Richard III & the Car Park

[Scorpio]

The army wouldn't take me on a bet. And that works out because I think it would be a poor fit. And I despise camping. Won't go, not for anything. I've a room service kind of girl. Which is probably why I don't do reenactments. I do stage combat for shows. It's not recreating anything, it just what would be a really sweet gig if I got paid more. But I'm a big fan of mysteries.Richard III, The princes in the tower, Joan of Arc, etc. And I love conspiracy. Walsingham, Marlowe, Mary Queen of Scots, Warwick. And I love the idea of courts, great minds debuting philosophy, religious tracts, poetry, theater, science. I love alchemy. I love the idea that all things are striving for perfection. I like the clothes (at least looking at them), I like the technology, and most of all, I love how nothing that I have previously named affected the common people in the slightest. I love that. War of the Roses? If you're some farmer's wife in the north, you know about if there is a battle in your back field. Your grandchildren might hear about the princes that disappeared the day before. The height of what we consider culture in reality was a tiny little fad centralized on the palaces of London. A couple hundred people. The rest of the country was doing something different. I love that.

As long as I am only talented enough to get a few community theater roles a year, if I'm lucky, I have a choice.
A: Do I wear some faded gingham dress in the 40,523 production of Our Town where I get a couple of paragraphs that maybe 100 people will see, or
B: do I wear beautiful period costumes, cop a reasonable British Accent, hang out with Jousters, falconers, glass blowers, smiths, musicians and other actors swinging a sword twice a day in front of a total of up to 10,000 people a day?

I'm an actor with a passion for history. This works for me. And building a trebuchet and facing off against Texas's catapult was just awesome. But sleeping outside to do it? No thank you. I work from 8am to 8pm. And then I either go home, or back to my hotel.

Why has there never been a good movie or TV drama about Christopher Marlowe. If Harold Bloom is correct, then this man was an inspiration to early Shakespeare; a spy, who's connections with the Elizabethan underworld probably led to his early death. An interesting man.

[Errata]

Maybe it fails me because I've actually been in the Army. I never was deployed, but I've crawled through a lot of mud, under barbed wire, or worse, sand, and had to hope that my rifle would fire when I got to the range. I've slept in some nasty tents, and buried my crap, because there weren't toilets, and then had to clean the mud and sand out of my rifle for inspection before I was allowed to shower after three days in the woods.

My husband spent a year in Iraq.

It doesn't make playing at that stuff seem fun, historic or no. And yes, I've fired pumpkin trebuchets in October, but for me, it's one of those things that once you've done once, that's enough.

My husband used to like to go camping, but we haven't been once since he got back from Iraq, not even to take our son.

The army wouldn't take me on a bet. And that works out because I think it would be a poor fit. And I despise camping. Won't go, not for anything. I've a room service kind of girl. Which is probably why I don't do reenactments. I do stage combat for shows. It's not recreating anything, it just what would be a really sweet gig if I got paid more. But I'm a big fan of mysteries.Richard III, The princes in the tower, Joan of Arc, etc. And I love conspiracy. Walsingham, Marlowe, Mary Queen of Scots, Warwick. And I love the idea of courts, great minds debuting philosophy, religious tracts, poetry, theater, science. I love alchemy. I love the idea that all things are striving for perfection. I like the clothes (at least looking at them), I like the technology, and most of all, I love how nothing that I have previously named affected the common people in the slightest. I love that. War of the Roses? If you're some farmer's wife in the north, you know about if there is a battle in your back field. Your grandchildren might hear about the princes that disappeared the day before. The height of what we consider culture in reality was a tiny little fad centralized on the palaces of London. A couple hundred people. The rest of the country was doing something different. I love that.

As long as I am only talented enough to get a few community theater roles a year, if I'm lucky, I have a choice.
A: Do I wear some faded gingham dress in the 40,523 production of Our Town where I get a couple of paragraphs that maybe 100 people will see, or
B: do I wear beautiful period costumes, cop a reasonable British Accent, hang out with Jousters, falconers, glass blowers, smiths, musicians and other actors swinging a sword twice a day in front of a total of up to 10,000 people a day?

I'm an actor with a passion for history. This works for me. And building a trebuchet and facing off against Texas's catapult was just awesome. But sleeping outside to do it? No thank you. I work from 8am to 8pm. And then I either go home, or back to my hotel.

[Steve S]

It's a hard call...Personally,I find 20th century re-enactment inappropriate..and would draw the line at 19th cent...For me,it's not really the "playing soldiers",but much more how did "X" actually work in those conditions?....Can I do "Z" using period methods and tools?..Yes,my interests are military-based,but I hope I'm closer to Errol Flynn than Walter Mitty

[RivkahChaya]

Maybe it fails me because I've actually been in the Army. I never was deployed, but I've crawled through a lot of mud, under barbed wire, or worse, sand, and had to hope that my rifle would fire when I got to the range. I've slept in some nasty tents, and buried my crap, because there weren't toilets, and then had to clean the mud and sand out of my rifle for inspection before I was allowed to shower after three days in the woods.

My husband spent a year in Iraq.

It doesn't make playing at that stuff seem fun, historic or no. And yes, I've fired pumpkin trebuchets in October, but for me, it's one of those things that once you've done once, that's enough.

My husband used to like to go camping, but we haven't been once since he got back from Iraq, not even to take our son.

[Steve S]

Basically, there is one rule about reenactments or even reinterpretations.

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

That is the only guiding rule. I would do Bosworth in the fallow fields down the street if I thought I could get away with it. And my positive dream is the Battle of Arsuf. It glorifies bizarre and often sad parts of history, it's hot, it's dirty, people think you are crazed, and really, you are. But it's swords, guns, armors, horses, even pots of "boiling oil" and trebuchets. Have YOU fired a trebuchet loaded with watermelons at a hastily assembled wooden battlement? I have. The only way I can describe it is unholy glee. And if someone else gets their kicks marching in formation, belly crawling through the brush and trying to frantically ram a bullet down the muzzle of a gun... who am I to judge?

No really. We are absolutely nuts. Every single one of us.

Yeah...My best moment was going over a castle wall on a scaling ladder in the pouring rain....

[ChrisGeorge]

I love it. The message is beautiful.

Thank you, Beowulf.

Cheers

Chris

[Beowulf]

This is my entry to the contest.

Richard Revealed

See me, feel me, touch me, heal me
Pete Townshend

Where have my crown, my horse, my two feet gone?
To languish beneath a car park is not any kind of fun!
And to be from my regal birth right so foully divorced.
I am exhausted from breathing your infernal exhaust,
And I am tired from being run over by your tyres,
Worse, to be castigated down all time by a liar,
Still more—bored stiff by that boorish play
Scribbled by a two-bit player, alackaday!
Truthfully, I was a righteous, upstanding king!
I did not deserve to be condemned as a Thing,
And to be scorned as the world’s worst ogre.
Thank the Lord my days of ognominy are over.
Now the world will see me with new eyes,
No longer browbeaten, perchance even wise.

Christopher T. George

I love it. The message is beautiful.

[ChrisGeorge]

Sorry for the late notification. Just heard about this contest myself --

Write a Shakespearean soliloquy delivered by the ghost of Richard III reflecting on the discovery of his bones in a Leicester car park (16 lines max.). Email entries to lucy@spectator.co.uk by midday on 27 February.

For more information see http://www.spectator.co.uk/life/comp...riendly-bombs/

This is my entry to the contest.

Richard Revealed

See me, feel me, touch me, heal me
Pete Townshend

Where have my crown, my horse, my two feet gone?
To languish beneath a car park is not any kind of fun!
And to be from my regal birth right so foully divorced.
I am exhausted from breathing your infernal exhaust,
And I am tired from being run over by your tyres,
Worse, to be castigated down all time by a liar,
Still more—bored stiff by that boorish play
Scribbled by a two-bit player, alackaday!
Truthfully, I was a righteous, upstanding king!
I did not deserve to be condemned as a Thing,
And to be scorned as the world’s worst ogre.
Thank the Lord my days of ognominy are over.
Now the world will see me with new eyes,
No longer browbeaten, perchance even wise.

Christopher T. George

[Errata]

You have US Civil War reenactments? Why? I don't understand why people in the US do them.

Basically, there is one rule about reenactments or even reinterpretations.

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

That is the only guiding rule. I would do Bosworth in the fallow fields down the street if I thought I could get away with it. And my positive dream is the Battle of Arsuf. It glorifies bizarre and often sad parts of history, it's hot, it's dirty, people think you are crazed, and really, you are. But it's swords, guns, armors, horses, even pots of "boiling oil" and trebuchets. Have YOU fired a trebuchet loaded with watermelons at a hastily assembled wooden battlement? I have. The only way I can describe it is unholy glee. And if someone else gets their kicks marching in formation, belly crawling through the brush and trying to frantically ram a bullet down the muzzle of a gun... who am I to judge?

No really. We are absolutely nuts. Every single one of us.

[Phil H]

Re the painting:

I think the connection to the inn is as important to Leicester as Richard. As I mentioned in my report on the exhibition, they have a 1926 painting showing almost the same scene, though withiout the dramatic gestures.

By the way, Richards heraldry is wrong (no blue for the lilies of France visible on his surcoat) and the armour is out of period.

Phil

[RivkahChaya]

Leicester has bought a painting of Richard III before the battle of Bosworth Field for quite a bit more than its pre-auction estimate:

OMG...That horse has the oddest conformation.

Is it just me, or did the guy who was supposed to wear the back legs not show up?

Yep,Bosworth is one of the biggies on the Medieval circuit...And a mate of mine spent last weekend as a Confederate soldier in a private Western town set-up in Sussex

You have US Civil War reenactments? Why? I don't understand why people in the US do them.

[Steve S]

Yeah I've heard that. I've also heard that you guys had a penchant for wild west shows in the 80s and 90s. I guess the grass is greener.

But last I checked they still do reenactments at Bosworth, Jousts and reenactments at Edinborough Castle, and at the Leeds Armory. So I imagine it's possible to get involved somewhere. Not so much as a roundhead...

Yep,Bosworth is one of the biggies on the Medieval circuit...And a mate of mine spent last weekend as a Confederate soldier in a private Western town set-up in Sussex...While I will also be re-creating Lexington Green at a Worcestershire buildings museum in april....This is one hell of a weird hobby....

[Archaic]

Leicester Buys Richard III 'Bosworth' Painting

Leicester has bought a painting of Richard III before the battle of Bosworth Field for quite a bit more than its pre-auction estimate:

http://www.itv.com/news/central/update/2013-02-26/king-richard-iii-painting-auctioned/

OMG...That horse has the oddest conformation.


- Get painting, guys!

Archaic

[RivkahChaya]

I thought you had "Father Christmas," and I wasn't aware that he lived in Lapland.

Cripes, even people in the Us I know who have Christmas with the whole "Santa lives at the North Pole" thing, don't actually want to go to the North Pole. They're happy to wait for Santa to come to them. The North Pole is cold. No one who has spent a winter north of the Mason-Dixon line has any desire to experience anything colder than that. Everyone I know who grew up in New York, or Connecticut, or Pennsylvania, or something, and then moved to S. California, or Florida, doesn't miss winter, not for a second.

We had a mild winter here, except for a couple of days, when it was in the 20s, and really windy. I went out and sprayed a few cans of chlorofluorocarbon. That's it; just chlorofluorocarbon. No hairspray, bug spray, antiseptic, or paint; just chlorofluorocarbon. It warmed up the next day.

[Phil H]

What's up with Lapland?

SANTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!