Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic: Selfhood, Stoicism and Civil War

Patrick Gray

book: Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic

Open Access Published by Edinburgh University Press 2018

Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic

Selfhood, Stoicism and Civil War

Patrick Gray

In the series Edinburgh Critical Studies in Shakespeare and Philosophy

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474427470

Overview
Contents

About this book

Explores Shakespeare's representation of the failure of democracy in ancient Rome

Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic introduces Shakespeare as a historian of ancient Rome alongside figures such as Sallust, Cicero, St Augustine, Machiavelli, Gibbon, Hegel and Nietzsche. In Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare shows Rome’s transition from Republic to Empire. Why did Rome degenerate into an autocracy? Alternating between ruthless competition, Stoicism, Epicureanism and self-indulgent fantasies, Rome as Shakespeare sees it is inevitably bound for civil war. Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic considers Shakespeare’s place in the history of concepts of selfhood and reflects on his sympathy for Christianity, in light of his reception of medieval Biblical drama, as well as his allusions to the New Testament. Shakespeare’s critique of Romanitas anticipates concerns about secularisation, individualism and liberalism shared by philosophers such as Hannah Arendt, Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, Michael Sandel and Patrick Deneen.

Key Features:

Explains Shakespeare’s interpretation of the underlying causes of the Roman Republican civil wars
Shows how Shakespeare uses Roman history as a testing-ground to arbitrate between competing claims about human nature
Articulates Shakespeare’s distinctive, compromise position on selfhood
Situates Shakespeare within the intellectual history of individualism, Christianity, Romanticism, secularization, and political liberalism

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Classical Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Series Editor’s Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction: Shakespeare and the Vulnerable Self Open Access Download PDF	1
Part I: Julius Caesar
1. ‘A beast without a heart’: Pietas and Pity in Julius Caesar Open Access Download PDF	49
2. ‘The northern star’: Constancy and Passibility in Julius Caesar Open Access Download PDF	95
Conclusion to Part I: Shakespeare’s Passion Play Open Access Download PDF	145
Part II: Antony and Cleopatra
3. ‘The high Roman fashion’: Suicide and Stoicism in Antony and Cleopatra Open Access Download PDF	177
4. ‘A spacious mirror’: Interpellation and the Other in Antony and Cleopatra Open Access Download PDF	220
Conclusion to Part II: The Last Interpellation Open Access Download PDF	259
Conclusion: Between Humanism and Antihumanism Open Access Download PDF	271
Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	279
Index Open Access Download PDF	301

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 320
Keywords: Literary Studies

eBook

Published: April 19, 2022
ISBN: 9781474427470