Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination

489 Pages·2002·4.39 MB·English

by  Ackroyd Peter

Illustrations
“Trees V: Spreading Branches,” 1979, by Henry Moore (Tate, London 2002)
Twelfth-century spiral markings, church of St. Laurence Pittington, County
Durham (Peter Burton and Harland Walshaw)
Ornamental page with the beginning of the Gospel according to John, from the
Lindisfarne Gospels (AKG/British Library)
Photograph of Charles Dickens dreaming, 1861, by John and Charles Watkins
(National Portrait Gallery, London)
Stone portrait of John Donne in his shroud, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London
(London UK/Bridgeman Art Library)
Ornamental page with monogram from the Lindisfarne Gospels (AKG/British
Library)
“Sir Bedivere throws the sword Excalibur into the water.” Manuscript
illumination, early fourteenth century (AKG/British Library)
Arthur, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry VII (National Portrait Gallery,
London, loan, courtesy of private collection)
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert dressed as Queen Guinevere and King Arthur,
at the Bal Costumé of 12 May 1842, by Edwin Landseer (from the Royal
Collection by gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen)
“Figure of Guinevere,” circa 1858, by William Morris (Tate, London 2002)
“Guenever”: illustration to the Arthurian legend, by David Jones (Tate, London
2002)
“Babooneries”: photographs by Peter Burton/Harland Walshaw and a selection
of details from the Luttrell Psalter, c. 1340 (AKG/British Library)
The Chapter House of Wells Cathedral (Peter Burton and Harland Walshaw)
“Sir Jeffery Chaucer and the Nine and Twenty Pilgrims on their Journey to
Canterbury,” by William Blake, detail (Glasgow Museums, Stirling Maxwell
Collection)
“Longways Dance” by Thomas Rowlandson (Tate, London 2002)
Thomas Tallis and William Byrd (Lebrecht Music Collection)
Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, by Nicholas Hilliard (National Portrait
Gallery, London)
Edmund Spenser, engraving by George Vertue, 1727 (National Portrait Gallery,
London)
William Shakespeare, seventeenth-century engraving by Martin Droeshout
(National Portrait Gallery, London)
“Britannia”: frontispiece illustration to William Camden’s Britannia, 1600, by
John Stow (Guildhall Library, Corporation of London)
The Pillars of Hercules, title page of Francis Bacon’s Instauratio Magna, 1620
(The British Museum, London)
English clowns: Richard Tarlton and Will Kemp
Title page to the Bible translated into English, 1539 (Fotomas)
A Harlot’s Progress, plate two, 1732, etching and engraving by William Hogarth
(The Trustees of the Weston Park Foundation, UK/Bridgeman Art Library)
Henry Fielding, engraving after William Hogarth, c. 1762 (National Portrait
Gallery, London)
Bust of Sir Christopher Wren by Edward Pierce, c. 1673 (Ashmolean Museum,
Oxford)
Silhouette of Jane Austen (National Portrait Gallery, London)
The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd, woodcut dating from 1615
Thomas Hobbes, engraving by Wenceslaus Hollar, after J. B. Caspar
The Royal Observatory at Greenwich, 1675 (Greenwich Local History Library,
London)
Sketch of Miss Gertrude Jekyll with sunflower, doodle by Sir Edwin Lutyens
(RIBA)
Title page of William Byrd ’s “Psalmes, Sonnets, and Songs of Sadness and
Piety,” 1588 (Lebrecht Music Collection)
COLOUR PLATE SECTIONS
“Carpet” pattern, from the Lindisfarne Gospels, c. 698–700 (AKG/British
Library)
“King David with Musicians,” Anglo-Saxon illuminated manuscript of the
eighth century (AKG/British Library)
Shoulder clasp from the Sutton Hoo ship burial, Anglo-Saxon, c. 625–30 A.D.
(gold, garnet and millefiori glass) (British Museum, London UK/Bridgeman Art
Library)
“King Edgar between the Virgin Mary and St. Peter Dedicates the Charter
Christus,” Anglo-Saxon illuminated manuscript, c. 966 (AKG/British Library)
“Driven by the Spirit into Wilderness”: panel from the “Christ in the
Wilderness” series, 1939, by Stanley Spencer (1891–1959) (Stanley Spencer
Gallery, Cookham, Berkshire, UK/Bridgeman Art Library, Copyright © Estate of
Stanley Spencer 2002. All Rights Reserved, DACS)
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?,” illustration by Sir John Tenniel for
Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll (Copyright © 1911 Macmillan
Publishers Limited. Illustrations colored by Harry Theaker and Diz Wallis)
Sir Ian McKellen in the 2001 film of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings ( Lord of the
Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, New Line/Saul Zaentz/Wing Nut. Courtesy
Kobal)
“Event on the Downs,” c. 1934, by Paul Nash (1889–1946) (Old Admiralty
Building, Whitehall, London UK/Bridgeman Art Library)
“Seascape Study with Rainclouds” by John Constable (1776–1837) (Royal
Academy Photographic Archive)
Durham Cathedral, the nave, c. 1093 (London/Bridgeman Art Library)
“The Wilton Diptych,” portable altarpiece for the private devotion of Richard II,
c. 1395–99 (National Gallery, London)
The Canterbury Tales: illuminated initial, with a portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer
holding a book, c. 1400 (AKG/British Library)
St. Leonard with crozier and manacles, St. Agnes or St. Catherine with sword
and book. Two saints, from a screen in St. John’s Maddermarket, Norwich, mid-
fifteenth century (V & A Picture Library)
Miniature by Nicholas Hilliard: Queen Elizabeth I, 1572 (National Portrait
Gallery, London)
“The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke” by Richard Dadd, unfinished in 1864 (Tate,
London 2002)
“A Hilly Scene” by Samuel Palmer, c. 1826–28 (Tate, London 2002)
“Daniel Delivered out of Many Waters” by William Blake, c. 1805 (Tate,
London 2002)
“Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1864 (Tate,
London 2002)
Gawain, production at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Music by
Harrison Birtwistle, libretto by David Harsent, based on the story of Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight (Clive Barda/Performing Arts Library)
John Milton, c. 1629, artist unknown (National Portrait Gallery, London)
Edward Gibbon by Henry Walton (National Portrait Gallery, London)
Mrs. Gaskell, 1851, by George Richmond (National Portrait Gallery, London)
Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1958–61, by Sir Gerald Kelly (National Portrait
Gallery, London)
“Self-Portrait” by William Hogarth, c. 1757 (National Portrait Gallery, London)
“The Shrimp Girl” by William Hogarth (National Gallery, London)
Samuel Johnson by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1756–57 (National Portrait Gallery,
London)
Kemble as Hamlet, 1801, painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence (Tate, London 2002)
“No reasonable offer refused”: Widow Twankey (V & A Picture Library)
Front cover of the music score for “The Doctor” sung by Dan Leno (colour litho)
by H. G. Banks (nineteenth century) (Private collection/ Bridgeman Art Library)
“Mr. and Mrs. Andrews” by Thomas Gainsborough (National Gallery, London)
“Mr. B Finds Pamela Writing,” illustration from Richardson’s Pamela by Joseph
Highmore (1692–1780) (V & A Museum, London UK/ Bridgeman Art Library)
Pegwell Bay, Kent, “A Recollection of October 5th 1858” by William Dyce
(Tate, London 2002)
“Margate from the Sea” by J. M. W. Turner (National Gallery, London)
“The Great Day of His Wrath,” one of the three pictures in John Martin’s
Judgement series, 1851–53 (Tate, London 2002)
The Death of Chatterton, by Henry Wallis, 1856 (Tate, London 2002)
“Stroud: An Upland Landscape,” painting of the Malvern hills by Philip Wilson
Steer in 1902 (Tate, London 2002)
“An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump,” 1768, by Joseph Wright of Derby
(National Gallery, London)
Main block, designed by Richard Rogers (photo), Lloyds of London, Lime Street
(London UK/Roger Last/Bridgeman Art Library)
While the publishers have made every effort to trace the owners of copyright,
they will be happy to rectify any errors or omissions in further editions.
Chronology
BY DATE OF BIRTH
W = writer
A = artist
C = composer
Arc = architect
Caedmon (active 670–80) W
Bede (c. 673–735) W
Cynewulf (active c. 790–810) W
King Alfred (c. 848–99) W
Aelfric (active c. 955–1010) W
Wulfstan (d. 1023) W
Geoffrey of Monmouth (d. 1155) W
Richard Rolle (1295–1349) W
John Gower (c. 1330–1408) W
William Langland (c. 1332–c. 1400) W
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340–1400) W
Julian of Norwich (1342–c. 1416) W
Thomas Malory (c. 1408–71) W
John Skelton (c. 1460–1529) W
Thomas More (1478–1535) W
William Tyndale (c. 1494–1536) W
Thomas Wyatt (1503–42) W
Thomas Tallis (1505–85) C
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517–47) W
John Stow (c. 1525–1605) W
Robert Smythson (c. 1536–1614) Arc
William Byrd (1543–1623) C
Nicholas Hilliard (1547–1619) A
Edmund Spenser (c. 1552–99) W
Philip Sidney (1554–86) W
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) W
Christopher Marlowe (1564–93) W
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) W