Introduction Graves are amongst the earliest sources of our understanding of human culture. They ... more Introduction Graves are amongst the earliest sources of our understanding of human culture. They are the product of rites of passage; the rituals through which humans mark the critical events of their lives. Such rites changed with changes of culture. Since Arnold van Gennep first made them a subject for academic study these shifts in traditions have been intensively studied especially in recent decades as drama, literature, spectacle, and religion. It was not simply the personal aspect of what was called ‘the art of dying well’ that was important in burial rituals. Funerals also had a public function. They were drama, a drama that embodied the whole social structure. The funeral procession had to include relatives and friends, servants and the ubiquitous poor so that all could acknowledge the place of
To put what was going on in the negotiations around Magna Carta into a context that makes sense o... more To put what was going on in the negotiations around Magna Carta into a context that makes sense of the role Wales and Scotland played in its creation, it is necessary briefly to consider the wider European position and the part that shifting ideas about monarchy and liberty played there. This is not simple.
problems, the use of sources, the topographical subject matter) and the first main topic, the gat... more problems, the use of sources, the topographical subject matter) and the first main topic, the gates, is particularly thorny both for Biondo and his commentator, Rome’s gates having disappeared or changed their names over the centuries. (Biondo was well aware of the difficulties (Roma instaurata 1.4), but not of the difference between the Servian and Aurelian walls.) Della Schiava succeeds in compressing a great deal of clear, useful, and up-to-date information into his notes. The volume also contains a bibliography and full indexes. Frances Muecke, The University of Sydney
Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions. By G. W Bernard. (New Haven:Yale University Press. 2010. Pp. x, 2... more Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions. By G. W Bernard. (New Haven:Yale University Press. 2010. Pp. x, 237. $30.00. ISBN 978-0-300-16245-5.) G. W. Bernard's Anne Boleyn is Anne Boleyn as we have never known her. Despite the claim of the inside cover, it is not really a biography. It is a book about interpretation- a series of intricate arguments unpicking previous interpretations of a historical character whose role and importance have always been contested. Interpretation is everything, because, in Anne's case, the surviving evidence is regrettably incomplete and impressionistic. Indeed, much of the evidence comes down to little more than early interpretations. Even Bernard's favorite source, Lancelot de Carles's contemporary poem on the queen's unhappy fall and fate, was originally drawn up as an object lesson in mutability, an exploration of patience and providence, and not in any sense a simple history or testimony. The scantiness of the sources gives the book an inevitably unbalanced structure. Anne's reign as queen- her last three yearstakes up two-thirds of the book, and half of that focuses on her fall, her last three months. Yet the book is both entertaining and instructive. Bernard is nothing if not argumentative, and the reader is always drawn into the debate, applauding as the author slaughters another sacred cow or else raising an eyebrow at some dubious move in the argument. The absence of evidence is Bernard's stock in trade, and it is in negative mode that he is at his best. His book is an extraordinarily successful demonstration of how much less we know of Anne than we had thought. A shrewd critical eye is turned on the circumstances and motives of those who created the historical record on which our limited knowledge depends; and an even sharper eye distinguishes between evidence and interpretation or opinion. Thus he points out that there is simply no contemporary evidence for the almost universally shared opinion that Anne resisted Henry's advances for years, making marriage the price of sexual surrender- although there is no more evidence for his own theory that it was Henry, not Anne, who wanted marriage rather than an affair. Bernard's insistent skepticism has many triumphs along the way. The notion that Anne's final and miscarried pregnancy delivered a deformed foetus is decisively swept away, as is the equally curious notion that accusations of witchcraft were overshadowing the queen in her final months. The idea that Cromwell orchestrated a fiendish plot to bring about Anne's destruction is shown to rest on nothing more than a somewhat ambiguous remark of Cromwell's, hearsay evidence after the event. Bernard's skepticism, however, is not entirely consistent. His most eye-catching, albeit tentative, claim is that maybe Anne really was guilty of at least some of the charges of adultery on which she was convicted. …
Volume 15 May 2015 Edited by Anders Ahlqvist Lorna Barrow Carole Cusack Matthew Glozier and Sybil... more Volume 15 May 2015 Edited by Anders Ahlqvist Lorna Barrow Carole Cusack Matthew Glozier and Sybil Jack
narratives that are constructed in the local vernacular and, while independent of the originating... more narratives that are constructed in the local vernacular and, while independent of the originating tradition, forming their own subset within the tradition. The next four chapters in this volume explore these categories and describe the extant medieval Arthurian literatures across this broad geographic zone. In Chapter 5, Marjolein Hogenbirk and David F. Johnson provide a detailed description of the translation and adaptation of four French verse romances which came to be the Middle Dutch Wrake van Ragisel, Ferguut, Perchevael, and Torec, and in Chapter 6 Simon Smith and Roel Zemel explore five ‘indigenous’ Middle Dutch Arthurian romances Walewein, Moriaen, Ridder mettermouwen, Walewein ende Keye, and Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet. Frank Brandsma then follows in Chapter 7 with a detailed analysis of the translations and adaptations of French prose romances, including the Lancelot compilation. The textual analyses conclude in Chapter 8, with Jürgen Wolf’s detailed descriptio...
The Outside View Wikileaks would have a field day with the letters that passed from the English r... more The Outside View Wikileaks would have a field day with the letters that passed from the English resident in Scotland to the governors of England. George Nicholson wrote to Robert Cecil of 'the mutableness of this inconstant people changing or plotting for changes with every changeable blast of wind'. One may, however, reflect that they were not immediately subservient to the monarch. When the king 'discharged' Robert Brucethe principal minister of the Presbyterian church in Edinburgh and the man who called James 'God's silly fool' of his stipend-Bruce sued and recovered it before the lords of the session, in the king's presence. The president Alexander Seton, with great dignity and firmness, informed the King that he was their king and they his subjects bound to obey him in all humility which they all would do in all things for their lives, lands and gear but in that matter of law and conscience being sworn to do justice they would do as their consciences led them unless he commanded them to the contrary in which case he said he would not vote at all." Lord Newbottle said to the king that it was said in the town to his slander and theirs that they durst not do justice but as the king commanded them. The judges, with only two dissentient voices, pronounced their decision in favour of Mr. Robert Bruce. 2 Scottish ideas of justice, however, varied from the English and often from French to the frustration of monarchs who sought justice for attacks on their subjects. When Sir Robert Kerr was accused for an attack in 1597 those involved were allowed to go free when they had 'satisfied' the wife and children for the death and also 'satisfied' the king. 3
Recent historians of frontier societies have focussed on the issue of individual and group identi... more Recent historians of frontier societies have focussed on the issue of individual and group identity in unfamiliar circumstances - knowing who you are and how you came to be what you are as opposed to the need for accommodation in a strange world. What, in circumstances of change, an individual might hand on from their origins to the next generation has become a subject of historical investigation. How far anyone controls the image of their own identity that the next generation accepts is very doubtful, however. This is well illustrated by the multiple versions of Esther Abrahams to be found in Australian historical writing despite the slight evidence on which any version can be based. She did not speak at her trial and there are few records of any later words. Understanding the reasons for her behaviour when her background is not properly elucidated is likely to lead to misinterpretation.
What do we know of tears, of laughter and of the smile? Is the smile spontaneous? Is it culturall... more What do we know of tears, of laughter and of the smile? Is the smile spontaneous? Is it culturally determined? Where did it come from? History is fundamentally the study of change over time and place. However historians in the past, while they have noted the impulses to act that we call emotions in their narratives - collective values, fears and hopes embedded in cultural memory - have hesitated to make them the basis of their analysis. While some may have suspected that emotions made an important contribution to reasoned thought, they did not produce historical evidence to this end. Since psychologists for most of the 20th century were reluctant to study the way emotions were managed in the brain, preferring to consider it a 'thinking machine', this approach was not questioned.
Review(s) of: Norman Haire and the study of sex, by Diana Wyndham, Sydney University Press, 2012,... more Review(s) of: Norman Haire and the study of sex, by Diana Wyndham, Sydney University Press, 2012, ISBN 9781743320068, pbk.
Too few historians consider the role interaction between animals and humans has played in shaping... more Too few historians consider the role interaction between animals and humans has played in shaping the past of the world. Without animals, the social and cultural life of humans would have been significantly different. This can be seen in the symbolic role given to important military animals in most long-established religions. In the Rig Veda the Hindus saw the god, Indra, in his military role as one: Whose pair of tawny horses yoked in battles foemen challenge not: To him, to Indra sing your song.(Hymn V Translation by Ralph TH Griffith).
Introduction Graves are amongst the earliest sources of our understanding of human culture. They ... more Introduction Graves are amongst the earliest sources of our understanding of human culture. They are the product of rites of passage; the rituals through which humans mark the critical events of their lives. Such rites changed with changes of culture. Since Arnold van Gennep first made them a subject for academic study these shifts in traditions have been intensively studied especially in recent decades as drama, literature, spectacle, and religion. It was not simply the personal aspect of what was called ‘the art of dying well’ that was important in burial rituals. Funerals also had a public function. They were drama, a drama that embodied the whole social structure. The funeral procession had to include relatives and friends, servants and the ubiquitous poor so that all could acknowledge the place of
To put what was going on in the negotiations around Magna Carta into a context that makes sense o... more To put what was going on in the negotiations around Magna Carta into a context that makes sense of the role Wales and Scotland played in its creation, it is necessary briefly to consider the wider European position and the part that shifting ideas about monarchy and liberty played there. This is not simple.
problems, the use of sources, the topographical subject matter) and the first main topic, the gat... more problems, the use of sources, the topographical subject matter) and the first main topic, the gates, is particularly thorny both for Biondo and his commentator, Rome’s gates having disappeared or changed their names over the centuries. (Biondo was well aware of the difficulties (Roma instaurata 1.4), but not of the difference between the Servian and Aurelian walls.) Della Schiava succeeds in compressing a great deal of clear, useful, and up-to-date information into his notes. The volume also contains a bibliography and full indexes. Frances Muecke, The University of Sydney
Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions. By G. W Bernard. (New Haven:Yale University Press. 2010. Pp. x, 2... more Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions. By G. W Bernard. (New Haven:Yale University Press. 2010. Pp. x, 237. $30.00. ISBN 978-0-300-16245-5.) G. W. Bernard's Anne Boleyn is Anne Boleyn as we have never known her. Despite the claim of the inside cover, it is not really a biography. It is a book about interpretation- a series of intricate arguments unpicking previous interpretations of a historical character whose role and importance have always been contested. Interpretation is everything, because, in Anne's case, the surviving evidence is regrettably incomplete and impressionistic. Indeed, much of the evidence comes down to little more than early interpretations. Even Bernard's favorite source, Lancelot de Carles's contemporary poem on the queen's unhappy fall and fate, was originally drawn up as an object lesson in mutability, an exploration of patience and providence, and not in any sense a simple history or testimony. The scantiness of the sources gives the book an inevitably unbalanced structure. Anne's reign as queen- her last three yearstakes up two-thirds of the book, and half of that focuses on her fall, her last three months. Yet the book is both entertaining and instructive. Bernard is nothing if not argumentative, and the reader is always drawn into the debate, applauding as the author slaughters another sacred cow or else raising an eyebrow at some dubious move in the argument. The absence of evidence is Bernard's stock in trade, and it is in negative mode that he is at his best. His book is an extraordinarily successful demonstration of how much less we know of Anne than we had thought. A shrewd critical eye is turned on the circumstances and motives of those who created the historical record on which our limited knowledge depends; and an even sharper eye distinguishes between evidence and interpretation or opinion. Thus he points out that there is simply no contemporary evidence for the almost universally shared opinion that Anne resisted Henry's advances for years, making marriage the price of sexual surrender- although there is no more evidence for his own theory that it was Henry, not Anne, who wanted marriage rather than an affair. Bernard's insistent skepticism has many triumphs along the way. The notion that Anne's final and miscarried pregnancy delivered a deformed foetus is decisively swept away, as is the equally curious notion that accusations of witchcraft were overshadowing the queen in her final months. The idea that Cromwell orchestrated a fiendish plot to bring about Anne's destruction is shown to rest on nothing more than a somewhat ambiguous remark of Cromwell's, hearsay evidence after the event. Bernard's skepticism, however, is not entirely consistent. His most eye-catching, albeit tentative, claim is that maybe Anne really was guilty of at least some of the charges of adultery on which she was convicted. …
Volume 15 May 2015 Edited by Anders Ahlqvist Lorna Barrow Carole Cusack Matthew Glozier and Sybil... more Volume 15 May 2015 Edited by Anders Ahlqvist Lorna Barrow Carole Cusack Matthew Glozier and Sybil Jack
narratives that are constructed in the local vernacular and, while independent of the originating... more narratives that are constructed in the local vernacular and, while independent of the originating tradition, forming their own subset within the tradition. The next four chapters in this volume explore these categories and describe the extant medieval Arthurian literatures across this broad geographic zone. In Chapter 5, Marjolein Hogenbirk and David F. Johnson provide a detailed description of the translation and adaptation of four French verse romances which came to be the Middle Dutch Wrake van Ragisel, Ferguut, Perchevael, and Torec, and in Chapter 6 Simon Smith and Roel Zemel explore five ‘indigenous’ Middle Dutch Arthurian romances Walewein, Moriaen, Ridder mettermouwen, Walewein ende Keye, and Lanceloet en het hert met de witte voet. Frank Brandsma then follows in Chapter 7 with a detailed analysis of the translations and adaptations of French prose romances, including the Lancelot compilation. The textual analyses conclude in Chapter 8, with Jürgen Wolf’s detailed descriptio...
The Outside View Wikileaks would have a field day with the letters that passed from the English r... more The Outside View Wikileaks would have a field day with the letters that passed from the English resident in Scotland to the governors of England. George Nicholson wrote to Robert Cecil of 'the mutableness of this inconstant people changing or plotting for changes with every changeable blast of wind'. One may, however, reflect that they were not immediately subservient to the monarch. When the king 'discharged' Robert Brucethe principal minister of the Presbyterian church in Edinburgh and the man who called James 'God's silly fool' of his stipend-Bruce sued and recovered it before the lords of the session, in the king's presence. The president Alexander Seton, with great dignity and firmness, informed the King that he was their king and they his subjects bound to obey him in all humility which they all would do in all things for their lives, lands and gear but in that matter of law and conscience being sworn to do justice they would do as their consciences led them unless he commanded them to the contrary in which case he said he would not vote at all." Lord Newbottle said to the king that it was said in the town to his slander and theirs that they durst not do justice but as the king commanded them. The judges, with only two dissentient voices, pronounced their decision in favour of Mr. Robert Bruce. 2 Scottish ideas of justice, however, varied from the English and often from French to the frustration of monarchs who sought justice for attacks on their subjects. When Sir Robert Kerr was accused for an attack in 1597 those involved were allowed to go free when they had 'satisfied' the wife and children for the death and also 'satisfied' the king. 3
Recent historians of frontier societies have focussed on the issue of individual and group identi... more Recent historians of frontier societies have focussed on the issue of individual and group identity in unfamiliar circumstances - knowing who you are and how you came to be what you are as opposed to the need for accommodation in a strange world. What, in circumstances of change, an individual might hand on from their origins to the next generation has become a subject of historical investigation. How far anyone controls the image of their own identity that the next generation accepts is very doubtful, however. This is well illustrated by the multiple versions of Esther Abrahams to be found in Australian historical writing despite the slight evidence on which any version can be based. She did not speak at her trial and there are few records of any later words. Understanding the reasons for her behaviour when her background is not properly elucidated is likely to lead to misinterpretation.
What do we know of tears, of laughter and of the smile? Is the smile spontaneous? Is it culturall... more What do we know of tears, of laughter and of the smile? Is the smile spontaneous? Is it culturally determined? Where did it come from? History is fundamentally the study of change over time and place. However historians in the past, while they have noted the impulses to act that we call emotions in their narratives - collective values, fears and hopes embedded in cultural memory - have hesitated to make them the basis of their analysis. While some may have suspected that emotions made an important contribution to reasoned thought, they did not produce historical evidence to this end. Since psychologists for most of the 20th century were reluctant to study the way emotions were managed in the brain, preferring to consider it a 'thinking machine', this approach was not questioned.
Review(s) of: Norman Haire and the study of sex, by Diana Wyndham, Sydney University Press, 2012,... more Review(s) of: Norman Haire and the study of sex, by Diana Wyndham, Sydney University Press, 2012, ISBN 9781743320068, pbk.
Too few historians consider the role interaction between animals and humans has played in shaping... more Too few historians consider the role interaction between animals and humans has played in shaping the past of the world. Without animals, the social and cultural life of humans would have been significantly different. This can be seen in the symbolic role given to important military animals in most long-established religions. In the Rig Veda the Hindus saw the god, Indra, in his military role as one: Whose pair of tawny horses yoked in battles foemen challenge not: To him, to Indra sing your song.(Hymn V Translation by Ralph TH Griffith).
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