That Shakespeare Life

Latest Episodes:

Ep 84: Alden Vaughan on Squanto, Jamestown, and Shakespeare's England Nov 25, 2019

Show notes

There are several references to Indians in Shakespeare's plays, which were being written right at the same time famous American Indians like Squanto and Pocahontas were interacting with explorers like Sir Walter Raleigh from the courts of Elizabeth I and later, under King James I. All of these explorations were big news back home in England, with many round trip voyages across the Atlantic to connect Shakespeare with England's first colony, Virginia. As we celebrate Thanksgiving this week here in the United States and our minds turn to prominent figures of our history, like Captain Miles Standish, John Smith, and Chief Massasoit, we are honored to welcome the foremost expert in the intersection of Shakespeare's life with the founding of Jamestown and establishment of early America, Dr Alden Vaughan.

Ep 83: History of Bartholomew Fair with Alicja Zelazko Nov 18, 2019

Show notes

One of the biggest and grandest events occurring in London every year was the elaborate Bartholomew Fair. Celebrated in conjunction with St. Bartholomew's Day, this fair took over the city in Shakespeare's lifetime for three whole days of merriment that included the selling of wares, drinks and food vendors, as well as performances from stilt walkers, jugglers, puppeteers, and more. Here this week to share with us the history of Bartholomew Fair in Shakespeare's lifetime, as well as how this festive carnival was born from pious means, is our guest, Alicja Zelazko.

Ep 82: Shane Ann Younts on Iambic Pentameter Nov 11, 2019

Show notes

The development and use of metered and rhyming lines in theater is unique to the time period when Shakespeare was writing and our guest this week, Shane Ann Younts, professional voice coach and trainer for some of Broadway's most celebrated performers, is here to walk us through the history and application of Shakespeare's iambic pentameter.

EP 81: Wendy Beth Hyman and Jacquemarts Nov 04, 2019

Show notes

The Renaissance in England brought with it the exploration of new lands as well as the invention of new technology. For William Shakespeare, the concept of using something as ordinary as a wrist watch was a brand new thought that most people had never seen before. In fact, one of the ways we even know there were wrist watches in Shakespeare's lifetime comes from a single reference to an "arm watch" given to Queen Elizabeth I by Robert Dudley. For the regular guy on the street or in the theater, in our case, they had a different idea of what it meant to tell time, as the 16th century marked the first time anyone was trying to do it using mechanical clocks. Our guest this week is Wendy Beth Hyman, (professor of/author of} Wendy is an expert on not just how Elizabethans like William Shakespeare kept track of the hours during the day, but on specific mechanisms of those clocks, like jaquemarts, which were part of these newly invented timekeeping devices being created in Shakespeare's lifetime. Today Wendy is here to share with us a piece of the history of time-keeping as well as to let us in on what a jacquemart is, by using references that we find in Shakespeare's plays. It turns out that some of the words and phrases Shakespeare uses reveal some of what it was like to live in a time when the creation something ordinary, like a wrist watch or wall clock, was a completely revolutionary idea.

Ep 80: James Alsop and Elizabeth I's Living Death Oct 28, 2019

Show notes

The superstitions surrounding the ideas of ghosts, death, and what happened to your soul as your body approached it's demise were all inspiring topics for the plays of William Shakespeare. It turns out that these superstitions were not only fuel for dramatic presentations on the stage, but formed the foundation of pretty creepy tales about the real life of one of England's most famous monarchs, Queen Elizabeth I.

According to tales from her handmaiden, Elizabeth was paranoid to a fault, scared of dying, and left specific orders in her will for how her body was to be handled that defied the traditions of the land, and left a set of at least 6 individuals doing work that was scarier than grave digger in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Here this week to share with us the real life history of the three weeks after the death of Elizabeth I and the surprising, often macabre, realities of what those weeks entailed by order of the Queen is the man who wrote his PhD thesis on the Living Death of Elizabeth I, Dr. James Alsop.

Ep 79: James Knapp and Elizabethan Woodcuts Oct 21, 2019

Show notes

In Elizabethan England, one very popular art form was that of the woodcut. This art form is an intricate design, taking great skill and talent to produce, and was a huge innovation in the printing industry for the Renaissance time period. Here today to explain for us how woodcuts were made, where Shakespeare might have seen them in print, and where you and I can explore the ones which survive today is our guest Dr. James Knapp.

