Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in Dante's Spirit (Anglo-italian Renaissance Studies)

This book examines Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in light of Dante's revival of Platonic poetry. Marco Andreacchio's close reading of the play uncovers extraordinary lessons bearing significantly on matters of politics, religion, and philosophy; lessons that Shakespeare would offer us by way of helping us appreciate his original overarching intent as playwright. Andreacchio's study brings to light a "classical" way Shakespeare guides readers on a spiritual journey, helping them rediscover divine agency within human desire, so as to best understand the latter in the former. Rather than departing from medieval Christian scholarship, Shakespeare would vindicate its Platonic dimension, standing against anti-Platonic intellectual currents that find their radicalization in Machiavelli and his literary heirs. For the first time in centuries, a demonstration is given of Shakespeare's offering a viable alternative to the Machiavellian reduction of politics to ideology, or to the progressive mechanization of human life that has fueled the rise of barbarism "by another name".