Over this past year, we quietly went back to where we began this podcast and worked on revising our Intro Series, "Stuff You Should Know." We updated the original episodes quietly in September. When we started thinking about what we wanted to release for the end of 2024, we feel like nothing encapsulates how we've grown as podcasters and scholars over the past four years better than these revised episodes, so we wanted to revisit them and share these episodes again. 

--

This is Part 2 of our intro series “Stuff You Should Know,” which covers some background and context into the life and times of Shakespeare, because art isn’t created in a vacuum. In this episode, we’ll be covering some basic information about early modern England during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. And when we say basic, we mean basic. This is a quick overview of early modern England, more importantly the England that influenced Shakespeare. 

In this episode, we’ll be covering some basic information about the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, as well as the public theatres during those respective eras. We'll review how the transition from feudalism to mercantilism changed English society and discuss facets of early modern English society such as fashion, social mobility, religious freedom, and public health. We will give an overview the history of the public theatre in England and discuss some key features of what theatre-making was like for Shakespeare and his contemporaries. 

Want more about the Elizabethan and Jacobean England & Theatre? Check out these episodes that go more in depth on topics we touch on in this episode:

• Mini: Commerce and Trade in Shakespeare's Time
• King Lear: Mental Health and Disability in Shakespeare's Time
• Mini-Episode: The Gunpowder Plot
• Mini-Episode: The Four Humours
• Hamlet: Ophelia, Gertrude, and Female Agency
• Mini: Plague, Quarantine, & Shakespeare
• Mini: Shakespearean Vengeance: Exploring Revenge Tragedies in Early Modern England
• Mini-Episode: Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
• Mini: Traveling Theatre Companies
• Mini: Shakespeare's Folios and Quartos

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

Episode written and researched by Kourtney Smith with contributions by Elyse Sharp. Revised September 2024.

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com

You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.

Works referenced:

Brown, John Russell, and Peter Thomson, editor and author. “Chapter 6 English Renaissance and Restoration Theatre.” The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre, pp. 173 - 200. Oxford University Press, 2001

Sherry, Joyce. “Elizabethan Theatre.” YouTube, 4 Jan. 2014, Accessed 6 Sept. 2020, from www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_cTCdkCAcc

Over this past year, we quietly went back to where we began this podcast and worked on revising our Intro Series, "Stuff You Should Know." We updated the original episodes quietly in September. When we started thinking about what we wanted to release for the end of 2024, we feel like nothing encapsulates how we've grown as podcasters and scholars over the past four years better than these revised episodes, so we wanted to revisit them and share these episodes again. 

--

This is Part I of our intro series, “Stuff You Should Know,” which covers some background and context into the life and times of Shakespeare, because art isn’t created in a vacuum. In this episode, we’ll be covering some basic information about the monarchy and English Renaissance. And when we say basic, we mean basic. This is a quick overview of early modern England, more importantly the England that influenced Shakespeare. 

In this episode, we’ll be covering some basic information about the English monarchy and English Renaissance. We will give an overview of the history of the English monarchy during the English Renaissance, through the early modern period and a little beyond Shakespeare's lifetime. We will discuss how the Renaissance differed from the medieval period that came before it and how the English Renaissance differed from the Italian Renaissance. 

Want more about the English Renaissance? Check out these episodes that go more in depth on topics we touch on in this episode:

• Mini: Shakespeare and Petrarch
• Mini: Shakespeare and the Colonial Imagination
• Mini: Shakespeare's World: Immigrants, Others, and Foreign Commodities
• Mini: "Decolonize the Mind" through Shakespeare
• Mini: Commerce and Trade in Shakespeare's Time
• Hamlet: Ophelia, Gertrude, and Female Agency

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

Episode written and researched by Kourtney Smith. Revised September 2024.

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com

You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.

Additional sound effects from https://www.zapsplat.com

Works Referenced:

Cooper, Dr. Tanya. “Elizabeth I and Her People”. National Portrait Gallery, The Weiss Gallery, 7 Oct. 2013. Accessed 8 Sept. 2020, from www.npg.org.uk/whatson/elizabethi/film

Elizabethans - Religious Settlement. (2018, September 23). Accessed 24 Sept. 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylP6oZgSeuI

Fox, Dr. James, creator and writer. A Very British Renaissance, Episode 1: The Renaissance Arrives. A BBC Arts Production, 2014. Accessed 16 Sept. 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtc1cY3ZDTs

Fox, Dr. James, creator and writer. A Very British Renaissance, Episode 2: The Elizabethan Code. A BBC Arts Production, 2014. Accessed 16 Sept. 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCCjOck6cd4

Fox, Dr. James, creator and writer. A Very British Renaissance, Episode 3: Whose Renaissance?. A BBC Arts Production, 2014. Accessed 16 Sept. 2020, from https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03yzflc/episodes/guide William, Professor Kate, presentor. The Stuarts - A Bloody Reign, Episode 101: King James I. Timeline, A 3DD Production in association with Yesterday imagined by UKTV, 31 July 2018. Accessed 16 Sept. 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zfgxzk3UtY

It's time for our annual bonus episode! Join us as we revisit the Shakespeare plays we covered this year. We've gone back and re-read both Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing, and we will discuss what has changed in our readings of these plays after completing our research as well as what we would like to see more (or less) of in future productions or research relating to these two plays. 

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

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com

You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.

Works referenced:

Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing: Revised Edition. Edited by Claire McEachern, 2nd ed., Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.

Shakespeare, William, and René Weis. Romeo and Juliet: Revised Edition. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2012.

Each year, in recognition of the National Day of Mourning/Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, we examine how British colonialism is irrevocably intertwined with Shakespeare through close reading of Jyotsna Singh's Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory. In this week's episode, we will explore how Shakespeare’s plays can be interpreted and performed in a postcolonial society.

This practice involves shifting our perceptions of Shakespeare’s plays as timeless and universal to timely and particular, especially in the context of performance. We will discuss a few postcolonial readings and performances from both Western and Global Shakespeare scholars and practitioners. We will also explore how these specific productions prompt and answer the questions of: “Why this play?” and “Why now?” Who is producing this play? Who is on the stage playing these characters? What interpretive choices are being made? Where is this play being performed? These are all questions we invite all to ask as we apply this framework to our own scholarship and theatre practice.

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

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com

You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.

Works referenced:

Singh, Jyotsna G. Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory, The Arden Shakespeare, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2020.

In today's episode, we will be finishing up our exploration of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing by watching and discussing three productions. 

First, we will discuss Kenneth Branagh's 1993 film version, starring Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. Then we will take a look at the 2019 Public Theatre's Shakespeare in Park production directed by Kenny Leon and starring Danielle Brooks and Grantham Coleman. Last but not least, we will round out our viewings with the 2011 Wyndham's Theatre production starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate. 

Want more Much Ado About Nothing adaptations? Over on our Patreon, we also have a discussion of the 2023 film Anyone But You starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell (coming late November 2024)

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

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com

You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.

Works referenced:

"Much Ado About Nothing." Great Performancess, directed by Kenny Leon, performances by Danielle Brooks and Grantham Coleman, et.al, season 47, episode 9,   Thirteen / WNET, 2019. PBS, https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shakespeare-in-the-park-much-ado-about-nothing-about/9822/. 

Much Ado About Nothing. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, performances by Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, et.al.  The Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1993. Prime Video.

Much Ado About Nothing. Directed by Josie Rourke and Robert Delamere, performances by Catherine Tate and David Tennant, et.al. Wyndham's Theatre. 2011. Digital Theatre.

In today's episode, we are exploring the life of Shakespeare’s contemporary, Aemilia Bassano Lanyer (whose name is also spelled as Emilia Lanier), who was one of the first women in England to publish her writing and is the author of the first published book of poetry by an English woman. 

First, we will explore Aemilia's early life before discussing her groundbreaking volume of poetry, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum. We will talk about what is known of the rest of Aemilia's life before giving a brief overview of what she is most known for today: her possible ties to William Shakespeare.

