When Queen Elizabeth wanted to punish Robert Devereux for his imprudent behavior at court, she placed him in charge of handling the Irish rebels and sent him off to Ireland with strict instructions on how to handle that situation. His campaign was ultimately unsuccessful, due to reasons that can, and have, filled volumes on the history of the Nine Years War, as well as the Irish Rebellion, but where this elaborate Irish history finds an intriguing connection to Shakespeare is hidden in a seemingly nonsensical line about the death of Irish rats in Shakespeare's play, As You Like It. In a single line Shakespeare invokes a popular legend about the ability of Irish poetry to kill rats by rhyming them to death. While the bard could simply be referencing the power of words here, we've invited an expert on Irish legends, poetry, and Shakespeare, Dr. Kelly Fitgerald, to sit down with us and take us back to 1599 when As You Like It was written, as well as the year Essex was sent to Ireland, and explain what this line implies with its' suggestion of outright political commentary by Shakespeare, during a time when it was quite dangerous for a playwright write something so pointed.
