That Shakespeare Life

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Episode 64: Elisa Tersigni and The History of Cookery, Kitchens, and Food in Shakespeare's Plays Jul 08, 2019

Show notes

When it comes to Food in Shakespeare's England, there were superstitions, recipes, kitchens, and even cooking methods attached to the metaphors Shakespeare intended when he used food references in his works.

All of this effusive history behind food in early modern England is at the heart of the Folger Shakespeare Library's latest project caled Before Farm to Table. Our guest this week Elisa Tersigni, the Digital Research Fellow for "Before 'Farm to Table': Early Modern Foodways and Cultures", and she joins us today to share what's going on at The Folger with this new project, and how we can better understand Shakespeare as a result of what they discovered.

Episode 63: Shakespeare's Portraits with Rachel Dankert Jul 01, 2019

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The bard has his own bobble head figurines and his likeness has even been made into emojis and memes here in the 21st century, but how much of this likeness is real and what has posterity simple made up? From the famous Chandos Portrait that was the founding acquisition of England's National Portrait Gallery, to the Droeshout portrait that graced the front cover of the First Folio in 1623, how many portraits do we have of William Shakespeare and can we really tell what he looked like? Here to help us get a fresh glimpse into what William Shakespeare looked like is our guest Rachel Dankert.

Episode 62: Amy Lidster and Old St. Paul's Cathedral Jun 24, 2019

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During William Shakespeare's lifetime, the central spot for gathering news of the day, purchasing the latest books, or catching up on what's new from your favorite author, poet, or playwright, was the churchyard outside St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Frequenter's to this spot were known as "paul's walkers" and it was a huge number of walkers indeed that crossed the yard to search the various stalls for literature. There are at least 8 references to St. Paul's cathedral and it's reputation for promoting the works of authors like William Shakespeare, to be found inside the plays of the bard and today we have our special guest Amy Lidster, a research fellow at King's College London here with us to share some of what she has discovered during her work into the Shakespearean history of St. Paul's Cathedral, and to walk us through how Shakespeare would have been impacted by this remarkable place.

Episode 61: Gerit Quealy and Botanical Shakespeare Jun 17, 2019

Show notes

There are close to 200 plant references in Shakespeare's plays, with the bard mentioning herbs, spcices, as well as the iconic roses that was such a plague to Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. With the massive amount of exploration and import of foreign goods that was exploding in Egland dudirng Shakespeare's lifetime, many of the plants mentioned by the bard were being seen in england for the very first time.

Motivated to explore exactly how many Shakespeare did mention across 37 plays and hundreds of sonnets, our guest this week, Gerit Quealy is the author of Botanical Shakespeare, a very detailed compilation text featuring illustrated versions of the plants from Shakespeare's plays and she joins us this week to explain some of the history of plants in England, which ones were native to England, and how the bard knew about some of the more exotic herbs and plants mentioned in his plays.

Episode 60: Brigitte Webster and the Tudor Knot Garden Jun 10, 2019

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William Shakespeare uses Tudor Knot Gardens in his plays, most notably in Love's Labour's Lost, but also with a mention in Richard II. These iconic symbols of Tudor history are as intricate in design as they are in their history and folklore.

Here to help us explore exactly why Shakespeare would have invoked the reputation of a Tudor Knot Garden for his plays, as well as the history of the design, purpose, and flowers inside these specialty gardens is our guest, returning to visit with us for the second time here at That Shakespeare Life, the delightful Brigitte Webster.

Episode 59: John Taplin and The Story of New Place Jun 03, 2019

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After William Shakespeare made his name in London, established himself as a gentleman at home, he returned to Stratford Upon Avon to seek his status as a gentleman, acquiring not only a coat of arms, but the second largest house in town. New Place was brought with considerable legal wrangling, however, and the story of how Shakespeare came to own his famous house is filled with fights, suspicion, murder, and even a few ghosts. It's a tale fit for a playwright and here to share this story with us is the man who wrote the book on the Shakespeare history of Stratford Upon Avon, the author of Shakespeare's Country Families, Mr. John Taplin.

John's book represents over a decade worth of what he calls "sifting through many a quiet archive shelf" combing over documents, records, and legal language to piece together the story of Shakespeare's life from the little details a shrewd historical investigator like John can uncover with enough patience to sort it out.

John began working Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 2002, where his inspiration for this project first began. Now also a successful author about Shakespeare, John regularly contributes articles and scholarly research to the Shakespeare history community. We are delighted he has agreed to share some of his time with us today.

Episode 58: Natalie Elliot & Shakespeare's Philosophy of Science May 27, 2019

Show notes

With all of the major advances that have taken place since the The Scientific Revolution, it can be easy to forget how impactful and, indeed, revolutionary the time period was for playwrights like William Shakespeare. The bard was being influenced by high level mathematics, and a very Renaissance minded way of thinking that spills off the page into his productions. Here to help us explore some of the places in Shakespeare's plays where we can see the bard's education in germ theory, atomism, and even algebra, is our very special guest, Dr. Natalie Elliot.

Natalie Elliot is a writer and college professor at St. John's College, where she teaches cross-disciplinary courses in classics, history of science, mathematics, literature, philosophy, and music. She writes about the many ways that scientific theories, experiments, and technologies shape what it means to be human. In addition to her appointment at St. John's, Elliot has held research and teaching positions at The Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions, Indiana University's Hutton Honors College, and Southern Methodist University. She lives in Santa Fe, NM and New York.

She joins us today from her sabbatical in beautiful Montana where she is working on her latest book, and she's here now to be our exclusive tour guide into some of the research she recently completed for her work, Shakespeare's Theater of the Universe, where she examines the intersection of math, science, literature, art, and theater that makes William Shakespeare a true Renaissance man.

Episode 57: Peta Tait on Exotic Animals in Shakespeare's England May 20, 2019

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Elephants being given as gifts to the monarch, lions being tamed inside theaters, and bears chasing people off stage in A Winter's Tale. Where did these exotic animals come from? Why were they being used on stage? Peta Tait visits with us this week to explore exotic animals in Shakespeare's England.

Episode 56: 17th century Blackface Makeup with Andrea Stevens May 13, 2019

Show notes

For William Shakespeare's London, multiple races were commonplace on the streets near The Globe theater where plays like Othello and Merchant of Venice boldy portrayed blackness and multiple ethnicities in performance, but what was the 16th century perspective on race when they saw various ethnicities on stage? Othello was first portrayed by Richard Burbage, who was a white man, so did Shakespeare use blackface makeup? Was that costume technique offensive to his audience the way it would be in a modern theater?

Here to help us explore the role of race on stage, and the cultural understanding of ethnicities for people like William Shakespeare is our guest, Andrea Stevens.

Andrea Stevens is Associate Professor of English, Theatre, and Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign specializing in the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. She is the author of Invention of the Skin, which explores costumes, makeup, and representations of race on stage in Shakespeare's lifetime, and the role of blackface makeup in performance on stage for 16th century theater.

Episode 55: Sean Flynt, Swordmaker, & the Weapons of Shakespeare's Life May 06, 2019

Show notes

From rapiers to broadswords, weapons fly in Shakespeare's plays, but how many of these dramatic weapons were an established part of daily life for the bard? Did people really carry around rapiers and daggers in the streets of London or at home in Stratford upon Avon? Find out when we talk with author and professional sword maker, Sean Flynt, as he introduces us to the weapons of Shakespeare's life.

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