Reading Shakespeare, 9-3-2010

 Twenty years on and I am finally getting The Complete Works of Williams Shakespeare read. The goal here has been to read the plays I never read before.

So far, I have read Pericles, Cymbeline, Coriolanus, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard II, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus, The Winter's Tale, Love's Labour Lost, The Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and the Sonnets. I do ot recommend reading the Sonnets in large blocks - it is like eating a very large, box of chocolate at one time.

Do not think I am studying these plays. I read them as I would read any play. 

I think learning Romeo and Juliet in eighth or ninth grade was wrong - one of the comedies would have been a better idea. I find myself liking the comedies more than I thought I would. There are plays I wish I could have seen in my lifetime: Coriolanus, Timon of Athens, Richard II. I think Richard II deserves more attention - it not as wild as Richard III. (It made me think more of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II.)

I remain convinced Shakespeare was an actor writing poetry, while Marlowe was a poet writing plays.

I hope to finish Much Ado About Nothing today.

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