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The Songs & The Plays - Kean on Shakespeare

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The Songs & The Plays Listen on Youtube Love’s Labours Lost (1593-94) A revised and polished version of this play was presented for Queen Elizabeth I and her court at Christmas 1598. However the elevated language and subject matter of the drama suggests it was always intended for a sophisticated and highly literate audience. There are two parallel plots – one ‘high’ comedy and one ‘low’ comedy. In the high comedy the King of Navarre and his friends make a pact to ‘fast and study’ and to have no contact with women for three years. No sooner have they agreed than the Princess of Aquitaine and her ladies in waiting arrive to discuss ‘state matters’. Inevitably the King falls in love with the Princess and his friends with the French ladies in waiting. The Gentlemen find loophole in their vows and woo and win women with a dance. The Ladies become aware of their broken vows and treat the noblemen with scorn. In the low comedy the page Moth and the clown Costard ridicule the exaggerated m...
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Thomas Pitfield - Biography of a Lancashire Composer

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  Thomas Baron Pitfield Thomas Pitfield, composer, teacher, poet and artist was born in the Lancashire cotton town of Bolton, on the 5th of April 1903. His birthplace has since been demolished, but it was located on Bury New Road, near Bolton town centre. Tom’s elderly parents were not overjoyed by his unexpected arrival, and the young boy’s artistic talents were never compatible with their strict, austere, Victorian lifestyle. Pitfield Senior was a master joiner and builder in his father-in-law’s business. His wife was a dressmaker, having trained at Manchester College of Technology. She was particularly frustrated by the birth of a child, as she had built up a good business and it meant an end to her career. The unusual middle name ‘Baron’ was his grandmother's maiden name. The pseudo-title often caused confusion. Tom wrote in the introduction to his first volume of autobiography: ‘Thomas Baron Pitfield is my name: To eminence or rank I have no claim, (So in address my middle nam...
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