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A Man for All Seasons
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This article is about Robert Bolt's play. For other uses, see A Man for All Seasons (disambiguation).
A Man for All Seasons
Programme from the original London production (1960)
Written by
Robert Bolt
Characters
The Common Man
Sir Thomas More
The Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Cromwell
King Henry VIII
Margaret More
William Roper
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey
Alice More
Thomas Cranmer
Richard Rich
Signor Chapuys
Date premiered
1 July 1960 (London)
Place premiered
Globe Theatre
Original language
English
Setting
Sixteenth century England
A Man For All Seasons is a play by Robert Bolt based on the life of Sir Thomas More. An early form of the play had been written for BBC Radio in 1954, and a one-hour live television version starring Bernard Hepton was produced in 1957 by the BBC,[1] but after Bolt's success with The Flowering Cherry, he reworked it for the stage.
It was first performed in London opening at the Globe Theatre (now Gielgud Theatre) on 1 July 1960. It later found its way to Broadway, enjoying a critically and commercially successful run of over a year. It has had several revivals, and was subsequently made into a multi-Academy Award-winning 1966 feature film and a 1988 television movie.
The plot is based on the true story of Sir Thomas More, the 16th-century Chancellor of England, who refused to endorse King Henry VIII's wish to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon, who did not bear him a son, so that he could marry Anne Boleyn, the sister of his former mistress. The play portrays More as a man of principle, envied by rivals such as Thomas Cromwell and loved by the common people and by his family.
Contents
[hide]
1 Title
2 Themes
3 Endings
4 Stage productions
5 Film and TV movies
5.1 1966 film
5.2 1988 film
6 Radio productions
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
Title[edit]
The title reflects 20th century agnostic playwright Robert Bolt’s portrayal of More as the ultimate man of conscience. As one who remains true to himself and his beliefs while adapting to all circumstances and times, despite external pressure or influence, More represents "a man for all seasons." Bolt borrowed the title from Robert Whittington, a contemporary of More, who in 1520 wrote of him:
"More is a man of an angel's wit and singular learning. I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity. A man for all seasons."[2]
Themes[edit]
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Sir Thomas More, one of the most famous early Lord Chancellors, served and was executed under King Henry VIII.
A Man for All Seasons struggles with ideas of identity and conscience. More argues repeatedly that a person is defined by his conscience. His own position is depicted as almost indefensible; the Pope is described as a "bad" and corrupt individual, forced by the Emperor Charles V to act according to his will. But as More says to Norfolk, "What matters is not that it's true, but that I believe it; or no, not that I believe it, but that I believe it." More fears that if he breaks with his conscience, he will be damned to hell, while his associates and friends are more concerned with holding onto their own temporal power.
At another key point of the play, More testifies before an inquiry committee and Norfolk attempts to persuade him to sign the Succession to the Crown Act 1534 (pp. 78, Heinemann edition):
Norfolk:
Oh, confound all this. ... I'm not a scholar, as Master Cromwell never tires of pointing out, and frankly I don't know whether the marriage was lawful or not. But damn it, Thomas, look at those names. ... You know those men! Can't you do what I did, and come with us, for fellowship?
More:
And when we stand before God, and you are sent to Paradise for doing according to your conscience, and I am damned for not doing according to mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?
More's persecution is made to seem even more unjust by the inclusion of Eustace Chapuys, the long-time Imperial ambassador to England, into the story. Chapuys recognises More as a stout man of the church, and in Act II, after More's resignation from the Chancellorship, he informs More of a planned rebellion along the Scottish border, expecting More to be sympathetic. Instead, More informs Norfolk of the plot, showing him to be patriotic and loyal to the King. This, along with More's refusal to actually speak out against the King, shows him to be a loyal subject, and thus Cromwell appears to prosecute him out of personal spite and because he disagrees with the King's divorce.
Bolt also establishes an anti-authoritarian theme which recurs throughout his works. All people in positions of power – King Henry, Cromwell, Wolsey, Cranmer, Chapuys, even Norfolk – are depicted as being either corrupt, evil, or at best expedient and power-hungry. Bolt's later plays and film screenplays also delve into this theme. The theme of corruption is also illustrated, in Rich's rise to power, the Common Man being drawn into the events of the storyline, and in the (deliberately) anachronistic portrayal of Henry as a younger, athletic man (in 1530 he would have been almost forty and already putting on weight).
Although it is the law that eventually forces More's execution, the play also makes several powerful statements in support of the rule of law. At one point More's future son-in-law, Roper, urges him to arrest Richard Rich, whose perjury will eventually lead to More's execution. More answers that Rich has broken no law, "And go he should if he were the Devil himself until he broke the law!" Roper is appalled at the idea of granting the Devil the benefit of law, but More is adamant.
"What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? ... And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you – where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's, and if you cut them down – and you're just the man to do it – do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!"
The character of the Common Man serves as a narrator and framing device. A Brechtian character, he plays various small parts – More's servant, a publican, a boatman, More's jailer, jury foreman and executioner—who appear throughout the play, both taking part in and commenting on the action. Several sequences involving this character break the fourth wall—most notably, a sequence where the Common Man attempts to exit the stage and is addressed by Cromwell, who identifies him as a jury foreman. (Indeed, the "jury" consists of sticks or poles with the hats of the Common Man's various characters put on top.)
Bolt created the Common Man for two main reasons: to illustrate the place and influence of the average person in history, even though they are usually overlooked, and to try to prevent the audience from sympathising with the more titled characters such as More, realising that the audience is more closely related to him—a classic case of Brechtian alienation. The character's role in the story has been interpreted in many different ways by different critics, from being a positive to a negative character. Several of Bolt's subsequent works feature similar characters (e.g. The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew, State of Revolution).
Endings[edit]
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Two different endings were written by Bolt. The original ending, performed during the show's preliminary run in England, had Cromwell and Chapuys confront each other after More's execution and then exit the stage, hand in hand, chuckling with "the self-mocking, self-indulgent, rather rueful laughter of the men who know what the world is and how to be comfortable in it".
This particular ending is exemplary of Bolt's notion of "riding with the current", as is demonstrated by "men who know what the world is and how to be comfortable in it", forsaking one's conscience in exchange of a life of "convenience". For the show's London production – and most, if not all, subsequent runs of the show – the Common Man sheds his executioner's garb and addresses the audience one final time:
"... It isn't difficult to keep alive, friends – just don't make trouble – or if you must make trouble, make the sort of trouble that's expected... If we should bump into one another, recognize me."
The film version of the play ends with More's execution, followed by a narrator reading off the fates of the various characters involved (originally, this was dialogue spoken by the Common Man prior to the Tower of London Inquiry).
Stage productions[edit]
Paul Scofield, who played the leading role in the West End premiere, reprised it on Broadway in 1961, winning a Tony Award. Both productions were directed by Noel Willman.
The original West End cast, playing at the Globe Theatre (now Gielgud Theatre), included:
The Common Man – Leo McKern
Sir Thomas More – Paul Scofield
Richard Rich – John Brown
Duke of Norfolk – Alexander Gauge
Alice More – Wynne Clark
Margaret – Pat Keen
Cardinal Wolsey – Willoughby Goddard
Thomas Cromwell – Andrew Keir
Chapuys – Geoffrey Dunn
Attendant – Brian Harrison
Will Roper – John Carson
Henry VIII – Richard Leech
Woman – Beryl Andrews
Archbishop Cranmer – William Roderick
In London, Man ran simultaneously to another of Bolt's plays, The Tiger and the Horse. Both plays were major hits, although Horse was the more successful of the two. British critical reaction was largely positive, albeit reservedly so; few reviews at the time regarded the play as a classic. The show ran for 320 performances.
In the USA, the play was first performed on Broadway on 22 November 1961, at the ANTA Playhouse
Original Broadway cast
The Common Man – George Rose
Sir Thomas More – Paul Scofield
The Duke of Norfolk – Albert Dekker
Thomas Cromwell – Leo McKern (later Thomas Gomez)
King Henry VIII – Keith Baxter
Margaret More – Olga Bellin
William Roper – Peter Brandon
Catherine Anger – Sarah Burton
Attendant – John Colenback
Cardinal Wolsey – Jack Creley
Alice More- Carol Goodner
Thomas Cranmer – Lester Rawlins
Richard Rich – William Redfield
Signor Chapuys – David J. Stewart
The Broadway production was a huge hit, running for 620 performances. While the play had drawn mixed critical reviews in London, it was almost unanimously praised by the New York critics, who showered it with plaudits and awards.
Leo McKern played the Common Man in the West End version of the show, but was shifted to the role of Cromwell for the Broadway production – a role he later reprised in the film. While playing Cromwell, he appeared with one brown and one blue eye (McKern of course had lost an eye in an accident and wore a glass one) to accentuate his character's evil nature.
Charlton Heston played More in several versions of the play-off-Broadway in the 1970s and 1980s, eventually playing it on the West End. The play was a success and the West End production was taken to Aberdeen, Scotland, for a week where it was staged at His Majesty's Theatre. Heston considered it among his favourite roles. He also produced, directed, and starred in a film version of it (see below). The production gained a sort of notoriety when Dustin Hoffman spread the story that Heston, who was bald, was so vain that he wore a wig over his hairpiece, rather than let the public view his actual bald pate.
Another famous graduate of the play is Ian McKellen, whose first theatrical role was as Will Roper in a revival production in the late 1960s. He would go on to play More in a later run of the show. Faye Dunaway also made her stage debut as a replacement Margaret in the original Broadway run.
An acclaimed Canadian production starring William Hutt and directed by Walter Learning was presented at the Vancouver Playhouse and the Stratford Festival in 1986. At Stratford the production was paired with a production of Shakespeare's Henry VIII, with both plays sharing many actors, and showing two perspectives on historical events.
The play was staged in London's West End at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket starring Martin Shaw and produced by Bill Kenwright. It closed on 1 April 2006.
A Broadway revival of the show, produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company, starring Frank Langella as More and directed by Doug Hughes, played at the American Airlines Theatre through December 2008. In this production, the character of The Common Man was deleted by the director (as Bolt had done when adapting his play for the first film version).[3]
In 2008, Thomas More was also portrayed on stage in Hong Kong as an allegorical symbol of the Pan-democracy camp resisting Chinese Communism when Hardy Tsoi, after translating A Man for All Seasons, mainly into Cantonese, but also with some parts in Mandarin, Spanish, Latin, and English, produced it as a play within a play.[4] Similarities were noted between More and contemporary pro-democracy politicians in Hong Kong such as Martin Lee and Szeto Wah, with the Vatican being seen as representing British colonialism while Henry VIII and his regime were seen as representing Communist China "suppressing democracy and freedom" in Hong Kong.[4] According to Chapman Chen, Hardy Tsoi's version of the play is one of a number of Hong Kong works that suggest that mainstream postcolonial theories which invariably portray European colonialism as oppressive need to be "modified or balanced" to reflect the different experience of places like Hong Kong.[4]
Film and TV movies[edit]
The play was adapted for Australian television in 1964.
1966 film[edit]
Main article: A Man for All Seasons (1966 film)
Paul Scofield, who played the leading role in the West End and Broadway stage premieres, played More again in the first of two film versions (1966), winning an Oscar in the process. The film also stars Robert Shaw as Henry VIII, Orson Welles as Wolsey, Corin Redgrave as Will Roper, Nigel Davenport as Norfolk, a young John Hurt as Richard Rich, and an older Wendy Hiller as Lady Alice, More's second wife. It was directed by Fred Zinnemann. In addition to the Best Actor Oscar won by Scofield, the film won Academy Awards for screenplay, cinematography, costume design, Best Director, and Best Picture.
1988 film[edit]
Main article: A Man for All Seasons (1988 film)
The 1988 version starred Charlton Heston (who also directed it) as More, Vanessa Redgrave (who appeared briefly and mutely in the 1966 version as Anne Boleyn) as More's wife, and Sir John Gielgud as Cardinal Wolsey. By coincidence, Gielgud's name now graces the former Globe Theatre, where the original play premiered in 1960.
Radio productions[edit]
The play was produced, with the following cast, as the Saturday Night Theatre on BBC Radio 4 on 28 February 1959:
Sir Thomas More — John Franklyn-Robbins
Master Richard Rich — Michael Cox
Master Thomas Cromwell — David Mahlowe
Cardinal Wolsey — Ralph Hallett
King Henry VIII — David Scase
Duke of Norfolk — David Sumner
Dame Alice More — Cynthia Grenville
Mistress Margaret (Meg) More — Marah Stohl
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer — Stephen MacDonald
The Bishop of Bath — Christopher Benjamin
The Bishop of Durham — Bernard Kay
The play was produced, with the following cast, as the Saturday Play on BBC Radio 4 on 7 October 2006, as part of its Betrayal season:
Sir Thomas More — Charles Dance
Master Richard Rich — Julian Rhind Tutt
Master Thomas Cromwell — Kenneth Cranham
Cardinal Wolsey — Timothy Bateson
King Henry VIII — Brian Cox
Duke of Norfolk — Nicholas le Prevost
Master William Roper — Martin Freeman
Alice More — Kika Markham
Mistress Margaret (Meg) More — Romola Garai
Boatman/Steward (aka Matthew) /Jailer — Dan Chyutin
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer/Headsman — Peter Tate
Catherine of Aragon — Adjoa Andoh
See also[edit]
Trial movies
Cultural depictions of Henry VIII of England
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "A Man for All Seasons Listing" InternetMovieDatabase, accessed 23 August 2011
Jump up ^ "A Man for all Seasons: an Historian's Demur". Catholiceducation.org. 4 December 1977. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
Jump up ^ Cox, Gordon (21 May 2008). "Frank Langella to be 'Man' on B'way – Entertainment News, Legit News, Media – Variety". Variety.com. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
^ Jump up to: a b c Chen, Chapman (2011). Pekka Kujamäki, ed. "Postcolonial Hong Kong Drama Translation" in "Beyond Borders: Translations Moving Languages, Literatures and Cultures". Volume 39 of TransÜD. Arbeiten zur Theorie und Praxis des Übersetzens und Dolmetschens. Frank & Timme GmbH, Berlin. pp. 47–54. ISBN 9783865963567. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to: A Man for All Seasons
A Man for All Seasons at the Internet Broadway Database
A Man for All Seasons at the Internet Broadway Database
Free Study Guide for "A Man for All Seasons" at TheBestNotes.com
Complete text of the play at cooper.edu (Dead Link March 2012)
Complete text of the play at veng6a.pbworks.com
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History of printing in East Asia
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Printing in East Asia evolved from ink rubbings made on paper or cloth from texts on stone tables in China during the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 CE).[1][2] Mechanical woodblock printing on paper started in China during the Tang dynasty before the 8th century CE.[3][2] Use of woodblock printing quickly spread to other East Asian countries. While the Chinese used only clay and wood movable type at first, use of metal movable type was pioneered in Korea by the 13th century.[4] The Western-style printing press became known in East Asia by the 16th century but was not fully adopted until centuries later.
Contents
1 Woodblock printing
1.1 The printing process
1.2 Spread of printing in East Asia
2 Movable type
2.1 Ceramic movable type in China
2.2 Wooden movable type in China
2.3 Metal movable type in China
2.4 Metal movable type in Korea
2.5 Movable type in Japan
3 Comparison of woodblock and movable type in East Asia
4 Mechanical presses
5 See also
6 References
6.1 Citations
6.2 Sources
7 External links
Woodblock printing[edit]
Main article: Woodblock printing
The intricate frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra from Tang-dynasty China, 868 AD (British Museum), which is widely seen as the earliest extant printed book
Traditionally, there have been two main printing techniques in Asia: woodblock printing (xylography) and moveable type printing. In the woodblock technique, ink is applied to letters carved upon a wooden board, which is then pressed onto paper. With moveable type, the board is assembled using different lettertypes, according to the page being printed. Wooden printing was used in the East from the 8th century onwards, and moveable metal type came into use during the 12th century.[5]
The earliest specimen of woodblock printing on paper, whereby individual sheets of paper were pressed into wooden blocks with the text and illustrations carved into them, was discovered in 1974 in an excavation of Xi'an (then called Chang'an, the capital of Tang China), Shaanxi, China.[6] It is a dharani sutra printed on hemp paper and dated to 650 to 670 AD, during the Tang dynasty (618–907).[6] Another printed document dating to the early half of the Chinese Tang dynasty has also been found, the Saddharmapunṇḍarīka sutra or Lotus Sutra printed from 690 to 699.[6]
The Pure Light Dharani Sutra is the world's oldest surviving woodblock print.
In Korea, an example of woodblock printing from the eighth century was discovered in 1966. A copy of the Buddhist Dharani Sutra called the Pure Light Dharani Sutra (Hangul: 무구정광대다라니경; Hanja: 無垢淨光大陀羅尼經; RR: Mugu jeonggwang dae darani-gyeong), discovered in Gyeongju, South Korea in a Silla dynasty pagoda that was repaired in 751 AD,[7] was undated but must have been created sometime before the reconstruction of the Shakyamuni Pagoda of Bulguk Temple, Kyongju Province in 751 AD.[8][9][10][11][12] The document is estimated to have been created no later than 704 AD.[7]
The printing process[edit]
The manuscript is transcribed onto thin slightly waxed sheets of paper by a professional calligrapher. The paper is placed face down on a block on which a thin layer of rice paste has been thinly spread and the back rubbed with a flat palm-fibre brush so that a clear impression of the inked area is left on the block. The engraving uses a set of sharp-edged tools to cut the characters with a double edged tool used to cut away any extra surfaces. The knife is held like a dagger in the right hand and guided by the middle finger of the left hand, drawing towards the cutter. The vertical lines are cut first, then the block is rotated 90 degrees and the horizontal lines cut.[13]
Four proof-readings are normally required – the transcript, the corrected transcript, first sample print from block and after any corrections have been made. A small correction to a block can be made by cutting a small notch and hammering in a wedge-shaped piece of wood. Larger errors require an inlay. After this the block is washed to remove any refuse.
To print, the block is fixed firmly on a table. The printer takes a round horsehair inking brush and applies ink with a vertical motion. The paper is then laid on the block and rubbed with a long narrow pad to transfer the impression to the paper. The paper is peeled off and set to dry. Because of the rubbing process, printing is only done on one side of the paper, and the paper is thinner than in the west, but two pages are normally printed at once.
Sample copies were sometimes made in red or blue, but black ink was always used for production. It is said that a skilled printer could produce as many as 1500 or 2000 double sheets in a day. Blocks can be stored and reused when extra copies are needed. 15,000 prints can be taken from a block with a further 10,000 after touching up.[14]
Spread of printing in East Asia[edit]
Printing started in China in 593 AD.[15] Printing was promoted by the spread of Buddhism.
