That Shakespeare Life - TopPodcast.com

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

That Shakespeare Life — History
That Shakespeare Life

Hosted by Cassidy Cash, That Shakespeare Life takes you behind the curtain and into the real life of William Shakespeare. Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Latest Episodes:

Huguenots arrive in England during Shakespeare's Lifetime May 22, 2023

In this week’s episode you’ll hear me learn about how to pronounce this week’s topic correctly—it is the Huguenots (and not Huguenots as I had been saying and which you may have been tempted to say as well). This week we’re exploring the arrival of Huguenots to England in Shakespeare’s lifetime. During Catherine de Medici’s reign as Queen consort in France, the country was anything but hospitable to Protestants. The St. Bartholomew Day’s Massacre in the late 16th century saw thousands of Huguenots rounded up and slaughtered. That was only one event where Huguenots were proven unwelcome, and in danger, to remain in France. Throughout the reigns of Edward VI, Elizabeth I, and on into the 18th century reigns of James II, and beyond, England as a Protestant nation became a safe haven for refugee French Calvinists. During Shakespeare’s lifetime, the impact of the arrival of Huguenots seems to have been significant, with Shakespeare writing about “strangers” over 70 times across his works, often using the term to describe someone from another country, who may not speak English, and is simultaneously in need of a welcome, and to be viewed with necessary suspicion. We see plays like Hamlet extending a hand of friendship when Hamlet says in Act I “And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.” And yet, in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act V, Rosaline being much less accomodating, saying, “Since you are strangers and come here by chance, We'll not be nice“ While these references could refer to any international Immigrant, many believe that Shakespeare commented directly on the plight of the Huguenots from France, with one impassioned speech about how to treat so called Strangers, that is given in the historical play Sir Thomas More. Furthermore, we know that William Shakespeare had direct personal connections to Huguenots, having lived for a time as a lodger in London with Christopher and Mary Mountjoy, a French Huguenot couple. Here today to tell us more about the plight of refugee French Calvinists in the life of William Shakespeare is our guest and Fellow of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Joyce Hampton.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Finding a Lost Aldrovandi Portrait from the 1590s May 15, 2023

Ulisse Aldrovandi is considered by many scientists, including Carl Linnaeus, the man who formalized the modern system of naming animals, to be the father of natural history studies. During Shakespeare’s lifetime, until his death in 1605, Aldrovandi collected a vast amount of specimens for his cabinet of curiosities, gathering over 7000 artifacts, organizing multiple expeditions to collect plants, and illustrating thousands of bizarre natural history phenomenon into at least 12 publications, some of which were compiled posthumously. Today, Aldrovandi’s work is preserved at the University of Bologna. However, in 2020, one painting was discovered that claims to be a lost Aldrovandi painting of a young girl that suffered from hypertrichosis, a condition that covers the body in excess hair. We have talked about this girl, Antoinetta Gonzales, on our show previously. That episode, we mentioned that paintings of the Gonzales family were often copied and distributed around Europe for inclusions in cabinets of curiosities, like the one that Aldrovandi compiled in Italy. Today, our guest, Daniel Dawson Gordon of Norfolk Reclamation Center in England, is here to talk about one such painting that belonged to Ulisse Aldrovandi, who at the time was one of the highest ranking members of Italian society. Daniel is here to share about Aldrovandi’s work, the painting of Antoinetta Gonzales, and the story of how it was discovered beneath another a famous art painting that been painted over the original of Antionetta.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tomatoes Make a Splash in Shakespeare's England May 08, 2023

The fruit today known as a tomato was first introduced to Europe during Shakespeare’s lifetime. As many new things were, this fruit was received at first with skepticism, considered a kind of curiosity. It was called a golden apple, as well as a “pomi d’oro” in Italy, where many considered the fruit dangerous, poisonous, and something that was pleasing to the eye, but secretly treacherous. Shakespeare echoes this sentiment in his play, Pericles, when he writes about "golden fruit but dangerous to be touched.” Today we are going to explore the arrival, reception, cultivation, and use of tomatoes for 16th century Italy, Germany, and Belgium, with our guest and author of the article “Sixteenth-century tomatoes in Europe: who saw them, what they looked like, and where they came from, Tinde van Andel.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Atlantic Slave Trade in England for the 16th Century May 01, 2023

During the 16th century in Europe, the Portuguese dominated the African slave trade. European ships were first exposed to African slaves when privateering vessels would find enslaved Africans packed alongside Atlantic trade goods in the hulls of the captured ships. The Spanish were the first to try and break up the Portuguese monopoly on slaves, establishing a system known as the asiento de negros in the 16th century which was an agreement between the Spanish crown and a private person or granting a monopoly in supplying African slaves for the Spanish colonies in the Americas. The Dutch would use similar contracts to compete in this market, and it wasn’t long before the British and French followed suit. We see glimpses of this history in Shakespeare’s plays when he mentions the word “slave” over 170 times, the word “negro” specifically in his play Merchant of Venice, and he refers to “an African” in the play The Tempest. Here today to help us understand the start of the Atlantic Slave Trade and the place of Africans, and understanding of black skinned people, and even white skinned slaves for Shakespeare’s England, is our guest and author of Transformations of Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa Paul Lovejoy.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Blackfriars, the Parish, The Puritans, and The Theater Apr 24, 2023

Prior to Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in 1538, the section of London known as Blackfriars was as major religious institution extending along the bank of the Thames River. In its’ entirety, Blackfriars was second in size only to St. Paul’s Churchyard. After the Reformation, Blackfriars was located in what’s known as a Liberty, which meant it was just outside the reach of the mayoral law. Being outside the mayor’s jurisdiction made Blackfriars especially attractive to entrepreneurs like The Burbages and their star writer, William Shakespeare, who wanted to open a theater that wasn’t subject to the tighter restrictions of London proper. Blackfriars wasn’t only attractive to innovative theater professionals, however, it was also attractive to immigrants and the highly religious who were seeking freedom from the regulation of guilds. At the time that Shakespeare and the Burbages were looking at Blackfriars as a home for their theater, the parish of St Anne, Blackfriars, was dominated by godly clergy and parishioners, the people we usually think of as the enemies of theater. Here today to explain to us how Blackfriars theater was able to survive and thrive in this section of London is our guest, Chris Highley.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Card Games That Were Popular for Shakespeare Apr 17, 2023

It’s Shakespeare’s Birthday this week! Happy Birthday Shakespeare! To celebrate, we’re going to paly some card games! From Noddy and Maw to Laugh and Lie Down, card games were popular for Shakespeare’s lifetime, with records from the court of King James and Elizabeth I outlining games played, losses incurred, and even insults traded between dignitaries all over the playing of card games. Shakespeare himself mentions a few of these games in his plays by name including Noddy, Primrose, and Laugh and Lie Down. When it comes to early modern card games, no one knows more about the games, their history, and how to play them than internationally renowned game expert David . If you are an Experience Shakespeare patron on PAtreon or followed meon YouTube where we have played some of these early modern games for ourselves, you will be familiar with David ’s name, having seen and heard me mention his work as we relied on his research to put together those activities. I am very honored and quite delighted to welcome David to the show today to share with us some of the history of card games, how they were played, and their place in society for the life of William Shakespeare.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lost Plays and the Historians Who Find Them Again Apr 10, 2023

Whether it’s a diary entry or a side note in a ledger or account book, history leaves us records of plays that were performed during Shakespeare’s lifetime, but their scripts never survived to the present day in any form that’s recognizable as a complete play. Other than the occasional snippet of a line or two here and there, we cannot read these plays, and we certainly can’t perform them, but we know they were real, and that they had a place in the life of William Shakespeare. This entire group of work is called collectively “Lost Plays” and even bard himself has a few titles that we know he wrote, but we no longer have anything but a passing record to tell us their contents. Researching and cataloging the collection of historical breadcrumbs that piece together a story of a lost play is the purpose of The Lost Plays Database, which is an online collection of the records and research being done into the theatrical works now lost to history. Their database records plays from as early as 1570 and as late as 1658. Our guest this week knows better than most the history of Lost Plays, because she is one of the editors at The Lost Plays Database, and a pioneer in the field of repertory study. We are delighted to welcome Roslyn Knutson.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Traditional Marriage Ceremony Including the Reading of the Banns Apr 03, 2023

The difference in Shakespeare’s plays between a tragedy and a comedy is defined as whether or not the characters end in marriage or end in death. The comedies often showcase the promise of a marriage, or even sometimes multiple marriages, with proposals happening in the midst of fun and elaborate parties including songs, dances, and frivolity. Then of course those happy marriages are starkly contrasted with those we see in Shakespeare’s tragedies where marital relationships are marred by jealousy, suspicion, or betrayal. Shakespeare’s works give us a glimpse into what marriage customs were for turn of the 17th century England, but they are far from providing any kind of definition what was normal. In order to explore the history of marriage customs for Shakespeare’s lifetime and understand better what we could expect to see if we had attended a 17th century marriage in England, we are sitting down today with our guest, and expert in the history of marriage traditions, George Monger.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Danby Portrait: A newly uncovered painting from life of William Shakespeare Mar 27, 2023

Of all the history we know about William Shakespeare and what it was like to live in turn of the 17th century England, one of the hardest things to know for sure about the bard is what he looked like. There are only two verified portraits of William Shakespeare, one is the bust available at his funerary monument in Stratford Upon Avon, and the other is known as the Droeshout portrait, which is an engraving on the title page of the First Folio that was published in 1623. Aside from these two depictions, there have been at least 9 paintings that claimed to be life-like representations of William Shakespeare, all of which were hotly contested, and a few that were outright disproven. One painting, however, has risen to the top through rigorous investigation as a contender for another verified portrait of the bard and it’s known as the Danby Portrait. The Danby portrait was owned by the Danby family for years, until it was sold by Christie’s in a house contents sale in 1975. At that time the painting was misattributed and has since been shown to be a painting by Robert Peake, a professional artist from Shakespeare’s lifetime who not only knew about William Shakespeare, but actually worked with him directly in theater. Our guest this week, Duncan Phillips, is the art gallery owner who recently displayed the Danby Portrait, and he joins us to share about the history of the Danby Portrait, it’s connections to Shakespeare, and the recent evidence that’s been uncovered that suggests the portrait is not only of William Shakespeare, but that it was likely painted from life.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Great Fires that Ravaged Stratford Upon Avon in the 1590s Mar 20, 2023

In 1594 and 1595, when William Shakespeare was 31 years old, fires tore through his hometown of Stratford Upon Avon, causing such destruction that this natural disaster is one of the few major events in Stratford Upon Avon that was recorded for posterity. The fires were known as The Great Fires and in the aftermath of the devastation the town gathered together to rebuild the timbers of their homes and businesses. Many of these rebuilt structures survive through to today, and with the help of a recently awarded research grant from Historic England, the Stratford Society lead by historian Robert Bearman, look to investigate how the timber frame buildings were rebuilt following the fires in 1594, 1595, and another one that occurred later in 1614. Dr. Bob Bearman joins us today to tell us about the history of the fires and to share a look inside the Stratfire Project.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Hairy Girls That Captivated Europe With Their Portraits Mar 13, 2023

In the late 16th century, William Shakespeare was in his 30s, and staging plays like As You Like It, where Rosalind mentions the “howling of Irish wolves against the moon.” (That’s from Act V scene ii). While scholars today debate whether or not that’s a reference to the legend of werewolves, we know from a painting completed in 1595 that there was at least one family whose hereditary disease made many in Europe believe in that werewolves might be real. The Gonzales family carried a rare genetic condition that is known today as hypertrichosis, but it's more common name is “werewolf syndrome”, so called because the people afflicted with it have hair growing over their entire faces, making them look exactly like pictures of werewolves that we have in pop culture and folklore. Here today to help us understand the history of the Gonzales family and what their lives were like living with this condition in the 16th century is our guest, and author of the book “The marvelous hairy girls : the Gonzales sisters and their worlds”, Merry Wiesner-Hanks.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Man Who Established The Lord Chamberlain's Men, Shakespeare's Playing Company Mar 06, 2023

The Lord Chamberlain’s Men is known as “Shakespeare’s playing company” and was a group of actors for which Shakespeare wrote plays most of his career. By 1603, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men were so popular that James I himself chose to patronize the company making it The King’s Men. Today we are going to look at the man who made the company The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, and that’s Henry Carey, the First Lord Hudson, and the Lord Chamberlain who patronized The Lord Chamberlain’s Men when it was founded by Elizabeth I in 1594. This week we are delighted to welcome historian Stephanie Kline to the show to share with us the life and history of Henry Carey and his role in the career of William Shakespeare.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Heads That Keep Talking After They Are Decapitated (and other wild Royal death stories) Feb 27, 2023

In her latest book, Mortal Monarchs: 1000 Years of Royal Deaths Suzie Edge writes about the deaths of several of England’s monarchs who died in grotesque, weird, or elaborate ways. A former medical doctor now turned history, Suzie takes an indepth look at the sciene behind the deaths of Kings and Queens of England across a thousand years of history. Today, Suzie joins us on the show today to share with us the stories of the deaths of some of the most famous monarchs whose lives and deaths touched on the life of William Shakespeare including Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, and James I of England.

This week’s episode contains frank medical discussions of gore and violence, including disease and specifics about human demise. While our discussion is both entertaining and academic in nature, the content may be inappropriate for younger listeners. If you are listening in a classroom or where there are child ears present, we recommend you listen to the episode first before sharing it.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1582: David Ingram Walks from Mexico to Nova Scotia Feb 20, 2023

In 1567, a young English sailor named David Ingram signed up to work on a ship captained by English privateer John Hawkins. They would travel up and down the coasts of Africa and Mexico raiding and trading goods. In November of 1567, Ingram found himself and close to a hundred of his fellow crewmates stranded off the coast of Mexico, in a city called Tampico, just south of the present day Texas/Mexico border. Seeking to avoid capture by the Spanish, Ingram and close to two dozen of his shipmates started walking North. By October of 1568, a French fishing vessel picked up Ingram and just two of his original party of travellers off the coast of Nova Scotia. 13 years later, Ingram’s account of what happened to himself and those travellers from Tampico to Nova Scotia was written down by Sir Francis Walsingham and published by Richard Hakluyt in his bookThe Principall Navigations Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation of 1589. Since then, the veracity of Ingram’s story has been debated by scholars across the globe. Today, our guest, Dean Snow, is here to share his research into Ingram and the famous walk from Mexico to Nova Scotia that defends Ingram’s journey as accurate, all of which is cataloged in Dean’s latest book, The Extraordinary Journey of David Ingram.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thomas Kyd inspires a young William Shakespeare to write plays Feb 13, 2023

In his latest book, Shakespeare’s Tutor, Darren Freebury Jones explores the unsung history of Thomas Kyd as a master playwright who belongs in the canon of Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Lyly as one of the greatest playwrights of the Elizabethan Era. Darren writes that along with Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, specifically, paved the way for Shakspeare to be a successful playwright. While it makes sense for a newcomer on the scene, as Shakespeare was in the 1580s, to reach for adaptations of the work of established playwrights to launch his career, Darren points out that William Shakespeare continued to use and be influenced by the work of Thomas Kyd not only after Kyd’s death in 1594, but even after Shakespeare was independently established as a successful playwright in London. To share with us the often overlooked history of Thomas Kyd, and his influence on Shakespeare, is our returning guest, and respected friend, Darren Freebury Jones

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Plays Performed at Universities and How They Competed with the Playhouses Feb 06, 2023

The theaters of the Globe, the Curtain, and the Swan all resided in parts of London considered outside of the law and housing disreputable players. In a strange twist of irony for Shakespeare’s England, however, one of the most highbrow places in society also held dramatic performances in high esteem and that is the university. New establishments for England, colleges like Cambridge and Oxford produced so many professional playwrights for the 16th century that several of them banded together to become known as the university wits. Here this week to help us understand the role of players at major universities as well as who it was that performed there, and how these dramatic presentations interacted with those of Shakespeare is our guest and author of a new publication on University Dramas in Early Modern England, Daniel Blank.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did your barn float away? Floods, Storms, and Frozen Rivers in the 17th Century Jan 30, 2023

Shakespeare mentions a “weather-cock” in his plays Merry Wives of Windsor, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Love’s Labour’s Lost, which is a kind of weather vane used for measuring wind direction. During Shakespeare’s lifetime, astronomers Tycho Brahe and David Fabricus kept daily weather diaries noting details like the rain, snow, and temperature for their respective parts of Europe. But these two astronomers were far from the only people watching the weather in the late 16th and early 17th century. Other diarists including Haller Wolfagang, and Ralph Josselin, would keep similar diaries. From these notes we learn a description of the weather on specific days as well as exactly when and where major weather events like floods or even solar eclipses would have occurred. Since keeping data about the weather in the 16th century was happening before instruments like weather radar were in existence, it’s fascinating to look back and discover how the study of weather and even weather predictions were happening for Shakespeare’s lifetime. Here this week to share with us the details of meteorology for turn of the 17th century is our guest and expert historian on weather, Martin Rowley.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mandrakes That Scream and Look Like People Was An Elaborate 16th Century Scam Jan 23, 2023

Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, talks about the shrieking mandrake while Henry IV and Henry VI use the word mandrake as an insult. These very real plants took on legendary qualities due in part to the chemicals in their makeup which make them useful for anesthetics. Our guest this week is an expert in historical plants and historical methods of growing them and we are delighted this week to welcome Michael Brown to the show, the self-styled Historic Gardner, to share with us about the history of mandrakes.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Writing letters in Renaissance England using special tricks and antiquated tools Jan 16, 2023

There are many examples of letter writing from Shakespeare’s plays, including letters getting lost in transit and even examples of letter forgery! While many of the examples from Shakespeare’s plays about letters are amplified to be more entertaining on stage, they represent real history about how letters were written and delivered for the life of William Shakespeare. Here today to help us explore the tools used to write a letter, and special tricks like letter locking and sealing a letter, is our guest and co-curator of the Letterwriting in Renaissance England exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Alan Stewart.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Astronomically High Deaths on the First Voyages of the East India Trading Company Jan 09, 2023

In April of 1601, four ships set out from England with hopes of establishing trade with Asia. Remembered by history as the first voyage of the East India Company that launched a momentous relationship between what would become Britain and Asia, the first, as well as the subsequent three, voyages by this group were wrought with danger, disease, and completed at great personal sacrifice. On all of these journeys, the captains and sailors battled illness, poor living conditions, and perilously low morale. While the East India Company launched the missions with a set of rules designed to help alleviate the most significant hurdles, our guest this week, Cheryl Fury, shares in her recent publication that the human cost of these voyages remained astronomically high.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Twelfth Night Celebrations Every January Including Music and Misrule Jan 02, 2023

This Thursday, January 5, is Twelfth Night, the official end of the 12 Days of Christmas. For Shakespeare’s lifetime, celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas was a huge occasion, and one which included merriment right up until the very last day. In Shakespeare’s plays, we see many of the Twelfth Night customs come to play including the complete upheaval of established social order where we have boys dressed in mock religious processions, lots of alcoholic drinking alongside elaborate meals, as well as bouts of parody and general misrule against moral order.And of course, for Shakespeare, all of these moments of wild abandon are accompanied by song and dance. To help us understand what Twelfth Night was and why it was celebrated with such crazy antics is our guest and author of a new book on Twelfth Night customs, Rachel Aanstad

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cony Trapper with Ari Friedlander Dec 26, 2022

There were several pamphlets published during Shakespeare's lifetime featuring a menacing giant rabbit, sometimes even wielding a sword and looking very scary. It would be easy to think this character the pamphlet calls a “cony catcher” was invented for marketing purposes, except that we see the phrase “cony catcher” come up several times throughout Shakespeare’s plays including Merry Wives of Windsor, Taming of the Shrew, and even in Henry VI Part 3. We can see from the passing references Shakespeare’s writes that a cony is a word for a rabbit, and it follows then that a catcher of conies is one who catches rabbits, but then why is the rabbit being used in early modern England as a fierce sword wielding villain? There are so many cultural questions to unpack with this symbol and that’s why today our guest and author of a new book about the Cony Catcher and other Shakespearean criminals and malcontents, Ari Friedlander, is here to take us through what we should understand when we discover rabbits running rampant in Shakespeare’s plays.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Santa Claus did not exist for Shakespeare, but happily, Sir Christmas did Dec 19, 2022

It’s Christmastime again this year and our thoughts are full of sugar plums, candy canes, and hopefully some beautiful winter snow. Growing up children of the 20-21st century are very familiar with the concept of Father Christmas or Santa Claus as he’s become known today who brought gifts to good children each Christmas Eve. For William Shakespeare, however, the characters and particularly the understanding of Father Christmas would have been quite different. You see, William Shakespeare did not have Santa Claus and Father Christmas. There was one Christmas carol from the mid-15th century that described “Sir Christmas” that travelled around announcing the birth of Christ and offering drinks to passersby. There’s another record from the mid-15th century that describes a traditional Christmas battle between Christmas and Lent during which a parade of the months of the year culminates in the presentation of the King of Christmas riding a horse decorated with tinfoil. These 15th century images of Christmas and the personification of the season come well before Shakespeare’s lifetime and the strict idea we know as “Father Christmas” would not show up until after the Restoration in the mid-17th century. So what did England, and by proxy, Shakespeare, do to celebrate the holiday? Did Shakespeare have a Father Christmas? Here today to help us understand the holiday spirit and the role of characters like Father Christmas during Shakespeare’s lifetime is our guest and historian Elizabeth Norton.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nutmeg: So Luxurious it was Given as a Christmas Gift to the Queen Dec 13, 2022

Shakespeare mentions the spice of nutmeg in his plays three times, once in Henry V to comment on the color of of this spice, once in Love’s Labour’s Lost to talk about a “gift nutmeg” which was a gift given at Christmas for the 16th century, and then again in The Winter’s Tale when the clown lists nutmeg as one of the spices he needs to make warden pies, along with mace, dates, prunes, and raisins. Nutmeg not being native to England, it was not only a valuable spice that made a great gift that was popular for major celebrations like Christmastime, but it was a huge part of international relations for England because during the 1600s was when the Dutch were committing all manner of atrocities against England (and indeed the world), to maintain a monopoly on this particular spice. Here today to share with us the history of this spice and some popular recipes that used it from Shakespeare’s lifetime is our friend, culinary historian, and returning guest to the show, Brigitte Webster.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eleanor of Aquitaine Dec 05, 2022

In Shakespeare's play, King John, Eleanor of Aquitaine is portrayed as "Queen Elinor," who is decrepit and old, but strong willed and highly intelligent. For many Shakespeareans, the real history of this extraordinary woman is confined to this portrayal in Shakespeare's works. Our guest this week, Alison Weir, joins the show to introduce us to the real history of Eleanor of Aquitaine not only as we remember her today, but to share with us what Shakespeare would have known about her, as well as what it is important to know about her real life when encountering Shakespeare’s portrayal of her in his play.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sport fishing in Shakespeare's England Nov 28, 2022

William Shakespeare mentions fish over 70 times in his plays including certain kinds of fish like dwarfish, a finless fish, and even a dogfish. Types of fish, being a fishmonger, and applying all manner fish metaphors were a consistent theme in many of Shakespeare’s works, which lead me to wonder about the role of fishing and fish in Shakespeare’s lifetime for not only the individual who might have gone fishing for their food, but the role of commercial fishing in the economy of England during the 16-17th century. Here today to help us explore what kinds of fish were most popular, the representations of angling/fishing in print, and exactly how and where people would have caught fish for Shakespeare’s lifetime, is our guest and author of The Poetics of Angling in Early Modern England, Myra Wright.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Squanto with David and Aaron Bradford Nov 21, 2022

One of the heroes of American history and the story of the survival of the English colonists at Plymouth in the mid 17th century is a man named Squanto. His given name was Tisquantum, but he came to be known as Squanto. He was a native American interpreter and guide for early English colonists. While little is known about his early life, some scholars believe that he was taken from home to England in 1605 by George Weymouth and returned to his native homeland with explorer John Smith in 1614–15. His almost decade long residence in London coincides with when Shakespeare was writing plays about shipwrecked colonists encountering native tribes on mysterious far away islands. Our friends, and previous guests to the show for Thanksgiving last year (see that episode here) are father and son history team, David and Aaron Bradford.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gresham College with Valerie Shrimplin Nov 14, 2022

Thomas Gresham served as Royal Agent to the King t in England under Edward VI, Henry VIII, Mary, and Elizabeth I. A hugely influential man of his time, Thomas Gresham’s legacy continues today at Gresham College, the university he founded in 1597 when William Shakespeare was 33 years old. Competing with the likes of Oxford and Cambridge at the time, Gresham College was unique not only because universities themselves were a new concept in England, but because Gresham College chose to teach students in English, whereas Latin was the accepted language of universities at the time. Here to share with us how Gresham College was founded, and what the first classes were like there, is our guest and professor at Gresham College, Valerie Shrimplin.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cesarean Section with Mary Fissell Nov 07, 2022

Famously in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, the title character becomes convinced he cannot be killed because the witches tell him he cannot be killed a man “of a woman born.” It is only when it is too late that Macbeth learns his nemesis, Macduff, was “from his mother’s womb untimely ripped”, in reference to a cesarean surgery, that Macbeth learns of his ultimate fate. Shakespeare’s inclusion of cesarean section in his play comes at a time when medical science and religious doctrine were questioning the viability of this procedure in a heated public debate. In 1581, French surgeon Francois Roussett published “The Hysterotomotokie or Caesarian Birth” which argued women should have cesarean as a viable option for birth during difficult deliveries. His publication caused quite a stir in medical society, with surgeons across Europe speaking out publicly to condemn the very suggestion. The heated conversation traveled all the way to England where a man contemporary to William Shakespeare, named Simon Forman, would write about cesarean sections in his publication “Matrix and the Pain Thereof.” True to form, it seems William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, was full of poignant and extremely timely cultural references to a huge political debate that was happening right when the play was written. Here today to help us understand the history of cesarean sections during Shakespeare’s lifetime and exactly how controversial it might have been to include cesarean sections in his play, is our guest, professor of the history of medicine and author of “Women, Health, and Healing in Early Modern Europe”, Mary Fissel.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pirates and Privateers with James Seth Oct 31, 2022

From 1560 until her death in 1603, Queen Elizabeth employed a group of privateers to raid, pillage, and rob ships that were acting against English interests. This group of private sailors known as sea dogs included famous naval explorers like Sir Francis Drake who circumnavigated the world, and Sir Walter Raleigh who founded the colony of Roanoke and went looking for El Dorado, the city of gold. Reports of the sea dogs and other fantastic tales of naval adventures were cataloged in 16-17th century travel diaries along with the writings of professional travel writers, all of whom sent amazing stories of wild exploits back to England where playwrights like William Shakespeare were ready to include them on stage. Our guest this week, James Seth, is the author of Maritime Musicians and Performers on Early Modern English Voyages. James joins us today to share the history of Elizabeth’s sea dogs, the musical entertainment that would have been available while traveling at sea, and exactly what real life maritime stories inspired characters from Shakespeare’s plays.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pumpkins and The Great Pompion Oct 24, 2022

