The History Of European Theatre

Episode 198:

As Ben Jonson was writing ‘The Poetaster’ in 1601 the Elizabethan age was drawing to a close.  Elizabeth would live until March 1603, but by 1601 any hope of a natural heir was long past and her court and councillors were playing a waiting game and with different degrees of secrecy were trying to manipulate the situation over the accession to their own advantage.  Jonson, I’m sure, had an eye and an ear on those politics, but the comedy he was writing was more concerned with the politics of the theatre than those in the court.  In the previous episode on ‘Cynthia’s Revels’ and in my episodes on Thomas Dekker, that you can still find on the podcast archive, I have touched on ‘the war of the poets’ and this episode on ‘The Poetaster’ will bring these matters to a close.  Although it’s not essential you might find listening to those earlier episodes useful, if you have not done so already, before listening to this one.

The early performance of the play and it’s place in the ‘war of the poets’

The print history of the play

The theme of the role of the poet

A short synopsis of the play

The caricature of John Marston

The Poetaster and Satiromastix

The feud as fuelled by the rivalry between playing troupes

The poet as councillor and companion to the monarch

The exposing of the poetasters

The change in title

Reference to the Essex rebellion

The attempted censoring of the play

The epilogue

The end of the ‘Poetomachia’

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Episode 197: 

For today’s guest episode I had the pleasure of talking to Simon Sandys Winsch, author of the Illustrated Tudor Dictionary.  Given Simon’s broad knowledge of the period I took the opportunity to talk to him about some of the entries in the dictionary that give us a view of what life was like for the Elizabethan’s who went to the London theatres.  We started by going back a few years into the reign of Henry 8th and discussed actions of his, the legacy of which the Elizabethans were still living with which led onto conversations about some of the struggles of the ordinary Elizabethan life.

Simon Sandys Winsch graduated from Aberystwyth university with a degree in History and international politics and then became a history teacher working in various schools.  It was during that career that he realised the importance of knowing topics in depth as well as the need to keep lessons informative and interesting as possible and he now puts those skills to use in writing history books.

Link to the Tudor Illustrated Dictionary on Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Illustrated-Tudor-Dictionary-Simon-Sandys-Winsch/dp/1036101983/ref=sr_1_1?

Link to the Tudor Illustrated Dictionary on Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Tudor-Dictionary-Simon-Sandys-Winsch/dp/1036101983/ref=sr_1_1?

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Episode 196:

The origins of the play written for the court and the Children of the Chaple playing company

Why this type of play is a fit for the child playing troupes

The print history of the play

A brief synopsis of the play

Myth, Satire and Masque - the complexities with getting an understanding of the play

The minor role of plot compared to words and music in the play

The performance style of the boy playing companies compared to the adult companies

The verbal sketching of characters as part of the satiric intent

The play as part of the battle of the poets

Unpicking the satiric portraits in the play

The introduction of the Poetaster

The masque and it’s role in the play

Jonson’s coded support for the Earl of Essex in the play

Early responses to the play and the longer historical view

Link to European Review of History Podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/european-review-of-history-podcast/id1695812614

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Episode 195 

Last time I completed my review of ‘Hamlet’, although it is probably wrong to say that one’s thoughts on Hamlet are ever complete.  I am not alone in finding that every time I see the play, and it is I think, as it is for many, the Shakespeare play I have seen most often, I find something new in it to think on.  To complete this quartet of episodes on the play we have the second part of my conversation with Colin David Reese about the play and in this segment, which is much shorter than the previous conversation, we focussed on the character of Polonius, although as you will near Colin also brought in other thoughts generated by the play and his knowledge of other Shakespeare plays.  I certainly was not expecting to hear about ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ in the context of this conversation, but I’m glad we went there and it just illustrates how any Shakespeare conversation can lead you to all sorts of places. 

Before we get to Colin’s thoughts, I thought I would share with you some of the views of the play and Polonius from critics and commentators from the past.  This is, of course, a tiny selection given the vast amount that has been written about Hamlet, but they are pieces that I have come across and found particularly interesting.  If this piques your interest in Shakespeare criticism through time I have produced a series on that very subject for members on Patreon where I traced criticism and praise for Shakespeare from the praise poems in the First Folio to the 19th century romantics.  To find out more about that just pop over to the website or to patreon.com.