The Buddhist scroll known as the "Great Dharani Sutra of Immaculate and Pure Light" or "Spotless Pure Light Dharani Sutra" (Hangul: 무구정광대다라니경; Hanja: 無垢淨光大陀羅尼經; RR: Mugu jeonggwang dae darani-gyeong) is currently the oldest surviving woodblock print.[16][17] It was published in Korea before the year 751 A.D. during the Silla Kingdom.[8] This Darani Sutra was found inside the Seokga Pagoda of Bulguksa Temple in Gyeongju, Korea. Bulguksa Temple in Gyeongju in October 1966 within the seokgatap (释迦塔) while dismantling the tower to repair much of the sari was found with the prints. One row of the darani gyeongmun 8-9 are printed in the form of a roll. Tripitaka Koreana was printed between 1011 and 1082. It is the world's most comprehensive and oldest intact version of Buddhist canon. A reprint in 1237–51 used 81,258 blocks of magnolia wood, carved on both sides, which are still kept almost intact at Haeinsa. A printing office was established in the National Academy in 1101 and the Goryeo government collection numbered several tens of thousands.[18]
In Japan, one thousand copies of the Lotus sutra were printed in 1009 as a pious work, not intended to be read and therefore legibility was not so important. The spread of printing outside Buddhist circles didn't develop until the end of the 16th century.[19]
The westward movement of printing started from eastern Turkestan where printing in the Uyghur language appeared in about 1300, though the page numbers and descriptions are in Chinese. Both blocks and moveable type printing has been discovered at Turfan as well as several hundred wooden type for Uighur. After the Mongols conquered Turfan, a great number of Uighurs were recruited into the Mongol army and after the Mongols incorporated Persia in the middle of the 13th century, paper money was printed in Tabriz in 1294, following the Chinese system. The first description of the Chinese printing system was made by Rashid-al-Din Hamadani in 1301–11 in his history of the world.
Some fifty pieces of printed matter have been found in Egypt printed between 900 and 1300 in black ink on paper by the rubbing method in the Chinese style. Although there is no transmission evidence, experts believe there is a connection.[20]
According to the print scholar A. Hyatt Mayor, "it was the Chinese who really discovered the means of communication that was to dominate until our age."[21] Both woodblock and movable type printing were replaced in the second half of the 19th century by western-style printing, initially lithography.[22]
Movable type[edit]
Further information: Movable type
Ceramic movable type in China[edit]
Bi Sheng (毕昇) (990–1051) developed the first known movable-type system for printing in China around 1040 AD during the Northern Song dynasty, using ceramic materials.[23][24] As described by the Chinese scholar Shen Kuo (沈括) (1031–1095):
When he wished to print, he took an iron frame and set it on the iron plate. In this he placed the types, set close together. When the frame was full, the whole made one solid block of type. He then placed it near the fire to warm it. When the paste [at the back] was slightly melted, he took a smooth board and pressed it over the surface, so that the block of type became as even as a whetstone.
For each character there were several types, and for certain common characters there were twenty or more types each, in order to be prepared for the repetition of characters on the same page. When the characters were not in use he had them arranged with paper labels, one label for each rhyme-group, and kept them in wooden cases.[23]
If one were to print only two or three copies, this method would be neither simple nor easy. But for printing hundreds or thousands of copies, it was marvelously quick. As a rule he kept two forms going. While the impression was being made from the one form, the type was being put in place on the other. When the printing of the one form was finished, the other was then ready. In this way the two forms alternated and the printing was done with great rapidity.[23]
In 1193, Zhou Bida, an officer of Southern Song Dynasty, made a set of clay movable-type method according to the method described by Shen Kuo in his Dream Pool Essays, and printed his book Notes of The Jade Hall (《玉堂杂记》).[25]
Clay type printing was practiced in China from the Song dynasty through the Qing dynasty.[26] As late as 1844 there were still books printed in China with ceramic movable types.[25]
Wooden movable type in China[edit]
Wooden movable type was also first developed around 1040 AD by Bi Sheng (990–1051), as described by the Chinese scholar Shen Kuo (1031–1095), but was abandoned in favour of clay movable types due to the presence of wood grains and the unevenness of the wooden type after being soaked in ink.[23][27]
A revolving typecase for wooden type in China, from Wang Zhen's book published in 1313
In 1298, Wang Zhen (王祯/王禎), a Yuan dynasty governmental official of Jingde County, Anhui Province, China, re-invented a method of making movable wooden types. He made more than 30,000 wooden movable types and printed 100 copies of Records of Jingde County (《旌德县志》), a book of more than 60,000 Chinese characters. Soon afterwards, he summarized his invention in his book A method of making moveable wooden types for printing books. This system was later enhanced by pressing wooden blocks into sand and casting metal types from the depression in copper, bronze, iron or tin. This new method overcame many of the shortcomings of woodblock printing. Rather than manually carving an individual block to print a single page, movable type printing allowed for the quick assembly of a page of text. Furthermore, these new, more compact type fonts could be reused and stored.[23][24] The set of wafer-like metal stamp types could be assembled to form pages, inked, and page impressions taken from rubbings on cloth or paper.[24] In 1322，a Fenghua county officer Ma Chengde (马称德) in Zhejiang, made 100,000 wooded movable types and printed 43 volume Daxue Yanyi (《大学衍义》). Wooden movable types were used continually in China. Even as late as 1733, a 2300-volume Wuying Palace Collected Gems Edition (《武英殿聚珍版丛书》) was printed with 253500 wooden movable type on order of the Yongzheng Emperor, and completed in one year.
