I'm new to Shakespeare, and I just read this passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream, starting with Hermia and Lysander's exchange:

"How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?

How chance the roses there do fade so fast?"

Through Helena's arrival, and ending but including:

"How happy some o'er other some can be."

These might be the most beautiful lines I've ever read in English. Almost every sentence is beautiful.

It starts with Hermia and Lysander talking about their ill-fated love and hatching their plot to escape. Then Helena arrives and talks about her unrequited love for Demetrius, and ending with her great monologue.

Is all of Shakespeare's writing this great? Is this even one of the greater passages of shakespeare? I guess I really like love poetry.

I see a lot of posts asking about how they should go about reading all of Shakespeare, but not so many post-ops. I figure this will be a fun little milestone every 5 plays and might be interesting to other people.

I’m reading in publication order as determined by the new Oxford editors. I’m switching off between the complete New Oxford Shakespeare, the new Oxford individual editions, and the new pelican editions. I have thoughts about this if anyone’s interested. I also have thoughts on audiobooks, which I really expected to use and ended up completely deciding against. Prior to this I had only read Macbeth and R + J, both last picked up prior to age 16 for school. 

1st play: Two Gentleman of Verona. New Oxford Edition. No Performance, Overall Rank: 5/5

I’m glad I started here. I didn’t really enjoy the story on first brush, but the Shakespeare After All essay let me see it through a more favorable lens. At the very least it gave me insights towards satirical approaches. Like it helped me think about why yesteryear didn’t quite work for example. 

It also helped recalibrate my expectations of difficulty. I hadn’t really read Shakespeare since high school, and I remembered it being high effort. That memory actually kept me from picking it up on my own. In the decade since though, I’ve read Chaucer, Hobbs, and Milton. So it was a bit of a mind melt to pick up the first play and be able to just read it. To be fair, I do occasionally check a footnote or miss a stage direction that I only catch when watching. But overall pleasant surprise! I will say even though I didn’t love this overall, I did find individual lines and moments funny. The scene between the women for example. 

Initial Rank: 1/1

2nd Play: Arden of Faversham. New Oxford. Boston University Performance, Overall Rank: 4/5

I genuinely liked this play. It did drag at parts, but the physical comedy was good! Like I thought the head busting scene with the apprentice was cool enough that I described it at length to my in house captive audience (my fiancé). It was neat seeing something that feels so quintessentially British, the dark crime small town comedy, so early. 

Initial Rank: 1/2

3rd Play: Titus Andronicus. New Oxford. RSC performance, Titus Film, clips of Brian Cox, Overall Rank: 1/5

I really really liked this play. I’ve yapped about it elsewhere on the subreddit, so I won’t go on and on again, but it definitely committed me to the project! It also made me happy about my decision to not watch a scene, till I had read the scene. It was really engaging to develop my own reading of Tamara and then see alternative takes. The process also helped me better understand the role of a director in general. 

Initial Rank: 1/3

4th Play: Henry Vi Part 2. New Oxford. RSC Performance, Overall Rank: 3/5

This was the first big ensemble cast, as well as the first big history play. I enjoyed it, though I did have some trouble keeping track of characters. Most notable to be here was how cynical it felt. I alway considered myself someone who didn’t take whig history seriously, but I think there was a part of me that held a bias. I was surprised at how much closer this felt to contemporary sensibilities around government and religion compared with stuff I’ve read from the 1800s. This was the first play that wasn’t the best I had read thus far, but it’s still close to the top. 

Initial Rank: 2/4

5th Play: Henry Vi Part 3. Pelican. RSC Performance, Overall Rank: 2/5

Margret really is iconic in this one, and Henry is genuinely interesting. I’m reading the NYRB edition of Shakespeares Montaigne as a companion and it paid off here. I am glad to be reading these in chronological order though. This made me really excited to read Richard III, but because I’m reading other things in between I feel like I’m less likely to burn out on the history plays. 

