by H.A.L. Craig

'The School of Night' was Shakespeare's nickname for an Elizabethan literary group founded by Sir Walter Ralegh. Among its members were such nobles as the Earl of Northumberland (known as 'The Wizard Earl') and such poets as Marlowe and Chapman. Under the tutelage of Thomas Harriot, the mathematician, they studied theology, astronomy, philosophy, geography, and chemistry.

(BBC recording: third broadcast)

followed by an interlude at 7.25