Six Dead Queens & an Inflatable Henry

Now this looks like fun – the Piccolo Theatre in Illinois has an upcoming play called Six Dead Queens & an Inflatable Henry! which will run from mid-April to early June.

Created by The Foursight Theatre Company in Wolverhampton, England in 1999, “Six Dead Queens and an Inflatable Henry!” is a devised theatre piece packed with intrigue, rowdy good humor, and duels of words. The action takes place in eternity where Henry’s consorts are forced to spend their days and nights vaulting over each other for the top spot and the answer to the question: Who is the true Queen?

The cast members have also been humorously blogging at Six Dead Queens during their research.

Sunday short takes

A few more links that I hadn’t gotten around to posting yet:

The UK National Archives has a page on Flickr which includes, among other interesting images, the infamous “Culpepper Letter” of Kathryn Howard.

Last But Not Least: The Enduring Fascination of Katherine Parr – Guest post by Linda Porter for The Anne Boleyn Files

Leith restages its biggest ever drama 450 years on

London museums: four new openings – including the opening of Discover Greenwich which among other things, will have some displays on and artifacts from the Tudor palace.

Hilary Mantel and Wolf Hall news

Catching up with more on Wolf Hall (and yes, I know I still owe everyone a review, although at this point I’m not sure there is much my voice can add):

Last week, Wolf Hall picked up another prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award. Here’s an article from the LA Times: National Book Critics Circle Awards announced

And there was an interesting interview with Hilary Mantel in the Telegraph a few weeks ago where among other things, she does mention her work on Wolf Hall‘s sequel The Mirror and the Light: Hilary Mantel interview

And I think I forgot to post that the book is now available in paperback in the UK, but won’t be out in paperback in the US until August. Usual Amazon links below:

Round-up of links about Lady Jane Grey

Two of these come from the very excellent Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide Blog which I’m sure most of you also read, but just in case you don’t I’d like to highlight some recent posts.

In a previous post reminding people about the Delaroche exhibition and Leanda de Lisle’s talk there, I asked for anyone to let me know if they got a chance to go. Here’s a write-up from the Lady Jane Grey blog: Death Becomes Her: The Life and Afterlife of Lady Jane Grey – Lecture by Leanda de Lisle

And on a related note, here is a link to a guest post by Ms. de Lisle: DEATH BECOMES HER – BY LEANDA DE LISLE And similarly related, here is an article from The Express also by Ms. de Lisle: THE TRUTH ABOUT THE QUEEN FOR NINE DAYS

Imagined Lives: Mystery Portraits 1520-1640

From a National Portrait Gallery press release:

IMAGINED LIVES: MYSTERY PORTRAITS 1520-1640
17 March 2010-October 2011
The National Trust’s Montacute House, near Yeovil, Somerset

A new National Portrait Gallery display of unseen paintings of 16th and 17th-century mystery figures opens at one of its regional partners, the National Trust’s Montacute House, on 17 March 2010. Over the last 450 years, the identities of the sitters featured in the portraits on display have been either lost or mistaken. This will be the first opportunity to see these portraits, which have either been recently restored or not exhibited for over half a century.

Inspired by the mystery that surrounds the unknown sitters, the Gallery has invited writers John Banville, Tracy Chevalier, Julian Fellowes, Sir Terry Pratchett, Sarah Singleton, Joanna Trollope and Minette Walters to contribute short imaginative stories on what their lives might have been like. These fantasy character sketches and fictional biographies accompany the portraits in the display and help bring the sitters to life.

New research undertaken by History of Art MA students at the University of Bristol, working with Dr Tatiana String – and supervised by the Gallery’s 16th Century Curator Dr Tarnya Cooper – has meant that they can now be brought back into full view with a clearer understanding of their past.

The display features portraits of men and women whose identities are no longer known. They appear to depict courtiers, musicians, writers, soldiers and others who hoped to preserve their memory by sitting for a portrait. They were purchased by the National Portrait Gallery from 1858 to 1971. When the identity of these portraits was disproved or disputed, the paintings were often removed from display or lent to other collections. Recent conservation work and new research has meant that some portraits can now be re-identified.

Link to full text of press release

Excerpts from the stories published by the Times Online

Update: I meant to add a link about the work done to identify one of these previously un-or-mis-identified portraits. The portrait subject of the story written by Tracy Chevalier is now thought to be Sir Robert Dudley, the illegitimate son of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Here is a news release from the University of Bristol about the students who made the identification.

“Hoax” Shakespeare play may be the real deal after all

From Discovery News:

LOST SHAKESPEARE PLAY: FOUND?
An academic claims that an 18th century play, called “Double Falsehood,” was based on a work by William Shakespeare.

Is this love’s labor no longer lost? A scholar says a play written in the 18th-century is very likely based on a missing work by William Shakespeare.

After years of literary investigation, a professor at the University of Nottingham said Tuesday he’s certain “Double Falsehood, or the Distressed Lovers” was born out of “Cardenio,” a play Shakespeare scholars believe existed.

Some scholars believe Lewis Theobald’s “Double Falsehood,” first performed in London’s West End in December 1727, was based substantially on the Bard’s “Cardenio.”

“There is definitely Shakespearean DNA,” said English literature professor Brean Hammond, who has worked since 2002 to determine if “Double Falsehood” has Shakespearean roots. Arden Shakespeare, an authoritative publisher of the Bard’s works, has released an edition of the play edited by Hammond — a decision the publisher acknowledges is controversial.

