Thank you, Rafa. I agree that he's no one's property. And I'm sure you're right, he'd have loved the idea of still being able to pack a theatre four centuries later.
And then there's the lunatic Shakespeare denialism that denies the evidence and the fact that nobody in his age had doubts about who he was--including the pair of actors who put together the First Folio. It's a huge industry that also ignores the impossibility of the small world of the theater and the world of the court could somehow now know he was someone else.
Over 20 years of attending the Stratford Festival, I saw every play at least and little-performed plays Like John II and Pericles. It was a dazzling experience and sometimes we'd go back to see a performance twice.
Beautiful little town where you ca often run into the cast members in bars, restaurants--or even shopping. Some of the best theater I've ever seen in my life was there, consistently. Just two: Lear with Christopher Plummer, a production that went to Broadway, and Long Day's Journey into Night with the famed Martha Henry, who could do amazing things with silence. Oh, and Brian Bedford in a number of Molières.
I concur with Lev! We fell to Shakespeare tourism, alas, and visited Stratford. It was special to see the house where he was born. The town was a bit touristy but the historicity of the place for literature lovers made up!
Loved visiting the Globe. I enjoyed bringing the wonderful story of Wannamaker in my recent ish blog on the poetic and the brutal in London. Also picked up “Will
Contested”—yet to read it, but looking forward to it!
Love this series of justifiable reasons to keep Shakespeare around and to keep him FRESH. I like how you dive into weirdness and details; for me, this is the reward.
I’ve found that much can be learned from teens asked to make something new with Shakespeare as their guide (pastiche, screenplay, diaries…) or simply to ask them to act out the lines. It proves to me over and over just how relevant and fresh his works still are.
Hey, I dig your point re Shakespeare’s understanding and celebration of weirdness and Jeffrey’s use of it; I just replied to him below re the whole detail thing.
I gain such inspiration and courage from the weird in Shakespeare and from his humanity in celebrating it, and in dramatising it in a way that is, just as you put it, rewarding and creative rather than repressive and unhelpful. And, just as Jeffrey puts it, all in such sublime language…but that is the whole thing isn’t it, in lesser hands the weird would remain just that, it is the wonder of the language that opens the eyes and hearts to the wonder and drama of weirdness.
And, a final thought, I don’t think this would be effective as it is if it didn’t stand alongside the more mainstream of life in his work. It’s about the interplay and communication and illumination between the two concepts/realities/modes of experience in his work that is so dramatic and powerful.
I read Shakespeare in Chinese, when I was in middle school, right after China opened open, and the first “play” I saw was the movie Hamlet by Sir. Lawrence Olivier … Someday, I would love to read his work on English, and then see the drama on stage, as it should be.
Thanks, Jeffrey, for letting me read Shakespeare through your experience.
Thank you, Yi Xue! Certainly, live performances bring it all to life. I remember seeing The Taming of the Shrew in Shanghai, performed in Polish with Chinese surtitles. There was a beautiful confusion in my mind, with my brain engaging with a play I knew (but not by heart), a language I didn't speak a word of (Polish) echoing in my ears, and a language I read imperfectly and slowly (Chinese) dancing before my eyes. I loved it!
Jeffrey, I read all of Shakespeare's works last year as part of a book club I belonged to. It was a great experience and I am glad I took part. Some of this stuff I enjoyed a great deal. Other stuff was not as good. The process of reading all his works in the order they were written (or a best guess) was very informative. You could observe his progression as a writer. However, Will revised endlessly, so some of his earlier works have likely come down to us in a revised state. I believe my biggest takeaway was understanding how impactful his work has been in literature throughout the ages since his time. He is everywhere, and having read his works gives me a greater appreciation of that. Thanks for this great essay.
Thank you, Matthew and great to hear about your experience of reading through the collected works. The only play I couldn't enjoy was Troilus and Cressida. It pales besides Chaucer's wonderful version of the same story. But the other plays were a joy and I also enjoyed his poem Venus and Adonis.
I've always had a soft spot for The Bard. Have you ever watched "Upstart Crow", the series broadcasted by the BBC in 2016, written by Ben Elton, with David Mitchell as Shakespeare? I really love it. Your essay is a delight, Jeffrey, as expected. I thank thee kindly, sir!
How refreshing to see an erudite reader home in on passages no one talks about. With Shakespeare there is no such thing as “minor.” Doesn’t he also need saving from the persistent argument that he didn’t exist?
Thank you, Rona. Personally, I don't pay much attention to the doubts about his identity. But in any case, it would take a much better scholar than me to make the case against his alleged non existence.
To me it feels as if there’s a very beautiful contradiction, which is profoundly pleasurable, watching and reading (maybe particularly accurate when watching…) Shakespeare. The language is not modern but the feel, the sense is entirely immediate (I think that might be what you mean in this piece, Jeffrey). There is something magical about being immersed in a cloud of language that one’s ear doesn’t immediately get despite the familiarity of the words, and from within that immersion suddenly understanding everything and at the same time being taken into the world of the story.
There is so much in your piece that I loved reading. However, time presses…I hope come back here and reply further.
Thank you, Nicolas. Yes, I think that having these compelling thoughts expressed in beautiful but sometimes less than accessible language is part of the draw I feel towards Shakespeare's drama. The sound allures and the meaning follows, as it were.
