DOCSLIB.ORG

Historicity and Religiosity in Shakespeare's Medieval Play King John

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Historicity and Religiosity in Shakespeare's Medieval Play King John 東洋大学人間科学総合研究所紀要 第１４号（２０１２）２７‐４５２７ Historicity and Religiosity in Shakespeare’s Medieval play King John Michael RANDOLPH＊ King John one of two ‘history’ plays in Shakespeare’s canon that is not part of a tetralogy has largely been ignored and dismissed by generations of critics. Based on the history of an early, and traditionally reviled Medieval English king, the story of King John was one quite topical to Elizabethan England in light of the Tudor’s ongoing political conflicts with the pow- erful Church of Rome. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Holinshead’s Chronicles, Bale’s King Iohan, the anonymous The Troublesome Reign of King John, all dealt with John’s resistance to the growing political power of the Catholic Church. Shakespeare’s treatment of King John offers an intriguing re-examination of the historical and religious elements inherent in the narrative of that king, and his ultimate influence on the shaping of what became ‘England’. Keywords : King John, Bastard, Usurpation, Religious, Legitimate King John, written sometime between 1590-1596 after Shakespeare’s first sweeping Henriad is a play that has gotten remarkably little attention, far less than it actually deserves. Its episodic formula and the downfall of a character reviled by history, in art and in literature, as been largely neglected. Shakespeare took the story of King John told in various histories and chronicles, along with extant plays like King Iohan, and the Trouble- some Reigne of King John, and created his own unique version of the story. How are the historical and religious concerns of this medieval story followed or manipulated, in order to bring new life to a long dead king? Each era examines any previous one through the prism of its own experiences and concerns. According to Burkhardt (1996, p.143), ‘The Elizabethan world is hierarchical, not only in fact crucial but by inner necessity : it collapses if there is no one ultimate authority’. Shakespeare’s King John, examines authority, the interrelated issues of a ruler’s legitimacy, and how much authority the Church should have in the political world. An exami- nation of how Shakespeare dealt with and shaped the historical aspects of John’s legitimacy and legacy, and how he approached the relationship between church and state in this play, should bring to light some of his con- ＊ A lecturer in the Faculty of Life Sciences, and a member of the Institute of Human Sciences at Toyo University ２８ 東洋大学人間科学総合研究所紀要 第１４号（２０１２） cepts of these issues. The historicity of King John’s legitimacy The historical John was born in 1166, the youngest son of Henry II and his powerful wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose union created the great Angevin empire, spanning all of England and a large swath of France. He was the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, through Henry II’s mother Matilda. The youngest of five sons, he wasn’t expected to inherit the English Crown. Henry’s first three sons died early, and son number four, Richard succeeded him. There was another brother older than Richard, Geoffery, who died before his son Arthur was born. When Richard I was killed, Arthur was an only an infant and John ruled England from 1199 to 1216. The name John has never been bequeathed to a British monarch since 1216. Nearly eight hundred years seems a bit excessive in avoiding a name for a king. William, Henry, Edward, James, Charles, and George have all been repeated, but not John despite the fact that is was the most popular name for common males in England from the mid-sixteenth to the twentieth century. Shakespeare’s play includes, Constance, the mother of Arthur, the Cardinal Pandulph, emissary of Pope In- nocent III, Eleanor of Aquitaine, John’s mother, and a fictitious character, possibly based on real historical char- acters, the bastard son of Richard I, Philip Falconbridge, called ‘The Bastard’ throughout much of the play. It is quite likely that the actual character of John, along with the highly successful smear campaign perpe- trated by the Catholic Church, ascendant in the political sphere of England until the 1530’s, and the subsequent characterizations of John in literature and in inherited cultural memory of him, has discouraged the use of his name for kings in England. Saccio informs us that (1977, p.190), ‘the name John is associated with illegitimacy, but ‘of the six kings since the conquest, only one (Richard I himself) had gained the throne without dispute’. King Philip of France, in the early part of Act II, very publicly dismisses John’s legitimacy and his right to succeed Richard. He maintains that Richard’s elder brother’s son Arthur has the right to be England’sking: Look here upon thy brother Geoffrey’s face ; These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his : This little abstract doth contain that large Which died in Geoffrey, and the hand of time Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume. That Geoffrey was thy elder brother born, And this his son ; England was Geoffrey’s right And this is Geoffrey’s : in the name of God How comes it then that thou art call’d a king, RANDOLPH : Historicity and Religiosity in Shakespeare’sMedievalplayKing John ２９ When living blood doth in these temples beat, Which owe the crown that thou o’ermasterest? (II, I, 99-109) He uses an argument nearer and more familiar to Tudor political thought. Saccio (1977, p.190) suggests that this ‘‘implies a firm legitimist rule of dynastic descent that was to develop only in much later times’. Under Norman law a younger son was a nearer heir to his father’s estates than the child of an elder brother who