Shakespeare Blog
Short guides, quotes, and context — written for normal humans.
2026-06-16
Cross-Dressing in Shakespeare: The Women Who Disguised as Men
Boys played every woman on Shakespeare's stage, and his heroines disguised as men. How Rosalind, Viola and Portia used cross-dressing to do what women otherwise could not.
2026-06-09
You Banbury Cheese: The Best Shakespeare Insult
The case for 'You Banbury cheese!' as the best Shakespeare insult. Two words, confirmed by four acts. Plus the history of a lost Elizabethan food.
2026-06-05
The Shakespeare Themes Gen Z Was Already Thinking About
Performed identity, institutional hypocrisy, inherited systems rigged before you arrived, and being honest about struggling: four Shakespeare themes that map onto contemporary life more precisely than you'd expect.
2026-06-03
Shakespeare's 10 Best Film Adaptations
From Kurosawa's Ran to 10 Things I Hate About You, these ten films prove that Shakespeare works on screen when directors commit fully to an interpretation. A practical guide to where to start.
2026-06-02
Prospero — Is Shakespeare Writing About Himself?
Prospero breaks his staff and drowns his book at the end of The Tempest, Shakespeare's last solo play. Generations of scholars have read it as autobiography. Here is why the reading is persuasive, and why it is also more complicated than it first looks.
2026-06-02
How to Get Cheap Shakespeare Tickets
From £5 standing tickets at the Globe to £10 RSC rush seats and National Theatre day deals, here is how to see great Shakespeare across the UK for less.
2026-06-02
Falstaff — Shakespeare’s Greatest Comic Character
Sir John Falstaff is fat, old, and broke. He is also the funniest, most self-aware character Shakespeare ever created. From the friendship with Prince Hal to the brutal rejection in Henry IV Part 2, here is who Falstaff actually is, and why Verdi and Elgar were still writing about him centuries later.
2026-06-02
Bottom — Why Shakespeare's Biggest Fool Is Actually Wise
Nick Bottom is the most oblivious character in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He is also the only one who goes deep into the fairy world and comes back unchanged. His dream speech in Act 4 scrambles a verse from the Bible, and is stranger and more interesting than it appears.
2026-06-01
Ophelia: Shakespeare's Most Misunderstood Character
Ophelia is usually reduced to a passive victim. Look more carefully at the text and a different character emerges, one who sees clearly, speaks coded truths, and pays the full price for living in a court where no one is honest.
2026-06-01
Lady Macbeth: Ambition, Guilt and the Original Villain
Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most complex characters, not simply evil, but a woman who talks herself into catastrophe. From "unsex me here" to "out, damned spot," here is how the play builds and dismantles her.
2026-06-01
Iago: Why Shakespeare's Greatest Villain Has No Motive
Samuel Taylor Coleridge called Iago's behaviour "the motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity." Here is what that actually means, and why Iago still unsettles audiences 400 years later.
2026-06-01
How Did Shakespeare Die?
Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 aged 52 in Stratford-upon-Avon. No contemporary account of his death survives. Here is what the historical evidence actually shows.
2026-05-01
Shakespeare Facts: Things You Probably Didn't Know
Verified facts about Shakespeare's life and work: from six signatures to the Globe fire, a lost play, a coat of arms, and the plays that nearly disappeared.
2026-04-01
Anne Hathaway and Shakespeare: What We Actually Know
Anne Hathaway married William Shakespeare in November 1582. She was 26; he was 18. She outlived him by seven years. Here is what the documents actually record, and where speculation begins.
2026-03-01
The Shakespeare Authorship Question: Was He Real?
Did William Shakespeare of Stratford really write the plays? Here are the main alternative candidates, the historical evidence, and why the scholarly consensus has not shifted in over a century of debate.
2026-02-01
Best Shakespeare Plays for First-Timers: Where to Start
A practical guide to reading or watching Shakespeare for the first time. Five plays recommended, with honest descriptions of what to expect and why each one works as a starting point.
2025-10-21
Taylor Swift's The Fate of Ophelia – Shakespeare Meets Pop
Taylor Swift gave Shakespeare's saddest girl a pop afterlife. Here's how "The Fate of Ophelia" from The Life of a Showgirl turns a centuries-old tragedy into a survival story, and what it means for Hamlet fans.
2025-06-01
The Boy Behind Hamlet: What the Hamnet Film Gets Right (and Where Scholars Disagree)
Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley star in the Hamnet film (2025). Did Shakespeare write Hamlet to grieve his dead son? Here is what history actually records.
2025-05-01
10 Powerful Female Characters in Shakespeare
From Lady Macbeth to Beatrice, these ten women prove that Shakespeare's female characters are anything but dated. Meet the heroines who seize agency, mock patriarchy and still set the bar for complexity.
2025-04-25
23 Shakespeare Phrases We Still Use Today
"Break the ice," "wild-goose chase," "green-eyed monster": these everyday expressions all started with Shakespeare. Here are 23 phrases the Bard gave us, with the plays they come from and what they really mean.
2025-04-24
Shakespeare's 9 Best Quotes About Love
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind." Here are nine of Shakespeare's most beloved lines about love, each explained in plain English, from Romeo and Juliet to the Sonnets.
2025-04-23
Shakespeare Globe Theatre Flags – Elizabethan Advertising & Tudor Marketing
No phones, no social media. Yet the Globe Theatre had a clever way to advertise its shows. Learn how coloured flags told Tudor audiences whether to expect comedy, tragedy or history.
2024-08-15
Top 10 Shakespearean Insults: Shakespearean Insults Generator, & Quiz
Discover Shakespeare's most savage insults, try our Shakespearean Insults Generator, and test your knowledge with the Shakespearean Insults Quiz.
2024-07-09
Sayings from Shakespeare – Words and Phrases He Gave Us
Shakespeare's writings give us the first recorded use of over 1,700 English words. From "alligator" to "zany," explore the sayings from Shakespeare that we still use every day, organised by theme.
2024-07-09
Best Lines by Shakespeare: Quotes on Life, Love and More
A curated collection of Shakespeare's most famous lines, organised by theme, from love and loss to daily wisdom, sport and celebration. Each quote includes the play it comes from and why it still resonates.
2024-03-03
Why Is Shakespeare Known as The Bard?
"The Bard" is Shakespeare's most famous nickname. Where did it come from? We explore the origins of the title, what bards actually were, and why Shakespeare earned the name that stuck for 400 years.
2024-02-23
What Type of Plays Did Shakespeare Write?
Shakespeare's plays fall into three iconic genres: tragedies, comedies and histories. Learn what defines each type, with examples from Hamlet to Twelfth Night, plus the clever flag system the Globe Theatre used to advertise them.