Shakespeare For All

Part 3 features close-readings of three key scenes in which Antony and Cleopatra articulate their cosmic self-conceptions in language so transcendent that it helps transform their vision into reality. Speeches and Performers:  Enobarbus, Act 2, “The barge she sat in …” (Andrew Woddall) Antony, Act 4, “I will o'ertake thee, Cleopatra …” (Scott Ripley) Cleopatra, Act 5, “I dreamt there was an emperor Antony … ” (Dame Harriet Walter and Dame Janet Suzman)

Part 2 explores the play's varied and conflicting perspectives on its leading characters. From the Roman point of view, Antony and Cleopatra are figures who fall from greatness, and their story is a tragedy or even, at times, farce; but from other points of view, Antony and Cleopatra represent a kind of success that could scarcely be achieved or even conceived of in Rome. The episode analyzes the play's characters, language, and mythic archetypes to ask how the play makes so many viewpoints compelling, and where these competing perspectives leave the audience when the play comes to its end.

Antony and Cleopatra, the last of Shakespeare's Roman plays, is an epic story that begins with the material of politics and history but expands into the realm of romance, poetry, and myth. Following the events of Julius Caesar – Caesar's assassination and the triumph of Mark Antony and Octavius Caesar in the resulting civil wars – Antony and Caesar are now joint rulers of Roman Empire. But Antony has left behind Rome and his imperial duties to be with his beloved Cleopatra, the captivating queen of Egypt. Personal and political rivalries bring Antony and Cleopatra to war with Caesar, in a conflict in which “the greater cantle of the world” is at stake. In the end, the lovers are forced out of the field of politics, but enter the space of legend. In this course, you'll learn the story of Antony and Cleopatra, study two of the most monumental personalities that Shakespeare ever created, and discover how these characters descend into and transcend tragedy In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Joyce MacDonald, Professor of English at the University of Kentucky. This episode includes key background and context for the play's historical source material. The summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

Part 3 features close-readings of several significant scenes that show how religion, race, and literary tradition function within the violent world of Titus Andronicus and sometimes provoke that violence. Speeches and Performers:  Titus, Marcus, and Publius, Act 4, “Terras Astraea reliquit …” (Jonathan Oliver) Aaron, Lucius, and the Goths, Act 5, “And if it please thee? …” (Yolanda Ovide) Tamora, Titus, Chiron, Demetrius, Act 5, “If thou didst know me … ” (Tiffany Abercrombie)

Part 2 opens with a discussion of the place of Rome in Renaissance culture. It then analyzes the Roman classical sources – sources his audience knew well – that Shakespeare uses to construct his plot, and how Shakespeare's use of those sources calls their moral values into question. It goes on to discuss the elements of the play that have generated most shock and revulsion – the graphic violence, the irreverent dark humor – and how they relate to the very purpose of theatre.

Shakespeare wrote numerous plays and poems engaged with ancient Roman history. Shakespeare's Renaissance culture had ancient Rome as its foundation stone. Roman language and literature were at the heart of English Renaissance education, and Rome was held up as a model for English civilization. But in Titus Andronicus, the earliest of his Roman works, Shakespeare crafts a bloody tale of violence and revenge that subjects this entire cultural edifice to searing critique. Are the violence and moral vacuums of this play a perversion of Roman values, or are they a central part of the classical tradition? In this course, you'll learn the story and historical context behind Titus Andronicus, discover the classical sources that structure this play, and see how the play's most controversial elements pose a serious question about the purpose of tragedy. In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Russ Leo, Associate Professor of English at Princeton University. This episode introduces the key historical, political, and literary contexts that shape the play's questions and themes. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

Part 2 begins with a discussion of the sexual violence and jealousy depicted in the play. It goes on to examine how the play's sprawling romance plot represents, in symbolic but recognizable form, origin stories for some significant historical phenomena: Britain's own monarchy, the Renaissance culture of Europe, and what would have been for Shakespeare's audience the central event of world history: the birth of Christ. It concludes by discussing how these historical forces shape the unexpected moments of spiritual vision, repentance, and peace that conclude the play, and why the play's particular vision of communities coexisting might be its most powerful legacy for the 21st century.

Part 3 features close-readings of three key speeches that reflect together the central structuring element of the story: how characters fall in order to rise. Speeches and Performers:  Iachimo, Act 2, “The crickets sing …” (Mark Quartley and Donald Sumpter) Imogen, Act 3, “Why, I must die…” (Gabrielle Sheppard) Posthumus, Act 5, “Yea, bloody cloth…” (Stuart Vincent)

Cymbeline is an epic romance that spans British history, the Roman Empire, religious epochs, and the central themes of Shakespeare's career. Set in ancient Britain at the time of Augustus Caesar's reign, it begins with two plotlines that in other of Shakespeare's plays lead to tragedy: an enraged king disowns a beloved daughter, and a faithful wife is accused of betrayal by a jealous husband. In Cymbeline, however, the generic conventions of tragicomedy, symbolic sites from Britain's past, and a time-setting that contains a transformational spiritual event, combine to bring unexpected recovery and renewal out of these tragic beginnings. In this course, you'll learn the story of Cymbeline, see how Shakespeare brings its characters toward unexpected moral change, and discover how this fantastical play represents the origins of some of the most significant shaping forces in his historical world and ours.  In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Will Tosh, Head of Research at Shakespeare's Globe, London. This episode discusses the structure, settings, and sources of the play and recounts the story using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

Part 3 features close-readings of three key speeches from Helen that reveal her own mingled virtues and flaws and the “remedies” she hopes to find. Speeches and Performers: Helen, Act 1, “O, were that all! …” (Amanda Harris) Helen, Act 1, “Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie …” (Maya Smoot) Helen, Acts 3 and 4, “Why then tonight … Yet, I pray you …” (Amanda Harris)

Part 2 discusses the play's most significant images, of sickness and death, of medicine, and grace. It asks how these themes are reflected in the complicated relationship between Helen and Bertram, focusing particularly on the deceptive plot that Helen uses to secure him in the “dark house” that becomes a place of mystery and renewal. The episode goes on to discuss the role of darkness in comedy more generally - do tragic events undermine comedy, or make it more meaningful? It concludes by asking how the play's “mingled” character reflects a Shakespearean perspective on the character of human life: how time reveals and reshapes the meaning of our actions, and in that way, can help us recover.

All's Well That Ends Well reverses the usual fairy-tale trope and depicts a young woman on a quest to win a man. Helen, an extraordinary character with elements of the modern professional and the medieval saint, sets out to secure Bertram, a nobleman, for her husband. But the fairy tale plot is further reversed when Helen appears to win Bertram, only to have him flee from her. Helen embarks on a second quest to win him for a second time, with a plot that deceives Bertram but may also help cure him. This ambiguous but moving comedy asks how marriage is made real, how we can heal from our mistakes, and what it means to end well. In this course, you'll learn the story and context of All's Well That Ends Well, explore its questions around cure and care, and discover how this play reflects Shakespeare's search for a dramatic form that captures the complex, “mingled” form of the good and ill in human life.  In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Julia Lupton, Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine. This episode introduces the historical, religious, and literary contexts that shape this play, which combines modern, progressive political dimensions, elements of myth and folklore, and spiritual notions of grace. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

Part 3 features close-readings of three key speeches from Berowne, the most reflective of the lords. Taken from the beginning, middle, and end of the play, these speeches chart his imperfect but growing awareness of ideals beyond the “fame” that comes from study. Speeches and Performers: Berowne, Act 1, “I can but say their protestation over …” (Esmonde Cole) Berowne, Act 4, “Consider what you first did swear unto …” (Esmonde Cole) Berowne, Act 5, ““Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise …” (Esmonde Cole)

Part 2 discusses both the play's humor and its serious engagement with Renaissance culture, especially the humanist-style program of education that the lords pursue. This Renaissance model inspired many of the educational programs we continue today, but as the episode discusses, the play questions what goals lie behind the Renaissance ideal: does it pursue sympathy, knowledge, or power? The episode also charts the male characters' moral failures and growth, and how the play treats marriage more seriously than many comedies do by refusing to end with marriage.

