Episodes
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Episode 148:
The life of Ben Jonson continues after he is released from prison after the publication of 'Eastward Ho!'
Jonson’s possible involvement in the gunpowder plot and it’s aftermath.
Jonson writes a masque for the marriage of Frances Howard and Robert Devereaux.
Jonson defends his religious position in the face of recusancy fines.
‘Volpone’ is performed at The Globe as Jonson continues to produce masques.
‘Epicene or the Silent Woman’ is performed at the Whitefriars Theatre.
‘The Alchemist’ is performed at Oxford in a time of plague.
The club at the Mermaid tavern.
The return to the Anglican Church.
Parliament’s financial settlement for the King curtails the expense on masques
‘Catiline his Conspiracy’ gets a rocky reception.
Jonson works as a tutor for the Sydney family.
The ‘grand tour’ with Wat Raleigh.
The scandal of Robert Carr and Frances Devereaux.
Johnson is granted a pension.
The first folio of ‘The Works of Benjamin Jonson’.
For your copy of ‘Cakes and Ale: Mr Robert Baddeley and his 12th Night Cakes’ by Nick Bromley go to www.lnpbooks.co.uk. The special offer price of £9.99 including UK postage is available until 6th January 2025
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One of the generally accepted facts about theatre in the time of Shakespeare and Jonson is that boy actors took female roles and women were banned from appearing on the stage. This is in fact only partly true and my guest for today’s episode has made a study of how early modern actresses, from traditions on the European continent, influenced the English stage. During out conversation we covered aspects of European theatre from the early 1500’s, and Commedia Dell’arte in particular. You will find my take on this in season three of the podcast and if you have already listened to that hopefully some of the names will still sound familiar. We also talked about the influence of actresses on playwrights and plays from the period and hopefully you will remember Lilly, Marlowe and Kyd and The Spanish Tragedy from season four of the podcast. All those episodes are still out there on your podcast feed if you need a refresher.
Pamela Allen Brown is Professor Emerita of English, University of Connecticut. Her monograph The Diva’s Gift to the Shakespearean Stage: Agency, Theatricality, and the Innamorata was published by Oxford in 2021. With Julie Campbell and Eric Nicholson, she edited and translated Isabella Andreini's Lovers' Debates for the Stage, The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe (Iter, 2022). Previous books include Better a Shrew than a Sheep: Women, Drama and the Culture of Jest in Early Modern England; As You Like It: Texts and Contexts (co-authored with Jean E. Howard); and Women Players in England 1500-1650: Beyond the All-Male Stage (co-edited with Peter Parolin). She is a founding member of Theater Without Borders, a working group of scholars of early modern transnational drama, and she recently joined the New Books Network as a podcast host. Her poetry has appeared in Epiphany, First Literary Review East, New Square, Visual Verse, Public, Out of Sequence, and P/rose. For more on her work see:
https://www.pamelaallenbrown.com/
Support the podcast at:
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Missing episodes?
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Episode 146:
The banning of printed satire.
‘Every Man Out of His Humour’ is produced by The Lord Chamberlin’s Men.
‘Cynthia’s Revels’ is performed at court but is not well received.
‘Poetester’ is performed at the Blackfriars and sparks ‘the war of the poets’ with Dekker and Marston.
‘Sejanus: His Fall’ fails to impress.
Jonson cultivates friendships with nobility close to the Stuart dynasty.
The death of Elizabeth.
Entertainments for the arrival of Queen Anne in England.
Jonson’s contribution to the official entry of King James into London.
Jonson is ejected from court on Twelfth Night 1604.
The Court Masque.
‘The Masque of Blackness’.
‘Eastward Ho’ causes Jonson another spell in prison.
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Episode 145:
Continuing the story of Ben Jonson’s life from the point where just as he starts to make his mark in the theatre scene everything goes very badly wrong for him.
‘The Isle of Dogs’ at the Swan Theatre
The closure of the London Theatres
Jonson in prison
How the London theatres reopened
The Swan and Pembroke’s Men
Speculation on the content of ‘The Isle of Dogs’
Jonson’s other early work for the theatre
Jonson and the Lord Chamberlin’s Men
Jonson’s duel with Gabriel Spencer
Jonson in prison again
The conversion to Catholicism
Jonson’s trial and taking ‘the benefit of the clergy’
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Episode 144:
On several occasions through the story of the renaissance theatre I have touched on how the players made use of cue sheets rather than full scripts as they rehearsed and performed plays, so I was fascinated to see that there is a company of actors working today who produce plays by Shakespeare and other renaissance playwrights using cue sheets. Although we don’t have documentary evidence about exactly how they were used at the time and therefore how the rehearsal process worked, what better way to get an understanding of how they might have been used and what impact they had on productions than to produce plays using them and work through the practical issues and artistic choices that become involved.
