Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics

"Brilliant, beautifully organized, exceedingly readable."-Philip Roth

World-renowned Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt explores the playwright's insight into bad (and often mad) rulers.

Examining the psyche-and psychoses-of the likes of Richard III, Macbeth, Lear, and Coriolanus, Greenblatt illuminates the ways in which William Shakespeare delved into the lust for absolute power and the disasters visited upon the societies over which these characters rule. Tyrant shows that Shakespeare's...