During the life of William Shakespeare, plain water was often unclean and filtration, while available, was rudimentary at best. It was not safe to drink the water of the Thames river, and in order to compensate for a general lack of fresh drinking water, the most popular beverage in Elizabethan England even for regular meal times, was beer or ale. Drunkenness was a common occurrence, as was the consistent consumption of large amounts of alcohol. There are court records showing the monarchs of England often celebrated festivals, parties, and visiting dignitaries with the serving of excessive amounts of alcohol, at times amounting to hundreds of barrels of wine, beer, or ale. One of Shakespeare’s most enduring characters is a drunken knight, and even Shakespeare’s own death is shrouded in a mystery involving excess drink. With all of this drinking going on in the life of William Shakespeare, what was the opinion and response to drunkenness?

Our guest this week, Rebecca Lemon, included an entire chapter on beer and addiction to alcohol in her latest publication titled Addiction and Devotion in Early Modern England. Dr. Lemon joins us today to explain some of the most common alcoholic beverages, the state of alcoholism in the 16th century, and what understanding these facts about the cultural relationship to alcohol can tell us about Shakespeare’s characters whose personalities were specifically inclusive of drunken behavior like Falstaff and Prince Hal.