The Hatch and Brood of Time is a column on the place of William Shakespeare in history, his works, and their interpretations. Along with providing insight into the cultures of Elizabethan and Jacobean England, Shakespeare’s works have inspired innovation over centuries and fields, from the shaping of modern cryptography to the naming of Uranus’s moons. The Hatch and Brood of Time examines how Shakespeare has influenced and reflected history, revealing his multifaceted impact on the present day.
Volume 26: April 22, 2021 Percy Shelley and The Tempest By London Johns According to a dialogue published in New Monthly Magazine in 1830, Lord Byron and Percy Shelley were walking together through the forest when Byron mentioned that he had been reading Hamlet, and he was disappointed by what...
Volume 25: April 5, 2021 Reading Shakespeare’s Plays in the Old West By London Johns In 1879, Colonel William G. Boyle, the owner of most of the land in a small mining town in New Mexico named Ralston City, was determined to heal the town’s reputation. Since 1870,...
Volume 22: March 11, 2021 Followers of the Man in the Moon By London Johns When the players in A Midsummer Night’s Dream consider what characters are required to tell the story of “Pyramus and Thisbe”, they decide that since the story takes place under the light of the...
Volume 19: February 15, 2021 The Plight of the Children of the Chapel By London Johns In 1600, 13-year-old Thomas Clifton was walking to school when he was kidnapped and brought by force to the Blackfriars playhouse. When his father, Henry Clifton, arrived at Blackfriars to retrieve him, he was...
Volume 17: February 1, 2021 Contextualizing Hamlet's Pirates By London Johns Possibly the strangest part of Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a passage in which Hamlet claims that he has been captured by pirates on the way to England. The pirates are only written about in a letter, and...
Volume 18: February 8, 2021 Elizabethan Costumes as Status Symbols By London Johns The aim of many modern costume designers is to create a sense of realism. Plays set in a particular location and era require actors to dress in a way that communicates their characters’ time period and culture....
