Clare Asquith: Was Shakespeare a political writer?
It was a great pleasure to welcome Clare Asquith who delivered this years Annual History Lecture. Her wonderful talk – Was Shakespeare a political writer? – led us to consider the historical context in which Shakespeare was writing, and the impact that events had on his work. Clare took us through the issues that dominated the late Tudor and early Stuart world, and then dissected three passages by Shakespeare which are hard for a modern audience to make sense of. She demonstrated how the political climate of the 16th and early 17th centuries, in particular the police state run by the Cecils, created a culture whereby a means had to be found to express criticism of the regime and dissenting ideas. Allusions that mean nothing to us would have been understood by a contemporary audience to be a dissection of, and commentary on, the government of the day.
There was a wealth of positive feedback on the lecture from girls and parents, as well as from friends and supporters of the School, who stopped to share ideas at the end, and the English Department, who were very generous in giving their time to support the event, will use the talk as part of their teaching on textual criticism. Many members of the audience resolved to go back to the works of the great man and to look at them afresh in light of the times in which he lived.
The History Department is hugely grateful to Clare Asquith for such an enlightening and fascinating talk. As I noted in my introduction, her lecture is a perfect example of how we are all learners, whether pupils, parents or staff, and that we should remember that although we study individual subjects for practical reasons, in reality, ideas cross the boundaries of subjects. To be able to explore history, literature, theology and politics all in one evening was, therefore, a real treat!
If you missed this occasion, please do join us next autumn when we will have another guest speaker to augment the History Lecture Series that is run internally.
Emily Boon
