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.

A proper evaluation of this new edition of Shakespeare's (probably im)Complete Works from Oxford University Press would need at least 8000 words to explain, and I am not interested in writing that. Overall, the texts are well edited in the popular way of editor's changing the texts to what they believe Shakespeare actually wrote when they believe something was misprinted in the early editions. They also add lots of notes, and some that are perhaps less helpful than they are intended to be.

I am always grateful for glosses of obscure words and phrases, and these are mostly helpful. I am less grateful for the staging notes that coexist with the glosses. Those I have read are not inaccurate, but they discourage creative thinking by directing our attention to specific explanations which may or may not be correct.

I do not like the lack of introductions. In place of these are quotes about the plays from dozens of people. At best, these can hint at interpretations but really explain nothing. A well thought out interpretative introduction puts the play in context. We can agree or disagree with it, but it is an argument about the play, and a good introduction is of great value.

I deeply objected to the inclusion of the lyric "Shall I Die?" in the 1986 edition, but here I do not mind for it is in a section of poems attributed to Shakespeare in the seventeenth-century miscellanies. Fair enough. This will be a problem when I comment on the AUTHORSHIP COMPANION. The tiny section on the lost original version of SEJANUS, HIS FALL is another matter. There is no apparent warrant for it. It is just annoying to find it there.

I do not mind the controversial choice to note Shakespeare's co-authors on several plays and it is about time that ARDEN OF FAVERSHAM and other works made it into a supposedly complete Shakespeare. On the other hand, the 1994 Second Edition of the previous version had complete texts of EDWARD III and SIR THOMAS MORE. The current edition only excerpts the Shakespearean parts of those plays. The previous was a deeply flawed edition of Shakespeare, but these excisions might be even worse.

On the other hand, this is Shakespeare!

Have I read this book? Only part of it.

Even so, why argue about that rating?

See bottom of review for a list of the plays in order

What follows is little more than the GoodReads description of the edition pictured. But I feel I can do that, since I wrote the description.

This tome includes all 37 of Shakespeare's plays, as well as his poems and sonnets. It was produced "for college students in the hope that it will help them to understand, appreciate, and enjoy the works for themselves. It is not intended for the scholar ..."

Two-column format throughout.

Introductory Material (90 pages):
1. The Universality of Shakespeare
2. Records of the Life of Shakespeare
3. Shakespeare's England
4. Elizabethan Drama
5. The Elizabethan Playhouse
6. The Study of the Text
7. The Development of Shakespeare's Art
8. Shakespeare and the Critics
9. Shakespearean Scholarship and Criticism 1900-1950

Plates:
16 full-page Halftone Reproductions
6 full-page Line Cuts
9 pages of Notes on the Plates

The Plays:
Generally in order of writing.
Each play has its own Introduction
Footnotes at the bottom of the columns. This makes them both handy and unobtrusive. Liked by this reader.

Appendices follow The Poems:
30 Appendices in about the same number of pages; these deal with a wide variety of topics, everything from "The Melancholic Humor" to "Cuckolds and Horns" to "Hawks and Hawking".

I don't know how it compares with other editions of Shakespeare's works. It is the one I have.

Here are Shakespeare's 37 plays, in the order presented in this edition. This is the best guess (at the time the edition was printed) of the order in which they were written, when on my no-longer-young journey I read the play, and links to my review. (It will take several years for this quest to be completed.)

1. The First Part of King Henry the Sixtht
2. The Second Part of King Henry the Sixtht
3. The Third Part of King Henry the Sixtht
4. The Tragedy of King Richard the Third _2017_Apr.t
5. The Comedy of Errorst
6. The Tragedy of Titus Andronicust
7. The Taming of the Shrew _2017_Apr.t
8. The Two Gentlemen of Veronat
9. Love's Labor's Lostt
10. The Tragedy of King Richard the Second _2016_Aug.t
11. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliett
12. A Midsummer Night's Dream _2014_Feb.t
13. The Life and Death of King John _2016_Apr.t
14. The Merchant of Venicet
15. The First Part of King Henry the Fourtht
16. The Second Part of King Henry the Fourtht
17. Much Ado About Nothingt _2016_Jan.t
18. The Life of King Henry the Fiftht
19. As You Like It _2015_Feb.t
20. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar _2017_Oct.t
21. Twelfth Night; or What You Willt
22. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarkt
23. The Merry Wives of Windsort
24. The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressidat
25. All's Well That Ends Well _2015_June
26. The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venicet
27. Measure For Measuret
28. The Tragedy of King Leart
29. The Tragedy of Macbetht
30. The Tragedy of Anthony and Cleopatrat
31. The Tragedy of Coriolanust
32. Timon of Athenst
33. Pericles _2016_Oct.t
34. Cymbelinet
35. The Winter's Talet
36. The Tempest _2017_July
37. The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth


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Next library review: Shakespeare: The world as stage Bill Bryson

What an exquisite edition of one of the greatest works in the Western canon. Armed with an authoritative editorial team, Professor Jonathan Bate has reworked all of Shakespeare's plays, as well as his poems. The footnotes are extensive and cover all meanings of words (including the more salacious ones that many school texts leave out), while also providing informative historical and contextual information.

This edition seeks to give us every word attributed to Shakespeare (although, as it points out at length, we can't really know what he wrote: all of our current versions come from a variety of sources typeset in his later years, and primarily from the First Folio printed after his death. Any work of the Bard's is distorted in some way). With appendices and footnotes, notable textual errors or areas of debate are highlighted.

There is so much to love here. Epic tragedies - Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, King Lear - joined by their lesser, but poetically affecting counterparts like Othello, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Titus Andronicus. Shakespeare plays with and shuffles around comic tropes in his wide variety of comedies: peaks include The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing.

In his more subdued romances, Shakespeare often seems reduced to more typical characters yet imbues than with layer upon layer of subtlety: Measure for Measure and The Winter's Tale are particularly splendid examples. Some of the tragedies and comedies aren't as startling, and some are challenging - such as his part-satire Troilus and Cressida - but every work brims with characters whose opinions, beliefs and motives are individual, and not simply echoing those of an author. Beyond these plays lies a staggering cycle of love poems in The Sonnets, as well as his other various poetry which always makes fascinating, lyrical reading.

Capping all this is Shakespeare's incredible cycle of English history, which details the country's fate from 1199 to 1533, through the stories of the English monarchs: their battles, their loves, their lives and the effect their squabbles have over countless citizens. The cycle begins with the somewhat talky King John (far from my favourite work, but well presented in the BBC Complete Works cycle) and ends with the autumnal King Henry VIII. In between are eight plays (two tetraologies) which encompass the Wars of the Roses, and they are astonishing. From the private thoughts of the monarch to the most unimportant peasant, Shakespeare captures an age.

The introductions on each play detail cultural successes over the centuries, as well as basic historical information. I've seen people suggest other aspects that could improve this - such as a suggestion of ways to double parts (this is defined as the "actor's edition"). Certainly, I can accept that, but as it stands this is already beyond a 5-star piece of work. A place of honour on my shelf, that's for sure.

All's Well That Ends Well 5/24/2016 - 5/26/2016 ** An intelligent woman helps the king who then grants her anything in his power. She wants to marry some guy who was raised as her brother. He would rather go to war then marry her. She then follows him and tricks him into marrying her. All's well that ends well.

As You Like It 6/16/16 - 6/23/2016 *** Brothers that are dukes fight and one is banished. Brothers that are young and sons of a different duke fight and one leaves. They fall in love with girls. All ends happily. Although the end was a little sudden/easy, I found this one more enjoyable than the previous story.

The Comedy of Errors 8/3/2016 - 8/7/2016 ***
Two sets of twins are given the exact same name and then separated for years. Eventually one looks for the other and a comedy of errors occurs when everyone keeps confusing the twins. It was cute, but really, the same name?

