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The History Of European Theatre
Playing Polonius: A Conversation with Colin David Reese
Episode 195
Last time I completed my review of ‘Hamlet’, although it is probably wrong to say that one’s thoughts on Hamlet are ever complete. I am not alone in finding that every time I see the play, and it is I think, as it is for many, the Shakespeare play I have seen most often, I find something new in it to think on. To complete this quartet of episodes on the play we have the second part of my conversation with Colin David Reese about the play and in this segment, which is much shorter than the previous conversation, we focussed on the character of Polonius, although as you will near Colin also brought in other thoughts generated by the play and his knowledge of other Shakespeare plays. I certainly was not expecting to hear about ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ in the context of this conversation, but I’m glad we went there and it just illustrates how any Shakespeare conversation can lead you to all sorts of places.
Before we get to Colin’s thoughts, I thought I would share with you some of the views of the play and Polonius from critics and commentators from the past. This is, of course, a tiny selection given the vast amount that has been written about Hamlet, but they are pieces that I have come across and found particularly interesting. If this piques your interest in Shakespeare criticism through time I have produced a series on that very subject for members on Patreon where I traced criticism and praise for Shakespeare from the praise poems in the First Folio to the 19th century romantics. To find out more about that just pop over to the website or to patreon.com.
John Dryden
Samuel Jonson
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
William Hazlitt
A C Bradley
Colin Dave Reese on Polonius
Colin’s Website and access to ‘Shakespeare Unbound: A Gift to the Future’: https://shakespeareunbound.org
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