Episode 56: Cuckolds and Beyoncé

What do cuckoldry and Beyoncé have in common? Find out in this episode of Rude Tudors, hosted by literary historian Liz Rodriguez and comic actress Nicole Keating. The figure of the horned man whose wife has cheated on him is common in Renaissance English literature, especially the works of Shakespeare. But at a time when women were expected to be utterly chaste, their husbands wore the mark of their wives' infidelity.

Questions answered in this episode:

• What are cuckolds and why are they named as such?
• Why are horns the mark of a betrayed husband?
• What are some reasons for the ubiquity of the cuckold trope?
• Why don’t women ever wear horns as the objects of infidelity?

​​
Join this raunchy jaunt through the time of Elizabeth I and learn about the underside of the history of marriage, fidelity, and sexuality.