That Shakespeare Life

When William Shakespeare died in Stratford Upon Avon England in 1616, the world lost an incredible soul that would far outlast his 52 years. But how did the greatest playwright die? And why was he not buried alongside other great playwrights of his stature at Westminster Abbey? Here to take us back to 1616 and walk us through the myths, the legend and the facts about Shakespeare's death is our gue...

William Shakespeare grew up functioning as the oldest of his five siblings, with his parents losing two children before William was born. The stories of his brothers and sisters are brief, but as you might expect from the life of William Shakespeare, they are full of intrigue, mystery, and mirth. Here today to share with us the stories of Shakespeare siblings is our guest, David Kathman.

When it comes to Food in Shakespeare's England, there were superstitions, recipes, kitchens, and even cooking methods attached to the metaphors Shakespeare intended when he used food references in his works.  All of this effusive history behind food in early modern England is at the heart of the Folger Shakespeare Library's latest project caled Before Farm to Table. Our guest this week Elisa Tersi...

The bard has his own bobble head figurines and his likeness has even been made into emojis and memes here in the 21st century, but how much of this likeness is real and what has posterity simple made up? From the famous Chandos Portrait that was the founding acquisition of England's National Portrait Gallery, to the Droeshout portrait that graced the front cover of the First Folio in 1623, how man...

During William Shakespeare's lifetime, the central spot for gathering news of the day, purchasing the latest books, or catching up on what's new from your favorite author, poet, or playwright, was the churchyard outside St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Frequenter's to this spot were known as "paul's walkers" and it was a huge number of walkers indeed that crossed the yard to search the various stal...

There are close to 200 plant references in Shakespeare's plays, with the bard mentioning herbs, spcices, as well as the iconic roses that was such a plague to Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. With the massive amount of exploration and import of foreign goods that was exploding in Egland dudirng Shakespeare's lifetime, many of the plants mentioned by the bard were being seen in england for the very firs...

William Shakespeare uses Tudor Knot Gardens in his plays, most notably in Love's Labour's Lost, but also with a mention in Richard II. These iconic symbols of Tudor history are as intricate in design as they are in their history and folklore. Here to help us explore exactly why Shakespeare would have invoked the reputation of a Tudor Knot Garden for his plays, as well as the history of the design,...

After William Shakespeare made his name in London, established himself as a gentleman at home, he returned to Stratford Upon Avon to seek his status as a gentleman, acquiring not only a coat of arms, but the second largest house in town. New Place was brought with considerable legal wrangling, however, and the story of how Shakespeare came to own his famous house is filled with fights, suspicion,...

With all of the major advances that have taken place since the The Scientific Revolution, it can be easy to forget how impactful and, indeed, revolutionary the time period was for playwrights like William Shakespeare. The bard was being influenced by high level mathematics, and a very Renaissance minded way of thinking that spills off the page into his productions. Here to help us explore some of...

Elephants being given as gifts to the monarch, lions being tamed inside theaters, and bears chasing people off stage in A Winter's Tale. Where did these exotic animals come from? Why were they being used on stage? Peta Tait visits with us this week to explore exotic animals in Shakespeare's England.

For William Shakespeare's London, multiple races were commonplace on the streets near The Globe theater where plays like Othello and Merchant of Venice boldy portrayed blackness and multiple ethnicities in performance, but what was the 16th century perspective on race when they saw various ethnicities on stage? Othello was first portrayed by Richard Burbage, who was a white man, so did Shakespeare...

From rapiers to broadswords, weapons fly in Shakespeare's plays, but how many of these dramatic weapons were an established part of daily life for the bard? Did people really carry around rapiers and daggers in the streets of London or at home in Stratford upon Avon? Find out when we talk with author and professional sword maker, Sean Flynt, as he introduces us to the weapons of Shakespeare's life...

Whether it's Lear calling Goneril a plague-sore, or Mercutio cursing the families in Romeo and Juliet by saying "A plague on both your houses!" Shakespeare's works testify to the fact that rampant plague was a very real, and very prevalent, part of Shakespeare's daily life. But what were the concerns about plague that Shakespeare was considering when he wrote these works that refer to the disease?...

We are celebrating Shakespeare's birthday this week by taking a look at how Shakespeare became a gentleman. One of the ways William Shakespeare achieved the status of a gentleman was in the procurement of the family Coat of Arms. This process was something of a mystery because history shows us that Shakespeare's father had been eligible for a coat of arms, but never received it. Later, his son Wil...

Several of Shakespeare's history plays, and even some of his comedies mention or refer to characters as a knight. Sometimes knights are good, other times they are bad, and sometimes we aren't quite sure what they are as is often the case with characters like Falstaff. However, what's true is that an armored knight defending the honor of the monarchy were real people in Shakespeare's lifetime, and...

For William Shakespeare, the Globe theater itself represented a place that brought together a mix of classes. People from high society, all the way down the poorest of the poor observed Shakespeare's plays, but how much of the bard's work acknowledged the poor and what was the reality of charitable giving going on around William Shakespeare as he was penning some of his famous scenes about beggars...

When William Shakespeare was writing The Tempest was he considering the light bouncing off the walls of his playhouse? When he directed Feste to be fond of singing in Twelfth Night , did Shakespeare know the people in the back would be able to hear him? We don't often think about Shakespeare's plays in context of where they were originally performed, but this week our guest Sarah Dustagheer has wr...

Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford Upon Avon sits just outside the famous Cotswolds Hills, where wool was the primary industry. It's even thought that shepherds in the area taking care of their sheep are responsible for the first discovery of graphite that would go on to be used in pencils. In Shakespeare's plays, there are references to sheep, lambs, fleeces, wool, and shepherds in almost all of...

Good artists copy, great artists steal. That's the line they tell us about what it takes to be great at art, but was it true for William Shakespeare? The bard borrows heavily from sources like Holinshed, Ovid, and others in the writing of his plays but does it impact how we understand the story? This week we welcome our guest, JM Pressley of the Shakespeare Resource Center to walk us through the h...

Many times when Shakespeare would perform a play, there would be a bawdy and comical song and dance show performed after the play, even if the play was a tragedy or something more serious. A traditional part of Elizabethan theater, the jig was a not only an expected part of playhouse performances but they represent a slice of culture from Shakespeare's liftime. Many of the song and dance routines...

John Fletcher was a prominent playwright during William Shakespeare's lifetime, whose work came close to eclipsing that of the bard during the height of his popularity in early modern England. Friends, as well as colleagues with The King's Men, Shakespeare and Fletcher collaborated on several key plays of Shakespeare like Henry VIII as well as Two Noble Kinsmen. John Fletcher was so prominent and...

While many of the castles and great homes of the monarch in England already contained luxurious bathrooms, it would be Henry VIII--in a style true to his flamboyant reputation, that would create elaborately accessorized bathrooms for palaces like Whitehall and Hampton Court. While these bathrooms were used by the monarchy in Shakespeare's life, such as Queen Elizabeth, the average Tudor, and Shake...

If the saying is true that you are the sum of your five closest friends, then one great way to get to know William Shakespeare is to take a look at the lives of his closest friends. John Heminges and Henry Condell helped form the foundation of the shareholder agreement Shakespeare made at The Globe and the Lord Chamberlain's Men. They would remain loyal to Shakespeare from Elizabethan England into...

William Shakespeare started out the son of a glove maker in a small town in England, and went on to become the greatest playwright the world has ever seen. How does one person accomplish so much? What did it take, exactly, for Shakespeare to become a genius? Was he born with particular gifts and talents no one else has seen or heard of again in the last 400 years? Or has our love of Shakespeare in...

Even Shakespeare had to eat. We laud Shakespeare as a man who helped reinvent the theater industry, and someone who would pen some of the greatest lines in all of antiquity, and establish a reputation that lasted at the top of his game for over 400 years. But what did someone like that eat for breakfast? It certainly wasn't Wheaties powering that legacy, so what kind of foods did Shakespeare enjoy...