Freedom in Shakespeare's English History Plays

In: Interpretation, Band 40, Heft 2, S. 221-251

Abstract

Students read Shakespeare's plays to learn about politics and office, love and friendship, and other great themes of human life. This education is the core of the 'Shakespeare myth,' which is that Shakespeare educates the complete human being-man, woman, and citizen. In this paper, I provide support for the truth of this myth by challenging the suggestion that the Shakespeare of the 1590s is a traditional theist who accepts the divine machinery of providential history, a secularizing Machiavel, or a protorepublican advocating living together as equals under the rule of law. Instead of these Shakespearian simplifications, I present Shakespeare as a philosophical liberal who is interested in legitimacy, stability, participation, security, and the place of the individual within society, but not in a way that requires the complete enlightenment of his age's political forms and religious life, or that denies enlightenment altogether. Adapted from the source document.