William Shakespeare – Critical Readings

CR Episode 116: Venus and Adonis

14 February 2022 Critical Readings

For St. Valentine's Day, the panel reads what is likely to have been Shakespeare's first officially published work: his genre-defying Tragi-Comi-Ovidian poem "Venus and Adonis", dedicated to his patron, Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton.

CR Episode 100: Shakespeare’s Sonnets

25 October 2021 Critical Readings

The panel reads a selection of sonnets by William Shakespeare, and considers their Symposium-like comparisons and contrasts of the different kinds and representations of love, in terms ranging from eloquent to earthy, and from concrete to abstract.