Day 16: Bohemia, or I Do Not Think That Word Means What You Think It Means

One thing that I learned from Ben Crystal is that, though Shakespeare's plays were often set in far off lands, neither Will nor his audience had necessarily been to any of those places. They'd heard stories--oh the stories!--but more often than not, that was it. And sometimes that caught up to old Will.

Case in point:

In The Winter's Tale, some of the scenes take place in "Bohemia, a desert country near the sea." Except it's not! Bohemia corresponds roughly to the Czech Republic, which is land-locked, nowhere near the sea, and definitely not a desert. Could he have meant Persia?

via

The reasons behind Shakespeare's Bohemian sea coast blunder are numerous and, ultimately, unsatisfying. He was apparently ridiculed for the error by Ben Johnson. Some sources say he was referencing an earlier story that also took place on the coast of Bohemia (and Ben Johnson hadn't made fun of THAT guy, so why was he teasing Shakespeare about it?). Others suggest he was referring to 13th-century Bohemia, whose empire did extend to the coast. Some suggested that the settings of Sicilia and Bohemia were originally reversed but he switched them due to political circumstances at the time (if that were true, Sicilia would have been the coastal country, but it wouldn't have explained calling it a desert). Some even say that Shakespeare deliberately made a fanciful version of Bohemia to add to the fairy tale quality of the story.

Personally, I think he simply hadn't been to Bohemia and wasn't that bothered about the geographical details when he had a play to put on.