Shakespeare's Restless World 19. The Theatres of Cruelty
May 10, 2012
Jan Grafius, curator of the Stonyhurst collection who studies Catholic relics and martyrdom, guides listeners through brutal objects from Elizabethan and Jacobean Britain. He discusses a reliquary eye, quartered bones, and how real executions shaped theatrical spectacle. Short, vivid scenes paint the link between public violence and stage gore.
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Stage Directions Reveal Theatre's Brutality
- Public theatre directions often describe gruesome acts more graphically than spoken lines.
- Stage violence in Shakespeare's plays reflected a culture accustomed to public cruelty and spectacle.
Executions Were Part Of Public Life
- Executions and public mutilation were everyday spectacles in Elizabethan and Jacobean London.
- Audiences moving between scaffold and playhouse experienced similar forms of public display and punishment.
The Reliquary Holding A Martyr's Eye
- Neil MacGregor describes a small silver reliquary containing a human right eye from Stonyhurst College.
- The object proved to be the oculus dexter of Edward Oldcorn, a martyred Jesuit.