Category: ballads
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Parr Family History
As we have seen, William Elderton’s emphasis on the exemplary feminine virtues of his heroine in A proper new balad of my ladie marques, Whose death is bewailed To the tune of new lusty gallant is line with the norms of the Renaissance epitaph. But in Elizabeth Parr’s case it is especially interesting. It reflects…
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The Ladie Marques and the Lusty Gallant
With apologies for the length of the delay between posts (brought about by a computer faliure), here is the second piece about Elizabeth Parr and William Elderton: William Elderton’s A proper new balad in praise of my Ladie Marques (London, 1569; STC (2nd ed.) / 7562) is unique among the surviving early ballad epitaphs in…
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William Elderton and the Ladie Marques part 1
I’ve been doing a lot of work on ballad epitaphs in recent months, inspired by a William Elderton ballad entitled A proper new balad of my ladie marques, Whose death is bewailed To the tune of new lusty gallant. The first thing that caught my attention was the fact that the epitaph had a named, known…
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2015 and on
The big highlight of 2015 has to have been passing my viva and becoming a doctor. I’m still quite pleased with the way my thesis looks sitting on the shelf, even though I never got it bound (Manchester only requires electronic submission of corrected theses). I like it the way it is. And graduation…
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Beginning Life as an ‘Independent Researcher’
Today I started a new phase of my life: I am officially an independent researcher. It’s not a role I’d have chosen, if I’m honest, and, so far at least, it’s not one I’m particularly enjoying. In fact, after one day on the job, I’m finding it incredibly frustrating. My institutional access ran out last…
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Ballads Across Borders
Over the last few months I have been privileged to give some lectures for Sovereign Education, who provide study days for A-level students. The two most recent lectures were on the subject of ‘the King’s Great Matter’. Sadly, there were no ballads involved, but at least I got to talk about Henry VIII, Catherine of…
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Final Countdown
This afternoon I had my mock viva, which was an interesting experience. It was reassuring, in that I survived and there was only one question that I felt I completely flunked. That said, there were several others that brought home to me the need to be certain of my own position, which of course is…
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Viva preparation
This morning I lifted my thesis from the bookshelf and looked at it for the first time since I put it there in September. I have to admit that there is a certain amount of pride just from in holding it in my hands. It’s a substantial piece of work and represents a good three…
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