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 | Sep 9, 2024 | Blog, Podcast Episodes
The Clown in Alls Well That Ends Well talks about picking his teeth, and Coriolanus gives an admonishment about hygiene when he says “Bid them wash their faces And keep their teeth clean.” John Holland in Henry VI Part 2 talks about having teeth pulled, and in the...
