| Abstract | Paper -a:
This paper looks at the play Sir John Oldcastle, attributed when first printed to Michael Drayton. It examines how this history play deals with the mixed heritage, for an audience in the last years of Elizabeth's reign, of a Protestant hero from a pre-Reformation era who was also accused of rebellion and treason against the monarch. The paper also examines certain of the typically late-16th century dramatic devices which are used in the creation of this exercise (arguably) in political tightrope walking.
Paper -b:
This paper explores the journey of Piers Langtoft's Anglo-Norman chronicle of England through time from the beginning of the print era to the first - and only - complete publication of it in 1866-68. I examine the physical movement of manuscripts such as British Library Royal A. ii, references in print publications, and material that was copied from it by antiquarians like Thomas Hearne. The traces it left in these sources offer insight into early modern attitudes to Anglo-Norman chronicles, and also reveal that interests of modern scholars in such works are markedly similar to those of early antiquarians.
Paper -c:
Recent studies of Anglo-Saxonism have in many cases either tacitly accepted the view that 18th-century English society regarded its Anglo-Saxon past with Augustan ambivalence, or emphasised the contributions of a handful of scholars over those of non-academics. However, antiquarians, architects, clergymen, politicians, and artists throughout the century engaged with their cultural heritage through an increasingly insular and historical lens. In addition to the publications of these men, the prints and guidebooks produced to meet the demands of a growing English tourist market provide evidence of a nation engaged in a renegotiation of its physical and cultural landscape. This paper will present examples of such renegotiation, with an emphasis on the interplay of antiquarianism, land ownership, and tourism.
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