That Shakespeare Life
Kanaal Besonderhede
That Shakespeare Life
Hosted by Cassidy Cash, That Shakespeare Life takes you behind the curtain and into the real life of William Shakespeare.
Onlangse Episodes
422 episodes
Hoof, Boat, & Shoe: Travel in Shakespeare's England
In Shakespeare's lifetime, travel wasn't reserved for grand tours or royal progresses — it was woven into daily life. Ordinary Elizabethans crossed ri...
Second Hand Shops: How Old Wares Were Redistributed in Shakespeare's England
In Shakespeare's play, The Winter's Tale, Autolycus talks about "selling all my trumpery." The reference made me wonder if Autolycus was packing up al...
Henry Wotton and the Invention of Diplomacy
There are many men who lived alongside William Shakespeare in turn of the 17th century England, but today's featured contemporary is a man who served...
Much Ado About Cooking
From delectable marchpane in Romeo and Juliet, and the herbs of the Merchant of Venice to stew'd prunes of Henry IV, and carving capons in Love's Labo...
The Real Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
When Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, he gave the melancholy Dane two university friends with peculiarly Danish names—Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. For many...
What Did "Weird" Mean to Shakespeare? The Strange History of Macbeth's Weird Sisters
When Shakespeare called the sisters in Macbeth "weird," he did not mean what we mean by the word today. In early modern England, "weird" carried deep...
New Year’s Gifts at the Court of Elizabeth I
Today, we think of Christmas as the season of giving—but in Shakespeare’s England, it was New Year’s Day that reigned supreme as the biggest gift-givi...
New Year's Gifts at the Court of Elizabeth I
Today, we think of Christmas as the season of giving—but in Shakespeare's England, it was New Year's Day that reigned supreme as the biggest gift-givi...
Arthurian England: How the Tudors Used Myth to Build a Nation
When we think of King Arthur, many of us imagine medieval romance—knights in shining armor, enchanted swords, or chivalric quests. But for the Tudors,...
“What Masque? What Music?” Ben Jonson & the Art of Court Spectacle
"Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?
What masque? what music? How shall we beguile
The lazy time, if not with some delight?...
"What Masque? What Music?" Ben Jonson & the Art of Court Spectacle
"Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?
What masque? what music? How shall we beguile
The lazy time, if not with some delight?...
A Royal Christmas with James I
Merry Christmas! This holiday season, we're taking a trip back to one of the most extravagant Christmas celebrations of Shakespeare's lifetime—the Chr...
A Royal Christmas with James I
Merry Christmas! This holiday season, we're taking a trip back to one of the most extravagant Christmas celebrations of Shakespeare's lifetime—the Chr...
Anne of Denmark: The Queen Who Transformed Shakespeare’s World
Discover how Anne of Denmark shaped the culture of the Stuart court—from dazzling masques and groundbreaking stagecraft to political influence, artist...
Anne of Denmark: The Queen Who Transformed Shakespeare's World
Discover how Anne of Denmark shaped the culture of the Stuart court—from dazzling masques and groundbreaking stagecraft to political influence, artist...
"You dissentious rogues..." The Language of 16thC Thieves
In Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 1, Falstaff declares on more than one occasion, "I am a rogue." Several exchanges between Falstaff, Henry V, and...
"You dissentious rogues..." The Language of 16thC Thieves
In Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 1, Falstaff declares on more than one occasion, "I am a rogue." Several exchanges between Falstaff, Henry V, and...
Arthurian England: How the Tudors Used Myth to Build a Nation
When we think of King Arthur, many of us imagine medieval romance—knights in shining armor, enchanted swords, or chivalric quests. But for the Tudors,...
Gratitude, Diplomacy, and Deer at the First Thanksgiving
In November 1621, two communities—Wampanoag and English—came together at the edge of Patuxet for a shared harvest meal. While today we call this momen...
Gratitude, Diplomacy, and Deer at the First Thanksgiving
In November 1621, two communities—Wampanoag and English—came together at the edge of Patuxet for a shared harvest meal. While today we call this momen...
The Slippery History of Eels in Shakespeare's England
When we imagine Elizabethan dining tables, we might picture roast meats, trenchers of bread, or tankards of ale. But lurking beneath the surface of ri...
The Slippery History of Eels in Shakespeare's England
When we imagine Elizabethan dining tables, we might picture roast meats, trenchers of bread, or tankards of ale. But lurking beneath the surface of ri...
Gallant Fellows and Their Feathered Hats
In All's Well That Ends Well, a character is described as "That with the plume: 'tis a most gallant fellow" (III.5), and in Love's Labour's Lost, the...
Gallant Fellows and Their Feathered Hats
In All's Well That Ends Well, a character is described as "That with the plume: 'tis a most gallant fellow" (III.5), and in Love's Labour's Lost, the...
The Venetian Doctor Who Turned ‘Hot’ and ‘Cold’ Into Numbers
In 1612—just one year after Shakespeare wrote The Tempest—Venetian physician Santorio Santori transformed Galileo's simple thermoscope into the world'...
The Venetian Doctor Who Turned 'Hot' and 'Cold' Into Numbers
In 1612—just one year after Shakespeare wrote The Tempest—Venetian physician Santorio Santori transformed Galileo's simple thermoscope into the world'...
Glamis Castle in Shakespeare's Macbeth
When Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, he opened with a powerful line: "All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis." But what did "Thane of Glamis" mea...
Folklore, Witchcraft, and Magic of the 16th Century
This week, we're dipping into the strange, the enchanted, and the eerily familiar with a sampling of the rich world of 16th-century folklore during Sh...
Roses in Shakespeare’s England
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." – Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene ii.
In Shakespeare's Eng...
Music for the King of Scots: Recreating Linlithgow Palace’s Soundscape
Linlithgow Palace, set between Edinburgh and Stirling, was one of the great royal residences of the Scottish crown. It was the birthplace of Mary Quee...
Shakespeare, the Ottomans, and the Islamic World
When Shakespeare wrote Othello, he set his Moorish general against the "general enemy Ottoman." Elsewhere in his plays, he invoked "Turks," "Saracens,...
Potatoes in Shakespeare’s England
When Falstaff cries, "Let the sky rain potatoes" in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare's audience heard more than a vegetable—they heard novelty,...
The Holy Grail in Shakespeare’s England
For Shakespeare and his contemporaries, the line between history and myth was often delightfully blurred. Legends of King Arthur and the fabled Holy G...
What the Anne Hathaway Epitaph Reveals About Her Legacy
This week, we explore the legacy of Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway, through the only epitaph in the Shakespeare family plot that's written in Latin...
Feathers in Dress and Costume for the 16th-17th Century
Shakespeare's plays are rich with references to fashion and feathers. In All's Well That Ends Well, he writes: "Faith, there's a dozen of 'em, with de...
How Elizabethan England Managed the Flea
So complains one of Shakespeare's characters in The Merry Wives of Windsor, voicing what was surely a common frustration in the 16th and 17th centurie...
The Volta, the Galliard, the Jig, and more: Dances of Elizabethan England
In Love's Labour's Lost, Berowne declares, "Let us dance and sport," while in Twelfth Night, Sir Toby Belch exclaims, "Shall we set about some revels?...
Between the Acts: The History and Purpose of the Interval”
When you picture a Shakespeare play, you likely imagine a continuous performance—scene following scene, act following act—until the final bow. But in...
Wilt Break My Heart?”: Broken Heart Syndrome in Shakespeare’s Plays
In King Lear, Shakespeare has the king cry out, "Break, heart; I prithee, break!"—a line rich with sorrow, and one that may have held deeper meaning f...
Did Shakespeare Live on Trinity Lane?
A letter fragment recently rediscovered in an archive may contain the earliest surviving reference to Shakespeare's name—and a clue to where he lived...