A good game for historians to play is “Notice what you’re not noticing.” It can be easy to take for granted what survives from the past. Mosaics or monuments, textiles or texts, all represent great expenditure of thought, energy, time, and money. None of them sprang forth fully formed, and they tell us something about commerce [...]
Since the eighteenth century, students of William Shakespeare’s plays and poems have noticed his astute use of legal terminology. In 1780, Edmond Malone, himself a barrister, suggested in his biography of Shakespeare that the Bard had technical legal training. Whether that legal knowledge derived from studying, if not practicing, law, or from his business dealings, especially [...]
Legend has it that Meriwether Lewis stayed at the Lochry Blockhouse on his way to Pittsburgh. From Pittsburgh he traveled to St. Louis, where he and William Clark, leading the Corps of Discovery, embarked upon their epic exploration of the newly purchased Louisiana Territory. Evidence from Lewis’ letters argues against this oral tradition, but just as [...]
“I enclose the ‘Sculptured Scenes from Shakespeare’,” wrote Beverly Hard, “which I hope you will enjoy.” It was 3 May, 1960, and she was writing by hand a thank you note to a friend for inviting her to a luncheon. Her husband, Frederick Hard, was a Shakespearean scholar and president of Scripps College, and she used [...]
In his novel of 1949, The Little Sister, Raymond Chandler has his fictional private detective, Philip Marlowe say of another character, “nobody ever looked less like Lady Macbeth.” Next to Lady Macbeth and her spouse, few couples in Western literature represent such towering but doomed partners in crime. Even the nasty couple in James M. Cain’s [...]
In her autobiography, My Life in Three Acts (1990), Helen Hayes contrasted her acting career with that of her friend, Maurice Evans. “Maurice had an advantage that I lacked,” she explained, “a strong drive to get ahead.” Of herself, she shrugged, “I just floated along, and things somehow fell into my lap.” Unimpressed by Evans’ drive, [...]
In 1982, Clyde S. Kilby and Marjorie Lamp Mead published Brothers and Friends, an edition of the diaries of Warren Hamilton Lewis. Lewis (1895-1973) signed his name W. H. Lewis, and to family and friends he was known as Warnie. He was the elder brother to C. S. Lewis, and his diaries provide invaluable information and [...]
A selfish king plunging his kingdom into chaos; a wise old counselor killed for his efforts; an innocent young woman harried to death. Basic elements of William Shakespeare’s tragedies Hamlet and King Lear, and most likely they entered his creative tool kit from Octavia, a Roman tragedy long attributed to Seneca. For good measure, Octavia also [...]
A task facing an instructor in Church History is demonstrating how theology and history can complement one another. Although a course in Church History, whether early, medieval, or modern, must necessarily consider a large amount of theology, the instructor needs to avoid turning the course into a History of Theology, which for some students can become [...]
American novelist Lee Durkee could not have written his memoir, Stalking Shakespeare, before this point in history. This thoroughly engaging book draws upon Durkee’s two decades of researching online, emailing libraries, and using computer programs to compare facial features of Elizabethan portraiture. His candid and sometimes profane account of that research takes his readers on a [...]
