“It has been observed that critics who write about Shakespeare reveal more about themselves than about Shakespeare, but perhaps that is the great value drama of the Shakespearean kind, namely, that whatever he may see taking place on stage, its final effect upon each spectator is a self-revelation.” — W. H. Auden (p. 4)
I’ve loved Shakespeare since I took a course on his plays at Marquette University back in 1968. Since then, I’ve read all of Shakespeare’s plays and have seen all of them either live or on DVD. Eliot A. Cohen is the Robert E. Osgood Professor at Johns Hopkins University and the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Cohen was also a counselor of the Department of State. The Hollow Crown is the result of Cohen teaching a graduate class in Shakespeare for policy makers.
“I have closely observed and occasionally worked with presidents, senators, foreign ministers, counselors, spies, and generals at home and abroad, not to mention corporate executives, provosts, and university presidents.” (p. 1) Cohen mixes his observations of Shakespeare plays with examples from the world of politics and business.
For those of you who love Shakespeare’s comedies, you’ll not find much in the way of mirth in these pages. Cohen focuses on characters like Richard III and MacBeth who seek power and when they get power, they use it in brutal ways.
The plays that receive the most attention from Cohen are Henry IV (Parts 1 & 2) and Henry V. The growth of Hal from a young nobleman interested in chasing women and drinking to a monarch show how leaders rise, rule, (and later fall).
If you’re a fan of Shakespeare, you’ll enjoy all the quotes Cohen provides from various plays. Cohen highlights passages from Richard III that I had forgotten about. Exercising power always costs and Shakespeare shows those consequences in his plays. The Hollow Crown is a terrific book with much to ponder. Do you have a favorite Shakespeare play? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: The arc of power — 1
Why Shakespeare? — 13
Part I: acquiring power:
Inheriting it — 39
Acquiring it — 57
Seizing it — 81
Part II: exercising power:
Inspiration — 109
Manipulation — 133
Murder — 159
Part III: losing power:
Innocence and arrogance — 181
Magic and self-deception — 203
Walking away from it — 225
Shakespeare’s political vision — 247
Acknowledgments — 255
Notes — 259
Index — 269
Macbeth. Than Hamlet. This book doesn’t look like it’d for me. Glad you liked it.
Steve, this mashup of Shakespeare and strategy taught me a lot.
“Plots have I laid…”
Works for writers, too
Dan, you’re right. But I would go with: “Listen to many, speak to a few.” (Polonius, act 1 scene 3)
My books have been speaking to waaay too few….
I had a course on Shakespeare in college, around the time somebody — can’t remember who — wrote a play updating Richard III with Nixon as the title character. Our older daughter pursued Medieval and Renaissance Studies for her Ph.D., partly as a result of being introduced to the Bard as a nine-year-old in a county-sponsored, hands-on Shakespeare course for kids.
Fred, I first read Shakespeare in Junior High School starting with JULIUS CAESAR and later THE MERCHANT OF VENICE and AS YOU LIKE IT. At Marquette University, I took two Shakespeare courses, one semester of comedies, one semester of tragedies. A few years ago, I reread all of Shakespeare’s plays and watching many of them on DVD. He was a writer like none other.
Zeffirelli’s exploitation of Hussey and Whiting, when showed to us at my second high school in my 10th grade, certainly made an impression (that school had a policy of one Shakespeare play a year to be taught academy-wide). I preferred the translations of Sophocles we were also studying to any of WS’s, but did participate the next year in the Shakes festival, playing Toby Belch and Horatio and the like.
Leiber certainly fueled my interest in WS a bit, in the years beforehand.
Perhaps the most ridiculously bad pro performance I recall of OTHELLO was the BBC THE SHAKESPEARE PLAYS of the ’70s/’80s version, with Anthony Hopkinsi as over the top in the title role as his makeup was shoddy.
Todd, I never saw that OTHELLO performance with Anthony Hopkins. Sounds like I didn’t miss much.
This wasn’t even the worst of it: https://vimeo.com/175012048
Todd, my first Fritz Leiber book was NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS, the Ballantine Books 1961 edition. The title is from Macbeth, Act III, scene ii.
Like you, I read some Shakespeare early. The first play I saw was the first ever production of Joe Papp’s Shakespeare in the Park – in 1962 they took us from junior high school on the bus to Central Park to see George C. Scott & James Earl Jones in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. Also at the Delacorte in Central Park, we saw Meryl Streep and her then boyfriend John (Fredo) Cazale (with Sam Waterston starring) in MEASURE FOR MEASURE. Waterston also starred with Kathleen Widdoes in my favorite Shakespeare play, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, later on Broadway and filmed for PBS. Charming production. Also saw it years later with Kevin Kline & Blythe Danner (with Phoebe Cates as the ingenue), as well as two London productions. Also saw the musical version of TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, HENRY V with Alan Howard, among others.
Jeff, every summer Buffalo has SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK, but I’ve never attended it. I know I would find the crowd noise and traffic noise distracting. But, the performances get an impressive attendance.
I think it’s different now, but for years you would have to go early and get on line, especially for the popular productions. Once in line, you would sit on the grass – or a blanket if you had one – until 3:00 or so, when they came around and gave out pre-tickets (so to speak), each of which was good for two seats. If you got one of those, you knew that you had a seat and could leave until they gave out the actual tickets (can’t really exactly, but probably 6:00 or later), which they did in order of the number on the pre-ticket.
An aside: while a low number guaranteed you a seat, they gave out one section at a time, so you could get the last row in one section and the person in line behind you might get the front row in the next section.
We’d generally bring lunch with us and eat on the grass. After we got the 3:00 tickets you could leave and go to a museum or whatever, and we’d go somewhere close for dinner before the show. One problem: even then, Jackie could not sit on the ground for long, and would have to find a bench to sit on.
There was always this black guy, clearly an ac-tor, walking up and down the line, selling “ice cold bottles of Lambrusco and Sangria.”
Those were the days. Once they started making you go to the Public Theater downtown to get the tickets, we quit going. There was no way we could get there early enough to get tickets.
/end trip down memory lane
Jeff, you’re right about “Those were the Days.” Diane wanted to go to a Buffalo Sabres game in downtown Buffalo, but over 100 car thefts have occurred while fans watched hockey. Toronto has even a worse auto theft problem: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-woman-car-stolen-auto-theft-summit-1.7110015
Always enjoy Shakespeare—even some of the lesser-known, less well-received works. I think I saw all of the BBC adaptations from the 1980s: most of them were pretty good productions if not overwhelmingly great. My favorite is still MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING—Beatrice & Benedick are my all-time favorite Shakespearean couple. Meanwhile, the twins found a really cheap flight to England next month and will be back in London in a couple of week during LSU’s Spring Break. They already have tickets to see Macbeth with Ralph Fiennes in the title role. Nice for some….
Deb, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING ranks high on my BEST OF SHAKESPEARE list. I’m fond of Troilus and Cressida which is usually categorized as a “Problem Play.” Lucky twins to see Fiennes as Macbeth!
I had the Classic Comic of Julius Caesar when I was a kid! In college I had to do a Shakespeare soliloquy for theater class that stands head and shoulders below any bad Shakespeare performance ever! Time has mercifully erased from my memory what play it was! Maybe Richard V or one of those other English kings!
Bob, I had plenty of Classic Comics, too. But I have no idea where they are.