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- A villain and a monster : the literary portrait of Richard III by Thomas More and William ShakespearePublication . Relvas, Maria de JesusThe process of vilification of Richard III started at the end of the fifteenth century, when a well-planned policy of Tudor propaganda was set in motion by Henry VII himself, who commissioned a series of historiographical writings, mainly aiming at the solidification of the newly founded dynasty. One of the strategies, probably the major one, consisted in the definitive annihilation of the last Plantagenet king of England, whose defeat and death on the battlefield should not by any means transform him into the York victimised hero of the Wars of the Roses. Thus, various historiographers delineated Richard of Gloucester as a vile, wicked, monstrous creature. But the hyperbolic process of vilification undoubtedly reached its highest climax with two major early modern authors. The Life written by Thomas More – The History of King Richard the Third (ca. 1514) – and the play written by William Shakespeare – King Richard III (ca. 1591) – may be considered the epitomes of the tradition that has forever shaped the king as a monster. In this text, I focus on the way More and Shakespeare exploit and amplify the vituperative historiographical tradition, though mostly based on rumour, uncertainties and legendary elements. Within this widely accepted tradition, both authors manage to shape a solid portrait of Richard III, an exemplum not to be imitated or followed, but whose performance, built through a set of powerful rhetorical devices, is masterful, both in the Life and in the play.
- On righteousness and dignity : two challenging issues since early modern timesPublication . Relvas, Maria de JesusConcepts such as righteousness, equality, tolerance and freedom are nowadays considered fundamental issues that should prevail in any society. Balance and righteousness thrive however on a very thin layer. We are, in fact, living in an era of duality and antithetical paradigms. This essay approaches two Renaissance authors who dealt with the same matters in their works, at a very different time and through different ways of reflection: Thomas More and Sir Walter Raleigh.
- Icons of supremacy and the birth of an empire: two portraits of Elizabeth IPublication . Relvas, Maria de JesusWhen Portugal and Spain ruled the oceans and took possession of the known world, having divided it into two halves, England occupied a modest insular position, excluded from the big events related to the Discoveries. However, in a short period of time, the nation was to secure a leading place, due to the strategic maritime policy undertaken by Elizabeth I, the monarch who had once been considered the least eligible of the Tudor descendants. In a peculiar context and founded on diverse propaganda policies, namely a munificent emblematic iconography interwoven with literature, the consolidation both of the Tudor Myth and of the Queen’s sovereignty is closely related to the birth of the British Empire. Bearing such matters in mind, I will analyse The Armada Portrait (ca. 1588) and The Ditchley Portrait (ca. 1592), after briefly approaching The Coronation Portrait (ca. 1600), for they constitute the embodiment and materialisation of two powerful icons of supremacy: Elizabeth Tudor and Britannia.
- “Fair eyes, sweet lips, dear heart” : a dama idealizada e a idealização da dama no tempo de Isabel TudorPublication . Relvas, Maria de JesusO ensaio debruça-se sobre a produção lírica inglesa durante a Era Isabelina, tendo em consideração as tradições culturais que nela se plasmaram, sobretudo o Neoplatonismo. São analisados alguns poemas, tendo como centro a entidade feminina do discurso lírico, explorando os recursos estilísticos e a peculiar cosmovisão da época.
- The road to rulership : Henry Tudor, King of EnglandPublication . Relvas, Maria de JesusAt the close of the Wars of the Roses, a new dynasty was founded by a man lacking a prince’s education; moreover, his weak claim to the throne of England gave rise to a set of serious problems. These two crucial, interrelated elements are central in Francis Bacon’s biographical account of Henry VII. The literal road leading Richmond from exile to victory in Bosworth Field, in 1485, is eventually transformed into a metaphoric path that prefigures the long, deep process of learning undertaken during his 24-year reign. This fundamental process carried out by the king will be approached mainly through the passages focused on the Lambert Simnell/Perkin Warbeck affairs, the most difficult probelms the monarch had to face in a time and in a kingdom of many uncertainties. The Simnell/Warbeck menaces embodied Henry Tudor’s greatest dilemmas, continually emphasised in Bacon’s work – the essence of legitimacy and the essence of royalty.
