Fate of Hellas

Fate of Hellas () (released as Great War Nations: The Spartans in North America) is a real-time strategy video game for Microsoft Windows. Developed by World Forge, it was published in Russia by Russobit-M in December 2007, in Europe by JoWooD in March 2008, and in North America by DreamCatcher Interactive in May 2008. A spiritual successor to ' (it is often referred to as a "standalone expansion", but it is, in fact, a different game), "Fate of Hellas" uses the same game engine as the previous title - the Ancient Wars Engine (AWE) - and features identical gameplay. Two more World Forge games using this engine and gameplay style would follow - "The Golden Horde" and ' (released as "Age of Alexander" in some territories).
The game features two campaigns. The first tells the story of the last days of Spartan military dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean (396-394 BC), as the Greek city-state attempts to establish Spartan hegemony throughout the Peloponnese. The second depicts the wars of Alexander the Great (336-326), looking at his conquests in Persia, Egypt, and India. The campaigns feature fictional depictions of historical figures such as Agesilaus II, Cleombrotus I, Darius II, Alexander the Great, Darius III, Parmenion, Khabbabash, and Taxiles, and depict such events as the Battle of Nemea, the Battle of Coronea, the Battle of Chaeronea, the Siege of Miletus, the Battle of Issus, and the Battle of the Hydaspes.
"Fate of Hellas" received mainly negative reviews. Although the graphics were lauded by some critics, the game was seen as generic and was felt to be too similar to its predecessor. Critics were especially unimpressed with the AI, pathfinding, lack of combat tactics, and LAN-only multiplayer.
Gameplay.
"Fate of Hellas" is a real-time strategy game, controlled via a point and click interface, in which the primary goal on most maps is to build a strong enough army to defeat the opponent or opponents by destroying their settlement, or, on occasion, killing a specific unit in their army. To achieve this end, the player must engage in some basic economic micromanagement, such as gathering resources, constructing buildings, and researching new technologies, abilities, weapons, ships, and war machines.
Game modes.
The game can be played in one of two modes; single-player or multiplayer. In single-player mode, the player can play either campaign missions or individual non-campaign games. In campaign mode, the player must complete a series of missions, the goal of many of which is to defeat the computer controlled opponent or opponents by destroying their settlement. Most missions have several primary objectives, which usually must be completed sequentially, and often one or more secondary objectives. Secondary objectives are not necessary to complete the mission, but they do reward the player with troops or resources if completed. The game features fourteen missions (a seven-mission campaign for the Spartans and a seven-mission campaign for the Macedonians). The campaigns are independent of one another, and can be played in any order. The missions within each campaign, however, are linear, and each mission only becomes available when the previous one has been completed.
In non-campaign single-player and multiplayer modes, the player chooses the map on which to play, and then selects the type of game, choosing from "No other players" (the player plays the mission without any opposition), "AI" (the player competes against only computer controlled opponents), and "Open" (the player competes against either a combination of computer controlled and human controlled opponents, or all human controlled opponents). Multiplayer mode allows for up to four players, or any combination of human players and computer controlled opponents. Multiplayer games can only be played via a LAN; there is no online multiplayer mode. In non-campaign single-player and multiplayer modes, players can play as the Spartans, Macedonians, Persians, or Egyptians (the latter two of whom play identically to how they played in "").
Resources and workers.
Whether playing in single-player or multiplayer mode, each game begins roughly the same way; the player is positioned at a set location on the map, usually with a prebuilt base building, and often with a certain number of soldiers and/or workers. The game features three types of resource; gold, wood and food. Gold and wood are required to construct buildings, research new weaponry and technologies, equip warriors with weapons and shields, and build war machines such as catapults, siege towers, and chariots. Food is required to sustain the army and workforce. If food reserves drop to zero, the number of health points of all combat units begins to dwindle, eventually dropping to 10% of the maximum amount. The player can acquire gold by building goldmines, wood by clearing forests, and food by constructing buildings such as farms or sending workers out to hunt.
Workers (Helots for the Spartans; slaves for the Macedonians) are required to construct buildings and gather wood. They also occupy and perform the requisite task of each building, whether the building is a resource building such as a farm, a research building such as a workshop, or a manufacture building such as a forge. Workers can be directly controlled by the player, and can be ordered to repair buildings, collect enemy weapons, hunt game, and, if necessary, fight. Each individual worker must be recruited manually in the player's base building. Resources have to be transported by workers from their point of origin (such as a goldmine, forest, or farm) to either the base building or a specific storage building, but they do not have to be transported to building sites, to buildings where they are being used for research or manufacturing, or to buildings that are being upgraded.
Both races have their own unique buildings, heroes, soldiers, support troops, and special abilities. For example, the Spartan headquarters is the Acropolis and the Macedonian is the Megaron. Each of their economic models is also slightly different. For example, the Spartans require specific storage for all three resources, whereas the Macedonians require storage for only food and wood.
Combat.
All soldiers are recruited at either a barracks or a shooting range. The game features three basic types of soldier; Light (Psiloi for the Spartans; Sarissaphoros for the Macedonians), Medium (Spartiate for the Spartans; Hetairoi for the Macedonians), and Heavy (Hoplites for both races). These are base units only, and the player is free to create melee warriors and archers from all three types of unit, using a variety of equipment and armour combinations. Each unit has three slots for customization, with the player free to choose from a primary weapon, secondary weapon and, depending on the primary and secondary weapon, a shield. So, for example, a player may equip some Hoplites with a sword and shield, some with a bow, some with both a sword and a bow (which weapon is their primary weapon is dictated by where they were trained, barracks or shooting range), and some with a sword, shield, and bow. Players can order soldiers equipped with more than one weapon to switch weapons at any time.
Initially, the player is restricted to the base unit's default equipment, but once research has begun, more weapons and armour become available. Once researched, all items have to be manufactured. Each process (research and manufacture) costs resources and takes time, and once a piece of equipment has been researched and manufactured, the player can equip it to any unit. Both research and manufacture are one-time procedures and are not required every time the player equips that particular piece. However, producing a unit of any kind also costs resources, and the more advanced the equipment, the more expensive the unit and the longer the training. An alternative way to equip soldiers is to have workers collect the equipment of defeated enemies. This equipment can then be used by the player to equip their own army at no cost, and with no research or manufacture time.
When the player's units see enemies, they react automatically, depending on which stance the player has selected from the four available; "Aggressive" (attack enemies as soon as they come within range, and pursue fleeing enemies indefinitely), "Defensive" (attack enemies as soon as they come within range, but only pursue them a short distance), "Hold the ground" (units defend their position and do not pursue the enemy), and "Passive" (units do not attack the enemy unless they are attacked first). As well as these four stances, the player also has three formations from which to choose: line, column, and free formation.
Heroes are also an important element of combat. They have more health points and are stronger than normal units, and they can acquire special abilities when they level up. In some missions, if the player's hero dies, the mission is immediately over. Players also have access to support units - for the Spartans there are Mysteries (can heal individual troops and see through the fog of war) and Flautists (can raise troop morale, making them stronger in battle), and for the Macedonians there are Mysteries and Magians (can temporarily control enemy troops and create a circle of fire around allied troops).
Another element of combat is the use of war machines, with both races using chariots, battle chariots, siege towers, and catapults. War machines must be researched before they can be manufactured, and once built, they require either workers or soldiers to operate them. As with equipment, the player can commandeer the opponents' war machines. The game also features naval combat, with three different types of ship available: light battleships (Biremes), heavy battleships (Triremes), and barges, which are defenceless and are used to transport large groups of soldiers and equipment. As with equipment and war machines, the player can commandeer the opponents' ships. There are also horses available for both races. As with equipment, war machines, and ships, the player can commandeer the opponents' animals.
Plot.
The Spartan campaign.
The campaign begins in 396 BC. Agesilaus II has been king of Sparta for two years and is presiding over a period of increased aggression. Having already taken control of Ephesus, and with his mind bent on Spartan hegemony over all of the Peloponnese, Agesilaus turns his attention to Elis. Offering protection, friendship, and trade, in return for subservience, he is infuriated when the city resists Spartan rule. He acknowledges that he has no desire to wage war on his fellow Greeks, but, nevertheless, he refuses to allow his authority to be rebuked in such a manner. Accompanied by his senior-most general, Cleombrotus, Agesilaus defeats Elis and then focuses on Heraclea Trachinia, which also resists Spartan hegemony, much to his ongoing bewilderment.
Upon successfully conquering Heraclea, Agesilaus heads to Asia Minor to begin liberating Greek states from Persian control. Having successfully defeated the Persians in a number of small battles, the Spartans then head to Sardis, home of the Persian king, Darius II. They attack and capture the city.
Returning to Greece, Agesilaus is shocked to find the Athenians have formed an alliance with Thebes, Corinth, and Argos against the Spartans, with the alliance backed by the remnants of the Achaemenid Empire. At the Battle of Nemea, the Spartans defeat the Athenians. They then turn their attention to the Thebans, and are victorious at the Battle of Coronea. However, as Agesilaus celebrates, he is approached by a soldier who informs him that although they have won, the army has been decimated. Agesilaus vows to continue the policy of Spartan aggression, stating that if he must, he will enlist women, children, and the elderly, but Cleombrotus reminds him that the Spartan treasury is empty. As Agesilaus rages, Cleombrotus points out that Sparta's time as the most dominant power in the Eastern Mediterranean may have reached its natural conclusion.
The Macedonian campaign.
It is 336 BC. As Celombrotus predicted, Spartan dominance has waned, as has the influence of the Achaemenid Empire, which is now ruled by Darius III. Two years before the game begins, King Philip II of Macedon invaded Greece and defeated an Athenian and Theban army at the Battle of Chaeronea. Compelling the majority of the Greek city-states to join the League of Corinth, Philip next invaded Persia, appointing his eighteen-year-old son Alexander as his senior-most general. However, Philip died early in the campaign, and Alexander was forced to assume power, even at his young age.
Most of Persia surrendered quickly, but a few cities resist, one of which is Miletus. At the Siege of Miletus, Alexander successfully conquers the city. He next heads to Issus, where Darius has amassed a huge army. At the Battle of Issus, Alexander is again victorious and begins to move through Persian territory, capturing whatever cities don't surrender. However, Philotas, commander of the Companion cavalry, is accused of conspiring against Alexander and is put to death. This enrages his father, Parmenion, Alexander's senior-most advisor. In retaliation for the death of his son, Parmenion kidnaps Alexander and imprisons him in a Persian stronghold. However, Alexander is able to escape, returning to the stronghold with his army, and putting Parmenion to death.
Alexander next heads to Egypt. Seeing him as their salvation from Persian occupation, the people welcome him, and in 332, he is officially recognised as Pharaoh. Shortly thereafter, a small rebellion against Macedonian rule begins, led by Khabbabash, a former slave. Unwilling to tolerate any resistance, Alexander defeats and kills Khabbabash, learning that the real organiser of the rebellion is Cambyses, the former Persian satrap of Egypt. At Avaris, Alexander defeats Cambyses, and subsequently presides over victory after victory. Eventually, he reaches India. Throughout the land, rajas submit, until the only place west of the Ganges not under Alexander's control is Cathai. Traditionally a fractured tribalist region, with the arrival of Alexander, the various factions in Cathai unite under the leadership of Taxiles. At the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326, Alexander is once again victorious, defeating the Cathai resistance, and completing his conquest of the known world.
However, only three years later, he would die and his vast empire would splinter and collapse, although his legacy would live forever. As the face of the Mediterranean changes, the balance of power in the region shifts once again, just as it had done when the Spartans gave way to the Macedonians. This time, the dominant power comes from the west - Rome.
Reception.
The game received mainly negative reviews, with an aggregate score of 52 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on eleven reviews.
"2404.org"s Björn Holine scored it 6.5 out of 10, finding it "terribly generic" and "indistinguishable from the first instalment." He was especially critical of the LAN-only multiplayer, the AI, and the pathfinding, particularly the pathfinding for ships, which he called "wretched". He concluded by citing "average gameplay, average storyline, average graphics, average sound...you get the picture."
"IGN"s Steve Butts scored it 6 out of 10. He too was critical of the pathfinding, which he referred to as "downright atrocious", with managing ships feeling like "an exercise in frustration." He was also critical of the lack of tactics during combat. He was impressed with the graphics, writing "the units look great up close and from afar, and their animations are realistic and dynamic," but he concluded, "the pathing problems and the lack of excitement at the tactical level don't provide a strong enough framework for the good parts of the game to really shine through."
"GameSpot"s Brett Todd scored it 5.5 out of 10. He too was critical of the AI and LAN-only multiplayer, calling the game "a paint-by-numbers production in every way", "formulaic", and "simplistic". Of the lack of combat tactics, he wrote, "all you ever have to do on a map is churn out troops as quickly as possible and hurl them at the enemy base." He was also unimpressed with the graphics, citing "flickering, artifacting, a shudder effect that makes the whole screen seem to shimmer, and no support for widescreen."
"GamesRadar+"s Jim Rossignol scored it 2.5 out of 5, calling it "ponderously predictable" and "below the standard we can recommend." He compared it unfavourably to "".
"GamingExcellence"s Nicholas Bale scored it 4.6 out of 10, criticising the LAN-only multiplayer and finding it an "extremely basic, paint-by-the-numbers RTS that seems more like a title from a decade ago." He concluded, ""Great War Nations: The Spartans" is just such a generic game that it's hard to recommend at all. Even the parts that do stand out don't perform well."


