🌙 You’re invited to take part in a special programme of talks at Shakespeare’s New Place, as we explore the Women Who Made Shakespeare with a host of the best and the brightest academics and experts. ✨

Discover the full programme here:💫 bit.ly/3wklFfr

Read Mike Jay’s piece here: lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/…

An inspiring letter in the latest London Review of Books 😴

Elizabeth II, Queen
audience with Truss 1-3
death 3-8

Proofs! of my essay ‘Shakespeare’s Arabic Sonnets’, to be published in ‘Shakespeare Survey’ later this year

'I do not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.' -A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Happy Birthday Mary Wollstonecraft, born #OTD 1759. You can listen to the Chawton House audiobook of her novel, Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman here: youtube.com/watch?v=1tuhyC…

An uncomfortable moment in which I find myself sympathetic to Enoch Powell… From this week’s The TLS letters pages. ✂️

⭐️🪶 Introducing our first BritGrad 2024 plenary speaker, Dr. Katherine Schaap Williams 🪶⭐️ Dr. Katherine Schaap Williams #britgrad2024

Normally the notion of nine hours on Zoom, albeit with regular breaks, would strike a chill into my heart. But today’s livestream of Folio Futures Texas A&M University has been riveting — great discussions about the past, present and future of Shakespearean editing + digital humanities.

I’ll be talking about Shakespeare’s birthplace next week Stratford Literary Festival with Tiffany Stern Shakespeare Institute and Emma Smith

What a thrill to talk about ‘Shakespeare’s Arabic Sonnets’ in Oxford’s Painted Room, where Shakespeare may have stayed (and, er, collaborated with the landlady to produce William Davenant). Quite something to be lecturing under this 16thC inscription. Thanks, Oxford Preservation Trust!

This Sunday (28 April) is the free PREMIERE of a new documentary about Elizabeth Cary’s Tragedy of Mariam, directed by me and produced by my students. Join us at 7 pm EDT for the film and 8:30 pm EDT for a talkback with the cast and crew. Registration link below!

Glad to have helped organise this collaborative event between Shakespeare Institute and our partners 早稲田大学 Waseda University in Tokyo. Tune in on 18 May to hear Sir Stanley Wells in conversation with Paul_Edmondson. Registration through link below. 🇬🇧🇯🇵

What an extraordinary, touching and generous exchange between Rita Dove and the dying Helen Vendler, a great critic whose loss we mourn.

Where do sonnets come from? At our special event in the Painted Room, Dr Robert Stagg will give us a fresh history of the sonnet surrounded by stunningly preserved wall paintings. Come along tomorrow, Thursday 25 April, at 5.30pm: bit.ly/43jZt10

Helen Vendler majored as a chemist, and her attention to poetic form always seemed to begin with a chemist’s eye for structure — although it then noticed so much more. Her death is a great loss.

St George and the dragon, from a book of magic spells and incantations written in Syriac (Northern Iraq?, 18th century?). Given to Cambridge UL Special Collections in 1891 by University Librarian Francis Jenkinson. MS Add. 3086. #StGeorge sDay #StGeorge

An impressive pair of papers Oxford CEMS this evening: first Beth Dubow talking about the changing meaning of poetic “numbers” in Spenser and other early modern writers, then Carla Suthren’s detective work on university drama at All Souls College. Brava, both!

“I've got into terrible trouble for laughing.” 🤣

Dami Judi Dench tells John Wilson about getting the giggles at the worst possible time on stage.

Listen to This Cultural Life now on BBC Sounds, or watch on BBC iPlayer.

Happy birthday, William Shakespeare! Fun to join this morning’s Oxford Preservation Trust celebrations in the Painted Room on Cornmarket, Oxford, where Shakespeare may have stayed (and sired William Davenant) when travelling between Stratford-upon-Avon and London. 🎁