Welcome

"Shakespeare's Strumpets" explores the close relationship between English Renaissance drama and prostitution -- two entertainment industries that jostled for business largely in the Liberties of London, especially in Southwark. The blog is academic, but not. I'm a college English professor (part-time), and I studied Shakespeare and Renaissance drama in a PhD program at a major university. I'd hoped to write my dissertation on the dramatists' views of and relationship to the prostitutes and brothels who were some of their closest neighbors (and competitors!). I didn't finish the dissertation; instead, I got a life! But this literary-historical subject still fascinates me, and I'd like to share it here as I further my research and develop more ideas. With luck, my ideas will be augmented by the ideas of visitors to the blog.