In November of 1621, English colonists celebrated what’s known today in the US as The First Thanksgiving. Indian natives and English colonists gathered around a celebration of their first successful harvest in a new land. The bounty that this feast enjoyed included one of the staple foods of Thanksgiving that’s become almost ubiquitous with Fall itself, and that’s the pumpkin. Referred to as “pumpion” in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor, and as “pompion” in Love’s Labour’s Lost, this little squash may not have been used as a jack-o-lantern for Shakespeare’s lifetime but the pumpkin nonetheless has a role to play in the life of William Shakespeare. Our guest this week is an expert in the history of pumpkins and the author of Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon. This week we welcome Cindy Ott to the show to share with us the 16-17th century history of the pumpkin.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coffee and Tea for Shakespeare's Lifetime Oct 17, 2022

Coffee, tea, and chocolate may be regular items in the daily lives of the English today, but for Shakespeare these items were not on the everyday menu. In fact, drinking coffee or tea was seen with much superstition and hesitancy. While Shakespeare does mention “one poor penny worth of sugar-candy” in Henry V, he would not have been talking about chocolate. Confections like chocolate and drinking tea, along with coffee houses, would not become normal in England until after Shakespeare died in 1616. However, what we can see about these items in Shakespeare’s lifetime is the process of caffeine arriving in England. It is during Shakespeare’s lifetime that coffee, tea, and chocolate was this exotic sample of foreign lands being brough to Europe by various explorers and trading companies. Here today to share with us the history of coffee, tea, and chocolate and where they were at on their journey from obscurity to popular everyday kitchen staple is our guest, Elisa Tersigni.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Waffles and Waffle Irons in 16th Century England Oct 13, 2022

In William Shakespeare’s Henry V Part II, Scene 3, Pistol uses the phrase “men’s faiths are wafer-cakes.” Wafer cakes were thin baked breads that would eventually become what we know today as waffles. During the Renaissance and Middle Ages, specialty iron tongs were used to bake wafers that were served as a final blessing after the Eucharist in churches. The art of making waffles was so popular in the Netherlands that when the Pilgrims, who had spent some time in Holland, set sail for North America in 1621, it is believed that some of the Dutch who went with them took these wafer cakes on board. While waffles may not have been a staple breakfast food for Shakespeare’s lifetime, it turns out the bard not only had waffles but they came in a surprising variety of shapes and recipes. Here today to share with us the Shakespearean history of wafer cakes and waffles is our guest and expert food historian, Sam Bilton.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

English Accents with Valerie Fridland Oct 03, 2022

One of the most common issues with Shakespare’s plays is understanding the language. He used not only words that have fallen out of fashion for today’s English language, but the pronunciation and even colloquial expressions, cultural references, and some jokes we find in the plays are all so far removed from the way we talk today that it can be hard to understand what’s going on, especially if you’re just trying to read the plays instead of seeing them performed. At least in the theater you have context clues to help you. If you are also someone who finds Shakespeare’s language hard to follow, then not only are you in good company, but this is the episode for you. It’s true that Shakespeare’s language is difficult, and it turns out the history of linguistics and the development of the English language can explain why. During Shakespeare’s lifetime is when English went through a major change called the Great Vowel Shift, and was being influenced by key events going on at the time. Here today to share with us how languages grow, and explain some of the phrases, words, and even pronunciation that was unique to English for Shakespeare’s lifetime, is our guest and professor of linguistics in the English department at University of Nevada, Reno, Valerie Fridland.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Acrobats and Tumblers with Clare McManus Sep 26, 2022

In Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost, he writes about a tumbler wearing colours in their hoop. This reference is to a specific act of theater performance called tumbling. If you’ve already studied the all-male stage we know Shakespeare had at his theater, you may be tempted to think that tumblers were men. However, as the research of the project Engendering the Stage aims to bring to light, historical records for Shakespeare’s lifetime show that in terms of the theatre industry as a whole for the late 16th and early 17th century, theater performance was far from all male. In fact, women were not only prominent players in public performance, but they weren’t entirely excluded on the basis of religion and morality, either, because we have records of distinguished women from one of the strictest religious sects in England, the Puritans, acting on stage in full costume. To help us unpack this conundrum and explore this world of the travelling street performers where elaborate and complicated feats of acrobatics, tight-rope walking, tumbling and even trapeze acts would have taken place using women at center stage, we welcome author of Women on the Renaissance Stage and contributor to the Engendering the Stage project, Professor Clare McManus.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sweetbreads with Neil Buttery Sep 19, 2022

When I’m not recording That Shakespeare Life, I’m usually researching for DIY History, my YouTube channel where I look into games, recipes, and crafts for Shakespeare’s lifetime that you can do at home. In preparing a new episode, I was going through Hugh Plat's Good Housewives Jewel, a cookbook that was written in 1596-1597. One recipe that caught my eye called for "sweet bread." I ambitiously decided to try and make this recipe, thinking I would be diving into a cake, or perhaps some version of loaf bread. However, as I started to research the ingredients, I was surprised to discover this "sweet bread" wasn't bread at all but instead “sweet bread” was actually the 16th century phrase for the pancreas of a cow. Discovering that sweet bread was not at all a bread, but instead an organ meat, was the moment I decided we definitely needed to know more about this surprising food, and to do that, we needed to bring in an expert, which is why I reached out to our friend and returning guest to That Shakespeare Life, expert food historian, Neil Buttery,Neil joins us today to share the history and a few recipes for how to cook 16th century sweet bread.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Susanna's Garden with Ailsa Grant Ferguson Sep 12, 2022

When you visit Stratford Upon Avon, you can stop in and see a place called Hall’s Croft. It is right down the road from Shakespeare’s Birthplace and is the house where William Shakespeare’s oldest daughter, Susanna, lived with her husband, John Hall. John Hall was a physician in Stratford Upon Avon, and is thought to have influenced, if not outright advised, Shakespeare on the many uses of medicinal plants we see come up in his plays. A new study being led by our guest this week, Ailsa Grant Ferguson, not only aims to shed light on the kinds of plants that might have been used there at Hall’s Croft, but looks to literally re-plant them. In a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, partnering with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in collaboration with the University of Brighton, Susanna’s Garden project will plant a sensory, wellbeing garden based on the plants used for women’s health by John Hall and probably Susanna in Stratford Upon Avon that includes the same plants Ailsa’s research reveals would have been used there by the Hall family to treat family and friends in the bard’s hometown. The exciting thing about this garden is not only the opportunity to see historic plants come literally back to life, but as Ailsa Grant Ferguson joins us today to share, this garden research project specifically explores Susanna’s role in medical care as she worked alongside her husband as a healer.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Armadillos with Peter Mason Sep 05, 2022

Armadillos are a fascinating animal, and for the 16th century they were an object of luxury. Many members of the nobility in 16th century England made a hobby out of collecting wild and exotic specimens of animals that were being discovered and brought to Europe by explorers, travelers, and naturalists who were keen to record all the world’s animals. One animal that was new to Shakespeare’s England during his lifetime was the armadillo. One prime example of the armadillo in the culture of the 16th century is the armadillo featured in a piece of embroidery by Mary Queen of Scots. Our guest this week, Peter Mason, writes about this specific armadillo in his article, Mary’s Armadillo for New World Objects of Knowledge: A Cabinet of Curiosities. Peter joins us this week to share the history of the armadillo, where it came from originally, how it arrived in Europe, and the many difference variances from scales to fur that encompass the depictions of the armadillo we find from Shakespeare’s lifetime.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Curse Words with John Spurr Aug 29, 2022

Forsooth and by the saints, we are exploring curse words today from Shakespeare’s lifetime. The changeover from Catholic to Protestant England may have changed the way people worshipped but it didn’t change the strongly religious influence of the English language, including their swear words. Today our guest, John Spurr joins us to help us expolre all the expressions of emphasis, oath, and cursing that appear in Shakespeare’s plays so that we can understand the history behind why they are there, what they mean, and what kinds of words were considered bad language for Shakespeare’s lifetime.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fireworks with Simon Werrett Aug 22, 2022

The technology of explosions to celebrate or mark an occasion of jubilation that we know today as fireworks was a new thing for Shakespeare’s lifetime. Shakespeare mentions the word “firework” only twice in his works, once in relation to a fight in Henry VIII and another time in relation to a show or pageant in Love’s Labour’s Lost. Our guest this week, Simon Werrett is the author of a book on the history and science behind fireworks and he joins us today to share exactly how they worked for Shakepeare’s lifetime, which celebrations were held using fireworks, and what the people of 16th century England thought about this wild and exotic light display.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fireworks with Simon Werrett Aug 22, 2022

The technology of explosions to celebrate or mark an occasion of jubilation that we know today as fireworks was a new thing for Shakespeare’s lifetime. Shakespeare mentions the word “firework” only twice in his works, once in relation to a fight in Henry VIII and another time in relation to a show or pageant in Love’s Labour’s Lost. Our guest this week, Simon Werrett is the author of a book on the history and science behind fireworks and he joins us today to share exactly how they worked for Shakepeare’s lifetime, which celebrations were held using fireworks, and what the people of 16th century England thought about this wild and exotic light display.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dragons with Carolyne Larrington Aug 15, 2022

When William Shakespeare talks about dragons in his plays, he mentions these creatures as fire-breathing, flying, cave dwelling, night stalking, fearsome fighters in over 20 references across his works. In today’s interview we are going to explore the real history of dragons in Shakespeare’s lifetime by asking whether there were real creatures that could have been defined as dragons, similar to how Rhinoceros and Narwhal were called "unicorns." Here to share with us the popular legends about dragons and the place of these creatures in the general pop culture mindset of the Elizabethan Era is our guest and author of Dragons and their Origins for English Heritage, Carolyne Larrington.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hobby Horses with Natalia Pikli Aug 08, 2022

When you hear the term “hobby horse” you may be tempted to recall images of toy wooden horses that children laugh and play on. For Shakespeare’s lifetime, however, this term refers to a particular kind of dance that featured in popular celebrations like May Day and Morris dances. The hobby horse dance was a characterized and often costumed representation of a person riding a horse, and it was a staple feature of these celebratory dances. Our guest this week has written extensively about the history of the hobby horse and where they would have appeared in Shakespeare’s lifetime. We are delighted to welcome Professor at Eotvos Lorand University of Budapest and the author of Shakespeare’s Hobby-Horse and Early Modern Popular Culture, Dr. Natalia Pikli.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Infant Formula in the 16th Century Aug 01, 2022

Commercial baby formula wouldn’t hit the mass market until the 1800s, but Shakespeare’s lifetime still had to deal with babies who needed to eat but were unable, for a variety of reasons, to nurse and drink breastmilk. Here this week to help us take a look at baby formula, baby bottles, and the role of wet nurses in Shakespeare’s lifetime is our guest and author of multiple articles on the history of baby formula, Carla Cevasco.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

King John with Ralph Turner Jul 25, 2022

While King John isn’t one of the more popular Shakespeare plays performed by companies today, taking a look back at monarchs of the past was a favorite pastime for Elizabethan England. To better understand the real history behind Shakespeare’s version of this famous monarch, we’ve invited our guest and author of the book King John for The Medieval World, Ralph Turner here today to share with us the context of King John’s life, impact on the legacy of England, and exactly what led to him being so villainized for centuries to come.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bears of 1608 with Callan Davies Jul 18, 2022

An anonymous dairy was written in 1608 cataloging the keeping of bears for the sport of bear baiting in England. Our guest today calls this diary the “Bearward Diary of 1608” and the term “bearward” is used to describe individuals whose job it was to take care of or travel with a bear (or in the case of this diary, multiple bears), for the purpose of putting on bearbaiting shows around England.The diary is a fascinating glimpse into the history of bearbaiting and the logistics behind finding, showing, and traveling with, bears in the 17th century, To help us explore the diary in more detail and understand some of the history it reveals about bears in Shakespeare’s lifetime is our guest and contributor to the Box Office Bears project, Callan Davies.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conrad Gessner with Dan Hooley Jul 11, 2022

The true example of a Renaissance Man, or a person who is great with many talents or areas of knowledge, Conrad Gessner joins the ranks of herbalists like William Turner and John Gerard as not only influences on Shakespeare, but examples of the influence of Renaissance thought on life in Elizabethan England. Gessner’s works were printed prolifically and consumed regularly in England, most likely by Shakespeare himself. Having completed over 70 publications in his lifetime, Conrad Gessner is a powerhouse of information and his surviving works provide vital links to the mindset and understanding of the world from the Renaissance. Here today to share with us what Conrad Gessner was like, the works he completed, and exactly how it is we are supposed to spell his name, is our guest Dan Hooley.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How did Shakespeare Sleep? With Sasha Handley Jul 04, 2022

Shakespeare mentions sleep in his plays over 380 times, and the word bed over 540 times! His works mentions Truckle beds, as well as the famous Great Bed of Ware, but when it comes to the bard himself, what did he sleep on? Here this week to help us explore beds in Tudor England as well as pajamas, bedtime rituals, and the materials used to make bed sheets is our guest and author of Sleep in Early Modern England, Sasha Handley.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did Women Act on Stage? With Pamela Brown Jun 27, 2022

