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 12: December 14, 2020 Ophelia's Distraction By London Johns In Act IV, Scene 5 of Hamlet, Ophelia enters distracted. She sings suggestive folk songs and speaks in riddles. Two scenes later she has died, quietly and offstage. Ophelia’s madness, as brief as it is in the...
Volume 11: December 7, 2020 John Shakespeare the Wool Dealer By London Johns What is known about William Shakespeare’s childhood has been pieced together from scraps of information and much guesswork. Significantly more can be discovered about his parents during the years in which William Shakespeare was a child,...
Volume 23: March 20, 2021 Robert Devereux’s Ides of March By London Johns In 1599, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar was performed for the first time at the Globe Theater. Audiences watched as a military general fed off of the adoration of a mob, was tempted by the promise of...
The Hatch and Brood of Time Volume 10: November 30, 2020 By London Johns Newstok, Scott. “Front Cover.” Princeton University Press, 2020, press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691177083/how-to-think-like-shakespeare. Every morning, high school students across the country sit down at home, in front of desks or kitchen tables, headphones on....
The Hatch and Brood of Time Volume 9: November 23, 2020 By London Johns There are few mentions of the American colonies in Shakespeare’s works. Throughout all of his plays, the word “America” appears only once, in The Comedy of Errors; Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse mock a “spherical”...
The Hatch and Brood of Time Volume 8: November 16, 2020 By London Johns Music is a key aspect of Shakespeare’s plays. All but one of his comedies and all but four of his tragedies included songs or stage directions about songs, and songs were even included in three...
