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 interp...
Feb 21, 2022•33 min•Ep. 201
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 ...
Feb 14, 2022•32 min•Ep. 200
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 econ...
Feb 07, 2022•26 min•Ep. 199
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 ...
Jan 31, 2022•24 min•Ep. 198
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 impl...
Jan 24, 2022•39 min•Ep. 197
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...
Jan 17, 2022•41 min•Ep. 196
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 in...
Jan 10, 2022•48 min•Ep. 195
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 welcom...
Jan 03, 2022•27 min•Ep. 194
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 b...
Dec 27, 2021•25 min•Ep. 193
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 or...
Dec 21, 2021•24 min•Ep. 192
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 a...
Dec 13, 2021•21 min•Ep. 191
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 ref...
Dec 06, 2021•29 min•Ep. 190
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 any...
Nov 29, 2021•24 min•Ep. 189
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 1...
Nov 22, 2021•55 min•Ep. 187
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 o...
Nov 15, 2021•54 min•Ep. 188
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 fl...
Nov 08, 2021•28 min•Ep. 186
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, ...
Nov 01, 2021•30 min•Ep. 185
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 socie...
Oct 25, 2021•27 min•Ep. 184
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 cent...
Oct 18, 2021•31 min•Ep. 183
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 bei...
Oct 11, 2021•34 min•Ep. 182
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 ...
Oct 04, 2021•39 min•Ep. 181
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 l...
Sep 27, 2021•27 min•Ep. 180
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 exp...
Sep 20, 2021•18 min•Ep. 179
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...
Sep 13, 2021•25 min•Ep. 178
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 s...
Sep 06, 2021•36 min•Ep. 177
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...
Aug 30, 2021•36 min•Ep. 176
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...
Aug 23, 2021•32 min•Ep. 175
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 ke...
Aug 16, 2021•30 min•Ep. 174
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 ...
Aug 09, 2021•30 min•Ep. 173
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 Wa...
Aug 02, 2021•17 min•Ep. 172
