Episode 232: 

Although ‘Coriolanus’ is officially Shakespeare’s last Roman tragedy his next play, ‘Cymbeline’, is set in the Roman period, but in England, and suggests that Shakespeare was still deeply attracted to Roman history, although in this case his plundering of Roman history was not directly from Plutarch, but another of his favourite sources.  There are some themes in ‘Cymbeline’ that you will find familiar from ‘Coriolanus’ and will encounter again in ‘The Tempest’, but once again we have a play from Shakespeare that is not quite like any other of his, despite some shared themes with the later plays.  For many Cymbeline remains an enigmatic play, or a flawed experiment, or an example of the work of a playwright growing tired with his work, and perhaps something of all of that is present in the play, but there is, I think, a good argument that Shakespeare was in fact still experimenting with form and content and responding to concerns of his time in his plays just as he always had done.

The dating of the play

The early printing of the play

‘Innogen’ Vs ‘Imogen’

The sources for the play

A summary of a complicated plot

‘Cymbeline’ as a tragicomedy

The comic character of Cloten

James 1st as represented by King Cymbeline

The historical Britain represented in the play

The nobility of the British characters in the play

Iachimo, the other Roman characters and the English attitude towards Italians

The sons of Balarius

Imogen – a great Shakespeare heroine or slightly unsatisfying?

A brief critical history of the play

The later performance history of the play

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Episode 231: 

Shakespeare in noted for the diversity of deaths in the plays and the way that he represents the mechanics of those deaths.  My guest for this episode has written a book on this very subject, ‘Death by Shakespeare’, who’s subtitle ‘Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts’, gives just a hint of that diversity.  In the book Kathryn Harkup casts a scientific eye over the varied and creative ways that Shakespeare’s characters die and both questions and admires the accuracy of the portrayals of death in the plays and looks at how Shakespeare’s audience would have received these events, and much more.

Kathryn Harkup is a former chemist turned writer and science communicator. Her interests are in anything gothic, gory and geeky, and preferably all three. She has written several books on the crossover between science, literature and pop culture including The Secret Lives of the Elements, The Secret Lives of Molecules, A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie, Making the Monster: The Science of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts, Superspy Science: Science, Death and Tech in the World of James Bond and Vampirology: The Science of Horror’s Most Famous Fiend. Her latest book is V is for Venom: Agatha Christie’s Chemicals of Death.

I spoke to Kathryn over a zoom call

Links to ‘Death By Shakespeare’

Katherine’s Website: https://harkup.co.uk

Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B084RG3PXD

Publisher’s website: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/death-by-shakespeare-9781472958204

Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Death-Shakespeare-Snakebites-Stabbings-Broken/dp/1472958209/ref=sr_1_1

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Episode 230:

Shakespeare probably did not realise it, but his next offering would be his last tragedy and his last Roman play, but for this one he reached back into a much earlier Rome than the world of Caesar, Mark Anthony and Cleopatra that he had previously mined.  ‘Coriolanus’, the choice of the story of the legendary Caius Martius, a 5th century BC Roman general who was both fated and vilified during his political career and who was also known for his antipathy towards a hungry Roman population, might have been inspired by recent events in England.  We can’t be certain of that, but whatever the case there it is quite clearly one of Shakespeare’s most political tragedies which has become a play that perhaps more than any other in the cannon has been used to make political points, particularly when we consider productions in the last century.

The dating of the play

The play at the Blackfriars Theatre and in the First Folio

The sources for the play

A summary of the plot

Coriolanus as a political play, but not representative of his own views

The question of how power should be granted 

The character of Coriolanus

The use of language as an expression of character

The character and speech of Menenius

The character and speech of Volumina

The pivotal moment of silence in the play

The performance history of the play

A final word on the play from Willian Hazlitt

Support the podcast at:

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Episode 229:

It has been long recognised that Shakespeare included a lot of sex references in his plays, many of which are now quite obscure to the modern viewer.  Recently a book called ‘Shakespeare on Sex’ caught my eye and I had an entertaining time reading it and thinking on the different perspective it offers on Shakespeare when seen through the lens of how Shakespeare thought about sex for his plays.

I was very pleased when author Marc Berley agreed to come on the podcast to discuss the book, although it did throw up a question immediately about how we could speak frankly about this subject on the podcast.  As you will hear we were still struggling a bit with that question as we spoke.  I hope we got the balance right, but be warned we talk about the language and mechanics of sex as they appear in the plays and hence I have marked this episode up as ‘explicit’.

Marc Berley was professor of English at Rutgers and Barnard/Columbia. His fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in the Iowa Review, the Threepenny Review, Lit Hub, and newspapers nationwide. He has appeared on BBC and PBS and been covered by Reuters, USA Today, the Washington Post, and ABC’s The View. He holds a BA, MA, and PhD in English and comparative literature from Columbia. The author of ‘After the Heavenly Tune’ and editor of ‘Reading the Renaissance’, he is founding editor of the award-winning literary magazine LitMag. He lives in New York.

