In this lecture, Paul Cantor, who is the Clifton Waller Barrett Professor of English at the University of Virginia, talks about Shakespeare and his legacy. If Shakespeare's plays constitute some of the great monuments of Western civilization, one reason is that they are deeply rooted in its grand traditions. Shakespeare's imagination ranged widely in terms of both geography and history. His historical plays chronicle the evolution of the British regime, from the chaos of feudal monarchy to the order of a modern centralized kingship. In his Roman plays, Shakespeare goes back to the ancient world to uncover the contribution of the classical republican tradition to the modern world. As a figure of the Renaissance, Shakespeare was positioned to draw on both ancient and modern traditions, and his plays can help us understand how the confluence of those traditions helped create our world today.

This event is the featured lecture of the Institute's weeklong lecture series commemorating "Shakespeare and his Legacy."