Although Henry V is mentioned as a Shakespearean villain,( for ordering the prisoners at Agincourt to be killed), history does not look upon him so. Certainly the principal chronicler of the battle, Jean Froissart, heaps no blame on the English King. Indeed, the French did the same thing just 20 years earlier at the battle … Read more

It is recommended, that people beginning to read Shakespeare, ought to start with either 'Romeo and Juliet' or, 'Richard 11'. The former because it is a fast moving, four day extravaganza of street fighting, and romantic love, and the second because an entire English dynasty depended on the schizophrenic outbursts of a very disturbed monarch.

Tybalt, kinsman of Capulet, is angry at being thrown out of Capulet's feast, he roams the streets with his 'gang' looking for revenge. He encounters Benvolio and Mercutio, "By my head, here come the Capulets." "By my heel, I care not."  Tybalt would have a 'word' with one of them, but Mercutio, who scorns Tybalt … Read more

Shakespeare's Macbeth, written at the time of a new sovereign, incorporates witchcraft at the very beginning of the play. Nowadays, of course, witchcraft is looked on as something faintly ridiculous, however, in Shakespeare's day, this was not the case, and many of the audience that first saw Macbeth, remembered the burning of 'witches', something that … Read more

Originally, Benvolio, Romeo's cousin, attempts to intercede, when members of the houses of Montague and Capulet,  start a street fight in Verona. "Part, fools. Put up your swords. You know not what you do." Just then, in comes Tybalt, kinsman of Capulet, seeing Benvolio with his rapier drawn, he also draws, "Turn thee Benvolio. Look … Read more

He was pulled out of school, at the age of 14, by his father, as finances were rather scarce around that time. Shakespeare went to work in his father's shop, making gloves, He was a 'wittawer' or, worker of kid leather. Later, or so it is said, he was a tutor to a Lancashire landowner's … Read more

A conservative estimate, at the time of Elizabeth Tudor's death,(1603), would put some 200,000 people in and around London by then.There were only three cities in the whole of England with more than 10,000, yet London held 20 times as many. The reasons are Political, Economical and Social. Throughout her life, Elizabeth had to contend … Read more

I think it means "All's fair in love and war". As the rhyme continues "Hover through the fog and filthy air". Is this the witches preparing for flight? Or, their leaving their amazing statements to chance? Or, wanting an impressionable Macbeth to bring these statements to fruition? Shakespeare, writing in 1606, knew his new king … Read more

Not in his lifetime. In 1623, seven years after his death, two good friends of his, Hemmings and Condell, brought about the First Folio, containing most of Shakespeare's written work for the stage. Ben Jonson had done the same thing a little earlier, so Hemmings and Condell followed suit. No other playwright of the age … Read more

He never went to university. He was on track to, but his father, John, had financial problems, so was forced to pull his son out of school to work in the shop. Had Shakespeare finished school, he would have gone on to either Oxford or Cambridge university and read one of three sciences, Law, Medicine … Read more