Find out more about Marc and his work at: https://marcberley.com/

Amazon UK link to 'Shakespeare on Sex: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shakespeare-Sex-Wills-Shaped-Liberated/dp/1510786465

Amazon US link to 'Shakespeare on Sex': https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Sex-Wills-Shaped-Liberated/dp/1510786465

Publishers website link: https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781510786462/shakespeare-on-sex/

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

www.patreon.com/thoetp

www.ko-fi.com/thoetp

You can find an advertisement free version of the latest podcast episodes by joining on Patreon at the lowest paid tier level – that’s for just £1 per month. 

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Episode 228:

About the same time that Shakespeare was retelling the story of Pericles Ben Jonson was writing ‘Epicene, or the Silent Woman’, a play set very firmly in his home turf of London.  It had been three years since Jonson had written for the public stage, which is not to say that his last play ‘Volpone’ was not a success, but he was occupied with producing masques for the King and the court, working with Inigo Jones, which a much more profitable endeavour for him personally than another satire for the public to judge.  In those three years he produced seven court entertainments, so he was far from idle. Whatever the case ‘Epicene’ is another Jonson play that had a tricky start in life, although on the scale of some of his previous issues with the law and failures on the stage he probably did not feel too bad about this one.

Dating and the first performances of the play

The Whitefriars Theatre

The sources for the play

The publication history of the play

A synopsis of the plot

The first reception of ‘Epicene’

Lady Arabella Stuart’s complaint

The location of the Whitefriars Theatre

The two prologues to the play

Jonson’s attitude to gender roles

The Strand and the new West End

The noise of the city

The character of Morose

The supporting characters

Women, clothes, and the artifice of their appearance

Captain and mistress Otter

The final reveal in the play

Religious references in the play

When Jonson brings himself into the text

The performance history of the play and its influences

Support the podcast at:

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Episode 227

One of the questions that immediately arises when we consider the indoor theatres is how they were lit, although there are also many other questions about how performing indoors was informed by the experience of the touring companies and how it changed the nature of playing itself.

Very early in my journey through Shakespeare for the podcast I met Nic Brownlee who was then in the throes of completing his study into indoor theatre lighting, so the idea for this episode has been on my mind for a long time and I’m pleased that now Nic has finished his study I can bring you this discussion at an appropriate moment in the podcast timeline.

 Nic Brownlie recently graduated with a PhD from the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham, completing a thesis focused on the effects of candlelight at Shakespeare’s Blackfriars playhouse. Nic currently runs the A Place to Write retreat centre in North Wales with his wife, Wendy, where they offer annual Shakespeare retreats exploring different genres of Shakespeare’s plays. In a varied prior career, he completed an English degree at the University of Hull, trained at Mountview Theatre School in London, and worked as an actor, theatre director and stage lighting designer for many years, including managing his own educational Shakespeare company. He has taught acting, stage lighting, and English Literature in a variety of educational settings, from secondary schools to higher education establishments, and he is currently working on a series of academic articles and a book detailing his research into Shakespeare’s late plays.

I first met Nic when I attended a three day retreat at ‘A Place to Write’  where we read and watched and discussed three Shakespeare comedies, among other things, so I can personally recommend the work he and Wendy are doing there.  I talked to Nic over a zoom call from A Place To Write where he was somewhere between guests Breakfasts and planning his next play sessions and opened out conversation asking about how ‘A Place To Write’ came to be.

Find details for 'A Place To Write' Shakespeare and writing retreats at: www.aplacetowrite.co.uk

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

www.patreon.com/thoetp

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You can find an advertisement free version of the latest podcast episodes by joining on Patreon at the lowest paid tier level – that’s for just £1 per month. 

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Episode 226: 

Last time I took you through Macbeth, still one of Shakespeare’s most performed plays, but now we come to one that is rarely seen and vies with ‘King John’, ‘Two Noble Kinsman’ and ‘Timon of Athens’ as the least performed Shakespeare play.  ‘Pericles’ is also a play that did not appear in the first folio and in fact did not make it into a folio edition until 1664 with the second printing of the third folio.  More of that history in a moment, but it certainly raises interesting questions about why Hemmings and Condell did not include it in the first folio.  

The dating and early performance history of the play

The printing history of the play

The source material for the play

‘Pericles’ as a collaboration

A short word about George Wilkins

A brief synopsis of the play

The riddle that reveals incest

The importance of a good name and family

Brides and fathers contrasted in the play

The Mediterranean locations of the play

How time is placed and passes in the play

The role of Gower in the play

The role of the gods in the play

The recognition scene

The narrative inconsistencies in the play

‘Pericles’ as a bitter-sweet comedy

Critical reception of the play

The later performance history of the play

Support the podcast at:

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Episode 225:

Last time my guest Paul Fried and I discussed Biblical Allusion in Shakespeare with particular reference to Hamlet.  This is the second part of our conversation, so please do make sure you have listened to part one before continuing here, things will make a lot more sense if you do. 

