What is the source of Macbeth’s evil?

Macbeth and Banquo encountering the witches, Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Ireland. 1577. What a joy to re-read this masterpiece. It’s more tightly plotted than many of Shakespeare’s other plays, and there’s so much fantastic imagery to...

Re-reading As You Like It

If there’s one idea, for me, that’s central to As You Like It, it’s freedom. I think of this play – first performed in 1599 – as Shakespeare’s most verdant (even more so than The Winter’s Tale). Having studied it 30 years ago, I thought I knew it, but a re-read...

A John Donne Biography on Steroids

Like many readers of Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, I knew almost nothing about the poet before picking up the book apart from vague memories of learning about metaphysical poetry at school. The fact that Donne’s poems seem to be either sexual or...