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Resources
This page will provide access to documents and media links not related directly to the current course but of general interest. See also 'Shakespeare's Sources' on the 'More' tab above.
Friends' Meeting Room video (above).
A series of public lectures from Professor Sir Stanley Wells, C.B.E.. These were to mark Sir Stanley's own 90th birthday and Shakespeare's birthday celebrations in Stratford-upon-Avon, 2020.
23 April: What manner of man was Shakespeare?
Introduced by Professor Russell Jackson, University of Birmingham.
Introduced by Professor Russell Jackson, University of Birmingham.
| wells_-lecture_1.docx |
30 April: How did Shakespeare write a play?
Introduced by Gregory Doran, Artistic Director of The Royal Shakespeare Company.
Introduced by Gregory Doran, Artistic Director of The Royal Shakespeare Company.
| wells_-_lecture_2.docx |
7 May: What do the Sonnets tell us about Shakespeare?
Introduced by Professor Lena Orlin, Georgetown University, and Trustee of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Introduced by Professor Lena Orlin, Georgetown University, and Trustee of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
| wells_lecture_3.docx |
14 May: What made Shakespeare laugh?
Introduced by Prof. Michael Dobson, Director of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham.
Introduced by Prof. Michael Dobson, Director of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham.
| wells_-_lecture_4.docx |
Posted 24.10.2018 : Above is the podcast of the 'In Our Time' (BBC Radio 4) programme: 'Is Shakespeare History? The Roman Plays. Broadcast 17.10.2018.
| iot_is_shakespeare_history_-_the_roman_plays.docx |
Posted 24.10.2018 : Above is the reading list associated with the 'In Our Time' (BBC Radio 4) programme: 'Is Shakespeare History? The Roman Plays.
Posted 26.01.2018 : The printing presses that produced Shakespeare's early quartos and folios - Stephen Fry at the Gutenberg Press (BBC TV): www.youtube.com/watch?v=8svE2AjQWYE&t=97s .
Posted 04.01.2018 : Shakespeare Documented : An Online Exhibition : www.shakespearedocumented.org/exhibition . Shakespeare at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C..
Posted 29.12.2017 : 'In Our Time' presented by Melvyn Bragg (below) and broadcast 28.12.2017 - Hamlet with Sir Jonathan Bate, Provost of Worcester College, University of Oxford; Carol Rutter, Professor of Shakespeare and Performance Studies at the University of Warwick And Sonia Massai, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at King's College London (43 mins) . Further information at : www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09jqtfs .
| inourtime-20171228-hamlet.mp3 |
Posted 28.09.2017 : Rajan Datar and guests explore (below) the story of how the printing press was born, and how it changed our world - from the birth of the modern book to the rise of the information society, and the transformation of fields including scholarship and religion.: Taken from the World Service The Forum programme .
| the_printing_press_-_the_forum.mp3 |
Posted 15.09.2-17 : Richard H. Grant lectures on his book, Collecting Shakespeare which traces the formation of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington : www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_GyO5LtCDY .
Posted 12.06.2017 : David and Ben Crystal explore Shakespeare's pronunciation using examples from Romeo and Juliet in this 10-minute Open University/YouTube collaboration : www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPlpphT7n9s&feature=youtu.be .
Posted 12.06.2017 : David and Ben Crystal explore Shakespeare's pronunciation using examples from Romeo and Juliet in this 10-minute Open University/YouTube collaboration : www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPlpphT7n9s&feature=youtu.be .
Posted 29.05.2017 : In Our Time - Purgatory (see mp3 audio file above): Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the flourishing of the idea of Purgatory from C12th, when it was imagined as a place alongside Hell and Heaven in which the souls of sinners would be purged of those sins by fire. In the West, there were new systems put in place to pray for the souls of the dead, on a greater scale, with opportunities to buy pardons to shorten time in Purgatory. The idea was enriched with visions, some religious and some literary; Dante imagined Purgatory as a mountain in the southern hemisphere, others such as Marie de France told of The Legend of the Purgatory of Saint Patrick, in which the entrance was on Station Island in County Donegal. This idea of purification by fire had appalled the Eastern Orthodox Church and was one of the factors in the split from Rome in 1054, but flourished in the West up to the reformations of C16th when it was again particularly divisive.
A reading list to accompany the programme is available at : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08qxfrb .
A reading list to accompany the programme is available at : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08qxfrb .
Posted 25.04.2017 : The myths embedded in English literature : www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/apr/24/the-myths-embedded-in-english-literature .
