by CCash | Aug 26, 2024 | Blog, Podcast Episodes
To live in England during Shakespeare’s lifetime was to be Protestant, or at least as far as the Queen was concerned. The lack of religious freedom in early modern England doesn’t mean alternate belief systems did not exist, only that they were hidden. One powerful...
by CCash | Aug 19, 2024 | Blog, Podcast Episodes
Deaths were a common occurrence on stage for Shakespeare’s characters, but the wild and often macabre deaths we see in his plays were not actually far off from the deaths that occurred in real life for the 16-17th century. From poisonings to beheadings, one person who...
by CCash | Aug 12, 2024 | Blog, Podcast Episodes
It is a frequent misconception that people from Shakespeare’s lifetime believed the world was flat. In fact, the publication of the world on a spherical globe was not only well established across Europe by Shakespeare’s lifetime, but there are numerous portraits...
by CCash | Aug 5, 2024 | Blog, Podcast Episodes
Even William Shakespeare had to take out the garbage. In his hometown of Stratford Upon Avon, public waste was managed through a system of piles known as muck hills. In 1552, William Shakespeare’s father, John Shakespeare, was charged a fine for one of these muck...
by CCash | Jul 29, 2024 | Blog, Podcast Episodes
In the late 16th to early 17th century, a medical movement saw a meteoric rise in popularity known as Paracelsianism. Based on the writings of a physician who had died in 1541, the movement developed quite a cult following, with many claiming Paracelsus was able to...
by CCash | Jul 22, 2024 | Blog, Podcast Episodes
William Shakespeare’s mother, Mary, was Mary Arden before she married her husband, John Shakespeare. Mary’s possible connection to the gentry Arden family has fascinated scholars and Shakespeare fans for many years. The Arden family was an established English gentry...
