William Percy's Mahomet and His Heaven

William Percy's Mahomet and His Heaven PDF Author: Matthew Dimmock
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351872745
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
William Percy's Mahomet and His Heaven (1601) is extraordinary. Not only is it the only early modern play purportedly based upon the Qur'an, but it is also the first to place the Prophet Muhammad on the stage. While there existed a remarkable range of texts concerning Islamic characters and themes in Renaissance England, from chronicles and pamphlets to popular drama, the publication of this edition of Mahomet and His Heaven represents a major step forward in the study of Islam on the early modern stage. Roughly contemporary with Shakespeare's Othello, William Percy makes the remarkable and potentially highly provocative gesture of locating the Prophet as its central character, presiding over an apocalyptic drought to chastise the sins of mankind. The play takes place in around the mosques of 'Medina' and the action mirrors early Christian 'translations' of the Qur'an, the Islamic holy text that was rarely available in England at the time. Furthermore, the play provides a fascinating insight into the way that Islamic characters were portrayed on the early modern stage, containing as it does remarkably detailed stage directions, stipulating for example that the Prophet wears 'all greene and greene his Turban' and that his Angels are 'rainbow powdered'. Such details offer an entirely new perspective upon this aspect of early modern stagecraft. Matthew Dimmock presents here the play in its entirety, with a critical introduction which introduces some of its key themes, and places it in a textual and social context. A section of detailed explanatory scholarly notes follow the play, containing a full translation of the short Latin sections and references to the many political and literary parallels. This book should be required reading for historians, literary scholars and students dealing with notions of race, religion, magic, astrology and stagecraft in early modern England.

William Percy's Mahomet and His Heaven

William Percy's Mahomet and His Heaven PDF Author: Matthew Dimmock
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351872745
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 363

Get Book Here

Book Description
William Percy's Mahomet and His Heaven (1601) is extraordinary. Not only is it the only early modern play purportedly based upon the Qur'an, but it is also the first to place the Prophet Muhammad on the stage. While there existed a remarkable range of texts concerning Islamic characters and themes in Renaissance England, from chronicles and pamphlets to popular drama, the publication of this edition of Mahomet and His Heaven represents a major step forward in the study of Islam on the early modern stage. Roughly contemporary with Shakespeare's Othello, William Percy makes the remarkable and potentially highly provocative gesture of locating the Prophet as its central character, presiding over an apocalyptic drought to chastise the sins of mankind. The play takes place in around the mosques of 'Medina' and the action mirrors early Christian 'translations' of the Qur'an, the Islamic holy text that was rarely available in England at the time. Furthermore, the play provides a fascinating insight into the way that Islamic characters were portrayed on the early modern stage, containing as it does remarkably detailed stage directions, stipulating for example that the Prophet wears 'all greene and greene his Turban' and that his Angels are 'rainbow powdered'. Such details offer an entirely new perspective upon this aspect of early modern stagecraft. Matthew Dimmock presents here the play in its entirety, with a critical introduction which introduces some of its key themes, and places it in a textual and social context. A section of detailed explanatory scholarly notes follow the play, containing a full translation of the short Latin sections and references to the many political and literary parallels. This book should be required reading for historians, literary scholars and students dealing with notions of race, religion, magic, astrology and stagecraft in early modern England.

The Country House Library

The Country House Library PDF Author: Mark Purcell
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300248687
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Beginning with new evidence that cites the presence of books in Roman villas and concluding with present day vicissitudes of collecting, this generously illustrated book presents a complete survey of British and Irish country house libraries. Replete with engaging anecdotes about owners and librarians, the book features fascinating information on acquisition bordering on obsession, the process of designing library architecture, and the care (and neglect) of collections. The author also disputes the notion that these libraries were merely for show, arguing that many of them were profoundly scholarly, assembled with meticulous care, and frequently used for intellectual pursuits. For those who love books and the libraries in which they are collected and stored, The Country House Library is an essential volume to own.

Sweet and Clean?

Sweet and Clean? PDF Author: Susan North
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019259821X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 539

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Book Description
Sweet and Clean? challenges the widely held beliefs on bathing and cleanliness in the past. For over thirty years, the work of the French historian, George Vigarello, has been hugely influential on early modern European social history, describing an aversion to water and bathing, and the use of linen underwear as the sole cleaning agent for the body. However, these concepts do not apply to early modern England. Sweet and Clean? analyses etiquette and medical literature, revealing repeated recommendations to wash or bathe in order to clean the skin. Clean linen was essential for propriety but advice from medical experts was contradictory. Many doctors were convinced that it prevented the spread of contagious diseases, but others recommended flannel for undergarments, and a few thought changing a fever patient's linens was dangerous. The methodology of material culture helps determine if and how this advice was practiced. Evidence from inventories, household accounts and manuals, and surviving linen garments tracks underwear through its life-cycle of production, making, wearing, laundering, and final recycling. Although the material culture of washing bodies is much sparser, other sources, such as the Old Bailey records, paint a more accurate picture of cleanliness in early modern England than has been previously described. The contrasting analyses of linen and bodies reveal what histories material culture best serves. Finally, what of the diseases-plague, smallpox, and typhus-that cleanliness of body and clothes were thought to prevent? Did following early modern medical advice protect people from these illnesses?

Making a Match

Making a Match PDF Author: Ann Jennalie Cook
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400861756
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
Making a Match examines the various options posed at every stage of English wooing, together with the presentation of these protocols in the plays of Shakespeare. Across the canon, wooing may command either a casual reference or a central position in the action, but no play escapes a connection of some kind. Instead of taking a fixed position on an institution intended to stabilize the commonwealth, Shakespeare constantly shifts position, in a kaleidoscope of caricature, criticism, acceptance, subversion, or indifference. For general readers and specialists alike, this work supplies a rich understanding of the codes so familiar to the playwright and his audience--an understanding essential for an appreciation of the subtleties of his art. Delving into primary sources, social history, demography, and literary criticism, the author offers the widest possible range of both Renaissance and modern views on the most crucial experience of Elizabethan culture. Besides correcting or illuminating the interpretations of Shakespeareans, this book offers valuable material for any area of research on the English Renaissance that touches on courtship. Originally published in 1991. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Privileged Playgoers of Shakespeare's London, 1576-1642

The Privileged Playgoers of Shakespeare's London, 1576-1642 PDF Author: Ann Jennalie Cook
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400853664
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Besides documenting the predominant presence of privileged patrons in the audience, the author discusses the shape of the privileged life, the place of the privileged in the social structure, the forces that drew so many of them to London, and the factors that made them such avid theatergoers. Originally published in 1981. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Poor Relief in England, 1350–1600

Poor Relief in England, 1350–1600 PDF Author: Marjorie Keniston McIntosh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139503650
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
Between the mid-fourteenth century and the Poor Laws of 1598 and 1601, English poor relief moved toward a more coherent and comprehensive network of support. Marjorie McIntosh's study, the first to trace developments across that time span, focuses on three types of assistance: licensed begging and the solicitation of charitable alms; hospitals and almshouses for the bedridden and elderly; and the aid given by parishes. It explores changing conceptions of poverty and charity and altered roles for the church, state and private organizations in the provision of relief. The study highlights the creativity of local people in responding to poverty, cooperation between national levels of government, the problems of fraud and negligence, and mounting concern with proper supervision and accounting. This ground-breaking work challenges existing accounts of the Poor Laws, showing that they addressed problems with forms of aid already in use rather than creating a new system of relief.

Thomas Harriot

Thomas Harriot PDF Author: Robyn Arianrhod
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190271876
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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Book Description
As Robyn Arianrhod shows in this new biography, the most complete to date, Thomas Harriot was a pioneer in both the figurative and literal sense. Navigational adviser and loyal friend to Sir Walter Ralegh, Harriot--whose life was almost exactly contemporaneous to Shakespeare's--took part in the first expedition to colonize Virginia in 1585. Not only was he responsible for getting Ralegh's ships safely to harbor in the New World, he was also the first European to acquire a working knowledge of an indigenous language from what is today the US, and to record in detail the local people's way of life. In addition to his groundbreaking navigational, linguistic, and ethnological work, Harriot was the first to use a telescope to map the moon's surface, and, independently of Galileo, recorded the behavior of sunspots and discovered the law of free fall. He preceded Newton in his discovery of the properties of the prism and the nature of the rainbow, to name just two more of his unsung "firsts." Indeed many have argued that Harriot was the best mathematician of his age, and one of the finest experimental scientists of all time. Yet he has remained an elusive figure. He had no close family to pass down records, and few of his letters survive. Most importantly, he never published his scientific discoveries, and not long after his death in 1621 had all but been forgotten. In recent decades, many scholars have been intent on restoring Harriot to his rightful place in scientific history, but Arianrhod's biography is the first to pull him fully into the limelight. She has done it the only way it can be done: through his science. Using Harriot's re-discovered manuscripts, Arianrhod illuminates the full extent of his scientific and cultural achievements, expertly guiding us through what makes them original and important, and the story behind them. Harriot's papers provide unique insight into the scientific process itself. Though his thinking depended on a more natural, intuitive approach than those who followed him, and who achieved the lasting fame that escaped him, Harriot helped lay the foundations of what in Newton's time would become modern physics. Thomas Harriot: A Life in Science puts a human face to scientific inquiry in the Elizabethan and Jacobean worlds, and at long last gives proper due to the life and times of one of history's most remarkable minds.

Society and Puritanism in Pre-revolutionary England

Society and Puritanism in Pre-revolutionary England PDF Author: Christopher Hill
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1786636220
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
How Puritanism made modern Britain In order to understand the English Revolution and Civil War, it is essential to get a grasp on the nature of Puritanism. In this classic work of social history, Christopher Hill reveals Puritanism as a living faith, one responding to social as well as religious needs. It was a set of beliefs that answered the hopes and fears of yeomen and gentlemen, as well as merchants and artisans, in a time of tribulation and extraordinary turbulence. Over this period, Puritanism was interwoven into daily life. Here Hill looks at how rituals and practices such as oath-taking, the Sabbath, bawdy courts, and poor relief offered a way to bring order to social upheaval. He even offers an explanation for the emergence of the seemingly paradoxical figure of the age—the Puritan revolutionary.

Up and Down Stairs

Up and Down Stairs PDF Author: Jeremy Musson
Publisher: John Murray
ISBN: 1848543875
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
Country houses were reliant on an intricate hierarchy of servants, each of whom provided an essential skill. Up and Down Stairs brings to life this hierarchy and shows how large numbers of people lived together under strict segregation and how sometimes this segregation was broken, as with the famous marriage of a squire to his dairymaid at Uppark. Jeremy Musson captures the voices of the servants who ran these vast houses, and made them work. From unpublished memoirs to letters, wages, newspaper articles, he pieces together their daily lives from the Middle Ages through to the twentieth century. The story of domestic servants is inseparable from the story of the country house as an icon of power, civilisation and luxury. This is particularly true with the great estates such as Chatsworth, Hatfield, Burghley and Wilton. Jeremy Musson looks at how these grand houses were, for centuries, admired and imitated around the world.

'Servant to The King for His Fortifications:' Paul Ive and The Practise of Fortification

'Servant to The King for His Fortifications:' Paul Ive and The Practise of Fortification PDF Author: Charles Stephenson
Publisher: Charles Stephenson
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description