Leadership lessons from Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare

In the age of rising AI, we can all learn much about our shared humanity from the shrewd insight of English literature legends Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) and William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

Just ask literary historian and author Stephen Greenblatt, the Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard and Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner, who delivered UCLA's 10th annual Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership on Oct. 9.

"I feel deeply that what matters about the experience of works of art is the contract you make with another human being and not a machine," he said. "For me, generative AI is the rupturing of a contract that I've respected for my whole life - a contract with other human beings who left works of art behind them: Marlowe and Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Mozart, Sappho and Homer."

Reaffirming how the humanities underpins all other disciplines, the lecture continued the ongoing mission of its founders, distinguished alumni Meyer and Renee Luskin: to spark conversations that unite and benefit the UCLA College, UCLA Division of Social Sciences, UCLA Law and UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

"This remarkable series has benefited UCLA and our community in multiple ways," said Abel Valenzuela, dean of social sciences, in his welcome remarks. "I want to share how deeply grateful we are to Meyer and Renee Luskin for 10 years of compelling, brilliant speakers, whose wisdom teaches us more about the world - and ourselves."

With the Luskins in attendance, Valenzuela and Greenblatt led the audience in celebrating Meyer Luskin on his 100th birthday.

In his talk, Greenblatt focused first on the lesser-known but impactful Marlowe, the subject of his newest book, "Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival." He explained what a cultural sea change the playwright's first performed work, 1587's "Tamburlaine the Great" had on audiences thanks to its author's groundbreaking use of blank verse.

'Like ordinary speech on steroids'

"It was like the invention of Technicolor or the talkies; the cunning thing about blank verse is that it sounds like ordinary speech on steroids," Greenblatt said. "I wanted to know more about this person who brought this into being: Why did he do this? Where did it come from?"

Describing the personal and professional journeys Marlowe and Shakespeare took to and through the theater - and the way Shakespeare constantly absorbed, reacted to and even imitated Marlowe's work - Greenblatt offered leadership lessons to be gleaned from their writings.

First, he laid out the perils the playwrights described for those who would govern, any of which could lead to ruin of self or country: vaulting ambition, a dangerous sense of entitlement, an unwavering belief in a self-created reality, and subjecting followers to arbitrary tests of love and loyalty.

"'King Lear,' for example, shows us the danger of what happens when a ruler only wants to be surrounded by people who tell him, over and over, he's the best thing ever," Greenblatt said before wryly adding: "Luckily, this isn't a situation that exists in our world."

He then focused on the advice Shakespeare in particular had for charismatic leaders to become successful: learn as much as you can about your constituents to understand and be accepted by them, err on the side of modesty so that your good works will shine brighter, and carefully and constantly remove any bad influences from your inner circle.

The lecture concluded with Greenblatt participating in a Q&A moderated by Claire McEachern, a UCLA professor of English, where he discussed topics including advice writers of the time period gave for dealing with tyrannical leaders, the way many Elizabethan and modern-day American families were riven by political and religious differences, and how these playwrights' posthumous reputations might have differed if the famously wild-living Marlowe had survived another 20 years.

"If both Shakespeare and Marlowe died in 1593, we might have heard of Marlowe today; we would not have heard of Shakespeare," Greenblatt said. "Marlowe spent his whole life walking on a precipice. Whatever his reasons were, Marlowe took a hammer and banged it against the walls that contained society to make a door. Shakespeare walked over his dead body and through that door, but Marlowe couldn't have walked into that space himself."

Their works should especially resonate for those who live in Southern California, Greenblatt added, since the Elizabethan theater was, in some ways, the first mass entertainment industry.

"In effect, a tailor, a papermaker, a cook, a sex worker, a pickpocket, an educated apprentice, a lawyer, a student, a nobleman all could crowd into this space starting in the 1570s," he said. "Marlowe and Shakespeare are the great geniuses for initially figuring out, 'We have this new form in which we're bringing together basically the whole spectrum of society.'"

With church being the only other such gathering place and enforcing its own strict set of parameters, playwrights like Marlowe and Shakespeare wielded a new power that can still be felt today.

"And so their theater begins to explore and represent anew: How do you get a whole society to believe certain things, to act in certain ways, to share certain values and reject others?" Greenblatt said. "Culturally, we've been, in effect, doing something like this ever since, leading up to the industry that's made Los Angeles famous."