Tag Archives: women

A statue for Aphra Behn in Canterbury

The city of Canterbury has many literary connections. It’s the end-point for Chaucer’s pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales, the setting for the murder of Thomas a Becket as dramatized by TS Eliot in Murder in the Cathedral, and the birthplace … Continue reading

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Shakespeare, suffrage, and Stratford-upon-Avon

This week, 8-13 March, International Women’s Week has been celebrated around the world with an examination of the achievements of women and progress towards gender equality. Amanda Vickery’s three-part television series Suffragettes Forever! has documented the history of the struggle … Continue reading

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Printing and publishing in Shakespeare’s world

A couple of weeks go I heard an interview with an author who had tracked down the people who had pre-owned some of his books. It sparked a discussion about writing in books, from a simple signature of ownership, to … Continue reading

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Thomas Heywood’s women

About a week ago I wrote about the extraordinary playwright, poet, prose writer and actor Thomas Heywood whose work is being investigated at the Shakespeare Institute’s Heywood Marathon. This reaches its conclusion on Saturday with Love’s Mistress, Amphrisa, the forsaken shepherdess, … Continue reading

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Images of Shakespeare’s heroines

While researching a recent post I spotted a note in the Stratford-upon-Avon Herald saying that in 1945 Queen Mary donated a copy of The Graphic Gallery of Shakespeare’s Heroines to the SMT (now RSC). This might not sound extraordinary, unless you … Continue reading

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Shakespeare for women: from Henry V to Julius Caesar

The announcement that an all-female Julius Caesar production is to be staged at the Donmar Warehouse in London from November to February has been greeted with excitement. Here’s Lyn Gardner’s Guardian piece. The production will be directed by Phyllida Lloyd … Continue reading

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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

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The Taming of the Shrew and Measure for Measure: two of a kind?

The Royal Shakespeare Company is currently offering audiences the chance to see both The Taming of the Shrew and Measure for Measure back to back. These plays are unlikely bedfellows, but they have in fact a lot in common.  Both … Continue reading

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Michael Sheen’s Hamlet: driving out the feminine side

For centuries, critics have noted  Hamlet’s effeminacy: his inability to act decisively, that description as a “delicate and tender prince”. In the eighteenth century the great actor David Garrick was criticised for “giving a kind of feminine sorrow” to his … Continue reading

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Shakespeare and the first actresses

The National Portrait Gallery in London’s new exhibition celebrates the careers of the earliest English professional actresses. Entitled The First Actresses: Nell Gwynn to Sarah Siddons it neatly documents womens’ increasing respectability in the world of the theatre. In Shakespeare’s … Continue reading

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