- Evaluating continuous assessment quality in competence-based education online : the case of the e-FolioPublication . Relvas, Maria de Jesus; Pereira, Alda; Oliveira, Isolina; Tinoca, Luís; Amante, Lúcia; Pinto, Maria do Carmo Teixeira; Moreira, DarlindaThe pedagogical model, in use at Universidade Aberta (UAb) since 2007, is based on four cornerstones: student-centered learning; flexibility; interaction; digital inclusion. The cornerstone of digital inclusion is particularly important in the context of a fully virtual learning environment such as the one offered at UAb. The article was the result of a research project developed at the Distance Education Laboratory (LE@D – Laboratório de Educação a Distância) of UAb, focused on assessment issues, namely the two main types of instruments (e-folios and p-folios) used in undergraduate fully online courses at UAb. The research work developed by the team (Alda Pereira; Isolina Oliveira; Luís Tinoca; Lúcia Amante; Maria de Jesus C. Relvas; Maria do Carmo T. Pinto; Darlinda Moreira), whose members produced this paper, was particularly focused on the e-folio which a) is a short digital document; b) should clearly demonstrate the student’s acquired or developed given competence; c) may include a critical reflection about the student’s own learning, or a report about field work, or a problem solving activity, or a reading review, or the production of an artifact. Two main research questions were therefore asked, as a basis for both the whole project and this paper: 1) what relationship is there between the concept of competence being used in the e-folios and our current working definition? 2) what are the main characteristics of the e-folios? The research is based on the analysis of a pool of 35 e-folios collected within a sample of volunteer teachers, representing seven different scientific areas (education; languages; culture; literature; natural sciences; economy; documental sciences), preceded by a group discussion and clarification period around the concept of competence, and followed up by the creation of an analysis grid centered on the following criteria: the course competences; the e-folio competences; types of competences; the assignment; types of task; assessment criteria; instructions; resources; timetable; and structure. From the analysed e-folios, it becomes clear that the assessed competences were all framed by the concept of competence assumed by this research group, although they are not always presented with a clear formulation; it also becomes clear that the most valued type of competence was “problem solving”, with a recurrent use of textual based resources, and that there were several interpretations of what an e-folio may be.
- The literary construction of a monstrous portrait : King Richard III by Thomas More and William ShakespearePublication . Relvas, Maria de JesusThomas More’s narrative The History of King Richard the Third (ca. 1514) and William Shakespeare’s play King Richard III (ca. 1591) may be considered the epitomes of a tradition that has for ever vilified the last Plantagenet monarch of England. Even in later fictional works, it is hard to come across a more distorted and evil character, whose outward appearance faithfully mirrors his inner moral self. Among several other minor or major contributions to this character’s vilification, Bernard André and Pietro Carmeliano had presented him as a monster, physically abominable; John Rous had registered his abnormal birth: after two years in his mother’s womb, the child was born exhibiting teeth and shoulder-length hair; Polydore Vergil had explicitly accused him of the murder of the Lancastrian Prince of Wales, Henry VI’s son. It is my intention to focus on the way More and Shakespeare exploit and amplify this vituperative historiographic tradition, full of serious accusations, though mostly based on rumour, uncertainties and legendary elements. Within this widely accepted tradition, both authors manage to shape a solid portrait of a monstrous Richard, an exemplum not to be imitated or followed, but whose masterly performance, coinciding with the mastery of the rhetorical devices, has never failed to impress successive generations of readers and theatre-goers.
- O debate renascentista sobre a primazia das artes em Inglaterra : literatura versus históriaPublication . Relvas, Maria de Jesus
- Beyond time and oblivion : Sir Robert Sidney’s autograph manuscriptPublication . Relvas, Maria de JesusDealing with ancient manuscript or old printed texts often constitutes a difficult task, especially to philologists and editors, for two main reasons: the precarious state of preservation of the documents and the uncertainty regarding their origin, authenticity and authorship. These problems are aggravated by spurious versions, due to the publication of truncated works, poorly supervised miscellanies and non-authorised editions. Sir Robert Sidney’s literary text constitutes an exception amidst such vicissitudes, once the original corpus is wholly contained in a notebook exhibiting the organisation and unity conceived by the author himself. Today, there is no evidence that any loose poems, either autograph or copied by amanuenses, were in circulation among members of the Elizabethan court society. The notebook was kept in private collections for four centuries, which probably explains why it was so well preserved. In fact, only in 1984 would P.J. Croft’s fine edition bring the youngest Sidney’s Poems into light. In this work, I approach Croft’s perceptive, accurate philological study that eventually rescued from oblivion a remarkable piece both of the Elizabethan lyric poetry and of the English Renaissance, and, at the same time, look into Robert Sidney’s peculiar, careful and original formatting of his own autograph manuscript.
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