Here’s an interesting story for a Sunday morning. In her new book “Shadowplay”, author Clare Asquith presents the case that Shakespeare was writing coded political messages into his plays. Asquith claims to be the first person to have discovered the code, as well as crack it.

A little sample, from the article…

Sunburn:

The sun represented divinity, and so sunburn denotes closeness to God. Shakespeare described himself as ‘tanned’ in Sonnet 62.

Turtle dove:

A traditional image for the apostles, used to signify those who remained faithful in the face of persecution.

Nightingale:

The story of Philomela, who was turned into a nightingale, was an image of the desecrated church and its covert protests.

Red rose:

A term used by Catholics for their ‘old, beautiful’ religion.

Dark:

The new, Protestant religion, associated with black print and sober dress.

Five:

Devotion to the five wounds of Christ led to patterned emblems on the banners borne against the new regime. Shakespeare uses it in the form of flowers, birthmarks or heraldic blazons as a marker of Catholicism.

Shakespeare’s Den is great for a laugh even if you’re not in the mood to buy. Anything and everything that’s ever had Shakespeare’s mug plastered upon it (including mugs, natch) can be found here. Of course there’s also every book, wall hanging and statue you might imagine as well.

Some gems:

• Shakespeare bobblehead doll
• Shakespeare action figure
• After Shakespeare mints
• Hamlet finger puppets
• Shakespeare “celebriduck”

I don’t get an affiliate fee, either, so there :-P. I just wish my wife would let me buy half this stuff.

If you haven’t yet visited the Wikipedia page for Shakespeare, I highly recommend it. It’s not like you’re going to find any new information that you couldn’t find anywhere else. But Wikipedia organizes it better than anywhere else.

Who knew about the “questionable” plays? I knew about the existence of Cardenio, which is more “lost” than “questionable”, and The Two Noble Kinsmen, which I got into an argument with my neighbor about (I lost, arguing “I have several copies of the complete works and there ain’t no Noble Kinsmen in it!”) I’m talking about plays like Edward III or Sir Thomas More, two plays which scholars think might have been collaborated on by Shakespeare.

Of course, the entry itself is link-heavy enough to keep you interested in any direction you wish to go. Elizabethan history? Shakespeare contemporaries? The actual text of the plays? All there.