 |
Will: What Is He Good For?Author: Classics on the Rocks
At Will: What Is He Good For? We seek to explore the question of who was the Real Shakespeare - who wrote his beautiful words - because understanding who he was can unlock the key to understanding his works and words in a new way. It also can help to inform the argument - who is he for? Is Shakespeare an old relic - only the academics, those of his time, and the cultural elite. Or is he indeed for everyone who wants to know and experience his plays? Throughout our series, well explore the Man from Stratfords life, history, and explore textual clues that will prove who owns Shakespeares words, relevance, and most importantly his legacy. Language: en Genres: Arts, History, Performing Arts Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
Listen Now...
Season 4, Episode 3: From Scattered to Sorted(?)
Episode 3
Wednesday, 11 February, 2026
After the chaos of the 1619 “False Folio,” Shakespeare’s friends John Heminges and Henry Condell decided enough was enough. If anyone was going to collect Will’s plays properly, it would be the men who’d spent over twenty years in the trenches with him. In this episode, we trace their likely first steps, from digging through the King’s Men’s prompt books and cue scripts to tracking down the “good” quartos of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. Along the way: bootlegs, brand management in the 1590s, and the thorny business of negotiating publishing rights in a world without copyright as we know it. They pulled off the unthinkable and gathered the plays. But collecting them was only half the battle.