List of programs broadcast by History (American TV network)

This is an incomplete list of television programs formerly or currently broadcast by History/H2 in the United States.


Timewatch

Timewatch is a long-running British television series showing documentaries on historical subjects, spanning all human history. It was first broadcast on 29 September 1982 and is produced by the BBC.
The "Timewatch" brandname is used as a banner title in the UK, but many of the individual documentaries are unbranded with BBC continuity outside the domestic British market.
Episodes.
Viewer figures are taken from the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board Ltd. website for the day that the episode was first aired.


Edward Penny

Edward Penny (1 August 1714 – 16 November 1791) was an English portrait and historical painter, one of the founder members of the Royal Academy.
Life.
He one of the twin elder sons of Robert Penny, surgeon, by Clare, daughter of William Trafford, of Swythamley, Staffordshire, and was born at Knutsford, Cheshire in 1714. He was sent to London and placed under the tuition of Thomas Hudson; later he went to Rome and studied under Marco Benefiale. He returned to England about 1748, and began his professional career by painting small whole-lengths; later he painted more demanding subjects.
Penny appears to have joined the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1762; but with Benjamin West, Richard Wilson, and others, then withdrew because of internal frictions. In December 1768 he was nominated one of the foundation members of the Royal Academy of Arts, and its first professor of painting. He then ceased to exhibit, and was obliged by ill-health to resign the professorship of painting, in which he was succeeded by James Barry.
Penny died at Chiswick on 16 November 1791, and was buried with his wife at Chessington, Surrey.
Works.
In 1762 Penny exhibited a small whole-length of a lady and a scene in "Jane Shore". In 1763 he sent to the exhibition in Spring Gardens a scene from the "Aminta" of Tasso, and a small whole-length of George Edwards the ornithologist; in 1764, "The Death of General Wolfe", which was engraved by Richard Houston, and a scene illustrating Jonathan Swift's "Description of a City Shower"; in 1765, "The Marquess of Granby relieving a Sick Soldier", engraved by Richard Houston, and "The Return from the Fair"; in 1767, "The Husbandman's Return from Work"; and in 1768, "The Generous Behaviour of the Chevalier Bayard", engraved by William Pether.
To the first exhibition in 1769 he contributed the smithy scene from Shakespeare's "King John", which was engraved by Houston, and to that of 1770 "Imogen discovered in the Cave". In 1772 he exhibited "Lord Clive explaining to the Nabob the Situation of the Invalids in India", and "Rosamond and Queen Eleanor"; in 1774, "The Profligate punished by Neglect and Contempt" and "The Virtuous comforted by Sympathy and Attention", a pair engraved by Valentine Green; in 1776, "Jane Shore led to do Penance at St. Paul's"; in 1779, "The Return from the Chase"; in 1780, "Apparent Dissolution" (sold according to information in the Witt Library, London, wrongly catalogued as by Walton, 'A Mishap' by Christies, New York, USA) and "Returning Animation" (English private collection) a pair engraved by William Sedgwick; in 1781, "Lavinia discovered gleaning"; and in 1782, "The Benevolent Physician", "The Rapacious Quack", and "Widow Costard's Cow and Goods, distrained for rent, are redeemed by the generosity of Johnny Pearmain".
He was the author of a course of lectures on the art of painting. They were never published, but were left by his will to his nephew, the Ven. George Buckley Bower, archdeacon of Richmond.
Family.
Penny married, after 1753 and before 1768, Elizabeth, daughter of John Simmons of Millbank, Westminster and widow of Richard Fortnam, who possessed valuable leasehold property on the Grosvenor estate in London. She died at Chiswick in 1791.
References.
etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/4677


Blaise Nicholas Le Sueur

Blaise Nicholas Le Sueur, 1716–1783, German painter and engraver of allegorical and historical subjects. As director of the Berlin Academy of Art, he was influential in the development of the landscape painter Jacob Philipp Hackert and historical painter Bernhard Rode. Although he was director of the academy, he gave instruction to students informally, in his home, and only in basic drawing.


Emilio Jacinto Mauri

Emilio Jacinto Mauri Ivern (9 March 1855, La Guaira - 18 February 1908, Caracas) was a Venezuelan painter who specialized in portraits; mostly of an historical nature.
Biography.
His father was Spanish and his mother was French. After 1861, his family lived in Nantes, where he began his education at the local Jesuit school. He originally planned to pursue a career in medicine and worked at the hospital there, but eventually decided to devote himself to painting instead.
When he came of legal age, he moved to Paris and enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied with Jean-Léon Gérôme, then transferred to the Académie Julian to study with Jean-Paul Laurens. He also received private lessons in the workshop of . During this time, he received "Honorable Mention" for an exhibition at the Salon. Later, he received a commission from the Ministry of Public Instruction to restore the frescos at the palace of the Marquis de Saint Paul.
In 1874, upon the invitation of President Antonio Guzmán Blanco, he returned to the country of his birth to participate in ongoing cultural reforms. In 1883, he exhibited at the "Exposición Nacional de Venezuela", celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Simón Bolívar, winning a bronze medal. In 1884, as the result of his work in Paris, he was commissioned to do restoration at the "Church of Our Lady Of Mercy" in Caracas.
Three years later, he was named the first Director of the new "Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes de Caracas", modelled after its French counterpart. He held that position until his death. In 1893, he showed several canvases at the
World Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
His best-known portrait is probably that of Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi, painted in 1899 on the occasion of her 100th birth anniversary. It is currently on display at the Palacio Federal Legislativo and has been used on several Venezuelan postage stamps and banknotes. Other familiar portraits include those of Generals Francisco de Miranda and Joaquín Crespo.


Andrea Appiani the Younger

Andrea Appiani, "the younger" (1817–1865) who was the great-nephew of the painter of the same name, was born in 1817. He studied at Rome under Minardi and Francesco Hayez, and became a good historical painter. He was employed by the King of Italy, the Emperor of Austria, and other personages of celebrity. Of his works may be mentioned "Petrarch and Laura" (1852); "Laban and Jacob", and "La povera Maria" (1859). He died in 1865.


Catherine Was Great

Catherine Was Great is a 1944 play written by and starring Mae West. The play was a dramatisation of the life of the Russian monarch Catherine the Great. The play ran for 191 performances and then went on tour. It was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd and used costumes by Tony Award winning designer Mary Percy Schenck.
West had originally attempted to develop her script as a film in 1938 and 1939 before its appearance on Broadway. The development of West film may have been hampered by the success of Marlene Dietrich's 1934 film of Catherine the Great's life, "The Scarlet Empress". The play opened at the Shubert Theatre on 2 August 1944. Previews had been held in Philadelphia. The premier Todd only sold tickets to purchasers of American war bonds, with the opening night of the play raising $4 million ().
West's biographer, Simon Louvish, described the play as West's opportunity to finally "prove herself a great dramatic actress". West surrounded herself with an "imperial guard" of tall, muscular young actors.
West claimed to have received a psychic message from Catherine the Great "urging her to take the role seriously".West described her interpretation of Catherine's life as ""a pre-incarnation" of myself. A Slavic-Germanic Diamond Lil, just as low in vivid sexuality, but on a higher plane of authority". Ramona Curry in her book "Too Much of a Good Thing: Mae West as Cultural Icon", contextualises West's performance as Catherine as part of her portrayals of historically powerful women and her persona of feminine strength and power.
The critic Howard Barnes wrote that West "returned to Broadway last night, decked out like a battleship in a swimming pool" but also described the play as "incredibly boring and monotonous" and West's dramatic abilities as "more limited than ever". Louvish described West's performance as Catherine alienating her critics and audience with her "standard wide Brooklyn tones".
The play was affected by a plagiarism suit; the writers George S. George and Vadim Uraneff sued West for plagiarism for $450,000 (), as did the writers Edwin K. O'Brien and Michael Karr who alleged that they supplied West with material on Catherine the Great in 1938. O'Brien and Karr's suit was resolved in 1948.


