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In this week's episode, we explore the role of music and songs in Shakespeare's plays. We look at how songs were woven into the fabric of early modern culture, from tavern ballads to church liturgies to courtly masques, and consider how this musical culture influenced the music of Shakespeare's plays. We'll also explain how scholars and historians have pieced together bits and pieces of information to discover what we know about which instruments were popular and what the popular music of Shakespeare's day sounded like.

We'll also dive into the logistics of music in a theatrical performance and how musicians and actors would bring these songs to life in the original productions of Shakespeare's plays.

Looking for the image of the virginal/spinet we mention? Here you go!

Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

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Works referenced:

Bogaev, Barbara, interviewer. Christopher Marsh and Angela McShane, guests. "Top Pop Songs of the 1600s." Shakespeare Unlimited. Episode 259. Folger Shakespeare Library. https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/top-pop-songs-of-the-1600s/. Accessed 26 July 2026.

Cash, Cassidy, host. "Episode 33: Music in Shakespeare's Plays with Mary Springfels." That Shakespeare Life. episode 33, https://www.cassidycash.com/ep33/. Accessed 26 July 2026.

Cash, Cassidy, host. "Ep 96: Catherine Loomis and Music on Shakespeare's Stage." That Shakespeare Life. episode 96, https://www.cassidycash.com/ep-96-catherine-loomis-and-music-on-shakespeares-stage/. Accessed 26 July 2026.

Colley, John Scott. "Music in the Elizabethan Private Theatres." The Yearbook of English Studies, vol. 4, 1974, pp. 62–69. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3506682. Accessed 26 July 2026. Munro, Lucy, ' Music and Sound', in Richard Dutton (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Theatre (2011; online edn, Oxford Academic, 18 Sept. 2012), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199697861.013.0033, accessed 25 July 2026. Phillips, James E. "The Vocal Songs in the Plays of Shakespeare. A Critical History. Peter J. Seng." Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 3, 1968, pp. 359-361. Chicago Journals, https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.2307/2859441. Accessed 26 July 2026. Sheir, Rebecca, host. Ross W. Duffin, guest. "Music in Shakespeare." Shakespeare Unlimited. Episode 11. Folger Shakespeare Library. https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/music-in-shakespeare/. Accessed 26 July 2026.