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Category Archives: Shakespeare’s World
Nine Men’s Morris and the English weather
Last week I was contacted by a reader of this blog with a query about the Nine Men’s Morris in the Theatre Gardens in Stratford-upon-Avon. How old, he wondered, was it? I should explain. Nine Men’s Morris is an ancient … Continue reading
Shakespeare, Italy and the theatre
With so much going on in the World Shakespeare Festival at the moment it’s hard to keep up. I spent last week away, with no TV or internet access and just catching programmes I missed is quite a job. One that … Continue reading
Shakespeare’s horses: nags, jades and steeds, or wonders of nature
I’m no great lover of any sport involving animals, but I do admire the beauty of those superbly athletic thoroughbred horses. It was shocking to hear that two horses had died during the running of last weekend’s Grand National, one … Continue reading
Shakespeare’s sisters
We’re used to the idea that in the early modern period women were seen as intellectually inferior to men. Denied the educational opportunities afforded to their brothers, girls learned only the rudiments of reading and writing. And with their lives … Continue reading
John Harvard, Boston and the Shakespeare Association of America
Today the Shakespeare Association of America’s fortieth anniversary meeting begins in Boston. It will be the largest meeting the Association’s ever held, with over 1000 people signed up. I’ve had a few days to soak up its history of this great … Continue reading
Shakespeare: staging the world
This summer one of the most important events for anyone wanting to know more about why Shakespeare matters will be a visit to the British Museum’s exhibition Shakespeare: staging the world. Booking is already open for the exhibition, running from … Continue reading
Shakespeare and the staff of life
Drought, crop failure, disease. The TV shows pictures of helpless people trying to dig in soil as dry as dust: unless international action is taken to help they will soon become heart-wrenching images of starving children. In Kenya alone there … Continue reading
Posted in Plays and Poems, Shakespeare's World, Stratford-upon-Avon
Tagged belly, bread, Coriolanus, famine, grain, starvation, The Assise of Bread, Troilus and Cressida, wheat
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Edward Alleyn’s legacy and Shakespeare’s theatre
Most of what we know about the elusive world of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre is found in one unique collection of manuscripts. These are known as the Henslowe-Alleyn archive, working theatrical documents created by impresario Philip Henslowe and his illustrious … Continue reading
Shakespeare’s minds diseased: mental illness and its treatment
Shakespeare was clearly fascinated by mental illness, many characters displaying a variety of symptoms from Lear’s madness, Jaques’ melancholy, Timon’s bitter cursing, Macbeth’s visions and Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking, to the obsessiveness of Leontes. It’s usually accepted that Shakespeare was influenced in medical matters by … Continue reading
Players in Stratford-upon-Avon: Robert Bearman’s latest discoveries
A few weeks ago Dr Robert Bearman wrote a piece for this blog explaining that he had rediscovered some evidence about touring companies visiting Stratford-upon-Avon in Shakespeare’s lifetime. He’s now found some more intriguing evidence relating to Stratford Corporation’s attitude to … Continue reading