Much Ado About Polyamory

These days, everyone seems to be talking about polyamory-- the practice of engaging simultaneously in more than one romantic and/or sexual relationship, with the full consent of everyone involved. According to a recent study, 1 in 9 Americans has tried polyamory, and 1 in 6 would like to try it. This got us wondering: Could people in Shakespeare’s day have known about and experienced anything resembling what we now identify as polyamorous desires and lifestyles? In this episode, we take a deep dive into two of Shakespeare’s cross-dressing comedies, As You Like It and Twelfth Night, to explore some potential polyamory prototypes.