A playlist exploring Shakespeare’s social circle in Stratford-on-Avon, with individual videos on friends and contemporaries including Richard Quiney, Richard Field, Thomas Greene, Julius Shaw, Hamnet Sadler, and others.
An exploration of how rigidly Shakespeare adheres to iambic pentameter, examining his use of metrical variation, substitution, and the relationship between rhythm and dramatic meaning.
An analysis of Hamlet’s To Be or Not to Be soliloquy, focusing on its ethical arguments about revenge, mortality, and the paralysis of indecision.
An examination of the claim that Shakespeare coined an exceptional number of English words and expressions, weighing the evidence from contemporary sources and the history of the language.
A concise introduction to what we know about Shakespeare from contemporary sources, tracing the documentary record of his life from his baptism in Stratford in 1564 to his burial there, with reference to contemporary praise from Francis Meres.
A combined reading and analysis of the Witches’ Chant from Macbeth, focusing on how the trochaic tetrameter and rhyming couplets create an atmosphere of supernatural evil.
An experimental reggae setting of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, demonstrating how the poem’s themes of love and immortality translate into a contemporary musical form.