Shakespeare Magazine 13

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Issue 13

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“To hell with the audience, I’m talking to the gods” IAN McKELLEN on KING LEAR

“The successor to Camus’ The Rebel.”

Jim Douglas, author of Tokyo Nights

“Phil Beadle wears the badge conferred on him with uncomfortable reticence, but delivers a message in tune with his original thinking, emphasising the importance of straying from the ¾RFN ZKLOVW KLGLQJ LQ IXOO VLJKW RI WKH ZROYHV ³

Peter Wilkinson, Director, The Jerwood Space “Irreverent, stimulating and absorbing.”

Rod Judkins, author of The Art of Creative Thinking

“IF YOU MAKE ANY STAND AGAINST POWER, THEN POWER WILL STAND AGAINST AND ON YOU. AND IT WILL DO SO WITH CENTURIES OF EXPERIENCE AND TECHNIQUES IN HOW TO DO SO EFFECTIVELY: YOU WILL BE PAINTED AS BARBARIC, DISMISSED AS STUPID AND INSANE, BE TOLD TO KNOW YOUR PLACE. MOST OF ALL, YOU WILL BE TERMED MAVERICK.” RULES FOR MAVERICKS IS A GUIDEBOOK TO LEADING A CREATIVE LIFE, TO BEING A RENAISSANCE DILETTANTE, TO INFESTING YOUR ART FORM WITH OTHER ART FORMS, TO TAKING A STAND AGAINST MEDIOCRITY, TO REJECTING BLOODLESS ORTHODOXIES, TO EMBRACING YOUR OWN PRETENSION AND, MOST OF ALL, TO DEALING WITH YOUR FAILURE(S).

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Welcome

!

Welcome

to Issue 13 of Shakespeare Magazine

Photo: David Hammonds

Every summer there is a Shakespeare Festival here in Bristol, and I usually manage to miss most of it. This year was different. I saw an eccentric play called Shakespeare’s Worst in a church hall. I saw an inventive production of The Tempest in the open-air setting of the Blaise Castle estate, and a ferociously funny Taming of the Shrew on Brandon Hill. The latter also hosted a ludicrously amusing Comedy of Errors by an all-male troupe who’d recently had their van stolen. I saw four mad blokes doing A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a city farm, and I saw a haunting Romeo and Juliet in a Victorian cemetery. I saw a surprisingly enjoyable opera about Ophelia in a church. (I missed a one-man King Lear because I turned up at the wrong church) And I went to see a Bristol University professor talking about Shakespeare in a pub. Needless to say, I enjoyed that.

I also enjoyed two things that weren’t part of the festival but were happening at the same time – a production of Julius Caesar at the historic Bristol Old Vic Theatre, and an extraordinary staged reading of Hamlet by people of all ages and varying degrees of experience, the culmination of one of the Old Vic’s adult courses.

The festival closed with a performance of Twelfth Night in the verdant St George Park. It took place by a small lake, with the rain absolutely bucketing down. At the end, clutching futile umbrellas, the cast valiantly performed the song ‘The Rain it Raineth Every Day’.

It was a truly magnificent Shakespearean moment.

Enjoy your magazine.

Pat Reid, Founder & Editor

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shakespeare At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world

Issue 13

FREE

Contents Merely 6 Women Players”

“All the Men and

“To hell with the audience, I’m talking to the gods” IAN McKELLEN on KING LEAR

Shakespeare Magazine Issue Thirteen November 2017 Publisher JoAnn Markon Founder & Editor Pat Reid Art Editor Paul McIntyre Contributing Writers Julian Curry, Jem Bloomfield, Jennifer Evans, Sara Read, Duane Morin Cover Portrait Sir Ian McKellen by Sarah Dunn Photography Marc Brenner, Dawn Hamilton, Manuel Harlan, Richard Lea-Hair, Tanya Moutzalias, Chuk Nowak, Historic Royal Palaces, Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive Web Design David Hammonds Contact Us shakespearemag@outlook.com

Ian McKellen, Fiona Shaw and Patrick Stewart on how they played three of Shakespeare’s most iconic characters.

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Shakespeare: The Punk Years?

This year’s TV series Will had plenty of attitude and style, but was it Shakespeare?

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Goat’s Dung, Mummified Flesh and Vomiting

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Motor City Confidential

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Brain Candy

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“Remember first to possess his Books...”

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The Word of the Lord

Shakespeare Magazine meets Sam White, the remarkable founder and leader of Shakespeare in Detroit.

If you like 7LEOIWTIEVIER WXMGO ½KYVI cartoons you’ll love Good Tickle Brain creator Mya Gosling.

A round-up of some of the best and most entertaining Shakespeare-related books The age of Shakespeare was a great time for the written word, released so far this year. but a really bad time to be sick.

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The Bible and the Bard

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“A Course of Learning...”

Exploring Shakespeare’s religious identity with Graham Why do some people believe that Shakespeare was somehow Holderness, author of The Faith involved in the King James Bible? of William Shakespeare. .IQ &PSSQ½IPH MRZIWXMKEXIW.

Five things you absolutely need to know if you’re new to studying Shakespeare – for students, and everyone else too.

Facebook facebook.com/ShakespeareMagazine Twitter @UKShakespeare Website www.shakespearemagazine.com Newsletter http://tinyletter.com/shakespearemag Donate https://www.paypal.me/ ShakespeareMagazine

shakespeare magazine

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! Shakespeare on Stage: Volume 2 “He should have been able to control his daughters, but he couldn’t. And he can’t control the weather.

The storm is introducing him to the idea that he is just a man, and an old man at that”

Ian McKellen as King Lear at Chichester Festival Theatre, 2017.

Photo by Manuel Harlan.

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Shakespeare on Stage: Volume 2

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All the men and women

merely players For his latest book, experienced actor Julian Curry – who himself has appeared in 21 of Shakespeare’s plays – spoke to 12 leading colleagues about their experience of participating in landmark Shakespearean productions, each recreating in detail their memorable performance in a major role. These extracts from the book share insights from Ian McKellen on one of Shakespeare’s most demanding roles, King Lear; from Fiona Shaw on Shakespeare’s Shrew, Katherine; and from Patrick Stewart on his Las Vegas-set Shylock.

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! Shakespeare on Stage: Volume 2 Ian McKellen as Lear with Danny Webb as Gloucester in King Lear.

Chichester Festival Theatre, 2017. Photo by Manuel Harlan.

IAN McKELLEN on KING LEAR Royal Shakespeare Company Opened at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 31 May 2007 Directed by Trevor Nunn

Lear has been described as a character who never involves his brain in his gut reactions.

Does that ring true to you?

“I think he’s a man of habit. He’s got used to ruling in the way he rules.”

He’s a loose cannon, isn’t he?

“Well, it’s an interesting character. He seems, at the beginning of the play, to have set up a situation which will amuse him. It will satisfy his desire to retire, but not quite abdicate. He sets up a situation which is a bit of a game to him. Right: which of you three loves me best? He’s going to enjoy

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hearing the answers. This is a great big day in his life, when King Lear plans to give up many of his powers in favour of his beloved daughter, whose engagement is due to be announced. That’s why Trevor [Nunn, the director] put two cushions on the stage where the couple would eventually kneel to be blessed by the King.

“However, it all goes wrong because it’s a stupid idea, and he loses his temper, and is absolutely cruel to the one he loves most – as you do when you’re in a temper. But he’s an old man who is greatly indulged and greatly feared. So you begin to get a sense of what King Lear must have been like in the past. He’s gathered all the power to himself and said: I’m talking to God! So do what I say or leave the country forever, out of my life! Does that make him a loose cannon? Well, he’s a loose cannon with a lot of cannonballs at his disposal.”

Shakespeare on Stage: Volume 2

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Some people think King Lear is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Do you agree with that?

“Well, I don’t know. It’s very reassuring, isn’t it, when someone comes along and says ‘Oh, King Lear is a typical example of somebody who’s got third-degree dementia.’ They put a label on it, as if that explained the condition. It doesn’t, it just gives it a label. I don’t think Lear does anything that we can’t recognise as being absolutely plausible. When you’re sitting on the ground with Gloucester, a man you don’t know or recognise, and then momentarily give him a name, it’s no help for the director to say ‘You’re behaving like this, Ian, because you’ve got Alzheimer’s.’ It’s enough for you not to recognise the man you’re being very friendly to. The important thing about the scenes in which the Alzheimer’s is on display, as it were, is that he does what he does. Let the audience put a label on it if they wish. The actor’s job is just to ask: How is he behaving? What is he saying? What is he doing here? Who is he ignoring? What has he forgotten?”

You told me once about Macbeth’s sense of humour. Has King Lear got one?

“Did he do some funny things?”

You laugh quite a lot.

“Well, I employ a man who makes jokes, the Fool.

So yes. Many kings have had their fools to just help them keep sane, because when you are so powerful you perhaps need someone who can say things that nobody else could say.”

Soliloquies?

“He doesn’t have any.”

Hamlet’s got five and Lear’s got none.

“I know, it’s wretched, it’s absolutely wretched.”

Did Shakespeare make a mistake there, do you think?

“Yes. Absolutely. Everybody else gets them.

Edmund gets them. He’s the most horrible person, but he talks to the audience, so they all

McKellen as Lear. Photo by Manuel Harlan.

like Edmund. It’s the same with Iago. Othello gets so frustrated because he doesn’t get to talk to the audience, and nor does King Lear. It was an early preoccupation in rehearsal, I kept saying to Trevor ‘Why doesn’t he talk to the audience?’ But you have to say to yourself: To hell with the audience, I’m not doing it for them, I’m talking to the gods.

And he’s got his Fool to talk to.

“It’s an interesting character trait, that where other characters like Macbeth need the audience’s reassurance and encouragement, King Lear doesn’t seem to be that sort of person. He doesn’t ask for help. He has substitutions for a soliloquy, but not the thing itself. It’s when the gods let him down

“We were cold and wet, shaking with cold. It was quite helpful to us to be extremely uncomfortable” shakespeare magazine

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! Shakespeare on Stage: Volume 2 that you’d like him to turn to the audience. In fact I think perhaps there were a couple of lines which I did sneak in and say to the audience.”

You had real rain in the storm scene, didn’t you?

“Oh God yes. Trevor was very insistent on that.

Then they weren’t able to light the scene, so the audience could hardly see that it was happening.

But we were cold and wet, sometimes literally shaking with cold. Actually it was quite helpful to us to be extremely uncomfortable. I remember saying in rehearsal that we should go out into a storm and I’d take off my clothes to feel what it’s like, and then remember it. But in the end we didn’t need to do that, because we had to endure the real thing on stage.”

I’m surprised you didn’t all get pneumonia.

You dried off quickly afterwards?

“You have to. Very uncomfortable.”

What do you think Lear’s doing? Why does he want the storm? Why is he welcoming it, asking for it?

“When it’s raining, and you’re outside in a real old storm with thunder and lightning, and there’s nowhere to go, you’re simply a victim. You can’t control the rain and tell it to stop. It’s just there.

He’s trying to relate the reality of getting cold and wet, and being frightened, with what it felt like when his daughters broke all the conventions of his rule by hurting him, thwarting him. He should have been able to control them, but he couldn’t.

And he can’t control the weather. The storm is introducing him to the idea that he is just a man, and an old man at that. He had never thought of himself as just a man: he’s King Lear.”

So it helps him come to terms with what’s happened.

“And understand it, yes.”

Tamara Lawrance as Cordelia, Sinead Cusack as ‘Countess of Kent’ and Ian McKellen as Lear. Chichester Festival Theatre, 2017. Photo by Manuel Harlan.

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Shakespeare on Stage: Volume 2

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FIONA SHAW on KATHERINE FROM THE TAMING OF THE SHREW Fiona Shaw as Marla Painter in the TV series Channel Zero.