Love's Labours Lost is one of Shakespeare's funniest comedies and at the same time one of his most morally serious. The King of Navarre and three of his lords vow to spend three rigorous years studying and fasting – and isolating themselves from women. But no sooner are the vows made than four noblewomen of France turn up and tempt the men to break their vows. The comedy combines rhetorical fireworks and farcical stage-action – not to mention numerous reluctant revelations of love – that keep us laughing and prime us for a classic romantic-comedy ending. But a surprise twist in the final scene upends our expectations and drives home the play's serious questions: what is the purpose of education? And how does one earn another's love? In this course, you'll learn the story of Love's Labours Lost, see how it engages with key cultural issues of Shakespeare's day, and ends as thoughtfully as it does unconventionally.  In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Gordon Teskey, Francis Lee Higginson Professor of English Literature at Harvard University. Many critics claim that Love's Labours Lost is too difficult for modern readers to understand and enjoy, but here you'll be guided on how to approach this play and on the kind of pleasures it offers. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

Part 3 features close-readings of four key speeches and scenes that set out the play's central dilemma, as they speak for a cooperative political community and the elite warrior ideal that Coriolanus is meant to embody. Speeches and Performers: Menenius, citizens, and Martius, Act 1, “I shall tell you a pretty tale …” (David Collins) Volumnia and Virgilia, Act 1, “If my son were my husband…” (Joyce Branagh) Coriolanus, Act 3, “Well, I must do ‘t…” (Keith Hamilton Cobb) Cominius and Menenius, Act 4, “He is their god …” (David Collins)

Part 2 begins with a discussion of those political questions – who should have power in a political community? Is power a right or a reward? – and how they are reflected in the play's imagery. It goes on to explore the paradoxes within the values of Rome and how Coriolanus reveals and struggles with those paradoxes. It concludes by examining the surprising choices that Coriolanus makes at the play's end to ask whether those choices reflect Coriolanus's attachment to his inherited Roman values, or an ability to change – to metamorphose.

The culmination of Shakespeare's career writing Roman history plays and plays of war, Coriolanus is a searing, relentless story about what happens when a culture gets what it wants. Coriolanus is the elite soldier who's been shaped by his mother and by his Roman culture to value military service, valor, and honor above all else. But when he's rejected by the people he's defended – and scorned – Coriolanus turns his Roman valor against Rome. In this course, you'll learn the story and context of Coriolanus, explore the perennial political questions the play raises, and grapple with the fierce, implacable character of Coriolanus himself, to ask if this “unswayable” man ever changes, and how.   In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Philip Lorenz, Professor of English at Cornell University. You'll learn key context behind the play, from the source story of the historical Coriolanus to events in Shakespeare's own day, that will clarify the political questions that the play works to highlight. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

Part 2 begins with the dark patterns of imagery in the play to examine the play's close proximity to tragedy. It goes on, however, to discuss how the lead characters of Isabella and the Duke function as political protestors or activists undertaking a quest for social reform. This episode culminates in an analysis of how the play adopts a “transcendental perspective,” one that steps outside the human political realm in order to perceive new solutions to its problems, and how that transcendental perspective is enacted in the play's stunning final scene, which devises new, more life-giving ways of meting out mercy and justice and of redressing crimes “measure for measure.”

