To this day The White Hart and The Red Lion are two of the most popular names for a public house in England ndash; both talismans that served as the insignia for Richard II and the banished Henry Bolingbroke; Duke of Lancaster; who usurped the throne in 1399.Nick Asbury acted in the Royal Shakespeare Companyrsquo;s famed Histories cycle which staged Shakespearersquo;s vision of the deposition of Richard II through to the notorious Battle of Bosworth in 1485. With fellow RSC actors for company; Nick travels the country visiting the buildings; landscapes and former sites of war and intrigue that feature in the plays; and asks the question: what is it about the England of Shakespearersquo;s Histories that continues to fascinate? From Alnwick to Eastcheap; Windsor Castle to a Leicester car park; this is his snapshot of England and its people; then and now.lsquo;John Shakespeare; Williamrsquo;s father; was an Ale Taster before he was a glover and luminary of Stratford-upon- Avon; so in his footsteps I and my travelling players will be exploring the hostelries and byways of an England forged on the battlefields; triumphs and betrayals of TheHistories: on the one hand; Red ndash; be it a pub or bloody Rose. On the other hand; White ndash; be it the alabaster tombs of broken Princes or the quill of a playwright from Stratford-upon- Avon.rsquo;lsquo;This bloody MG is so light itrsquo;s like driving a roasting tin. At the next turning; forewarned this time; I make the corner cheering victoriously and drive straight into a snow driftft that could swallow a bus let alone the mid-life crisis that is this MG. It turns out I am in the one area where it is as bad as they say it is. I dig myself out and reverse back on to the mainroad; all the time thinking life would be much better on a horse.rsquo;lsquo;England; the tolerant bearer of religion that was the flower of the Northern Renaissance; was fast becoming a useless fist clothed in an old glove. It was fighting a war abroad; the cause of which it was not party to; and the execution of which was undermined by in-fighting at home. Plus ccedil;a change.rsquo;lsquo;Geoffrey and I are swept like pooh sticks into Rouen. The road keeps tumbling down and the one time we want traffic lights to stop us; to catch our breath and to establish where we are; is of course the one time we are carried along on a river of green. We swoop into thecentral town square over cobbles that surely canrsquo;t be for everyday access; and on a hunch we turn right; only then realising that our hotel is in front of us and we have arrived. Itrsquo;s the most remarkable entrance to a town I have ever made. We havenrsquo;t stopped once fornavigation; traffic lights or junctions and yet here we are.rsquo;
#354429 in eBooks 2013-06-04 2013-06-04File Name: B00D7ZT37Q
Review
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. what a boring book. Sifting thru info was roughBy Dalan Hartmannwowza; what a boring book. Sifting thru info was rough; but informative. Bought for a class.5 of 10 people found the following review helpful. Not the book I thought it was going to be...By A readerDeans book examines the ambiguity of symbols inherent in the colonial experience. I often wondered-as with most historical reconstructions of "culture" and interpretations of practices long lost from memory-if there was enough "evidence" to make the claims she makes about the representation of sub-alterity. On the one hand; the Indian appears to constructing a colonial self through his/her dress; decoration; mannerisms; artistic expressive forms (such as dance or architecture); etc. But on the other hand; s/he is engaged in the hegemonic forces of "being Indian" within the dominant colonialist ideology. The question is; to what extent did the Indian have the freedom to make choices about dress; dance; decoration; etc. and to what extent was the image of the Indian under the control and creation of the colonialist/church?I think the pressing need for an academic to take a "politically correct" stance in this day and age must sadly override the ability to present the honest truth in the case of colonial subjectivity. Allowing the indigenous people to speak for themselves is questionable in the case of iconic representation. For instance; where are the depictions of the Indians who carried the massive saints--where are these dark bodies in the paintings Dean examines. And if they are missing; why doesnt the author seem troubled by this?Read the book and decide for yourself.