illiam Shakespeare was living, and writing at the start of the Golden Age of Libraries. In a world where the written word was considered a luxury item, and private libraries were amassed in castles, mansions, or other private residencies of the wealthy as a sign of their status and intelligence, The Bodleian Library changed the culture of education, and access to knowledge, when they opened their doors in 1602 as the first public library in the world. In 1602, William Shakespeare was 38 years old and writing plays like Troilus and Cressida and even Hamlet, which was registered for publication in the summer of that year. One of the founders of the original library, Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, who was the younger brother of Henry V, is a major character in two of Shakespeare’s plays, and a minor character in two more. Appearing across four of Shakespeare’s plays is unique enough, but to also portray him positively throughout, leaves us wondering what was William Shakespeare’s opinion of libraries, and would he have gone to the Bodleian? 

Here today to share with us the Shakespearean history of the Bodleian Library, is our guest Dr. Emma Smith