That Shakespeare Society offers a space to linger over the details and explore how objects, images, and records. Come inside for all the extras! www.patreon.com/posts/146074...

Jewelry wasn’t just decoration at Elizabeth I’s court—it was diplomacy. Courtiers like Robert Dudley gave jewels meant to be worn again and again, keeping the giver visible in the queen’s daily life. www.cassidycash.com/ep403

This week on Weird Word Wednesday, we explore 'clanger', a word with a powerful double edged meaning both for sound as it was scenery.

This January I’m sharing more about That Shakespeare Society — where the deeper historical material behind That Shakespeare Life lives. If you enjoy digging into the archives, you’ll feel right at home. 👉 www.patreon.com/thatshakespe...

Elizabeth I’s New Year’s gifts were recorded in long parchment documents known as the New Year’s Gift Rolls. They list not only what the queen received, but also what she gave in return—organized by rank, with status revealed through the weight of gold and silver plate. www.cassidycash.com/ep403

NEW EPISODE: In Shakespeare’s England, New Year’s Day—not Christmas—was the most important gift-giving holiday. This week we explore how Queen Elizabeth I and her courtiers used New Year’s gifts to signal loyalty, negotiate favor, and wield power at court. cassidycash.com/ep403

Did Shakespeare make resolutions to mark the New Year? What was the first of January like for Shakespeare's lifetime? Let's find out what the end of the holiday season would have included in the 16th century, right now on YouTube youtu.be/DgL4A5S1I78

Right now inside That Shakespeare Society, we’re exploring Ben Jonson’s court masques up close—surviving costume drawings, stage designs, rare printed texts, & the real places where these spectacles unfolded. Explore with us! www.patreon.com/posts/145921...

Jonson’s masques weren’t just symbolic—they were lived experiences. One record claims a 108-year-old man danced in The Masque of Queens (1609) before King James I. www.cassidycash.com/ep402

Grateful to start a new year with this incredible community. Cheers to learning, imagination, and of course, more Shakespeare!. Happy New Year!

In Shakespeare’s world, resolve meant more than a simple decision—it signaled firm intention, inner strength, and moral determination. In this short, we explore how the word captures moments of purpose and courage in the plays, and why its meaning still resonates today.

Ben Jonson’s Masque of Blackness (1605) was staged at Whitehall for Queen Anne of Denmark with spectacular moving scenery by Inigo Jones—and cost the equivalent of £750,000–£1.5M today for a single night. 🎭✨ www.cassidycash.com/ep402

NEW EPISODE: “What Masque? What Music?” Ben Jonson and the Art of Court Spectacle with Martin Butler. Discover how Jonson became the master of court masques, creating dazzling spectacles with Inigo Jones. www.cassidycash.com/ep402

Christmas as a multi-week affair for Shakespeare, so does that mean he gave gifts to his friends and family for the entire two weeks? Find out how gift giving worked for the holidays in Shakespeare's lifetime, right now on YouTube youtu.be/kp7tVt5HrhU

Want to see the portraits, court schedule, and Hampton Court staging images from Episode 401? Members of That Shakespeare Society get exclusive access to the full set of visuals + detailed show notes for this Christmas episode. → www.patreon.com/posts/145443...

Wishing you a warm and joyful Christmas season! 🎄✨ May your holidays be filled with good cheer, good company, and all the brightness this time of year brings. From my family to yours—Merry Christmas! —Cassidy

During the Christmas season of 1603, Robert Armin likely wrote The Fair Maid of Bristol, a hastily crafted play created to help the King’s Men meet James I’s demand for seven performances. His presence was essential to the company’s versatility at court. www.cassidycash.com/ep401

Let's explore the word wassail—a term tied to festive drinking, communal celebration, and the rituals of holiday excess in Shakespeare’s time. Drawn from Hamlet, wassail evokes not just merriment, but the cultural expectations and social judgments surrounding revelry in the early modern world.

While James I and Queen Anne celebrated at Hampton Court, Elizabeth remained at Combe Abbey under the care of Lord Harington. Her absence reminds us that the new royal family was still scattered between England and Scotland during this transitional year. www.cassidycash.com/ep401

A NEW EPISODE: A Royal Christmas, 1603 This week on That Shakespeare Life, we step inside James I’s first Christmas as King of England—filled with masques, politics, and Shakespeare’s company performing for the crown. www.cassidycash.com/ep401

Did Shakespeare Have a Christmas Tree? No, he didn't, but he did use plants to decorate for the holiday season. Find out what he would have used right now on YouTube: youtu.be/_P3cELsmcHU

The Queen’s House at Greenwich stands as one of the most striking legacies of Anne of Denmark—a radical, classical design commissioned by the queen herself and completed by her daughter. www.cassidycash.com/ep400

Want to see the portraits, masque drawings, and primary sources behind this week’s episode on Anne of Denmark? Join That Shakespeare Society for access to the detailed show notes with curated images and historical artifacts. www.patreon.com/posts/145399...

What did Shakespeare mean by “dire”? In this short, we unpack the word dire as it appears in Shakespeare’s plays—far more than simply “bad” or “serious.” In the early modern world, dire carried a sense of dread, doom, and fearful consequence.

NEW EPISODE: Anne of Denmark didn’t just watch court masques—she performed in them, helping introduce innovations that transformed early modern theatre. Listen to the full story in Episode 400. www.cassidycash.com/ep400

Thank you for being part of this journey through the real life of William Shakespeare—from court masques and Tudor politics to weather, recipes, and card games. This show exists because you love discovering the history behind the plays. Here’s to many more stories ahead!

