A playlist exploring Shakespeare’s social circle in Stratford-on-Avon, with individual videos on friends and contemporaries including Richard Quiney, Richard Field, Thomas Greene, Julius Shaw, Hamnet Sadler, and others.
An exploration of how rigidly Shakespeare adheres to iambic pentameter, examining his use of metrical variation, substitution, and the relationship between rhythm and dramatic meaning.
An examination of the claim that Shakespeare coined an exceptional number of English words and expressions, weighing the evidence from contemporary sources and the history of the language.
An analysis of Hamlet’s To Be or Not to Be soliloquy, focusing on its ethical arguments about revenge, mortality, and the paralysis of indecision.
A concise introduction to what we know about Shakespeare from contemporary sources, tracing the documentary record of his life from his baptism in Stratford in 1564 to his burial there, with reference to contemporary praise from Francis Meres.
A playlist bringing together all videos on Oliver Twist, examining Dickens’s treatment of social reform, poverty, and conformity in Victorian England.
A playlist bringing together all videos on Wuthering Heights, exploring the relationship between Heathcliff and Cathy and the question of whether they may be half-siblings.
A playlist exploring the opening chapter of Genesis as a work of literature, examining its narrative structure, imagery, and the literary qualities of the King James Bible translation.
An analysis of Oliver Twist examining the tension between social reform and conformity, exploring how Dickens uses the figure of the orphan to critique the Poor Law and Victorian attitudes to poverty and crime.