Features

In 1599 there appeared on the bookstalls around St Paul’s a slim volume of twenty poems entitled ‘The Passionate Pilgrim’, …

Unrequited love is among the most fruitful of all literary themes, and not surprisingly, Shakespeare gives the subject extensive attention.  …

Marriage is one of Shakespeare’s most prominent themes: it may well be his most prominent.  Almost every play contains either …

‘How goes the night, boy?’, asks Banquo of Fleance in the opening line of Act Two of ‘Macbeth’ – and …

Clothes mattered to the Elizabethans.  What people wore was a legal matter, governed by the Sumptuary Laws.  This legal system, …

Given the central role food plays in our lives, it’s surprising how peripheral it is in Shakespeare’s plays.  It’s an …