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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.

Latest Episodes:

What Was Shakespeare Really Like? Sep 04, 2023

Show notes

When we look back at the study of Shakespeare's plays, the question always come to mind about how much can we know about the actual William Shakespeare from the pieces of artwork, plays, and even legal documents that survive about his life. No one has done more study of the plays of William Shakespeare nor understands more about his life in turn of the 17th century England than our guest today, Stanley Wells, President of Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, who joins us to share about his latest book answering the question "What was Shakespeare Really Like"

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Expletives: Exploring 16th Century Curse Words Aug 28, 2023

Show notes

A short notice for you ahead of today's episode, I apologize for the general gruff sounding voice today, I am recovering from a cold and struggling through a horrible cough that threatens to take my voice completely. But never fear! As a true performance professional, the show must go on! Therefore, I am armed with three cups of chamomile tea, a large bottle of water, and an excellent audio editor who will remove any coughs. Therefore, without more ado, let's dive in to the history. Profanity is a term we use to describe naughty words, but as a definition, profanity is anything that happens when specific religious terms get stolen from their original intent and applied with manipulated meaning. Think of words like damn or hell. They are appropriate when used in context of their biblical meaning, but offensive when you hear them in an action movie, for example. When it comes to the origin of curse words, the Latin term "profanus" actually meant "outside the temple" to signify terms that desecrated what was held sacred. If you've watched the tv show, Becoming Elizabeth, which is set in 16th century England, the f-word gets used liberally on that show, which surprised me and made me wonder if the f-word was, in fact, historically accurate, or if that had been added for modern flare. To find out exactly what words were expletives for Shakespeare's lifetime, and which ones were normal for him but highly offensive to us today, we are sitting down with our guest, Jesse Sheidlower to explore the colorful world of Elizabethan language and profanities.

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Potatoes First Arrived in England in the 16th Century Aug 21, 2023

Show notes

In the play, Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff declares "Let the sky rain potatoes!" what's unique about this quote, despite Falstaff calling for root vegetables to rain down from the sky which is of course, weird on its' own, but potatoes on the whole were brand new to England at the exact time Shakespeare was including this quote in his play. Merry Wives of Windsor was written towards the end of the 16th century—between 1597 and 1601. Potatoes are thought to have arrived in the late 1580s or early 1590s. Once the potato arrived in Europe it was used for medicine, grown by some gardeners for their flowers, and in 1597, the same time frame we think Merry Wives of Windsor was writtne, John Gerard added the first printed picture of the potato to Herball (although he thought that the potato was native to Virginia). Here today to help us sort through what it was like to see a potatoe for the first time, as well as how potatoes were used in Shakespeare's lifetime is our guest and expert in the history of plants, Sally Cunningham.

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The Wadlow Portrait of Shakespeare Aug 14, 2023

Show notes

After we published our episode here on That Shakespeare Life about the Duncan portrait of William Shakespeare, I received an email from Steve Wadlow, telling me about the history of a portrait that had been hanging in his family home for years that a visiting Shakespeare scholar indicated might be William Shakespeare, and suggested Steve look into the provenance further. With no prior experience in Shakespeare history or indeed even the art world, Steve dove headlong into finding out where this painting had come from originally and exactly who the person in the picture was, since the image was strikingly similar to the Cobbe portrait of William Shakespeare. Here today to tell us what he found out and whether or not this painting is of William Shakespeare is our guest, and newly minted art historian, Steve Wadlow.

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Tewskbury Mustard from Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 2 Aug 07, 2023

Show notes

In Shakespeare's in Henry IV, Part 2, Falstaff has the line: "his wit's as thick as Tewkesbury Mustard" (Act 2, Scene 4). Falstaff is describing his friend Ned Poins, but it presents the question of what was Tewkesbury Mustard? Turns out this particular mustard developed in a small town of England called Tewkesbury, and it was not only popular in Shakespeare's lifetime, but during the 17th century it was considered a staple condiment in kitchens of this time period. Amazingly, the mustard has not only survived the centuries but is still being made exactly the way it was for Shakespeare's lifetime right in Tewkesbury at the Tewkesbury Mustard Company. We are delighted to have Robin Ritchie who is founder and Mustard Master Emeritus at the Tewkesbury Mustard Company to share with us the history of this mustard, how it is made, and how you can enjoy some for yourself.

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Real 17thC Canon Law in Measure for Measure Jul 31, 2023

Show notes

In Shakespeare's play, Measure for Measure, there's a fictional court case against Claudio for extra-marital misconduct. The play separately asks the audience to pass judgement on Angelo regarding a marriage pre-contract that was known as a "Spousal" contract for Shakespeare's lifetime. In 1604, when Measure for Measure was first performed, these cases of immoral behavior were being tried in real life in what were known as "ecclesiastical courts," or colloquially, the "Bawdy Courts." Many of the real people that had been brought up on charges in these bawdy court cases were members of the audience being addressed by the play's fictional court portrayal. It was this same year that church courts started cracking down on engaged couples who were becoming secretly engaged or "bethrothed" to one another without witnesses or parental consent. Here today to tell us about the battle between civil and canon law that governed couples intending to get married and the specific changes to the canonical law that occured in 1604, is our guest and theatrical historican, Cynthia Greenwood.

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The Arrival of the Exclamation Point During Shakespeare's Lifetime Jul 24, 2023

Show notes

In his 1611 English to French dictionary, Randle Cotgrave defines the exclamation point as "the point of admiration and detestation" While credit for the original creation of the exclamation point is given to Alpoleio da Urbisaglia, the current version of the exclamation point that we know today developed between 1400-1600, during the time WIlliam Shakespeare was penning over 6000 uses of exclamation points we can find in his works. In the absence of emojis, punctuation was the way that writers communicated varying emotion and called attention to important sections of a play or story that needed to be given more oomph. Our guest this week, Florence Hazrat, has completed the book "An Admirable Point: a Brief History of the Exclamation Point" and joins us today to share some of the history of where this bit of English grammar originated and how it was being used in Shakespeare's lifetime.

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The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England Jul 17, 2023

Show notes

When it comes to stepping back into the life of William Shakespeare and walking around the streets of London to see what the sights, sounds, smells, people and places were really like, no one does that better than a time traveler. In order to take just such a trip and take a short jaunt down a London street during the 16th century, we are delighted to welcome a man who is a listener favorite and longtime listener-requested guest, the history time traveler himself, and author of The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England, Ian Mortimer, to the show today.

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A Fight Director Takes on Queen Margaret Jul 10, 2023

Show notes

One of Shakespeare's strongest characters is Queen Margaret who, as a consequence of her husband's bouts with insanity, finds it necessary to lead not only a country, but to stand at the helm of an entire army, leading England's military into battle and winning. It is an important story in the history of the War of the Roses, and one that Jared Kirby and Hudson Classical Theater decided to take on this year. Jared is a celebrated fight director and took on the challenge of staging entire battle scenes on stage for this production, and he joins us today to talk with us about how Shakespeare would have staged these battle scenes in the 16th century and how it works to stay true to history when staging these plays today.

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Stranger's Hall: A 16thC Home for Refugees Jul 03, 2023

Show notes

In the 16th century, one man from Norwich, Thomas Sotherton, wanted to encourage these refugees to settle in Norfolk, specifically, because the immigrant's skills in textile weaving made them valuable to the economy. To that end, he setup what became known as Stranger's Hall, where the immigrants could live and work. The property was owned by people who would have used the property for business and living accommodation, which was common practice for mediaeval merchants' dwellings. Therefore, Strangers' wasn't built or established for the Strangers arriving in 1565 but was used by them as an available property. Only one known family lived in the Hall from 1567. The letter written by the family lodging at Strangers refers to it as Master Sotherton's property in the High Street. The hall is a museum today that and we are delighted to welcomemuseum's assistant curator of social history, Bethan Holdrige, to the show today to tell us about the history of Stranger's Hall and the impact of the influx of refugees to the area during Shakespeare's lifetime.

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