Shake-Scene Shakespeare have produced work for live and on-line presentation since 2017 and continue to do so today, so I was very pleased when Lizzie Conrad-Hughes, founder, company Director and book holder for the company agreed to come and talk about the experience of producing cue-based theatre for a modern audience.
https://www.shake-sceneshakespeare.co.uk/
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Episode 143:
The second part of the life of Ben Jonson takes him from his birth, through his years at school and onto working as a bricklayer. He then briefly joined the army before returning to become a player, a poet and a playwright.
Jonson’s Scottish ancestry.
His father’s loss of position under queen Mary.
His Stepfather Robert Brett, bricklayer.
Life for the Brett/Jonson family on Christopher Lane
Jonson’s education at Westminster school.
Theatre at the Westminster School.
The influence of school master William Camden.
Jonson the bricklayer’s apprentice.
Jonson briefly attends Cambridge university – maybe.
Jonson the soldier and his service in the war in the Netherlands.
The Lord Mayor’s procession and the involvement of the Guild companies
Jonson’s contribution to the Lord Mayor’s procession.
Jonson the player for Pembroke’s men.
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Episode 142
Dr Natália Pikli discusses the changing view of the 'The Shrew' in Medieval and Early Modern European culture and how women are represented in Shakespeare's early comedies,
She then goes on to outline how Shakespeare became part of national Hungarian culture and how the plays have been treated in translation.
Dr Natália Pikli is Associate Professor at the Department of English Studies, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. She teaches medieval and early modern culture and literature and is Head of the relevant PhD Program. She also teaches contemporary popular culture, as well as theatre history and theatre reviewing for students majoring in Theatre Studies. She has published extensively on Shakespeare, early modern popular culture, theatre, iconography, and on the reception of Shakespeare in our days, with a focus on contemporary theatre. Her book chapters and articles appeared in, for instance, Shakespearean Criticism (Thomson-Gale, 2004), Shakespeare's Others in 21st-century European Performance (Bloomsbury, 2021), and in academic journals: European Journal of English Studies, Journal of Early Modern Studies (Florence) Shakespeare Survey (Cambridge), Theatralia (Brno). She (co-)edited five books and is the author of two monographs, The Prism of Laughter: Shakespeare’s ’very tragical mirth’ (VDM Verlag, 2009) and Shakespeare’s Hobby-Horse and Early Modern Popular Culture (Routledge, 2022). In her free time, she directs amateur student performances and writes theatre reviews.
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Episode 141:
In this episode I set us up for a look at the life of Ben Johnson discussing some of the sources for information about his life and how far we can trust them – it’s complicated.
Jonson’s 1618 visit to Scotland and why he might have undertaken the journey on foot.
His conversations with Drummond of Hawthornden.
Jonson’s opinions on other writers as reported by Drummond and thoughts on their validity.
Descriptions of Jonson by Aubery and Dekker.
The Johnson portrait.
How Johnson might have revealed himself in his work.
How his poems appear to be self-referencing but may not be as straightforward as they seem.
How his plays possibly include some self-revealing aspects.
Admiration of Johnson as equal to, or greater than, Shakespeare.
The modern reader and the problems with Jonson.
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In October 2023 the story of the discovery of a stage floor that dated from before the Elizabethan period in St George’s Guildhall in Kings Lynn hit the news. The attrition to the headline writers was the fact that that very stage had probably supported Shakespeare as he acted as part of a playing troupe on stage. Of course, that is a great hook for the story as the interest in Shakespeare goes well beyond those of us immersed in the history of theatre and the idea that we can still share a space like that across four hundred years is a beguiling one. I remember standing on the original floor of Anne Hathaway’s cottage in Stratford Upon Avon and feeling a very similar thrill, but there is much more to the story of St George’s Guild Hall at King’s Lynn, a venue for theatre for not just four hundred years, but at least six hundred, making it the UK’s oldest working theatre. So, I was very pleased when Tim Fitzhigham, Creative Director of the Guildhall Theatre agreed to come onto the podcast and talk about St George’s Guildhall and that stage.
