1817… How Robert Southey avoided getting “Cancelled” 27 Aug 202027 Aug 2020 By Stephen Basdeo The following is an adaptation of some of the material in my book The Life and Legend of a Rebel Leader: Wat Tyler (2018). You’re an up-and-coming…
18th century… A Never-Before-Seen Poem by Robert Southey, written in 1791 5 Oct 2019 Edited by Stephen Basdeo and Mark Truesdale The summer of 1791 was an unusually wet one. The young schoolboy, and future Poet Laureate, Robert Southey, therefore had a lot of…
18th century… Robert Southey’s “Wedding of Robin Hood and Maid Marian” 8 Jul 20198 Jul 2019 By Stephen Basdeo Dr Mark Truesdale and I are currently transcribing Robert Southey’s ‘Harold; or, The Castle of Morford’ (Bodleian MS Eng. Misc. e. 21), which was originally written in…
19th Century… Anon. ‘Robin Hood’ (1828) 7 Jul 2019 The following poem, written anonymously and titled simply as 'Robin Hood', appeared in The Oriental Observer and Literary Chronicle in 1828. The newspaper, printed in Calcutta during the rule of…
18th century… The Female Vagrant 11 May 201911 May 2019 By Stephen Basdeo English authorities always seems to have had a harsh attitude towards its destitute and homeless people, or vagrants. At the height of the Black Death in medieval…
19th Century… Outlaws vs. Vampires 22 Jun 2018 By Stephen Basdeo Vampires first appeared in English popular culture with the publication of Robert Southey’s epic narrative poem Thalaba the Destroyer (1801). Thalaba’s bride, Oneiza, dies on their wedding…
