Send us a text For our final episode focusing on Shakespeare, we look at his sonnets, arguably the most famous collection of lyric poems in the language. Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting it with a small donation. Click the "Support the Show" button. So g...
Apr 20, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 64
Send us a text For our (probably) final episode on Shakespeare's plays, we sail through The Tempest , a late romance which has attracted historical and psychoanalytical interpretations, but stands out for many readers as perhaps a play in which a version of Shakespeare himself appears as the protagonist. Audio clip from The Tempest ; 2004 Naxos AudioBooks. Taken from The Internet Archive Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever y...
Apr 07, 2024•40 min•Season 1Ep. 63
Send us a text To mark the Easter holiday, we return to George Herbert, Jacobean poet and priest, and his most famous work, the pattern poem "Easter Wings." Here's a link to an image of the poem: https://clinicalpsychreading.blogspot.com/2016/03/easter-wings-george-herbert-15931633.html Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Blues...
Mar 31, 2024•11 min•Season 1Ep. 62
Send us a text While most people know Shakespeare as a playwright, he saw himself as a poet in the quite traditional sense. Today, we'll look at his two major narrative poems: Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece . clip from "Mrs. Robinson" by Paul Simon; perf. by Simon and Garfunkel. 1968. Taken from We Got Good at It: A Wrecking Crew Anthology 1962-1971. The Internet Archive. Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you lis...
Mar 10, 2024•46 min•Season 1Ep. 61
Send us a text The Tragedy of King Lear , while considered by many as Shakespeare's greatest play, is also his most devastating. In this episode, we consider what Lear has to say about the meaning of human suffering. Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting it w...
Feb 18, 2024•43 min•Season 1Ep. 60
Send us a text In this episode, we look at how our current concerns with identity politics intersects with those of Shakespeare's plays which portray sexist, racist, or anti-Semitic material. Fair warning: this episode will deal with language and tropes that some may find uncomfortable Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesk...
Jan 28, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 59
Send us a text Is Shakespeare's darkest tragedy a cautionary tale about ambition? a bit of Jacobean mythmaking? Or is it the portrait of a deeply committed marriage gone catastrophically wrong? With apologies for all the appalling accents . . . . Performance Clip: Macbeth with Orson Welles, Fay Bainter, and the Mercury Acting Co. Mercury Text Records. From the Internet Archive (archive.org) Additional Music: "The Rout of Moy" perf. Albannach. 2006. From the Internet Archive (archive.org) Support...
Jan 15, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 58
Send us a text Shakespeare's Hamlet has not been out of production for over four centuries and its profound examination of the human condition continues to capture the hearts and minds of people the world over. Join me in Elsinore as we think about what some have called the greatest drama in history -- perhaps even the greatest literary achievement of all time! Margaret Atwood's "Gertrude Talks Back" can be found here: https://lucylit.weebly.com/uploads/6/1/5/6/61560063/margaret_atwoods_gertrude...
Dec 29, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 57
Send us a text Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year! Here's a little subcast episode on poet Nahum Tate's "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks," the first Christmas carol sanctioned by the Anglican Church around the turn of the 18th century. Recording: "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night" THE B.B.C. CHORUS; Berkeley Mason Writer: Nahum Tate (Traditional Christmas Carol); (Text: (1696); Tune: "Winchester Old" 16th Cent.) Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on...
Dec 24, 2023•15 min•Season 1Ep. 56
Send us a text Is political violence ever justified? Who decides? And what ethical systems can evaluate the justice of such acts? Today, we look at the ethics driving the characters of Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar . Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please consider su...
Dec 10, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 55
Send us a text Welcome to the Subcast! On today's bonus episode, I give a little poddie-training on perhaps the most significant publishing event in English literature: the presentation of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays. Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please consider sup...
Nov 30, 2023•24 min•Season 1Ep. 54
Send us a text In this episode, we'll look at two women who are generally regarded as among the greatest female characters ever written: Rosalind from Shakespeare's As You Like It and Beatrice from his Much Ado About Nothing . Their wisdom, intelligence, and emotional depth challenge Renaissance gender assumptions and inaugurate a line of deep-feeling, wise-cracking female characters down to our own day. Excerpts from "As You Like It" c. 1964 The Shakespeare Recording Company and "Much Ado About...
Nov 25, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 53
Send us a text 17th-century poet and priest George Herbert offers a playful poem reminding us to strive for gratefulness. I am, myself, very grateful for all the support you all have offered me. Thank you so much! Additional sound: "Mahna Mahna" from The Muppet Show (1977). Downloaded from Internet Archive. Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Insta...
Nov 22, 2023•7 min•Season 1Ep. 52
Send us a text In today's discussion, we take a look at the character of Henry, Prince of Wales, who will become King Henry V in the group of plays including Henry IV , parts 1 and 2, and Henry V , sometimes called "The Henriad." Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please consider su...
Nov 10, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 51
Send us a text Trick or treat! Here's a bone-us episode on Robert Herrick's "The Hag," about a witch's night ride with the Devil! Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting it with a small donation. Click the "Support the Show" button. So grateful! Podcast Theme M...
Oct 31, 2023•11 min•Season 1Ep. 50
Send us a text Here's a good one for the Halloweeny season: Christopher Marlowe's most famous play. A scholar sells his soul to the Devil for ultimate knowledge and power! Correction: In this episode, I misidentify the author of "The Devil and Tom Walker" as Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is, of course, Washington Irving. Extra musical selection from "Faust" by Charles Gounod, perf. Orchestra And Chorus Of The Théâtre National De l'Opéra. Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on...
Oct 29, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 49
Send us a text Does Romeo and Juliet even need an introduction? Well, this time on the poddie, we'll look at the play's tragic lovers through the lens of the Renaissance sonnet, how that poem style's postures shapes the action, making character fate. Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and YouTube. If you enjoy the sho...
Oct 15, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 48
Send us a text Shssshh! Drift off into Shakespeare's most rhymy and least rational play! Today, it's The Dream! Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting it with a small donation. Click the "Support the Show" button. So grateful! Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by...
Sep 30, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 47
Send us a text We're here! Finally, our first Shakespeare play episode. Today, we'll look at The Tragical History of King Richard III . Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting it with a small donation. Click the "Support the Show" button. So grateful! Podcast T...
Sep 17, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 46
Send us a text You may be surprised at how the rivalry between these early Elizabethan theatrical superstars played out! Betrayal, torture, assassination; this is tabloid-worthy stuff! Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting it with a small donation. Click the ...
Sep 01, 2023•15 min•Season 1Ep. 45
Send us a text Oooh, you're in for a bloody one today, dear listener! Perhaps the most popular revenge tragedy in the 16th-century: Kyd's Spanish Tragedy. Wildly infamous, wildly influential, wildly excessive -- just wild! It inaugurates the fashion for revenge tragedy that will dominate theater for the next decades, and paves the way for Shakespeare's Tragedy of Hamlet . Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank...
Aug 22, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 44
Send us a text Perhaps the first great play of the Elizabethan stage, Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great is relentless and ruthless. How are we to understand a bloody conqueror and tyrant? What does Marlowe mean by this spectacle of his success? We'll look at those questions today! Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and ...
Aug 13, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 43
Send us a text A bonus episode on the Subcast looks at the early modern English theatre, the culture and atmosphere of Elizabethan playgoing, as a prologue to our multi-episode discussion of the great English dramatists of the age, and for all time! Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and YouTube. If you enjoy the show...
Aug 04, 2023•18 min•Season 1Ep. 42
Send us a text This week on the poddie, we discuss a lesser known -- but by no means a lesser quality -- Elizabethan pastoral by Richard Barnfield called "The Affectionate Shepherd." In sophisticated, learned verse, Barnfield highlights the homoerotic elements (not always so) latent in classical and early modern bucolics, which I think a heroic feat in for a 16th century writer. Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen...
Jul 27, 2023•27 min•Season 1Ep. 41
Send us a text If you listen to much modern American country music, you notice that many of the songs conjure up an idealized vision of small-town rural America, distinct from (and presumably superior to) life in urban areas. The fact that many of these songs are written in large cities like Nashville points to a kind of constructed nostalgia. This is very like the vogue for pastoral poetry in 16th century England. We'll look at two famous poems: Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" a...
Jul 20, 2023•27 min•Season 1Ep. 40
Send us a text Today we'll look at the most famous tale from Spenser's epic The Faerie Queene : Book I "The Legend of the Redcrosse Knight." We'll discuss its allegorical and neoplatonic dimensions while doing a quick drive-by of a passage from Mutabilitie Cantos . Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and YouTube. If yo...
Jul 12, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 39
Send us a text As Americans mark Independence Day, I wanted to out that the shift in Western thinking that eventually produced a document like the Declaration of Independence began with a doctrine of the 16th century Protestant Reformation and its influence on Tudor political thought. Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky...
Jul 04, 2023•12 min•Season 1Ep. 38
Send us a text Some say he is the first real poet of the English Renaissance. Whatever that may mean, Edmund Spenser certainly looms large in 16th century English literature. In this first of two episodes, we will look at his paradoxically traditional and innovative lyric poetry, especially The Shepheardes Calendar , Amoretti , and "Epithalamion." Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you! Email: classicengli...
Jun 27, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Send us a text While the political history of Queen Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603) has been well-rehearsed, fewer listeners may be aware that she was also a devilishly accomplished poet and rhetorician. In this episode of the Subcast, we look at her most important poems -- "When I was fair and young," "On Monsieur's Departure," and "The Doubt of Future Foes" -- as well as note her stirring 1588 speech to the troops at Tilbury. Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, S...
Jun 17, 2023•16 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Send us a text Though he spent only a brief period as a courtier of Elizabeth I, Sir Philip certainly cut a dashing figure. He also dashed off one of the most influential works of literary theory in English. And he was quite the dab hand at versifying. Today, we look at Sidney's Defence of Poesie, "Ye Goatherd Gods" from Arcadia , and sonnets from Astrophil and Stella . Support the show Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank y...
Jun 10, 2023•31 min•Season 1Ep. 35
