Twelfth Night

In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare plays with the intersections of love and power. The Countess Olivia is presented to us at the play's beginning as an independent and powerful woman. The sudden deaths of her father and her brother have left her in charge of her own household and have thereby given her power over such male relatives as Sir Toby Belch. Her status as a wealthy, aristocratic single woman makes her the focus of male attention, and she is especially attractive to Duke (or Count) Orsino, who, as the play begins, is already pursuing her. There also circle about her two other would-be suitors: the pretentious and socially ambitious steward, Malvolio, a man whose ambitions make him vulnerable to manipulation by members of Olivia's household; and the weak and foolish Sir Andrew Aguecheek, who is altogether ignored by Olivia but whose delusions of possible marriage to her make him an easy victim of the flattering and swindling Sir Toby.

Onto this scene arrive the well-born twins Viola and Sebastian, and the love of power gives way to the power of love. The twins have been shipwrecked; each thinks the other is drowned; both are destitute. Without protection, Viola chooses to disguise herself as a page, call herself Cesario, and enter into the service of Orsino.

In her role as the young Cesario, such is Viola’s beauty and her command of language that she immediately wins Orsino's complete trust; he enlists her as his envoy to his beloved Olivia—only to have Olivia fall desperately in love with the beautiful young messenger. Sebastian, too, although without either power or wealth, is similarly irresistible. Antonio, for example, not only saves him from death in the sea but also risks his own life to remain in Sebastian's company.

As is usual in comedy, the play complicates these tangled relationships before it finally and wonderfully untangles them. The title of the play suggests that there is a certain urgency to the need for this disentangling. "Twelfth Night" is the twelfth night after Christmas, the last night of what used to be the extended period of celebration of the Christmas season. Thus it marks the boundary between the time for games and disguisings and the business of the workaday world. The second part of the full title, "What You Will," suggests that this play gives us a world that we would all choose (or "will") to enjoy, if we but could.

Scholars believe Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night in 1601–02; its earliest recorded performance was in February 1602. It was published in the 1623 First Folio. Among Shakespeare’s sources for the play were Plautus's Menaechmi and the story of “Apolonius and Silla” in Barnabe Riche's His Farewell to the Military Profession.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Even though the word “gentlemen” in its title would suggest that this play’s heroes are adults, the play is much more intelligible if we think of them as boys—boys who, as the play opens, are about to leave home on their own for the first time. Their longtime friendship has been dealt a double blow: one of the boys has developed a crush on a girl, though he hasn’t yet told her that he likes her; the other is being sent off by his father to the equivalent of a boys’ finishing school. In the course of the play’s action, both boys make the journey away from home, and both behave in ways that get them in terrible trouble.

Sent to “the Emperor’s court” in order to learn to be “perfect gentlemen”—to practice in “tilts and tournaments,” to learn how to make proper (male) conversation—Valentine and then Proteus are in turn derailed by overwhelming attraction to Sylvia, the ruler’s daughter. Valentine’s characteristic gullibility and mental denseness do not deter Sylvia from returning his love, but these weaknesses do render him incapable of eloping with her without getting caught—and banished. Proteus’ weaknesses—self-centeredness and the capacity for cold treachery—are triggered by his sudden love-at-first-sight desire for Valentine’s girlfriend, a desire which wipes out his former love for Julia and leads him into committing a series of despicable acts that win from Sylvia nothing but scorn and that wound (but do not drive away) Julia, who has pursued him disguised as a boy.

When Sylvia follows Valentine into banishment (and into the forest), and Proteus follows Sylvia, and Julia follows Proteus, the stage is set for one of the more disturbing play-endings ever devised by Shakespeare. But the stage is also set for the play’s “gentlemen” to begin to take small steps toward mature manhood.

Lest we not recognize the inner weaknesses that bedevil Valentine and Proteus, Shakespeare provides each with a servant who, either explicitly or by example, points out their failings. Speed is as bright as Valentine is dim, and when Valentine is fortunate enough to have Speed present to explain things to him, he functions not too badly. And Lance is as loving and compassionate as Proteus is callous. Lance’s account of his farewell scene with his family—played out for the audience with the family roles represented by Lance’s left and right shoes, his walking staff, and his dog Crab—is among the funniest scenes in Shakespeare; and Lance’s later account of taking on himself the whippings earned by Crab (almost as funny as the “farewell” scene) comments pointedly, if indirectly and parodically, on Proteus’ failures of loyalty.

It is often hard to know how a modern reader or spectator should respond to this play. The scenes with the outlaws in the forest seem to parody any number of things, though it is hard to say how the scenes would have been perceived by an audience in the 1590s. The disturbing actions in the play’s final scene are hard to reconcile to today’s views of “natural” sexual and social relationships. But it helps to view Valentine and Proteus as boys struggling to keep their balance in the face of new and unexpected desires—making terrible errors but, with the help of staunchly loyal girlfriends, coming through to a livable future.

