In the first couple of years of the 1600s, several new Shakespeare plays appeared. ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ and ‘As You Like It’ were recorded in the Stationer’s Register, and a third play called ‘The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark’ was likely performed on the stage for the first time. In this episode, we’ll look at those plays and examine how they influenced the English language. We also explore the creation of the East India Company in 1600 and the Essex Rebellion of 1601. Works discussed in this episode include:
‘Much Ado About Nothing’ – William Shakespeare
‘As You Like It’ – William Shakespeare
‘The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark’ – William Shakespeare
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Thank you for another great episode! I’m loving the current season of Shakespeare. I hope it lasts a long time!
Thanks! Speaking of the “melancholy Jaques”, it seems that his name was pronounced two different ways in “As You Like It”, depending on the scansion … both ways different from how we’d pronounce the name today. First, “jay-queez” for a line like “The melancholy Jaques grieves at that”. Second, “jayks” for a line like “Much markèd of the melancholy Jaques”. The latter pronunciation allows for the earthy pun with “jakes”, a term for “privy” at the time. (Credit: David Crystal via Wikipedia “Jaques” article)
I hesitate to post this, but: here is an account, written in 1966, of Hamlet, abroad:
https://www.naturalhistorymag.com/picks-from-the-past/12476/shakespeare-in-the-bush
“[… ] is consistently the most popular article on our website and one of the most anthologized anthropology articles of all time.”
(from the site, Natural History.)
I really enjoyed this fragment! I have tried to find the full article but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be available.
I don’t think this is a ‘fragment.’ The 4 pages [as per the bottom of page of the link] constitue the full article.
Are you familiar with the joke about the person who dismissed Shakespeare with the comment, “It’s so full of old clichés”?
But mainly I wanted to comment that it was perhaps your best cast ever and I really enjoyed it.