Shakespeare, Plants and Gardens - Hubble, Bubble: Death by Shakespeare

‘Not of an Age, but for all Time’ – what can we learn about gardens and gardening from the works of our greatest playwright? Throughout his plays, William Shakespeare uses many botanical images both to set the scene on the stage, as well as to illustrate more universal truths. This series of talks will take a wide-ranging view, looking at the various ways in which Shakespeare – and some of his contemporaries - employed a knowledge of plants, flowers and gardens to enhance the action on the stage and the stories being told, and giving us an insight into the world in which the people of the time lived, worked and gardened.

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This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions via the links below, or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 4 sessions at a cost of £16 via the link here.

Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and a link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

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Week 1. 16 November. Plants and Gardens in Shakespeare: Part of a series of 4 online lectures, £5 each or all 4 for £16.

Week 2. 23 November. Not Shakespeare: Part of a series of 4 online lectures, £5 each or all 4 for £16.

Week 3. 30 November. Hubble, Bubble - Death by Shakespeare: Part of a series of 4 online lectures, £5 each or all 4 for £16.

Week 4. 7 December. Was Shakespeare a Gardener?: Part of a series of 4 online lectures, £5 each or all 4 for £16.

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Week 3. 30 November. Hubble, Bubble - Death by Shakespeare with Kathryn Harkup

The Bard killed off over 250 named characters, some of them in creatively chemical ways. This talk will look at Shakespeare's plant-based poisons. Did he know his henbane from his hemlock? What was stirred into the witch’s cauldron? And what could have been dripped into Old Hamlet's ear while he slept in his orchard?

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Dr Kathryn Harkup is a chemist and author. She writes and gives regular public talks on the disgusting and dangerous side of science. Her first book was the international best-seller A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie. She has also written Making the Monster: The Science of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts; Vampirology: The Science of Horror's Most Famous Fiend and The Secret Lives of the Elements.