Contemporaries
Lord Strange's Men
April/24/2018 16:24
The Globe (on London's south bank) and Stratford are two of the best known Shakespeare playhouses, but now a third is being build in one of England's poorest neighborhoods, as part of a revitalization plan. The 350-seat Shakespeare North Playhouse will be up and running in Prescott by 2020, and builds on a historical precedent: a playhouse was built there in 1593, though there is no evidence (yet) that Shakespeare ever visited it. Even better for this wonderful story: the replica globe will be build using materials and props built for Shakespeare in Love. Oh, and the title? The original playhouse was built with money provided by the Earls of Derby, and they also sponsored a troupe, called Lord Strange's Men.
Shakespeare's Education
April/02/2018 18:11
Just as many students today must read Shakespeare at school, so of course at one time, Shakespeare had to attend school, and read the notes and play writes of that era. This brief but detailed article by noted English actor Simon Callow nicely outlines the educational world and childhood Shakespeare likely experienced. And the schooling did not seem either easy, or particularly broad, as he notes in this passages: "They didn’t study history, they didn’t study mathematics, they didn’t study geography, they didn’t study science. They studied grammar, from dawn to dusk, six days a week, all the year round. Grammar – Latin grammar. They translated from Latin into English and from English into Latin. At school, ordinary conversation was in Latin; any boy caught speaking English was flogged. And they mastered the tropes of rhetoric, from antimetabole (where words are repeated in inverse order) to zeugma (where one verb looks after two nouns)."
It's Time, Once Again, to Suggest that Shakespeare was not Shakespeare...
March/07/2018 13:05
Every six months to a year or so, a claim is made that Will Shakespeare, of Stratford, did not write the plays we generally associate with him. This article is slightly different, since it leaves that aspect of the Shakespeare debate to the end (with a pretty good refutation of the theory that "Shakespeare is not Shakespeare".) The first part of the article suggests that a 1576 copy of a French collection of tragedies (François de Belleforest's Histoires Tragiques) was not only used by Shakespeare for inspiration (specifically, Hamlet), but also has some of his annotations. As always, the debate will rage on!
Writing While Under the Influence...
February/12/2018 12:32
Shakespeare did not write in a vacuum, and scholars today confirm that he was heavily influenced by Holinshed's Chronicles, and Plutarch's Lives (properly titled Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans.)
Now, an amateur and deeply capable scholar — Dennis McCarthy — has, in collaboration with Professor June Schlueter, ferreted out what is likely to prove a powerful third influence on Shakespeare, the writing of one of Queen Elizabeth I's ambassadors to Sweden, George North. An obscure diplomat until now (his Wikipedia entry starts onFebruary 8, 2018 — 4 days ago!) he had an elegant turn of phrase that clearly caught Shakespeare's attention and imagination. The book that sparked Shakespeare's — and now our — interest, was A Brief Discourse of Rebellion & Rebels. Read the New York Times article here.
New Digitized Facsimile of 1623 First Folio Published by Bodmer Lab
February/01/2018 10:15
Geneva's Bodmer Lab has made available to the public a full high resolution digital copy of a 1623 First Folio. Pictured above is a part of the dedication of the volume by Heminges and Condell to their patrons, William, Earl of Pembroke, and his brother Philip, Earl of Montgomery. A tremendous asset to scholars, teachers, and students, but note, the text of the web site is in French.
Permission Granted
January/26/2018 10:11
The original document used to announce King James I's granting of a royal warrant to Shakespeare's acting troupe, changing their name from The Lord Chamberlain's Men to The King's Men, and permitting them to perform "Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Enterludes, Moralles, Pastoralles, Stageplayes". Read and see high quality digital scans of the warrant.
Shakespeare's Own Drama
November/28/2016 15:35
An excellent overview by Stanley Wells of the drama (broadly speaking) that William Shakespeare experienced in his own family affairs. More.
Analogy Lovers, Start Your Engines!
November/20/2016 15:28
The Guardian proposes that Leonard Cohen is to Bob Dylan, as John Donne was to Shakespeare. Discuss...More.
Shakespeare's Co-Writers
October/27/2016 16:30
Shakespeare did not work alone, but was profoundly influenced by those around him -- actors, directors, writers and other theater professionals. This delightful infographic from the Oxford University Press neatly captures the vibrant artistic environment in which he worked.
Henry VI, Part 1 By W. Shakespeare... and Christopher Marlowe.
October/25/2016 16:34
From Wikipedia: A portrait, supposedly of Christopher Marlowe. There is in fact no evidence that the anonymous sitter is Marlowe, but the clues do point in that direction. Marlowe was 21 years old in 1585, when the painting was made. He was also the only 21-year old student at Corpus Christi, where the painting was later found.
New scholarship from the Oxford University Press suggests that Shakespeare had help from Christopher Marlowe when writing Henry VI, parts 1, 2 and 3. Corpus analysis helps solve the puzzle! More.