William Shakespeare found dozens of different ways to kill off his
characters, and audiences today still enjoy the same reactions - shock,
sadness, fear - that they did more than 400 years ago when these plays
were first performed. But how realistic are these deaths, and did
Shakespeare have the knowledge to back them up?
In the Bard's day death was a part of everyday life. Plague, pestilence
and public executions were a common occurrence, and the chances of
seeing a dead or dying body on the way home from the theatre were high.
It was also a time of important scientific progress. Shakespeare kept
pace with anatomical and medical advances, and he included the latest
scientific discoveries in his work, from blood circulation to treatments
for syphilis. He certainly didn't shy away from portraying the reality
of death on stage, from the brutal to the mundane, and the spectacular
to the silly.
Elizabethan London provides the backdrop for Death by Shakespeare, as
Kathryn Harkup turns her discerning scientific eye to the Bard and the
varied and creative ways his characters die. Was death by snakebite as
serene as Shakespeare makes out? Could lack of sleep have killed Lady
Macbeth? Can you really murder someone by pouring poison in their ear?
Kathryn investigates what actual events may have inspired Shakespeare,
what the accepted scientific knowledge of the time was, and how
Elizabethan audiences would have responded to these death scenes. Death
by Shakespeare will tell you all this and more in a rollercoaster of
Elizabethan carnage, poison, swordplay and bloodshed, with an occasional
death by bear-mauling for good measure.
