COMMENT: At the Shakespeare Underground site Oxfordian Earl Showerman presents a podcast on some of the possible political allegory about Queen Elizabeth embedded in Midsummer Night’s Dream.

  • Midsummer Monsieur: Episode 3 with Earl Showerman | The Shakespeare Underground

    • Could A Midsummer Night’s Dream contain allegorical references satirizing Queen Elizabeth’s long & melodramatic courtship with Francois Hercule Valois, the Duc of Alençon?

      In this podcast, Dr. Earl Showerman takes us on a visit to the court of Queen Elizabeth I in the 1570s. Statesmen, nobles, and perhaps even Elizabeth herself are divided over whether or not the Virgin Queen should marry the younger brother of the King of France. Dramatics ensue onstage and off, in a surprisingly strange and significant episode of English history. And what’s most surprising is that this colorful, contentious time may be preserved in all its absurdity and otherworldliness in one of Shakespeare’s best known plays.

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