Shakespeare Resources

ch4ck availability of print edition
This brief and illuminating account of the ideas of world order prevalent in the Elizabethan age and later is an indispensable companion for readers of the great writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--Shakespeare and the Elizabethan dramatists, Donne and Milton, among many others. The basic medieval idea of an ordered Chain of Being is studied by Professor Tillyard in the process of its various transformations by the dynamic spirit of the Renaissance. Among his topics are: Angels; the Stars and Fortunes; the Analogy between Macrocosm and Microcosm; the Four Elements; the Four Humours; Sympathies; Correspondences; and the Cosmic Dance--ideas and symbols which inspirited the minds and imaginations not only of the Elizabethans but of all men of the Renaissance.

Why did Queen Elizabeth I compare herself with her disastrous ancestor Richard II? Why would Ben Jonson transform Queen Anne and her ladies into Amazons as entertainment for the pacifist King James? How do the concepts of costume as high fashion and as self-fashioning, as disguise and as the very essence of theatre, relate to one other? How do portraits of poets help create the author that readers want, and why should books, the embodiment of the word, be illustrated at all? What conventions connect image to text, and what impulses generated the great art collections of the early seventeenth century? In this richly illustrated collection on theatre, books, art and personal style, the eminent literary critic and cultural historian Stephen Orgel addresses himself to such questions in order to reflect generally on early modern representation and, in the largest sense, early modern performance. As wide-ranging as they are perceptive, the essays deal with Shakespeare, Jonson and Milton, with Renaissance magic and Renaissance costume, with books and book illustration, art collecting and mythography.

In Renaissance Culture and the Everyday, scholars illuminate the sometimes surprising issues at stake in such common matters of daily life as mirrors, books, horses, money, laundry baskets, graffiti, embroidery, and food during the Renaissance in England and on the Continent.

ch4ck availability of print version
"The purpose of this book is to describe the habits of the English people during Shakespeare's lifetime. The attempt would be worth making even if Shakespeare had never lived. It has been made in the belief that an understanding of the world he lived in is a step to the understanding of Shakespeare."

ch4ck availability
What was life like in Shakespeare's time - or, what did people then say it was like? This volume provides a picture of the age, with a selection of accounts of Elizabethan and Jacobean life taken from books, plays, poems, letters, diaries and pamphlets by and about Shakespeare's contemporaries. Extracts have been taken from a wide range of writers, including William Harrison and Fynes Moryson (providing descriptions of England), Nicholas Breton (on country life), Isabella Whitney and Thomas Dekker (on London life), Nashe (on struggling writers), Stubbs (with a Puritan's view of Elizabethan enjoyments), Harsnet and Burton (on witches and spirits), John Donne (meditations on prayer and death), King James I (on tobacco) and Shakespeare himself. Also included are accounts of theatre-going, May Day celebrations, Queen Elizabeth at court, the place of women, education, garden books and herbals, clothes, food, drink and religion. The extracts are organized thematically, each section having an introduction reflecting modern historical research.

ch4ck availability
Describes the colorful and adventurous 16th century when the world swung suddenly from the medieval to the modern age.

ch4ck availability
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare is the most comprehensive reference work available on Shakespeare's life, times, works, and his 400-year global legacy. In addition to the authoritative A-Z entries, it includes nearly 100 illustrations, a chronology, a guide to further reading, a thematic contents list, and special feature entries on each of Shakespeare's works.

ch4ck availability
"This dictionary provides rich detail on all aspects of the Renaissance in 14th to 17th century Europe. It includes comprehensive coverage of the art, literature, science, culture, philosophy, religion, economics, history, and conflict of the period."

ch4ck availability
"This Companion to Shakespeare is for students and teachers of Shakespeare, indeed for anyone with an interest in his plays. It offers a remarkably innovative and comprehensive picture of the theatrical, literary, intellectual, and social worlds in which Shakespeare wrote and in which his plays were produced. Each individual essay stands as an authoritative account of the state of knowledge in its field, and in their totality the essays provide a new and compelling portrait of the historical conditions, both imaginative and institutional, that enabled (and in some cases inhibited) Shakespeare's great art."

BBC, 2013, 51 minutes
Revealing the reality of life for most Elizabethans, outside of life at court.

BBC, 2013, 51 minutes
Dr. Mortimer reveals how, in this age, those who have the most also have the most to lose.

BBC, 2013, 50 minutes
Dr. Mortimer explores the world of a new section of Elizabethan society - the middle class.

TMW Media Group, 1992, 42 minutes
"An aromatic stew of biography and local color, this program will give viewers a sense of the London and Stratford of Shakespeare's time. The section on London visits 18 major sites associated with the Bard and his plays, including the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Middle Temple for law students, George Tavern, Southwark Cathedral, and the Globe Theatre site. The section on Stratford conjures up the presence of young Will through a journey around Warwickshire, featuring Shakespeare's birthplace, the baptismal font and tomb at Trinity Church, the King Edward VI Grammar School, Anne Hathaway's cottage, Shottery, Wilmcote, Kenilworth Castle, the Mary Arden Farm, and many other significant locations."