document_title: Will & Grace

question_text: how many episodes in will and grace 2017

text: Will & Grace

text: Episodes[edit]

text:
Season
Episodes
Originally aired
Nielsen ratings[14]

First aired
Last aired
Rank
Rating
Viewers
(millions)

1
22
September 21, 1998 (1998-09-21)
May 13, 1999 (1999-05-13)
40
N/A
12.3[15]

2
24
September 21, 1999 (1999-09-21)
May 23, 2000 (2000-05-23)
44
N/A
12.0[16]

3
25
October 12, 2000 (2000-10-12)
May 17, 2001 (2001-05-17)
14
11.3
17.3[17]

4
27
September 27, 2001 (2001-09-27)
May 16, 2002 (2002-05-16)
9
11.0
17.3[18]

5
24
September 26, 2002 (2002-09-26)
May 15, 2003 (2003-05-15)
11
11.0
16.8[19]

6
24
September 25, 2003 (2003-09-25)
April 29, 2004 (2004-04-29)
13
10.4
15.2[20]

7
24
September 16, 2004 (2004-09-16)
May 19, 2005 (2005-05-19)
44
N/A
9.4[21]

8
24
September 29, 2005 (2005-09-29)
May 18, 2006 (2006-05-18)
61
N/A
8.7[22]

9
16[23]
September 28, 2017 (2017-09-28)
TBA
TBA
TBA
TBA

text: Will & Grace is set in New York City and focuses on the relationship between Will Truman, a gay lawyer, and his best friend Grace Adler, a Jewish woman who owns an interior design firm. Also featured are their friends Karen Walker, an alcoholic socialite, and Jack McFarland, a flamboyantly gay actor. The interplay of relationships features the trials and tribulations of dating, marriage, divorce, and casual sex; as well as comical key stereotypes of gay and Jewish culture.

text: Cast and characters[edit]

text: Main[edit]

text:
Eric McCormack as Will Truman: The first titular protagonist to the show, Will is a gay man who is a successful corporate lawyer who studied at Columbia University, which is where he met Grace as a freshman; they have been best friends ever since. He is very precise and obsessive when it comes to certain tasks, especially cleaning, dressing, and decorating. However, Will does have a very patient and compassionate nature towards those close to him, often to a fault. Even though Will is gay, he sometimes tries to pass as straight; he has at times avoided admitting his sexual orientation to people. Several characters commented that his relationship with Grace is more like that of a married couple than two friends; at one point Will even considered having a baby with Grace. Will is the more mature and tolerant character of the duo and serves as Grace's rock most times.
Debra Messing as Grace Adler: The second titular protagonist to the show, Grace is a straight interior decorator with a fondness for food. She's been Will's best friend since college and roommate throughout most of the show. Grace is Jewish but does not practice her religion staunchly. She plays as a neurotic counterbalance for Will's more everyman character. Grace tends to heavily rely on Will for moral and emotional support, especially after a break-up.
Megan Mullally as Karen Walker: Karen "works" as Grace's assistant, making "Grace Adler Designs" popular among her socialite acquaintances. She is the wife of the wealthy (but mostly unseen) Stanley Walker. Karen is also known for casually downing alcohol and prescription medication and can be uncaring. However, she is very close to Jack, is friends with Grace, and throughout the show's run warms to Will. Even though she's silly at times, Karen has shown bouts of intelligence: having a working knowledge of business/real-estate market economics, a moderate understanding of computers, and a flair for interior design. She's also a certified public notary and an aficionado of various liquors and prescription drugs. Despite this, she is often ambivalent and unaware to habits of the working and middle classes, often criticizing and mocking at what she fails to understand.
Sean Hayes as Jack McFarland: Will's other (and first gay) best friend since college. Jack is flamboyantly homosexual, confident, and free-spirited, having been so from a young age. He drifts from man to man and changes occupations often, being very fickle when it comes to both. He has worked as a struggling actor, an acting instructor, a back-up dancer for Jennifer Lopez and Janet Jackson, a sales associate at Banana Republic and Barneys New York, a cater-waiter, a student nurse, Junior VP for Out TV, and host of his own Out TV talk show, called Jack Talk. Jack made four one-man shows (called Just Jack, Jack 2000, Jack 2001, and Jack 2002) to showcase his singing/dancing/acting abilities; all attempts only having marginal success. Early on in the show he establishes a close friendship with Karen; the pair often spend time together and orchestrate various pranks. Throughout the series, Jack relies on Will and Karen for financial support. His idol is Cher.
Shelley Morrison as Rosario Salazar (Seasons 1-8): Karen's maid, and later Jack's wife, then ex-wife. Morrison was offered to reprise her role when the series was revived, but declined, having retired from acting.

text: Supporting[edit]

text:
Supporting characters on Will & Grace

Main characters
Will Truman
Grace Adler
Jack McFarland
Karen Walker

Spouses
Vince D'Angelo (Bobby Cannavale)
Leo Markus (Harry Connick Jr.)
Rosario Salazar (Shelley Morrison)
Stanley Walker
Lyle Finster (John Cleese)

Family
George Truman (Sydney Pollack)
Marilyn Truman (Blythe Danner)
Sam Truman (John Slattery / Steven Weber)
Paul Truman (Jon Tenney)
Bobbi Adler (Debbie Reynolds)
Martin Adler (Alan Arkin)
Janet Adler (Geena Davis)
Joyce Adler (Sara Rue)
Eleanor Markus (Judith Ivey)
Judith McFarland (Veronica Cartwright)
Elliot (Michael Angarano)
Daniel McFarland (Beau Bridges)
Skip (Jet Jurgensmeyer )
Lois Whitley (Suzanne Pleshette)
Gin (Bernadette Peters)
Barry (Dan Futterman)
Lorraine Finster (Minnie Driver)
Marion Finster (Tim Curry)
Sumner Davis (Paul Satterfield)

Ben Truman (Ben Newmark), Lila Markus (Maria Thayer)

Friends
Rob (Tom Gallop), Ellen (Leigh-Allyn Baker), Joe (Jerry Levine), Larry (Tim Bagley), Steve (Steve Paymer)
Zandra Zoggin (Eileen Brennan)
Candice Bergen (Candice Bergen)

Neighbors
Val Bassett (Molly Shannon), Mr. Zamir (Marshall Manesh), Nathan (Woody Harrelson)
N/A

Love interests
Michael (Chris Potter)
Scott Sender (Branden Williams)
Matthew (Patrick Dempsey)
James Hanson (Taye Diggs)
Vince D'Angelo (Bobby Cannavale)
Ben Doucette (Gregory Hines)
Danny (Tom Verica)
Josh (Corey Parker)
Nathan (Woody Harrelson)
Nick (Edward Burns)
Tom Cassidy (Eric Stoltz)
Leo Markus (Harry Connick Jr.)
Stuart Lamarack (Dave Foley)
Kevin Bacon (Kevin Bacon)
Lionel Banks (Rip Torn)
Malcolm Widmark (Alec Baldwin)

Rivals
Kevin Wolchek (Adam Goldberg)
Val Bassett (Molly Shannon)
Artemis Johnson (Will Arnett)
Beverley Leslie (Leslie Jordan)
Lorraine Finster (Minnie Driver)
Scott Woolley (Jeff Goldblum)
Candy Pruitt (Christine Ebersole)
Val Bassett (Molly Shannon)
Candice Bergen (Candice Bergen)

Bosses
Ben Doucette (Gregory Hines)
Mr. Stein (Gene Wilder)
Margot (Lily Tomlin)
Malcolm Widmark (Alec Baldwin)
N/A
Jamie (John Ducey)
Tim (Mark Harelik)
Dorleen (Parker Posey)
Grace Adler (Debra Messing)

Employees / Subordinates
Mrs. Freeman (Jo Marie Payton)
Connie (Kari Lizer)
Karen Walker (Megan Mullally)
Gillian (Natasha Lyonne)
Tony (Anthony Ramos)
Dave (Mathew Botuchis)
Rosario Salazar (Shelley Morrison)

Clients
Harlin Polk (Gary Grubbs)
Stanley Walker
N/A
Joanne (Emily Rutherfurd)
Russell (Jon Fleming)
N/A

Co-workers
Gary (Jamie Kaler)
N/A
N/A
N/A

Others
Tina (Lesley Ann Warren), Benji (Brian A. Setzer), Nurse Sheila (Laura Kightlinger)

text: Production[edit]

text: Conception[edit]

text: Creators of Will & Grace and real-life friends Max Mutchnick and David Kohan modeled the show after Mutchnick's relationship with childhood friend Janet Eisenberg, a New York City voice-over casting agent. Mutchnick, who is openly gay, met Eisenberg while rehearsing a play at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills, California at age of 13.[24] He was the main star of the Hebrew school musical, while she was a student in the drama department. About three years later, she introduced him to Kohan, the son of comedy writer Alan Kohan, in the drama department at Beverly Hills High School. "Max and Janet seemed to have a lovely rapport, but the romantic element confused me, and it confused them as well," Kohan later recalled. "They went out for a couple of years, then they went off to different colleges. And Max comes out of the closet, springs it on her – and she was stunned. It was a shocking revelation for her, so I kind of functioned as a liaison between the two of them, because they both still really loved each other."[24]

text: While Kohan practiced his shuttle diplomacy, he and Mutchnick began developing sitcom ideas, which prompted the pair to start writing as a duo.[24] They eventually landed staff jobs on HBO's adult-themed sitcom Dream On and executive produced the short-lived NBC sitcom Boston Common.[24] In 1997, they developed an ensemble comedy about six friends, two of them based on Mutchnick and Eisenberg.[24] At the same time, Warren Littlefield, the then-president of NBC Entertainment, was seeking another relationship comedy for the network as Mad About You was going off the air.[25][26] When Kohan and Mutchnick pitched their idea, which centered on three couples, one of which was a gay man living with a straight woman, Littlefield was not excited about the first two couples, but wanted to learn more about the gay and straight couple, so Mutchnick and Kohan were sent to create a pilot script centering on those two characters.[26] While Kohan and Mutchnick elaborated on the pilot script, they spent four tense months faxing Littlefield the box office grosses from hit films with gay characters such as The Birdcage and My Best Friend's Wedding.[24]

text: NBC was positive about the project, but there was still some concern that the homosexual subject matter would cause alarm. Ellen DeGeneres' sitcom Ellen, which aired on ABC, was canceled the year before Will & Grace premiered because ratings had plummeted after the show became "too gay."[27][28] Despite the criticism ABC received for DeGeneres's coming out episode, "The Puppy Episode," Kohan said, "there's no question that show made it easier for Will & Grace to make it on the air." He added: "Will & Grace had a better shot at succeeding where Ellen failed, however, because Will has known about his homosexuality for 20 years. He's not exploring that awkward territory for the first time, as Ellen did. The process of self-discovery and the pain most gay men go through is fascinating, but the average American is put off by it."[29]

text: Pilot[edit]

text: NBC went to sitcom director James Burrows to see what he thought of the homosexual subject matter and if an audience would be interested in the show.[31] Burrows liked the idea and when he first read the script in November 1997, he decided that he wanted to direct it. Burrows said, "I knew that the boys had captured a genre and a group of characters I have never read before."[25] The filming of the pilot began in March 15, 1998. The actors behind Will and Grace, Eric McCormack and Debra Messing, were positive about the series and they thought it had the potential to last long on television. McCormack said: "When shooting was finished that night, Debra and I were sitting on the couch and looking at each other and I said, ‘We’re gonna be on this set for a while.’ And we sort of clasped hands, but we didn’t want to say anything beyond that and jinx it."[32]

text: The part of Will Truman went to Eric McCormack, who was the first actor cast in the series.[30] Having played gay characters several times in his career, McCormack did not have a problem with it and thought his character could become a "poster boy for some gay movement", like DeGeneres became a spokesperson with her character.[33] Sean Hayes was invited to audition for Jack after a NBC casting executive saw him in a role in the indie gay romance film Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss. Even though Hayes enjoyed the script when he read it, he threw it away and decided not to try out for the audition until he was sent the script again.[34] Megan Mullally initially auditioned for the role of Grace Adler, but admitted that she did not want to audition for the part of Karen.[35] By contrast, Debra Messing, with whom Mullally had first worked on Ned & Stacey, was initially unsure if she wanted to play the role of Grace.[36] The last actor to be cast, she later admitted that director Burrows was the reason for doing Will & Grace.[31]

text: Revival[edit]

text: In January 2017, NBC closed a deal for a new 10-episode season of the series, to air during the 2017-18 season. Hayes will executive produce this season as well as creators/executive producers Max Mutchnick and David Kohan. Veteran director James Burrows is on board to direct and executive produce.[37] In April 2017, the episode order was increased to 12 episodes.[38] In August 2017, it was extended again to 16 episodes, and a second 13-episode season was ordered.[39] The revival will also be filmed at Stage 22 at Universal Studios Hollywood as opposed to Stage 17 at CBS Studio Center.

text: Lawsuit[edit]

text: In December 2003, in the midst of the series' sixth season, executive producers and creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick sued NBC and NBC Studios. Alleging that the network sold the rights to the series in an attempt to keep profits within the NBC family, Kohan and Mutchnick felt that they were cheated out of considerable profits by the network's not shopping of the show to the highest bidder. Another allegation against the network was that during the first four seasons of the series, the studio licensed the rights for amounts that were insufficient for covering production costs, thus leading to extraordinarily large production deficits.[40] Three months later, NBC filed a countersuit against Kohan and Mutchnick stating that the co-creators were expected to act as an independent third party in the negotiations between NBC and its subsidiary, NBC Studios (since subsumed into Universal Television).[41]

text: With a pending lawsuit and production beginning on other projects, Kohan and Mutchnick were absent on the Will & Grace set for most of its final seasons. They wrote the season 4 episode, "A Buncha White Chicks Sittin' Around Talkin'" and did not return to the writers' seat until the series finale four years later. Three years after NBC's countersuit and one year after the series ended, the legal battle between NBC and Kohan and Mutchnick ended in 2007 when all parties agreed on a settlement, with the series creators being awarded $49 million, of their original $65 million lawsuit.[42]

text: Syndication[edit]

text: Will & Grace entered off-network syndication in the fall of 2002 and aired locally till 2008. In 2002 WGN America acquired the cable rights to air the series, where it aired until 2005 when Lifetime Television acquired the cable rights to air the series. After eight years and the expiration of Lifetime's contract, the rights to the series were picked up by WeTV and Logo TV in the fall of 2013. The streaming service Hulu later picked up the show, in anticipation for the show's revival in the fall of 2017.

text: In the United Kingdom, the series was aired on Channel 4 up until its season finale in 2006. No confirmation of the series returning to UK screens has yet been announced.

text: Reception[edit]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: The show garnered a fair amount of criticism and negative reviews upon its debut in 1998, most of which compared the show to the recently canceled ABC sitcom Ellen. Some called it "a gay Seinfeld". One such review said, "If Will & Grace can somehow survive a brutal time period opposite football and Ally McBeal, it could grow into a reasonably entertaining little anomaly – that is, a series about a man and a woman who have no sexual interest in one another. But don't bet on it. If it's doomed relationships viewers want, they'll probably opt for Ally."[43] As popular as the show came to be, particularly among gay viewers, Will & Grace continuously dealt with criticism for having a limited view of the gay community and for reinforcing stereotypes when some felt it should have torn them down.[44]

text: The series finale was heavily promoted by NBC, and McCormack, Messing, Mullally and Hayes appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Today Show to bid farewell, on May 10 and 18, respectively. NBC devoted a two-hour block in its primetime schedule on May 18, 2006, for the Will & Grace send-off. An hour-long series retrospective, "Say Goodnight, Gracie", featuring interviews with the cast, crew, and guest stars, preceded the hour-long series finale. Series creators and executive producers Kohan and Mutchnick, who had not served as writers since the season 4 finale, penned the script for "The Finale". Regarding the finale, Mutchnick stated, "We wrote about what you want to have happen with people you love... All the things that matter in life, they end up having."[45]

text: The ninth season was met with generally positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes the season has a rating of 86% based on 37 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site’s critical consensus reads, "Will & Grace reunites its ever-hilarious cast for a revival season that picks up right where the show left off 11 years ago -- adding a fresh relevance and a series of stories that make sharply funny use of the passage of time."[46] On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[47]

text: Awards and nominations[edit]

text: Will & Grace was nominated for 83 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning 16 of them. McCormack, Messing, Hayes, and Mullally each won at least one Emmy Award for their respective performances. Mullally also won a second time for her performance in 2006, a year when Will & Grace was nominated for 10 Emmys for its final season. The year before, the show had garnered 15 nominations, tied with Desperate Housewives as the series receiving the most nominations. This was almost an all-time record; the two shows were second behind The Larry Sanders Show, with 16 nominations in 1996.

text: With three each, both Hayes and Mullally held the record of winning the most Screen Actors Guild Awards for the categories Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy Series and Best Performance by an Actress in a Comedy Series, respectively, for their roles in Will & Grace; however, Tina Fey went on to tie with Mullally and Alec Baldwin went on to surpass Hayes, both for their roles on the series 30 Rock. Will & Grace has won several GLAAD Media Awards for its advocacy of the gay community. Despite more than two dozen nominations, Will & Grace never won a Golden Globe Award.

text: Ratings[edit]

text: The show debuted on Mondays beginning on September 21, 1998 and steadily gained in popularity, culminating when it moved to Thursday night as part of NBC's Must See TV line-up. The show ultimately became a highly rated television show in the United States, earning a top-twenty rating during four of its eight seasons, including one season at # 9. From 2001–2005, Will & Grace was the highest-rated sitcom among adults 18–49. However, when the show lost Friends as its lead-in after the 2003–04 season, Will & Grace began shedding viewers and slipped out of the top 20 during its last two seasons.

text: "The Finale" drew over 18 million viewers,[48][49] ranking # 8 for the week, easily making it the most watched episode of the final two seasons. While the series finale is considered a ratings success, it is far from being the most watched episode of Will & Grace—that accolade remains with the season four episode "A Chorus Lie", which aired on February 7, 2002 and ranked #8 for the week. When the show was at the height of its popularity (seasons 3–5), ranking in the Top 10 was a common occurrence, but the finale's Top 10 rank was the only such rank for season 8 and the first such rank since the season 7 premiere "FYI: I Hurt, Too".

text: Average seasonal ratings[edit]

text:
Season
Timeslot (EDT)
Season Premiere
Season Finale
TV season
Rank
Viewers
(in millions)
Ref

1
Monday 9:30 P.M. (1–8)
Tuesday 9:30 P.M. (9–17)
Thursday 8:30 P.M. (18–22)
September 21, 1998 (1998-09-21)
May 13, 1999 (1999-05-13)
1998–99
40
12.3
[50]

2
Tuesday 9:00 P.M.
September 21, 1999 (1999-09-21)
May 23, 2000 (2000-05-23)
1999–2000
44
12.0
[51]

3
Thursday 9:00 P.M.
October 12, 2000 (2000-10-12)
May 17, 2001 (2001-05-17)
2000–01
14
17.3
[52]

4
September 27, 2001 (2001-09-27)
May 16, 2002 (2002-05-16)
2001–02
9
17.3
[53]

5
September 26, 2002 (2002-09-26)
May 15, 2003 (2003-05-15)
2002–03
11
16.8
[54]

6
Thursday 9:00 P.M. (1–12, 22–24)
Thursday 8:33 P.M. (13–21)
September 25, 2003 (2003-09-25)
April 29, 2004 (2004-04-29)
2003–04
16
15.2
[55]

7
Thursday 8:30 P.M. (1–21, 23–24)
Tuesday 8:00 P.M. (22)
September 16, 2004 (2004-09-16)
May 19, 2005 (2005-05-19)
2004–05
44
10.0
[56]

8
Thursday 8:30 P.M. (1–9)
Thursday 8:00 P.M. (10–24)
September 29, 2005 (2005-09-29)
May 18, 2006 (2006-05-18)
2005–06
61
8.7
[57]

9
Thursday 9:00 P.M.
September 28, 2017

2017–18

text: Cultural impact[edit]

text: The series was the first prime-time television series on U.S. terrestrial television to star openly gay lead characters, making it the highest-profile presence of LGBT characters on U.S. broadcast television since Ellen's eponymous lead character's coming-out in the 1997 "Puppy Episode". It has also been heralded as responsible for opening the door to a string of gay-themed television programs, such as Queer as Folk, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Boy Meets Boy.

text: In May 2012, during a Meet the Press interview with host David Gregory, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden cited the series as an influence in American thinking regarding LGBT rights, saying, "I think Will & Grace did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody has ever done. People fear that which is different. Now they're beginning to understand."[58] In the same interview, Biden stated that he was "absolutely comfortable" with same-sex marriage, a statement which was followed on May 9 by President Barack Obama's speaking in favor of it.[59] The day after Obama's statement, series co-creator Mutchnick later told CBS This Morning that Biden had spoken similar words at a private function which Mutchnick and his husband had attended two weeks prior to Biden's statement, although a White House official was cited by CBS This Morning's Bill Plante as asserting that the Meet the Press interview was not a "trial balloon" for the statement.[60] Both Mutchnick and Kohan praised Biden's statement, but were critical of Obama's stance on marriage during the time between Biden's and Obama's statements.[61]

text: In 2004, the cast of the show were listed in Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters.[62] In 2012, The Washington Post ranked Will & Grace the ninth-best NBC comedy of all time.[63]

text: In 2014, scripts, props, and set decor from Will & Grace were donated to the National Museum of American History, which is part of the Smithsonian.[64]

text: Merchandise[edit]

text: Lionsgate Home Entertainment has released all eight seasons of Will & Grace on DVD in Region 1, 2 and 4. The show was re-released and re-packaged on October 3, 2011 on region 2.

text:
Season
Ep#
Discs
Release dates
Notes

1
2
4

1
22
4
August 12, 2003
August 30, 2004
2004

22 uncut episodes

2
24
4
March 23, 2004
August 30, 2004
2004

Syndicated (edited) version "Ben? Her?" appears. However, the full version appears on the complete boxed set and the compilation "Will & Grace: Best of Love & Marriage."
Episode listing on box does not match episode listing on discs
Episodes on the fourth disc appear out of sequence

3
25
4
September 7, 2004
August 30, 2004
2005

"Gypsies, Tramps and Weed" appears as its syndicated version.
The "super-size" episode, "Cheaters", appears as the original version, without the extra footage later added for syndication
"Cheaters" is incorrectly labeled as "Cheaters, part 1"
Various international Season 3 sets feature the syndicated versions of "Cheaters" (in two parts), with the extra footage included.[65]

4
27
4
August 16, 2005
August 30, 2004
2005

27 uncut episodes

5
24
4
August 29, 2006
March 7, 2005
2006

The "super-size" episodes, "Women and Children First", "Dolls and Dolls", "May Divorce Be With You", "23", and the season finale "24", appear as the syndicated versions

6
24
4
May 1, 2007
August 15, 2005
2007

The "super-size" episodes, "Dames at Sea", "A-Story, Bee-Story" and "Ice Cream Balls", appear as the syndicated versions.
Although not a "super-size" episode, "Strangers With Candace" is edited to its syndicated version.
The one-hour season finale, "I Do, Oh, No, You Di-in't," is split into two episodes (Parts 1 & 2). However, there is no footage missing.

7
24
4
December 4, 2007
January 30, 2006
2007

The episode "Friends With Benefits" is presented in its syndicated cut version. The original version can be found on the 2007 Emmy consideration promo DVD.
The bloopers in the US have been censored/cut, with approx. 1 minute of footage removed compared to the international editions.

8
24
4
September 16, 2008
August 7, 2006
2008

All 24 episodes included in their entirety.

Finale
1
1
May 30, 2006
—
—

One-hour series finale included in its entirety.

1–8
194
33
September 16, 2008
August 7, 2006
April 30, 2008
Re-packaged discs from the previous releases with a bonus disc containing:

A re-hashing of season 8's themed featurettes
Eric's favorite episode with commentary by him and Debra Messing
Debra's favorite episode with commentary by her and Eric McCormack
The Pilot Episode with commentary by Max Mutchinck, David Kohan, and James Burrows
A slideshow of stills from over the series' run.

text: Spin-offs[edit]

text: (Unrealized) Karen: The Musical[edit]

text: It had been announced that Megan Mullally would be creating and starring in a new Broadway musical entitled Karen: The Musical. This musical would have had Mullally reprising her role of Karen Walker. She stated in an interview that the show may also involve recurring guest star Leslie Jordan in his role as Beverley Leslie, with a story revolving around their rivalry.[66]

text: According to Mullally, the project was cancelled due to the rights to the Karen character being withdrawn. Mullally stated to have already gained approval from the network, as well as having the Broadway production company Fox Theatricals, director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw and composer Jeff Blumenkrantz all lined up to participate in the production, before certain stakeholders in the Karen Walker character withdrew the rights for its use in the production.[67]

text: (Unrealized) Jack & Karen[edit]

text: There had been talk in 2008 that a spin-off was being developed by NBC entitled Jack & Karen, featuring Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally reprising their roles. Hayes initially showed interest in the spin-off but was ultimately put off by the short-lived Friends spin-off, Joey. Furthermore, Mullally's new work schedule in the form of her talk show, which was canceled several months later, did not allow her to pursue the spin-off at the time.[68]

text: 2016 Election web special[edit]

text: On September 26, 2016, the main cast—McCormack, Messing, Hayes, and Mullally, plus Morrison in a cameo role—reunited for a 10-minute web special, urging Americans to vote in the 2016 presidential election.[8] In the special, Karen, an avid Donald Trump supporter, tries to persuade Jack to vote for Trump, while Will and Grace, both avid Hillary Clinton supporters, try to persuade him to vote for Clinton. At the end, Will reveals that singer Katy Perry is a supporter of Clinton, which persuades Jack to vote for Clinton.


document_title: Kenilworth Castle

question_text: what did king john do to kenilworth castle

root

text: Kenilworth Castle

text: Architecture and landscape[edit]

text: Although now ruined as a result of the slighting, or deliberate partial destruction, of the castle after the English Civil War, Kenilworth illustrates five centuries of English military and civil architecture. The castle is built almost entirely from local new red sandstone.[2]

tag: p

text: Entrance and outer bailey wall[edit]

text: To the south-east of the main castle lie the Brays, a corruption of the French word braie, meaning an external fortification with palisades.[3][a]  Only earthworks and fragments of masonry remain of what was an extensive 13th-century barbican structure including a stone wall and an external gatehouse guarding the main approach to the castle.[4] The area now forms part of the car park for the castle. Beyond the Brays are the ruins of the Gallery Tower, a second gatehouse remodelled in the 15th century. The Gallery Tower originally guarded the 152-metre (499-foot) long, narrow walled-causeway that still runs from the Brays to the main castle.[5] This causeway was called the Tiltyard, as it was used for tilting, or jousting, in medieval times. The Tiltyard causeway acted both as a dam and as part of the barbican defences.[4] To the east of the Tiltyard is a lower area of marshy ground, originally flooded and called the Lower Pool, and to the west an area once called the Great Mere. The Great Mere is now drained and forms a meadow, but would originally have been a large lake covering around 100 acres (40 ha), dammed by the Tiltyard causeway.[6]

text: The outer bailey of Kenilworth Castle is usually entered through Mortimer's Tower, today a modest ruin but originally a Norman stone gatehouse, extended in the late 13th and 16th centuries.[4] The outer bailey wall, long and relatively low, was mainly built by King John; it has numerous buttresses but only a few towers, being designed to be primarily defended by the water system of the Great Mere and Lower Pool.[4] The north side of the outer bailey wall was almost entirely destroyed during the slighting.[4] Moving clockwise around the outer bailey from Mortimer's Tower, the defences include a west-facing watergate, which would originally have led onto the Great Mere; the King's gate, a late 17th-century agricultural addition; the Swan Tower, a late 13th-century tower with 16th century additions named after the swans that lived on the Great Mere; the early 13th-century Lunn's Tower; and the 14th-century Water Tower, so named because it overlooked the Lower Pool.[7]

text: Inner court[edit]

text: Kenilworth's inner court consists of a number of buildings set against a bailey wall, originally of Norman origin, exploiting the defensive value of a natural knoll that rises up steeply from the surrounding area.[8] The 12th-century great tower occupies the knoll itself and forms the north-east corner of the bailey. Ruined during the slighting, the great tower is notable for its huge corner turrets, essentially hugely exaggerated Norman pilaster buttresses.[9] Its walls are 5 metres (16 feet) thick, and the towers 30 metres (98 feet) high.[10] Although Kenilworth's great tower is larger, it is similar to that of Brandon Castle near Coventry; both were built by the local Clinton family in the 1120s.[11] The tower can be termed a hall keep, as it is longer than it is wide.[4] The lowest floor is filled with earth, possibly taken from the earlier motte that may have been present on the site, and is further protected by a sloping stone plinth around the base.[9] The tall Tudor windows at the top of the tower date from the 1570s.[12]

text: Much of the northern part of the inner bailey was built by the 14th-century noble John of Gaunt between 1372 and 1380.[1] This part of the castle is considered by historian Anthony Emery to be "the finest surviving example of a semi-royal palace of the later middle ages, significant for its scale, form and quality of workmanship".[1] Gaunt's architectural style emphasised rectangular design, the separation of ground floor service areas from the upper stories and a contrast of austere exteriors with lavish interiors, especially on the 1st floor of the inner bailey buildings.[13] The result is considered "an early example of the perpendicular style".[14]

text: The most significant of Gaunt's buildings is his great hall. The great hall replaced an earlier sequence of great halls on the same site, and was heavily influenced by Edward III's design at Windsor Castle.[15]  The hall consists of a "ceremonial sequence of rooms", approached by a particularly grand staircase, now lost.[16] From the great hall, visitors could look out to admire the Great Mere or the inner court through huge windows.[17] The undercroft to the hall, used by the service staff, was lit with slits, similar to design at the contemporary Wingfield Manor.[1] The roof was built in 1376 by William Wintringham, producing the widest hall, unsupported by pillars, existing in England at the time.[18] There is some debate amongst historians as to whether this roof was a hammerbeam design, a collar and truss-brace design, or a combination of the two.[18][b]

text: There was an early attempt at symmetry in the external appearance of the great hall – the Strong and Saintlowe Towers architecturally act as near symmetrical "wings" to the hall itself, while the plinth of the hall is designed to mirror that of the great tower opposite it.[19] An unusual multi-sided tower, the Oriel, provides a counterpoint to the main doorway of the hall and was intended for private entertainment by Gaunt away from the main festivities on major occasions.[20] The Oriel tower is based on Edward III's "La Rose" Tower at Windsor, which had a similar function.[21] Gaunt's Strong Tower is so named for being entirely vaulted in stone across all its floors, an unusual and robust design.[22] The great hall influenced the design of Bolton and Raby castles, while the hall's roof design became famous and was copied at Arundel Castle and Westminster Hall.[23]

text: Other parts of the castle built by Gaunt include the southern range of state apartments, Gaunt's Tower and the main kitchen.[14] Although now extensively damaged, these share the same style as the great hall; this would have unified the appearance of Gaunt's palace in a distinct break from the more eclectic medieval tradition of design.[24] Gaunt's kitchen replaced the original 12th-century kitchens, built alongside the great tower in a similar fashion to the arrangement at Conisbrough.[25] Gaunt's new kitchen was twice the size of that in equivalent castles, measuring nineteen by eight metres (62 by 26 feet).[26]

text: The remainder of the inner court was built by Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, in the 1570s. He built a tower now known as Leicester's building on the south edge of the court as a guest wing, extending out beyond the inner bailey wall for extra space.[27] Leicester's building was four floors high and built in a fashionable contemporary Tudor style with "brittle, thin walls and grids of windows".[28] The building was intended to appear well-proportioned alongside the ancient great tower, one of the reasons for its considerable height.[29] Leicester's building set the style for later Elizabethan country house design, especially in the Midlands, with Hardwick Hall being a classic example.[30] Modern viewing platforms, installed in 2014, provide views from Elizabeth I's's former bedroom.[31]

text: Leicester also built a loggia, or open gallery, beside the great keep to lead to the new formal gardens.[32] The loggia was designed to elegantly frame the view as the observer slowly admired the gardens, and was a new design in the 16th century, only recently imported from Italy.[32]

text: Base, left-hand and right-hand courts[edit]

text: The rest of Kenilworth Castle's interior is divided into three areas: the base court, stretching between Mortimer's Tower and Leicester's gatehouse; the left-hand court, stretching south-west around the outside of the inner court; and the right-hand court, to the north-west of the inner court.[33] The line of trees that cuts across the base court today is a relatively modern mid-19th century addition, and originally this court would have been more open, save for the collegiate chapel that once stood in front of the stables.[33] Destroyed in 1524, only the chapel's foundations remain.[34] Each of the courts was designed to be used for different purposes: the base court was considered a relatively public area, with the left and right courts used for more private occasions.[35]

text: Leicester's gatehouse was built on the north side of the base court, replacing an older gatehouse to provide a fashionable entrance from the direction of Coventry.[36] The external design, with its symbolic towers and, originally, battlements, echoes a style popular a century or more before, closely resembling Kirby Muxloe and the Beauchamp gatehouse at Warwick Castle.[37] By contrast the interior, with its contemporary wood panelling, is in the same, highly contemporary Elizabethan fashion of Leicester's building in the inner court.[38] Leicester's gatehouse is one of the few parts of the castle to remain intact. The stables built by John Dudley in the 1550s also survive and lie along the east side of the base court.[39] The stable block is a large building built mostly in stone, but with a timber-framed, decoratively panelled first storey designed in an anachronistic, vernacular style.[40] Both buildings could have easily been seen from Leicester's building and were therefore on permanent display to visitors.[41] Leciester's intent may have been to create a deliberately anachronistic view across the base court, echoing the older ideals of chivalry and romance alongside the more modern aspects of the redesign of the castle.[41]

text: Garden and landscape[edit]

text: Much of the right-hand court of Kenilworth Castle is occupied by the castle garden. For most of Kenilworth's history the role of the castle garden, used for entertainment, would have been very distinct from that of the surrounding chase, used primarily for hunting.[42] From the 16th century onwards there were elaborate knot gardens in the base court.[43] The gardens today are designed to reproduce as closely as possible the primarily historical record of their original appearance in 1575, with a steep terrace along the south side of the gardens and steps leading down to eight square knot gardens.[44] In Elizabethan gardens "the plants were almost incidental", and instead the design focus was on sculptures, including four wooden obelisks painted to resemble porphyry and a marble fountain with a statue of two Greek mythological figures.[45] A timber aviary contains a range of birds.[46] The original garden was heavily influenced by the Italian Renaissance garden at Villa d'Este.[47]

text: To the north-west of the castle are earthworks marking the spot of the "Pleasance", created in 1414 by Henry V.[48] The Pleasance was a banqueting house built in the style of a miniature castle.[48] Surrounded by two diamond-shaped moats with its own dock, the Pleasance was positioned on the far side of the Great Mere and had to be reached by boat.[48] It resembled Richard II's retreat at Sheen from the 1380s, and was later copied by his younger brother, Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, at Greenwich in the 1430s, as well by his son, John of Lancaster at Fulbrook.[49]  The Pleasance was eventually dismantled by Henry VIII and partially moved into the left-hand court inside the castle itself, possibly to add to the anachronistic appearance.[38] These elements were finally destroyed in the 1650s.[50]

text: History[edit]

text: 12th century[edit]

text: Kenilworth Castle was founded in the early 1120s by Geoffrey de Clinton, Lord Chamberlain and treasurer to Henry I.[51] The castle's original form is uncertain. It has been suggested that it consisted of a motte, an earthen mound surmounted by wooden buildings; however, the stone great tower may have been part of the original design.[11] Clinton was a local rival to Roger de Beaumont, the Earl of Warwick and owner of the neighbouring Warwick Castle, and the king made Clinton the sheriff in Warwickshire to act as a counterbalance to Beaumont's power.[52] Clinton had begun to lose the king's favour after 1130, and when he died in 1133 his son, also called Geoffrey, was only a minor.[11] Geoffrey and his uncle William de Clinton were forced to come to terms with Beaumont; this set-back, and the difficult years of the Anarchy (1135–54), delayed any further development of the castle.[11]

text: Henry II succeeded to the throne at the end of the Anarchy but during the revolt of 1173–74 he faced a significant uprising led by his son, Henry, backed by the French crown. The conflict spread across England and Kenilworth was garrisoned by Henry II's forces; Geoffrey II de Clinton died in this period and the castle was taken fully into royal possession, a sign of its military importance.[51] The Clintons themselves moved on to Buckinghamshire.[10] By this point Kenilworth Castle consisted of the great keep, the inner bailey wall, a basic causeway across the smaller lake that preceded the creation of the Great Mere, and the local chase for hunting.[11]

text: 13th century[edit]

text: Henry's successor, Richard I, paid relatively little attention to Kenilworth, but under King John significant building resumed at the castle.[11] When John was excommunicated in 1208, he embarked on a programme of rebuilding and enhancing several major royal castles. These included Corfe, Odiham, Dover, Scarborough as well as Kenilworth.[4] John spent £1,115 on Kenilworth Castle between 1210 and 1216,[53] building the outer bailey wall in stone and improving the other defences, including creating Mortimer's and Lunn's Towers.[54][c]  He also significantly improved the castle's water defences by damming the Finham and Inchford Brooks, creating the Great Mere.[55] The result was to turn Kenilworth into one of the largest English castles of the time, with one of the largest artificial lake defences in England.[56] John was forced to cede the castle to the baronial opposition as part of the guarantee of the Magna Carta, before it reverted to royal control early in the reign of his son, Henry III.[51]

text: Henry III granted Kenilworth in 1244 to Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, who later became a leader in the Second Barons' War (1263–67) against the king, using Kenilworth as the centre of his operations.[57] Initially the conflict went badly for King Henry, and after the Battle of Lewes in 1264 he was forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, under which his son, Prince Edward, was given over to the rebels as a hostage.[58] Edward was taken back to Kenilworth, where chroniclers considered he was held in unduly harsh conditions.[59] Released in early 1265, Edward then defeated Montfort at the Battle of Evesham; the surviving rebels under the leadership of Henry de Hastings, Montfort's constable at Kenilworth, regrouped at the castle the following spring.[60] Edward's forces proceeded to lay siege to the rebels.[61]

text: The Siege of Kenilworth Castle in 1266 was "probably the longest in English history" according to historian Norman Pounds, and at the time was also the largest siege to have occurred in England in terms of the number of soldiers involved.[62] Simon de Monfort's son, Simon VI de Montfort, promised in January 1266 to hand over the castle to the king. Five months later this had not happened, and Henry III laid siege to Kenilworth Castle on 21 June.[63] Protected by the extensive water defences, the castle withstood the attack, despite Edward targeting the weaker north wall, employing huge siege towers and even attempting a night attack using barges brought from Chester.[64] The distance between the royal trebuchets and the walls severely reduced their effectiveness, and heavier trebuchets had to be sent for from London.[64] Papal intervention through the legate Ottobuono finally resulted in the compromise of the Dictum of Kenilworth, under which the rebels were allowed to re-purchase their confiscated lands provided they surrendered the castle;[65] the siege ended on 14 December 1266.[66] The water defences at Kenilworth influenced the construction of later castles in Wales, most notably Caerphilly.[67]

text: Henry granted Kenilworth to his son, Edmund Crouchback, in 1267.[68] Edmund held many tournaments at Kenilworth in the late 13th century, including a huge event in 1279, presided over by the royal favourite Roger de Mortimer, in which a hundred knights competed for three days in the tiltyard in an event called "the Round Table", in imitation of the popular Arthurian legends.[68]

text: 14th century[edit]

text: Edmund Crouchback passed on the castle to his eldest son, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, in 1298.[69] Lancaster married Alice de Lacy, which made him the richest nobleman in England.[70] Kenilworth became the primary castle of the Lancaster estates, replacing Bolingbroke, and acted as both a social and a financial centre for Thomas.[70] Thomas built the first great hall at the castle from 1314 to 1317 and constructed the Water Tower along the outer bailey, as well as increasing the size of the chase.[71] Lancaster, with support from many of the other English barons, found himself in increasing opposition to Edward II.[69] War broke out in 1322, and Lancaster was captured at the Battle of Boroughbridge and executed.[69] His estates, including Kenilworth, were confiscated by the crown.[70] Edward and his wife, Isabella of France, spent Christmas 1323 at Kenilworth, amidst major celebrations.[72]

text: In 1326, however, Edward was deposed by an alliance of Isabella and her lover, Roger Mortimer. Edward was eventually captured by Isabella's forces and the custody of the king was assigned to Henry, Earl of Lancaster, who had backed Isabella's invasion.[73] Henry, reoccupying most of the Lancaster lands, was made constable of Kenilworth and Edward was transported there in late 1326; Henry's legal title to the castle was finally confirmed the following year.[74] Kenilworth was chosen for this purpose by Isabella probably both because it was a major fortification, and also because of the symbolism of its former owners' links to popular ideals of freedom and good government.[75] Royal writs were issued in Edward's name by Isabella from Kenilworth until the next year.[76] A deputation of leading barons led by Bishop Orleton was then sent to Kenilworth to first persuade Edward to resign and, when that failed, to inform him that he had been deposed as king.[77] Edward formally resigned as king in the great hall of the castle on 21 January 1327.[78] As the months went by, however, it became clear that Kenilworth was proving a less than ideal location to imprison Edward.[79] The castle was in a prominent part of the Midlands, in an area that held several nobles who still supported Edward and were believed to be trying to rescue him.[79] Henry's loyalty was also coming under question.[79] In due course, Isabella and Mortimer had Edward moved by night to Berkeley Castle, where he died shortly afterwards.[80] Isabella continued to use Kenilworth as a royal castle until her fall from power in 1330.[81]

text: Henry of Grosmont, the Duke of Lancaster, inherited the castle from his father in 1345 and remodelled the great hall with a grander interior and roof.[82] On his death Blanche of Lancaster inherited the castle. Blanche married John of Gaunt, the third son of Edward III; their union, and combined resources, made John the second richest man in England next to the king himself.[70] After Blanche's death, John married Constance, who had a claim to the kingdom of Castile, and John styled himself the king of Castile and León.[70] Kenilworth was one of the most important of his thirty or more castles in England.[70] John began building at Kenilworth between 1373 and 1380 in a style designed to reinforce his royal claims in Iberia.[83] John constructed a grander great hall, the Strong Tower, Saintlowe Tower, the state apartments and the new kitchen complex.[84] When not campaigning abroad, John spent much of his time at Kenilworth and Leicester, and used Kenilworth even more after 1395 when his health began to decline.[85] In his final years, John made extensive repairs to the whole of the castle complex.[86]

text: 15th century[edit]

text: Many castles, especially royal castles, were left to decay in the 15th century; Kenilworth, however, continued to be used as a centre of choice, forming a late medieval "palace fortress".[87] Henry IV, John of Gaunt's son, returned Kenilworth to royal ownership when he took the throne in 1399 and made extensive use of the castle.[51] Henry V also used Kenilworth extensively, but preferred to stay in the Pleasance, the mock castle he had built on the other side of the Great Mere.[51] According to the contemporary chronicler John Strecche, who lived at the neighbouring Kenilworth Priory, the French openly mocked Henry in 1414 by sending him a gift of tennis balls at Kenilworth.[88] The French aim was to imply a lack of martial prowess; according to Strecche, the gift spurred Henry's decision to fight the Agincourt campaign. The account was used by Shakespeare as the basis for a scene in his play Henry V.[88]

text: English castles, including Kenilworth, did not play a decisive role during the Wars of the Roses (1455–85), which were fought primarily in the form of pitched battles between the rival factions of the Lancastrians and the Yorkists.[89] With the mental collapse of King Henry VI, Queen Margaret used the Duchy of Lancaster lands in the Midlands, including Kenilworth, as one of her key bases of military support.[90] Margaret removed Henry from London in 1456 for his own safety and until 1461, Henry's court divided almost all its time among Kenilworth, Leicester and Tutbury Castle for the purposes of protection.[91] Kenilworth remained an important Lancastrian stronghold for the rest of the war, often acting as a military balance to the nearby castle of Warwick. With the victory of Henry VII at Bosworth, Kenilworth again received royal attention; Henry visited frequently and had a tennis court constructed at the castle for his use.[86] His son, Henry VIII, decided that Kenilworth should be maintained as a royal castle.[86] He abandoned the Pleasance and had part of the timber construction moved into the base court of the castle.[86]

text: 16th century[edit]

text: The castle remained in royal hands until it was given to John Dudley in 1553. Dudley came to prominence under Henry VIII and became the leading political figure under Edward VI. Dudley was a patron of John Shute, an early exponent of classical architecture in England, and began the process of modernising Kenilworth.[92] Before his execution in 1553 by Queen Mary for attempting to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne, Dudley had built the new stable block and widened the tiltyard to its current form.[92]

text: Kenilworth was restored to Dudley's son, Robert, Earl of Leicester, in 1563, four years after the succession of Elizabeth I to the throne. Leicester's lands in Warwickshire were worth between £500–£700[d] but Leicester's power and wealth, including monopolies and grants of new lands, depended ultimately on his remaining a favourite of the queen.[94]

text: Leicester continued his father's modernisation of Kenilworth, attempting to ensure that Kenilworth would attract the interest of Elizabeth during her regular tours around the country. Elizabeth visited in 1566 and 1568, by which time Leicester had commissioned the royal architect Henry Hawthorne to produce plans for a dramatic, classical extension of the south side of the inner court.[95] In the event this proved unachievable and instead Leicester employed William Spicer to rebuild and extend the castle so as to provide modern accommodation for the royal court and symbolically boost his own claims to noble heritage.[96] After negotiation with his tenants, Leicester also increased the size of the chase once again.[97] The result has been termed an English "Renaissance palace".[98]

text: Elizabeth viewed the partially finished results at Kenilworth in 1572, but the complete effect of Leicester's work was only apparent during the queen's last visit in 1575.[99] Leicester was keen to impress Elizabeth in a final attempt to convince her to marry him, and no expense was spared.[100] Elizabeth brought an entourage of thirty-one barons and four hundred staff for the royal visit that lasted an exceptional nineteen days; twenty horsemen a day arrived at the castle to communicate royal messages.[101] Leicester entertained the Queen and much of the neighbouring region with pageants, fireworks, bear baiting, mystery plays, hunting and lavish banquets.[102] The cost was reputed to have amounted to many thousand pounds, almost bankrupting Leicester, though it probably did not exceed £1,700[e] in reality.[104] The event was considered a huge success and formed the longest stay at such a property during any of Elizabeth's tours, yet the queen did not decide to marry Leicester.[100]

text: Kenilworth Castle was valued at £10,401[f] in 1588, when Leicester died without legitimate issue and heavily in debt.[105] In accordance with his will, the castle passed first to his brother Ambrose, Earl of Warwick, and after the latter's death in 1590, to his illegitimate son, Sir Robert Dudley.[106]

text: 17th century[edit]

text: Sir Robert Dudley, having tried and failed to establish his legitimacy in front of the Court of the Star Chamber, went to Italy in 1605.[106] In the same year Sir Thomas Chaloner, governor (and from 1610 chamberlain) to James I's eldest son Prince Henry, was commissioned to oversee repairs to the castle and its grounds, including the planting of gardens, the restoration of fish-ponds and improvement to the game park.[107] During 1611–12 Dudley arranged to sell Kenilworth Castle to Henry, by then Prince of Wales.[106] Henry died before completing the full purchase, which was finalised by his brother, Charles,[108] who bought out the interest of Dudley's abandoned wife, Alice Dudley.[106] When Charles became king, he gave the castle to his wife, Henrietta Maria; he bestowed the stewardship on Robert Carey, Earl of Monmouth, and after his death gave it to Carey's sons Henry and Thomas.[109] Kenilworth remained a popular location for both King James I and his son Charles, and accordingly was well maintained.[29] The most famous royal visit occurred in 1624, when Ben Jonson's The Masque of Owls at Kenilworth was performed for Charles.[29]

text: The First English Civil War broke out in 1642. During its early campaigns, Kenilworth formed a useful counterbalance to the Parliamentary stronghold of Warwick.[110] Kenilworth was used by Charles on his advance to Edgehill in October 1642 as a base for raids on Parliamentary strongholds in the Midlands.[110] After the battle, however, the royalist garrison was withdrawn on the approach of Lord Brooke, and the castle was then garrisoned by parliamentary forces.[111] In April 1643 the new governor of the castle, Hastings Ingram, was arrested as a suspected Royalist double agent.[112] By January 1645 the Parliamentary forces in Coventry had strengthened their hold on the castle, and attempts by Royalist forces to dislodge them from Warwickshire failed.[113] Security concerns continued after the end of the First Civil War in 1646, and in 1649 Parliament ordered the slighting of Kenilworth. One wall of the great tower, various parts of the outer bailey and the battlements were destroyed, but not before the building was surveyed by the antiquarian William Dugdale, who published his results in 1656.[50]

text: Colonel Joseph Hawkesworth, responsible for the implementation of the slighting, acquired the estate for himself and converted Leicester's gatehouse into a house; part of the base court was turned into a farm, and many of the remaining buildings were stripped for their materials.[50] In 1660 Charles II was restored to the throne, and Hawkesworth was promptly evicted from Kenilworth.[114] The Queen Mother, Henrietta Maria, briefly regained the castle, with the Earls of Monmouth acting as stewards once again, but after her death King Charles II granted the castle to Sir Edward Hyde, whom he later created Baron Hyde of Hindon and Earl of Clarendon.[115] The ruined castle continued to be used as a farm, with the gatehouse as the principal dwelling; the King's Gate was added to the outer bailey wall during this period for the use of farm workers.[114]

text: 18th and 19th centuries[edit]

text:
Kenilworth remained a ruin during the 18th and 19th centuries, still used as a farm but increasingly also popular as a tourist attraction. The first guidebook to the castle, A Concise history and description of Kenilworth Castle, was printed in 1777 with many later editions following in the coming decades.[114][g]
The castle's cultural prominence increased after Sir Walter Scott wrote Kenilworth in 1821 describing the royal visit of Queen Elizabeth. Very loosely based on the events of 1575, Scott's story reinvented aspects of the castle and its history to tell the story of "the pathetic, beautiful, undisciplined heroine Amy Robsart and the steely Elizabeth I".[116] Although considered today as a less successful literary novel than some of his other historical works, it popularised Kenilworth Castle in the Victorian imagination as a romantic Elizabethan location.[117] Kenilworth spawned "numerous stage adaptations and burlesques, at least eleven operas, popular redactions, and even a scene in a set of dioramas for home display", including Sir Arthur Sullivan's 1865 cantata The Masque at Kenilworth.[118] J. M. W. Turner painted several watercolours of the castle.[119]

text: The number of visitors increased, including Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens.[120] Work was undertaken during the 19th century to protect the stonework from further decline, with particular efforts to remove ivy from the castle in the 1860s.[120]

text: Today[edit]

text: The castle remained the property of the Clarendons until 1937, when Lord Clarendon found the maintenance of the castle too expensive and sold Kenilworth to the industrialist Sir John Siddeley.[120] Siddeley, whose tax accounting in the 1930s had been at least questionable, was keen to improve his public image and gave over the running of the castle, complete with a charitable donation, to the Commissioner of Works.[121] In 1958 his son gave the castle itself to the town of Kenilworth and English Heritage has managed the property since 1984.[122] The castle is classed as a Grade I listed building and as a Scheduled Monument, and is open to the public.[123]

text: Between 2005–09 English Heritage attempted to restore Kenilworth's garden more closely to its Elizabethan form, using as a basis the description in the Langham letter and details from recent archaeological investigations.[124] The reconstruction cost more than £2 million and was criticised by some archaeologists as being a "matter of simulation as much as reconstruction", due to the limited amount of factual information on the nature of the original gardens.[125] In 2008 plans were put forward to re-create and flood the original Great Mere around the castle. As well as re-creating the look of the castle it was hoped that a new mere would be part of the ongoing flood alleviation plan for the area and that the lake could be used for boating and other waterside recreations.[126]


document_title: Far from the Madding Crowd (1967 film)

question_text: who played gabriel in the original far from the madding crowd

text: Far from the Madding Crowd (1967 film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: Set in the rural West Country in Victorian England, the story features Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie), a beautiful, headstrong, independently minded woman who inherits her uncle's farm and decides to manage it herself. This engenders some disapproval from the local farming community. She employs a former neighbour, Gabriel Oak (Alan Bates), to be her shepherd; rejected by her as a suitor, Gabriel lost his own flock of sheep when they escaped from their enclosure and fell off a steep cliff. Ignoring Gabriel's love, Bathsheba impulsively sends a valentine to William Boldwood (Peter Finch), a nearby gentleman farmer. When he misinterprets her capriciousness and proposes to her, Bathsheba promises to consider his offer. But she becomes enamoured of Frank Troy (Terence Stamp), a dashing cavalry sergeant.

text: Troy was supposed to marry young Fanny Robin (Prunella Ransome), a maidservant pregnant with his child, but she went to the wrong church on their wedding day and Troy was posted out of town. Bathsheba marries him after his return. Troy gambles away most of Bathsheba's money and creates disharmony among the farmhands. He learns that Fanny has died in childbirth and is filled with remorse. He swears that he never loved Bathsheba, walks out on her, and his clothes are found at the edge of the ocean.

text: Bathsheba promises to marry Boldwood after Troy is declared legally dead. The sergeant appears at their engagement party and threatens his wife; Boldwood kills him.

text: Shortly after Boldwood has been sent to prison, Gabriel tells Bathsheba that he is planning to emigrate to America. Realising how much she has always needed his quiet strength and unselfish devotion, Bathsheba consents to be his wife and persuades Gabriel to remain in Weatherbury.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Julie Christie as Bathsheba Everdene
Terence Stamp as Frank Troy
Peter Finch as William Boldwood
Alan Bates as Gabriel Oak
Fiona Walker as Liddy
Prunella Ransome as Fanny Robin
Alison Leggatt as Mrs. Hurst
Paul Dawkins as Henry Fray
Julian Somers as Jan Coggan
John Barrett as Joseph Poorgrass
Freddie Jones as Cainy Ball
Andrew Robertson as Andrew Randle
Brian Rawlinson as Matthew Moon

tag: ul

text: Production[edit]

text: The film keeps close to the book.

text: The budget was $3 million, 80% of which was provided by MGM, 20% by Anglo-Amalgamated.[4]

text: The film was shot largely on location in Dorset and Wiltshire.[citation needed]

text: Reception[edit]

text: The film is memorable for the subtly erotic scene between Sgt. Troy and Bathsheba in which he flaunts his expert skills as a swordsman in a private fencing display in a prehistoric earthwork (actually Maiden Castle). An enthralled Bathsheba stands immobile before him.

text: Roger Ebert found the scenes of the rural area and rural life to be "splendid". His strongest criticism is that the film missed the point of the small society of rural life:

text: Thomas Hardy's novel told of a 19th century rural England in which class distinctions and unyielding social codes surrounded his characters. They were far from the madding crowd whether they liked it or not, and got tangled in each other's problems because there was nowhere else to turn. It's not simply that Bathsheba (Julie Christie) was courted by the three men in her life, but that she was courted by ALL three men in her life.[5]

text: The film performed well at the box office in the UK but was a commercial failure in the US.[2]

text: Far from the Madding Crowd received mixed to positive reviews from critics, as the film holds a 72% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 25 reviews.[6]

text: Awards[edit]

text:
National Board of Review Award for Best Film
National Board of Review Award for Best Actor (Peter Finch)

text:
Academy Award for Best Original Score
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama (Alan Bates)
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress (Prunella Ransome)
BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography
BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design

text: References in popular culture[edit]

text: Books[edit]

text: Going Loco by Lynne Truss, 1999,


document_title: Shark sanctuary

question_text: in 1991 what country declared great while sharks a legally protected species

text: Shark sanctuary

text: Background[edit]

text: Every year, fishermen pull "up to 73 million"[1] or "some 100 million" sharks from the world's oceans.[2] The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that more than half of shark species are overexploited or depleted.[3] Globally, 21% of shark species whose extinction risk has been assessed fall into the "threatened" categories, and 18% are "near threatened", while 35% lack sufficient data to decide, leaving 26% in the unthreatened category.

text: The search for shark fins drives the illegal hunting trade. Some jurisdictions permit fishing for fins and food. Sharks are also caught as bycatch when fishing for marlin, tuna and other varieties.[2]

text: Sharks generally reach sexual maturity only after several years of life and produce very few offspring in comparison to other harvested fish. Harvesting sharks before they reproduce has severe impacts on future populations.

text: National and international status[edit]

text: Many nations restrict shark catches and shark finning.

text: Pacific Islands[edit]

text: Palau created the world’s first so-named "shark sanctuary" on September 25, 2009.[2][4] Palau forbids all commercial shark fishing within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) waters. The sanctuary protects about 600,000 square kilometres (230,000 sq mi) of ocean,[2] an area similar to the country of France.[5][6][7] President Johnson Toribiong made the announcement at a meeting of the United Nations.[5][8][9] President Toribiong also requested a worldwide ban on shark fishing.[5] Palau is home to 135 endangered or vulnerable shark and ray species.[10]

text: The Maldives created a sanctuary in March, 2010.[11] Tokelau declared its entire EEZ a shark sanctuary in 2011.[12]

text: On February 25, 2011, Guam, a US island territory, voted to ban commerce in fins. Guam's Senate passed a bill banning the sale, possession and distribution of the fins.[13]

text: In August, 2011, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Guam announced plans to join Palau in a region-wide sanctuary that covers 2,000,000 square miles (5,200,000 km2) of ocean.[14]

text: Kiribati, another Pacific island state, and the US operate Earth's largest marine reserve.[2]

text: Americas[edit]

text:
Wikinews has related news:
 Bahamas become fourth country to ban shark fishing

tag: table

text: Honduras prohibited the taking of sharks in its national waters as of February 2010.[1]

text: The U.S. bans shark finning on all U.S.-flagged vessels, forbids the taking 19 species of sharks including white, whale, and basking sharks and shares lists of illegal vessels with established fishing companies, helping them report illegal activities. The U.S. also assesses the health of many of its shark populations and includes sharks in its various Fishery Management Plans.[15] Hawaii has banned the sale and possession of shark fins. The states of California, Oregon and Washington are considering similar bans.[16]

text: Africa[edit]

text: In 1991 South Africa became the first country in the world to declare great white sharks a legally protected species.[17]

text: Europe[edit]

text: In February 2009, the European Commission proposed first-ever shark conservation rules for European waters, although these are not outright bans. EU countries account for one-third of global shark meat exports.

text: Shark steaks are increasingly served in restaurants. Shark parts are also used in lotions and leather sports shoes.[10]

text: Asia[edit]

text: Taiwan banned shark finning in 2012.[18]

text: Shark fishery[edit]

text: After reaching about 0.9 million tonnes in 2003, catches of the “sharks, rays and chimaeras” group declined to 0.75 million tonnes in 2006, a drop of 15 percent.,[19] numbering some 100 million fish.[20]

text:
Country

Capture (2000)[21]

 Indonesia

112,000

 Spain

77,300

 India

72,100

 Pakistan

51,200

 Taiwan

45,900

 Mexico

35,300

 Japan

33,100

 USA

30,900

 Sri Lanka

28,000

 Argentina

25,700

 Malaysia

24,500

 France

22,800

 Brazil

18,500

 New Zealand

17,700

 Great Britain

17,400

 Thailand

16,200

 Peru

15,400

 South Korea

15,400

 Maldives

13,500

 Canada

13,500

 Nigeria

13,200

 Senegal

10,800

 Portugal

9,100

 Australia

8,100

Total

828,400

text: Drivers of the shark trade[edit]

text: Sharks are a common seafood in many places around the world, including China (shark-fin soup), Japan, Australia (fish and chips under the name flake), in India (under the name sora in Tamil language and Telugu language), and Icelanders eat Greenland sharks as hákarl.

text: The practice of live finning, where a fisherman removes the fin with a hot metal blade and releases the dying animal occurs with some frequency,[20] but is  not a prevalent practice, with most fins taken with the entire animal.[22] Around 80% of shark fins are derived as accidental by-catch, which are quickly sold to the market due to their high price.[22] Shark finning has become a major trade within black markets all over the world with shark fins going at about $300/lb in 2009.[23]

text:
European consumers consume dogfishes, smoothhounds, catsharks, makos, porbeagle and also skates and rays.[24] However, the U.S. FDA recommends that children and women who are or may be pregnant should refrain from eating shark.
For details see mercury in fish.

text: In the South Asian region, use of shark cartilage in preparing soups is considered a health tonic. Hong Kong imports it from North and South American countries, particularly for use in either a cooked format or to prepare boiled soup, as a health fad, by mixing it with herbals supplements.

text: Another large demand for shark cartilage is for manufacture of "Shark Cartilage Powder" or pills as a cure for cancer. The anti cancer claims of such powders marketed in many parts of the world has been discounted by the US Food and Drug Administration, Federal Trade Commissions and medical studies.[25] In spite of such injunctions, the trade in this powder continues and the shark cartilage powder is still widely marketed as a cancer cure, stated to be selling at US$145 per gram.[26] It is also stated that in Costa Rica, one single firm alone processed 235,000 sharks every month to manufacture cartilage pills.[26]

text: Seafood Watch recommends that everyone avoid eating shark.[27]

text: The majority of shark fisheries around the globe have little monitoring or management. With the rise in demand for shark products there is a greater pressure on fisheries.[28] Sharks experience a long interval between birth and sexual maturity, such that many sharks never reach maturity. In some species, populations have declined by over 90% over the past 20–30 years with decline of 70% not unusual.[29]

text: The practice of shark finning, attracts much controversy and regulations are being enacted to prevent it from occurring. The acclaimed 2007 documentary, Sharkwater exposed how sharks are being hunted to extinction, in part due to the massive Asian demand for shark fin soup.[30]


document_title: Clan Strange

question_text: where does the last name strange come from

text: Clan Strange

text: History[edit]

text: Origins of the clan[edit]

text: The surname Strange is more often found as Strang.[2] It is probably derived from the Norman or French word etrange, which means foreign.[2] The Strang rendering is believed to derive from the Scots dialect for the word strong.[2]

text: In around 1255 Home le Estraunge was in the service of the Scottish king.[2] In around 1340 Thomas de Strang held land around Aberdeen.[2] In about 1362 John Strang married Cecilia, sister of Richard Anstruther of that Ilk and as part of the marriage settlement, Strang received some of the lands of Balcaskie.[2]

text: 15th and 16th centuries[edit]

text: William Strang of Balcaskie is mentioned in around 1466 in deeds.[2] In 1482 John Strang of Balcaskie received a charter of confirmation for the lands of Ewingston.[2]

text: John Strang of Balcaskie was killed at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547.[2]

text: 17th and 18th centuries[edit]

text: In 1615 John Strang of Balcaskie sold the estate and became a colonel in Cochrane’s Scots Regiment.[2] Sir Robert Strange was descended from a younger son of the house of Balcaskie whose family had settled in Orkney at the time of the Scottish Reformation.[2] Strange was intended for a career in the law, but instead took ship on a man-of-war heading for the Mediterranean.[2] When he returned he took up the art of engraving.[2]

text: Jacobite risings[edit]

text: The same Sir Robert Strange was appointed to Charles Edward Stuart's Life Guard when Stuart's army entered Edinburgh in 1745.[2] Strange served in the Life Guard during the Jacobite rising of 1745 until after the defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.[2] After which he managed to escape for several months remaining as a fugitive in the Scottish Highlands.[2] He later returned to Edinburgh in obscurity.[2] He moved to London in 1751 where he began to receive critical acclaim for engraving several important historical prints.[2] He left to tour Italy in 1760 and died in 1792, being considered the father of the art of engraving historical prints.[2]

text: Clan Strange Today[edit]

text: In February 1995 Major Timothy Strange of Balcaskie was confirmed by Lord Lyon as Chief of the Clan Strange.

text: Clan Profile[edit]

text:
Arms: Argent, a chevron between three lozenges Sable.
Crest: Dexter, on a Wreath Argent and Sable a cluster of grapes Proper; sinister, on a Wreath Argent and Sable a castle Proper, masoned Sable
Mottos: Dexter, Dulce quod utile (That which is useful is sweet); sinister, Stet fortuna domus (The good fortune of the house stands)
Supporters: Dexter, an ancient Caledonian warrior; sinister, an ancient Danish warrior (a detailed description of the warriors is given in the Lyon Register)
Standard: The arms in the hoist and of two tracts Argent and Sable with the Crest depicted thrice, and on two transverse bands Gules the Motto 'Dulce quod utile' in letters Or
Pinsel: Argent, on a Wreath of the Liveries a cluster of grapes Proper within a strap Sable and buckle embellished Or and inscribed with the Motto 'Dulce quod utile' in letters of the field and all within a circlet Or fimbriated Gules bearing the title 'Strange of Balcaskie' in letters Sable, and in the fly on an Escrol Gules surmounting a cluster of grapes Proper the slogan 'A balcaskie' in letters of the Field.


document_title: List of most-followed Twitter accounts

question_text: who's got the most followers on twitter

question_tokens: who 's got the most followers on twitter

text: List of most-followed Twitter accounts

text: This list contains the top 50 accounts with the largest number of followers on the social media platform Twitter.[1] As of May 30, 2018, the most followed person is American singer Katy Perry, with over 109 million followers. Her account was the first to exceed 100 million followers, in June 2017.[2]

text: Top 50 accounts[edit]

text: The following table lists the top 50 most followed accounts on Twitter, with each total rounded to the nearest million followers, as well as the profession or activity of each user, and their country of origin.[1]

text:
Rank
Chg
Account name
Owner
Followers
(millions)
Profession
Country

1.

@katyperry
Katy Perry
110
Musician
 USA

2.

@justinbieber
Justin Bieber
106
Musician
 CAN

3.

@BarackObama
Barack Obama
103
Former U.S. President
 USA

4.

@rihanna
Rihanna
88
Musician
 BAR

5.

@taylorswift13
Taylor Swift
86
Musician
 USA

6.

@ladygaga
Lady Gaga
79
Musician
 USA

7.

@TheEllenShow
Ellen DeGeneres
78
Comedian
 USA

8.

@Cristiano
Cristiano Ronaldo
73
Footballer
 POR

9.

@YouTube
YouTube
72
Social media platform
 USA

10.

@jtimberlake
Justin Timberlake
66
Musician and actor
 USA

11.

@twitter
Twitter
63
Social media platform
 USA

12.

@KimKardashian
Kim Kardashian West
60
Reality TV personality
 USA

13.

@britneyspears
Britney Spears
58
Musician
 USA

14.

@ArianaGrande
Ariana Grande
57
Musician
 USA

15.

@ddlovato
Demi Lovato
57
Musician
 USA

16.

@selenagomez
Selena Gomez
56
Musician and actress
 USA

17.

@cnnbrk
CNN Breaking News
55
News
 USA

18.

@realDonaldTrump
Donald Trump
52
U.S. President
 USA

19.

@shakira
Shakira
52
Musician
 COL

20.

@jimmyfallon
Jimmy Fallon
51
Comedian
 USA

21.

@BillGates
Bill Gates
46
Businessman and philanthropist
 USA

22.

@JLo
Jennifer Lopez
45
Musician and actress
 USA

23.

@BrunoMars
Bruno Mars
43
Musician
 USA

24.

@narendramodi
Narendra Modi
43
Prime Minister of India
 IND

25.

@Oprah
Oprah Winfrey
42
Businesswoman
 USA

26.

@nytimes
The New York Times
42
Newspaper
 USA

27.

@KingJames
LeBron James
41
Basketball player
 USA

28.

@MileyCyrus
Miley Cyrus
41
Musician and actress
 USA

29.

@CNN
CNN
40
Television channel
 USA

30.

@NiallOfficial
Niall Horan
40
Musician
 IRL

31.

@neymarjr
Neymar
39
Footballer
 BRA

32.

@instagram
Instagram
39
Social media platform
 USA

33.

@BBCBreaking
BBC Breaking News
38
News
 GBR

34.

@Drake
Drake
37
Rapper
 CAN

35.

@SportsCenter
SportsCenter
36
Television show
 USA

36.

@iamsrk
Shah Rukh Khan
35
Actor
 IND

37.

@KevinHart4real
Kevin Hart
35
Comedian
 USA

38.

@SrBachchan
Amitabh Bachchan
34
Actor
 IND

39.

@LilTunechi
Lil Wayne
34
Rapper
 USA

40.

@espn
ESPN
34
Television channel
 USA

41.

@wizkhalifa
Wiz Khalifa
34
Rapper
 USA

42.

@Louis_Tomlinson
Louis Tomlinson
34
Musician
 GBR

43.

@BeingSalmanKhan
Salman Khan
33
Actor
 IND

44.

@LiamPayne
Liam Payne
33
Musician
 GBR

45.

@Pink
Pink
33
Musician
 USA

46.

@Harry_Styles
Harry Styles
32
Musician
 GBR

47.

@onedirection
One Direction
32
Band
 GBR
 IRL

48.

@aliciakeys
Alicia Keys
31
Musician
 USA

49.

@realmadrid
Real Madrid C.F.
30
Football club
 ESP

50.

@KAKA
Kaká
30
Footballer
 BRA

As of May 18, 2018[update]


document_title: Chapters and verses of the Bible

question_text: who made the bible into chapters and verses

text: Chapters and verses of the Bible

text: History[edit]

text: Chapters[edit]

text: The original manuscripts did not contain the chapter and verse divisions in the numbered form familiar to modern readers. In antiquity Hebrew texts were divided into paragraphs (parashot) that were identified by two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Peh פ indicated an "open" paragraph that began on a new line, while Samekh ס indicated a "closed" paragraph that began on the same line after a small space.[1] These two letters begin the Hebrew words open (patuach) and closed (sagoor), and are, themselves, open פ and closed ס. The earliest known copies of the Book of Isaiah from the Dead Sea Scrolls used parashot divisions, although they differ slightly from the Masoretic divisions.[2] (This is different from the use of consecutive letters of the Hebrew alphabet to structure certain poetic compositions, known as acrostics, such as several of the Psalms and most of the Book of Lamentations.)

text: The Hebrew Bible was also divided into some larger sections. In Israel the Torah (its first five books) were divided into 154 sections so that they could be read through aloud in weekly worship over the course of three years. In Babylonia it was divided into 53 or 54 sections (Parashat ha-Shavua) so it could be read through in one year.[2] The New Testament was divided into topical sections known as kephalaia by the fourth century. Eusebius of Caesarea divided the gospels into parts that he listed in tables or canons. Neither of these systems corresponds with modern chapter divisions.[3] (See fuller discussions below.)

text: Chapter divisions, with titles, are also found in the 9th century Tours manuscript, Paris Bibliothèque Nationale MS Lat. 3, the so-called Bible of Rorigo.[4]

text: Archbishop Stephen Langton and Cardinal Hugo de Sancto Caro developed different schemas for systematic division of the Bible in the early 13th century. It is the system of Archbishop Langton on which the modern chapter divisions are based.[5][6][7]

text: While chapter divisions have become nearly universal, editions of the Bible have sometimes been published without them. Such editions, which typically use thematic or literary criteria to divide the biblical books instead, include John Locke's Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul (1707),[8] Alexander Campbell's The Sacred Writings (1826),[9] Daniel Berkeley Updike’s fourteen-volume The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha, Richard Moulton's The Modern Reader's Bible (1907),[10] Ernest Sutherland Bates's The Bible Designed to Be Read as Living Literature (1936),[11] The Books of the Bible (2007) from the International Bible Society (Biblica), Adam Lewis Greene’s five-volume Bibliotheca (2014),[12][13] and the six-volume ESV Reader's Bible[14] (2016) from Crossway Books.

text: Verses[edit]

text: Since at least 916 the Tanakh has contained an extensive system of multiple levels of section, paragraph, and phrasal divisions that were indicated in Masoretic vocalization and cantillation markings. One of the most frequent of these was a special type of punctuation, the sof passuq, symbol for a full stop or sentence break, resembling the colon (:) of English and Latin orthography. With the advent of the printing press and the translation of the Bible into English, Old Testament versifications were made that correspond predominantly with the existing Hebrew full stops, with a few isolated exceptions. Most attribute these to Rabbi Isaac Nathan ben Kalonymus's work for the first Hebrew Bible concordance around 1440.[6]

text: The first person to divide New Testament chapters into verses was Italian Dominican biblical scholar Santi Pagnini (1470–1541), but his system was never widely adopted.[15] His verse divisions in the New Testament were far longer than those known today.[16] Robert Estienne created an alternate numbering in his 1551 edition of the Greek New Testament[17] which was also used in his 1553 publication of the Bible in French. Estienne's system of division was widely adopted, and it is this system which is found in almost all modern Bibles. Estienne produced a 1555 Vulgate that is the first Bible to include the verse numbers integrated into the text. Before this work, they were printed in the margins.[16]

text: The first English New Testament to use the verse divisions was a 1557 translation by William Whittingham (c. 1524–1579). The first Bible in English to use both chapters and verses was the Geneva Bible published shortly afterwards in 1560. These verse divisions soon gained acceptance as a standard way to notate verses, and have since been used in nearly all English Bibles and the vast majority of those in other languages. (Nevertheless, some Bibles have removed the verse numbering, including the ones noted above that also removed chapter numbers; a recent example of an edition that removed only verses, not chapters, is The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language by Eugene H. Peterson.)[18]

text: Jewish tradition[edit]

text: The Hebrew Masoretic text of the Bible notes several different kinds of subdivisions within the biblical books:

text: Verse endings[edit]

text: Most important are the verse endings. According to the Talmudic tradition, the division of the text into verses is of ancient origin.[19] In Masoretic versions of the Bible, the end of a verse is indicated by a small mark in its final word called a silluq (which means "stop"). Less formally, verse endings are usually also indicated by two horizontal dots following the word with a silluq.

text: Parashiyot[edit]

text: The Masoretic textual tradition also contains section endings called parashot, which are usually indicated by a space within a line (a "closed" section) or a new line beginning (an "open" section). The division of the text reflected in the parashot is usually thematic. Unlike chapters, the parashot are not numbered, but some of them have special titles.

text: In early manuscripts (most importantly in Tiberian Masoretic manuscripts, such as the Aleppo codex), an "open" section may also be represented by a blank line, and a "closed" section by a new line that is slightly indented (the preceding line may also not be full). These latter conventions are no longer used in Torah scrolls and printed Hebrew Bibles. In this system, the one rule differentiating "open" and "closed" sections is that "open" sections must always start at the beginning of a new line, while "closed" sections never start at the beginning of a new line.

text: Sedarim[edit]

text: Another division of the biblical books found in the Masoretic text is the division of the sedarim. This division is not thematic, but is almost entirely based upon the quantity of text. For the Torah, this division reflects the triennial cycle of reading that was practiced by the Jews of the Land of Israel.

text: Christian versions[edit]

text: The Byzantines also introduced a concept roughly similar to chapter divisions, called kephalaia (singular kephalaion, literally meaning heading). This system, which was in place no later than the 5th century, is not identical to the present chapters. Unlike the modern chapters, which tend to be of roughly similar length, the distance from one kephalaion mark to the next varied greatly in length both within a book and from one book to the next. For example, the Sermon on the Mount, comprising three chapters in the modern system, has but one kephalaion mark, while the single modern chapter 8 of the Gospel of Matthew has several, one per miracle. Moreover, there were far fewer kephalaia in the Gospel of John than in the Gospel of Mark, even though the latter is the shorter text. In the manuscripts, the kephalaia with their numbers, their standard titles (titloi) and their page numbers would be listed at the beginning of each biblical book; in the book's main body, they would be marked only with arrow-shaped or asterisk-like symbols in the margin, not in the text itself.

text: The titles usually referred to the first event or the first theological point of the section only, and some kephalaia are manifestly incomplete if one stops reading at the point where the next kephalaion begins (for example, the combined accounts of the miracles of the Daughter of Jairus and of the healing of the woman with a haemorrhage gets two marked kephalaia, one titled of the daughter of the synagogue ruler at the beginning when the ruler approaches Jesus and one titled of the woman with the flow of blood where the woman enters the picture – well before the ruler's daughter is healed and the storyline of the previous kephalaion is thus properly concluded). Thus the kephalaia marks are rather more like a system of bookmarks or links into a continuous text, helping a reader to quickly find one of several well-known episodes, than like a true system of chapter divisions.

text: Cardinal Hugo de Sancto Caro is often given credit for first dividing the Latin Vulgate into chapters in the real sense, but it is the arrangement of his contemporary and fellow cardinal Stephen Langton who in 1205 created the chapter divisions which are used today. They were then inserted into Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in the 16th century. Robert Estienne (Robert Stephanus) was the first to number the verses within each chapter, his verse numbers entering printed editions in 1551 (New Testament) and 1571 (Hebrew Bible).[20]

text: The division of the Bible into chapters and verses has received criticism from some traditionalists and modern scholars. Critics state that the text is often divided in an incoherent way, or at inappropriate rhetorical points, and that it encourages citing passages out of context. Nevertheless, the chapter and verse numbers have become indispensable as technical references for Bible study.

text: Several modern publications of the Bible have eliminated numbering of chapters and verses. Biblica published such a version of the NIV in 2007 and 2011. In 2014, Crossway published the ESV Reader's Bible and Bibliotheca published a modified ASV.[21] Projects such as Icthus[22] also exist which strip chapter and verse numbers from existing translations.

text: Protestant Bible statistics[edit]

text: The number of words can vary depending upon aspects such as whether the Hebrew alphabet in Psalm 119, the superscriptions listed in some of the Psalms, and the subscripts traditionally found at the end of the Pauline epistles, are included. Except where stated, the following apply to the King James Version of the Bible in its modern 66-book Protestant form including the New Testament and the protocanonical Old Testament, not the deuterocanonical books.

text: Chapters[edit]

text:
There are 929 chapters in the Old Testament.

187 chapters in the Pentateuch
249 chapters in the Historical books
243 chapters in the Poetic books ("Wisdom")
183 chapters in the Major prophets
67 chapters in the Minor prophets

There are 260 chapters in the New Testament.

89 chapters in the Gospels
28 chapters in Acts
87 chapters in the Pauline Epistles (excluding Hebrews)
34 chapters in the General Epistles (including Hebrews)
22 chapters in Revelation

This gives a total of 1,189 chapters (on average, 18 per book).
Psalm 117 is the middle chapter of the Bible, being the 595th Chapter.[23]
Psalm 117 is also the shortest chapter of the Bible.
Psalm 119 is the longest chapter of the Bible.
Five books are a single chapter: Obadiah, Philemon, 2 & 3 John, Jude. In many printed editions, the chapter number is omitted for these books, and references just use the verse numbers.

text:
Old Testament - 929 chapters [24]

Book / Division
Chapters

Pentateuch
187

Genesis
50

Exodus
40

Leviticus
27

Numbers
36

Deuteronomy
34

Historical Books
249

Joshua
24

Judges
21

Ruth
4

1 Samuel
31

2 Samuel
24

1 Kings
22

2 Kings
25

1 Chronicles
29

2 Chronicles
36

Ezra
10

Nehemiah
13

Esther
10

Books of Wisdom (or "Poetry")
243

Job
42

Psalms
150

Proverbs
31

Ecclesiastes
12

Song of Solomon
8

Major Prophets
183

Isaiah
66

Jeremiah
52

Lamentations
5

Ezekiel
48

Daniel
12

Minor Prophets
67

Hosea
14

Joel
3

Amos
9

Obadiah
1

Jonah
4

Micah
7

Nahum
3

Habakkuk
3

Zephaniah
3

Haggai
2

Zechariah
14

Malachi
4

text:
New Testament - 260 chapters [24]

Book / Division
Chapters

Gospels
89

Matthew
28

Mark
16

Luke
24

John
21

History
28

Acts
28

Pauline Epistles
87

Romans
16

1 Corinthians
16

2 Corinthians
13

Galatians
6

Ephesians
6

Philippians
4

Colossians
4

1 Thessalonians
5

2 Thessalonians
3

1 Timothy
6

2 Timothy
4

Titus
3

Philemon
1

General Epistles
34

Hebrews
13

James
5

1 Peter
5

2 Peter
3

1 John
5

2 John
1

3 John
1

Jude
1

Apocalyptic Writings
22

Revelation
22

text: Verses[edit]

text:
There are 23,145 verses in the Old Testament and 7,957 verses in the New Testament. This gives a total of 31,102 verses,[24] which is an average of a little more than 26 verses per chapter.
Contrary to popular belief, Psalm 118 does not contain the middle verse of the Bible. The King James Version has an even number of verses (31,102), with the two middle verses being Psalm 103:1–2.[25]
John 11:35 ("Jesus wept") is the shortest verse in most English translations. Some translations — including the New International Version, New Living Translation, New Life Version, Holman Christian Standard Bible and New International Reader's Version — render Job 3:2 as "He said". However, that is a translators' condensation of the Hebrew which literally translated is: "And Job answered and said."
The shortest verse in the Greek New Testament is Luke 20:30 ("και ο δευτερος", "And the second") with twelve letters, according to the Westcott and Hort text. In the Textus Receptus, the shortest verse is 1 Thessalonians 5:16 ("παντοτε χαιρετε", "Rejoice always") with fourteen letters,[26] since Stephanus' rendering of Luke 20:30 includes some additional words.[27]
Isaiah 10:8 ("Dicet enim") is the shortest verse in the Latin Vulgate.[28]
Esther 8:9 is the longest verse in the Masoretic Text. The discovery of several manuscripts at Qumran (in the Dead Sea Scrolls) has reopened what is considered the most original text of 1 Samuel 11; if one believes that those manuscripts better preserve the text, several verses in 1 Samuel 11 surpass Esther 8:9 in length.