SPACIOUS DAYS OF "GLORIANA"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 369, 19 July 1946, Page 18

SPACIOUS DAYS OF "GLORIANA"

HEN the second historical \X/ serial in the NBS Broadcasts to Schools this year starts from the four YA stations and 2YH, 3ZR and 4YZ on Tuesday, July 23, children will leave the atomic age and, for 16 weeks become time-travellers (between 1.30 and 2.0 p.m. on Tuesdays), journeying by radio 400 years back into the Tudor period. They will meet Elizabeth at her coronation, find themselves in the thick of plots, risings and high adventure, and follow the fortunes of an imaginary hero, Matthew Carey, in Gloriana, which has been written for radio by Isobel Andrews, ot Wellington, The first serial was set in the reign of Henry VIII, in the years 1513 to 1543; the second will concern the period 1558 to 1588. Gloriana was completed in the production studios last week, and for half-an-hour or so The Listener shared with young Carey in the excitements of the day. Drake, Raleigh, Marlowe, Sir William Cecil, Francis Bacon, the Queen of Scots -all these figure in the tale. Of the Tudor rulers, history tells us, three were

strong-willed and ‘clever, and they reigned for 110 out of the 118 years making up the Tudor period. They were Henry VII, his son Henry VIII, and Henry VIII’s daughter Elizabeth. Henry VII was cautious and far-sighted; he was continually planning, but kept his plans to himself. Henry VIII was bold, strong and self-willed. Elizabeth was high-spirited, clever too, and ruled for 45 years. Tudor times were marked by great changes, due mostly to new forms of thought arising out of the Revival of Learning, which started in Italy and caused books of all kinds to be studied greedily. Up to this time .most of the learned writings were in Latin, but now Greek began to be studied and old Greek writings read. Students of Greek were highly honoured, notable among them being Erasmus, who visited England in Henry VIII's reign. Both Henry and Elizabeth shared this love of learning, one result of which was that soon teachers of Greek as well as Latin were to be found in the universities. Exploration, too, caused changes in Tudor days, beginning with the discovery (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) of the New World by Columbus in 1492. England’s merchant shipping grew and her. sea-power became great. But the England of,400 years ago was still a backward country, as the time-travellers will see. Roads were deep in ruts in summer, and gutters of mud in winter. Nearly all the people lived in villages, and a town of the size of Napier or Nelson was looked on as a big city. London was then half the size of Auckland and laws were made to prevent it growing any bigger. People, however, liked fun, gay clothes and pageantry, and the plays presented by hired troupes of actors, It was to one of these troupes that Shakespeare belonged. But this is merely a brief indication of the background to the story. Schoolchildren will find it absorbingly toldentertainment out of instruction.