Reading Shakespeare carefully to examine the design of ideas and the progression of feelings as they build, attending to dramatic texture and poetic nuance, and seeing and thinking about different productions are the main class activities.
This time we will devote the entire five sessions to Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. We may have the opportunity to ask if a country can be the protagonist of a tragedy. The sooner you can read the entire play, the better, but there are no prerequisites beyond a willingness to grapple with Elizabethan English. The inexpensive Signet editions have useful glosses and commentary. I will distribute at least one seminal essay on Shakespearean tragedy (A.C. Bradley).
This fall we will have with us, in each of the four sessions, a new troupe of Shakespearian actors, Queen Charlotte's Villeins, to perform scenes and parts of scenes and to participate in our discussions.