Tim Fitzhigham is the Borough Council of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk Creative Director appointed to oversee the revival of St George’s Guildhall. As well as leading this extensive project he is currently completing his PhD on Robert Armin, an actor in The King’s Men who originated many of the clown and fool roles in all but the earliest Shakespeare plays and was a well-known playwright and author in his own right.
Links to the St George's Guildhall Website
https://stgeorgesguildhall.com
and Instagram Account
https://www.instagram.com/stg.guildhall/
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Episode 139:
Last time ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’ gave us a look at second comedy from Shakespeare’s early phase as a playwright. As you heard certain elements in the plotting of the play and execution of its denouement make it problematic, but nevertheless it showed early promise. The lyrical nature of much of the language used in that play is quite typical of the earliest comedies and it is probably not coincidental that this was around the time that Shakespeare was writing his long lyrical poem ‘Venus and Adonis’, so we might assume that his mindset at the time was that of a lyrical poet, and maybe we see that influence still in his probable next work, the much more accomplished play ‘The Comedy of Errors’, which has remained one of the more popular Shakespeare comedies since its first performance.
The Source for the play and changes Shakespeare made to it
The original text of the play
The dating and earliest performances of the play
Foul Papers
The setting as a Roman street with three houses
A Synopsis of the play
The serious and long opening exposition.
The importance of a dramatic opening scene
Social commentary in the play
Adriana as a well-developed character for a light-hearted farce
Antipholus of Ephesus as an unpleasant character, but toned down from the source material
Antipholus of Syracuse as a more sympathetic character
The punishment of the Dromio twins
The view of authority in the play
The problems with the plot (if we take it too seriously)
The soliloquies of Antipholus of Syracuse
Luciana and the expression of the value of tradition
What should we read into the very ending of the play?
Support the podcast at:
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Episode 138:
Over the course of speaking about English Renaissance Plays and Shakespeare I have had cause to mention the play ‘A Knack to Know a Knave’ several times. Most latterly because it is thought to include references to ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and ‘Titus Andronicus’ and prior to that, in the season on the Early Renaissance Theatre it had a mention as one of the plays performed at the Rose Playhouse as recorded in Henslowe’s Diary. Having been reminded of it while writing about the early Shakespeare plays I thought that it deserved a little time in the spotlight on it’s own as it gives us a little snapshot of the plays, and particularly comedies other than Shakespeare and Jonson, that was circulating at the time of the earliest of Shakespeare’s plays. So, here is a little interlude of an episode all about ‘A Knack to Know a Knave’.
A quick word on ‘Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers’ by Darren Feebury-Jones, which is published in October 2024 and on Henry Porter and his possible involvement with ‘Dr Faustus’.
The performances of ‘A Knack to Know a Knave’ as reported in Henslowe’s Diary
The mystery of the low takings for repeated performances in a second run of the play
The printed quarto edition of the play
A summary of the plot
The (possibly) missing parts of the play, including Kempe’s extemporising
How the fools of Gotham folk tale is worked into the play
The allusions to other plays in the text
The final lines of the play
If you would like to read the text of A Knack to Know a Knave, you can find it on google books here
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Episode 137:
The dating of the play
Printing in the First Folio
The sources for the play and the nature of the text
A brief synopsis of the play
The major themes of the play
How the status and youth of Valentine and Proteus helps to understand their actions in the play
The role of Speed and how the play features the embryo of Shakespearean wordplay
The role and values of Lance, and Crab the dog, as a comparison to Proteus
Some well-regarded verse from the play
Different readings of the theme of love
The problematic rape and forgiveness scene
The play as a courtly romance
The play as a parody of past cultural norms
Is the text more corrupt than is generally thought?
How our understanding of male relationships at the time might affect our view of the play
The performance history of the play
Support the podcast at:
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Episode 136:
Having given you my own thoughts on ‘Titus Andronicus’ last time I’m pleased to say that for this special guest episode I was able to take the discussion even further with Eleanor Conlon, a fellow podcaster and a theatre professional as you will hear Eleanor has a lot to say about the play and insights that, in some cases, go in different directions from what I was able to say about the play.
Eleanor Conlon is an actor, director, and award-winning writer based in Sussex.
After completing her BA in English Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London, Eleanor earned her MA in Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama at Kings College and Shakespeare’s Globe. While at The Globe, Eleanor worked dramaturgically on productions by Dominic Dromgoole Matthew Dunster and Jeremy Herrin, and with Jenny Tiramani on the Original Practices Costume Archive.