Part 3 features actors' renditions of two key scenes from the play between Isabella and Angelo, the seemingly virtuous but hypocritical governor, with commentary that tracks how the characters commit themselves in these scenes to integrity or evil.  Speeches and Performers: Isabella and Angelo, Act 2, “You're welcome. What's your will? ...” and “How now, fair maid? …” (Juliet Stevenson) Angelo, Act 2, “What's this? What's this? …” (Paterson Joseph) Claudio, Act 3, “Ay, but to die …” (Dame Harriet Walter)

Measure for Measure is a comedy that goes places most comedies don't go. Like other comedies, it ends with marriages, social reconciliation, and the promise of new life. But along the way, love, sexuality, and procreation are linked more closely to death than to life. Measure for Measure confronts the besetting sins of human nature – greed, love of power, the tendency toward sexual lust and exploitation — to ask deep political and philosophical questions. How do you balance human appetites with social order? How do you build a political system that constrains its citizens without crushing them? How can the transcendental ideals of justice and mercy be reflected in the human governance of flawed societies? In this course, you'll learn the story and context of Measure for Measure and discover how the play explores these perennial questions within one of Shakespeare's most moving human stories. In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Gordon Teskey, Francis Lee Higginson Professor of English Literature at Harvard University. This episode introduces the play's key themes and historical context and recounts the story using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

Part 3 features close-readings of two key speeches, one from Petruchio and one from Katherine. These speeches are performed in two different ways: as originally written, and with the gender pronouns reversed as they were in the 2019 RSC production of Taming, whose lead actors perform the speeches. These double performances help us reflect on our own reactions to the play's provocative take on gender. Speeches and Performers: Petruchio/Petruchia, Act 4, “Thus have I politicly begun my reign …” (Claire Price) (two versions) Katherine, Act 5, “Fie, fie! Unknit that threat'ning unkind brow” (Joseph Arkley) (two versions)

Part 2 begins by exploring the Katherine-Petruchio relationship in greater depth, examining the most positive and the most negative possible interpretations of it and the different ways of understanding the “taming” plot. It goes on to discuss how Shakespeare's first audiences might have reacted to the play (and why they might not have reacted in the way we expect), and how modern productions stage, adapt, and re-imagine the story, deploying the interpretive freedom that, in Professor Smith's view, “really is Shakesepare.”

The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's most controversial and ambiguous comedies. Written in the early 1590s, it purports to tell the story of how a “shrew,” the strong-willed Katherine, is “tamed” by the even stronger-willed fortune hunter Petruchio. Petruchio marries Katherine and, in the eyes of onlookers, seem to “kill[] her in her own humour.” But the play leaves us wondering whether Katherine really is tamed – and whether Petruchio, Shakespeare, or Shakespeare's own audiences really wanted her to be. As much as this play draws critical fire, it continues to draw artists' and audiences' attention as we return to this play again and again to ask our own questions and make our own statements about gender and gender roles. In this course, you'll learn the story of The Taming of the Shrew, explore the relationship between Katherine and Petruchio and the many possible ways of interpreting it, and discuss what the play reveals about what we need from theatre and from Shakespeare.   In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford. You'll see how Shakespeare embeds, within the text and physical action of the play, crucial questions about Katherine and Petruchio that the text itself doesn't answer. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

Part 3 features close-readings of several significant speeches and scenes. We hear from Richard's opponents and from Richard himself as he narrates his way – dazzlingly – into his new tragic identity. Speeches and Performers: John of Gaunt, Act 2, “Methinks I am a prophet …” (Anton Lesser) Richard II, Act 3, “For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground …” (Keith Hamilton Cobb and Donald Sumpter) Richard II and Bolingbroke, Act 4, “Give me the crown …” (Danann McAleer)

Part 2 explores the play's language and imagery and how it reflects the political plot. It discusses the political strategies and goals of Bolingbroke and Richard to ask what the play reveals about power and why Richard seems to gain in power as a literary, tragic figure precisely as he loses power as king – and why Richard seems to desire this tragic fate. It concludes by looking at how Richard's story has been marshaled as political propaganda and at the political questions that Shakespeare leaves ambiguous: how should we regard Richard's fate?