Viking Raiders

Viking Raiders is a computer game developed by Mark Lucas for the ZX Spectrum and released by Firebird in 1984. It can be played by two to four players, both human and computer.
Gameplay.
A turn-based strategy, which involves moving boats, men, and catapults to capture the castle of each opponent. Playing pieces can move in any direction up to a distance of nine grid squares in a straight line, obstacles permitting. Collecting extra gold in the game allows players to buy further units.
During the game, winter sets in and freezes over ever increasing sections of water, which in turn can trap the players' boats. To win the game the player must defeat all opponents by attacking their castles, which may take several attempts. When a castle is captured, the defeated player's units are transferred to the victor. Players also have to be wary of hazards such as drinking horns; men who drink these move around the playing area erratically, fighting any units they encounter, but may be captured by an opposing army. However, the drunk Vikings also have a random 'invincibility' about them, which can occasionally lead to one of them - laden with Dutch courage - taking out most of an opposition army.


John Quidor

John Quidor (January 26, 1801 – December 13, 1881) was an American painter of historical and literary subjects. He has about 35 known canvases, most of which are based on Washington Irving's stories about Dutch New York, drawing inspiration from the Hudson Valley and from such English painters as William Hogarth, Isaac Cruikshank, James Gillray, Joseph Wright of Derby, and George Morland.
Biography.
John Quidor was born in 1801 in Tappan, New York. His family moved to New York City in 1810. In 1818, at the age 17, he began an apprenticeship with John Wesley Jarvis (where artist Henry Inman was also training), which was the only artistic training he received. The apprenticeship was not a success. Quidor felt that Jarvis did not pay sufficient attention to him, favoring Inman over him, leading Quidor in 1822 to sue Jarvis for breach of indenture, winning damages of $251.35. Because he had to admit that he had received inadequate training, the lawsuit damaged his reputation more than Jarvis'.
Following his apprenticeship, Quidor earned a living by painting banners and doing decorative work on steamboats and fire engines for New York's fire companies. None of his decorative work is known to have survived. Starting in 1823, he began creating paintings based on literary themes, including, his first two efforts, "Dorothea" and “Don Quixote Imagines Melisendra’s Rescue by a Moor” both paintings based on the Miguel de Cervantes novel, Don Quixote; then following with Washington Irving's short stories "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle" and James Fenimore Cooper's book "The Pioneers". During this part of his career, he took on Thomas Bangs Thorpe and Charles Loring Elliott as his apprentices. Of his time working for Quidor, Thorpe recalled that "in all the time we were with Quidor, many months, I do not remember of his giving us anything but easel room and one or two very common engravings to copy. He would absent himself from his studio for days and weeks together. When present, if not painting on a banner or engine back, he would generally lie at full length on the long bench."
A fire destroyed Quidor's studio, located at 46 Canal Street, on December 16, 1835. That incident, combined with two major cholera outbreaks in the area and a financial crash in the late 1830s, led Quidor to abandon New York. He moved to Quincy, Illinois, in 1837, and, in 1844, purchased an $8,000 farm, which he paid for by painting eight large religious canvases based on engravings of works by Benjamin West. These canvases were exhibited in New York in 1847, but their whereabouts and status are currently unknown.
In 1851 Quidor returned to New York where he stayed until his retirement in 1869. During this period, his style changed. He simplified his compositions and used a narrower range of colors, which he thinned with varnish so that his stylized, nervously rendered figures nearly disappeared into hazy backgrounds. He apparently stopped painting in 1868. He lived in Jersey City, New Jersey, where his eldest daughter lived, from 1869 until his death in 1881.
Career.
Little appreciated in his time, Quidor was rediscovered as an important figure in American art after a 1942 exhibition of his works at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
His paintings establish a mysterious romantic setting for scenes in which he mingled macabre elements with an earthy humor. Many of his works, such as "The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane", in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, were inspired by the writings of Washington Irving, who was a personal friend. Irving's "A History of New York" gave Quidor the subjects for the four paintings in the Brooklyn Museum of Art: "Dancing on the Battery" (c. 1860), "Peter Stuyvesant's Wall Street Gate" (1864), "Voyage of the Good Oloff up the Hudson" (1866), and "The Voyage from Communipaw to Hell Gate" (1866). These show Quidor's characteristic mellow and harmonious color, poetic imagination, and naïve humor.
Also in the Brooklyn Museum of Art are his three paintings "Dorothea", "Money Diggers", and "Wolfert's Will". He sometimes painted religious subjects, such as "Jesus Blessing the Sick".


Charles Lucy

Charles Lucy (July 1814 – 19 May 1873) was a British artist during the Victorian era who, while he was a talented portraitist, mainly focused on the history painting genre and whose work was mainly exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, England.
Charles Lucy was born at Norton Canon, Herefordshire in England in July 1814 and according to family records, he was his parent's first born child. His family descended from the Lucys of Charlecote, Warwickshire, who afterwards settled in Worcestershire.
He is best known for his painting of "The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, which is displayed" in the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Massachusetts, in the United States of America. His other notable work include his engravings of Oliver Cromwell and a painting called, "The Burial of King Charles the First," in St. George's Chapel of "Windsor Castle," which was sold by the London auction house, Bonhams, in October 11, 2006.
For sixteen years Mr. Lucy took up his residence in Paris, Barbizon and Fountainebleu, where he reared his children with his wife, Ann. He continued to maintain his connection with Hereford, of which, according to the "Freeman's Roll", he was admitted a "freeman" on July 29, 1841, thereby bestowing Mr. Lucy with certain rights and privileges within his native city. But it was while he was in France that he executed several of his greatest works, before he returned to London, where he resided until his death.
He died on 19 May 1873 from liver cancer and was buried in Highgate Cemetery, located in North London, England. The estate sale of his studio's contents included unsold paintings and was held at the London auction house, Christie's, on the 4th and 5 June 1875.
Early life.
Charles Lucy had a natural affinity for painting. He spent his spare time painting anything he could get his hands on. As a child, he was even known to prepare his own colours and manufacture his own brushes. His memoriam in The Hereford Times' noted that "his natural bent from a very early age was towards painting, and he began to practice it without instruction, until aided by friends, he devoted his life to art. With that view he decided to go to London to pursue his studies." At the early age of 15, he apprenticed for his maternal uncle, Mr. Price Griffiths, who was a chemist in Hereford, but he was so passionate about art that he would sneak lantern into his room, so he could paint all night long. The "self-taught" young Mr. Lucy "commenced his career as a painter of portraits, his father being one of the earliest of his productions." According to family records, "he soon left his uncle's establishment, and became an earnest in the art in which he so ably succeeded; and for several years travelled in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands, and returned to England about the year 1836." Family writings revealed that "he then competed with Mr. Frost (who was also self-taught) for the gold medal of The Royal Academy of Arts, with his painting "Prometheus Chained," which is now in the possession of the "Philosophical Society" at Hereford." According to family papers, "Mr. Frost obtained the prize, his picture being the more finished than that of Mr. Lucy, but the latter was generally looked upon as the bolder and more artistic work."
Education.
He first studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, then in Paris under Paul Delaroche at the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1838, he returned to London to attend the Royal Academy of Arts as a student. Thereafter, Mr. Lucy spent two years studying paintings by Old Master in Paris and "The Hague" for a private patron. He also "pursued his studies in the Louvre and other great public galleries."
Career.
Charles Lucy "painted historical subjects and some portraits, which were frequently engraved." He exhibited his first historical painting, "The Interview between Milton and Galileo," in 1840 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. After his first historical painting, "The Interview between Milton and Galileo," was hung in 1840" at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Mr. Lucy divided his time between England and France. He lived in Barbizon for 16 years, but rather than joining the landscape painters there, he chose to continue is focus on significant scenes in British history. In 1847, he painted “Embarkation of the Pilgrim Fathers in the Mayflower," (later retitled: "Departure of the Pilgrims from Delft Haven"), which won him a prize bestowed by Prince Albert at the prestigious Westminster Hall competition in London in the same year. It was also one of the first pieces to bring Mr. Lucy attention on the east side of the English Channel. It would not be long before, "he was a regular contributor to the fresco competitions for the New Palace of Westminster." In 1848, it too was exhibited it at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Family records show that in 1838 Mr. Lucy "receiv[ed] considerable distinction and much practice as a rising artist [after he] obtained the "Two Hundred Guineas Prize" at the Exhibition of Cartoons in Westminster Hall, for his painting of "The Pilgrim Fathers Embarking for America," which [resulted] in the late Sir Robert Peel taking great notice of him." Of all his work, Mr. Lucy is best known for his 1848 painting, "The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers A.D. 1620," which is currently displayed in the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Massachusetts, in the United States of America. Thereafter, Mr. Lucy served as the elected chairman of the committee of the "New British Institution" since its foundation in 1869 and "for many years was instructor at a drawing and design school in Camden Town, which he founded along with Thomas Seddon, Cave Thomas and one or two others. Unfortunately, "owing to want of funds, not withstanding the good services it was doing, [the school] was subsequently handed over to the government."
Fatal Illness and Death.
Charles Lucy's memoriam in The Hereford Times noted that "his illness was of long standing, having begun some ten years ago; and for the past four years has been steadily gaining upon his vital powers," which "prevent[ed] him from executing many commissions offered to him." Ultimately, Mr. Lucy died from a complication of diseases, including cancer of the liver, which caused him severe suffering for four weeks until his demise, but that he endured "with his usual and quiet fortitude of spirit." A week before he passed, his death seemed imminent from water overflowing the heart, but the crisis rather brought relief in the bursting of a small tumour on the liver. Mr. Lucy "was not conscious of the fatal nature of his illness, and almost to the [very end] expressed his conviction that he would soon recover and be able to 'go down to Hereford' in order to take sittings of Mr. Rankin for the Memorial Portrait, which he had been selected to execute." He was resilient until the very end, passing "away from his agonies without a sigh or a struggle; while pressing the loved hands which he held, his breathing ceased and all was over." The Hereford Times' memorandum of Mr. Lucy noted that John Henry Foley, "the eminent sculptor, has taken a cast of the head and face of the deceased, whose fine expressive features are described as singularly beautiful in death." However, whether Mr. Foley made a sculpture of this cast remains to be seen.
Charles Lucy passed away in his residence,13 Ladbroke Crescent, in Notting Hill, London on 19 May 1873 at the age of fifty-nine. He was to have turned 60 in July of the same year. He left behind "a sorrowing widow, Ann - the daughter of the late Mr. Thomas Bishop, town councillor of Hereford, and a large family." Mr. Lucy's funeral took place on Saturday, May 24, 1873 at one o'clock in the afternoon at Highgate Cemetery. The estate sale of his studio's contents included unsold paintings and was held at the London auction house, Christie's, on the 4th and 5 June 1875.


