Comments on Shakespeare’s England: For keeping two white bears

My BIL had checked our geneology, and told me year...

2012-02-13T02:29:57.956Z

My BIL had checked our geneology, and told me years ago, that Jonas Poole was my forefather. I could not remember his name, until I found him on Wikipedia.

One can only hope.

Thank you for the kind comments. And Alice, thanks...

2012-01-13T13:47:10.923Z

Thank you for the kind comments. And Alice, thanks for the link which adds a further snippet.

What a lovely post, Dainty!

2012-01-12T14:02:42.206Z

What a lovely post, Dainty!

More on that Exit the bear thing... http://inverse...

2012-01-11T17:24:01.475Z

More on that Exit the bear thing... http://inversesquare.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/in-praise-of-footnotes-polar-bear-cubanything-but-the-republicans-dept/

Fascinating and thoughtful. Thank you.

2012-01-09T10:40:26.331Z

Fascinating and thoughtful. Thank you.

Fantastic post DB, really enjoyed it. Your account...

2012-01-08T18:38:54.505Z

Fantastic post DB, really enjoyed it. Your account of life on the ice in the 17th century was excellent. And it's a great insight into how you historians go about researching your subject.

Hair raising indeed. Nice post.

2012-01-04T19:50:58.604Z

Hair raising indeed. Nice post.

This is a fascinating episode of polar voyaging an...

2012-01-04T19:45:20.900Z

This is a fascinating episode of polar voyaging and London theatre. Poole as you note bridged experiences of Svalbard/Spitsbergen as well as the New World in the founding Jamestown voyage. The question of actual polar bears on stage I think has always been one of whether or not any polar bear, even a cub, captured in 1609 could have been safely managed in 1612, for example, without snacking on a few actors. No polar bear to my knowledge has ever been tamed and they are enthusiastic maneaters. (I actually know someone who was attacked by a polar bear in the Canadian arctic. We Canadians can occasionally claim these things.) It's possible as extremely young bears (a few months old) they could have been managed on a chain, but otherwise perhaps actors wore some of the polar bear skins that Poole and others harvested. Forgive me if those points were already made in the cited articles.
Thanks for a great post.

What an astounding read! I would never have expec...

2012-01-04T19:42:46.252Z

What an astounding read! I would never have expected anything of the sort in those far off days. Thank you.