These are barren tasks, too hard to keep, not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep! Love’s Labour’s Lost is a romantic comedy that could probably be described as bittersweet – it is about love, but while it doesn’t end in tragedy, it doesn’t have a traditionally happy romcom ending either. And it isn’t particularly … More Shakespeare Saturday: Love’s labour’s lost
Until I know this sure uncertainty, I’ll entertain the offered fallacy. And next, a Shakespeare play I knew nothing about until now – in fact, I forgot all about The Comedy of Errors and was ready to leap straight into Love’s Labour’s Lost, until I pulled out my trusty Oxford Shakespeare where it was. The … More Shakespeare Saturday: The Comedy of Errors
Bloody thou art, bloody will be thy end. If Shakespeare had stopped after Titus Andronicus, he’d probably be like Christopher Marlowe or (more accurately) John Webster – of his plays, maybe Taming of the Shrew and Titus Andronicus would have survived, and we might know that he also probably wrote something about Henry VI, but … More Shakespeare Saturday: Richard III
When will this fearful slumber have an end? Titus Andronicus is, literally and figuratively, a horror show. By its content, it is a fairly typical Elizabethan/Jacobean revenge tragedy, full of murder, madness, cannibalism, rape, blood, severed heads, severed… you get the idea. If 1 Henry VI was for a long time considered not to have … More Shakeare Saturday: Titus Andronicus
Fight till the last gasp. After the end, the beginning. There seems to be little dispute over the fact that 1 Henry VI was written last of the Contention. It is in that sense like one of those Hollywood prequels, chronicling the events that led to the War of the Roses – the death of … More Shakespeare Saturday: Henry VI, Part 1
The sands are numbered that makes up my life. Here I must stay, and here my life must end. In the beginning of 3 Henry VI, the dust has not settled – in fact, this is where the chaos truly begins to rule. This is a play about revenge and changing fortunes and brothers turning … More Shakespeare Saturday: Henry VI, Part 3
God forbid any malice should prevail/That faultless may condemn a noble man. With Henry VI I’m venturing into unknown territories. The only one of Shakespeare’s histories I’m previously familiar with is Richard III, while the Henries have been just, well, a whole lot of Henries. As luck should have it, all three Henry VI plays … More Shakespeare Saturday: Henry VI, Part 2
If I be waspish, best beware my sting. I confess: The Taming of the Shrew is probably my least favourite of Shakespeare’s comedies. In fact, it probably hovers pretty near the bottom in my overall order of preference. Strangely enough, it is my earliest Shakespeare memory – I must have been in primary school when … More Shakespeare Saturday: The Taming of the Shrew
The Bodleian Library’s Shakespeare exhibition, Shakespeare’s Dead, is now open till 18th September. To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the focus is on death in his plays, and in the literature of his time. On display is of course the First Folio, the first playbook (Romeo and Juliet), the first edition of Venus … More I’m not even going to pretend to be cool about this
O heaven! were man but constant, he were perfect. I’m going to read (and – in the spirit of full disclosure – watch on DVD) all the plays in chronological order, and post every Saturday in this category. The chronology I’m using is the Wells-Taylor one, which states Two Gentlemen of Verona as Shakespeare’s first … More Shakespeare Saturday: Two Gentlemen of Verona
Shakespeare for absolute beginners 