John Weever of a religious tone, "The Mirror of Martyrs" and "An Agnus Dei". "The Mirror of Martyrs or The Life and Death of ... Sir John Oldcastle" may have been part of a backlash. In his preface Weever calls it the "first trew Oldcastle", perhaps on account of the fact that Shakespeare's character Falstaff first appeared as "Sir John Oldcastle". Weever's work is influenced by John Bale's 1544 biography of Oldcastle, which presents him as a proto-Protestant martyr. In the fourth stanza of this long poem, in which Sir John is his own panegyrist, occurs a reminiscence of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar"
Bell Shakespeare they performed "Antony and Cleopatra", which toured to Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, "Julius Caesar", which as the 2018 National Tour travelled to 27 venues across Australia, and "The Misanthrope" which played in Sydney. Their 2019 season includes an adaption of "The Miser" and the 2019 National Tour "Much Ado About Nothing", with one more show still to be announced. One of the Company's artistic goals is "to use Shakespeare as Australians", and Bell Shakespeare is well known for using contemporary styles to make Shakespeare accessible for modern audiences. Founded by John Bell in 1990, Bell Shakespeare began as a theatre