Shakespeare's Birthday Lecture with Dr. Emma Smith YouTube video by FolgerLibrary

Did you catch the @folger.edu Shakespeare's Birthday Lecture from Emma Smith this weekend?

www.youtube.com/live/KZV-21r...

Manuscript alphabet

Manuscript with alphabet

Ah, the classic alphabet: A, B, C, D, E E, F, G, D, D, D. Also, I'm not sure the middle of an Exchequer Bill Book is the best place to practice...

A poster on the wall at Dulwich Hamlet FC, showing a drawing of Shakespeare in a Dulwich Hamlet strip. He's wearing a dark-blue and pink Dulwich Hamlet scarf over his mouth and nose because I took this photo in February 2021.

There is this...

Higher Education continues to burn through talented people, imitating their 'competitors' in a strategy toward oblivion. University leadership across the nation only has one idea and it is cruel and self-defeating.

UK HE, everyone. Will Labour ever acknowledge this crisis?

"There was one period of about ten minutes early in the second half when the home forwards played with a dash that was almost irresistible, but ... the crisis was passed, and for the remainder of the game Orient seemed no more likely to score than Fulham." (2/2)

A clipping from The Daily Express, 21 April 1924, reading: A LOST ART. ORIENT AND FULHAM FORGET HOW TO SCORE. Clapton Orient 0, Fulham 0 The return game between Clapton Orient and Fulham at the Lea Bridge ground resembled in other ways besides the result - a goalless draw - the previous week’s match at Craven Cottage. In both the play was of indifferent quality, and the shooting feeble and wild. The rival goalkeepers, Wood and Reynolds, were always more than equal to the task of coping with the shots that were directed at their charges, and throughout the game there never seemed much probability of a goal being scored. If the 18,000 spectators did not see much to grow enthusiastic about, it was by no means what is sometimes described as “an end of the season” game. Fulham were desperately in need of the points, and they put all in to obtain them, but their forwards had not the skill necessary to get hte better of a defence which has no superior in the Second Division of the League.

"A LOST ART." "ORIENT AND FULHAM FORGET HOW TO SCORE" shouts The Daily Express on 21 April 1924. "If the 18,000 spectators did not see much to grow enthusiastic about, it was by no means what is sometimes described as “an end of the season” game." (1/2) #lofc #lofcpress

The Interrelation of the Monstrous and Human in Beowulf (lapsed medievalist...)

quarto-making day!

📃✂️🪡📖

Winners of Cosmo Davenport-Hines Poetry Prizes announced for 2026 | King's College London Four King's students have been chosen as winners and runners-up of the Cosmo Davenport-Hines Poetry Prize.

🎉 Meet the winners of the 2026 Cosmo Davenport-Hines Poetry Prize hosted by @kingsenglish.bsky.social...

This year's winners and runners-up are Bella Steiner, Shaz Baker, Billy Smith and Grace Brimacombe-Rand. Their work will feature in Wild Court.

🔗 Discover the inspiration behind their writing 👇

📢 DOODLES IN THE PREROGATIVE COURT OF CANTERBURY ARCHIVES 📢

📜 Some fabulous examples of 'faces' and other scribbles in early modern wills being shared by this account, run by one of our project volunteers 👇 1/5🧵

bsky.app/profile/scri...

🌈📚 Join us for our next reading group session! It will take place over zoom on Thursday the 14th May from 1-2:30pm PDT/ 4-5:30pm EDT/ 9pm-10:30pm BST 📚🌈

💀✨ This month we are talking about Queering Early Modern Death in England, edited by Lauren Shohet and Christine Varnado 💀✨

ANZAMEMS Seminar Proposals for 2026 and 2027 #medieval #earlymodern anzamems.org/anzamem...

*waves*

More on the state of British academia.

Such cruelty and brutalisation effected through these processes that are dismantling disciplines and universities in the face of governmental indifference

📣 Mercedes García Arenal will be at @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social on April 29, 3.30-5.30 !

Thanks to Julian Weiss, will have the privilege to hear an extended version of her Lyell Lecture. Responses from Rachel Scott, @samsonaws.bsky.social and myself !

Book your ticket here: lnkd.in/etsE997i

More Sarah Records stuff, I’m afraid, but this one’s a biggie… because My Secret World, Lucy Dawkins’ 2014 film about the label, is now available to view in full for free online. So if you’ve ever wondered what all these people I keep talking about looked and sounded like, [1/3]

Looking right at you: a goat (possibly demonic). With a kid (non-demonic). By today's artist, Jacob Cuyp of Dordrecht. Portrait specialist & father of Aelbert Cuyp.

