Every blossoming of civilisation is partly promise of the future, but mainly a summation of the past.
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John Vyvyan
John Vyvyan (1908–1975) was a British writer, born in Sussex. Originally trained as an archeologist, he worked with Sir Flinders Petrie in the Middle East. Vyvyan became known for his study of Shakespeare and his histories of the animal rights movement. He was the author of three books on Shakespeare, including The Shakespearean Ethic (1959), and two on the origins of anti-vivisection activism, In Pity and in Anger: A Study of the Use of Animals in Science (1969) – which documents the disputes between Frances Power Cobbe and Anna Kingsford, two prominent 19th-century British activists – and The Dark Face of Science (1971). In recognition of his contribution to Shakespearean scholarship in his trilogy, he was offered, but unable to take up, a visiting lectureship at the State University of New York. He died in Exmouth in 1975. 2Selected works The Shakespearean Ethic. Chatto & Windus, 1959. 2nd Edition (in print), Shepheard-Walwyn, 2011. Shakespeare and the Rose of Lov
Shakespeare was never an anarchist; and when he studies the problem of power, he does not suggest that it can be solved by abolition. His solution is an aristocracy of the spirit; his qualifications for rulership are self-realisation, forgiveness and love; and his ideal is a philosopher, or perhaps…
A seed of true human love in the heart will blossom as divine love in the soul.
Tragedy, even on the threshold of its consummation, is not inevitable.
When the angels leave, the demons come in.
A poet does not write to set down things he clearly knows, but to open the lips of his own oracle.
There is one good reason for visiting hell — to find and to show the way out. Descent may be, and perhaps must be, a preliminary to ascent.
Shakespeare’s philosophy, although expanding from play to play, is consistent throughout.