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Shakespeare's Restless World

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Shakespeare's Restless World: 17. Plague and the Playhouse

Plague and the Playhouse

17. Plague and the Playhouse

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Shakespeare's Restless World, 17. Plague and the Playhouse

Early 17th-century proclamations reveal the impact of the 1603 plague outbreak.

Neil MacGregor reveals the impact of the plague of 1603 through a series of early 17th-century proclamations. From May 2012.

May 1603 saw not only a new king but the worst plague outbreak since the Black Death. Its impact and reach is told through a series of early seventeenth century proclamations. 

Object-based history series presented by Neil MacGregor, former Director of the British Museum.

Taking artefacts from William Shakespeare's time, he explores how Elizabethan and Jacobean playgoers made sense of the unstable and rapidly changing world in which they lived.

With old certainties shifting around them, in a time of political and religious unrest and economic expansion, Neil asks what the plays would have meant to the public when they were first performed.

He uses carefully selected objects to explore the great issues of the day that preoccupied the public and helped shape the works, and he considers what they can reveal about the concerns and beliefs of Shakespearean England.

Producer: Paul Kobrak

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2012.

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Factual: History

Neil MacGregor uncovers the stories 20 objects tell us about Shakespeare's world.

Making a selection of objects from the British Museum and collections across the UK, Neil MacGregor uncovers the stories they tell about Shakespeare's world.

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