That Shakespeare Life

Elizabeth I issued several proclamations during her reign concerning property, renting, and housing in England. London proper would see it's population more than double over the course of Shakespeare's lifetime, and there was very little in the way of any government concerning who could rent the limited available space owned in the city, what they could charge, or even basic safety regulations. Hi...

From Merry Wives of Windsor, to Measure for Measure, Alls Well That Ends Well, and others, the role of marriage plays a big role in Shakespeare's plays, determines the action, defining the characters, and living on several assumptions about the marriage institution. But what are those assumptions, exactly? As a modern audience member, what do we need to know about marriage in Shakespeare's lifetim...

When we talk about Shakespeare's theaters, most often we mean The Globe, with it's iconic "O' shape, we sometimes forget that Shakespeare's plays were actually performed in a variety of venues, and that William was involved in starting the first indoor theater anywhere in the world when he, and his longtime business partner Richard Burbage, established the then-risky venue, The Blackfriars. With t...

In Shakespeare's play, The Winter's Tale, there is a famous stage direction where the character Antigonus exits the stage but the written directions in the play state that he is to "exit, pursued by a bear." So in performance, this character exits as a bear, seemingly from nowhere, arrives to chase him off the stage and into Shakespeare legend. Here to help us look at the history and context of th...

When it comes to Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night-- other than the title and the use of role reversal, there's seemingly very little to suggest Shakespeare's play is anything but another comedy. In fact, modern stagings have often found it difficult to revive the play as a holiday feature due precisely to its' lack of holiday content. However, when we explore the history of the holiday itself, and...

With the holidays upon us, this Christmas Eve we wanted to celebrate with our favorite Elizabethan: William Shakespeare. Christmas was a popular celebration even 400 years ago and from the time young William was born growing up in Stratford Upon Avon, England, there were several important traditions that he used to mark the holiday with his family and friends. Here to help us explore the Christmas...

William Shakespeare is almost synonymous with iambic pentameter, his famous plays making this popular rhyme scheme famous as well. From Chaucer to King James I and Edmund Spenser, iambic pentameter flowed through English classical verse and the stages of The Globe and Blackfriars, prolifically dominating the spoken word in performances all over England. Iambic Pentameter was a major player in thea...

Mentioned by name in three of Shakespeare's plays, the legend of Robin Hood played a big role in the life of most dramatists in early modern England, being a prominent figure in English folklore, his legend was a popular source of good dramatic material on stage. For William Shakespeare, Robin Hood had some very specific touch points, not only was he mentioned by names, but numerous volumes of Sha...

Not many of us think of Shakespeare's plays as examples of great musicals, but from A Midsummer Night's Dream, to even Macbeth , Shakespeare uses music, song, and instrumental accompaniment as a dramatic device that spurs forward the story of the play, and quite often, even comments on the actions of the players themselves with songs, dances, and even musical flourishes to introduce or follow the...

If we took a photograph of every single King Lear ever staged, they would likely all be wearing a different costume. When it comes to Shakespeare's stage directions, he's of very little help to production companies because rarely, if at all, are the costumes of a particular play detailed out anywhere by Shakespeare himself. Of course his characters wore costumes, and used props, but exactly what w...

One of the most iconic holiday images in the Western World is that of a grand family table set for a crowd, packed with goodies and right at the center is a stuffed turkey glistening and ready for dinner. What you might not expect from this image is that the turkey's arrival on the holiday table has a long history in transatlantic exploration and international trade with Native Americans which dat...

The character of Prospero in The Tempest is full of magic, superstition, and the question for the audience about whether Prospero is a good man or a selfish and greedy villain. Then of course, we have to ask, was he even a real man at all, or something supernatural? When The Tempest was first staged, it was done so before King James I at a celebration for All Hallow's Day in 1611. As King James wa...

William Shakespeare's life overlapped some of the most extraordinary scientific discoveries in human history. Modern thought was developing the idea of a round Earth, the sun being the center of the universe, and scientific minds like Galileo, Thomas Digges, and Tycho Brahe, were utilizing then cutting edge technology like the telescope to transform the way we thought about the universe and our pl...

Halloween is coming up a few days from now, and it seems like a good opportunity to explore the origins to the holiday, which began as a religious celebration. Of course, since then it's grown into a fun night of candy and costumes for us here in the US, but for William Shakespeare, ghouls, ghosts, and witches had real life implications. While king of Scotland, James VI became convinced witchcraft...

From the Chandos portrait to first folio engraving, all of our visual depictions of William Shakespeare show him with a full face beard. Was this grooming style typical for Elizabethans or was William Shakespeare stepping outside the norm with his choice of facial hair? We think of Shakespeare as a hipster artist guy today, but what did the Elizabethans think about Shakespeare's Beard?

When we think about William Shakespeare, we almost synonymously think of him holding a quill pen, or furiously scratching away on a piece of parchment with ink on his hands creating a masterpiece. When it comes to the history of writing, pens in particular, and even references to writing that happens inside Shakespeare's plays, the world of writing instruments in Shakespeare's lifetime was really...

Between 1590 and 1642, there were about twenty companies of actors in London and only 4-5 of them played in London proper at one time. In addition to these companies, there were more than a hundred provincial troupes. The fact that there were many more provincial troupes than city-playing companies demonstrates that for William Shakespeare's lifetime, it was actually the purpose built theater whic...

For years, historians have ruminated on the state of William Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare, and the financial troubles that were speculated to have caused the bard to leave Grammar School before graduation around age 14. Without any real substantial evidence to confirm or deny what actually happened to John Shakespeare, we have been left to wonder what, if any impact, these troubles had o...

One of the most referenced sports in the plays of William Shakespeare is that of falconry. From hoodwinked to wrapped around your little finger, many of the colloquialisms we use to describe human relationships today can be attributed to Shakespeare, who learned them from the sport of falconry. Falconry is the sport that takes large birds of prey, like falcons or hawks, and catches food which is k...

Many British historians will recognize the Essex Rebellion as a famous event, but less well known is the almost pivotal role in that uprising that was played by William Shakespeare. Robert Devereux was the 2nd Earl of Essex and was, in addition to being the Queen's favorite, also one of Shakespeare's most notable patrons. After a ghastly display of disrespect to the Queen in public, along with man...

When we see a Shakespeare play, we take for granted just how much work, and history, goes into staging the fight scenes. Whether it's Hamlet and Laertes dueling it out, or the legions of armies storming the stage in the Battle of Agincourt, the fights that Shakespeare put on stage are the secret sauce that helps seal the deal on Shakespeare's plays. Our guide this week into the real life of Willia...

Whether it was beer, ale, tobacco, or other plant based stimulants, almost every man and woman in 16th century London from the brothel to the royal court had an opinion on, and often tried, intoxicants. Substances like tobacco, ale, beer, and even chocolate were being brought to England for the first time by explorers who were travelling to new worlds and returning with samples of new and exciting...

Rivals in life,and in legacy, Ben Jonson is a playwright who gave Shakespeare a run for his money. Some of Ben Jonson's extravagancy on the stage and creativity as an artist is even said to have influenced how Shakespeare chose to stage some of his own plays, with the two men being linked in anecdote after anecdote when you study history. Obviously aquaintances, colleagues, and contemporaries, but...

William Shakespeare's oldest daughter, Susanna, married Dr. John Hall when she was 24 years old. John was a faithful son in law to William Shakespeare, and as a medical doctor in Stratford had a unique look at what it was like to live and work in a small town of the 16th century England. John Hall's surviving case books help Shakespeare historians piece together many realities about Shakespeare's...

In Shakespeare's play, Two Gentlemen of Verona, one character has a pet dog. The dog's name is Crab. The part in the play is very small, but remains included by Shakespeare, which leads to some interesting questions about animals and their role in Shakespeare's history. He must have included Crab strategically, but why? Animals in history are connected mostly to farming, agriculture, and perhaps d...