After the lumbering iconoclast and wizard Bill Bryson Shakespeare The world is a stage appeared in a Romanian translation in a publishing house from Iasi Polisherreceived a reply from Humanitas. Who made a study of the essence of the university for us thanks to the American professor Stephen Greenblatt from a famous university Harvard.

An expert in the study of Shakespeare’s work, to which he has devoted several important volumes since 1989, published in Humanitas being, it seems, the most recent (written in 2018), the founder of the school of literary criticism known as New historicism, Stephen Greenblatt couldn’t help but ask what was behind at least two of Shakespeare’s famous sayings. The one that also concerned Bryson, as it gave him the idea for the title of the book, and the one that teaches us that the actors represent a living and condensed chronicle of the time in which they live.

Greenblatt is first and foremost a scholar of Shakespeare’s text, which is not to say that he is not also concerned with its representation on stage. Here, for example, in the book Tyrant. Politics in the views of Shakespearetranslated into Romanian by Miruna Fulgenanu and published in the collection of literary studies by Humanitas we find out why the actors, after several refusals, at one point agreed to play in a play that was previously considered old (Richard II). We also learn what Queen Elizabeth thought of this creation and how her majesty recognized it. Or what is the role of the public in performances of Richard III.

Bites of tyrants in Shakespeare. They appear in quasi-oblivion Henry VI, in the already mentioned Richard IIin celebrissima Richard III and, fifteen years later, in macbeth, both tyrants came to power after assassinating legitimate rulers. Even old King Lear belongs to this category, all his suffering after the reckless division of the country stemming from his despotic nature. The Tragedy of Leontes, the Tyrant A winter story, explained by the character’s paranoia. This causes his tyranny. IN Julius Caesar, Shakespeare “depicts a well-organized and wise attempt to stop tyranny.” IN Coriolanus the tyrant is born before our eyes, and finds its origin in the initial and then increased arrogance and contempt for the plebs of Gaius Marcius. As well as the inability of society to protect itself from sociopaths at that time. Richard III and Coriolanus it is one of the few works of Shakespeare in which the playwright is concerned with the relationship between mother and son. And how it strengthens his tyranny.

All of these works benefit from careful analysis, with each commentary Stephen Greenblatt is concerned with uncovering a particular aspect of the tyrant. Possesses the art of manipulation, builds a network that seems insurmountable, most often, until a certain moment, develops as an ideal actor, plays the card of submission as much as he wants. Only something happens, and the network is deconstructed, turning out to be not entirely infallible. On this something or, more correctly, on it WHO Shakespeare insists, and the researcher follows in his footsteps. Does he, this unexpectedly suggestive factor, contribute, and if so, how, how to the tragic end of the tyrant? An end that can be phased like it is now Macbeth. I dare to believe that it was this gradual ending that prompted Ionesco to write Macbeth. Because here too swarms of them it die Gradually, the main character of Coriolanus. Deciphering the mechanisms of endings, their diversity in Shakespeare’s various plays occupies Steven Greenblatt.

On the first pages of the book, the Harvard professor insists on the period in which Shakespeare wrote. About what characterizes the reign of Queen Elizabeth. About the rules to which the Elizabethan theater had to obey. Perhaps Shakespeare did not consider the queen a tyrant, perhaps he was also surprised by her attitude towards Mary Stuart. Stephen Greenblatt shows that it is difficult to say what Shakespeare’s true political beliefs were. It is also difficult to say what he thought about the disputes between Catholics and Protestants. He was certainly not indifferent to the political intrigues of that time, the researcher assures. Then why don’t all these fights go on stage? Because some prohibitions were imposed on the Elizabethan theater. One could not speak openly about Queen Elizabeth. Shakespeare did this, but indirectly, only once, in Henry VI. In this play, written in 1599, Shakespeare predicts the victory of the English army that attacked France. in that play “our gracious sovereign’s general” appears, and the general was none other than Essex. Her Majesty’s Secret Service made sure that no hint of the Queen crept into any of the shows. The rules did not allow showing dead kings on stage. – Read the entire article and comment on contributors.ro