One of my favorite Victorians is John Mitchell Kemble, a friend of Tennyson’s and Thackeray’s who was a pioneering scholar of Anglo-Saxon (Old English). When I was writing my dissertation on Tennyson’s interest in the history of the English language, Kemble frequently threatened to take over because he was so – well, boisterous is the […]
Category Archives: Theatre
Mummy peas in Tennyson’s garden?
Earlier this year, I suggested that “Victorian laughter” would be a good theme for a conference. This was partly because the adjective “Victorian” is often synonymous with an austere lack of humor — “we are not amused,” etc. — despite the evidence that the people of nineteenth-century Britain enjoyed a laugh as much as anyone […]