Philip Schwyzer
@philipschwyzer.bsky.social
Pinned
Shakespearean Graves
shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk
The website for the Shakespearean Graves project is now live -- check it out!
shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk
#ShaxEpitaphs
shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk
#ShaxEpitaphs
The Canadian actor William Hutt (d. 2007) has a Shakespearean epitaph, and I must say it's one of my favourites:
"When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer."
Beautiful.
#ShaxEpitaphs (1/3)
"When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer."
Beautiful.
#ShaxEpitaphs (1/3)
December 7, 2025 at 11:38 AM
The Canadian actor William Hutt (d. 2007) has a Shakespearean epitaph, and I must say it's one of my favourites:
"When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer."
Beautiful.
#ShaxEpitaphs (1/3)
"When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer."
Beautiful.
#ShaxEpitaphs (1/3)
A #ShaxEpitaphs mystery.... Here I can just about make out 'not strain|d. It droppeth as the gentle rain | from Heaven.' But the first four(?) words look like something other than 'The quality of mercy'. Can anyone decipher this??
It's the memorial of Samuel Ball Green of Missouri (d. 1858).
It's the memorial of Samuel Ball Green of Missouri (d. 1858).
December 3, 2025 at 2:30 PM
A #ShaxEpitaphs mystery.... Here I can just about make out 'not strain|d. It droppeth as the gentle rain | from Heaven.' But the first four(?) words look like something other than 'The quality of mercy'. Can anyone decipher this??
It's the memorial of Samuel Ball Green of Missouri (d. 1858).
It's the memorial of Samuel Ball Green of Missouri (d. 1858).
The latest blog on the Shakespearean Graves website is up now!
shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk/2025/11/30/n...
Would be genuinely fascinated to hear if anyone has further examples of Shakespearean headstone inscriptions from computer games 🪦👾
shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk/2025/11/30/n...
Would be genuinely fascinated to hear if anyone has further examples of Shakespearean headstone inscriptions from computer games 🪦👾
November 25 project update – Shakespearean Graves
shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk
November 30, 2025 at 2:06 PM
The latest blog on the Shakespearean Graves website is up now!
shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk/2025/11/30/n...
Would be genuinely fascinated to hear if anyone has further examples of Shakespearean headstone inscriptions from computer games 🪦👾
shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk/2025/11/30/n...
Would be genuinely fascinated to hear if anyone has further examples of Shakespearean headstone inscriptions from computer games 🪦👾
"I mean, you'd never know you were in a box, would you? It would be just like being asleep in a box. Not that I'd like to sleep in a box, mind you. Not without any air. You'd wake up dead for a start, and then where would you be?"
Thank you, Tom, for my first audition monologue, and much more.
Thank you, Tom, for my first audition monologue, and much more.
November 29, 2025 at 7:04 PM
"I mean, you'd never know you were in a box, would you? It would be just like being asleep in a box. Not that I'd like to sleep in a box, mind you. Not without any air. You'd wake up dead for a start, and then where would you be?"
Thank you, Tom, for my first audition monologue, and much more.
Thank you, Tom, for my first audition monologue, and much more.
Reposted by Philip Schwyzer
Et, in Arcadia:
We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it...
We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it...
November 29, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Et, in Arcadia:
We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it...
We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it...
Reposted by Philip Schwyzer
My co-authored chapter with Vicky Sparey on 'The Perils and Promises of Puberty' is soon to be published in Sarah Toulalan's book Early Modern Bodies. There are chapters by @amiebolissian.bsky.social , @davehitchcock.bsky.social & others. You can preorder here
www.routledge.com/Early-Modern...
www.routledge.com/Early-Modern...
Early Modern Bodies
Early Modern Bodies is a wide-ranging and detailed introduction to a variety of different approaches to and perspectives on bodies in the early modern period, circa 1500–1750.
The collection guides re...
www.routledge.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:24 PM
My co-authored chapter with Vicky Sparey on 'The Perils and Promises of Puberty' is soon to be published in Sarah Toulalan's book Early Modern Bodies. There are chapters by @amiebolissian.bsky.social , @davehitchcock.bsky.social & others. You can preorder here
www.routledge.com/Early-Modern...
www.routledge.com/Early-Modern...
Hundreds, perhaps thousands of the fallen of WWI were buried with epitaphs drawn from Shakespearean. A selection can be found here: www.epitaphsofthegreatwar.com/tag/shakespe...
None more haunting than the inscription for Alfred Dunne (aged 17)
O MONSTROUS WORLD
TO BE DIRECT AND HONEST
IS NOT SAFE
None more haunting than the inscription for Alfred Dunne (aged 17)
O MONSTROUS WORLD
TO BE DIRECT AND HONEST
IS NOT SAFE
Shakespeare
www.epitaphsofthegreatwar.com
November 11, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Hundreds, perhaps thousands of the fallen of WWI were buried with epitaphs drawn from Shakespearean. A selection can be found here: www.epitaphsofthegreatwar.com/tag/shakespe...
None more haunting than the inscription for Alfred Dunne (aged 17)
O MONSTROUS WORLD
TO BE DIRECT AND HONEST
IS NOT SAFE
None more haunting than the inscription for Alfred Dunne (aged 17)
O MONSTROUS WORLD
TO BE DIRECT AND HONEST
IS NOT SAFE
Reposted by Philip Schwyzer
No more noble British tradition than resigning over some nonsense everyone is only pretending to be angry about rather than all of the actually bad things you've done.
November 9, 2025 at 6:10 PM
No more noble British tradition than resigning over some nonsense everyone is only pretending to be angry about rather than all of the actually bad things you've done.
The website for the Shakespearean Graves project is now live -- check it out!
shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk
#ShaxEpitaphs
shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk
#ShaxEpitaphs
Shakespearean Graves
shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk
November 7, 2025 at 1:27 PM
The website for the Shakespearean Graves project is now live -- check it out!
shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk
#ShaxEpitaphs
shaxepitaphs.exeter.ac.uk
#ShaxEpitaphs
Reposted by Philip Schwyzer
I think our country sinks beneath the yoke.
It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds.
#Macbeth 4.3.49-51
#ShakespeareSunday
It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds.
#Macbeth 4.3.49-51
#ShakespeareSunday
October 26, 2025 at 8:54 AM
I think our country sinks beneath the yoke.
It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds.
#Macbeth 4.3.49-51
#ShakespeareSunday
It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds.
#Macbeth 4.3.49-51
#ShakespeareSunday
Reposted by Philip Schwyzer
📢This Sunday in #Exeter!
Historical reenactment based on historical research, in a former priory, converted to a domestic dwelling during the reformation.
'my perfect Sunday ... '
#EarlyModern 🗃️
Historical reenactment based on historical research, in a former priory, converted to a domestic dwelling during the reformation.
'my perfect Sunday ... '
#EarlyModern 🗃️
Come and see the house at St Nicholas Priory, Exeter brought to life in 1602, exploring a 'New history of women's work'.
Sunday 26th October
11am - 3pm
Historical research by Jane Whittle, Mark Hailwood, Hannah Robb and Taylor Aucoin.
Sunday 26th October
11am - 3pm
Historical research by Jane Whittle, Mark Hailwood, Hannah Robb and Taylor Aucoin.
October 23, 2025 at 10:06 AM
📢This Sunday in #Exeter!
Historical reenactment based on historical research, in a former priory, converted to a domestic dwelling during the reformation.
'my perfect Sunday ... '
#EarlyModern 🗃️
Historical reenactment based on historical research, in a former priory, converted to a domestic dwelling during the reformation.
'my perfect Sunday ... '
#EarlyModern 🗃️
Ah, it's Shakespeare's own infamous epitaph, 'Curst be he that moves my bones!'
But no, this is Mary Caldwell (d. 1873), buried in Ipswich Massachusetts.
The curse is surprisingly popular. And adding 'Shakespeare' at the bottom helps prove you're a literature lover, not some freak. #ShaxEpitaphs
But no, this is Mary Caldwell (d. 1873), buried in Ipswich Massachusetts.
The curse is surprisingly popular. And adding 'Shakespeare' at the bottom helps prove you're a literature lover, not some freak. #ShaxEpitaphs
October 20, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Ah, it's Shakespeare's own infamous epitaph, 'Curst be he that moves my bones!'
But no, this is Mary Caldwell (d. 1873), buried in Ipswich Massachusetts.
The curse is surprisingly popular. And adding 'Shakespeare' at the bottom helps prove you're a literature lover, not some freak. #ShaxEpitaphs
But no, this is Mary Caldwell (d. 1873), buried in Ipswich Massachusetts.
The curse is surprisingly popular. And adding 'Shakespeare' at the bottom helps prove you're a literature lover, not some freak. #ShaxEpitaphs
What an incredible poet, what a loss
September 27, 2025 at 8:30 AM
What an incredible poet, what a loss
Reposted by Philip Schwyzer
📢NEW MAILING LIST FOR CEMS!📢
Exeter's Centre for #EarlyModern Studies recently switched to a JiscMail list to allow people to join/unsubscribe more easily.
FYI: we often host hybrid 🗃️ events.
Interested? Instructions on how to join the mailing list are here:
www.exeter.ac.uk/research/cen...
Exeter's Centre for #EarlyModern Studies recently switched to a JiscMail list to allow people to join/unsubscribe more easily.
FYI: we often host hybrid 🗃️ events.
Interested? Instructions on how to join the mailing list are here:
www.exeter.ac.uk/research/cen...
Centre for Early Modern Studies | Centre for Early Modern Studies | University of Exeter
www.exeter.ac.uk
September 26, 2025 at 9:08 AM
📢NEW MAILING LIST FOR CEMS!📢
Exeter's Centre for #EarlyModern Studies recently switched to a JiscMail list to allow people to join/unsubscribe more easily.
FYI: we often host hybrid 🗃️ events.
Interested? Instructions on how to join the mailing list are here:
www.exeter.ac.uk/research/cen...
Exeter's Centre for #EarlyModern Studies recently switched to a JiscMail list to allow people to join/unsubscribe more easily.
FYI: we often host hybrid 🗃️ events.
Interested? Instructions on how to join the mailing list are here:
www.exeter.ac.uk/research/cen...
Exeter folk will be familiar with the equestrian statue of Sir Redvers Buller. There's no Shakespearean epitaph on the monument, but at its unveiling in 1905, a celebratory bamboo arch bore the inscription: "A soldier firm and sound of heart and
of buxom valor" (Henry V, 3.6.25).
(1/4)
of buxom valor" (Henry V, 3.6.25).
(1/4)
September 26, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Exeter folk will be familiar with the equestrian statue of Sir Redvers Buller. There's no Shakespearean epitaph on the monument, but at its unveiling in 1905, a celebratory bamboo arch bore the inscription: "A soldier firm and sound of heart and
of buxom valor" (Henry V, 3.6.25).
(1/4)
of buxom valor" (Henry V, 3.6.25).
(1/4)
I'm itching to share the 29(!) variations on 'after life's fitful fever he sleeps well' we've discovered so far as #ShaxEpitaphs, but don't want to try your patience. Just three:
AFTER LIFE'S TROUBLED JOURNEY SHE SLEEPS WELL
AFTER LIFE'S SCARLET FEVER I SLEEP WELL
LIFE'S FITFUL PLAY IS O'ER
AFTER LIFE'S TROUBLED JOURNEY SHE SLEEPS WELL
AFTER LIFE'S SCARLET FEVER I SLEEP WELL
LIFE'S FITFUL PLAY IS O'ER
September 20, 2025 at 6:13 PM
I'm itching to share the 29(!) variations on 'after life's fitful fever he sleeps well' we've discovered so far as #ShaxEpitaphs, but don't want to try your patience. Just three:
AFTER LIFE'S TROUBLED JOURNEY SHE SLEEPS WELL
AFTER LIFE'S SCARLET FEVER I SLEEP WELL
LIFE'S FITFUL PLAY IS O'ER
AFTER LIFE'S TROUBLED JOURNEY SHE SLEEPS WELL
AFTER LIFE'S SCARLET FEVER I SLEEP WELL
LIFE'S FITFUL PLAY IS O'ER
Reposted by Philip Schwyzer
Hamlet: Alexander the Great is DIRT now
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
Three Hamlets, musing on the skull: Christopher Eccleston at the West Yorkshire Playhouse (2002); Alan Cumming at the Donmar (1993); Ben Kingsley, RSC (1975)
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
Three Hamlets, musing on the skull: Christopher Eccleston at the West Yorkshire Playhouse (2002); Alan Cumming at the Donmar (1993); Ben Kingsley, RSC (1975)
September 14, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Hamlet: Alexander the Great is DIRT now
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
Three Hamlets, musing on the skull: Christopher Eccleston at the West Yorkshire Playhouse (2002); Alan Cumming at the Donmar (1993); Ben Kingsley, RSC (1975)
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
Three Hamlets, musing on the skull: Christopher Eccleston at the West Yorkshire Playhouse (2002); Alan Cumming at the Donmar (1993); Ben Kingsley, RSC (1975)
Reposted by Philip Schwyzer
London authorities removed Banksy’s latest mural of a judge attacking a protester. What remains is a shadowy stain, eerily reminiscent of a hooded Grim Reaper wielding a scythe, capturing attention in its own right.