One of the most accepted statements you’re liable to find about Elizabethan theater online today is that playing companies were all male companies. The idea of a woman on stage is considered forbidden, or not allowed. However, our guest today, Pamela Brown, has recently published a book called The Diva’s Gift to the Shakespearean Stage where she presents evidence that women did participate in performances on stage during Shakespeare’s lifetime. Her work challenges what I know I thought I knew about Shakespearean theater, and I’m delighted to have her here today to help clarify this part of Shakespeare’s history for you, too.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Catherine de Medici with Estelle Paranque Jun 20, 2022

Married to Henry Valois, Catherine de Medici held considerable power and influence over the Valois Dynasty of France and was beloved of the Medici Dynasty in Italy. The year William Shakepseare was born, in 1564, Catherine de Medici offered her son, Charles IX, as a husband for Elizabeth I, and would go on to offer her other two sons, Francis and Henry, to Elizabeth I as well in a decades long effort to secure a political alliance through marriage with England. Staunchly opposed to marriage on the whole, Elizabeth I never did accept Catherine’s sons as husbands, but the interactions and rivalry between these two powerful women was a mainstay over England for the formative years in Shakespeare’s lifetime. Here today to help us explore the life of Catherine de Medici is our guest, historian, and author of the her latest book about Catherine de Medici called Blood, Fire, and Gold: The Story of Elizabeth I of England and Catherine de Medici , Dr. Estelle Paranque.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maps with Peter Barber Jun 13, 2022

Transoceanic travel was a staple of European endeavors for the 16-17th century, with both Elizabeth I and James I spending massive amounts of money and effort to work with trading companies and explorers who traveled to other continents for trade, commerce, and colonization during Shakespeare’s lifetime. In order to reach these new and exotic places, as well as to be able to return again after the new places had been found, the sailors and explorers relied mainly on navigation by the stars and the wind to get to their destination. However, this time in history is when printed maps and manuscript charts started to be used as a fall back for navigation, and in some cases for political propaganda. It was the maps of John Smith that the Pilgrims consulted to get to the New World, and when Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe in the 16th century, a hand illustrated map of his journey was created in the 1570s. Shakespeare references a “map of the world” in Henry V, and a “map of ports, piers, and roads” in Merchant of Venice, along with 14 other references to maps and “mappery” in his plays. Here this week to help us understand how mapmaking worked for Shakespeare’s lifetime, exactly who it was that were employed as cartographers, and whether or not the maps sailors relied upon were accurate, is our guest and former Head of Map Collections at the British Library, Peter Barber. Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The First English Lottery with Elizabeth Norton Jun 06, 2022

William Shakespeare uses the word “lottery” in his plays 8 times, often referring to a reward that comes after taking a gamble. While we may be familiar with lotteries like the Powerball or Publishing Clearinghouse here in the United States, a ticket based lottery where people could pay money for a chance to win big was brand new for England in Shakespeare’s lifetime. The first time England had seen a real lottery, was the first national lottery in 1567, instituted by Elizabeth I, when Shakespeare was just 3 years old. Here today to share with us how this lottery worked, who bought tickets, and who ultimately won it, is our guest, Elizabeth Norton. Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Medlars with Neil Buttery May 30, 2022

Five times in Shakespeare’s works he refers to a specific plant called a Medlar. In As You Like It, Rosalind talks about grafting a medlar, Lucio talks about a rotten medlar in Measure for Measure, Mercutio uses the medlar tree to describe Romeo’s state of mind in Romeo and Juliet and the last two references to medlars are found in Timon of Athens when Apemantus both presents a medlar for eating, and questions whether someone hates medlars. Whether or not we should hate or love the medlar fruit is the subject of our show today. Our guest this week and author at British Food History.com, Neil Buttery, is in the studio with us to share with us the history of this plant, what it looks and tastes like, as well as what it would have been used for in Shakespeare’s lifetime. Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Banbury Cheese with Helen Forde May 23, 2022

In William Shakespeare’s play, Merry Wives of Windsor, Bardolph declares “You Banbury Cheese!” as an insult. The reason this line is an insult is because for the life of William Shakespeare, Banbury England was famous for making a particular kind of cheese that was thinner on the rind than other cheese typical of the period. Therefore, calling someone a Banbury cheese was akin to calling them a string-bean, or saying they were too thin. It works especially well as a joke for Shakespeare in the play because the character Bardolph is insulting is named, as you might expect, Slender.The joke is a highly contemporary reference by Shakespeare and in order to better understand the history of Banbury England and their famous cheese, we have invited the chair of the Banbury Historical Society, Helen Forde, to visit with us today and explain what made Banbury cheese so unique for Shakespeare’s lifetime.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Caius with Vivian Nutton May 16, 2022

John Caius was a prominent medical professional in the 16th century. A staunch adherent to the teachings of Galen, who himself was the ultimate authority on medical knowledge for close to 15 centuries. John Caius owned a copy of Galen’s text and that original copy survives at Eton College, Berkshire, with Caius’ notes and annotations there for review. Galen’s work was essentially the Grey’s Anatomy of its time and Caius’ interest in Galen’s work was not merely being a fan, but the doing of his due diligence in medical study. However, despite the evidence to suggest he was a pillar of medical knowledge in the 16th century, training major medical figures of the period, John Caius is accused even in his own time, of being too much of a traditionalist, unable to change and grow with the rapidly evolving mindset of his time period and was even held responsible for annoying Queen Elizabeth at a medical forum that took place at court the year Shakespeare was born. As a result, about 30 years after his death in 1573, William Shakespeare satirizes his namesake through the comedic French doctor of Dr. Caius in Merry Wives of Windsor. Here today to share with us the life and accomplishments of the real Dr. Caius, is our guest, Vivian Nutton.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transplant Surgery with Paul Craddock May 09, 2022

From blood transfusions to replacement of legs, during Shakespeare’s lifetime was when medical science was trying to figure out the best way to replace broken or damaged body parts with transplants. Having only just discovered that the heart was a muscle, pumping at regular intervals, it was a revolution in medical science to consider each body part as a kind of piece in the mechanism that was the human body. We see these new concepts echoed in the work of our favorite playwright, William Shakespeare when characters like Hamlet and Titus Andronicus talk about the pulse keeping time and the heart beating outrageously. Our guest this week, Paul Craddock, has just published a book on the history of transplant surgery called Spare Parts, in which he details the advancements being made in the medical field during Shakespeare’s lifetime. He joins us today to explain what kinds of surgeries were being done, who the famous players were in the medical community of the day, and exactly what materials they used to accomplish these, often macabre, medical marvels.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

William Adams with Timon Screech May 02, 2022

In the year 1600, when William Shakespeare was just 36 years old, William Adams became the first Englishman to reach Japan. Adams sailed as part of a 5-ship fleet employed for the expedition by a private Dutch company. Adams would serve in Japan under Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, helping to build the first Western Style ships in Japan, and later helping Japan establish trading factories with the Netherlands and England. While Adams held significant influence in Japan during his lifetime, what was most remarkable was the friendship he cultivated with Ieyasu that would last until Ieyasu’s death.

Here today to share with us the story of this incredible Englishman contemporary to Shakespeare is author of The Shogun’s Silver Telescope: God, Art and Money in the English Quest for Japan, Timon Screech.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stephen Hopkins with Andrew Buckley Apr 25, 2022

On June 2, 1609, a ship named the Sea Venture set sail for Jamestown, Virginia. On the way, the ship was blown off course by a horrible hurricane. The storm badly damaged the ship and all hands onboard fought off the rising water until the ship ran aground on the island of Bermuda. After salvaging parts of the Sea Venture to build another ship, the stranded group set sail again for Jamestown, arriving in Virginia on May 10, 1610.

News of the shipwreck and tales of the castaways traveled back to England, due in no small part to a publication by one Sea Venture traveler, William Strachey, who wrote dramatic tales about the adventure, including one incident in Bermuda involving an indentured servant named Stephen Hopkins who was accused of mutiny and narrowly escaped death.

Stephen Hopkins not only survived the Sea Venture hurricane, but would travel 11 years later on the Mayflower as both a guide and the father to Oceanus, the only child born on the Mayflower while it was at sea. The dramatic life of Stephen Hopkins seems to have inspired our favorite dramatist, William Shakespeare for his play, The Tempest, and specifically the character of Stephano, which came to life in Shakespeare’s performance just one year after the cast and crew of the Sea Venture landed in Jamestown.

Our guest this week, Andrew Buckley, is descended directly from Stephen Hopkins and has just completed a documentary film on his life. Andrew joins us today to share the story of Stephen Hopkins and walk us through the evidence that suggests Shakespeare’s character of Stephano might have been inspired by the real life of Stephen Hopkins.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Moon with Rachel Aanstad Apr 18, 2022

William Shakespeare uses the word “moon” over 160 times in his works, talking about the shape of the moon, the horns of the moon, and even traits of the moon like moonshine or moonbeam. For Shakespeare’s lifetime, the moon held almost as prominent a place in life as the sun, with people planning their lives around the phases of the moon.

Described using a variety of names including popular feminine names like Lucina, Diana, and Cynthia, the moon was personified with attributes like good manners, while being held responsible for bad things like aging or unpleasant weather. For early modern England, it was best to consult the location of the moon to determine the best time to do everything from bringing in the harvest to getting a haircut.

Given the prominence of the moon and the pervasiveness of its place in the culture, understanding how it works and its attributes becomes essential to understanding plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream which mentions the word “Moon” close to 40 times and employs the moon, algon with madness, as a constant theme of the story.

Our guest this week, Rachel Aanstad, writes about the place of the moon in the culture and mindset of 16th Century England in her Illustrated Handbook and Encyclopedia for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Today she joins us to explore the history and place of the moon and why it held such an important role in Shakespeare’s lifetime.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Taylor the Water Poet with Bernard Capp Apr 11, 2022

John Taylor is a poet contemporary to Shakespeare, but with a decidedly unique approach to the writing profession. John Taylor trained professionally as a waterman, or a river worker who taxied passengers to and from city destinations on the rivers like the River Thames in London. John Taylor used his occupation as a waterman to talk with the various playwrights, actors, and patrons while they were on the boat with him between destinations. Over the years, John Taylor used what he learned from these conversations to craft himself into a poet with the purpose of re-inventing the unglamorous and ridiculed 16th century opinion of the profession of waterman into a more glorified occupation by naming himself The Water Poet. Taylor’s work did manage to earn him a position of leadership in a waterman’s guild, and he would write elegies for not only James I, but John Taylor was the first person to write about the death of William Shakespeare, when he wrote a poem mentioning the bard in 1620. Here today to tell us about the life and exploits of this unique character from the life of William Shakespeare is our guest, Bernard Capp.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cocktails with Jared and Anistatia Brown Apr 04, 2022

Shakespeare’s plays mention several kinds of alcoholic beverages, some of which we still have today like wine, ale, and beer, but others are more firmly situated in the past, making them pretty obscure references outside of niche historical circles that enjoy recreating beverages from antiquity. For example, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry VI, and Twelfth Night give us mentions of drinks like sack, posset, canary, and metheglin, all of which are alcoholic drinks but their substance may not be as recognizable today as it was for Shakespeare. What were these drinks made from, were they served at pubs or around the family diner table, and what did they look like?

Our guests this week, Jared and Anistatia Brown are experts in historical beverages and the owners at sipsmith.com where they research and write about the history of alcoholic drinks.

Today, Jared and Anastatia are taking us back to the 16th century to investigate these obscure drinks and introduce us to the cocktails of Shakespeare's lifetime.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cataracts Surgery with Chris Leffler Mar 28, 2022

In a 16th century painting by Casper Stromayr, two men, presumably doctors, are standing behind a table on which a set of surgical instruments are laid out very neatly. In the notes for the painting we discover that some of the instruments are specifically for surgery of the eye.

Cataract surgery like the one being prepared for in this painting was just becoming widespread in Shakespeare’s lifetime and was performed to remove the pearly film that developed over the surface of the eye.

In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Ferdinand uses the phrase “Those are pearls that were his eyes:” Again in Rape of Lucrece, Shakespeare calls attention to pearly eyes when he writes “His eye drops fire, no water thence proceeds; Those round clear pearls of his…”

Additionally, in both King Lear and Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part II, there are references in the dialogue to specific procedures and even specific diseases of the eye. The novelty of this new surgery, combined with the very public and performative nature of the procedure itself– often being performed in the street on public display– it’s plausible to think William Shakespeare may have been studying up on this new science. Based on the parallels found in Shakespeares plays, some scholars even suggest that William Shakespeare may have read Charles Estienne’s Defence of Contraries, translated from French to English in 1593, or Thomas Cooper’s 1578 medical dictionary that defines “cataractia” as “a disease of the eyes, when a tough humour like a gelly droppeth out.”

