Shakespeare's Heroes - Professor Sir Jonathan Bate CBE FBA

What do we mean by a hero and where does our understanding of the heroic idiom come from?

In this lecture, Jonathan Bate will show how Shakespeares idea of the hero was shaped by the classical tradition, going back to the ancient tale of Troy and Virgils epic poem The Aeneid. But in Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida we meet a Shakespeare who was profoundly sceptical about the heroic ideal.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-an...

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