Shakespeare: Past Master | 2. Romeo and Julie...

She led “a life that really, in many ways, shouldn't have been possible”. So says historian Paul Gillingham of Juana Inés de la Cruz. This 17th-century polymath and nun challenged a host of social conventions – earning, through her extraordinary books and poems, a place in the pa ...  Show more

While the crusades raged across the Holy Land in the southern Levant, the kingdoms of central and northern Europe were engaged in their own battle to extend Christendom. Speaking to James Osborne, Aleks Pluskowski details how and when the Baltic crusades – or Northern crusades – ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Shakespeare's famous tragedy, written in the early 1590s after a series of histories and comedies. His audience already knew the story of the feuding Capulets and Montagues in Verona and the fate of the young lovers from their rival houses, ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Shakespeare's famous tragedy, written in the early 1590s after a series of histories and comedies. His audience already knew the story of the feuding Capulets and Montagues in Verona and the fate of the young lovers from their rival houses, ...  Show more

The Bard’s work featured many references to sex and sexuality - some more obvious than others. But what does the work reveal about the sexuality of Shakespeare himself? 

Despite being married with three kids to Anne Hathaway in the sleepy suburbs of Stratford-up ...

Many historians believe William Shakespeare is the greatest playwright who ever lived. Many don’t—citing theories of theft to explain his library of work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices