Much Ado About Numbers

Open a new portal into Shakespeare’s words—and his Renaissance life—with math and numbers as your key

“Highly readable. . . . Shakespeare’s surprising yet unsurprising mathematical sophistication led to some of his most creative feats.”―Bloomberg

Shakespeare’s era was abuzz with mathematical progress, from the new concept of “zero” to Galileo’s redraft of the heavens. Now, Rob Eastaway uncovers the many surprising ways math shaped Shakespeare’s plays—and his world—through astronomy, code-breaking, time-keeping, navigation, music, games, and more.




How does division feature in Juliet’s parting scene?


Why was it hazardous to play with dice?


How did audiences get to the Globe on time?


Which of Galileo’s discoveries has a cameo in Cymbeline?


Were cryptic messages hidden in the First Folio?



And why did Shakespeare make so much ado about “nothing”?

Full of delights for devotees of both Tudor history and the Bard, Much Ado About Numbers is proof that the arts and sciences have always danced together.