That Shakespeare Life

By Cassidy Cash

Hosted by Cassidy Cash, That Shakespeare Life takes you behind the curtain and into the real life of William Shakespeare.

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How many episodes does That Shakespeare Life have?

The podcast currently has 514 episodes available.

That Shakespeare Life episodes:

June 09, 2025 Puppets Offering a Window into Shakespeare History
Shakespeare wrote his play Hamlet in the early 1600s and by the late 1600s, well after the death of William Shakespeare in 1616, playing troupes are taking plays including Shakespeare’s Hamlet and other works by early modern playwrights, and turning them into performance adaptations using a new medium---specifically, they’re using puppets. Puppetry, marionettes, and glove puppets perform miniature versions of their human like counterparts as a popular form of theater entertainment for the 17th century. Our guest this week, Tiffany Stern, recently gave a lecture at the University of Birmingham, outlining how the examination of these puppet performances and how exploring the puppets themselves, like one that survives from the 17th century puppet named Amleto, suspiciously similar to the name Hamlet, can not only shed light on stereotypes that carry over from Shakespeare’s lifetime, but these puppets also influence how we understand what it means to be a storyteller.
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31min
June 02, 2025 Castles in Shakespeare's Plays
Shakespeare uses the word “castle” over 40 times in his works. He talks about sieging a castle, the power of castle walls, and even mentions specific real life castles by name including Berkley Castle and “Pomfret” castle which is another name for Pontefract Castle, along with at least a dozen more. These castles were prominent features in the landscape of Shakespeare’s lifetime, playing roles both in their commanding presence on the visual horizon on the physical landscape, but also their place in society, monarchy, and the broader political landscape as well. In this week’s episode we’ll explore the castles of Shakespeare’s lifetime, looking at which castles were actively in use around England, as well as what they were used for, major events that occurred there, and which of these architectural giants survive to the present day, allowing us to visit them centuries later. Here this week to take us on a tour of the real castles mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays is our guest, Audrey Thorstad.
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1h
May 26, 2025 Eyeglasses and Lenses Used After Cataract Surgery in the 16th Century
In Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff says “the appetite of her eye did seem to scorch me up like a burning-glass!” Burning glasses were a specific kind of lens, that allowed you to harness the sun’s rays to create fire. They were a predesessor on the road to later lens construction that allowed for the convex shape which allows someone to create prescription glasses. In Shakespeare’s lifetime, a specific kind of spectacles known as aphakic spectacles were prescriped as a matter of routine in post operative care for someone that underwent a cataract surgery .Paintings from this tim period show a variety of spectacles and eyewear that were used in this time period, and Shakespeare’s plays themselves reveal the cultural impression of glasses and how they were perceived. Here today to explain the development of lenses form Shakespeare’s lifetime, the post operative care for cataract surgery in particular, and to tell us more about special lenses like “burning glasses” and “reading stones” are our guests and ophthalmological historians, Chris Leffler and Charles Letocha.
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31min
May 19, 2025 Church Bells, How They Are Made in the 16th Century
Orlando, from the play As You Like It, talks about church bells knolling, and later in that same play, the Duke talks about how we “have with holy bell been knoll'd to church.” There’s a conversation in Act II of Pericles where two fishermen discuss a parish getting swallowed by a whale, and they refer to the parish as “The whole parish, church, steeple, bells, and all.” These references demonstrate the important cultural place of bells in England for Shakespeare’s lifetime. While Moses is credited with introducing bells to Jewish religion, Italian monks are given credit for introducing bells to Europe, with Saint Bede bringing them specifically to England when he introduced their use in funerals around 700 AD. By the time of William Shakespeare, metallurgy and construction had experienced a metamorphosis, with churches in Europe adopting not only intricate design, but seeking to increase both the size and the sound of their church bells. Here this week to tell us about the history, size, shape, sound, and technical process of building a church bell in Shakespeare’s lifetime, is our guest Guthrie Stewart
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45min
May 12, 2025 Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen
Elizabeth I is perhaps the most famous Queen of England, reigning from November 1558 until her death in 1603. When you study her life, you quickly learn that she was known as “the Virgin Queen” for her staunch stance against marriage. Despite directives from her court and intense peer pressure from those around her, Elizabeth faced down scandal, rumors, and suspicion throughout her reign, only to remain stalwart in her commitment to not only never marry, but to never be known as someone whose virginity was taken from her. Given that the royal lineage is so important not only in England, but in all monarchal governments, and that literal wars have been fought over the rightful heir to the throne, it is definitely a challenge to the status quo that Elizabeth not only did not produce an heir, but intentionally chose not to do so. Here this week to help us explore what this stance was like for people of England, why it was so important to Elizabeth that she risked so greatly to maintain her choice, as well what happened at her death that prevented a war from rising up with the lack of an heir, is our guest, British historian, and professional history podcaster, Carol Ann LLoyd.
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34min
May 05, 2025 The Little Ice Age During Shakespeare's Lifetime
Since 1939, when Francios E. Matthas wrote it into scientific literature, the Little Ice Age has been known as a period in history between the 15th and 19th centuries, when the climate was significantly colder than what is typical. The history generally divides the Little Ice Age into sections, which alternate with periods of warming to create wild weather phenomena, including long frozen winters and cold, wet summers. According to the latest research from our guest this week, this Little Ice Age was delayed in England, specifically, not taking hold there until much later, in the first part of the 17th century. While continental Europeans encountered Little Ice Age conditions during the sixteenth century, the English population faced volatile seasonal variations with extremes of drought and severe storm weather and violent tidal surges. Our guest this week, Laurie Johnson, joins us to share some of the weather data he is compiling for his latest publication that looks at the impact of climate and weather on how we should understand the plays that were written as these climate phenomena were occurring, as well as the playing companies staging them.
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40min
April 28, 2025 Paper: How it is made, and what it is made from in the 16th Century
“Get me the ink and paper.” Cleopatra demands in Antony and Cleopatra (I.5) In Henry IV Part I, Peto says “Nothing but papers, my lord.” (II.4) These are just two of over 100 references to paper in Shakespeare's plays, with characters reading papers, carrying papers, delivering them, and of course, writing on papers. Naturally, the technology of paper itself isn’t that remarkable, being centuries older than Shakespeare, but what is surprising is that in addition to over 100 references to paper, Shakespeare’s plays also contain references to parchment, with Hamlet himself asking if parchment was made from sheepskins. There’s even a reference in Cymbeline to tablets. These words suggest that paper and parchment were common for Shakespeare’s lifetime, but as far as paper like material goes, there’s also canvas that some of the most famous 16th-17th century paintings were prepared upon, along with vellum, linen, and even wax tablets. With all of these options for what to write on, I wanted to learn more about how paper was made, what it was made from, whether Hamlet was right about parchment and sheep, and to know which of these options was most popular, and why. That’s why we are delighted to welcome Cathy Baker to the show today to help us explore the history of paper, vellum, and canvas, from Shakespeare’s lifetime.
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34min
April 21, 2025 Birthday Celebrations for the 16th Century
In Shakespeare’s play, Antony and Cleopatra, Cleopatra declares “It is my birth-day:
I had thought to have held it poor: but, since my lord Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra.” Indicating that she was relieved to be marking the occasion in a better way. Julius Ceasar, similarly declares in Act V, “This is my birth-day; as this very day was Cassius born.” In Pericles, the First Fisherman says “he hath a fair daughter, and to-morrow is her birth-day;” (Act II). In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Marcellus talks about celebrating our Savior’s birth with singing. Other references to the day of one’s birth show up in Henry VI Part II the Earl of Suffolk talks about having a cunning old man calculate the day of his birth (Act IV), and later in that same act, Jack Cade talks about how his father was ignorant of both his birth and parentage. All of these mentions of birth days, their calculations, and their celebrations, has me wondering what exactly birthdays were like for Shakespeare’s England. We always celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday in style in around here, but would the bard have celebrated his own day of birth? To find out, we’ve invited one of the authors of the article “Debating the Birthday: Innovation and Resistance in Celebrating Children” Peter Stearns, to the show to day, to help us explore the history of marking a birthday with cakes, gifts, and a gathering of friends. Would this have occurred for Shakespeare’s lifetime? Let’s find out right now, on That Shakespeare Life.
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17min
April 14, 2025 Hall's Croft, 3D Interactive Model & AI Features
This week, we have a special opportunity here on the show to explore the Historic home of Shakespeare’s eldest daughter, Susanna Shakespeare Hall, that has been brought to life in a beautiful digital 3Dformat thanks to a pioneering new digital archive that has created an augmented reality exhibition that lets visitors like you and me, visit and virtually walk through Susanna’s home known as Hall’s Croft, from anywhere in the world. The 3D component allows users to bring 17th-century early modern objects into their own spaces using the AR feature, while the digital archive allows users to explore 3 rooms from Hall’s Croft from the comfort of their own homes. This week we are delighted to welcome Ailsa Grant Ferguson, the lead on this digital project, back to That Shakespeare Life, to tell us about the research that went into this program, what they learned about Hall’s Croft, and about Susanna Shakespeare through their research, and to share the details on how you can explore this 3D model for yourself.