After achieving success with her theatre company The Barefoot Players in the late 2000s and early 2010s, with which she produced plays including Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Doctor Faustus and The Alchemist, the latter two of which she also directed, as well as productions of several of Shakespeare’s works, plays by Ibsen, Oscar Wilde, and others, she founded her current and much acclaimed theatre company Rust & Stardust.
Writing over a dozen plays rooted in English folklore, Eleanor has worked with her puppet-maker partner Katie Sommers to tour Rust & Stardust’s shows all over the UK, including their plays The Wild Man of Orford, Black Shuck, The Marsh Demons of Iken, and Doctor Dee’s Daughter and the Philosopher’s with celebrated recorder quartet Palisander.
In addition to recent adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays including The Tempest and Macbeth with Trinity Theatre in Tunbridge Wells, in 2023 she launched the Three Ravens Podcast with her partner Martin Vaux – also a writer and actor – which explores history, legends, and diverse aspects of folk culture.
Featuring original stories each week based on the lore of England’s 39 historic counties, Three Ravens quickly rose into the Top 1% of podcasts globally. It currently sits in the Top 50 UK Fiction Podcasts, with 4.9/5 star ratings on iTunes, Apple Podcasts and Spotify and a passionate fanbase across social media.
For Three Ravens contact:
Website: https://www.threeravenspodcast.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/threeravenspodcast/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/threeravenspodcast
X: @threeravenspod
For Rust + Stardust Theatre
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eleanorstardust/
Website: https://www.rustandstardust.co.uk
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Episode 135:
Is Shakespeare’s early tragedy more than just a gore-fest?
The first performance of the play, maybe
The three playing troupes involved with the play
Is the play a collaboration with George Peele?
The popularity of violence in plays
The sources for the play
A brief summary of the play
The establishing of characters in the first act
The justifications for Titus’ desire for revenge
The role of young Lucius
The flaw in Titus’ character that leads to tragedy
Family life as represented in the play
The contrasts drawn between Lavinia and Tamora
The portrayal of fatherhood in the play
The use of Ovid’s ‘Metamorphosis’
Shakespeare’s use of personification, borrowed from medieval morality plays
The extreme violence in the play
The Peacham Drawing
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A short word from my good podcasting friend Peter Schmitz, he of the ‘Adventures In Theatre History Philadelphia’ podcast, who has written a book on that very subject and I’m sure that it will be as informative, as amusing and generally as fascinating as his podcast episodes always are. What is even better is that Peter has produced a short audio that gives you all the information you need about the book and how you can get hold of it. These links might be useful:
https://www.brooklinebooks.com/9781955041379/adventures-in-theater-history-philadelphia/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventures-Theater-History-Peter-Schmitz/dp/1955041377/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1FQHNN2ZJG5SE&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.8oSl8huLrCxYxe1gR-WgMTKb62F56xPJLXJ49C4eLW52Njy6h53qTfk_QyAlISrCS1nBtjE5fP18rp_sk3gIYoPR7RAWKCe1UItqgZQpd-9PXkMqKB8ftKvQb9JhK0iqaMPdFPSCfo8AyM-8tvFcwNkejTFM0ThPPZlfC0KousFlD-3ZYd4wH6TjhApBJSBVy125ksgHOGMFVNkzSDVWzIz0g_2hLt5zWxDV81pmrfs.pPMmYdPY47WYuKoK1DNaM-yz5JQz_DXXrrqyiIMM2Zg&dib_tag=se&keywords=adventures+in+theatre+history&qid=1726229400&sprefix=adventures+in+theatre+history%2Caps%2C83&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Theater-History-Peter-Schmitz/dp/1955041377/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3CNUES6XNBNLW&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.IxlWUqR1nThHNR-GNJvuEjIo6f36mo82bS9_8A4Sx2PBGFys45ykLfXSgWrSIMpHJ0mn7qGooCMBFwWMv2nZqMK8rKgLgx9kTpDPQhHmqxigZbGPTyZ83Q5H5P2GQscDk4bNo7HYgM_9jXyO9EXcBSn0HZEqFpQmV_RWMmCXUSL4ld_Z22rnfxbih_CgyVUrMPqutRrwuii1_Hxe1fxx4hszZpQbw9dLxGUkrYUu2-Q.lr0Eg8P1HNDd9nfK-0DQttltOiAQaSpi0unC8HFtmZg&dib_tag=se&keywords=adventures+in+theater+history+philadelphia&qid=1726229447&sprefix=adventures+in+theatre+history+%2Caps%2C140&sr=8-1
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Episode 134:
Author Jem Bloomfield joins us to talk about his recently published book, ‘Allusion in Detective Fiction’, which looks at how and why allusion to Shakespeare and the Bible was used by the masters, or I should say mistresses, of golden age detective fiction. This may not seem like an obvious area when considering the pervasive influence of Shakespeare, but as you will here the connections that Jem has made can tell us a lot about how knowledge and use of Shakespeare is constantly changing.
