The Christian Science Monitor

'Tyrant' examines the evidence of popular attraction to demagogues as seen in Shakepeare's plays

The dust jacket of Pulitzer Prize-winning Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt's new book Tyrant pulses vivid red, and the book asks sharp questions about the ways William Shakespeare interrogates the idea of political authority in his plays. 

It was a vividly relevant subject for Shakespeare. By the time he began his theatrical career in London, Queen Elizabeth I had been on the throne of England for over 30 years. She was obviously never going to have a heir

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