The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 29.0178 Thursday, 19 April 2018
From: Sally-Beth McClean <
Date: April 18, 2018 at 12:56:46 PM EDT
Subject: REED News
REED: Berkshire, ed. Alexandra F. Johnston, Launched!
Announcing REED’s second digital edition, for the county of Berkshire, edited by Alexandra F. Johnston. Now freely available at REED Online: https://ereed.library.utoronto.ca/.
We are pleased to make available the long-awaited records for Berkshire and equally delighted that for the first time users will be able to search across two collections for locations, people and a wide range of topics, such as summer games or the King’s Men. We anticipate an ever-growing list of results as more collections are published online.
The REED: Berkshire records illustrate a rich popular entertainment tradition. The most prominent details of mimetic activity come from the parish of St Laurence, Reading, which has preserved records running from 1498 to 1573, among the fullest and richest in England. Virtually every kind of mimetic activity is featured--an Easter play with evidence from 1498 to 1537, an early sixteenth-century Creation play, a Robin Hood game, morris dancing, church ales, maypoles, and Hock gatherings. Reading was a stopping place for all kinds of late medieval travelling entertainers as well as for some of the most prominent professional companies, including Queen Elizabeth’s, the earl of Leicester’s, and King James’ players, along with those of other royal family members in the early seventeenth century. Noble households are also well represented in the collection, which includes an edition of “The Entertainment of Queen Elizabeth” by Lady Elizabeth Russell at Bisham in 1592.