Marie Marshall
Sep 3, 2018 · 2 min read

“… the quality of Shakespeare…”

The quality of Shakespeare is not strained.

Care. I know of someone who is going to do PhD research on lesbian-themed pulp paperbacks of the 1950s, and another looking at gender essentialism in modern graphic novels. You can bet your harris someone has already done a PhD on Crossroads, ‘Corrie’, or Home and Away.

But Shakespeare. Shakespeare is not brilliant because of the care we spend on him. We take that care because he is brilliant. He is brilliant despite that list of constraints laid upon him, because he can operate despite them. Consider Julius Caesar. It is probably still the most staggeringly brilliant exposition on the theme of the total lack of political legitimacy ever written. No one in the play who exercises political power of any sort, no matter how temporary, does so with a shred of legitimacy — not the two tribunes who tear down Caesar’s honours, not Caesar himself, not the conspirators who self-rationalise as liberators, not the mob that runs wild after the assassination, not Mark Anthony, not Octavius. No one. The play dared to call political legitimacy as a whole, and it did so at a time when the monarchy of England was shaky and the succession of the crown was a hot potato. That is why I consider it his greatest play, and perhaps the greatest play ever written for the stage.

That whole theme of lack of political legitimacy was brought home when, in 2012, the RSC staged an African version of the play — by which I mean they played the dialogue straight, but peopled it with contemporary African characters, speaking in various African accents. It was utterly convincing, utterly riveting. The sight, in one of the scenes, of the mob ‘necklacing’ Cinna the Poet was truly shocking. Here is part of Mark Anthony’s oration over the dead Caesar — it’s as good as any I’ve ever heard/seen.

Here’s a question. And and answer, by the way.

Q: If soaps are vulgar, why do so many middle-class people follow Casualty?

A: Because it’s a television drama series.

    Marie Marshall

    Written by

    Growing old gracelessly