Lancastrian Shakespeare: Religion, Region, Patronage and Performance

Lancaster University, 21-24 July 1999, in conjunction with
Hoghton Tower

The starting point of the conference is the possibility that Shakespeare spent some time as young man in Lancashire, associated with the de Hoghton family and Hoghton Tower. We are not simply interested in the biographical facts, but in exploring the issues that arise if we suppose that this may in fact have happened: recusancy and Roman Catholic associations with continental Europe, Elizabethan country house culture and theatre, touring theatricals, patronage and connections with the earls of Derby. That is, those sides of Shakespeare's career which existed separately from (perhaps before, perhaps alongside) his involvement with London and court theatre.

Lancaster University is a campus-based university on the outskirts of this ancient county town. The castle was founded by John of Gaunt, and was the site of two notorious witch trials in the early Seventeenth Century. Hoghton Tower is about half and hour away by road. We are also within travelling distance of the major northern properties owned by Lady Anne Clifford, at Appleby and Skipton. And of the Lake District, with its Wordsworth and Ruskin properties etc..

We invite offers to give offers to give papers at the conference. We will shortly have a web-site giving further details. In the meantime, please contact the organiser, Richard Dutton (r.dutton@lancaster.ac.uk).

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© 1997-, R.G. Siemens (Editor, EMLS).
(PD 8 June 1998)