ONLINE SEMINAR
August 9 | Shakespeare’s Footsteps: From Greek to Sonnet

Description

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LEADER

David Saussy has been leading seminars on core texts since 2006, and he has offered several past seminars with Classical Pursuits, including Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, Plato’s Republic, and a course on the Broadway hit musical “Hamilton” and its primary sources. He has been leading a long-term close-reading seminar on Shakespeare’s complete sonnets with Symposium Great Books Institute. They’ve read all 154 sonnets, and have now embarked on the sonnets from the plays.

READINGS

David will will provide a PDF with the Greek epigram by Marcianus Scholasticus, along with a vocabulary gloss, as well as sonnets 153 and 154 of Shakespeare.

All the Sonnets of Shakespeare, by Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells
(Cambridge University Press, 2020)
ISBN-13 : 978-1108490399

This edition is recommended, but not required.

We encourage you to support local bookstores or other independent sellers, especially as alternatives to Amazon.

In the US and the UK, try Bookshop.org, World of Books, or Ebooks (electronic books only)

In the US and Canada, try Powell’s Books, IndieBound, and Thiftbooks (used books only in Canada)

In Canada, try McNally Robinson or Indigo

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Ready for something a little different? This is a fun, hands-on seminar.

When Shakespeare was a boy, he wrote what scholars believe is his first sonnet, based on a Greek epigram (sonnet 154 in the 1609 collection).

The epigram is a lovely little song about the origin of hot springs — how Cupid fell asleep and Diana’s nymphs tried to put out Cupid’s brand in a cool spring, but it only made the waters boil. Shakespeare then rewrites this epigram in interesting ways. Later on in life, he turned back to the same sonnet and revised it.

Thus between the Greek epigram, his first sonnet and its revision (sonnet 153), we are given a rare glimpse into the genius of Shakespeare’s art. This seminar gives you a chance to get inside the material and try to follow in Shakespeare’s footsteps, tracing his path from the Greek to the two sonnets.

In the first week of the seminar, we will start by translating the Greek epigram ourselves as a group. No prior knowledge of Greek is necessary. Leader David Saussy will provide the Greek text, both in the original and transliterated text in English, together with a vocabulary and grammar gloss of alternate choices. In week 2, we will turn to sonnets 154 and 153 and unpack them together. After this, David will invite members to try their hand at writing a sonnet. No prior experience in writing is needed — this is intended to not only help us appreciate Shakespeare but to be fun. For week 3, we will share our attempts to write a sonnet of our own. By a process of translation, inquiry, and writing, participants will walk away with a rich, engaged appreciation of Shakespeare’s own art of writing.

All online seminar payments are nonrefundable. All discount codes must be used at the time of purchase; no retroactive discounts will be issued.

Classical Pursuits does not record seminars. By participating in any seminar, registrants agree not to make their own seminar recordings and to abide by the Classical Pursuits code of conduct.

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