This is a question and answer session, with a wide range of topics. Shakespeare had an eighth grade education, equivalent to a Harvard doctoral degree of today. Shakespeare was raised in a good Catholic family with good Catholic ancestry who heroically professed their Faith. He possessed a vivid imagination that was fed the best that theater could offer in the form of the Corpus Christi plays that he witnessed as a child. By the end of his career he was able to recover the lost prominence of the family name by purchasing a title of Gentleman. Shakespeare is credited as being the most creative writer in the English language, perhaps in all of literature. It is said that between him and Dante, they share the world. Dante was a religious writer and Shakespeare was a secular writer. They both wrote about the same things but from different perspectives. Dante was firmly rooted in the medieval world while Shakespeare had one foot in the medieval world and one foot in the modern. This is the central conflict in all of his work. But Shakespeare is far more creative, having created thousands of characters. It is said that after God, Shakespeare created most.
Dr. White continues his discussion of Cordelia and Kent’s loyalty as the cause of their disobedience and shows that, since they love the king, they must sacrifice, for love and sacrifice are one. He then discusses the setting of King Lear in pre-Christian Britain, showing that it was purposely done to circumvent trouble with the government – but that nevertheless it is filled with beautifully Christian iconography, presented subtly but meaningfully. Dr. White speaks of the expectations that audiences would have had for the play, and how it would have shocked them by its tragic ending. Finally, he reaches the scene where Lear enters with Cordelia dead in his arms, covering the symbolism of Lear’s line of inverted iambic pentameter and the way in which the scene is a kind of vision of the Pieta, but with father and daughter in place of mother and Son.
Dr. White explains the connection between language and personality, and shows Shakespeare’s mastery of this in the realness of his characters. He examines the significance of Shakespeare’s position between the medieval and modern worlds, and the dislike of his largely medieval worldview by modernists, who try to undermine his work by removing it from classrooms and ruining the language by translations. Edmund’s soliloquy in Act I is analyzed, showing his practically modernistic point of view in his twisting of the truth, lack of logic, and appallingly egocentric viewpoint. Next, Dr. White examines the characters’ various uses of the word “nature,” which is constantly redefined throughout the play. He looks at Edmund’s lack of personality and traces it to his bland, over-comfortable
Dr. White uses Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s book The Gulag Archipelago to illustrate his points on King Lear, particularly in Lear’s speech calling to “allow not nature more than nature needs,” where he discusses how very little one technically needs in order to survive. The whole celebrated sequence where Lear is out in the storm is carefully examined. Lear’s fast-changing moods are noted as he goes from towering rage and futile commands to the sky to self-pity to cries for patience to bear his sufferings. Dr. White then speaks of the significance of Edgar’s progression of disguises, Edmund’s piteous desire for love, and finally, how Lear and the other sufferers in the play were actually blessed by their suffering.
Dr. White explores the theme of leadership and crisis of authority in this lecture on Shakespeare’s “dark comedy.” He uses the example of a recent scandal at the Naval Academy where he taught to show the consequences of the failure of authority, and ties this into the irresponsibility of the authority figures in Measure for Measure. Dr. White then discusses Shakespeare’s evident Catholicism, how it influenced his work and life, and how it made his plays relevant and popular for all time, despite the protestations of modern critics, who twist his words, and modern schools, who take his works off their students’ reading lists. From there, Dr. White gives examples of how the playwright worked around a ban against mentioning God in the theatre. Finally, he discusses the pattern of the play’s settings and their significance, as well as the main conflict of the piece.
Dr. White continues his discussion of the results of incompetence in authority figures as represented in Measure for Measure, showing how the corruption of their society affects the characters, especially Isabella, who seeks refuge in the restraint and order of a convent. The character of Claudio is discussed as “the only sane and sensible character in the play.” Dr. White discusses the biblical references and Christian imagery in the play, and proves it to be, in one sense a Christmas play. Special attention is given to Isabella’s decision to grant forgiveness to the man who wronged her, bringing the idea of Mary’s Fiat to the play’s climax and resolution. The lecture closes with a few thoughts on Shakespeare’s Catholicism and Dr. White’s conviction that, in the words of a contemporary Protestant minister, “Master Shakespeare died a Papist.”
