By: Hannah Paget,
on 1/10/2016
In All's Well that Ends Well (3.7), Helena devises a plan to ignite the affections of her husband, for which she needs the help of her new acquaintances, a widow and her daughter. The widow is naturally suspicious, but Helena persuades her by offering to pay for her daughter's marriage.
The post Money, money, money appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Catherine,
on 1/9/2016
Would you like to pay a halfpenny for a small beer, 1 shilling for a liter of wine, or less than 2 pounds for a horse? If you lived in 17th century England you could buy all of these and even afford Shakespeare's First Folio, which was only £1 when it was published.
The post 10 crisp facts about money during Shakespeare’s time appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Helena Palmer,
on 1/3/2016
George Bernard Shaw considered himself a socialist, but was apt to make surprising remarks about the poor. "Hamlet's experiences simply could not have happened to a plumber," he wrote in the preface to his play The Dark Lady of the Sonnets in 1910, and "A poor man is useful on the stage only as a blind man is: to excite sympathy."
The post The rich and the poor in Shakespeare appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Catherine,
on 1/2/2016
What would it be like to live in Elizabethan England? One might be lucky enough to dress in embroidered clothing and commission portraits, or one might be forced to beg for alms or peddle trinkets in order to survive.
The post A glimpse into the world of Shakespeare and money in the 16th and 17th centuries appeared first on OUPblog.
