Shows
The Finance GirliesThe real cost of starting over: Cassidy's moving budgetHey Girlies,ICYMI, Cassidy just relocated from Washington to Minnesota after her divorce. And in today’s episode, she's breaking down every single dollar she spent (and made) in the process. This isn't your typical moving budget episode. We're talking about the decision to sell everything you own, start completely fresh, and what that actually looks like financially and emotionally.Listen in for:💰 How she turned her entire household into $7,500 cash in three weeks🏠 What it actually costs to start completely over — we're talking every single pur...
2025-08-0647 min
The History Of European TheatreThat Shakespeare Life: A Conversation with Cassidy CashBonus Episode 35:A conversation with Cassidy Cash, producer and host of 'That Shakespeare Life', the podcast that interviews expert historians to explore people, events, and objects that were living or happening in Shakespeare’s lifetime.Cassidy Cash is a Shakespeare historian, historical map illustrator, and host of That Shakespeare Life, That Shakespeare Life is currently ranked the #2 Shakespeare history podcast in the world. In addition to podcasting, Cassidy creates independent films about 16-17th century history and illustrated history maps that diagram life in turn of the 17th century England. Her documentary shorts and animated fi...
2024-05-0625 min
That Shakespeare LifeNutmeg with Brigitte WebsterShakespeare mentions the spice of nutmeg in his plays three times, once in Henry V to comment on the color of nutmeg, once in Love’s Labour’s Lost to talk about a “gift nutmeg” which was a gift given at Christmas for the 16th century, and then again in The Winter’s Tale when the clown lists nutmeg as one of the spices he needs to make warden pies, along with mace, dates, prunes, and raisins. Nutmeg not being native to England, it was not only a valuable spice that made a great gift that was popular for major cele...
2022-12-1230 min
That Shakespeare LifeEleanor of AquitaineIn Shakespeare's play, King John, Eleanor of Aquitaine is portrayed as "Queen Elinor," who is decrepit and old, but strong willed and highly intelligent. For many Shakespeareans, the real history of this extraordinary woman is confined to this portrayal in Shakespeare's works. Our guest this week, Alison Weir, joins the show to introduce us to the real history of Eleanor of Aquitaine not only as we remember her today, but to share with us what Shakespeare would have known about her, as well as what it is important to know about her real life when encountering Shakespeare’s portrayal of he...
2022-12-0517 minThat Shakespeare LifeSport fishing in Shakespeare's EnglandWilliam Shakespeare mentions fish over 70 times in his plays including certain kinds of fish like dwarfish, a finless fish, and even a dogfish. Types of fish, being a fishmonger, and applying all manner fish metaphors were a consistent theme in many of Shakespeare’s works, which lead me to wonder about the role of fishing and fish in Shakespeare’s lifetime for not only the individual who might have gone fishing for their food, but the role of commercial fishing in the economy of England during the 16-17th century. Here today to help us explore what kinds of fish were...
2022-11-2827 minThat Shakespeare LifeSquanto with David and Aaron BradfordOne of the heroes of American history and the story of the survival of the English colonists at Plymouth in the mid 17th century is a man named Squanto. His given name was Tisquantum, but he came to be known as Squanto. He was a native American interpreter and guide for early English colonists. While little is known about his early life, some scholars believe that he was taken from home to England in 1605 by George Weymouth and returned to his native homeland with explorer John Smith in 1614–15. His almost decade long residence in London coincides with when Shakespeare was wr...
2022-11-2141 minThat Shakespeare LifeGresham College with Valerie ShrimplinThomas Gresham served as Royal Agent to the King t in England under Edward VI, Henry VIII, Mary, and Elizabeth I. A hugely influential man of his time, Thomas Gresham’s legacy continues today at Gresham College, the university he founded in 1597 when William Shakespeare was 33 years old. Competing with the likes of Oxford and Cambridge at the time, Gresham College was unique not only because universities themselves were a new concept in England, but because Gresham College chose to teach students in English, whereas Latin was the accepted language of universities at the time. Here to share with us ho...
2022-11-1428 minThat Shakespeare LifeCesarean Section with Mary FissellFamously in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, the title character becomes convinced he cannot be killed because the witches tell him he cannot be killed a man “of a woman born.” It is only when it is too late that Macbeth learns his nemesis, Macduff, was “from his mother’s womb untimely ripped”, in reference to a cesarean surgery, that Macbeth learns of his ultimate fate. Shakespeare’s inclusion of cesarean section in his play comes at a time when medical science and religious doctrine were questioning the viability of this procedure in a heated public debate. In 1581, French surgeon Francois Roussett publis...
2022-11-0722 minThat Shakespeare LifePirates and Privateers with James SethFrom 1560 until her death in 1603, Queen Elizabeth employed a group of privateers to raid, pillage, and rob ships that were acting against English interests. This group of private sailors known as sea dogs included famous naval explorers like Sir Francis Drake who circumnavigated the world, and Sir Walter Raleigh who founded the colony of Roanoke and went looking for El Dorado, the city of gold. Reports of the sea dogs and other fantastic tales of naval adventures were cataloged in 16-17th century travel diaries along with the writings of professional travel writers, all of whom sent amazing stories of...
2022-10-3129 minThat Shakespeare LifePumpkins and The Great PompionIn November of 1621, English colonists celebrated what’s known today in the US as The First Thanksgiving. Indian natives and English colonists gathered around a celebration of their first successful harvest in a new land. The bounty that this feast enjoyed included one of the staple foods of Thanksgiving that’s become almost ubiquitous with Fall itself, and that’s the pumpkin. Referred to as “pumpion” in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor, and as “pompion” in Love’s Labour’s Lost, this little squash may not have been used as a jack-o-lantern for Shakespeare’s lifetime but the pumpkin nonetheless has a role...
2022-10-2418 minThat Shakespeare LifeCoffee and Tea for Shakespeare's LifetimeCoffee, tea, and chocolate may be regular items in the daily lives of the English today, but for Shakespeare these items were not on the everyday menu. In fact, drinking coffee or tea was seen with much superstition and hesitancy. While Shakespeare does mention “one poor penny worth of sugar-candy” in Henry V, he would not have been talking about chocolate. Confections like chocolate and drinking tea, along with coffee houses, would not become normal in England until after Shakespeare died in 1616. However, what we can see about these items in Shakespeare’s lifetime is the process of caffeine arriving in Eng...
2022-10-1721 minThat Shakespeare LifeWaffles and Waffle Irons in 16th Century EnglandIn William Shakespeare’s Henry V Part II, Scene 3, Pistol uses the phrase “men’s faiths are wafer-cakes.” Wafer cakes were thin baked breads that would eventually become what we know today as waffles. During the Renaissance and Middle Ages, specialty iron tongs were used to bake wafers that were served as a final blessing after the Eucharist in churches. The art of making waffles was so popular in the Netherlands that when the Pilgrims, who had spent some time in Holland, set sail for North America in 1621, it is believed that some of the Dutch who went with them took the...
