Farah Karim- Cooper
ON THE COVER: ATTACK BY A SERVANT GIRL ON HER YOUNG MASTER IN BLOOMSBURY/BRIDGEMAN/GETTY IMAGES. THIS PAGE: ALAMY
“The scene in which Hamlet holds up a skull might seem shocking today, but in Shakespeare’s time it was a reminder of mortality, and that you had to live your life because that’s how you were going to end up.” Farah is among the historians exploring what Shakespeare’s plays tell us about his era on page 22