Being the history geek that I am, my English Composition class is going to fulfill my needs in many ways.  Aside from being 3 credits towards my baccalaureate core at Oregon State, I’m soaking up some wonderful historical tidbits from every lecture.   My ENG 201 class, Early Shakespeare – 1587 – 1595 Shakespeare’s early years, poems and plays will turn out to be one of my “fun” classes this term.   My Professor, Peter Jensen has a lecture style that feeds my history addiction along with presenting the Bard’s works in an interesting format.   I am enjoying the historical perspectives that he adds to the study of the plays themselves.   We are starting with Richard III, which is one of the early works in his historical series.   I had not been exposed to this play prior to this class.  Sure, we all can utter the first few words of Richard’s speech, “Now is the winter of our discontent…”, words that come to mind in a list of great Shakespeare “one liners”.    But to really dive into the meat of this play and its history of royalty and the wars of the roses, has been a real joy for me.   Peter Jensen will be one of the teachers I remember from my time at LBCC.   In all of his lectures, I have been enthralled with the little “history tidbits” about Elizabethan Theater and England during the late 1500s.   Hence the title of this post…I am familiar with the term “groundlings”.    At Shakespeare’s Globe theater in London, the common folk would pay their “penny” to see his plays by putting their admission in a box at the entrance (this is where the term “box office” comes from…) and stand at the thrust of the stage in an area called the pit.   These folks were called the Groundlings.  The term “Penny Stinkard” was coined for the unwashed masses of commoners watching the plays while standing.  I find myself taking more notes about the historical bits (items I want to research further) than about the play itself.     One such note from Friday’s class sent me on a wonderful journey through history this weekend.   Peter made a comment about a news story he heard a few years ago.   It seems that 2 skeletons were found walled up in the Tower of  London, were they the two princes from Richard III???    This historical tidbit got my attention.   Quick….to google… and beyond!!!      What I found, led me to a great story and a possible research paper for ENG 201…    A work crew found a box at the bottom of a staircase during renovations that contained two skeletons.   They appeared to be small, like children.    Could these be the skeletons of Richard’s nephews, Edward V and Richard the Duke of York (ages 12 and 9)?   The kicker here is…they were discovered in 1647!!   The two “princes” were placed in an urn in Westminster Abby.   In 1933 the bones were studied with no conclusive findings other than the possibility that they were of the correct ages and had possibly been smothered.   I was hooked…could this be what my Professor was referring to?    I have a huge amount of information to sift through, some texts to find at the OSU library and more searching to do.    One comment in a lecture about Richard III and I found another historical quest before me!     I am determined to flesh this story out into a research paper.   References from the period, current news stories that involve the Queen’s denial of any further study of the skeletons,  and any references from a couple of years ago about walled up skeletons in the tower of London.   I really think that students should THANK their professors more often.    Professor Jensen, thank you for this new historical quest.

Posted: 10|4|09 at 3:28 pm. Filed under: History nuggets, research papers.
Tags: college, History Major, Lifelong Goals, Non traditional student, redfokker, Study skills
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