Shakespeare's Ghosts and Spirits - Sir Jonathan Bate FBA CBE

0:00 // Introduction & Lecture Overview 1:24 // The Ghost of Old Hamlet: What Kind of Ghost? 2:48 // Catholic vs. Protestant Views of the Afterlife 4:12 // Macbeth and Banquo's Ghost 5:36 // Julius Caesar and Caesar's Ghost 7:00 // Richard III: Visited by All His Victims 8:24 // Witches and the Supernatural World 9:48 // Fairies and Spirits in A Midsummer Night's Dream 11:12 // Prospero's Spirits in The Tempest 12:36 // Ariel: What Kind of Being Is He? 14:00 // The Weird Sisters: Witchcraft and Jacobean Anxiety 15:24 // Ghosts, Justice, and the Question of Revenge 16:48 // What the Supernatural Reveals About Shakespeare's World Where do the ghosts in Shakespeare come from? And what about the magic? In this lecture, Jonathan Bate will summon up the ghosts of Old Hamlet, the victims of Richard III and Julius Caesar, revealing their origins in the bloody plays of Seneca. He will then show how such figures from classical mythology as Theseus and Medea provide a key to the association between supernatural powers and Shakespearean art. The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-an... This event was on Tue, 27 Mar 2018 Professor Sir Jonathan Bate was Gresham Professor of Rhetoric. He is a British academic, biographer, critic, broadcaster, novelist and scholar. He specialises in Shakespeare, Romanticism and Ecocriticism. Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/ Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter:   / greshamcollege   Facebook:   / greshamcollege   Instagram:   / greshamcollege