37 research outputs found
Enter Mercury, Sleeping: Delivering Prayers on the Early Modern Stage
No full textThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from CUP via the DOI in this recor
‘Women’s Weapons’: Education and Female Revenge on the Early Modern Stage
No full textThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Edinburgh University Press via the ISBN in this recor
“The Wished Aire”: Biblical Plagues and the Early Modern Playhouse
No full textThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available via the DOI in this recordAt a time when the outbreak of plague was frequently attributed to divine providence, and associated with poor air quality, Elizabethan playhouses were identified by their detractors as sites of contagion. Contemporary playwrights responded to such charges in their drama. In Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene’s A Looking-Glass for London and England (c. 1589), a late Elizabethan play that dramatizes the story of the Biblical plagues sent against ancient Nineveh, Lodge (a physician and dramatist) and his co-author Greene explore their theatre’s capacity to evoke the threat of plague through expansive imagery and sensory effects, before transforming this noxious atmosphere into the “wished aire” of redemption
The Smoke of War: From Tamburlaine to Henry V
No full textThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record.Early in Tamburlaine Part 1, Marlowe’s protagonist promises that his army’s bullets, “[e]nrolde in flames and fiery smouldering mistes”, will occupy the heavens (2.3.20). Uniting the technological with the supernatural, Tamburlaine is characterised as a warrior who commands the “compasse of the killing bullet” (2.1.41), with the smoky emissions generated by his ordnance complementing his martial ambitions. As Tamburlaine and his rival Bajazeth compete for discursive and material control of the fictional – and theatrical - air, deploying smoke, flying bullets, and airborne contagion, Marlowe’s drama introduces an association between pollution and achievement that Shakespeare would subsequently interrogate in Henry IV and Henry V. While Shakespearean characters such as Hotspur continue to celebrate the fumes of “smoky war” (1 Henry IV 4.1.115), Shakespeare also registers the performative risks of generating environmental pollution: an approach that culminates in Henry V when the title protagonist’s threats conflate bullets with rotting bodies and render the air itself a poisoned weapon that “choke[s]” the atmosphere (4.3.99-108). Analysing both parts of Tamburlaine, Henry VI Part One, 1 and 2 Henry IV, and Henry V, this article explores the theatrical associations between staging battle and the weaponised use of airborne pollutants, reflecting on the implications for contemporary dramatic representations of the martial and aerial environment
“The Wished Aire”: Biblical Plagues and the Early Modern Playhouse
No full textAt a time when the outbreak of plague was frequently attributed to divine providence, and associated with poor air quality, Elizabethan playhouses were identified by their detractors as sites of contagion. Contemporary playwrights responded to such charges in their drama. In Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene’s A Looking-Glass for London and England (c. 1589), a late Elizabethan play that dramatizes the story of the Biblical plagues sent against ancient Nineveh, Lodge (a physician and dramatist) and his co-author Greene explore their theatre’s capacity to evoke the threat of plague through expansive imagery and sensory effects, before transforming this noxious atmosphere into the “wished aire” of redemption
Fortune’s Breath: Rewriting the Classical Storm in the Drama of Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare
No full textThis is the author accepted manuscriptCritics often identify Marlowe and Nashe’s play *Dido Queene of Carthage* as a significant precursor for Shakespeare’s *Antony and Cleopatra*, as well as his more explicitly Virgilian drama *The Tempest*. These three plays are regularly associated with the *Aeneid*, and interpreted within the context of early modern colonial discourse. While the theme of empire-building is of central importance in these dramas, however, the emphasis in all three plays on the staging of Virgilian storms suggest that the *Aeneid*’s prophetic and literary antecedents may be equally significant. Thus Marlowe and Shakespeare’s fictional tempests raise and pursue questions about the nature of theatrical authorship, the concept of a discrete imaginative sphere, and the charged issue of literary legacy or fama. Storms in these plays thus provide a medium through which to engage with and dispute standards of dramatic authority within the context of the purpose-dedicated playhouses, as Marlowe and Shakespeare respond in their drama to contemporary debates about the nature, value and purpose of the theatre
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In search of Marjorie Bowen
No full textThis thesis is about the British writer Gabrielle Margaret Campbell Long (1885-1952) who wrote 150 novels from 1906-1952. She wrote historical romances, gothic fiction, plays, short stories and non-fiction books under various pseudonyms such as Marjorie Bowen, Joseph Shearing, George R. Preedy, Robert Paye and John Winch. Her work was extremely popular during her lifetime both in England and abroad. Several of the Joseph Shearing mystery thriller novels, novels based on true-crime events and the novels produced under the George Preedy pseudonym were adapted into films. She gained a great deal of critical acclaim and the reviews of her work were extremely positive. Her opinion was much sought after when she was alive and she regularly lectured on art, history and wrote various opinion pieces. Yet today, Marjorie Bowen, a late Romantic writer essentially, is largely forgotten and unrecognised by literary scholarship. The thesis, In Search of Marjorie Bowen, while exploring a carefully chosen selection of Marjorie Bowen’s various works, examines and discusses why this author is worthy of study and modern critical attention, while also examining the reasons for her undeserved obscurity. Particular attention is paid to the historical, gothic and supernatural genres within a romantic framework. This thesis has four main aims in regards to the study of Marjorie Bowen’s work: To discuss Bowen’s abilities as a writer, including in comparison to other authors, to consider the vast extent of her imagination, to determine why she disappeared from our literary picture and to re-establish her as an important writer worthy of academic consideration and attention. This thesis seeks to revive interest in the work of an extraordinary writer
Preliminary investigation of the effects of long-term dietary intake of genistein and daidzein on hepatic histopathology and biochemistry in domestic cats (Felis catus)
No full textDietary isoflavones have been hypothesised to play a role in hepatic veno-occlusive disease in captive exotic felids, although empirical evidence is lacking. This study aimed to investigate the effect of long-term (>1 year) dietary genistein and daidzein exposure on the hepatic biochemistry and histology of domestic cats. Individual cats were assessed for hepatic enzyme and bile acid production before and after the removal of isoflavones from their diet in the treatment group (n=4), and at the same times in unexposed control animals (n=7). No significant differences were detectable in hepatic biochemistry between treatment and control groups, and all serum values were within the normal reference ranges for domestic cats. Additionally, treatment animals demonstrated slightly greater areas of fibrosis surrounding hepatic venules than control animals, but this difference was not statistically significant. On the basis of the results presented, dietary isoflavones, at the current dose and duration of exposure do not appear to modulate hepatic enzyme production or histological parameters
