The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 12.1369  Tuesday, 5 June 2001

[1]     From:   Sean Lawrence <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 04 Jun 2001 15:30:08 -0700
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.1348 Re: Geography

[2]     From:   Lisa Hopkins <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 05 Jun 2001 09:21:15 +0100
        Subj:   Centre of the Isle

[3]     From:   Terence Hawkes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 5 Jun 2001 06:24:13 -0400
        Subj:   SHK 12.1348 Re: Geography


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Sean Lawrence <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 04 Jun 2001 15:30:08 -0700
Subject: 12.1348 Re: Geography
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.1348 Re: Geography

John Jowett made the interesting note that

>To continue the discussion of England as 'isle' in Gaunt's speech.
>Shakespeare elsewhere calls Leicester 'the centre of this isle', or
>rather Richmond does so (Richard III 5.2.101).  In part-answer to R.A.
>Cantrell's question as to whether any non-Shakespearian texts are
>relevant, the New Variorum edition of Richard III cites Stubbes as
>referring to Leicestershire as the centre of the country--but not the
>centre of the isle.  Leicester is roughly equidistant between the Welsh
>west coast and the East Anglian east coast, and between Cornwall in the
>south-west of England and Northumberland in the north-east of England.
>It therefore lies at the centre of Tudor England-and-Wales (as
>constituted politically in the years between the events of the play and
>Shakespeare's writing of it)--but not anywhere near the centre of the
>isle.

Could he just mean the centre of the island measured east-to-west, not
the centre both east-to-west and north-to-south?  Winnipeg occasionally
likes to describe itself as being in the centre of Canada, but that
position is clearly held by Baker Lake, a small community west of Hudson
Bay.  Of course, perhaps this just points to the elision of Nunavut...

Your point about the elision of Scotland more than Wales is interesting.

Cheers,
Se     

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