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Gainer's recent observation that mathematician Thomas Digges'account of a two-element optical magnifier likely describes the perspective glass invented by his father, Leonard Digges. This purports to be the first astronomical telescope. Gainer reproduced the device according to available specifications and showed that it was capable of resolving detail on the Sun, Moon, and planets. Independent evidence suggests that Shakespeare knew the Digges family and used their publications in his writing, and it is plausible that the poet would also attend to telescopic observations of celestial objects.
Analysis in the ensuing five chapters reveals the scientific content of five Shakespearean plays, and the last chapter discusses the results.
Chapter 2 examines Love's Labour's Lost, which is a searing indictment of pedantry and religious intolerance. As its plot develops, Shakespeare addresses Navarre's concern with the Princess'visit and Berowne's concern with epistemology. Mythology and astronomical phenomena provide a chronology of events which combine to solve riddles posed by Dull and Holofernes. The Spanish Armada figures prominently and not just in the naming of Armado. Astronomical considerations explain the metaphysical significance of the slain deer, and the attributes of Rosaline indicate that in 1594, Shakespeare was aware of properties of the so-called Ancient Planets, information that he could not have known without telescopic aid.
Chapter 3 argues that Shakespeare's most famous play, Hamlet, is an allegory for the competition of the four chief cosmological models extant at the turn of the seventeenth century. It builds on work that I synthesized and presented in Hamlet's Universe prior to 2007 and it sheds new light on aspects of the play that had not then penetrated my consciousness. It explains the supernatural role of the Ghost, the meaning of Hamlet's love letter, why he is 30 years old, his reference to a “nutshell,” and why Hamlet is “mad north-northwest.” In addition, this chapter clarifies the epistemological foundation of the player's play and explains the significance of the most famous skull in literature. This novel interpretation establishes the relationship of the entire play to the scientific advances of the sixteenth century. Using multiple and previously unexplained conceits, Shakespeare describes properties of the Sun, Moon, planets,