By Saint Paul and By God’s Fair Ordinance: Machiavelli Schooled in Richard III, with Dr. Jordan Dorney

Can the unarmed prophet conquer, or is he predestined to failure? The reprobate prince Richard of Gloucester is Shakespeare’s answer to Machiavelli. Presented within his English saga (King John, the two tetralogies from Richard II to Richard III, and Henry VIII), the tragedy dominated by the deformed villain Richard III tests the limits of “cruelty well-used” and the seductive and impious arts of the Florentine. Is modernity safer than antiquity? Can satanic tyranny be sweeter than the kingship of the good shepherd? Shakespeare improves and finally defeats the teacher of evil, with drunken prophecies and solemn curses and holy matrimony along the way.

Panel Discussion with Dr. Joe Carlson, Dr. Jordan Dorney, and Jason Farley