Royal Shakespeare Company Opened at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 8 September 1987 Directed by Jonathan Miller The Taming of the Shrew has been called barbarous, offensive and misogynistic.

What would you say about that?

“I’m sure it’s all of those. I’m not offended by it myself particularly, but I think people could be, yes.”

Depending on how it’s done.

“I think so, yes. I was directed by Jonathan Miller who, of course, had a strong intellectual premise for it, which is that Katherine was like a delinquent child and has to be brought out of her delinquency, and there’s no doubt she behaves badly at the

beginning. Jonathan felt that there’s only in or out of the society, and at the end she opts to stay in. But I think that’s more of a premise and a conclusion than what the experience of the play actually is.”

There was a programme note on ‘deprivation syndrome’. Can you explain?

“It’s related to the delinquency I alluded to. I think Jonathan felt that she was deprived of her mother’s love.”

There’s no mother in the text, is there.

“That applies to so many female characters in Shakespeare. There’s no mother in plenty of texts.

Juliet has a mother but she is not a very good one. With Viola and all those heroines, there’s no mention of a mother. There has been a lot shakespeare magazine

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! Shakespeare on Stage: Volume 2 “Bianca is the favourite of the father. Katherine is the unloved child who behaves unlovably” Fiona Shaw as Mombi in the TV series Emerald City.

written about this, the vulnerability of young girls becoming women, they go through the initiation into adulthood unprotected by a mother. Therefore they have to face the world of men and the world of society for a moment before they resolve – usually in Elizabethan times – back into the home and probably don’t come out again. That’s the pattern on which it’s built.

“Katherine is particularly deprived because clearly Bianca is the favourite of the father. She is the unloved child who behaves unlovably, which is a sort of circular thing that many people experience. But I don’t think plays can be reduced to family psychology or family dynamics, because there is also the individual.”

You know how actors often look at what other characters say about them, when they’re developing their characters. In this instance I wonder how helpful it would be, because Katherine is described as being ‘a shrew’, as ‘stark mad’, as ‘curst’, as a ‘fiend of hell’. However, your own lines hardly seem

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to give you an opportunity to justify such extremes. Was that a problem?

“Plays are partly about the perspectives people have on each other, but the actor must reveal the character in as many ways as possible, and playing up others’ views alone wouldn’t do that. Well, she’s clearly not quiet, gentle and retiring. And it would probably not help if you couldn’t believe her to be as described. There’s no doubt that she’s energetic. When she speaks she has great energy.

The first wooing scene [2.1] is wonderful because she has absolutely got the capacity to reply to Petruchio using his language and turning it back on him. She’s got this table-tennis ability to hit back. And that implies a conceptual framework of her mind. You can’t add any old caricature to playing a Shakespeare part, you have to play what’s there. And you also learn the rhythm and pattern of the person, and how your own pattern matches or doesn’t match theirs. You’re trying to find it in order to match, so that it humanises, and in doing that you discover a lot about them. But it’s best to follow their pattern.”

Shakespeare on Stage: Volume 2

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PATRICK STEWART on SHYLOCK FROM THE MERCHANT OF VENICE because they believe it’s anti-Semitic. I was going to direct it at the Santa Clara Shakespeare Festival, but the chairman of the board put up a very vocal set of objections to doing it. So I spoke with the congregation in the synagogue, they told me what all their complaints were, and I think I countered them pretty effectively.”

Were they persuaded?

“No. They still wouldn’t allow it to be done, so I never directed it. It irritates me so much because the play is no more anti-Semitic than Othello is racist. And even though there are characters who express their anti-Semitism very strongly, very cruelly and savagely, it’s no more cruel and savage than a lot of what Iago says about Othello.”

Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: Insurrection (1998).

Royal Shakespeare Company Opened at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 19 May 2011 Directed by Rupert Goold I believe you’ve been in The Merchant of Venice five times, including a one-man show you wrote about Shylock. What’s drawn you to do it again and again?

“Well, this is with hindsight. I grew up as a bit of an outsider, and given that I’ve only ever played Shylock and never any other part in the play, my identification was very much with him and that character, and a sense that he gets badly treated and that the play is misunderstood. I have taught in colleges and universities where it is banned,

I’d like to focus on the most recent production you’ve been in, the one set in Las Vegas. Tell me about the opening.

You had gaming tables, mobsters, a miniskirted hostess yelling ‘Keno, keno!’ – whatever that is – and someone doing Elvis impersonations. Am I right?

“Yes, yes, we did, we did.”

This was the opening, before anyone spoke a line of Shakespeare’s text?

“Yes. It was very Rupert Goold in style. It began with just an empty stage, and then gaming tables came rolling on from the wings with a lot of flamboyantly dressed showgirls and tourists and croupiers and workers in the industry. And the main individual in that section was the actor who later proved to be playing Launcelot Gobbo. He was an Elvis impersonator, he sang one of the King’s hit songs dressed as Elvis, while the opening developed into a riotous Las Vegas cabaret scene.

And Shylock walked very briefly across the back of the stage.

“People would not even have been aware that I shakespeare magazine

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! Shakespeare on Stage: Volume 2 was there, but I said: Everybody’s in this scene, I’ve got to be part of it too in some way! And then the scene dissolved, dissolved, dissolved, until sitting alone at a café table was Antonio with Salerio and Solanio.”

Tell me about Shylock’s first proper appearance, in Act 1, Scene 3.

“In Rupert’s production it was set in his office, which was very luxurious and beautiful. I chose to play it almost exclusively for comedy, because I find it very funny. And to mock the play’s description of Shylock almost as an animal on the first occasion we saw him. I was beautifully dressed in a pale grey three-piece suit, looking very elegant and very, very sophisticated and not remotely Jewish.”

No beard? No gaberdine? They’re mentioned in the text.

“I had a small trim beard, nothing big and bushy.

But no gaberdine.”

‘You… Spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,’ he says [1.3].

“There are garments that Jews wear on certain festival days. I seem to remember rationalising it in that way. But when he goes to do business he looks like everybody else. I wore a toupee. I had beautiful silver hair, perfectly cut with a parting, and looking elegant and respectable and quite attractive – I hoped. And one of the things we did was to emphasise that Shylock was a serious moneylender. He loaned huge sums to contractors, and in fact he was also a property developer. We had models of high-rise buildings that he was obviously underwriting and building himself.”

So he was extremely rich.

“Very rich, yes. I had a walking stick that I carried all the time, which I sort of needed because Shylock had a bad leg. But it could double as a weapon, something to defend himself with if necessary. It also served as a golf club. In the opening we put an upturned tumbler on the stage and I had three rolled-up bits of paper – this was my invention which Rupert embraced – and I turned my walking stick upside down and was potting the balls of paper trying to get them into the glass, going across the width of the Stratford

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stage. I never once got one in until the very last performance, the last ball.”

You changed Shylock’s first line: ‘Three thousand ducats’ to ‘Three million dollars’.

“Yes. Again I take full responsibility for that. My first line became ‘Three million dollars, well.’

That was great. And of course I loved it because it was the first thing the audience heard me say, and if they knew what the line is normally, they understood that it was kind of setting a tone for what was to follow. So in that scene I had a lot of fun, first taunting Bassanio, then on the arrival of Antonio, through brilliant use of language, teasing him, then antagonising and finally pacifying him.

Once Shylock realises the opportunity that is being presented to him, to have Antonio and Bassanio in his debt, it’s irresistible. He should have said to them: I’m sorry, I can’t help you, you’ve come to the wrong man. But he’s turned on by the knowledge that this will give him leverage over the Christians, because it’s a lot of money.”

‘Signior Antonio, many a time and oft / In the Rialto you have rated me / About my moneys and my usances’ [1.3]. How did you play that speech in Las Vegas?

“I wanted to show him as a charming, intelligent, witty man who may or may not have been wronged, but who chose to treat it all as harmless fun, even though it was painful inside, because the objective is to seduce them both.

“He needs to get them to agree to borrow money from him on his terms, which of course start funny and become ghastly.”

Ֆ Buy the book Extracts taken from Shakespeare on Stage: Volume 2 – Twelve Leading Actors on Twelve Key Roles by Julian Curry, £14.99 paperback, published by Nick Hern Books.

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! Will TV series

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Will TV series

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Left: Will stars Olivia DeJonge as Alice Burbage and Laurie Davidson as Will Shakespeare.

? s r a e Y k n u P e h T

Y

Earlier this year, audiences in the USA were treated to Will, a ten-part television drama about the young William Shakespeare.

Duane Morin (of Shakespeare Geek fame) avidly watched and blogged about it.

So we asked him to sum it all up for us.

ears from now, I will look back fondly on the summer of 2017 when, for ten glorious weeks, we were treated to the wacky misadventures of William Shakespeare on television. Will appeared on the TNT network on Monday nights, and just like that I was catapulted back to the days of must-see TV. Forget about streaming or DVRing it. Monday nights I was there in front of the television, just like the good old days, with a bowl of popcorn close at hand, laptop at the ready (both to live blog as well as to research accuracy).

We’ve had Shakespeare as a series before. The Canadian Slings & Arrows (2003-2006) is perhaps the best-known example of how to do it well.

The still relatively new BBC Series Upstart Crow, which launched last year, is rapidly gaining in popularity, with two seasons complete and a third

already ordered. Shakespeare fans know how to find those. Will, however, had the potential to be different. This wasn’t a Shakespeare show that happened to be on television, this was a television show that happened to be about Shakespeare. The potential audience for something like this would be tremendous.

I was cautiously optimistic. I started imagining coming in to work on Tuesday mornings hearing co-workers discussing what happened on Will last night, like they do with Game of Thrones.

Will on TNT, as I took to calling it – because it makes Google sad when you try to search for a generic word like “will” and expect it to know what you meant – was supposed to be a “modern, punk rock” retelling of Shakespeare’s lost years. I was actually quite impressed with how well they kept shakespeare magazine

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! Will TV series Left:Will and Alice with actor Richard Burbage (Mattias Inwood).

Right: Ewen Bremner as the villainous Richard Topcliffe.

Far right: Olivia DeJonge as Alice.

to that timeline, knowing well that the hits like Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet – you know, the ones people might actually recognize – wouldn’t come for several years. Would an audience of people who generally only know as much Shakespeare as they remember from high school be entertained watching him struggle through writing The Two Gentlemen of Verona?

The sights and sounds of Shakespeare’s London were ridiculously over-the-top right from the start, and I loved it. The soundtrack is loaded with hits from The Clash and Sex Pistols, to give you some idea. Everybody’s dressed in bright colors, masks, face paint... it looked far more like the modern idea of a Renaissance Faire than was necessary, but I could live with that. I did notice, as I read comments on the web, that many could not. If this

wasn’t going to be historically accurate, they were out. Not me. I was, as I’ve said many times before, in it for the Shakespeare.

Apparently, the producers had a different audience in mind, as the show also right out of the gate tried to announce that it was just as good as Game of Thrones. Shakespeare arrives in London and watches a man being disemboweled. Not “Will turns his head and the audience knows that something disgusting has just happened”. I mean, we see a man’s intestines pulled out right there on screen. Lovely.

But modern standards are not defined by violence alone, oh no! There must be sex! Fear not, there’s way too much of that as well. I originally

t u b , e r o f e b s e i r e s V T a s a e r a e p s e k a h S d s” u “We’ve ha o d n e m e r t s a w l l i W r o f e c n e i d u a l a i t n e the pot 18

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Will TV series

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n o d n o L s e’ r a e p s e k a h S f o s d n u o s d n a s t h g i “The s it” d e v o l I d n a , p o t e th r e v o y l s u o l u c i d i r e wer

wrote, “I didn’t know people were allowed to get that naked for that long”. It’s not like TNT is a premium channel – it’s basic cable. They even dug into the Elizabethan dictionary to pull out the archaic word “swive’, which any modern reader can probably figure out from context even without somebody saying, “Hey, swive you!” Do they think that sounds like Shakespeare? Check the text, it’s not a word he ever used.

