Episodios

  • The Arden Family and the Death of Edward Arden

    The Arden Family and the Death of Edward Arden
    Jul 22 2024
    William Shakespeare’s mother, Mary, was Mary Arden before she married her husband, John Shakespeare. Mary’s possible connection to the gentry Arden family has fascinated scholars and Shakespeare fans for many years. The Arden family was an established English gentry family in Warwickshire, and 1 of a handful of Tudor families in England who could trace their lineage back to the Anglo-Saxons. The family took their name from the Forest of Arden, used as a setting in Shakespeare’s play, As You Like It. In 1583, when William Shakespeare was 19, the head of the family, Edward Arden was executed, having been convicted of treason. Here today to share with us more history about the Arden family and Edward in particular is our guest, Cathryn Enis. Get bonus episodes on Patreon

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    38 m
  • Reproduction, Gynecology, and Female Anatomy

    Reproduction, Gynecology, and Female Anatomy
    Jul 15 2024
    In 1616, the year that William Shakespeare died, anatomist Helikiah Crooke published a book of medical diagrams that included a surprisingly high level of detail about human anatomy for a society that didn’t yet have powerful instruments like a microscope. However, noticeably absent from his medical drawings are any anatomically correct terms for the female body. For example, Crooke’s drawings correctly name many parts of the male anatomy, like the epididymis, peritoneum, penis, and the testicles, but when it comes to the female anatomy diagram, even though he has the fallopian tubes correctly drawn in the picture, he labels them as “Spermatical veins.” In another diagram, the uterus is definitely drawn in the shape of a man’s primary sexual organ, only it is labeled as a “womb,” with no mention of the cervix or the vagina. Shakespeare’s plays give us some examples of how this level of medical knowledge was known by general society because in his works Shakespeare uses anatomical terms like ‘urine” as well as “sperm” and even “Nerves and veins”, so we can see that some knowledge of human anatomy was broadly available in Shakespeare’s lifetime, but Helikiah Crooke’s diagrams raises some major questions about not only the medical understanding of women’s bodies, but exactly what kind of medical care was available for women in Shakespeare’s lifetime. In order to explore the 16-17th century understanding of human reproduction, and what the hyper-masculinization of women’s bodies meant for women’s medicine and gynecological care in Shakespeare’s lifetime, we are talking today with Roz Sklar. Get bonus episodes on Patreon

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    42 m
  • Morocco the Dancing Horse

    Morocco the Dancing Horse
    Jul 8 2024

    It wasn’t only people who served as performers in Shakespeare’s lifetime, animals, too were often trained to perform in street demonstrations, and one very unique animal captured the hearts of the popular entertainment word as a famous dancing horse named Morocco. Morocco was famous during Shakespeare’s lifetime, with over 70 woodcuts published showcasing his talents at entertaining crowds of all sizes. He and his owner traveled across England and even internationally displaying circus feats, tricks, and even magic. Here today to share with us the history of Morocco the horse, including where his story overlaps with that of William Shakespeare, is our guest, Natalia Pikli.



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    27 m
  • Listening to Broadside Ballads from the 17th Century

    Listening to Broadside Ballads from the 17th Century
    Jul 1 2024
    When Shakespeare mentions ballads in his plays, he uses adjectives like odious and woeful, mentioning both the ballad makers in Coriolanus, and the people who sell them, known as the ballad mongers, in Henry IV Part 1. Shakespeare’s has over 20 references to ballads throughout his works, all of which tell us that these songs were written in ink, published by printers, and performed in songs that not only rhymed, but that could be just as merry as it was painful, particularly if the ballad was sung out of tune, as Cleopatra complains in Antony and Cleopatra. Here today to share with us some of the exact ballads that were popular for Shakespeare’s lifetime, as well as the history of how they were created, and performed, is our guests, and masterminds behind the 100 Ballads Project that seeks to recreate and preserve ballads from the 17th century, Angela McShane, Chris Marsh, and Andy Watts. Get bonus episodes on Patreon

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    45 m
  • Math History, Figures, Numbers, and Shakespeare

    Math History, Figures, Numbers, and Shakespeare
    Jun 24 2024
    Throughout his works, Shakespeare references math terminology that goes well beyond the artithmetic education we expect him to have received at grammar school. There’s history behind the references that shares not only where Shakespeare would have learned about higher mathematics, but Shakespeare’s choices for specific math terms reflect major changes in England for the numerals that were being used to record data, as well as official acts of parliament that were being passed to define and standardize lengths and measures for the very first time. Here today to share with us some of the history behind a few of Shakespeare’s mathematical terms is our guest and author of the book Much ADo ABout Numbers, Rob Eastaway. Get bonus episodes on Patreon

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    33 m
  • Buttons on Clothing and Elsewhere in the 16-17th Century

    Buttons on Clothing and Elsewhere in the 16-17th Century
    Jun 17 2024
    Shakespeare talks about unbuttoning your sleeve in As You Like It, King Lear undoes a button in Act V of that play, and Moth talks about making a buttonhole lower in Love’s Labour’s Lost. We’ve talked about clothes here on the show previously, but what about the buttons that hold things like sleeves together, and various buttonholes. What were buttons like for Shakespeare’s lifetime, who was making them, and what material was used? How are 16th century buttons different from the ones we have today, and would we find buttons in the expected places, or were there unusual ways to use buttons in Shakespeare’s lifetime? To find out the answers to these questions, we are talking with the Renaissance Tailor, who specializes in recreating 16-17th century clothing, Tammie Dupuis. Get bonus episodes on Patreon

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    20 m
  • Poison, Unicorns, and Toadstones

    Poison, Unicorns, and Toadstones
    Jun 10 2024
    From Hamlet’s father being murdered by poison, to Romeo killing himself when he drinks poison, and several instances of hemlock, dragon’s scales, hebenon and others in between, Shakespeare utilizes poison as a dramatic device in several of his works. The use of poison was not just an easy tool for a plot twist, however, since poison was both a pervasive fear at all levels of society as well as a convenient and readily available method to dispatch someone, given that poison was incredibly hard to trace back to the criminal that administered it. The fear of poison was exacerbated by a broad ignorance of chemistry, resulting in many of the accepted treatments for illness being, in themselves, poison (Syphilis was routinely treated with mercury, for example, which is toxic.) Doctors, as well as monarchs, developed elaborate and unusual tactics for prevention and cure for poison, while those seeking to overthrow a monarch, or take out their enemy, used poison to come up with some sophisticated and complex designs for murder. Here today to share with us the history of real poisons from Shakespeare's lifetime used for medical and criminal application, as well as some ordinary items no one knew was trying to kill them, is our guest and author of The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul. We’re delighted to welcome Eleanor Herman to the show today. Get bonus episodes on Patreon

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    35 m
  • Drunk Horse Riding

    Drunk Horse Riding
    Jun 3 2024
    Ep 320 | Phil Withington Get bonus episodes on Patreon

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    25 m