Subscribe to the blog
Search the site
-
Latest posts
Categories
- Legacy (700)
- Plays and Poems (174)
- Shakespeare on Stage (303)
- Shakespeare's World (328)
- Sources (43)
- Stratford-upon-Avon (332)
- Uncategorized (3)
Recent comments
- Richard Morris on King Charles III, Shakespeare, and coronations
- Roger Gregory on A sad farewell to Peter Brook
- mary beth shipley on Shakespeare’s Come Home!
Tags
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- As You Like it
- BBC
- Ben Jonson
- British Library
- British Museum
- Christmas
- David Garrick
- education
- Edwards' Boys
- First Folio
- Folger Shakespeare Library
- Gregory Doran
- Hamlet
- Henry V
- Holy Trinity Church
- Jonathan Bate
- Julius Caesar
- Kenneth Branagh
- King Edward VI School
- King Lear
- London
- Love's Labour's Lost
- Macbeth
- music
- National Theatre
- Othello
- Peter Brook
- Richard II
- Richard III
- Romeo and Juliet
- Royal Shakespeare Company
- Shakespeare
- Shakespeare's Globe
- Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
- Shakespeare Club
- Shakespeare Club of Stratford-upon-Avon
- Shakespeare Institute
- Shakespeare Memorial Theatre
- Simon Russell Beale
- spring
- Stratford-upon-Avon
- The Merchant of Venice
- The Tempest
- The Winter's Tale
More blog posts
- March 2026
- May 2023
- February 2023
- September 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- August 2021
- April 2021
- February 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- August 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
Author Archives: Sylvia Morris
Lives of Shakespeare
For a man about whom we are supposed to know next to nothing, an awful lot of books have been written about Shakespeare’s life. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece about Nicholas Fogg’s new biography of Shakespeare, … Continue reading
Shakespeare’s Birthplace: a shrine to the Victorians
What is the best way to commemorate the life of a writer? Why do we so often treasure the houses they lived in, and what do we hope to get out of visiting them? There have been a number of … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy, Stratford-upon-Avon
Tagged Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Shakespeare's Shrine, shrine, Victorian
Comments Off on Shakespeare’s Birthplace: a shrine to the Victorians
Simon Schama and The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare and history
Among the must-see television shows for Shakespeare fans this summer has been Simon Schama’s Shakespeare. Love him or hate him, he’s the UK’s highest-profile historian. His style is individual, even eccentric, one minute generalising about the broad sweep of history, … Continue reading
Writing Britain at the British Library
When visiting other people’s houses, I always enjoy looking at their bookshelves to see what they like to read, and to keep. All my Shakespeare books are in the room where I work, while books on other favourite subjects are … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy
Tagged As You Like it, British Library, competition, King Lear, manuscript, poetry, Richard II, writing, Writing Britain
4 Comments
The first English Olympic games
On 1 July the Olympic flame came through Stratford, passing over the ancient Clopton Bridge and past Shakespeare’s Birthplace on Henley Street before heading north. Earlier in the day it had passed though the beautiful Cotswold town of Chipping Campden. It … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare's World
Tagged Ben Jonson, Chipping Campden, Dover's Hill, Michael Drayton, Olimpick Games, Olympic Games, Robert Dover, torch
2 Comments
Oh sorrow, pitiful sorrow: the burning of Shakespeare’s Globe
The Globe Theatre, that most famous building, burned to the ground on 29 June 1613. It had stood for only 14 years. It would have been front page news, if newspapers had existed then: at least five separate accounts of … Continue reading
Posted in Shakespeare on Stage, Shakespeare's World
Tagged ballad, burning, fire, Globe Theatre, Henry VIII
1 Comment
Julius Caesar on stage and screen
Greg Doran’s production of Julius Caesar breaks new ground. With an all-black cast, set in an unnamed modern African city rather than imperial Rome, the film version has been shown on TV while still being performed onstage at the Royal … Continue reading
Tennis and football: ball games in Shakespeare’s England
The Olympics are still weeks away but we’re already awash with sporting events. Football’s Euro2012 is still in full swing, and today the nation’s annual two-week love affair with tennis, strawberries and cream begins at Wimbledon. Tennis and football are … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare's World
Tagged football, Hamlet, Hampton Court, Henry V, John Stow, Philip Stubbes, Richard Mulcaster, Roger Ascham, tennis, The Comedy of Errors
Comments Off on Tennis and football: ball games in Shakespeare’s England
Revealing Shakespeare’s hidden history
In the year of the World Shakespeare Festival a new biography of Shakespeare has hit the bookstands. It’s done so with little fanfare, perhaps appropriately since it has the title Hidden Shakespeare. It sometimes seems that every author feels obliged … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare's World, Stratford-upon-Avon
Tagged biography, Hidden Shakespeare, Nicholas Fogg
4 Comments
Julius Caesar and Shakespeare’s power to persuade
I’ve always thought of rhetoric as a rather dry subject, but in a recent lecture barrister Benet Brandreth, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Rhetoric Coach, zipped entertaingly through some of the principles in an hour. He succeeded in demonstrating how powerfully rhetoric, and in … Continue reading
Posted in Plays and Poems, Shakespeare's World
Tagged Benet Brandreth, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, persuasion, Ray Fearon, rhetoric, Royal Shakespeare Company, The Arte of Rhetorique, Thomas Wilson
Comments Off on Julius Caesar and Shakespeare’s power to persuade