Aina gold biography of william shakespeare
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In June 1520, two young European monarchs, King Henry VIII of England (1492–1547) and King Francis I of France (1494–1547) met at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, an area between English and French territory on the Continent. The summit was largely orchestrated by King Henry’s close advisor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (1478–1530), and it was one of the early attempts to create a political European brotherhood to ensure peace and prosperity to all parties.
This was a stately affair. The two monarchs were rising European Renaissance princes, known for their learnedness and art as well as skills in both diplomacy and combat. Wherever a king went, on progress or for a political encounter, streets were closed, houses were taken over by the royal entourage, people gathered by the road cheering, some protested – and it was always an honour to be associated with the king, in one way or another.
William Shakespeare’s (1564–1616) play King Henry VIII (1613) gives us an account of the events in the words of the Duke of Norfolk, who refers to the encounter as a “view of earthly glory” continuing that:
“… The two kings, • There’s no shortage of potentially queer content in the Shakespearean canon: cross-dressing, fairies, illicit desire and incomprehensible families. It’s surprising that more queer theorists have not pursued Shakespeare’s queer possibilities, leaving him to the Elizabethan scholars and historians. A new anthology, Shakesqueer: A Queer Companion to the Complete Works of Shakespeare (Duke University Press) rectifies this gap and steps beyond the most obvious connections between the Bard and queer theory. Editor Madhavi Menon has compiled a diverse collection of essays from some of the 21st century’s most exciting queer theorists, excavating all that is odd, eccentric and unexpected in Shakespeare’s body of work. One of the anthology’s strength’s is its comprehensive approach. Shakesqueer covers the entire Shakespearean canon, highlighting the queer resonances of each play, sonnet, and poem. Altogether, the forty-eight essays address forty-six different Shakespearean texts, and even the “lost” texts Love’s Labor Won and Cardenio get fair play. Noting how Shakespeare’s works return to themes of identity, language, desire, and temporality, the essays reveal that Shakespeare and queer the
Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,
As presence did present them; him in eye,
Still him in praise: and, being present both
‘Twas said they saw but one; ‘Shakesqueer: A Queer Companion to the Complete Works of Shakespeare’