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

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com

You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.

Works referenced:

Benson, Pamela. ‘Emilia Lanier’, A Critical Introduction to the Casebooks of Simon Forman and Richard Napier, 1596–1634, https://casebooks.lib.cam.ac.uk/using-the-casebooks/meet-the-patients/emilia-lanier, accessed 6 October 2024.

Cooley, Ron. “Aemilia Lanyer  Biographical Introduction.” Aemilia Lanyer, Biographical Introduction, University of Saskatchewan English Department, 8 Aug. 1998, drc.usask.ca/projects/emet/phoenix/lanyerbio.htm.

Greenstadt, A. Eliza . "Aemilia Lanyer". In obo in Renaissance and Reformation. 6 Oct. 2024. .

Grossman, Marshall, editor. Aemilia Lanyer: Gender, Genre, and the Canon. 1st ed., University Press of Kentucky, 1998. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt130jkm3. Accessed 6 Oct. 2024.

Lanyer, Aemilia. “Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum.” Edited by Risa S. Bear, Renascence Editions , Luminarium/The Univeristy of Oregon, 21 Nov. 2009, www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/lanyer1.html.

Lanyer, Aemilia. “The Description of Cooke-Ham.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, 2024, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50661/the-description-of-cooke-ham. 

McBride, Kari Boyd (2008) Web Page Dedicated to Aemilia Lanyer Archived 25 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, accessed on 06 Oct. 2024

McDonough, M.G., host. “More than the Dark Lady: Aemelia Lanyer’s “Eve’s Apology in Defense of Women.” The Classic English Literature Podcast, season 1, episode 65, 05 May 2024. https://theclassicenglishliteraturepodcast.buzzsprout.com/2024786/episodes/15012587-more-than-the-dark-lady-aemilia-lanyer-s-eve-s-apology-in-defense-of-women. Accessed 05 October 2024.

Teysko, Heather, host. “Amelia Lanier: England’s first Female English Poet.” Renaissance English History Podcast: A Show About the Tudors, season 1, episode 220, 10 January 2024. https://www.englandcast.com/podcast-archive/. Accessed 05 October 2024.

In today's episode, we are exploring the historical and theatrical context for bastard characters in Shakespeare's plays and other plays of the early modern period. We'll explore the cultural norms that existed for illegitimate children during the Elizabethan and Jacobean and the legal, financial, and social prejudices they and their parents experienced. We will also discuss how the experience of illegitimacy intersects with class in early modern England.

Then, we will explore how the early modern theatre mirrored the experience of illegitimate children and how bastard characters were used as a tool by dramatists for the early modern theatre.

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

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com

You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.

Works referenced:

Findlay, Alison. Illegitimate Power: Bastards in Renaissance Drama. United Kingdom, Manchester University Press, 2009.

In today's episode, we are joined by Shakespeare scholar, Darren Freebury-Jones, to discuss his soon-to-be-released book, Shakespeare's Borrowed Feathers, which explores how Shakespeare was influenced by his fellow contemporary dramatists like John Lyly, Ben Johnson, and Christopher Marlowe, and how he also influenced their work. 

We'll discuss Darren's research process and the methods he used to analyze the works of Shakespeare and Shakespeare's contemporaries. We will also learn from Darren what this research reveals about the playwrighting and theatrical community of early modern London, and what readers and theatre-makers can learn from having a broader knowledge of early modern drama beyond Shakespeare. 

About Darren Freebury-Jones

Dr Darren Freebury-Jones is author of the monographs: Reading Robert Greene: Recovering Shakespeare’s Rival (Routledge), Shakespeare’s Tutor: The Influence of Thomas Kyd (Manchester University Press), and Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers (Manchester University Press). He is Associate Editor for the first critical edition of The Collected Works of Thomas Kyd since 1901 (Boydell and Brewer). He has also investigated the boundaries of John Marston’s dramatic corpus as part of the Oxford Marston project and is General Editor for The Collected Plays of Robert Greene (Edinburgh University Press). His findings on the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries have been discussed in national newspapers such as The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Observer, and The Independent as well as BBC Radio. His debut poetry collection, Rambling (Broken Sleep Books), was published in 2024. In 2023 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in recognition of his contributions to historical scholarship.