Warning – Spoilers present!
Jem discusses major plot points of several classic detective novels, but we thought that they can hardly be counted as spoilers up to about a century after they were first published, but you have been warned.
Link to Jem's book on the publishers website:
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-58339-1
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Episode 133:
The complications with dating the play and it’s relationship with a similar Elizabethan play
The sources for the play
A short summary of the play
The Christopher Sly framing device
Switching of roles in the play
The disguise motif
The motivations of the leading characters
The implication of the falconry images in the play
The Elizabethan idea of a proper wife and correct behaviour
Similarities with Elizabethan ‘wife taming’ ballads
The play as an inheritor of Roman comedy
The protagonists as stock characters
Katherine’s imbalance of the humours
Are Petruchio and Katherine a matched couple?
Do the three marriages resolve the play?
Does the play make a serious point about gender relationships in Elizabethan England?
The ‘difficult’ final speech by Katherine
Support the podcast at:
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Episode 132
My thoughts on seeing a recent production of Richard 3rd at Shakespeare's Globe, starring Michelle Terry in the titular role. The production and the cotrovercy that surrounded it raises questions about gender fluid casting, the nature of leadership and the casting of able bodied actors in this famous portrayal of deformity.
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Episode 131: Richard 3rd: ‘And Thus I Clothe My Naked Villainy.’
Shakespeare dramatises the life of the last Plantagenet king and create one of theatre's most spectacular villains.
The dating of the play
The quarto editions of the play
When is a history play a tragedy, or not?
The sources of the play
The influence of Seneca
Other contemporary versions of the Richard 3rd story.
The centrality of the character of Richard
A brief plot summary
The boldness of Richard’s actions
Richard as prologue and then guide in the play
Lady Anne and her reaction to Richard’s proposal
The influence of Marlowe on Richard 3rd
The role of the female characters in the play
How should we view the presence of Margaret in the play?
The curses and prophecy of Margaret
How deformity and old age can be seen to link Richard and Margaret
Richard afflicted by guilt
The theatricality of the play
Does our liking for Richard affect the morality of the play
What the lay can tell us about players and changes in Tudor society
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Episode 130:
Mathew Morris talk to me about the archaeological dig that resulted in the discovery of the final remains of Richard 3rd, which serves as a prelude to the next episode which will be all about Shakespeare’s take on the final Yorkist king. Towards the end of our conversation, we spoke about the differences between the Richard of the play and what the skeletal remains that were uncovered tell us about the real-life king, but most of the conversation is about how the remains were discovered, recovered for analysis, and how they were proved to be the remains of Richard 3rd.
Mathew Morris is a Project Officer at the University of Leicester Archaeological Service with over a decade of archaeological experience, having excavated a wide range of rural and urban archaeology across the Midlands, from the prehistoric period through to the Second World War. His specialisms include urban archaeology, community archaeology and Roman and medieval archaeology.
Mathew graduated from the University of Leicester in 2003 with a BA in Archaeology and an MA in Landscape Studies, joining ULAS in 2004. Notable projects include a massive multi-period urban excavation at Highcross in Leicester that included excavation of Roman town houses, commercial buildings, two lost medieval churches and medieval cemeteries and a Roman cemetery at Western Road in Leicester, and, of course in 2012 he directed the successful archaeological search for the lost grave of King Richard III. Recently, he has been digging up more Roman buildings and mosaics in Leicester, at the former Southgates Bus Depot and All Saints' Brewery sites and is currently leading the archaeological work for the Leicester Cathedral Revealed project.
He has co-authored the most comprehensive book ever written on the archaeology of Leicester - 'Life in Roman and Medieval Leicester' (2021) and three popular archaeology books: 'Visions of Ancient Leicester' (2011), 'Richard III: The King under the Car Park' (2013) and 'Roman Leicester: Life in the Roman World' (2018). He is actively involved in promoting archaeology to the general public, regularly providing talks to local societies, and is a Committee member of the Leicestershire Fieldworkers, and a Branch Leader for the Leicestershire Young Archaeologists’ Club. He also currently leads the Castle Hill Community Archaeology Dig and the Bosworth Links Community Dig.
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