Sep 2, 2019
When William Shakespeare was writing plays like Richard II in London, including the abdication scene we know it for today would have, and often did, get playwrights arrested for their challenge to the authority of the monarch. That’s one reason Shakespeare’s plays, Richard II, was traditionally performed without the abdication scene except for the one fateful day it was staged intentionally including that as part of what would ultimately become a failed rebellion against Elizabeth I. Though Shakespeare escaped prison for that performance, his friends Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, and George Wilkins were not so fortunate. In the case of Ben Jonson, it seems he wanted to be sent to prison, claiming at least once to have gone voluntarily. Here this week to help us explore the subversive nature of theater and playwriting specifically in England as a propaganda machine is our guest Dr. Ian De Jong.