Once you get past the sex and violence, was there actually an interesting story? I wish I could say there was. The writers decided to make the Catholic/Protestant thing the main mover of the plot. Shakespeare’s not only Catholic in this one, he’s entrusted with secret messages to deliver to his cousin (I think?) in London, who is a big deal

in the Catholic uprising. This is hammered home immediately – if you’re found to be a Catholic sympathizer, expect treatment much like the poor gentleman getting an inside look at his... insides.

So naturally, Shakespeare’s found out almost immediately, by a street urchin who tries to rob him. There’s your major story arc – when will the truth be revealed? When will everyone find out that Shakespeare is a dirty Catholic, and what will happen to him?

I didn’t care. Because if the show was pretending to tell Shakespeare’s timeline, then we know what happens. There is literally no suspense.

You’re not going to kill off your title character. Bad news for any characters that didn’t map directly to a real-world equivalent, though. shakespeare magazine

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! Will TV series Laurie Davidson plays a cocky Will Shakespeare with bags of youthful swagger.

There were moments of greatness, but only moments. They wanted to end big on Richard III and built to it over several episodes, but for my money, the show’s greatest moment came when Shakespeare was trying to convince Kemp not to quit the theatre, and described his plans for Falstaff (though not by name). He told us his desire to put characters on stage that would be unlike anything ever seen before. Hearing that, and knowing what it foretold, would have had me hooked for as many seasons as it took.

At the end of it all, there were glimpses at Shakespeare’s writing, but not nearly enough.

James and Richard Burbage and “Jack” Kemp are all major characters, and if I’d gotten a show where the four of them never left the theatre, just sat around all day talking about roles, and doing snatches of dialogue, I would have been in heaven.

That, however, wouldn’t have made a very popular show, and it wouldn’t have had a large audience,

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and it probably would have been cancelled after just one season.

WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED ANYWAY. In the end, Will only got a single ten-episode season, and by some measures was one of the network’s worst-performing shows. If that was its destiny from the beginning, I wish I’d gotten the show I wanted. It couldn’t have done any worse.

But at least it would have had an audience among the Shakespeare Geeks.

Ֆ

Read Duane’s Shakespeare Geek blog, including all his episode reviews of Will.

! Medicine in Shakespeare’s time Jennifer and Sara’s book, displayed along with tools of the trade for a 17th century physician.

Shakespeare’s son-in-law Dr John Hall would have used some of these in Stratford-upon-Avon.

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Medicine in Shakespeare’s time

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A set of early modern bloodletting knives. (Image courtesy of Wellcome Library, London)

Goat’s Dung, Mummified Flesh and Vomiting...

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Yes, this is what passed for state-of-the-art health care in Shakespeare’s day. Jennifer Evans and Sara Read, authors of Maladies & Medicine: Exploring Health & Healing 1540-1740 reveal six stomach-emptying (sometimes quite literally so) cures from early modern England

ack in William Shakespeare’s time, the concept of the four humours dominated ideas about the body. The humours were fluids: blood, choler, melancholy, and phlegm, which needed to be kept in equilibrium in order for the body to stay healthy. Illness was usually, although not always, understood as an accumulation of excess or a corruption of one of these fluids.

For the most part, medical treatments were gentle ones designed to restore balance by drawing out ill humours and purging the body of excess.

Remedies might also balance out the body by counteracting the effects of diseases. For example, cooling drinks might reduce the heat of the body

caused by fever. Shakespeare’s own son-in-law, Dr John Hall, husband of his elder daughter Susanna, practised these mainly conservative cures in the first instance for many illnesses. So, in one case he prescribed a double-folded linen cloth filled with butter to be placed on the side of an elderly lady with stomach ache.

Not all remedies were pleasant though, particularly not when viewed from our modern perspective. Practitioners could resort to drastic means of purging the body, or could prescribe medicines that contained unappetising ingredients.

Here are six remedies you would probably want to avoid today... shakespeare magazine

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! Medicine in Shakespeare’s time

Above:The body of a plague victim is dissected. Right: Cupping. (Images courtesy of Wellcome Library, London)

Blisters

Many practitioners thought that raising blisters on the skin was a good way of drawing out unwanted humours and therefore disease. An anonymous treatise from a 1577 book recommended the notoriously dangerous green flies known as cantharides (actually not flies at all, but small iridescent beetles) which, we’re told, were easily available from the local apothecary shop. These were placed in a mortar with vinegar and some breadcrumbs to make a paste, which was applied to “the sore place, that is, where the most grief is” for around seven hours.

Once dry, it had to be teased off with the tip of a knife. After the skin blistered it had to be burst and, as the author explained, “with your finger thrust out the water softly”. The problem with blisters was that while the “the pain of the disease is gone”, the patient then had to heal from the new sore.

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Bloodletting

Imagine if you felt poorly and your doctor prescribed cutting open a vein in your arm or ankle, with a lance and no anaesthetic, to remove some of your “excess” blood. The amount of blood removed was dependent on the condition. Because blood was considered to be a “hot” humour, phlebotomy was often used to take heat from the body in the case of fevers. It wasn’t recommended to be used on children, fortunately, since all their blood was needed to help them grow. Doctors didn’t let blood willy-nilly. As one sixteenthcentury physician (who published a book as ‘A. T’ in 1596) instructed, before letting blood you must consider “the age of the patient, the complexion, the time of the year, the region, the custom, the strength, and the vehemence of the disease”. Not all bloodletting was done by cutting into the body.

As many people know, an alternative was to apply leeches to the skin.

Medicine in Shakespeare’s time

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“Dung, usually from a cow, formed the main component of several plasters to ease swelling”

Choler (left) and Melancholy (right), two of the four humours. (Images courtesy of Wellcome Library, London)

Induced vomiting

Most people today hate being sick, as they did in the past. One early doctor, Philip Barrough, described in his 1583 medical guide how unpleasant feelings of nausea came from “a naughty and wicked motion of the expulsive virtue of the stomach”. But this innate urge to eject things was put to good use in early modern times, when emetic medicines that caused patients to be sick were a routine cure.

Vomiting was also used to ward off ill health.

John Clarke, an apothecary, took “a vomit” once every month or six weeks as a preventative against all manner of infirmities. He wrote that if everyone did the same then it would save 20,000 pounds of tobacco which was currently being used by people as a medicine. Clarke described how to make a posset that would bring up a great quantity of phlegm and other corrupt humours, leaving you feeling clear headed and very well.

Mummified flesh

In Shakespeare’s time, remedies composed of multiple ingredients could also include some rather unappealing components. A text published a few decades later (in the 1650s) claimed that many “medicaments are taken out of a Live Man, or from a dead man. From a live man, we have Hairs, Nails, Spittle, Ear-wax, Milk, Seed, Blood, Menstrual Blood, Secondines, Urine, Dung, Lice, Wormes, Stones of Bladder & Kidneyes, &c. From a dead man, Skin, Fat, Scul, Brain, Teeth, Bones Mummy”. Preserved human flesh (mummy) was found in several medicines including an unguent to staunch blood recommended in a 1605 medical text by Christoph Wirsung, a German physician.

Dead men’s flesh didn’t always have to be put into a medicine. Many people waited at the gallows in the hope that they could have their boils and swellings stroked with the hanged man’s hand, which was thought to have healing properties. shakespeare magazine

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! Medicine in Shakespeare’s time The method known as Trepanning involved drilling a hole in the patient’s head.

(Image courtesy of Wellcome Library, London)

Breast milk

In early modern notions of the body, breast milk was created from menstrual blood, which was diverted after the birth of the child to the breasts where it was ‘concocted’ into milk. It was thought to have healing properties. William Copland’s Treasurie of Health suggested that “The yolke of an egge, mingled w[ith] Rose water, bran, & womans milk” was a good medicine to assuage pain and to drive unhealthy humours out of the body. While Thomas Vicary’s English-mans Treasure recommended a mixture of wormwood, plantain, rose water, breast milk and egg white to heal bloodshot eyes.

Animal Dung

It wasn’t just parts of the human body and its products that were used in medicines. Plasters sometimes contained rather pungent components.

Dung, usually from a cow, formed the main component of several plasters recommended to ease swelling. Andrew Boorde’s Breuiary of Health, for example, suggested a remedy made of goat dung and honey. Christoph Wirsung’s medical text suggested a plaster of bayberries mixed with goat’s dung to ease the dropsy, a disease characterised by watery swelling of the stomach.

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Jennifer Evans is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Hertfordshire, Sara Read is Lecturer in English at Loughborough University.

Maladies and Medicines: Exploring Health and Healing, 1540-1740 is available now, published by Pen and Sword Books.

Visit the authors’ blog: earlymodernmedicine.com

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! Shakespeare and the Bible

The Bible and the Bard One of those strange literary legends that refuses to go away is the notion that William Shakespeare had something XS HS [MXL XLI /MRK .EQIW &MFPI *SV .IQ &PSSQ½IPH author of Shakespeare and the Psalms Mystery LMW TIVWSREP investigation began with a message from the Globe...

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ast spring I received an email from Shakespeare’s Globe in London. Alongside performing Shakespeare’s plays in a reconstruction of a theatre from his time, they do a great deal of educational work, increasing people’s appreciation of the history and context of the plays, and the world they arose from.

The email was from Dr Will Tosh, a Research Fellow and Lecturer at Shakespeare’s Globe, who had a peculiar question to ask: did Shakespeare help write the King James Bible? I should point out that Will had not come up with this idea himself, and in fact did not believe it was true. He had been asked by a member of the public if it was the case, and had been rather taken aback. Because of the public outreach work Will is involved with at Shakespeare’s Globe, he is occasionally asked odd questions like this: people present him with myths and legends about Shakespeare and ask him to confirm or deny them. Given the unparalleled place Shakespeare holds in English-speaking culture, it is not surprising that various stories have grown up around his name. Scholars are fond of speculating about what happened to him during the “lost years” in his life as a young man, when the historical records are frustratingly (or intriguingly)

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vague about where he might have been. (I was once asked by one of my own students whether Shakespeare had ever lived in her home town, a small village in the North of England, because there was a local legend that this was where the great poet had spent the lost years.) Some stories are more elaborate, such as the theories, believed by a number of people, that Shakespeare did not in fact write the plays ascribed to him, and that his name was used as a cover by another person, whether Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, the Earl of Essex or Queen Elizabeth herself.

Will was used to dealing with these sort of queries, but being asked whether Shakespeare had written part of the King James Bible—specifically the 46th psalm—was a new one to him. As he explained in his message, the question was so unexpected, and the idea seemed so impossible, that his immediate instinct was to scoff at the story. The idea seemed so bizarre, however, that he wondered where on earth it could have originated.

He even wondered whether there was some obscure manuscript somewhere which might have given rise to this rumour, since it seemed so unlikely to have sprung from nowhere. The very impossibility of the story had made him pause. Since he knew that

Shakespeare and the Bible

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The title page to the ½VWX IHMXMSR SJ XLI %YXLSVM^IH :IVWMSR SJ XLI &MFPI F] 'SVRIPMW &SIP (c. 1576 – c. 1621) WLS[W XLI %TSWXPIW 4IXIV ERH 4EYP WIEXIH GIRXVEPP] EFSZI XLI GIRXVEP XI\X [LMGL MW ¾EROIH F] 1SWIW ERH %EVSR -R XLI JSYV GSVRIVW WMX 1EXXLI[ 1EVO 0YOI ERH .SLR EYXLSVW SJ XLI JSYV KSWTIPW [MXL XLIMV W]QFSPMG ERMQEPW 8LI VIWX SJ XLI %TSWXPIW

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“The idea seemed so bizarre that he wondered where on earth it could have originated” shakespeare magazine

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! Shakespeare and the Bible .IQ &PSSQ½IPH MW %WWMWXERX 4VSJIWWSV SJ 0MXIVEXYVI EX XLI 9RMZIVWMX] SJ 2SXXMRKLEQ ,MW SXLIV TYFPMGEXMSRW MRGPYHI XLI FSSO Words of Power: Reading Shakespeare and the Bible.

my research concerned the connections between Shakespeare and the Bible, and that I had just published a book on the subject, Will got in touch with me to ask if I had ever heard the rumour, and what my opinion of it was.

Before going any further, I should explain the details of the rumour itself. What I have called the “Psalm 46 legend” in this book is the idea that Shakespeare can be “found” in the 46th Psalm in the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible by counting 46 words from the beginning and 46 words from the end. It states that in doing so, the reader will find the word “shake” and the word “spear”. Depending on which version you hear, this may be connected to the idea that Shakespeare was 46 years old when the KJV was published.

What this means also differs depending on the version of the legend. One variation says that the translators of the KJV hid Shakespeare’s name in this way to show their enjoyment of his works.

Another version claims that Shakespeare actually

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wrote the version of Psalm 46 which appears in the KJV, and “signed” his work in this way. Either way, it assumes a connection between Shakespeare and Psalm 46, in a quite direct and personal way.

In fact I had heard the story before. Once years ago from an editor for whom I was reviewing crime novels, once as an odd tale from a friend of a friend (though I can’t remember which friend) and once from a fellow scholar as an example of the sort of impossible thing people will believe about Shakespeare. It is one of the stranger stories that gets passed around about the man from Stratfordupon-Avon, a species of literary urban legend.

Having used that term, I should state immediately that I do not believe the story. As Will thought, it simply does not make sense. For anyone reading this book simply to find out whether Shakespeare did or did not write the 46th psalm, this may be pre-empting my conclusion somewhat (though it may save them some valuable time.) In my opinion, there is a wealth of historical, literary and

Shakespeare and the Bible

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“I did not think the story was true, but proving it untrue opened up much more interesting issues” textual evidence that he did not. Of course we can never be 100 percent certain of almost anything in historical research: a document could turn up, or a source might reveal unforeseen implications, or a technical analysis of an artefact could suddenly throw out the careful balance of probabilities drawn from the available evidence which produces scholarly consensus.

But I am reasonably confident in saying that—barring a personal letter turning up from Ben Jonson asking William Shakespeare how he’s getting along with that psalm they asked him to write—this rumour is untrue.

That does not mean, however, that the matter ends there. On the contrary, for me it was where the story began. I wrote back to Dr Tosh, explaining that I knew of the story, and agreeing with him that it could not be true. In order to give some more authority to this statement than my personal “Nah, no chance”, I made a quick survey of the relevant sources. I consulted some sixteenthcentury Bible translations, the biographies of a pair of bishops, confirmed the font used in the King James Bible (JKB), searched another poet’s version of the Psalms. After that I was in a position to write a fuller response to the enquiry from Shakespeare’s Globe, giving some solid historical and literary justification for my opinion. That was not the only reason I’d delved into the historical sources, though.

The Psalm 46 rumour had always interested me, partly because it was so bizarre, and I enjoyed tracing the various ways in which it could have possibly been true, and marshalling the evidence to prove it was not. The story branched off into questions about the translation of the King James Bible, the theatre industry of Shakespeare’s time, the religious politics of England under James I, the way Early Modern books were printed, and attitudes to the Bible. Though I did not think the story was true, proving it untrue opened up much more interesting issues.

One of the most interesting issues it raised was that of the legend itself. Why did anyone believe

it in the first place? Who had the idea? Why might it have suggested itself to them? What did people find attractive about this rumour, and why did they repeat it to others? Why, for example, was it repeated in a respectable commentary on the Psalms published by a major US Christian publisher in 2014? Answering those questions involved investigating a whole other set of issues: the world of Edwardian literary culture, the temple worship of Ancient Israel, the reputation of the Bible in universities, and the sermons of modern pastors.

Hovering over all of them were the bigger questions of how Shakespeare became the most famous author in the history of the English language, and how the Bible has been treated differently over the last few hundred years. From a single question about the authorship of a psalm in the King James Bible, I found myself chasing down the passages of historical research in a dozen different directions. This book is the result of that headlong chase, and tells some of the stories I came across along the way. As I said above, I do not think Shakespeare wrote the 46th psalm. That might be disappointing to some readers: it would have been a weird and cool anecdote if it had been true. But like anyone who deals with the literary past, I think the real story is far more fascinating and surprising than any urban legend. This book’s title reflects that idea: the real mysteries around Shakespeare and the Bible are not this peculiar legend, but the deep and engrossing history of these texts, the centuries of human emotion, reflection and hope bound up with them. The legend of Psalm 46 claims to tell us a secret, but it directs our attention away from the deeper and more rewarding mysteries.

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Shakespeare and the Psalms Mystery is published by Erewash Press shakespeare magazine

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! Studying Shakespeare “Did you know that, as a King’s Man, the 41-year-old Shakespeare could easily have been blown up in the Gunpowder Plot?”

An actor plays plotter Guy Fawkes as part of the 2005 Gunpowder Treason event at the Tower of London.

Photo by Richard LeaHair/Historic Royal Palaces/Newsteam.

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Studying Shakespeare

“A course

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of learning and

ingenious studies...”

Starting university? Shakespeare Magazine’s Editor Pat Reid shares the FIVE things you absolutely need to know if you’re new to studying Shakespeare in depth (and you want to get the most out of your English Literature degree).

hakespeare Magazine is based in the English city of Bristol, which is also home to one of the major British universities (well, two if you include nearby UWE).

At this time of year, I can’t help but notice the influx of new, fresh-faced young students as the academic year begins, and I often take a moment to reflect on my own, not-exactly-distinguished university career.

Yes, the sad truth is I was a lousy student. But I’ve learned a lot since then. And I reckon that if I ever had the chance to be a student again, I could actually end up with a pretty decent degree.

One of the reasons why students can

underperform is because it’s such an overwhelming experience. You’re bombarded with so much information about your subject that you end up not knowing what you’re supposed to be doing.

It’s easy to find yourself wasting all your time and energy on areas that are ultimately irrelevant.

So right from the start you need to work out two things: 1. What are the key areas I need to cover?

2. How can I add something of myself that will make me stand out from everyone else?

With this in mind, here are Shakespeare Magazine’s Five Essential Tips that every new student of Shakespeare should pay attention to. shakespeare magazine

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! Studying Shakespeare

ONE: Get a grasp of all Shakespeare’s plays, not just the big ones.

If you’re only familiar with a few of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, like Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar, the full list of 38 plays can look a little scary. But it’s really important that you delve into as many as possible if you want to be ahead of the game. To lots of people, the least attractive titles are Shakespeare’s History plays, because they just look like a traffic jam of names and numbers – Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry VI, Part 3, and so on. However, be assured that once you start

actually getting into the Histories, this is where you will find a lot of Shakespeare’s best and most entertaining stuff.

It’s a similar story with Shakespeare’s Comedies, which are an awful lot ruder and funnier than many people realise. I’d even go as far as to argue that contemporary hit comedies on TV such as Peep Show and The Inbetweeners are the direct descendants of Shakespeare plays like The Comedy of Errors and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

A great way to investigate Shakespeare’s complete plays is with the Shakespeare300 app.

It’s very cheap, and it gives you a clear and simple introduction to each play, along with some really useful information and statistics. Then, when you start reading chunks of plays or entire works, the www.playshakespeare.com website has another excellent free app, Shakespeare Pro, where you can easily access the complete plays.

Martin Freeman and Lauren O’Neil in Richard III, 2014.

Photo by Marc Brenner.

“Once you start getting into the Histories, this is where you find a lot of Shakespeare’s best stuff” 34

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Studying Shakespeare

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Queen Elizabeth I in Horrible Histories Special: Sensational Shakespeare, 2016.

Photo courtesy of the BBC.

TWO: Read up on Shakespeare’s biography and the history of the times he lived in.

You can’t study Shakespeare without being at least partly a historian. It’s an inescapable fact that the more you know about the historical background to Shakespeare’s life and times, the greater will be your understanding of the man’s works. For example, there’s still a very strong perception that Shakespeare was an exclusively Elizabethan playwright. Outside the academic community, many people don’t realise that a big chunk of his career was actually spent as a King’s Man, working

for Elizabeth I’s successor King James I (who was also King James VI of Scotland).

Once you get a taste for it, Elizabethan and Jacobean (the era of King James) history is as dramatic and compelling as any of Shakespeare’s works. Did you know, for instance, that in 1564 the infant Shakespeare narrowly survived an outbreak of plague in Stratford-upon-Avon? Or that, as a King’s Man, the 41-year-old Shakespeare could easily have been blown up in the Gunpowder Plot? Or that the Globe Theatre was burnt down in 1613 by a fire started by a cannonball – which was fired as a special effect during a performance of Shakespeare and Fletcher’s Henry VIII? Bill Bryson’s book on Shakespeare is still probably the most readable introduction to Shakespeare’s life and career. When you’re feeling a bit more ambitious, you can try two books

by James Shapiro – 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare and 1606: Shakespeare and The Year of Lear. shakespeare magazine

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! Studying Shakespeare “Shakespeare is a massive subject. Find your tutor’s specialist area and mine them for all they’re worth” Sophie Okonedo as Queen Margaret in The Hollow Crown:The Wars of the Roses, 2016.

Photo courtesy of the BBC.

THREE: Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

A pretty good rule for life is: if you don’t know something, ask an expert. Obviously, you need to put in a good amount of work yourself, and try not to waste your tutor’s time with stuff that’s irrelevant or trivial. But remember, your tutor or lecturer is a font of expert knowledge, and they are there to be tapped. Back in the Dark Ages when I was a student, I felt embarrassed about the gigantic gaps in my knowledge, and one or two tutors did make me feel stupid for asking stuff. Today, of course,

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my job as a journalist involves putting questions to Shakespeare experts in order to get good information to share with my readers. It’s exactly the same with your university coursework.

Shakespeare is a massive subject, and you can’t be expected to know everything. However, do try to work on presenting your questions so they stimulate an enthusiastic response. Find out your tutor’s special areas of expertise and mine them for all they’re worth. When asking a tutor a question, it’s good if you can demonstrate that you’ve gained a certain amount of knowledge of the subject, but that you’re trying to acquire more. For example: “My teacher at school said that in Shakespeare’s day it was illegal for women to act on the English stage.

Is this true? Can you tell me what is the current academic consensus on the subject?”

Studying Shakespeare

FOUR: Remember Shakespeare’s poems – and not just the Sonnets.

In his own lifetime, Shakespeare’s name as a writer was perhaps most widely known in connection with his two bestselling long narrative poems – Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece.

Today, these once hugely-popular poems are often forgotten, as so much attention is given to nowlegendary plays like Hamlet, Othello and King Lear.

So if you want to score some extra points with your tutors, make the time to read Shakespeare’s

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poems, and demonstrate your knowledge by including quotes and references in your essays.

The good news is that Venus and Adonis is entertaining, quite saucy, and relatively easy to read. And in combination with Lucrece, it’ll help increase your knowledge of Classical (ie Greek and Roman) literature which is essential background to Shakespeare.

The bad news is that many people, myself included, find Shakespeare’s Sonnets dense, demanding and difficult. However, there’s only 154 of them and they’re only 14 lines each. Believe me, you can do it. And once you’ve read Shakespeare’s Sonnets, you can afford to feel proud because there is now officially nothing in English Literature that you can’t handle. For help with the Sonnets, try William Sutton’s Sonnet Book. There’s also an engaging YouTube series by the Sonnet Sisters.

William Sutton’s edition of Shakespeare’s Sonnets uses a simple colour scheme to help readers understand each poem’s form and content.

“Shakespeare’s Sonnets are difficult. But there’s only 154 of them, and they’re only 14 lines each” shakespeare magazine

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! Studying Shakespeare Maxine Peake as Titania in the 2016 TV production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Photo courtesy of the BBC.

FIVE: Get used to thinking about Shakespeare all the time.

During my school days, a great teacher named Mr Murphy once pointed out that the best way to get good at an academic subject is to make it part of your everyday life. So for example if you’re studying Economics, the student who reads the Financial Times every day (and The Economist each week) is going to learn more about the subject than the student who just does their coursework and nothing else.

It’s like that with Shakespeare. You’re going to get out what you put in and, quite frankly, why settle for doing the bare minimum, when there’s so much fun to be had in reaching for the absolute maximum. Everything you learn about Shakespeare is going to help in some way, so here’s some of the best ways to maximise your Shakespeare intake.

1. Read Shakespeare Magazine. Obviously.

Get every single issue completely free here.

2. Go and see any and all Shakespeare plays in your vicinity. Can’t afford a ticket? Try blagging a freebie by offering to review it for your

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student magazine. See if you can help organise student trips to major theatres such as the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon and Shakespeare’s Globe in London. (While you’re in Stratford, be sure to visit Shakespeare’s Birthplace as well) 3. Get a part in a student production of a Shakespeare play. One of the best ways to experience Shakespeare is on the stage itself. Not up for acting? There’s a plethora of backstage roles, so there’s bound to be one that suits you.

4. Watch as many Shakespeare videos as you can. The two series of The Hollow Crown are a great starting point, as are any of the Kenneth Branagh Shakespeare films, plus the Baz Luhrmann Romeo and Juliet. Here’s a tip – watch them with the subtitles on. You’ll find that you understand it better when you’re seeing it, hearing it and reading it at the same time.

5. Listen to Shakespeare podcasts. These are great for listening to on journeys, or for a bit of extra learning while you exercise, relax – or even while doing the dishes. Three of the best ones that we listen to on a regular basis are Reduced Shakespeare Company, Emma Smith: Approaching Shakespeare and Sheldrake on Shakespeare.

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Want to wear your heart on your sleeve and the Bard on your chest?

Get a fabulous exclusive Shakespeare T-shirt when you donate to Shakespeare Magazine!

Donate here

! Shakespeare in Detroit “Shakespeare has stood the test of time because his narratives are eternally relevant�

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Shakespeare in Detroit

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In the 1960s, Detroit was the industrial giant that had the whole world dancing to the Motown beat. Today, after decades of decline, the city is staging a street-level artistic ½KLXFEGO ;LMGL FVMRKW YW XS XLI VIQEVOEFPI 7EQ ;LMXI ERH LIV XLIEXVI GSQTER] 7LEOIWTIEVI MR (IXVSMX Interview by Pat Reid

Am I right in thinking that your interest in Shakespeare all began from a teenage conflict with your mother?

“My relationship began at eight years old when my mom caught me listening to rap music. She gave me The Complete Works at that time as a lyrical alternative to the Salt-N-Pepa that I loved. I hated Shakespeare at that time. The interest came a few years later from repetitiously reading it.”

Detroit is one of the US cities that we’ve always heard heard about here in the UK – because of music, the auto industry and, more recently, because of the huge problems it’s been coping with. It’s exciting and inspiring to hear about how you’ve been using Shakespeare as part of your personal campaign to regenerate your city. How did

Portrait by Chuk Nowak

Shakespeare in Detroit came about?

“I visited the Utah Shakespeare Festival when I was living in Las Vegas. We took a bus trip with some of the listeners from Nevada Public Radio, where I was employed at the time. This was in 2008 or so and I looked around and thought, ‘If they can do this in the desert, we can do this in Detroit where we have tons of historical spaces, parks and venues that would be perfect for Shakespeare’. That was my a-ha moment. It took me a while to get the resources to finally produce a show. I moved back home to Detroit at the end of of 2008 and times were tough in the city and I really needed to focus on making a living and taking care of myself.

“But a few years later, in 2012, I heard of Tech Town, which is an incubator for people who have ideas but don’t necessarily know what to do with them. I created a business plan there. It took me shakespeare magazine

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! Shakespeare in Detroit The cast of SiD’s Hamlet. Photo by Dawn Hamilton.

another year to find funding. But we did. And a few weeks after the city filed for bankruptcy, to my surprise and delight 500 people showed up for Othello at Grand Circus Park in the middle of downtown Detroit. We pioneered the first open-air Shakespeare experience in the city, to my knowledge.”

What did you learn from that first Shakespeare in Detroit production?

“Our first performance taught me that there is a hunger for the arts in the city. People love the checks and balances of our shared humanity that the arts inspire, especially theatre. Shakespeare has stood the test of time because his narratives are eternally relevant. The bankruptcy in 2013 created this weird energy of the unknown in the city – we didn’t know what was going to happen next in our hometown. It was a scary time and that is what Othello is all about – how do we embrace the unfamiliar or the unknown? Do we accept each other? How do we treat each other in the face of uncertainty? I think everyone felt that in the park that day. All of us were also looking for a way to come together and spend time in solidarity during a rough summer, and Shakespeare in Detroit created that platform for a shared experience. I am really proud of that.

“I am a Detroit native, born and raised. I have been here long before it was cool to say you were making art in the city and it made me so happy

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to know that the team at Shakespeare in Detroit created community on that day by bringing everyone – from the homeless gentlemen who sat on the church stoop across from the park, to the business people who left their jobs and walked to the park – to see Othello.”

Can you tell me how Shakespeare in Detroit has progressed in the years since its inception?

“We have grown practically. Our team is bigger now. Meagen Mazur, Christine Pellecchia and Cal Schwartz make me a better leader. Their energy for the work, ideas and compassion for the city have made our productions stronger. Shakespeare in Detroit’s audience has also grown and that’s really cool. We are so grateful to the folks who follow us from site to site to see the work. Recently, we had a donor by the name of Aamir Farooqi at The Banyan Foundation give us a space on Detroit’s Riverfront. The space is historical, the former home of a soap factory – the Stone Soap Building.

We are all about respecting the integrity of the city’s architecture and reviving spaces with art, so this was truly a gift that aligned with our values and mission.

“We have also progressed in that I have trained with one of the best theatre companies in the country and world, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I was a Fellow there this year. Being able to see some of the most effective, mission-driven

Shakespeare in Detroit

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“How many businesses can say they have 400 years of proven customer engagement? We can.” artistic leaders in the world work was one of the greatest experiences of my life. So I have grown in knowledge.

“Most of all, we have grown in spirit. We are motivated by the progress we see in the city and we want to be a part of it in a way that is authentic and respectful of the city’s history but also innovative and a great contributor to the future of Detroit. I think it’s important to be both things when revitalizing a city like Detroit that has such a rich heritage in the arts – from car design and craftsmanship to techno music and soul.”

Tell us about some of the Detroit locations you’ve used so far?

“The locations we have used, in no particular order are Grand Circus Park (Othello, Romeo and Juliet), Recycle Here – the original Lincoln Motor Co. (Antony and Cleopatra), New Center Park (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet), The Jam Handy – a former

film studio (As You Like It), Heinz C. Prechter Performing Arts Center (Julius Caesar), Marlene Boll Theatre – a black box (The Tempest), The Stearns Mansion – historical home (Henry V) and Marygrove College (King Lear).

“My favorite was probably Antony and Cleopatra. The recycling center did not have heat, and the show took place at the tail end of what was called ‘The Polar Vortex’ across the country because the cold temperatures were so extreme. We had small patio heaters but that was about it. But our audience still showed up. Around 800 people saw it over a four-show run. We pulled an ice cream truck into the space to serve the audience whiskey and coffee to keep warm. They all wore coats and boots, hats and scarves, and remained in their seats for all five acts. I was shocked. But that proved to me how badass Detroiters are. I was also moved by our actors, because we made all of the costumes from recycled or repurposed materials and they were freezing during the show. But you would Henry V at Detroit’s historic Stearns Mansion.

Photo by Chuk Nowak.

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! Shakespeare in Detroit “I try to explain that Shakespeare isn’t just about literature and theatre. It’s also about commerce” have never known it. They were so committed and professional and didn’t even dare to shiver during the show. My goal in life is to keep doing cool things like that, but with heat. I don’t think I ever want to be that cold again.”

Apart from the Shakespeare side of things, you’ve had to be very entrepreneurial to keep SiD moving forward. Can you tell us about some of the major challenges you've been facing?

“The challenges change all the time. Raising funds is always a challenge. We have a lot of people coming to the city now to create art, and I wish that foundations, organizations and others would equalize the support for those who I feel are marginalized leaders – arts leaders of color and leaders of smaller organizations, along with longtime Detroiters or those of us born and raised here.

There are facts to back me up – a Helicon study showed that arts funding has equity and inclusion problems. Nationally, most of the funding available to arts institutions goes to places with an operating budget of more than $5 million. According to that study, People of Color represent more than 90 percent of the Detroit population and only 17 percent of culturally specific groups receive funding.

“We know it’s sexy to have someone come here from New York to create or build an arts institution, but I believe that the authenticity and connection that we as hometown artists have can’t be denied. We are hopeful that the disparities will vanish with time. I have to be hopeful and keep using my Detroit work ethic to keep making these shows happen until these facts change.”

Shakespeare himself seems to have been an entrepreneur, a canny investor, a bit of a wheeler-dealer. Have you taken any inspiration from him in the actual running of your company?

“Absolutely. I don’t think the industry discusses

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him as an entrepreneur enough. It took a lot of creativity and stick-to-itness to make a lot of his productions happen early in his career. That inspires me every day. I also understand that he didn’t really get the freedom to create the kind of work he wanted until he became an entrepreneur and started his own theatre company. We both created our own companies in an urban landscape with the dream of making the sort of art that would be accessible for all. I hold his example close to my heart, as it perfectly fits the essence of who I am as a Detroiter. We work hard here – from our artists to our factory workers and everyone in between. As a matter of fact, Shakespeare could have been a Detroiter.”

I've seen some wonderful photos of you speaking at events while magnificently dressed in full Elizabethan costume. Is Shakespeare’s world something that appeals to you on many levels?

“I have dressed in an Elizabethan costume for a couple of speeches and a magazine cover. It was a lot of fun. We have a beautiful costume designer, Cal Schwartz, and I love to showcase his artistry as much as I can. I also hate doing traditional speeches of standing at a podium. So when I am asked to speak I try to make my presentations as dramatic and fun as possible, which usually requires a costume. But I can’t say I am a fan of corsets. Shakespeare’s world doesn’t appeal to me as much as the words. It’s all about the text for us, and we always see it through a Detroit lens. Our name is Shakespeare in Detroit, after all. We are as much about the city as we are about Shakespeare.”

I believe you’ve recently had some exciting news about the next phase for Shakespeare in Detroit. Please share...

“I mentioned it a bit earlier but, yes, our building – our gorgeous building on Detroit’s Riverfront juxtaposed between Downtown Detroit and Windsor, Ontario (Canada). It’s dream real-

Shakespeare in Detroit

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SiD productions feature gorgeous costumes by Cal Schwartz.

Photo by Dawn Hamilton.

estate and I know we will play a major role in the revitalization of East Jefferson in Detroit and the Riverfront, as the arts is the greatest catalyst for building communities. I try to explain to people here all the time that Shakespeare isn’t just about literature and theatre. It is also about commerce.

