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Donald Richardson
Responding to many recent calls for redress and restitution, Richardson summarises the historical and current situation and attributes its problematics to the fact that theorists and historians have taken the…
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Blind rage underlies Leontes' jealousy in The Winter's Tale. Although his jealously is akin to Othello's, it is not carried out to the same extent, thanks to the oracle's pronouncement…
Proudfoot and Bennett remind us that "the authorship of Edward III remains speculative" (89). However, they continue, "The circumstantial case for Shakespeare has sufficient dimensions to be persuasive, especially the…
I have pondered the contemplative life, wondering how it could be useful or applicable to one in the twenty-first century. Might it be useful-even in this age of high-speed electronics…
Neither Venus and Adonis nor the Rape of Lucrece is widely read. Both poems were quite popular during Shakespeare's time, however, and each gives promise of future development of the…
Based on Chaucers The Knights Tale in Canterbury Tales, The Two Noble Kinsmen takes as a motif the rules of courtly love endorsed by both Arcite and Palamon who, unfortunately…
Dr Donald Richardson
King John is quite problematic. As the ending is not a satisfying resolution, the audience is left without a sense of completion. It appears everything is left up in the…
Coriolanus is a man afflicted by a tragic flaw: Hubris (Hybris), overweening pride. His thoughts are immediately expressed in his speech, never mind the setting or the audience. This, combined…
Measure for Measure is "usually considered one of [Shakespeare's] unpleasant comedies" (Asimov, 635) since mercy is offered to "the villain" (Asimov). The duplicity of the Duke is debatable too, along…
Titus Andronicus, like Hamlet, is a revenge tragedy but one that "focuses on violence and horror[;] . . . its mood is one of revulsion" (Bevington, Introduction). Despite parallels between…
Even though most Shakespearean scholars argue that Pericles is not entirely the work of Shakespeare, similar to The Winter's Tale, it continues to attract playgoers. "Shipwreck, famine, and other disasters…
Detective fiction is said to have begun in 1841 with Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." There are antecedents to Poe, but Poe is the progenitor for…
Cymbeline repeats many of Shakespeare's plot devices: "villainous slander, homicidal jealousy, cross-gender disguise, a deathlike trance, the appearance of Jupiter in a vision, and final repentance, forgiveness, and reunion" (Mowat…
One critic of the Merry Wives of Windsor argues that "no longer does Shakespeare endow the fat knight [Falstaff] with the nimble wit that enabled him in the earlier plays…
One recurrent criticism of The Third Part of HVI, is its cavalier disregard for chronology and historical events. However, Lawrence V. Ryan argues that the disjointing of time…
"The role of prophecy is . . . central in 2 Henry VI, in that it gives to the play a dominant pattern of prediction and eventual fulfillment" (Bevington). This…
Donald J. Richardson
The Merchant of Venice is problematic. Not only does it present the disparate and unrelated stories of the caskets and the trial for a pound of flesh, but it challenges…
As a boy growing up in Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas, I had no objective conception of evil. We were practicing Roman Catholics in our family, so our consideration of…
I was inspired to write Song of Fools by an article I read about Oscar Hartzell. As I read about him, I wondered about the motivations of those Iowans, Missourians…
Donald J Richardson
Among teenagers Romeo and Juliet appears to be the most popular of the Shakespeare tragedies. Perhaps this is because of the age of the protagonists. I suspect it is something…
Of the five major Shakespearean tragedies-Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, and Othello-King Lear is perhaps the most challenging. Issues of rulership, family and blood, are overlaid with bastardy…
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a delightful excursion into Shakespeare's fantasy world. With something for everyone, including the courtly world of Theseus and the lovers Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius…
Much Ado About Nothing is a delightful play which pits two intelligent, thinking people against each other, both of whom protest against love (and each other), but who finally come…
Like many writers, I suppose I have an idealized picture of the past, of my youth, when everything was green and golden and all the calves sang to my huntsman’s…
