Shakespeare Anyone?

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 In this episode, we dig into one of the most dramatic scandals of Shakespeare's time: the rise and catastrophic fall of Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex. Court favorite, military hero, and ultimately, traitor, Essex had everything and managed to lose it spectacularly. 
We break down who Essex was, his relationship with Elizabeth, and what finally led him to march on London with a small bnad of followers and an extremely bad plan. And of course, we're a Shakespeare podcast, so we touch on the wild connection between Essex's Rebellion and Shakespeare.
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
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Buy us a coffee
Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores.
Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link.
Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.
Works referenced:
Bate, Jonathan. Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare. Viking, 2008. pp. 256–286.
BBC Bitesize. "The Rebellion of the Earl of Essex - Queen Elizabeth I and Government - OCR B - GCSE History Revision - OCR B - BBC Bitesize." BBC News, BBC, 6 Feb. 2025, www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z88fk7h/revision/3.
Hammer, Paul E. J. (2004). "Devereux, Robert, second earl of Essex (1565–1601)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
Mr Keir History Teacher. " Essex Rebellion - Causes and Consequences #Education #AQA #ElizabethanEngland." YouTube, 2022, youtu.be/7VPKqvINtz8. 
Shanette, Heather. "Essex Rebellion (1601)". Elizabeth R : The Life and Times of Queen Elizabeth I. Published 1998-2026. https://www.elizabethi.org/contents/rebellions/essex/ 
Teysko, Heather. "Episode 201: Robert Devereaux the Earl of Essex - Renaissance English History Podcast." Renaissance English History Podcast - The Original Tudor History Podcast, 22 Nov. 2024, www.englandcast.com/2024/11/episode-201-robert-devereaux-the-earl-of-essex/.

Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you.
In today's episode, we are exploring how Shakespeare depicts Julius Caesar's "falling sickness," commonly believed by historians and scholars to be epilepsy. First, we'll discuss how the play Julius Caesar can be read as a disability narrative and how it reflects early modern anxieties around invisible disabilities like epilepsy. 
Then, we will look at how Shakespeare depicts falling sickness or epilepsy across the canon and determine whether or not the depictions are as accurate as they are often celebrated to be. Finally, we will share an alternative diagnosis for Caesar's symptoms based on what is known of historical Caesar's medical history. 
Content Warning: Emetophobia, brief discussion of eating disorders
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
For updates:
Join our email list
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod
Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
Support the podcast:
Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone 
Buy us a coffee
Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores.
Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link.
Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.
Works referenced:
Breuer, Horst. "Bilder Der Epilepsie Bei Shakespeare / Representations of Epilepsy in Shakespeare." Medizinhistorisches Journal, vol. 37, no. 1, 2002, pp. 5–19. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25805304. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
Hamlyn, Tim. "The Nature of Caesar's Illness." Latomus, vol. 73, no. 2, 2014, pp. 360–67. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24858427. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
Hobgood, Allison. (2009). Caesar Hath the Falling Sickness: The Legibility of Early Modern Disability in Shakespearean Drama. Disability Studies Quarterly. 29. 10.18061/dsq.v29i4.993.

Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you.
In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Cassius argues that "Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings." In this week's episode, we are exploring early modern ideas of fate and the stars and the practices and beliefs of astrology in Shakespeare's time. 
We'll discuss the difference between the early modern concepts of natural and judicial astrology, the popularity and influence of astrology and astrologers in Early Modern England, and how it found its way into plays like Shakespeare's.
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
 
For updates:
Join our email list
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod
Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
Support the podcast:
Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone 
Buy us a coffee
Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores.
Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link.
Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.
Works referenced:
Bragg, Melvin, host. "Renaissance Astrology." In Our Time: Science, BBC Radio, 14 Jun 2007. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007nmym
Cash, Cassidy, host, and Barbara Traister, guest. "Episode #13: Interview with Barbara Traister exploring astrology, doctors, herbs, and witches in Shakespeare's England." That Shakespeare Life, episode 13, Cassidy Cash, 16 July 2018. https://cassidycash.libsyn.com/episode-13-interview-with-barbara-traister-exploring-astrology-doctors-herbs-and-witches-in-shakespeares-england
Kassell, Lauren, host. "Simon Forman: astrology, Medicine and Quackery in Elizabethan England." University of Oxford Podcasts, University of Oxford, 26 Oct 2011. https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/simon-forman-astrology-medicine-and-quackery-elizabethan-england
Lipscomb, Suzannah, host, and Benjamin Woolley, guest. "Elizabeth I's Conjuror: John Dee." Not Just the Tudors, episode 364, History Hit, 9 Oct 2024. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/elizabeth-is-conjuror-john-dee/id1564113869?i=1000670531385
Oxford English Dicitionary. "Astrology, N. Meanings, Etymology and More | Oxford English Dictionary." Oxford English Dictionary, 2026, www.oed.com/dictionary/astrology_n.
Oxford English Dicitionary. "Astronomy, N. Meanings, Etymology and More | Oxford English Dictionary." Oxford English Dictionary, 2026, www.oed.com/dictionary/astronomy_n.
Schifini, Julia and Amanda McLoughlin, hosts, and Kelly Downes, guest. "Episode 361: Astrology and Shakespeare (with Kelly Downes)." Spirits Podcast, episode 361, Multitude Productions, 8 Nov 2023. https://spiritspodcast.com/episodes/shakespeare-and-astrology 
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night, or What You Will , edited by Keir Elam, ARDEN SHAKESPEARE, LONDON, UK, 2008, pp. 180n1.3.132-5. Third.
Walker, Katherine. "Almanacs as Underdogs: Folger Shakespeare Library." Folger Shakespeare Library Almanacs as Underdogs Comments, Folger Shakespeare Library, 19 Mar. 2019, www.folger.edu/blogs/collation/almanacs-as-underdogs/.
 Smith, William Bruce, "Shakespeare and astrology" (1989). Chapter 2. Master's Theses. Paper 1083

Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you.
In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare repeatedly reminds us that Brutus is an honorable man. In this episode we will explore if this is true, how Shakespeare depicts both masculine honor and its early modern counterpart, feminine virtue, in the characters of Brutus and Portia, and how Portia's characterization by editors and theatremakers has changed over time. 
First, we unpack how honor was defined for Shakespeare's audiences and how the play incorporates Early Modern anxieties about rhetoric throughout the plot. We then closely examine Brutus's desire to be perceived as honorable, how that shapes his choices, and whether or not he is ultimately honorable. 
Then we will turn to Portia, tracing how editors and theatremakers have altered her language and characterization across time in order to make her virtue more palatable to the moral expectations of their moment. We look at what gets changed, what gets softened or erased, and what those choices reveal about how women are policed on stage and on the page. 
Content Warning: Discussions of suicide and self-harm. 
If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK  to 741741.
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
For updates:
Join our email list
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod
Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
Support the podcast:
Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone 
Buy us a coffee
Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores.
Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link.
Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.
Works referenced:
GRAY, PATRICK. "CONCLUSION TO PART I: SHAKESPEARE'S PASSION PLAY." Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic: Selfhood, Stoicism and Civil War, Edinburgh University Press, 2019, pp. 145–74. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv7n09n2.9. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
Sacharoff, Mark. "Suicide and Brutus' Philosophy in Julius Caesar." Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 33, no. 1, 1972, pp. 115–22. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2709060. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
Scott, Sarah K. "Portia and the Circulation of Virtue: 'Men May Construe Things after Their Fashion.'" Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England, vol. 32, 2019, pp. 219–38. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26800556. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.

 Xiao, Xinyao. (2018). "Oxymoronic Ethos: the Rhetoric of Honor and Its Performance in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar." Philological Quarterly. 97. 263-285.

Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you.
As we start off another one of Shakespeare's plays, we will first take a look at the themes, motifs,  and production history of Julius Caesar in this Stuff to Chew On episode. This will provide a basis for future conversations as we dive deeper in later episodes. 
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
For updates:
Join our email list
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod
Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
Support the podcast:
Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone -- get 50% off of your first month with code HBD5 until February 1, 2026
Buy us a coffee
Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores.
Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link.
Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.
Works referenced:
Mowat, Barbara, and Paul Werstine. "About Shakespeare's Julius Caesar." Folger Shakespeare Library, 2025, www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/julius-caesar/about-shakespeares-julius-caesar/.
Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. Edited by Andrew James Hartley, Arden Shakespeare, 2024.
SparkNotes Editors. "Julius Caesar" SparkNotes.com, SparkNotes LLC, 2005, https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/juliuscaesar/