shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Apr 24, 2017 12:17:53 GMT -5
I know we have several fans here, and Prince Hal just did a thread about Shakespeare in comics, so why not a thread for the source material itself? |
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shaxper
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Posts: 22,871
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Post by shaxper on Apr 24, 2017 12:31:59 GMT -5
My history with Shakespeare:
When I was in ninth grade, I had the stereotypical teacher who forced kids to reluctantly read aloud, flooded us with ample worksheets and long-winded lectures with no apparent focus, and who expressed a passion for the material that was anything but contagious. Her class was my first experience with Shakespeare, and when she introduced Romeo and Juliet as "The greatest love story of all time," I checked out. I hated the play and swore I'd never read Shakespeare again.
In my junior year, a far better teacher had us read The Tempest. I tried to be a good sport about it but had no actual interest in the material until he asked us whether Caliban was a hero or villain. Assuming he just thought we were really dumb, I sat back and waited for him to say "villain". Then he explained that it was all a matter of context and, to some extent, dependent upon your view of Prospero. My brain exploded. I wasn't used to characters being that relative.
In college, I absolutely had the right Intro to Shakespeare professor who positively made me fall in love with the material, and while my college had no official track for this, I essentially ended up majoring in Renaissance Lit, primarily Shakespeare. I took every possible class touching on this and, when those ran out, found classes that had an ancillary relationship to Elizabethan/Jacobean literature including history classes.
Around this time, I even built my very first discussion forum (now long since defunct) devoted to Renaissance literature (with a heavy emphasis on Shakespeare). It's how I first became aware of Proboards, back in the company's early early days.
Towards the end of college, I got to travel to Cambridge England for a summer to study Shakespeare there and was on track to attend graduate school at The Shakespeare Institute until I fell in love and decided to pursue a career better suited to being attached to someone else.
After college, I took a long break from Shakespeare, reconnected with comic books, got into classic film, and generally spent my time on media that was more easy to pick up and enjoy for a free hour or two without too much work involved. This became a necessity as I got into a career, worked on a marriage, and raised kids.
Now, separated and with my kids only 50% of the time, I have a lot of free time and have found myself craving my literature of choice in large doses again. I intend to have re-read all the Shakespeare histories (including commonly accepted apocrypha) by the end of May. I'm also reading Spenser's Faerie Queene.
The Histories have always been my favorite of Shakespeare's plays, and I'd currently rank them from best to worst as follows (I'm curious how this will change upon re-reading them):
1 Henry IV
Richard II
Henry V
Richard III
2 Henry IV
King John
2 Henry VI
3 Henry VI
1 Henry VI
I am currently reading Henry VIII for the first time and will be reading Edward III for the first time right after.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2017 14:43:34 GMT -5
My only exposure to Shakespeare is through his poems that he written so very long ago; when I was in High School I've dabbled some poetry and I wasn't that good of a writer and had a difficult time doing so. In my English Class we had a short six weeks study in his poetry and one of my favorite poems of Shakespeare was the To the Queen.  It's a complete poem that's emphasis on the Queen itself and it's so enduring and has full of meaning and have the feeling of the circle of life that based on time itself. This is one of many poems that I love to read as a student back in High School. Then, later in College ... I took a class in Songs as a part of my Graduation's commitment and started reading Sonnets from him and the first one that I read was Sonnet 130.  Original Version Modern VersionBasically, it was a class that the only grade you get was a Pass or Fail and you are supposed to your best to describe the beauty of these sonnets that he written and write down some of your comments about it and it was a fun class to take. I met once a week on a Tuesday Evening and it was from 7pm to 8pm and I had to work at Skipper's Fish and Chips and got permission to work at a store near my college from 8:30 to 11:30 to help out the all you can eat feast that always falls on a Tuesday. This class was one quarter long and I had a blast enjoying listening all the student's thoughts on his sonnets. It was enlightening experience to learn about the English in his days and compare it today. That's my experiences with Shakespeare in High School and College and I occasionally borrow the Complete Sonnets from my oldest niece that lent me her copy of this book from Dover Publications and here's book look like and I'm asking my family this book for Christmas this year.  |
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shaxper
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Posts: 22,871
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Post by shaxper on Apr 24, 2017 15:12:33 GMT -5
I'll readily admit I've spent almost no time studying Shakespeare'a poetry. I tend to view it as how he earned his living, whereas the plays were where his heart was. This all being my conjecture, of course.
But there is tremendous worth in the poems, and I owe them more attention than I've given them.
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Post by Icctrombone on Apr 24, 2017 17:59:59 GMT -5
Hamlet was the play that had the most impact on me. Macbeth was badass too.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2017 18:03:49 GMT -5
I'll readily admit I've spent almost no time studying Shakespeare'a poetry. I tend to view it as how he earned his living, whereas the plays were where his heart was. This all being my conjecture, of course. But there is tremendous worth in the poems, and I owe them more attention than I've given them. I understand what you said here and you are exactly right on it; I just find his poetry and sonnets more meaningful than his plays that he written. I'm exactly the opposite of you and I tend to think that all plays are in my heart and my hearing disability - meaningless because it is very difficult for me to grasp them. Where his songs and poetry you can hear them over and over again and each time it's means something to (me) you. |
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Post by berkley on Apr 24, 2017 21:36:38 GMT -5
I'll readily admit I've spent almost no time studying Shakespeare'a poetry. I tend to view it as how he earned his living, whereas the plays were where his heart was. This all being my conjecture, of course. But there is tremendous worth in the poems, and I owe them more attention than I've given them. Interesting. Without knowing anything about it, I would have thought that the plays and the theatre in general (he was an actor too) were where he made most of his money. But I never thought of dividing the poetry from the drama in terms of one being done from pure artistic motives and the other for more commercial reasons. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2017 3:50:41 GMT -5
I'll readily admit I've spent almost no time studying Shakespeare'a poetry. I tend to view it as how he earned his living, whereas the plays were where his heart was. This all being my conjecture, of course. But there is tremendous worth in the poems, and I owe them more attention than I've given them. Interesting. Without knowing anything about it, I would have thought that the plays and the theatre in general (he was an actor too) were where he made most of his money. But I never thought of dividing the poetry from the drama in terms of one being done from pure artistic motives and the other for more commercial reasons. Thanks for sharing this ... made excellent points here. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Apr 25, 2017 6:47:12 GMT -5
I'll readily admit I've spent almost no time studying Shakespeare'a poetry. I tend to view it as how he earned his living, whereas the plays were where his heart was. This all being my conjecture, of course. But there is tremendous worth in the poems, and I owe them more attention than I've given them. Interesting. Without knowing anything about it, I would have thought that the plays and the theatre in general (he was an actor too) were where he made most of his money. But I never thought of dividing the poetry from the drama in terms of one being done from pure artistic motives and the other for more commercial reasons. Acting in the plays would have provided a very small income, and writing them would have provided a little more. It was a regular paycheck, but nothing you could live comfortably on. The poems were commissioned by wealthy patrons as a means of inflating their status and ego, so Shakespeare earned a great deal more for those. The plays didn't really become a source of wealth for him until he purchased a share in his own theater company, the money with which to do so likely earned from his poetry. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Apr 25, 2017 15:37:34 GMT -5
Interesting. Without knowing anything about it, I would have thought that the plays and the theatre in general (he was an actor too) were where he made most of his money. But I never thought of dividing the poetry from the drama in terms of one being done from pure artistic motives and the other for more commercial reasons. Acting in the plays would have provided a very small income, and writing them would have provided a little more. It was a regular paycheck, but nothing you could live comfortably on. The poems were commissioned by wealthy patrons as a means of inflating their status and ego, so Shakespeare earned a great deal more for those. The plays didn't really become a source of wealth for him until he purchased a share in his own theater company, the money with which to do so likely earned from his poetry. Even bigger money rolled in when he was a partner in the Globe and the Blackfriars Theatres. Shakespeare was also shrewd investor in real estate and the equivalent of today's commodities market. He and his fellow sharers did nicely from their theatres; we know from their wills that they could afford wives and families, lived well, and owned their own homes in the suburbs, for instance. Plus, the playwright took home the entire box office from the third performance of every new play! |
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Post by junkmonkey on Apr 25, 2017 19:45:53 GMT -5
My 14 year old Number One Daughter is currently waiting to hear whether she has been accepted at a (rather prestigious)drama school. Her audition piece was Helena's speech from Act 1 Sc 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream that starts:
How happy some o'er other some can be!
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
Fingers crossed.
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Post by Prince Hal on Apr 25, 2017 21:19:34 GMT -5
My 14 year old Number One Daughter is currently waiting to hear whether she has been accepted at a (rather prestigious)drama school. Her audition piece was Helena's speech from Act 1 Sc 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream that starts: How happy some o'er other some can be! Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. Fingers crossed. Lots to be mined in that speech! Good choice! |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2017 22:28:15 GMT -5
As part of earning my degree in English, I took an entire class dedicated to just the works of Shakespeare.
Since then though, I have had very little recent interaction with the Bard. Unless you count Ian Doescher's "William Shakespeare's Star Wars" series.
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Post by berkley on Apr 25, 2017 23:35:24 GMT -5
Does anyone have any favourite quotes? The Shakespeare I've read most recently, though that was a few months ago, was Macbeth, so it's been the "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speech for me, lately:
About as chilling an expression of pure nihilism I've ever come across.
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shaxper
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Posts: 22,871
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Post by shaxper on Apr 26, 2017 8:51:31 GMT -5
Plus, the playwright took home the entire box office from the third performance of every new play! This is new to me. Was this always the case, or only after he had a share in the company? |
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