As you will know from listening to That Shakespeare Life, there’s a rich history behind every small object from the life of William Shakespeare Whether it’s clocks, clothes, pencils, or tablets, we love using the objects of Shakespeare’ world to get closer to the real lives of the people who lived there.
WHich is why I was delighted to learn abotu Catherine Richardson’s latest book titled Shakespeare’s Objects where she sets out to explore 33 of these objects, all of which are mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays. From beds and perfumes to handkerchiefs, clocks, lutes, torches, and spurs, the book follows these things through the world Shakespeare knew—asking who made them, who owned them, how they were used, where they came from, and what they can reveal about the people who encountered them.
Today, we are delighted to have her here on the show to share some of what she uncovered while researching the material world behind Shakespeare’s plays.
Download a Transcript of Ep 439 Here
About Catherine Richardson
Catherine Richardson is Professor of Early Modern Studies and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Arts and Humanities at the University of East Anglia. Her research explores early modern material culture on and off stage and the history of the creative industries. She is particularly interested in the cultural life of towns, especially as understood through the objects, people and ideas circulating within them and the entertainment on offer there. She ran the AHRC-funded Cultural Lives of the Middling Sort project, (www.middlingculture.com), and is series editor for Arden Studies in Early Modern Material Culture(with Lena Orlin, Helen Smith and Lyn Tribble). Recent and forthcoming publications include A Day at Home in Early Modern England, 1500-1700 (with Tara Hamling, Yale), an edition of Arden of Faversham (Bloomsbury), Shakespeare’s Objects: early modern material culture(Bloomsbury) and the Oxford Collected Works of Christopher Marlowe (gen. ed. with Rory Loughnane).
What We Talk About
- How objects such as perfume, paper, torches, and handkerchiefs communicated social status, shaped public behavior, and helped Shakespeare’s audiences interpret what they saw onstage.
- How clocks and changing ideas about time reveal a society moving from medieval methods of measuring the day toward public clock time and personal timepieces.
- How spurs, horses, and the early modern pursuit of speed influenced Shakespeare’s language about masculinity, authority, politics, and the management of people.
- …and more!
Resources Recommended by Our Guest
The Routledge Handbook of Material Culture in Early Modern Europe, 2017,
Edited By Catherine Richardson, Tara Hamling, David Gaimster
Staged Properties in Early Modern English Drama, 2006, eds Jonathan Gil Harris, Natasha Korda
Hester Lees-Jeffries, Textile Shakespeare, 2025
