
Episode 260: Introduction to William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”
Welcome to The Literary Life Podcast and our first book series of 2025, covering Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. Our hosts, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks begin by sharing their commonplace quotes, then lead into a little biographical background on William Shakespeare and the way in which he wrote his plays. They also talk a little about Elizabethan period drama as a whole, as well as how Shakespeare bucked the standards of form for the time period. Some other topics they cover are how Shakespeare was received in his time, how later literary periods saw his influence decrease and increase, and Elizabethan cosmology and the setting of the Globe Theatre.
Read along with Thomas as he shares Ulysses’ monologue from Troilus and Cressida here: https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/troilus-and-cressida/read/1/3/?q=troy#line-1.3.79
The seventh annual Literary Life Online Conference is now open for registration. Please visit HouseofHumaneLetters.com to sign up for that as well as all the other upcoming webinars of 2025!
Also see our 2023 Literary Life conference talks on Shakespeare for more help as you dive into Shakespeare with us this season!
Episodes Mentioned:
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Series
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Commonplace Quotes:
We are the children of the gods, and are never more the slaves of circumstance than when we deem ourselves their masters. What may next happen in the dazzling farce of life, the Fates only know.
Benjamin Disraeli, from “Letters”
I don’t think we should update the language. It always loses something in the translation–the poetry, the fizz. Or it loses the rhythm.
Judi Dench, from Shakespeare, the Man Who Pays the Rent
One of the first points to get clear about Shakespeare is that he didn’t use the drama for anything: he entered into its conditions as they were then, and accepted them totally. That fact has everything to do with his rank as a poet now….And one thing seems clear in Shakespeare: there is never anything outside his plays that he wants to “say” or talk about in the plays.
Northrop Frye, from Northrop Frye On Shakespeare
Sonnet 154
by William Shakespeare
The little love-god, lying once asleep,
Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,
Whilst many nymphs that vowed chaste life to keep
Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand
The fairest votary took up that fire,
Which many legions of true hearts had warmed;
And so the general of hot desire
Was, sleeping, by a virgin hand disarmed.
This brand she quenchèd in a cool well by,
Which from Love’s fire took heat perpetual,
Growing a bath and healthful remedy
For men diseased; but I, my mistress’ thrall,
Came there for cure, and this by that I prove:
Love’s fire heats water; water cools not love.
Books Mentioned:
Amazon Affiliate links follow
Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb
Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin
The Discarded Image by C. S. Lewis
The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis by Jason Baxter
The Elizabethan World Picture by E. M. W. Tillyard
Shakespeare’s History Plays by E. M. W. Tillyard
Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit
Guide to Shakespeare by Isaac Asimov
The Meaning of Shakespeare, Vol. 1 & 2 by Harold Goddard
Northrop Frye’s On Shakespeare by Northrop Frye
Lectures on Shakespeare by W. H. Auden
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