Posted 12.03.2017: Readers may be interested in this link which shows a number of examples of artists' interpretations of Shakespeare's plays : publicdomainreview.org/collections/shakespeare-in-art/ .
... and from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington : http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/highlights-from-folger-shakespeare-librarys-release-of-almost-80000-images/ .
... and from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington : http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/highlights-from-folger-shakespeare-librarys-release-of-almost-80000-images/ .
Posted 28.02.2017: The works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries are 'littered' with references to disembodied parts of the human body. Below is an essay by Jonathan Sawday in which he explores the subject of anatomy and the dissection of the human body in Renaissance culture.
| sawday_-_anatomia_[body_emblazoned].pdf |
Posted 21.02.2017: I am indebted to a young Shakespearean, Ava Barnes, in the USA (New York State) for drawing my attention to this website that deals primarily with costume. The various links also give access to other valuable material: https://www.costumecraze.com/r/resource-guide-to-elizabethan-era-costumes . Thank you Ava.
Posted 02.08.2016: Rotten Stuff: The Musical : Musical Entertainment with a Shakespeare Theme:
“Something Rotten”
“This mash-up of 16th Century Shakespeare and 21st Century Broadway tells the story of brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom, two playwrights stuck in the shadow of that Renaissance rockstar Will Shakespeare. When a soothsayer foretells the next big thing in theatre, the Bottom brothers set out to write the world's very first MUSICAL! With the most singing, the most dancing and the most gut-busting laughs on Broadway, it's something wonderful... something for everyone... It's SOMETHING ROTTEN!, "the funniest musical comedy in at least 400 years" (Time Out New York)!”
It's Hard to be the Bard: https://youtu.be/8hnI7yhIWGY
http://www.rottenbroadway.com/about.php
http://www.rottenbroadway.com/_downloads/SomethingRotten_Web.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/Broadway/videos/10154429514428885/
Posted 02.08.2016: Rotten Stuff: The Musical : Musical Entertainment with a Shakespeare Theme:
“Something Rotten”
“This mash-up of 16th Century Shakespeare and 21st Century Broadway tells the story of brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom, two playwrights stuck in the shadow of that Renaissance rockstar Will Shakespeare. When a soothsayer foretells the next big thing in theatre, the Bottom brothers set out to write the world's very first MUSICAL! With the most singing, the most dancing and the most gut-busting laughs on Broadway, it's something wonderful... something for everyone... It's SOMETHING ROTTEN!, "the funniest musical comedy in at least 400 years" (Time Out New York)!”
It's Hard to be the Bard: https://youtu.be/8hnI7yhIWGY
http://www.rottenbroadway.com/about.php
http://www.rottenbroadway.com/_downloads/SomethingRotten_Web.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/Broadway/videos/10154429514428885/
Posted 01.08.2016: The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged) : above is a complete performance by the RSC (Reduced Shakespeare Company) of this highly successful comic 'take' on Shakespeare's works. The performance lasts for just under 1 hr 30 mins.
A special welcome to Molly Parker and the young members of her book club in upstate New York who have contributed the very useful resource link below:
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Posted 27.07.2016: http://www.halloweencostumes.com/all-about-william-shakespeare.html .
| stubbes_-_anatomie_of_abuses__1583_.doc |
The audio file below is a Radio 4 programme from the Word of Mouth series headed by Michael Rosen. In this programme David Crystal explores how Shakespeare's language would have been spoken:
Below is a link to 'Finding Shakespeare' originated by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust with many links to Shakespeare and his historical and cultural background: http://findingshakespeare.co.uk/?utm_source=Finding+Shakespeare+RSS-Email&utm_campaign=cf40b5a592-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bcfa6d3979-cf40b5a592-297835533 .
Below is the text of the story from Boccaccio's Decameron which provided one of the sources for Shakespeare's Cymbeline:
| boccaccios_decameron_as_source_for_cymbeline.doc |
Below is the catalogue for the 'Beyond Macbeth: Shakespeare Collections in Scotland Exhibition' (December 2011 - April 2012). The exhibition was held at the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.
| beyond_macbeth_exhibition_catalogue.pdf |
Below is the English translation (1598) of Jorge de Montemayor's pastoral romance, Diana. Shakespeare's principal source for The Two Gentlemen of Verona which Shakespeare probably knew from the French translation (1578).
