History Cafe
History Cafe
Jon Rosebank, Penelope Middelboe
#123 Pissing on bagpipes - Ep 5 Shakespeare and the Groundlings
45 minutes Posted May 6, 2026 at 6:00 am.
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Show notes
Was Shakespeare a Catholic? We examine the evidence and then ask whether his audience would have compartmentalised the world into Protestant, Catholic or alchemical. Wasn’t their world full of magic? In his last solo play, The Tempest, a white magus, Prospero, tells the audience that it’s up to them to make good things happen, to create a ‘brave new world’ in which everyone can be reconciled. Is this Shakespeare’s leave-taking?

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