To understand these references and truly appreciate The Bard's work, it's important to know the city he was writing in. That's where this interactive map of early modern London (pictured above) comes in.
"My approach to Shakespeare’s London is a spatial approach,” says Janelle Jenstad, introducing the map of early modern London in a video. “I’m interested in the space of the stage, the space of the city."
Jenstad is an English professor at the University of Victoria who has been exploring the Civitas Londinum base map since the late 1990s. The bird's-eye view of London (also known as the "Agas" map) was first printed on woodblocks in 1561—right around the time of Shakespeare's birth—then modified a century later. The intricate "Agas" map shows details such as monuments, institutions, businesses, marketplaces, and urban planning fixtures.
Jenstad's interactive version pulls information from databases with names of locations, people, organizations in the city at the time, as well as reference material about the early modern period in London. These data are layered on to the "Agas" base map. So if you click on the Middle Temple building (below), for example, the map will give you an idea of what it is and how it was used, back when Shakespeare was around:
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