had died before the father’. (McLynn, 2007) King John echoes the Norman position : Our strong possession and our right for us. (I.I.39) While Eleanor argues the later, Tudor position : Your strong possession much more than your right, Or else it must go wrong with you and me : (I.I.41-41) John’s problem was that while he was King of England, as overlord of Angevin territories in France, he was technically a vassal of King Philip and had to swear fealty. Shakespeare treats the two kings as equals ; they address each other as ‘England’ and ‘France’. King Philip wanted to consolidate the very wealthy Norman territories into his realm of France. His backing of Arthur in Shakespeare’s play, is more or less historically ac- curate, except that before they met at Angiers according to Holinshead when King Philip avowedly said : ’About the same time king Philip made Arthur duke of Britaine knight, and received of him homage for Anjou, Poictiers, Maine, Touraine, and Britaine.’ (Holinshead 160/1/6) But in Shakespeare, after the standoff at Angiers, King Philip is reputed to say : We will heal up all ; For we’ll create young Arthur Duke of Bretagne And Earl of Richmond ; and this rich fair town ３０ 東洋大学人間科学総合研究所紀要 第１４号（２０１２） We make him lord of. (II.I.550-553) At this time in the 12th and 13th century, the Church was on the ascendant as a political as well as spiritual power, though it hadn’t come easily. Church (1999, p.21) asserts that ‘Kings since William the Conqueror had clearly demonstrated that papal authority could only be exercised effectively in regions controlled by a strong central authority, and then by the tolerance of the royal power. King John was well aware of that. John spent his formative years in the Abbey of Fontrevaud, and later under the tutelage of his half-brother Geoffery who was ultimately a very successful churchman. John had a very good understanding of the ways of the Church. Ac- cording to McLynn (1977, p.78), ‘he devoured recondite works of theology and took them on campaign. He read them in order to mock religion, and his witty and esoteric anticlerical jokes depended on a close knowledge of Church theory and practice. When the Pope’s high-ranking Italian emissary Pandulph enters the play, John’s immediate and vitupera- tive comments before he makes his demands have historical resonance. While King Philip readily welcomes the ‘holy legate of the pope’, according to Shakespeare, John makes his political independence from the Church quite clear : What earthy name to interrogatories Can task the free breath of a sacred king? Thou canst not, cardinal, devise a name So slight, unworthy and ridiculous, To charge me to an answer, as the pope. Tell him this tale ; and from the mouth of England Add thus much more, that no Italian priest Shall tithe or toll in our dominions ; But as we, under heaven, are supreme head, So under Him that great supremacy, Where we do reign, we will alone uphold, Without the assistance of a mortal hand : So tell the pope, all reverence set apart To him and his usurp’d authority. (III.I.73-86) The Popes had gained much through the Crusades and their connections with the great houses of Europe, RANDOLPH : Historicity and Religiosity in Shakespeare’sMedievalplayKing John ３１ not just politically, but also, more importantly, financially. Pope Innocent’s 1209 interdict and excommunication of King John was about more than installing Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury. McLynn (1977, p.78) asserts that Pope Innocent III ‘sought to increase revenue from the English Church in order to finance his costly projects in Sicily and Germany.’ Lunt (1999, p.297) avers that ‘In 1199, he was the first pope to impose a com- prehensive income tax (of one-fortieth of their revenues) on the clergy.’ John needed money to reclaim his French territories, and after his altercation with Pandulph in King John, orders the Bastard : Cousin, away for England! Haste before : And, ere our coming, see thou shake the bags Of hoarding abbots ; imprisoned angels Set at liberty : the fat ribs of peace Must by the hungry now be fed upon : Use our commission in his utmost force.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • DISSERTATION-Submission Reformatted
    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Dilemma of Obedience: Persecution, Dissimulation, and Memory in Early Modern England, 1553-1603 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5tv2w736 Author Harkins, Robert Lee Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The Dilemma of Obedience: Persecution, Dissimulation, and Memory in Early Modern England, 1553-1603 By Robert Lee Harkins A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Ethan Shagan, Chair Professor Jonathan Sheehan Professor David Bates Fall 2013 © Robert Lee Harkins 2013 All Rights Reserved 1 Abstract The Dilemma of Obedience: Persecution, Dissimulation, and Memory in Early Modern England, 1553-1603 by Robert Lee Harkins Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Ethan Shagan, Chair This study examines the problem of religious and political obedience in early modern England. Drawing upon extensive manuscript research, it focuses on the reign of Mary I (1553-1558), when the official return to Roman Catholicism was accompanied by the prosecution of Protestants for heresy, and the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), when the state religion again shifted to Protestantism. I argue that the cognitive dissonance created by these seesaw changes of official doctrine necessitated a society in which religious mutability became standard operating procedure. For most early modern men and women it was impossible to navigate between the competing and contradictory dictates of Tudor religion and politics without conforming, dissimulating, or changing important points of conscience and belief.
