History Commons^™

Richard Rudgley, Lost Civilisations Of The Stone Age., Laina Farhat-Holzman

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Midwives As Agents Of Social Control: Ecclesiastical And Municipal Regulation Of Midwifery In The Late Middle Ages, Ginger L. Smoak

Quidditas

Regulation of Midwifery in the Late Middle Ages was the result of both the trend toward supervisory social and institutional control and also the harnessing of midwives as agents of that control. This paper examines the procedure of ecclesiastical and municipal regulation through oaths and licensure, arguing that midwives were able to gain agency and autonomy, as well as protection, by occupying a liminal role between the private world of the birthing chamber and the public world of the witness stand. They were therefore vital to both sides of the process of regulation

Approaches To The Atonement In The Mystery Plays, Adam C. Wolfe

Quidditas

The English Corpus Christi plays were a vibrant expression of late medieval Christianity, but they did not survive the Reformation. Many Protestant reformers opposed religious drama altogether, but there were some attempts by reformers to edit the plays and recast them in a Protestant mold, attempts which were ultimately unsuccessful. This paper examines one such attempt and finds that the problem went far beyond obvious references to, and representations of, specifically Catholic beliefs. Focusing on representations of the Atonement in the York and Towneley plays, I found at least four distinct theological approaches to this central concept of Christian theology, …

Modernizing Matthew Paris: The Standards And Practices Of The First Printed Editions, Kristen Geaman

Quidditas

This article discusses the first printed editions of Mathew Paris’s thirteenth-century chronicle, Chronica Maiora, arguing that these editions show a much higher level of editorial sophistication than has yet been recognized. Written between 1235 and 1259, the Chronica Maiora is one of the most extensive and detailed chronicles of medieval England; yet the work was not printed until 1571, as part of a series of historical publications overseen by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury. Although the text of Parker’s edition has been almost universally criticized by scholars, this work suggests that he actually set a high editorial standard, especially by …

‘Robes And Furr’D Gowns Hide All’: Edgar’S Role(S) In King Lear, Annette Lucksinger

Quidditas

Despite his centrality in the play, Edgar’s role in King Lear has rarely attracted sustained analysis. To be sure, scholarly neglect doubtless results from Edgar’s own elusiveness, from the disguises that grant him access to the major characters in the play, disguises that encourage others to read in him what they wish to see. Analyzing what other characters see or fail to see in Edgar’s disguises offers important light on his character and his role in the play. A Lacanian analysis of Lear’s reading of Edgar’s role as Poor Tom shows that Lear’s effort to establish (or to re-establish) his …

Capturing The Imagination Of A Distracted Audience, David Paradis

Quidditas

We compete for students’ attention. Surrounded by smart phones, tablets, and laptops, we compete for their attention, sometimes in the classroom but definitely outside of it. To combat this deluge of distractions, assigned readings must contain attractive content. The challenge can be particularly acute in pre-modern history classes, partly because the language and the content of primary sources, even when translated into clear, modern prose, is often unfathomable to readers accustomed to reading Sparknotes or Wikipedia. One potential solution to this challenge is Maurice Keen’s Outlaws of Medieval Legend (rev. ed. New York: Routledge, 2001).

Full Issue

Quidditas

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Quidditas

No abstract provided.

Hyperreal Blessings: Simulated Relics In The Pardoner’S Tale, Chelsea Henson

Quidditas

This article argues that reading the relics Chaucer’s Pardoner carries through the lens of Jean Baudrillard’s definition of simulacra illustrates the potential existence – and subsequent dangers – of a simulated hyperreality to the spirituality of the fourteenth century. Juxtaposing “The Pardoner’s Prologue” from The Canterbury Tales and Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation lends meaning to both the machinations of Chaucer’s (arguably) most corrupt pilgrim, and to the postmodern idea of simulated realities. Rather than doubles or imitations of an original image or conception of reality, Baudrillard’s simulacra are indistinguishable replacements for the real, as the Pardoner would have us believe …

Marking The Woman A Sinner: Testimony And Legal Fiction In Renaissance England, Lesley Skousen

