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This dissertation explores Moderata Fonte’s Tredici canti del Floridoro from a new critical perspective, by taking into consideration Fonte’s authorial positionality, situating the text within its literary and historical contexts, and devoting sustained attention to its extradiegetic and structural components. Through this framing, this study highlights Fonte’s innovation as an author of chivalric epic and reveals the Floridoro to be a text with political motivations. The first chapter examines Fonte’s authorial persona and her metapoetics, both as they are written about by her contemporaries and as they are made manifest within the Floridoro. The remaining two chapters are devoted to an analysis of the two ekphrastic sub-narratives found within the Floridoro, and how they mirror Fonte’s dual dedication of the poem to Francesco I de’ Medici and Bianca Cappello: chapter 2 considers Fonte’s Medici genealogy as a response to a specific political moment and to the unique anxieties of her first dedicatee, while chapter 3 explores how Fonte’s history of Venice functions as a civic genealogy for her second.

The majority of the letters from Lord Milton quoted are copies which he kept of his more important communications. His main correspondent was the Earl of Ilay (1706), 3rd Duke of Argyll (1743). The Argyll papers at Inveraray Castle are unavailable. Ilay's papers apart from estate material are not at Inveraray, however, being included in his English estate and going to his mistress Mrs Anne Williams or Shireburn, then to her son by him, William Williams or Campbell, and then to the latter's son Archibald Campbell, who gave William Coxe access to them for his Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole (1798). After that these papers were lost (Sir Lewis Namier having failed to trace them in recent times) and might, if found, be disappointing in one respect, the injunction of Milton to Ilay being to burn his (Milton's) letters. Fortunately Ilay's letters to Milton are preserved in the latter's vast archives (the bulk of the Saltoun Papers at the National Library of Scotland). It is evident that Milton systematically stored every scrap of paper addressed to him. Milton is correctly described as plain Andrew Fletcher before he took the judicial title of Milton from part of his uncle's and father's estate of Salton (there already being a Lord Salton, in the Scots peerage). And his proper title during the centre of his career was, according to the usage of the time, "the Lord Justice Clerk", the designation of Milton not then applying. For simplicity's sake, however, he is referred to throughout as Milton. Similarly Ilay is always referred to as Ilay rather than Argyll to avoid confusing him with his brother the 2nd Duke of Argyll. And the 18th century spelling of Salton is preferred to the preciously antique form of Saltoun now prevailing. I am greatly indebted to Professor R. H. Campbell for his valuable advice and unstinting encouragement, and to Mrs Margaret Anderson, Dr Anand Chitnis, Dr Derek Dow, Dr Alastair Durie, Mrs Rita Hemphill, Mr Murdo MacDonald, Mr Michael Moss, Dr Alexander Murdoch, Miss Chris Robertson, Mr John Simpson, Miss Veronica Stokes, Mr Arnott Wilson, the Secretaries of the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Bank of Scotland and the staff of the National Library of Scotland and the Scottish Record Office for their generous help and cooperation.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the actor's process in tackling the roles of Harry Dalton in Equus by Peter Shaffer, Duke Senior in As You Like It by William Shakespeare, and Dionysus in The Bacchae by Euripedes. Each production is assigned its own chapter, respectively. The chapters explore each role vocally, psychologically, and physically, including the examination of the Alexander Technique. Reflection on the experience of portraying the character and an evaluation of the actor's growth also transpires. The fourth chapter, Finding My Light, summarizes related observations and analysis as a result of performing all three roles. Finally, the fifth chapter, Curtain Call: A Tableau of Contemplation, deliberates on three years of graduate education. It features the benefits and shortcomings realized as a result of participating as one of the first students the Professional Studio Acting Track of Virginia Commonwealth University.

The present study sought to identify variables that predicted parental decision-making regarding their child's participation in a national gifted and talented identification program for middle school students and subsequent participation in recommended educational options. One hundred sixty-nine parents of students who qualified for either the 2001-2002 or 2002-2003 Duke Talent Identification Program participated in the study. The students were drawn from two large public school districts and six small private schools in a large metropolitan area in the southwestern United States. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to identify the variables predictive of parental decision-making regarding talent search participation. Each parent completed a questionnaire consisting of both multiple-choice and open-ended questions. Selected parents participated in structured follow-up interviews. The results of the study indicated that parental perception of the helpfulness of school personnel in explaining the purpose and process of the talent search was most predictive of participation in the talent search. The educational level of the father, parent's prior awareness of the purpose and process of talent search, and the number of enrichment activities in which the child had previously participated were also predictive of talent search participation. Qualitative data indicated that parents of both participants and nonparticipants had a limited understanding of the purpose, diagnostic power, and potential benefits of the talent search. Very few parents chose to seek extracurricular or curricular/instructional options following the talent search testing. Qualitative data indicated that parents did not choose these options due to cost, logistical concerns regarding the special programs, and reservations about the developmental appropriateness of such options for middle school students. Although talent searches are sponsored and administered by organizations outside the local school, this study suggests that parents mostly rely on their local school for notification of their child's nomination, information on the purpose and benefits of talent search, interpretation of test scores, and guidance in selecting appropriate curricular or extracurricular follow-up.