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29min
April 07, 2025 Transportation, Vehicles, and Taxi Cabs for Elizabethan England
In Shakespeare’s plays, he talks about “Travel” or “Traveller” just under 80 times, including references that suggest people travelled by foot and by horse, the Queen Mab speech by Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet talks about a wagon used for transportation, and there are references that indicate there were items which would add comfort to someone’s travel, and one reference from Comedy of Errors talks about being “stiff and weary” from long travel. We also know that in a personal connection to William Shakespeare the man, playing companies often travelled around England visiting various inns and establishments of their patrons who hired out a production, this applied to the Lord Chamberlain’s Men as well. With all of this travel, it begs the question of exactly what getting around England, particularly in a large group, might have entailed. What kind of vehicles would have been traversing the cities and countryside for Shakespeare's England? Were there paved roads, dirt paths, or maybe cobblestone streets? What about rules of travelling such as stop signs, round abouts, or other kinds of travel infrastructure? Whose job was it to decide where a road would be put, and then who carried the responsibility of maintenance of the paths? Could you get a traffic ticket in Elizabethan England? Here today to help us answer these questions, including sharing with us what kind of vehicles travelled along England’s roadways in Shakespeare’s lifetime, details about what the roads were like, and the rules for travelling them, is our guest, Robert Bucholz.
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34min

FAQs about That Shakespeare Life:

How many episodes does That Shakespeare Life have?

The podcast currently has 514 episodes available.

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