Ten Things I Learned From Shakespeare

Tuesday, 24 October 5:30pm
Ten Things I Learned From Shakespeare
Shakespeare was familiar with "wisdom traditions," which in the early modern period included the practice of collecting maxims, proverbs and wise sayings. In this lecture, Michael Witmore, Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, looks at Shakespeare's plays themselves as a kind of wisdom literature - presenting ten ideas that can be carried away from his dramatic works and applied to situations we encounter today. The lecture was co-sponsored by the John Carter Brown Library, the Department of English, and the Department of Comparative Literature.

[@ernestmendez5487]

Perhaps I missed out on some things since I didn't go to college. But this was the most satisfying lecture on Shakespeare I've witnessed. And it's better than many of the essay's I've read on the subject. And it's simply because Witmore loves Shakespeare, as I do. And although I'm not as well read as I'd like to be when it comes to Shakespeare; what I find remarkable is how I've learned many of these "things" from Dostoevsky. Who of course, was a great admirer of his. And it's also interesting how Dostoevsky expanded on Shakespeare's ideas: the essence of hope; the essence of forgiveness; the great power and great deficiency of language; and a true belief in human beings, and consequently, a great belief in art. What's remarkable to me is how some the phrases Witmore uses echoes some great ideas I've come across during my curious exploration in literature; ideas that I've echoed in my own work. "Realm of fantasy" which I've only come across in Balzac, when he comments that it's perhaps higher than art. And "dreamy exclusion." An idea that encapsulates human perception. Gogol's character in Nevsky Prospekt lives in a dream and chooses to waste away because of how wonderful his imagination is. PKD obviously played around quite a bit with this idea as well. Many of Dostoevsky's characters exist in a sort of dreamy exclusion, living in their imaginations (though many of these characters live in terror, willful-silence, pathological degeneracy, bewilderment, or a senseless stupor). And it too often leads to willful domination or self-destruction or madness. I did take notes on this lecture when I was drunk, so I had more to say. But I threw them away in a weak fit of doubt.

[@khaled4543]

What was really wonderful beside this lecture is your comment ! Thank you both

[@MN8]

you write good

[@corra7]

Can never get enough of Shakespeare! Brilliant.

[@jeffreygraham7525]

Very revealing. I am newly resolved to make a pilgrimage to the John Carter Brown Library first chance I get... and to read and see more Shakespeare.

[@michaellear6904]

Shakespeare, the finest poet, playwright author and philosopher to ever live. All of life is to be found in Shakespeare.

[@czesiek09]

Yep. Right behind Edmund Spenser. 😎

[@marinamaccagni5253]

Michael witmore, awesome shakespearean lecture!

[@davidphillips1577]

Michael...I want you to know you are one of at least 20 people on KZbin to comment on Shakespeare...AND you ring clearer than any of the others. Thank you.

[@ahmadhasan8355]

sir, would you name some others, please?

[@petermladinic8249]

What a great lecture. Such lucid ideas well supported with examples from the plays.

[@yorkshireroots]

Really excellent lecture

[@bijumathew4721]

Erudite and inspiring lecture

[@muhammadhamzawarraich1630]

Hi anyone here student of English literature and language

[@user-do2ji7wi6i]

Yes

[@gordonpepper1400]

That was very impressive

[@TheWhitehiker]

lecture starts at c. 5.00; intro unappealing. Doesnt get substantive until about 10.00

[@paulsolon6229]

The first speaker introduces the actual speaker. He starts off his introduction w “aaah uhm, uhm uhm”

[@liedersanger1]

Yes, no one missed that, dummy…

[@bettinadelsesto9088]

Wow!

[@haruki5401]

If after this, you don't explore Shakespeare...I don't know..

[@lasanbangpraxay7592]

A person propose a marriage in front of Shakespeare's book lol... The book must be worth a serious sum of money.

[@user-kv4fe5do7h]

,,,, THE LINE IN MERCHANT OF VENICE IS ALL THAT GLISTERS GLISTERS,,,,, NOT GLITTERS act 2 scene 7

[@apollocobain8363]

14:30 still waiting for the first thing he learned. "seize opportunity..." 15:40 #2 "Shakespeare knew that decisions must be made in the absence of all the facts" Quotes a bunch of Hamlet. Hamlet takes incomplete information and kills 6 people. Stabs through a curtain, etc. "makes drama" 21:00 "Reputation is a bubble and that it is easily popped." #5 "Close cover before striking" #6 "Your seat cushion acts as a flotation device" #7 "Objects in mirror are bigger than they appear" #8 "You don't choose the thug life -- Thug life chooses you." #9 "All the other kids with their pumped up kicks they better run better run" #10 "Lose yourself in the music, the music" because of your mom's spaghetti.

[@MrScopophiliac]

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

[@wetalksports1128]

6:30 התבונה של ספרות 9:18 אתה צריך ליצור בכדי לבצע דברים אתה צריך לעשות משהו ממה שיש לך תמיד מכל הכלים שיש לך זה ליצור ממה שיש לך בזה הרגע. 12:00 האפשרות תברח לך במידה ולא תתפוס בה 15:30 צריך לעשות משהו למרות אי ידיעת העובדות 19:10 Have in complete information and do something about it 21:00 Repution is a bubble and it's physically pooped

[@desertari]

מה הקשר עם ההרצאה ?

[@70galaxie]

if 'e says "jazz" once more i'm shutting it off

[@senrom2273]

Of course the presentation would degenerate into a Democratic campaign event, and all of the New England cognoscenti would go atwitter at each remark to signal their wisdom to each other. Shakespeare saw through these people too.

[@joevass3196]

Exactly. Tiresome, really. The speaker loves Shakespeare, but like his listeners, is too lacking in self-awareness to apply the lessons to himself.

[@Slechy_Lesh]

Brit here. You're both as bad as each other.

[@MN8]

​@@Slechy_Lesh they are not bad, they are letting the stuffy air out of the room

[@dorothywillis1]

I was afraid that was going to happen. That's why I left.

[@dorothywillis1]

@@Slechy_Lesh You don't understand. The topic is supposed to be Shakespeare. He should respect his audience enough to let them make any connections to current events for themselves.

[@dorothywillis1]

I'm afraid I left when he started to mention modern political situations. That is a very sore subject for me, and I don't want to take the chance that he is going to say something that will upset me. Sorry to be so frail, but it's the truth.

[@desertari]

I understand your reluctance but really, it was quite OK and didn't get too political although there was one smart-alecky comment by the moderator right at the end. At one point Witmore alluded to the "unequal recognition of unequal justice" but that was it. So listen again all the way through- it is brilliant !

[@desertari]

OK- I listened to the lecture again and didn't pick up on anything divisive- can you let me know where it kicked in?

[@big1boston]

it is not whom you know as Shakespeare was written by one Fracias Bacon.

[@desertari]

That's changing the subject- not the time or place to re-open an old debate.

[@Nullifidian]

Then who wrote the works of Francis Bacon? Because the only way Bacon can be Shakespeare is if he _didn't_ write the works under his name. His works and Shakespeare's exist in different aesthetic universes.