Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T19:15:06.015Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lees and Moonshine: Remembering Richard III, 1485–1635*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Philip Schwyzer
Philip Schwyzer*
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Not long after Shakespeare's birth in 1564, the last witnesses to the reign of Richard III (1483–85) would have reached the end of their lives. Richard III (ca. 1592) occupies a distinctive historical moment in relation to its subject, the period after the extinction of living memory, but still within the horizon of secondhand or communicative memory. This essay explores how memories and postmemories of Richard's reign were preserved, transmitted, and transformed over the course of the sixteenth century and into the seventeenth. While registering the powerful influence of emerging contexts, including the Reformation and, ultimately, Shakespeare's play, these memories remained distinct from, and sometimes at odds with, textual history. They survived because they offered their bearers a resource for interpreting and resisting the predicaments of the present, from the problem of tyranny to the legacies of the Reformation.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , Fall 2010 , pp. 850 - 883
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 Renaissance Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this essay was presented to the University of California, Berkeley, Early Modern Colloquium in April 2009. I am grateful to Jeffrey Knapp, David Landreth, Ethan Shagan, and the rest of the group for a memorably stimulating and productive discussion.

References

Anderson, Thomas P. Performing Early Modern Trauma from Shakespeare to Milton . Aldershot , 2006 .Google Scholar
Andre, Bernard. Historia regis Henrici septimi . Ed. , Gairdner, J. London, 1858.Google Scholar
Assmann, Jan. Religion and Cultural Memory:Ten Studies. Trans. , Livingstone, Rodney. Palo Alto, 2006.Google Scholar
Aubrey, John. Miscellanies upon the followingsubjects. London, 1696.Google Scholar
Aubrey, John. The Natural History of Wiltshire. Ed. , Britton, John. London, 1847.Google Scholar
Aubrey, John. Brief Lives. Ed. , Barber, Richard. Woodbridge, 1982.Google Scholar
Aune, M. G. “The Uses of RichardIII: From Robert Cecil to Richard Nixon.” Shakespeare Bulletin 24(2006): 23–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bacon, Francis. The historie of the raigneof King Henry the Seuenth. London, 1622.Google Scholar
Bacon, Francis. Sylva Sylvarum, or a NaturalHistory. London, 1627.Google Scholar
Bacon, Francis. The historie of life and death. London, 1638.Google Scholar
Benjamin, Walter. “Theses on the Philosophyof History.”In Illuminations, ed. , Arendt, Hannah, trans. , Zorn, Harry. London, 1999.Google Scholar
Borges, Jorge Luis. Labyrinths. Trans. , Yates, Donaldand , Irby, James. New York, 1964.Google Scholar
Lynn, Botelho, ed. The History of Old Agein England. Vol. 1, The Cultural Conception of Old Age in theSeventeenth Century. London, 2008.Google Scholar
Bradbrook, M. C. Shakespeare, The Poet in HisWorld. London, 1978. Reprint, 2005.Google Scholar
Briggs, Katharine M. A Dictionary of British Folk-Talesin the English Language, Part A: Folk Narratives. 2 vols. London, 1970.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
British Library HarleianManuscript 433. Ed. Horrox, Rosemaryand , Hammond, P. W. Gloucester, 1979.Google Scholar
Broughton, Rowland. A briefe discourse of thelyfe and death of . . . Sir William Pawlet. London, 1572.Google Scholar
Buck, George. The History of Richard III(1619). Ed. , Kincaid, A. N. Gloucester, 1979.Google Scholar
Burton, William. The Description of Leicestershire. London, 1622.Google Scholar
Cahill, Patricia A. Unto the Breach: Martial Formations,Historical Trauma, and the Early Modern Stage. Oxford, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calendar of PatentsRolls, Edward VI, 1547–1553. 6 vols. London, 1924–29.Google Scholar
