What happens when two bawdy, Early Modern word-nerds sit down to talk about all things Shakespeare? You get "The Hurly Burly Shakespeare Show!": an irreverent mix of entertainment and scholarly content suitable for novices and hard-core “Bardolaters” alike. Jess (The Scholar) and Aubrey (The Teaching Artist) discuss the plays of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as well as other fascinating aspects of the Early Modern period’s lively theatre and print culture. “The Hurly Burly Shakespeare Show!” features the latest “Shakes-bubble” gossip, Burbage Breaks, a Rhetorical Device of the Week, and absolute havoc as Jess and Aubrey attempt to summarize each play in five minutes or less. Oh, and we also make all our sound effects live, because original staging conditions are a thing. Come for the Hurly, stay for the Burly: we guarantee you’ll learn something new with every episode.
Listeners of The Hurly Burly Shakespeare Show! that love the show mention: shakespeare, nerd, brought, ladies, love love, funny, great, lady academics.
Well, friends, this episode marks the last for the pod. We give you a short list of things we love about Shakespeare and about making this podcast together, we play a few games, and we say our goodbyes. With lots of bird-walking and rabbit holes along the way because when we promise Vintage Whamlet, we deliver. Thank you for making the last 6 years so fantastic. Whamlet OUT!
This week, for our penultimate episode, we decided to get some sh*t off our chests and make a list of 10 things we hate about Shakespeare. That's it. No other segments. Oh and we list our bottom 5 plays in the canon, too. But don't worry, as the saying goes, hatred isn't the opposite of love, it's indifference. We bitch because we love.
For our final 101 episode, we take you back to the Spanish Golden Age with House of Desires and its proto-Mexican, female playwright Sor Juana (a nun!). We tell you a little about this Metal AF nun in Meet the Contemporary, and we summarize the play and read a very silly cross-dressing scene from the second act for A Taste of Text. We compare translations of the scene a little bit, and then gossip a lot about yet another Oxfraudian, anti-Stratfordian overture made by the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition (aka SAC - which, like, LOL at your dumb acronym, bros). Listener beware: if the authorship “debate” fills you with white-hot rage, you may just want to skip the last 15 minutes of the episode. That aside, someone please produce House of Desires so we can go see it. We think it's a delight and we hope you agree.
CW: Today's episode involves one of our classic tangents, this time into the topic of incest and incest porn. That said, today's episode is a 101 all about dynamic playwriting duo Beaumont and Fletcher's “tragicomedy” A King and No King. We summarize this bonkers play for you - spoilers: it's only a fake incest plot to lure you in - and ready a portion of act 3 for a Taste of Text. We talk a little about why incest tropes are so popular in modern media, particularly in pornography but also in early modern drama, we gossip a little about the still-unraveling Cleveland Playhouse debacle, and call it a day. Also, there's a minor character in the play whose name sounds like BI-CURIOUS, so start the fan fictions engines NOW.
It only took us 4 years, but we have finally circled back to Love's Labour's Lost for a deep dive into what some fussy Victorians - Hazlitt and Tennyson - had to say about the play, plus a little bit about the moral implications of the ladies' “homework” for the boys at the play's conclusion. There also may or may not be some extensive bird walking into a little-known whodunit called The Moonstone #sorrynotsorry. We gossip a little and also deliver A Big Announcement About the Podcast.
Our winter break is officially over and we hope you did your homework because Dr. Yasmine Hachimi joins us to talk about Henry VIII (the man, and sometimes Shakespeare's play) and his most infamous wife, Anne Boleyn. In this longer-than-usual conversation we focus on the Netflix miniseries Blood, Sex, and Royalty, but also several other TV series and books that feature Anne and other Tudor queens. We examine why Anne in particular is the subject of this type of historical hyper-focus (spoiler alert: it mostly boils down to sexism…) and why we feel the need to sexualize historical queens at all. Yasmine also graces us with a fantastic reading list and tons of other recommendations if you're interested in learning more. Thanks for joining us, Yasmine!
This week we're talking about The City Nightcap by Robert Davenport, a bewildering play by an even more bewildering (read: mysterious) author. We try to help you Meet the Contemporary, but Bobby Davs left us very little to go on; our Taste of Text is sure to amuse (and confuse) you; we talk a LOT about all the kicking happening in this play, as well as why it - among other things - is so problematic (read: sexist AF). If you have the chance to see this play, awesome, but if you don't you're not really missing much aside from a unique barnyard-themed masque and the most hilarious not-a-bed-trick bed trick of all time. Have a great holiday season and we'll see you in January!
This week we return to the classic romantic comedy, Twelfth Night, to talk about the recent production at the American Shakespeare Center (directed by the amazing Jenny Bennett) and how it's a great example of how queering your casting and production concept can unlock new takes on a well-known, popular play. We also gossip about Jess's experience at the recent Early Modern Trans Conference, as well as some...um...highly questionable choices made by a certain theatre company for their ill-fated production of Romeo & Juliet. Bottom line, when in doubt: queer it up and say NO to Nazis.
Well, we hope you like feminist rants, because that's what most of this episode devolved into. In this 201 we go off on Troilus and the rest of the men of Troilus and Cressida to interrogate why the Greeks and Trojans hinged all of their masculinity and self worth on Helen and Cressida's status as chaste virgins. We also take a brief birdwalk to examine the folio text of this play to check an odd prose-to-verse switch in act 3 scene 2. Finally, we dust the cobwebs off of a favorite game, Line Roulette, and find out why a line about Achilles' Mermidons cries encapsulates this entire play full of whiny boys.
It's our first ever 101 for a Spanish Golden Age play! Today we're talking about Lope de Vega's Fuenteovejuna and all the wild, wonderful customs and traditions of the early modern Spanish theatre. Our Meet the Playwright segment takes you through de Vega's impressive (and horny) biography; Jess delights with her multitude of voices in A Taste of Text; we take you through the real event that this play is based on - true crime, again, huzzah! - and Aubrey compares the structure and culture of Spanish playhouses to the English ones we usually talk about, plus the added layer of textual instability that comes with second-language translation. The differences may surprise you! Not only that, but this play gives you the perfect excuse for your mistakes and/or crimes: just say “Fuenteovejuna did it!”
Sooooooo William Rowley's The Birth of Merlin actually has very little to do with Merlin or any other part of the Arthurian legend, and it's more of a history play than its title would suggest. We re-introduce you to playwright William Rowley, who apparently loved to write himself into all of his plays as a “fat clown;” we give you A Taste of Text from Act IV involving a little antic spirit; we talk about how this play doesn't fit neatly into any particular genre because it is doing The Literal Most at all times, but for all that it's not even that great; then we gossip a bit and that's that. Don't believe anyone that tells you this play was written by Shakespeare, and definitely don't believe them if they say it's their favorite play.
Season 6 begins with a ROAR(ing Girl) courtesy of Thomases Dekker and Middleton. The famous city comedy features real-life legend Mary Frith, aka Moll Cutpurse, but not with nearly the stage time such a character deserves; we give you a brief introduction to the lesser-known Thomas of this collab team, Dekker, and also a Taste of Text where Moll's voice really shines. Jess gives you a refresher on the city comedy genre, as well as the real life Moll and we deliver a little personal gossip. We hope you enjoy our roaring return. It's good to be back!
Why As You Like It now? We cover many possible answers to this question, but also take some long, healthy bird walks into other topics both relevant and irrelevant as we make our way through those thoughts. We also dive deep into the New Oxford edition's notes on AYLI (because it gets real sexist real quick) and attempt to unravel the printing mystery of why there is no quarto edition of this play. We gossip a little bit about the ethics of book reviews in Shakespeare journals and how Jon Snow…err…Kit Harrington is playing Henry V right now, once again disproving Aubrey's claim that “no one's doing the Henrys right now.” This episode is our season 5 finale; watch out for extras released during our hiatus, but otherwise we will see you for season 6 this fall. Go find your Green World!
Today's episode tackles one issue and one issue only, and that is to refute the assertion that The Taming of the Shrew is about “romance” (whatever the F that means). We examine a variation in the text between First Folio printing and several modern editions that seem to either soften or double down on Petruchio's “domination” of Katherine, and eventually come to the conclusion that no matter which way you slice it, the entire charade is unnecessary. We unpack the term “romantic” and why our mothers' opinions on romantic love might not have aged well, as well as quite possibly the only interpretation of Shrew that could make its protagonists journey actually romantic. No spoilers. #consentissexy
Today we put on our teacher hats and model the kind of thinking we ask our students to do. After a four-year hiatus, we return to Thomas Kyd's ur-revenge tragedy that started them all, The Spanish Tragedy, to discuss how the F*ck we're supposed to unpack it for 21st century learners. Jess starts with examining the difference between revenge and justice which, though nebulous, proved an easier topic to broach with her students than the concept of dumb shows and masques. Um…they don't talk? There are masks and sometimes dancing? (There's more to it than that, but you'll need to listen to catch it all!)