2022-10-1318 minThat Shakespeare LifeEnglish Accents with Valerie FridlandOne of the most common issues with Shakespare’s plays is understanding the language. He used not only words that have fallen out of fashion for today’s English language, but the pronunciation and even colloquial expressions, cultural references, and some jokes we find in the plays are all so far removed from the way we talk today that it can be hard to understand what’s going on, especially if you’re just trying to read the plays instead of seeing them performed. At least in the theater you have context clues to help you. If you are also someone...
2022-10-0340 minThat Shakespeare LifeAcrobats and Tumblers with Clare McManusIn Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost, he writes about a tumbler wearing colours in their hoop. This reference is to a specific act of theater performance called tumbling. If you’ve already studied the all-male stage we know Shakespeare had at his theater, you may be tempted to think that tumblers were men. However, as the research of the project Engendering the Stage aims to bring to light, historical records for Shakespeare’s lifetime show that in terms of the theatre industry as a whole for the late 16th and early 17th century, theater performance was far from all male...
2022-09-2635 minThat Shakespeare LifeSweetbreads with Neil ButteryWhen I’m not recording That Shakespeare Life, I’m usually researching for DIY History, my YouTube channel where I look into games, recipes, and crafts for Shakespeare’s lifetime that you can do at home. In preparing a new episode, I was going through Hugh Plat's Good Housewives Jewel, a cookbook that was written in 1596-1597. One recipe that caught my eye called for "sweet bread." I ambitiously decided to try and make this recipe, thinking I would be diving into a cake, or perhaps some version of loaf bread. However, as I started to research the ingredients, I was su...
2022-09-1922 minThat Shakespeare LifeSusanna's Garden with Ailsa Grant FergusonWhen you visit Stratford Upon Avon, you can stop in and see a place called Hall’s Croft. It is right down the road from Shakespeare’s Birthplace and is the house where William Shakespeare’s oldest daughter, Susanna, lived with her husband, John Hall. John Hall was a physician in Stratford Upon Avon, and is thought to have influenced, if not outright advised, Shakespeare on the many uses of medicinal plants we see come up in his plays. A new study being led by our guest this week, Ailsa Grant Ferguson, not only aims to shed light on the kinds...
2022-09-1229 minThat Shakespeare LifeArmadillos with Peter MasonArmadillos are a fascinating animal, and for the 16th century they were an object of luxury. Many members of the nobility in 16th century England made a hobby out of collecting wild and exotic specimens of animals that were being discovered and brought to Europe by explorers, travelers, and naturalists who were keen to record all the world’s animals. One animal that was new to Shakespeare’s England during his lifetime was the armadillo. One prime example of the armadillo in the culture of the 16th century is the armadillo featured in a piece of embroidery by Mary Queen of S...
2022-09-0524 minThat Shakespeare LifeCurse Words with John SpurrForsooth and by the saints, we are exploring curse words today from Shakespeare’s lifetime. The changeover from Catholic to Protestant England may have changed the way people worshipped but it didn’t change the strongly religious influence of the English language, including their swear words. Today our guest, John Spurr joins us to help us expolre all the expressions of emphasis, oath, and cursing that appear in Shakespeare’s plays so that we can understand the history behind why they are there, what they mean, and what kinds of words were considered bad language for Shakespeare’s lifetime. Hosted on...
2022-08-2932 minThat Shakespeare LifeFireworks with Simon WerrettThe technology of explosions to celebrate or mark an occasion of jubilation that we know today as fireworks was a new thing for Shakespeare’s lifetime. Shakespeare mentions the word “firework” only twice in his works, once in relation to a fight in Henry VIII and another time in relation to a show or pageant in Love’s Labour’s Lost. Our guest this week, Simon Werrett is the author of a book on the history and science behind fireworks and he joins us today to share exactly how they worked for Shakepeare’s lifetime, which celebrations were held using fireworks, a...
2022-08-2225 minThat Shakespeare LifeDragons with Carolyne LarringtonWhen William Shakespeare talks about dragons in his plays, he mentions these creatures as fire-breathing, flying, cave dwelling, night stalking, fearsome fighters in over 20 references across his works. In today’s interview we are going to explore the real history of dragons in Shakespeare’s lifetime by asking whether there were real creatures that could have been defined as dragons, similar to how Rhinoceros and Narwhal were called "unicorns." Here to share with us the popular legends about dragons and the place of these creatures in the general pop culture mindset of the Elizabethan Era is our guest and author of D...
2022-08-1527 min
That Shakespeare LifeHobby Horses with Natalia PikliWhen you hear the term “hobby horse” you may be tempted to recall images of toy wooden horses that children laugh and play on. For Shakespeare’s lifetime, however, this term refers to a particular kind of dance that featured in popular celebrations like May Day and Morris dances. The hobby horse dance was a characterized and often costumed representation of a person riding a horse, and it was a staple feature of these celebratory dances. Our guest this week has written extensively about the history of the hobby horse and where they would have appeared in Shakespeare’s lifetime. We are d...
2022-08-0832 minThat Shakespeare LifeInfant Formula in the 16th CenturyCommercial baby formula wouldn’t hit the mass market until the 1800s, but Shakespeare’s lifetime still had to deal with babies who needed to eat but were unable, for a variety of reasons, to nurse and drink breastmilk. Here this week to help us take a look at baby formula, baby bottles, and the role of wet nurses in Shakespeare’s lifetime is our guest and author of multiple articles on the history of baby formula, Carla Cevasco. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2022-08-0122 min
That Shakespeare LifeKing John with Ralph TurnerWhile King John isn’t one of the more popular Shakespeare plays performed by companies today, taking a look back at monarchs of the past was a favorite pastime for Elizabethan England. To better understand the real history behind Shakespeare’s version of this famous monarch, we’ve invited our guest and author of the book King John for The Medieval World, Ralph Turner here today to share with us the context of King John’s life, impact on the legacy of England, and exactly what led to him being so villainized for centuries to come. Hosted on Acast. See acas...
2022-07-2521 minThat Shakespeare LifeBears of 1608 with Callan DaviesAn anonymous dairy was written in 1608 cataloging the keeping of bears for the sport of bear baiting in England. Our guest today calls this diary the “Bearward Diary of 1608” and the term “bearward” is used to describe individuals whose job it was to take care of or travel with a bear (or in the case of this diary, multiple bears), for the purpose of putting on bearbaiting shows around England.The diary is a fascinating glimpse into the history of bearbaiting and the logistics behind finding, showing, and traveling with, bears in the 17th century, To help us explore the diary in...
2022-07-1833 min
History RageS3 E02 - Cassidy Cash on the Shakespeare Authorship QuestionThis week we are joined by podcaster, YouTuber and Historical Map Illustrator Cassidy Cash who takes us down the murky alleys of Tudor theatre and takes on the eternal conspiracy and rumour that Shakespeare did not write his plays.You can follow Cassidy on Twitter @ThatShakespeare. You can listen to the podcast on all major providers and direct from her website here:You can follow History Rage on Twitter @HistoryRage and let us know what you wish people would just stop believing using the Hashtag #HistoryRage.Support the showYou can follow History...
