The Romances of William Shakespeare

 

After much thought, I have decided that my next course will be on Shakespeare’s so-called “Late Romances,” a group of plays given to magic, visions, and all savoring of myth and fairytale. It’s the kind of course I would like to have offered as a graduate seminar, but graduate-level humanities are currently in hospice, so I figured I'd give it a crack online.

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The plays are really extraordinary in the Shakespearean canon: all, in one way or another, circle around notions of family: of betrayal, of rash words, of wandering the wastes in despair, but also of restoration, forgiveness, renewal, and, most of all, love.

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But wait! There’s more! I also want to throw in The Merry Wives of Windsor, a play written at Royal Command because Elizabeth I loved the rascally reprobate Sir John Falstaff so much. Rarely is this play taught or performed—but I love it. And it’s full of folklore farce!

The plays in question (and in order) are as follows:

 

Pericles, Price of Tyre (c. 1603)

Cymbeline (c. 1608)

The Winter’s Tale (c.1609)

The Merry Wives of Windsor (c. 1602)

The Tempest (c. 1611)

Two Noble Kinsman (c. 1612)

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All you need is decent edition of The Collected Works (lots of good ones from which to choose) and you’ll have all you need. The course will be IN REAL TIME, meeting every Saturday at 1:00 pm (Eastern US Time) starting August 2nd, 2026 (the day after Lammas, for those who celebrate). The course runs for six weeks, and each session will run between 90 minutes and 2 hours and will be recorded for those who might miss a session. The cost for the course is $150 (USD). To enroll, just email me at director@thecenterforsophiologicalstudies.com and I’ll tell you what to do.