Although Hamlet lives pre-reformation, he is more Lutheran than Roman Catholic.

The reason the scene is in French is that it was written for performance at court, where the aristocrats would get the joke; double entendre. Now, I'd like to hear from the professor where he thinks Shakespeare learned his French.

The argument that it is Essex and his Irish adventure who is mentioned at the beginning of Act V is sheer baloney. Shakespeare is there referencing the very much more successful episode of Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond (a blood relative of Elizabeth) who would have returned a conquering hero from Ireland in 1584. Butler had been sent to put down the rebellious Gerald Fitzgerald, 14th Earl of Desmond, who had allied himself with both the Pope and the King of Spain in 1579. Finally, in November of 1583 a detachment of Butler's troops captured Desmond and, since they were behind enemy lines they simply chopped off his head and brought it back to their camp, where they presented it to Ormond/Butler on the point of a sword. Ormond then sent the severed head back to England, along with a letter explaining what had happened. Ormond remaining in Ireland, to tie up some loose ends, until returning to England in May of 1584. Shakespeare's 'rebellion broached on the point of a sword' seems to be a paraphrase of what Ormond's letter said. So, the Greek chorus does date the play, not to 1598 and the disgrace of the Earl of Essex, but to 15 years earlier mission, and its success of Thomas Butler. All of which ought to be obvious. The reason for the ersatz history of Cantor is that the true story demolishes the Stratford legend. According to Trinity Church records, Will of Stratford was born in 1564, married in 1582, baptized his first child in 1583 and his twins Judith and Hamnet in 1585. He was not in London writing plays in 1583/84. Not even holding horses outside the theatres, nor apprenticing as a playwright, in London. Cantor is 'hoist by his own petard' here.

Of course, in the Elizabethan Age noblemen did covet honor. Is Shakespeare risking imprisonment, or having his hand chopped off (ala John Stubbs) for criticizing his betters?

Did they teach Greek at the Stratford Grammar School?

55:34

This is such a great course I learned a tun. Thank you prof. Cantor!!❤

Welles did, in fact, use prosthetic devices and padding for his Falstaff. Rather obvious, Professor. 🙂

Excellent.

I thought it read Derek Jarman at the beginning and thought this might be interesting.

windy generalizations of a mediocre mind in love with itself

Dear Shakespeare and Politics- 1st of all, these lectures imparted by PROF PAUL CANTOR are absolutely extraordinary. Thank you so very much for setting up this channel and uploading the lectures and analysis. They are an absolute LITERARY TREASURE - 2nd, in these very complex global times in which global democracies will undergo major stress tests, it would perhaps be interesting if the lectures could be subtitled with the following LANGUAGES; SPANISH, ITALIAN, FRENCH, CHINESE & RUSSIAN THANK YOU -

thank you for posting this ... the world urgently needs to learn from this literature ...

15:30 Whoah!!!! I never caught that before. Hamlet says "your" not "our" or "my". Sir, in thy Hamlet lecture be all my lit failings remembered. Get me to English Lit 101 for why would I be considered a Hamlet fan.

I would give my right hand to ask Paul Cantor how does he think HAMLET might help current politicians, in these post modern- post truth, cynical, corrupt world anchor their morality and their values ...?

The Royal Shakespeare’s production with an all male cast is amazing.

Cantor has been instrumental in my Shakespearean understanding. He’s my first source of scholarship after I read Shakespeare

Skip the first 21:00 minutes, nothing but introduction to the lectures.

This is an incredible analysis of the play. Thank you, professor - this lecture has been invaluable in deepening my understanding of one of my favorite works by Shakespeare

Bro grilled the camera man I’m dead

The production of Twelfth Night that Professor Cantor references with Alec Guinness is not only heavily cut but flawed in several ways. Guinness and Ralph Richardson are good as Malvolio and Toby Belch respectively, but Joan Plowright, although also a fine actress, I thought never really convinced as a boy. It is hard to imagine anyone being fooled by her Cesario for a minute. Worst of all was Feste, played by Tommy Steele. Steele was a middle-grade pop singer of the 1960s who turned to acting later in his career. He has the voice to portray Feste in his troubadour moments, but give him Shakespearian dialogue to handle and the result is an embarrassment.

Where is Lecture 1 on Romeo and Juliet?

Irony is having Henry V hang a commoner for stealing a cup while he is stealing a country.

Love these lectures but disagree with the good professor that the couples in the Comedies are interchangeable. The joy and tension of the comedies/romantic-comedies is whether the main characters can remove the barriers - often social, usually created by the characters themselves - so that the right people pair up in the end. Benedick-Beatrice, never Benedick-Hero.

Washington 1492/ 🕎☪✝is the ENGLISH number 1 global language. 👑 1776/ is 1066. à technological realm 👑✍🌍🌎🌏🗺🧭🪐🛸Collapse of ISRAEL is the end of WASHINGTON AIPAC ROMAN EMPIRE it lasted for 100 years. now IS OVER 👽🤑🤐💲🏛🔚X nor DARPA can save it.👽 Now the Washington is 3 nations on the triangle of Peace Washington must follow the new 1066 realm to avoid a 666 fact. Trump X anyone can change the fact. 💲🔚 of dollar end of American Empire & end of the 100 years of the 1776 Empire. English language remains number 1

This is a very very interesting lecture because I never heard Lear's original plan dissected so precisely (or ever knew there was an original plan). The plan to have a backdoor way to give the kingdom to Cordelia was genius.... undone by his own idiocy a few minutes later. Here's one question I do have about the play though. Why all the fuss about who Lear lives with? I can't believe I'm the only one to bring this up, but doesn't Lear still have a palace to live in? Let him and his 100 followers live at his own residence, he doesn't need to live with his evil daughters, and if Cantor is correct, he knows Gonneril and Regan were bad news why would he change the plan to live with them?