Arden’s general editor, Shakespeare scholar Richard Proudfoot, agrees with Hammond and says there is no absolute way of knowing if “Double Falsehood” is based on Shakespeare’s work, but he argues it is a “sufficiently sustainable position” that it represents the play in some form.

“My position is one of fairly confident — but cautious — acceptance,” he said.

Full article

And a few more news links for this story:

The Guardian: ‘Shakespeare’s lost play’ no hoax, says expert

The Telegraph: Why William Shakespeare’s lost play is not a forgery

And also from The Telegraph: William Shakespeare’s lost play Double Falsehood: a synopsis

An Old Sea Dog

From The BBC:

Dog skeleton from Mary Rose displayed in Portsmouth

A dog which sailed aboard the Mary Rose ship 465 years ago is to take up residence in the Mary Rose Museum at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

The animal’s skeleton, which has been reconstructed by staff at the Mary Rose Trust, will go on display from Friday 26 March.

The dog was discovered trapped in the sliding door of the carpenter’s cabin of the Mary Rose, which sank in 1545.

The dog, named Hatch by museum staff, was probably used as a ratter.

Full article

Lots of photos of the skeleton (and other things Mary Rose) are at the MaryRose500 photostream on Flickr.

And other articles:

* From the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard website: Lost dog returns home

5 years!

While I was checking my calendar to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything that needed to get done this weekend (besides losing an hour of sleep – blargh…) I noticed it was the 5th birthday of this blog! A blog-like thing existed on the site from 1997 (hence the “archive posts”), but I moved to an official blog 5 years ago. I still wonder what took me to long to see that it was the obvious things to replace the old “news and events” page with!

And just a little personal update – I know I have been really spotty with stuff lately (in particular the last two weeks) but I should be able to get back on top of thing soon. I was really busy at work two weeks ago and then had to work last Saturday, which of course meant that it was even harder to catch up. And then last week I was at a science meeting for four days, so not much was done during that either. But this upcoming week is Spring Break here and I’m taking it off to decompress, catch up and of course enjoy some of the craziness that explodes in my hometown this time of the year. (One of these years I’m going to be able to afford to get a badge and attend everything! I usually only end up at the public and free events.)

Oh, and totally off topic – Happy Pi Day and Happy Birthday to Albert Einstein. 🙂

Secret snake on portrait of Elizabeth I

I know I’m way late with this, but better late than never!

News release from The National Portrait Gallery:

MYSTERY SNAKE REVEALED IN ELIZABETH I PORTRAIT. NEW RESEARCH SHOWS CHANGING FACES OF THE TUDOR QUEEN

Scientific detective work has revealed a mysterious coiled serpent in the hands of Queen Elizabeth I, which was painted out by the artist shortly afterwards, in a portrait at the National Portrait Gallery. It has also been revealed that this portrait of the queen, which has not been on display at the Gallery since 1921, was painted over an unfinished portrait of an unknown sitter. The revelations about this painting and three others of the Tudor queen will form a new display, Concealed and Revealed: The Changing Faces of Elizabeth I, from 13 March at the National Portrait Gallery as part of the Making Art in Tudor Britain project led by Dr Tarnya Cooper.
…
Concealed and Revealed: The Changing Faces of Elizabeth I runs from 13 March – 26 September 2010 in Room 2 of the National Portrait Gallery.

Full text of news release

Additional articles:

Art Daily: New Research: Mystery Snake Revealed in Elizabeth I Portrait

BBC: Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I reveals secret snake

The Daily Mail Online: The Queen’s loyal serpent: 400 years on, a painted-over snake reappears on portrait of Elizabeth I

The Guardian: Portrait of Elizabeth I reveals she held serpent where a posy now appears

The Independent: The Virgin Queen, the serpent and the doctored portrait

Sunday short takes

* Not exactly Tudor related, but cool: SepiaTown – mapped historical photos from around the world.

* Shakespeare’s Kings and Westminster Abbey – RSC actors performing excerpts from the history plays in the coronation ‘theater’ of the Abbey. I wish I could attend some of these!

* Presentation on objects from Tudor and Stuart playhouses at the Museum of London on April 24

New book suggests Anne Boleyn was guilty of adultery

I know I’m a little late getting this posted…

From The Guardian:

Anne Boleyn was guilty of adultery, new biography claims

Charges for which she was executed, long thought to have been cooked up, are likely to have been true, says historian George Bernard

A new biography of Anne Boleyn is set to claim that, far from being framed for adultery, Henry VIII’s second queen may not have been innocent of the affairs for which she was sentenced to death.

The widely held view among contemporary historians is that the charges brought against Anne

Picture of the Week #60

Winchester Palace. Photo June 2000.

Winchester Palace was the London residence of the Bishops of Winchester and was in use until the 17th century (it was mostly destroyed by fire in 1814). The Palace is on the south the Thames in Southwark and is near Southwark Cathedral, burial place of William Shakespeare’s brother Edmund. The part you see here is from the great hall and includes the remains of the structure for the rose window.

Sunday short takes

* Henry VIII to be staged this season at the Globe (from the BBC). Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat itself with this production! They will also have two new productions this year: one a play about Anne Boleyn and another that will be the first play performed at the Globe from a woman playwright (from The Guardian).

* History Today has an article by Linda Porter – Katherine Parr: An Ideal Stepmother. Porter has a new biography on Parr due out in March in the UK (you can sign up to be notified for the US release at the link below).

* There are several upcoming Tudor Events at Hampton Court Palace that look interesting. As always, if anyone gets a chance to go to any of these, I’d love to hear about it!

* A new book on the death of Amy Robsart Dudley is out in the UK (article from The Times Online). UK Amazon link below (and another US “sign up to be notified”)