About Shakespeare's Borrowed Feathers 

A fascinating book exploring the early modern authors who helped to shape Shakespeare's beloved plays.

Shakespeare's plays have influenced generations of writers, but who were the early modern playwrights who influenced him? Using the latest techniques in textual analysis Shakespeare's borrowed feathers offers a fresh look at William Shakespeare and reveals the influence of a community of playwrights that shaped his work. This compelling book argues that we need to see early modern drama as a communal enterprise, with playwrights borrowing from and adapting one another's work.

From John Lyly's wit to the collaborative genius of John Fletcher, to Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's borrowed feathers offers fresh insights into Shakespeare's artistic development and shows us new ways of looking at the masterpieces that have enchanted audiences for centuries.

Order Shakespeare's Borrowed Feathers through bookshop.org (Note: this is an affiliate link, which means by clicking and ordering, you'll get a great book and support the podcast and local bookshops)

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

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com

You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.

Works referenced:

 Freebury-Jones, Darren. Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers. Manchester University Press, 2024.

In today's episode, we are exploring how Shakespeare was influenced by The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione as he was writing Much Ado About Nothing. We'll discuss how close reading of both Shakespeare's play and Castiglione's Renaissance etiquette book uncovers layers of intertextuality and references to The Courtier in Shakespeare's writing.

First, we'll discuss some parallels between The Courtier and Much Ado About Nothing. Then we will dig deeper into Book 3 of The Courtier and how its messages on joking, jesting, and laughter can be read in Much Ado About Nothing. We will also briefly discuss how Hero and Beatrice reflect The Courtier's ideal for Renaissance women. 

Finally, we will closely examine the courtiers in Much Ado About Nothing and how the characters of Benedick, Claudio, Don Pedro, and Don John can be read through the lens of good (and bad) courtier behavior as outlined in The Courtier. We will also discuss which of these courtiers comes the closest to Castiglione's ideal courtier, and what early modern English behaviors Shakespeare may have been commenting on through this play. 

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

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com

You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.

Works referenced:

Collington, Philip D. “‘Stuffed with All Honourable Virtues’: ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ and ‘The Book of the Courtier.’” Studies in Philology, vol. 103, no. 3, 2006, pp. 281–312, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4174852. 

Ghose, Indira. “Courtliness and Laughter.” Shakespeare and Laughter: A Cultural History, Manchester University Press, 2008, pp. 15–51. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt155jd06.5. Accessed 30 Aug. 2024.

Today’s episode is another part of our series on Shakespeare’s Language Framework, or how Shakespeare’s use of language can inform our understanding of his works. In today’s episode, we are going to explore a device Shakespeare uses throughout his plays (but very notably in the comedies and histories): malapropisms. 

We will start by defining the term malapropism, then we will explore a linguistic study on malapropisms to determine how Shakespeare's malapropisms are linguistically constructed. We will also discuss whether or not early modern audiences would have understood these malapropisms as intentional wordplay, and how scholars know that they are intentional, instead of a printing or editing error. 

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

This episode was written by Elyse Sharp.

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com

You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.

Works referenced:

“Acyrology, N.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4304815537.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "malapropism". Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 Jul. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/malapropism. Accessed 20 August 2024.

"Dogberryism." Oxford Reference. . . Date of access 21 Aug. 2024, https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095724827

Keller, M. (2017). “Saying Thus or to the Same Defect”: A Linguistic Analysis of Shakespeare’s Malapropisms. English Studies, 98(3), 244–261. https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2017.1283119

Livingstone, David. (2024). "If We Offend, It Is With Our Good Will”: Malapropisms, Mispronunciation and Garbling of Language in Shakespeare's Plays. FOLIUM. 4. 160-166. 10.32782/folium/2024.4.23.