--- title: Shakespeare: Staging the World | TIME description: The British Museum is playing host to a new exhibit on the world’s most famous playwright. TIME peeks behind the curtain to find out more canonical: https://time.com/video/t3VHvdUY/ og:title: Shakespeare: Staging the World og:description: The British Museum is playing host to a new exhibit on the world’s most famous playwright. TIME peeks behind the curtain to find out more og:url: https://time.com/video/t3VHvdUY/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/t3VHvdUY/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Shakespeare: Staging the World twitter:description: The British Museum is playing host to a new exhibit on the world’s most famous playwright. TIME peeks behind the curtain to find out more twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/t3VHvdUY/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Shakespeare: Staging the World > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Shakespeare: Staging the World [Watch (HLS stream): Shakespeare: Staging the World](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/t3VHvdUY.m3u8) (3:47)  _Published 2012-09-11. The British Museum is playing host to a new exhibit on the world’s most famous playwright. TIME peeks behind the curtain to find out more_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:27 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [A British Woman Just Won $1 Million for Being the 'World’s Best Teacher'](/video/aVclLMxh/) ### A British Woman Just Won $1 Million for Being the 'World’s Best Teacher' [Uruguay hosts world's largest barbecue](/video/qIU6UpBG/) ### Uruguay hosts world's largest barbecue [The History of the World's Population](/video/OP0AwDmj/) ### The History of the World's Population --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Welcome to the British Museum exhibition Shakespeare, Stage in the World. Our aim in the exhibition is to show how the world came to London around 400 years ago through the lens of Shakespeare's plays. What we want to do is use objects to take you in a very direct and visceral way to the issues that really mattered to Shakespeare and his original audiences. [ MUSIC ] This is a potrait of the Moroccan ambassador, Abd el- Ouahed ben Messaoud who came to London with a delegation from the King of Barbary. To negotiate a verbal alliance against Spain with Elizabeth the First. They arrived in 1600. And they stayed for six months in the city causing a sensation by there presence in London. They were probaly the first professing Muslims to be seen by Londoners. And they were very dignifed and well known soldiers. This man was probably a noble more, a courtly soldier. And it's hard not to imagine that he was in Shakespeare's thoughts when he wrote Othello a few years later. [ MUSIC ] So what we've got here is a brown bear which was excavated with great features. What it is a testament to the other consostatement that took place in [ INAUDIBLE ] when Shakespeare was writing and acting [ INAUDIBLE ]. So as well as it is there were brothels there were cook fighting pits. There was bear baiting and no taverns. And bear baiting essentially means you have a bear, which is tied to a stake in the middle of an arena and it would be set upon by dogs. And sometimes there were gruesome variations. So they might be blinded or blindfolded before this took place. And it's really about who would prevail. And the reason we know this skull was used for fighting is that her teeth have been ground down. Which means that she'll be less effective. And when she was ate upon by the dogs. And its quite a sad object, but its quite a powerful object. Because it tells us a little bit about the world around the playhouse when Shakespeare's audiences first heard and saw his plays. [ MUSIC ] This is a really interesting, tourist album. It belonged to Michael Bowfor and it records his visit to Venice. [ MUSIC ] The great city of dreams for Northern Europeans. A bit like New York perhaps is today. What it shows on this particular page is a very, very well dressed Venician noblewoman. She's dressed in silks, she's wearing pearls, her hair is the latest headdress. But there's a lift the flap panel on her skirt. And you can voyeuristically lift the panel and underneath she seemed to be wearing silk breeches. A man's silk breeches. And teetering platform shoes. So when you get to know her, she's revealed as a courtesan or a prostitute. A woman for whom sex is on sale. This is very much the way in which the Venetian plays, Shakespeare questions the virtue of Venetian women. [ MUSIC ] This is an object known as the Robben Island bible which is a complete works of Shakespeare which was owned by a prisoner on Robben Island called Sonny [ UNKNOWN ]. It's a cheap edition of Shakespeare which was kept in secret while he was in the prison. And then he pretended it was his bible by William Shakespeare. And, and on the other side it's covered in Diwali cards, and which is part of the disguise, because prisons weren't meant to have text on the island. And, and really, it's the most brilliant testament to Shakespeare's endurance. And, the fact, that it still meant something to people in a different continent in a different century. I mean, chosen to display it with Mandela's quotes. And, and he's signed a quote from Julius Caesar. Which is, cowards die many times before their death. The valiant never tasted death but once. Of all the wonders that are yet of heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come. And it's just the most beautiful poiniant choice. 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