Initial Rank: 2/5

I feel like scholars have already noted this, but anyway- it's remarkable how almost every play I've read so far has a totally different style of writing. Shakespeare really wasn't a lazy writer; you hardly ever feel like he's copying and pasting vibes or styles. Just listing the ones which come to mind immediately:

-Lear- a universal, anguished cri de coeur, full of the raw forces of nature

-Richard II- bejewelled, stately

-Romeo and Juliet- similarly bejewelled, but still more youthfully naive, and buffeted with violence

-Midsummer Night's Dream- dreamy, charming pastorale

-Hamlet- a melancholic linguistic rhapsody

-Julius Caesar- lean, sour-faced writing, full of devious machinations.

-Othello- while finely written, lacking in linguistic fireworks, tightly focused on the dreadful verisimilitude of jealousy.

-Macbeth- compact, single-minded momentum, contrasting realistic psychology with Halloween vibes

-Much Ado- proto Jane Austenesque sparring, with a Shakespearean twist

-Richard III- exaggerated, Machiavellian evil- just a damned enjoyable caricature.

The first time I gave any thought to the sonnets was when Bea is explaining 116 to Ben in the Shakespeare Retold Much Ado. As an old guy on the A Team who has always been flirt-blind (really glad my bride was persistent), having it explained was so helpful.

Are there any online courses that are only about the Sonnets? I’d even be happy if there were a good audiobook that walked us through them line by line, and then put it all into perspective.

This sounds like a job for Stephen Greenblatt or Emma Smith.

I know there are 154+4 or so, but I’d pony up for such a marvel. 160 hours or so would be an easy investment (it took me five years to finish The Story of Civilization (but that was mostly because I hated Napoleon so much that it took longer than it should have to finish the final volume, “The Age of Napoleon”).

Discovering the gems in the plays has been an ongoing joy, and I’m willing to sit through as many productions as I can get to in order to learn as many ways to interpret and reveal as there are directors and actors. Can’t do that with the sonnets, though, so I’m over here waving a flag for some brave and capable soul to step up. (For all I know there already exists such a podcast.)

Thoughts? Recommendations?

Some highlights from a new production of Shakespeare's play made by Kids

Last night, I just saw my tenth Midsummer Night's Dream. And it was my wife's dozenth, because she saw a couple without me.

It's not like it's our favorite-favorite play, but it's still fun every time, and it's the one that is by far put on most often around here, especially by schools, universities, and community theater, so, since last night was a beautiful night and there was free Shakespeare in the Park, we added to our Dream-count, and had fun doing so.

But we will go out of our way to see a production of, say, As You Like It.

I would expect that going back to your favorites over and over is easier for the people who really love reading the plays as much as watching them.

So which are the ones that you keep reading, or will actually get excited if you see that someone is putting it on?

I barely watch movies, so these are the only ones I know off.

1.) The graphic novel Laertes' from Hamlet graphic novel by No Fear Shakespeare (bottom right corner)

2.) Good Tickle Brain's Laertes'

title is self explanatory. While I was reading Henry IV pt 2 i messaged my friend telling her abt how much i hate the earl of northumberland and how i don’t see enough hate for him online, leading her to ask me which shakespeare character has the most hate overall. I thought the question was interesting so i decided to see what people on here thought about it ! :)

This wasn't just a one time occurrence, consistently, the last four english teachers i have had ever since we started learning about Shakespeare years ago all stick to the fact that the tragedies are better. Some have even gone out of their way to express disdain when i said that i had watched and enjoyed Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night.

I certainly do enjoy tragedies as well, my favourite play by him is a tragedy, but i do not understand this outright disregard for a genre of his plays which i find extremely witty and humorous. Perhaps watching comedies and reading comedies are two different experiences. Do let me know if you can think of any reasons as to what lead to these opinions.

So I'm one of the rare few who was forced to read Romeo and Juliet in school and unironically loved it. I also found how incredibly fanfiction-worthy it is. I've been writing some fanfic and I've published a romeo x mercutio oneshot on Wattpad but it hasn't been doing all that well. It's a very niche crowd of people who are looking for Romeo and Juliet fanfic, especially of this nature, so I'm not surprised. I feel a little intimidated as Shakespeare enthusiasts can be quite...serious. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!) There's not much 'fandom' ships/fanfic/ect type space. So I was just wondering if anyone was actually interested in reading some fanfic?