15 minutes; no questions; government got the blame; my department to have 60% of us sacked. Apparently sacking us will lead to a ‘new, improved’ curriculum. No voluntary scheme, straight to selection and legal minimum redundancy payment.

This is disgusting - I’m so sorry.

“The first time I saw Heavenly play, in 1991, I wasn’t sure what I’d seen … I figured out days later that my life had changed.” So writes @notquitehydepark.bsky.social in this beautiful piece about Heavenly, and Sarah Records (“They figured out how to copy punk rock’s defiance [1/3]

One of a number of *fully-funded* PhD studentships associated with our new Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery and War. I'll be co-supervising with the Centre director, Maeve Ryan: an interdisciplinary collaboration with War Studies. PlHappy to answer questions/offer advice!

🗃️#EarlyModern

Promotional BBC Radio 3 & BBC Sounds flyer for "The Essay: The Death and Life of Christopher Marlowe", written and presented by Professor Jerry Brotton. Mon-Fri at 21.45, Radio 3. 20th April – 1st May. Produced by Melissa FitzGerald. Christopher Marlowe read by Justice Ritchie. Other voices read by Tonderai Munyevu. The image shows Professor Brotton standing with his arms folded, looking up at a Tudor portrait of a man with arms folded.

We're in this! (As well as lots of other fine folk...)

THE DEATH AND LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
Written & presented by Professor Jerry Brotton

On BBC Radio 3 & BBC Sounds – ten 14 minute episodes, releasing 20 April - 1 May, at 9.45pm

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002v6z8

John Bale and Polydore Vergil: An Encounter in British and Church History

Come hear me talk next week about a new book from John Bale's library and its implications for Tudor historical writing!

I'll be in person at the IHR Tudor & Stuart Seminar at 5.30pm on Monday 27 April. #BookHistory and #EarlyModern folks can also tune in online.

www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

I think other clubs lost more players in total, but the impact on Orient was huge, especially as other players were badly injured (and presumably many were traumatised); it took a very long time for the club to recover.

The Story of Clapton Orient in World War One The story of Clapton Orient Football Club's major contribution to World War One including the death of three of their first team players.

See footballandthefirstworldwar.org/clapton-orie...

Quite - the majority of the Clapton Orient team signed up to fight, and three of them (William Jonas, Richard McFadden and George Scott) were killed in action.

A black-and-white photograph, printed in The Daily Express on 20 April 1914, showing a group of spectators at a football match in the foreground on the right hand side, and a man in the uniform of St John’s Ambulance, drawing a cup out of a bucket, on the left. Behind them can be seen another St John’s Ambulance man with his back to the camera and more of the crowd in the distance.

On the same day, The Daily Express carried a photo of the equally "heated" spectators, who have clearly not dressed for hot weather. (5/5)

A black-and-white photograph, printed in The London Daily Chronicle on 20 April 1914, showing a group of footballers standing in a goalmouth, apparently remonstrating with each other. Several of them can be seen to be wearing the white shirts with a dark chevron of Clapton Orient; another is the Arsenal goalkeeper, wearing a flat cap. There is no sign of a referee. A headline reads: “Where was the Referee?” and a caption reads: “A heated argument in the Orient goalmouth regarding one of Stonley’s shots in the match at Highbury on Saturday”.

This photo of a "heated argument in the Orient goalmouth", under the headline "Where was the Referee?", appears on the same page, although the incident doesn't seem to feature in the report. (4/5)

A clipping from The London Daily Chronicle, 20 April 1914, reading: The Orient mistake was made ere they took the field. They made a mistake in the selection of their halves. Rutherford — the cool, calculating genius — was too great in strategy for the youthful Gibson, whilst Lewis on the extreme left was too speedy for Forrest. The result was that the ball was being slung into the middle, and little Van de Eynden is not physically adapted for breaking up the rushes of determined men. Had Scott been at centre-half, the first goal, which followed a corner forced by Rutherford, would not have been scored, and I doubt that even the second one would have materialised. Yes, the Arsenal were far more convincing because of their “team” superiority. The Orient can point to several of their players who were splendid, notably Bower in goal, their backs, and a line of energetic forwards. The Arsenal showed equal cleverness in these positions and were better served by their middle line. They were unlucky, too, in having a goal disallowed when Slade seemed to have got the ball well over the goal line. Bower fell upon it, and a free-kick was given, but I believe that the goal should have been allowed.

"Yes, the Arsenal were far more convincing because of their “team” superiority. The Orient can point to several of their players who were splendid, notably Bower in goal, their backs, and a line of energetic forwards." (3/5)