The Time of Their Lives

The Time of Their Lives is a 1946 American fantasy-comedy film starring the comedic duo Abbott and Costello and directed by Charles Barton.
Plot.
In 1780, master tinker Horatio Prim arrives at the Kings Point estate of Tom Danbury. Although Horatio has failed to raise enough money to buy Danbury's housemaid, Nora O'Leary out of indentured servitude, he carries a letter of commendation from Gen. George Washington that he hopes will persuade Danbury to let them marry. Unfortunately, Horatio has a romantic rival in Danbury's devious butler, Cuthbert Greenway, who tries to prevent Horatio from presenting his letter. Nora, however, rushes off to show the letter to Danbury, but she inadvertently overhears Danbury discussing his part in Benedict Arnold's plot. Danbury seizes Nora and hides the letter in a secret compartment in the mantel clock. Danbury's fiancée, Melody Allen, standing outside the window, witnesses this betrayal and enlists Horatio's help to ride off and warn Washington's army. But American troops on their way to arrest Tom overrun the estate, loot it and set it ablaze. Melody and Horatio are mistakenly shot as traitors, and their bodies are cast into a well. Their souls are condemned to remain bound to the estate until their innocence can be proved.
For the next 166 years the ghosts of Horatio and Melody roam the grounds of the estate. In 1946, after the estate has been rebuilt and restored with much of its original furnishings, playwright Sheldon Gage invites his fiancée, June Prescott, her Aunt Millie, and his psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenway, a descendant of Cuthbert, to spend the weekend.
They are greeted by the clairvoyant maid, Emily, who senses that the grounds are haunted. Ghosts Horatio and Melody have some fun with this idea and scare the guests in various ways — especially Greenway, whom Horatio at first mistakes for Cuthbert. Horatio and Melody also find themselves frightened by modern inventions like the electric light and the radio. These supernatural events prompt the newcomers to hold a séance led by Emily. From clues offered by Horatio, Melody and Tom's repentant spirit, they discern the identities of the ghosts and the existence of the letter which can free them.
The group searches for Horatio's letter, but the original mantel clock containing the letter is in a New York museum. Greenway, to atone for the misdeeds of his ancestor, goes to the museum to retrieve the letter. But when museum officials refuse to let him examine the clock, Greenway steals it. He arrives back at the estate where the state police are waiting for him. They arrest Greenway, but are prevented from taking him off the estate by the curse that binds Horatio and Melody to it. When the clock is finally opened and the letter is revealed, Melody and Horatio's innocence is proved and they are freed. Each is called to heaven by a loved one; Melody by Tom, and Horatio by Nora, who meets him at heaven's gate but points to a sign that reads, "Closed for Washington's Birthday." Horatio must wait one more day to get into heaven.
Production.
"The Time of Their Lives" was filmed at Universal Studios from March 6 through May 15, 1946. The working title was "The Ghost Steps Out." It was the first Abbott and Costello film to be directed by Charles Barton, who would go on to helm eight of their movies, including "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948).
As in the duo's preceding film, "Little Giant", Abbott and Costello do not play friends or partners, but are individual characters. Also as in the previous movie, Costello's character is largely the hero, while Abbott plays a somewhat unsympathetic dual role. The team's trademark burlesque routines are absent, and they speak directly to each other only in one scene at the beginning of the film. This change in the comics' onscreen formula was reportedly due to both disappointing box office receipts for their 1945 films "The Naughty Nineties", "Here Come The Co-Eds", and "Abbott and Costello in Hollywood", and personal tensions that led to a brief break up that year.
Advertising materials for the film depicted both Abbott and Costello in modern clothes, and gave no indication that the film was part period piece or fantasy.
Bud Abbott, who had epilepsy and never learned to drive, learned to drive for one scene in this film. According to his son, Bud Abbott, Jr., this was the only time in his life he ever drove an automobile.
A few weeks into filming, Costello wanted to switch roles with Abbott. He refused to report to work, but director Charles Barton waited him out. Costello eventually returned, said nothing more about it, and continued in the same role.
Reception.
Although the film was a departure from the usual Abbott and Costello formula, "Variety" magazine called it "a picnic for Abbott and Costello fans" that "won't shock the patrons with any unfamiliar novelties...Direction is well-aimed at the belly-laugh level, and the trick photography is handled with flawless technique." "Motion Picture Daily" wrote, "Any resemblance between this and the last half dozen Abbott and Costello pictures is so slight and incidental as to be written off completely by the showmen whose customers used to raise the rafters with shouts and screams of laughter in the dawn of the A. and C. era. The audience present at the previewing of "The Time of Their Lives" at the Forum Theater in Los Angeles all but rolled in the aisles with merriment, exactly as in the good old days." The "Hollywood Reporter" wrote, "By long odds, it is the best A&C show to date."
Trade critic sentiment did not translate into box-office, however. Abbott and Costello slipped to 20th place overall (but 12th among independent theater owners) in the 1946 "Motion Picture Herald" poll of top money making stars after placing 11th overall (and 12th among independent theater owners) in 1945.
Re-release.
The film was re-released in 1951, along with "Little Giant".
Home media.
The film has been released three times on VHS: 1989, 1991, and 2000. It has also been released twice on DVD: "The Best of Abbott and Costello Volume Two" on May 4, 2004; and on October 28, 2008 as part of "Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection".


Lucky Luke Go West


Peter Janssen

Johann Peter Theodor Janssen (12 December 1844, Düsseldorf – 19 February 1908, Düsseldorf) was a German historical painter.
Biography.
He was born at Düsseldorf, son of the engraver (1817–1894), by whom he was first instructed before studying at the Academy under Karl Sohn and Bendemann. He is principally known through a series of decorative works whose monumental style and sound naturalism won him a reputation as one of the foremost historical painters of his time. He became professor at the Düsseldorf Academy in 1877 and its director in 1895, and was elected a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1885. In Berlin he worked also for Emil Hünten. His more important mural paintings include:
Of his oil paintings, the "Denial of Peter" is in the Academy at Philadelphia; the "Infancy of Bacchus" (1882) excited great admiration at the International Exhibition in Munich; and "Walther Dodde and the Peasants of Berg before the Battle of Worringen, 1288" (Düsseldorf Gallery), a composition of great dramatic power, containing many life-size figures, was awarded the great gold medal in Berlin in 1893.
He was the brother of sculptor Karl Janssen whose works include the monument to the Kaiser at Düsseldorf, and "Woman Hewing Stone," in the National Gallery, Berlin.


Hendrick de Somer

Hendrick de Somer, often erroneously referred to as Hendrick van Someren or Hendrick van Somer, known in Italy as Enrico Fiammingo and Henrico il Fiamingo (Lokeren or Lochristi, 1607 – probably Naples, c. 1655) was a Flemish painter who spent most of his life and career in Italy where he was mainly active in Naples. He was known for his religious and mythological compositions and occasional genre painting. His style was initially influenced by the Spanish painter Jusepe de Ribera who worked in Naples and was a follower of Caravaggio. Later the painter became influenced by the neo-Venetian and Bolognese schools. He is considered one of the leading Netherlandish painters working in Naples in the first half of the 17th century.
Life.
Hendrick de Somer is generally identified with the 'Enrico Fiammingo' mentioned as a pupil of Jusepe de Ribera by the Italian art historian and painter Bernardo de' Dominici in the "Vite dei Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti Napolitani" (Lives of the Neapolitan Painters, Sculptors, and Architects) (1742-1743). Until quite recently the artist was confused with a Dutch painter from Amsterdam with an almost identical name called Hendrick van Someren or Hendrick van Somer. The credit for discovering the true identity of Hendrick de Somer is due to Ulisse Prota-Giurleo who discovered a record of an 'Enrico de Somer' acting as a witness in a legal procedure relating to the marriage of the painter Viviano Codazzi in Naples. In the document the painter stated that he was at the time 29 years old and had lived in Naples for 12 years. This statement makes it possible to identify the year of his birth as 1607 and to fix the year of his arrival in Naples as 1624. The statement further names the artist's father as 'Gil'.
Further research by art historians revealed that Hendrick de Somer had left Flanders for Italy where he settled in Naples in 1624. He may have travelled with his family or have been received by a family member already resident in Naples. He remained active in that city until 1655.
Not long after arriving in Naples, de Somer was admitted to the workshop of Jusepe de Ribera, the leading Spanish painter in Naples at the time. He married a local woman with whom he had children. He had close links with artists in Naples such as Viviano Codazzi and Domenico Gargiulo with whom he also collaborated. He was also familiar with the Dutch artist Matthias Stom who worked in Naples in the 1630s. He was a Kirchmeister (church master) of the German-Flemish brotherhood in Naples. During Somer's residence the Flemish community in Naples had become smaller than in the early 16th century when artists such as Louis Finson were active in the city. This explains why de Somer became so fully integrated in Naples' social and artistic communities and became more a Neapolitan than a Flemish painter.
There are no records about Hendrick de Somer after 1656, indicating that he may have been one of the victims of the 1656 plague in Naples.
Work.
The catalogue of works of Hendrick de Somer compiled in 2014 contained 87 works. His works deal principally with biblical and mythological subject matter. The attributions of work to Hendrick de Somer are based principally on the only three signed and dated works by de Somer: the of 1635 in a private Roman collection and two versions of St. Jerome in the desert, one in the Trafalgar Galleries in London from 1651, the in the Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Barberini in Rome from 1652. The latter originally carried a fake de Ribera signature, which had been painted over the signature 'Enrico So[mer] f. and the date '1652'. Another key work for identifying the artist's work is the altarpiece of the (Naples, Santa Maria della Sapienza) of 1641, which can be attributed with certainty to de Somer since the documentation relating to its commission has been preserved. This early work shows the artist's close connection with de Ribera. In particular it shows similarities with the "Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian" of Ribera (Museo di Capodimonte). Another influence in this work is the of Caravaggio. Later, like many of his Neapolitan colleagues, de Somer moved away from de Ribera's tenebrism in response to the growing taste for Roman-Bolognese art in Naples. His work shows no trace of his Northern origins.
De Somer is believed to have been in contact with Matthias Stom during the latter's stay in Naples in the 1630s. Hendrick's works such as (1635, private collection) and (c. 1635, Banco Commerciale Italiana, Collezione Intesa Sanpaolo) can be seen as de Somer's reaction to the northern realism of Matthias Stom.
In later compositions de Somer reflects influences deriving from the example of other Neapolitan masters who asserted themselves in those years, such as Massimo Stanzione and Bernardo Cavallino. Hendrick's palette moved gradually away from the tenebrism of Ribera and opened up to the neo-Venetian color, which in that period came to replace the chiaroscuro of the Caravaggisti. Works like his multiple versions of "Lot and his daughters" and his are examples of this evolution.
A work with a certain later date is the of 1652 (Rome, Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Barberini). De Somer created many paintings of the saint, as did his master de Ribera who had popularised this theme.


