—“Mr. Johnson, (said I) I do indeed come from Scotland, but I cannot help it.”
—“That, Sir, I find, is what a very great many of your countrymen cannot help.”
May 16 is Biographers Day – marking the 1st meeting of James Boswell & Samuel Johnson in 1763
Was up North (Yes!) for a workshop on the #18thcentury ordering of people and spaces in architecture today. The Southwell Workhouse, just outside Nottingham, is honestly, completely fascinating. Left me with lots to go read. Here’s some graffiti of a sundial (?) left in the boundary of a liminal space just out of the Guardians’ sight #History
Byron’s poem ☝️ borrows from the Scottish song “The Jolly Beggar”—often attributed to King James V (who reputedly liked to disguise himself as “the Gudeman of Ballangeich” to enjoy amorous adventures)
“No Englishman of Byron’s age, character, and history would have had patience for long theological discussions on the way to fight for Greece; but the daft Gordon blood and the Aberdonian school-days kept their influence to the end.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson, MEMORIES & PORTRAITS – available on @gutenberg_org
The Paisley weaver poet & songwriter: celebrating Robert Tannahill
17 May, Royal Society of Edinburgh – free
Dissenting from prevailing notions that label Robert Tannahill (1774–1810) as “sweetly sentimental”, Prof Fred Freeman's lecture positions Tannahill as a major poet who expanded the tradition of British “rationalist” pastoralism.
“The richness of Donnchadh Bàn’s language becomes a metaphor for the richness of nature... The poem is a song & the music itself becomes a metaphor for the co-existence of different forms of life”
—Meg Bateman introduces Ben Dorain: a conversation with a mountain, by Garry MacKenzie, (Irish Pages Press/Cló An Mhíl Bhuí, 2021)
Some clarification from historians please. In an obit from 1784, it says "Mr Edward Weatherley, near Ravensworth Castle, who had lived under that family 65 years; ... "
Does "lived under that family" (presumably the Liddell family of Ravensworth) mean that he worked for them? As far as I can find, he was a coal agent and they were a coal-owning family. Or was he connected in a more personal way?
Dark Brilliance: The Age of Reason From Descartes to Peter the Great by Paul Strathern
During the 1600s, between the end of the Renaissance and the start of the Enlightenment, Europe lived through an era known as the Age of Reason. This was a revolutionary period which saw great advances in areas such as art, science, philosophy, political theory and economics.
A spot has opened in ECF Oct. 2024 -- send your MS for consideration!
An ECF flash essay tends to read as a provocation or a stimulus -- 500-1000 words.
Reflections essays: 1500 - 4000 words.
See the guidelines on the ECF website: https://ecf.humanities.mcmaster.ca/guidelines/
@ASECS I just received an email that chirp.social, which hosts the ASECS (American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies) group, is shutting down. I am creating a replacement group at @asecs . If you follow @asecs, it should provide the same functionality: When you tag the group, everyone in the group should see the post
Another most excellent article in the new ECF special issue:
Born That Way: Asexuality and Kinship in "The History of Mrs Selvyn,"
by Abigail Zitin https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/50/article/917769
ECF 36.1, U of Toronto Press, January 2024, pp. 69-90
Thanks for reading ECF journal at Project MUSE! #18thCentury#C18th#18thC@ASECS
From the new special issue:
"Little Lamb's Roast Pig: A Minor Intervention,"
by Olivia Loksing Moy
Eighteenth-Century Fiction 36.1, January 2024, pp. 37-67 https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/50/article/917768 #18thCentury#C18th@ASECS
What we do!
Thanks for reading ECF journal at Project MUSE!
Another amazing essay in the new ECF special issue, "Refusing 18th-Century Fictions, Part 1":
"What We Talk about When We Talk about Fanfiction,"
by Emily C. Friedman
U of Toronto Press, ECF 36.1, January 2024, pp. 159-168 https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/50/article/917777 #18thCentury#18thC#C18th@ASECS
Thanks for reading ECF at Project MUSE!