In the 16th century as Shakespeare was writing plays like Alls Well That Ends Well, Hamlet, and Julius Caesar, Shakespeare turned to classical philosophers like Cicero and Isocrates to find tales exploring not only what constituted decent, or proper behavior, but what happened to people when those invisible rules of decorum were altered or violated. We’ve long lauded Shakespeare for including the works of famous Latin and Greek poets in his stories, but as our guest this week, Scott Newstok, is here to share, Shakespeare was doing more than simply building on the stories he found from the past. The ideas of Cicero and Isocrates concerning what it meant to “fit” a word to the action or an action to the word was built into the fabric of who the early modern playwrights were as artists, as well as an accepted cultural perspective from the 16th century that believed people, ideas, words, and even their clothing ought to fit together properly. Intriguingly, many of these playwrights came came from craftsmen background with Shakespeare being born to a glover and Marlowe being born to a shoemaker, playwrights like Shakespeare and his contemporaries were applying to their craft what they knew to be true about art--that the details needed to fit the scene where they were being used. This approach was not only standard industry practice in the Renaissance theater, but the culture of the audience themselves would have considered taking care to make proper connections between character, actor, and outfit in performances to be what Scott Newstok calls “fitting” to the times.

Scott Newstok is the author of How to Think Like Shakespeare, and he joins us this week to explore his chapter of that book called “Of Fit” where he explores the historical and culture context of Shakespeare’s plays, including the idea that for Shakespeare, precision with words, actions, and even costumes, was as much a well established professional standard as it was creative genius.

One of the best ways many Shakespeare scholars use to explore the real historical counterparts to the historical figures that show up in Shakespeare’s plays is to examine what they looked like. Centuries before the advent of photography, when you wanted to capture someone’s likeness and preserve it, history used paintings. People like Henry VIII, Anne of Cleves, Jane Seymour, Edward VI and many others were all given this kind of immortality when they were painted by Hans Holbein the Younger, who is arguably the best portrait artist in history. 

Hans Holbein the Younger showed promise from a very young age as a portraitist and was encouraged by his father, Hans Holbein the Elder who was also an artist, to pursue his unique talents. While firmly a citizen of Switzerland, Holbein would routinely undertake the long commute from Basil, Switzerland to England as well as France to paint some of the world’s most famous figures, many of whom would find new life in the performances of plays by William Shakespeare. He could not have known in the early 16th century that just a few decades after his death a young playwright would give the world a whole new reason to study his paintings, but nonetheless, Hans Holbein has a place in the study of the life of William Shakespeare, and indeed the life of England herself, so for this week, our guest, Susan Abernethy is here to introduce us to Hans Holbein and how a young boy working in his father’s shop would grow up to be friends with, and the official portraitist for, some of the most notorious figures in history as well as from Shakespeare’s plays.

Susan Abernethy has a degree in history and is a member of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association.  Her blog, The Freelance History Writer has been continuously publishing historical articles since 2012, with an emphasis on European, Tudor, medieval, Renaissance, Early Modern and Women’s history.  She is currently working on a biography of a prominent Stuart royal.  

One of the best ways many Shakespeare scholars use to explore the real historical counterparts to the historical figures that show up in Shakespeare’s plays is to examine what they looked like. Centuries before the advent of photography, when you wanted to capture someone’s likeness and preserve it, history used paintings. People like Henry VIII, Anne of Cleves, Jane Seymour, Edward VI and many others were all given this kind of immortality when they were painted by Hans Holbein the Younger, who is arguably the best portrait artist in history. 

Hans Holbein the Younger showed promise from a very young age as a portraitist and was encouraged by his father, Hans Holbein the Elder who was also an artist, to pursue his unique talents. While firmly a citizen of Switzerland, Holbein would routinely undertake the long commute from Basil, Switzerland to England as well as France to paint some of the world’s most famous figures, many of whom would find new life in the performances of plays by William Shakespeare. He could not have known in the early 16th century that just a few decades after his death a young playwright would give the world a whole new reason to study his paintings, but nonetheless, Hans Holbein has a place in the study of the life of William Shakespeare, and indeed the life of England herself, so for this week, our guest, Susan Abernethy is here to introduce us to Hans Holbein and how a young boy working in his father’s shop would grow up to be friends with, and the official portraitist for, some of the most notorious figures in history as well as from Shakespeare’s plays.

Susan Abernethy has a degree in history and is a member of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association.  Her blog, The Freelance History Writer has been continuously publishing historical articles since 2012, with an emphasis on European, Tudor, medieval, Renaissance, Early Modern and Women’s history.  She is currently working on a biography of a prominent Stuart royal.  

One of the most notorious castles in all of English history is Pontefract Castle. Just one step down in the levels of punishment a criminal could receive short of being sent to the Tower of London was to find themselves imprisoned in one of the town castles, and none was more notorious in it’s reputation for death and imprisonment than Pontefract Castle. 

Known as Pomfret in Shakespeare’s plays, the bard paints a compelling story about the death of Richard II at Pontefract Castle, but what is the real history behind this iconic location? We have invited our guest this week, Neil Redfern, to visit with us and share the real history behind Pontefract Castle, as well as what’s being done today to try and save it.

One of the most notorious castles in all of English history is Pontefract Castle. Just one step down in the levels of punishment a criminal could receive short of being sent to the Tower of London was to find themselves imprisoned in one of the town castles, and none was more notorious in it’s reputation for death and imprisonment than Pontefract Castle. 

Known as Pomfret in Shakespeare’s plays, the bard paints a compelling story about the death of Richard II at Pontefract Castle, but what is the real history behind this iconic location? We have invited our guest this week, Neil Redfern, to visit with us and share the real history behind Pontefract Castle, as well as what’s being done today to try and save it.

Like so many of Shakespeare’s words, even a single line can have an elaborate history. When it comes to the word “orange” there is just such a history to be found if you know where to look. 

For the 16th century, oranges were a staple item for seasonal eating on tables from the average person all the way to the nobility. While the real “rage” in history for it being fashionable to have orange houses called orangeries in England would not hit in full force until after Shakespeare’s lifetime, the orange, the lemon, and sour oranges were in existence in Shakespeare’s lifetime, and they show up in his plays. 

Interestingly, William Shakespeare may not have had the same kind of oranges we use today for our morning orange juice or to buy at a local grocery store, but not only did he have them, there were several varieties. Here to help us explore where oranges came from, how they arrived in England, and what Shakespeare is talking about when he mentions an “orange wife” as well as going “to the orange” is our guest, Dorian Fuller.

Like so many of Shakespeare’s words, even a single line can have an elaborate history. When it comes to the word “orange” there is just such a history to be found if you know where to look. 

For the 16th century, oranges were a staple item for seasonal eating on tables from the average person all the way to the nobility. While the real “rage” in history for it being fashionable to have orange houses called orangeries in England would not hit in full force until after Shakespeare’s lifetime, the orange, the lemon, and sour oranges were in existence in Shakespeare’s lifetime, and they show up in his plays. 

Interestingly, William Shakespeare may not have had the same kind of oranges we use today for our morning orange juice or to buy at a local grocery store, but not only did he have them, there were several varieties. Here to help us explore where oranges came from, how they arrived in England, and what Shakespeare is talking about when he mentions an “orange wife” as well as going “to the orange” is our guest, Dorian Fuller.

For the entirety of Shakespeare’s life, the Tabard Inn was a well established public inn on the mainstreet of Southwark, leading to London Bridge, and it was famous because Chaucer had set the opening scene of The Canterbury Tales there, but according to a 27 page hand written document once owned by famous antiquary David Laing, the Tabard Inn served as a frequent meeting place for William Shakespeare, who gathered there with famous friends like Richard Burbage, Ben Jonson, and other “roystering associates” of the 16th century, all of whom carved their names into the wooden panels of this iconic public house in an act of graffiti that turns out to be a key piece of history.

This paper record was left unnoticed for decades inside the Edinburgh University Library until a reference to it was rediscovered by Martha Carlin in 2013. Martha is Professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and she joins us today to share with us her fantastic discovery, the history of the Tabard Inn, why Shakespeare and his friends were writing on the walls there in the late 16th century.

For the entirety of Shakespeare’s life, the Tabard Inn was a well established public inn on the mainstreet of Southwark, leading to London Bridge, and it was famous because Chaucer had set the opening scene of The Canterbury Tales there, but according to a 27 page hand written document once owned by famous antiquary David Laing, the Tabard Inn served as a frequent meeting place for William Shakespeare, who gathered there with famous friends like Richard Burbage, Ben Jonson, and other “roystering associates” of the 16th century, all of whom carved their names into the wooden panels of this iconic public house in an act of graffiti that turns out to be a key piece of history.

This paper record was left unnoticed for decades inside the Edinburgh University Library until a reference to it was rediscovered by Martha Carlin in 2013. Martha is Professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and she joins us today to share with us her fantastic discovery, the history of the Tabard Inn, why Shakespeare and his friends were writing on the walls there in the late 16th century.

In 1572, when William Shakespeare was 8 years old, a large supernova streaked across the sky making a lifelong mark in the memory of not just a young William Shakespeare, but across the consciousness of all of England who saw it that night. At the height of Renaissance thought, and during the time Galileo was presenting his ideas in Italy, William Shakespeare was writing Hamlet, King Lear, and other plays which not only allude to the work of famous physicists and astronomers of the 16th century, but in some cases, including the stars they studied, and even some family relatives of these astronomers, by name. 

We do not often connect William Shakespeare and his work in theater with Euclidean Geometry, or the Copernican theory of the universe, but when we study the life of the bard, we discover that he was not only well educated in both, but contemporaries to the bard like Thomas Digges, and Tycho Brahe, were publishing works right alongside the plays of Shakespeare that captured the attention of England, and Europe, during the 16th century. Our guest this week, Dr. Michael Rowan Robinson has published extensively on the topics of mathematics, astronomy, and Shakespeare, and he is here today to explain the mathematical history of the bard, including the influence of Copernicus and Kepler on plays like Hamlet and King Lear.