Sometimes when you think you have nothing to say about a play, it turns out you still have a sh*t-ton to say. Today's 301 episode revisits The Tempest, and we ask the question - what is its genre, really, and also why this play now? Jess posits that maybe The Tempest would feel a little more cathartic at the end if it were staged more like a revenge tragedy at the beginning; Aubrey speculates a bit about why so many regional theaters have added this title to their 2022 lineup. Oh, and we take not one but TWO birdwalks down Marie de France lane because Jess just can't shut up about this medieval author. Lesbian weasels! Fun times!
SURPRISE! You thought you were getting a Love's Labour's episode but we had a last minute change of plans. Instead, we opted for something new, a way to get a bunch of plays into a 201-ish discussion without dedicating an episode to each individual one (because, tbh, we're down to the dregs - mostly plays we just don't wanna talk about anymore). So we invented 201 Roulette! Jess and Aubrey take turns drawing the names of plays out of a hat and extemporizing about those plays however they like. No spoilers, but you'll definitely get a dose of what we love and hate, as well as who we would cast in dream productions of the titles we draw. Tell us what you think - if you like this format, we might do it again!
This episode is a Hurly Burly first, both because we're rolling 201 content for three plays - 1 & 2 Henry IV and Henry V - all into one episode, but also because we have a MAJOR SCOOP in ShakesBubble Gossip that you get to hear all about here first! The endlessly charming Brandon Carter joins us to talk about tackling the arc of the first Henriad as Prince Hal/King Henry, being the first (and maybe only?) African American to play the role in a series of connected productions, and spill the hot hot tea about what else is happening in his career. You'll have to listen to the end to catch it, but he's such a delight that you won't mind one bit.
In our second ever 202 episode (reserved for a Shakespeare adaptation or adjacent work), we take you through the suspenseful and sometimes bemusing and frustrating plot of Jennifer Lee Carrell's mystery thriller Interred With Their Bones. We give you a plot and character synopsis as well as all the Shakespearean easter eggs you can handle, with just a sprinkle of “authorship question” (because the book forced us to) and some early modern true crime to boot. Looking for a fun read for your holiday break? Read this book (and listen to our episode before you do)!
It's not enough to talk to one Bottom about being Nick Bottom, we needed at least 2: utter delights and all-around good humans (and actors) Topher Embry and Gregory Jon Phelps join us to talk about what they love (and hate) about A Midsummer Night's Dream, playing Bottom and other characters, and so much more. It's a shenanigan roller coaster for this 301-level episode, so buckle up!
This week we bring you not one but TWO guest experts to tell us why our tepid feelings about Beaumont's Knight of the Burning Pestle are just plain wrong, Emily Lathrop and Sawyer Kemp. Emily and Sawyer jump right in and not only deliver hot takes about Pestle, they also give us the goods in our Happy Hour and Gossip segments, and grace us with their high theatricality in A Taste of Text. Think a play within a play within a play is just too complicated to produce? Think again!
You're definitely not ready for Cyril Tourneur's tour de force, The Atheist's Tragedy: a tragicomedy (?) about the machinations of a dastardly atheist and his terrible family. We bring back all our beloved 101 features for this episode: Meet the Contemporary (spoiler: ol' Cyril's kinda boring…); A (sexy and ghoulish) Taste of Text; we summarize the play for you and play a new(ish) game, Lost Plays Roulette. No real gossip this week, not because things weren't happening but because we weren't paying attention, but to make up for it we do teach you the difference between a milliner and a haberdasher, so there's that.
It's been sooooooo long since we did a Comedy of Errors episode we nearly forgot it existed. We're here to fix that today. Today we're talking about early performances of the play and the great source text mystery! We also bring back another feature we forgot about for a long time: How 2 Grad School! And instead of choosing the topics for that ourselves, this week we answered the questions of a fan and prospective grad student, Austin. (Good luck, Austin! We're rooting for you!) Then we gossip a little bit and GTFO. Happy Halloween!
This week we bring in guest Sheila Coursey, Assistant Professor of English at Saint Louis University who works on late medieval and early modern theater and narratives of crime, to talk to us about how she uses Arden of Faversham to engage students in conversations about contemporary true crime narratives. We rabbit hole (just a little) into which early modern married couples ever get to be alone together on stage (hint: it's NOT the Ardens), investigate what's with all the white girls and their tears?, and try to delineate what constitutes a “true crime” or “domestic tragedy” story. It's not as -ahem- clean cut as you might think (see what we did there?)
