In today's episode, we are covering the major themes, tropes, and topics related to William Shakespeare's Hamlet. We'll also discuss the challenges involved in reading, performing, and editing Hamlet as well as how scholars have struggled to determine when exactly Hamlet was written. 

Content warning: because of this play's themes, we will be discussing mental health and suicide in this episode. Listen with care. 

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

Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was using the stage name "Korey Leigh Smith".

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 at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone

Works referenced:

Green, John, et al. “Ghosts, Murder, and More Murder - Hamlet Part 1: Crash Course Literature 203.” YouTube, Crashcourse, 13 Mar. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My14mZa-eq8.

Green, John. “Ophelia, Gertrude, and Regicide - Hamlet Part 2: Crash Course Literature 204.” YouTube, Crashcourse, 20 Mar. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDCohlKUufs.

“Hamlet.” Edited by SparkNotes Editors, Sparknotes, SparkNotes, 2005, https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/. 

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Edited by Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor, Revised ed., Bloomsbury Arden, 2016. 

In today's episode, we are kicking off our series on William Shakespeare's Hamlet by giving you a synopsis of this looong play.

In addition to covering the plot points you'll likely remember if you've seen or read this play before (like "to be or not to be," "alas poor Yorick!" etc.), we also make sure to cover the geopolitical subplots that can get cut or skipped. 

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

Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was using the stage name "Korey Leigh Smith".

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 at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone

Works referenced:

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Edited by Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor, Revised ed., Bloomsbury Arden, 2016.

We are so excited to be sharing this episode with you. This week, we are sitting down for a conversation with Sir Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen about their recently released second edition of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Complete Works of William Shakespeare, now available at a fine bookseller near you. 

The newly revised, wonderfully authoritative First Folio of William Shakespeare’s Complete Works, edited by acclaimed Shakespearean scholars and endorsed by the world-famous Royal Shakespeare Company.

Combining innovative scholarship with brilliant commentary and textual analysis that emphasizes performance history and values, this landmark edition is indispensable to students, theater professionals, and general readers alike.

Jonathan Bate is professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance literature at the University of Warwick. Widely known as an award-winning biographer, critic, and broadcaster, Bate is the author of several books on Shakespeare, including Shakespeare and Ovid and The Genius of Shakespeare, which was described by Sir Peter Hall, founder of the RSC, as "the best modern book on Shakespeare."

Eric Rasmussen is professor of English and director of graduate study at the University of Nevada. He is a co-editor of the Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama and of the forthcoming New Variorum Shakespeare edition of Hamlet. He has edited a number of works for the Arden Shakespeare series, Oxford's World's Classics, and the Revels Plays series, and is the general textual editor of the Internet Shakespeare Editions Project.

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

Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was using the stage name "Korey Leigh Smith".

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 at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone

Works referenced:

Shakespeare, William, and Jonathan Bate. “Preface to Shakespeare: A Second Edition.” Complete Works, edited by Jonathan Bate et al., 2nd ed., The Modern Library, New York, NY, 2022, pp. 6–14.

Shakespeare, William, et al. “Foreward.” Complete Works, 2nd ed., The Modern Library, New York, NY, 2022, pp. 59–60.

Our time with King Lear has come to an end! This week, we will be discussing two major film adaptations and whether or not we feel they are worth watching: Trevor Nunn's 2008 film adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company production, starring Ian McKellen, and Richard Eyre's 2018 film produced for Amazon Studios, starring Antony Hopkins. We'll also talk a little about a few other significant productions and adaptations. 

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

Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was using the stage name "Korey Leigh Smith".

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 at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone

Works referenced:

Bickley, Pamela, and Jennifer Stevens. “8. King Lear.” Studying Shakespeare Adaptation: From Restoration Theatre to YouTube, The Arden Shakespeare, London, 2021, pp. 145–163.

Eyre, Richard, director. King Lear. Performance by Antony Hopkins, Amazon Studios, 2018.

Nunn, Trevor, director. King Lear. Performance by Ian McKellen, Richard Price TV Associates Ltd., 2008.

 

 

Shakespeare features food all over his plays--he even names characters after food! Today, we are diving into the culinary landscape of Early Modern England and learning more about the foods (and foodies) of the time.

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

Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was "Korey Leigh Smith".

Episode written and researched by Elyse Sharp and Kourtney Smith.

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 at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone

Works referenced:

Brears, Peter. Cooking and Dining in Tudor and Early Stuart England. Prospect Books, 2015. .

Cash, Cassidy, and Brigitte Webster. “ Shakespeare’s Daily Diet with Brigitte Webster.” That Shakespeare Life, performance by Cassidy Cash, season 1, episode 42, 4 Feb. 2019, https://www.cassidycash.com/shakespeare-daily-diet/. Accessed 10 May 2022.

Hughes, Glyn. “Foods of England Cheat.” Foods of England - Cheat, 1 Mar. 2022, http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/cheat.htm.

Paul, Richard. “You Will Hie You Home to Dinner: The Food of Shakespeare's World.” Shakespeare Unlimited, performance by Wendy Wall, and Barbara Bogaev, season 1, episode 53, 26 July 2016, https://www.folger.edu/shakespeare-unlimited/food-wendy-wall. Accessed 10 May 2022.

Tufts, John. Fat Rascals: Dining at Shakespeare's Table. John Tufts, 2020. 

Tufts, John. Performance by John Tufts, Fat Rascals: Dining at Shakespeare's Table, Episode 1: Chewets, Youtube, 7 Apr. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIVBetm29ck. Accessed 10 May 2022.

It is often said of King Lear that if an actor has the stamina to play the titular role, they don't have the age, but if they have the age, they don't have the stamina. 

With this in mind, we are taking a look at Early Modern perceptions and beliefs surrounding aging and old age, how aging and old age is represented in the text of King Lear, and how it has been portrayed on stage. 

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

Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was using the stage name "Korey Leigh Smith".

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

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

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

You can support the podcast at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone. This month, Patreon patrons receive an extended version of our conversation on Gallatea with Dr. Simone Chess!

Works referenced:

Martin, Christopher. Ch. 5 Confin’d to Exhibition: King Lear through the Spectacles of Age. Constituting Old Age in Early Modern English Literature, from Queen Elizabeth to King Lear. University of Massachusetts Press, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vk6xw.8. 2013 pp. 137-175. Accessed 26 Apr. 2022.

Performance by Simon Russell Beale, and Simon Lovestone, Shakespeare and Old Age: Simon Russell Beale, National Theatre, 19 Apr. 2016, https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/file/shakespeare-and-old-age-simon-russell-beale. Accessed 26 Apr. 2022.   Snyder, Susan. “King Lear and the Psychology of Dying.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 4, 1982, pp. 449–60, https://doi.org/10.2307/2870125. Accessed 27 Apr. 2022.

In this week's mini-episode, we are taking a slight departure from the plays of William Shakespeare to look at another play, Gallatea by John Lyly. We are joined in conversation by Dr. Simone Chess of Wayne State University to discuss the play's significance in Early Modern Queer and Trans Studies. 

This episode is an excerpt from our longer discussion. If you'd like to hear more, we will be sharing the full conversation with our Patreon patrons. Join our Patreon community at www.patreon.com/shakespeareanyone

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

Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was using the stage name "Korey Leigh Smith".

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 at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone

Works referenced:

Chess, Simone. Gallathea Introduction for The Show Must Go Online, 29 Mar. 2022. 

Chess, Simone. “Or whatever you be: Crossdressing, Sex, and Gender Labor in John Lyly’s Gallathea,” Special Issue: Sex Acts in the Early Modern World, Renaissance and Reformation. Vol 38, No 4 (2015), pp.145-166.

Frankland, Emma, and Andy Kesson. “‘Perhaps John Lyly Was a Trans Woman?": An Interview about Performing Galatea's Queer, Transgender Stories.” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, University of Pennsylvania Press, 24 Sept. 2020, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/765327.

Lyly, John. “Gallathea.” Edited by Meaghan Brown et al., A Digital Anthology of Early Modern English Drama, Folger Shakespeare Library, 21 July 2017, https://emed.folger.edu/gal. 