Richard II is at once a masterwork of poetry and a bloody account of political plotting. In the 1590s, Shakespeare wrote a series of eight plays based on English chronicle history. Richard II is the first play chronologically in that series, telling the story of a king whose fall helped set in motion the political contentions and civil wars for decades to come. In 1399, Richard II was deposed by his cousin Bolingbroke, who became King Henry IV. But in Shakespeare's play, what Richard loses in political power, he gains in dramatic power. In this course, you'll learn the story and historical context behind Richard II, explore the complex political dimensions depicted in this transition of power, and see how Shakespeare develops this unusual protagonist who wants to be a tragic character.  In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Michael Dobson, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Birmingham and Director of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. You'll learn the historical background behind the play and start to explore the play's central ambiguities concerning Richard's political moves and Richard's own character. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

Part 2 begins with a closer examination of the play's major sources, especially Homer's Iliad, a story of war, and the medieval poet Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, a story of love. It goes to examine how Shakespeare undermines these literary traditions, particularly by showing the overlap of love and war in this play — how erotic relationships became the field on which men play out their rivalries with each other. It then analyzes the striking differences between Chaucer's depiction of Cressida and Shakespeare's, to conclude by asking why Shakespeare would create such a corrosive, demystifying revision of this central cultural story — and why it's so valuable for us today.

Part 3 features close-readings of three key speeches that uniquely reflect the corruption and cynicism of this play-world – either in lamenting it, or increasing it. Speeches and Performers: Ulysses, Act 1, “Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down …” (Rob Myles) Ulysses, Act 1, “The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns …” (Rob Myles) Pandarus, Act 5, “A goodly medicine for my aching bones…” (Austin Tichenor)

The story of the Trojan War is one of the oldest in Western civilization. Famously recounted by the ancient Greek poet Homer and the classical Roman poet Virgil, it was told and retold throughout the European Middle Ages and Renaissance. Many Troy traditions were available to Shakespeare when he set out to write his own Trojan tale – and in this shocking satire, he wages war against them all. Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida intensifies the cynicism, wipes out the romance, and reverses the heroism found in earlier Troy tales. The result often proves unloveable – but in the decades since World War I, in the wake of military and political crises, its skeptical, satirical voice has also proved to be just the voice we need. In this course, you'll learn the story of Troilus and Cressida, examine the literary traditions behind the play, and discover how and why Shakespeare twists those sources to create his one and only satire.  In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by James Simpson, Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English at Harvard University. This episode introduces the play's literary context and its own satiric stance and recounts the story with the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

Part 2 takes a closer look at Falstaff, the jealous husband Master Ford, and the wives Mistress Page and Mistress Ford. It also discusses the aspects of the play that are attracting new attention from scholars and audiences today: the play's realistic English setting, its engagement with the rise of the middle class, and the ‘proto-feminism' we glimpse in the wives' independence and economic power and in their determination to protect those things.

The Merry Wives of Windsor has an unusual status among Shakespeare's comedies: long dismissed by critics, long beloved by audiences. The only one of Shakespeare's plays to be set in a recognizably contemporary England, the play tells the story of two witty, confident, women who set a revenge plot in motion when they are propositioned by Sir John Falstaff - the comic star of Shakespeare's history play Henry IV, now transported to a middle-class milieu in the small town of Windsor near London. In this course, you'll learn the story of The Merry Wives of Windsor, examine the historical and theoretical contexts of the play that are exciting new critical interest today, and meet two delightfully inspiring heroines as they set out to prove that “wives may be merry and yet honest too.”  In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Dr. Will Tosh, Head of Research at Shakespeare's Globe, London. You'll learn about the intricate construction of the play's multiple revenge plots and meet the large, diverse cast of Windsor's inhabitants. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

Part 3 features close-readings of seven of the play's most significant scenes and speeches. We trace the arc of Hal's transformation throughout the play, from his first intention to “redeem[] time” to the thwarted realization of his intentions in the play's climactic battle scene. We also share key moments with Henry IV, Falstaff, Hotspur, and Hotspur's wife. Speeches and Performers: Hal, Act 1, “I know you all …” (Scott Ripley) Lady Percy, Act 2, “O my good lord, why are you thus alone? …” (Kimisha Lewis) Falstaff and Hal, Act 2, “But to say I know more harm in him …” (Scott Ripley) King Henry IV, Act 3, “I know not whether God will have it so …” (Julian Glover) Hal, Act 3, “Do not think so. You shall not find it so …” (Keith Hamilton Cobb) Hotspur, Hal, and Falstaff, Act 5, “O Harry, thou hast robbed me of my youth …” (Scott Ripley) King Henry IV, Henry IV Part 2, Act 3, “How many thousands of my poorest subjects …” (Julian Glover)

Part 3 features close-readings of several significant speeches from Falstaff, Ford, and Mistress Page. We explore how the play creates its comedy, as well as how Shakespeare introduces an undertone of darkness in the sexual jealousy he would go on to explore in later tragedies. Speeches and Performers:  Mistress Page, Act 1, “What have I 'scaped love letters …” (Amanda Harris) Master Ford, Act 2, “What a damned epicurean rascal …” (Adam Courting) Falstaff, Act 3, “Have I lived to be carried in a basket …” (Stephen Leask)

Part 2 delves further into Hal's intention to “redeem[ the] time.” It examines the competing value systems that Henry IV, Hotspur, and Falstaff represent, where their strengths lie and where they reveal unexpected limitations, and shows how Hal makes use of all these people – sometimes lovingly, sometimes ruthlessly - to shape himself as a leader. It concludes by asking what it might mean for us, as 21st-century audience members, to redeem the time in which we live.

Henry IV Part 1 has long been one of Shakespeare's most beloved history plays. In the 1590s, Shakespeare wrote a series of eight plays based on English chronicle history. This play is named for Henry IV, who deposed Richard II to become king in 1399. But the most captivating characters for many readers prove to be Sir John Falstaff and Henry IV's son Hal – the prince who would go on to become the legendary Henry V. In this course, you'll learn the story of Henry IV Part 1, hear the play's key speeches performed and analyzed by world-class Shakespearean actors and literary scholars, and watch how Hal navigates his historical destiny and forges his personal identity in a process he calls “redeeming time.”   In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Ewan Fernie, Chair, Professor and Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute and Director of the ‘Everything to Everybody' Project. You'll learn the historical context behind the play and encounter the extraordinary places and people - from the royal court to the taverns of London, from the honor-driven soldier Hotspur to the unforgettable rogue Falstaff - who shape Hal's future and offer a panoramic view of English society, within and beyond the official annals of history. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

Part 3 starts with a discussion of general reading strategies to help you discover the poetic techniques and insights of any individual sonnet. It concludes with a close-reading of three sonnets from Professor Michael Schoenfeldt that show the extraordinary range of tone, emotion, and perspective in Shakespeare's poems. Speeches and performers: Sonnet 29, “When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes” (Ashley Byam) Sonnet 18, “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?” (Jeff Cornell) Sonnet 116, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds” (Amanda Harris) Sonnet 129, “Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame” (Amanda Harris)

Part 2 focuses closely on the two major “characters” to whom the sonnets are addressed: a beautiful young man, and a woman described as black. You'll learn how the speaker represents his relationship to these figures and his desire for them, and what significance those relationships might have had in Shakespeare's culture, as Professor Michael Schoenfeldt discusses sexual identity and race in early modern England. Sonnets Included in Episode 2 Sonnet 20, “A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted” (Ashley Byam) Sonnet 147, “My love is as a fever, longing still” (Jeff Cornell)

The sonnet — a 14-line poem with a strict rhyme scheme, conventionally associated with love — was one of the most popular poetic forms in late Elizabethan England. In 1609, Shakespeare published a sequence of 154 sonnets that radically reimagined the question of what love can mean, including the question of who one might desire and what the experience of desire might be like. In the course, you'll learn about the structure and history of the sonnet, hear individual sonnets of Shakespeare's performed and analyzed by world-class actors and literary scholars, and discover how gender, status, and race intersect to shape this sonnet sequence.  In Part 1, you'll be guided through a history and overview of Shakespeare's sonnet sequence with commentary by Michael Schoenfeldt, John R. Knott, Jr. Collegiate Professor of English at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. You'll learn about the sonnet form and how it came to England from Renaissance Italy, what attracted Shakespeare to this form, and what attracted audiences to Shakespeare's poetry. You'll also discover the literary mysteries surrounding the sonnets that have intrigued readers for centuries, and how Shakespeare took this traditional form in unexpected directions. 

