Thomas Dekker

The city became cacophonous with bells: a detail of Claes Visscher’s famous early 17th-century panorama shows old London Bridge and some of the 114 church steeples that constantly tolled the death knells of plague victims

Shakespeare's London: where all the world really was a stage

26 September 2015 8:00 am

Sam Leith on the year 1606, when plague and panic were rife — and all the world really was a stage

Why are Shakespeare’s women so feeble?

29 March 2014 9:00 am

Shakespeare did not give his female characters pivotal roles, but some of his contemporaries did, as Lloyd Evans discovers