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Category Archives: Shakespeare’s World
Witchcraft on page and stage
The Royal Shakespeare Company is currently staging the multi-authored play The Witch of Edmonton, first performed in 1621. It’s easy to see how attractive the play is since its subject relates so closely to Macbeth. In Shakespeare’s play the weird … Continue reading
Posted in Shakespeare on Stage, Shakespeare's World, Sources
Tagged Gunpowder Plot, Holinshed, James 1, Macbeth, supernatural, The Witch of Edmonton, witchcraft
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“Your gown’s a most rare fashion”: costume and Shakespeare
Picture the Elizabethan period and the chances are you will think of portraits, probably one of those dazzling paintings of Queen Elizabeth herself. There are so many, so well-known, they have individual names: the Armada portrait, the Hardwick portrait, the … Continue reading
Posted in Shakespeare's World
Tagged costume, cross-gartering, fashion, Queen Elizabeth 1, ruff, Sarah Jane Downing, Sumptuary Laws, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, The Winter's Tale, Twelfth Night, wool
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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
Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare's World, Sources
Tagged Alvearie, dictionary, Durer, Folger Shakespeare Library, Gutenberg, Helen Smith, John Baret, marginalia, Neil MacGregor, printing, Richard Field, Shakespeare's Beehive, The Collation, University of Illinois, women
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The Gunpowder plot: terrorism in Shakespeare’s restless world
For over 400 years 5 November has been a day of celebration, though it’s now thought of as Bonfire Night with little reference to its origins with the 1605 plot to blow up the King, the Lords and the Commons … Continue reading
Shakespeare, politics and the history of Stratford-upon-Avon
The Shakespeare Club’s October meeting consisted of a lecture by historian Nicholas Fogg on Shakespeare and politics. It was perhaps no surprise that he had decided to look at the subject through a historical perspective, suggesting that to understand Shakespeare’s views … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare's World, Stratford-upon-Avon
Tagged Henry V, Henry VI, history, Nicholas Fogg, politics, Shakespeare Club
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Shakespeare and the Bake-Off
The final of the Great British Bake-Off screens on the evening of 8 October. Watching this immensely popular series over the last few weeks I wondered how much Shakespeare knew about how his food was produced, and whether he ever … Continue reading
Posted in Shakespeare's World
Tagged baking, cake, Great British Bake-Off, Troilus and Cressida
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Presenting Shakespeare’s Venice on stage
The RSC recently announced its Summer 2015 season, beginning in March. They’ll be focusing on the Italian city Venice, with three plays that are fully or partly set there: The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and Ben Jonson’s Volpone. It’s sure … Continue reading
Posted in Shakespeare on Stage, Shakespeare's World
Tagged Ben Jonson, British Museum, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, Venice, Volpone
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Thomas Platter’s visit to Shakespeare’s theatre
On 21 September 1599 a Swiss tourist, Thomas Platter, visiting London, went to the newly-opened Globe Theatre to see a play. As it happened, he saw Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The occasion made quite an impression on him, so much so … Continue reading
Posted in Shakespeare on Stage, Shakespeare's World
Tagged audience, Globe Theatre, Listening to the Audience, Shakespeare's Globe, Thomas Platter
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Shakespeare and Education
Recently the Huffington Post published an article written by a teenager about how Shakespeare should be taught, specifically to ten-year olds. She remembered her own experience “when I moved up to secondary school I was thrown into the deep end; … Continue reading
Simon Forman, Shakespeare and the stage
12 September is the anniversary of the death of the colourful astrologer-cum-physician Simon Forman – or perhaps it was 11 September, or even 5 September, accounts vary. Whichever is correct, Forman was a well-known, even notorious figure in Shakespeare’s London, said to be … Continue reading
Posted in Shakespeare's World
Tagged casebook astrology, John Hall, Macbeth, medicine, Simon Forman, The Alchemist, Topsell
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