No.234
What are your favourite Shakespeare plays? In my opinion, Measure for Measure is an extremely underrated work.
>Could great men thunder
>As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,
>For every pelting, petty officer
>Would use his heaven for thunder;
>Nothing but thunder! Merciful Heaven,
>Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
>Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak
>Than the soft myrtle: but man, proud man,
>Drest in a little brief authority,
>Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
>His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
>Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
>As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,
>Would all themselves laugh mortal.
No.241
I started with King Lear a few weeks ago and haven't gotten around to anything else since then, but I plan on reading more. The only other play I've read was Hamlet and that was when I was 13.
Lear was great. Is there any character who gets treated more unfairly than Cordelia? I'm under the impression that most tragic characters more or less deserve what happens, but she was a total angel.
>…You have seen
>Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears
>Were like a better day: those happy smilets
>That play'd on her ripe lip seem'd not to know
>What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence
>As pearls from diamonds dropp'd. - In brief, sorrow
>Would be a rarity most belov'd if all
>Could so become it.
No.242
>>241>Is there any character who gets treated more unfairly than Cordelia?Maybe Desdemona from Othello? Although, in the case of Cordelia, it seems to me more that her suffering exists for the inevitable effect it will have on Lear, and the pity his character evokes, rather than for us to pity her fate. After the first scene we don't actually see her suffer, she dies off stage and we only see Lear's reaction. Meanwhile you actually see [spoiler][spoiler][spoiler]Desdemona strangled on stage.[spoiler][spoiler][spoiler].
No.250
This guy is gay.
No.276
Watch Shakespeare first (theatre or film) then enjoy the text. Education system gets this in the wrong order (text first) and it turns each generation off what should be their pride and joy as English speakers
I watched Titus (1999) recently. pretty good. Aaron is a good villain and his scaffold speech is memorable
No.278
>>276The problem is more that most actors in Shakespeare are atrocious and that teachers suck. People have appreciated Shakespeare as a purely literary phenomenon for centuries, even if it's not the ideal, and he will continue to be appreciated as such for centuries to come. You can still see the drama in your mind's eye via reading.