The lines of the following poem are all subheadings introducing quotes for the term ‘Love’ in an 1884 book: The Student’s Topical Shakespeare: Thirty-Seven Plays, Analyzed and Topically Arranged for the Use of Clergymen, Lawyers, Students, Etc.
Love
Its absurd Vows
Its Avowal Desired
Its bewildering Power
Its bewitching Tyranny
Its Conquests
Its contradictory Character
Its Dart not invisible
Its Difficulties
Its Effect on Time
Its Infatuation
Its Jealousy
Its Messengers should be swift
Its monstrous Promises
Its own Dowry
Its pacifying Power
Its Reason no Reason
Its Shadows
Its Treasures
Hello! My name is Richard O’Brien, and I’m a critical-creative practitioner interested in early modern theatre and its creative afterlives in the present day. My PhD was on Shakespeare and the development of verse drama. I won the 2015 Ben Jonson Journal Discoveries Award for an article on fictional representations of Jonson. I’m also a widely published poet, and the winner of a 2017 Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors. You can contact me about the course on r.t.obrien@bham.ac.uk, or make an appointment to see me in my office, shared with Dr Elizabeth Sandis, just through the computer cluster.
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Richard O'Brien 