“The issue is not, I think, simply random inconsistency. There is, rather; a pervasive pattern, a deliberate forcing together of radically incompatible accounts of almost everything that matters in Hamlet. Is Hamlet mad or only feigning madness? Does he delay in the pursuit of revenge or only berate himself for delaying? Is Gertrude innocent or was she complicit in the murder of her husband? Is the strange account of the old king’s murder accurate or distorted? Does the Ghost come from Purgatory or from Hell?–for […]

Greenblatt examines the circumstances, the psychology, and the downfall of some of Shakespeare’s tyrants, namely Richard III and Macbeth who came into power through murder, Lear and Leontes who descended into madness and became tyrants during their legitimate reign, and finally Julius Caesar and Coriolanus who set out to topple the republic, in which Caesar succeeded, but which was thwarted in Coriolanus’ case. On top of that, the book does not only explain the historical and political realities during Shakespeare’s time which were sometimes reflected […]