Shakespeare's Lyric Period
Long before Shakespeare gained lasting fame as a dramatist, he was well known for writing poetry, mostly the provocative, sexual kind. Despite the popularity of these poems in his lifetime, they were not included in his collected works for almost a century after his death, and even then they were discreetly tucked away in “supplements,” sometimes with misleading titles, or commentary expressing their editors’ disapproval. Many scholars still attempt to explain away their improprieties. No doubt some wish they hadn’t been written at all.
This course will take Shakespeare’s extended “lyric period,” up to and including the ever-scandalous Sonnets, as our opening into the problems and pleasures of the first half of the artist’s career. We will start with his racy, strange narrative poem Venus and Adonis, which was indisputably his bestselling work (it sold more copies than any of his plays by a factor of two) but which is almost never read or talked about today. We will then read one play from each of the three dramatic genres in which he worked: comedy, history, and tragedy. And we will conclude with a full month on the Sonnets, slowly and carefully reading all of them (or all the good ones at least).
Evaluation will be based on participation, two projects, and an exam. Credit for this course can apply toward the university's A&H (Arts and Humanities) general education requirement and the pre-1700 historical distribution area in the English major.