Five 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 and author at British Food History.com, Neil Buttery, is in the studio with us to share with us the history of this plant, what it looks and tastes like, as well as what it would have been used for in Shakespeare’s lifetime. Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Medlars with Neil Buttery

Hosted by Cassidy Cash, That Shakespeare Life takes you behind the curtain and into the real life of William Shakespeare. Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Ep 320 | Phil Withington Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Drunk Horse Riding

In Shakespeare’s plays, he uses the word “glass” over 80 times, including to talk about specific kinds of glass like a pilot’s glass in Alls Well That Ends Well, and “the glasses of my sight” in Coriolanus. We can see from the surviving building of Shakespeare’s Birthplace in Stratford Upon Avon, that window glass existed, and there was even an old glass house in the Blackfriars where the Blackfriars theater was located, but how was all this glass made? What materials were used? What other products might have been made from glass, and what colors of glass were available or even most popular? To find out the answers to these questions and explore the history of glass for Shakespeare’s lifetime, we are delighted to welcome Allen Loomis to the show today.   Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Glass and Glass Making

Throughout Shakespeare’s plays, he references the mind over 400 times including talking about having a quick mind, an unclean mind, and even being out of your mind. Understanding how your brain worked, and what you as an individual could do to control it, and respond to it, was a hot topic for Shakespeare’s lifetime. The rise in books meant that works by authors exploring this topic of the mind, melancholy, and reason were widely available, even directly influencing the works of playwrights like William Shakespeare. Here today to help us understand what the 16th century minds understood about neurology, dreams, and the imagnation is our guest, and author of the book, The Elizabethan Mind, Helen Hackett.   Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Elizabethan Mind

British sign language has existed in some form among deaf communities at least since the 15th century, when some of the earliest records of sign language reveal descriptions of specific signs, many of which are still in use today. However, for Shakespeare’s lifetime, sign language was far from formalized among the Deaf, and certainly not widely accepted by the hearing community. Similarly, education of the deaf, in terms of schools established to educate the Deaf, Mute, or otherwise alternatively abled, would not take root in England until after Shakespeare’s lifetime, and that wasn’t until well into the 18th century. To help us understand what life was like for a deaf person in Shakespeare’s lifetime, as well as what signs existed, and what records we have from the late 16th and early 17th century for deaf people, sign language, and the deaf community for Shakespeare’s lifetime is our guest, Mary Lutze.  Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sign Language and Deaf Culture in 16th Century England

Before William Shakespeare was the great playwright of the age, he was “just Will” fromStratford Upon Avon. The one person in the world who not only loved him before he wasfamous, but walkedbeside him for the entire journey from young man with nothing but relentlessoptimism to successful playwright patronized by the monarchy of England, was his wife, AnneHathaway. Anne married William in 1582, and by the time Shakespeare was skyrocketing tofame in the 1590s with plays like his Henry VI series, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Romeoand Juliet, the couple were parents to three children, including one set of twins. In honor of theperson who quite literally kept the home fires burning so that theman who conquered the worldwith his work would have somewhere, and someone, to come home to, our guests this weekhave compiled a poetic tribute to Anne Hathaway called the Anne-thology. The collectionfeatures poetry and sonnets by modern scholars of Anne Hathaway as well as a few written byAnne’s children. In our first ever group interview here on That Shakespeare Life, we are pleasedto welcome our friends Chris Laoutaris, Katherine Scheil, Aaron Kent, and Paul Edmondson tothe show to tell us more about Anne Hathaway and the making of this memorial poetrycollection Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Medlars with Neil Buttery

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