Contemplatively vague

"... he hoped he discerned the large, contemplatively vague figure of Dr Frances Yates..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Yates

Literary Matriarch

"There was Lady Longford, biographer of Queen Victoria..."

From The Times
October 24, 2002

Elizabeth Longford was matriarch of the most powerful and well-connected literary dynasty in the land — that of the Pakenhams, Frasers, Pinters and Billingtons — and her life was spent among intellectuals for whom the production of books of all kinds was at least as natural as the production of children. Her own historical writings combined erudition and thorough research with wide appeal. As Countess of Longford, wife of the 7th Earl (Frank Pakenham), she was a notable crusader in society and in Labour politics.

In 1964 Longford published the book that made her name, Victoria RI, a superbly sympathetic yet realistic portrait. There had not been a substantial life of the Queen for many years, and it is not too much to say that she was the first biographer to make Victoria into a living and understandable human being.

Among her children are the historians Antonia Fraser and Thomas Pakenham, the novelist Rachel Billington and the poet Judith Kazantzis.

benignly severe

"There was Dame Helen Gardner, head up, face benignly severe ..."

Professor Dame Helen Louise Gardner DBE (1908-1986) was an English literary academic and critic. A fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford from 1942, she became Merton Professor of Renaissance literature in the University of Oxford in 1966.

Her specialist areas were T. S. Eliot, the Metaphysical poets, Milton and religious poetry, with many essays published on the subjects, as well as on literary criticism itself.
Her 1949 collection of essays, The Art of T.S. Eliot, is regarded as a seminal work on the poet. In particular, she challenged the notion that Eliot was only accessible to those well-versed in his many allusions:

It is better, in reading poetry of this kind, to trouble too little about the ‘meaning’ than to trouble too much. If there are passages whose meaning seems elusive, where we feel we are ‘missing the point,’ we should read on, preferably aloud... We must find the meaning in the reading...

Idolater?

"...from Dr Roy Strong, at that time Director of the Gallery, and an iconographer, possibly even an idolater, of the Virgin Queen."

Sir Roy Colin Strong FRSL (born 23 August 1935) is an English art historian, museum curator, writer, broadcaster and landscape designer.

He became assistant keeper of the National Portrait Gallery in 1959, and was its director 1967-73: Sir Roy came to prominence at age 32 when he became the youngest director of the National Portrait Gallery. He set about transforming its conservative image with a series of extrovert shows, including "600 Cecil Beaton portraits 1928-1968."

A different kind of people

"Alexander amused himself by counting powerful women: there was Dame Sybil Thorndike, graciously accepting a throne-like chair ..."

Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike CH DBE (24 October 1882 – 9 June 1976) was a British actress.
In 1908 Sybil was spotted by the playwright George Bernard Shaw when she understudied the leading role of Candida in a tour directed by Shaw himself. There she also met her future husband, Lewis Casson. She played the title role of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan in 1924, which had been written with her specifically in mind. The production was a huge success, and was revived repeatedly until her final performance in the role in 1941.

Both Sybil and Lewis were active members of the Labour Party, and held strong left-wing views. Even when the 1926 General Strike stopped the first run of Saint Joan, they both still supported the strikers. Nonetheless, she was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1931. As a pacifist, Sybil was a member of the Peace Pledge Union and gave readings for its benefit.

The First Half-Month of The Annotated Virgin

Well, my dear friends, after 17 days and 17 posts, I have managed to annotate the first 3 1/2 pages of The Prologue to The Virgin in the Garden!
I suppose at this rate i might finish this project in 10 years. Things have got to pick up a bit. I'm having a ball, incidentally, but i do want to press on and more swiftly make it through the heavily-reference-studded Prologue.

I hope that all of you are enjoying this as much as i am, though i doubt that anyone could enjoy it more.

A. Bednarowicz

Editor

That Mystifying UK School System

"Did you know that you are now an established O level set text?"

[Presumably one or more of Alexander's plays are being used in the O level test for "English" (?)]

"The O-level (Ordinary Level) is a subject-based qualification, usually taken at the age of fifteen/sixteen, conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education (GCE).
It was introduced as part of British educational reform in the 1950s alongside the more in-depth and academically rigorous A-level (Advanced Level). England, Wales and Northern Ireland replaced O-levels with GCSE exams in 1988.

The O-level was predominantly exam-based. This was advantageous for students in part-time or evening education. There was no summative "school certificate": each subject was a separate O-level in its own right.
O levels exams are often required as predecessors to A levels and by many employers as a minimum qualification for employment. A-level exams are the minimum entrance qualification required by UK universities."
[culled from various sources on the internet]