Poetry’s debt to birdsong
The creatures of the air have for centuries inspired some of our finest writing, and they still do
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Jonathan Bate
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Shakespeare in the age of Trump
To understand today’s demagogues and despots we should look to Macbeth and Richard III.
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Measure for pleasure: sex, money and Shakespeare
Like sex, money is something that a lot of people spend a lot of time thinking about (and wanting…
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How books help us to be better human beings
Is literature therapy, comfort food, or a route to self-knowledge? Four literary critics – Alberto Manguel, Michael Hofmann, James Wood…
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Montaigne and Shakespeare: two great writers of one mind
Jonathan Bate traces the Bard’s debt to the French essayist Michel de Montaigne.
ByPox and the City: the complex life of Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Bate reviews Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World by Leo Damrosch and explores the world behind works…
ByMusic at Midnight: The Life and Poetry of George Herbert
Donne is so damn sexy that he will always seem modern. Marvell is the greatest political poet in the…
ByReviewed: Shakespeare Beyond Doubt by Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells
A player, not a gentleman.
ByOut of the twilight
Green issue – There are no green films, plays or literary criticism. Why?
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