Podcast 3: School and University
James explores the sound of Nashe’s educational contexts with Perry, Cathy and Jenny. What did boys learn? How were they taught to pronounce Latin, and express a range of emotions? Cathy reminds us just how entertaining some of the exercises could be, and the variety of characters the boys played. Jenny talks about theatrical performance at university. Perry gives us an insider’s view on reading aloud in the classroom today, and its role in the rehearsal of Summers Last Will. And our experts answer the all-important question: were Tudor schoolboys beaten? And God forbid, could learning Latin have actually been fun? Thanks to Neil Treble for inviting us to join his Latin classroom at King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon.
Perry Mills is Deputy Head at King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon and the Director of ‘Edward’s Boys’, ‘one of the hottest tickets in town’ (Clare Smout), whose repertoire now includes Nashe’s Summers Last Will and Testament.
Jenny Richards is the PI of The Thomas Nashe Project, and the editor of Have with you to Saffron Walden (1596) and The Unfortunate Traveller (1594). Her contribution is based on her forthcoming book, Voices and Books in the English Renaissance: A New History of Reading, Oxford University Press.
Cathy Shrank is the editor of Pierce Penilesse (1592) for the edition. Her contributions were based on research she has been doing for the Leverhulme-funded book on dialogue from the late fifteenth to the late seventeenth century.
