This will always be on my currently-reading shelf. It's something one can finish and begin again at the beginning.

Ege. Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall, And by the doom of death end woes and all. Duke. Merchant of Syracusa, plead no more. I am not partial to infringe our laws; The enmity and discord which of late Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your Duke To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen, Who, wanting guilders to redeem their lives, Have seal’d his rigorous statutes with their bloods, Excludes all pity from our threat’ning looks: For since the mortal and intestine jars ’Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us, It hath in solemn synods been decreed, Both by the Syracusians and ourselves, To admit no traffic to our adverse towns: Nay more, if any born at Ephesus be seen At any Syracusian marts and fairs; Again, if any Syracusian born Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies, His goods confiscate to the Duke’s dispose, Unless a thousand marks be levied To quit the penalty and to ransom him. Thy substance, valued at the highest rate, Cannot amount unto a hundred marks, Therefore by law thou art condemn’d to die. Ege. Yet this my comfort, when your words are done, My woes end likewise with the evening sun. Duke. Well, Syracusian; say in brief the cause Why thou departedst from thy native home, And for what cause thou cam’st to Ephesus. Ege. A heavier task could not have been impos’d Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable: Yet that the world may witness that my end Was wrought by nature, not by vile offense, I’ll utter what my sorrow gives me leave. In Syracusa was I born, and wed Unto a woman, happy but for me, And by me, had not our hap been bad: With her I liv’d in joy; our wealth increas’d By prosperous voyages I often made To Epidamium, till my factor’s death, And [the] great care of goods at randon left, Drew me from kind embracements of my spouse; From whom my absence was not six months old Before herself (almost at fainting under The pleasing punishment that women bear) Had made provision for her following me, And soon, and safe, arrived where I was. There had she not been long but she became A joyful mother of two goodly sons: And, which was strange, the one so like the other As could not be distinguish’d but by names. That very hour, and in the self-same inn, A mean woman was delivered Of such a burthen male, twins both alike. Those, for their parents were exceeding poor, I bought, and brought up to attend my sons. My wife, not meanly proud of two such boys, Made daily motions for our home return: Unwilling I agreed. Alas! too soon We came aboard. A league from Epidamium had we sail’d Before the always-wind-obeying deep Gave any tragic instance of our harm: But longer did we not retain much hope; For what obscured light the heavens did grant Did but convey unto our fearful minds A doubtful warrant of immediate death, Which though myself would gladly have embrac’d, Yet the incessant weepings of my wife, Weeping before for what she saw must come, And piteous plainings of the pretty babes, That mourn’d for fashion, ignorant what to fear, Forc’d me to seek delays for them and me. And this it was (for other means was none): The sailors sought for safety by our boat, And left the ship, then sinking-ripe, to us. My wife, more careful for the latter-born, Had fast’ned him unto a small spare mast, Such as sea-faring men provide for storms; To him one of the other twins was bound, Whilst I had been like heedful of the other. The children thus dispos’d, my wife and I, Fixing our eyes on whom our care was fix’d, Fast’ned ourselves at either end the mast, And floating straight, obedient to the stream, Was carried towards Corinth, as we thought. At length the sun, gazing upon the earth, Dispers’d those vapors that offended us, And by the benefit of his wished light The seas wax’d calm, and we discovered Two ships from far, making amain to us, Of Corinth that, of Epidaurus this. But ere they came—O, let me say no more! Gather the sequel by that went before. Duke. Nay, forward, old man, do not break off so, For we may pity, though not pardon thee. Ege. O, had the gods done so, I had not now Worthily term’d them merciless to us! For ere the ships could meet by twice five leagues, We were encount’red by a mighty rock, Which being violently borne [upon], Our helpful ship was splitted in the midst;

Before Gary loses his mind altogether about how much reading I do, I’ve been at this one since April of 2014. I list it as ‘new’ this year (as I did earlier with the NIV Study Bible—in its case also a different translation, something not applicable to Shakespeare) because all the scholarly apparatus is new to me: introductory essays, notes on source texts and variants, general chronology of other events during Shakespeare’s lifetime, critical surveys of performance history, etc., are new. I had read most of the plays before — with the exception of the ‘doubtful’ Edward III — as well as all the poems. I started reading the second Riverside edition while I was still teaching Shakespeare—which I have not been doing since 2015. My previous ‘standard’ edition had been that of Hardin Craig (1951), which my mother, then myself, then Michelle used in undergraduate study: three separate sets of marginalia, often in different colours. So the Riverside reading began for me in the spirit of Sir Georg Solti, who once mentioned that he would occasionally begin conducting Beethoven by starting with a new, unmarked score, rather than just repeat what he had previously done. I did not know at the time that I would soon no longer have quite the same professional need for the text. I finished it anyway. I tend to be like that. I did find the scholarly apparatus informative; there was always something new to consider about each text. And while I was reading it, I was in productions of The Comedy of Errors, Richard III, and Timon of Athens, so I used the ‘new stuff’ to some degree, even if not in the virtual or actual classroom. I won’t presume to review Shakespeare himself. We each have our views, some of them held very deeply, about which texts represent his peak achievements. For some, there are no troughs in the work. I tend more towards the view that Shakespeare could, on occasion, produce inferior work, that he was, in his own time and practice, at least as much a businessman (or theatre impresario) as he was an artist. I have my favourite bits, as well as passages that, after this third read through the entire canon, I will probably never see again. It annoys me that, having read three different collected Shakespeares, my total texts read still stands at three. Must go in and add each individual text, I suppose.

Mike is right. It's true. I was officially married in Izu-Kogen Japan by a red-headed bearded Swiss guy named Alex playing the Priest and this book playing the Holy Bible. Does that mean I'm not really married? Hell, no! This book is waaay more interesting and entertaining than the Bible. Just as many people get killed, too.

The four-star rating is cumulative. I read this for a class at Bob Jones with Dr. Caren Silvester. We read Twelfth Night, All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest, and Troilus and Cressida.

The plays I enjoyed the most were The Winter's Tale, All's Well that Ends Well, The Tempest, King Lear, and Twelfth Night. Measure for Measure and Othello were pretty good.

I read The Tempest and King Lear for prelims (April 4-6, 2015).

This is easily the greatest and most accurate collection of Shakespeare's plays. It comes with terminology references at the bottom of each page so that you can understand the lexicon of the times as expressed in its original language. If you want a complete Shakespeare collection, this is the only book you will ever need.

I love Shakespeare. I loved this version of his work as well. I have always admired his ability to write his sonnets in iambic pentameter. I know that, these days, many writers of poetry like to write "train of thought" style, but I can't help but feel that there is a true art and mastery in giving oneself guidelines to work within and still ending up with something spectacular. Then there is also the beauty of the words on the page. I also love the hidden digs, puns, plays on words, etc., one can find within his plays. He was truly a master.

11-16-19

General Introduction

08-11-19

Sonnets

What a terrific introduction W. H. Auden wrote for this section. Worth the price of admission right there.

05-14-19

Phoenix and the Turtle, A Lover's Complaint, The Passionate Pilgrim

02-01-19

The Rape of Lucrece

10-15-18

Venus and Adonis

08-28-18

Two Noble Kinsmen

07-26-18

Henry VIII

much more interesting than i anticipated, and as a fan of "A Man for All Seasons" i could hear the places where it overlapped with Bolt's work.

04-15-18

The Tempest

09-03-17

A Winters Tale

07-11-17

Cymbeline

Much better than the introduction led me to believe. Yes, it's a bit neat at the end, and yes, may of the classic Shakespeare tricks are here. But all in all, compelling, interesting and well done.

05-27-17

Pericles

A Shakespeare play that experts think he only wrote 60% of? Well this is an interesting mish-mash...

01-16-17

Timon of Athens

Hypocritical senators, fairweather friends and a good man driven mad by humanity? Clearly a work of fiction...

06-05-16

Coriolanus

Fascinating - had neither read nor seen it performed before, nor knew the story, so i found the portrait of a hero at odds with his nation quite compelling.

03-23-16

Anthony & Cleopatra

Is it just me or is this play, not exactly a mess (it's obviously well-crafted and well-written), but just sort of a puzzle? Not exactly a love story, not exactly a tragedy, not exactly a history, not a comedy. What's the through-line? Antony's ambition? The tumultuous relationship between he and Cleopatra? I dunno.

