In this video I talk about my academic interest in Shakespearean drama and how I have been inspired by Machiavelli in my approach to engaging with the characters of the dramas and poems.
Machiavellian Realism
There are two aspects to the Machiavellian approach to the plays:
1. Engage with the characters in the play and asking them the reasons for their words and actions.
This approach is inspired by Machiavelli's own account of how he reads the ancient writers and how they come to life and talk to him when he questions them.
This extract is from his most famous letter, possibly the most famous letter to have been written during the Italian Renaissance, a letter to his friend Francesco Vettori:
When evening comes, I go back home, and go to my study. On the threshold, I take off my work clothes, covered in mud and filth, and I put on the clothes an ambassador would wear. Decently dressed, I enter the ancient courts of rulers who have long since died. There, I am warmly welcomed, and I feed on the only food I find nourishing and was born to savour. I am not ashamed to talk to them and ask them to explain their actions and they, out of kindness, answer me. Four hours go by without my feeling any anxiety. I forget every worry. I am no longer afraid of poverty or frightened of death. I live entirely through them.
2. Look at the power relations between the characters and the degree to which a particular character operated with Machiavellian virtù.
I read the plays in the light of Machiavelli's writings about political power chiefly in The Prince and The Discourses and decide whether or not a character has adopted Machiavellian techniques of power or not, and if so, how effectively the character has done so.
Ficinian Idealism
Alongside my interest in Machiavellian realism I am also interested in discovering neo-Platonic themes in Shakespearean drama.
Contemporary with Machiavelli was a very different thinker called Marsilio Ficino, who translated Plato for Cosmo Medici. Ficino was a neo-Platonist, astrologer and Catholic priest whose writings had a profound influence on the art and culture of the Renaissance. (Think of the paintings of Botticelli, such as The Birth of Venus, and Primavera, for example.)
My Personal Default Setting
It may seem rather strange to place Machiavelli and Ficino alongside each other since they were so different. However, to my mind they compliment each other rather well and in a way which I believe finds expression in the dramas of Shakespeare.
I refer to this combination as my personal "default setting," which I think runs counter to the "default setting" of your typical modern educated type. Whereas the typical default setting of today may be said to be a combination of "political idealism and philosophical materialsim," my personal default setting is "political realism" (Machiavelli), and "philosophical idealism" (Ficino).
It is that "default setting" that informs my approach to writing about the plays and poems of William Shakespeare.
Here are two places where I have published some of my essays:
https://davidhurleyinjapan.com/academic-essays/
https://hju.academia.edu/DavidHurley
All the best,
David Hurley
**Sources: **
Shakespeare portrait: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare
Letter to Vettori: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli