Bard Flies James A. Smith, William C. Quinn

Several dozen plays later, Will and James host a wrap-up episode where they revisit, revise, and criticize one another’s rankings, recognize the greatest and most outlandish characters with awards, and reflect on the experience of reading Shakespeare cover to cover over the past several years as they finish Season One of Bard Flies.
Credits
Intro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)
Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)
Illustrative Excerpts: “Pomp and Circumstance” (Edward Elgar); “First Blood,” dir. Ted Kotcheff (1982); “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,” dir. Jay Roach (1997); “Friends: The One Where Phoebe Runs,” dir. Gary Halvorson (1999); “Top Gun,” dir. Tony Scott (1986); “Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back,” dir. Irvin Kershner (1980); “Goodfellas,” dir. Martin Scorsese (1990); John Gielgud, “Ages of Man,” Caedmon Records (1959); “Robin Hood,” dir. Wolfgang Reitherman and David Hand (1973); “Henry IV, Part One,” dir. Clive Brill (1998)

In Shakespeare's final -- yes, final -- play, he returns to where he started with the plight of noblemen in love with the same woman. Working again with John Fletcher, Shakespeare borrows from Chaucer for a tale set in ancient Greece featuring duels, delusions, exposure therapy, and prayers to the gods that get answered like the wishes on a monkey's paw -- but all in the service of a story that ends happily. (Except for the guy who gets thrown from his horse and dies in his hour of triumph.)
Credits
Intro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)
Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)
Illustrative Excerpts: Arkangel / BBC, “The Two Noble Kinsmen” (2006)

In the final of the history plays, Shakespeare and his collaborator John Fletcher take on Henry VIII, the story of his first two wives, the birth of the future queen Elizabeth, and the establishment of the Church of England. In this episode, Will and James discuss why people have found the politics of Henry’s court so compelling across the ages from Showtime’s The Tudors to Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall to Broadway’s Six, unpack the downfall speeches of Cardinal Wolsey and Katherine of Aragon, and consider whether you could pull it off today.
Credits
Intro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)
Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)
Illustrative Excerpts: Herman’s Hermits, “Henry the Eighth, I Am,” The Ed Sullivan Show (1965); Arkangel / BBC, “History of Henry VIII” (1998); Bea Segura, “Henry VIII,” dir. Hannah Khalil, Shakespeare’s Globe (2022)

Magic, monsters, sprites, witches, shipwrecks, betrayal, love stories on an enchanted isle, and emotional catharsis driven by a puppet master pulling all the stings: no, dear listeners, it’s not a Dungeons & Dragons campaign but Shakespeare’s The Tempest! Will and James discuss the play know as Shakespeare’s affectionate late-career farewell to the theatre, portrayals of Caliban throughout the years, its possible setting in the New World, and whether a play with an almost all-powerful protagonist can be truly dramatic.
Credits
Intro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)
Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)
Illustrative Excerpts: “The Tempest,” dir. Julie Taymor (2010); John Gielgud, “Ages of Man,” Caedmon Records (1959)

In this week’s minisode, the pod features a conversation on Cymbeline with Dr. Dan Normandin, postdoctoral fellow in Early Modern English Literature at George Mason University and, even more importantly, a former classmate of James and Will. Dr. Normandin offers his insight on some of the topics James and Will debated about Cymbeline and shares war stories on his time teaching Shakespeare before a controversial lightning round.
Credits
Intro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)
Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)

With plot twists that depend on poor facial recognition, one-sided bets over cuckoldry, one of the most idiotic kings in Shakespeare, and a truly villainous stepson whose beheading we are unfairly denied on stage, Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline” is an interesting and often forgotten play in the Shakespeare canon. Will and James discuss which of these twists is most incredible as well as the Bard’s portrait of Cloten, the aforementioned stepson whose incel tendencies lead to depravity, and what we should make of the play’s British patriotism and ambivalent relationship to the Roman Empire.
Credits
Intro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)
Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)
Illustrative Excerpts: “Cymbeline,” dir. Michael Almereyda (2014); “Cymbeline,” dir. Cylan Brown, Shakespeare by the Sea, (2016); “Cymbeline,” dir. Laura Gordon, Band of Brothers Shakespeare Company (2019)