SURPRISE! It's been a hell of a 6-month hiatus and we have sooooooooo much to catch up on (hence the MEGA-EPISODE 2-hour special)! For our Season 5 Premiere, we gathered some brilliant friends to read George Peele's The Old Wife's Tale, in full, for your enjoyment. We skipped a few of the usual 101 features to allow time for the reading, but we still bring you the high points of Peele's life and career in our Meet the Contemporary segment; we also catch you up on the early modern haps that passed by over the summer. Thank you so much to Patrick Harris, Aley O'Mara, Yasmine Hachimi, Merlyn Sell, Elizabeth Tavares, and Joey Gamble for lending your voices, your laughter, and your smokin' hot takes to our first episode of the season.
The votes are in: The Queen's Men play the fans wanted for our Season 4 finale is Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay! We Meet the Contemporary, Robert Green, and give you all of the underwhelming details of his life and career; we summarize this very strange play and give you a Taste of Text with the iconic Brazen Head scene; we discuss the many staging challenges presented in the text; our ShakesBubble Gossip segment is hot off the presses! And then it's time to bid you all adieu (until Season 5, that is). Have a great summer, friends!
This is our inaugural 202-style episode, reserved for plays adjacent to or adapted from one of Shakespeare's, and what better play to start with than Keith Hamilton Cobb's American Moor! Since it is a “new” play (i.e. one we've never discussed before in depth on the pod), we give you some key 101-style features like a dramatis personae, a brief summary, and a taste of text; however, we also assume you're already familiar with Othello (a source text for Moor) and launch into a deeper discussion of the play the way we would for a standard 201-style episode. Ergo, a “202.” We hope exploring American Moor enhances your understanding of Othello and vice versa. Go add it to your bookshelves now!
This week we're talking about Marlowe's Edward II, all about King Edward and his boy toy Gaveston and how trying to have your cake and eat it, too, goes very, very wrong for the ill-fated monarch. We celebrate a queer author for our Happy Hour; we re-introduce you to the very queer Christopher Marlowe in Meet the Contemporary; we read a rather progressive scene (for a 400-something year old play) for our Taste of Text; we cover the rumors and theories about the notorious manner of historical Edward II's death; and we bring back a favorite game, Line Roulette! This play is gay AF and we LOVE IT.
By your powers combined (aka the multiple emails we received requesting this topic), we bring you a 101 episode on Shakespeare's Sonnets! In our Taste of Text feature, we read you our favorites (57 and 130) and snippets of a few others; Jess gives us a rundown on the difference between Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet style; Aubrey pleads with teacher not to use the sonnets as acting exercises; we summarize the final play in our Keeping Up With the Queen's Men series; we play another round of the Lost Plays Game; we gossip a little and laugh a lot. Get out there and explore the sonnets!
This episode represents a departure from the norm, but hopefully the beginning of a thread of episodes to feature one major scholar and their contributions to the field of Shakespeare studies. Who better to start with than Dr. Kim F. Hall? Dr. Hall's prolific body of work has impacted the field (and many other fields of study) in so many ways that we just had to devote an entire episode to her. We also deliver expected features such as Happy Hour and ShakesBubble Gossip, so stick around for those as well. We hope we pique your interest in Dr. Hall's work and find ways to incorporate it into your own!
It's our ONE HUNDREDTH EPISODE EXTRAVAGANZAAAAAAA!!! To celebrate, we brought in new and returning friends of the pod, Charlie Bell, Courtney Parker, Molly Seremet, Patrick Harris, and Sawyer Kemp to read Thomas Middleton's Yorkshire Tragedy in its entirety, purely for your listening pleasure. This week, you get your Summary, Taste of Text, and Tips and Tidbits all rolled into one ridiculous bout of reader's theatre, with a healthy dose of murder on top. We wouldn't want to celebrate the Big 100 any other way.
So there's this Countess, and she's horny AF…and thus begins Marston's The Insatiate Countess. We dish a little happy with some signal boosts in our Happy Hour segment; we tell you everything we know about John Marston and the other writers who had a hand in this text in our Meet the Contemporary feature; our Taste of Text is extra tasty because the titular Countess is, in fact, thirsty like whoa; we give you yet another title to ponder while Keeping Up With the Queen's Men; we gossip a bit and GTFO. Watch out for that Countess' “dark hole” is all we're saying.
