Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Shakespeare, Chaucer, and the Tabard Inn, with Martha Carlin (Rebroadcast)


Listen Later

What if Shakespeare and his friends had gotten together and carved their names on the wall of an inn made famous by Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales? In 2015, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee history professor Dr. Martha Carlin found an anecdote in a little-known, unpublished manuscript that suggests such a link between these two great English writers.   Unfortunately, the Tabard Inn burned down in the great Southwark fire of 1676, so there’s no way of knowing the truth for sure. But even if it only was hearsay, this Shakespeare graffiti story—and the alehouse-centric connection between two writers over 200 years apart that it suggests—captures the imagination. Carlin talks with Rebecca Sheir about the anonymous diarist who wrote the account and what might have drawn Shakespeare and his pals to the Tabard Inn. Dr. Martha Carlin is a professor of history in the College of Letters & Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. © Folger Shakespeare Library. This podcast episode, "Betwixt Tavern and Tavern," was published July 15, 2015, and rebroadcast August 2, 2022. It was produced under the supervision of Garland Scott, and is presented with permission of rlpaulproductions, LLC, which created it for the Folger. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington. Ben Lauer and Esther French are the web producers. We had help from Lisa Nalbandian at Wisconsin Public Radio.
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedBy Folger Shakespeare Library

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

802 ratings


More shows like Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,422 Listeners

The Book Review by The New York Times

The Book Review

3,851 Listeners

Arts & Ideas by BBC Radio 4

Arts & Ideas

290 Listeners

History Extra podcast by Immediate Media

History Extra podcast

3,170 Listeners

World Book Club by BBC World Service

World Book Club

367 Listeners

Approaching Shakespeare by Oxford University

Approaching Shakespeare

324 Listeners

In Our Time: History by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: History

1,863 Listeners

In Our Time: Culture by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Culture

599 Listeners

The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books

The LRB Podcast

288 Listeners

London Review Bookshop Podcast by London Review Bookshop

London Review Bookshop Podcast

128 Listeners

The TLS Podcast by The TLS

The TLS Podcast

181 Listeners

The History of Literature by Jacke Wilson / The Podglomerate

The History of Literature

1,100 Listeners

Backlisted by Backlisted

Backlisted

570 Listeners

Gone Medieval by History Hit

Gone Medieval

1,752 Listeners

Close Readings by London Review of Books

Close Readings

66 Listeners