” Shakespeare and Politics”- Professor Paul Cantor
“On The Waterfront. Set Design For Shakespeare’s Drama
“The Merchant Of Venice”“ (1920)
Alexandre Benois
________
though this recommendation might seem
erudite, esoteric, indeed eccentric, if not
even improbable, I vaunt this invaluable
series to the stars, Professor Paul Cantor,
of the University of Virginia, speaking from
Harvard, however, here, shines such
glorious light on the already extraordinary
Shakespeare so as to make him the equal
of very Beethoven, poets of nearly
supernatural ability
Professor Paul Cantor views Shakespeare
through Shakespeare’s understanding of
politics, comparing his political settings –
commercial Venice, imperial Rome,
medieval and Renaissance England,
Denmark under a Christian king – to not
only shed light on those individual
political systems alive at a time when
democracy was being born, but as well
on Shakespeare’s own unexpectedly
probing philosophical insights in the
matter of governance, right up there
with John Locke and Machiavelli
who’d ‘o thunk it
the professor is engaging throughout, his
information entirely absorbing, you’ll come
out a new wo/man
the lectures are not short at an hour, twenty
minutes, I break to powder my nose, get a
a glass of wine, even answer the phone to,
of course, preferred only parties, but have
been returning addictively daily
it’s a heady indeed addiction
Richard
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