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Author Harkup, Kathryn, author.

Title Death by Shakespeare : snakebites, stabbings and broken hearts / Kathryn Harkup.

Publication Info. London ; New York : Bloomsbury Sigma, 2020.

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Berlin-Peck Memorial Library - Non Fiction  822.33 HARKUP    Check Shelf
 Cromwell-Belden Public Library - Adult Department  822.33 HAR    Check Shelf
 Enfield, Main Library - Adult Department  822.33 HAR    Check Shelf
 Glastonbury, Welles-Turner Memorial Library - Adult Department  822.33 HARKUP    Check Shelf
 Manchester, Main Library - Non Fiction  822.33 HARKUP    Check Shelf
 Mansfield, Main Library - Adult Nonfiction  822.33 HARKUP    Check Shelf
 Middletown, Russell Library - NEW Adult Nonfiction  822.33 HAR    Missing
 New Britain, Main Library - Non Fiction  822.33 HAR    Check Shelf
 West Hartford, Noah Webster Library - Non Fiction  Z822.3 SHAKESPEARE H    Check Shelf
Description 368 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Series Bloomsbury sigma series
Bloomsbury sigma series.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 353-359) and index.
Contents Prologue -- Our humble author -- All the world's a stage -- Will you be cured of your infirmity? -- Off with his head! -- Murder, murder! -- The dogs of war -- A plague o'both your houses! -- Most delicious poison -- To be, or not to be -- Excessive grief the enemy to the living -- Exit pursued by a bear -- Epilogue.
Summary 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.
Subject Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Knowledge -- Science.
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Knowledge -- Medicine.
Science -- History -- 16th century.
Medicine -- History -- 16th century.
Death -- History -- 16th century.
LITERARY CRITICISM / Shakespeare.
SCIENCE / Chemistry / Toxicology.
SCIENCE / History.
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. (OCoLC)fst00029048
Death. (OCoLC)fst00888613
Medicine. (OCoLC)fst01014893
Science. (OCoLC)fst01108176
Chronological Term 1500-1599
Genre/Form History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
ISBN 9781472958211
1472958217
9781472958228 (hardcover)
1472958225 (hardcover)
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