I first came across Paul’s Blog, Hamlet’s Bible, when I was researching my episodes on King Lear and I was very pleased to find that not only was it useful for those episodes but was a series of very interesting posts relating to Biblical allusion in Shakespeare, so, of course, I asked Paul, if he would like to come onto the podcast to share some of his insights into this subject.  

Paul is a retired college lecturer who has devoted years of study to Shakespeare and the bible and his blog, now in it’s tenth year, has become his way of sharing his research prior to what he hopes will be a published volume on Biblical allusion in Hamlet.  He has also contributed several papers to Shakespeare conferences, most recently at the Shakespeare Association of America conference held in Denver in April 2026.

I spoke to Paul from his home in Minnesota over a zoom call.

Link to Paul’s blog ‘Hamlet’s Bible’: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/

Link to ‘Hamlet’s Bible’ on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hamletsbible/

Link to Paul’s account on ‘X’: https://x.com/padrianfried

Support the podcast at:

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You can find an advertisement free version of the latest podcast episodes by joining on Patreon at the lowest paid tier level – that’s for just £1 per month. 

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Episode 224: 

While I was looking into some details while I was preparing for the episodes on King Lear  I came across an article that was part of a blog called ‘Hamlet’s Bible’, which is written by Paul Fried and was very pleased to find a series of very interesting posts relating to Biblical allusion in Shakespeare, so, of course, I asked the author of the blog, Paul Fried, if he would like to come onto the podcast to share some of his insights into this subject.  Paul is a retired college lecturer who has devoted years of study to Shakespeare and the bible and his blog, now in it’s tenth year, has become his way of sharing his research prior to what he hopes will be a published volume on Biblical allusion in Hamlet.  He has also contributed several papers to Shakespeare conferences, most recently at the Shakespeare Association of America conference held in Denver in April 2026.

I spoke to Paul from his home in Minnesota over a zoom call.

Link to Paul’s blog ‘Hamlet’s Bible’: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/

Link to ‘Hamlet’s Bible’ on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hamletsbible/

Link to Paul’s account on ‘X’: https://x.com/padrianfried

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

www.patreon.com/thoetp

www.ko-fi.com/thoetp

You can find an advertisement free version of the latest podcast episodes by joining on Patreon at the lowest paid tier level – that’s for just £1 per month. 

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

Episode 223: 

Last time, in the first part of my look at ‘Macbeth’, I took you through the plot of the play and discussed the themes of ambition and guilt in it, with a focus on the character of Macbeth himself.  I also looked at some of the language in the play and at the possibility that Thomas Middleton updated it for a revival in the 1610s or 1620s, and how he probably developed the scenes with the three witches at a time when devil plays and ideas about witches in the real world were very popular.  This is the text that we most likely have in the First Folio, which is the first printed version of the play. Please do listen to that episode first before embarking on this one.  Having spent some time on the character of Macbeth in the last episode I’m now going to pick up with a look at his wife. 

The character and actions of Lady Macbeth

References to equivocation in the play

The trial of Henry Garnet and the use of equivocation

The witches and the Macbeths as equivocators

The impact of the Porter’s speech

The Porter’s scene as a throwback to medieval cycle plays

‘On The Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth’ by Thomas De Quincey

The critical history of the play

The later performance history of the play

The curse of ‘the Scottish play’

‘Macbeth’ as a very Jacobean play 

Support the podcast at:

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Episode 222:

We can’t say for sure that ‘Macbeth’ was Shakespeare's next offering after 'Anthony and Cleopatra' as precise dating of these early 17th century plays is next to impossible, but whatever the case, it certainly has a very different feel and focus from it’s near contemporises.  Although recounting historical events it is dominated by the presence and effect of the supernatural.  This proved a mix that audiences have flocked to ever since and it remains one of Shakespeare’s most performed plays, for tragedy ranking only behind ‘Hamlet’.

The dating of the play

The text in the First Folio and adaptations by Thomas Middleton

The sources for the play

A brief Synopsis of the play

Macbeth and Julius Caesar

Macbeth’s ambition

The importance of the soliloquy in the play

Macbeth’s feelings of guilt

The reports of the play by Simon Foreman

Banquo’s ghost as a manifestation of Macbeth’s guilt

Blood as a symbol of guilt

The torment of sleeplessness

The tensions between destiny and free will

The three witches

Link to ‘That Shakespeare Life’ episode featuring Prof. Laurie Johnson on the ‘weird sisters’:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/that-shakespeare-life/id1372846116?i=1000751203466

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

www.patreon.com/thoetp

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You can find an advertisement free version of the latest podcast episodes by joining on Patreon at the lowest paid tier level – that’s for just £1 per month. 

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