EAN: 9781472958204

DEATH BY SHAKESPEARE - KATHRYN HARKUP KARTONIER...

A deep dive into the science behind the creative ways Shakespeare killed off his characters.
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.

Aktuelle Preise zur EAN 9781472958204

Produktinformationen zur 9781472958204