Kim Gilchrist

‘… the question remains open as to whether Falstaff functions to sanitise, endorse, or subvert the pro-English nationalist jingoism of the plays in which he appears’ (Edmonds, ‘I Would Twere Blobby, Noel, and All Well’, Crinkly Bottom UP, 1995).

The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, at Birkbeck, University of London, is looking for a talented researcher to join a project focused on expanding our understanding of non elite writers and writing in seventeenth century England. As Postdoctoral Research Associate you will join 'Written Worlds in Seventeenth-Century England', an exciting Leverhulme Trust–funded project. The role is offered on a 13 month, part time (17.5 hours a week) contract with a salary of £22,124 rising to £25,189 per annum (pro-rated £44,247 to £50,379 per annum). In this role, you will carry out dedicated research on non elite textual production, working closely with the Principal Investigator, Professor Sue Wiseman, and the Co Investigator, Dr Brodie Waddell. You will have the opportunity to work extensively with manuscripts and printed sources, visit archives, investigate datasets, develop the project database, and contribute to shaping the project’s scholarly outputs - and you may also be involved in textual editing. As Research Associate, you will focus on one of two thematic strands: 1. Non elite writing produced in the provinces, or 2. Writing produced by non elite women. Further details via link

We are hiring postdoc researchers to join our #WrittenWorlds project at Birkbeck, with Sue Wiseman, @mdpowelldavies.bsky.social, @richardjansell.bsky.social and I.

0.5FTE, 13 months, focus on women's or provincial non-elite writing #EarlyModern 🗃️
cis7.bbk.ac.uk/vacancy/post...

Couldn’t taste worse than the coffee on GWR. (And yes, hello!!!)

Do they bring them on the buffet trolley?

Green-blue-grey blocky soundwaves on background. Centred in black serif lettering “Sonance”, with “journal of early modern sound studies” underneath.

👀 Over the last few months, I’ve been working with the terrific triumvirate @spparkle.bsky.social, @emiliekmmurphy.bsky.social & Hannah Yip to set up “Sonance: A Journal of Early Modern Sound Studies”, a diamond open access journal dedicated to historic sounds in all their wondrous & eclectic forms.

Finally, the blobular turn in critical theory.

Of course, the name Edmonds originally gave the character was Sir Blob Blobcastle. But an influential descendant of Blobcastle objected and the name was changed.

Thank you, that’s really kind!

I’m still going on about Mucedorus 🙂. My monograph on the play (and romance plays more broadly, and amateur playing) will hopefully be out in August.

Hannah Spencer walking into Westminster, sucking her teeth, tutting, and muttering "tell you what, you've had some cowboys in here."

Are you a PG student or ECR interested in presenting at our conference ‘Clio Reframed: Women Writing History, 1500-1750’ in June?

Bursaries to help with expenses are generously funded by @srsrensoc.bsky.social, so please send us your abstract by 14 March!

clioreframed.hcommons.org/call-for-pap...

I’m really excited to be speaking with Prof Emma Smith @oldfortunatus.bsky.social about #Cymbeline and its ‘infinit questions of the circumstance of strange chances’ (as one c17th reader put it) on Monday 2 March!

📣 Still time to get your abstract in for 'Clio Reframed: Women Writing History, 1500-1750', a two-day conference to be held at Oxford on 18/19 June 2026. Generously supported by Corpus Christi, @oxfordcems.bsky.social, and @srsrensoc.bsky.social.

clioreframed.hcommons.org/call-for-pap...

He’s sitting plumped up on the Board of Peace

I propose to make universal the old policy of the Blackfriars conference at the American Shakespeare Center:

If you do not end your paper on time, you will be forced to exit, pursued by a bear. Literally, a bear will come take your paper from you.

A Shakespearean History of Traffic Could Shakespeare ride a horse? How did Tudor wine orders get delivered? Did playhouses cause congestion? and other questions

Meet Thomas the carter… New post follows Tudors moving around London, on the back of some recent research.  What did Shakespeare’s commute look like and who invented the one-way street?

open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...

When I do essay tips at the end of my y2 module I have a slide saying this, and I repeat it six times between other slides, to make a joke of it (and also to repeat it six times).

It works brilliantly, if by ‘works brilliantly’ you mean almost no one laughs or puts play titles in italics.

If only. The balloons would be infinitely easier to shift than the debt.

Always humbled by my students’ optimism and determination in the face of all this.

Andy, not only do I *accept* this, my afternoon research will be dedicated to mentally replaying this scene as a four-person, 2 x pantomime horse + wings + trunk + floppy ears style wrestling match to the tune of Yakkity Sax.

(or Koyaanisqatsi, haven’t decided yet).

Keir Starmer’s position has not improved, but it has stabilised a bit because Labour MPs have looked into the abyss, and the abyss has looked back and said “you remember that the HMRC investigation into Angela Rayner is still ongoing, right?” Then they’ve looked at the abyss some more and it has continued: “and you do know that Wes Streeting has a much closer personal and political connection to the disgraced Peter Mandelson than Keir Starmer?” The abyss, growing quite chatty at this point, has added: “and come on, Shabana Mahmood is not going to win a leadership election. Labour members are not going to pick the border-tightening home secretary, are you nuts?”

I hope the abyss in @stephenkb.bsky.social's newsletter becomes a returning character

Some fun things about The Book of Sir Thomas More, which the internet has been talking about of late.
74% of the surviving text is written by Anthony Munday. Literally. He might have worked on it with someone else, say Chettle, but he LITERALLY wrote it out.
Then the text had some rewrites...

Idyllic!

I hope this one has a more peaceful time of things that Gib. Reading up on the play now and Gurton's house does NOT seem a good place to be a cat!

The music journo Taylor Parkes calls this 'Big Birding' - when a lyric/line inadvertently reminds you of something unintended, ruining it forever: From 'big birds flying across the sky' in Helpless by Neil Young. The sense of cosmic melancholy undermined a bit for anyone familiar with Sesame St.

Perhaps they had to pay the cat more for speaking.

Thank you! That's amazing. I've been hoping to also find sources/material evidence beyond the English drama.

And extra-impressive stagecraft if they managed to teach it some Knox...

Thank you!

Thanks James! Hope all's well. Must have been an odd day for the stagehand - 'quick, we need a squirrel'!

Although I once had to (literally) run out and find a trout in Edinburgh in a hurry. The old one was starting to smell. Wasn't even my play.

Wonder if they did Memories?

Brilliant! Thank you for the info, and the mental image.

Perfect, thank you! Does Gib speak?

This is amazing!