Shakespeare’s Rome
Professor David Quint, Yale University
Professor Anthony Grafton, Princeton University
Professor Lawrence Manley, Yale University
EverScholar in New York
January 23-26, 2025
The University Club, New York City
Course fee: $2395
Embark on an intensive exploration of a remarkable collection of Shakespeare’s masterful works, set against the backdrop of his classical sources, and contemporary world. Probe his lasting influence on how we perceive and interpret Rome in various realms, from the schoolroom to popular culture and the arts.
EverScholar presents this highly anticipated program, designed and now led by a magnificent group of the finest Shakespeare scholars: Professors Tony Grafton, David Quint, and Larry Manley.
At the heart of this program are three of Shakespeare’s tragic masterpieces inspired by Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans:
- Julius Caesar – A gripping depiction of the conspiracy against Caesar, its tragic fallout for the conspirators, and its catastrophic impact on the Roman Republic.
- Antony and Cleopatra – A dramatic retelling of the civil wars post-Caesar’s death, focusing on Marc Antony’s fateful alliance with Cleopatra, the ensuing victory of Augustus Caesar, and the dawn of the Roman Empire.
- Coriolanus – An exploration of the threats faced by the nascent Roman Republic in 491 BC, highlighting the banishment, return, and tragic end of the formidable aristocratic hero, Caius Martius Coriolanus, which set the stage for Rome’s tumultuous political future.
To frame our understanding of these masterpieces, we will begin with two of Shakespeare’s earlier works:
- The Rape of Lucrece – An early narrative poem influenced by Livy’s History of Rome from the Foundations, which examines the tyrannical act of sexual violence that catalyzed the fall of the Tarquinian kings and the birth of the Republic.
- Titus Andronicus – A collaboration likely involving other playwrights, this revenge tragedy draws from Seneca and Ovid to investigate the tensions between Roman civilization and barbarism, and is connected to Shakespeare’s later works through its exploration of Roman virtue and womanhood.
The course will culminate with a discussion of Cymbeline, a historical romance set during the Roman invasion of Britain, to assess Shakespeare’s critique of Roman civilization in the context of his own era.
Our examination of Shakespeare’s Rome will be enriched by considering the historical and cultural backdrop of the Renaissance, including:
- The humanistic revival of the ancient world through archaeology, literature, and the arts.
- Influential depictions of Rome by figures such as Dante, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, and Montaigne.
- Innovations in historical and biographical writing in vernacular languages.
- Contemporary philosophical and political debates, including neo-Stoicism, tyrannicide, empire, and republicanism.
Readings will encompass Shakespeare’s six principal Roman works, selections from his classical sources (such as Livy, Plutarch, Appian, Seneca, Ovid, Virgil, and St. Augustine), and recent critical essays that crystallize key issues. Our collective encounter with Shakespeare’s distinctive and unforgettable versions of Rome will be at the core of this intellectual journey.
Join us for a profound exploration of a great yet flawed civilization through the lens of one of history’s greatest playwrights, taught by today’s greatest Shakespeare scholars, with EverScholar, where we deliver extraordinary immersive intellectual programs for lifelong, always curious, always growing, learners.
Our Lead Faculty:
Sterling Professor of Comparative Literature
Yale University
David Quint is no stranger to the EverScholar model, having famously led a course on The Renaissance. He tells us, autobiographically: “I am a product of the Yale Comparative Literature Department. I taught in the Department of Comparative Literature at Princeton University for a decade and half before taking up teaching at Yale in both the Comparative Literature and English departments. At the graduate level, I have offered courses on The European Epic Tradition, Ariosto and Cervantes, Milton, Montaigne, Aristocracy and Literature, Non-Shakespearean Drama, English Renaissance Lyric Poetry, Spenser. I have regularly taught the core course of the interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies program, The Renaissance in Italy. I am primarily interested in poetry, but I have also taught and written about the novel, the essay, and drama. My work has emphasized how literary form and the internal history of genres can be related to historical change and evolving social formations. I have directed dissertations whose subjects have ranged from classical antiquity to the twentieth century.” His many publications include Epic and Empire (1993), Cervantes’s Novel of Modern Times: A New Reading of Don Quijote (2003), Inside Paradise Lost (2014), Literary Theory/Renaissance Texts (1986) (co-editor), The Stanze of Angelo Poliziano (1979) (translator)
Professor of English
Yale University
Lawrence Manley began his teaching at Yale in 1976, and has taught EverScholars to great acclaim in several prior programs, including “The Renaissance,” “The Dark Arts of Civilization,” and in Italy. His many fields of interest include the poetry, prose, and drama of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain, with emphasis on literature and society, theater history and performance studies, intellectual history, and the classical foundations of the English literary and critical traditions. He is the author of Literature and Culture in Early Modern London (1995) and Convention, 1500-1750 (1980), and the editor of London in the Age of Shakespeare: An Anthology (1986) and The Cambridge Companion to London in English Literature (2011). He has contributed to The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, The Cambridge History of Early Modern English Literature, the Blackwell Companion to Renaissance Drama, and The Stanford Global Shakespeare Encyclopedia. His book with Sally-Beth MacLean, Lord Strange’s Men and Their Plays (2014), was awarded the Phylliis Goodhart Gordan Prize by the Renaissance Society of America. Current subjects of research include Shakespeare’s love duets.
Henry Putnam University Professor of History
Princeton University
Anthony Grafton teaches European history at Princeton University, where he has worked since 1975. He studies the history of humanistic scholarship and education, the history of books and readers and the history of science. His books include Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship (Oxford, 1983-93); Defenders of the Text (Harvard, 1991); The Footnote: A Curious History (Harvard, 1997); and Magus: The Art of Magic from Faust to Agrippa (Harvard and Pengun/Allen Lane, 2023/4). In 2002 he received the Balzan Prize for History of the Humanities, and in 2003 the Distinguished Achievement Award of the Andrew Mellon Foundation
Readings
All EverScholar courses actually start months before our meeting. After registration, you will receive all books and scholarly articles for the course, and will immerse yourself in great works curated by our faculty. “Shakespeare’s Rome” is no exception, with works ranging from contemporaneous writings to great books written by your own EverScholar professors. Primary sources will mix with authoritative texts to produce night after night of joy as you prepare for your return to the life of the mind.
Special Events
One of EverScholar’s unique and most beloved features are our Special Events; sessions at a number of well-known (such as a museum or Art Gallery) or less-known centers of collection and learning. “Shakespeare’s Rome” continues this tradition.
Details on Special Events for this course will be posted soon; well in advance of the course.
Beyond the Classroom
Everything that happens during an EverScholar program is enhanced by the fact that it takes place in a learning-promoting environment.
This program takes place at the University Club of New York City, 1 West 54th Street, in the cultural center of Manhattan. Discounted housing is available at the University Club.
Learn more about the experience!
The course begins with a reception and dinner on Thursday…. and ends late Sunday afternoon. The program cost is $2,395 per person. Deposit is $500 per person. Balance is due on September 1, 2024. Refund and full COVID-19 refund policies are detailed on registration page (click on “Register Now” button above for this information along with accommodation details) – you can register without worries. Looking forward to seeing you there!