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Just an aside on scaffolds. In my youth I worked for a builder in Massachusetts, and learned that the structures builders erect on the outsides of buildings to facilitate work, structures that I (a midwesterner) called scaffolding, they called staging. I wonder how old, and how transatlantic, these usages might be. Bill Ingram On Mon, Apr 5, 2021 at 10:31 AM Betcher, Gloria J [ENGL] < [log in to unmask]> wrote: > Al, > > > > On another note, the explanation “plaied vpon scaffoldes [*execution > platforms*]” is limiting, I think. The primary meaning of “scaffoldes” in > a theatrical metaphor would have been raised stages, rather than execution > platforms. Of course, the term means both here, and it’s commonplace for > commentators to note the pun on the term “scaffoldes” to evoke the > execution platform. I’m curious why you chose to define the term using only > the secondary meaning rather than the less-well-known one or both meanings. > > > > Gloria > > > > Gloria J. Betcher, PhD (she/her/hers) > > Associate Teaching Professor > > Department of English > > 419 Ross Hall > > 1527 Farm House Lane > > Ames, IA 50014 > > > > *From: *Al Magary <[log in to unmask]> > *Sent: *Monday, April 5, 2021 1:08 AM > *To: *[log in to unmask] > *Subject: *Re: Thomas More's "staige plaie" > > > > Thanks to Anne Lancashire and Michael Winkelman for leads on what the > "staige plaie" reference in More's Richard III was all about. The Warnicke > article I found at JSTOR. I especially needed that correction to my > misapprehension: More was not referring to some skit in which a sultan > (character) was really a shoemaker (character)--which is good comedic stuff > for later decades and centuries--but a civilian shoemaker acting in the > role of the sultan in a morality play who would not want anyone in the > audience to call him by his actual name. > > I won't be doing much explaining of More's influences (not just the > miracle plays but Latin dramatists too) as my work is about Hall's > Chronicle. Thus I am more interested in the interplay of the two texts, > with reference to some Latin version passages that Hall omitted (he seems > not to have been aware of More's Latin version) and differences in wording. > Responsibility for many variants could be placed on Hall's publisher, > Richard Grafton, who was first to include More's history in his prose > continuation of Hardyng's metrical chronicle (1543), and of course on > typesetters. But a footnote explaining More's connection to miracle plays > he may even have acted in will catch some interest. > > Cheers, > Al Magary > Hall's Chronicle Project > > On 4/4/2021 1:59 PM, Michael Winkelman wrote: > > It's been ages since I've read it, but Retha Warnicke's article, "More's > Richard III and the Mystery Plays," in Historical Journal 35 (1992): > 761-78, may also be helpful. > > ~Michael A. Winkelman > > > > > > > > >