Tag Archives: Henry V

The Bard Cited in DeSantis Smackdown

By Robin Bates | Published: October 23, 2022

A judge has cited a Shakespearean passage to equate an out-of-line Florida state prosecutor to Henry V.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Henry VI Part I, Ron DeSantis, voter fraud, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Cuomo Channels Shakespeare’s Henry V

By Robin Bates | Published: April 5, 2020

Andrew Cuomo’s recent speech to the National Guard has echoes of Henry V’s St. Crispin’s Day speech on the eve of Agincourt.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Andrew Cuomo, COVID-19, Donald Trump, Falstaff, health workers, Henry IV Part I, National Guard, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Once More into a War, Dear Friends

By Robin Bates | Published: May 2, 2018

Over the weekend, Trump’s new National Security Adviser sent strong signals that he wants a war with Iran. Shakespeare’s Henry V had similar advisers.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Battle of Agincourt, Iran agreement, John Bolton, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Inducting Students into an Honor Society

By Robin Bates | Published: May 1, 2018

Our English Department’s Sigma Tau Delta induction ceremony included passages from Willa Cather, Shakespeare, and Emily Dickinson.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "We never know how high we are", Emily Dickinson, honor societies, Oh Pioneers!, Sigma Tau Delta, Willa Cather, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Shakespeare Understood Trumpism

By Robin Bates | Published: November 3, 2016

According to Adam Gopnik, Shakespeare would have understood the rise of Donald Trump better than we do today. Whereas we see him as a historical oddity, Shakespeare would have seen him as the kind of evil that has always resided within humankind.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged 2016 presidential election, Adam Gopnik, As You Like It, Donald Trump, Hamlet, Hillary Clinton, King Lear, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, Richard III, Tempest, Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Bring the Liberal Arts to West Point

By Robin Bates | Published: October 6, 2016

A military man argues that the military academies have been emphasizing the STEM disciplines while overlooking the traditional liberal arts. This is a mistake, he argues, and mentions the Agincourt speech in “Henry V.” Sir Philip Sidney, another warrior, would agree and would add Pindar’s Olympian odes.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Liberal Arts, military academies, Olympics, Pindar. "Olympian Ode 1", STEM disciplines, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

The Liberal Arts Will Not Die

By Robin Bates | Published: October 5, 2016

Thursday My colleague Jeff Hammond, a national authority on Puritan poetry and a much lauded writer of reflective essays, recently gave a stirring defense of the liberal arts for our parents-alumni weekend. Jeff’s observations dovetail very nicely with Percy Shelley’s Defence of Poetry, which I happen to be teaching at the moment. Watching poetry getting […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Defence of Poetry, Iliad, Jeffrey Hammond, Liberal Arts, Odyssey, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

V-E Day, Whitman, and My 15 Minutes

By Robin Bates | Published: May 9, 2013

My 15 minutes: during Slovenia’s 1995 V-E Day celebration I read Walt Whitman to a national television audience.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Oh Captain My Captain", Slovenia, VE Day, Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Shakespeare Was Mandela’s Lifeline

By Robin Bates | Published: December 27, 2012

A copy of Shakespeare’s works that circulated through apartheid-era prisons shows the Bard providing solace for the prisoners.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Antigone, Merchant of Venice, Nelson Mandela, Shakespeare in the prisons, Sophocles, Tempest, William Shakespeare | Comments closed