To be presented by Professor Greg Walker FRHS FEA FSA FRSE
Regius Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature, University of Edinburgh.

Sponsored by Loughborough University.

What did Tudor audiences find funny, and why? Taking inspiration from the Bruegel painting known in English as Children’s Games, the talk will look at the ways in which children’s movements as represented in that painting can help us to understand important aspects of clowns in plays such Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice, and even suggest something about King Lear.

Professor Walker is Regius Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. He was previously the Masson Professor of English and before he was Professor of Early-Modern Literature and Culture and Director of the Medieval Research Centre at the University of Leicester. When he has spare time, he supports Nottingham Forest Football Club and enjoys progressive rock music.

The lecture will be held in the New Walk Museum: