That Shakespeare Life
325 episodes - English - Latest episode: 21 days ago - ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsHosted by Cassidy Cash, That Shakespeare Life takes you behind the curtain and into the real life of William Shakespeare. Get bonus episodes on Patreon
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Episodes
Ep 75: Crystal Lake on Scotland's Unicorns
September 23, 2019 13:00 - 22 minutes - 15.6 MBWhen 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 ...
Ep 74: Valerie Wayne on the History Behind Cymbeline
September 16, 2019 13:00 - 28 minutes - 20.1 MBIn the infancy of the British Empire as Scotland, England, and Ireland were unified for the first time in history under James I, William Shakespeare writes the play Cymbeline. While the actual date he wrote it is unknown, the first performance of Cymbeline is thought to be in 1610, just three years before Shakespeare’s daughter, Susanna, is falsely accused of adultery in a very public trial, at which she won, and proved her innocence. The play Cymbeline famously applies what’s known as the c...
Ep 73: Jonathan Willis on England's Opinion of France in the 16th Century
September 09, 2019 13:00 - 36 minutes - 25.1 MBWhen Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, she inherited a tense political and religion tension that bordered dangerously close to civil war over Protestantism vs Catholicism in England. Historical basis for wars with France, the reputation of the Huguenots, and the painful English loss of Calais after ruling it for 150 years all played a role in the reception of small details, including the representation of France beside England in plays like William Shakespeare’s Henry V. For the audi...
Ep 72: Ian de Jong and Treasonous Theater
September 02, 2019 13:00 - 29 minutes - 20.3 MBWhen William Shakespeare was writing plays like Richard II in London, including the abdication scene we know it for today would have, and often did, get playwrights arrested for their challenge to the authority of the monarch. That’s one reason Shakespeare’s plays, Richard II, was traditionally performed without the abdication scene except for the one fateful day it was staged intentionally including that as part of what would ultimately become a failed rebellion against Elizabeth I. Though ...
Ep 71: Interview With Emma Smith on The Bodleian Library
August 26, 2019 13:00 - 24 minutes - 16.8 MBilliam Shakespeare was living, and writing at the start of the Golden Age of Libraries. In a world where the written word was considered a luxury item, and private libraries were amassed in castles, mansions, or other private residencies of the wealthy as a sign of their status and intelligence, The Bodleian Library changed the culture of education, and access to knowledge, when they opened their doors in 1602 as the first public library in the world. In 1602, William Shakespeare was 38 year...
Ep70: Interview with James Loxley on the Rise of James VI/I
August 19, 2019 13:00 - 28 minutes - 20 MBWhen James VI of Scotland became James I of England, he did so as the son of Mary Queen of Scots, and brought with him a tumultous history and risk for civil war. In an example of the King’s extraordinary gift at diplomacy and unification, he also brought into England his ability to stabilize conflict and unite warring parties around his position as King. At 39 years old, when William Shakespeare was at the height of his career as a playwright in London, the new King would officially ...
Episode 69: Interview with William Massena on 16th Century Clocks
August 12, 2019 13:00 - 17 minutes - 12.4 MBOne of my absolute favorite quotes from Shakespeare comes from Henry IV Part 1 when Henry V says Unless hours were cups of sack and minutes capons and clocks the tongues of bawds and dials the signs of leaping-houses and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta, I see no reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demand the time of the day. It’s hilarious today, particularly to consider Falstaff parading around in flame coloured taffeta...
Episode 68: Interview with Eric Rasmussen on Shakespeare's Collaborations
August 05, 2019 13:00 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MBWhile Shakespeare is name is the most well known of the playwrights from Renaissance England, he was hardly the only famous artist working during that time period. Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, John Fletcher, and John Lyly are just a few of the names we can mention of excellent theater practitioners working alongside the bard, and it turns out, William Shakespeare apparently had at least a high professional respect for these gentlemen personally, as he is known to have collaborated with s...
Episode 67: Groatsworth of Wit with Dr. Lois Potter
July 29, 2019 13:00 - 21 minutes - 14.8 MBRobert Greene’s A Groatsworth of Wit was written as a small pamphlet, and told a moralistic tale which was partly autobiographical. The story includes many characters, songs, fables, and perhaps most famously--sharply barbed criticism that takes aim at his contemporary playwrights and actors. The most famous criticism for which Greene’s work is most remembered is that this document is where Shakespeare is called and Upstart Crow. Here to help us take a detailed look at Robert Greene, the his...
