Is Shakespeare History? The Romans
In Our Time: Culture
BBC
4.5 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 October 2018
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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
With
Sir Jonathan Bate Provost of Worcester College, University of Oxford
Catherine Steel Professor of Classics and Dean of Research in the College of Arts at the University of Glasgow
And
Patrick Gray Associate Professor of English Studies at Durham University
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Transcript
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| 0:48.7 | the programs. Hello it's almost impossible to imagine Anthony and Cleopatra or Julius Caesar and ignore Shakespeare's versions of their histories. |
| 0:57.0 | His accounts eclipsed all others with the power of his storytelling. |
| 1:01.0 | He not only re-tilled the stories of Rome, he shaped the idea of what Rome meant, what its values were, and what we could learn from its example. |
| 1:08.0 | But it is Shakespeare history, and what use did he make of the sources he had. |
| 1:12.0 | That's what we're discussing over the two programs |
| 1:14.1 | marking the 20th anniversary of in our time. Now we have the Roman players. Last week it was a Plantagenets. |
| 1:19.8 | With me to discuss Shakespeare, his Roman plays are Sir Jonathan Bates, |
| 1:23.0 | Professor Worcester College University of Oxford, |
| 1:25.2 | Catherine Steele, Professor of Classics at the University of Glasgow |
| 1:28.6 | and Patrick Gray Associate Professor of English Studies at Durham University. |
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