Tuesday, Nov. 30
Stephen Greenblatt On Shakespeare

The Shakespeare scholar who wowed critics and the public with his biography, "Will in the World," is at it again. In his new book, "Shakespeare's Freedom," Greenblatt shows that while Shakespeare lived in a world of absolutes, he was constantly pushing those boundaries in his plays and sonnets. Arts commentator, Alicia Anstead, interviews Greenblatt about his book, and the legacy and continued reincarnations of Shakespeare's work in our culture.

Greenblatt talks us through Sonnet 65 during the show:

Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o'er-sways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
O how shall summer's honey breath hold out
Against the wrackful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?
O fearful meditation! Where, alack,
Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O, none, unless this miracle have might:
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.