A number of books printed in Tangut script during the Western Xia (1038–1227) period are known, of which the Auspicious Tantra of All-Reaching Union that was discovered in the ruins of Baisigou Square Pagoda in 1991 is believed to have been printed sometime during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Western Xia (1139–1193).[28] It is considered by many Chinese experts to be the earliest extant example of a book printed using wooden movable type.[29]
A particular difficulty posed the logistical problems of handling the several thousand logographs whose command is required for full literacy in Chinese language. It was faster to carve one woodblock per page than to composit a page from so many different types. However, if one was to use movable type for multitudes of the same document, the speed of printing would be relatively quicker.[14]
Although the wooden type was more durable under the mechanical rigors of handling, repeated printing wore the character faces down, and the types could only be replaced by carving new pieces.
Metal movable type in China[edit]
Bronze movable type printing was invented in China no later than the 12th century, according to at least 13 material finds in China,[30] in large scale bronze plate printing of paper money and formal official documents issued by Jin (1115–1234) and Southern Song (1127–1279) dynasties with embedded bronze metal types for anti counterfeit markers. Such paper money printing might date back to the 11th-century jiaozi of Northern Song (960–1127).[31]
Copperplate of 1215–1216 5000-cash Jin dynasty (1115–1234) paper money with bronze movable type counterfeit markers
The typical example of this kind of bronze movable type embedded copper-block printing is a printed "check" of Jin Dynasty with two square holes for embedding two bronze movable type characters, each selected from 1000 different characters, such that each printed paper money has different combination of markers. A copper block printed paper money dated between 1215–1216 in the collection of Luo Zhenyu's Pictorial Paper Money of the Four Dynasties, 1914, shows two special characters one called Ziliao, the other called Zihao for the purpose of preventing counterfeit; over the Ziliao there is a small character (輶) printed with movable copper type, while over the Zihao there is an empty square hole, apparently the associated copper metal type was lost. Another sample of Song dynasty money of the same period in the collection of Shanghai Museum has two empty square holes above Ziliao as well as Zihou, due to the loss of two copper movable types. Song dynasty bronze block embedded with bronze metal movable type printed paper money was issued in large scale and in circulation for a long time.[32]
In the 1298 book Zao Huozi Yinshufa (《造活字印书法》/《造活字印書法》) by the early Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) official Wang Zhen, there is mention of tin movable type, used probably since the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), but this was largely experimental.[33] It was unsatisfactory due to its incompatibility with the inking process.[34]
During the Mongol Empire (1206–1405), printing using movable type spread from China to Central Asia.[clarification needed] The Uyghurs of Central Asia used movable type, their script type adopted from the Mongol language, some with Chinese words printed between the pages, a strong evidence that the books were printed in China.[35]
A page from bronze movable-type book by Hua Sui, printed in 1490
During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Hua Sui in 1490 used bronze type in printing books.[36] In 1574 the massive 1000 volume encyclopedia Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era (《太平御览》/《太平御覧》) were printed with bronze movable type.
In 1725, the Qing dynasty government made 250,000 bronze movable-type characters and printed 64 sets of the encyclopedic Gujin Tushu Jicheng (《古今图书集成》/《古今圖書集成》, Complete Collection of Illustrations and Writings from the Earliest to Current Times). Each set consisted of 5040 volumes, making a total of 322,560 volumes printed using movable type.[35]
Metal movable type in Korea[edit]
Jikji, "Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Son Masters", the earliest known book printed with movable metal type, printed in Korea in 1377. Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
The transition from wood type to movable metal type occurred in Korea during the Goryeo dynasty, some time in the 13th century, to meet the heavy demand for both religious and secular books. A set of ritual books, Sangjeong Gogeum Yemun were printed with movable metal type in 1234.[37][page needed] The credit for the first metal movable type may go to Choe Yun-ui of the Goryeo Dynasty in 1234.[38]
The techniques for bronze casting, used at the time for making coins (as well as bells and statues) were adapted to making metal type. Unlike the metal punch system thought to be used by Gutenberg, the Koreans used a sand-casting method. The following description of the Korean font casting process was recorded by the Joseon dynasty scholar Song Hyon (15th century):
At first, one cuts letters in beech wood. One fills a trough level with fine sandy [clay] of the reed-growing seashore. Wood-cut letters are pressed into the sand, then the impressions become negative and form letters [molds]. At this step, placing one trough together with another, one pours the molten bronze down into an opening. The fluid flows in, filling these negative molds, one by one becoming type. Lastly, one scrapes and files off the irregularities, and piles them up to be arranged.[39]
While metal movable type printing was developed in Korea and the oldest extant metal print book had been printed in Korea,[40] Korea never witnessed a printing revolution comparable to Europe's:
Korean printing with movable metallic type developed mainly within the royal foundry of the Yi dynasty. Royalty kept a monopoly of this new technique and by royal mandate suppressed all non-official printing activities and any budding attempts at commercialization of printing. Thus, printing in early Korea served only the small, noble groups of the highly stratified society.[41]
A potential solution to the linguistic and cultural bottleneck that held back movable type in Korea for two hundred years appeared in the early 15th century—a generation before Gutenberg would begin working on his own movable type invention in Europe—when King Sejong devised a simplified alphabet of 24 characters called Hangul for use by the common people, which could have made the typecasting and compositing process more feasible.
