NOTICE: This is an older course recorded with Adobe Connect and/or Vimeo recordings. We are currently working to replace the recordings with new Zoom recordings. Please don't hesitate to email us at homeschoolconnections@gmail.
Dear Student,
This course is scheduled to be retired on Nov 30, 2024. You may continue using this course; however, we highly suggest moving to the new, updated course.
https://moodle.homeschoolconnectionsonline.com/course/view.php?id=3022
Please check out the Live courses here: https://caravel.homeschoolconnections.com/catalog/
How to get the most out of The Catholic Shakespeare: A Contrast of Kings with Dr. Henry Russell:
- First, read the course details below.
- Purchase or borrow the book and begin reading.
- Prepare a notebook for taking notes as you read and watch the lectures.
- Students begin the course by clicking on the "Recording" and watching the lecture for Class One.
- Complete the weekly quizzes, which are graded automatically by the computer. Report your grade to your parent.
- If you need review, go back and watch the recording again.
- Repeat until all 10 classes are complete.
- Once the course is done to the parent's satisfaction, complete the Certificate of Completion at the bottom for your records.
- Make sure to record your grades (HSC does not provide record keeping services).
Total Classes: 10
Prerequisite: none
Suggested Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Suggested High School Credit: One semester Classical Literature
Instructor: Dr. Henry Russell
Course Description:
Building on a long tradition of scholarship, the role of Shakespeare’s Catholicism in his dramas has been well-established by the work of Lady Claire Asquith (Shadowplay). Joseph Pearce has done an equally fine job reviewing the tradition of Catholic connections in Shakespeare’s personal history.
Our course will very briefly review that evidence and then place its focus on examining the two plays most widely read by high school students. Although set in Scotland of the 11th century and Rome of the 1st century BC, both plays comment clearly and powerfully on the sad situation of the Catholic Church, outlawed and persecuted in Shakespeare’s England. Both dramas end with victory for Christ’s Holy Bride that cannot, for long, be suppressed.
Macbeth is our greatest play about how wickedness completely corrupts an initially good man who gives scope to occult evil, eventually becoming a mass-murderer like Lenin or Stalin. It is also the story of how a woman, Lady Macbeth-- a figure of Queen Elizabeth--destroys herself by casting away her feminine and god-formed nature. But the end is glorious as the man (Malcolm) who married St. Margaret of Scotland assumes the throne.
Julius Caesar focuses on how even noble men like Brutus become corrupted by the lust for power and attack their country under the pretense of doing good for it. Such a theme is constantly relevant to political life. At the same time it presents the will of Christ as the ultimate force which drives history, using flawed men as its instruments for good.
There is great enjoyment in seeing how Shakespeare roused the spirits of his many fellow Catholics by telling the truth in his time, while remaining largely immune from censorship or martyrdom. Dr. Russell, who has taught and written on the Catholic Shakespeare since 1992, will show that only when we bring a carefully Catholic view to the plays do they make complete sense and do not break down into a mere series of unanswered questions and scattered themes.
Course Outline:
Class 1: Introduction to criticisms of Macbeth, and an explanation of the Catholic Shakespeare.
Class 2: Macbeth Act I
Class 3: Macbeth Act II
Class 4: Macbeth Acts III and IV
Class 5: Macbeth Act V
Class 6: Introduction to Julius Caesar and Julius Caesar Act I
Class 7: Julius Caesar Act II
Class 8: Julius Caesar Act III
Class 9: Julius Caesar Act IV
Class 10: Julius Caesar Act V
Course Materials: Any version of the play with line numbers
Homework: About one hour of reading per evening. Plus approximately one half hour for note taking.
- Teacher: Henry Russell