Jimmy Maher
After the events of 1471, King Edward IV seemed more secure on his throne than any English monarch in several decades. A king in such a position can afford to be munificent. Now that the House of York had won out, Edward strove for reconciliation with even the most fervent partisans of the...
Jimmy Maher
King Henry I know not what to say; my title’s weak. The years after the Battle of St. Albans were a time of surface calm and secret plotting in and around the English royal court. Queen Margaret, who was proving to be a far stauncher defender of her husband and son than said husband himself, was...
Jimmy Maher
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, had been slowly turning from friend to foe of Henry VI ever since Henry allowed Gloucester’s wife Eleanor to be arrested and imprisoned for witchcraft and treason. The Treaty of Tours proved to be the last straw. Gloucester complained bitterly about the dishonorable...
Jimmy Maher
Although there is much that we don’t know about William Shakespeare the man, we can say confidently that he was not an individual who liked to be typecast. Right after completing his Comedy of Errors, a play so thin it threatened to blow away on the merest spring breeze, he embarked upon the...
Jimmy Maher
We know more about the life of William Shakespeare than a lot of people think, but less than we would like. There is ample documentation of his commercial career as the most popular London playwright of his era. It comes in the form of notices, commentaries, and of course the plays themselves,...
Jimmy Maher
Dromio S. Master, shall I be porter at the gate? Adriana Ay; and let none enter, lest I break your pate. Beginnings can be funny things. Before the Beatles could commence transforming pop and rock music in earnest, they had to make their first album Please Please Me, a collection of pleasant but...
Jimmy Maher
A couple of anecdotes to start us off: Twenty years ago, I and the woman who is now my wife were in that early-to-middle, feeling-out phase of courtship, when the talk turns to existential matters of life and death, art and religion. I told Dorte — that being the name of the love of my life — that...