by CCash | May 26, 2025 | Blog, Podcast Episodes
In Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff says “the appetite of her eye did seem to scorch me up like a burning-glass!” Burning glasses were a specific kind of lens, that allowed you to harness the sun’s rays to create fire. They were a predecessor on the road to later...
by CCash | May 26, 2025 | Detailed Show Notes
These are the detailed history notes that coordinate with Ep 371 of That Shakespeare Life. Here you will find museum artifacts, woodcuts, illustrations, paintings, and primary documents related to the lenses prescribed in Shakespeare’s lifetime, and the people...
by CCash | Dec 16, 2024 | Blog, Podcast Episodes
Shakespeare’s plays mention horses over 300 times across his works, reflecting the huge place in the every day lives of people that this animal occupied. For something that was so essential for travel and for work, it makes sense that a horse owner would want to make...
by CCash | Dec 2, 2024 | Blog, Podcast Episodes
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the nurse complains of a headache saying “Lord, how my head aches! what a head have I! It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces.” In 1582, Bartholomew the Englishman’s 13th century text was reprinted in London, describing a...
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...
