The History Of European Theatre

Episode 128:

Author John Taplin discusses researching the Stratford families of Shakespeare's time and particularly the ancestry of John Hall, Shakespeare's son-in-law.

John Taplin spent the majority of his career in management in the telecommunications industry until 2001 when he joined the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust at Hall’s Croft and Nash’s House/New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon, until retiring in 2010. A historian, genealogist and biographer, he has published articles on Shakespeare, his contemporaries and associates in and around Stratford, including the families directly associated with New Place.

Shakespeare’s Stratford home, before and after Shakespeare’s lifetime. In 2011 he published his book Shakespeare’s Country Families - A Documentary Guide to Shakespeare’s Country Society. He was a member of the Advisory Board for the Trust’s Dig for Shakespeare project at New Place between 2010-2015, and in 2018 he published a revised and updated edition of his 2011book. He has a Masters degree in historical studies from the University of Leicester.

Links to John's ebook:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Twenty-first-Century-Shakespeare-Gleanings-Taplin-ebook/dp/B0CC633JY2/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.UlnFY8UInwIYfhuJf0AiXmtXTQSRHcN9Ativ9cOIX_PGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.4xAoLuO1JQQ2o0LumK9U_Hjq703MON6NOQVolv2BSr4&dib_tag=se&qid=1721225584&refinements=p_27%3AJohn+Taplin&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=John+Taplin

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

www.ko-fi.com/thoetp

www.patreon.com/thoetp

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 127:

A recap of Henry VI part one and the potential involvement of Christopher Marlowe

A word on methods of authorship attribution in the context of Shakespeare and Marlowe

The dating and sources of the play

A synopsis of Henry VI part two

The characterisation of the War of the Roses

The decline of England mapped out in the play

The main characters in the play

The weakness of the king as portrayed in the play

The powerplay between Gloucester, York and Margaret

Margaret as a central character in the play

The use of language to define different characters

The contrast between Henry and Margaret

The Jack Cade rebellion and the utopia of a classless society

Gloucester and the view of justice-based government

How the world depicted in the play might have been viewed by the first audiences

The historical accuracy of the play

The arrival of Richard, future king, on stage

The performance history of the play

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

www.ko-fi.com/thoetp

www.patreon.com/thoetp

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 126:

A conversation with Dr. Darren Freebury-Jones, author of 'Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers' about the influence of early modern playwrights on Shakespeare where we talk about Marlowe, Kyd, Greene and others and the role of data analytics in modern author attribution studies.

Dr Darren Freebury-Jones is author of several works on early modern theatre including: 

Reading Robert Greene: Recovering Shakespeare’s Rival 

Shakespeare’s Tutor: The Influence of Thomas Kyd

and his latest work Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers, will be published in October 2024.

Darren is Associate Editor for the first critical edition of The Collected Works of Thomas Kyd since 1901. He has also investigated the boundaries of John Marston’s dramatic corpus as part of the Oxford Marston project and is General Editor for The Collected Plays of Robert Greene published by Edinburgh University Press.  His findings on the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries have been discussed in national newspapers in the UK and on BBC Radio. His debut poetry collection, Rambling published by Broken Sleep Books, was published in 2024.  In 2023 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in recognition of his contributions to historical scholarship. 

Links to 'Shakespeare's Borrowed Feathers'

https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526177322/shakespeares-borrowed-feathers/

https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeares-borrowed-feathers-playwrights-greatest/dp/1526177323/ref=sr_1_1?crid=94S4BGF6FW1K&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.pfj-18kdWvHO-sbFvYC3sw.Bx51-kXl5CIuz42hJHAOTCZs4KerccNu9A8tK9wC0Tc&dib_tag=se&keywords=shakespeare%27s+borrowed+feathers&qid=1720274180&sprefix=shakespeares+borrowed+feathers%2Caps%2C163&sr=8-1

Link to Darren's on-line talk on Robert Greene 22nd July 2024 in aid of the Rose Playhouse

https://www.trybooking.com/uk/events/landing/63856?