Cymbeline, King of Britain 1/3/2017 - 1/17/2017 ***
I can't read One Hundred Years of Solitude while on the treadmill, so this will be my running book for a bit. Finished this and only about half through Solitude, so I may get another Shakespeare in. This book wasn't quite comedy although there was some silly stuff, particularly mixed identities and sneaking around in a traveling trunk. Can't be described as a tragedy as it all worked out in the end. It was enjoyable, but based on having not heard of it, probably one of the more forgettable.

Love's Labour's Lost 1/23/2017 - 1/28/2017 **
A few dudes get together and swear to study and give up women for 3 years. They forgot they were meeting some women in a few days and allow it to happen. They all fall in love instantly. There are funny parts, but also slow parts, and then the story just ends. Some of the better prose, but the story fell flat for me.

Measure by Measure 6/12/2018 - 6/13/2018 ***
Duke disguises himself to see how his replacement will act. He doesn't act very nicely. Some more tricks in the dark to make people have sex. Everything ends happy. This was a quick read, we knew the Duke was going to make everything ok in the end, but the different characters wouldn't know it, although he must have had one hell of a disguise.

The Merchant of Venice 1/31/2019 - 2/5/19 ****
I enjoyed this one, maybe it is because I haven't read any of these in a long while, or maybe it was recognizing the name and never having read it. Not too much happens. You have the mean, nasty Jew, and in the end he is outsmarted and everyone lives happily ever after. Evidently being Jewish is so terrible, your children run away. Only part I didn't like was the end when Portia announced out of the blue, that she had a letter telling Antonio that he was all good.

The Merry Wives of Windsor 2/7/19 - 2/14/19 **
This one would have made a better play than a "read." Some wives play a trick on their husbands, and almost go to far. One of their daughters marries the person she wants instead of the other people her parents want her to marry. Again, not a great read, but probably makes for a funny play.

A Midsummer Night's Dream 5/22/19 - 5/25/19 ***
This is another one where i feel i really should see the play. Not overly interesting to read but im sure the comedy would come out watching it performed.

Much Ado about Nothing 1/18/2022 (wow, I have neglected this one) - 1/20/2022 ***
A typical play from what I've been reading. Two people don't want to marry and end up marrying. Two want to marry and some silly disguises ruin the wedding, but ultimately everything works out in the end.

Pericles, Prince of Tyre 1/21/2022 - 1/25/2022 ****
I admit I had never heard of this story, but it was nice to read one with no foreknowledge. I enjoyed this story very much.

The Taming of the Shrew 6/16/2022 - 6/22/2022 **
This might be the first one to really show its age, as it is very old fashioned in its treatment of women. The play also has an "intro" that is never revisited, which seemed strange to me.

The Tempest 8/16/22 - 8/18/22 ***
Magic guy is banished, sort of gets revenge, but then forgives. Some fun quotes, including "brave new world"

Troilus and Cressida 12/20/22 - 12/27/22 **** I felt this one did not have a true ending, but this was one of the few ones I wouldn't mind seeing a play of as I felt it had an interesting story.

The Twelfth Night 12/28/22 - 1/2/23 *** Twins, mistaken identities and a love triangle. This did not approach the comedy in "a comedy of errors" but was interesting enough.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona 5/18/23-5/19/23 ** Another that may be more interesting to watch as a play than to read. I will admit there was a section where I was laughing out loud as the page described his love of the milkmaid.

The Winter's Tale 8/16/23-8/23/23 ** Jealous king causes wife/son to die from shame. Lost daughter returns and the wife comes back to life. Everyone is happy, except the dead son.

Henry IV Part 1 and 2 05/16/24 - IDK *** Evidently these are really the 2nd and 3rd book of a semi-trilogy, but nothing was hard to follow. King who rose to power has to fight to keep it. His son likes to hang with seedy characters. He joins up with his dad without much of a fuss. Falstaff is silly. In part two they win the war by a bit of deception, but oh well.

The Life of Henry the Fifth 10/31/24 - 11/19/24 *** Once more into the breach. Just tearing through these Henrys. I didn't like that a few scenes had a lot of French in them, as I don't speak French. Otherwise was fine.

The First Part of Henry VI