NEW EPISODE: Episode 400 is here! Today we’re exploring the life and legacy of Anne of Denmark—the queen who reshaped court performance, transformed the masque, and influenced the world Shakespeare lived in. www.cassidycash.com/ep400

Did Shakespeare Celebrate Christmas the way we do today? Let's find out. youtu.be/hP8vnlzitpg

In Thomas Harman's work that claimed to recount the witness testimony and personal accounts of the life of a vagabond, he relays a moment when "W.T." is granted permission and "lawfully allowed" to be a "Roge" and to "use cant to ask and beg for thy living." www.cassidycash.com/ep399

Thomas Harman’s Caveat for Common Cursitors claimed to expose the secret lives—and secret language—of “rogues and vagabonds.” But was he documenting a real criminal culture… or inventing one? 🎧 Found out more: cassidycash.com/ep399

Join us inside That Shakespeare Society to see the primary documents, archival material, museum artifacts, and portraits that went into the making of our show and see insider extras that let you look at the history while you listen. www.patreon.com/posts/143851...

For Tudor readers, “rogues,” “gipsies,” and “thieves” were all together in the criminal underworld—complete with its own vocabulary. Early pamphlets cataloged their “cant words,” offering a voyeuristic look at society’s outsiders. 🔎 With guest Ari Friedlander www.cassidycash.com/ep399

NEW EPISODE: Step inside the secret criminal underworld of Tudor England as @arifried introduces us to rogue cant—the coded slang of thieves, vagabonds, and con artists—and uncover how Shakespeare used this hidden vocabulary in his plays. 🎧 Listen now at cassidycash.com/ep399

Eggnog’s ancestor was a hot, spiced drink called posset—and Shakespeare knew it well. Discover the history in this week’s YouTube episode: youtu.be/Tg6k5d9Q_uI?...

Want to go deeper into King Arthur’s world than the episode alone can take you? Inside That Shakespeare Society, members can explore manuscripts, images, primary sources, heraldry, symbols and more! Join the members who step inside the history behind the show → www.patreon.com/posts/143578...

From tapestries to illuminated manuscripts, images of Arthur battling giants, receiving Excalibur, or presiding over the Round Table helped shape how early readers—and later the Tudors—understood the myth. See more → www.cassidycash.com/ep398

Henry VII named his firstborn Arthur on purpose—an intentional signal that the Tudors were heirs of Britain’s ancient, heroic past. Whether people believed Arthur was real or not, the symbolism was powerful… and political. | Learn more → www.cassidycash.com/ep398

NEW EPISODE: Did the Tudors really believe in King Arthur? And why did they use his legend to shape their dynasty? Find out with our guest, Andrew Hadfield. www.cassidycash.com/ep398

🦃✨ From 16th-century cookbooks to the earliest English turkey recipes, this week’s episode digs into the real history of how turkeys traveled from the Americas to Shakespeare’s world. Come for the food history, stay for the archival evidence. 🎥 Watch now → youtu.be/F9CpEJt-4Io

Come explore the history we're talking about on the show when you step into The Research Vault for members. Explore: 🦌 17th-century depictions of deerskin tanning 🏹 Archaeological finds from Patuxet and Plymouth 📜 Primary documents from the 1620s... and more! www.patreon.com/posts/143511...

Happy Thanksgiving! It's a wonderful time of year to be reminded of how much we have to be grateful for, and I am so deeply grateful to get to journey along in the study of history with you. Thank you! - Cassidy

Edward Winslow is the only person who wrote down an eye witness account of the 1621 feast, citing "that we might after a more special manner rejoice together " & "for three days we entertained and feasted." (Full account inside That Shakespeare Society). www.cassidycash.com/ep397

Join me and my guests from Plimoth Patuxet Museums @plimothpatuxet —Malissa Costa & Richard Pickering—as we explore Wampanoag clothing, diplomacy, deerskin traditions, and how Wampanoag agricultural knowledge shaped the Pilgrims’ survival in the 1620s. 🎧 Listen now: www.cassidycash.com/ep397

If you want to connect with other enthusiastic Shakespeareans in a world full of primary documents, museum artifacts, and historical gold nuggets, then join us inside That Shakespeare Society where we share all the extra content we couldn't cram into the podcast. www.patreon.com/thatshakespe...

Our guest this week, @greenleejw offers a treasure trove of eel pictures and historical accounts on his X.com feed. I highly encourage you to go there, follow him, and learn incredibly interesting facts about eels. Here's just one incredible feed to check out: x.com/greenleejw/s...

"The ships were...kind of a floating aquarium. The Dutch used them to transport live eels to London from c.1475 - 1938. There were small holes in the sides of the ship to allow for water flow. Here's a diagram of one, with the water compartment highlight." @greenleejw x.com/greenleejw/s...

NEW EPISODE: Have you ever wondered what kind of eels Shakespeare was talking about in Love's Labour's Lost? Find out the history of eels, the merchants that traded in them, and exactly how much they were worth, with our guest The Surprised Eel Historian, @greenleejw www.cassidycash.comep396

The potato has a complicated history for 17thC England. As new foods arrived from across the Atlantic, new words were invented, and sometimes--like "potato"--words were used to describe very different foods. Let's find out more as we ask "Did Shakespeare eat sweet potatoes?" youtu.be/NnOLINw37cQ

Before sequins, there were "oes" (Sometimes also called 'Spangles") which were made from gold or copper metal and sewn onto fabrics, like hats, to make them shiny, more luxurious, or more fancy. Here, a dress is fashioned by Inigo Jones using "oes." www.cassidycash.com/ep395

Want to SEE the feathers we’re talking about in this week's show? Members can explore: • Feathered hat portraits (Dudley, Rudolf II) • Featherwork of Aztec artisans • Ostrich feather illustrations ...and more! Step into the Research Vault → www.patreon.com/posts/142755...