Ph.D. University of Notre Dame
B.A. LaSalle College
Areas of Expertise:
Shakespeare, Milton, Renaissance Literature, Drama
Courses I Teach:
Milton, Shakespeare, Honors Colloquium, and First Year Seminar: Drama and Culture
My Saint Michael's:
In my more than 35 years on this faculty, I have had the pleasure of working with many young individuals who have gone on to become outstanding citizens. What make these students special are not so much the positions they have achieved in the work place but the values and ideals that they have carried with them into their careers.
The best part about teaching at Saint Michael’s is that the classes are small, which allows for a great deal of discussion and active learning, with many opportunities to write, receive commentary on written work, and engage in peer reviewing. I appreciate how the students at Saint Michael's are respectful, not only to faculty and staff but also to one another, and among them there is an inspiring culture of volunteerism.
I like to teach all of my courses but I prefer Shakespeare because it is always a challenge for students who are not used to reading Early Modern English texts, and it often brings out the best in them as students of literature.
My research interests are Shakespeare, Milton, Renaissance Literature and Drama. A Renaissance specialist, I am working on the New Variorum Edition of Hamlet, which will be published by the Modern Language Association. I am also one of four editors who created and now supervise the Hamlet Web site that was celebrated at the International Shakespeare Conference during a champagne reception in the gardens of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, England (www.hamletworks.org). My co-editors and I have received three substantial grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support this work. I have also published several articles on Shakespeare's plays, particularly on Hamlet, and review books on Shakespeare for The Sixteenth Century Journal and Shakespeare Quarterly.
Recent Scholarly Achievements:
I published the journal article "Maclise and Macready: Collaborating Illustrations of Hamlet" (The Shakespeare Bulletin, April 2007); also published the journal article "Having It Both Ways: Reading Two Early Acting Editions of Hamlet" (The Shakespeare Newsletter, April 2006).
Life Off Campus:
I enjoy fishing, and I have a modest coin collection.
Favorite Quote:
"To thine own self be true."
Nicholas Clary, professor of English, on August 22-23 chaired a meeting of the HamletWorks.org and the New Variorum Hamlet editing teams on Long Island. In addition to the editors present, there were team editors from University of Nevada, Purdue University, and MIT who joined in via virtual video conferencing. “The meeting was productive as work moves forward on the two related Hamlet projects, and on the joining of our HamletWorks database with the Shakespeare Digital Archives at MIT,” reports Nick, who also has a review of David Bevington’s new book (Murder Most Foul: Hamlet through the Ages) forthcoming in the next issue of the Shakespeare Quarterly.
Nicholas Clary, professor of English, is the new coordinating editor of the HamletWorks web site, a tool for scholars related to the still-in-preparation New Variorum Hamlet edition, which Clary co-edits. A web version allows richer search and information-storage capacities. The project’s editorial board picked Clary at the Shakespeare Association of America conference in April, after the site’s founder died last winter. Clary also presented in Prague last July with an MIT scholar on their project to join the HamletWorks databases and MIT Shakespeare Digital Archives. Their three-year collaboration was highlighted in a recent Shakespeare Newsletter. They’re also working on a prototype for an ebook/Kindle Reader version of the database.