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

www.ko-fi.com/thoetp

www.patreon.com/thoetp

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 125:

A detailed look at the first Shakespearean history play 'Henry 6th part 1'

The problems with dating 1 Henry VI

How much of the play did Shakespeare write?

The relationship of the play to parts 2 and 3

The sources of the play

A brief summary of the play

The play in relation to other history plays of the time

Criticism of the battle scenes

The theme of the loss of the English Empire and the end of chivalry

The portrayal of Joan and the French

The portrayal of the English aristocracy

Problems with the structure of the play

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

www.ko-fi.com/thoetp

www.patreon.com/thoetp

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A conversation with Margaret Oakes about the book 'To Gender or Not to Gender: Casting and Characters for 21st Century Shakespeare’ which explores ways in which gender is being reinterpreted by British and North American productions since the turn of the millennium. After an initial chapter outlining recent gender theory, which is very useful to a newcomer to this as an academic study, like myself, the rest of the book uses examples of recent productions to illustrate different possibilities in cross gender casting, and the questions that this approach can lead to.  I found it to be an absolutely fascinating read, driven by Margaret’s enthusiasm for her subject, which you can also hear in our conversation.

Margaret J. Oakes is a Professor of English at Furman University, a liberal arts college in Greenville, South Carolina. She specializes in early modern British poetry and drama and detective fiction. She holds a B.A. in English and a J.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an M.A. in English from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. in English and Humanities from Stanford University. She has published on George Herbert, Francis Bacon, J.K. Rowling, Sara Paretsky, and Dorothy L Sayers.

https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/to-gender-or-not-to-gender/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gender-Not-Casting-Characters-Shakespeare-ebook/dp/B0D76WMZZK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11CZZNA8QVXMS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Fihl0uzGo8sTOhBH_I4U8wOKjYHyDayfQRaiJC8DtmU2ys8o2ElWldOC_VbzQCTL8m9pHSr8AoWvS-DvPKEK95JDT0OLndsd1tmX0761a0mRVME0k2kAiYP2gv6iazDe_eDgN3NATv9tYPQW2r5F3odhSC2oKCtn9O8jhT_SDIZm4-SSu4y_Rn_KxtwO4aRTW3gap_sqUj1T_nfvUY_3VQXB04ieAYtntSqU7UrZq9k.QIlJWmZhVaV9c6eAKS1TbJIl5tUJlRuDAD4RIRn2fpM&dib_tag=se&keywords=to+gender+or+not+to+gender&qid=1718710353&s=books&sprefix=to+gender+or+not+to+gender%2Cstripbooks%2C87&sr=1-1

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bonus Episode 36:

Sometimes things conspire against the podcaster, as has happened to me in the last couple of weeks, meaning that I have not been able to get the promised episode up to scratch in time.  To make up for this and fill the gap I have created an episode that goes back to Greek theatre.  It looks at that most mysterious of the ancient Greek forms, the satyr play and two of the men who were instrumental in vastly increasing our knowledge of these things.

The place of the satyr play in the history of Ancient Greek theatre

The satyr play as part of the Dionysia festival

The satyr play as a counterpoint to tragedy

The later history of the satyr play

‘Cyclops’ by Euripides

The discovery of ‘Trackers’ by Sophocles

The paperologists Hunt and Grenfell

The finds at Oxyrhincus

Arthur Hunt’s speech to the Egyptian Exploration Society

(including the plot of Trackers)

The Hypsipyle tragedy by Euripides, also in the Oxyrhincus finds

The Bacchae as a satyr play

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

www.ko-fi.com/thoetp

www.patreon.com/thoetp

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 123: 

The Origins of New Place

The Clopton’s of Stratford-Upon-Avon

The first house at New Place

Hugh Clopton and his support for Stratford

William Clopton

William Bott and murder at New Place (maybe)

William Underhill sells New Place to Shakespeare

William Underhill and his son Faulk (another murder)

The New Place of Shakespeare’s time

The question of how much time Shakespeare spent in New Place

The gardens of New Place

The house passes through Shakespeare’s family after his death.

New Place is rebuilt

Shakespeare and the New Place mulberry tree

Francis Gastrell’s eventful time at New Place

Jame Halliwell-Phillips purchases New Place and commences archaeological works

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is created

Further Archaeological work and the renewal of the site in the 21st century

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

www.ko-fi.com/thoetp

www.patreon.com/thoetp

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 122:

The fourth and final part of the biography of Shakespeare.

The rise of Shakespeare as actor and playwright for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.

‘The Comedy of Errors’ performed at Grey’s Inn, ‘the night of errors.’

The influence of the inns of court.

Plays for special occasions.

Francis Meres’ comments on Shakespeare.

Shakespeare’s involvement in a legal summons.

The move from The Theatre to The Globe.

The opening of The Globe.

The sharers at The Globe.

Shakespeare lodging on Silver Street and his involvement with the Mountjoy family.

Shakespeare’s interests in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

The death of Hamnet Shakespeare.

New Place – Shakespeare’s home in Stratford.

Shakespeare’s business interests in Stratford.

The accession of James 1st and the creation of the King’s Men.

The King’s Men’s record of performance at Court.

The King’s Men take on the indoor Blackfriars Theatre.

Shakespeare buys a house near the Blackfriars Theatre.

The last works with collaborators.

The burning down and rebuilding of The Globe.

The last years in Stratford.

The death of Shakespere.

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

www.ko-fi.com/thoetp

www.patreon.com/thoetp

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 121:

For this episode I’m very pleased to welcome Katherine Sheil, Professor of English at the University of Minnesota for the second part of our conversation about Anne Hathaway, based around her book ‘Imagining Shakespeare’s Wife: The Afterlife of Anne Hathaway’.

In this part we went on to talk about the different views of Anne in fiction and non-fiction through the centuries.  The breadth of views are quite astounding and we try to unpick how some of these at lease could have come about.

Katherine is a leading expert on Anne Hathaway and her legacy to history so, following on from the recent episodes about Shakespeare’s ancestry and early life in Stratford and London this was a perfect opportunity to talk to Katherine, and if you have not done so already you should probably listen to all the preceding season six episodes before returning here.

Katherine Scheil is Professor of English at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of several books about Shakespeare, including The Taste of the Town: Shakespearean Comedy and the Early Eighteenth-Century Theatre; Shakespeare/Adaptation/Modern Drama (with Randall Martin);  She Hath Been Reading: Women and Shakespeare Clubs in America; Imagining Shakespeare’s Wife: The Afterlife of Anne Hathaway; Shakespeare & Biography (with Graham Holderness); and Shakespeare & Stratford. She is finishing a book on the history of women and Stratford-upon-Avon, and a book about Shakespeare and biofiction, called Father Shakespeare. She was one of the co-editors of the recent Annethology: Poems Re-Presenting Anne Shakespeare. Her work on the epitaph of Anne Shakespeare in Holy Trinity Church will be coming out later this year with Cambridge University Press.

Links to Katherine's latest books, available from any bookshop.

www.cambridge.org/9781108404068

https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/anne-thology

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

www.ko-fi.com/thoetp

www.patreon.com/thoetp

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 120:

The lost years of Shakespeare’s early life have given space for some myths and legends to grow over the centuries, before we can trace a few facts of his early life in London.

The myth of Shakespeare and the Crab-tree.

The myth of Shakespeare the deer slayer.

Nicholas Rowe – the first editor of Shakespeare.

The Queen’s men in Stratford.

The myth of Shakespeare’s early days in London.

Was Shakespeare’s first London home in Shoreditch?

Tracing Shakespeare’s moves through London via tax records.

London in the late 15th century.

The ‘upstart Crow’ comment

Shakespeare’s growing popularity with the Henry 6th plays and others.

Shakespeare the poet: Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece.

Shakespeare finds a patron – The Earl of Southampton

The formation of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men and Shakespeare’s part in it.

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

www.ko-fi.com/thoetp

www.patreon.com/thoetp

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.