Shakespeare wrote The Two Gentlemen of Verona early in his career; suggested dates are between 1590 and 1595. It was published in the First Folio in 1623. Among Shakespeare’s sources was Jorge de Montemayor's pastoralDiana Enamorada.

The Poems

William Shakespeare is best known today for his plays, but in his time poetry was far more important to any writer’s literary reputation. Tradition has it that Shakespeare wrote his two long poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece,during a period of forced unemployment in 1592–94, when an outbreak of the plague closed London’s theaters. The poems were published, respectively, in 1593 and 1594.

Shakespeare’s famous sonnets and two other fairly lengthy poems, The Phoenix and the Turtle and A Lover’s Complaint,are also thought to date from early in his career. They were published some years later, perhaps without his permission. Still more of Shakespeare’s poems and songs can be found within the plays themselves.

Like his plays, Shakespeare’s poems are full of passages that remain embedded in our popular culture. Sonnet 116 (“Let me not to the marriage of true minds”) is a fixture of wedding ceremonies, and Sonnet 18 (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”), Sonnet 29 (“When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes”), and Sonnet 73 (“That time of year thou mayst in me behold”)—to name only a few—are known and quoted in the same way that famous lines and passages are quoted from Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth.

The Poems

William Shakespeare is best known today for his plays, but in his time poetry was far more important to any writer’s literary reputation. Tradition has it that Shakespeare wrote his two long poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece,during a period of forced unemployment in 1592–94, when an outbreak of the plague closed London’s theaters. The poems were published, respectively, in 1593 and 1594.

Shakespeare’s famous sonnets and two other fairly lengthy poems, The Phoenix and the Turtle and A Lover’s Complaint,are also thought to date from early in his career. They were published some years later, perhaps without his permission. Still more of Shakespeare’s poems and songs can be found within the plays themselves.

Like his plays, Shakespeare’s poems are full of passages that remain embedded in our popular culture. Sonnet 116 (“Let me not to the marriage of true minds”) is a fixture of wedding ceremonies, and Sonnet 18 (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”), Sonnet 29 (“When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes”), and Sonnet 73 (“That time of year thou mayst in me behold”)—to name only a few—are known and quoted in the same way that famous lines and passages are quoted from Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth.

The Final Years

Sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare seems to have returned to live in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he owned a large house and considerable property, and where his wife and his two daughters and their husbands lived. (His son Hamnet had died in 1596.)

During his professional years in London, Shakespeare had presumably derived income from the acting company's profits as well as from his own career as an actor, from the sale of his play manuscripts to the acting company, and, after 1599, from his shares as an owner of the Globe. It was presumably that income, carefully invested in land and other property, which made him the wealthy man that surviving documents show him to have become.

It is also assumed that William Shakespeare's growing wealth and reputation played some part in inclining the crown, in 1596, to grant John Shakespeare, William's father, the coat of arms that he had so long sought.

William Shakespeare died in Stratford on April 23, 1616 (according to the epitaph carved under his bust in Holy Trinity Church) and was buried on April 25. Seven years after his death, his collected plays were published as Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, the work now known as the First Folio.

Success in London

By 1592 Shakespeare had achieved some prominence in London as both an actor and a playwright. In that year was published a book by the playwright Robert Greene attacking an actor who had the audacity to write blank-verse drama and who was "in his own conceit [i.e., opinion] the only Shake-scene in a country." Since Greene's attack includes a parody of a line from one of Shakespeare's early plays, there is little doubt that it is Shakespeare to whom he refers, a "Shake-scene" who had aroused Greene's fury by successfully competing with university-educated dramatists like Greene himself.

Narrative Poems

It was in 1593 that Shakespeare became a published poet. In that year he published his long narrative poem Venus and Adonis; in 1594, he followed it with The Rape of Lucrece. Both poems were dedicated to the young earl of Southampton (Henry Wriothesley), who may have become Shakespeare's patron. It seems no coincidence that Shakespeare wrote these narrative poems at a time when the theaters were closed because of the plague, a contagious epidemic disease that devastated the population of London.

Theatrical Career

When the theaters reopened late in 1594, Shakespeare apparently resumed his double career of actor and playwright and began his long (and seemingly profitable) service as an acting-company shareholder. Records for December of 1594 show him to be a leading member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It was this company of actors, later named the King's Men, for whom he would be a principal actor, dramatist, and shareholder for the rest of his career.

So far as we can tell, that career spanned about twenty years. In the 1590s, he wrote his plays on English history as well as several comedies and at least two tragedies (Titus Andronicus and Romeo and Juliet). These histories, comedies, and tragedies are the plays credited to him in 1598 in a work, Palladis Tamia, that in one chapter compares English writers with "Greek, Latin, and Italian Poets." There the author, Francis Meres, claims that Shakespeare is comparable to the Latin dramatists Seneca for tragedy and Plautus for comedy, and calls him "the most excellent in both kinds for the stage." He also names him "Mellifluous and honey-tongued Shakespeare": "I say," writes Meres, "that the Muses would speak with Shakespeare's fine filed phrase, if they would speak English." Since Meres also mentions Shakespeare's "sugared sonnets among his private friends," it is assumed that many of Shakespeare's sonnets (not published until 1609) were also written in the 1590s.

