Sir Anthony Sher has one of the worst mansplaining takes on Shakespeare ever
A betrayal hasn’t stung so keenly since Mark Rylance offered validation to the Oxford theory. Sir Antony Sher, two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and member of the Royal Shakespeare Company since 1982… Read more »
These marginalia in a sixteenth-century Hamlet may be Shakespeare’s own
“I saw these faint marks, and my eyes popped out of my head,” Shakespeare scholar John Casson told Alison Flood at the Guardian. Casson was perusing the British Library’s copy of… Read more »
But soft, what light through yonder television breaks?
No writer can truly enter the canon without a suitably gritty origin story. Edgar Alan Poe finally got one with the 2012 film The Raven, as did Truman Capote with 2005’s… Read more »
What Julius Caesar teaches us about tragedy in politics: Reflecting on yesterday’s shooting
Two days ago, I wrote about public outcry in response to the current production of Julius Caesar in New York’s Central Park. In the production, Julius Caesar is portrayed as a stand-in… Read more »
A 400-year-old critique of Shakespeare was just discovered in England: Is not that strange?
Did you know that every time a manuscript specialist quivers at a new discovery, a publishing professional gets their wings? OK, maybe not. But it definitely makes everyone a little… Read more »
Eat, drink, and read, for tomorrow we die
“Who wants to live forever?” —Freddie Mercury “What win I, if I gain the thing I seek? A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy. Who buys a minute”s mirth… Read more »
A brief history of mall writing
Tolstoy once wrote, “Standalone retail outlets are all alike; every mall is a mall in its own way.” Countless scholars have debated the subtle shadings of this sentence, how it flashes with scenes… Read more »
William Shakespeare, Audre Lorde, and “a cool example of culture jamming” at UPenn
Years after the English department at the University of Pennsylvania voted to replace a portrait of William Shakespeare with something that would “represent more diversity in writing,” the Bard was… Read more »
Weak Shakespeare doesn’t have the stamina to write whole three-part history himself; gets Marlowe’s help. SAD!
Over the years, William Shakespeare has been cast variously as a pothead, an Arab, a judeophile, a bore, a proto-Marxist, and, memorably, a rom-com protagonist. Now, rom-com may be giving way to buddy comedy:… Read more »
If only Boris Johnson were more committed to the Bard
Journalist, author, and (opportunistic) champion of literacy during his days as London’s mayor, Boris Johnson is stepping further away from the world of letters as he takes on his duties as… Read more »