Will Morrisey again considers the political dimensions of literary classics, as previously seen in Melville’s Ship of State (2019). His attention to Shakespeare’s comedies is a reader’s and playgoer’s delight. 

INTRODUCTORY NOTE: The Politic Character of Shakespeare’s Comedy
PART ONE: THREE REGIMES: OLIGARCHY, ARISTOCRACY, MONARCHY
Chapter One: Shakespearean Comedy: Two Points on the Compass
Chapter Two: Gentlemen and Gentlemanliness
Chapter Three: Royal Dreaming

PART TWO: THE RULE OF LAW
Chapter Four: Comic Errors, Legal Slapstick
Chapter Five: What Will You?

PART THREE: THE COMEDY OF MORALS
Chapter Six: Taming Our Shrewishness
Chapter Seven: What Does Shakespeare Mean When He Says, “As You Like It”?

PART FOUR: THE COMEDY OF POLITICS
Chapter Eight: Is All Well That Ends Well?
Chapter Nine: The Geopolitics of Love
Chapter Ten: The Wisest Beholder

SHAKESPEARE’S POLITIC MERRIMENT

Will Morrisey held the William and Patricia LaMothe Chair in the United States Constitution at Hillsdale College until his retirement in 2015. A native of Rumson, New Jersey, he served as Executive Director of the Monmouth County Historical Commission before his appointment at Hillsdale College in 2000. His M. A. and Ph.D in political science are from the New School for Social Research. He is the author of eight books, including Self-Government, The American Theme: Presidents of the Founding and Civil War; The Dilemma of Progressivism: How Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson Reshaped the American Regime; and, most recently, Churchill and De Gaulle: The Geopolitics of Liberty and Herman Melville's Ship of State. Dr. Morrisey has been an editor of Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy since 1979. His reviews and articles have appeared in The New York Times, Social Science and Modern Society, Law and Liberty, The New Criterion, and many other publications.