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.

[ernestmendez]

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.

[cor-zm]

Can never get enough of Shakespeare! Brilliant.

[jeffreygraham]

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.

[davidphillips]

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

[petermladinic]

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

[marinamaccagni]

Michael witmore, awesome shakespearean lecture!

[muhammadhamzawarraich]

Hi anyone here student of English literature and language

[paulsolon]

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

[haruki]

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

[TheWhitehiker]

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

[wetalksports]

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

[lasanbangpraxay]

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

[MrScopophiliac]

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

[apollocobain]

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.

[AndrewLeigh-vl]

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

[senrom]

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.

[galaxie]

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

[dorothywillis]

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.

[Reasonable]

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