Haunting Shadow of Scrubbed Banksy Mural Goes Viral
The erasure of the mural outside London’s Court of Justice has become a metaphor for widespread government crackdowns on protesters around the world.
hyperallergic.com
September 12, 2025 at 6:19 PM
London authorities removed Banksy’s latest mural of a judge attacking a protester. What remains is a shadowy stain, eerily reminiscent of a hooded Grim Reaper wielding a scythe, capturing attention in its own right.
Shakespearean epitaphs don't always reek of Bardolatry. 'Friendly Ben' Dekle was ready to start (or continue) an argument with Shakespeare from beyond the grave.
'LIFE IS NOT A "TALE TOLD BY AN IDIOT," BUT RATHER AN ADVENTURE WRITTEN BY THE FINGERS OF GOD.'
#ShaxEpitaphs
'LIFE IS NOT A "TALE TOLD BY AN IDIOT," BUT RATHER AN ADVENTURE WRITTEN BY THE FINGERS OF GOD.'
#ShaxEpitaphs
September 8, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Shakespearean epitaphs don't always reek of Bardolatry. 'Friendly Ben' Dekle was ready to start (or continue) an argument with Shakespeare from beyond the grave.
'LIFE IS NOT A "TALE TOLD BY AN IDIOT," BUT RATHER AN ADVENTURE WRITTEN BY THE FINGERS OF GOD.'
#ShaxEpitaphs
'LIFE IS NOT A "TALE TOLD BY AN IDIOT," BUT RATHER AN ADVENTURE WRITTEN BY THE FINGERS OF GOD.'
#ShaxEpitaphs
I see what you did there, Wichita Searchlight for January 13, 1906.
#ShaxEpitaphs
#ShaxEpitaphs
September 4, 2025 at 12:43 PM
I see what you did there, Wichita Searchlight for January 13, 1906.
#ShaxEpitaphs
#ShaxEpitaphs
The Shakespearean Graves project is up and running! Our social media game is a work in progress, but here's a short thread of #ShaxEpitaphs to whet your interest.
Not the biggest Shakespeare story of the day by any means (👋 @matthewsteggle.bsky.social), but here's some news of the new 'Shakespearean Graves' project, appropriate for his death-day:
news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...
news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...
New research project will explore the influence Shakespeare had upon how we remember the dead
The influence and inspiration that William Shakespeare has had upon the practice of writing epitaphs is to be the focus of a new research project. English Literature experts at the University of Exete...
news.exeter.ac.uk
September 3, 2025 at 10:45 AM
The Shakespearean Graves project is up and running! Our social media game is a work in progress, but here's a short thread of #ShaxEpitaphs to whet your interest.
Reposted by Philip Schwyzer
This is the Washington Post (yes, that one): names in Arabic and English, and ages, of all 18,500 children killed in Gaza, plus portraits and stories where available: www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...
60,000 Gazans have been killed. 18,500 were children. These are their names.
Palestinian children have been killed at a rate of more than one per hour since the war began.
www.washingtonpost.com
July 30, 2025 at 9:43 AM
This is the Washington Post (yes, that one): names in Arabic and English, and ages, of all 18,500 children killed in Gaza, plus portraits and stories where available: www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...
Reposted by Philip Schwyzer
Here’s one for early modernists: what is Norwich holding in this 1622 map (from Drayton’s ‘Poly-Olbion’)? Yes, Norwich had a big cathedral spire, but not two (and these maps usually indicate spires in the figure’s headdress). I’ve been tossing this about, and asking experts, for months. Stuck!
July 29, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Here’s one for early modernists: what is Norwich holding in this 1622 map (from Drayton’s ‘Poly-Olbion’)? Yes, Norwich had a big cathedral spire, but not two (and these maps usually indicate spires in the figure’s headdress). I’ve been tossing this about, and asking experts, for months. Stuck!
Reposted by Philip Schwyzer
The Trump admin has formally unveiled a program to illegally use money Congress passed for sheltering migrants released from immigration custody to instead detain them in state-run prison camps.
They are calling this — no joke — "shelter in a detention environment." www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
They are calling this — no joke — "shelter in a detention environment." www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
US states to get $608 million from FEMA to build migrant detention centers
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is preparing to send $608 million to states to construct immigrant detention centers as part of the Trump administration's push to expand capacity to hold migrants.
www.reuters.com
July 25, 2025 at 5:27 PM
The Trump admin has formally unveiled a program to illegally use money Congress passed for sheltering migrants released from immigration custody to instead detain them in state-run prison camps.
They are calling this — no joke — "shelter in a detention environment." www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
They are calling this — no joke — "shelter in a detention environment." www.reuters.com/legal/govern...