    [Show full text]
  • 1570 1 1570 at WINDSOR CASTLE, Berks. Jan 1,Sun
    1570 1570 At WINDSOR CASTLE, Berks. Jan 1,Sun New Year gifts. January 3-29: William Drury, Marshal of Berwick, and Sir Henry Gates, were special Ambassadors to Scotland, sent to request Regent Moray to surrender the captured Earl of Northumberland, a leader of the Rising. After long negotiations, and payment of a large sum of money, the Earl was brought to England in 1572 and was executed at York. Anne (Somerset), Countess of Northumberland, lived abroad in Catholic countries from August 1570 to her death in 1591. Jan 6,Fri play, by the Children of the Chapel Royal.T Jan 7,Sat new appointments, of Treasurer of the Household, Controller of the Household, and Serjeant-Porter of Whitehall Palace. Jan 8, Windsor, Sir Henry Radcliffe to the Earl of Sussex, his brother: ‘Yesterday Mr Vice-Chamberlain [Sir Francis Knollys] was made Treasurer; and Sir James Croft Controller, and Sir Robert Stafford Serjeant-Porter’. ‘It is thought Sir Nicholas Throgmorton shall be Vice-Chamberlain, and Mr Thomas Heneage Treasurer of the Chamber’. [Wright, i.355]. Croft became a Privy Councillor by virtue of his office; Heneage became Treasurer of the Chamber on Feb 15; a Vice-Chamberlain was appointed in 1577. Jan 8,Sun sermon, Windsor: Thomas Drant, Vicar of St Giles, Cripplegate. Text: Genesis 2.25: ‘They were both naked, Adam and Eve, and blushed not’. Drant: ‘To be naked...is to be without armour, it is to be without apparel’... ‘Dust is Adam...Dust are all men...Rich men are rich dust, wise men wise dust, worshipful men worshipful dust, honourable men honourable dust, majesties dust, excellent majesties excellent dust’..
    [Show full text]
  • DISSERTATION-Submission Reformatted
    The Dilemma of Obedience: Persecution, Dissimulation, and Memory in Early Modern England, 1553-1603 By Robert Lee Harkins A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Ethan Shagan, Chair Professor Jonathan Sheehan Professor David Bates Fall 2013 © Robert Lee Harkins 2013 All Rights Reserved 1 Abstract The Dilemma of Obedience: Persecution, Dissimulation, and Memory in Early Modern England, 1553-1603 by Robert Lee Harkins Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Ethan Shagan, Chair This study examines the problem of religious and political obedience in early modern England. Drawing upon extensive manuscript research, it focuses on the reign of Mary I (1553-1558), when the official return to Roman Catholicism was accompanied by the prosecution of Protestants for heresy, and the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), when the state religion again shifted to Protestantism. I argue that the cognitive dissonance created by these seesaw changes of official doctrine necessitated a society in which religious mutability became standard operating procedure. For most early modern men and women it was impossible to navigate between the competing and contradictory dictates of Tudor religion and politics without conforming, dissimulating, or changing important points of conscience and belief. Although early modern theologians and polemicists widely declared religious conformists to be shameless apostates, when we examine specific cases in context it becomes apparent that most individuals found ways to positively rationalize and justify their respective actions. This fraught history continued to have long-term effects on England’s religious, political, and intellectual culture.
    [Show full text]
  • John Prestall: a Complex Relationship with the Elizabethan Regime
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ResearchArchive at Victoria University of Wellington John Prestall: A Complex Relationship with the Elizabethan Regime. Michael J. Devine A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Victoria University of Wellington 2009. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks must first go to my supervisor Glyn Parry for his wisdom and generosity in introducing me to John Prestall. Without Glyn‘s invaluable advice and guidance this thesis would not have been completed. Thanks also to my fellow history postgraduate students James Campbell, Malcolm Craig, Michael Gill, Nick Radburn and Sam Ritchie for providing advice and their invaluable friendship. I am grateful to Victoria University‘s History Department for providing a comfortable and accommodating working environment and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences for awarding me a grant to present a paper at the Seventh Australia New Zealand Association of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS) conference in Hobart, Australia. Special thanks must go to my parents Kate and Kieran for reading my work and also too my siblings Hilary, Erica and Peter for their encouragement and support throughout my Masters. ii ABSTRACT This thesis is the biography of John Prestall (c.1527-c.1598) an unsavoury, nefarious, spendthrift, Catholic gentleman from Elizabethan England. A conspirator, opportunist informer, occult conjurer, conman and alchemist, Prestall‘s biography provides an alternative perspective from which to view Elizabethan history, exposing the dark fringe of the Elizabethan Court and the murky political underworld it attracted.
    [Show full text]
  • Anti-Semitism and Religious Violence As Flawed Interpretations of the Gospel of John Paul N
    Digital Commons @ George Fox University Faculty Publications - College of Christian Studies College of Christian Studies 2017 Anti-Semitism and Religious Violence as Flawed Interpretations of the Gospel of John Paul N. Anderson George Fox University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ccs Part of the Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Anderson, Paul N., "Anti-Semitism and Religious Violence as Flawed Interpretations of the Gospel of John" (2017). Faculty Publications - College of Christian Studies. 289. https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ccs/289 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Christian Studies at Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications - College of Christian Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ANTI-SEMITISM AND RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE AS FLAWED INTERPRETATIONS OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN1 Paul N. Anderson Professor of Biblical and Quaker Studies, George Fox University Extraordinary Professor of Religion, North West University, Potchefstroom, SA While it is a tragic fact that the Gospel of John has contributed to anti-Semitism and religious violence during some chapters of Christian history, John is not anti-Semitic. It was written by a Jewish writer, about a Jewish messianic figure, targeted first toward convincing Jewish audiences that Jesus was indeed the Jewish Messiah. Salvation is “of the Jews,” according to the Johannine Jesus, and each of the “I-am” sayings embodies a classic representation of Israel. John is no more “anti-Semitic” than the Essene community or the prophetic work of John the Baptist.
    [Show full text]
  • Rebellion, Spymasters and Spies: the Rise of Intelligence Operations in England, 1569-1585 by Helen Rose B.A
    Rebellion, Spymasters and Spies: The Rise of Intelligence Operations in England, 1569-1585 by Helen Rose B.A. A Thesis In History Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts Approved Abigail Swingen Chair of Committee Stefano D’Amico Gary Bell Mark Sheridan Dean of Graduate Studies December, 2014 Copyright © 2014, Helen Rose Texas Tech University, Helen Rose, December 2014 Acknowledgements Writing a thesis takes a lot of work, not only from the scholar who has undertaken this endeavor but also from those who have surrounded them. This thesis would not have been finished if it had not been for the unconditional support of my parent and friends who supported me when I felt overwhelmed. Nor would this have been accomplished without the supervision from my advisor, Dr. Abigail Swingen, who reviewed and corrected countless versions at different stages of development and was constantly there to help push this thesis into completion. A special thanks for Dr. D’Amico and Dr. Bell who both sat on my committee and helped shape and improve this thesis into its final transformation; and to Texas Tech University who gave me the opportunity to enrich my knowledge and for allowing me to share my thesis with the historical community. ii Texas Tech University, Helen Rose, December 2014 Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... ii Abstract .....................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Anne Camm and the Vanishing Quaker Prophets Christine Trevett University of Wales, Cardiff
    Quaker Studies Volume 3 | Issue 2 Article 1 2014 Anne Camm and the Vanishing Quaker Prophets Christine Trevett University of Wales, Cardiff Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/quakerstudies Part of the Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, and the History of Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Trevett, Christine (2014) "Anne Camm and the Vanishing Quaker Prophets," Quaker Studies: Vol. 3: Iss. 2, Article 1. Available at: http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/quakerstudies/vol3/iss2/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Quaker Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Anne Camm and the Vanishing Quaker Prophets Cover Page Footnote Anne Audland, later Camm, was one of the earliest evangelists of nascent Quakerism. Since she was long- lived, the (sometimes patchy) records pertaining to her life and activities are also reflections of change in Quakerism itself, in the first half century of its existence to around 1700. They shed some light on the changing emphases in the ministry of women, in particular, as well as on the life of one female Quaker prophet and on the gendered nature of some of the debates about women and ministry internal to early Quakerism. This study in 'contribution history' brings together much that is to be gleaned about the history of Anne Audland Camm. The spread of records indicate a more publicly active apostolate during her first marriage and then her personal support for the institution of Women's Meetings.
    [Show full text]
  • Catholic-Protestant Controversy and the Shakespearean Stage: the Play of Polemic
    Catholic-Protestant Controversy and the Shakespearean Stage: The Play of Polemic Submitted by Daniel Charles Cattell to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English in October 2012 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Catholic-Protestant Controversy and the Shakespearean Stage THE PLAY OF POLEMIC Daniel Cattell University of Exeter In memory of Dr. Mike Fielding Contents Abstract page viii List of illustrations ix Acknowledgments x Note on the text xi Abbreviations and references xii Introduction: Shakespeare and the “scribbling age” 1 1 Polemic and aesthetic insufficiency in King John 42 2 “This Papist and his Poet”: comedic collusion in 1 Henry IV 81 3 “Edified by the margin”: Hamlet and the crisis of religious textual authority 125 4 “Such an honest chronicler”: Truth and anti-polemical fantasy in Henry VIII 165 Conclusion 203 Works cited 207 vii Abstract Shakespeare’s career in the theatre coincides with the ascendancy of Catholic-Protestant polemic, a body of writing that exerted a deep and pervasive influence on literate life in early modern England. Eroding a secularizing bias within the academy, the much heralded turn to religion in the discipline has already covered ample ground in repositioning Shakespeare in relation to the religious cultures of his age.
    [Show full text]
  • John Locke's Noose
    Chapter 3 John Locke’s Noose This chapter joins two issues. The first concerns the generic accounts of the modern state offered by Max Weber and Michel Foucault, and the second concerns the principal method employed by the specifically English state to execute its citizens. Some argue, as I shall indicate, that the Weberian and Foucauldian readings of the state are categorically opposed, an argument that in turn suggests quite different ways of making sense of capital punishment and, more particularly, the noose. My aim is to challenge this opposition by offering a Foucauldian genealogy of this political practice, but to do so in a way that demon- strates how transformations internal to its history contribute to forma- tion of a state that is well understood in Weberian terms. The rationalization of hanging in England between the late six- teenth and late nineteenth centuries plays a crucial role in the constitu- tion of a state that can credibly present itself as monopolist over the means of legitimate violence and hence as the sole body authorized to kill subjects with impunity. Generation of that representation depends on the state’s incremental expropriation of the power to punish wrong- doing from civil society and so in time its conversion into something akin to the “private” possession of a bureaucratized state. Articulation of an unambiguous line of demarcation between governmental and nongovernmental affairs, which I take to be liberalism’s primary contri- bution to the emergence of the modern state, is in turn a condition of the apparent impartiality and hence legitimacy of the laws that mandate death as a rightful form of punishment.
    [Show full text]
  • Echoes of the 1580 Jesuit Mission to England in Early Modern Poland
    ROCZNIKI HUMANISTYCZNE Volume 67, issue 2 – 2019 SELECTED PAPERS IN ENGLISH DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18290/rh.2019.68.2-2en MIROSŁAWA HANUSIEWICZ-LAVALLEE * ECHOES OF THE 1580 JESUIT MISSION TO ENGLAND IN EARLY MODERN POLAND At the beginning of 1580, William Allen, one of the most influential Eng- lish religious exiles, and later a cardinal, after long efforts finally persuaded Everard Mercurian, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, and Pope Gregory XIII to send a Jesuit mission to England. Allen had treated the work on the re-Catholicization of his homeland as his own special and personal vocation. The College in Douai that he had established, and the Seminary that was part of it, went on to educate several hundred priests between 1568 and 1603; fifty-two of them started their missionary work in England before 1578. By the end of Elizabeth I’s reign, the number of those English mis- sionaries from Douai had grown to four hundred and thirty-eight. Beginning with the execution of Rev. Cuthbert Mayne’s in 1577, over the next decades one hundred missionaries died as martyrs.1 For a long time Father Mercurian was unwilling to establish any mission realizing that the Jesuits’ endeavour would be viewed as purely political (es- pecially in the context of the financial and political support offered by the Pope for the ongoing Second Desmond Rebellion, in which Nicholas Sand- ers played a significant role), and therefore would expose the missionaries to even greater dangers than those the diocesan priests had to face.
    [Show full text]
  • John Prestall: a Complex Relationship with the Elizabethan Regime
    John Prestall: A Complex Relationship with the Elizabethan Regime. Michael J. Devine A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Victoria University of Wellington 2009. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks must first go to my supervisor Glyn Parry for his wisdom and generosity in introducing me to John Prestall. Without Glyn‘s invaluable advice and guidance this thesis would not have been completed. Thanks also to my fellow history postgraduate students James Campbell, Malcolm Craig, Michael Gill, Nick Radburn and Sam Ritchie for providing advice and their invaluable friendship. I am grateful to Victoria University‘s History Department for providing a comfortable and accommodating working environment and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences for awarding me a grant to present a paper at the Seventh Australia New Zealand Association of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS) conference in Hobart, Australia. Special thanks must go to my parents Kate and Kieran, and my siblings Hilary, Erica and Peter for their encouragement and support throughout my Masters. M. J. Devine Wellington ii ABSTRACT This thesis is the biography of John Prestall (c.1527-c.1598) an unsavoury, nefarious, and spendthrift Catholic gentleman from Elizabethan England. A conspirator, opportunist informer, conjurer, conman and alchemist Prestall‘s biography provides an alternative perspective from which to view Elizabethan history, exposing the dark fringe of the Elizabethan Court and the murky political underworld it attracted. In the polarised politico-religious ferment of late Tudor England Prestall, perennially in debt, utilised his occult powers for his own ruthless self-interest and preservation.
    [Show full text]
  • The St. John's Review Volume XLVII, Number One (2003)
    The St. John's Review Volume XLVII, number one (2003) Editor Pamela Kraus Editorial Board Eva T. H. Brann James Carey Beate Ruhm von Oppen Joe Sachs John Van Doren Robert B. Williamson Elliott Zuckerman Subscriptions and Editorial Assistant Justin Castle The St. John's Review is published by the Office of the Dean, St. John's College, Annapolis: Christopher B. Nelson, President; Harvey Flaumenhaft, Dean. For those not on the distribution list, subscriptions are $15.00 for three issues, even though the magazine may sometimes appear semiannu­ ally rather than three times a year. Unsolicited essays, stories, poems, and reasoned letters are welcome. Address corre­ spondence to the Review, St. John's College, P.O. Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404-2800. Back issues are available, at $5.00 per issue, from the St. John's College Bookstore. ©2003 St. John's College. All rights reserved; reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. ISSN 0277-4720 Desktop Publishing and Printing The St. John's Public Relations Office and the St. John's College Print Shop 2 THE ST. JOHN'S REVIEW 3 Contents Essays and Lectures Philosophy and Resurrection: The Gospel According to Spinoza ................................. 5 John Cornell What Tree is This?: In Praise of Europe's Renaissance Printers, Publishers and Philologists ............................ 39 Chaninah Maschler The Empires of the Sun and the West ... ....................... 83 Eva Brann Plato's Timaeus and the Will to Order. ...................... 13 7 Peter Kalkavage 4 THE ST. JOHN'S REVIEW 5 Philosophy and Resurrection: i The Gospel according to Spinoza John F. Cornell Many years ago, as a student in a course on philosophy, I wrote the obligatory essay on David Hume's theory of causal­ ity, laying out his famous criticism of the principle of cause and effect taken as a ground for metaphysical knowledge.
    [Show full text]