I owe much of my interest in the seventeenth century to the late historian, Christopher Hill (1912-2003). I went to see Justin Champion deliver an impassioned defence of Hill and his work at a memorial lecture in Newark. … More Christopher Hill, Andrew Marvell, and the Dissenting Tradition
The difficulties of dealing with involuntary celibacy, from desolation to misogyny, seem to haunt some of Andrew Marvell’s most famous lyric poems. … More Was Marvell a seventeenth-century ‘incel’?
Review of Kate Loveman, Samuel Pepys & His Books: Reading, Newsgathering & Sociability, 1660-1703 (Oxford University Press, 2015). … More Samuel Pepys and His Books
I was reminded this week how nerve-wracking it can be getting to grips with a master’s, and why I have my supervisor to thank for it. … More Learning a new language
There is no hard evidence that Andrew Marvell’s ‘Horatian Ode’ ever left his hands. Yet, it may have come to John Dryden’s attention. How is Dryden the privileged one? A brief study of hard and soft evidence. … More Marvell, Dryden, and the Horatian Ode
To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, I asked a panel of experts why we continue to celebrate his life and works in 2016. … More Celebrating Shakespeare in 2016
A glimpse at some of the treasures on display during the press launch night of Shakespeare: Metamorphosis at the University of London’s Senate House Library. … More Shakespeare: Metamorphosis
Green is the colour of innocence and experience, of sickness and of health. A glimpse at what it means to be ‘green’ in Andrew Marvell and William Shakespeare. … More Marvell, Shakespeare, and Green Sicknesses
Hillary Taylor spoke at the IHR about the ‘transactional language’ that governed social relations in early modern England. This reminded me of a fable by Thomas Fuller about a king who took a trip to the woods… … More “If you go down to the woods today”: early modern social relations
The 53rd British Milton Seminar took place at the Birmingham and Midland Institute on Saturday 12th March 2016, featuring papers on laughing, smiling, ‘erring’ and commercialising in Paradise Lost. … More British Milton Seminar (March 2016)
