OSHER 710 - Liberty in Shakespeare

Study Shakespearean plays, narrative poems, and sonnets to discern Shakespeare's positions on four aspects of universally accepted "liberty." The four liberties we will analyze are: natural or individual rights, expression or speech and discussion, religion, and morality. We will compare Shakespearean posture on these aspects of liberty with the contemporary philosophical and political atmosphere around the matter in his time. How would Shakespeare's positions align with today's positions on this subject?