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Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedHome to the world's largest collection of Shakesp Author: Folger Shakespeare Library
Home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare materials. Advancing knowledge and the arts. Discover it all at www.folger.edu. Shakespeare turns up in the most interesting placesnot just literature and the stage, but science and social history as well. Our "Shakespeare Unlimited" podcast explores the fascinating and varied connections between Shakespeare, his works, and the world around us. Language: en Genres: Arts Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Shakespeare and Mathematics
Monday, 26 January, 2026
Many Shakespeare fans don’t think of themselves as “math people.” They’re theater kids, poetry lovers, bookworms, right? But in Shakespeare’s world, math and literature were deeply intertwined. In Much Ado About Numbers: Shakespeare’s Mathematical Life and Times, mathematician Rob Eastaway explores how mathematical thinking shaped Shakespeare’s language and imagination. Shakespeare lived at a moment of major intellectual change, when England was newly encountering Indo-Arabic numerals, experimenting with new systems of calculation, and redefining ideas of measure and proportion. Eastaway shows how Shakespeare delighted in numbers and patterns, playing with “scores,” fractions, and symmetry in works like Othello, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and The Winter’s Tale. Even familiar references to “nothing,” time, and music take on new meaning when viewed through a mathematical lens. In this episode, Eastaway reveals how math was woven into everyday life in Shakespeare’s time and how reading with our “math glasses” on can offer fresh insights into Shakespeare’s language.
