That Shakespeare Life

Shakespeare is famous for his costume changes in his plays, including characters that swap genders and seemingly fool the world as their true identity simply by a change of clothes. Since Shakespeare's playing companies were all male, and still manage to portray some of the most powerful women characters ever created on the stage, we have to think there was indeed great power in costume.

What was it about women's clothes versus men's designs that made them instantly recognizable on stage for the Elizabethan era? During this time, women were seeing their fashions change rapidly in the design and function of everything from bum rolls to chin clouts, and even the acceptable necklines of this period.

Of course, men were seeing similar transitions in their fashions, with the French introducing English men to the famous poofy shorts that Shakespeare is so famous for wearing. The clothes, along with the sumptuary laws of this period, landed men and women on the wrong side of the law when it came to what they chose to get dressed in each morning.

Here today to help us unpack the world of clothing and the laws that regulated them, along with how Shakespeare was able to portray all levels of society on stage without getting into legal trouble, is our guest, and author of the book Fashion in the Time of William Shakewsspeare, SarahJane Downing.

In Shakespeare's plays, there are over 150 references to the word "hair" across which Shakespeare talks about a barber fixing someone's hair, about hair being dyed, about losing your hair being a natural product of old age, combing your hair, and even the weight of someone's hair. Clearly, there was a significant cultural focus on the care and maintenance of one's carefully selected coif. But exactly what did it look like for someone to care for their hair? Was there such a thing as soap, or dare we guess—Shampoo—that might have been used to keep your hair clean in the Tudor period? To find out more about what one would use in the 16-17th century if you decided to wash your hair, we are meeting with our guest, Julia Martins.

Julia is here this week to tell us all about products used to cleanse, care, and manage a head full of hair in Shakespeare's lifetime, as well as the manuals and advice that was given in the 16-17th century for the best hair care methods of the Elizabethan era.

In Shakespeare's plays, he uses the word "gauntlet" a total of 6 times. In one instance, the stage directions declare that a character "throws down his gauntlet." In Hamlet, stage directions again refer to a gauntlet by saying that attendants bring "foils and gauntlets" into the scene of Act V.

But do you know what you should be seeing on stage in these moments? Do you know what object Shakespeare expected the characters to be carrying for these scenes?

Gauntlet sounds like a military exercise or maybe a very difficult journey through several tough obstacles, and there's a variation of this word which means exactly that—but that kind of gauntlet is for another episode. Today, we're looking at the kind of gauntlet that was actually an article of clothing—a glove, to be precise.

A highly decorated ornate glove that came all the way up to the wrist of the wearer and was designed to protect the hand against wounds. To find out more about what these gloves were made from, who made them, and exactly why a character would throw one down on the ground in Shakespeare's Henry VI, we are talking with Hannah Marples, clothing historian and author of the project "Experimental Archeology: testing the wearability of a pair of gloves worn by Henry Cary in a painting by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, 1603"

Hannah joins us today to help us explore the history of gauntlet gloves, and how they connect with Shakespeare and his plays.

Zounds! Your Bunched Back toad! In Shakespeare's plays we find a hoard of truly fabulous one liners, zingers, and impressive insults that frequent the lips of our favorite characters.

When they were written in the 16th century, some of the words we find most hilarious today were actually bordering on a line between legal and illegal, and even sometimes blasphemous, which in a Protestant England wracked by religious tensions and wars, was often worse than merely illegal.

Here today to take us back to turn of the 17th century England and explore some of the words that could land you in hot water, or express your anger, frustration, or dismay in the most colorful way imaginable this side of actual obscenities, is our guest and historical linguist, Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin.

In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet declares "Thou know'st the mask of night is on my face, Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek" Katharina in Taming of the SHrew talks about painting your face, and Timon of Athens makes a connection between painting and your face saying "wear them, betray with them: whore still; Paint till a horse may mire upon your face, A pox of wrinkles!" And of course, Hamlet has the most famous facial disguise quote when he says "God has given you one face but you make yourself another." All of these references underpin what we know about cosmetics and facial care in Shakespeare's England. Famously, Queen Elizabeth herself kept her face quite decadently forever striving after that porcelain skinned ideal that was a hallmark of the Elizabethan Era. But what did women use to take care of their faces in the Elizabethan era, and in a. Culture where people like Hamlet were suspicious of women who disguised their true form, how was makeup received? Was it something normal and every day, or were there instances when applying makeup, or perhaps even the wrong makeup, could get someone into trouble? To find out more and explore the intricate and complex world of makeup, cosmetics, and facial care for women of Shakespeare's lifetime, we're delighted to welcome historian and author of Beauty and Cosmetics, 1550–1950, Sarah Jane Downing to the show this week. She's here to take us behind the makeup counters of Tudor women and share with us what we might there.

Immigration, labor tensions, and social unrest were pressing realities in Shakespeare's England—and few events capture that strain more vividly than the 1517 uprising known as Evil May Day. In this week's episode, historian Shannon McSheffrey joins us to unpack the economic frustrations, guild restrictions, and growing immigrant communities that fueled this riot in Tudor London. From the role of the city's "liberties" to the political response of Henry VIII and the event's lasting legacy in chronicles and drama like Sir Thomas More, we explore how this moment of unrest shaped the world Shakespeare knew—and how its echoes can still be felt in the plays today.

For the 16th century, a vagrant was someone who operated outside of societal norms, someone who moved around without a fixed home, or produced a profit without the oversight of a noble patron.

In a culture that highly prized both hierarchy and organization, someone who fell outside these categories was cast under severe scrutiny, seen as a potential threat, and faced harsh punishments specifically aimed at preventing vagrancy.

During Shakespeare's lifetime, new laws were being passed to aggressively define and control the vagrant, casting a net that often saw players and playwrights like William Shakespeare caught right up in the chaos.

To help us understand how those categories worked — and why they mattered — we're joined by Dr. David Hitchcock, Reader in Early Modern History at Canterbury Christ Church University. Dr. Hitchcock's research focuses on poverty, mobility, and the cultural meaning of vagrancy in early modern England. He's here today to help us explore why early modern England was so focused on vagrancy, what the laws were that tried to prevent it, and how these laws impacted theater, and Shakespeare specifically.

In Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Hotspur delivers a chilling threat against King Richard:

"I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak Nothing but 'Mortimer,' and give it him To keep his anger still in motion."

It's a line rooted in the politics of kingship and rebellion—but it also hinges on something strikingly practical. The idea of teaching a starling to speak wasn't poetic fancy. It was entirely possible. In fact, it was happening in Shakespeare's lifetime.

This week, we're stepping beyond the metaphor to explore the real bird behind the threat. What was the behavior, temperament, and reputation of the starling in early modern England? Were they truly trained to mimic speech? Were they kept as pets—or even raised for the table alongside other fowl?

Here to guide us into the world of the early modern starling is Lee Raye, author of Creatures of Story and Song: Tracing Britain's Lost Species. Lee's work traces the historical presence of wild animals and plants, and today, they help us uncover how fact and drama intersect in the history of one of the world's most fascinating birds.

In Shakespeare's Othello, the Second Senator in Act One warns of a Turkish fleet bearing down on Cyprus. Later in that same scene, the Duke of Venice remarks, "The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for Cyprus. Othello, the fortitude of the place is best known to you."

References to Cyprus appear again and again throughout the dialogue—calling attention to wars, naval battles, and the conflicts surrounding the island, including, as Iago puts it, the struggle between "grounds Christian and heathen."

Shakespeare places Othello in Cyprus at a moment of extreme tension. In the play, the island has just faced an imminent invasion by the Ottoman Turks. The Venetian fleet is mobilized, generals are dispatched, and Cyprus is on high alert. It makes for an exciting story—but what's even more compelling is that the setting Shakespeare chose mirrors real history almost exactly.

In 1570 and 1571, Cyprus—then a Venetian possession—was attacked by the Ottoman Empire. The final and most famous stronghold was a city called Famagusta, whose siege became infamous across Europe.

For Shakespeare's audience, Cyprus under Turkish threat was not fictional—it was recent news. When Othello opens with fears of invasion, Shakespeare is tapping into a collective memory of terror and loss that was still emotionally raw.

To help us explore how the play connects to the real history Shakespeare's audience would have recognized immediately, I'm delighted to welcome our guest today, Michael Walsh.

In Shakespeare's plays, we see 6 total references to tennis. Polonius mentions an argument over a tennis game in Hamlet. Henry V and Pericles talk about tennis courts and there's even a couple of references to "tennis balls" showing up in Shakespeare's other plays, talking about them being played with at the game of tennis, as well as being stuffed as part of the process of making a tennis ball. We can tell that Shakespeare and his contemporaries knew about the game of tennis, but where did it come from? How was it played? Do we know anything about these tennis courts they used? To find out more about the history of tennis from Shakespeare's lifetime, today we're talking with Laurence Grove. Laurence is a Professor of French and Text/Image Studies at the University of Glasgow, and was recently the guest expert for an article inside PBS's report into newly discovered images that reveal some interesting new findings about the 16th century history of tennis. Laurence joins us today to share these findings, as well as to explain what tennis would have been like for Shakespeare.