The Fight for Mary, Queen of Scots’ Jewels
Who should claim Scotland’s royal jewels? After the forced abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots, the answer was not clear cut.
Elizabethan
‘Straight Acting’ by Will Tosh review
Bard romance? Straight Acting: The Many Queer Lives of William Shakespeare by Will Tosh sets the stage for the next wave of accessible queer histories.
Playwright Ben Jonson Duels to the Death
On 22 September 1598, Elizabethan actor Gabriel Spencer settled his creative differences with playwright Ben Jonson with a duel.
The Extraordinary Journey of David Ingram by Dean Snow review
Great cities more than a mile long, ‘banquette houses’, elephants, and birds with heads ‘as big as a man’s: the journey of David Ingram.
The Great White Bard and Shakespeare Without a Life review
Two significant new publications push the parameters of how we engage with the most revered writer in the English language.
The Other Favourite
Christopher Hatton rose to great power as a favourite of Elizabeth I. Born in obscurity, why has he returned to it?
The First Folio
The stage has a short memory, print a long one: 400 years since its first publication, Shakespeare’s First Folio is the reason we remember him.
The Clown that Went out of Fashion
The age of Shakespeare, and its changing notions of what was funny, gave birth to modern comedy.
The Crowd-Funded War
In the wake of the failure of the Spanish Armada, England sought retaliation by launching an invasion of its own. But how to finance such a venture?
A Painter Fit for a Queen
Nicholas Hilliard was a portraitist at the pinnacle of his profession.