The Bard and Good Queen Bess - topics of conversation at the University of York
Posted on 7 October 2005
These and other questions will be explored when the University of York presents a series of public lectures this autumn.
Professor David Wootton and Professor Bill Sherman - co-directors of the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies (CREMS) - will give their inaugural lectures on 12 October.
In his lecture 'Elizabeth I and the Family of Love', Professor Wootton, of the Department of History will argue that there is evidence, including a poem apparently hand-written by the Queen in French, that Elizabeth I was a convert to the obscure religious sect. The Family of Love was a movement which rejected established Christian sects while outwardly conforming to religious practice established by the State.
If I am right, [this evidence] will have significant implications for our understanding both of Elizabeth's private beliefs and her public policies
Professor David Wootton
Professor Wootton said: "If I am right, it will have significant implications for our understanding both of Elizabeth's private beliefs and her public policies."
Professor Sherman, of the Department of English and Related Studies, in his lecture 'Digging the Dust: Shakespeare in the Archives' will consider the Bard's relationship with archival collections through stories featuring the woman who made a nocturnal raid on the Bard's tomb, a man who sniffs letters rather than reading them, and a retired businessman who called in Scotland Yard's leading handwriting expert to carry out an analysis of Francis Bacon's manuscripts.
"As Peter Ackroyd's Shakespeare - the third blockbuster biography of the Bard in a year - hits the bookstores, it is a good moment to reflect on our enduring fascination with the archival traces of Shakespeare's life" said Professor Sherman. "And the opening of an interdisciplinary centre devoted to Shakespeare's period is a good occasion to consider the ways in which archives shape our access to the past,"
The inaugural lecture will take place at 6pm in room V/045, Vanbrugh College. Admission is free and open to all.
Notes to editors:
- The Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies (CREMS) fosters interdisciplinary research in the period 1500 to 1700.
- It provides a forum for more than twenty academic staff at York and their postgraduate students, sharing affiliations with the departments of English, History and History of Art.
- CREMS fills the chronological gap between the Centre for Medieval Studies and the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies.
- It is also sponsoring a public lecture on 4 November to mark the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot.