GREAT VOWEL SHIFT=A sound change that began c.1400 and ended c.1600, changing late MIDDLE ENGLISH long, stressed MONOPHTHONGS from something like the sounds of mainland European languages to those that they now have: for example, Middle English fine had an i like Italian fino. Words that entered English after the completion of the shift have often retained the original sound, as in police: compare polite, which entered earlier. In terms of articulation, the Middle English front VOWELS raised and fronted and the back vowels raised and backed; vowels already at the top became DIPHTHONGS with ah as the first element and the old vowel as the second, as in fine (see diagram). The shift marked a major change in the transition to EARLY MODERN ENGLISH, and is one reason the works of Geoffrey CHAUCER and his contemporaries sound so unlike present-day English. Chaucer's a in fame sounded much like the a in present-day father, his e in see like the a in same, the i in fine like the ee in fee, the o in so like the aw in saw, the o in to like the oe in toe, and the ou or ow in crowd like the u in crude. See E, LATIN, JESPERSEN, VOWEL SHIFT. Compare GRIMM'S LAW.
"GREAT VOWEL SHIFT" Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language.
Ed. Tom McArthur. Oxford University Press, 1998. Oxford Reference
Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009
SPELLING REFORM= The planned alteration of the established alphabetic
WRITING system of a language so as to remove or reduce elements taken
to be sources of confusion and difficulty in learning and using that
system. Spelling reform does not usually include such changes as the
substitution of one writing system for another (as, for example, in
1928, when Arabic script was replaced by Roman for the writing of
Turkish), changes in systems of non-alphabetic signs (as with the
reform of Chinese characters begun in the People's Republic of China in
1955), or the readoption of earlier individual spellings (such as, in
English, the spelling fantasy after some three centuries of phantasy,
there being no general substitution of f for ph throughout the
language).
Regulation and reform
Before the advent of printing in the 15c, European spelling conventions
were not usually rigid and often reflected writers' accents and
preferences. The concept of ‘correct writing’ ( ORTHOGRAPHY) emerged
partly because printers sought uniformity and partly from a Renaissance
interest in word forms, but it was only gradually, over centuries, that
the availability and example of dictionaries and the pressures of
formal systems of education led individuals to strive to observe the
conventions of print. Systematic changes in spelling have generally
been the responsibility of language academies or government
departments. Academies have been founded for Italian (1582), French
(1634), Spanish (1713), and various other languages (but excluding
English), to act among other things as authorities on orthography, and
have strongly influenced the orthographic development of the languages
over which they have presided. For example, the 1740 edition of the
dictionary of the Académie française altered the spelling of 36% of
French words, chiefly replacing mute s by acute and circumflex accents:
for example, estoit by étoit, boiste by boîte. Similarly, in 1959, the
Real Academia de la Lengua Española issued its Neuvas Normas de
Ortografía (New Norms of Orthography), recommending that silent initial
letters should be dropped; psicología could, for example, thenceforth
be written sicología.
Reforming English spelling
Many linguists and educationists have been concerned with ways of
systematizing written English. Although there could be no reform before
spelling became more or less fixed, many of the ideas that have
dominated the spelling-reform debate were already under discussion in
the 16c. For example, in 1568, Sir Thomas Smith called for consistency
within an extended alphabet, including letters and diacritical marks
from Old English and Greek; in 1569, John Hart called for the spelling
of words strictly by their sound; in 1582, Richard Mulcaster appealed
for stability based on consistency, analogy, and custom, and the
recollection that ‘letters were inuented to expresse sounds’. However,
the school-master Edmond Coote probably contributed most to the
settling of English spelling in its present form through the 54
editions of his handbook The English Schoolemaister (from 1595 to
1737), which tended to avoid some of the redundant letters that were
previously common.
Alexander Gil in 1619 and Charles Butler in 1633 advocated phonographic
systems with the retention of Old English letters or the introduction
of new letters (with some variation to mark etymology and distinguish
homophones), but there was little serious advocacy or reform until
1768, when Benjamin Franklin assessed the needs of learners and poor
spellers and devised an alphabet that did not use the letters c, j, q,
w, x, y (which he considered superfluous) and introduced new characters
for the vowels in hot, up and the consonants in the, thin, -ing, she.
The scheme did not, however, receive much attention. A major 19c
innovator was Isaac PITMAN, who moved from the invention of his
phonetic shorthand to the development of an extended alphabet called
phonotype or phonotypy. His emphasis on the need to encourage the
education of the poor was echoed in Britain in the 1870 Education Act
and led to a call by the National Union of Elementary Teachers in 1876
for a Royal Commission to consider spelling reform. The later 1870s saw
the founding of spelling-reform associations on both sides of the
Atlantic, whose members included Tennyson and Darwin. Such eminent
philologists as Henry SWEET and Alexander Ellis in the UK and Francis
March in the US experimented with reformed alphabets. In the 1880s,
many students of the new science of phonetics were interested in the
development of a phonetic alphabet not only for academic purposes but
also as a possible precursor of a reformed spelling system for English.
New Spelling
At the beginning of the 20c, the cause of spelling reform was taken up
for a time by the US President Theodore Roosevelt and sponsored by the
industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. In 1908, the British
SIMPLIFIED SPELLING SOCIETY (SSS) was founded, chiefly with the aim of
devising a reformed writing system based on the Roman alphabet, in the
belief that such a development would stand a better chance of
acceptance than a new alphabet. In 1948, the phonetician Daniel JONES
and dialectologist Harold Orton published a system called New Spelling,
the recommended orthography of the SSS, of which the following is a
specimen:
We rekwier dhe langgwej as an instrooment; we mae aulsoe study its
history. Dhe presens ov unpronounst leterz, three or for different waez
ov reprezenting dhe saem sound, three or for uesez ov dhe same leter:
aul dhis detrakts from dhe value ov a langgwej az an instrooment.
New Spelling was accepted in 1956, with small amendments, by the
American Simplified Spelling Association, was further developed and
computerized by Edward Rondthaler in New York (1986), and was revised
in the 1980s, its most recent form being published in the Society's
Pamphlet No. 12, New Spelling 90 (1991). It also provided the
phonographic analysis on which Sir James PITMAN based his INITIAL
TEACHING ALPHABET (i.t.a.) (1959). To date, however, the system has had
little impact on the English-using world, and there appears currently
to be little general interest in reform, and considerably less interest
among language scholars than a century or even half a century ago.
A new alphabet
There have from time to time been attempts at radical change that go
well beyond spelling reform proper into the creation and promotion of
entirely new alphabets. Most prominently, a bequest from the dramatist
and social reformer George Bernard SHAW financed a public competition
in 1957–8 for the design of a new alphabet that would have at least 40
letters and no digraphs or diacritics. The winner of this competition,
Kingsley Read (from Warwickshire in England), produced an alphabet that
is utterly unlike Roman and has letters of four types: tall (those with
ascenders) deep (those with descenders), short (those with neither
ascenders nor descenders), and compound (combining basic symbols). In
visual effect, the Shaw Alphabet, Shaw's Alphabet, or the Shavian
Alphabet, as it is variously known, looks rather like the scripts used
for the Dravidian languages of South India, with many gently curving
characters. A bi-alphabetic edition of Shaw's play Androcles and the
Lion was published by Penguin Books in 1962 to demonstrate the old and
new orthographies side by side, the texts running parallel on facing
pages. In it the Shaw Alphabet, though alien in its effect, proves
markedly more compact and economical than the traditional system. To
date, however, it has had no impact on the English-using world.
The contemporary situation
Recent thinking among spelling reformers stresses gradual rather than
radical change, so as to ensure continuity of literacy, enable old and
new to coexist, and limit the impact and scope of any one stage in
reform: that is, evolution rather than revolution. Harry Lindgren in
Australia, for example, proposes a multistage reform programme, each
stage regularizing the spelling of a single phoneme. As a first stage,
he suggests that the traditional short -e sound be written as e, as in
eny ‘any’, sed ‘said’, agenst ‘against’, bery ‘bury’, frend ‘friend’,
hed ‘head’. Alternatively, rather than taking a rigid schema of sound–
symbol correspondences as a starting-point, some reformers adopt a
functional approach, asking what spellings would best suit the needs
and abilities of users. One proposal suggests a first stage confined to
removing the digraph gh in though, caught, etc. In addition, some
reformers argue that by studying kinds of misspelling it is possible to
identify the greatest difficulties among current spellings, and
concentrate on regularizing them alone.
Arguments about spelling reform
The idea of reforming the spelling of English has long been
controversial, with arguments about the relative value of tradition and
literacy, the practicalities of introducing change, and the specific
changes that might be made. Opponents of reform often describe the rich
variety of present spellings as a heritage not to be lightly discarded,
while reformers attach priority to the actual or perceived needs of
contemporary users. Orthographic conservationists point out that
present spellings often reflect the history of words and their links
across groups of words and with words in other languages, while
reformers present a counter-list of historically inconsistent spellings
and cite arbitrary variations both within English and from the
spellings of other European languages. Conservationists object that
radically changed spellings would seem alien to the older generation,
while texts in the old spelling would seem alien to the young; the
change-over would also, they say, create uncertainty and cost a great
deal. Reformers reply that the present system has already alienated
many, the spelling of earlier writers has in any case been updated in
various ways, and reform could potentially save money. Anti-reformers
fear that interfering with an ancient, delicately balanced system might
make learning not easier but more difficult, while many who have taught
regularized spelling (such as teachers of the initial teaching
alphabet) have argued that a more regular system is easier to learn.
Resistance to the idea of change is often provoked by the disturbingly
unfamiliar appearance of radically reformed spellings, such as kof and
skool for cough and school, which for many people are both
aesthetically displeasing and suggest semi-literacy.
Among the practical objections to spelling reform is the problem of
coordinating reform worldwide in so widely used a language as English,
as well as the fact that there is no consensus among reformers on the
system to be introduced. Antireformers argue in particular that, if
English spelling is directly to represent pronunciation, there is no
serious answer to the question: if reform is to be phonographic, on
which accent of English should it be based? To these points reformers
reply that the traditional orthography of English is quite simply out
of date and is demonstrably difficult both to learn and to use.
Literacy, they maintain, is a precondition for individual, national,
and international prosperity, and the present spelling system of the
world's foremost language hinders the wider and fuller achievement of
literacy in that language. As regards consensus and accent, they insist
on the necessity of the major English-using communities getting
together and discussing the problem, to find out what bases of
agreement exist and to seek workable compromises, especially with
regard to the phonemic analysis on which any international system might
be built. Currently, there does not appear to be anything close to a
meeting of minds in such matters.
"SPELLING REFORM" Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language.
Ed. Tom McArthur. Oxford University Press, 1998. Oxford Reference
Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009
CHANCERY STANDARD= also Chancery English. Present-day terms for the
15c written usage of the clerks of Chancery in London, who prepared the
king's documents. Before the 1430s, official records were mainly in
Latin and French, but after that date mainly in an English based on the
Central Midland dialect, with such usages as gaf (gave) not Chaucer's
East Midland yaf, such not swich, and theyre (their) not hir. Until the
end of the 15c, Chancery and the Exchequer built a foundation of
written English that was developed by CAXTON when he set up his press
in Westminster in 1476. Over the years, printers replaced some features
of Chancery usage with London equivalents, such as third person -s
instead of -th (hopes, not hopeth), and are instead of be. See STANDARD
ENGLISH.
BAIEUX TAPESTRY- The most famous of all pieces of needlework (actually
an embroidery rather than a tapestry), depicting William the
Conqueror's successful invasion of England in 1066 and the events that
led up to it. It was probably commissioned by William's half-brother
Bishop Odo of Bayeux (who has a prominent role in the story shown),
within a few years of the conquest, and it was almost certainly made in
England, at this time famous for embroidery. The tapestry is worked in
eight different colours of wool (used decoratively rather than
naturalistically) on a plain linen ground. It is made up of eight
pieces of linen joined together, with a total length of almost 70 m
(230 ft); the concluding end is damaged and some scenes are lost. The
average height is about 50 cm (20 in). The narrative is arranged in a
continuous horizontal line of action, one scene merging into another
without any vertical division. A running text in Latin provides a
commentary, and a border extends above and below the main scenes; these
borders contain mainly decorative elements but also elements of sub-
plot. Stylistically the tapestry has much in common with English
illumination of the period. The drawing is clear, vivid, and full of
action and the composition leads on skilfully from one incident to the
next. Considering its great length it is remarkably unified, suggesting
close supervision by the overall designer. In addition to being a
unique and highly impressive work of art, it is an immensely important
historical document, containing a wealth of information on topics
ranging from shipbuilding to fashionable clothes.
The tapestry is first recorded in the 15th century, when it hung in
Bayeux Cathedral, and engravings of it were first published in 1739.
During the French Revolution it narrowly escaped destruction. In 1842
it was placed on permanent public display, and after having various
unsatisfactory homes (including the town hall and the municipal
library), it is now housed in a purpose-built museum, the Musée de la
Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde. (The Queen Matilda referred to is
William the Conqueror's wife, who according to an old local tradition
made the Tapestry.)
"Bayeux Tapestry" The Oxford Dictionary of Art. Ed. Ian Chilvers.
Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford
University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 20 May 2009
"CHANCERY STANDARD" Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language.
Ed. Tom McArthur. Oxford University Press, 1998. Oxford Reference
Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW=Even this alphabet is reduced to absurdity by a
foolish orthography based on the notion that the business of spelling
is to represent the origin and history of a word instead of its sound
and meaning.
Shaw's rationale for the new script is utilitarian - adopting a new
alphabet would save time and effort. "The waste of time in spelling
imaginary sounds and their history (or etymology as it is called) is
monstrous in English and French." p. 28 It typically takes over 500
letters to indicate less than 400 sounds, so a unigraphic system would
save 20% off the top. Cut spelling, by removing superfluous words,
achieves a similar savings.
Later after documenting problems with pronunciation caused by the lack
of unigraphic sound signs ["..we cannot note down the diphthongal
pronunciation until we have a A HREF="shaw-pref-2.html#36dips">separate
single letter for every vowel"], Shaw reiterates, "My concern here,
however, is not with pronunciation but with the saving of time
wasted. "We try to extend our alphabet by writing two letters instead
of one; but we make a mess of this device. "With reckless inconsistency
we write sweat and sweet, and then write whet and wheat, just the
contrary."
According to Shaw, "Our present spelling is incapable of indicating the
sounds of our words and does not pretend to; but the new spelling would
prescribe an official pronunciation."
Shaw believes that English has 42 distinctive sounds (18 vowels, 24
consonants) and calls for a new alphabet with one letter for each
sound. Shaw thinks that most of the work has been completed, "What
remains to be done is to make the stroke and hooks and curves and
circles look nice." p. 43 The new alphabet must be so different that
no one could possibly mistake the new [42 character] alphabet for the
old.
Shaw also believed in simplifying both the English language and its
writing system.
"... 'broken English,' which is a sort of home made pidgin, is quite
sufficient for intelligible speech. Instead of laughing at them and
mimicking them derisively we should learn from them." He was a
supporter of BASIC English "a thought out pidgin, ...[that] gets rid of
much of our grammatical superfluities."
http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/vangogh/555/Spell/shaw-pref.html
SAMUEL JOHNSON=Samuel Johnson (often referred to as Dr Johnson) (18
September 1709 [O.S. 7 September] – 13 December 1784) was an English
author. Beginning as a Grub Street journalist, he made lasting
contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist,
novelist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer.
Johnson was a devout Anglican and political conservative, and has been
described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English
history".[1] He is also the subject of "the most famous single work of
biographical art in the whole of literature": James Boswell's Life of
Samuel Johnson.[2]
Johnson was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and attended Pembroke
College, Oxford for a year, before his lack of funds forced him to
leave. After working as a teacher he moved to London, where he began to
write essays for The Gentleman's Magazine. His early works include the
biography The Life of Richard Savage, the poems London and The Vanity
of Human Wishes, and the play Irene.
After nine years of work, Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language
was published in 1755; it had a far-reaching impact on Modern English
and has been described as "one of the greatest single achievements of
scholarship".[3] The Dictionary brought Johnson popularity and success;
until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary, 150 years later,
Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent British dictionary.[4] His
later works included essays, an influential annotated edition of
William Shakespeare's plays, and the widely read novel Rasselas. In
1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he later travelled to
Scotland; Johnson described their travels in A Journey to the Western
Islands of Scotland. Towards the end of his life, he produced the
massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, a
collection of biographies and evaluations of 17th- and 18th-century
poets.
Johnson had a tall and robust figure, but his odd gestures and tics
were confusing to some on their first encounter with him. Boswell's
Life, along with other biographies, documented Johnson's behaviour and
mannerisms in such detail that they have informed the posthumous
diagnosis of Tourette syndrome (TS),[5] a condition unknown in the 18th
century. After a series of illnesses he died on the evening of 13
December 1784, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. In the years
following his death, Johnson began to be recognised as having had a
lasting effect on literary criticism, and even as the only great critic
of English literature.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson
NOAH WEBSTER=1758–1843, American lexicographer. His American
Dictionary of the English Language (1828) in two volumes was the first
dictionary to give comprehensive coverage of American usage and his
name survives in the many dictionaries produced by the American
publishing house Merriam-Webster.
"Webster, Noah2 " The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary. Tony Deverson.
Oxford University Press 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford
University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009
GREAT BIBLE=→ noun
the edition of the English Bible which Thomas Cromwell ordered to be
set up in every parish church. It was the work of Miles Coverdale, and
was first issued in 1539.
"Great Bible noun" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition).
Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press,
2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de
Valencia. 6 May 2009 BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER=the official service book of the Church of
England. It was compiled through the efforts of Thomas Cranmer (1489–
1556) and others as a simplified and condensed English version of the
Latin service books used by the medieval Church and was first issued in
1549. After the book had been in turn revised and suppressed under
different monarchs, a version came out in 1662, which remained almost
unchanged until the 20th century. Measures of 1965 and 1974 authorised
the use also of alternative services and in 1980 the Alternative
Service Book presented these alternative services (in modern English)
in a canonical form.
"Book of Common Prayer" The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd edition.
Ed. Bruce Moore. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference
Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009
ENGLISH RENAISSANCE=13. Enlightenment (1660–1843): language and
literature If the Bannatyne and Maitland anthologies, which had self‐
consciously compiled a ‘treasure house’ of Middle Scots literature,
reminded Scots of their distinctive literary heritage before the Union
of the Crowns, so the parliamentary Union of 1707 was anticipated by
George Watson's Choice Collection. While the continued existence of
writing in Latin, Gaelic, Scots, and English was confirmed in this
anthology, the increasing dominance of English was the major, defensive
motivation for publication (see printing and publishing). It follows
from this that the phrase ‘Vernacular revival’, as applied to the early
18th‐century movement initiated by Allan Ramsay (1684–1758),
consolidated by Robert Fergusson (1750–74), and immortalized by Robert
Burns (1759–96) is, strictly speaking, a misnomer. What Ramsay
initiated was a return to the polymathic breadth threatened by the
weakening of the Scots line within the admixture. That his first
printed poem, ‘To the Memory of Archibald Pitcairne M.D.’, is an
undisguised statement of Scottish nationalist sentiment, written in
English about a Latin poet, encapsulates the situation neatly.
Neither Ramsay nor Fergusson negated the value of English and Latin in
order to advance Scots and Scottishness. Instead they united decorous
and political approaches to language while bridging the gap between
courtly and popular traditions, which had been allowed to grow. This
allowed the continuation of the strong Scottish line in European
pastoral and Georgic literature within a modally and linguistically
broadened context. Barbour, Dunbar, and Lindsay would surely have
applauded both the English of Fergusson's ‘Damon to his Friends’ and
its Scottish parodic counterpart ‘On Seeing a Butterfly in the Street’.
Drummond and (particularly) Ayton would have welcomed Ramsay's The
Gentle Shepherd as a continuation in justifiably heavier Scots, for new
persuasive purposes, within a new political climate.
Anna Ritchie, Michael Lynch, Roger A. Mason, Alexander Broadie, R. D.
S. Jack, Theo van Heijnsbergen, Duncan Macmillan, Jamie Reid Baxter,
David Allan, Ian Campbell, John Burnett, †A. C. Cheyne, Cairns Craig,
Richard Finlay, Elaine Thomson "culture" The Oxford Companion to
Scottish History. Michael Lynch. Oxford University Press, 2007. Oxford
Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6
May 2009 ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY= ( abbrev.: RSC )a British professional
theatre company founded in 1961. It is based at Stratford-upon-Avon and
at the Barbican Centre in London.
"Royal Shakespeare Company" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised
edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University
Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.
Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERISTY=dates back to 1209 , when, after a serious
clash with the townspeople, some of the clerks at Oxford migrated to
Cambridge. The first college, on a very modest scale, was Peterhouse,
established in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham , bishop of Ely. Although it
modelled itself mainly on the Oxford pattern, with the teachers forming
the studium generale or corporation, Cambridge did not escape
ecclesiastical control from Ely until the 15th cent. Royal patronage
led to expansion: Henry VI founded King's College in 1441 and Henry
VIII established Trinity College in 1546 .
After the Reformation, the poor students largely disappeared, to be
replaced by the sons of aristocratic and wealthy families. Many of the
leading figures of the Renaissance of learning were associated with
Cambridge, including Erasmus, long resident at Queen's College,
Ascham , and Fisher . An Elizabethan statute of 1570 had the effect of
making the wealthy constituent colleges more independent of the
university. As puritanism flourished in East Anglia, and many of the
students were local, Cambridge supported the parliamentary cause in the
Civil War, while Oxford was the headquarters of the royalists: these
political sympathies died hard and in the 18th cent. Whiggish Cambridge
gave a much more enthusiastic welcome to the Hanoverians than did
Oxford. Academically, Cambridge was characterized by the growth of
science, or natural philosophy as it was called, with Newton at Trinity
its best-known exponent.
By the middle of the 19th cent. reform was long overdue. Cambridge
supported the notion of a royal commission which investigated the two
universities from 1850 . Two Acts, in 1856 and 1877 , did much to break
the oligarchical nature of the government of the university. In 1871
Anglican religious exclusiveness was ended. Cambridge's scientific
reputation was further enhanced with the opening of the Cavendish
Laboratory in 1873 , which became famous for its work in experimental
physics. Two women's colleges were established at this time, Girton in
1869 , Newnham in 1871 .
The majority of the heads of colleges are called master. For the first
six centuries of its existence, Cambridge, like Oxford, was a seminary,
and until 1871 fellows were required to be celibates in holy orders.
There are now over 30 colleges. The older foundations date from the
Middle Ages, like Corpus Christi College ( 1352 ), Pembroke ( 1357 ),
and Trinity Hall ( 1390 ). Several are Tudor, such as Christ's (
1505 ), Trinity, and Emmanuel ( 1584 ). Downing was founded in 1800
after a protracted and troublesome legal action over the original
bequest by Sir George Downing in 1717 . Selwyn and St Edmunds came in
the late 19th cent. ( 1882 , 1896 ). During the 1960s, no fewer than
six new colleges came into existence, Churchill ( 1960 ), Darwin (
1964 ), Lucy Cavendish ( 1965 ), Clare Hall ( 1966 ), Fitzwilliam (
1966 ), and Wolfson ( 1969 ). Robinson College opened in 1977 .
Peter Gordon "Cambridge University" The Oxford Companion to British
History. Ed. John Cannon. Oxford University Press, 1997. Oxford
Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 6
May 2009 WARWICKSHIRE=a county of central England; county town, Warwick.
"Warwickshire" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed.
Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de
Valencia. 6 May 2009 GIELGUD, Sir (Arthur ) JOHN/'gi:lgd/=(1904–2000), English actor
and director. A notable Shakespearean actor, particularly remembered
for his interpretation of the role of Hamlet, he also appeared in
contemporary plays and films and won an Oscar for his role as a butler
in Arthur (1980).
"Gielgud, Sir (Arthur) John" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised
edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University
Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.
Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009
JOHN BARTON=(b. 1928), British director, whose career has been
almost entirely with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Joining Peter Hall
at Stratford in 1960 , he contributed much to philosophy and style in
the early years, particularly in the realms of verse-speaking, vocal
training, and directorial interpretation. Chiefly interested in making
Shakespeare understandable for contemporary audiences, Barton has never
been a purist: he adapted the English histories into a seven-part cycle
called The Wars of the Roses, directed by Hall in 1963 – 4 , slashing
large sections of text of the Henry VI plays and adding some 1,000
lines of pseudo-Elizabethan verse to fill the gaps. He also wrote a
successful platform piece for RSC actors, The Hollow Crown ( 1961 ).
His own directing has been consistently intelligent and accessible.
Troilus and Cressida ( 1968 ) made the Trojan War into an erotic
experience; Twelfth Night ( 1969 ) stressed melancholy and fear;
Richard II ( 1973 ) underlined the doubled identity of Richard and
Bolingbroke by placing two huge escalators on stage and alternating the
actors Richard Pasco and Ian Richardson in the roles. Barton was the
only member of the original team still closely associated with the RSC
at the end of the century, 40 years after its founding. A great
teacher, his TV series Playing Shakespeare (published as a book in
1984 ) summarized his approach and had a large influence on a new
generation of actors.
Dennis Kennedy "Barton, John" The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare.
Ed. Michael Dobson and Stanley Wells. Oxford University Press, 2001.
Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de
Valencia. 6 May 2009 SIR THOMAS MORE=(1478–1535), English scholar and statesman, Lord
Chancellor 1529–32; canonized as St Thomas More. His Utopia (1516),
describing an ideal city state, established him as a leading humanist
of the Renaissance. He was imprisoned in 1534 after opposing Henry's
marriage to Anne Boleyn, and beheaded for opposing the Act of
Supremacy. Feast day, 22 June.
"More, Sir Thomas1 " The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised
edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University
Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.
Universidad de Valencia. 6 May 2009
HENRY VIII (1491–1547), son of Henry VII, reigned 1509–47. Henry
had six wives (Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of
Cleves, Catherine Howard, Katherine Parr); he executed two and divorced
two. His first divorce, from Catherine of Aragon, was opposed by the
Pope, leading to England's break with the Roman Catholic Church.
"Henry1 " The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed.
Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de
Valencia. 20 May 2009
ELIZABETH I (1533–1603) Queen of England (1558–1603), daughter of
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. During the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I,
her half-brother and half-sister, she avoided political disputes. Once
crowned, she reestablished Protestantism. The Elizabethan Settlement
saw the Church of England adopt the 39 Articles (1571). Various plots
to murder Elizabeth and place the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots on the
throne resulted in Mary's imprisonment and execution (1587), and
increasing discrimation against Catholics. Elizabeth adhered to a small
group of advisers, such as Lord Burghley and Sir Francis Walsingham.
For most of her reign, England was at peace, and commerce and industry
prospered. The expansion of the navy saw the development of the first
British Empire. The hostility of Spain resulted in war and the defeat
of the Spanish Armada (1588). Despite pressure to marry, Elizabeth
remained single. Her favourites included Robert Dudley, Earl of
Leicester, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, who later attempted
to overthrow her. Elizabeth was the last of the Tudors, and she was
succeeded by James I, a Stuart.
"Elizabeth I" World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2008. Oxford Reference
Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 20 May
2009
JAMES I- (1566–1625) King of England (1603–25) and, as James VI, king
of Scotland (1567–1625). Son of Mary, Queen of Scots, he acceded to the
Scottish throne as an infant on his mother's abdication. In 1589, he
married Anne of Denmark. He inherited the English throne on the death
(1603) of Elizabeth I, and thereafter confined his attention to
England. James supported the Anglican Church, thus antagonizing the
Puritans, and sponsored the publication (1611) of the Authorized, or
King James, Version of the Bible. The Gunpowder Plot (1605) was foiled
and James suppressed the Catholics. In 1607, the first English colony
in America (Jamestown) was founded. James's insistence on the divine
right of kings brought conflict with Parliament. In 1611 he dissolved
Parliament, and (excluding the 1614 Addled Parliament) ruled without
one until 1621. The death (1612) of Robert Cecil saw James increasingly
dependent on corrupt favourites such as Robert Carr and George
Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. He was succeeded by his son, Charles I.
See also Jacobean
"James I" World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2008. Oxford Reference Online.
Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 20 May 2009
ROBERT HOOKE-(1635–1703), English scientist. He formulated the law
of elasticity (Hooke's law), proposed an undulating theory of light,
introduced the term cell to biology, postulated elliptical orbits for
the earth and moon, and proposed the inverse square law of
gravitational attraction. He also invented or improved many scientific
instruments and mechanical devices, and designed a number of buildings
in London after the Great Fire.
"Hooke, Robert" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition).
Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press,
2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de
Valencia. 20 May 2009
SIR JOHN CHEKE-( 1514 – 57 ). Cambridge-born protestant Greek
scholar, educator, and man of affairs, Cheke was fellow of St John's
College from 1529 . As regius professor 1540 – 51 , he was supported by
his friends Sir Thomas Smith and Roger Ascham in introducing the
new ‘Erasmian’ pronunciation of Greek, against the vice-chancellor's
ban. Under Henry VIII , Cheke was tutor to Prince Edward who, as Edward
VI , gave him land, a knighthood, and the provostship of King's
College, Cambridge; he was also member of Parliament, clerk to the
council, and secretary of state. A supporter of Lady Jane Grey , he was
imprisoned for treason under Mary 1553 – 4 but allowed to migrate to
Basle, whence he travelled in Italy and taught at Strasbourg before
being enticed to Brussels by Mary's agents in 1556 and again imprisoned
in London. Securing release by renouncing his religion, he died soon
after. Cheke's edition of two sermons by St John Chrysostom, with his
Latin translation, was the first text to be printed in England in Greek
type ( 1543 ). His strongly nationalist feelings in favour of the
English language are evident in his gospel translations and his preface
to Hoby's translation of Castiglione's Courtier ( 1561 ).
J. B. Trapp " Cheke, Sir John " The Oxford Companion to British
History. Ed. John Cannon. Oxford University Press, 1997. Oxford
Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia.
20 May 2009
SIR THOMAS SMITH-(1513–77). Scholar and statesman. Smith was born in
Saffron Walden and educated at Queens' College, Cambridge. In the early
1540s, he plunged into the controversy about the pronunciation of
Greek. In 1543 he was made professor of civil law. Under Protector
Somerset he prospered as a protestant. He was appointed provost of
Eton, dean of Carlisle, and a secretary of state, and was given a
knighthood. He survived Somerset's fall and took a back seat under
Mary. Elizabeth restored him to favour and he was involved in
negotiating the treaty of Troyes in 1564. In 1572 he was reappointed
secretary of state, using his influence on behalf of the Scottish
reformers. His best‐known work is his Discourse on the Commonwealth of
England. It is a description of the mechanics of government in 1565,
with a famous, and disputed, account of the role of Parliament.
"Smith, Sir Thomas" A Dictionary of British History. Ed. John Cannon.
Oxford University Press, 2001. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford
University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 20 May 2009
DANIEL DEFOE-( 1660 – 1731 ), born in London, the son of James Foe ,
a butcher. He changed his name to Defoe from c. 1695 . He attended
Morton's academy for Dissenters at Newington Green with a view to the
ministry, but by the time he married Mary Tuffley in 1683/4 he was
established as a hosiery merchant in Cornhill, having travelled to
Europe. He took part in Monmouth's rebellion, and in 1688 joined the
advancing forces of William III . His first important signed work was
An Essay upon Projects ( 1697 ), followed by The True‐Born Englishman (
1701 ), an immensely popular satirical poem attacking the prejudice
against a king of foreign birth and his Dutch friends. In 1702 appeared
The Shortest Way with Dissenters, a notorious pamphlet in which Defoe,
himself a Dissenter, ironically demanded the total and savage
suppression of dissent; for this he was fined, imprisoned ( May–Nov.
1703 ), and pilloried. While in prison he wrote his mock‐Pindaric ode
Hymn to the Pillory. Harley employed him as a secret agent; between
1703 and 1714 Defoe travelled around the country for Harley and
Godolphin, gathering information and testing the political climate.
Defoe wrote many pamphlets for Harley, and in 1704 began the Review ,
and in 1706 True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs Veal, probably
by Defoe , a vivid report of a current ghost story. Certain anti‐
Jacobite pamphlets in 1712 – 13 led to his prosecution by the Whigs and
to a brief imprisonment. He now started a new trade journal, Mercator,
in place of the Review.
Defoe produced some 250 books, pamphlets, and journals, but the works
for which he is best known belong to his later years. Robinson Crusoe
appeared in 1719 , the Farther Adventures following a few months later.
The next five years saw the appearance of his most important works of
fiction: Adventures of Captain Singleton ( 1720 ); Moll Flanders , A
Journal of the Plague Year , and Colonel Jack in 1722 ; Roxana , the
Memoirs of a Cavalier (now considered to be certainly by Defoe), and
his tracts on Jack Sheppard in 1724 . The Memoirs of Captain George
Carleton ( 1728 ) were probably largely by his hand. His Tour through
the Whole Island of Great Britain, a guide‐book in 3 vols ( 1724 – 6 ),
is a vivid first‐hand account of the state of the country. Defoe's
influence on the evolution of the English novel was enormous, and many
regard him as the first true novelist. He was a master of plain prose
and powerful narrative, with a journalist's curiosity and love of
realistic detail; his peculiar gifts made him one of the greatest
reporters of his time, as well as a great imaginative writer who in
Robinson Crusoe created one of the most familiar and resonant myths of
modern literature.
" Defoe, Daniel " The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature.
Ed. Margaret Drabble and Jenny Stringer. Oxford university Press, 2007.
Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de
Valencia. 20 May 2009
JOSEPH ADDISON-(1672–1719) English essayist, poet, and politician.
Addison's poetic celebration of Marlborough's victory at the Battle of
Blenheim, The Campaign (1704), led to a government appointment. He is
remembered as a brilliant essayist and his stylish articles were a
major reason for the success of the newly established Tatler and
Spectator periodicals. He was secretary of state (1717–18) and an MP
(1708–19).
"Addison, Joseph" World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2008. Oxford
Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Universidad de Valencia.
