Lauren B’s Reviews > Shakespeare's Politics > Status Update

Full quote:

“In these, plays, he tried to develop a sensible view of what the English regime is, and how it should be accepted and revered by succeeding generations of Englishmen. He was successful in this attempt, for the English do understand their history and what it represents much as he depicted it. Here his intention was clearly political, and his understanding of what is both beautiful and exciting to his audience is based primarily on the concerns of civil society. Is it plausible to say that this was just a series of good stories? They are, indeed, good stories, but they are that precisely because of the kind of interest they evoke. Can one reasonably say that he dashed off the historical place because he needed money, or that he was ignorant of the essential facts of English history, because he had never studied? This would be as much as to say, that Jefferson, with no consideration of political principal, wrote the declaration of independence because he wanted to be well known, and that its success is due to it being an excellent Fourth of July oration.”

and that its success is due to it being an excellent Fourth of July oration”