To help us explore the history of cataract surgery as well as the references to the procedure and eye disease we see in Shakespeare’s plays is our guest and professional ophthalmologist, Dr. Chris Lefflfer.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Laundry and Touching Disease with Steph Bennett (Ep 205) Mar 21, 2022

In the 16th century plague impacted Shakespeare’s daily life through regular closings of the theater due to the fear of disease spreading in enclosed spaces. In addition to large crowds gathering together in the theater, contemporary science warned against one particular threat of contagion: the laundry. It was believed that certain materials could spread disease by their relationship to the body. For example, linen was thought to be protective against disease by wicking the sweat and body odor away from the wearer. While linen was protective, other fabrics were deemed more dangerous while washing techniques, including using soaps like lye- a highly caustic cleanser made from wood ash, could help prevent disease. Our guest this week, Stephanie Bennett, is the author of “Cloth, Contact, and Contagion: Touching Disease of the Past and Present” for the Social History Society. Stephanie joins us today to talk about the 16th century understanding of disease and how proximity, material, and the interactions between the skin and clothing were thought to prevent or transmit disease.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Herballs with Sarah Neville (Ep204) Mar 14, 2022

Throughout Shakespeare’s lifetime there were dozens of books printed on plants called herballs. These books contained drawings of various grasses, flowers, herbs, and trees that grew in England. The drawings we have surviving today total more than 1,000 woodcuts from Shakespeare’s lifetime literally illustrating for us that the plant industry in England was big business for the same publishing houses producing Shakespeare’s plays. Our guest this week, Sarah Neville, joins us to explore this part of the publishing industry and explain where herballs came from, who wrote them, and most of all, what kind of person wanted to buy them during Shakespeare’s lifetime.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pregnancy at Sea with Kasia Burzyńska Mar 07, 2022

In Shakespeare’s Pericles, the character Thasia gives birth on a ship at sea and, dying in childbirth, is thrown overboard in her coffin by Pericles. There’s a great deal to unpack in the story about this moment, but seeing it happen in the play lead me to wonder: Were women really traveling on board ships in the 16th century (sailing and exploration being typically a male profession, and even when the Pilgrims sailed to the New World, the Mayflower was unique in allowing both women and children aboard.) To help us understand what the place of women on ships was in the 16th C, whether there were any standards of care offered, and how births like Thasia’s might have been handled off stage and in the real 16th century world in which Shakespeare was living is our guest, Kasia Burzyńska

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lady Elizabeth Russell and the Blackfriars (Ep 202) Feb 28, 2022

One of the byproducts of introducing disruptive innovation to the theater industry of the 16th century is that not everyone is a fan of your work. For William Shakespeare, as he and his compatriots masterminded theaters like the Globe and the Blackfriars, there was a considerable faction of Puritans in London who felt their work was corrupting the city and sought fervently to stop it. Our guest this week, Chris Laoutaris, is the author of Shakespeare and the Countess, the book that tells the remarkable story of how one woman in particular put up a memorable fight to try and stop one of the greatest theaters in history.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Shakespeare's Violence with Jared Kirby and Seth Duerr Feb 21, 2022

Many of Shakespeare’s most powerful scenes are based on physical action that isn’t directly written about in the scripts of his works. For example, when Ophelia goes mad and demonstrates her madness on stage, we know for certain what she says during that scene because her lines are written out for us but it’s unclear what her physical movements should be on stage. Similarly, in fight scenes, like brawls, riots, or acts of domestic abuse that happens within Shakespeare’s plays, it is up to interpretation of the director as to how the actors would have performed. Our guests this week, Jared Kirby and Seth Duerr, have decided to take some of the guesswork out of these scenes by investigating the history of fights, physical violence, and stage performance to determine what kind of actions should accompany the fights, assaults, struggles, and foul play in Shakespeare’s plays. Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Old Tom Parr with Emma Kate Lanyon (Ep 200) Feb 14, 2022

Born in the late 1480s, and dying an astonishing one hundred and fifty two years later in 1635, Old Tom Parr is famous for living longer than any man in England before or since his lifetime. Overlapping Shakespeare’s lifetime entirely, being born before the bard and living more than twenty years after the bard’s death, Old Tom Parr was born in Alderbury, England, and lived in Shropshire, where still today there is a small cottage called Old Parr’s Cottage that you can visit today. The cottage’s preservation and that of Old Tom Parr’s memory is a testament to this man’s extraordinarily long life. His longevity has been attributed to a unique diet, and specifically enjoying what one 16th Century physician called a “care free” life. To put the length of his life into perspective, Old Tom Parr would have lived through both the Battle of Bosworth, and Shakespeare’s retelling of it on the early modern stage over 100 years later. A portrait of Old Tom Parr hangs in the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery, and one of the curators there, Emma Kate Lanyon, joins us today to share the history of this portrait, as well as details into the surprising life, and death, of the longest living man from Shakespeare’s lifetime: the real Old Tom Parr

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beer Making with Richard Unger (Ep 199) Feb 07, 2022

Shakespeare references “beer” in his works 6 times, drawing attention to specific kinds of beer like “small beer” “double beer” and even one reference in Hamlet to beer barrels where the Prince of Denmark suggests that beer barrels had a stopper to keep them sealed. Drinking beer in Shakespeare’s lifetime was almost as regular as drinking water is today. So whenever you were thirsty, drinks like ale, beer, and spirits were much safer. This beer drinking reality means that there was a strong economy for beer making and distilling in Elizabethan England, including unique storage methods, containers, and even some versions of beer like small and double beer that are obsolete today. To find out exactly what the state, varieties, and industry was behind beer for Shakespeare, we have invited our guest this week, Richard Unger, expert in the beer making of Elizabethan England, and author of the book “Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance” to help us explore the history of how beer was made for the life of William Shakespeare. Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

St. Swithun's Day with Philippa Brewell (Ep 198) Jan 31, 2022

700 years before Shakespeare a man named Saint Swithun established his place in history mostly because of the miracles that surrounded his death and burial. St. Swithun would capture the imagination of writers for centuries after his death, with one of his most famous miracles being recorded in a book called Historia major from the 15th century. The early 13th century saw a shrine built to St. Swithun was not demolished until 1538, just 26 years before Shakespeare was born. This imposing figure on the English consciousness was celebrated during Shakespeare’s lifetime and continues to be celebrated today in England, every July 15.

In exploring the history of St. Swithun’s day, I discovered one man who was potentially named after the popular St. Swithun who is not only a contemporary to William Shakespeare, but would himself go on to be canonized in the 20th century by Pope Paul VI. Swithun Wells was a Roman catholic martyr during the life of Elizabeth I. His family was known to house and shelter catholic recusants during Shakespeare’s lifetime, with Swithun Wells was executed by Elizabeth I for housing catholics. Here today to give us all these details about the holiday, how it was celebrated for Shakespeare, the history of the other Swithun from Shakespeare's lifetime, and even what science is behind how the holiday is celebrated today is expert in British History and our friend, Philippa Brewell.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sound Effects with Chris Johnston and Alexander Sovsronsky (Ep 197) Jan 24, 2022

One of the most powerful aspects of modern day theater performance is the spooky sounds, creaking doors, or the wailing noises of the witches across the moor. These same sound effects were important on stage for Shakespeare’s original performances of his plays, as well, but as you might imagine, with a decidedly less computer-based generation. While the bard’s selection of performance sound may not have been based on anything created by Steve Jobs, the technology was no less impressive with implements designed specifically to generate the sound of waves in the ocean, rain falling down, and even thunder. Here today to share with us some of the history of mechanical sound production and the use of music on stage to set the scenery in the early modern theater are our guests, and experts in original practice of Shakespeare’s plays, Chris Johnston and Alexander Sovronsky.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Body Language with Miranda Fay Thomas (Ep 196) Jan 17, 2022

One of the most remembered lines from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is when Sampson says “I bite my thumb at your sir!” It’s funny to us today partly because we don’t understand why someone would bite their thumb. We can tell from context that it's’ meant to be an insult, but do you know why it was insulting? Culture of the 16th-17th century when Shakespeare wrote lines about biting thumbs or making figs were similar gestures to giving the finger, or even milder gestures like putting your hands on your hips to indicate impatience. We recognize the cultural gestures of our own lifetime like hook ‘em horns or the “A-ok” symbol, but Shakespeare had these same kinds of specific body language communications as well that were just as well known for his audience as a facepalm might be for us today. Shakespeare uses the word “gesture” at least 10 times in his works with phrases like “there was speech in their dumbness, language in their very gesture” from A Winter’s Tale, or when he writes in the stage directions of the Tempest that Alonzo should use “a frantic gesture” when he comes on stage. From Sampson biting his thumb in Romeo and Juliet to the unwritten motions characters would have used when delivering their lines to indicate sarcasm, grief, insult, or shame, physical motions of the characters on stage were often just as, if not more, important to understand than the words themselves. Our guest this week has researched 16th century gestures and body language extensively and written about them in her book titled “Shakespeare’s Body Language: Shaming Gestures and Gender Politics on the Renaissance Stage.” Dr. Miranda Fay Thomas joins us this week to discuss gestures like biting thumbs but also assumptions we make about "praying hands" or "palm to palm." We are delighted to have her with us this week to explore gestures, symbols, and the culture of unspoken physical performance from Shakespeare’s lifetime.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 195: The Ottoman Empire with Aisha Hussain Jan 10, 2022

In a series of highly political and pro-English history plays known as his “Henriad” performances, Shakespeare uses a variety of figurative words and expressions to describe the “Turks” or members of the Ottoman Empire. Almost all of Shakespeare’s references are rather negative towards the Ottomans, which at face value may lead you to believe that Shakespeare and his contemporaries were opposed to, or perhaps at war with, the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. However, historical exploration into the real political situation of England towards the then-called Ottoman Turks was far from negative. In fact, Elizabeth I saw the Ottoman Empire as an essential ally in her post-Catholic England currently at war with Spain. So how do we reconcile the essential nature of the Ottoman Empire under Elizabeth I with Shakespeare’s negative references to them by the characters in his history plays? Our guest this week, Aisha Hussain, is here to take us back to the 16th century and introduce us to the Ottoman Empire, what it meant to be Turkish, and what we need to know about the Ottomans in Shakespeare’s plays.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 194: Clouds, Lightning, and Special Effects with Frank Mohler Jan 03, 2022

When Shakespeare performed scenes like the ocean waves of the Tempest, the flying acrobatics of ghosts, or had his characters change location from the streets of verona to the castles of Kings of England, there were technologies, machines, and specialty techniques used in the 16th century to accomplish these feats of nature and fantastic visual effects on stage.

Our guest this week is an expert in early modern performance illusions and the machines used to create them. We are delighted to welcome Frank Mohler, professor emeritus of the Department of Theater and Dance at Appalachian State University. He joins us today to share the history of 16th century flying machines, set changes, trap doors, and even elevators that were used in Shakespeare’s lifetime.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 193: King of Moors Pageant with Maria Shmygol Dec 27, 2021

When London established a new mayor every October, there was a pageant put on to celebrate the appointment and introduce the new mayor to the city known as the Lord Mayor’s Show. This event was an extravagant affair, featuring a huge parade that followed an established route through the city. In one of the earliest accounts we have of the Lord Mayor’s Show, from 1585, records indicate that part of the parade that year was a pageant known as the King Of Moor’s pageant. This pageant is described by our guest this week, Maria Shmygol, as a Moor pageant that was performed by an actor in blackface, and other such pageant devices and dark-skinned personages (variously described as ‘Moors’ and ‘black Indians’). Maria writes that this pageant and this presentation of black moors would come again in close to 10 other mayoral inaugurations across the early to mid 17th century, including 3 within Shakespeare’s lifetime. Maria Shmygol joins us today to explain the King of Moors pageant, including what we know about the actors, blackface makeup, and whether there was a distinction culturally between African, Indian, and Arabic, or if “moor” was a more general term. Since the images of the King of Moor’s pageant also includes drawings of a giant leopard, Maria will share with us the purpose and place of that specific animal in the pageant as well.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 192: Purple Carrots with Phil Simon Dec 21, 2021

Wild carrots are indigenous to Europe and known as Queen Anne’s Lace, as well as Devil’s Plague, and Fool’s Parsley, this wild carrot variety was known primarily for its use as an herb and in medicinal recipes. The formal, cultivated carrot arrived in England by the 15th century, and right up until Shakespeare’s lifetime, carrots were mostly purple. According to the Wild Carrot Museum in the UK, orange colored carrots arrived in Europe right in the middle of Shakespeare’s lifetime, making the orange carrot a new thing for Shakespeare. In fact, one reason orange carrots are thought to have caught on so quickly in popularity is because cooking the orange carrots didn’t stain the pots nearly as bad as cooking with purple ones. The new carrot took a firm hold in the cultivation of this root vegetable and by the time British settlers arrived in North America, the carrots they brought with them were primarily orange and sometimes white. When it comes to finding carrots in Shakespeare’s plays, the word “carrot” isn’t in there. We can only partially fault Shakespeare for not giving us a nice reference to carrots for this week’s episode because the word “carrot” was just getting started in the English language. “Carrot” arrived in English around 1530, but in popular vernacular, there was a great deal of overlap between the names for root vegetables. Carrots, parsnips, and parsley were often referred to interchangeably by the same names. In fact, in Old English, there’s not a good way to distinguish between carrots and parsnips, since they were both called “moru” coming from the, fittingly, root word for “edible root.”

Our guest this week is an expert in historical horticulture and he joins us today to help us understand what Shakespeare would have called this orange root vegetable, whether or not it was a regular at the dinner table, and to explain the history of what kind of carrots Shakespeare would have enjoyed.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 191: Pearls with Saoirse Laarachi Dec 13, 2021

Shakespeare uses the word “pearl” over 40 times across his works. He describes them as objects of high value, and in Troilus and Cressida, uses the pearl to describe a rare and valuable woman saying “she is a pearl, Whose price hath launch'd above a thousand ships.” The pearl trade was an industry well established under Henry VIII of England, who looked to the pearl trade as a way to strengthen England’s international relations after separation from Catholicism left them in need of some strong allies. Elizabeth I continued this pursuit, but enhanced the value of the pearl in England up to six fold, by some scholarly estimates, over the

first 60 years in the 16th century due in part to the fact that the Queen literally wore thousands of them herself. Many of her most opulent outfits, appearing in numerous royal portraits of Elizabeth I, feature thousands of this precious gemstone. During Elizabeth’s reign, England regularly imported pearls by the shipload from countries like Morocco, Persia, and China. The imagery and symbolism of the pearl in England is associated with purity, chastity, and even, as the description for the ocular disease cataracts, which Shakespeare alludes to in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Rape of Lucrece.