Movable type in Japan[edit]
Though the Jesuits operated a Western movable type printing-press in Nagasaki, Japan, printing equipment[42] brought back by Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army in 1593 from Korea had far greater influence on the development of the medium. Four years later, Tokugawa Ieyasu, even before becoming shōgun, effected the creation of the first native movable type,[42][page needed] using wooden type-pieces rather than metal. He oversaw the creation of 100,000 type-pieces, which were used to print a number of political and historical texts.
An edition of the Confucian Analects was printed in 1598 using metal moveable type printing equipment at the order of Emperor Go-Yōzei. This document is the oldest work of Japanese moveable type printing extant today. Despite the appeal of moveable type, however, it was soon decided that the running script style of Japanese writings would be better reproduced using woodblocks, and so woodblocks were once more adopted; by 1640 they were once again being used for nearly all purposes.[43][page needed]
Comparison of woodblock and movable type in East Asia[edit]
China Block Printing Museum in Yangzhou
Despite the introduction of movable type from the 11th century, printing using woodblocks remained dominant in East Asia until the introduction of lithography and photolithography in the 19th century. To understand this it is necessary to consider both the nature of the language and the economics of printing.
Given that the Chinese language does not use an alphabet it was usually necessary for a set of type to contain 100,000 or more blocks, which was a substantial investment. Common characters need 20 or more copies, and rarer characters only a single copy. In the case of wood, the characters were either produced in a large block and cut up, or the blocks were cut first and the characters cut afterwards. In either case the size and height of the type had to be carefully controlled to produce pleasing results. To handle the typesetting, Wang Zhen used revolving tables about 2m in diameter in which the characters were divided according to the five tones and the rhyme sections according to the official book of rhymes. The characters were all numbered and one man holding the list called out the number to another who would fetch the type.
This system worked well when the run was large. Wang Zhen's initial project to produce 100 copies of a 60,000 character gazetteer of the local district was produced in less than a month. But for the smaller runs typical of the time it was not such an improvement. A reprint required resetting and re-proofreading, unlike the wooden block system where it was feasible to store the blocks and reuse them. Individual wooden characters didn't last as long as complete blocks. When metal type was introduced it was harder to produce aesthetically pleasing type by the direct carving method.
It is unknown whether metal movable types used from the late 15th century in China were cast from moulds or carved individually. Even if they were cast, there were not the economies of scale available with the small number of different characters used in an alphabetic system. The wage for engraving on bronze was many times that for carving characters on wood and a set of metal type might contain 200,000–400,000 characters. Additionally, the ink traditionally used in Chinese printing, typically composed of pine soot bound with glue, didn't work well with the tin originally used for type.
As a result of all this, movable type was initially used by government offices which needed to produce large number of copies and by itinerant printers producing family registers who would carry perhaps 20,000 pieces of wooden type with them and cut any other characters needed locally. But small local printers often found that wooden blocks suited their needs better.[14]
Mechanical presses[edit]
Mechanical presses as used in European printing remained unknown in East Asia.[44] Instead, printing remained an unmechanized, laborious process with pressing the back of the paper onto the inked block by manual "rubbing" with a hand tool.[45] In Korea, the first printing presses were introduced as late as 1881–83,[46][47] while in Japan, after an early but brief interlude in the 1590s,[48] Gutenberg's printing press arrived in Nagasaki in 1848 on a Dutch ship.[49]
Contrary to Gutenberg printing, which allowed printing on both sides of the paper from its very beginnings (although not simultaneously until very recent times), East Asian printing was done only on one side of the paper, because the need to rub the back of the paper when printing would have spoilt the first side when the second side was printed.[45] Another reason was that, unlike in Europe where Gutenberg introduced more suitable oil-based ink, Asian printing remained confined to water-based inks which tended to soak through the paper.
See also[edit]
Hua Sui
Printing press
History of Western typography
Samuel Dyer
Typography
Wang Zhen (official)
References[edit]
Citations[edit]
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Jump up ^ "The phase of technological development that distinguished China's and particularly Shanghai's early Westernized printing industry was that involving lithography." Christopher A. Reed (2004). Gutenberg in Shanghai: Chinese Print Capitalism, 1876–1937. Canada, UBC Press. p. 89.
