Albion; The Origins of the English Imagination

508 Pages·2016·4.51 MB·English

by  Peter Ackroyd

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
John Donne (1572–1631) W
Ben Jonson (1572–1637) W
Inigo Jones (1573–1652) Arc
Thomas Browne (1605–82) W
John Milton (1608–74) W
Peter Lely (1618–80) A
Andrew Marvell (1621–78) W
John Bunyan (1628–88) W
John Dryden (1631–1700) W
John Locke (1632–1704) W
Christopher Wren (1632–1723) Arc
Aphra Behn (1640–89) W
Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723) A
Henry Purcell (c. 1659–95) C
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) W
Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661–1736) Arc
John Vanbrugh (1664–1726) Arc
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) W
Thomas Archer (c. 1668–1743) Arc
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) W
Richard Steele (1672–1729) W
James Thornhill (1675/6–1734) A
Colen Campbell (1676–1729) Arc
James Gibbs (1682–1754) Arc
John Gay (1685–1732) W
William Kent (c. 1685–1748) Arc
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) W
Samuel Richardson (1689–1761) W
Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694–1753) Arc
William Hogarth (1697–1764) A
Henry Fielding (1707–54) W
Samuel Johnson (1709–84) W
Laurence Sterne (1713–68) W
James Stuart (1713–88) Arc
Richard Wilson (1714–82) A
Thomas Gray (1716–71) W
Nicholas Revett (1720–1804) Arc
Tobias Smollett (1721–71) W