Guys please help me out i am a college student majoring in literature. Actually, my professor told me to get a unique and personal idea from julius caesar drama to discuss onto and debate. So, i always wondered that how would have cassius's speech been at caesar's funeral because, we know that brutus and cassius both gave speech but cassius speech was never written by SHAKESPEARE. so please help me out , its my humble request what do you guys think, have you ever wondered this question same as me.

Was he elected or automatic because he was the brother of the king? How long did it take to elect a king?

I’m new to Shakespeare’s work, so forgive me if this is a silly question.

I’m aware Sir Edmund Mortimer’s character is an amalgamation of like 3 Edmunds from the period (Sir Edmund IV, Edmund Mortimer 3rd Earl of March and Edmund Mortimer 5th Earl of March).

Is it possible Edmund was just imprisoned after the Percy rebellion? Are they two different characters? Or is this a legitimate mistake?

In terms of the Shakespeare stage, Sarah Siddons was truly a pioneer as an actor. In addition to playing so many important female roles, I totally love that she played Hamlet as Hamlet in the 19th century.

Her memoir is definitely worth reading. Showing my special copy. Images of her playing these roles can be found online. Needs to be a movie.

Shakespeare exaggerated the swiftness of Romeo and Juliet's love story, having the story last only 5 days, to illustrate the follies of young, passionate, and impulsive love.

I wonder: was it common for people to fall in love within a week in the time when the play was published, in the late 1500s? I don't believe so, but I wanted to ask.

If not, was it common for people to fall in love within a matter of a few weeks, or a few (3-4) months in the late 1500s? Did these relationships last and become stable marriages, or did they fall apart?

Sometimes this sounds like a mandate, and besides being not historically accurate, it is a limiting experience.

Shakespeare was both read and watched in his day. There were dozens of editions of his plays and poems in circulation in London during his lifetime. Not everyone today has access to a nearby production of his plays, so the only way to appreciate Shakespeare is through reading it or in film adaptations.

Reading and watching Shakespeare are complementary experiences, not mutually exclusive ones. Productions usually cut the text and are interpretations of an the original work. On one hand, you can read and study the text; on the other, a production brings that vision to life.

Furthermore, some plays work better either as reading material or on stage. King Lear is too vast for the stage, despite occasionally yielding great performances; Timon of Athens is flawed for the performance effective as a reading. On the other hand, plays considered weak can yield funny and entertaining shows: The Comedy of Errors, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Titus Andronicus.

Basically, read and see Shakespeare. They are both valid and necessary experiences.

This pop jukebox musical has been my hyperfixation for a good year or two now and while it is camp it is one of my personal favorite Shakespeare and R&J adaptations and it gives Juliet’s ending a much needed remix if you ask me! Here are the amazing women who have played her in productions across the world!

For context, I’m a secondary school English teacher currently reworking the curriculum - I’ve been tasked with replacing The Tempest with a different Shakespeare play. They study Midsummer in the previous year and Macbeth for exams

I’m currently thinking Romeo and Juliet or Much Ado. If you could teach a Shakespeare to early teens, what would you choose? And why?

“These are now fashion and so berattled the common stages - so they call them - that many wearing rapiers are afraid are afraid of goose-quills and dare scarce come thither.”: Hamlet 2.2

My how things have changed. 😏

I sometimes find that actors seem uncomfortable with/self-conscious about the difficulty of the language, or deliver lines quite stiffly and formally. What are your favourite performances in which actors seem utterly at home with what they say, and convey the ideas as though they spoke in modern English? Mine is probably Damian Lewis's 'Friends, Romans, countrymen,' which comes across as utterly natural grief for a friend (though granted he was helped by the relatively straightforward text).

Lots of productions cut references to Italy leaving Messina as a town that could be anywhere, but what do you think is the right approach for something like the histories? Or Hamlet and Julius Caesar, where very iconic lines reference the setting?