Who among his contemporaries was Shakespeare influenced or inspired by?
In my book, I show the profound influence of (the French scholar) Michel de Montaigne on Shakespeare, by citing the spiritual and literary affinities between them. Montaigne’s book of essays is one of the few books scholars can confirm Shakespeare had in his library, and Montaigne’s essay “On Cannibals” was a direct source for The Tempest. Q: Were Shakespeare’s ideas considered mainstream or unconventional in the Elizabethan times? And do we know whether he was religious? A. I wouldn’t say that Shakespeare was “unconventional,” but he was certainly intellectually very progressive. And I don’t believe he was religious. He can be described as a Catholic who kept his mouth shut. Being an open atheist was not an option at that time. King Lear, for example, is very secular. Q: Was Shakespeare a visionary? A: One fact I raise in my book is that the period in which Shakespeare wrote preceded the Scientific Revolution. Very little of what we now take for granted – such as astronomy, physics, c
