Is Shakespeare History? The Romans
In the second of two programmes marking In Our Time’s 20th anniversary on 15th October, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare’s versions of history, continuing with the Roman plays. Rome was the setting for Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus and parts of Antony and Cleopatra and these plays gave Shakespeare the chance to explore ideas too controversial for English histories. How was Shakespeare reimagining Roman history, and what impact has that had on how we see Rome today? The image above is of Marlon Brando playing Mark Antony in a scene from the film version of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, 1953
→ Listen on BBC Sounds website
Guests
- Sir Jonathan Bate
16 episodes
Provost of Worcester College, University of Oxford - Catherine Steel
5 episodes
Professor of Classics and Dean of Research in the College of Arts at the University of Glasgow -
Patrick Gray No other episodes
Associate Professor of English Studies at Durham University
Reading list
-
Shakespeare's Roman Trilogy: The Twilight of Antiquity
Paul A. Cantor (University of Chicago Press, 2017) Google Books → -
Shakespeare's Rome: Republic and Empire
Paul A. Cantor (University of Chicago Press, 2017) Google Books → -
Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic: Selfhood, Stoicism, and Civil War
Patrick Gray (Edinburgh University Press, 2018) Google Books → -
Shakespeare and Republicanism
Andrew Hadfield (Cambridge University Press, 2008) Google Books → -
The Early History of Rome: Books 1-5
Livy (trans. Aubrey De Selincourt) (Penguin, 2002) Google Books → -
The Rise of Rome: Books 1-5
Livy (ed. T. J. Luce) (Oxford University Press, 2008) Google Books → -
Shakespeare and the Constant Romans
Geoffrey Miles (Oxford University Press, 1996) Google Books → -
Shakespeare's Rome
Robert S. Miola (Cambridge University Press, 1983) Google Books → -
Roman Lives: A Selection of Eight Lives
Plutarch (trans. Robin Waterfield) (Oxford University Press, 2008) Google Books → -
Fall of the Roman Republic
Plutarch (trans. Rex Warner) (Penguin, 2006) Google Books → -
Rome in Crisis
Plutarch (trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert) (Penguin, 2010) Google Books → -
The Rise of Rome
Plutarch (trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert) (Penguin, 2013) Google Books → -
Cleopatra: A Biography
Duane W. Roller (Oxford University Press, 2010) Google Books → -
From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome 133 B.C. to A.D. 68
H. H. Scullard (Routledge, 2011) Google Books → -
Brutus: The Noble Conspirator
Kathryn Tempest (Yale University Press, 2017) Google Books → -
Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny
Edward J. Watts (Basic Books, 2018) Google Books → -
Et Tu, Brute?: A Short History of Political Murder
Greg Woolf (Harvard University Press, 2008)
Related episodes
-
Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets
11 Oct, 2018 820 English and Old English literatures -
Julius Caesar
2 Oct, 2014 930 History of the Ancient World -
Shakespeare’s Work
11 May, 2000 820 English and Old English literatures -
Romeo and Juliet
17 Feb, 2022 820 English and Old English literatures -
Cleopatra
2 Dec, 2010 930 History of the Ancient World -
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
18 Apr, 2019 820 English and Old English literatures -
Rome and European Civilization
20 Dec, 2001 930 History of the Ancient World -
Tacitus and the Decadence of Rome
10 Jul, 2008 930 History of the Ancient World -
The Augustan Age
11 Jun, 2009 930 History of the Ancient World -
Roman Britain
1 May, 2003 930 History of the Ancient World
Programme ID: m0000qnh
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000qnh
Auto-category: 822.33 (Shakespeare’s plays and poetry)
Hello (First sentence from this episode)
Hello, it's almost impossible to imagine Antony and Cleopatra or Julius Caesar and ignore Shakespeare's versions of their histories.