02-15-16

MacBeth

01-02-16

King Lear

11-07-15

Measure for Measure

08-15-15

Othello

03-31-15

All's Well That Ends Well

01-09-15

Troilus & Cresieda

11-09-14

The Merry Wives of Windsor

10-02-14

Hamlet

06-02-14

Twelfth Night

05-06-14

As You Like It

10-18-13

Julius Caesar

08-15-13

Henry V

05-16-13

Much Ado About Nothing

03-28-13

Henry IV, Part Two

10-26-12

Henry IV, Part One

09-16-12

The Merchant of Venice

06-12-12

The Life and Death of King John

02-07-12

A Midsummer Night's Dream

12-20-11

Romeo & Julliet

06-25-11

Richard II

03-20-11

Love's Labour Lost

02-16-11

Two Gentlemen of Verona

05-07-10

The Taming of the Shrew - I love this play. Maybe that makes me a bad person, I don't know. I love the problems of it, I love watching directors and actors try to solve the problems of it, I love the wordplay, the banter, the elaborate deceptions - I just really enjoy it. I even enjoy the two filmed performances that I've seen - the Jonathan Miller version starring John Cleese and the Kirk Browning version featuring Marc Singer (yep, THAT Marc Singer). And you know what? After reading the introduction that precedes it here in this volume, I love it even more. The author points up elements and references and aspects that I had not considered before, making it even more interesting and compelling. Look, you may not like the play, and I respect it. But for me, this is one of Shakespeare's finest.

02-22-10

Titus Andronicus - You know, TS Eliot said this was the stupidest play ever written; and that's coming from the guy who penned "The Cocktail Party" so he knows from stupid. And while it was really violent, i didn't mind it. Sure the characters aren't as deep and profoundly drawn as in other plays, but i feel with this play you see the young author working his craft, learning, making mistakes (like there's way way too much going on, for example). And that's interesting. And frankly, if you made it as a movie today, i'm sure the crowds would eat it up as the great unwashed did back in the 1590s. Look, if you're only going to read, say, 5 plays by Shakespeare, I wouldn't put this on your list. But if you're interested in watching him develop, you could do worse. (Though you have to ask yourself, what the hell prompted him to pick this story...)

01-28-10

Richard III - like the Henrys, wish i had a more facile understanding of the details of the history so i could appreciate this more. That said, some great banter and Richard still emerges as a stunningly intriguing character. No wonder actors make their bones on him. Makes me want to see it live - or at least a movie.

10-09-09

Henry VI part 3 - okay, so i finished this trilogy. Richard III is poised to commit all manner of atrocity. Lots of blood, lots of gore, lots of guts. And interestingly, more complicated characters than in the previous two "parts" - not that they're consistent. Makes me want to learn more about the history, so i can come back to this play (of the three) and understand Shakespeare's take on it. That said, one can't come away from this play unaffected by Shakespeare's fear of the chaos of revolution and civil war. Good stuff.

04-24-09
Henry VI part 2 is apparently Shakespeare's earliest known work, and you can tell. It's clearly not one of his best unless you're well-versed in the history, but still, at times, greatness glimmers through.

02-01-09
Henry VI part 1 was better than i expected, but hampered by my ignorance of the players and the era. and, of course, like all plays, should be seen rather than read. nevertheless still good banter at points that even a dullard like me can appreciate.

03-02-08
A Comedy of Errors was very enjoyable. A little confusing, of course, and a little bit of the "deus ex machina" at the end, but you can forgive that because it's an early play and it never loses its light touch

Half-price book store for my favorite edition of S's plays: 4 bucks. Yeah. Is it sad that this is what made my week?

The Riverside's certainly the clearest-printed I've run across, of the dozen or so well-known versions out there - and though I wish there were a few more annotations per page as far as the more obscure Elizabethan language goes, I still think this one "feels" best, with just the right amount of spacing between lines, so that it's discernible enough to be read without a magnifying glass but just bunched together enough (on the very nice extra-wide pages) so that one can burrow down into the solilioquys without too much of that annoying page-turning business.

And of course, this will remain on my "currently-reading" list for some time to come, as I don't think I've gone a week during the last year, without at least one random act. Of the plays, that is. Now about to embark on Coriolanus, as I hear from the experts that it's the most "timely" one... well, we shall see....

Usé esta maravilla de libro (son las obras completas+historia+bio y demás joyitas sobre la época y el autor/es) cuando estudiaba un curso extensivo sobre este bardo (jaja traté de hacer un chiste ahí).

Es lo mejor que me pasó en mi vida estudiantil/profesional y ahora duerme en mi mesa de luz, en un lugar privilegiado, lejos de los libros normales.

One of my two definitive complete collections of the Bard's work. I've been chipping away at it since Junior High School so don't wait up for a final review. In terms of the edition- it's not a copy I carry around when I'm reading one of his plays. I typically pick up a cheap paperback copy that I wouldn't mind losing on the subway.

Took a Shakespeare class one semester in college and walked away with his complete works. I have always been a fan of Shakespeare and the class only heightened my fandom. I played the part of The Fool in King Lear and had a blast! Once I was able to figure out the best way to read Shakespeare (punctuation to punctuation, not line to line), it all made sense!