The Oxford Shakespeare: Complete Works

It took a year - it's good

To the Author

So I started reading Shakespeare's plays in chronological order. Big mistake. Should have just started with the good stuff. Now I'm stuck in the dnf purgatory.

The two gentlemen of Verona; worst ending in the history of literature. But at least it had some comedic gems like this:

"- So, by your circumstance, you call me fool.
- So, by your circumstance, I fear you'll prove."

Golden.

Or this:

"Love is your master, for he masters you:
And he that is so yoked by a fool,
Methinks, should not be chronicled for wise."

The Taming of the Shrew came next. It bored me to death. It took me a whole week to read it, an exercise in intellectual suffering. And if anyone mentions the term "gender roles" in a comment, be warned, I will block you. Not in the mood for your woke bullshit.

Phew, I finally finished this. It only took... What, ten months?

This edition was remarkable in that it not only included all of the plays and sonnets, but also different folio versions or stage versions of the same. I found that redundant and interesting by turn, depending on the play (and how many changes there were). I did have some trouble with the formatting, but the plays overall were presented very well.

I fell in love with "Titus Andronicus" all over again and re-affirmed my dislike for "Romeo and Juliet" (grow up, Romeo), and discovered a few new plays.

Through the soaring heights of the incredible Henriad to the stinking depths of the godawful Titus Andronicus, thirty-nine plays worth of whore-son caterpillars, bacon-fed knaves, and several hundred references to cuckold's horns, I enjoyed the vast majority of them and am now glad to have inflicted this masochistic completionist's challenge upon myself some twenty odd months ago.

Most of the plays were read from a six volume Complete Shakespeare edition edited by David Bevington with fantastic footnotes at the bottom of each page. Others were from various publishers but Bevington's notes, in my opinion, were by far the best.

Listing my individual ratings here from greatest to Andronicus, interested to see how this order may change over time while watching the BBC stage productions and any other adaptations featuring the fanciest of pant(aloon)s.


Julius Caesar ★★★★★
Macbeth ★★★★★
Henry IV (Part 1) ★★★★★
Antony and Cleopatra ★★★★★
Richard III ★★★★★
Coriolanus ★★★★★
Hamlet ★★★★★
Henry V ★★★★☆
Henry IV (Part 2) ★★★★☆
Richard II ★★★★☆

Henry VI (Part 3) ★★★★☆
Henry VI (Part 2) ★★★★☆
Henry VI (Part 1) ★★★★☆
King Lear ★★★★☆
A Midsummer Night’s Dream ★★★★☆
Twelfth Night ★★★★☆
Romeo and Juliet ★★★☆☆
As You Like It ★★★☆☆
Much Ado About Nothing ★★★☆☆
The Tempest ★★★☆☆

Love’s Labour’s Lost ★★★☆☆
Othello ★★★☆☆
The Merchant of Venice ★★★☆☆
Troilus and Cressida ★★★☆☆
The Taming of the Shrew ★★★☆☆
The Winter’s Tale ★★★☆☆
All’s Well That Ends Well ★★★☆☆
Measure for Measure ★★★☆☆
Cymbeline ★★★☆☆
Timon of Athens ★★☆☆☆

The Comedy of Errors ★★☆☆☆
The Two Gentlemen of Verona ★★☆☆☆
The Merry Wives of Windsor ★★☆☆☆
The Two Noble Kinsmen ★★☆☆☆
Henry VIII ★★☆☆☆
King John ★★☆☆☆
King Edward III ★★☆☆☆
Pericles ★★☆☆☆
Titus Andronicus ★☆☆☆☆


Some of them quite possibly would have received a higher rating if they had been penned and published by a different author: I was at times rating Shakespeare against Shakespeare. But then the plays which actually were written mostly by someone else (Fletcher, Middleton, S̶i̶r̶ ̶F̶r̶a̶n̶c̶i̶s̶ ̶B̶a̶c̶o̶n̶ various mystery men) were always worse off because of it.

Also enjoyed his narrative poems but found the sonnets to be a bit tedious. That may of course be due to having read all of them over a period of only 3 days. No doubt would've been better to have read one or two sonnets per day over the course of several months thereby torturing myself much more slowly.

At this point in time a review of William's collected works seems redundant. However, the experience of reading all his works as a single book is worth noting. I have read The Collected Works twice. Both times I did so in one go. Read slept read slept read etc. until finished. (I would read while eating and other activities, so really only stopped for sleeping.)

This practice with this particular work is extremely beneficial. William is not an easy read, at first. That difficulty in the beginning easily fools us into believing it will remain so, but it doesn't. For a few reasons. First, the way the plays are written and to whom they were written, comes into, er... play. (Forgive me.) William wrote to an audience comprised of every level of literacy and sophistication. In every play he caters to them all.

Typically, he will have a complex literary part, filled with references particular to the time, or complex convoluted language, his equivalence of "purple prose." These passages, now, without knowing the specifics referred to or the out of date vocabulary can be hard to decipher. But, fortunately William also had an uneducated "common" audience. He would inevitably follow those difficult sections with straightforward, simple and obvious written which clarifies everything and lets us know what we need to know o follow the story. All we have to do is wait. Suspend our understanding for a while and let the comprehension come to us, instead of the usual other way around. A most handy skill with William.

Another benefit from reading the works as a single book with minimal breaks is the Attunement of the brain. I was not writing either time I read the Complete Works, I wish I had been. A consequence of that intense immersion is that one's brain realigns and adjust and, well, actually regrows neurons to accommodate the immersion and emphasis, all resulting in an increased capacity to assimilate, understand and comprehend. This mechanism is a most incredible one, and applies to anything we do, if we give it a chance to do so. We have to "get into' whatever it is we immerse ourselves into. We have to allow a bit of time for that Immersion to take hold.

With William the effect is dramatic. The more one reads the more one "clicks' and gets the language. Not only the language, but his brilliance. his metaphors, his wisdom, his insights into psychology and motivation. His cleverness and artistry, all become magnified. The more we Attune, the more magic there is to behold. When it comes to Appreciation, Shakespeare is one author that dramatically amplifies our joy the more we tune into his language and style. he is layered beyond layering.

For me, that immersion, since I did nothing else and likely barely spoke to anyone else during the read, the immersion resulted in my speech and thinking being affected. I could talk, "in Shakespeare." A most marvellous phenomenon. If I had been writing I would have loved to write something in that style. I came easy after the total involvement and my brain had the opportunity to retrain itself.

All in all, reading William's complete works as a book is highly highly recommended, as doing so opens us up to being able to connect with the fullness of his unparalleled genius.

. I've been watching the old BBC An Age of Kings. For those who don't know, this is an old BBC series of Shakespeare's history cycle from Richard II though to Richard III. It has a young Sean Connery as Hotspur and Tom Hardy as Henry V. Judi Dench is there as is Angela Baddley (Mrs. Bridges from Upstairs, Downstairs. It got me thinking about the timeless of Shakespeare.
Why does everyone on the planet read Shakespeare? Why does the Bard's work appear on stage, in film, on television? Why does his work inspire other stories? Why can his work be placed in almost any context and still be good (okay, Julius Caesar set in Panama didn't work, but that was the smoky cap guns).

Perhaps the answer to the above questions is that Stratford-Upon-Avon needed a good tourist draw. No, of course not. It is because Shakespeare is da bomb.

There is something for everyone in Shakespeare. There is love in R&J or any of the comedies. There is murder in several plays. There is family relationships constantly being examined such as in Lear and Hamlet. There are thousands, if not millions, of dirty jokes. And don't forget the sonnet that is only about sex. Shakespeare was a beautiful poet who had a really perverted sense of humor sometimes. I half agree with one of my professors, Titus just might be Shakespeare's attempt at comedy, trying to mock the revenge tradition. It does, as the Reduced Shakespeare Company has shown, make a really good cooking show.

I personally find the less well known plays to be the better ones. I love Tony and Cleo. I love Much Ado. Even King John has its high points It is in lesser known plays that the average reader can discover gems. It’s true that Hamlet and the other big plays are wonderful, brilliant, but the reader should also play attention to the others, the ones that haven’t been talked to death. Because it is in those, that in many ways, the reader can reach Shakespeare. If you know what I mean.

It’s true that the Bard has had some misses. I don’t think anyone truly, really knows what he was doing with Trolius and Cressida, though I have a soft spot for that play. I read The Phoenix and the Turtle but can’t remember it very well.

But Shakespeare is still da bomb.

The important thing to remember about Shakespeare is that he wasn't meant to be read, but meant to be seen, to be heard. The plays work best when they come off the page, either though performance or simply reading aloud. It also helps to have a working knowledge of the Bible and mythology.

Far more fascinating and accessible than I might have expected. Occasionally horrendous. Often brilliant. Lots of amazingly sharp female characters who then give in right after tearing someone a new one. More variation to the tragedies than the comedies. Nearly constant opportunities to talk about various social issues and human foibles with the theater tween.