Category Archives: Legacy

More matter for a May morning: Gerarde’s Herball and Shakespeare

After a few days away out of reach of the internet I returned home to find a new Shakespeare controversy had erupted. Country Life, not normally known for its Shakespeare content, had published a “Special Historic Edition” on 20 May … Continue reading

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Reading Shakespeare: new editions

“Why another Shakespeare volume?” ask the editors of the recently-published Bedford Shakespeare, Russ McDonald and Lena Cowen Orlin. Their answer is that most editions don’t answer the requirements of current students, particularly in the USA. ” We asked hundreds of … Continue reading

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Music and musicians at the RSC

According to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s website, Shakespeare made over 2,000 references to music, included over 400 separate musical terms, and wrote around 100 songs to be performed in his plays. Music has been an essential component of performances at … Continue reading

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Henry Wallis: a pre-Raphaelite’s views of Shakespeare’s Stratford

Henry Wallis isn’t one of the best-known of the Pre-Raphaelite painters, barely getting a mention in books about Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Millais, Holman Hunt et al, but one of his paintings is universally-known and classed as a masterpiece. The Death … Continue reading

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Keeping up with Shakespeare events in London and Stratford

It’s the middle of May, and debates and discussions with Shakespeare-related themes are happening everywhere. I’ve only just realised that several of these are happening now, so if you want to catch up with ideas about Shakespeare’s relationship to cultural … Continue reading

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Antony Sher playing Shakespeare’s fat knight

The Radio 4 Book of the Week beginning on 4 May 2015 was Antony Sher’s  Year of the Fat Knight: the Falstaff Diaries, his account of  the process of preparing for and performing Falstaff in Henry IV parts 1 and … Continue reading

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New Shakespeare MOOC

I’ve only recently heard about a new Shakespeare MOOC that has just started  so you still have time to sign up if you want to join in. As with all MOOCs the course is free. It’s called Shakespeare in Community, … Continue reading

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Cakes, ale and hearing the chimes at midnight

Last weekend we remembered, again, the birthday of William Shakespeare. In Stratford tradition is important, so the boys of Shakespeare’s school still head the procession as they have done for over a century. The celebration is also a birthday party, … Continue reading

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Shakespeare’s Birthday Celebrations 2015

Yesterday, 25 April 2015, Stratford put its party hat on and celebrated Shakespeare’s 451st Birthday again in style. It’s always a great occasion consisting of lots of different elements: street entertainment, dancing, bands playing, the big procession, a lunch party. … Continue reading

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Shakespeare, Rupert Brooke and World War 1

Exactly 100 years ago, on 23 April 1915, the poet Rupert Brooke died aged 27 in the Aegean en route to battle in Gallipoli.  He’s often described as a World War 1 poet, but he was already an established poet destined … Continue reading

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