John Dryden

Samuel Jonson

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

William Hazlitt

A C Bradley

Colin Dave Reese on Polonius

Colin’s Website and access to ‘Shakespeare Unbound: A Gift to the Future’: https://shakespeareunbound.org

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Episode 194: 

Last time I left things hanging for Hamlet as, having seen the ghost of his father and resolved on revenge, he had seen his planning go awry as he mistakenly killed the old councillor Polonius while he hid behind a wall hanging.  We have seen his daughter Ophelia begin her descent into madness, school friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern become embroiled in Hamlet’s feigned madness and Claudius prompted into a desire to pray, having seen the players perform a piece that replicated his actions in the matter of his brother’s murder.  

That quick summary in no way does the play any sort of justice so please do listen to the previous two episodes on ‘Hamlet’, my look at the first half of the play and my conversation with Colin David Reese about the language in the play, if you have not done so already.  I’ll be here waiting for you when you get back.

Continuing a summary of the play picking up from the murder of Polonius, with Hamlet leaving and dragging the body behind him.

The Character of Gertrude

The female characters and the players who portrayed them

The rise of boy playing troupes reflected in ‘Hamlet’

The political position of Claudius in the Danish nation

The character of Osric and his role in the play

The themes of death and decay 

The character and actions of Hamlet

Hamlet as a tragic hero

The graveyard scene

A brief overview of the performance history of the play

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Episode 193

For today’s guest episode it is a very welcome return to the podcast for Colin David Reese, who I last spoke to in early 2023, when we discussed his play ‘Shakespeare Unbound: A Gift to the Future’ and Shakespeare in general.  If you missed those episodes you will find them as part of season five, first released in February and April 2023.

On this occasion I asked Colin to discuss Shakespeare’s use of language, with particular reference to Hamlet, and how that language is used to create character.  Colin goes in some depth into two of Hamlet’s most famous speeches from the play, so, although it is not essential you might find it useful to have a copy of the speeches to hand to follow along.  You will need ‘To be or not to be’, from Act three scene one and ‘O what a rogue and peasant slave am I’ from act two scene two.  We also spoke about the differences between the quarto and folio versions of the play with examples of the language from them, and as this have become a long, but very richly detailed episode, I have split it into two and will share the part dealing with characterisation and particularly Polonius after my second episode discussing the play.

Colin David Reese has not only a lifetime of acting experience behind him, but a lifetime of Shakespeare study too.  That started in his family life where his actor father had a Shakespeare quote for every occasion and continued with his first professional engagement when aged twelve, he played Shakespeare’s illegitimate son.  Along with his many acting roles he has run his own acting company and undertaken in depth study of Shakespeare and the Commedia Dell’arte

Link to RSC To Be Or Not to Be sketch on YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEs8rK5Cqt8

Link to Colin's website: https://shakespeareunbound.org

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Episode 192:

And so, we come to perhaps the biggest challenge in all of Shakespeare's work, ‘The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark’.  Over the next two episodes and a special guest episode I hope I can get close to doing this monumental play justice.

The dating of the play and the complication of the ‘ur-Hamlet’

The early print history of the play and the three versions

The possible sources for the play

The opening of the play

The character and significance of Fortinbras

The character of Polonius

The ghost of Hamlet’s father and the responsibility of revenge

The position and character of Ophelia

Ophelia and the meaning of flowers

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern – appearances and honesty

The players and their play as an insight to acting genres and techniques of the time

The success of ‘The Murger of Gonzago’

The centrality and irony of Claudius at prayer

Hamlet, Gertrude and the ghost

Part two of this review of ‘Hamlet’ will follow as episode 194 (season 6 episode 81) 

Support the podcast at:

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Episode 191:

For today’s guest episode it is a welcome return to Ricky Dukes, artistic director of Lazarus Theatre Company.  Following on from our conversation about ‘Henry V’ Ricky and I went on to discuss ‘Julius Caesar’.  Not surprisingly our conversation pulled out some alternative points to those I raised in my episode on the play, especially when it came to talking about aspects of staging the play and the impact of the female roles in the play, which I did not mention in any detail previously.  So, please see these two episodes as complimenting each other, but as long as you are familiar with the play you don’t need to have listened to my episode first, or, for that matter, our earlier discussion of ‘Heny V’, to enjoy this one. 

Ricky Dukes is an award-winning Director, Practitioner and Teacher based in the West Midlands and London.  In 2007 he founded Lazarus Theatre Company and is the company’s current Artistic Director for which he won Best Artistic Director in the 2012 Fringe Report Awards.  His work is ensemble led with actor detail at its heart creating large scale visual, visceral, and vibrant theatrical experiences. Ricky has gone on to direct over 40 productions for Lazarus Theatre Company including: The Changeling, Hamlet, Doctor Faustus, Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, Macbeth, Marlowe’s Edward II, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Tis Pity She’s A Whore, and Dido, Queen of Carthage.  Ricky also runs workshops for actors under the ‘Lazarus Gym’ banner, and I have put links in the show notes to his activities so you can follow that up further if you wish.

Check out Lazarus Theatre here: https://www.lazarustheatrecompany.co.uk

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Episode 190:

'Julius Caesar' has proved to be one of Shakespeare’s most malleable plays through the centuries as it’s political narrative has been applied to just about every period of history since it was first performed, either in the moment or retrospectively.  In most people’s estimation it is one of Shakespeare’s truly great plays, but that does not mean that there is always a consensus of opinion over the details of the plot or the motivations of the main characters, but by now that is pretty much what we have come to expect from Shakespeare.

The dating of the play

The early performance history of the play

The publication history of the play

The sources for the play

A brief synopsis of the play

Why did Shakespeare choose to write about Roman history?

The play as Ceasar’s tragedy

The play as the tragedy of Brutus

Anthony as the playboy and political strategist

The role of words, letters and misunderstandings in the play

The death of Cinna the poet

The later performance history of the play

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Episode 189:

For today’s guest episode it is my pleasure to welcome Dr Iman Sheeha to the podcast.  Her book ‘Neighbourly Relations in early modern drama has been published recently so it was a great opportunity to talk to her about her research after she had just completed a summer tour of conferences.

Her work is a close examination of neighbourly relationships in early modern English drama, placing a select number of plays alongside other contemporary materials such as wills, pamphlets and sermons and other sources that give us a glimpse of the early modern lived life. The plays span the period between the 1550s and the 1620s, belong to different genres, were aimed at different audiences, and were written for different kinds of playhouses, which allows for conclusions to be drawn about the way genre shapes the treatment of neighbourly relationships, as well as revealing continuities and changes during the period.

Iman Sheeha is a Senior Lecturer in Shakespeare and Early Modern Literature at Brunel University of London and co-General Editor of New Mermaids Classic Plays series. She has wide-ranging interests within the fields of Shakespeare and Early Modern Literature, including gender, race, devotional literature, service, and domesticity and she works with PhD candidates working on these and related topics.

She is the author of two books: Household Servants in Early Modern Domestic Tragedy, and Neighbourly Relationships in Early Modern Drama. She has co-edited a special issue on liminal domestic spaces for Early Modern Literary Studies.  Her research has appeared or is forthcoming in Shakespeare Survey, Early Theatre, The Journal of Early Modern Cultural Studies, Early Modern Literary Studies, and American Notes and Queries and she contributed a chapter to People and Piety: Devotional Writing in Print and Manuscript in Early Modern England (MUP, 2019).’  She has written the introduction for the Oxford World’s Classics edition of ‘The Tragedy of Master Arden of Faversham’ which is due to be published by Oxford University Press in April, 2026.

Links to books by Iman Sheeha

https://www.routledge.com/Neighbourly-Relationships-in-Early-Modern-Drama-Staged-Communities/Sheeha/p/book/9781032896670

https://www.routledge.com/Household-Servants-in-Early-Modern-Domestic-Tragedy/Sheeha/p/book/9780367503772

Support the podcast at:

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