Places like the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Stratford Festival (Stratford, Ontario) have created towns around them with entities that include banks, homes, grocery stores, restaurants, schools and libraries.

“Now that Shakespeare in Detroit has a home, we have the opportunity to become a worldwide tourist attraction and bring people from around the globe to the city, which will enhance the other industries here. How many businesses can say they have more than 400 years of proven consumer engagement? We can. It’s all very exciting. We are hopeful that renovations will be complete by 2020.”

Do you have any dreams for Shakespeare productions in the city that you have yet to fulfil?

“I want to do Titus. That is a huge dream of mine.

I will also put this out into the universe – I want Robert Englund to come to Detroit and play our King Lear when we open the new space. He is a classically trained actor who just so happened to become a horror film icon, but we want him to come to Detroit and play the greatest role in the

canon, in my opinion. It would be a dream to have him with us. I hope he reads this. How cool would that be? I also hope that Shakespeare in Detroit can venture into new works. Shakespeare will always be our foundation but the idea of producing work by new writers, maybe some local writers, also inspires us. We want to be a well-rounded theatre company that embraces the classics and the classics of the future.”

Is there any chance of getting you guys over to the UK any time soon? If so, which play would you stage for us?

“I would love that. The Royal Shakespeare Company is a benchmark for me. The sort of inclusive, bold work that they do continues to be a benchmark for SiD. Maybe we can be in residence there one day. How epic would that be?

“I would love to do a Romeo and Juliet infused with Motown Hits. This city has produced some of the greatest love songs of all time. It would be pretty monumental to do a contemporary R&J and bring some of the music that is celebrated both here and in the UK to the RSC. I would love to direct that. Make that happen for me, Pat?”

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Find out more about Sam and Shakespeare in Detroit. shakespeare magazine

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8LI WTPIRHMHP] WMPP] 7LEOIWTIEVIER WXMGO ½KYVI GEVXSSRW SJ +SSH 8MGOPI &VEMR EVI GPIZIV IHYGEXMSREP ERH SJXIR LMPEVMSYWP] JYRR] 7S [I´H ZIV] QYGL PMOI ]SY XS QIIX 1]E +SWPMRK XLI [SQER [LS [MIPHW XLI +8& MRO Interview by Pat Reid

Illustrations by Mya Gosling Obvious question, but how did it begin? Was there a moment when you thought: ‘I know!

I’ll do a relatively crude stick drawing of William Shakespeare, and add a few words, and it’s actually going to be rather brilliant’?

“Good Tickle Brain evolved out of my family’s tradition of sketching on family vacations while waiting for meals to arrive. More often than not, our sketches would document funny or bizarre moments that had escaped being captured on film. Not being a very talented artist, my sketches generally took the form of stick figure scrawls, and eventually evolved into stick figure comics.

In 2013, after my family’s annual visit to the Stratford Festival in Canada, I decided to draw a series of comics based on the plays we had seen that season. I posted these on Facebook until a friend

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“A Shakespeare play is just like any other story.

There is a beginning, a middle, and an end” shakespeare magazine

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gently suggested that maybe I should start my own website to host them. And the rest is (relatively recent) history!

“I originally intended Good Tickle Brain to cover a range of subjects, not just Shakespeare.

However, the response to the Shakespeare comics was so strong that they’ve gradually eclipsed everything else.”

The idea of explaining a Shakespeare play in three panels sounds preposterous, but you actually do a more effective job than some sources that use an awful lot more words.

How do you do it?

“People overthink Shakespeare a lot. When it comes down to it, a Shakespeare play is just like any other story – there is a beginning, a middle, and an end. All you have to do is identify the key bits that take you from A to B to C. This is relatively straightforward for the tragedies. It does

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get a little more challenging when you’re dealing with things like Cymbeline.

“The fun thing about three-panel plays is that, despite the simplicity, there is no ‘correct’ answer. I’ve run a couple of comic workshops with school teachers and drama students, and it was really fascinating to see how different people had completely different takes on what was important to include in a three-panel summary of a play.

I think that reflects a lot of the ambiguity in Shakespeare.”

You’ve also very kindly demonstrated exactly how to draw Shakespeare. That panel in particular had my son and I laughing uproariously when he was five. Is there a part of you that wants Good Tickle Brain to serve as an introduction to Shakespeare for children?

“I want Good Tickle Brain to serve as an

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“I did get to boop a First Folio at the Folger Library, which is pretty high up on my list of accomplishments” introduction to Shakespeare for everyone, not only children. I think it is very important to introduce children to Shakespeare before they’re old enough for society to convince them that Shakespeare is scary and hard to understand, but I think it’s equally important to reach out to people who’ve had a bad experience with Shakespeare and are convinced that Shakespeare is not for them. I very much want my comics to say ‘Hey, you know that Shakespeare thing you hated when you were forced to read it in school?

It’s actually a lot more fun than you remember.

Give it another try’.

“The two pieces of reader feedback that I most love to receive are (a) messages from teachers telling me about how they are using my comics in their classrooms, and (b) people who previously didn’t like or didn’t understand Shakespeare telling me how one of my comics made them interested in actually seeing a play.”

Your fans include everyone from members of the Reduced Shakespeare Company to people at the Folger Shakespeare Library and the American Shakespeare Centre – and Shakespeare Magazine, of course. Do you have a typical fan? And is there a particular audience that you have in mind when you’re working?

“I don’t think I have a typical fan any more than Shakespeare has a typical fan. Shakespeare today encompasses all races, genders, ages, abilities and geographic locations. There’s still the lingering perception that Shakespeare is the domain of white males and, as someone who is neither, I am excited to see increased diversity and inclusion in the Shakespeare community.

“When I’m working on a new comic, I’m primarily working to create something that amuses me. I only know what I find funny, so it’s pretty hard for me to write with anyone else in mind. However, I do want my comics to be comprehensible and entertaining – not only to dyed-in-the-wool Shakespearean geeks like

myself, but also to people who have only a passing familiarity with Shakespeare, or even no familiarity at all.

“One of my best friends, who is a brilliant person with more degrees than I can count, told me that Shakespeare makes her feel stupid, which I firmly believe is an absolutely valid complaint. So much about the way that Shakespeare is taught and presented makes people feel that they are somehow stupid for not understanding material that is objectively difficult. Well-meaning Shakespearean advocates constantly insisting that Shakespeare isn’t really difficult, and you just have to experience him in the right way, only serves to intensify those feeling of stupidity.

“I want my comics to be a bridge between Shakespeare and people like my friend. I want my comics to say ‘OK, this stuff isn’t necessarily easy, but if you look at it this way, there’s actually a cool story going on that you might like. Also, it’s often ridiculous and makes no sense, and you have permission to laugh at it’. So my friend is probably my unseen audience. I want her to be able to understand and enjoy my comics without having an exhaustive knowledge of Shakespeare. I’m not always successful, but I keep trying.”

The cartoons are sometimes deceptively simple, even throwaway, and often irreverent. But it’s clear that you have a deep love of Shakespeare and a great deal of intellectual curiosity. Are these cartoons a form of self-education for you?

“I wouldn’t say they’re so much a form of selfeducation as they are a form of self-expression.

Over the years I’ve haphazardly absorbed so much random Shakespeare knowledge and trivia that I just want to share it with people and show them why I think Shakespeare is so much fun. I do read Shakespeare books for entertainment purposes – I’m particularly fond of actor production diaries, and of anything James Shapiro writes – but I rarely read something with the express intention of turning it into a comic.” shakespeare magazine

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You’re also impressively prolific, and Good Tickle Brain is constantly evolving. Can you tell us about some of the new projects you’ve been working on recently?

“Ninety percent of my time right now is spent churning out twice-weekly comics for my website or exclusive content for my supporters on Patreon (patreon.com/goodticklebrain). I have lots of projects I want to work on, including putting together a full-length book of some sort and further developing the educational aspects of my work, but right now most of my time and energy goes into trying to stay one step ahead of the juggernaut I’ve created. It’s very frustrating sometimes. When I started working on Good Tickle Brain full time last year, I thought I’d have a lot more time to work on projects, but of course, as they say, work expands to fill the time available for its completion, and that’s certainly been the case for me.”

couldn’t be farther from the truth. Shakespeare is popular entertainment, and when we move away from that, we not only move away from Shakespeare’s raison d’être, we also end up moving him away from future audiences. Good Tickle Brain tries to push back against that tendency by highlighting not the rarefied and the sublime, but the ridiculous and the silly. ‘Lacking in gravitas’ is probably one of the best compliments anyone could ever pay me.

“As for the reference, it’s a line from one of the best scenes in all of Shakespeare, specifically Act II, Scene 4 of Henry IV, Part 1. Falstaff, playacting as Prince Hal’s father, is trying to quiet the inebriated and slightly hysterical Mistress Quickly, and tells her ‘peace, good tickle brain’. I’ve always loved that line, and it was one of the first things to pop into my head when I sat down to think about what to call my little burgeoning enterprise.”

Any regrets about using ‘Good Tickle Brain’ as your alter ego? It’s an established brand now, but it’s a bit lacking in gravitas! And could you explain the reference for us, one more time?

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but ‘lacking in gravitas’ is, in fact, the entire point of my comic!

A part of the reason why Shakespeare is perceived as being so inaccessible is that there is a great deal too much gravitas surrounding Shakespeare. People are constantly being told by society ‘Oh, this is Shakespeare – this is something very serious and profound’, which is intimidating, off-putting, and

I also enjoyed your cartoon Keep Calm and Muslim On, about the Muslim experience in contemporary USA. Will there ever be a crossover episode where Shakespeare somehow turns up in that?

“Those comics are based on stories taken directly from the life of my Muslim co-author, Andrea Annaba, so it depends on whether or not she has an amusing encounter with Shakespeare anytime soon!

I’m very fortunate to be working with Andrea, who shares with me both a slightly off-kilter sense of humor and a desire to use that humor to make something that is often seen as inaccessible and shakespeare magazine

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! +SSH 8MGOPI &VEMR “Over the years I’ve absorbed so much Shakespeare knowledge and trivia that I just want to share it”

intimidating – in this case, Islam and her Muslim American experience – approachable, fun, and funny.”

One of my favourite things you’ve done is a write-up on Queen Margaret on your website. It’s a passionate and convincing mini-essay on this amazing character. Are you still a devotee of Margaret?

“Oh, absolutely. She’s one of the most underrated characters in the canon, at least as far as general public awareness is concerned – all the Shakespeare geeks I know love her as much as I do. Historically she was a fascinating woman who really pushed the boundaries of female leadership, and, while Shakespeare does cast her in a moderately villainous light, there’s a lot of complexity in her character.

“Plus, you know, she gets to run around with swords. Not enough ladies in Shakespeare get to do that.”

Finally, what’s the most Shakespearean moment of your life and career so far?

And do you have any Shakespeare-related ambitions yet to fulfil?

“I did get to boop a First Folio in the vaults of the Folger Shakespeare Library, which is pretty high up on my list of accomplishments, but the most Shakespearean moment of my life so far

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was getting a chance to meet and interact with the Robinson Shakespeare Company of South Bend, Indiana (http://rclc.nd.edu/shakespeare/ robinson-shakespeare-company/). This is a group of kids from all sorts of backgrounds who live and breathe theatre and Shakespeare, and they are phenomenally talented and driven. I vividly remember one girl who couldn’t have been more than ten years old standing up and performing Cloten’s ‘meanest garment’ monologue from Cymbeline, and it was electrifying. They weren’t just reciting Shakespeare, they were owning Shakespeare - the language, the characters, everything. Those kids are the future of Shakespeare, and the reason why Shakespeare will still be around long after we’re gone “As for Shakespeare-related ambitions, I would love to see Shakespeare’s Globe in London, visit the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-uponAvon, and do the whole UK-based Shakespeare pilgrimage thing. One of these days!”

