A linguistic study of The Castle of Perseverance

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThe original purpose of the dissertation was to settle as closely as possible by philological means the question of date and place of the Macro Castle of Perseverance. However, in the initial stages of the study it was discovered that the play had undergone some redactions before it was written down in the Macro version. The purpose then became twofold: to separate the redactions from the original part of the play and study them for any light they might throw not only on The Castle of Perseverance but also on the evolution of the morality itself as a dramatic form; and to settle the problem of date and place of the redacted portions as well as of the original. The redacted parts of the play were separated from the original by means of such criteria as meter, alliteration, style, grammar, syntax, and dramatic effectiveness. The method for dating and locating the work consisted of a close linguistic analysis in an attempt to find phonological, morphological, and lexioal features which might be indicative of specific place and date. [TRUNCATED

Jasper Heywood's translation of Seneca's Thyestes : with particular reference to the latter's sixteenth and seventeenth-century reception and the themes of tyranny, kingship and revenge

The thesis offers a critical analysis of the transmission of Seneca's Thyestes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In Volume 1, the 1584 Gryphius edition of Seneca's Thyestes; the 1560 edition of Heywood's translation of the play and the 1674 edition of Wright's translation and burlesque version have been transcribed. This is the first time that these texts have been presented together for discussion. The commentary (Volume II) examines a broad range of dramatic material including Neo- Latin plays such as Goldingham's Herodes (1570/80); Gwinne's Nero (1603); Snelling's Thibaldus (1640) and the anonymous Stoicus Vapulans (1648). Prose works considered include the Latin lexicas and grammars of Lilly and Whitinton; philosophical treatises such as Reynolds A Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the soule of Man (1640); and religious works such as Hooper on the Ten Commandments (1560). It presents hitherto unpublished material- MS Sloane 1041; and material that has previously received little attention- the Hendrik Goltzius' engraving of Melpomene (1592) and the Restoration Mock-Thyestes in Burlesque. Research material was consulted at the British Library; BL Department of Manuscripts; BL Print Room; University of Warwick Library; University of Birmingham Library; Senate House Library, University of London; The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford; The Warburg Institute and The Institute of Classical Studies

BL Cotton Caligula Aii, Manuscript Context, The Theme of Obedience, and a Diplomatic Transcription Edition

This dissertation is a diplomatic transcription edition and an analysis of BL Cotton Caligula Aii with emphasis on the Middle English romances in the manuscript and how the entire manuscript was compiled to teach lessons in obedience. The first section of the manuscript contains Sir Eglamour and teaches lessons in social obedience. The second section features three romances by Thomas Chestre: Octavian Imperator, Sir Launfal, and Lybeaus Desconus and teaches courtly and chivalric obedience. Section three features Emaré and teaches lessons in obedience and free will. The final section contains Sege of Jerusalem. Chevalier Assigne, and Sir Isumbras and focuses on obedience and the direct hand of God. The romances in CCAii, which have often been dismissed as overly simplistic or convention, become complex and meaningful text when they are analyzed as part of the compilation for which they were chosen and arranged

BL Cotton Caligula Aii, Manuscript Context, The Theme of Obedience, and a Diplomatic Transcription Edition

This dissertation is a diplomatic transcription edition and an analysis of BL Cotton Caligula Aii with emphasis on the Middle English romances in the manuscript and how the entire manuscript was compiled to teach lessons in obedience. The first section of the manuscript contains Sir Eglamour and teaches lessons in social obedience. The second section features three romances by Thomas Chestre: Octavian Imperator, Sir Launfal, and Lybeaus Desconus and teaches courtly and chivalric obedience. Section three features Emaré and teaches lessons in obedience and free will. The final section contains Sege of Jerusalem. Chevalier Assigne, and Sir Isumbras and focuses on obedience and the direct hand of God. The romances in CCAii, which have often been dismissed as overly simplistic or convention, become complex and meaningful text when they are analyzed as part of the compilation for which they were chosen and arranged

Women and wills in early modern England: the community of Stratford-Upon-Avon, 1537-1649

This study employs the entire body of surviving wills for Stratford-upon-Avon, 1537-1649, alongside other documentary evidence including ecclesiastical court depositions, local Court of Record proceedings, and minutes and accounts of the town's Corporation, in order to examine aspects of everyday life in this early modern town. In particular, it uses the wills as a lens through which to examine the 'culture of will-making', kinship, affect, and women's legal status and economic opportunities in Stratford. The focus on the town's women provides important additional knowledge which contributes to the growing scholarship on the experiences of non-elite women in England at this time, while its innovative use of the database Nvivo to classify the bequests and naming patterns found in the wills allows for greater nuance in our understanding of how early modern people may have thought and felt about their friends, family, and possessions. Methodologically, the thesis argues for a holistic treatment of the wills, and demonstrates their utility and complexity as a source, while its findings challenge some commonly-held assumptions about the nature of kinship and about the financial dealings and legal opportunities enjoyed by middling sort women in early modern England

Closing the Communication Gap Between Undergraduates and Mathematics Professors

This research sought to determine the sources of communicative difficulties that exist between undergraduate students and international faculty (the communication gap) specifically within the field of mathematics. The hypotheses were as follows: 1) The communication gap results from students\u27 perceptual difficulties in understanding their professors and their own biases against international faculty. 2) The communication gap can be addressed by administering to students a training program that not only provides instruction on accent features, but also attempts to confront accent bias and persuades the student to adopt a more accommodating view of their professors\u27 accents. Fifteen experimental sessions were conducted in October 2009, in order to collect both quantitative data and qualitative data on the communication gap and students\u27 views thereof. Quantitative data was collected through testing sessions that assessed students\u27 baseline performance on mathematics assessments and their performance on one of three assessments after completing either the linguistic training program, a program meant to simulate bias creation, or a control program. Eighty-one undergraduates at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA, took part in one of six testing sessions. Each assessment was tied to a video lesson taught by a professor from India, and the training program was specifically engineered to address the features of this professor\u27s accent. The variable of interest was each student\u27s improvement in scores between the baseline and post-training assessments, as following from Hypothesis 2, I hypothesized that the students who participated in linguistic training program would produce greater improvement scores than the control group. I also hypothesized, on the basis of Hypothesis 1, that students who participated in the bias program would produce significantly worse improvement scores than the control group. An analysis of the data resulting from the testing sessions revealed no significant difference in improvement scores arising from membership in one of these three testing groups. Qualitative data was collected through discussion sessions with testing session participants two weeks after the testing sessions and through questionnaires administered at the end of the testing sessions. Fifty-seven undergraduates from the original sample of 81 participated in discussion sessions. The discussion sessions addressed issues surrounding the communication gap, including classes with international professors, frustrations with communication breakdown, and suggestions for solutions to the communication gap. Data from these sessions were analyzed using an ethnographic approach, revealing substantial cross-group trends and themes. While students did not universally embrace the idea that they contributed to the communication gap and so bore responsibility for closing it, almost all agreed that further research on the issue was vital. A quantitative analysis of response data on the post-testing questionnaire revealed a significant effect of linguistic training on linguistic attitudes. Therefore, although it was not reflected in assessment scores, the use of linguistic training did have a positive effect on students. Further research in this area is vital to determine a reliable application of this result to greater professor-student communication

Event Processing and Stream Reasoning with ETALIS

This thesis presents the ETALIS Language for Events (ELE), a declarative rule-based language for Event Processing (EP) and Stream Reasoning (SR). ELE features a well-defined semantics, and provides strong event processing and reasoning capabilities. In this work we present ELE and show how its EP and SR capabilities have the potential to provide powerful real time intelligence. We provide a prototype implementation of the language, and present evaluation results for a few implemented scenarios