White Slaves (film)

White Slaves () is a 1937 German film directed by Karl Anton. It is also known by the longer title Panzerkreuzer Sebastopol: "Weisse Sklaven" ("Battleship Sevastopol: "White Slaves"") and was later re-released as Rote Bestien ("Red Beasts").
An anti-Soviet propaganda film from the Nazi era, set during the Russian Revolution, the film was designed as a response to Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin".
Plot summary.
In St. Petersburg in 1917 revolution is brewing, but in more far-flung parts of Russia life is apparently carrying on as usual. At Sevastopol the officers on board a battleship are looking forward to its return to port when they will be allowed to fraternise with local girls. Kostja, one of the officers, is particularly excited. He is in love with Marija, the daughter of Sevastopol's Governor.
The deck of the ship is being prepared to become a dance-floor for a party. However, revolutionaries led by the Governor of Sevastopol's disloyal valet, Boris, plan to take over the vessel. They have infiltrated the ship's crew and are waiting for the upcoming party. When the unsuspecting guests arrive for the dance, the rebel crew surround and murder many of them with the now-unarmed officers. The mutineers also kill the loyal crew members. Kostja falls overboard after a struggle with a mutineer. The mutineers then turn the ship's guns on the town. The authorities are forced to surrender to the revolutionaries, who then indulge in an orgy of rape, murder and looting.
Marija and her parents have escaped from the battleship with the help of Kostja's loyal batman, Iwan. Her mother dies from wounds, but Marija and her father hide in a dockside tavern-cum-brothel run by Iwan's girlfriend Sinaida. The former Governor is a confused and broken man, unable to accept what has happened. Meanwhile, Boris is looking for Marija, for whom he has long had a hitherto hopeless desire. Now he wants her for himself. He tracks her down at the tavern. He reveals to her that he is the leader of the revolutionaries, and tells her of his desire for her, but says he only wants her if she agrees of her own free will.
After he leaves Marija gets a message from Kostja, who has survived. He is organising a counter-revolution. Boris lures Kostja into a trap and captures the leading counter-revolutionaries. However, Kostja later escapes. He and a group of supporters retake the battleship and launch a raid on the fortress in which the revolutionaries are holding the prisoners. Believing Kostja is still in captivity, Marija visits Boris to plead with him for Kostja's life. Drunk, Boris attempts to rape her, but Marija's father suddenly enters, kills Boris, and then collapses dead. In a battle between the revolutionaries and their opponents, the prisoners are freed and taken to the battleship. Before leaving port, they blow up the fortress, killing most of the revolutionaries. Marija and Kostja look back on the town, realising they must leave their country, but have the world before them.
Production.
The film was designed as an anti-Communist response to the famous Soviet film "Battleship Potemkin" (1925) by Sergei Eisenstein. It was initially given the working title "Battleship Sevastopol". says in its biography of the director, Karl Anton, that he "served up to the brownshirt rulers a clumsy anti-communist Nazi replica of the Soviet Russian-Revolution film "Battleship Potemkin"". The story was supposedly based on a factual report written by Charlie Roellinghoff. The film passed the censor on 16 December 1936, and was premiered on 5 January 1937.
The exterior filming took place in Yugoslavia and on the armored cruiser "Dubrovnik". The set-designer was Erich Zander. Alfred Stoeger Anton was assistant director.
Distribution.
"White Slaves" was advertised as a "great documentary film from the Russia of the Kerensky revolution". It was very successful at the box office, and was shown up to August 1939 continuously in German cinemas. It was only withdrawn for political reasons as a result of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 "White Slaves" was once more shown in German theatres, this time under a new title, "Red Beasts".
In the U.S., the film was released six months after it was first shown in Germany, under the title "White Slaves".


Adversary in the House

Adversary in the House (1947) is a biographical novel based on the life of prominent socialist Eugene V. Debs and of his wife Kate, who was opposed to socialism.
The book is Irving Stone's portrayal of Eugene V. Debs's "tempestuous relationship with a wife who rejects the very values he holds most dear".


Louis Laguerre

Louis Laguerre (1663 – 20 April 1721) was a French decorative painter mainly working in England.
Born in Versailles in 1663 and trained at the Paris Academy under Charles Le Brun, he came to England in 1683, where he first worked with Antonio Verrio, and then on his own. He rivalled with Sir James Thornhill in the field of history painting, primarily decorating the great houses of the nobility. His wall paintings can be found in Blenheim Palace, Marlborough House, Petworth House, Burghley House Fetcham Park House and Chatsworth House. In the 1980s, a restoration project revealed work by Laguerre at Frogmore House also. His subject matter included English victories over the armies of Louis XIV.
Laguerre painted religious subjects at St Lawrence's Church, Whitchurch, London. In 1731 Alexander Pope wrote,
On painted ceilings you devoutly stare<br>
Where sprawl the saints of Verrio or Laguerre...
which was taken by some contemporaries to be a reference to Laguerre's work for James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos at this church and the nearby Cannons House.
Laguerre was also a director of Godfrey Kneller's London Academy of Drawing and Painting, founded in the autumn of 1711. He died in London on 20 April 1721. His father-in-law was Jean Tijou.


Clemens Bewer

Lambert Clemens Jakob Bewer (30 May 1820, Aachen – 2 September 1884, Bonn) was a German history and portrait painter, in the Romantic style.
Biography.
He began his art studies in the master class of Karl Ferdinand Sohn at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In 1841, he continued his studies in Paris and Rome.
Working in the studios of Paul Delaroche, he acquired his knowledge of coloring technique, then learned copper engraving with Ary Scheffer. He was also required to make copies of works by the Old Masters, such as Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, Titian, Peter Paul Rubens und Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, which were put to use in several small churches.
He returned to Düsseldorf in 1847, where he became associated with the Düsseldorfer Malerschule; a connection he would maintain for over thirty years. In addition to painting, he became a teacher at the Kunstakademie and was named a Professor there in 1869.
He was also a member of (paint box) and, in 1861, became a member of the commission charged with acquiring land for the (also known as the Jacobigarten). He was elected chairman of the in 1864.
In 1876, he moved to Bonn, where he spent his retirement. His eldest son, , pursued a legal career and became an . His youngest son, , was a writer and poet associated with the Völkisch movement. His daughter, Helene, married the Norwegian painter, Hans Dahl.


Missing (opera)

Missing is a 2017 chamber opera with a libretto by Marie Clements and music by Brian Current. Co-commissioned by Pacific Opera Victoria and City Opera Vancouver, its topic is missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Development.
The libretto for the work was developed by Marie Clements prior to the selection of the composer. Four different composers were asked to set a portion of this libretto, and their settings were anonymized and sung before a jury to select the work's ultimate composer (Brian Current).
The compositional style is spare, reminiscent of a "chamber music suite". It "eschews familiar operatic conventions such as showy arias, huge choruses and a linear plot". The opera is in English and Gitxsan, an indigenous language spoken in the traditional territory along much of the Highway of Tears.
Performance history.
The opera's unofficial premiere in November 2017 was before the "community of the missing" in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, one of the opera's two settings. This was followed by a five-night run in each of Vancouver and Victoria later in the month. The show was directed by renowned Canadian director Peter Hinton.
Synopsis.
The opera presents a dual narrative. The primary narrative focuses on Ava, a young white woman who is thrown into a tree during a car crash and sees the body of an indigenous woman known as "Native Girl". This experience makes such an impression on Ava that she adopts many elements of Gitxsan culture, and later sees the murder of Native Girl in her dreams. The secondary narrative focuses on the grief of Native Girl's brother and mother.
Reception.
A review in "Vancouver Magazine" states that "Missing" "lays the foundation for a bridge between two cultural solitudes that must work together... to give birth to a new Canada". According to "Opera Canada", "As an opera, "Missing" is under-written. As an important piece of theatre that builds over its short 80 minutes to a shatteringly emotional conclusion... [it] is something every Canadian should see".


Irish Country series

The Irish Country Novels are an ongoing series of historical fiction books written by Patrick Taylor and published by Forge Books. The first book in the series, "An Irish Country Doctor", was originally published as "The Apprenticeship of Doctor Laverty" by Insomniac Press in 2004 and was short listed for the BC Book awards fiction prize 2005.
"An Irish Country Doctor" became a "New York Times" bestseller upon its republication in 2007 and was named Book of the Month Club's Novel of the Month in March 2007. It has been translated into thirteen other languages.
Several sequels in the series have also become international bestsellers, particularly in Canada, where Taylor has resided since 1970. When "An Irish Country Christmas" appeared in mass market paperback in 2010 it reached No 17 on the "New York Times" and 86 on the "USA Today" bestseller lists.
Set in Ballybucklebo, a fictional village in rural Northern Ireland, the series follows novice doctor Barry Laverty as he begins his assistantship at the practice of Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly. The sixth and eighth books of the series, "A Dublin Student Doctor" and "Fingal O'Reilly, Irish Doctor", explore the life of Dr. O'Reilly prior to the events of "An Irish Country Doctor".


Old News

Old News is a tabloid-format newspaper containing original articles on ancient history and modern history, written in a popular style. It is published six times a year by Susquehanna Times & Publishing Co., of Landisville, Pennsylvania.


The Coronation (film)

The Coronation is a 2018 British television documentary made to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the coronation of Elizabeth II.
It was broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom on 14 January 2018. The documentary also aired on the Smithsonian Channel in the United States on the same day, and was shown on ABC in Australia on 4 February 2018. It was made by Atlantic Productions and distributed by FremantleMedia International.
In the hour-long documentary, Queen Elizabeth II speaks candidly to Alastair Bruce of Crionaich, royal commentator for Sky News, about her experience of the coronation and some of the Crown Jewels used in the ceremony. The Queen has never been interviewed on camera, and the exchange, which often seemed like an interview, was officially described as a "conversation".


Jacques Ignatius de Roore

Jacques Ignatius de Roore or Jacobus Ignatius de Roore (Antwerp, 20 July 1686 – The Hague, 17 July 1747) was a Flemish painter, copyist, art dealer and art collector who worked in the Southern Netherlands and the Dutch Republic.
Life.
De Roore was born in Antwerp in 1686 as the son of Erik de Roore, a dealer in paintings and antiques, and Anna Maria van der Haegen, the daughter of a painter. He started his training as a painter with Jan Sebastiaen Loybos in 1699. He briefly interrupted his artistic studies after his mother died on 15 February 1701 and trained with his uncle Karel van der Haegen as a goldsmith. He was able to start his study of painting again through the intervention of the leading Antwerp painter Abraham Genoels. He trained from 1701 to 1702 with the Brussels tapestry designer Lodewijk van Schoor who had established himself in Antwerp in 1696.
Lodewijk van Schoor died in September 1702. De Roore then left with his new guardian for Brussels in May 1703 to find another teacher but was unsuccessful. He returned to his hometown where he studied for a while with the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp. On 7 December 1705 he won the first prize for life drawing of the Antwerp Academy. On 17 March 1706 he joined the workshop of Gaspar Jacob van Opstal the Younger. In 1707 he became a free master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.
He worked initially as a copyist of the works of the leading Antwerp masters. His first signed work was a religious composition painted for the St. James' Church in Antwerp in 1709. He found it difficult to obtain regular work and wished to leave for Italy in 1710 but was prevented from doing so by his legal guardian. He married Joanna Catharina van der Cammen on 14 February 1712 and had a daughter who died in infancy.
De Roore received commissions for paintings and decorations in the Antwerp City Hall from around 1715. These works gained him a reputation and commissions from patrons in the Dutch Republic, where he worked in Amsterdam in 1720. He returned to Antwerp for a brief period and then took on more commissions in Amsterdam. After the death of his wife in Antwerp on 15 March 1722, de Roore sold all his property in Antwerp and settled in Amsterdam. Subsequently, he moved to Rotterdam and finally to The Hague where he became a member of the local Guild of Saint Luke. In the Dutch Republic the artist worked on multiple decorative paintings for houses in the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague.
Returning briefly to Antwerp in 1728 the artist got married with one of his models who followed him to The Hague. The marriage did not last and his young wife returned to Antwerp. Finding it difficult to find steady work, he became an art dealer and collaborated with the Dutch painter and dealer Gerard Hoet. De Roore and Gerard Hoet reportedly negotiated an agreement for the sale of van Dyck's "St Martin Dividing his Cloak" but were stopped by the local villagers from removing the painting from the church in Zaventem where it was located.
De Roore restored and expanded old master paintings. It is known that he expanded at least five works of Melchior de Hondecoeter. In 1740 he received a large commission to decorate all walls of a room in the Amsterdam residence of Gerard Arnout Hasselaer on the Keizersgracht. For this commission de Roore produced a series of paintings based on the story of Pandora. All of de Roore's decorative work that he produced in the Netherlands has disappeared.
De Roore died on 17 July 1747 in The Hague leaving a substantial art collection, which was subsequently auctioned off.
Work.
Jacques Ignatius de Roore painted mainly historical subjects and portraits. He was best known for his decorative ceiling and wall paintings and a few altarpieces. He also produced imitations and copies of the great Flemish masters such as Rubens, van Dyck and David Teniers II.
Paintings by de Roore are in the collections of the Louvre Museum (the '), the Rijksmuseum (the ') and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (' and ').


Bog Child

Bog Child is a historical novel by Siobhan Dowd published by David Fickling (UK) and Random House Children's Books (US) on September 9, 2008, more than a year after her death. Set in the 1980s amid the backdrop of the Troubles of Northern Ireland, it features an 18-year-old boy who must study for exams but experiences "his imprisoned brother's hunger strike, the stress of being a courier for the provisional IRA, and dreams of a murdered girl whose body he discovered in a bog." In flashback and dream there are elements of the murdered girl's prehistoric or protohistoric life and death.
Dowd and "Bog Child" were named winners of the annual Carnegie Medal, recognising the year's best children's book published in the U.K.
Plot summary.
The novel is set in the 1980s. Fergus McCann and Uncle Tally find a bog body of a small girl near the Ireland-UK border. At the same time, Fergus is studying for his A-levels. He makes friends with Owain, one of the border guards, during one of his morning runs across the border. He opens many conversations with Owain when he goes back to the site of the bog child, Fergus meets Cora and Felicity O'Brien, a girl his age and her archaeologist mother. Fergus named the bog body "Mel". He goes to Long Kesh prison with his mother to meet his brother, Joe, who has been incarcerated as a prisoner because of his involvement with the Irish Republican Army.
He has joined his friends on a hunger strike. After lifting Mel's body from the site, the excavation team, including Fergus and Cora, find that Mel has a noose around her neck. A flashback shows Mel and her family struggling to meet loan repayments. Fergus was asked by Michael Rafters to ferry packets across the border in an attempt to end his brother's hunger strike. Fergus and Cora share their accidental first kiss but begin dating afterwards. After his final A-level exam, physics, Fergus and his family visit his brother in prison to find him gaunt-looking. He gets drunk and dreams about Mel talking to Rur, her love interest. When he wakes up, Cora informs him that Mel was a dwarf. Fergus allows Cora and her mother to stay over at his place due to an appointment with a professor about Mel.
Radiocarbon dating reveals that Mel lived around AD 80. After a bombing is shown on the news, Fergus begins to suspect the packets he has been ferrying. He opens them in front of Owain to see condoms and contraceptive pills. Joe falls into a coma after 50 days of fasting. After a heated argument between Fergus and his parents they agree to put him on the drip. Through a series of dreams, Fergus sees the events leading to Mel's death with Rur stabbing her at her request because she did not want to "feel the noose" around her neck. It is also found out at the end that Fergus' Uncle Tally actually is a local bomb-maker, nicknamed Deus, meaning "god", and was killed after resisting arrest. Right after this Fergus went off to medicine school to complete his studies.
Inspiration.
Dowd says that her inspiration for the book was the 1981 Irish hunger strike. She says that BBC's Timewatch was an "inspirational programme on recent discoveries of bog people in Ireland". She also mentions "the classic "The Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved" by P. V. Glob" in the same context.
Reception.
"Bog Child" received many accolades:
In review for "The Guardian", Meg Rosoff commends Dowd for being "incapable of a jarring phrase or a lazy metaphor. Her sentences sing; each note resonates with an urgent humanity of the sort that cannot be faked." Nicolette Jones from The Times comments that the book is "psychologically and historically convincing, showing the impact of politics on domestic life". Booktrust Children's Books commends Fergus for being "an immensely likeable character whose story, along with that of the bog child, will long stay with those who read it". In retrospect Rosoff observed, "it is, for me, clearly a book written by a dying woman. ... [about] how her voice comes back from beyond the grave."


Line of Fire (2002 TV series)

Line of Fire is a film documentary produced by Cromwell Productions that shows historical battlefields presented in an animated environment.


Lord Grizzly

Lord Grizzly is a 1954 biographical novel by Frederick Manfred. It describes the survival ordeal of a real mountain man, Hugh Glass, who was attacked by a bear and abandoned in the wilderness by his companions (a young Jim Bridger and John S. Fitzpatrick), on the assumption he could not possibly live. Glass, with a broken leg and open wounds, had to crawl most of the way to Fort Kiowa to reach safety. When crawling back, Hugh could only dwell on revenge to the men who abandoned him.
"Lord Grizzly" was Manfred's most successful book, and a finalist for the National Book Award in 1954.


The Partisan of Villa

The Partisan of Villa (Spanish:La guerrillera de Villa) is a 1967 Spanish-Mexican comedy film directed by Miguel Morayta and starring Carmen Sevilla, Julio Alemán, and Vicente Parra. It is set in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution.


American Slavery, American Freedom

American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia is a 1975 history text by American historian Edmund Morgan. The work was first published in September 1975 through W W Norton & Co Inc and is considered to be one of Morgan's seminal works.
Synopsis.
"American Slavery, American Freedom" is Morgan's answer to the paradox which he himself formulates in the beginning of the book: that of Virginia being both the birthplace of the democratic republican United States and, at the same time, the largest slave-holding colony and later, state. Among voluminous other sources, Morgan employs the archives of Virginia's House of Burgesses, circa 1620 and beyond to explore this paradox and find an explanation for it.
Much of the book is a description of the problem of poverty in England during the 1600s, one of the solutions to which was to send the English poor (many of them shiftless troublemakers) over to the American colonies as indentured servants.
Morgan then focuses on the conflict in 17th century Virginia between the self-serving governing oligarchy and the much larger populations of land-owning freemen, poor freemen, white indentured servants, and black slaves (the last, originally a very small percentage of the population); he shows how such uprisings as Bacon's Rebellion left the oligarchs worried about retaining power. Morgan also suggests that rebel leader Nathaniel Bacon, in encouraging his followers' vengeful hatred of Indians—whatever their tribe and peaceableness—provided Virginia with its first instance of "racism as a political strategy."
Morgan then describes the economics of the 17th century African slave trade and explains how, over time, enslaved Africans became a cheaper labor source than English indentured servants, causing the population of poor whites to stop growing while the population of black enslaved workers grew proportionately larger.
Finally, Morgan asserts that, in the late 1600s and early 1700s, the oligarchs enacted strict slave laws for (he alleges) the deliberate purpose of driving a social wedge between enslaved blacks and poor whites—thus creating, so to speak, American racism.
Reception.
Warren M. Billings criticized "American Slavery, American Freedom" as being too simplistic while also stating that it was "a stimulating book".
"The Baltimore Sun" commented that the title was "misleading" and that it was more about "the ordeal of living in Seventeenth-Century Virginia" than about slavery.
According to Kathleen Brown, new research has appeared with the passage of several decades, much of which complicates or challenges Morgan's description of the encounter between Native Americans and colonists, the rise of slavery, the availability of white indentured servants in the second half of the seventeenth century, and the implications of Bacon's Rebellion. Nevertheless, she notes, the book continues to be assigned in history courses because of Morgan's "eloquent prose, his ability to link key concepts in American history, and his effort to bring the sensibilities of the post-Vietnam era to one of the central tragedies and ironies of American history."


Baron Noir

 (screened as Republican Gangsters in some markets) is a French political drama television series which premiered on Canal+ on 8 February 2016. The series was developed by Eric Benzekri and Jean-Baptiste Delafon.
Premise.
Baron Noir is the political and judicial saga of Philippe Rickwaert, member of Parliament and mayor of Dunkerque, who is driven by an irrepressible thirst for personal revenge. Between rounds of the Presidential election, he sees his future collapse when his mentor, the leftist candidate, sacrifices him to save his campaign. Determined to reinvent his career, Rickwaert uses cunning and connections to win political fights against those who betrayed him, creating a new alliance with the closest adviser of his enemy. Formidable but uncontrollable, conflicted between truth and lies, cultivating friendships in all strata of society (including within the police and organized crime), Philippe Rickwaert's life dissolves into a fascinating organised chaos. Rickwaert takes the fight to his opponents - and to his own demons - at every opportunity.
Development and production.
On 29 February 2016, Eric Benzekri, the writer of the series announced that the season 2 will be shot during the next presidential and it was aired in 2018. Season 3 debuted in February 2020.
Reception.
The TV Series was very well received by French critics. Le Monde, L'Obs, Les Inrockuptibles, Metro International, Paris Match and Télérama gave the first season 4 out of 5 stars. L'Express and Libération gave 3.5 out of 5 stars.


Robert Witchitz

Robert Witchitz (5 August 1924, Abscon – 21 February 1944, Mont Valérien) was a volunteer soldier in the French liberation force FTP-MOI in the group of Missak Manouchian.
Biography.
Youth.
Witchitz was born on 5 August in Abscon, in the Nord department, to a miner of Polish origin and a French woman. He was brought up by his grandparents, staying in his village of birth until the age of five, then moving to the Paris region where he attended a secular school.
Second World War.
At the beginning of the war, Witchitz' father was mobilised, and Witchitz became a telegrapher. Witchitz' father was taken prisoner but released on grounds of his service in the first world war. Robert was dismissed, and had to make runs by bicycle for a distillery, all while fighting for the "Jeunesse communiste" (communist youth), in Ivry-sur-Seine. Witchitz was assigned to the management of the "Service du travail obligatoire" to work in Germany.
Unbeknownst to his parents, he joined the FTP-MOI in February 1943. Each time he heard from the press or elsewhere of the death of a German or a collaborator, he rejoiced and remarked to his father that there were still men, and good Frenchmen. One morning at about 5am while Witchitz was at home, the police announced themselves outside. His parents recalled with anguish how he tried in vain to escape through the window. He asked his parents to let the officers in. When they saw him, they said "Is it you, Robert? You have two or three hours to get lost!". From then on, Witchitz' parents understood the kind of activity that their son was involved in.
On 12 October 1943, Witchitz was arrested after an operation against a German money transport. He forewarned his parents in a letter where he accused himself of having done something crazy, in order not to incriminate his fellows. He stayed in prison for exactly 100 days; his parents, though making frequent requests, were not authorised to visit him. Witchitz was handed over with his comrades to the tribunal (the "procès des 23"), and sentenced to death.
Witchitz' parents eventually did not receive authorization to visit him until the day after he had been shot at Mont Valérien on 21 February 1944 with 23 members of the Affiche Rouge. His body was laid in the square of the fallen in the Ivry-sur-Seine cemetery. Later, in accordance with his mother's wishes, it was moved to the family tomb.
In the short period of time during which he was active in the resistance, Robert took part in 13 operations.
Witchitz' name appeared on the German Affiche Rouge propaganda poster, with the caption:
"Witchitz, Juif polonais, 15 attentats".
Nonetheless it is unclear whether Witchitz was either Jewish or Polish.


Isle of Swords

Isle of Swords is a pirate novel for young adults by Wayne Thomas Batson, also author of The Door Within Trilogy. First published in 2007, it tells of sailors, pirates, and a mysterious group of monks all working to get a great treasure, the treasure of Constantine. A sequel, "Isle of Fire", was published in 2008.
Plot summary.
The fates of the crew of the "William Wallace" are dramatically altered when Anne, daughter of the pirate Captain Declan Ross, finds a young man unconscious on a deserted island. The young boy had been nearly whipped to death and, when the kind crew of the "William Wallace" revives him, he has no memory at all of his past. He soon becomes friends with the crew members, particularly Anne. All they can determine of the boy's past is that, judging from his confident, daring sailing skills, he was once a pirate. They dub him Cat based on both his ability to survive his violent whipping and the instrument that probably did it: the cat o'nine tails.
Later, when stopping briefly at a monastery, Captain Ross agrees to the request of the monks dwelling there: to take one of their number, Padre Dominguez, aboard and keep him safe. Their reason is the priceless map tattooed on Dominguez's back, a map leading to the Isle of Swords, where the legendary Treasure of Constantine awaits. The monks know that Bartholomew Thorne is after the great riches and, hence, after Dominguez.
On their route to the Isle of Swords, the ship docks temporarily at an island that seems vaguely familiar to Cat. Though both he and Anne were ordered to stay aboard, Anne encourages her friend to come with her and sneak away from the ship for a time. Cat reluctantly agrees to the mutinous act, and they steal ashore to search for clues to his past. They discover an abandoned pirate stronghold that holds signs of a gruesome past, and, to Cat's horror, the place seems slightly familiar. While trying to flee the place he and Anne are captured by a group of British soldiers headed by Commodore Blake. They believe the two young pirates know something about the fort and the whereabouts of its former inhabitant: Bartholomew Thorne.
Anne manages to escape and tells Declan of Cat's plight. Ross rallies a group of men to help him and, together with local friend Jacques St. Pierre, they heroically spring Cat from the island's British jail. Taking Jacques with them, the crew of the "William Wallace" sets off again.
After being punished for their mutinous behavior, Cat and Anne sign the ship's articles and become official members of the crew. When Ross later stops at another island to pick up some final supplies, in his absence Thorne attacks the "William Wallace". He burns the ship and takes Anne and Padre Dominguez as prisoner.
When Ross discovers this he is devastated, but quickly harnesses his emotions into hard resolve to get Anne back. With the help of his remaining crew members, including Cat, he buys a ship to chase after Thorne.
In the prison of one of Bartholomew's strongholds, two of Thorne's crewmen make the fatal error of whipping Dominguez without their captain's permission. Now that some of the map is destroyed, Thorne resorts to torturing the monk to make him explain what is broken on the map. When this fails, Bartholomew turns his torture instruments on Anne, and at this Dominguez breaks down and tells everything. Thorne, satisfied, leaves Padre in his cell to bleed to death and takes Anne with him, on to the Isle of Swords.
Ross, close behind Thorne, is not close enough to save Dominguez. When he discovers Bartholomew's deserted fort, Padre is almost dead. The monk manages to assure Ross that Anne is still alive, and then Dominguez dies.
In a final confrontation in the treasure chamber on the Isle of Swords, Thorne and Ross's crews face off. The battle ends when Thorne, after identifying with shock Cat as his son, gains the upper hand. He ties Cat, Ross, and Anne to pillars in the chamber, which is beginning to become unstable due to the eruption of a nearby volcano. The rest of Ross's crew is forced to join Thorne and he leads them down to his ships, where they begin loading treasure.
Due to some secret help from Stede, Cat, Anne, and Ross escape, though the latter is injured. They escape to their ship and a sea battle begins. Ross's crew in the enemy ships sabotage them and then escape to Declan's side. Commodore Blake, too, joins the fray, having been carefully tipped off earlier by Ross of Thorne's whereabouts. Thorne is captured and Ross is invited to meet with the British for a parlay.
At the meeting with the Commodore, Ross begins to work out a peaceable offer with Blake about offering a pardon to pirates who stop their ways. Suddenly, however, a vast tidal wave strikes the town, completely submerging the prison where Thorne was held. The Commodore, Declan and his group rush to the jails and find, to their horror, that Bartholomew has disappeared.
Characters.
Declan Ross - Pirate captain of the "William Wallace". He is a brave, kind man who, even though a pirate, discourages violence and promotes mercy. Ross's wife Abigail died under mysterious circumstances when their daughter, Anne, was very young.
Anne Ross - Declan's daughter. Red-headed, feisty and proud, she adores the perilous sailing life.
Cat - A friendly young lad who is fond of Anne. Though he lost most of his life's memories because of an injury, he is proving himself an adept seaman and a valiant fighter.
Bartholomew Thorne - The villain of this story. His cruelty on land and at sea had earned him the reputation of one of the most notorious pirates of the Caribbean. Because of a fire set by the English, Thorne's hands and voice were scarred and his favorite wife Heather was killed. Chiefly because of the death of his wife, Thorne harbors a deadly, vengeful hatred against the British.
Padre Dominguez - A quiet, tall monk who is nonetheless an extraordinary fighter. On his back is tattooed a map to the Isle of Swords.
Commodore Blake - A brave Commodore in British Navy, who, though technically Ross's enemy, holds a grudging respect for the honorable pirate.
Nigel - Blake's right-hand man.
Stede - Declan Ross's quartermaster, an intensely loyal man with a pronounced accent and a fierce "thunder gun".
Scully - A ratlike little man who works for Thorne, chiefly as a messenger and spy.
Red Eye - A "powder monkey" on the "William Wallace". He is so named because of a reddish-tinged, blinded eye, the result of a past incident involving some gunpowder. Though equipped with a fierce passion for all things sharp and dangerous, he a good friend and very faithful to Ross.
Jacques St. Pierre - Master of all things explosive. With a passion for "things that go BOOM!", this elegant yet naturally dangerous Frenchman joins Declan's crew midway through the book.
Jules - Ross's largest and physically strongest crew member. Like nearly all of the men on the "Robert Bruce", he is very devoted to his captain and shipmates.
Nubby - The fierce, one-armed cook of the "William Wallace".
Drake- The oldest crew member on the "William Wallace", and one who adheres closely to the laws of the sea and its superstitions.
Setting.
The story takes place mostly in the real-world Caribbean and in the North Atlantic. No specific dates are given in the novel, but muskets have been invented, and slavery is still around, though only mentioned once with distaste in the book, so the estimated time period is the 18th century.
Sequel.
The sequel, "Isle of Fire", was released on Sept. 9th, 2008.


Bardelys the Magnificent (novel)

Bardelys the Magnificent is a 1906 historical adventure novel by the Italian-born British writer Rafael Sabatini. It is set in France during the reign of Louis XIII.
In 1926 the story was adapted into a film version "Bardelys the Magnificent" by the Hollywood studio MGM, with John Gilbert playing the title role.


Grimaldi (film)

Grimaldi is a 1914 British silent historical film directed by Charles E. Vernon and starring Bransby Williams and Sid Kearns. The film is based on Dion Boucicault's 1855 play "Grimaldi" about the nineteenth century actor Joseph Grimaldi.


The Gentle Falcon

The Gentle Falcon is a historical novel for young readers by Hilda Lewis, based on the story of King Richard II and his child bride, Isabella, written in first person from the point of view of a close companion of the Queen. It was published by Oxford University Press in 1952 and adapted as a television series by the BBC in 1954. In 1957 the first American edition was published by Criterion Books.
Hilda Lewis, a prolific writer of adult historical fiction, also wrote two other historical novels for young adult readers, "Harold Was My King" (about Harold Godwinson) and "Here Comes Harry" (set in 15th century London).
Plot summary.
Isabella Clinton is the daughter and only child of a French noblewoman, from the House of Valois, and an English soldier. With her father dead, she is heir to his estate but prefers working in the fields to learning to be a proper noblewoman. This is made clear from her sharp tongue and blunt way of speaking.
After the death of her father, it seems that the Black Prince has forgotten Isabella and her mother. It is quite a long time before Isabella is finally summoned to court by King Richard – and when she finally is, it is to be companion to her young kinswoman, Isabella of the House of Valois, "Madame" of France and soon to be Queen of England.
It is through Isabella Clinton's eyes that we see the love Isabella of France develops for King Richard. Although only seven years old at her first appearance, the Queen shows maturity for her age – but what happens to her throughout the book causes her great sorrow, even though she does not show it on the outside.
Reception.
In a star review, Kirkus Reviews described "The Gentle Falcon" as a "sparkling, poignant fictionalized biography" and "princely reading fare." while the Wisconsin library bulletin reprinted a review by the Bulletin of the Children's Book Center that called it "An intriguing story..."
Television adaptation.
The British Broadcasting Corporation produced a seven-episode television series based on "The Gentle Falcon", which was broadcast from 15 June 1954. Glen Alyn played the adult Isabella, while Victoria Nolan played her as a girl.


Stronghold 3

Stronghold 3 is a 2011 real-time strategy video game for Microsoft Windows developed by Firefly Studios and published by 7Sixty. The game is the seventh in the series after several spin-offs, including a remake, ', and "Stronghold Kingdoms". It is the sequel to "Stronghold", released in 2001, and "Stronghold 2" released in 2005. Unlike previous games in the series which were published by Take-Two Interactive, the game has been published by SouthPeak Games, the new parent company of Gamecock Media Group, publisher of '.
Synopsis.
Background.
The original "Stronghold" told the story of The Boy and his quest for revenge against Duc de Puce (The Rat), Duc Beauregard (The Snake), Duc de Truffe (The Pig) and Duc Volpe (The Wolf) for the ambush and murder of his father. After the capture of the King abroad, enemy invasion, civil war and his father's ambush en route to negotiate a treaty with The Snake, The Boy was pushed back to a forest on an overlooked peninsula. It was here that he found a small band of troops still loyal to the King and, with the help of Lord Woolsack and Sir Longarm, began to take back the country county by county. Eventually The Boy confronted The Wolf in his tower, after an intense battle he impaled the enigmatic Wolf on his sword and threw him to what he thought was his death.
Plot.
Set 10 years later, Stronghold 3 follows the continuing story of The Boy. The Wolf, it seems, has cheated death and become bitter, twisted and psychotic during his painful recovery in the east. Now it is he who seeks revenge. By raiding towns and villages in the dead of night The Wolf has created a tide of panic, with The Boy and his allies the only force to stand against him.
In the Economic Campaign, which takes place after the end of the military campaign. The Boy helps rebuild the Abbey destroyed during the war.(The boy does not help rebuild the abbey if he dies at the end of the military campaign, killed by The Wolf.)
Features.
Players are able to choose between two single-player campaigns. A story-driven military campaign that chronicles The Wolf's return through a series of traditional real-time strategy missions and a sim-based economic campaign which has the player focus almost entirely on village productivity and resource management. Both campaigns are fully narrated, telling their stories with a series of black and white graphical novel interludes. Players are also able to 'change history' by choosing whether to attack or defend a number of historical castles in the game's castle siege mode.
The game engine utilises Havok physics, which influences the effectiveness of burning log traps and causes buildings and castle walls to crumble realistically. In addition the game engine features a new weather system and advanced lighting.
Buildings in Stronghold 3 are more dynamic than before, with the housing capacity and appearance of hovels changing the further they are built from the player's keep. Castle construction is no longer confined to a grid-based system.
A new fog-of-war mechanic was introduced for night-time game play, during which all areas outside of the immediate vicinity of the player's castle are hidden in darkness. However, players are able to use torch-holding peasants and other fire-based devices to explore the map at night. They can also illuminate specific areas by setting fire to watch towers.
The option for players to launch diseased cows from trebuchets has returned, in addition to smaller animals like pigs and sheep. A Facebook competition was run to let fans vote on the final animal ammunition type, with a sack of diseased badgers eventually making the cut.
The game currently lacks a Kingmaker or skirmish mode, as available in previous Stronghold titles. In a post on their website Firefly announced plans to add in "features that didn’t make it into the original release" as well as "new content and new features that we or you have thought of since release". Features added to the game since release include new units, difficulty levels, King of the Hill and Capture the Flag multiplayer modes, new multiplayer maps, new multiplayer Lords, new historical sieges, new Free Build maps, a "Free Build Panel" that allows players to trigger invasions, the ability to change the game speed and extra large maps.
Development.
Firefly Studios had previously claimed in 2008 that they would be working on "Stronghold 3" due to the high demand by fans, but only after the completion of "Dungeon Hero". However, in 2010 the status of "Dungeon Hero" was uncertain after being delayed numerous times. In 2009 when asked if they had any other unannounced games in development other than "Dungeon Hero" and "Stronghold Kingdoms", the answer was that they still had one more game in development. The game was further teased in 2009 when Firefly stated in their newsletter that they had "something very big in the pipeline" which would be revealed in 2010. This game would later turn out to be "Stronghold 3".
The game was officially unveiled on May 14, 2010 with a teaser site. The Steam page for the game was later opened on March 18, 2011, which first stated the release date to be approximately the 21st of June 2011. Firefly then announced that the game will be delayed for another month until July 2011 in order to make refinements to the game. Eventually it was announced that the game would be delayed until late September 2011, after which a final release date of October 25 was announced. The game went gold on October 6 and was released a few weeks later.
Reception.
Since its release "Stronghold 3" received "generally unfavorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. The majority of negativity stemmed from the large amount of bugs that the game shipped with. Reviewers almost unanimously agreed that "Stronghold" 3 felt unfinished at launch, although many highlighted the potential for the game to be improved via patches. While one ultimately felt that "Stronghold 3" was "a decent RTS with a few hiccups here and there that could easily be fixed with a patch or two", others believed that the game's problems were due to design choices that are unlikely to be patched out. To quote Adam Biessener of "Game Informer", "No matter which aspect of gameplay you look at, problems crop up in its implementation. Whether it’s the shallow, yet hard-to-manage economy or the fabulously broken pathfinding, the only difference between the systems is how poorly designed, infuriating, or merely boring they are." The game had undergone patching since its release, with two gaming websites raising their review scores to reflect the changes made.
Stronghold 3: Gold.
After a number of patches to improve gameplay and fix issues, Firefly Studios introduced various multiplayer features and additional campaigns into "Stronghold 3" and re-released it on 25 May 2012 under the name "Stronghold 3: Gold". As a gesture to fans, Firefly delivered these added features into already purchased copies of "Stronghold 3" through Steam for free.


All the Angels

All the Angels (full title - "All the Angels: Handel and the First Messiah") is a 2015 play with music by the British poet Nick Drake treating the 1742 Dublin premiere of Handel's "Messiah" and the actor-singer Susannah Cibber's involvement in it. Other historical figures such as the work's librettist Charles Jennens, the music historian Charles Burney and the soprano Christina Maria Avoglio also appear. It draws its name from "Let all the angels of God worship Him", the chorus of Part II, Scene 4 from "Messiah", itself quoting and titled after Hebrews 1:6.
It briefly premiered from 26 June to 6 July 2015 at the Sam Wanamaker Theatre, directed by Jonathan Munby, followed by a longer run at the same venue from 6 December 2016 to 12 February 2017. In both productions Handel was played by David Horovitch, Cibber by Kelly Price and the choric figure of Crazy Crow by Sean Campion, with the music sung by members of Genesis Sixteen, the training programme of the choir The Sixteen.