20 May 2009 JONATHAN SWIFT-( 1667 – 1745 ), was born in Dublin and was educated
with Congreve , at Kilkenny Grammar School, then at Trinity College,
Dublin. He was a cousin of Dryden . He was admitted ( 1689 ) to the
household of Sir W. Temple , and there acted as secretary. He wrote
Pindaric odes , one of which provoked, according to Dr Johnson ,
Dryden's remark, ‘Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet.’ He returned
to Ireland, was ordained ( 1694 ), and returned to Temple at Moor Park
in 1696 , where he edited Temple's correspondence, and in 1697 wrote
The Battle of the Books , which was published in 1704 together with A
Tale of a Tub . At Moor Park he first met Esther Johnson (‘Stella’). On
the death of Temple in 1699 , Swift went again to Ireland, where he was
given a prebend in St Patrick's, Dublin. He wrote his Discourse of the
Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles and the Commons in Athens
and Rome, with reference to the impeachment of the Whig lords, in
1701 . In the course of numerous visits to London he became acquainted
with Addison , Steele , and Halifax. In 1708 he began a series of
pamphlets on church questions with his ironical Argument against
Abolishing Christianity. Amid these serious occupations, he diverted
himself with the series of squibs upon the astrologer John Partridge (
1708 – 9 , see Bickerstaff ) and his ‘Description of a City Shower’
and ‘Description of the Morning’, poems depicting scenes of London life
( 1709 ). Disgusted at the Whig alliance with Dissent, he went over to
the Tories in 1710 , attacked the Whig ministers in the Examiner ,
which he edited, and in 1711 wrote The Conduct of the Allies and Some
Remarks on the Barrier Treaty, pamphlets written to dispose the mind of
the nation to peace. He became dean of St Patrick's in 1713 . He had
already begun his Journal to Stella, a series of intimate letters (
1710 – 13 ) to Esther Johnson and her companion Rebecca Dingley, who
had moved to Ireland in 1700 /1; it is written partly in baby language,
and gives a vivid account of Swift's daily life in London. Swift's
relations with Stella remain obscure; they were intimate and
affectionate, and some form of marriage may have taken place. Another
woman, Esther Vanhomrigh (pron. ‘Vanummery’), entered his life in
1708 ; his poem Cadenus and Vanessa suggests that she fell deeply in
love with him (‘She wished her Tutor were her Lover’). She is said to
have died of shock in 1723 after his final rupture with her, inspired
by her jealousy of Stella. Stella died in 1728 .
In 1714 Swift joined Pope , Arbuthnot , Gay , and others in the
celebrated Scriblerus Club . He returned to Ireland in August 1714 and
occupied himself with Irish affairs, and by his famous Drapier's
Letters ( 1724 ) he prevented the introduction of ‘Wood's Half‐pence’
into Ireland. He came to England in 1726 and published Gulliver's
Travels ( 1726 ). He wrote some of his most famous tracts and
characteristic poems during his last years in Ireland, The Grand
Question Debated ( 1729 ); Verses on the Death of Dr Swift ( 1731 ,
pub. 1739 ), in which with mingled pathos and humour he reviews his
life and work; A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious
Conversation ( 1738 ); and the ironical Directions to Servants (written
about 1731 and published after his death). He kept up his
correspondence with Bolingbroke , Pope , Gay , and Arbuthnot . He spent
a third of his income on charities, and saved another third to found St
Patrick's Hospital for Imbeciles (opened 1757 ). The symptoms of the
illness from which he suffered for most of his life (now thought to
have been Ménière's disease) became very marked in his last years, and
his faculties decayed to such a degree that many considered him insane.
He was buried by the side of Stella, in St Patrick's, Dublin, his own
famous epitaph ‘ubi saeva indignatio ulterius cor lacerare nequit’
being inscribed on his tomb. Nearly all his works were published
anonymously, and for only one, Gulliver's Travels, did he receive any
payment (£200). Dr Johnson , Macaulay , and Thackeray , among many
other writers, were alienated by his ferocity and coarseness, and his
works tended to be undervalued in the late 18th–19th cents. The 20th
cent. has seen a revival of biographical and critical interest,
stressing on the whole Swift's sanity, vigour, and satirical
inventiveness rather than his alleged misanthropy.
Swift published a great number of works besides those mentioned above
including political writings, notably The Importance of the Guardian
Considered ( 1713 ) and The Public Spirit of the Whigs ( 1714 );
pamphlets relating to Ireland, notably A Modest Proposal ( 1729 );
pamphlets on Church questions; miscellaneous verses, including Baucis
and Philemon ( 1709 ); and other writings.
" Swift, Jonathan " The Concise Oxford Companion to English
Literature. Ed. Margaret Drabble and Jenny Stringer. Oxford university
Press, 2007. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.
Universidad de Valencia. 20 May 2009
ACT OF UNION-(in British history) either of the parliamentary acts by
which the countries of the United Kingdom were brought together as a
political whole. By the first Act of Union (1707) Scotland was joined
with England to form Great Britain, with Scotland losing its Parliament
(the crowns of the two countries had been united in 1603). The second
Act of Union, in 1801, established the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland and abolished the free Protestant Parliament of Ireland.
Wales had been incorporated with England, and given parliamentary
representation, in 1536.
"Union, Act of" The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary. Tony Deverson.
Oxford University Press 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford
University Press. Universidad de Valencia. 20 May 2009
QUEEN VICTORIA-(1819–1901), queen of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland (1837–1901) and empress of India (1877–1901).
