Some Perils and Pitfalls on the Road to Wisdom
Shakespeare’s Scholars: Three Lessons from the Liberal Arts
by Sean Keilen
Princeton, 2026
reviewed by Seana Graham
When I first heard that Shakespeare’s Scholars would be published this May, I imagined the book focusing on some of Shakespeare’s minor characters, like the schoolmaster Holofernes in Love’s Labor’s Lost. It hadn’t occurred to me that the scholars would be the king and courtiers of that play, or Hamlet (and Horatio), or Prospero of The Tempest. But of course, despite their other roles, scholars they are.
Sean Keilen hit upon the idea of this book midway through his career as a professor of English literature and of Shakespeare in particular, a good portion of which has been at the University of California here in Santa Cruz, a fortunate thing for we locals. He saw that he could look at his own profession through the lens of Shakespeare’s work and perhaps be a better person and teacher for doing so. He came to see that the isolation of academia can be one of its perils and found part of the remedy in bringing his learning to the larger community, which includes both the vital and ever-expanding Santa Cruz Shakespeare theatre company, and other lifelong learner programs in which Shakespeare has an avid following here.
As I listened to readers from different walks of life interpret their diverse experiences through Shakespeare’s works, I gradually overcame my aversion to reading literature that way, a hallmark of literary criticism’s professionalization as an academic discipline.
The book is divided into a chapter for each play, followed by a brief “Envoi”, or concluding remarks. As Keilen points out, Love’s Labor’s Lost is the only play Shakespeare wrote that takes the founding of an academic institution as its point of departure. The chapter deals with how the young King Ferdinand gets it wrong pretty much from the get-go, forcing the others to sign an oath to fast, refrain from sleep and avoid the company of women. Keilen highlights the courtier Berowne’s initial mild resistance as offering a different path, because he supplies the gentle wit that the King in his quest for fame beyond death is lacking.
Things quickly go wrong from there, as women shortly appear on the doorstep of their forest retreat and, as Keilen puts it “The scholarly endeavor that aims to conquer death immediately claims three casualties.” These turn out to be constancy (they abandon their oath about having nothing to do with women), hospitality (the visiting ladies have to sleep out on the lawn) and charity (Ferdinand proposes that to entertain the ladies, they mock the stories of another visitor, Don Armado, a Spanish soldier). Things are not off to a good start. Nor do they have a happy ending. As Keilen points out. other comedies of Shakespeare typically end in marriage, but this one ends with a death and a kind of pilgrimage of penance before any true happy ending might one day be possible.
As with this first chapter, where Berowne points initially to a better approach to study than academic isolation, in the Hamlet chapter, Keilen points to another character who might be a better guide for the Prince of Denmark than Hamlet is for himself. With all the ghost haunted energy that Hamlet possesses throughout the play, it can be challenging to keep an eye (and ear) on Horatio, who, Keilen carefully points out, often looks at the prevailing situation more judiciously. It would be too much in a short review to delineate all the ways Horatio serves as a counterpoint to Hamlet in Keilen’s telling, so I will cut to the chase:
From Horatio’s experience as Hamlet’s friend, we can extrapolate a different ethos for the study of literature than the one that Hamlet represents. To become like Horatio, we do not have to become like our books. But we must cleave to them, listen to what they say without preconceptions, and resist making up our minds about the meaning of whatever is complex or inscrutable, so that we may continue thinking critically about it, ourselves, and each other.
As Keilen points out, The Tempest is the only play in which Shakespeare uses the phrase “liberal arts” and in this chapter he considers the history of this field of studies as well as the state of such arts in academia today. Part of the reason for Prospero’s downfall and subsequent exile is that his studies excited him enough to cause his withdrawal from society, which needed the presence of a more active king. All three chapters, in fact, point to the idea that while study can be glorious, the time can also be misspent if it does not eventually lead us back to an effort for the common good.
And finally, if we want to pay back Sean Keilen for his efforts here, we could do worse than “take a page out of his book” and, paraphrasing his words, submit our own character to the judgement of Shakespeare’s plays, along with our assumptions of ourselves, our professions or vocations, and the purpose of a literary education.
Oh, and do get ahold of a copy of this thought-provoking and lovely little book. It is well worth your time.
Seana Graham is the book review editor at Escape Into Life. She has also reviewed for the biography website Simply Charly. She attempts to keep up with her various blogs, including Confessions of Ignorance, where she tries to learn a little bit more about the many things she does not know. She has published stories in a variety of literary journals. The recent anthology Annihilation Radiation from Storgy Press, includes one of them. Santa Cruz Noir, a title from Akashic Press, features a story of hers about the city in which she currently resides.
Get Shakespeare’s Scholars at Princeton University Press
Another interesting review of Shakespeare’s Scholars at The Homebound Symphony
Undiscovered Shakespeare and other offerings of the academic/theater community in Santa Cruz
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