That Shakespeare Life

This Christmas season we are celebrating the holidays Shakespeare style by bringing out some traditional Tudor ghosts tories. For the 16-17th century, one popular time to tell ghost stories was during the Christmas holidays. A more accurate term for these stories might be “ghost narratives” because they are different than the stories we think of today as “ghost stories”Instead of being fictional tales for the purpose of entertainment, ghost narratives fromShakespeare’s lifetime were factual tales (or at least witness accounts) people would tell about encountering ghosts or other supernatural beings. Our guest, Dr. Francis Young, is here thisweek to tell us about these stories, their association with Christmas, and the details surrounding some evidence that suggests Mamillius might be about to tell one of these ghost narratives in Shakespeare’s play,The Winter’s Tale Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Tudor England, it was a tradition to tell ghost stories to celebrate Christmas, particularly on Christmas Eve. One of the people about whom ghost stories might have been shared is none other than Anne Boleyn. If the legends are true, Anne Boleyn’s ghost must be the most traveled ghost in Britain, with stories of her spirit wandering across the country in at least 7 different locations. These stories were told after Anne’s death and survived not only through Shakespeare’s lifetime but persist even today. Here today to tell us about some of these ghost stories, including ones that might have been told around the Christmas fireside for Shakespeare’s lifetime is our guest, historian, and author of The Final Year of Anne Boleyn, Natalie Grueninger.   Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the reign of Elizabeth I, which was 1558-1603 and spans most of Shakespeare’s lifetime, England was experiencing the English Renaissance, a time when all forms of art were seeing a shift in popularity, but music, in particular moved from being something you would hear only in a church to being popular at more secular events. In fact, not only did Elizabeth I herself enjoy playing music, but as an art form, music was widely applied in early modern plays, like those of William Shakespeare, for both comedies and tragedies as a way to heighten the drama, almost exactly like what you think of as a movie soundtrack today. While instrumental music like that of the viringal or the lute were popular, one particular form of vocal performance known as the madrigal rose to prominence in early modern England as an adaptation of earlier Italian poetry set to music, which English composers transformed into a uniquely English genre. The madrigal became a popular way to celebrate major events, including Christmas celeb

William Shakespeare’s father, John Shakespeare, spent a great deal of time in trouble with the government over his illegal sale of wool. Several court documents show that John Shakespeare was investing in wool then selling it on to others. He didn’t have a license to sell the wool, which is why he was so regularly in trouble. What the records of his dealings demonstrate is that the wool was valuable enough a commodity in England that John Shakespeare that he felt it was worth both the risk and the fines he had to pay, in order to deal in wool. Wool was one of England, and later the UK’s, major exports, and Stratford Upon Avon, Shakespeare’s hometown. was home to sheep farmers who produced the wool that could be sold internationally. In fact, some finished wool products like Monmouth caps, for example, were so well known for their quality, that they are even referenced by name in Shakespeare’s play, Henry V, when Fluellen talks about wearing leeks in your Monmouth cap. Here today to tell us more about the wool

The Pilgrim Psalter (originally titled “The Book of Psalms, Englished in Prose and Meter”) was produced by Henry Ainsworth in 1612. Ainsworth was a Hebrew scholar and Bible teacher among the English Separatists in Amsterdam, Holland. The work is called a Psalter because it is a translation of the Hebrew Psalms which between 1010 and 930 BC during the time of David and his son Solomon. Ainsworth’s translations of the Psalms are musical, set to tunes popular in Reformation era, and are remembered today for being remarkably faithful to the original Hebrew text. When the English Pilgrims fled to Holland in an attempt to escape religious persecution in England, they adopted this Psalter and they carried it with them on the Mayflower. Here today to share with us the history of the Pilgrim Psalter and the journey it took across the ocean at the start of the 17th century is our guest and historian of the 1616 Psalter, Mary Huffman.   Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for m

When we sit down to a formal dinner here in the United States, there are manners you are expected to follow like sit up straight, push your chair in, place your napkin in your lap. All of this small niceties are called collectively dining etiquette and they represent the rules for how we are to operate socially when eating a meal. Which begs the question: What about Shakespeare? When the bard sat down a meal with his friends, perhaps at the Mermaid Tavern, or even for a state dinner somewhere like Whitehall Palace, were there conventional behaviors he was supposed to follow when eating a table for a formal dinner? To find out Maura Graber, Director of the RSVP Institute for Etiquette is back with us again this week, to share the history of dining and proper behavior at the table for the 16th century.   Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Shakespeare’s plays refer to a napkin at least 20 times, including As You Like It where Rosalind mentions a bloody napkin, in Hamlet the title character is offered a napkin to “rub thy brows.” In Henry IV Part 1, Falstaff talks about someone’s shirt being made of “two napkins” sewn together, Merry Wives of Windsor scorns the greasy napkin, while Othello complains that Desdemona’s napkin is too small. When it comes to sizes, shapes, material, and uses for napkins in Shakespeare’s lifetime, we are looking to Maura Graber, Director of the RSVP institute for Etiquette, and the founder of Etiquipedia, the online encyclopedia of Etiquette, to walk us through the history of napkins and their uses for Shakespeare’s lifetime. Maura is here for two episodes with us on dining and etiquette for the 16th century. Today is Part 2 in our series with Maura on Table History, we’ll have links to Part 1 in the show notes of the episode.   Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more in

Far before the time of Shakespeare, there was a prevalent belief in the creatures known as werewolves, or lycanthrope, as they were called in the Ancient world. This belief saw a large increase by the 16th century, with people believing werewolves were humans capable of shape shifting into the form of a large and evil wolf, desiring to consume other humans, particularly children, by the light of a full moon. The legend of werewolves today is dismissed by the popular mindset and relegated to the halls of horror films, tv shows, and of course, Halloween costumes. However, in Shakespeare’s lifetime, there was not only an established belief in actual werewolves, but documented cases of real people convicted of being werewolves, like the Werewolf of Dole in 1573, Peter Stumpp in 1589, and A Geneva man was convicted of killing 16 children when he had changed himself into a wolf on October 15, 1580, when Shakespeare was just 16 years old. Here today to share with us the history of the werewolf in Shakespeare’s Engla

William Shakespeare refers to the legend of Robin Hood in his play, As You Like it with the old Duke exiled to the Forest of Arden with a group of Merry Men who “live like the old Robin Hood of England” (Act I, scene i). In his play, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Shakespeare again mentions the Robin Hood legend when an outlaw exclaims “By the bare scalp of Robin Hood’s fat friar.” The accompanying characters of the Robin Hood story find their place in Shakespeare’s plays, when in Henry IV Part I and Henry IV Part 2 Falstaff talks about Maid Marian and Falstaff’s companion Justice Silence sings a song about “And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John.” What these references tell us is that the legend of Robin Hood was an active part of the history of William Shakespeare and the pop culture of the time period to whom he was writing. But the legend of Robin Hood is quite fluid throughout history with it being used as a symbol for good as well as a symbol for insurrection and a general debate about who he wa

In the year 1623, close to a decade after William Shakespeare died, the First Folio was published, which is a collection of some of Shakespeare’s plays selected by his friends and a group of business investors involved in the project. What makes it a Folio, as opposed to simply a book, is the way in which it is physically bound. Here today to help us explore the materials used in making the Folio, including details about the paper used and the intricate binding, along with how the plays were chosen that were included in the final publication, and what ultimately happened to the copies that were printed, is our guest and Head of the Printed Heritage Collections at the British Library, Adrian Edwards.   Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ForShakespeare's lifetime, ghosts and spiritual manifestations were fixture in pop culture publications like songs, ballads, and of course, plays like Shakespeare’s that feature ghosts such as Banquo, Hamlet’s Father, and even a string of dead victims that visit Richard III on the eve of Battle in Shakespeare’s Richard III. They were as haunting as ever in Shakespeare’s lifetime, but what was the purpose, place, and reception of ghosts for Shakespeare’s lifetime?Did people believe ghosts were real? As we head into October, the month of all things haunted and spooky, we are sitting down with our guest, Savannah Jensen, to explore not only what people believed about ghosts but one specific piece of 16th century popular culture where ghosts were a mainstay in Shakespeare’s lifetime and that’s the haunted lover’s ballad, or songs written specifically for the lovers among us, and, surprisingly, featured ghosts as the main character Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more infor

During his voyage around the world in 1577-1580, Sir Francis Drake captained a ship named the Golden Hinde. On this ship lived a woman named Maria, whose plight we only know about because of a record kept by an anonymous sailor who mentions her in one line of a manuscript currently housed at the British Museum in London. The line is short, but the history it references is immense. The line reads ““Drake tooke… a proper negro wench called Maria, which was afterward gotten with child between the captaine and his men pirates, and sett on a small iland to take her adventure.” Some historians believe that Shakespeare was inspired by this report to write the character Sycorax in his play The Tempest, since Sycorax is also an African woman, abandoned by sailors on an island while heavily pregnant. Here today to share with us the history of Maria, her story, and how much we can learn about whether her plight overlaps that of Shakespeare’s play, is our. Guest, and author of On Wilder Seas, the book that imagines what

Shakespeare uses the word “apple” in his works a total of 9 times, including references to crab apples, rotten apples, and the apple of your eye, among others. The word apple was used to describe the round, edible, fruit we know today, but could also apply to other fruits. In fact, some 16-17th century references use “apple” as a generic term for any fruit that included a nut. There’s even one expression from the Middle ages called “appel of paradis” which refers to a banana. The apple fruit features prominently in religious artwork for the 16th century, as well as being useful for cooking, apple cider, and of course, the famous Christmas beverage enjoyed in Shakespeare’s lifetime, Apple Wassail. To explore the history of apples in England, we are excited to welcome Nigel Deacon to show today, who will be sharing with us not only how apples are cooked for Shakespeare’s lifetime, but other more surprising places you might find them in the 16-17th century as well.   Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hoste

In Shakespeare’s lifetime, the game we call soccer today, known as football in Europe, was a popular in Shakespeare’s lifetime. In fact, some sources say the game of football was invented in England during the Middle Ages. These original forms of football were called “mob football” and would be played in towns and villages, involving two opposing teams, that would struggle by any means possible to drag an inflated pig’s bladder to markers at each end of town. Shakespeare mentions this game twice in his plays. In Comedy of Errors, Dromio says “Am I so round with you as you with me, That like a football you do spurn me thus?” Then in King Lear, the Earl of Kent references football again saying, “Nor tripp'd neither, you base football player?” One of these inflated pig’s bladders was actually found, in tact, in the rafters of Stirling Castle. This surviving football dates to the 16th century, and could have belonged to Mary Queen of Scots. Here today to tell us more about 16th century football, the artifact disc

In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Act III, Sir Toby Belch uses the Great Bed of Ware in England as a measuring stick for something that is impossibly large. The Great Bed of Ware is a real bed, as it was in Shakespeare’s lifetime, that was made for travelers to use when staying at an inn. The bed itself is, as Sir Toby suggests, impossibly large, with sleeping capacity for up to 9 people! Here today to tell us about the history and importance of The Great Bed of Ware, is our guest and Curator, Furniture and Woodwork 1300-1700 at the Victoria and Albert Museum where the Great Bed of Ware is part of the collections, Nick Humphrey.  Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When we look back at the study of Shakespeare’s plays, the question always come to mind about how much can we know about the actual William Shakespeare from the pieces of artwork, plays, and even legal documents that survive about his life. No one has done more study of the plays of William Shakespeare nor understands more about his life in turn of the 17th century England than our guest today, Stanley Wells, President of Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, who joins us to share about his latest book answering the question “What was Shakespeare Really Like”  Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A short notice for you ahead of today’s episode, I apologize for the general gruff sounding voice today, I am recovering from a cold and struggling through a horrible cough that threatens to take my voice completely. But never fear! As a true performance professional, the show must go on! Therefore, I am armed with three cups of chamomile tea, a large bottle of water, and an excellent audio editor who will remove any coughs. Therefore, without more ado, let’s dive in to the history. Profanity is a term we use to describe naughty words, but as a definition, profanity is anything that happens when specific religious terms get stolen from their original intent and applied with manipulated meaning. Think of words like damn or hell. They are appropriate when used in context of their biblical meaning, but offensive when you hear them in an action movie, for example. When it comes to the origin of curse words, the Latin term “profanus” actually meant “outside the temple” to signify terms that desecrated what wa

In the play, Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff declares “Let the sky rain potatoes!” what’s unique about this quote, despite Falstaff calling for root vegetables to rain down from the sky which is of course, weird on its’ own, but potatoes on the whole were brand new to England at the exact time Shakespeare was including this quote in his play. Merry Wives of Windsor was written towards the end of the 16th century—between 1597 and 1601. Potatoes are thought to have arrived in the late 1580s or early 1590s. Once the potato arrived in Europe it was used for medicine, grown by some gardeners for their flowers, and in 1597, the same time frame we think Merry Wives of Windsor was writtne, John Gerard added the first printed picture of the potato to Herball (although he thought that the potato was native to Virginia). Here today to help us sort through what it was like to see a potatoe for the first time, as well as how potatoes were used in Shakespeare’s lifetime is our guest and expert in the history of plants, Sa

After we published our episode here on That Shakespeare Life about the Duncan portrait of William Shakespeare, I received an email from Steve Wadlow, telling me about the history of a portrait that had been hanging in his family home for years that a visiting Shakespeare scholar indicated might be William Shakespeare, and suggested Steve look into the provenance further. With no prior experience in Shakespeare history or indeed even the art world, Steve dove headlong into finding out where this painting had come from originally and exactly who the person in the picture was, since the image was strikingly similar to the Cobbe portrait of William Shakespeare. Here today to tell us what he found out and whether or not this painting is of William Shakespeare is our guest, and newly minted art historian, Steve Wadlow.   Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Shakespeare’s in Henry IV, Part 2, Falstaff has the line: “his wit's as thick as Tewkesbury Mustard” (Act 2, Scene 4). Falstaff is describing his friend Ned Poins, but it presents the question of what was Tewkesbury Mustard? Turns out this particular mustard developed in a small town of England called Tewkesbury, and it was not only popular in Shakespeare’s lifetime, but during the 17th century it was considered a staple condiment in kitchens of this time period. Amazingly, the mustard has not only survived the centuries but is still being made exactly the way it was for Shakespeare’s lifetime right in Tewkesbury at the Tewkesbury Mustard Company. We are delighted to have Robin Ritchie who is founder and Mustard Master Emeritus at the Tewkesbury Mustard Company to share with us the history of this mustard, how it is made, and how you can enjoy some for yourself. Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.