"Ah...ah...ah...ah" 😢

Fascinating! Thank you!

God bless his soul. Just learned he died. Wish I could have talked to him.

Can't believe none of those dead souls had questions. Such an amazing professor. I wish I'd been there.

Bros before hoes. Love it!

Shylock represents dirtiness of a jew.Portia represents the hypcracy of a Christian....tragedy at best

Hamlet chooses Fortinbras to bring back the ancient way of life. Here. Now. There is no afterlife. Only what you bring now? That was a question

Why is it unconventional to treat The Merchant of Venice as a comedy? Isn’t it traditionally recognized as such?

Greedy buggers

What's important about Shakespeare is the life IN the characters. You have to see beyond the language of the time, which to us feels artificial. The people are real. Hotspur and Falstaff are two of the best examples of aliveness in Shakespeare's work.

Paul Cantor is a gift❤❤❤❤❤

dense and rich, so delicious🤤

this is so good, so many doubts during reading make much more sense

Richard ii is my favorite Shakespeare play and have wanted a deeper dive into it.i have not started it (the lecture), but I am very excited. Thank you for your hard work.

Thank you Professor ❤️❤️❤️🙏🙏🙏

May the flight of angels sing in his way…

Could not be more prescient …….. whether Machiavellian, Hobbsian …… Pessoan even, a wonderful Shakespeare scholar much appreciated. Miss Jenny

😊

I just love Professor Cantor and his lectures on Shakespeare ... thank you so much for sharing these jewels of LITERATURE ANALYSIS with the world ...

He keeps mentioning the French writing sonnets to their horses, but is he ignorant of Sir Philip Sidney's Sonnet #49 in his Astrophel and Stella sequence? --------------------Quote---------------------- I on my horse, and Love on me, doth try Our horsemanships, while by strange work I prove A horseman to my horse, a horse to Love, And now man’s wrongs in me, poor beast, descry. The reins wherewith my rider doth me tie Are humbled thoughts, which bit of reverence move, Curbed in with fear, but with gilt boss above Of hope, which makes it seem fair to the eye. The wand is will; thou, fancy, saddle art, Girt fast by memory; and while I spur My horse, he spurs with sharp desire to my heart; He sits me fast, however I do stir; And now hath made me to his hand so right That in the manage myself takes delight. ----------------endquote------------------------ Since Sidney had specifically criticized Henry V in his 'In Defence of Poesie', this looks to be why he includes the 'Dolphin' claiming to have written a sonnet to HIS horse, in Act III, scene 7. Along with the Greek Chorus commentary also belittling Sidney's criticism, it's hard to excuse Cantor's omission of this.

Henry V was definitely not written around 1599, but much earlier. Late 1583 or very early 1584. There are two clues that are dispositive regarding the date. 1. The Greek Chorus is obviously responding to Philip Sidney's criticism in his monograph, 'In Defence of Poesie' (virtually a line by line refutation of Sidney). Further, Act III, scene 7, which is unnecessary to move the plot of the play along, has a clear mockery of Sidney's obsession with horses and horsemanship. The 'Dolphin' is even shown bragging that he has written a sonnet to his horse. Guess who also wrote a sonnet to his horse; in Astrophel and Stella, #49. Sidney was killed fighting the Spanish in 1586 in the Low Countries, so mocking Sidney would not have been appropriate after that happened. But the real, clue is the line in the Greek Chorus at the beginning of Act V, when Shakespeare writes: -----------------quote--------------- As, by a lower but by loving likelihood Were now the general of our gracious empress, As in good time he may, from Ireland coming, Bringing rebellion broachèd on his sword, How many would the peaceful city quit To welcome him! ---------------endquote----------- That's a reference to the Earl of Ormond, Thomas Butler's successful mission to Ireland to put down the rebellion led by the Irish Earl of Desmond. It is definitely NOT a reference to the Earl of Essex's spectacularly failure to do the same in 1598. Butler's Irish allies captured Desmond, behind enemy lines. Not wanting to risk trying to bring him back to their camp safely, they chopped off his head and carried it back, giving Ormond Desmond's head on the point of a sword. Ormond then sent that back to England, with a note of explanation of what had happened. Shakespeare seems to have read that note; 'rebellion broached on his sword' . This took place in November 1583, but Ormond didn't return to England until May 1584. This is one of few pieces of evidence we have for a definitive date of composition of a Shakespeare work.

Great lecture! One small correction: King James' mother was Mary of Scotland (Mary Stuart). Mary Stuart was the grand-daughter of Henry VIII's sister Margaret Tudor. Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary) was the daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine Aragon, and a half-sister to Elisabeth I of England. Mary Tudor became Mary I of England and reigned for about 5 years. Then came the reign of Elisabeth I, who was the last in line in the House of Tudor. James I marks the beginning of the Stuart dynasty. Hope that was clear! Many people confuse Mary Stuart with Mary Tudor, but they are two separate (albeit related) people.

Paul on the beam!

5:45 TS