Beyond is sponsored by The Malone Society: The permanent utility of original texts
Welcome to more university silliness! It's Gown, Hood and Cap – which survives in a manuscript at the Folger library. Like our recently released Band, Cuff and Ruff, this is a short skit written by students at Cambridge.
Gown, Hood and Cap is less conflict driven that Work for Cutlers, or Band, Cuff and Gown, and is more about bants between different students and the things they get up to – the elements of clothing indicators of different levels of academic achievement. An academic hood, trimmed with fox fur, which hangs behind – the academic Gown open – and the academic cap. These are, of course, merely a delivery system for puns on hoodwinking, different cap puns, and the state of ones gown. If you are unsure what the punchline means, assume it’s a pun.
In Gown, Hood and Cap by the Unknown
Hood was played by Robert Crighton, Gown by Benjamin Finch and Cap by Song Marshall.
The text coach for the production was Liza Graham.
Technical presentation by Robert Crighton.
Our patrons received this episode in June 2026 - about a month early!
The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is supported by its patrons – become a patron and you get to choose the plays we work on next. Go to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you want to give us some feedback, email us at admin@beyondshakespeare.org, follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org
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The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is hosted and produced by Robert Crighton.
About our sponsors - the Malone Society. The Society was founded in 1906 at the initiative of A.W. Pollard, and for over a century they have published (almost) every year edited volumes of early printed and manuscript texts of both well-known and neglected plays. They also publish collections of documentary material relating to the performance and reception of early drama. Their best-known publications include W.W. Greg’s edition of Sir Thomas More, a collaborative history play, and A.C. Dunstan’s edition of the earliest surviving original play in English to have been written by a woman, Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam.
Their membership is international and open to anyone interested in early drama. Members receive their annual volumes and are able to buy books from their backlist at low prices.
In addition to their publications, they support scholarship of early drama through fellowships and research grants, an annual prize for graduate students, and performances and symposia.
The Society is named after Edmond Malone, born in Dublin in 1741, a great editor, textual scholar and theatre historian, whose work continues to shape studies in early drama.
