Think William Shakespeare couldn’t come up with those plays, sceptics?
The Shakespeare authorship question has raised its head again, with Mark Rylance voicing his doubts about the ‘man from Stratford’ on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, coinciding with a four-day … Continue reading
Shakespeare buys a house in Blackfriars (1613) | The Lost City of London
On this day in 1613, according to the surviving Deed of Conveyance in the London Metropolitan Archives, William Shakespeare bought for £140 a “dwelling house or Tenement with th’appurtenaunces sit… … Continue reading
Archive Book Review • SHAKESPEARE’S WIFE by Germaine Greer • pub. Bloomsbury Publishing • 2007
You know you are in for a good read when an intellectual and academic, who also happens to be the adopted mother of Austral-British feminism, gets to grips with the … Continue reading
Review: Shakespeare in London by Hannah Crawforth, Sarah Dustagheer and Jennifer Young – Mathew Lyons
This review first appeared in the August 2015 issue of History Today. The world might be forgiven for rolling its eyes at the prospect of another book on Shakespeare. Does … Continue reading
Robinson and Shakespeare: dark humours | The Library Time Machine
Back in February, in the post on Edmund Dulac’s illustrations for The Tempest, I promised a series of posts based on individual volumes in the Hodder and Stoughton series of special … Continue reading
Edward Alleyn | London Historians’ Blog
We cannot allow Shakespeare 400 completely to overshadow the anniversary of another giant of Elizabethan theatre. Edward Alleyn (1566 – 1626) was born 450 years go this day in Bishopsgate to … Continue reading
The play within a play’s the thing! | MCNY Blog: New York Stories
“The play’s the thing…” William Shakespeare’s Hamlet famously says at the end of Act II, “…wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” For … Source: The play within a … Continue reading
Branagh’s Romeo & Juliet, my review – The View From Sari’s World
Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth … Continue reading
Scandalous Women: Was Aemilia Bassano Lanier Shakespeare’s Dark Lady? – Guest Post by Mary Sharratt
Born in 1569, Aemilia Bassano Lanier (also spelled Lanyer) was the highly cultured daughter of an Italian court musician—a man thought to have been a Marrano, a secret Jew living … Continue reading
Happy 99th Birthday Sir Laurence Olivier | Waldina
NAME: Laurence Olivier OCCUPATION: Filmmaker, Actor BIRTH DATE: May 22, 1907 DEATH DATE: July 11, 1989 EDUCATION: Central School of Speech and Drama, St. Edward’s School, All Saints Choir Sch… … Continue reading
At Shakespeare’s Theatre In Shoreditch | Spitalfields Life
Over in Shoreditch, just a few minutes walk from Spitalfields, is the site of a seventeenth century playhouse called ‘The Theatre’ built by James Burbage in 1576, where William Shakespeare’s … Continue reading
Archive Book Review • SHAKESPEARE AND CO. by Stanley Wells • 2007
Shakespeare and Co.: Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher and the Other Players in His Story In the 1616 Folio of Ben Jonson’s Workes, published seven … Continue reading
Shakespeare 400: A Shakespearean Contretemps: 1830s
AN UNREHEARSED STAGE-EFFECT. While yet a mere youth I was acting in the old city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, during the vacation of the regular theatrical season, with a portion of … Continue reading
Shakespeare 400: Archive Interview • MICHAEL PENNINGTON • Sweet William • 2007
Michael Pennington is bringing his superb one-man show, Sweet William to the Little Angel Theatre, Islington, London this August. In it, Pennington explores his relationship with the writer with whom … Continue reading
Shakespeare 400: Shakespeare-related streets: from Aldersgate to Worship
In the light of the Shakespeare frenzy that is gripping the nation, we revisit some of the bard-related London streets that have graced this blog over the years… Source: Shakespeare-related … Continue reading
The History Girls: The Tempest, Twelfth Night and me by Gillian Polack
Right now, my writing self and my research self are sharing the seventeenth century. I tend to think of Shakespeare as a sixteenth century writer, because a lot of his … Continue reading
Shakespeare buys a house in Blackfriars (1613) | The Lost City of London
On this day in 1613, according to the surviving Deed of Conveyance (*), William Shakespeare bought for £140 a “dwelling house or Tenement with th’appurtenaunces situate and being within the … Continue reading
By me William Shakespeare: A Life in Writing 3 Feb – 29 May 2016
Source: By me William Shakespeare Discover the stories behind key moments in Shakespeare’s life, from the birth of the Globe theatre in London to his last days in Stratford-upon-Avon 400 years ago. … Continue reading
Celebrating Shakespeare’s life and legacy in 2016 – The National Archives
The National Archives will join 23 of London’s leading cultural, creative and educational organisations in celebrating the life and influence of William Shakespeare throughout 2016, to mark the 400th anniversary … Continue reading
Shakespeare’s 1606 – Interview with James Shapiro
James Shapiro, who teaches English at Columbia University in New York, is author of several books, including 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (winner of the BBC4 … Continue reading
On this day in 1592 – The playwright Robert Greene died
Originally posted on Tudor Chronicles:
Robert Greene was baptised on 11th July 1558 at St George’s, Tombland, Norwich and attended Cambridge where he received a BA in 1580 and an…
Cymbeline; what’s a love story without some scandal? | MCNY Blog: New York Stories
Originally posted on MCNY Blog: New York Stories. It was January 25, 1897, the opening night of William Shakespeare’s romance Cymbeline, based on the legend of an early Celtic British king, … Continue reading
In Search Of William Shakespeare’s London | Spitalfields Life
Originally posted on Spitalfields Life Ever since I visited the newly-discovered site of William Shakespeare’s first theatre in Shoreditch, I found myself thinking about where else in London I could … Continue reading
Archive Interview • Stephen Unwin • English Touring Theatre • 2003
The Play as Written Stephen Unwin is energized by the unexpected panic of rehearsing an understudy for Juliet in his latest touring production of Romeo and Juliet. Due to open at the Oxford … Continue reading
Quote • John Gielgud • Benjamin Britten
John Gielgud directed Benjamin Britten’s opera of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1961. During rehearsals he was heard to shout, “Will someone turn off that damn music.” Courtesy of Simon Trowbridge, author … Continue reading
Ellen Terry as Volumnia
Dame Ellen Terry as Volumnia in Coriolanus Card This signed photograph of Dame Ellen Terry (1847-1928) as Volumnia in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus is a treasured possession, left to me by the actress Rosamund Burne [? – 1975]. Ros was a … Continue reading
Archive Interview • Patrick Spottiswoode • Shakespeare’s Globe • 2003
Patrick Spottiswoode has one of those infectious personalities, an evangelical fervour for his project, an intelligent, insightful and determined advocate of the facilities that make up the Globe Theatre in … Continue reading
Rogues & Vagabonds 