That Shakespeare Life

After the image of William Shakespeare himself, perhaps the most famous objects associated with William Shakespeare has to be the quill pen, but was this pen actually made of goose feathers, and if so, how was it made? Of course the quill pen is far from the only use for geese in the 16-17th century, as reflected in Shakespeare's plays where the bard mentions geese well over a dozen times, talking about them being taken to market, people getting in trouble for stealing them, and as you might expect, there's even references to plucking feathers. We have seen portraits of 16th century geese being used for elaborate meals, but you may not be as familiar with the process of getting from goose to table, or what kinds of products were made in the 16-17th century from geese, and what kind of people were in charge of overseeing this creation. Our guest this week is an expert in the history of early modern geese, having performed archaeological research that investigates how geese were kept, what they ate, and their uses in society for Shakespeare's lifetime. We are delighted this week to welcome Dale Serjeanston to the show to share with us the history of the goose for Shakespeare's England.

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The Clown in Alls Well That Ends Well talks about picking his teeth, and Coriolanus gives an admonishment about hygiene when he says "Bid them wash their faces And keep their teeth clean." John Holland in Henry VI Part 2 talks about having teeth pulled, and in the Winter's Tale the clown talks about being able to identify a nobleman by how he picks his teeth. Of the more than 50 references to teeth in Shakespeare's plays, most of them are using idiomatic expressions for strength or determination, like to set your teeth against a problem, for example, but a few of the toothy references we can find from the bard demonstrate that when it comes to oral hygiene, Renaissance society had established methods for cleaning your teeth, and even for prescribing oral surgery. Here today to talk to us about 16th century toothbrushes, mouthwash, oral surgery, and exactly why it was considered noble to pick food out of your teeth is our guest and author of "'Carry Not a Picke-Tooth In Your Mouth': An Exploration of Oral Health in Early-Modern Writings" Dr. Laura Kennedy.

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You may be surprised to learn that marriage in the 16th century was not required, nor a foregone conclusion, for all women of this time period. In addition to spinsters, who were older women that had never been married, there were widows that lost their husband, women who were divorced or separated from their husbands, and still some women who our guest this week calls "never married" women. A "never-married" woman chose never to get married at all, and provided for themselves financially. While Shakespeare doesn't use the phrase "never married" he does talk about spinsters, widows, prostitutes, and even divorce, reflecting the society of his time period. While all versions of single women in Shakespeare's lifetime operated outside of what we generally expect for the 16th century, the reality is that being single, and even women who were independently made, occupied a much larger section of society than you may have assumed. Here today to tell us about all the single ladies of the 16th century, and what life was like for a women who never married, is our guest, Amy Froide.

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To live in England during Shakespeare's lifetime was to be Protestant, or at least as far as the Queen was concerned. The lack of religious freedom in early modern England doesn't mean alternate belief systems did not exist, only that they were hidden. One powerful belief system that riled up conservative members of society and incited objection pamphlets to be written is atheism. Here today to discuss the real people from Shakespeare's lifetime who were atheists, the punishment if your belief system were found out, and the role of playing companies in spreading atheism is our guest, Peter Herman.

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Deaths were a common occurrence on stage for Shakespeare's characters, but the wild and often macabre deaths we see in his plays were not actually far off from the deaths that occurred in real life for the 16-17th century. From poisonings to beheadings, one person who knew a lot about how people died in Shakespeare's lifetime was the coroner who job it was to catalog deaths and keep track of any that seemed suspicious. Our guest this week has done a great deal of research into accidental deaths for Shakespeare's lifetime and joins us today to introduce us to the job of 16th century coroner in Shakesepare's England, tell us about some of the more bizarre ways people died, and how all of these incidents connect to William Shakespeare. To learn all these things, and more this week, we are delighted to welcome Steven Gunn to the show today.

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It is a frequent misconception that people from Shakespeare's lifetime believed the world was flat. In fact, the publication of the world on a spherical globe was not only well established across Europe by Shakespeare's lifetime, but there are numerous portraits from the 16-17th century showing individuals owning and displaying spherical globes. The first English person to create a spherical globe published it in 1592, just 7 years before William Shakespeare chose "The Globe" as the name for his newly relocated circular theater in Southwark. Here today to walk us through the history of displaying the Earth as a globe, the artisans who undertook this task, the materials they used, and where they got their data to map out the world on a giant physical ball, is our guest, Sylvia Sumira.

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Even William Shakespeare had to take out the garbage. In his hometown of Stratford Upon Avon, public waste was managed through a system of piles known as muck hills. In 1552, William Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare, was charged a fine for one of these muck hills that was kept across the street from his home on Henley Street. For a long time, scholars have thought this fine meant that John Shakespeare was keeping the dung heap illegally, or perhaps using it inappropriately, but recent research into how muck hills operate and the history of public sanitation in Stratford Upon Avon have caused us to see this record of John Shakespeare in a new light. Here today to share with us how taking out the garbage worked for Shakespeare's lifetime is our guest, Elizabethan Tavares.

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In the late 16th to early 17th century, a medical movement saw a meteoric rise in popularity known as Paracelsianism. Based on the writings of a physician who had died in 1541, the movement developed quite a cult following, with many claiming Paracelsus was able to work miracles of healing. Debate over the legitimacy of Paracelsus' work became so heated that some Europeans were executed just for owning on of his books. Shakespeare takes aim at this cultural divide in his play, Alls Well That Ends Well, when in Act II Scene 3, Lafeu and Parolles have a conversation about miracles, and arguments, with Lafeu saying "They say miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons, to make modern and familiar, things supernatural and causeless." Parolles calls this perspective the "the rarest argument of wonder that hath shot out in our latter times." with Lafeu responding it is of "Both Galen and Paracelsus." This scene is Shakespeare's only use of the word Paracelsus, while Galen gets used elsewhere repeatedly, even alongside Hippocrates in Merry Wives of Windsor. As a reflection of the culture of his day, Shakespeare's plays suggest that while Galen was the established foundation of medicine for this period, Paracelsus made a significant mark on the medical landscape. Here today to introduce us to Paracelsus, the medical movement launched by his followers, and what we should know about why Parolles would call this "The rarest argument of wonder" is our guest and author of "Renaissance Medicine", Vivian Nutton.

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William Shakespeare's mother, Mary, was Mary Arden before she married her husband, John Shakespeare. Mary's possible connection to the gentry Arden family has fascinated scholars and Shakespeare fans for many years. The Arden family was an established English gentry family in Warwickshire, and 1 of a handful of Tudor families in England who could trace their lineage back to the Anglo-Saxons. The family took their name from the Forest of Arden, used as a setting in Shakespeare's play, As You Like It. In 1583, when William Shakespeare was 19, the head of the family, Edward Arden was executed, having been convicted of treason. Here today to share with us more history about the Arden family and Edward in particular is our guest, Cathryn Enis.

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In 1616, the year that William Shakespeare died, anatomist Helikiah Crooke published a book of medical diagrams that included a surprisingly high level of detail about human anatomy for a society that didn't yet have powerful instruments like a microscope. However, noticeably absent from his medical drawings are any anatomically correct terms for the female body. For example, Crooke's drawings correctly name many parts of the male anatomy, like the epididymis, peritoneum, penis, and the testicles, but when it comes to the female anatomy diagram, even though he has the fallopian tubes correctly drawn in the picture, he labels them as "Spermatical veins." In another diagram, the uterus is definitely drawn in the shape of a man's primary sexual organ, only it is labeled as a "womb," with no mention of the cervix or the vagina. Shakespeare's plays give us some examples of how this level of medical knowledge was known by general society because in his works Shakespeare uses anatomical terms like 'urine" as well as "sperm" and even "Nerves and veins", so we can see that some knowledge of human anatomy was broadly available in Shakespeare's lifetime, but Helikiah Crooke's diagrams raises some major questions about not only the medical understanding of women's bodies, but exactly what kind of medical care was available for women in Shakespeare's lifetime. In order to explore the 16-17th century understanding of human reproduction, and what the hyper-masculinization of women's bodies meant for women's medicine and gynecological care in Shakespeare's lifetime, we are talking today with Roz Sklar.

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