|
|
EEBO in Education / Assignments / Professor Jan Stirm
Hillary Nunn, Michigan State University, English 421: Shakespeare
Group Presentations
Together with
five of your fellow students, you will be responsible for presenting background
information from the Early English Books Online (EEBO) database on one play
on the syllabus. Agnes Widder will give us an introduction to using the database
on this coming Monday, January 24, in the North Conference room of the main
library (4th floor West) during our usual classtime.
Your presentation
should focus on telling the class what your EEBO search shows about early modern
public perceptions of one particular concern reflected in the play you are researching.
You and your classmates may present a concentrated look at any one text you
discover, or you may decide to survey the works you find. Take whichever approach
best suits your material. Whenever possible, show the class what you are discussing,
pulling up the materials on the computer in the front of the room.
By the day
before your presentation, your group should e-mail me a list of the EEBO texts
you've found and will be discussing. My address is nunnhill@pilot.msu.edu. All
members of your group should actively and evenly contribute to the researching
and presenting this project. Anytime you would like to discuss your presentation,
please come see me during office hours or by appointment.
Recommended
keywords to use in focusing background research on each play follow. You may
use other subjects to organize your search and your presentation, but please
check them out with me beforehand.
|
As You Like
It
forest
Rosalind (or Rosa?)
|
King Lear
King Lear (to find original texts, a valid option for all)
|
|
Twelfth Night
epiphany or epiphan?
melancholy
|
Winter's Tale
statues
bear, bearbaiting
|
|
Measure for
Measure
bawdy houses
nuns, convent, etc.
|
The Tempest
voyage
Algiers
Africa
alchemy
|
|
Othello
moor
travel
antipodes
|
|
Pollard and Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue of Books
Printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad,
1475-1640 (known as STC I and found in book form at Consulting Ref. Z 2002
.A27 and 1976), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England,
Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America, and of English Books Printed
in Other Countries, 1641-1700 (STC II, found in Consulting Ref. Z 2002 .W52
and 1972 and 1994) and the Thomason Tracts (Consulting Ref. Z 2018 .T49
1977), a compendium of broadsides on the English Civil War, 1640-1660. MSU Libraries
owns microfilm of this material in these microfilm sets: STC I, STC II, and
14458, respectively, in Microforms/PRR. Only the citations are searchable
by author, title, keywords, subject, imprint, date, type of illustration, film
reel ID number, and STC number. Searches can be limited by language, date,
and portion of the database (STC I, STC II, or Thomason Tracts). Boolean searching
can not be done within the texts themselves at this time, though hopefully that
will be possible in the near future. The database can usually be accessed remotely,
from your dorm room or off campus.
Since you'll be looking
for information relevant to Renaissance England, you'll first want to narrow
your search to works dated before 1640, so devote your survey to Pollard and
Redgrave's work (STC I). Though the database only allows you to do keyword searching
within the titles of works, you'll soon find that Renaissance titles are awfully
long and very descriptive. Here's just one example:
Bradshaw, Ellis
A vveek-daies lecture,
or, continued sermon to wit, the preaching of the heavens. And how they sound
forth, & declare the power and glory of God; and do visibly demonstrate his
handy work, to all rationall men in all the world, of all languages, that
will consider them seriously as they ought. Containing also an exhortation
to the Christian readers, to put them on to a serious consideration of these
unutterable things, that are here presented to their grave, deliberate, and
retired thoughts; that they might understand, and have them printed in their
hearts: as most infallible demonstrations, of the infinitie greatness and
power of God, and that to the eye of sense, yea, to the infallible conviction,
and extirpation of all atheisticall thoughts that may arise in their minds.
Read if thou wilt; but if thou doest read that which hath not been told thee,
shalt thou see; and that which thou hast not heard thou shalt consider: as
Isa. 52.15. Written by Ellis Bradshawe of the parish of Boulton in the county
of Lancaster, husbandman. London : printed by Gar: Dawson for Tho: Brewster
and Gr: Moule, at the signe of the three Bibles under Mildreds Church in the
Poultry, 1649.
So keyword
searching will wind up giving you a wide variety of references depending on
how the word is used in the early modern period. Search results will often look
like they don't pertain to your subject, and they often won't, but keep in mind
that the works you'll find will not directly comment on the plays we'll be reading.
Instead, they'll offer background into Renaissance thinking on subjects and
concerns involved in the plays and in their performance, offering insight into
the ways that performers and audiences might have reacted to the issues as presented
in the playhouse.
|
