内容

目次

Part 1 Values and perceptions: Jesus, Shakespeare and Karl Marx -"Timon of Athens" and "The Merchant of Venice" - parables for the city;"Troilus and Cressida" - parables for the city; Shakespeare and thefashion of these times. Part 2 Catastrophes of history: the frame ofdisorder - "Henry VI" ; "Richard II" and the music of men's lives;"Julius Caesar" and the catastrophes of history; myth and history inShakespeare's Rome; Shakespeare's language of the unconscious - thepsychogenesis of terrorism. Part 3 Tragic sacrifice: Hamlet thebonesetter; blood and wine - tragic ritual from Aeschylus to Soyinka;the theatre of "Othello"; "upon such sacrifices..." - "King Lear". Part4 Comedy, human and divine: the theatre of God's judgements "All's Hellthat ends Hell" and "Measure for Measure"; history and histrionics in"Cymbeline"; "Pericles" and the dream of immortality; "The Tempest" -conventions of art and empire; the island of "The Tempest".