ARCHIVED NEWS

June 1996

• June 12, 1996--Added preliminary information on American Branch 1996 Annual General Meeting -- September 27-29, Philadelphia.

May 1996

• May 19, 1996--Added a new link to study questions on Shakespeare's Richard III on Resources for Ricardians page.
• May 17, 1996--The American Historical Association has accepted the American Branch's proposal for a session at the Association's 1997 meeting. The Branch will demonstrate this web site and its applications for teaching at the secondary and undergraduate levels. If you'd like to help build the pedagogical resources of the site, contact our Chairman, A. Compton Reeves, currently on leave at the Borthwick Institute, University of York, acr3@mailer.york.ac.uk
• May 15, 1996--Preview our annotated hypertext edition of Shakespeare's Richard III. Now showing: Act One, with links to relevant excerpts from Charles Ross's biography of Richard III. To come, Acts Two through Five, links to Shakespeare's sources, performance history. This will take a while to build, so stop back periodically.

April 1996

• April 30, 1995--More on the Wardrobe Accounts of Edward IV and Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York. The text and notes for the privy purse expenses are now on the server, with the Wardrobe Accounts still to come.
• April 25, 1996--Our parent Society's chairman, Robert Hamblin, explains The Society's position on the new film version of Richard III
• April 5, 1996--Although this site is maintained by the American Branch, our visitors from outside the U.S. may want information on our parent society, The Richard III Society, headquartered in London with branches and groups throughout the U.K. and around the world.
• April 4, 1996--Several members of the Society are also involved in building a new on-line resource: ORB: The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies. American Branch chair A. Compton Reeves has agreed to be the editor of the late medieval England section, which has not yet been started. But surf on over and see what's being built elsewhere on ORB!
• April 1, 1996--Another part of the Richard III film "cast" shows up -- the Queen of Scots Train, used as the royal train in the film, has its own site on the World Wide Web, with information on the train and on railroading in Britain.
• April 1, 1996--McKellen's film opens in England on Shakespeare's birthday. We've heard this from an unusually reliable source, so mark your calendars for April 23.

March 1996

• March 20, 1996--Now under construction, another significant fifteenth-century source--The Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York: the Wardrobe Accounts of Edward IV. We've put up the introductory essays; the text of the accounts themselves should follow in a few weeks.

February 1996

• February 17, 1996--Added a significant primary source to the Ricardian Online Bookshelf: the Yorkist chronicle, The History of the Arrival of Edward IV. Enjoy some Yorkist propaganda for a refreshing change of pace! Six files full of Middle English, ranging in size from 20KB to 28KB:
  • Part I: Introduction, with Footnotes and Transcriber's Notes on Textual Adaptation
  • Part II: Landing through the Reconciliation with Clarence
  • Part III: Confrontation at Coventry through the Battle of Barnet
  • Part IV: The Coming of Queen Margaret through the Battle of Tewkesbury
  • Part V: The Aftermath of Tewkesbury through the Surrender of the Bastard of Fauconberg
  • Part VI: Endnotes
• February 13, 1996--Added another article to the Ricardian Online Bookshelf. This article, "The Reinvention of Richard III" by Sharon D. Michalove, is reprinted from The Ricardian and was presented at a recent medieval studies conference.
• February 6, 1996--Started new section on Ricardian Travel, beginning with British & European Tours June 26-July 3 Ricardian Tour.
• February 5, 1996--Making fun of Richard III's defenders has been a popular sport for as long as Richard's defenders have been active. Jane Austen was wickedly effective at it, even at the precocious age of sixteen.

January 1996

• January 29, 1996--Several new additions over the past week:
  • Membership application for the parent society, for those who aren't U.S. residents.
  • Royal National Theatre 1992 Touring Production of Richard III--some background information on the film's predecessor stage version
  • Reviews of the McKellen Film Version of Richard III--a sampling from the U.S. papers
  • Sixteenth-and seventeenth century history plays--a bibliography compiled by Prof. William Godshalk.
  • Excerpts from contemporary and Tudor sources regarding the Battle of Bosworth.
• January 11, 1996--Added link to new MGM/UA Web Site on McKellen film version of Shakespeare's Richard III. Also accessible from our section on the film.
• January 9, 1996--Richard III Society American Branch site ranked as a "Top 5% Web Site" by Point Communications

December 1995

• December 5, 1995--Added the full text of Colley Cibber's version of Shakespeare's Richard III. This blood-and-thunder variation was the most popularly performed version during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and helped shape the character of Richard III in the popular imagination. Text file, ca 157 KB.
• December 1, 1995--Added Shakespeare Onstage and Off, a new section on the dramatic vs the historical Richard III.

November 1995

• November 29, 1995 -- Added article on Historicity in Shakespeare's Richard III by James A. Moore, author of the Garland annotated bibliography.
• November 25, 1995 -- Added article on Maxwell Anderson's blank verse play about Richard III, Richard and Anne, to Online Bookshelf section.
• November 22, 1995 -- Added new section, Ricardian Online Bookshelf, including links to two new long-text documents: Richard III: The Making of a Legend, an introductory biography, and "You Can't Tell the Players without a Scorecard,", a summary of the Wars of the Roses.
• November 1, 1995 -- The sixteenth century ballad, The Ballad of Bosworth Field, names the names of Richard III's and Henry VII's supporters in what may have been one of the few eyewitness accounts. Historian Michael Bennett reviews the significance of the poem, and the full text with notes of the 1868 Hales & Furnivall edition is reprinted here by permission of the Library of the University of Pennsylvania.

October 1995

• October 2, 1995 -- To honor Richard III's birthday, we are launching a new section on fifteenth century life, sponsored by the Ohio Chapter.