2022-07-1842 min
That Shakespeare LifeConrad Gessner with Dan HooleyThe true example of a Renaissance Man, or a person who is great with many talents or areas of knowledge, Conrad Gessner joins the ranks of herbalists like William Turner and John Gerard as not only influences on Shakespeare, but examples of the influence of Renaissance thought on life in Elizabethan England. Gessner’s works were printed prolifically and consumed regularly in England, most likely by Shakespeare himself. Having completed over 70 publications in his lifetime, Conrad Gessner is a powerhouse of information and his surviving works provide vital links to the mindset and understanding of the world from the Renaissance. He...
2022-07-1136 minThat Shakespeare LifeHow did Shakespeare Sleep? With Sasha HandleyShakespeare mentions sleep in his plays over 380 times, and the word bed over 540 times! His works mentions Truckle beds, as well as the famous Great Bed of Ware, but when it comes to the bard himself, what did he sleep on? Here this week to help us explore beds in Tudor England as well as pajamas, bedtime rituals, and the materials used to make bed sheets is our guest and author of Sleep in Early Modern England, Sasha Handley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2022-07-0432 minThat Shakespeare LifeDid Women Act on Stage? With Pamela BrownOne of the most accepted statements you’re liable to find about Elizabethan theater online today is that playing companies were all male companies. The idea of a woman on stage is considered forbidden, or not allowed. However, our guest today, Pamela Brown, has recently published a book called The Diva’s Gift to the Shakespearean Stage where she presents evidence that women did participate in performances on stage during Shakespeare’s lifetime. Her work challenges what I know I thought I knew about Shakespearean theater, and I’m delighted to have her here today to help clarify this part of Shake...
2022-06-2732 minThat Shakespeare LifeCatherine de Medici with Estelle ParanqueMarried to Henry Valois, Catherine de Medici held considerable power and influence over the Valois Dynasty of France and was beloved of the Medici Dynasty in Italy. The year William Shakepseare was born, in 1564, Catherine de Medici offered her son, Charles IX, as a husband for Elizabeth I, and would go on to offer her other two sons, Francis and Henry, to Elizabeth I as well in a decades long effort to secure a political alliance through marriage with England. Staunchly opposed to marriage on the whole, Elizabeth I never did accept Catherine’s sons as husbands, but the interactions an...
2022-06-2035 minThat Shakespeare LifeMaps with Peter BarberTransoceanic travel was a staple of European endeavors for the 16-17th century, with both Elizabeth I and James I spending massive amounts of money and effort to work with trading companies and explorers who traveled to other continents for trade, commerce, and colonization during Shakespeare’s lifetime. In order to reach these new and exotic places, as well as to be able to return again after the new places had been found, the sailors and explorers relied mainly on navigation by the stars and the wind to get to their destination. However, this time in history is when printed ma...
2022-06-1336 minThat Shakespeare LifeThe First English Lottery with Elizabeth NortonWilliam Shakespeare uses the word “lottery” in his plays 8 times, often referring to a reward that comes after taking a gamble. While we may be familiar with lotteries like the Powerball or Publishing Clearinghouse here in the United States, a ticket based lottery where people could pay money for a chance to win big was brand new for England in Shakespeare’s lifetime. The first time England had seen a real lottery, was the first national lottery in 1567, instituted by Elizabeth I, when Shakespeare was just 3 years old. Here today to share with us how this lottery worked, who bought ticket...
2022-06-0618 min
That Shakespeare LifeMedlars with Neil ButteryFive times in Shakespeare’s works he refers to a specific plant called a Medlar. In As You Like It, Rosalind talks about grafting a medlar, Lucio talks about a rotten medlar in Measure for Measure, Mercutio uses the medlar tree to describe Romeo’s state of mind in Romeo and Juliet and the last two references to medlars are found in Timon of Athens when Apemantus both presents a medlar for eating, and questions whether someone hates medlars. Whether or not we should hate or love the medlar fruit is the subject of our show today. Our guest this week...
2022-05-3033 min
Protest Too Much: A Shakespeare Showdown7.8 "Historical Accuracy" Cassidy Cash*GoFundMe for families of Uvalde victims and survivors: https://www.gofundme.com/f/robb-elementary-school-shooting Cassidy Cash joins host Stephanie Crugnola on this week's episode to chat which of five Shakespearean deaths are the least to most historically accurate.
Through the episode Cassidy covers Lil Macduff, Cleopatra, Clarence, Caesar, and Arthur.
Let us know your thoughts and which surprised you most on Facebook, instagram, Twitter, and TikTok!
Make sure to follow Cassidy on twitter and through her website, and listen to her podcast: That Shakespeare Life!
Please check out our Patreon for bonus materials and extra content - including my picks fo...
2022-05-2622 minThat Shakespeare LifeBanbury Cheese with Helen FordeIn William Shakespeare’s play, Merry Wives of Windsor, Bardolph declares “You Banbury Cheese!” as an insult. The reason this line is an insult is because for the life of William Shakespeare, Banbury England was famous for making a particular kind of cheese that was thinner on the rind than other cheese typical of the period. Therefore, calling someone a Banbury cheese was akin to calling them a string-bean, or saying they were too thin. It works especially well as a joke for Shakespeare in the play because the character Bardolph is insulting is named, as you might expect, Slender.The jo...
2022-05-2323 minThat Shakespeare LifeJohn Caius with Vivian NuttonJohn Caius was a prominent medical professional in the 16th century. A staunch adherent to the teachings of Galen, who himself was the ultimate authority on medical knowledge for close to 15 centuries. John Caius owned a copy of Galen’s text and that original copy survives at Eton College, Berkshire, with Caius’ notes and annotations there for review. Galen’s work was essentially the Grey’s Anatomy of its time and Caius’ interest in Galen’s work was not merely being a fan, but the doing of his due diligence in medical study. However, despite the evidence to suggest he was a pillar...
2022-05-1633 minThat Shakespeare LifeTransplant Surgery with Paul CraddockFrom blood transfusions to replacement of legs, during Shakespeare’s lifetime was when medical science was trying to figure out the best way to replace broken or damaged body parts with transplants. Having only just discovered that the heart was a muscle, pumping at regular intervals, it was a revolution in medical science to consider each body part as a kind of piece in the mechanism that was the human body. We see these new concepts echoed in the work of our favorite playwright, William Shakespeare when characters like Hamlet and Titus Andronicus talk about the pulse keeping time and th...
2022-05-0935 minThat Shakespeare LifeWilliam Adams with Timon ScreechIn the year 1600, when William Shakespeare was just 36 years old, William Adams became the first Englishman to reach Japan. Adams sailed as part of a 5-ship fleet employed for the expedition by a private Dutch company. Adams would serve in Japan under Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, helping to build the first Western Style ships in Japan, and later helping Japan establish trading factories with the Netherlands and England. While Adams held significant influence in Japan during his lifetime, what was most remarkable was the friendship he cultivated with Ieyasu that would last until Ieyasu’s death. Here today to...
