Shakespeare and the Fire of Love

"Words spoken by Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost, embody all the passions of the early stages of love but, as so often with Shakespeare, he seems to be saying something more. What doctrine does Shakespeare derive from women's eyes? What is the true Promethean fire?" "The answers, Jill Line explains, lie in the Christian-Platonic philosophy of love in which all Shakespeare's plays and poems have their genesis. The philosopher of this tradition whose ideas Shakespeare most clearly reflects was the scholar-priest, Marsilio Ficino, who lived in 15th century Florence. He drew together the strands of many ancient teachings, and having found the same truths in Christianity, formulated a philosophy that is generally referred to today as Christian-Platonism."--BOOK JACKET.

Jill Line has an M.A. in Shakespeare from the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham and has lectured and written on Shakespeare, Ficino, and Christian-Platonism. A former lecturer specializing in Shakespearean drama at the University of Surrey, she has also lectured at the Temenos Academy and with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Prince of Wales summer school for teachers. She has contributed to the Temenos Review and to Friend to Mankind, as well as to a series of booklets on the Roman plays for the Globe Theater.