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Enter the wonderful world of Good Tickle Brain via Mya’s website.

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Issue 4

Issue 5

Hamlet Alone?

Tom Hiddleston

Hamlet

Martin Freeman

Richard III

Golden Virginia

Off with their heads!

A double bill of the Bard in sunny Sydney

Launch issue

Benedict Cumberbatch

King David From Doctor Who to Hamlet and Richard II, David Tennant is a 21st century Shakespeare superstar!

Join us on a trip to the American Shakespeare Center

Shakespeare and the Tower of London

Why the city that made Shakespeare still rocks the world

Two men. One epic journey. How Giles and Dan made the ultimate Shakespeare documentary!

FREE

Antony Sher

Why his new book is a love letter to Falstaff, Stratford and Shakespeare

Great Shakespeare actors

Art thou Grumio?

don Lon alling Set in stone Five great exclusive C Muse of Fire Shakespeare interviews!

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Issue 6

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Exploding the myth of “To be or not to be…”

Aussie Rules Shakespeare!

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Blood meets ink in the world of Shakespeare Tattoos

Ֆ Celebrating 450 years of the English language’s greatest-ever wordsmith

At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world

Big Books Giveaway!

Our college girl takes on The Taming of the Shrew

Brilliant Bard Books up for grabs inside!

Shakespeare Hero Ben Crystal Clever Comedian Sara Pascoe The Tutor novelist Andrea Chapin Kill Shakespeare’s Anthony Del Col Superteacher Phil Beadle meets Bard Evangelist Ben Walden Ֆ

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Stanley Wells tells us what it takes to make a Shakespeare superstar

From Russia with love

David Tennant fans create their own edition of Richard II

My Shakespeare

Behind the scenes of the stellar documentary series

Plus!

Shakespeare in Turkey As You Like It The Essex Plot Shakespearean Opera

Issue 7

At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world

Issue 8

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Painting the Bard

Native Tongues

The haunting Shakespeare art of Rosalind Lyons

The sound of Shakespeare in Scotland

Sweet Home

At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world

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“The mission of Shakespeare Magazine is to help people everywhere enjoy Shakespeare.

If you donate to Shakespeare Magazine you’ll be investing in that mission. And you’ll be able

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“For more than three years now, Shakespeare to see the results of your investment in every Magazine has been produced on a microissue of the magazine, in every article on the budget from a bedroom in Bristol, England. website, and in every Tweet and Facebook post.

“We generate some revenue from advertising, but it’s not enough. That’s why I’m asking you, our readers, to make a donation so we can continue to make the magazine.

James Shapiro on 1606: William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear

issue MA Special ARE AT THE CINE

Video Games: The future of Shakespeare?

Shakespeare’s hottest ticket: BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH is Burning at the Barbican

Annus Horribilis

From Henry V to Coriolanus: Say Hello to Shakespeare’s Secret Weapon!

Screen Savers

Shakespeare’s Stratford-uponAvon: it’s our essential guide!

Issue 9

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Donate here Thank you! Our heartfelt gratitude to…

Cathy K, Cristina T, Emma W, David H, Jennifer S, Natalie S, Stuart R, Stephen C, Nataly B, Alessandra B, Nigel H, Faye J, Sylvia W, Stephanie S, Elizabeth P, Elizabeth C, Ira Z, Alicja D, Moriah S, Shelli E, Karen M, Marivi S, Donna J, Lauren F, Kartika S, Anastasia K, Michele H, Elizabeth W, Sarena N, Sam F, Susan C, John D, Sabine S, Andrea C, Christopher W, Teresa L, Jules R, Jon-Michael L, Mary P, Claudia W, Lorena S, Linda A, Eeva T, Linda C, Shaun T, Joann S, Chizu N, Anne T, Julie D, Carla H, Niki T, Gwyneth P, Mercedes L, Robert L, Laura K, Daryl HS, IS Maqbool, Annette R, Brigitte P, Jekaterina K, Sandra D, James E, Julie W, Philip F, Kelly W, Kim ML, Mary H, Rubtsova S, Carol AV, Marilyn F, DM Moe, Ceri T, April S, Cheryl B, Georgia L, Michele L, Lara M, Inderjit W, Lizzie CH, Joseph S, Brandi A, Rachel P, Deborah S, Darren N, Jonathan R, Lisa C, Warren R, Martin S, Samantha W, Andrea F, Abel G, Inna E, Sandra B, Jeffrey H, Joanne K, Susan R, Charles B, Janet S, George A, Trisha M, Sian T, Sharon D, Donna J, Joyce T, Petra S, Michael W, James C, Holly W, John W, Paul K, Tuba B, Isadora M, Lori G, Lisa P, Quintin P, Amanda G, Alani HB, Julie A, Robin S, Lisa MC, Michael L, Karra S, Dorothy W, Christopher M, Joanne W, Sheridan S, Rebecca K, Andrew W, Tess W, Sharon SH, Deborah D, Angela M, Jacie A, Elizabeth R, Jay R, Gemma A, Sally M, Brandi T, Melissa R, Laramie H, Miriam T, Pamela B, Tim C, Justin H, Cristina N, Sharon C, Elaine B, Cherie B, Michael M, Ramalakshmi J, Diana Y, Freia T, Brian L, Michaela S, Carla I, Action S, Maryx G, Salvatore T, Donald S, Lysandwr M, Whitney G, Travis S, Clare P. Special Thanks to Earleen T, Kirsten K, Andrea B, Andrea R, John L, Alexander K, Melodie S, Emma S, Cynthia R, John OH, Linda P, Mary R, JoAnn M, Elizabeth R, Kiron R, Jules R. In Memoriam Peter Robinson

Hiddlesto finds his killer instinct

Macbeth

A movie epic with er Michael Fassbend and Marion Cotillard

Bill

Shakespearean comedy from the crew Horrible Histories

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Hamlet

Benedict Cumberbatch on the big screen!

! Books roundup

“Remember first to possess his books...”

Feast your senses on just a small selection from the multitude of weighty tomes that have loudly thumped onto the Shakespeare Magazine desk since our last issue!

Viv Croot Biographic Shakespeare (Ammonite Press, £9.99)

Two things we’ve learned are that Shakespeare fans love infographics, and that Shakespeare infographics tend to contain bad information.

Luckily, Biographic Shakespeare – an entire book of Shakespeare Infographics – is as thoughtfully written as it is handsomely designed.

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Miranda Kaufmann Black Tudors: The Untold Story (Oneworld Publications, £18.99)

While researching her doctorate, Miranda Kaufmann discovered details of over 360 Africans resident in Britain between 1500 and 1640. Her book Black Tudors focuses on ten of them, detailing how these remarkable but forgotten forebears lived, worked and married as free individuals during the age of Shakespeare.

Bernard Cornwell Fools and Mortals (HarperCollins, £20)

Best-selling historical fiction author Bernard Cornwell goes from Sharpe to Shakespeare with his new novel Fools and Mortals, which is set in the Elizabethan era. The hero of the tale is a struggling actor named Richard Shakespeare. No prizes for guessing whose brother he is...

Books roundup

Chris Riddell & Spymonkey Great Shakespearean Deaths Card Game (Chronicle Books, £9.99)

Okay, so it isn’t a book, strictly speaking, but this amusingly irreverent Shakespeare card game is certainly the perfect gift for all we “bookish theorics” out there. Chris Riddell’s illustrations are immediately recognisable, while the Shakespearean statistics are gleaned from Tim Crouch and Spymonkey’s stage hit The Complete Deaths.

Benet Brandreth The Spy of Venice / The Assassin of Verona (Twenty7 Books, £8.99 / £16.99)

Proudly bearing the subtitle “A William Shakespeare Novel”, historical adventure romp The Spy of Venice introduces us to youthful hero William Shakespeare – who bears more than a slight resemblance to dashing author Benet Brandreth.

And this rip-roaringly zestful saga of travelling players and Popish plots continues in The Assassin of Verona.

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Rebekah Owens Devil’s Advocates: Macbeth (Auteur, £9.99)

Jacqueline Carey Miranda and Caliban (St Martin’s Press, £12.99)

Why has Roman Polanski’s 1971 film of Shakespeare’s Macbeth become so marginalised in both film history and Shakespeare Studies? Rebekah Owens argues that the film is in fact a powerful and innovative horror classic. Aimed at the Media and Film Studies Market, this is an instructive read for any Shakespearean film buff.

Fantasy author Jacqueline Carey has cleverly woven the characters and events of Shakespeare’s magisterial magnum opus The Tempest into a poignant and dreamlike coming-ofage fable. Miranda, Caliban, Prospero and Ariel are all satisfyingly fleshed out in an excellent companion read to Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed.

Tracy Chevalier New Boy Edward St Aubyn Dunbar (Vintage, £12.99 / £16.99)

The two most recent releases in the Hogarth Shakespeare series are New Boy, Tracy Chevalier’s superb transposition of Othello to a junior high school in 1970s Washington DC, and Dunbar, which sees Edward St Aubyn replay King Lear as a madcap black comedy set amidst a dysfunctional corporate clan.

Bart van Es Shakespeare’s Comedies Jonathan F. S. Post Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Poems Stanley Wells Shakespeare’s Tragedies (Oxford University Press, £7.99 each)

We always welcome any new Shakespeare-related additions to the OUP’s popular and ever-expanding Very Short Introduction series. Bart van Es’ slim volume on the Comedies came out last year, with Stanley Wells’ book on the Tragedies and Jonathan FS Post’s contribution on the Sonnets and Poems following in 2017.

Together, they cover an impressive amount of literary and historical ground, and convey a suitably sizeable serving of Shakespeare knowledge.

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! The faith of Shakespeare

The Word

of the Lord

What did Shakespeare believe, and how is it evident in his works? We quizzed scholar Graham Holderness on the powerful questions explored in his perceptive book The Faith of William Shakespeare.

Interview by Pat Reid

Images:Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive

Your book demonstrates that religion is evident all the way through Shakespeare’s plays. And yet most modern productions seem to have a very secular approach.

How did that happen?

“Around the middle of the 19th century, about the time Christianity began to come under attack from new scientific discoveries and theories such as Evolution, scholars began to assert that Shakespeare’s religious beliefs were of an orthodox Protestant complexion, and that he was a representative product of a Protestant ‘Golden Age’ of culture and political stability governed by Queen

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Elizabeth I. Simultaneously other scholars began to claim that Shakespeare grew up in a still largely Roman Catholic context, that had not really been supplanted by the Reformation. At the same time the more enduring and influential hypothesis, that Shakespeare was agnostic in matters of religion, began to emerge. The view of a Shakespeare who fitted comfortably within the Elizabeth Protestant religious settlement remained the dominant paradigm until after the Second World War, when it was replaced by more secular, sceptical, agnostic and atheist critical interpretations.

“Thus today most contemporary Shakespeare

The faith of Shakespeare

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“At the centre of a whirlwind of conspiracy, recusancy, resistance and rebellion, Shakespeare keeps his silence”

Claudius praying in Hamlet, 1867. Image courtesy of Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive.

criticism and scholarship, if directed towards religious matters at all, is likely to demote the sectarian question – was Shakespeare Protestant or Catholic? – to the more fundamental question of belief – was he religious at all? Where Christians such as Samuel Johnson and Alexander Pope saw Shakespeare as a Christian like themselves, the modern Anglo-American Shakespeare scholar, more likely to be an atheist or agnostic, prefers to see him as secular humanist, for whom religion was no more than a social construct. Many scholars today assume that religion did not play a very large role in Shakespeare’s vision of life, and that he might

have kept his personal religious opinions to himself simply because they were either uncontroversially orthodox, or almost indifferent, not only to sectarian controversies, but to the ultimate truths of religion.”