Collective Memoryof Political Events: Social Psychological Perspectives. Ed. Pennebaker, James, , Paez, Dario, and , Rimé, Bernard. Mahwah, NJ, 1997.Google Scholar
Corbett, Richard. Certain elegant poems. London, 1647.Google Scholar
Cowell, John. The Interpreter. London, 1607.Google Scholar
Cuttica, Cesare. “Thomas Scott of Canterbury(1566–1635): Patriot, Civic Radical, Puritan.” History of European Ideas 34(2008): 475–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robert, Davies, ed. Extracts from the MunicipalRecords of the City of York. London, 1843.Google Scholar
Deiter, Kristen. The Tower of London in EnglishRenaissance Drama. London, 2008.Google Scholar
Dragstra, Henk. “The Politics of Holiness:Royalty for the Masses in The Wandring Jews Chronicle.”In Transforming Holiness:Representations of Holiness in English and American Literary Texts, ed. , Visser, Ireneand , Wilcox, Helen, 61–80. Leuven, 2006.Google Scholar
Dragstra, Henk. “‘Before woomenwere Readers’: How John Aubrey Wrote Female Oral History.”In Oral Traditions and Gender in Early ModernLiterary Texts, ed. , Ellen Lamb, Maryand , Bamford, Karen, 41–53. Aldershot, 2008.Google Scholar
Duffy, Eamon. “Bare Ruined Choirs:Remembering Catholicism in Shakespeare's England.”In Theatre and Religion: Lancastrian Shakespeare, ed. , Dutton, Richard, , Findlay, Alison, and , Wilson, Richard, 40–57. Manchester, 2003.Google Scholar
Eaglestone, Robert. The Holocaust and the Postmodern. Oxford, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabyan, Robert. Newe Cronycles of Englandand Fraunce. London, 1516.Google Scholar
Felman, Shoshana, and , Dori, Laub. Testimony: Crises of Witnesssingin Literature, Psychoanalysis and History. London, 1992.Google Scholar
Fogu, Claudio, and , Wulf, Kansteiner. “Conclusion: The Politicsof Memory and the Poetics of History.”In The Politics of Memory in Postwar Europe, ed. , Fogu, Claudio, , Kansteiner, Wulf, and , Lebow, Ned, 284–310. Durham, NC, 2006.Google Scholar
Fox, Adam. Oral and Literate Culturein England, 1500–1700. Oxford, 2000.Google Scholar
Goodland, Katharine. Female Mourning in Medievaland Renaissance English Drama. Aldershot, 2005.Google Scholar
Greenblatt, Stephen. Hamlet in Purgatory. Princeton, 2000.Google Scholar
Hall, Edward. The Union of the Noble andIllustre Famelies of Lancastre and York. London, 1542.Google Scholar
Hanham, Alison. Richard III and His EarlyHistorians, 1483–1535. Oxford, 1975.Google Scholar
Hardyng, John. The chronicle of Ihon Hardyngin metre. London, 1543.Google Scholar
Hay, Denys. Polydore Vergil: RenaissanceHistorian and Man of Letters. Oxford, 1952.Google Scholar
Hirsch, Marianne. Family Frames: Photography,Narrative, and Postmemory. Harvard, 1997.Google Scholar
Hirsch, Marianne. “The Generation of Postmemory.” Poetics Today 29(2008): 103–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodgkin, Katharine, and , Susannah, Radstone. “Introduction: ContestedPasts.”In Memory, History,Nation: Contested Pasts, ed. , Hodgkin, Katharineand , Radstone, Susannah, 1–21. Piscataway, NJ, 2005.Google Scholar
Höfele, Andreas. “Making History Memorable:More, Shakespeare and Richard III.”In REAL: Yearbook of Research in Englishand American Literature 21: Literature, LiteraryHistory and Cultural Memory, ed. , Grabes, Herbert, 187–204. Tübingen, 2005.Google Scholar
Holinshed, Raphael. The Third Volume of Chronicles. London, 1587.Google Scholar
Houts, Elisabeth van. Memory and Gender in MedievalEurope, 900–1200. Toronto, 1999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Igartua, Juanjo, and , Dario, Paez. “Art and RememberingTraumatic Collective Events: The Case of the Spanish Civil War.”In Collective Memory of Political Events(1997), 79–102.Google Scholar
Kendall, Paul M. Richard III. New York, 1996.Google Scholar
Laslett, Peter. “The Bewildering Historyof the History of Longevity.”In Validation of Exceptional Longevity, ed. , Jeune, Bernardand , Vaupel, James W, 23–40. Odense, 1999.Google Scholar
Leigh, Edward. Choice observations of allthe kings of England from the Saxons to the death of King Charlesthe First. London, 1661.Google Scholar
Loades, D. M. The Life and Career of WilliamPaulet. Aldershot, 2008.Google Scholar