Episode 66: Shakespeare's Death with Darren Freebury Jones
July 22, 2019 13:00 - 18 minutes - 12.7 MBWhen William Shakespeare died in Stratford Upon Avon England in 1616, the world lost an incredible soul that would far outlast his 52 years. But how did the greatest playwright die? And why was he not buried alongside other great playwrights of his stature at Westminster Abbey? Here to take us back to 1616 and walk us through the myths, the legend and the facts about Shakespeare's death is our guest Darren Freebury Jones.
Episode 65: Who were Shakespeare's Siblings? with David Kathman
July 15, 2019 13:00 - 26 minutes - 18.6 MBWilliam Shakespeare grew up functioning as the oldest of his five siblings, with his parents losing two children before William was born. The stories of his brothers and sisters are brief, but as you might expect from the life of William Shakespeare, they are full of intrigue, mystery, and mirth. Here today to share with us the stories of Shakespeare siblings is our guest, David Kathman.
Episode 64: Elisa Tersigni and The History of Cookery, Kitchens, and Food in Shakespeare's Plays
July 08, 2019 15:35 - 31 minutes - 22.1 MBWhen 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 Cultur...
Episode 63: Shakespeare's Portraits with Rachel Dankert
July 01, 2019 13:00 - 41 minutes - 29.1 MBThe 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...
Episode 62: Amy Lidster and Old St. Paul's Cathedral
June 24, 2019 13:00 - 35 minutes - 24.4 MBDuring 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 f...
Episode 61: Gerit Quealy and Botanical Shakespeare
June 17, 2019 13:00 - 28 minutes - 19.8 MBThere 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 hund...
Episode 60: Brigitte Webster and the Tudor Knot Garden
June 10, 2019 13:00 - 32 minutes - 22.6 MBWilliam 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 ...
Episode 59: John Taplin and The Story of New Place
June 03, 2019 13:00 - 38 minutes - 27 MBAfter 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 wit...
Episode 58: Natalie Elliot & Shakespeare's Philosophy of Science
May 27, 2019 13:00 - 31 minutes - 21.6 MBWith 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,...
Episode 57: Peta Tait on Exotic Animals in Shakespeare's England
May 20, 2019 13:00 - 20 minutes - 14.6 MBElephants 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 13:00 - 29 minutes - 20.8 MBFor 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 ...
Episode 55: Sean Flynt, Swordmaker, & the Weapons of Shakespeare's Life
May 06, 2019 13:00 - 25 minutes - 17.6 MBFrom 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.
Episode 54: Rebecca Totaro Talks About Plague
April 29, 2019 13:00 - 34 minutes - 23.9 MBWhether it’s Lear calling Goneril a plague-sore, or Mercutio cursing the families in Romeo and Juliet by saying “A plague on both your houses!” Shakespeare’s works testify to the fact that rampant plague was a very real, and very prevalent, part of Shakespeare's daily life. But what were the concerns about plague that Shakespeare was considering when he wrote these works that refer to the disease? For Shakespeare and his contemporaries, there was a real plague culture in England that impacte...
Episode 53: Happy Birthday, Shakespeare! Let's Talk Coat of Arms with Paul Edmondson
April 22, 2019 13:00 - 25 minutes - 17.5 MBWe are celebrating Shakespeare’s birthday this week by taking a look at how Shakespeare became a gentleman. One of the ways William Shakespeare achieved the status of a gentleman was in the procurement of the family Coat of Arms. This process was something of a mystery because history shows us that Shakespeare’s father had been eligible for a coat of arms, but never received it. Later, his son William would successfully acquire the arms for the family, presumably a source of pride for his fa...
Episode 52: Scott Farrell and Knights in Shakespeare's England
April 15, 2019 13:00 - 33 minutes - 23.6 MBSeveral of Shakespeare’s history plays, and even some of his comedies mention or refer to characters as a knight. Sometimes knights are good, other times they are bad, and sometimes we aren’t quite sure what they are as is often the case with characters like Falstaff. However, what’s true is that an armored knight defending the honor of the monarchy were real people in Shakespeare’s lifetime, and the portrayal of them on stage reflects what was going on around the real 16th century audience....
Ep 51: Poverty and the Playhouse with Rob Henke
April 08, 2019 13:00 - 32 minutes - 22.7 MBFor William Shakespeare, the Globe theater itself represented a place that brought together a mix of classes. People from high society, all the way down the poorest of the poor observed Shakespeare’s plays, but how much of the bard’s work acknowledged the poor and what was the reality of charitable giving going on around William Shakespeare as he was penning some of his famous scenes about beggars? That’s the question we’ll be asking today as we chat with our guest, Robert Henke. Rob is a pr...
Ep 50 Globe v Blackfriars with Sarah Dustagheer
April 01, 2019 13:00 - 31 minutes - 21.8 MBWhen William Shakespeare was writing The Tempest was he considering the light bouncing off the walls of his playhouse? When he directed Feste to be fond of singing in Twelfth Night, did Shakespeare know the people in the back would be able to hear him? We don’t often think about Shakespeare’s plays in context of where they were originally performed, but this week our guest Sarah Dustagheer has written an entire book exploring that very question. Turns out, many of Shakespeare’s lines were ...
Ep 49: Shakespeare's Sheep with Lizzy Dobbin
March 25, 2019 13:00 - 24 minutes - 17.4 MBShakespeare’s hometown of Stratford Upon Avon sits just outside the famous Cotswolds Hills, where wool was the primary industry. It’s even thought that shepherds in the area taking care of their sheep are responsible for the first discovery of graphite that would go on to be used in pencils. In Shakespeare’s plays, there are references to sheep, lambs, fleeces, wool, and shepherds in almost all of his works, leading us to wonder how personally connected to sheep and the wool industry William...
Ep 48: Examining Shakespeare's Sources with JM Pressley
March 18, 2019 13:00 - 34 minutes - 23.9 MBGood artists copy, great artists steal. That’s the line they tell us about what it takes to be great at art, but was it true for William Shakespeare? The bard borrows heavily from sources like Holinshed, Ovid, and others in the writing of his plays but does it impact how we understand the story? This week we welcome our guest, JM Pressley of the Shakespeare Resource Center to walk us through the history of sources as it applies to Shakespeare’s plays. Turns out, the reality of life in 16th c...
The Elizabethan Jig with Lucie Skeaping
March 11, 2019 13:00 - 37 minutes - 51.7 MBMany times when Shakespeare would perform a play, there would be a bawdy and comical song and dance show performed after the play, even if the play was a tragedy or something more serious. A traditional part of Elizabethan theater, the jig was a not only an expected part of playhouse performances but they represent a slice of culture from Shakespeare’s liftime. Many of the song and dance routines performed were inspired by, or examples of, Elizabethan pop culture. The tunes were a kind of st...
John Fletcher, the man who took over The King's Men when Shakespeare died
March 04, 2019 14:00 - 30 minutes - 21.2 MBJohn Fletcher was a prominent playwright during William Shakespeare’s lifetime, whose work came close to eclipsing that of the bard during the height of his popularity in early modern England. Friends, as well as colleagues with The King’s Men, Shakespeare and Fletcher collaborated on several key plays of Shakespeare like Henry VIII as well as Two Noble Kinsmen. John Fletcher was so prominent and important during the life of the bard that after Shakespeare’s death in 1616, it would be John F...
Episode 45: Natalie Grueninger on Tudor Bathing
February 25, 2019 14:00 - 26 minutes - 18.6 MBWhile many of the castles and great homes of the monarch in England already contained luxurious bathrooms, it would be Henry VIII--in a style true to his flamboyant reputation, that would create elaborately accessorized bathrooms for palaces like Whitehall and Hampton Court. While these bathrooms were used by the monarchy in Shakespeare’s life, such as Queen Elizabeth, the average Tudor, and Shakespeare himself, had a much simpler version of bathing, not to mention a variety of myths and leg...
Episode 44: Paul Edmondson Talks Heminges and Condell
February 18, 2019 14:00 - 25 minutes - 17.6 MBIf the saying is true that you are the sum of your five closest friends, then one great way to get to know William Shakespeare is to take a look at the lives of his closest friends. John Heminges and Henry Condell helped form the foundation of the shareholder agreement Shakespeare made at The Globe and the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. They would remain loyal to Shakespeare from Elizabethan England into Jacobean England as the company became the King’s Men under James I. Acting in plays together, ...
Episode 43: Jonathan Bate & The Genius of Shakespeare
February 11, 2019 14:00 - 27 minutes - 19.4 MBWilliam Shakespeare started out the son of a glove maker in a small town in England, and went on to become the greatest playwright the world has ever seen. How does one person accomplish so much? What did it take, exactly, for Shakespeare to become a genius? Was he born with particular gifts and talents no one else has seen or heard of again in the last 400 years? Or has our love of Shakespeare inflated his reputation beyond what it deserves? One man who has argued in the public arena speci...
Episode 42: The Daily Diet of Shakespeare with Brigitte Webster
February 04, 2019 14:00 - 27 minutes - 19 MBEven Shakespeare had to eat. We laud Shakespeare as a man who helped reinvent the theater industry, and someone who would pen some of the greatest lines in all of antiquity, and establish a reputation that lasted at the top of his game for over 400 years. But what did someone like that eat for breakfast? It certainly wasn’t Wheaties powering that legacy, so what kind of foods did Shakespeare enjoy? Here to help us explore the daily eating habits of the Tudor period, including people like W...
Episode 41: 16th Century Landlords with Callan Davies
January 28, 2019 14:00 - 27 minutes - 19.3 MBElizabeth I issued several proclamations during her reign concerning property, renting, and housing in England. London proper would see it’s population more than double over the course of Shakespeare’s lifetime, and there was very little in the way of any government concerning who could rent the limited available space owned in the city, what they could charge, or even basic safety regulations. Historical documents tell us that William Shakespeare himself rented property in London, with the ...
Episode 40: Frances Dolan on 16th Century Marriage
January 21, 2019 14:00 - 27 minutes - 19.2 MBFrom Merry Wives of Windsor, to Measure for Measure, Alls Well That Ends Well, and others, the role of marriage plays a big role in Shakespeare’s plays, determines the action, defining the characters, and living on several assumptions about the marriage institution. But what are those assumptions, exactly? As a modern audience member, what do we need to know about marriage in Shakespeare’s lifetime, and how has it changed over the last 400 years? Will these changes impact how we receive Shak...
Episode 39: Sarah Enloe and The Blackfriars Theater
January 14, 2019 14:00 - 29 minutes - 20 MBWhen we talk about Shakespeare’s theaters, most often we mean The Globe, with it’s iconic “O’ shape, we sometimes forget that Shakespeare’s plays were actually performed in a variety of venues, and that William was involved in starting the first indoor theater anywhere in the world when he, and his longtime business partner Richard Burbage, established the then-risky venue, The Blackfriars. With the only accurate replica of The Blackfriars in the world, no one knows the history of this the...
Episode 38: Aubrey Whitlock Explains Exit Pursued by a Bear
January 07, 2019 14:00 - 23 minutes - 16.5 MBIn Shakespeare’s play, The Winter’s Tale, there is a famous stage direction where the character Antigonus exits the stage but the written directions in the play state that he is to “exit, pursued by a bear.” So in performance, this character exits as a bear, seemingly from nowhere, arrives to chase him off the stage and into Shakespeare legend. Here to help us look at the history and context of this famous stage direction, is Aubrey Whitlock.
Episode 37: Francois Laroque Explains Twelfth Night
December 31, 2018 14:00 - 26 minutes - 18.8 MBWhen it comes to Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night--other than the title and the use of role reversal, there’s seemingly very little to suggest Shakespeare’s play is anything but another comedy. In fact, modern stagings have often found it difficult to revive the play as a holiday feature due precisely to its’ lack of holiday content. However, when we explore the history of the holiday itself, and some of the political associations contained in the specific time in history when Shakespeare pe...
Episode 36: Emily Ireson Shares Shakespeare's Christmas Traditions
December 24, 2018 14:00 - 35 minutes - 25.1 MBWith the holidays upon us, this Christmas Eve we wanted to celebrate with our favorite Elizabethan: William Shakespeare. Christmas was a popular celebration even 400 years ago and from the time young William was born growing up in Stratford Upon Avon, England, there were several important traditions that he used to mark the holiday with his family and friends. Here to help us explore the Christmas traditions surrounding the kinds of foods and festivities the bard would have eaten or par...
Episode 35: Why Shakespeare Used Iambic Pentameter with Susan Dalzell
December 17, 2018 18:00 - 24 minutes - 17.4 MBWilliam Shakespeare is almost synonymous with iambic pentameter, his famous plays making this popular rhyme scheme famous as well. From Chaucer to King James I and Edmund Spenser, iambic pentameter flowed through English classical verse and the stages of The Globe and Blackfriars, prolifically dominating the spoken word in performances all over England. Iambic Pentameter was a major player in theater, performance, and the arts, along with several other metric rhythms that were popularly used...
Episode 34: Shakespeare and the Legend of Robin Hood with Kathryn Roberts Parker
December 10, 2018 14:00 - 20 minutes - 14.7 MBMentioned by name in three of Shakespeare’s plays, the legend of Robin Hood played a big role in the life of most dramatists in early modern England, being a prominent figure in English folklore, his legend was a popular source of good dramatic material on stage. For William Shakespeare, Robin Hood had some very specific touch points, not only was he mentioned by names, but numerous volumes of Shakespeare’s contemporaries were writing and staging plays about Robin Hood, and Queen Elizabeth...
Episode 33: Music in Shakespeare's Plays with Mary Springfels
December 03, 2018 14:00 - 29 minutes - 20.7 MBNot many of us think of Shakespeare’s plays as examples of great musicals, but from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to even Macbeth, Shakespeare uses music, song, and instrumental accompaniment as a dramatic device that spurs forward the story of the play, and quite often, even comments on the actions of the players themselves with songs, dances, and even musical flourishes to introduce or follow the exit of characters in the play. Here today to help us explore the music of William Shakespe...
Episode 32: Costuming Shakespeare with Patricia Lennox
November 26, 2018 14:00 - 23 minutes - 16.9 MBIf we took a photograph of every single King Lear ever staged, they would likely all be wearing a different costume. When it comes to Shakespeare’s stage directions, he’s of very little help to production companies because rarely, if at all, are the costumes of a particular play detailed out anywhere by Shakespeare himself. Of course his characters wore costumes, and used props, but exactly what were they? Here this week to help us understand the role of costumes for William Shakespeare is...
Episode 31: Shakespeare Eating Turkey with Guest Malene Lauritsen
November 19, 2018 14:00 - 24 minutes - 17.2 MBOne of the most iconic holiday images in the Western World is that of a grand family table set for a crowd, packed with goodies and right at the center is a stuffed turkey glistening and ready for dinner. What you might not expect from this image is that the turkey’s arrival on the holiday table has a long history in transatlantic exploration and international trade with Native Americans which dates to the late 16th century and makes William Shakespeare one of the first Englishmen to eat tur...
Episode 30: Malcolm Hebron Introduces to Shakespeare's Renaissance Magus
November 12, 2018 14:00 - 25 minutes - 17.9 MBThe character of Prospero in The Tempest is full of magic, superstition, and the question for the audience about whether Prospero is a good man or a selfish and greedy villain. Then of course, we have to ask, was he even a real man at all, or something supernatural? When The Tempest was first staged, it was done so before King James I at a celebration for All Hallow’s Day in 1611. As King James was highly suspicious of all things magic and supernatural, it’s impressive that Shakespeare man...
Episode 29: The Science of Shakespeare with Dan Falk
November 05, 2018 14:00 - 38 minutes - 27.1 MBWilliam Shakespeare’s life overlapped some of the most extraordinary scientific discoveries in human history. Modern thought was developing the idea of a round Earth, the sun being the center of the universe, and scientific minds like Galileo, Thomas Digges, and Tycho Brahe, were utilizing then cutting edge technology like the telescope to transform the way we thought about the universe and our place in it. This swirl of scientific thought, imagination, and theory was buzzing around William ...
Episode 28: Exploring 16th Century Witches and Witchcraft with Marion Gibson
October 29, 2018 13:00 - 26 minutes - 18.8 MBHalloween is coming up a few days from now, and it seems like a good opportunity to explore the origins to the holiday, which began as a religious celebration. Of course, since then it’s grown into a fun night of candy and costumes for us here in the US, but for William Shakespeare, ghouls, ghosts, and witches had real life implications. While king of Scotland, James VI became convinced witchcraft was an active danger to him personally, and in order to prevent that danger, he conducted wit...
Episode 27: The History of Shakespeare's Beard with Christopher Oldstone-Moore
October 22, 2018 13:00 - 22 minutes - 15.8 MBFrom the Chandos portrait to first folio engraving, all of our visual depictions of William Shakespeare show him with a full face beard. Was this grooming style typical for Elizabethans or was William Shakespeare stepping outside the norm with his choice of facial hair? We think of Shakespeare as a hipster artist guy today, but what did the Elizabethans think about Shakespeare’s Beard?
Episode 26: Tiffany Stern Talks 16th Century Quill Pens and Graphite Pencils
October 15, 2018 13:00 - 32 minutes - 22.7 MBWhen we think about William Shakespeare, we almost synonymously think of him holding a quill pen, or furiously scratching away on a piece of parchment with ink on his hands creating a masterpiece. When it comes to the history of writing, pens in particular, and even references to writing that happens inside Shakespeare’s plays, the world of writing instruments in Shakespeare’s lifetime was really widely varied. Not only were there other options beyond the infamous quill pen, but it’s highly ...