SHAKESPEARE'S POLITICAL ANIMAL is a delight. Hager quickly dismisses the deconstruction of Shakespeare by showing that the Bard has already deconstructed himself. Then he goes on to show that the new historicists miss the irony of Shakespeare's political background in Machiavelli, Montaigne and Sidney, and Shakespeare's own self-irony. Touching on an extraordinary number of Shakespeare's works, including sonnets and the so-called "Ill May Day" scene of SIR THOMAS MORE, Hager demonstrates a consistent view of Shakespeare on the need for indirection in sexual politics and realpolitik. Buy this book if you want to know the true underpinnings of Shakespearean thought.

This book takes the reader from classical literature to contemporary newspapers on a trip to discover the true meaning of Shakespeare's first great success, ROMEO AND JULIET. The author gently guides us through some rather surprising discoveries. One, love does not conquer all, it kills all. Vendetta does not make heroes, it makes worms' meat. Yet poetry that grows out of melancholy makes the world perfect.