Shakespeare’s Restless World: New Science, Old Magic

Synopsis: Ninth of a twenty-part radio series in which the director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, presents an object-based history of the time of Shakespeare to explore how Elizabethan and Jacobean audiences made sense of their rapidly changing environment.
In this episode Dr John Dee’s magical mirror, an obsidian disc from Mexico owned by England’s first magus and a leading mathematician of the age, reflects the Elizabethan fascination with cosmology and astrology.
Series: Shakespeare’s Restless World
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Radio
Transmission details: 26 Apr 2012 at 13:45 (Channel: BBC Radio 4)
Duration: 15 mins

Production type: Documentary/Educational/News
Plays: Macbeth; Midsummer Night’s Dream, A; Tempest, The
Subjects: Drama; History
Keywords: astrology; cosmology; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); magic; Cultural history; Dee, John (c1527-1608)

Notes: The entire series is available on CD from http://www.bbcshop.com and as a podcast http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/r4shakespeare.
History: Part of the Shakespeare Unlocked season on BBC.
Reviews: Source: Radio Times, BBC programme information
For more detail about the programme and its objects (including transcript) see the BBC Restless world website http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/shakespeares-restless-world/ (accessed May 2012)

SHAKESPEARE