Victoria would have agreed that her life fell into three parts—before
Albert, with Albert, after Albert. The death in childbirth in November
1817 of Princess Charlotte, only daughter and heir to the prince
regent, prompted a famous ‘rush to the altar’. The duke of Cambridge
married in May 1818. His elder brothers, the dukes of Clarence and
Kent, were married in a joint ceremony a month later. Clarence's two
daughters died as infants, leaving the probable succession to the duke
of Kent's daughter the Princess Victoria, born 18 May 1819, christened
Alexandrina, and known at first as ‘Drina’. Eight months later her
father was dead, taken off by pneumonia in winter at Sidmouth, leaving
her to be brought up in a household almost totally female and totally
German. Her mother, Princess Victoria of Leiningen, was of the house of
Saxe‐Coburg: recently arrived in England, she found the language
difficult. The other person in constant attendance was Fräulein Lehzen,
brought over as governess and companion from Hanover when the princess
was 6 months old. They lived at Kensington palace, Victoria sleeping in
her mother's room until she came to the throne. The centre of the
princess's life was her 132 dolls, given imposing names and elaborate
costumes.
Victoria grew up intelligent and self‐possessed. Her upbringing, though
sheltered, endowed her with an artlessness and directness—a lack of
introspection—which is rare, and never left her. Inevitably the duchess
of Kent was on bad terms with George IV and even worse with his
successor William IV, to whose demise she looked forward with ill‐
concealed relish. A clash over precedence meant that the duchess and
the young princess boycotted William's coronation in 1831, the princess
writing that not even her dolls could console her. ‘I longed sadly for
some gaiety’, she wrote to her uncle Leopold at 16, ‘but we have been
for the last three months immured within our old palace.’ As news of
the gravity of King William's illness emerged in 1837 she wrote to
Leopold: ‘I look forward to the event which it seems is likely to occur
soon with calm and quietness: I am not alarmed at it.’ At her first
council, Charles Greville wrote that ‘she appeared to be awed, but not
daunted’.
Victoria's education for life started with her first prime minister
Melbourne, whom she liked from their first audience, and who stood for
father‐figure and first love. His kind and pleasant manner, mellow and
relaxed, eased her into her new duties: after five days she wrote to
Leopold, ‘I do regular, hard, but to me delightful work.’ Greville
wrote, not unkindly, in 1839 when the queen's affection for Melbourne
had dragged her into the Bedchamber crisis, ‘Melbourne is everything to
her … her feelings are sexual, though she does not know it.’
She told Melbourne that she might not marry at all: ‘I don't know about
that,’ replied Melbourne, sensibly. In October 1839 Leopold played his
trump card, sending Victoria's cousin Albert over from Saxe‐Coburg on
approval. In the event, one look was enough. ‘It was with some emotion
that I beheld Albert,’ she wrote, ‘who is beautiful … so excessively
handsome.’ Two days later, even disconcerting the urbane Melbourne, she
declared that no time should be lost, and the following day she sent
for Albert to propose marriage. The second phase of her life had begun.
Victoria took to matrimony con brio. ‘We did not sleep much,’ she
confided to her journal after the wedding night. Then, to her dismay,
within six weeks there were signs of pregnancy. Victoria was quite
unsentimental about babies—‘nasty objects’—but after the birth of the
princess royal in November 1840, eight more arrived in rapid
succession. Her life became a strange juxtaposition of public and
private. April 1841 found her with Princess Victoria 6 months old and
war with China: ‘Albert is so much amused at my having got the Island
of Hong Kong, and we think Victoria ought to be called Princess of Hong
Kong in addition to Princess Royal.’ Albert's influence grew with the
years, particularly after the success of the Great Exhibition in 1851,
and in 1857 Victoria gave him the unprecedented title of prince
consort. But pressure of work and his own sense of duty took its toll.
In December 1861, he caught typhoid and died at the age of 42.
Victoria faced a widowhood of 40 years. To some, even in her own day,
her grief seemed excessive. There was a touch of morbidness and some
gestures were repeated when the estimable John Brown, her Scottish
manservant, died in 1883. For several years, her disappearance from
public life was total. But slowly the family took over as it grew
inexorably—such ‘swarms of children’, wrote Victoria without
enthusiasm. Life became a welter of match‐making,weddings,
christenings, teething, mumps, visits, and birthdays (remembered or
missed)—and, the penalty of advancing years, of deaths. Disraeli, once
detested for his unkindness to Sir Robert Peel, long a dear friend,
died in 1881, ‘the Queen bowed down with this misfortune’. In 1892 a
terrible shock when ‘Eddy’, the prince of Wales's eldest son, succumbed
to pneumonia at Sandringham. And gradually the courts and thrones of
Europe filled up with Victoria's relatives and descendants. The tiny
lady in the wheelchair was ‘the matriarch of Europe’.
Her political influence as queen has been much debated and analysed,
but the more extravagant claims should not be entertained. The two
politicians she most distrusted were Palmerston (‘Pilgerstein’) and
Gladstone (‘half‐crazy’), but this did not stop the former being prime
minister for nearly ten years and dying in office at the age of 81, nor
the latter being prime minister on four occasions. Her importance lies
in her role, with Albert, in restoring the dignity and reputation of
the monarchy. Victoria's standing rose with the years, and she enjoyed
memorable triumphs at her Golden and Diamond Jubilees in 1887 and 1897.
Much of it, of course, was illusion. The queen mother and empress was a
tiny, fat old lady, painfully short‐sighted, gobbling her food and
eating too much. But nobody took liberties. The ribald jokes about John
Brown had bounced off her. Though the queen herself did not fit the
stereotype of ‘Victorian England’ (she never quite got over the dislike
she had taken to bishops as a toddler), the phrase took hold so firmly
that one wonders how other countries manage without the adjective. She
remained to the end a mass of contradictions—self‐centred yet
considerate and dutiful; homely yet grand; excitable and passionate but
with shrewd judgement. She died at Osborne on 23 January 1901 and was
buried alongside Albert in the mausoleum at Frogmore.
"Victoria" A Dictionary of British History. Ed. John Cannon. Oxford
University Press, 2001. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University
Press. Universidad de Valencia. 20 May 2009