Nancy Huntting, Aesthetic Realism consultant, writes:

Something big and new about Shakespeare—and all of us—is magnificently shown in the latest issue of TRO, “Shakespeare & the Human Self.” As you’re stirred by Shakespearean lines and characters, you’ll learn about the fight in people now—of honesty and dishonesty, justice and having one’s own way, of good and evil. What drove Shakespeare’s Richard III is understood as never before—accompanied by a powerful description of how art is the great opponent to evil. You’ll be thrilled, educated, and encouraged reading “Shakespeare & the Human Self,” the current issue of The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known.

The commentary by Ellen Reiss begins:

Dear Unknown Friends:

We are serializing a great, very surprising lecture by Eli Siegel: A French Critic Looks at Shakespeare, 1860. In his teaching of Aesthetic Realism, Mr. Siegel wrote and spoke richly about Shakespeare, always comprehendingly and vividly. And in this 1973 talk, he says that one means of seeing who Shakespeare is, is to see how good critics writing in languages other than English see and feel him. The critic he quotes here is Alfred Mézières (1826-1915).

Mr. Siegel does this remarkable thing: he explains that Mézières’ French translations of Shakespeare, while not as beautiful and mighty as Shakespeare’s originals, bring a quality to the plays that has us feel Shakespeare’s meaning in a new, important way. Further: for persons not fluent in French, Mr. Siegel sight-translates Mézières’ French translations back into a purposely unpolished literal English that has one hear their French quality. So there is a dance of language, enabling us to know more truly Shakespeare and the human self.

We’ve reached Mézières’ comments on the Shakespeare history plays. And in the present section of the lecture, we find two kings: Richard II and Richard III. Each has a Shakespeare play named for him...Read more