Category Archives: Shakespeare’s World

Shakespeare writing fair: The Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts 1450-1700

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Sylvia Morris

Last Friday I attended a conference organised by the University of London School of Advanced Study to celebrate the imminent launch of a great new online resource, the Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts 1450-1700. This will supersede the printed Index … Continue reading →

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Shakespeare’s Avon, Act 8: Sweet Swan of Avon

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Sylvia Morris

Ben Jonson’s memorial poem to Shakespeare published seven years after his death in the First Folio contains lines which famously link Shakespeare to the River Avon and to the magnificent birds that live on it. Sweet Swan of Avon! What … Continue reading →

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Shakespeare, portraits, and finding the mind’s construction in the face

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Sylvia Morris

Last week I spent some time admiring a group of portraits now in the National Gallery, London, by the North Italian painter Moroni who lived from around 1520 to 1579. One is very well known. In The tailor the subject … Continue reading →

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O power, what art thou in a madman’s eyes

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Sylvia Morris

Any other weekend, the death of singer Amy Winehouse would have been enough to brand it as her family have, “this terrible time”, but over the last few days the unfolding national tragedy in Norway has stolen the headlines, all … Continue reading →

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Was Shakespeare a soldier?

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Sylvia Morris

The one-man play Being Shakespeare is just reaching the end of its run at the Trafalgar Studios. It’s a real tour de force by distinguished actor Simon Callow who switches effortlessly from narrative to speeches from Shakespeare’s plays, bringing characters … Continue reading →

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Shakespeare’s Avon, Act 7: Holy Trinity Church

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Sylvia Morris

Anyone visiting Stratford interested in places associated with Shakespeare will be aware that the parish church where he worshipped is a good 15 minutes walk from Shakespeare’s Birthplace. Why is Stratford’s church on the outskirts of the town, and on … Continue reading →

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Shakespeare and the French

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Sylvia Morris

Today has been Bastille Day, and a day for thinking about Shakespeare in France. Shakespeare’s Globe has been running a competition on Twitter regarding which of his plays Shakespeare set in France. The question isn’t as simple as it appears. … Continue reading →

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Blackadder and Shakespeare

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Sylvia Morris

My all-time favourite TV comedies are the 1980s Blackadder series, best of all the second in which the unpleasant and incompetent Edmund morphed into the clever but surrounded-by-idiots Edmund, dazzlingly glamorous in ruff and thigh-length boots, set in the Elizabethan … Continue reading →

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Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor: Shakespeare’s Lost Years

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Sylvia Morris

This week’s Start the Week on BBC Radio 4, broadcast on 4 July, asked how much we need to know about writers’ lives in order to fully appreciate their works. Contributors included a specialist on the medieval poet Dante and … Continue reading →

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Shakespeare and honour in All’s Well That Ends Well

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Sylvia Morris

  All’s Well That Ends Well  has recently been described as “one of Shakespeare’s least loved and least performed comedies” (Daily Telegraph) but with current productions at both the Globe Theatre in London and in New York’s Central Park as … Continue reading →

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