Many of Shakespeare’s contemporaries got into serious (sometimes life-threatening) trouble for publishing offensive writing - but Shakespeare, for the most part, did not. Even though his plays deal with dicey political situations, religious controversy, treasonous traitors, and scandalous events - all liable to rock the boat - Shakespeare managed to stay afloat. How did he succeed where so many of his contemporaries failed? Let’s delve into his 1595 play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to find out.
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Chapters
0:00 Prologue
05:46 Act I: The Great Divide
13:56 Act II: A Bad Time For Catholics
18:42 Act III: A Midsummer Night's Dream
23:14 Act IV: Moonlight, Majesty, and Elizabeth I
33:18 Act V: Faries, Magic, and Malace
47:01 Epilogue
Written, presented, and edited by Rosie Whitcombe
@books_ncats
Directed, produced, and edited by Matty Phillips
@ma_ps_ | mphotos.uk
Guest Gaffer: Chris O'Grady
@cog_photo
Thank you to Professor David Roberts for a thoughtful email response to my questions about A Midsummer Night’s Dream and for a very useful a recommended reading list.
Bibliography
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Bate, Jonathan, Soul of the Age, The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare (London: Penguin, 2009)
Bryson, Bill, Shakespeare, The Illustrated Edition (London: HarperPress, 2009)
Chaudhuri, Sukanta, ‘Introduction’ to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (pp. 1-115)
Clement, Jennifer, ‘“The Imperial Vot’ress”: Divinity, Femininity, and Elizabeth I in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Explorations in Renaissance Culture, vol. 34 (2008) pp. 163-84
Duffy, Eamon, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c.1400-c.1580 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005)
Elizabeth’s Tibury Speech, July 1588, British Library, Timelines: Sources from History (www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/i...) [accessed 29.04.22]
‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’, In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, 18.04.19 (www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000...) [accessed on 02.06.22]
The Letters of John Keats, ed. by Hyder Edward Rollins, 2 vols. (Cambridge: CUP, 2011) vol. 1, p. 193
Mortimer, Ian, The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England (London: The Bodley Head, 2012)
Shakespeare, William, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I, Scene 1, ll. 2-3 (London: Bloomsbury, 2021)
Shapiro, James, 1599, A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, (London: Faber, 2005)
Solly, Meilan, ‘The Myth of ‘Bloody Mary’’, Smithsonian Magazine (www.smithsonianmag.com/histor...) [accessed on 29.04.22]
Spyra, Piotr, ‘Shakespeare and the Demonization of Fairies’, Text Matters, vol. 7 (2017) pp. 194-213
Thomas, Keith, Religion and the Decline of Magic (London: Penguin, 2003)
Troiano, Catherine, ‘Summer solstice traditions and sun worship’, National Trust (www.nationaltrust.org.uk/feat...) [accessed on 01.06.22]
Music licenses
Folk Round by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
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Renaissance by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
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Summer Mvt 3 Presto by John Harrison with the Wichita State University Chamber Players is licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
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