Briony Frost

Dr Briony FrostDr Briony Frost. Fascinated by dead poets and monarchs, I came to Exeter University in 2002 to study for a BA in English, for which I received a first class honours and a Dean’s Commendation.

I began to specialise early on in early modern drama, writing my dissertation on Shakespeare’s intertextual influences on Milton. During this time, I also worked part time for the Students’ Shop and as a copy editor/proof-reader for Impress Books. Increasingly committed to researching the early modern, I continued at Exeter to undertake a part-time MA in Renaissance Studies. This was funded by the AHRC and I achieved a distinction.

My dissertation, “The Isle of Dogs: Playing at Politics and the Politics of Playing in Elizabethan England 1597-1599,” formed a starting point for my PhD thesis. I began my PhD in 2007. My thesis “Becoming a King’s Man: Shakespeare’s Stage and James’ State 1604-1610” tackles the possible Greenwich play candidates, Measure for Measure, Macbeth, King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra, examining the relationship between the stage and state during the turbulent early years of James I’s reign. I address issues of succession and representation under the shadow of the late queen’s famous memory and explore whether the king’s patronage allowed Shakespeare to “o’erleap” the step of censorship to meddle in these affairs of state. This project is fully funded by the AHRC. I have spent two years co-organising the Renaissance Reading Group, a postgraduate and staff discussion group, first with Dr. Vicky Sparey and subsequently with Jem Bloomfield. I am also co-founder and organiser of The Symposium, an informal literature seminar run for first year English BA students.

Briony currently works as an assistant lecturer at the University of Plymouth and teaching associate at the University of Exeter.

Courses delivered by Briony: