A clack dish is a dish or basin with a movable lid. During the Elizabethan times beggars proclaimed their want by clacking the lid of a wooden dish. Research Clack Dish
In the United Kingdom the term Elizabethan generally refers to something occuring or originating from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I who reigned between 1558 and 1603. Thus, an Elizabethan object is an object dating from between 1558 and 1603. The term is less frequently applied to the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Research Elizabethan
The Heptarchia Mystica was a book written by the Elizabethan astrologer and mysticJohn Dee in 1582. He described the work as documenting the divine laws of creation itself. The book notes supposed appearances of various angels and holy spirits to John Dee, and the information they passed on to him regarding the laws of creation and the universe, including the names and seals of numerous angels and divine spirits, the days of the week they governed and the human actions controlled by them. Research Heptarchia Mystica
Originally an interlude was an entertainment exhibited on the stage between the acts of a play, or between the play and the afterpiece, in order to amuse the spectators while the actors rested or shifted their dress, or the scenes and decorations were changed. In England dramas appear to have borne this name from the time they superseded the miracle and mystery plays until the period of the Elizabethandrama. Research Interlude
The Marprelate Controversy was a pamphlet warfare carried on in 1589 and 1590 by the Elizabethan Puritans against the established system of Episcopacy. The pamphlets were by various writers, but were generally issued under the generic pen-name of Martin Marprelate. The authorities endeavoured to repress their licence by severe measures, and some of the writers were executed. These pamphlets were met by others defending Episcopacy, and Bacon intervened to make peace with an essay in favour of moderation and tolerance. Research Marprelate Controversy
The Swan Theatre was a former London theatre that stood near the Surrey end of Blackfriars Bridge. The Swan Theatre was opened in 1598 and was one of the largest Elizabethan playhouses in London. It was suppressed during the English Civil War and later demolished. Research Swan Theatre
A weather-vane (or vane) is a plate of metal turning on a vertical spindle so as to show the direction of the wind, frequently fixed on the tops of spires and pinnacles and other elevated situations. It is often in the form of a cock, and from this circumstance is very commonly called a weathercock. Vanes were in use in the times of the Saxons, and in after ages were very extensively employed. They were sometimes perfectly plain, and sometimes cut into ornamental forms, which were not infrequently heraldic devices.
During the prevalence of the Perpendicular style and Elizabethan style, figures supporting vanes were often placed on the tops of pinnacles, and in other elevated situations. These were usually in the form of small flags, and were sometimes pierced with a representation of some armorial bearing. Occasionally the vane was shaped like an heraldic device. Research Weather-Vane
Ben Jonson (Benjamin Jonson) was a British poet and dramatist. He was born in 1574 at Westminster and died in 1637 of palsy. The contemporary and friend of William Shakespaere, he was the posthumous son of a clergyman,. He was placed at the Westminster grammar-school, under Camden, at an early age, where he laid the foundation of his learning, but was ultimately withdrawn, it is said, by his stepfather, a master bricklayer, who wanted his assistance in the business. He soon tired of this occupation, entered the army as a private soldier, and showed much personal courage during a campaign in Holland. Returning to England he began his career as an actor, and in 1598 his drama, Every Man in his Humour, was printed. About this time Ben Jonson was in some danger of the gallows on account of having slain an actor in a duel, and was actually imprisoned for some time.
In 1599 he brought out his comedy of Every Man out of his Humour, which was followed by Cynthia's Revels in 1600; the Poetaster in 1602; Sejanus, a tragedy (1603). The festivities which welcomed the new king, James I, gave a new impulse to the representation of masques, in the composition of which the ready talent of Ben Jonson was employed by the court itself, the celebrated Inigo Jones doing the decorations.
In 1604 he had some share with Chapman and Marston in writing Eastward Ho, certain passages of which, reflecting satirically on the Scotch nation, drew down the anger of the king, and nearly cost the authors their nose and ears. In 1605 his comedy of Volpone or the Fox appeared; in 1609 Epicoene or The Silent Woman; in 1610 the Alchemist ; in 1611 Catiline, a tragedy; and in 1614 Bartholomew Fair, a complete picture of Elizabethan low life.
In 1613 Ben Jonson made a tour in France as governor of Sir Walter Raleigh's eldest son. In 1618 he visited Scotland, staying for some time with Drummond of Hawthornden, whose notes of his guest's conversation are amongst the best accounts we have of Ben Jonson's personality. In 1619 he returned to England, received the honorary degree of AM from Oxford University, and on the death of the poet laureate was appointed his successor, and the salary raised to the sum of 100 pounds by Charles I.
Much of his time was spent at the Apollo, Mermaid, and othern taverns, feasting, drinking, and engaging in those brilliant contests of wit in which in earlier days Shakespeare also took part. His latter days were spent, not perhaps in much pecuniary prosperity, but certainly in fame and honour, as the acknowledged chief of English literature. He died leaving behind him an unfinished pastoraldrama of great beauty, The Sad Shepherd. He was buried in WestminsterAbbey, where a monument was erected to his memory with the inscription, 'O rare Ben Jonson.' Ben Jonson's best dramas are excellent in plot and development, have strongly conceived characters and excellent traits of humour, but he is sometimes forced and unnatural, and deals perhaps too much with passing manners and eccentricities. He had a genuine lyrical power, seen in his short poems and the songs interspersed in his masques. Research Ben Jonson
Charles Kingsley was English clergyman, novelist and poet. He was born in 1819 at Holme and died in 1875. He went to school at Clifton and Helston, and when his father became rector of St Luke's, Chelsea, studied at King's College, London, and afterwards at Magdalen College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1842. He now became curate of Eversley, in Hampshire, and published a poem, The Saint's Tragedy, and a volume of Village Sermons, which became popular.
This was followed in 1849 by the novel Alton Locke, in which his opinions of the social and economic questions of the time are powerfully expressed. Upon the same lines, but dealing with the subject from the agricultural side, followed his novel of Yeast in 1851. In 1853 was published Hypatia, and in 1855 Westward Ho, both brilliant historical novels, the former dealing with the early Christian church, the latter with the South American adventurers of the Elizabethan era.
Among his other well-known works are Two Years Ago; Hereward the Last of the English; Glaucus, or the Wonders of the Shore; Andromeda and other Poems; The Water Babies; and At Last; a Christmas in the West Indies, the outcome of a visit. He was professor of modern history at Cambridge in 1860-1869, became canon of Chester in 1869, and of Westminster in 1873, still retaining the living of Eversley. His Letters and Memories of his Life, edited by his wife, was published in 1877. Research Charles Kingsley
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Chamberlain's Men
