the shakespeare man

To honor Stanley Wells, who is the man, Oxford University Press and Oxford University are starting a new lecture series. They call it the Oxford Wells Shakespeare Lecture. This is the first annual lecture and I feel so privilaged to be able to attend.

Let me describe to you the first night,

I walk into the English Faculty Library, to the lecture theatre, about 10 minutes early. I sit down and pull out a book (because when am I not reading?) and as Im sitting there I watch the room quickly fill up and start to buzz with academic excitement. Then a man walks in, hes older, wearing a suit with a purple vest, white hair, and has no help walking down the stairs. Hes smiling and kissing all the people in the front rows on the cheeks. I see him and think "there he is, I dont even know who he is but he looks like a man who deserves reverence". I was right. The man I was watching has been general editor of the Oxford Shakespeare series since 1978 and edited the Oxford Complete Works of Shakespeare. He, Stanley Wells, turned 80 last week.

The lecture is on Religion in Shakespeare, and the lecturer is David Kastan. Who is hilarious. Sitting in the front row of the lecture hall was every scholar lecturing on Shakespeare this term, numorous authors and critics of Shakespeare and the editors of the Oxford Shakespeare series.

Then there was Amanda and I, giddy with excitement four rows back. This week there is a reception and we are definately going. I am excited for when Kastan's book comes out and on the title page will say "Compiled from the lectures of David Kastan given for the Oxford Wells Lecture Series", and I was there.