Shakespeare Anyone?

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In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Cassius argues that "Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings." In this week's episode, we are exploring early modern ideas of fate and the stars and the practices and beliefs of astrology in Shakespeare's time. 
We'll discuss the difference between the early modern concepts of natural and judicial astrology, the popularity and influence of astrology and astrologers in Early Modern England, and how it found its way into plays like Shakespeare's.
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
 
For updates:
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Support the podcast:
Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone 
Buy us a coffee
Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores.
Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link.
Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.
Works referenced:
Bragg, Melvin, host. "Renaissance Astrology." In Our Time: Science, BBC Radio, 14 Jun 2007. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007nmym
Cash, Cassidy, host, and Barbara Traister, guest. "Episode #13: Interview with Barbara Traister exploring astrology, doctors, herbs, and witches in Shakespeare's England." That Shakespeare Life, episode 13, Cassidy Cash, 16 July 2018. https://cassidycash.libsyn.com/episode-13-interview-with-barbara-traister-exploring-astrology-doctors-herbs-and-witches-in-shakespeares-england
Kassell, Lauren, host. "Simon Forman: astrology, Medicine and Quackery in Elizabethan England." University of Oxford Podcasts, University of Oxford, 26 Oct 2011. https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/simon-forman-astrology-medicine-and-quackery-elizabethan-england
Lipscomb, Suzannah, host, and Benjamin Woolley, guest. "Elizabeth I's Conjuror: John Dee." Not Just the Tudors, episode 364, History Hit, 9 Oct 2024. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/elizabeth-is-conjuror-john-dee/id1564113869?i=1000670531385
Oxford English Dicitionary. "Astrology, N. Meanings, Etymology and More | Oxford English Dictionary." Oxford English Dictionary, 2026, www.oed.com/dictionary/astrology_n.
Oxford English Dicitionary. "Astronomy, N. Meanings, Etymology and More | Oxford English Dictionary." Oxford English Dictionary, 2026, www.oed.com/dictionary/astronomy_n.
Schifini, Julia and Amanda McLoughlin, hosts, and Kelly Downes, guest. "Episode 361: Astrology and Shakespeare (with Kelly Downes)." Spirits Podcast, episode 361, Multitude Productions, 8 Nov 2023. https://spiritspodcast.com/episodes/shakespeare-and-astrology 
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night, or What You Will , edited by Keir Elam, ARDEN SHAKESPEARE, LONDON, UK, 2008, pp. 180n1.3.132-5. Third.
Walker, Katherine. "Almanacs as Underdogs: Folger Shakespeare Library." Folger Shakespeare Library Almanacs as Underdogs Comments, Folger Shakespeare Library, 19 Mar. 2019, www.folger.edu/blogs/collation/almanacs-as-underdogs/.
 Smith, William Bruce, "Shakespeare and astrology" (1989). Chapter 2. Master's Theses. Paper 1083

Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you.
In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare repeatedly reminds us that Brutus is an honorable man. In this episode we will explore if this is true, how Shakespeare depicts both masculine honor and its early modern counterpart, feminine virtue, in the characters of Brutus and Portia, and how Portia's characterization by editors and theatremakers has changed over time. 
First, we unpack how honor was defined for Shakespeare's audiences and how the play incorporates Early Modern anxieties about rhetoric throughout the plot. We then closely examine Brutus's desire to be perceived as honorable, how that shapes his choices, and whether or not he is ultimately honorable. 
Then we will turn to Portia, tracing how editors and theatremakers have altered her language and characterization across time in order to make her virtue more palatable to the moral expectations of their moment. We look at what gets changed, what gets softened or erased, and what those choices reveal about how women are policed on stage and on the page. 
Content Warning: Discussions of suicide and self-harm. 
If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK  to 741741.
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
For updates:
Join our email list
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod
Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
Support the podcast:
Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone 
Buy us a coffee
Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores.
Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link.
Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.
Works referenced:
GRAY, PATRICK. "CONCLUSION TO PART I: SHAKESPEARE'S PASSION PLAY." Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic: Selfhood, Stoicism and Civil War, Edinburgh University Press, 2019, pp. 145–74. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv7n09n2.9. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
Sacharoff, Mark. "Suicide and Brutus' Philosophy in Julius Caesar." Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 33, no. 1, 1972, pp. 115–22. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2709060. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
Scott, Sarah K. "Portia and the Circulation of Virtue: 'Men May Construe Things after Their Fashion.'" Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England, vol. 32, 2019, pp. 219–38. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26800556. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.

 Xiao, Xinyao. (2018). "Oxymoronic Ethos: the Rhetoric of Honor and Its Performance in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar." Philological Quarterly. 97. 263-285.

Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you.
As we start off another one of Shakespeare's plays, we will first take a look at the themes, motifs,  and production history of Julius Caesar in this Stuff to Chew On episode. This will provide a basis for future conversations as we dive deeper in later episodes. 
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
For updates:
Join our email list
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod
Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
Support the podcast:
Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone -- get 50% off of your first month with code HBD5 until February 1, 2026
Buy us a coffee
Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores.
Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link.
Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.
Works referenced:
Mowat, Barbara, and Paul Werstine. "About Shakespeare's Julius Caesar." Folger Shakespeare Library, 2025, www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/julius-caesar/about-shakespeares-julius-caesar/.
Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. Edited by Andrew James Hartley, Arden Shakespeare, 2024.
SparkNotes Editors. "Julius Caesar" SparkNotes.com, SparkNotes LLC, 2005, https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/juliuscaesar/

Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you.
It's time for our eleventh play! Today we are starting our series on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar with a synopsis episode. In this episode, we will provide a detailed summary of the plot, breaking down the action of the play scene by scene. 
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
Special thanks to Nat Yonce for editing this episode.
For updates:
Join our email list
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod
Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
Support the podcast:
Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone -- get 50% off of your first month with code HBD5 until February 1, 2026
Buy us a coffee
Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores.
Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link.
Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.
Works referenced:
Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. Edited by Andrew James Hartley, Arden Shakespeare, 2024.

Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you.
Back in 2021, we recorded our second ever wrap-up episode for our second play series: Twelfth Night. We both watched two versions of Twelfth Night: Trevor Nunn's 1996 film and She's the Man, then we also each watched an additional version. Kourtney watched the The Globe's 2012 production starring Mark Rylance, and Elyse watched National Theatre's 2017 production featuring Tamsin Greig. 
But then, tragedy struck when Kourtney went to edit the episode! The audio files for the majority of the episode were corrupted and could not be used. The only usable audio was the portion of our conversation about She's the Man. So, we released what we could as our "Twelfth Night: Wrap Up" episode. 
Since that day, we've dreamed about going back and revisiting the three productions that were lost to technological issues. Today, we are so excited to revisit those productions and share our 2025 thoughts with you. 
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
Sound effects obtained by ZapSplat.com.
For updates:
Join our email list
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod
Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
Support the podcast:
Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone 
Buy us a coffee
Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores.
Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link.
Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.
Works referenced:
Carroll, Tim, director. Twelfth Night: Live from Shakespeare's Globe. Performance by Stephen Fry, and Mark Rylance, Electric Sky, 2012.
Godwin, Simon, director. Twelfth Night. Performance by Tamsin Grieg, et al., National Theatre at Home, 2017, https://www.ntathome.com/products/twelfth-night. Accessed 2025.
Nunn, Trevor, director. Twelfth Night; or What You Will. Performance by Imogen Stubbs, Helena Bonham Carter, and Ben Kingsley. Entertainment in Video, 1996.