2022-05-0240 minThat Shakespeare LifeStephen Hopkins with Andrew BuckleyOn June 2, 1609, a ship named the Sea Venture set sail for Jamestown, Virginia. On the way, the ship was blown off course by a horrible hurricane. The storm badly damaged the ship and all hands onboard fought off the rising water until the ship ran aground on the island of Bermuda. After salvaging parts of the Sea Venture to build another ship, the stranded group set sail again for Jamestown, arriving in Virginia on May 10, 1610. News of the shipwreck and tales of the castaways traveled back to England, due in no small part to a pu...
2022-04-2534 minThat Shakespeare LifeThe Moon with Rachel AanstadWilliam Shakespeare uses the word “moon” over 160 times in his works, talking about the shape of the moon, the horns of the moon, and even traits of the moon like moonshine or moonbeam. For Shakespeare’s lifetime, the moon held almost as prominent a place in life as the sun, with people planning their lives around the phases of the moon. Described using a variety of names including popular feminine names like Lucina, Diana, and Cynthia, the moon was personified with attributes like good manners, while being held responsible for bad things like aging or unpleasa...
2022-04-1834 min
British History: Royals, Rebels, and RomanticsWill Shakespeare's Late Night Show with Cassidy Cash! (ep 104)Late Night Living and That Shakespeare LifeShow Notes:Carol Ann Lloydwww.carolannlloyd.com@shakeuphistorypatreon.com/carolannlloydCassidy Cash, That Shakespeare Life@thatshakespearelifewww.cassidycash.comwww.cassidycash.com/where-to-watch-every-shakespeare-play-online-for-freeCreative Director: Lindsey LindstromMusic: Inspiring Dramatic Pack by Smart Sounds via Audio Jungle; Music Broadcast LicenseHistory shows us what's possible.
2022-04-1332 minThat Shakespeare LifeJohn Taylor the Water Poet with Bernard CappJohn Taylor is a poet contemporary to Shakespeare, but with a decidedly unique approach to the writing profession. John Taylor trained professionally as a waterman, or a river worker who taxied passengers to and from city destinations on the rivers like the River Thames in London. John Taylor used his occupation as a waterman to talk with the various playwrights, actors, and patrons while they were on the boat with him between destinations. Over the years, John Taylor used what he learned from these conversations to craft himself into a poet with the purpose of re-inventing the unglamorous and ridiculed 16...
2022-04-1127 min
Review It YourselfHow to behave in Britain (1943) with Cassidy Cash from 'That Shakespeare Life' podcast and the 'DIY History' Channel on YouTubeSean is joined by Cassidy Cash from ‘That Shakespeare Life’ podcast to discuss ‘How to behave in Britain’ (1943).Whilst discussing this training film for United States Armed Forces in the Second World War, they navigate pub etiquette in Britain, Shove Ha’penny, and Pounds, Shillings and Pennies. Although a nostalgic film, there is a section when the narrator of the film discusses the differences between British and American's treatment of black soldiers in their respective countries. This societal difference is broached in the film and discussed in this podcast. Please Note: The section...
2022-04-0845 min
That Shakespeare LifeCocktails with Jared and Anistatia BrownShakespeare’s plays mention several kinds of alcoholic beverages, some of which we still have today like wine, ale, and beer, but others are more firmly situated in the past, making them pretty obscure references outside of niche historical circles that enjoy recreating beverages from antiquity. For example, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry VI, and Twelfth Night give us mentions of drinks like sack, posset, canary, and metheglin, all of which are alcoholic drinks but their substance may not be as recognizable today as it was for Shakespeare. What were these drinks made from, were they served at pu...
2022-04-0428 minThat Shakespeare LifeCataracts Surgery with Chris LefflerIn a 16th century painting by Casper Stromayr, two men, presumably doctors, are standing behind a table on which a set of surgical instruments are laid out very neatly. In the notes for the painting we discover that some of the instruments are specifically for surgery of the eye. Cataract surgery like the one being prepared for in this painting was just becoming widespread in Shakespeare’s lifetime and was performed to remove the pearly film that developed over the surface of the eye. In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Ferdinand uses the phra...
2022-03-2822 minThat Shakespeare LifeLaundry and Touching Disease with Steph Bennett (Ep 205)In the 16th century plague impacted Shakespeare’s daily life through regular closings of the theater due to the fear of disease spreading in enclosed spaces. In addition to large crowds gathering together in the theater, contemporary science warned against one particular threat of contagion: the laundry. It was believed that certain materials could spread disease by their relationship to the body. For example, linen was thought to be protective against disease by wicking the sweat and body odor away from the wearer. While linen was protective, other fabrics were deemed more dangerous while washing techniques, including using soaps like ly...
2022-03-2122 minThat Shakespeare LifeHerballs with Sarah Neville (Ep204)Throughout Shakespeare’s lifetime there were dozens of books printed on plants called herballs. These books contained drawings of various grasses, flowers, herbs, and trees that grew in England. The drawings we have surviving today total more than 1,000 woodcuts from Shakespeare’s lifetime literally illustrating for us that the plant industry in England was big business for the same publishing houses producing Shakespeare’s plays. Our guest this week, Sarah Neville, joins us to explore this part of the publishing industry and explain where herballs came from, who wrote them, and most of all, what kind of person wanted to buy th...
2022-03-1434 min
That Shakespeare LifePregnancy at Sea with Kasia BurzyńskaIn Shakespeare’s Pericles, the character Thasia gives birth on a ship at sea and, dying in childbirth, is thrown overboard in her coffin by Pericles. There’s a great deal to unpack in the story about this moment, but seeing it happen in the play lead me to wonder: Were women really traveling on board ships in the 16th century (sailing and exploration being typically a male profession, and even when the Pilgrims sailed to the New World, the Mayflower was unique in allowing both women and children aboard.) To help us understand what the place of women on ship...
2022-03-0739 minThat Shakespeare LifeLady Elizabeth Russell and the Blackfriars (Ep 202)One of the byproducts of introducing disruptive innovation to the theater industry of the 16th century is that not everyone is a fan of your work. For William Shakespeare, as he and his compatriots masterminded theaters like the Globe and the Blackfriars, there was a considerable faction of Puritans in London who felt their work was corrupting the city and sought fervently to stop it. Our guest this week, Chris Laoutaris, is the author of Shakespeare and the Countess, the book that tells the remarkable story of how one woman in particular put up a memorable fight to try and...
2022-02-2839 min
That Shakespeare LifeShakespeare's Violence with Jared Kirby and Seth DuerrMany of Shakespeare’s most powerful scenes are based on physical action that isn’t directly written about in the scripts of his works. For example, when Ophelia goes mad and demonstrates her madness on stage, we know for certain what she says during that scene because her lines are written out for us but it’s unclear what her physical movements should be on stage. Similarly, in fight scenes, like brawls, riots, or acts of domestic abuse that happens within Shakespeare’s plays, it is up to interpretation of the director as to how the actors would have performed. Our gues...
2022-02-2133 min
That Shakespeare LifeOld Tom Parr with Emma Kate Lanyon (Ep 200)Born in the late 1480s, and dying an astonishing one hundred and fifty two years later in 1635, Old Tom Parr is famous for living longer than any man in England before or since his lifetime. Overlapping Shakespeare’s lifetime entirely, being born before the bard and living more than twenty years after the bard’s death, Old Tom Parr was born in Alderbury, England, and lived in Shropshire, where still today there is a small cottage called Old Parr’s Cottage that you can visit today. The cottage’s preservation and that of Old Tom Parr’s memory is a testament...
2022-02-1432 min
That Shakespeare LifeBeer Making with Richard Unger (Ep 199)Shakespeare references “beer” in his works 6 times, drawing attention to specific kinds of beer like “small beer” “double beer” and even one reference in Hamlet to beer barrels where the Prince of Denmark suggests that beer barrels had a stopper to keep them sealed. Drinking beer in Shakespeare’s lifetime was almost as regular as drinking water is today. So whenever you were thirsty, drinks like ale, beer, and spirits were much safer. This beer drinking reality means that there was a strong economy for beer making and distilling in Elizabethan England, including unique storage methods, containers, and even some versions of be...
2022-02-0725 min
That Shakespeare LifeSt. Swithun's Day with Philippa Brewell (Ep 198)700 years before Shakespeare a man named Saint Swithun established his place in history mostly because of the miracles that surrounded his death and burial. St. Swithun would capture the imagination of writers for centuries after his death, with one of his most famous miracles being recorded in a book called Historia major from the 15th century. The early 13th century saw a shrine built to St. Swithun was not demolished until 1538, just 26 years before Shakespeare was born. This imposing figure on the English consciousness was celebrated during Shakespeare’s lifetime and continues to be celebrated today in England, every Ju...
2022-01-3124 min
That Shakespeare LifeSound Effects with Chris Johnston and Alexander Sovsronsky (Ep 197)One of the most powerful aspects of modern day theater performance is the spooky sounds, creaking doors, or the wailing noises of the witches across the moor. These same sound effects were important on stage for Shakespeare’s original performances of his plays, as well, but as you might imagine, with a decidedly less computer-based generation. While the bard’s selection of performance sound may not have been based on anything created by Steve Jobs, the technology was no less impressive with implements designed specifically to generate the sound of waves in the ocean, rain falling down, and even thunder. Here...
2022-01-2438 min
That Shakespeare LifeBody Language with Miranda Fay Thomas (Ep 196)One of the most remembered lines from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is when Sampson says “I bite my thumb at your sir!” It’s funny to us today partly because we don’t understand why someone would bite their thumb. We can tell from context that it's’ meant to be an insult, but do you know why it was insulting? Culture of the 16th-17th century when Shakespeare wrote lines about biting thumbs or making figs were similar gestures to giving the finger, or even milder gestures like putting your hands on your hips to indicate impatience. We recognize the cultural...
2022-01-1740 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 195: The Ottoman Empire with Aisha HussainIn a series of highly political and pro-English history plays known as his “Henriad” performances, Shakespeare uses a variety of figurative words and expressions to describe the “Turks” or members of the Ottoman Empire. Almost all of Shakespeare’s references are rather negative towards the Ottomans, which at face value may lead you to believe that Shakespeare and his contemporaries were opposed to, or perhaps at war with, the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. However, historical exploration into the real political situation of England towards the then-called Ottoman Turks was far from negative. In fact, Elizabeth I saw the Ottoman Em...
2022-01-1048 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 194: Clouds, Lightning, and Special Effects with Frank MohlerWhen Shakespeare performed scenes like the ocean waves of the Tempest, the flying acrobatics of ghosts, or had his characters change location from the streets of verona to the castles of Kings of England, there were technologies, machines, and specialty techniques used in the 16th century to accomplish these feats of nature and fantastic visual effects on stage. Our guest this week is an expert in early modern performance illusions and the machines used to create them. We are delighted to welcome Frank Mohler, professor emeritus of the Department of Theater and Dance at Appalachian St...
2022-01-0326 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 193: King of Moors Pageant with Maria ShmygolWhen London established a new mayor every October, there was a pageant put on to celebrate the appointment and introduce the new mayor to the city known as the Lord Mayor’s Show. This event was an extravagant affair, featuring a huge parade that followed an established route through the city. In one of the earliest accounts we have of the Lord Mayor’s Show, from 1585, records indicate that part of the parade that year was a pageant known as the King Of Moor’s pageant. This pageant is described by our guest this week, Maria Shmygol, as a Moor pagean...
2021-12-2725 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 192: Purple Carrots with Phil SimonWild carrots are indigenous to Europe and known as Queen Anne’s Lace, as well as Devil’s Plague, and Fool’s Parsley, this wild carrot variety was known primarily for its use as an herb and in medicinal recipes. The formal, cultivated carrot arrived in England by the 15th century, and right up until Shakespeare’s lifetime, carrots were mostly purple. According to the Wild Carrot Museum in the UK, orange colored carrots arrived in Europe right in the middle of Shakespeare’s lifetime, making the orange carrot a new thing for Shakespeare. In fact, one reason orange carrots ar...
2021-12-2124 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 191: Pearls with Saoirse LaarachiShakespeare uses the word “pearl” over 40 times across his works. He describes them as objects of high value, and in Troilus and Cressida, uses the pearl to describe a rare and valuable woman saying “she is a pearl, Whose price hath launch'd above a thousand ships.” The pearl trade was an industry well established under Henry VIII of England, who looked to the pearl trade as a way to strengthen England’s international relations after separation from Catholicism left them in need of some strong allies. Elizabeth I continued this pursuit, but enhanced the value of the pearl in England up...
2021-12-1321 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 190: Metallurgy with Alan WilliamsMetal was used in Shakespeare’s lifetime to create a variety of items including swords, armor, guns, and even horseshoes. In one reference from Henry IV Part II, Shakespeare draws attention to the fact that a “smith” the term for someone who works with metal, was responsible for creating some of these items when the character Davy says “Here is now the smith's note for shoeing and plough-irons.” That comes from Act V, Scene 1. While most of Shakespeare’s uses of the word “smith” in his plays refer specifically to a goldsmith (that term being used at least 11 times in his works), ther...
2021-12-0629 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 189: Cunning Folk with Owen DaviesYou may have heard of common superstitions like throwing salt over your shoulder when you spill some to ward off bad luck, or crossing your fingers when you tell a lie to prevent consequences of your transgression. These kinds of small acts to try and control or influence the spiritual realm around you were more than just common superstitions for the life of William Shakespeare. Even in Protestant England, where the monarchs like Elizabeth I and James I after her, were actively harsh against anything even suspected of being witchcraft, simultaneously operating in the households of families and property owners...
2021-11-2923 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 188: Plymouth Colony with David and Aaron BradfordIt is Thanksgiving this week here in the US where we take time to intentionally be grateful for what we’ve been given and count our blessings, but it is also the one time of year where the whole nation remembers an event that began during the life of William Shakespeare: the journey of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower. Not many people realize the story of William Shakespeare overlaps with that of the Pilgrims, due mostly to the fact that the Pilgrims wouldn’t actually set sail from Plymouth until 1620, which is 4 years after the death of William Shakespeare. Howe...
2021-11-2255 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 187: The Arquebus Rifle with Jonathan FergusonIn 1593, Shakespeare wrote Venus and Adonis the play in which he writes “like the deadly bullet of a gun, His meaning struck her ere his words begun.” As our guest this week explains, “This is likely a reference to the phenomenon of a supersonic bullet hitting the target before the gunshot is heard. The Henrician arquebuses housed at the Royal Armouries in England, some dating from Shakespeare’s lifetime, were capable of 400 metres per second or more, which is supersonic. The big heavy muskets of his era and many artillery pieces were also supersonic. 'Bullet' was used for any gun projecti...
2021-11-1553 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 186: Stratford Upon Avon Floods in 1588 with Laurie JohnsonIn 1588, William Shakespeare turned 24 years old. This year is part of what we call “Shakespeare’s Lost Years” because we don’t know precisely what Shakepeare was doing at this time. Many speculations have been made that Shakespeare hopped a ride with one of the touring companies that visited his hometown of Stratford Upon Avon to make his fortunes in London. Of course, the details are not known for sure, but our guest this week brings new evidence to the discussion by investigating one major flood event that struck Stratford Upon Avon in 1588. Prior to this significant disaster, Shakespeare’s hometown w...
2021-11-0828 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 185: Witch Bottles, Charms, and Mummified Cats with Brian HoggardWhen Shakespeare plays are performed on stage and the magic of witches dazzles us with lights, smoke, and mirrors, it’s easy to think these spells and incantations are just folklore, designed to be nothing more than a theater spectacle. Archaeological evidence from Shakespeare’s lifetime, however, indicates that when Shakespeare had the Second witch in Macbeth declare “Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg and owlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble” these items being listed in connection with a w...
2021-11-0130 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 184: The Case of Elizabeth Stile with Carole LevinIn 1606, as Shakespeare staged Macbeth, James I had published his book on witchcraft and the supernatural called Daemonology, and witch trials were rampant across the UK bringing women of all ages and classes before a court hearing for acts of anger, revenge, and even mental illness, all of which called them under suspicion of evil magic. The presence of witches on stage was not merely theatrical for Shakespeare’s plays but also represented a cultural reality for turn of the 17th century society in which witches, spells, magic, and the consequence of delving into the supernatural were active in the li...
2021-10-2526 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 183: Bedlam Hospital with Duncan SalkeldIn Shakespeare’s Henry VI part II, Lord Clifford exclaims, “To Bedlam with him! Is the man grown mad?” That’s from Act V Scene 1. This use of the word Bedlam both as a place associated with madness, is because there was a real Bedlam Hospital within steps of The Curtain and Globe theaters where this play was performed in the 16th century and that hospital specialized in the care for the insane. Bedlam Hospital was a psychiatric hospital in early modern London. It was founded in the mid-13th century in service to the Church of Bethlehem, as a house...
2021-10-1830 minBritish History: Royals, Rebels, and RomanticsDouble, Double, Witches and Trouble: Cassidy Cash Joins Us! (ep 77)Show Notes:Credits:Host: Carol Ann LloydGuest: Cassidy Cashwww.carolannlloyd.comCreative Director: Lindsey LindstromMusic: Historical Documentary licensed through Audio Jungle/Envato MarketsLinks:www.cassidycash.com https://www.cassidycash.com/macbeth-saved-shakespeare-gunpowder-plot/ Summary:Shakespeare was writing in a time when people believed in witches. So when the witches appear in Macbeth, it would have been a terrifying moment. Cassidy Cash of That Shakespeare Life podcast helps us understand the play, the witches, and all the things Shakespeare was trying to accomplish.
2021-10-1334 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 182: The Clink Prison with Alex LyonAccording to The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare, edited by Stanley Wells and Michael Dobson, the phrase “the Clink” described a specific prison in an area of London called Bankside, where Shakespeare is known to have lived at least from 1597-1596. The prison itself was housed inside what used to be a manor house owned by the Bishop of Winchester. It was the closest prison to the theaters of Bankside, which included The Globe and the Rose theater, among others. This prison was best known for being a prison for debtors. While Shakespeare’s works do reference the word “clink” to describe t...
2021-10-1134 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 181: Letters and the Postal Service with Andrew PettegreeThe rise of the printing press created a precursor to the modern day newspaper, where printed publications like broadsides and pamphlets served to communicate ideas, updates, and notices about new laws, the progress of wars abroad, and even comic stories, true crime tales, and anecdotes. People who deliver letters are referred to in Shakespeare’s plays the “post” and letters are often referred to as “news” with Shakespeare using the word “news” an astonishing 326 times across his works. There’s obviously an overlap between messengers, oral tradition, news, and letters for Shakespeare’s lifetime, but what exactly was the importance of written communi...
2021-10-0438 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 180: Travelling Libraries with Michael BrennanWilliam Shakespeare mentions the word “book” over 140 times across his works, showing not only their prominent place in society but their popularity as well. There are several kinds of books referenced in Shakespeare’s plays including prayer books, muster books, horn books, and more but one particular kind of book seen as a novelty for Shakespeare’s lifetime that could be taken anywhere the owner themselves went was the tiny individual books collected together in what was known as a travelling library. These compact books were hardly larger than a standard pack of cards and each one fit onto narrow shelves f...
2021-09-2726 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 179: Tudor Shoes with Juraj MatejikSandals, boots, spurs, and cobbled shoes are all mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays, found in works like Alls Well That Ends Well, Coriolanus, and even Hamlet where the Danish Prince talks about his “raz’d shoes.” All this mention of footwear in the works of the bard has us wondering exactly what kind of shoes William Shakespeare might have worn during his lifetime. While portraits of the bard don’t extend down to his toes to provide us with a visual record of Shakespeare’s actual feet, we can explore the fashion of men’s shoes in Tudor England to examine the st...
2021-09-2018 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 178: Shakespeare's Toilet Paper with Tiffany SternThere may not have been indoor plumbing in Shakespeare’s lifetime, but going to the bathroom still involved cleaning up. One aspect you may be surprised to learn you share with William Shakespeare is that he, too, used various kinds of paper to go to the restroom. Shakespeare’s plays provide references to the jacques, jordan, and chamber pot, all options for using the restroom in Tudor England, and it turns out, we can also find references to what Shakespeare may have used in those restrooms for handling the necessary business in the lavatory, as well. Our guest this week, Tiff...
2021-09-1325 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 177: Shorthand with Kelly McCayWhen William Shakespeare was just 24 years old, a man named Timothy Bright would introduce a system of writing called charactery to England, setting off a wildfire of shorthand manuals, methods, and training where people flocked to learn this new, symbol based, system of writing that allowed the spoken word to be captured verbatim in real time. Notes and letters from philosophers and travellers in the late 16th and early 17th centuries remark that the fascination and mastery of shorthand was a skill seen internationally as uniquely English. The skill was so popular in England that it would even travel across...
2021-09-0636 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 176: Leicester's Men with Laurie Johnson Leicester’s Men are a group of actors who formed what many consider to be the founding company of English Renaissance Theater. Established with the sponsorship of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the playing company travelled around England and abroad performing plays with the legal protection of being in the Earls’ service. The company was unique for its’ time in that they separated themselves from the traditional income model of playing companies, choosing instead to operate as an independent entity where they could generate their own income instead of getting paid by their sponsor. By 1574, five men includi...
2021-08-3035 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 175: The King's Men with Lucy MunroIn 1603, as King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England following the death of Elizabeth I, one of the people James’ tapped to walk in his coronation parade was William Shakespeare, along with the entire Lord Chamberlain’s Men company who received the official patronage of James I to become the King’s Men. The new title and status brought big changes to the performance of plays, the subject matter selected for play writing, and gave William Shakespeare the position in society he had long sought after. Our guest this week, Lucy Munro, is here to share her re...
2021-08-2332 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 174: Elizabethan Hair Care & Wigs with Sue PrichardThe wig was first introduced to England around 1572, when Shakespeare was only 8 years old. The fashion would catch on very quickly in England, promoted by the Queen herself, who was known for wearing wigs in her older years, and defined by her naturally curly red hair in her youth. There are over 100 references to “hair” across Shakespeare’s works, many of them calling attention to the color of the hair, and assigning value not only to particular colors, but also reflecting the importance of keeping one’s hair neatly tended. In Henry V, the Duke of Burgundy says that prisoners are nota...
2021-08-1630 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 173: Bridewell Prison with Duncan SalkeldBridewell Palace was built in the early 16th century as a residence for King Henry VIII. The palace was a unique structure because it deviated from the architectural designs of the time period by not having a great hall and featuring an elaborate staircase. It was also constructed around a large inner courtyard. Under Edward VI in the 1550s, Bridewell Palace was given to the City of London as a home for the city’s homeless children and a place of punishment for “disorderly women.” It was run in conjunction with Bedlam Hospital throughout Shakespeare’s lifetime and formed the blueprin...
2021-08-0929 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 172: Roderigo Lopez with Susan AbernethyBorn in Portugal, Dr. Roderigo Lopez fled to England in the 16th century as a Jewish refugee. His family was Jewish, forced to convert to Catholicism, and when he arrived in England he joined the Church of England to become Protestant while still practicing Jewish rituals at home. Serving at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1576, Lopez rose through the ranks as a doctor until he was the Chief Physician there. He served as doctor to some of England’s most notable dignitaries including Sir Francis Walsingham, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex, and even Quee...
2021-08-0216 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 171: Joan La Pucelle with Carole LevinIn Henry VI Part I, William Shakespeare presents one of history’s most famous characters, a woman, named Joan La Pucelle, known today as Joan of Arc. For the French, she was a truly holy woman, chaste, and pure. She was also a brilliant military strategist and a force to be reckoned with in battle. Nicknamed “the Maid of Orleans,” the real Joan of Arc was a heroine for France during the Hundred Years’ War and would be canonized as a saint. The depiction of Joan La Pucelle in Shakespeare’s play is an intriguing investigation because as Shakespeare was depicting...
2021-07-2624 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 170: William Bradford with David and Aaron BradfordWilliam Braford is most well known today as the man who served as the second governor of Plymouth Colony, leaving Europe for Virginia in 1620 aboard the Mayflower. Prior to this infamous voyage, Bradford was an Englishman whose life overlapped that of William Shakespeare, having been born in Yorkshire, England, when Shakespeare was 26 years old. There’s no evidence to suggest Shakespeare knew Bradford personally, but the life of William Bradford shines a light on a huge aspect of Shakespeare’s life: the presence and subsequent response to religious extremism in England. Queen Elizabeth restored Protestantism to England in 1559, along with requ...
2021-07-191h 07
That Shakespeare LifeEp 169: Tudor Underwear with Bess ChilverPortraits of ladies and gentlemen from the late 16th century show men and women adorned in all manner of finery, including everything from flowing gowns, to magnificent swords, and even those infamous Tudor ruff collars,but what exactly did it take to get into all those fine outfits? When Shakespeare surveyed his closet in the morning before he got dressed for the day, were there certain items he needed like an undershirt or socks? This week, we are diving into the world of early modern clothing to look at what Shakespeare, his contemporaries, and his female counterparts would have worn...
2021-07-1229 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 168: Court with Natalie MearsWhen we study court in Shakespeare history the phrase “appeared at court” or “performed at court” frequently gets used to describe what Shakespeare was doing at various points of his life. However, the overlap between “court” legally (as in, where you go for a legal trial) and the social phenomenon of Renaissance England where the monarch gathered their “court” together can make it hard to know what it means to go to court. This week we’ve set out to rectify this gap in knowledge with our guest, Natalie Mears, who is here to share her research into Courts, Courtiers, and Culture in Tudor...
2021-07-0535 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 167: Shareholders with Lucy MunroWhen William Shakespeare first arrived in London sometime in the 1580s, James Burbage was already making waves in the early modern performance industry by establishing The Theater, a playhouse which the Burbages owned. After a fight with the owner of the land on which The Theater was built, the building itself would be dismantled by the Burbages and William Shakespeare who helped the Burbages clandestinely move the building timber by timber across the Thames to create the theater known as The Globe. Today, we refer to The Globe, as well as the first indoor playhouse, the Blackfriars, as Shakespeare’s th...
2021-06-2829 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 166: Elizabethan Street Fighting with Casey KalebaIn the 1950s when Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was adapted into West Side Story, popular culture in the US resonated with the gang culture and street fighting depicted on stage because the brass knuckled “rumbles” taking place on streets like those in New York City were current events of the day. Turns out, historically, these gang fights were a real issue for Shakespeare’s lifetime as well, and scenes like Mercutio and Romeo fighting in the streets of Verona, the mob that goes after Cinna the Poet in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and the tavern brawls that break out in several...
2021-06-2154 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 165: The Broom Besom with Wendy WallIt seems even William Shakespeare had household floors to keep clean. While it likely wouldn’t have been the actual William doing the majority of the sweeping in his household, one item the bard seems to have been familiar with through his nineteen uses of the word “sweep” and one use of the word “besom” across his works is the household broom used for sweeping floors. The bard uses “broom” at least 3 times in his plays, mentioning once a broom-staff, and in The Tempest, Shakespeare calls attention to a “broom-grove” suggesting there was a particular plant or tree used for growing the materi...
2021-06-1420 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 164: Iron Gall Ink with Lucas TuckerIn Cymbeline, Act I Scene 1 Posthumus Leonatus says “I’ll drink the words you send though ink be made of gall” and in Twelfth Night Sir Toby Belch calls attention to a particular kind of ink when he says “Let there be gall enough in thy ink, though thou write with a goose-pen…” in Act III Scene 2. Both of these scenes from Shakespeare’s plays are referencing the most popular kind of ink used in Shakespeare’s lifetime and that is iron gall ink. The phrase iron gall ink was a phrase used to describe common, or standard, ink and as Sir Toby Belc...
2021-06-0723 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 163: Crocodiles and Alligators with Spencer WeinreichShakespeare mentions the word “crocodile” five times in his plays, but crocodiles not being native to England must have been introduced to the bard from outside his natural habitat there in London. The crocodile itself was well known in English literature, having been written about in association with Egypt and Africa by writers like Pliny the Elder centuries prior to Shakespeare. This particular beast was brought back to the forefront of popular imagination during Shakespeare’s lifetime, however, when explorers to the New World came home with stories of a new creature similar to the crocodile and unique to North Americ...
2021-05-3148 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 162: The Grass Snake and the Basilisk with Rob LendersIn Elizabethan England, the basilisk was a feared and hateful creature, capable of killing someone with just a glance. Of the 8 references to basilisks in Shakespeare’s plays, half of these invoke the reputation of being able to kill with a look. European bestiaries record the basilisk as a legendary serpent ruling as King of the reptiles and while the folklore far outpaces the science, recent historical studies of animals from Elizabethan England reveal that the basilisk may have been a term applied to a real snake that made its home across Northern Europe when Shakespeare was writing about basilisks in...
2021-05-2421 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 161: The Mermaid Tavern with Michelle O'CallaghanIn Elizabethan England on the corner of Friday Street and Bread Street was a fine dining and drinking establishment called the Mermaid Tavern. The building itself burned down in the Great Fire of London in 1666, but the legend of this storied tavern lives on through the records of people like Ben Jonson and 17th century travel writer Thomas Coryat, who wrote about the Mermaid Tavern in the early 1600s, when Shakespeare was in his late 40s to early 50s, describing it as the meeting place of Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen, a drinking club that met on the first Friday...
2021-05-1739 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 160: Characterie and Elizabethan Short Hand with Bryan CrockettIn 1588, one man named Tom Bright introduced an innovative new method for quickly writing down what you hear during a live performance, publishing a manual he called “Charactery.” A term of Bright’s own invention, Charactery is the first English version of an ancient method of shorthand dating back to the time of Cicero, that allowed anyone to pirate versions of live performance, provided they had enough patience to learn the complicated system. Bright’s innovative technology applied a complicated array of symbols and characters that while intimidating to review today, was a huge hit in Elizabethan England, with several addition...
2021-05-1031 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 159: Elizabethan Dogs with Jeff Crosby and Shelley Ann JacksonIn Elizabethan England two of the most popular forms of public entertainment were animal baiting and hunting. Bull and bear baiting happened in a dedicated arena while hunting was usually done on private lands or hunting parks where private, usually very elite, groups of people would gather for the hunt. What each of these sports has in common is they both employ use of dogs. Hunting dogs were raised meticulously with manuals from Shakespeare’s lifetime outlining the detailed husbandry involved in how to build kennels, how to feed, and even how to groom hunting dogs. When it came to...
2021-05-0331 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 158: Excavating Bull Ring Market with Steve ThomsonBull Ring market in Birmingham, England, UK was first known as Corn Cheaping because in the 12th century, which is when we have the first reference to Corn Cheaping, it was used as a corn market. Corn Cheaping had an iron ring setup on a grassy section of Corn Cheaping that was used as a bull baiting arena, where bulls who had been selected for slaughter would be tied and baited for entertainment before being processed into meat. That’s where the name Bull Ring Market comes from. Today, in the 21st century, Bull Ring Market is still being used as...
2021-04-2629 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 157: Social Order and Architecture with Matthew JohnsonAs students of Shakespeare’s lifetime, often we see the phrase “of certain status” to describe 16-17th century limitations on clothes, housing, and other material realities for various people. Particular if you study Elizabethan sumptuary laws, it seems like society was strictly controlled based on social status, and one’s place in society was decided at birth, with little mobility allowed. The life of people like William Shakespere, however, who in his own life was able to rise in the ranks of society and establish himself as a gentleman, we have evidence that social mobility was a strong force in Engla...
2021-04-1932 min
That Shakespeare LifeEp 156: Rules for 17th C Hunting with Karen Kaiser LeeIn Elizabethan England, the Queen is immortalized in woodcuts that show her fondness for the sport of hawking. By the time James I comes to the throne in 1603, hawking is surpassed by a form of hunting called par force where animals like dogs and horses are used to round up prey. While the practical aspect of hunting animals for meat was utilized in these hunting expeditions, arguably the primary function of going hunting was to establish yourself as a member of a higher order of social status and to network with powerful political connections that might advance your station. In...
2021-04-1232 min
WrestleSoapTopiaThe AEW Dynamite/NXT Potpourri Mashup #14: The Ballad of Blood Orange CassidyThe latest episode of The AEW Dynamite/NXT Potpourri Mashup is now live for your listening pleasure! Your host and humble guide Keila Cash recaps the highs and lows from last night's shows. The Rundown Includes: The Young Bucks put FTR on notice, Penelope Ford scores the biggest win of her career, Chris Jericho squeezes Orange Cassidy, Johnny Gargano is the worst husband in the world, El Hijo del Fantasma shows his true colors, and Adam Cole gets a shock to the system courtesy of Scarlett. Press play and subscribe today! Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ladywrestlingx
2020-06-1144 min
Tudors Dynasty & BeyondWilliam Shakespeare with Cassidy CashOn today’s show I’m discussing a topic I feel I know very little about...William Shakespeare, but thankfully I’ll have a little help from an expert on the subject and we’ll have her answer some of your questions at the end as well.
William Shakespeare is arguably the most well-known playwright of all time - to learn more about him today I have special guest, Cassidy Cash from That Shakespeare Life podcast on to educate me, and maybe you too, on the life of William Shakespeare.
But, before we get started, here’s a...
2019-06-0139 min
The Market Your Message ShowHow Cassidy Cash is Blogging Her Passion with Shakespeare [Real Stories]Send us a textI'm excited to announce a new feature of the Blogging Your Passion podcast! Every other week, we will be releasing a "real story" of a blogger from the Blogging Your Passion Community who is building their platform in the trenches as we speak. This week you will hear from Cassidy Cash. That Shakespeare Girl was established in July 2017 by Cassidy Cash as a way to connect Shakespeare's plays with the history of William Shakespeare himself. Cassidy has a passion for Shakespeare, knowledge, and good coffee, Cassidy is the host of That Shakespeare Life, a...
2018-03-2324 minThe Market Your Message ShowHow Cassidy Cash is Blogging Her Passion with Shakespeare [Real Stories]Send us a textI'm excited to announce a new feature of the Blogging Your Passion podcast! Every other week, we will be releasing a "real story" of a blogger from the Blogging Your Passion Community who is building their platform in the trenches as we speak. This week you will hear from Cassidy Cash. That Shakespeare Girl was established in July 2017 by Cassidy Cash as a way to connect Shakespeare's plays with the history of William Shakespeare himself. Cassidy has a passion for Shakespeare, knowledge, and good coffee, Cassidy is the host of That Shakespeare Life, a...
2018-03-2324 min
Renaissance English History Podcast: A Show About the TudorsEpisode 097: Shakespeare and Love: An interview with Cassidy Cash of That Shakespeare GirlIn this episode, especially for Valentine's Day, we talk to Cassidy Cash of That Shakespeare Girl about what Shakespeare can tell us about love in Renaissance England. Grab show notes, and Cassidy's free guide, at englandcast.com.Remember, if you like this show, the number one thing you can do is leave a rating or review on iTunes. It's free, and it makes a huge difference in people being able to find us. Thank you, in advance! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2018-02-1440 min