Amongst all his astronomical allusions, Shakespeare demonstrates a deep knowledge of the night sky and its movements. Although he gives the conventional view of his age that astronomical events offer portents for human affairs, his characters sometimes take a sceptical view, and there are hints that he was aware of the new Copernican world-view that was taking hold during his lifetime. The lecture will be illustrated with quotations from Shakespeare's plays. This lecture also marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 1616.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shakespeares-astronomy

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

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