Shakespeare and Astrology

Susan Miller of Astrology Zone has been ill for the last few months, and this month her montly overview of what's in store in the stars is late. I know that Shakespeare used a lot of astrological imagery in his plays, but didn't know how much until I started Googling around. I found this intriguing artcle (with quotes) on Shakespeare's astrology, and this interview with Natalie Dellahaye, an astrologer living in Surrey.

Politicsworm.com, a histherto unknown (to me) Shakespeare blog has a somewhat crankypants post on Shakespeare and Astorolgy, plus lots of other interesting and informative posts. Chartplanet.com also has a post on the subject. My favorite post on the subject came from Shakespeare Online, though: Superstition, Alchemy and Astrology in Shakespeare's Time.

Drink like Shakespeare

The Beer Connoisseur Online has an interesting post about what Shakespeare drank. (The conclusion is that he was a fan of ale but not of beer.) I remember a line in one of the Henry plays where the bard is dismissive of people who have "a taste for small beer,' which I assumed was something like Miller Lite.Shakespeare Online goes beyond beer and ale into the wine that would have been available to Shakespeare and his characters. (Falstaff was very fond of sack.) The article is sprinkled with quotes from the plays. The blog Not PC has a "Beer O'Clock" entry from 2008 about shakespere and beer.

Beer Advocate has rated Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout a 94 (exceptional), while their colleagues have given it a 97, making it a world class beverage.
The United Nations of Beer offers a Shakespeare t-shirt with a beer quote on it.

Shakespeare Resources

I once wrote a paper comparing the character of Hotspur (from Henry IV, part 1) to Hamlet and got an A because my professor though the comparison was just too weird (Hotspur is all about action and Hamlet is deliberate) but he was entertained by my argument. I was thinking about that as I surfed around looking for resources students can use for writing papers these days. Who needs Cliff Notes?
Shakespeare Online is kind of an ugly site but it's really entertaining. The home page features something called "Bard Bite" which is a Shakespeare trivia question. (Today's is a question about what Edwin Booth thought was teh worst rhyming exit in all of the plays.)  The landing page offers fodder for at least a dozen term papers and it changes daily.
Absolute Shakespeare is another basic-looking site that includes study guides and trivia and summaries and all sorts of other info in a matter-of-fact all text format.  Their list of Shakespeare films is way out of date (it ends with the  Ethan Hawke version of Hamlet from 2000) but the rest of the material is still relevant.
Mr. Shakespeare and the Internet is a livelier looking site that has two goals--to be an annotated guide to scholarly Shakespeare resources; and to provide material not available anywhere else (like a timeline). They also have a store that will link you to DVDs of great Shakespeare plays (including a recording a performance of Macbeth by Patrick Stewart).