Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- PART ONE Prolepsis: Death, Youth & Introduction
- I Death and Life of a Minor Figure
- II A London Life: The Educator's Education
- III Religious Conflict and Coming of Age at Oxford
- PART TWO Elizabethan Camden
- PART THREE Jacobean Camden
- Index
II - A London Life: The Educator's Education
from PART ONE - Prolepsis: Death, Youth & Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- PART ONE Prolepsis: Death, Youth & Introduction
- I Death and Life of a Minor Figure
- II A London Life: The Educator's Education
- III Religious Conflict and Coming of Age at Oxford
- PART TWO Elizabethan Camden
- PART THREE Jacobean Camden
- Index
Summary
Ludgate's Stones
In the year 1260, this Ludgate was repaired, and beautified with images of Lud, and other kings. … These images of kings in the reign of Edward VI. had their heads smitten off, and were otherwise defaced by such as judged every image to be an idol; and in the reign of Queen Mary were repaired, as by setting new heads on their old bodies, etc. All which so remained until the year 1586, and the 28th of Queen Elizabeth, when the same gate, being sore decayed, was clean taken down… and the same year the whole gate was newly and beautifully built, with the images of Lud and others, as afore, on the east side, and the picture of her majesty Queen Elizabeth on the west side: all which was done at the common charges of the citizens.
While we have bits and fragments about Camden's early life, what we have has remained largely undigested; from Thomas Smith, Anthony Wood, John Aubrey, from Camden himself and his contemporaries, we have data, but no real narrative until after his university years. Not surprisingly, his life seems to come into focus when he gets closer to completing his major published work, the Britannia. This is often the case in early modern biographies, for the simple reason that the early years are usually sparsely documented. The result, however, tends to be over-determined accounts that seem to work ineluctably toward the defining artistic, personal, or historical achievement – the appearance of Paradise Lost, the death of Sidney, for example.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- William CamdenA Life in Context, pp. 16 - 58Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2007