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Hearing is but as the sowing of the Seed; talking is not sufficient to prove that fruit is indeed in the heart and life; and let us assure our selves, that at the day of Doom, men shall be judged according to their fruits. It will not be said then, Did you believe? but, Were you Doers, or Talkers only? and accordingly shall they be judged. The end of the World is compared to our Harvest, and you know men at Harvest regard nothing but Fruit. |
ONLINE GLORIANA: SIMPLY THE BESS!
CERES headed off around the internet to see what sort of presence Queen
Elizabeth I could boast. Not surprisingly the most pleasing discoveries
were reproductions of pictures, especially portraits, but there were other
things of value. Disappointingly only one communication from the spirit
world was turned up, and CERES fears that the medium involved may be a bit
of a crank. No, really.
portraits
There is a general Elizabethan site at http://tudor.simplenet.com/.
This is good stuff: the enthusiastic owner tells stories and puts down the
facts. There are also plenty of pics of the main players in the Tudor
period. The site also includes material on Tudor architecture, including a few
examples not in the CERES list of renaissance buildings on the web. The best yield from this site is probably a nice row of Elizabeth portraits at http://tudor.simplenet.com/elizabeth/gallery.html.
There is typically gorgeous stuff from Luminarium at http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/elizface.htm. Lots of portraits, beautifully presented, although with (hem hem) an ungainly use of terminal long 's'. Luminarium's list of links is very good, connecting to genealogies, biographies, etc. Don't get excited by the thought of an Elizabeth I Barbie Doll. That link does not work: outrageous! Plenty of other good things at http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/elizlink.htm.
elizabethan bacon?
Permit yourselves a small chuckle at the description of a Hilliard painting
as 'Elizabeth and her Son' at http://www.sirbacon.org/gallery/liz2.html. In fact the Baconians who run this site have a very good explanation for
all this: Elizabeth's two sons were Essex (of course!) and Francis Bacon.
To find out exactly what was going on here I had to pass through the main
page of the site (http://www.sirbacon.org) which features Bacon riding a
motorbike decorated with the words 'Francis Bacon Is Shakespeare'. The next
page I reached said that Bacon's plays have been attributed to 'William
Shakespeare, an illiterate peasant'. At this point I came over all
intolerant and set fire to my computer. I did not find out exactly what was
going on. But I did see a very attractive page with the astrological charts of the
Queen and her (gulp) son, Francis Tudor Bacon (double gulp). It looks
lovely at http://www.sirbacon.org/links/charts.htm, but it means, er, whatever you decide, dear reader.
works
For Elizabeth's works (poems, speeches, letters) head for Luminarium again.
You can link to online versions of her works from here, some of which are
held at Luminarium itself. Others are at Toronto (head for
http://library.utoronto.ca/www/utel/rp/indexauthors.html).
The Brown Women Writers Project, which has featured in our pages many times before, is due ever more respect for its contribution to the Elizabeth trawl. There are various collections at http://swansong.stg.brown.edu:1081/dynaweb/. Two are particularly relevant to CERES, one being 'In Her Own Words: Elizabeth I Onstage and Online'. This has some detailed contextual material and texts of the surviving speeches. It is a high-level resource and the software does a decent job. The other thing to check out here is 'Renaissance Women Online', with its many texts, contextual materials, and more general essays. This is another example of how those working on women's writing are making particularly good use of the opportunities offered by electronic media.
DynaWeb's strategy of using multiple windows makes it very clear where you are in the database. In the end, this adds an enormous amount to these materials, outweighing the disadvantage of the smaller window size. If you prefer a more conventional approach, you can get to the Elizabeth materials (and find out that 'In Her Own Words' is also a series of performances) in a more run-of-the-mill format via http://www.wwp.brown.edu/rich/QEIhome.html. For more information on DynaWeb software, see http://www.inso.com/.
handwriting
Samples of Elizabeth's handwriting abound. There's a copy of the queen's signature at
http://www.handwriting.org/images/samples/qelizab1.htm. You can find Henry VIII's scribble at the same site, and between the two
English monarchs in the index of 'Political Leaders' is Ross Perot.
Bizarre. They have several samples of Bill Clinton, all (fortunately) in
ink. Other versions of the signature include http://www.mala.bc.ca/~Lepage/Eliza.htm and http://tudor.simplenet.com/elizabeth/signature.gif(too clear to be true?). As far as more prosey autographs go, there is a nice image of a document in which Elizabeth grants lottery cash to the Free Grammar School in Bury St Edmunds, available at http://www.suffolkcc.gov.uk/libraries_and_heritage/sro/e5_9_102.html.
elizabeth's sayings
In an unusual perspective, five of Elizabeth I's most famous sayings are connected to five different
kinds of creativity by the good people at bemorecreative.com. Now CERES
didn't find itself very inspired by this, but you may feel that cynicism is
our biggest problem. Think creatively by starting at http://www.bemorecreative.com/one/612.htm.
elizabethan costume
If you're interested in Elizabethan costume, your best bet is to find your own path through the shimmering depths of
http://www.dnaco.net/~aleed/corsets/general.html.
This site has everything from the history of the Elizabethan corset to
instructions on how to make a genuine Elizabethan bumroll. Much of the site
is made up of instructions on how to make your own garments, but there is also
general historical material. You can even search the wardrobe accounts of Mary Tudor and Edward IV, an excellent feature which, sadly, wasn't working
when CERES had a go. Still, if anyone finds out how many black lace
petticoats Edward IV had, you know who wants to know. There are links to
pictures of Elizabethan costume all over this site, and there is a good
annotated bibliography from which you can leap to Amazon.com to order the
books in question. If CERES gave out some kind of award, this site would get two; Drea Leed, creator of this site, we salute you!
JAMESTOWN REDISCOVERY
The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities keeps a website
at http://www.apva.org/. Excavations and discoveries continue on the site of James I's settlement in
Virginia. This site offers historical background, description of recent
discoveries, plans for the future, and information about visiting. Some of
the pages use a fairly basic question and answer format, but the information
and presentation are usually interesting.
Williamsburg Online also has Jamestown pages, which are aimed at potential visitors and have background information. Find out what's available at http://www.williamsburg.com/james/james.html. The main site at http://www.williamsburg.com is a feast of colonial American fun.
AND ROANOKE TOO
Lots of recent archaeology in Roanoke too, some of which is described on the Web.
A good starting point is http://scrtec.org/track/tracks/t00428.html.
This is a kind of public service thingummy called Trackstar, featuring lists of resources aimed at education. From here you can reach various resources related to discoveries about the mysterious lost colony.
The most interesting link is to news of a discovery in 1996 of a possible
Croatan Indian site, at http://www.nando.net/newsroom/nao/nc/030696/nct_1686.html.
One potentially very useful resource is run by Tom Langford of the International Internet Genealogical Society. For CERES purposes what is offered here is information (numbers and names) about settlers heading for colonies in the Americas. It has information about individual ships and about settlements, so you can get a list of the Roanoke settlers. It is not exhaustive or complete, but it is substantial. Start from http://www.primenet.com/~langford/.
Curiously enough, you can get Ralph Lane's account of the first Roanoke colony, and John Smith's account of Jamestown, via the list of Historical Documents put online by the National Center for Public Policy Research, URL: http://www.nationalcenter.org/HistoricalDocuments.html. The NCPPR's list of documents, set out in chronological order, is presumably designed to convert anyone who reads too many of them to 'Conservative' views, so CERES urges considerable caution in the use of this site. For an alternative view, head for the relevant section of Hakim Bey's 'The Temporary Autonomous Zone' at http://www.notam.uio.no/~mariusw/bey/taz/taz.html#labelGoneToCroatan.
There are links to various sources of online information about the Lost Colony from http://www.kidinfo.com/American_History/Colonization_Roanoke.html. However, it is possible that many CERES members are well-informed and/or self-conscious enough not to want to visit any site called Kid Info.
Some of John White's engravings made during his time in the Roanoke colony can be seen at http://www.philaprintshop.com/debry.html as part of their De Bry series. The Philadelphia Print Shop is actually trying to sell you things at this site, but CERES emerged with wallet unscathed, although the pictures are great.
RENAISSANCE NEWS AND NOTES
The latest issue of Renaissance News and Notes, including information and
registration forms for the 1999 RSA conference, has just been put on the
RSA website (http://www.r-s-a.org).
AENEID BOOK 13 ONLINE
Maffeo Vegio's addition of a thirteenth book to the Aeneid has never much
impressed modern readers but it was a common and significant accompaniment
to Virgil's epic in the Renaissance. Web hero David Wilson-Okamura has put
the text online, made it searchable, and included Twyne's translation. Good
work!
MORE RENASCENCE EDITIONS
Richard Bear's excellent project yields more electronic texts:
RESOURCES IN ART HISTORY
Adrienne DeAngelis of Rutgers has started up a site called 'Resources in
Art History for Graduate Students', located at
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~acd.
This lists fellowships, grants, internships, symposia and other types of
assistance for graduate students in art history and related fields.
VERSIFICATION The Versification web page has now moved to the following URL: http://sizcol.u-shizuoka-ken.ac.jp/versif/versification.html. Follow links for information about the Versification discussion list.
EXPLORATIONS IN RENAISSANCE CULTURE
Another nice journal website, with information and tables of contents. URL: http://www.smsu.edu/English/eirc/eirc.html.
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For further information on CERES, please write to Gavin Alexander or Raphael Lyne.
This page is maintained by Andrew Zurcher, and was last updated on
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