Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
'For wisdom cries out in the streets and no man regards it'-Prince Hal, Henry IV, Part 1.'Invest me in my motley. Give me leaveTo speak my mind, and I will through and throughCleanse the foul body of th'infected world, If they will patiently receive my medicine'-Jaques, As You Like It.Shakespeare was not only a poet-playwright; he was a sage who saw deeply into human nature and mankind's place in the natural order. He both diagnosed the ills of society-and saw beyond them to a healthier, saner world.We are living in a society so dysfunctional that an individual with the slightest care for nature, humanity or harmonious living-for sanity in fact-must strike some sort of devil's bargain in order to fit into a system that rewards blindness and is devoid of sense. People, the earth and all its creatures are being sold for 'a breed of barren metal'. (In the words of Shakespeare, pity has been dispensed with and 'policy sits above conscience.') Finance, fracking, oil drilling, battery farming, consumerism, pointless productivity, corporation-owned governments, wars created by arms companies, technology in service to big business, institutionalized child-abuse-wherever you look cruelty, greed and insanity walk tall, while the fox is in charge of the hen-house. We are poisoning our precious earth and with it ourselves, and in an age of media-drip and quick fixes we appear to lack the introspection to see clearly our originating role in the catastrophic changes currently convulsing the earth. Without this clear-eyed awareness, there is no hope that we will take responsibility, both individually and collectively, for what is happening. How often do we hear, for instance, the self-exculpating lie that global warming has always been with us?The purpose of this little book is to reveal Shakespeare as philosopher and all-round apothecary of the soul, whose fund of wisdom is there for all human beings to draw from-indeed cries out to be heard. As the Bard himself said, through the lips of King John: Then pause not; for the present time's so sick, That present med'cine must be minister'd.By linking his words and insights to today's headlines, a dialogue is facilitated between our society and the man Ben Jonson described as 'not for an age, but for all time'.This book is both a journey through the wasteland with our greatest artist as guide and inspiration, and an essential tonic to the soul: for in a world made increasingly barren by mankind's alienation from nature, Shakespeare's words are like healing streams bubbling up from earth's depths
Synopsis
Shakespeare was not only a poet-playwright; he was a sage who saw deeply into human nature and mankind's place in the natural order. He both diagnosed the ills of society-and saw beyond them to a healthier, saner world.The purpose of this little book is to reveal Shakespeare as philosopher and all-round apothecary of the soul, whose fund of wisdom is there for all human beings to draw from-indeed cries out to be heard. As the Bard himself said, through the lips of King John: 'Then pause not; for the present time's so sick, That present med'cine must be minister'd.'This book is both a journey through the wasteland with our greatest artist as guide and inspiration, and an essential tonic to the soul: for in a world made increasingly barren by mankind's alienation from nature, Shakespeare's words are like healing streams bubbling up from earth's depth