In this episode we give you a run down of all the other versions of the King Lear (or Leir) story that have existed before and after Shakespeare wrote his own version. The Queen's Men had one, Nahum Tate adapted one, as did William Charles Macready. We also list some Shakespeare-themed gift ideas for your holiday shopping list, gossip a little, and address a few important corrections from past episodes. You heard it here first, folx, we're human and we sometimes make mistakes, but we also try to grow and do better. Unlike King Lear (regardless of which version you prefer).
We return to the War of the Roses with this 201 dive into 1 Henry VI, a history play that even Jess likes. We learn all about the real St. Joan of Arc and how her story and image got twisted to conform to English propaganda and the patriarchy (eye roll), and Aubrey illuminates the moment between Margaret and Suffolk in act 5 that demands to be delivered to no one but the audience. We also Keep Up with the Queen's Men and give you a quick and dirty summary of George Peele's The Old Wife's Tale (which may or may not be the most underrated comedy of its time). Slight microphone issues aside, we hope you enjoy the episode.
In our first 101 episode in…a while…we take a minute to remind you of who the F* John Webster even is (spoiler: he's the creepy, dirty, mouse torturer from “The Documentary” Shakespeare In Love); we give you a good old-fashioned short-is summary; we bring you A Taste of Text (and some dumbshows) from The White Devil; Jess and Aubrey each pose some lingering quandaries we have about the play; we launch our new feature, Keeping Up With the Queen's Men, to tell you all about Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay from the Queen's Men's repertory; we gossip some and we laugh a lot. All this and more, so get ready! We're diving into Webster's The White Devil like there's no tomorrow!
This episode is a little different from the norm - come with us as we explore the wild world of early modern playing companies! What were they? Why were they? Who were they? And other W words as well. Our look at the Queen's Men (aka the all-star troupe of actors commanded by Her Majesty) will set us up for the rest of the season, throughout which we will closely examine some of the big headliner titles from the Queen's Men's repertory and ask you to VOTE on which one we should feature as a 101 episode at the end of this season. We introduce a new game - The Lost Plays Game! - and also take a few short trips down tangential creeks into the origins of the vacuum cleaner and a memorially reconstructed version of “The Documentary” Shakespeare in Love. It's a romp. A Queen's Men romp.
IN A WORLD full of pandemic podcasts…Whamlet makes our triumphant return with our Season 4 premiere: CYMBELINE 201! We introduce a new feature: Happy Hour; we talk about the evil queen trope and the Cymbeline's Celtic “roots” in pre-Roman king Cunobelin; we shamelessly self-promote our other current projects and generally revel in reuniting for what is sure to be a killer season. Want to know what's in store this year? Gotta listen up!
Did you miss us? We missed YOU! We return from our LOOOONNGGG summer break with a vengeance on October 5, 2020.We have so many (good) surprises in store, Season 4 promises to be our best yet. See you October 5!
For our Season 3 grand finale, we would love to introduce you to Clyomon and Clamydes, the bro-nemies that predate all others of this period and whose play is nothing by rhyming fourteeners. We re-meet the contemporary, that prolific Anonymous, “waltz” our way through a summary, and give you a Taste of Text you will never forget. Jess also delivers the other part of her paper about shipwrecks (the first half is in our Pericles episode), we give you a little ShakesBubble Gossip to get you through our extended hiatus, and give you an impromptu review of NTLive's Frankenstein, too (spoiler alert: we don't know how we feel about it but we really like that nice Johnny Lee Miller). Friends, this will be our last episode for a while, what with 2020 being slightly insane, so we hope to see you happy and healthy on the other side. Be well!
Favorite guest expert and fellow #LadyAcademic Molly Seremet returns to talk to us about why Fletcher and Massinger's goofy pirate collabo, The Sea Voyage, should be on everyone's “must” list. We introduce you to the elusive and myste”
Favorite guest expert and fellow #LadyAcademic Molly Seremet returns to talk to us about why Fletcher and Massinger's goofy pirate collabo, The Sea Voyage, should be on everyone's “must” list. We introduce you to the elusive and mysterious (and neckless) Philip Massinger in our Meet the Contemporary segment; we read a smidge of Act 2, scene 1 for A Taste of Text; Molly tells us all about the staging challenges and delights when producing this play, and then she SLAYS a round of Line Roulette; and finally, we gossip about all our favorite things happening in the ShakesBubble right now. We hope you're weathering the pandemic safely and with clean hands! #stayhome #washyourhands
The characters in Richard Brome's play A Jovial Crew do exactly what most of us cannot in this ‘Rona Age: they go cavorting about in large groups! In Public! So we use this play to get out a little cabin fever of our own. We invite you to Meet the Contemporary, Richard Brome, about whom the only thing we really know for sure is that he was Ben Jonson's #1 Fanboy; we play a new game - BYO Crew - to help us think about our own “Jovial Crew”; and we have tons of fresh ShakesBubble Gossip. We hope the Merry Beggars of A Jovial Crew brighten your day. #stayhome #washyourhands
Welcome to the werewolf-filled world of Webster's Duchess of Malfi (#alliteration)! In Meet the Contemporary we tell you what we know about that guy John Webster (not much); we go a little long in the summary but that's only because the play itself is sooooooo long; we read murderous moment in A Taste of Text; Jess reads from a real-life German account of a real-life 16th century werewolf; and in our ShakesBubble Gossip segment we give you a few more free online resources to occupy your shelter-in-place free time. We also played a game, Secret Werewolf, but it was cut for time — look for it as an Extra later this week! Stay home! Wash your hands! Be well, friends!
This week we pay our obligatory respects to Ben Jonson and his insanely relevant comedy The Alchemist. We give you a brief biography of the famously pugnacious playwright in our Meet the Contemporary segment, summarize this very long play for you, and give you a Taste of Text with a reading of Act 1, scene 1. We decided to forego a game this time because, TBH, we didn't really want to prolong our engagement with the play more than necessary. Instead we jumped straight into some ShakesBubble Gossip and what the Bubble has been up to in the time of Covid-19. Answer - a LOT. Stay home and tune in, y'all!
We're not gonna lie…#coronavirus got us like WTF and we talk about it before diving into Thomas Heywood's Fair Maid of the West. We shout out some resources for getting your artsy fartsy fix online while you're practicing social distancing and STAYING THE F*K AT HOME AND WASHING YOUR HANDS. We summarize the play for you and give you A Taste of Text and that's about it because we are shook. Just chalk this one up as a time capsule. You're welcome, historians!
Today we ask you to lean into discomfort as we tackle the fraught issue of race in Titus Andronicus. We give you some thoughts from prevailing scholars on the subject, as well as a few approaches for this play in your classroom, and we also talk about Ira Aldridge's contribution to the play (and to theatre in general) in the 19th century.
Women, beware those women! A solid title and admonition, no? We take you step by step through Thomas Middleton's gruesome tragedy, Women Beware Women, with a summary, a Taste of Text, and more than you ever wanted to know about the significance of chess in the play. We also play a round of F*k, Marry, Kill (just in case you were looking for some dating wisdom) and reveal some quite exciting ShakesBubble Gossip news. How many ways can people die all at once on stage? You'll have to listen to find out!
If you love incest plots, you're in luck! John Ford's immortal Tis Pity She's a Whore is the Romeo and Juliet of incestuous, misbegotten, star-crossed love. We tell you what little we know of Ford in Meet the Contemporary; we give you a rather complete and detailed summary; we read Act 5, scene 5 for A Taste of Text; and we play the Playlist game where we brainstorm songs that will get you in the Tis Pity mood…and that's it, because the ShakesBubble world was pretty boring and news-less this week…nothing so exciting as a heart impaled on a dagger or anything…
In this in-depth 301 episode, we dive right into the strange little mind of David Garrick, the famous 18th century Shakespeare actor and super-fan, and his adaptation of The Winter's Tale: “Florizel and Perdita.” We read a few scenes side-by-side for you from Shakespeare and Garrick so you can judge for yourself who did it better. Equally important, Jess sings a song (written by Garrick for Perdita), and we gossip a little bit about some personal and ShakesBubble happenings. Don't start this episode if you can't finish it… ;)
This episode is all about the AMAZING Beau-Fletch collabo The Maid's Tragedy! We love this play sooooo much, so we start by Meeting the Contemporaries and tell you all about Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher's epic, early modern bro-mance; we give you a Taste of Text (and a great “your mom” joke); Aubrey plays a round of Line Roulette; and we have soooooo much to cover in our ShakesBubble Gossip that it needed its own list of links (see below). Enjoy the episode and all the kinky twists of The Maid's Tragedy!
This week we take a deep dive into the context of the Essex Rebellion (and Jess's dissertation) and the mysterious role Shakespeare's Richard II may (or may not) have played in it. We also revisit the rhetorical device of metonymy (because CROWNS), and we talk about thesis defenses in our recurring How to Grad School segment.
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