Ep 78: Samuel Jermy and The Lord Mayor's Show Oct 14, 2019

Show notes

A tradition from Shakespeare's lifetime that continues into the present day is that of the Lord Mayor's Shows. It is an annual occurrence which exists to introduce the Lord Mayor to the people, the monarch, and London in particular. The way this occasion is marked today, though, is far and away removed from the wild and festive nature of the event when William Shakespeare and his contemporaries were celebrating the day in the early 17th century. The event is so influential on history and society, and indeed the world, that many of our modern conventions and even terminology connected with parades and civic paegents come from the words and celebratory practices that occurred at The Lord Mayor's Shows.

Here to walk us through the history of this event and help us get to know what this would be like for Shakespeare is our guest, Samuel Jermy.

Ep 77: Irish Poetry Kills Rats with Kelly Fitzgerald Oct 07, 2019

Show notes

When Queen Elizabeth wanted to punish Robert Devereux for his imprudent behavior at court, she placed him in charge of handling the Irish rebels and sent him off to Ireland with strict instructions on how to handle that situation. His campaign was ultimately unsuccessful, due to reasons that can, and have, filled volumes on the history of the Nine Years War, as well as the Irish Rebellion, but where this elaborate Irish history finds an intriguing connection to Shakespeare is hidden in a seemingly nonsensical line about the death of Irish rats in Shakespeare's play, As You Like It. In a single line Shakespeare invokes a popular legend about the ability of Irish poetry to kill rats by rhyming them to death. While the bard could simply be referencing the power of words here, we've invited an expert on Irish legends, poetry, and Shakespeare, Dr. Kelly Fitgerald, to sit down with us and take us back to 1599 when As You Like It was written, as well as the year Essex was sent to Ireland, and explain what this line implies with its' suggestion of outright political commentary by Shakespeare, during a time when it was quite dangerous for a playwright write something so pointed.

EP 76: Susan Anderson on Disability in Shakespeare's England Sep 30, 2019

Show notes

William Shakespeare's presentation of Richard III portrays the king as a villain, with a great focus on his hunchback and other disabilities as a justification and contributing factor to Richard's malalignment morally. For centuries, historians have wondered if the late King really was as twisted as legend has rendered him to be, or if the tales were merely the product of centuries of conflation, born out of the winter of a collective discontent. Other kinds of disabilities from Pistol's mispronunciation of Irish Gaeilic in response to a French question being asked in Henry V, to questions of madness and mental stability from characters like King Lear. With the advent of hospitals like Bedlam Hospital to treat mental disorders in England, as well as the very first occupational health scheme established in 1599, Shakespeare's lifetime was full of questions, and diverse answers, concerning what a disabilities was, and how to address it as a society and as an individual living with disease or impairment.

Here today to help us explore the world of regional accents in a dialogue based theater, the twisted spine and subsequent hunchback of King Richard III, as well as the historical opinions, hospitals, and medical treatments available for those living with a wide range of disabilities in the 16th century is our guest, Dr. Susan Anderson.

Ep 75: Crystal Lake on Scotland's Unicorns Sep 23, 2019

Show notes

When we think of unicorns, we most often think of the mythical creature roaming forests in Europe or if you are from the UK, you'll likely make a connection with the famous nursery rhyme about the Lion and the Unicorn. In addition to being the national animal for Scotland, and a symbol of their strength and independence, for Shakespeare and the 16th century society in Scotland, the unicorn is a type of currency.

Scotland's unicorn is not only a national legend and official symbol, but also a coin minted originally by James III of Scotland, and the symbol would become under James VI of Scotland, also James I of England, part of the national symbol for Britain as a whole. Here this week to help us explore the advent of the Scottish unicorn on Britain's royal coat of arms, as well as the numismatic history of the Scottish unicorn as a coin, is our guest Dr. Crystal Lake.

Crystal B. Lake is Professor of English Language and Literatures at Wright State University in Dayton, OH. She is also the co-founder and editor of the online magazine, the-rambling.com. Crystal's book, Artifacts, will be published in paperback by Johns Hopkins University Press in Spring 2020, and you can read more about her research at crystallakephd.com.

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