Obviously this plays a big part in your book, but can you briefly describe the religious landscape that Shakespeare grew up with and was working in?

“In Shakespeare’s England, there was only one religion – Christianity – and only one permitted doctrinal form of that religion, that embodied in the reformed Church of England. Church shakespeare magazine

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! The faith of Shakespeare attendance was obligatory, and absence from church punishable by fine, or even imprisonment for repeated offences. Since Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy (and excepting the reign of Catholic Mary Tudor, 1553-8), the monarch was the Supreme Head of the Church – hence loyalty to one entailed conformity with the other.

“So if we ask ‘What did people believe in 16th century England?’, there is one categorical answer...

They believed in the creeds of the Church of England, and their religious behaviour was wholly prescribed by its liturgical practice, specifically through the Book of Common Prayer. But since this orthodoxy was forcibly compelled on people, we might suspect that the personal beliefs of many people actually diverged from that orthodoxy. We certainly know this to be partly true, since many who conformed to the church (‘church papists’) continued to believe as Catholics, and there were many who tried whenever they could to stay away from the church and its sacraments (‘recusants’).

“At the same time, many Protestants found the Church of England still essentially unreformed, and attempted in various ways to dissent from it, while remaining formally members to escape persecution. The Book of Common Prayer began as a vehicle of the Reformation, but was outlawed by Parliament in 1645, when Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector, as being irredeemably Catholic.

“In such an environment religious diversity is not dispelled, but merely driven underground. People continue to believe in very different ways, but are for the most part unable to reveal their true beliefs. The Elizabethan church attempted to offer the kind of via media that would enable varieties of religious opinion to occupy a common ground, and routinely avoided prying into matters of personal belief. Elizabeth herself said she has no intention of ‘making windows into men’s souls’. But religious controversy simmered

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under the surface, and broke out at various times into sectarian violence, or open defiance of both the church and the state.”

Let’s get the inevitable conspiracy theory out of the way! Why has the notion of Shakespeare as a secret Catholic seemingly gained ground in recent years?

“Shakespeare’s father John was born a Roman Catholic (as were all English people before 1534), during the reign of Henry VIII. It is probable his mother came from a strongly Catholic family. In 1592 John was twice named in government reports as a ‘recusant’, one of those who ‘refuse obstinately to resort to church’. Since the mid-19th century some scholars and critics have been arguing that Shakespeare inherited his father’s Catholicism, and concealed it behind a façade of Protestant orthodoxy.

“The idea that William was a closet Catholic appears very early in the historical record, in various 17th century anecdotes. Stratford Grammar School, which he probably attended, was staffed largely by Roman Catholics. Shakespeare’s twin children Hamnet and Judith were clearly named after their godparents, Stratford neighbours Hamnet and Judith Sadler, who were definitely Catholics. His daughter Susanna was cited in May 1606 as a recusant who failed to appear at Easter Communion – though it should also be pointed out that she married a Protestant, Dr John Hall. Shakespeare’s literary career kept him in close association with Catholics such as the Earl of Southampton.

“In 1613 Shakespeare purchased the Blackfriars Gatehouse in London. This property, formerly part of the dissolved Blackfriars Monastery, had remained in Catholic hands since the time of the Reformation, and was notorious for Jesuit conspiracies, priest holes to hide fugitives, and covert Catholic activity. In his will Shakespeare

The faith of Shakespeare

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Shakespeare scholar Graham Holderness is a sub-deacon at St Michael and All Angels Church in Bedford Park, London.

bequeathed the Gatehouse to his daughter Susanna, and ensured that John Robinson, who lived in the house, could continue his tenancy. In the same year Robinson’s brother entered the seminary at the English College in Rome. Despite the weight of this evidence, it all remains circumstantial, and neither proves nor disproves William Shakespeare’s Catholicism. There is no doubt that Shakespeare was closely hemmed in by Catholicism, but that does not in itself make him a Catholic. At the very centre of this whirlwind of conspiracy, recusancy, resistance and rebellion, Shakespeare keeps his silence.”

My own background is Catholic, and I grew up in the north-west of England, not far from the loci of some ‘Catholic Shakespeare’ myths. But they don't convince me. Is there a sense that elements of Catholicism would inevitably occur in Shakespeare's works?

He was living amid the debris of Catholic England, so naturally this would provide his building blocks?

“This is particularly evident in plays which explicitly feature aspects of both Catholic and Protestant culture, such as Measure for Measure or Hamlet. In the former, the Duke’s influence over the dramatic narrative is such as to make him a kind of providential deity, arranging people and events into concord with poetic justice. Some of this is performed through his disguise as a Roman

Catholic friar – in fact he claims to be not only a friar but a papal legate – which enables him to move anonymously and with a kind of diplomatic privilege through the scenes of the play’s action.

“He takes advantage of the ‘secret harbour’ offered by a monastery, and to some limited degree takes a genuine brother, Friar Thomas, into his confidence. He hears confessions, speaks often of the confessional, and uses information gained from confession to further his plans. He persuades people to act in certain ways by exploiting the trust people repose in his assumed sacerdotal identity.

When Angelo is unmasked, he recognises the Duke as a kind of quasi-divine authority:

Then, good prince, No longer session hold upon my shame, But let my trial be mine own confession.

Immediate sentence then, and sequent death, Is all the grace I beg. (5.1.358-366) “There are two distinct methods of dealing with sin and penitence at play here, the Catholic and the Protestant. The former relies on auricular confession, private absolution and personal penance – the latter on public ‘general confession’, collective absolution and the public exhibition of shame. Angelo begs to be released from the Protestant requirement for public confession, the holding of a ‘session’ on his shame, and to be permitted the privacy of trial and execution shakespeare magazine

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! The faith of Shakespeare Hamlet encounters his father’s ghost on the battlements at Elsinore (Engraving circa 1864).

Image courtesy of Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive.

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The faith of Shakespeare

without open confession. The Duke however, restored to his own identity, demands public confession. Thus the play is brought to its comedic resolution not by auricular confession and private penance, but by public humiliation and general absolution. Jestingly Lucio distinguishes between private and public confession:

If you handled her privately, she would sooner confess: perchance publicly she’ll be shamed. (5.1.272-3) “But such open ‘shaming’, conducted on stage before the theatre audience, common enough in the reformed church of Shakespeare’s day (his own son-in-law Richard Quiney was sentenced to exactly such a ritual of open penance ‘in a white sheet [according to custom]’ for fornication in 1616) is exactly what the Duke’s reformed Christianity requires.

“Shakespeare’s fictional Prince of Denmark, Hamlet – together with his friends Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern – is declared in the play to have attended the real University of Wittenberg in Germany, which happened to be Martin Luther’s university, and a seat of the Protestant Reformation. If Hamlet is a Protestant prince, however, he is the son of a Catholic king, whose spirit declares that he has come directly from Purgatory. Nonetheless when the Ghost bids Hamlet ‘remember’ him, it is not for purposes of intercession, but to provoke the son to the non-Christian obligation of avenging his murdered father. Hamlet’s vow of revenge sets him into conflict with his own Renaissance Christian culture, and with the Reformation education he is assumed to have experienced at Wittenberg. And this clash of cultures is arguably the key dramatic conflict that drives the play.”

To complicate matters, you yourself have actually written a novel, Black and Deep

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Desires, where a Catholic Shakespeare is the architect of the Gunpowder Plot! As the subdeacon of an Anglican Church, weren’t you, ahem, playing with fire here?

“Black and Deep Desires: William Shakespeare Vampire Hunter fantasises that Shakespeare’s Catholic sympathies, with the kind of apocalyptic imagination dramatized in Macbeth, could have turned him into a conspirator. But he does extricate himself from the Plot, after experiencing a vision in which the shade of Dante shows him a new circle of Hell prepared for terrorists. Later the novel has fun playing with the power of religion over the Undead. The Vampires are Catholics, so Reformed Christianity proves ineffective against them, and the hunters are forced to call on the old magic of Catholicism to defeat them.”

However, your own conclusions in The Faith of William Shakespeare are that he was anything but Catholic. Tell us a bit more?

“Recent scholarship and criticism have begun to acknowledge that religion played a vital role in early modern culture, not least in the work of Shakespeare. But there is no agreement about what Shakespeare’s faith actually was. Some contemporary scholars have characterised Shakespeare as a ‘parish Anglican’, for whom religion was a matter of habit, conventional custom and social practice, rather than earnest personal struggle. I have argued on the contrary that Shakespeare was a loyal and faithful servant of the Church of England, who attended its services, structured his life around its rituals, absorbed and reproduced its liturgies, and grew increasingly attached to its doctrines. He was indeed an ‘Anglican’ (before the word was invented), with a natural affection for the Catholic roots of the church, who had moved by the end of his life towards the more Protestant position articulated in his will, and expressed in the religious perspectives active especially in his later plays.” shakespeare magazine

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! The faith of Shakespeare You make the assertion that Shakespeare knew his religious texts extremely well. How would he have learned or absorbed it all?

And what were the main books he would have referred to?

“That Shakespeare was a Christian writer, at least by by virtue of cultural context and literary inheritance, is indisputable. The Christian Bible was one of his primary sources. He cited in his plays some 42 books of the Bible – 18 from the Old Testament, 18 from the New, and six from the Apocrypha. Shakespeare must therefore have regularly consulted the Bible as he was writing, and recalled it from memory. Regular church attendance would have familiarised him with the annual lectionary of scripture that prescribed the reading of the (almost) complete Old Testament once, and the New (apart from Revelation) twice.

“The Bishops’ Bible is the version Shakespeare would have heard in church, and memorised (if that is how he acquired this material), and it is certainly one of the translations from which he quotes. He also used the Protestant Geneva translation, which was published in 1560, and became very popular, though it was never formally used in churches. The other foundational religious text that hovers continually behind Shakespeare’s works is the Book of Common Prayer, specifically the 1559 version introduced after Elizabeth’s accession.

Arguably more important than the Bible in terms of its influence on everyday religious practice, the prayer book prescribed not only the offices for Morning and Evening Prayer, and the celebration of Holy Communion, but also the rituals for the conduct of christening, marriage and funeral – Holy Baptism, the Solemnisation of Matrimony and the Burial of the Dead.

“It is possible to think of Shakespeare reading the Bible in the same way as a modern sceptic would, perceiving it as a work of literature rather than the revealed word of God, mining it for useful material, rather than believing in its religious message. The prayer book is different, since it is not a literary text for reading, but a liturgical script for performance, like the text of one of Shakespeare’s own plays. One can read the Bible in much the same way as one can read any other book. But frequentation of the Book of Common Prayer entails participation in communal rites, active involvement

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Graham Holderness is the author of over 40 books, including drama, poetry and novels.

in the performance of liturgy, and willing assent to the demands and obligations of a religious practice.

“We don’t know how often Shakespeare attended church, especially in London – though in view of his involvement in the management and business of Holy Trinity, Stratford, it would have been strange for him not to be a regular churchgoer. And while we cannot know with any certainty exactly how Shakespeare acquired his biblical knowledge, we can state categorically that his formal religious practice was shaped and governed by the Book of Common Prayer.

“He was married, his children were baptised, his son, his brother and his father were buried, all by the rites prescribed in the 1559 Book of Common Prayer. That Shakespeare was within the environment of the prayer book on at least an occasional, and more likely a regular basis, is one of the few certainties to be relied on in this field of inquiry. In fact it would not be wide of the mark to claim that the faith of William Shakespeare was the faith of the English Bible and the Book of Common Prayer.”

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The Faith of William Shakespeare by Graham Holderness is published by Lion Hudson.

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