Luminet, Olivier, and , Antonietta, Curci. Flashbulb Memories: New Issuesand New Perspectives. Hove, 2009.Google Scholar
M.P. The wandringJews chronicle. London, 1660.Google Scholar
Map, Walter. De Nugis Curialum / Courtier'sTrifles. Ed. and trans. , James, M. R, rev. , , C. N. Land , Mynors, R. A. B. Oxford, 1983.Google Scholar
Marche, Stephen. “Mocking Dead Bones:Historical Memory and the Theater of the Dead in Richard III.” Comparative Drama 37(2003): 37–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michaels, Walter Benn. “‘You who neverwas there’: Slavery and the New Historicism, Deconstructionand the Holocaust.” Narrative 4(1996): 1–16.Google Scholar
More, Thomas. The Complete Works of St.Thomas More. 15 vols. New Haven, 1963–97.Google Scholar
Moryson, Fynes. An Itinerary. London, 1617.Google Scholar
Nichols, John Gough. “The Old Countess ofDesmond.” Notes &Queriesvol. s3-I, 16(1862): 301–3.Google Scholar
“The Old Countessof Desmond.” The DublinReview 51(1862): 51–91.Google Scholar
Old Meg of Hereford-shire,for a Mayd-Marian. London, 1609.Google Scholar
Parker, Henry, , Lord, Morley. The exposition and declarationof the Psalme, Deus ultionum Dominus. London, 1539.Google Scholar
Parker, Henryand , Lord, Morley. “Account of Miraclesperformed by the Holy Eucharist.” BL Add. MS 12060. 1554.Google Scholar
Pennebaker, James W., and , Becky L, Banasik. “On the Creation andMaintenance of Collective Memories.”In Collective Memory of Political Events(1997), 3–19.Google Scholar
Raine, Angelo, ed. York Civic Records. Vol. 1. Leeds, 1939.Google Scholar
Ralegh, Walter. The History of the World. London, 1614.Google Scholar
Reed, Edwin. Brief for Plaintiff: Baconvs. Shakespeare. New York, 1892.Google Scholar
Richmond, Hugh. “Richard III and the Reformation.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 83(1984): 509–1.Google Scholar
Rogers, J. E. Thorold. A History of Agricultural Prices in England. 6 vols. Oxford, 1866–87.Google Scholar
Schwyzer, Philip. Literature, Nationalism andMemory in Early Modern England and Wales. Cambridge, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, Thomas. “Somepassages taken out of an old manuscript written by Thomas Scott ofEgreston.” BL Add MS 62135. N.d., ff. 465r–470v. [Formerly shelfmarked as Wyatt Papers, Loan 15.Google Scholar
Shakespeare, William. Richard III. Ed. , Jowett, John. Oxford, 2000.Google Scholar
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. , Greenblatt, Stephen, et al.. 2nd ed., New York, 2008.Google Scholar
Shell, Alison. Oral Culture and Catholicismin Early Modern England. Cambridge, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siemon, James R. “Reconstructing the Past:History, Historicism, Histories.”In A Companion to English Renaissance Literature andCulture, ed. , Hattaway, Michael, 662–3. Oxford, 2002.Google Scholar
Smyth, John, of Nibley. The Lives of the Berkeleys. 3 vols. Ed. John MacLean. Gloucester,1883.Google Scholar
Steele, Richard. A Discourse Concerning OldAge. London, 1688.Google Scholar
Stow, John. The chronicles of Englandfrom Brute vnto this present yeare of Christ. London, 1580.Google Scholar
Taylor, John. The old, old, very old man:or, The age and long life of Thomas Par . . . Whereunto is added apostscript, shewing the many remarkable accidents that hapned in thelife of this old man. 2nd ed., London, 1635.Google Scholar
Thomson, Patricia. Sir Thomas Wyatt and his Background. Palo Alto, 1964.Google Scholar
The Three Wondersof the Age. London, 1636.Google Scholar
Walpole, Horace. Historic Doubts on the Lifeand Reign of King Richard III. London, 1768.Google Scholar
Warnicke, Retha M. “Lord Morley's Statementsabout Richard III.” Albion 15(1983): 173–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warnicke, Retha M. “Sir Ralph Bigod: A LoyalServant to King Richard III.” The Ricardian 6(1984): 299–301.Google Scholar
Wood, Andy. The 1549 Rebellions and theMaking of Early Modern England. Cambridge, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolf, Daniel. The Social Circulation ofthe Past. Oxford, 2003.Google Scholar