Our guest this week is Saoirse Laarachi, a PhD candidate with the Shakespeare Institute, and author of Pearls: Trade, Beauty and North Africa for Medieval and Early Modern Orients. She joins us today to share the history of pearls in Shakspeare’s lifetime to discuss their use in general fashion, their purpose in international trade agreements, and what we should understand about Pearls from the Orient, specifically, when we find these references in Shakespeare’s plays.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 190: Metallurgy with Alan Williams Dec 06, 2021

Metal was used in Shakespeare’s lifetime to create a variety of items including swords, armor, guns, and even horseshoes. In one reference from Henry IV Part II, Shakespeare draws attention to the fact that a “smith” the term for someone who works with metal, was responsible for creating some of these items when the character Davy says “Here is now the smith's note for shoeing and plough-irons.” That comes from Act V, Scene 1. While most of Shakespeare’s uses of the word “smith” in his plays refer specifically to a goldsmith (that term being used at least 11 times in his works), there were other kinds of smiths, like silversmiths, blacksmiths, tinsmiths, and coppersmiths who worked in Shakespeare’s lifetime. Shakespeare gives us a glimpse of this metallurgical enterprise when the character Hubert de Burgh, in King John, Act IV Scene II says “I saw a smith stand with his hammer... whilst his iron did on the anvil cool.” We can tell from what references Shakespeare leaves us that metallurgy and working with metals held common place in society for his lifetime, but seeing as how most of don’t visit the blacksmith today on a regular basis, we asked our guest, Alan Williams, an Archaeometallurgist at The Wallace Collection, to visit with us today and take us back to Shakespeare’s lifetime where we can explore exactly how the metal was acquired, used, and molded into some of these essential household items for Shakespeare’s lifetime.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 189: Cunning Folk with Owen Davies Nov 29, 2021

You may have heard of common superstitions like throwing salt over your shoulder when you spill some to ward off bad luck, or crossing your fingers when you tell a lie to prevent consequences of your transgression. These kinds of small acts to try and control or influence the spiritual realm around you were more than just common superstitions for the life of William Shakespeare. Even in Protestant England, where the monarchs like Elizabeth I and James I after her, were actively harsh against anything even suspected of being witchcraft, simultaneously operating in the households of families and property owners around England were those known as Cunning Folk. These people were witches, wizards, and magicians whose practices included mixing up specialty brews to cure someone of bewitchment, as well as practicing various kinds of miraculous healing. What’s surprising about these cunning folk is not only that they were tolerated in a very anti-witchcraft society like Protestant England, but that they were rampant across England, to the point of being quite common and ordinary for Shakespeare’s lifetime. Here today to explain what the cunning folk were, their place in society, and what kinds of magic they practiced is our guest and author of Cunning-Folk and the Production of Magical Artefacts Owen Davies.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 188: Plymouth Colony with David and Aaron Bradford Nov 22, 2021

It is Thanksgiving this week here in the US where we take time to intentionally be grateful for what we’ve been given and count our blessings, but it is also the one time of year where the whole nation remembers an event that began during the life of William Shakespeare: the journey of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower. Not many people realize the story of William Shakespeare overlaps with that of the Pilgrims, due mostly to the fact that the Pilgrims wouldn’t actually set sail from Plymouth until 1620, which is 4 years after the death of William Shakespeare. However, The Puritans were a major part of Shakespeare’s life in England prior to that fateful day in 1620, including Puritans who lived within walking distance of the known residences Shakespeare took up in London. The story of the Mayflower, Pilgrims, and so-called “Strangers” that travelled with them including Miles Standish, William Brewster, and William Bradford, informs our understanding of Shakespeare’s culture and the strong religious tensions that were building up in early 17th century England..

As many countries were flocking to the New World and trying to establish colonies there, England, too was placing a mark on the new land with settlements like Jamestown being established under Captain John Smith in 1607. At the same time, the Pilgrims were seeking to go to this New World, but for a decidedly different reason. As a group of religious separatists, as they were known then, they were seeking the right to freedom of religion. The group capitalized on the popular wave of exploration under James I to secure a land patent that allowed them to travel to England and set up a new colony where they could worship, and live, in freedom. Accompanied by the Merchant Adventurers and sanctioned by the Plymouth Colony, the Pilgrims set sail on September 6, 1620.

Here today to tell us about the history behind the Pilgrim’s journey from England to Plymouth and the realities of that First Thanksgiving are our guests and historians behind the 1620 Experience, David and Aaron Bradford.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 187: The Arquebus Rifle with Jonathan Ferguson Nov 15, 2021

In 1593, Shakespeare wrote Venus and Adonis the play in which he writes “like the deadly bullet of a gun, His meaning struck her ere his words begun.” As our guest this week explains, “This is likely a reference to the phenomenon of a supersonic bullet hitting the target before the gunshot is heard. The Henrician arquebuses housed at the Royal Armouries in England, some dating from Shakespeare’s lifetime, were capable of 400 metres per second or more, which is supersonic. The big heavy muskets of his era and many artillery pieces were also supersonic. 'Bullet' was used for any gun projectile at the time, so Shakespeare could actually have been talking about firearms or artillery (or both) here.” Shakespeare references either the word gun or musket a total of 7 times in his works. Like so many things during this Renaissance period of history, the technology of firearms and rifles was growing and evolving rapidly in terms of their construction, accuracy, firing mechanisms, and even which countries adopted the manufacturing of these weapons. Several surviving examples of these guns from 15-17th century Germany, France, and England are held at the Royal Armories Collections and their Keeper of Firearms and Artillery, Jonathan Ferguson, is here today to talk with us about the differences between matchlock, flintlock, rifles, and muskets, and to explore exactly what kind of weapons Shakespeare would have known about when he mentions guns, bullets, and muskets in his plays.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 186: Stratford Upon Avon Floods in 1588 with Laurie Johnson Nov 08, 2021

In 1588, William Shakespeare turned 24 years old. This year is part of what we call “Shakespeare’s Lost Years” because we don’t know precisely what Shakepeare was doing at this time. Many speculations have been made that Shakespeare hopped a ride with one of the touring companies that visited his hometown of Stratford Upon Avon to make his fortunes in London. Of course, the details are not known for sure, but our guest this week brings new evidence to the discussion by investigating one major flood event that struck Stratford Upon Avon in 1588. Prior to this significant disaster, Shakespeare’s hometown was a major stop of the route of travelling playing companies across England, and after this disaster, the town seems to drop off of the itinerary, leading some to speculate that the damage and subsequent fall from its’ status as a tourist destination may have played a role in William Shakespeare leaving for London. This week we welcome our guest, Laurie Johnson to the show to share his research into the flood of 1588 to tell us what may have happened to the town of Stratford Upon Avon that led to the departure of the bard.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 185: Witch Bottles, Charms, and Mummified Cats with Brian Hoggard Nov 01, 2021

When Shakespeare plays are performed on stage and the magic of witches dazzles us with lights, smoke, and mirrors, it’s easy to think these spells and incantations are just folklore, designed to be nothing more than a theater spectacle. Archaeological evidence from Shakespeare’s lifetime, however, indicates that when Shakespeare had the Second witch in Macbeth declare “Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg and owlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble” these items being listed in connection with a witches brew were more than just ingredients for a nasty smelling soup. Charms, and real life objects imbued with spells and magic were believed to be capable of causing not just harm but very real “double double toil and trouble.” To combat the evil spirits, and the rampant working of witches in the 16th century, your average man or woman in London would hide countermagic items such as witch bottles, cats, shoes, and even horse skulls in the walls of their home as good luck against very real evil spirits. Our guest this week is an expert in these charms, having written the journal article, The archaeology of counter-witchcraft and popular magic in which he set out to find the various surviving counter magic artifacts in the UK and cataloged a list of not only what kinds of items were kept to ward off evil like witches, but also where they were kept, and why. Here to share his findings with us and explain the details behind a few of the counter magic artifacts from Shakespeare’s lifetime, is our guest, Brian Hoggard

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 184: The Case of Elizabeth Stile with Carole Levin Oct 25, 2021

In 1606, as Shakespeare staged Macbeth, James I had published his book on witchcraft and the supernatural called Daemonology, and witch trials were rampant across the UK bringing women of all ages and classes before a court hearing for acts of anger, revenge, and even mental illness, all of which called them under suspicion of evil magic. The presence of witches on stage was not merely theatrical for Shakespeare’s plays but also represented a cultural reality for turn of the 17th century society in which witches, spells, magic, and the consequence of delving into the supernatural were active in the lives of Elizabethan England. One particularly harsh case of witchcraft in 1578 occurred when Shakespeare was just 14 years old, and saw a woman named Elizabeth Stile brought before the court for her acts of anger, considered so threatening that Elizabeth I had her famous magus and astrologer John Dee perform acts of counter magic to defend against Elizabeth Stile. Here this week to share the story of what happened to Elizabeth Stile, why she was charged as a witch, and what these incidents tell us about Shakespeare’s presentation of witches in Macbeth and Henry VI part 2, is our guest and author of Witchcraft in Shakespeare's England for The British Library, Carole Levine.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 183: Bedlam Hospital with Duncan Salkeld Oct 18, 2021

In Shakespeare’s Henry VI part II, Lord Clifford exclaims, “To Bedlam with him! Is the man grown mad?” That’s from Act V Scene 1. This use of the word Bedlam both as a place associated with madness, is because there was a real Bedlam Hospital within steps of The Curtain and Globe theaters where this play was performed in the 16th century and that hospital specialized in the care for the insane. Bedlam Hospital was a psychiatric hospital in early modern London. It was founded in the mid-13th century in service to the Church of Bethlehem, as a house for the poor. By the time Henry VIII gave administrative control of Bedlam to the city of Bethlem in 1547, it had become a hospital for the nation’s mentally ill and specifically those who were considered violent or dangerous. Initially, the term “Bedlam” was an informal namebut by the time Shakespeare was writing about Bedlam in Henry VI Part II, the word “bedlam” was part of everyday speech, defined as madness or chaos. In addition to Shakespeare's 8 uses of “bedlam” across his works, Bedlam Hospital itself was staged in many early modern plays including The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster, and Bartholomew Fair by Ben Jonson, among many others during the early 1600s. One potential reason for the popularity of using Bedlam in early modern plays can be attributed to the display of insane people that began in London in 1576 as a way to raise money for the hospital. Bedlam Hospital continues in operation today as a psychiatric hospital, with one of their specialist services including the National Psychosis Unit.

Here today to help us understand the history of Bedlam Hospital and what it is important to know when we see Shakespeare referencing this hospital in his plays is our guest, Duncan Salkeld.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 182: The Clink Prison with Alex Lyon Oct 11, 2021

According to The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare, edited by Stanley Wells and Michael Dobson, the phrase “the Clink” described a specific prison in an area of London called Bankside, where Shakespeare is known to have lived at least from 1597-1596. The prison itself was housed inside what used to be a manor house owned by the Bishop of Winchester. It was the closest prison to the theaters of Bankside, which included The Globe and the Rose theater, among others. This prison was best known for being a prison for debtors. While Shakespeare’s works do reference the word “clink” to describe the sound of metal clanging against other metal, there is no direct reference to the prison by name. However, in Cymbeline Act III Scene 3, Guidierius says “A prison for a debtor, that not dares To stride a limit.” While Shakespeare may or may not have been referring to the debtor’s prison located right down the road from his theater with this remark in the play, nonetheless, The Clink itself was a notorious house of incarceration during Shakespeare’s lifetime. Legendary as an entirely horrible place, the prison gained a reputation for being where prisoners were sent to die. Stories are told of the prisoners being left in their cells to starve to death, or even drown in the rising tide of the Thames that was nearby. This prison’s notoriety is the reason why we use the phrase “thrown into the Clink” today to mean that someone has gone to prison. No one knows the full history of The Clink prison and what it was like for Shakespeare better than the curator at The Clink Prison Museum in London, and our guest this week, Alex Lyon.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 181: Letters and the Postal Service with Andrew Pettegree Oct 04, 2021

The rise of the printing press created a precursor to the modern day newspaper, where printed publications like broadsides and pamphlets served to communicate ideas, updates, and notices about new laws, the progress of wars abroad, and even comic stories, true crime tales, and anecdotes. People who deliver letters are referred to in Shakespeare’s plays the “post” and letters are often referred to as “news” with Shakespeare using the word “news” an astonishing 326 times across his works. There’s obviously an overlap between messengers, oral tradition, news, and letters for Shakespeare’s lifetime, but what exactly was the importance of written communication and what should we understand about the system of letter delivery and communication when we see characters named only “messenger” Or “post” appear on Shakespeare’s stage? Did Shakespeare have things like envelopes, stamps, or even a postal address? Here today to take us back to the 16th and early 17th century to explore the role of letters and communication systems in Shakespeare’s lifetime is our guest and author of The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know About Itself, Dr. Andrew Pettegree.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 180: Travelling Libraries with Michael Brennan Sep 27, 2021