 

This is part two of our series on the intersection between Shakespeare's works and Mental Health and Disability. In this episode, we dive into how individuals at the forefront of the early field of psychiatry used Shakespeare's works, including King Lear, to develop treatments for their patients.

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

Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was using the stage name "Korey Leigh Smith".

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 at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone

Works referenced:

Neely, Carol Thomas. “Chapter 6 Rethinking Confinement in Early Modern England: The Place of Bedlam in History and Drama.” Distracted Subjects: Madness and Gender in Shakespeare and Early Modern Culture, Cornell University Press, 2004, pp. 184–199. 

Neely, Carol Thomas. “‘Documents in Madness’: Reading Madness and Gender in Shakespeare’s Tragedies and Early Modern Culture.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 3, [Folger Shakespeare Library, The Shakespeare Association of America, Inc., Johns Hopkins University Press, George Washington University], 1991, pp. 332–336, https://doi.org/10.2307/2870846.

Reiss, Benjamin. “Introduction & Chapter Three Bardolatry in Bedlam: Shakespeare and Early Psychiatry.” Theaters of Madness: Insane Asylums & Nineteenth-Century American Culture, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2008, pp. 1–21 & 79-102. 

In today's episode, we are continuing our series on Shakespeare's Language Framework by looking at his sonnets!

In addition to his plays, Shakespeare also wrote 154 sonnets. What are they and can they tell us anything about the man behind the plays?

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

Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was "Korey Leigh Smith".

Episode written and researched 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 at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone

Works referenced:

Gassman, Ian. “10 More Songs Inspired by William Shakespeare.” Pastemagazine.com, Paste Magazine, 27 Apr. 2016, https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/william-shakespeare/10-more-songs-inspired-by-william-shakespeare/#1-when-in-disgrace-with-fortune-and-men-s-eyes-sonnet-29-rufus-wainwright-feat-florence-welch. 

Green, John, et al. Shakespeare's Sonnets: Crash Course Literature 304. YouTube, YouTube, 27 July 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDpW1sHrBaU. Accessed 20 Feb. 2022.

Magnusson, Lynne. “A Modern Perspective: Shakespeare's Sonnets.” The Folger SHAKESPEARE, Folger Library, 15 Aug. 2021, https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/shakespeares-sonnets/shakespeares-sonnets-a-modern-perspective/.

Scabere, Wilude, and Society of Classical Poets, The. “On the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare's Death: Society of Classical Poets.” Society of Classical Poets | A Community of Poets Dedicated to Classical Forms, The Society of Classical Poets, 26 Apr. 2016, https://classicalpoets.org/2016/04/26/on-the-400th-anniversary-of-shakespeares-death/#/. 

Werstine, Barbara Mowat and Paul, and Editors of the Folger Shakespeare Library Editions. “About Shakespeare's Sonnets.” The Folger SHAKESPEARE, Folger Library, 29 July 2021, https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/shakespeares-sonnets/about-shakespeares-sonnets/.

Werstine, Barbara Mowat and Paul, and Editors of the Folger Shakespeare Library Editions. “An Introduction to This Text: Shakespeare's Sonnets.” The Folger SHAKESPEARE, Folger Library, 15 Aug. 2021, https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/shakespeares-sonnets/an-introduction-to-this-text/. 

This episode is part one of a two part series where we will be looking at the representations of mental health and disability in Shakespeare's King Lear. First, in this week's episode, we will be discussing mental health and disability in Shakespeare's time, specifically early modern treatment of what we would now describe as mental illness, neurodiversity, and disability.  

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

Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was using the stage name "Korey Leigh Smith".

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 at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone

Works referenced:

Neely, Carol Thomas. Distracted Subjects: Madness and Gender in Shakespeare and Early Modern Culture. Cornell University Press, 2004. 

Neely, Carol Thomas. “‘Documents in Madness’: Reading Madness and Gender in Shakespeare’s Tragedies and Early Modern Culture.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 3, [Folger Shakespeare Library, The Shakespeare Association of America, Inc., Johns Hopkins University Press, George Washington University], 1991, pp. 315–38, https://doi.org/10.2307/2870846.

Wood, David Houston, and Allison P. Hobgood. Recovering Disability in Early Modern England. Ohio State University Press, 2013.