by Chris Townsend The Irish philosopher George Berkeley was not a contemporary of William Wordsworth — he died in 1753, almost thirty years prior to Wordsworth’s birth — but his philosophical and spiritual thinking still exerts a traceable influence over…
By David Randall The Concept of Conversation In Roman days the leisured noble’s speech Was conversation, sermo, where all spoke To seek out truth, with each persuading each To maintain chat by wooing phrase and joke. This style of speech…
J.F. Bernard discusses melancholy - the happiness of being sad - through Grock the clown and Shakespeare's tragic comedies.
By Sophie Chiari In Romeo and Juliet, the lovers are plagued by the dog days that overdetermine the climate of the play and turn heat into hate. Interestingly, Shakespeare’s sources all set the story in a cold winter which put forward…
John Pollock’s new article on the true provenance of ‘Mr Shuckspr’se Box’ begins with an auction, although true to our ‘advanced age’, it is a live webcast auction. Our author bids on ‘A 17TH CENTURY IRON STRONG BOX’ and wins…
Walter Scott’s poetry dominated the early years of the nineteenth century but has subsequently fallen into relative obscurity. The first scholarly edition of Marmion (1808), the second of Scott’s grand historical narrative poems, has recently been published and sets out…
Sir Thomas More (1477 – 1535) was the first person to write of a ‘utopia’, a word used to describe a perfect imaginary world. The term was first published in 1516, and became the short title of his book about an…
By Celeste-Marie Bernier and Andrew Taylor Frederick Douglass. Just the name alone is enough to inspire us to think of a life lived in activism and an unceasing fight for social justice. But there are other names in the life…
By Sophie Chiari and Mickaël Popelard The second part of our quiz poses another 14 questions on Shakespeare and science. Missed the first part? Check it out here. How often does Shakespeare refer to atomism in his plays? Page 123, Jonathan Pollock:…