William Shakespeare mentions the word “book” over 140 times across his works, showing not only their prominent place in society but their popularity as well. There are several kinds of books referenced in Shakespeare’s plays including prayer books, muster books, horn books, and more but one particular kind of book seen as a novelty for Shakespeare’s lifetime that could be taken anywhere the owner themselves went was the tiny individual books collected together in what was known as a travelling library. These compact books were hardly larger than a standard pack of cards and each one fit onto narrow shelves fashioned into a larger wood case shaped like a large book itself with a hard cover that opened and closed like a lid to both contain and protect the precious books held within. Often highly ornate, featuring elaborate paintings and even the coat of arms of those that had given or received the travelling library as a gift, these bookcases were part of what was known as a “curiosity” for the 17th century when Jacobean English families would collect odd bits of treasure to display as a status symbol and conversation piece in their homes. As books were seen as precious items to be highly prized, owning a travelling library yourself was seen as an important privilege. One of these travelling libraries from 1617, the year after Shakespeare died, is housed at the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds. Today, we are delighted to welcome one of the curators at the Brotherton Library, Dr. Michael Brennan, as an expert in travel and travel books of Shakespeare’s lifetime to tell us about the history and purpose of this unique item.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 179: Tudor Shoes with Juraj Matejik Sep 20, 2021

Sandals, boots, spurs, and cobbled shoes are all mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays, found in works like Alls Well That Ends Well, Coriolanus, and even Hamlet where the Danish Prince talks about his “raz’d shoes.” All this mention of footwear in the works of the bard has us wondering exactly what kind of shoes William Shakespeare might have worn during his lifetime. While portraits of the bard don’t extend down to his toes to provide us with a visual record of Shakespeare’s actual feet, we can explore the fashion of men’s shoes in Tudor England to examine the styles, materials, and commerce of men’s shoes. This week’s guest is intimately familiar with what is involved in making 15-16th century shoes because that’s exactly what he creates in his shop, NP Historical Shoes. We are delighted to welcome artisan and historical shoemaker, Juraj Matejik to the show this week to help us explore what kind of footwear Shakespeare might have had on his feet.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 178: Shakespeare's Toilet Paper with Tiffany Stern Sep 13, 2021

There may not have been indoor plumbing in Shakespeare’s lifetime, but going to the bathroom still involved cleaning up. One aspect you may be surprised to learn you share with William Shakespeare is that he, too, used various kinds of paper to go to the restroom. Shakespeare’s plays provide references to the jacques, jordan, and chamber pot, all options for using the restroom in Tudor England, and it turns out, we can also find references to what Shakespeare may have used in those restrooms for handling the necessary business in the lavatory, as well. Our guest this week, Tiffany Stern, is here to share with us her research into the alternatives to paper that were often used as toilet tissue for early modern London.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 177: Shorthand with Kelly McCay Sep 06, 2021

When William Shakespeare was just 24 years old, a man named Timothy Bright would introduce a system of writing called charactery to England, setting off a wildfire of shorthand manuals, methods, and training where people flocked to learn this new, symbol based, system of writing that allowed the spoken word to be captured verbatim in real time. Notes and letters from philosophers and travellers in the late 16th and early 17th centuries remark that the fascination and mastery of shorthand was a skill seen internationally as uniquely English. The skill was so popular in England that it would even travel across the Atlantic with the British Colonists and find a place in the foundation of the New World, with the system of tachygraphy (created in 1626) being used by American President Thomas Jefferson in the 18th century. While many of the surviving copies of shorthand we have today exist on ink and paper, we have extant records that indicate shorthand was also useful on wax tablets, writing tables, and even with the graphite pencil. Since these alternate writing materials are designed to be temporary, their existence is something we only know about today from references we find in writings like early modern plays, including Shakespeare’s two references to “charactery” in Julius Caesar and Merry Wives of Windsor. Here today to help us explore the evolution of charactery from new fangled idea to valuable career over the course of Shakespeare’s lifetime is our guest and author of ““All the World Writes Short Hand” , Kelly McCay.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 176: Leicester's Men with Laurie Johnson Aug 30, 2021

Leicester’s Men are a group of actors who formed what many consider to be the founding company of English Renaissance Theater. Established with the sponsorship of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the playing company travelled around England and abroad performing plays with the legal protection of being in the Earls’ service. The company was unique for its’ time in that they separated themselves from the traditional income model of playing companies, choosing instead to operate as an independent entity where they could generate their own income instead of getting paid by their sponsor. By 1574, five men including James Burbage, John Perkin, John Laneham, William Johnson, and Robert Wilson would be listed on a royal patent for Leicester’s Men, making their playing company the first to receive an official royal patent and, in so doing, giving these men the freedom to create what we know today as English Renaissance Theater. Playing companies, including Shakespeare’s company the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, would go on to follow the model of Leicester’s Men well into the late 16 and early 17th centuries.

Here today to tell us the story of Leicester’s Men and the groundwork they built for future playwrights like William Shakespeare is our guest, Laurie Johnson.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 175: The King's Men with Lucy Munro Aug 23, 2021

In 1603, as King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England following the death of Elizabeth I, one of the people James’ tapped to walk in his coronation parade was William Shakespeare, along with the entire Lord Chamberlain’s Men company who received the official patronage of James I to become the King’s Men. The new title and status brought big changes to the performance of plays, the subject matter selected for play writing, and gave William Shakespeare the position in society he had long sought after. Our guest this week, Lucy Munro, is here to share her research into the King’s Men and what the shift from Elizabethan into Jacobean England brought about for Shakespeare.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 174: Elizabethan Hair Care & Wigs with Sue Prichard Aug 16, 2021

The wig was first introduced to England around 1572, when Shakespeare was only 8 years old. The fashion would catch on very quickly in England, promoted by the Queen herself, who was known for wearing wigs in her older years, and defined by her naturally curly red hair in her youth. There are over 100 references to “hair” across Shakespeare’s works, many of them calling attention to the color of the hair, and assigning value not only to particular colors, but also reflecting the importance of keeping one’s hair neatly tended. In Henry V, the Duke of Burgundy says that prisoners are notable for being “overgrown with hair” and in Henry VI Part II, the Earl of Warwick defines a “ghastly” man as being recognizable by how his “well proportioned beard [is] made rough and rugged.” Later in that same play, Winchester, calls attention to the cultural importance of a well kept grooming regime when he associates a demonstrative problem with wild hair. He says, “Comb down his hair; look, look! it stands upright.” These are just a few references in Shakespeare’s plays that reveal to us the kinds of hair, combs, dye, and periwigs--the now archaic term used in Shakespeare’s lifetime to describe a wig--that were present during the life of the bard. Here to today to help us explore the vanity table of the 16th century and examine exactly what were the kind of Elizabethan wigs, hair dye, hair brushes, and toilette products used for women (and men) of turn of the 17th century London, is our guest and contributor to the Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits exhibition at the Royal Museum Greenwich, Sue Prichard. This exhibition is a collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, London, and features 500 years of royal portraiture that offers us today a view into the story of haircare from Shakespeare’s lifetime. This exhibition is now on display at the Royal Museum Greenwich and we will link you to more information on how to see this exhibition in today’s show notes.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 173: Bridewell Prison with Duncan Salkeld Aug 09, 2021

Bridewell Palace was built in the early 16th century as a residence for King Henry VIII. The palace was a unique structure because it deviated from the architectural designs of the time period by not having a great hall and featuring an elaborate staircase. It was also constructed around a large inner courtyard. Under Edward VI in the 1550s, Bridewell Palace was given to the City of London as a home for the city’s homeless children and a place of punishment for “disorderly women.” It was run in conjunction with Bedlam Hospital throughout Shakespeare’s lifetime and formed the blueprint for later large prisons, including the Clirkenwell Bridwell prison opened as a correctional institute for prostitutes and vagrants in 1615 and Tothill Fields Bridewell prison that was opened in 1618 in Westminster. The building itself was mostly destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666, but the reputation of Bridwell would far outlast the original structure, with the term “bridewell” continuing in use around the world into the present day as a term for a city’s detention facility, usually close to a courthouse. Here today to explain the history of Bridewell Prison is our guest, Duncan Salkeld.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 172: Roderigo Lopez with Susan Abernethy Aug 02, 2021

Born in Portugal, Dr. Roderigo Lopez fled to England in the 16th century as a Jewish refugee. His family was Jewish, forced to convert to Catholicism, and when he arrived in England he joined the Church of England to become Protestant while still practicing Jewish rituals at home. Serving at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1576, Lopez rose through the ranks as a doctor until he was the Chief Physician there. He served as doctor to some of England’s most notable dignitaries including Sir Francis Walsingham, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex, and even Queen Elizabeth herself. These highly prestigious professional connections were a boon for Dr. Lopez’ medical career, but the danger of these connections led to Dr. Lopez being entangled with spies and ultimately to his execution on grounds of plotting an assasination against Queen Elizabeth. The scandal of Dr. Lopez’ trial in 1594 happened while Shakespeare was in London, and the cultural anti-semitism of 16th century England that played a role in Lopez’ conviction is echoed in some of the references to Jews we find in Shakespeare’s plays. Here today to tell us the story of Roderigo Lopez and his part in the life of William Shakespeare is our guest, Susan Abernethy.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 171: Joan La Pucelle with Carole Levin Jul 26, 2021

In Henry VI Part I, William Shakespeare presents one of history’s most famous characters, a woman, named Joan La Pucelle, known today as Joan of Arc. For the French, she was a truly holy woman, chaste, and pure. She was also a brilliant military strategist and a force to be reckoned with in battle. Nicknamed “the Maid of Orleans,” the real Joan of Arc was a heroine for France during the Hundred Years’ War and would be canonized as a saint. The depiction of Joan La Pucelle in Shakespeare’s play is an intriguing investigation because as Shakespeare was depicting this famous heroine on the 16th century stage, the Hundred Years’ War would have been recent history for the audience, and at the time it was presented, England was not friends with France. In the play, Shakespeare leaves us a pile of cultural realities to unpack with his depiction of Joan La Pucelle, with not only her overt military leadership in a society where women were not called upon to lead armies, but she is also involved in the occult, consulting demons prior to battle, and she claims she is both pregnant as well as a virgin during her trial. Our guest this week, Carole Levin, is an expert in the history of Joan La Pucelle and the depiction of her for Shakespeare’s lifetime. She joins us today to explore false pregnancy claims in early modern England and to compare the real history of Joan of Arc with Shakespeare’s fictional presentation of her.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 170: William Bradford with David and Aaron Bradford Jul 19, 2021

William Braford is most well known today as the man who served as the second governor of Plymouth Colony, leaving Europe for Virginia in 1620 aboard the Mayflower. Prior to this infamous voyage, Bradford was an Englishman whose life overlapped that of William Shakespeare, having been born in Yorkshire, England, when Shakespeare was 26 years old. There’s no evidence to suggest Shakespeare knew Bradford personally, but the life of William Bradford shines a light on a huge aspect of Shakespeare’s life: the presence and subsequent response to religious extremism in England. Queen Elizabeth restored Protestantism to England in 1559, along with requirements that everyone attend Protestant Church services. Many religious groups refused, moving to underground church services that were decidedly illegal in England. One of the people who attended such services was a young William Bradford. Relations with religious groups in England remained a tense tightwire act across two monarchs of Shakespeare’s life, a situation we can see reflected in Shakespeare’s Puritan character named Malvolio in Twelfth Night. The character is publicly humiliated while simultaneously painted as someone with whom we can sympathize. The duality of the character itself is a powerful reflection of the sentiments of England at the start of the 17th century. Efforts like the publication of the King James Bible in 1609 attempted to find a common ground with the Puritans, but peace could not be found, with arrests of religious dissenters increasing under James I and leading ultimately to groups like Bradford and the Pilgrims, leaving England entirely in the early 1600s. Here today to help us explore the life of William Bradford, explain the distinction between Puritans and Pilgrims, as well as the reality of religious extremists like the Anabaptists and Scottish Presbyterians, going on in England during Shakespeare’s lifetime is our guests, and direct descendants of William Bradford himself, David and Aaron Bradford.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 169: Tudor Underwear with Bess Chilver Jul 12, 2021

Portraits of ladies and gentlemen from the late 16th century show men and women adorned in all manner of finery, including everything from flowing gowns, to magnificent swords, and even those infamous Tudor ruff collars,but what exactly did it take to get into all those fine outfits? When Shakespeare surveyed his closet in the morning before he got dressed for the day, were there certain items he needed like an undershirt or socks? This week, we are diving into the world of early modern clothing to look at what Shakespeare, his contemporaries, and his female counterparts would have worn under their clothes. Our guest this week is Tudor clothier and historical costumer, Bess Chilvers, who joins us to answer questions (some of which have been submitted by our members here at That Shakespeare Life), about what kind of underwear there would have been for people in turn of the 17th century England, including underwear, support garments, apparati needed for wigs, socks, and more.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 168: Court with Natalie Mears Jul 05, 2021

When we study court in Shakespeare history the phrase “appeared at court” or “performed at court” frequently gets used to describe what Shakespeare was doing at various points of his life. However, the overlap between “court” legally (as in, where you go for a legal trial) and the social phenomenon of Renaissance England where the monarch gathered their “court” together can make it hard to know what it means to go to court. This week we’ve set out to rectify this gap in knowledge with our guest, Natalie Mears, who is here to share her research into Courts, Courtiers, and Culture in Tudor England, an article which she published in The Historical Journal back in 2003. In that paper, Natalie cites a play by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville called Gorboduc that was performed in 1561-1562 at court, and that play is an example of how performances were used to not only comment on events of the day by the performers (similar to what you might think of today as an editorial cartoon) but in the case of Gorboduc, the play commented directly to Elizabeth I to try and influence her decision to marry and to comment on Robert Dudley as a potential candidate. Natalie’s work goes on to cite sermons selected by James VI and I to scold the Scottish Presbyterians at Hampton Court in 1606, as well as a sermon by Edward Dering in 1570 that “lambasted the Queen” for perceived failures at political reform. These examples have us wondering if the instances of Shakespeare appearing at court were more than just event entertainment. Were plays like Shakespeare’s similar political weapons in the same way as Gorboduc? Would Shakespeare’s plays have been brought to court for their power to influence politics and if so, does that explain why Shakespeare wrote so frequently about political issues? Natalie Mears joins us today to answer some of these questions about Shakespeare and Court Life

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 167: Shareholders with Lucy Munro Jun 28, 2021

When William Shakespeare first arrived in London sometime in the 1580s, James Burbage was already making waves in the early modern performance industry by establishing The Theater, a playhouse which the Burbages owned. After a fight with the owner of the land on which The Theater was built, the building itself would be dismantled by the Burbages and William Shakespeare who helped the Burbages clandestinely move the building timber by timber across the Thames to create the theater known as The Globe. Today, we refer to The Globe, as well as the first indoor playhouse, the Blackfriars, as Shakespeare’s theaters. Of course, the bard was intimately involved and arguably held a position of leadership in these establishments but defining terms from his lifetime like shareholder, leaseholder, and housekeeper, all help us take a closer look at who exactly owned the theater and how that was different from being an owner in a playing company. Our guest this week, Lucy Munro, is the author of the article for King’s College London, titled “Who Owned the Blackfriars Playhouse” and she is here with us today to share the mechanics behind theater and playing company ownership in the 16-17th century, as well as to answer the question of whether Shakespeare really did own the theaters we give him credit for today.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 166: Elizabethan Street Fighting with Casey Kaleba Jun 21, 2021

In the 1950s when Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was adapted into West Side Story, popular culture in the US resonated with the gang culture and street fighting depicted on stage because the brass knuckled “rumbles” taking place on streets like those in New York City were current events of the day. Turns out, historically, these gang fights were a real issue for Shakespeare’s lifetime as well, and scenes like Mercutio and Romeo fighting in the streets of Verona, the mob that goes after Cinna the Poet in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and the tavern brawls that break out in several scenes across Shakespeare’s works would have been viewed by Shakespeare’s 16th century audience as a reflection of their current events and realities of life on the streets of Elizabethan London. Here this week to help us explore the 16th century history, current events, street fights and even gangs that were present during Shakespeare’s lifetime as he wrote about the Capulets and Montagues being “warring families” duking it out in the streets of Verona, is our guest and expert in Elizabethan street crime and one of the Washington, DC, area's most sought-after fight coaches for stage plays, Casey Kaleba.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 165: The Broom Besom with Wendy Wall Jun 14, 2021

It seems even William Shakespeare had household floors to keep clean. While it likely wouldn’t have been the actual William doing the majority of the sweeping in his household, one item the bard seems to have been familiar with through his nineteen uses of the word “sweep” and one use of the word “besom” across his works is the household broom used for sweeping floors. The bard uses “broom” at least 3 times in his plays, mentioning once a broom-staff, and in The Tempest, Shakespeare calls attention to a “broom-grove” suggesting there was a particular plant or tree used for growing the material to make brooms in the 16th century. Here today to help us explore the people who made brooms, exactly who was doing the sweeping in Shakespeare’s lifetime, as well as the folklore surrounding the broom also called broom-besom, is our guest and author of “Why does Puck Sweep?” the article examining the household cleaning scene of one of Shakespeare’s most famous characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Please welcome our guest, Wendy Wall.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 164: Iron Gall Ink with Lucas Tucker Jun 07, 2021

In Cymbeline, Act I Scene 1 Posthumus Leonatus says “I’ll drink the words you send though ink be made of gall” and in Twelfth Night Sir Toby Belch calls attention to a particular kind of ink when he says “Let there be gall enough in thy ink, though thou write with a goose-pen…” in Act III Scene 2. Both of these scenes from Shakespeare’s plays are referencing the most popular kind of ink used in Shakespeare’s lifetime and that is iron gall ink. The phrase iron gall ink was a phrase used to describe common, or standard, ink and as Sir Toby Belch illuminates with his lines, the ink was used to dip your goose-pen into to write letters or any kind of correspondence on paper you wanted to write down. The ink was made from a fermentation of oak galls which is partially where the ink gets it’s name, the other part--the iron--comes from the iron salt that is added during the fermentation process to create iron gall ink. Here today to share with us the history of iron gall ink and explain exactly how the ink of Shakespeare’s lifetime was created is historical calligrapher, chemist, and owner at Scribal Workshop, Lucas Tucker.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 163: Crocodiles and Alligators with Spencer Weinreich May 31, 2021

Shakespeare mentions the word “crocodile” five times in his plays, but crocodiles not being native to England must have been introduced to the bard from outside his natural habitat there in London. The crocodile itself was well known in English literature, having been written about in association with Egypt and Africa by writers like Pliny the Elder centuries prior to Shakespeare. This particular beast was brought back to the forefront of popular imagination during Shakespeare’s lifetime, however, when explorers to the New World came home with stories of a new creature similar to the crocodile and unique to North America named the alligator. The alligator is mentioned only once in Shakespeare’s works in Act V Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet where it is included on a list of items on display in an apothecary shop. That reference is particularly interesting when you consider that a display of natural specimens in an apothecary shop is very likely one of the real places Shakespeare himself might have encountered one. Here to take us back to the mid 1590s as Shakespeare wrote about the alligator in Romeo and Juliet and explain for us what 16th century science believed about the alligator/crocodile is our guest, Spencer Weinreich.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 162: The Grass Snake and the Basilisk with Rob Lenders May 24, 2021

In Elizabethan England, the basilisk was a feared and hateful creature, capable of killing someone with just a glance. Of the 8 references to basilisks in Shakespeare’s plays, half of these invoke the reputation of being able to kill with a look. European bestiaries record the basilisk as a legendary serpent ruling as King of the reptiles and while the folklore far outpaces the science, recent historical studies of animals from Elizabethan England reveal that the basilisk may have been a term applied to a real snake that made its home across Northern Europe when Shakespeare was writing about basilisks in his plays. Our guest this week is author of The Grass Snake and the Basilisk, a research project that takes a historical perspective on how the specific attributes of human life in Elizabethan England created an ideal home for the grass snake, an animal who defends itself by creating a death like gaze. We are pleased to welcome Rob Lender to the show this week to explain the history of the real animal Shakespeare calls a basilisk.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 161: The Mermaid Tavern with Michelle O'Callaghan May 17, 2021

In Elizabethan England on the corner of Friday Street and Bread Street was a fine dining and drinking establishment called the Mermaid Tavern. The building itself burned down in the Great Fire of London in 1666, but the legend of this storied tavern lives on through the records of people like Ben Jonson and 17th century travel writer Thomas Coryat, who wrote about the Mermaid Tavern in the early 1600s, when Shakespeare was in his late 40s to early 50s, describing it as the meeting place of Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen, a drinking club that met on the first Friday of the month and is thought to have included famous members, most with very close ties to Shakespeare. Men like Ben Jonson, John Fletcher, and Francis Beaumont, were thought to have been members and there are a few scholars who think that William Shakespeare might have been among the members of this club as well. Our guest this week, Michelle O’Callaghan, is a historical researcher into the history of English taverns, and the author of the article Patrons of the Mermaid Tavern. She joins us today to share the story of the Mermaid Tavern, what we can know about the Fraternity of Gentlemen who met there, and what her research concludes about whether Shakespeare might have attended.

Michelle O’Callaghan is a Professor of Early Modern Literature and currently Head of the Department of English Literature at the University of Reading. She has published extensively on early modern literature and culture, from the Inns of Court and tavern societies to women’s engagement in literary cultures. Her major books are The ‘shepheards nation’: Jacobean Spenserians and early Stuart political culture, 1612-1625 (Oxford, 2000), The English Wits: Literature and Sociability in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2007), Thomas Middleton, Renaissance Dramatist (Edinburgh, 2009), and, most recently, Crafting Poetry Anthologies in Renaissance England: Early Modern Cultures of Recreation, which was published by Cambridge University Press in December, 2020.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 160: Characterie and Elizabethan Short Hand with Bryan Crockett May 10, 2021

In 1588, one man named Tom Bright introduced an innovative new method for quickly writing down what you hear during a live performance, publishing a manual he called “Charactery.” A term of Bright’s own invention, Charactery is the first English version of an ancient method of shorthand dating back to the time of Cicero, that allowed anyone to pirate versions of live performance, provided they had enough patience to learn the complicated system. Bright’s innovative technology applied a complicated array of symbols and characters that while intimidating to review today, was a huge hit in Elizabethan England, with several additional shorthand methods being published in England within just a few years of Bright’s work. Walking the line between illegal behavior and artistic prowess, masters of shorthand in the late 16th century are responsible for many of the surviving copies of the sermons from Shakespeare’s lifetime, and our guest this week argues in his publication, Shakespeare, Playfere, and the Pirates, that shorthand may be behind the many errors we find in Shakespeare’s Bad Quartos. The obvious question when you realize audience members at The Globe theater were writing down the play as they heard it is to wonder, how did they accomplish that feat in the age of quill pens and in wells? And did they get arrested for pirating the works of the greatest playwrights of the age? Here this week to explain the mechanics of stealing words from the air as they are spoken, what kind of impact charactery had on the theater culture of the 16th century, as well as the mechanics of Tom Bright’s 16th century disruptive innovation, is our guest Bryan Crockett.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 159: Elizabethan Dogs with Jeff Crosby and Shelley Ann Jackson May 03, 2021

In Elizabethan England two of the most popular forms of public entertainment were animal baiting and hunting. Bull and bear baiting happened in a dedicated arena while hunting was usually done on private lands or hunting parks where private, usually very elite, groups of people would gather for the hunt. What each of these sports has in common is they both employ use of dogs. Hunting dogs were raised meticulously with manuals from Shakespeare’s lifetime outlining the detailed husbandry involved in how to build kennels, how to feed, and even how to groom hunting dogs. When it came to choosing the right dog for the job, there were specific breeds of dogs that were favored for particular sport. Shakespeare gives us a glimpse into the world of dogs and favoring specific breeds when he mentions “hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, Shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves” in Macbeth Act III. Shakespeare uses the word dog or hound over 200 times across his works, writing about spaniels, beagles, the Thessalian bull (considered to be an ancestor to the basset hound), and the Iceland dog in 4 additional plays.

Here today to help us explore the husbandry of dogs popular in Elizabethan England, which ones were used for bull and bear baiting, as well as what we can know about the breeds Shakespeare calls out by name in his plays are our guests and co authors of, "Little Lions, Bull Baiters, and Hunting Hounds", Jeff Crosby and Shelley Ann Jackson.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 158: Excavating Bull Ring Market with Steve Thomson Apr 26, 2021

Bull Ring market in Birmingham, England, UK was first known as Corn Cheaping because in the 12th century, which is when we have the first reference to Corn Cheaping, it was used as a corn market. Corn Cheaping had an iron ring setup on a grassy section of Corn Cheaping that was used as a bull baiting arena, where bulls who had been selected for slaughter would be tied and baited for entertainment before being processed into meat. That’s where the name Bull Ring Market comes from. Today, in the 21st century, Bull Ring Market is still being used as an open air market, selling fish, meat, poultry, exotic vegetables, and even household supplies. But how did the market get from the 12th century to today, and why has the original purpose survived so many centuries? Headland Archaeology discovered some answers about the history of Bull Ring Market when they conducted an archaeological dig at Beorma Quarter, close to Bull Ring Market. Today, our guest, Steve Thomson, lead archaeologist for this project, is here today to share with us what they found during Phase 1 of their excavation of Bull Ring Market and what that tells us about how the space was being used in Shakespeare’s lifetime.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 157: Social Order and Architecture with Matthew Johnson Apr 19, 2021

As students of Shakespeare’s lifetime, often we see the phrase “of certain status” to describe 16-17th century limitations on clothes, housing, and other material realities for various people. Particular if you study Elizabethan sumptuary laws, it seems like society was strictly controlled based on social status, and one’s place in society was decided at birth, with little mobility allowed. The life of people like William Shakespere, however, who in his own life was able to rise in the ranks of society and establish himself as a gentleman, we have evidence that social mobility was a strong force in England for the 16-17th century. One key place that contemporaries of William Shakespeare were able to show off their status, and stake their claim to a certain place in the social order was through the design, and architecture, of their homes and grand estates. Our guest this week, Matthew Johnson, is here to explain the social phenomenon of upward mobility, define the levels of society that were present for Shakespeare, and walk us through some famous architecture of the 1500s-1600s that reveals where the lines were drawn between the classes for Elizabethan and Jacobean England.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep 156: Rules for 17th C Hunting with Karen Kaiser Lee Apr 12, 2021

In Elizabethan England, the Queen is immortalized in woodcuts that show her fondness for the sport of hawking. By the time James I comes to the throne in 1603, hawking is surpassed by a form of hunting called par force where animals like dogs and horses are used to round up prey. While the practical aspect of hunting animals for meat was utilized in these hunting expeditions, arguably the primary function of going hunting was to establish yourself as a member of a higher order of social status and to network with powerful political connections that might advance your station. In her paper, He Cannot Be a Gentleman Which Loveth Not Hawking and Hunting, our guest, Karen Kaiser Lee writes about the popularity of hunting par force under James I and explores the specific hunting treatises that were written during his reign to both define the methods of hunting as well as regulate the kinds of people who would be permitted to participate in this exclusive sport. Karen joins us today to take us inside the world of early modern hunting to look at who was allowed to hunt, what they used for this purpose, and how it helped usher in a new era in English history where a person could move upward in society if they were disciplined enough at a new, and important, skill.

Get bonus episodes on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Related Podcasts