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^ Jump up to: a b c Man, John. The Gutenberg Revolution: The story of a genius that changed the world (c) 2002 Headline Book Publishing, a division of Hodder Headline, London. ISBN 0-7472-4504-5. A detailed examination of Gutenberg's life and invention, interwoven with the underlying social and religious upheaval of Medieval Europe on the eve of the Renaissance.
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Jump up ^ Pan Jixing, A history of movable metal type printing technique in China 2001, p22
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Jump up ^ Hou Jianmei (侯健美); Tong Shuquan (童曙泉) (20 December 2004). "《大夏寻踪》今展国博" ['In the Footsteps of the Great Xia' now exhibiting at the National Museum]. Beijing Daily (《北京日报》).
Jump up ^ 韩国剽窃活字印刷发明权只是第一步
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Jump up ^ A History of Moveable Type Printing in China, by Pan Jixing, Professor of the Institute for History of Science, Academy of Science, Beijing, China, English Abstract, p. 273.
Jump up ^ Wang Zhen (1298). Zao Huozi Yinshufa (《造活字印書法》). 近世又铸锡作字, 以铁条贯之 (rendering: In the modern times, there's melten Tin Movable type, and linked them with iron bar)
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^ Jump up to: a b Lane, Richard (1978). Images of the Floating World. Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky. P. 33.
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Jump up ^ printing. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved November 5, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD.
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Sources[edit]
Carter, Thomas Frances. The Invention of Printing in China, and its spread Westward 2nd ed., revised by L. Carrington Goodrich. NY:Ronald Press, 1955. (1st ed, 1925)
Fifty Wonders of Korea: Volume 1. Seoul: Samjung Munhwasa, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9797263-1-6.
Lane, Richard. (1978). Images from the Floating World, The Japanese Print. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192114471; OCLC 5246796
Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin (1985). Paper and Printing. Needham, Joseph Science and Civilization in China. vol. 5 part 1. Cambridge University Press. pp. 201–217. ISBN 0-521-08690-6. ; also published in Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986.
Twitchett, Denis. Printing and Publishing in Medieval China. New York, Frederick C. Beil, 1983.
External links[edit]
Chinese woodblock prints from SOAS University of London
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John Paragon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
John Paragon
Born
John Dixon Paragon
(1954-12-09)December 9, 1954
Anchorage, Alaska Territory
Occupation
Actor, writer, director
John Dixon Paragon (born December 9, 1954) is an American actor, writer, and director.
He was born in Anchorage, Alaska, but grew up and attended schools in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Paragon played Jambi the Genie and voiced Pterri the Pterodactyl on children's show Pee-wee's Playhouse. In addition to writing many of the regular season episodes of Playhouse, Paragon also co-wrote (with Paul Reubens) the Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special in 1988, for which they were nominated an Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Children's Special.
Some of Paragon's other roles include Cedric, one half of the gay couple Bob and Cedric on the television series Seinfeld; the title character in the children's movie The Frog Prince; the sex shop salesman in Eating Raoul; and the owner of a Strip-o-gram business in the 1986 film Echo Park.
Paragon got his start in the Los Angeles-based improvisation group The Groundlings alongside Reubens and Phil Hartman. He also collaborated with fellow Groundling Cassandra Peterson on numerous Elvira projects, including the recurring role of The Breather, an annoying caller, for her first television series on KHJ-TV-Los Angeles.
In recent years, Paragon has worked with Walt Disney Imagineering on ways to incorporate improvisational performance into attractions at Disney parks. In this capacity, he performed as the keeper of Lucky the Dinosaur during the test runs of the animatronic figure.
Paragon returned to his performance as Jambi the Genie in the Broadway outing of the Pee-wee Herman stage show that began performances October 26, 2010 at the Stephen Sondheim Theater.
Select filmography[edit]
The Pee-wee Herman Show (1981, writer and roles as Jambi the Genie and Pterri)
Airplane II: The Sequel (1982, uncredited role as 'Economy' Flight Attendant)
Eating Raoul (1982, as Sex Shop Salesman)
The Paragon of Comedy (1983, TV special, writer and actor in various sketches)
Get Out of My Room (1985, as Robert Walters)
Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985, as Movie Lot Actor)
The Frog Prince (1986, as Ribbit/Prince Of Freedly)
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988, writer and role as Gas Station Attendant)
UHF (1989, as Richard Fletcher)
Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992, as Lab Technician)
Twin Sitters (1994, writer, director, and role as Loan officer)
External links[edit]
John Paragon on IMDb
John Paragon at AllMovie
Authority control
WorldCat Identities
VIAF: 121673297
ISNI: 0000 0001 1781 0542
BNF: cb14126493p (data)

This article about an American television actor or actress born in the 1950s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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