Quidditas

Throughout Medieval England, ordained clergy could avoid secular punishment for felony by claiming a privilege known as benefit of clergy. During the Reformation, this privilege was repurposed by the ministers of Henry VIII and offered as a lay benefit. The plea of clergy left women ineligible, as they could not be priests and were rarely convicted in the same numbers as men. Even when accused of crimes, women could rely on legal fictions and evasive testimonies to escape conviction. Then in 1624 and 1691, Parliament redesigned benefit of clergy to include women, first for slight theft and then on equal …

Delno C. West Award (2012)

Quidditas

Jessica Winston

The West Award recognizes the most distinguished paper given by a senior scholar at the annual conference.

Allen D. Breck Award Winner (2012)

Quidditas

Lesley Skousen

The Breck Award recognizes the most distinguished paper given by a junior scholar at the annual conference.

The Signifying Power Of Pearl, Jane Beal

Quidditas

The spiritual language, Ovidian love stories, and use of liturgical time in Pearl all invite allegorical interpretations of the poem. While there is clearly a literal, elegiac sense to the poem, there are also allegorical meanings. This makes perfect sense in light of the tradition of four-fold scriptural and literary interpretation in the Middle Ages, which the Pearl-Poet clearly used to understand biblical parables and compose his poetic masterpiece. The poet’s use of metaphoric language, memory of the legends of Orpheus and Eurydice and Pygmalion and Galatea, and astute interweaving of parables from the church liturgy alongside invocations of the …

“A Neighbour, Hedges Haue Eyes, And High-Wayes Haue Eares” Traveling Players, Traveling Spies In 1 Henry Iv And The True Tragedie Of Richard The Third, Robert D. Stefanek

Quidditas

The Elizabethan government used companies of travelling players to serve a number of intelligence functions, which extended to the surveillance of audiences during performances. This surveillance was facilitated by the discursive instabilities of their plays and the architecture of the spaces in which they were performed. Surveillance by travelling players was part of an essentially colonial project in which the crown sought to extend its power and increase its visibility while attempting to fashion a nationalist, pro-Protestant, pro-Tudor identity in the provinces. To consider these dynamics, this article considers two conjectured performances. First, Shakespeare’s 1 Henry IV performed by the …

A Fascinating But Frustrating Study Of Marlowe’S Drama And Its Historical Context, Jefferey H. Taylor

Quidditas

Clayton MacKenzie’s Deathly Experiments; A Study of Icons and Emblems of Mortality in Christopher Marlowe’s Plays is a fascinating, but equally frustrating, study of Marlowe’s drama and its historical context. The basic premise, to enrich our reading of Marlowe’s plays through resonance with widely available printed emblems and similar iconic art, is a worthy endeavor, one that follows the impulse to illuminate drama by examining contemporary visual art, and foregrounding the presence of theater as visual communications and enriching sensitivity to the communicative power of image and icon.

“Rise Up, Lord, Scatter Your Enemies (Please)”: Faith And Doubt In The Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard1, Thomas Klein

Quidditas

As is now well known, in July of 2009, an unemployed metal “detectorist” named Terry Herbert was plying his device in the recently plowed field of a friend in the farmland outside of Lichfield, in Staffordshire, in the English West Midlands, and came upon a remarkable find.2 Over the course of several days, he uncovered hundreds of items of what turned out to be early Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork. The find was subsequently reported to the British Portable Antiquities Scheme, which took over the site, and eventually some 1300 distinct objects (and many more pieces) were recovered. The news …

Who Killed Lycidas?: Lycidas And The Spanish Tragedy, Clay Daniel

Quidditas

In Lycidas, the protagonist searches for an explanation for why his virtuous friend has mysteriously died in a cultural-political landscape of unpunished, thriving, official corruption. Though Renaissance pastoral sometimes inveighed against corrupt authorities, pastoral elegy did not. What models, then, other than the Bible, would Milton have had for the swain’s search? Milton’s headnote calls his poem a monody, which within a literary context primarily is a speech in Greek tragedy. Milton then invites us to read the poem within a dramatic context. But which dramatic context? The Book of Revelation of course is one these contexts. But contemporary …