| 2nd_bk_of_montemayors_diana.doc |
Below is the catalogue of the Shakespeare Exhibition at the Bodleian Library, Oxford to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare:
| catalogue_bodleian_shakespeare_exhibition_1916.pdf |
Below is an In Our Time programme on the physician//surgeon//philosopher GALEN: Galen was the most celebrated doctor in the ancient world. Greek by birth, he spent most of his career in Rome, where he was personal physician to three Emperors. Acclaimed in his own lifetime, he was regarded as the preeminent medical authority for centuries after his death, both in the Arab world and in medieval Europe.
| divin-ding_-_with_footnotes.doc |
| homily_against_disobedience_and_wilfulrebellion.pdf |
| shakespeares_will.doc |
Shakespeare's Will. The file (above) has the third page of Shakespeare's will (held in the National Archive) together with a transcript of the will in its entirety.
Erasmus, the 'father of Humanism: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 16th century humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus, almost universally recognised as the greatest classical scholar of his age. An important religious writer, he was also an outspoken critic of the Church, but when the Reformation began Erasmus chose to remain a member of the Catholic Church rather than side with Martin Luther and the reformers. The programme (BBC R4 IOT broadcast 09.02.2012) can be heard via the link above.
Below you can listen to the In Our Time programme (Radio4) broadcast 27.01.2011 on the subject of Aristotle's Poetics. This seminal work is generally accepted as the very first treatise of literary criticism and was hugely influential in the English literary Renaissance.
The Times has marked the beginning of the 400th anniversary of the year of the publication of the King James Bible with the article below. Remember to left click the mouse over the text in order to magnify it.
Members may also be interested in the King James Bible Trust website: www.kingjamesbibletrust.org .
David Crystal's Begat: The King James Bible & the English Language (OUP, 2010) will be available in the Book Box from the beginning of the Spring term 2011.
See also this related article from the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12205084 .
Members may also be interested in the King James Bible Trust website: www.kingjamesbibletrust.org .
David Crystal's Begat: The King James Bible & the English Language (OUP, 2010) will be available in the Book Box from the beginning of the Spring term 2011.
See also this related article from the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12205084 .
| times_-_kjb_01.01.2011.jpg |
During our discussions reference has often been made to the Elizabethan Sumptuary Laws which attempted to limit extravagant expenditure on imported fabrics and, of course, to prevent any blurring of the divisions between the various 'degrees' of society. Further information about this subect - and the texts of the relevant statutes can be accessed at the following site: http://elizabethan.org/sumptuary/index.html#statutes .
John Foxe's Book of Martyrs or - to give it its full title - The Acts and Monuments of Matters Happening to the Church was a seminal work in the Age of Shakespeare. It was first published in English in 1563. By the second edition of 1570 - revised and enlarged to some 2,500 pages and covering the history of persecution from the early church on - it was ordered to be displayed in every church, common hall, and college and had become part of the national myth.
The In Our Time programme on Radio4, introduced by Melvyn Bragg, broadcast a discussion of the book on 18.11.2010 and this can be accessed via the link below:
The In Our Time programme on Radio4, introduced by Melvyn Bragg, broadcast a discussion of the book on 18.11.2010 and this can be accessed via the link below:
Above is a woodcut from the Book of Martyrs of the martyrdom in 1417 of the Lollard leader, Sir John Oldcastle who has been widely - though not indisputably - claimed as the original of Shakespeare's character, Falstaff. This is the link to a portal that will give access to the full texts of Foxe's Book of Martyrs in the 1563, 1570, 1576 and 1583 editions: http://www.johnfoxe.org/ .
Members may find the following link useful. It will take you to 'Searching for Shakespeare', a substantial project from Warwick University where you will find a number of short videos and podcasts devoted to different aspects of Shakespeare's life and works:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/news/shakespeare .
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/news/shakespeare .
Below is a link to the Radio 4 In Our Time programme on The Four Humours. To access the podcast simply left click the forward arrow. For best results use headphones.
Below is a link to the Radio 4 In Our Time programme on the Divine Right of Kings. To access the podcast simply left click the forward arrow. For best results use headphones.
Below is a link to an audio podcast - Speaking Shakespeare - taken from an academic seminar held at Warwick University. It features Ben Crystal, an acknowledged expert in all aspects of the English Language.
To access the podcast simply left click the 'forward' arrow below. For best results use headphones.
To access the podcast simply left click the 'forward' arrow below. For best results use headphones.
Below is a useful link to a variety of Shakespeare-related resources - both serious and more light-hearted: http://www.freebooknotes.com/shakespeare-guide/ . Thanks to Carole Fegan for alerting me to this resource.
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