The Globe Years

In 1599, Shakespeare's company built a theater for themselves across the river from London, naming it the Globe. The plays that are considered by many to be Shakespeare's major tragedies (Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth) were written while the company was resident in this theater, as were such comedies as Twelfth Night andMeasure for Measure. Many of Shakespeare's plays were performed at court (both for Queen Elizabeth I and, after her death in 1603, for King James I), some were presented at the Inns of Court (the residences of London's legal societies), and some were doubtless performed in other towns, at the universities, and at great houses when the King's Men went on tour. Otherwise, his plays from 1599 to 1608 were, so far as we know, performed only at the Globe.

Between 1608 and 1612, Shakespeare wrote several plays—among them The Winter's Tale and The Tempest—presumably for the company's new indoor Blackfriars theater, though the plays seem to have been performed also at the Globe and at court. Surviving documents describe a performance of The Winter's Tale in 1611 at the Globe, for example, and performances of The Tempest in 1611 and 1613 at the royal palace of Whitehall. Shakespeare wrote very little after 1612, the year in which he probably wrote King Henry VIII. It was at a performance of Henry VIII in 1613 that the Globe caught fire and burned to the ground.

Stratford Beginnings

Surviving documents that give us glimpses into the life of William Shakespeare show us a playwright, poet, and actor who grew up in the market town of Stratford-upon-Avon, spent his professional life in London, and returned to Stratford a wealthy landowner. He was born in April 1564, died in April 1616, and is buried inside the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

We wish we could know more about the life of the world's greatest dramatist. His plays and poems are testaments to his wide reading—especially to his knowledge of Virgil, Ovid, Plutarch, Holinshed's Chronicles, and the Bible—and to his mastery of the English language, but we can only speculate about his education. We know that the King's New School in Stratford-upon-Avon was considered excellent. The school was one of the English "grammar schools" established to educate young men, primarily in Latin grammar and literature.

School Days

As in other schools of the time, students began their studies at the age of four or five in the attached "petty school," and there learned to read and write in English, studying primarily the catechism from the Book of Common Prayer. After two years in the petty school, students entered the lower form (grade) of the grammar school, where they began the serious study of Latin grammar and Latin texts that would occupy most of the remainder of their school days. (Several Latin texts that Shakespeare used repeatedly in writing his plays and poems were texts that schoolboys memorized and recited.) Latin comedies were introduced early in the lower form; in the upper form, which the boys entered at age ten or eleven, students wrote their own Latin orations and declamations, studied Latin historians and rhetoricians, and began the study of Greek using the Greek New Testament.

Since the records of the Stratford "grammar school" do not survive, we cannot prove that William Shakespeare attended the school. However, every indication (his father's position as an alderman and bailiff of Stratford, the playwright's own knowledge of the Latin classics, scenes in the plays that recall grammar-school experiences—for example, scene 1, Act 4 of The Merry Wives of Windsor) suggests that he did.

Family Life

We lack generally accepted documentation about Shakespeare's life after his schooling ended and his professional life in London began. His marriage in 1582 (at age eighteen) to Anne Hathaway and the subsequent births of his daughter Susanna (1583) and the twins Judith and Hamnet (1585) are recorded, but how he supported himself and where he lived are not known. Nor do we know when and why he left Stratford for the London theatrical world, nor how he rose to be the important figure in that world that he had become by the early 1590s.

Shakespeare's Story

That Shakespeare inhabited the worlds of London and Stratford we know from surviving documents, as well as from the evidence of the plays and poems themselves. From such records we can sketch the dramatist's life. We know from his works that he was a voracious reader. We know from legal and business documents that he was a multifaceted theater man who became a wealthy landowner. We know a bit about his family life and a fair amount about his legal and financial dealings. Most scholars today depend upon such evidence as they draw their picture of the world's greatest playwright. Such, however, has not always been the case.

Early Traditions

Until the late eighteenth century, the William Shakespeare who lived in most biographies was the creation of legend and tradition. This was the Shakespeare who was supposedly caught poaching deer at Charlecote, the estate of Sir Thomas Lucy close by Stratford; this was the Shakespeare who fled from Sir Thomas's vengeance and made his way in London by taking care of horses outside a playhouse. This was the Shakespeare who reportedly could barely read but whose natural gifts were extraordinary, whose father was a butcher who allowed his gifted son sometimes to help in the butcher shop, where William supposedly killed calves "in a high style," making a speech for the occasion.

It was this legendary William Shakespeare whose Falstaff (inHenry IV, Parts I and 2) so pleased Queen Elizabeth that she demanded a play about Falstaff in love, and demanded that it be written in fourteen days (hence, supposedly, the existence of The Merry Wives of Windsor). It was this legendary Shakespeare who reached the top of his acting career in the roles of the Ghost in Hamlet and old Adam in As You Like It—and who died of a fever contracted by drinking too hard at "a merry meeting" with the poets Michael Drayton and Ben Jonson. This legendary Shakespeare is a rambunctious, undisciplined man, as attractively “wild" as his plays were seen by earlier generations to be. Unfortunately, there is no trace of evidence to support these wonderful stories.

The Authorship Question

Perhaps in response to the disreputable Shakespeare of legend—or perhaps in response to the fragmentary and, for some, all-too-ordinary Shakespeare documented by surviving records—some people since the mid-nineteenth century have argued that William Shakespeare could not have written the plays that bear his name. These persons have put forward some dozen names as more likely authors, among them Queen Elizabeth, Sir Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere (earl of Oxford), and Christopher Marlowe. Such attempts to find what for these people is a more believable author of the plays are a tribute to the regard in which the plays are held.

Unfortunately for their claims, the documents that exist that provide evidence for the facts of William Shakespeare's life tie him inextricably to the body of plays and poems that bear his name. Unlikely as it seems to those who want the works to have been written by an aristocrat, a university graduate, or an "important" person, the plays and poems seem clearly to have been produced by a man from Stratford-upon-Avon with a very good "grammar-school" education and a life of experience in London and in the world of the London theater. How this particular man produced the works that dominate the cultures of much of the world almost four hundred years after his death is one of life's mysteries—and one that will continue to tease our imaginations as we continue to delight in his plays and poems.

“Shakespeare’s Life” is one of several introductory essays included in the New Folger Library Shakespeare editions. Edited by Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine, the Folger editions of Shakespeare’s plays include essays on the plays and their publication and on Shakespeare’s life, theater, and language. Each provides a thoroughly re-edited edition of the play, printed with explanatory notes and images from the Folger collection on the facing pages. Every edition includes an afterword by an outstanding modern scholar, as well as other notes and features.

Hartlepool – a brief history

As Roman power declined in the fifth century, Anglo-Saxons from the north of Europe began raiding the coast of Northern England. They soon became settlers and established a small Anglian kingdom known as Hartness (the promontory of Hart), which eventually became Northumbria.

The promontory or headland was distinguished from Hart by the addition of the word `pool', perhaps a reference to the protected bay close by the headland. The name Hartlepool is probably derived from words "heopru' – the place where harts (deer) drink. Heorot is Saxon for hart.

The monastery at Hartlepool was founded by St. Aidan in 640 on the original headland site. The monastery prospered and Aidan installed a nun, Hilda – to be Abbess and oversee the monks and nuns. Hilda became an outstanding principal and King Oswy of Northumbria entrusted his young daughter's education to her in 655.

The site of the old monastery is marked today by the beautiful abbey church bearing the abbess' name – St. Hilda. A twelfth century building, the church was begun at about the time a fleet of ships bound for the Crusades was being assembled in the harbour, and completed around 1240. It became the burial place of the De Brus family – Norman landowners who had acquired Hartlepool at the time of the Conquest in 1066.

The Brus' hold on Hartlepool began after the building of Durham Castle by William the Conqueror. They brought stable times for the town with Robert de Brus being the biggest landowner in the north east, becoming Lord of Hartness. It was during these times that the villages of the area were first mentioned in official records, having been omitted from the Domesday Book of 1086.

The town's first charter was received before 1185. Hartlepool's fortunes blossomed and the town gained a mayor, an annual two-week fair and a weekly market. After two hundred years the Brus connection with Hartlepool was severed when "Robert the Bruce' of national historical fame, and last Lord of Hartness, was crowned King of Scotland in 1306. Angered by this King Edward I confiscated his title to Hartlepool.

Savage Scots!

A particularly savage Scots sea-borne assault took place in 1315 when the townspeople took to the sea with their goods and possessions until the marauders left. After this attack the port began to build fortifications with defensive walls constructed around the Headland. The impressive Sandwell Gate, which can still be seen has walls over eight feet thick.

Three hundred years later the Scots returned to the town. During the English Civil War, Scottish troops in alliance with the Parliamentarians, having captured Newcastle, attacked Hartlepool. The town surrendered and the Scots garrison occupied and repaired the crumbling defences, including the walls, to repel the Royalists.

Apart from defending the town against pirates, the occupying forces drained resources and the end of the war saw Hartlepool's fortunes at a low ebb. The local coastal fleet was reduced to just two vessels and by the beginning of the eighteenth century further decay had set in. The pier and walls were again crumbling, as was St. Hilda's church.
Hartlepool established gun emplacements and defences in 1795 to repel a possible French invasion. Later the Crimean War revived the idea of protection from seaborne attack and two batteries were built close together, the lighthouse battery in 1855 and the Heugh battery in 1859.

Top image: Damage from the bombardment of 1914

Bottom image: M.S.Blanchland – the last ship to be built by William Gray and Company Ltd 1961

Hartlepool was visited seven times by preacher John Wesley and before the end of the eighteenth century a Methodist Chapel was built. At the same time both Hartlepool and nearby Seaton Carew were gaining reputations as rather select resorts for sea bathing. Prosperous Quakers from Darlington found the area amenable and the sea front at Seaton was redeveloped with elegant Georgian hotels and lodging houses.
Hartlepool entered the nineteenth century with a population of just 993, a town, harbour and pier falling apart and barely a living to be made from fishing. The silted outer harbour, the Slake, was enclosed and corn grown for five years until it was reopened to the sea.

A national need for coal followed the wars in 1815 and it made sense to transport the fuel from Hartlepool to London where the biggest demand lay. It cost less to carry the coal from the Durham pits to the capital by sea than it did to haul it just ten miles overland. Local businessmen took the idea forward and the Hartlepool Dock and Railway Company was formed in 1831.

From 1835 the deepened harbour at Hartlepool was shipping more coal than any other port on the north east coast. In 1839 Ralph Ward Jackson opened the Stockton and Hartlepool Railway which resulted in the building of a new harbour and docks on the west shore – the beginnings of the new town of West Hartlepool.

Although the population of the Headland area had mushroomed to over 9,000, antagonism grew between the two towns which remained for many decades. Shipbuilding began in 1835 in "Old Hartlepool", but soon transferred across the water here more space and facilities were available.

A succession of strong, powerful civic and business leaders then took West Hartlepool forward to the end of the nineteenth century when it had a population of well over 60,000, its own newspaper, football team, three theatres, two parks and housing spreading westward and southwards linked by new roads and even electric tramways.

                                                  Cameron's Brewery and logo -right

The city walls with St Hilda's church above

In the years leading up to the Great War, the Hartlepools were at the peak of commercial success. This prosperity was associated with the heavy industries of iron and steel and shipbuilding. By 1913 upwards of 150,000 tons of ships were being launched each year, record turnover in the port saw over one million tons of mainly iron ore and timber imported and almost 1½ million tons, mainly of coal, were exported. Forty-two companies owned over two hundred and thirty ships.
Many public and major buildings were built during this time including the Grand Hotel (1899), St. Oswald's Parish Church (1904) and the Co-op Stores (1913). Skating rinks, parks, the Headland promenade and six cinemas all appeared in this period of national optimism.

Bombarment

The outbreak of WWI was devastating for Hartlepool. On December 16th 1914 at 8.10 in the morning three cruisers of the German High Seas Fleet struck the Headland with a fierce bombardment. Initially aimed at the batteries, shells inflicted the first army casualties of the war on home soil. The battery guns replied and caused damage and casualties on the marauding ships. This was rapidly followed by an indiscriminate shelling of the twin towns. 1150 shells rained down on the Hartlepools in the 42 minute bombardment, killing 112 townspeople and 9 soldiers, leaving over 400 with serious injuries and causing extensive destruction. The ships then turned and disappeared into the mist, leaving a stunned population to count the cost of this worst event in Hartlepool's history.

A peculiar result of the event was a spur to military recruitment and a collective contribution of more money to the war effort than any other town in the country. This gesture was doubtless encouraged further by three Zeppelin raids during the conflict when bombs rained down on the towns.

Despite many improvements in the inter-war years, including a bathing pool and promenade extension on the Headland, the Great Depression and stagnating world trade saw the Hartlepool's unemployment figures top 24% and the population remained static at around 90,000.

During the Second World War, air raids brought more death and destruction to the towns with 36 raids on West Hartlepool and 7 on Old Hartlepool. These resulted in just 70 fatalities, although over 7,500 buildings were damaged. Designed to disrupt shipbuilding, the raids were generally unsuccessful with almost ninety vessels being launched during the conflict.

Determined not to return to the days of mass unemployment, West Hartlepool progressed plans for reconstruction and development of the town. New housing and trading estates followed.

End of an era

In the sixties the old problems of unemployment surfaced. Already almost twice the national average, the numbers out of work leaped when the last of the shipyards, Sir William Gray's closed in 1962. The advent of a North Sea gas and oil industry eased matters when the docks became a base for exploration activities, and the fortunes of the two towns finally merged on April 1st 1967 when a single Hartlepool was born.

The new County Borough now took in outlying villages from other authorities and significantly the boundaries almost matched the ancient estate of Hartness in the twelfth century.

Although the population had reached over 97,000 in 1971, unemployment still rose to a staggering 25%, steel production ceased and coal shipments stopped. The docks became mainly deserted and only the construction of two oil platforms temporarily relieved the decline. Car imports began to revive the docks in the early 1980's, but it was another unlikely visitor to the docks that was to capture the nation's imagination – the battered hull of "HMS Warrior".

Hartlepool, with it's dock capacity and skilled shipwrights, was chosen to restore this great Victorian iron-clad battleship in 1979. In all the work took some eight years to complete and scarcely had she left the docks for her new home in Portsmouth, than a new venture "HMS Trincomalee" took her place for restoration. The oldest warship afloat in the UK, this unique refurbishment surely has secured Hartlepool's place as a national centre for ship reconstruction work.

With the assistance of the Teesside Development Corporation in the 1990's the docks area has become a maritime haven for small craft. The 400 berth Marina development has brought with it up-market housing, shopping and leisure facilities the envy of many other parts of the country.

The Hartlepool Historic Quay heritage centre, now housing – afloat – the almost completed "HMS Trincomalee", presents a realistic glimpse of a seaport such as Hartlepool in the early nineteenth century.

Hartlepool's legacy of maritime history and built heritage have been combined to make Hartlepool a fascinating destination for tourists – Have you been there yet?

The 1940′s Look; Recreating the Fashions, Hairstyles and Make-Up of the Second World

As a girl, my history classes at school were considerably enlivened by the addition of a fabulous 1960′s technicolour history text book by R.J Unstead. As R.J carefully guided us through the history of Britain, each era was illustrated with garish illustrations of how the people looked, which for me, was the most interesting aspect of history. Even today, R.J’s illustrations costumes are still etched on my mind. Mention medieval and I’m instantly reminded of an illustration of a Diana Dors lookalike in a wimple.

R.J’s publishers then, were wise indeed. A foray into fashion shines a light onto history. Clothes define an era, in a way that no other historical artefact can. From velvet cloaks and sable muffs to linen smocks and cotton bonnets, the clothes on our backs reflect the materials, class systems and cultural ideologies of the age. The Victorians were uptight, pulled in and covered up, terrified of the temptations of the flesh. The roaring twenties reflected modern ideas about women’s emancipation – clothes became loose and mannish, while the thirties saw a return to a more feminine form inspired by new bias cutting techniques. By the early 1940′s however, the war had impacted every area of life, and fashion responded accordingly. Textiles became precious, clothing coupons were introduced, and the frivolities of fashion were denounced, while the few clothes available to buy achieved the functionality of all other aspects of war time life. While we’ve all heard the story that stockings were so rare women had to paint their legs with gravy browning, The 1940′s Look takes an in depth look at the problems and solutions of dressing well throughout the war years. As a fascinating account of how fashion adapted to the shortages imposed by the government, it’s both a reminder of just how much we take cheap throwaway clothing for granted, and an insight into the very real difficulties of clothing oneself.

Make Do and Mend was the order of the day, and clothing became precious. As Brown reprints a list of clothing allowed by coupon for women, the inadequacies become only too clear. 1 pair of shoes, 6 pairs of stockings, 8oz wool or 2 yds of fabric, 1 silk dress, 2/3 pairs of knickers, 2/3 brassieres or girdles, and 6 hankies, were all that was deemed necessary for the second year of rationing.

While surviving with only three pairs of knickers now, is enough to send a shiver down the spine of any modern woman (and, indeed, man) , for the wartime woman, who would only be able to bathe in four inches of tepid water every 10 days or so, today’s standards of hygiene were very difficult to maintain. Yet it’s these details which make the book so interesting. The simple fact is, they just didn’t change their underwear so often – and still survived. Yet despite spending so little time in the bathroom, the need to look good and maintain morale soon surpassed the exhortations of the Ministry to pay no heed to fashion. Although Brown reminds us of the very real difficulties of sourcing clothing and fabric, ingenuity was the mother of invention.

If you were lucky (or rather, unlucky) enough to stumble upon a German land mine, the parachute silk used to drop them could be made into a wedding dress. Flour sacks could be boiled and pressed and made into clothes, while even dishrag yarn, which was unrationed, could be knitted into jumpers. Men, who no longer required suits because they were at war, often returned home to find their best suit had been made into a skirt and jacket – hence the masculine styles of women’s two piece suits and shirt collars. Yet all of this required considerably sophisticated sewing skills; a sobering thought when nowadays most of us don’t even possess a needle and thread. Many hundreds of sewing classes were set up, and by 1944, the Board of Trade developed a cartoon character, imaginatively named “Mrs Sew and Sew’ to dispense sewing tips on the cover of leaflets.

Similarly, beauty was a constant challenge. If, like me, you would rather have your limbs torn off than leave the house without make-up, spare a thought for the wartime girl. Even lipstick was in short supply. The gas-mask curl was a hair style designed to withstand the gas mask strap, and the kitchen was the most likely source of beauty products. Egg white and lemon juice could be utilised as a face pack, beetroot juice sealed with Vaseline used as lipstick, and “complexion drinks’ such as a mixture of prunes, orange and lemon juice were recommended for beauty from the inside out. A world without lipstick and face packs may seem a triviality, but the lengths women would go to in maintaining appearances, seems to be a fair reflection of the determination to sustain some sense of normality whilst Europe was in the grip of such horror.

For those interested in home front re-enactment , The 1940′s Look is an indispensable guide to creating the correct image. Interestingly, Brown notes that one of the greatest mistakes a re-enactor can make is to look too polished, reminding us that patched and damaged clothes are far more authentic. For those simply interested in vintage clothing, the 1940′s is enjoying a resurgence of interest, making the book a valuable reference point for creating the look. While genuine 1940′s clothes are now rare, there’s a great deal of fun to be had from simply reading this and scouring the charity shops for suitable fabric to attempt the styles yourself. While I would hesitate to recommend knitting your own suspenders, it’s worth remembering that the wartime girls actually did. They were probably just extremely thankful there weren’t many men around to see them.

Why This Kolaveri Di Lyrics - Dhanush 3 Movie Song Lyrics

yo boys i am singing song

soup song

flop song

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di
rhythm correct

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di
maintain please

why this kolaveri..di

distance la moon-u moon-u

moon-u color-u white-u

white background night-u nigth-u

night-u color-u black-u

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

white skin-u girl-u girl-u

girl-u heart-u black-u

eyes-u eyes-u meet-u meet-u

my future dark

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

maama notes eduthuko

apdiye kaila snacks eduthuko
pa pa paan pa pa paan pa pa paa pa pa paan
sariya vaasi

super maama ready

ready 1 2 3 4

whaa wat a change over maama

ok maama now tune change-u

kaila glass

only english..

hand la glass

glass la scotch

eyes-u full-aa tear-u

empty life-u

girl-u come-u

life reverse gear-u

lovvu lovvu

oh my lovvu

you showed me bouv-u

cow-u cow-u holi cow-u

i want u hear now-u

god i m dying now-u

she is happy how-u

this song for soup boys-u

we dont have choice-u

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

flop song

---------------

Almost everyone can understand this song..
anyway here are the meaning for few words

                                         Kolaveri - Killer rage or Murderous Rage.

"Soup Song" - Love failure Song
"Soup Boys" - Boys who failed in love

James "Big Jim" Colosimo

James "Big Jim" Colosimo (1877 – May 11, 1920) (born Giacomo Colosimo) immigrated to Chicago, Illinois, from Cosenza, Calabria, Italy, in 1895. Beginning as a small time hood, he was noticed by First Ward aldermen Michael Kenna and John Coughlin, for whom he worked as a precinct captain and later their bagman. These positions provided Colosimo with the political connections which would allow him to advance in his career as a gangster.

Later in his career Jim Colosimo acquired another nickname, "Diamond Jim". This name was given to him because he frequently dressed in a white suit and wore diamond pins, rings, and other jewelry. This jewelry combined with his charm and money helped him establish relationships with women. He had a strong love for women, which fueled his enthusiasm for the business of prostitution.

In 1902, Colosimo married Victoria Moresco, an established madam, and the two opened a second whore house. Within a few years, Colosimo expanded his business to nearly 200 brothels and had made inroads into gambling and racketeering.

By 1909, he was being threatened by the Black Hand extortionist group in Chicago and realized he needed help. He brought his nephew, Johnny Torrio, to Chicago from Brooklyn and made him his second in command. The following year, Colosimo opened a self-named restaurant, Colosimo's Cafe, at 2126 South Wabash. In 1919, Torrio and Colosimo opened a brothel at 2222 South Wabash called the Four Deuces. Torrio brought his old Brooklyn lieutenant, Al Capone, to work there as a bartender and bouncer, providing Capone his introduction to Chicago.

When Prohibition went into effect in 1920, Torrio pushed for the gang to enter into bootlegging but Colosimo refused. Having deserted his first wife, Colosimo married his second wife, Dale Winter, in May 1920. Upon returning to Chicago a week later, Torrio called Colosimo to arrange for Colosimo to meet a shipment at the Café. Upon his arrival, Colosimo was shot in the vestibule. Initial inquiries looked at his bride. No suspects were ever arrested, but it is widely believed that Torrio was responsible and arranged for the hit to be carried out by Frankie Yale, a New York gangster.

Colosimo was the first to organize disparate parts of Chicago's crime scene. After his death, his gang was controlled by Johnny Torrio and eventually Al Capone.

Salvatore "Lucky" Luciano

24th November 1897 - 26th January 1962
Luciano was boyhood friends with both Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Segal. It was with their help that Lucky, after a series of hits on mafia leaders, organized the New York crime families into the Syndicate. He became Boss of Bosses, Meyer Lansky became the financial brains and Bugsy the muscle. Oversaw all rackets in New York and controlled the New York waterfront. Was prosecuted by District Attorney Thomas Dewey on pimping & extortion charges and sentenced to 30-50 years in Dannemora Jail. Even in behind bars he ran the New York waterfront, with his regular visits from both Meyer Lansky & Bugsy Segal Lucky still welded enormous power. In 1942 the navy sailed the " Normandie" into New York to refit it as a troopship it mysteriously sank in its dock. Luciano by guaranteeing no further troubles obtained a pardon at wars end and was deported back to Italy. Even from Italy Luciano with Meyer Lansky's help ran the mob, meeting the family heads in Cuba. Some years before Lucky had sent Bugsy Segal to Los Angeles to oversee and expand on the California & Nevada rackets. Whilst in Las Vegas Bugsy decided to build the first super hotel/casino on what is now "The Strip", realizing Meyer Lansky's dream of having a legitimate hotel in Las Vegas. " The Flamingo" being built with mob money by Bugsy, went so over budget that cheques began to bounce leading to suspicions that Bugsy was skimming money from the mob. "The Flamingo" opened in December 1946 and was the first hotel in Vegas to book the megastars of the day to draw in the punters. Although it soon began to make a profit Bugsy fate was sealed for his alleged skimming. On Lucky's orders Bugsy, Lucky's childhood friend, was shot & killed in Beverly Hills in June 1947. This was the first mob hotel in Las Vegas but proved to be so profitable many more followed. All this and further mob expansion was overseen by Luciano in Italy and Meyer Lansky in the states. Lucky Luciano never set foot in America again while he was alive, he died of a heart attack in Naples airport in 1962 but was buried in New York. Meyer Lansky died in 1983 at the age of 81.

Luciano's tomb is near to many of his mafia friends, many of whom were killed on his orders as he rose to power.
Saint Johns Cemetery, Queens, New York.

Hollywood Sign

on top Mount Lee. Hollywood Hills. The Hollywood sign perhaps the most famous sign in the world is perched on top Mount Lee's Beachwood Canyon, LA's tallest peak. Erected in 1923 to advertise a property development, the original 50 ft. high letters spelt out Hollywoodland and were lit up at night by 1000's of light bulbs. A caretaker cared for the Hollywood sign and lived in a cabin behind one of the L's. The last four letters of the sign were removed in the 40's after Hollywood had become the worlds movie capital. The Hollywood sign can be seen from various high points all over town including Griffith Observatory, Mullholland Drive, Hollywood Freeway(101) etc. But for the best view head north up Gower St. from Sunset or Hollywood Blvd's, the Hollywood sign will be directly ahead of you. To get really close just keep driving north, onto Beachwood Drive, the sign will be in front of you and be getting closer all the time. You will eventually get to within 100 yds. of the Hollywood sign where you can get some great photo's using the sign as a backdrop. Unfortunately you cannot now get any closer to the Hollywood sign as a locked gate and added security has now been added to keep trespassers out.
Further information and the complete history of the Hollywood sign, including old photographs can be found on the official Hollywood sign website www.hollywoodsign.org

Walk of Fame Illustration

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is Hollywood's tribute to the Hollywood Stars of yesterday and today. This is where the Stars are immortalized with a star on the sidewalk in their honor. The Hollywood Walk of Fame lines both sides of Hollywood Boulevard from Gower to La Brea, and both sides of Vine Street, from Yucca to Sunset.

History of The Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame was created in 1958 by southern Californian artist Oliver Weismuller, who was hired by the city to give Hollywood a "face lift". Many honorees received multiple stars during the initial phase of installation for contributions to separate categories; however, the practice in recent decades has been to honor individuals not yet represented, with only a handful of previous honorees being awarded additional stars. In 1978, the City of Los Angeles designated the Walk of Fame as a Cultural/Historic Landmark. The Walk of Fame began with 2,500 blank stars. A total of 1,558 stars were awarded during its first sixteen months. Since then, about two stars have been added per month. By 2005, more than 2,400 of the original stars were filled, and additional stars extended the Walk west past Sycamore to La Brea Avenue, where it now starts/ends at the Silver Four Ladies of Hollywood Gazebo, (with stars honoring The Beatles and Elvis Presley).
Maintenance
The Walk of Fame is maintained by the self-financing Hollywood Historic Trust. In order for a person to get a star on the Walk of Fame, he or she must agree to attend a presentation ceremony within five years of selection, and a $25,000 fee must be paid to the Trust for costs such as security at the star ceremony; a 2003 FOX News story noted that the fee is typically paid by sponsors such as movie studios and record companies, as part of the publicity for a release with which the honoree is involved. On other occasions, the fee is paid by a fan club or the nominating person or organization.

Stolen stars

There have been four stars stolen from the Walk of Fame. The stars of Jimmy Stewart and Kirk Douglas, which had been removed during a construction project, were stolen from the site on Vine Street. The culprit was a contractor who was later caught with the two damaged and unusable stars, but not until after they had been replaced. One of Gene Autry's stars was also taken from another construction project. That star was found in Iowa. On November 27, 2005, thieves sawed Gregory Peck's star out of the sidewalk near Gower. Cameras are now being placed on the walk district to catch thieves.