![bard underwater](https://quadrant.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/bard-underwater-1.png)
The Hollow Crown of Reigning Sentiment
The precise date of the discovery by theatre directors that they are greater than Shakespeare cannot be specified: the discovery was more a process than an event. But by the time I saw a production of Richard II at the Almeida Theatre a few weeks ago, the superior genius of any director over that of Shakespeare was an established principle and indisputable fact.
Until then, I had mistakenly thought of Richard II as an early manifestation of Shakespeare’s unique genius, of his uncanny ability to make us not only observe the minds at work of a huge range of characters, but somehow to transform us for a while into those characters, so that we ourselves become them. Most of us have never been abruptly thrust down from high positions, never having reached them in the first place, much less have we ever been a deposed king. But when King Richard says:
… within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court; and there the antick…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins