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We’re watching some fairly violent television these days. From Game of Thrones to The Punisher, seems like the blood never stops spilling.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
But for those of you shaking your damn heads (SYDH), violence as a form of entertainment is nothing new. Even as far back as the time of the Roman Empire, gladiators would fight each other to the death to the cheers of their blood-thirsty fans.
Death and dismemberment is fun (?) for people to watch and there are many creative types only too happy to deliver.
One of the most famous writers of gory stuff is “The Bard of Avon,” William Shakespeare. This guy “killed,” in more ways than one, with 74 deaths in 37 plays.
Photo Credit: By Nicholas Rowe – Public Domain
Most of Shakespeare’s characters die by stabbing. But some were done in by stabbing and poisoning. In fact, all sorts of methods are used. And, since infographics are more fun than lists:
Photo Credit: The Telegraph
Shakespeare’s death scenes are almost an academic study. Not everyone thought all this gratuitous violence necessary. The goriness of Elizabethan drama was controversial then.
According to The Telegraph, Director of the Shakespeare Institute, Michael Dodson said,
“The English drama was notorious for on-stage deaths; they were thought crass. For neo-classical critics, deaths should be off-stage.”
The infographic, however, illustrates the inventiveness of the England’s national poet.
Stabbings aside, dying by getting baked into a pie? What a way to go.
