance works. Greenblatt treats a literary text as a product of the social and political setting from which it emerges. Conducting his studies primarily on Shakespeare’s plays, the author illustrates how a literary text is affected by the interrelationship between history and literature. The new historicist approach shows that any literary text is shaped not only by the socio-political context of the author but is also largely determined by the critic’s response to it. Accordingly, such a viewpoint affects the reader’s conventional perception of time and history. The purpose of the present study is to perform a new historicist reading of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day (1989) with a particular focus on the representation of the concept of gentlemanliness to question the validity of its conventional perception. Given the theoretical framework, the study employs such concepts as self-fashioning, representation, persona, time, and history. The novel is based on the reminiscences of a former butler, Stevens, who has devoted his entire life to the service of an English gentleman and owner of a spectacular mansion near Oxford. Never being outside the boundaries of the estate and unaware of the rapid changes in the world, Stevens is determined to live by the conventional principles of gentlemanliness characterized by such values as dignity, loyalty, and modesty. The research argues that the perception of gentlemanliness has changed over the decades due to the subversive force of time undermining its validity in 20th-century Britain. Hence, a new historicist approach to Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day focuses on the impact of various socio-political contexts on the conventional understanding of gentlemanliness.

Writing and Rewriting Nationhood: "Henry V" and Political Appropriation of Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s Henry V is often regarded as a nationalistic play and has been appropriated for political spin and propaganda to enhance the sense of national unity. Shakespeare captures the emerging nationalistic feeling of the Tudor era in Henry’s emphasis on national history and pride, but various parts of the text suggest a more diverse and complex figures of the king and his subjects than a war hero and the united nation. Such complexity, however, is often ignored in political appropriation. Laurence Olivier’s film adaptation during WWII glamorizes the war and defines the English nation as a courageous “band of brothers” through its presentation of Shakespeare’s play a shared story or history of national victory. Kenneth Branagh’s film in 1989, on the other hand, captures the ugliness of war but it still romanticizes the sacrifice for the country. In 2016, Shakespeare was made part of the Brexit discourse of growing nationalism at the time of the EU referendum. Brexit was imagined as a victory that will bring back freedom and sovereignty the country once enjoyed, and Shakespeare was used to represent the greatness of Britain. Shakespeare’s text, however, depicts the war against the continent in a more skeptical than glorifying tone. The war scenes are scattered with humorous dialogues and critical comments and the multi-national captains of Henry’s army are constantly at odds with one another. Shakespeare thus provides us with a wider view of nationhood, resisting the simplifying force of politics.

The reproduction of canonical silences: re-reading Habermas in the context of slavery and the slave trade

AbstractRecent discussions on “decolonizing” knowledge production have often foregrounded the importance of centering “marginal” perspectives, which is crucial but insufficient as it risks leaving the canon untouched. Jürgen Habermas’ book on the bourgeois public sphere is one of the most frequently cited and debated canonical texts in media and communication studies. Drawing on the case of London’s coffee houses and newspapers, this article argues for a critical re-engagement with canonical thinkers. It examines what the emergence of a bourgeois public sphere in 17th- and 18th-century England looks like if we re-read it within the context of slavery and the slave trade. The article demonstrates that race does not simply provide another “prism” to examine the bourgeois public sphere but instead enables and is constitutive of it. The reproduction of canonical silences through the continued circulation of influential texts has implications for how we conceptualize racialized publics in contemporary times.