Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Plays
Time: Fall 2026. Tuesdays 12:45 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. (Sept. 08 – Nov. 10).
Location: Maryland Pkwy campus, 4350 S. Maryland Pkwy. MAB2. Room 158.
Instructor: Alfred J. Drake, Ph.D.
Email: ajdrake@ajdrake.com | Web: https://www.ajdrake.com/shakespeare
Recommended Texts (*These editions can often be bought used at lower cost.)
Shakespeare. Sonnets and Poems. Folger/Simon & Schuster, 2006. ISBN-13: 978-0743273282
Shakespeare. Henry VI, Pt. 3. Folger/Simon & Schuster, 2009. ISBN-13: 978-0671722685.
Shakespeare. Much Ado About Nothing. Updated ed. Folger/Simon & Schuster, 2018. ISBN-13: 978-1501146305.
Shakespeare. Coriolanus. Folger/Simon & Schuster, 2020. ISBN-13: 978-1982157371.
Shakespeare. Cymbeline. Folger/Simon & Schuster, 2020. ISBN-13: 978-1982156916.
Course Description: We will examine sonnets and plays by Shakespeare that tend towards the experimental and exploratory. The highly wrought, “sugared” style of the sonnets and their treatment of romantic and sexual love will be our starting point, and we will move on to the third historical study in Shakespeare’s minor tetralogy, Henry VI, Pt. 3, along with the delightfully witty and feisty mid-career comedy, Much Ado About Nothing. We will end with a pair of Shakespeare’s later plays: the structurally superb but temperamentally difficult tragedy Coriolanus and, finally, the temporally eccentric romance Cymbeline, with its bizarre sliding from ancient Britain and Rome to a suspiciously “Renaissancey” Italy.
Links of Interest: Intro to Shakespeare’s Life & Times | Shakespeare’s Language & Art Pt. 1 | Shakespeare’s Language & Art Pt. 2 | Selected Sonnets | 3 Henry VI | Much Ado About Nothing | Coriolanus | Cymbeline
Schedule (Subject to change)
Week 01 09/08 Introduction to Shakespeare and the course.
Week 02 09/15 Selected Sonnets, to be determined.
Week 03 09/22 Henry VI Pt. 3, Acts 1-2.
Week 04 09/29 Henry VI Pt. 3, Acts 3-5.
Week 05 10/06 Much Ado About Nothing, Acts 1-2.
Week 06 10/13 Much Ado About Nothing, Acts 3-5.
Week 07 10/20 Coriolanus, Acts 1-2.
Week 08 10/27 Coriolanus, Acts 3-5.
Week 09 11/03 Cymbeline, Acts 1-2.
Week 10 11/10 Cymbeline, Acts 3-5.