Category Archives: Legacy

A view of Christmas

Christmas Day is always a time for looking back at the year that’s ending and forward with hope.  I’ve known this picture of Christmas celebrations in an English village all my life as it used to hang in my parents’ … Continue reading

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Celebrating Christmas with the Royal Shakespeare Company

At Christmas, the RSC traditionally gets into party mood by putting on a special show. This year the company has two: Matilda in London, after its successful premiere in Stratford last year, and The Heart of Robin Hood, at the … Continue reading

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Shakespeare’s Christmas through the eyes of the Victorians

This year I’ve received a Christmas card featuring an engraving dating back to 1846, originally published to illustrate “A Story about a Christmas in the seventeenth century”*. It’s a charming picture, but one thing is certain: Christmas in the seventeenth … Continue reading

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Shakespeare and suicide: George Chakravarthi’s Thirteen

An exhibition on the subject of suicide doesn’t sound very suitable for the festive season, but George Chakravarthi’s Thirteen, currently at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, is no ordinary exhibition. The artist became interested in how the perception of … Continue reading

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More about Shakespeare and the King James bible

You can’t have missed the fact that 2011 marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible. Many of the events and articles celebrating this milestone have made the connection with Shakespeare as the KJ Bible was … Continue reading

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Michael Sheen’s Hamlet and the vision of Philip K Dick

In my last post I mentioned that Michael Sheen was talking on the radio about the life of the science fiction writer Philip K Dick who inspired his Hamlet. The broadcast will be repeated on Friday 9 December at 11pm, and … Continue reading

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Still harping on First Folios with Eric Rasmussen

Not many books in themselves become the focus of other people’s work, but the 1623 edition of Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories and Tragedies, commonly known as the  First Folio, is no ordinary book. Professor Eric Rasmussen has just paid a flying … Continue reading

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Celebrating Shakespeare as a symbol of Britishness

In a recent survey, William Shakespeare came out top when people were asked to choose which symbol of Britishness they were most proud of. The Demos thinktank’s report A Place for Pride found that 75% of people agreed that “I … Continue reading

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Facts, fiction and Shakespeare’s view of history

It’s always claimed that Shakespeare must have been fascinated by British history because he wrote so many plays about it. I make the play count thirteen. But was this fascination with the history itself, or did he see it as … Continue reading

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A Monty Python view of the authorship question, by Eric Idle

Over the past months I’ve read dozens of pieces about the authorship question and although many of them have been very much worth reading, this article from the New Yorker is the only one that has made me laugh. The … Continue reading

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