by Jinny Webber | Nov 6, 2021 | Boy actors on Shakespeare's stage, Gender fluidity, Sex and Gender in Shakespeare's England, Shakespeare and Fiction, The Man-Woman |
The release date for Bedtrick will be November 16. Pre-order copies online or at your favorite book shop. Summary: During the tumultuous late days of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Alexander Cooke, born female, successfully passes as male to play Shakespeare’s...
by Jinny Webber | Sep 21, 2021 | Boy actors on Shakespeare's stage |
The third of Sander Cooke’s important female friends is Amelia Bassano Lanyer (Her name is variously spelled: Amelia, Emilia, or Æmelia and Lanyer or Lanier.) The Bassano family were musicians in the court of Henry VIII, natives of Venice and conversos, that is,...
by Jinny Webber | Aug 22, 2021 | Boy actors on Shakespeare's stage, Women Writers in Shakespeare's Era |
Early in Bedtrick when faced with a dilemma, Sander seeks out her old friend Mary Sidney Herbert, the Countess of Pembroke. Unlikely as a friendship between an actor and a noble woman may seem, their connection is long-standing. The Countess has a special interest in...
by Jinny Webber | Jun 29, 2021 | Boy actors on Shakespeare's stage, Gender fluidity, Sex and Gender in Shakespeare's England |
From 1599 until her death in 1603, Queen Elizabeth’s reign begins to lose its magic. She’s worked hard to be a Prince ‘in a feeble woman’s body,’ the almost mythic Gloriana, but her powers may be waning. Tensions outside her control contribute: intermittent bad...
by Jinny Webber | Nov 24, 2020 | Boy actors on Shakespeare's stage, Gender fluidity, Sex and Gender in |
Numerous posts over the years have covered aspects of gender fluidity: ‘Elizabethan Masquerade’, ‘Androgyny in Male Attire’, ‘Love Between Males on the Elizabethan Stage’, ‘The Roaring Girl’, and four posts on boy actors and sex. Now preparing a Zoom course on gender...
by Jinny Webber | Mar 17, 2020 | Actors in plague time, Boy actors on Shakespeare's stage, Christopher Marlowe, Gender fluidity |
Boy Actor At supper, Jack proposed a toast to my birthday. He pulled me into a jig, with Kemp making three. Shakespeare and Tom Nashe pounded on the table and Kit drank my health. They started reading Sir Philip Sidney’s poems as Kemp tried to drown them out singing...
