That Shakespeare Life

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

Show notes

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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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Ep 177: Shorthand with Kelly McCay Sep 06, 2021

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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.

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

Show notes

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.

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

Show notes

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.

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