The Adams family are a major London crime gang specialising in drugs and extortion. The gang have a reputation for hiring Afro-Caribbeans to carry out the murder of informants and competitors. In July 1991 Frankie Fraser, former enforcer for the Richardson gang was shot at point-blank range as he left 'Turnmill's Nite Club' in Clerkenwell, London, on orders from the Adams family. The Adams family are known to regularly bribe a quantity of Metropolitan Police officers. Research Adams Family
Blank Verse is verse without rhyme. It was first introduced into English from Italian by the Earl of Surrey in the 16th century. Blank verse was first employed in the English drama 'Gorboduc', written by Sackville in 1561. The most common form of English blank verse is the decasyllabic, such as that of Milton's Paradise Lost, or of the dramas of Shakespeare. Erom Shakespeare's time it has been the kind of verse almost universally used by dramatic writers, who often employ an additional syllable, making the lines not strictly decasyllabic. The term is not applied to the Anglo-Saxon and Early English alliterative unrhymed verse. Research Blank Verse
A Carte-Blanche is a blank piece of white paper, signed and sealed and given to a person to fill-up as he pleases, thus giving unlimited power to decide. Research Carte-Blanche
Empiricism is the theory that personal experience is the source of all knowledge and that the mind was originally an absolute blank. The theory originated with Heraclitus and was characteristic of Greek speculative thought. Research Empiricism
In Greek and English prosody, iambic verses are composed if iambic feet. The iambic foot is dissyllabic. In Greek the first syllable was long, the second short; in English the unaccented or short syllable stands first, being followed by one which is accented or long. Iambics are generally used in groups of five, or pentameters, usually without rhyme, when they constitute ' heroic blankverse'. When rhyming in couplets they are 'rhyming heroics'. Research Iambic Verse
Publick Occurrences, both Foreign and Domestick was the first newspaper published in America, though it can hardly be called a newspaper, as due to censorship no second number appeared. It was issued at Boston in 1690 by Benjamin Harris and printed by Richard Pierce. A year earlier there had been published at Boston, by Samuel Green, extracts from a letter of Dr. Increase Mather, who was then endeavouring to secure a new charter for Massachusetts. Publick Occurrences four days after its appearance, was spoken of in the General Court of Massachusetts as a pamphlet published ' contrary to law and containing reflections of a very high nature'. It was accordingly suppressed, though the contents were innocent enough, and the court forbade 'anything in print without license obtained from those appointed by the Government to grant the same'. Publick Occurrences was printed on three pages of a folded sheet, one page being blank, two columns to a page, 7 x 11 inches. It was designed for a monthly issue. Research Publick Occurrences, both Foreign and Domestick
Publick Occurrences, both Foreign and Domestick was the first newspaper published in America, though it can hardly be called a newspaper, as due to censorship no second number appeared. It was issued at Boston in 1690 by Benjamin Harris and printed by Richard Pierce. A year earlier there had been published at Boston, by Samuel Green, extracts from a letter of Dr. Increase Mather, who was then endeavouring to secure a new charter for Massachusetts. Publick Occurrences four days after its appearance, was spoken of in the General Court of Massachusetts as a pamphlet published ' contrary to law and containing reflections of a very high nature'. It was accordingly suppressed, though the contents were innocent enough, and the court forbade 'anything in print without license obtained from those appointed by the Government to grant the same'. Publick Occurrences was printed on three pages of a folded sheet, one page being blank, two columns to a page, 7 x 11 inches. It was designed for a monthly issue. Research Publick Occurrences both Foreign and Domestick
In printing, a tympan is a frame covered with parchment or cloth, on which the blank sheets are put, so as to be laid on the form to be impressed. Research Tympan
Alfred Tennyson was an eccentric English poet and Poet Laureate. He was born in 1809 at Somersby, Lincolnshire and died in 1892. He started writing poetry at the age of eight and had written most of a blankverse play by the age of fourteen. In 1827 he entered Cambridge, and his first published poetry appeared in ' Poems by Two Brothers'. At Cambridge, he made friends with Edward Fitzgerald, Thackeray, and Arthur Henry Hallam. In 1829 Alfred beat Thackeray, among others, for a poetry prize. The following year, his Poems, Chiefly Lyrical won some critical praise, and he met Emily Sellwood, the love of his life. Arthur Hallam introduced them and himself became engaged to Alfred's sister Emily.
In 1839, Alfred and Emily were officially engaged and by 1840, officially unengaged. Emily's father had put a stop to the match, supposedly because Alfred was too poor to marry. He was, but the real reason was probably the very unhappy marriage between Charles, Alfred's older brother, and Louisa Sellwood, Emily's sister. Charles was an opium addict, and though he eventually gave up the habit, by then Louisa had worked herself into a nervous collapse trying to help him. So Alfred and Emily suffered the pain of separation, which showed strongly in Alfred's poetry of the time. He threw himself into travelling and studying, and he eventually became proficient in several languages, including Persian and Hebrew.
By 1842, he found himself famous with the publication of his 'Poems'. Unfortunately, he had decided that his health was bad and let his doctors talk him into not writing or even really reading for almost two years. In 1849, his brother Charles was reconciled with his wife and the following year, on the 13th of June, Alfred and Emily married in great secrecy. By then, Wordsworth had died and the Court was looking for a new Poet Laureate. The job was first offered to the 87-year-old Samuel Rogers, who turned it down. Alfred's name was submitted with two others, but Prince Albert had read Alfred's poem 'In Memorium', and that tipped the balance in Alfred's favour. He loved being Poet Laureate, though he never quite got used to all the attention from complete strangers. Research Alfred Tennyson
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Abbreviations
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