With Professor Laurie Maguire, Part 2 explores the play's many ambiguities — its uncertain geography, mental space, and genre — and how they reflect the play's ethical ambiguities. Does Prospero contrast with or resemble the “foul witch” who was Caliban's mother, or the brother who betrayed him for the sake of power? Is he a figure of spiritual regeneration or of colonization? We also look more closely at Prospero's relationship with Caliban and with Ariel, another servant in bondage, who forces Prospero to look at his humanity in a new way.

The Tempest, one of the last plays Shakespeare wrote, draws on themes and stories that fascinated him throughout his career while also taking his art form to unexpected new places. Set in the course of a single day on a magical island, the play focuses on a magician named Prospero who plots to punish the enemies who exiled him to the island 12 years ago — including his own brother. But will Prospero ultimately follow the route of the revenger like Hamlet? Will the warring brothers make peace, as in As You Like It? Or, as in Twelfth Night, will tempest and shipwreck set the characters on new pathways they didn't predict? In this course, you'll learn the story of The Tempest, hear the play's key speeches performed and analyzed by world-class Shakespearean actors and literary scholars, and see how Shakespeare recreated old stories in the context of New World exploration and exploitation.  In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Laurie Maguire, Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. You'll learn how the play reflects contemporary European encounters with Africa, North America, and Latin America (what Europeans called the “New World”), especially through the figure of Caliban: an earlier inhabitant of the island who is made Prospero's slave. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

Part 3 features close-readings from Professor Laurie Maguire of some of the play's key speeches: Caliban's extraordinarily lyrical description of the island; Prospero's beautiful and disturbing evocation of theatre, and perhaps the world, coming to an end; and Prospero's renunciation of his magic. Speeches and performers: Caliban, 3.2, “Be not afeard …” (Kelly Hunter, MBE) Prospero, 4.1, “Be cheerful, sir. Our revels now are ended …” (Anton Lesser) Prospero, 5.1, “You elves of hills …” (Dame Harriet Walter)

In Part 3, Professor Simon Palfrey offers close-readings of some of the play's most significant scenes. You'll hear the play's dark energies emerge through Mercutio's speech about “Queen Mab”; see how Juliet discovers a new, eroticized vision of the world and of herself as she awaits her wedding night, and witness one of the most iconic scenes in literature, when Juliet on her balcony imagines the possibility of love transforming identity: “What's in a name?” Speeches and performers: Mercutio, 1.4, “O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you …” (Mark Quartley) Juliet and Romeo, 2.2, “O Romeo, Romeo …” (Katy Stephens) Juliet, 3.2, “Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds …” (Katy Stephens)

With Professor Simon Palfrey, Part 2 looks closely at the play's characters, and especially at the intelligence and swiftness of Juliet. You'll see how the lovers apprehend new possibilities of human life, but also how their social world constrains their possibilities; and how the play might seem to offer the possibility of comedy, but how it's destined for tragedy all along. And the tragedy doesn't belong only to the young lovers who are thwarted by their parents — it belongs to the parents, too, and to every person who opens themselves to loss by opening themselves to love.

Children of families who are locked in a fatal feud, Romeo and Juliet risk community, identity, and life to pursue an all-consuming love. Today, Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous love stories in the world. But the play isn't simply a celebration of love or an idealization of the lovers. This wild and dangerous play lays bare the link between desire and death, between love and loss. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet isn't that their love is thwarted or impossible. The tragedy is love. In this course, you'll learn the story of Romeo and Juliet, hear the play's key speeches performed and analyzed by world-class Shakespearean actors and literary scholars, and see how Shakespeare brings its characters to life with the brightness and briefness of lightning. In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Simon Palfrey, Professor of English at the University of Oxford. Professor Palfrey explains how this play is Shakespeare's experimentation with new possibilities in drama and a masterpiece of his own poetic powers. You'll learn how Shakespeare characterizes Romeo and Juliet and how their relationship is reflected in their particular forms of poetry. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

In Part 3, Professor Emma Smith offers close-readings of some of the play's most important scenes, which dramatize the wide range of relationships and types of love explored in the play.  Speeches and performers: Orsino, 1.1, “If music be the food of love, play on …” (Jeffrey Blair Cornell) Malvolio and Olivia, 1.5, “I marvel your Ladyship takes delight in such a barren rascal …” (Amanda Harris) Antonio and Sebastian, 2.1, “If you will not murder me for my love …” (Kelly Hunter, MBE) Viola, 2.2, “I left no ring with her …” (Katy Stephens) Malvolio, 2.5, “M.O.A.I. …” (Jeffrey Blair Cornell)

Part 2 looks at the many instances of inversion and transgression, looking at how characters cross boundaries of gender, status, and social role, and how they are punished or rewarded. Professor Emma Smith looks closely at the final scene and how it settles—or doesn't— the characters' roles and the play's own status as a comedy.

Twelfth Night, named for the celebration that is both the culmination and the close of the Christmas festivities, is a bittersweet romantic comedy at once melancholy and merry. Through its central plot, in which the female Viola takes on the guise of the male Cesario and becomes beloved of both men and women, this play is also one of Shakespeare's most modern approaches to identity and sexuality. In this course, you'll learn the story and context of Twelfth Night, explore the questions it raises around genre and gender, and hear the play's key speeches performed and analyzed by world-class Shakespearean actors and literary scholars.  In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford. Professor Smith offers key historical context for understanding the wide variety of relationships depicted in the play. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

In Part 3, Professor Stephen Greenblatt offers close-readings of some of the play's most significant scenes. You'll get an in-depth look at the powerful relationship between Antonio and Bassanio, the climactic confrontation between Antonio and Shylock in the court, and the hard-edged poignancy of the play's most famous speech: “Hath not a Jew eyes?” Speeches and performers: Antonio, 1.1, “I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it …” (Scott Ripley) Shylock, 3.1, “He hath disgraced me …” (Ray Dooley) Portia, Antonio, and Shylock, 4.1, “Tarry a little …” (Katy Stephens)

Part 2 discusses the play's central characters, their profound bonds of intimacy and animosity, and the effect of money on those bonds. Professor Stephen Greenblatt explores the way that Shylock took hold of Shakespeare's imagination and how Shakespeare transforms a stereotypically villainous figure into something much larger and more complex. You'll also discover how Shylock's fraught experience is echoed in other characters across the play, which looks frankly at the difficulties of friendship and love, even as it offers the traditional satisfactions of comedy.

The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare's most gripping and challenging plays. Labeled as a comedy in Shakespeare's First Folio, today it resonates as tragedy as well, thanks to its most unforgettable character: the Jewish moneylender Shylock. Shylock experiences humiliation and oppression at the hands of the Venetian Christians, particularly the merchant Antonio. But when Antonio must borrow money from Shylock to help his beloved friend Bassanio woo the wealthy Portia, Shylock finds his dearest enemy in his power — and we see what harvest hatred reaps. In this course, you'll learn the story of The Merchant of Venice, hear the play's key speeches performed and analyzed by world-class Shakespearean actors and literary scholars, and witness how this comedy plumbs the difficulty and discomfort that shadow our most hostile and our happiest relationships.  In Part 1, you'll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Stephen Greenblatt, John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. Professor Greenblatt discusses the complicated historical context behind Shakespeare's representation of Venice and of Shylock, and the role Shylock comes to play in Shakespeare's comedy. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean.