Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts

Description

In Death By Shakespeare, Kathryn Harkup, best-selling author of A is for Arsenic and expert on the more gruesome side of science, turns her expertise to Shakespeare and the creative methods he used to kill off his characters. Is death by snakebite really as serene as Cleopatra made it seem? How did Juliet appear dead for 72 hours only to be revived in perfect health? Can you really kill someone by pouring poison in their ear? How long would it take before Lady Macbeth died from lack of sleep? Readers will find out exactly how all the iconic death scenes that have thrilled audiences for centuries would play out in real life. In the Bard's day death was a part of everyday life. Plague, pestilence and public executions were a common occurrence, and the chances of seeing a dead or dying body on the way home from the theater was a fairly likely scenario. Death is one of the major themes that reoccurs constantly throughout Shakespeare's canon, and he certainly didn't shy away from portraying the bloody reality of death on the stage. He didn't have to invent gruesome or novel ways to kill off his characters when everyday experience provided plenty of inspiration. Shakespeare's era was also a time of huge scientific advance. The human body, its construction and how it was affected by disease came under scrutiny, overturning more than a thousand years of received Greek wisdom, and Shakespeare himself hinted at these new scientific discoveries and medical advances in his writing, such as circulation of the blood and treatments for syphilis. Shakespeare found 74 different ways to kill off his characters, and audiences today still enjoy the same reactions--shock, sadness, fear--that they did over 400 years ago when these plays were first performed. But how realistic are these deaths, and did Shakespeare have the science to back them up? Cover Half-Title Series Dedication Title Contents Prologue Chapter 1: Our Humble Author Chapter 2: All the World’s a Stage Chapter 3: Will You Be Cured of Your Infirmity? Chapter 4: Off With His Head! Chapter 5: Murder, Murder! Chapter 6: The Dogs of War Chapter 7: A Plague O’both Your Houses! Chapter 8: Most Delicious Poison Chapter 9: To Be, or Not to Be Chapter 10: Excessive Grief the Enemy to the Living Chapter 11: Exit Pursued by a Bear Epilogue Appendix Bibliography Acknowledgements Index Copyright