I think you express the allure and hold of Shakespeare brilliantly when you talk of “the grit in the oyster covered in a coating is sublime language and wondrous theatricality”. Not only does that seem, to me, to be a great example of the rule of three, it also gets the value of the detail and its incredible power and value in creating something wonderful when it is joined with language and theatre. Every one of the three is a gift to writers, to readers, but when all three are involved to such an intense degree in Shakespeare, the result is to show us ourselves in such a powerful, and I think, unique way.
Oh, I want to be part of the Shakespeare appreciation society! I was in high school (and college) theatre, so this is where my appreciation for the Bard truly begins. My friends and I saw many Shakespeare performances around the island of Oahu, where I grew up. Everyone loved The Tempest and Much Ado About Nothing, but I was riveted by King Lear. And can I say how proud I am that such excellent performances were done in my small home State?
We performed Romeo and Juliet, but first, we read the entire thing critically because we had to whittle it down to an evening performance that Moms and Dads would sit through. I was the Nurse's assistant and had a funny line, which pretty much sums up me and acting. And because I was supposed to be a boy, I cut my hair, too. (such commitment!) Actually, one of the most famous lines from my h.s. drama teacher is, "We don't do high school theatre!" meaning, we do serious work. But there was more sexual tension between Mercutio and Juliet than with Juliet's beloved, Romeo. Ahhh, those were the days!
When I went away to Colorado for college, I was excited to see that Shakespeare was a class! And I managed to get in, even though the class was supposed to be for upperclassmen. In any case, we had to buy the complete works of William Shakespeare, and we read a many a play that trimester! My proudest moment was when my professor returned my Shakespeare paper on The Winter's Tale (my choice) and said, "This is one of the finest papers I've read on Shakespeare in many years." A+
Thanks, Jeffrey for taking me down memory lane. And for your love of Shakespeare!
Thank you for sharing those lovely memories, Lani. I really enjoyed reading them. And I'm very impressed by the feedback on your essay on The Winter's Tale. Such a beautiful play, too.
That was a delightful read. I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever read an entire Shakespeare play, (I had a massive brain injury in 2016; I’ve lost huge chunks of memory,) but it’s possible.
It’s a wild situation. (I’m sorry, too.) But. I read a LOT, and I really enjoyed your article.
I’m currently reading 4 books, 2 fiction & 2 nonfiction. (My librarian friend was impressed by my Little Free Library book stack.) (I have regular library books, too.)
I don’t necessarily read any one on any particular night. One night I might want to be inspired, or educated, or scared, or whatever. (I still get screen time, obviously. 🤦🏻♀️.)
Just a joy to read this. I’m thinking, Shakespeare’s birthday? How did I miss . . . And then I remember it was 2016. So many distractions, here in the U.S.
Your erudition, and enthusiasm, are marvelous. I’ve seen some plays, read most of them, and all of the sonnets. But never studied him much in school, probably because I wasn’t an undergraduate English major. Now that I have time, I can go back and fill that gap.
Thank you for sharing these stories, and for defending the strange.
Thank you, Mary! I'm really pleased and honoured that you liked the essay.
I confess that when I studied English at university, I didn't read all the plays then (I'm not sure many classmates did). But the attachment I feel to his work goes deep for me.
Thank you for this interesting post, shedding more light on the Bard's work. I have incidentally started a very similar task against a goal: Read every Shakespeare play, but watch it as well (possibly online) and write a post about the play and provide trivia etc. (see https://leventskaleidoscope.substack.com/p/1-alls-well-that-ends-well)
Thank you, Troy. It's very kind of you to say so, but I feel as lost in the forest (of Arden) as anyone else 😊 What's been great about the comments on this post has been the sense that so many people are passionate about Shakespeare and are interested to continue to explore.
Wow, Shakespeare in the shadows of the pyramids of Giza, Jeffrey, what a trip! How amazing. And that your project was really a way of saving yourself from taking his extraordinary work for granted is such a beautiful reflection. I always feel as though there’s a very particular and interesting current which runs through Shakespeares words, and it is all to easily missed, but when you manage to catch it it’s like getting a fleeting glimpse across all directions of time. Thank you so much for the reminder of how precious his body of work truly is.
What a great project this was. I just saw a clip of Richard Burton reeling off a quote from Hamlet yesterday and it made me think I need to read that again. Certain actors, I heard Judi Dench quote something as well, make you really hear those words.
Thank you, Rafa. I agree that he's no one's property. And I'm sure you're right, he'd have loved the idea of still being able to pack a theatre four centuries later.
And then there's the lunatic Shakespeare denialism that denies the evidence and the fact that nobody in his age had doubts about who he was--including the pair of actors who put together the First Folio. It's a huge industry that also ignores the impossibility of the small world of the theater and the world of the court could somehow now know he was someone else.
Over 20 years of attending the Stratford Festival, I saw every play at least and little-performed plays Like John II and Pericles. It was a dazzling experience and sometimes we'd go back to see a performance twice.
Thank you for commenting, Lev!
Confession: I'm from the UK; I've seen Shakespeare played around the world, but I've never been to Stratford.
Beautiful little town where you ca often run into the cast members in bars, restaurants--or even shopping. Some of the best theater I've ever seen in my life was there, consistently. Just two: Lear with Christopher Plummer, a production that went to Broadway, and Long Day's Journey into Night with the famed Martha Henry, who could do amazing things with silence. Oh, and Brian Bedford in a number of Molières.
Sounds wonderful. I need to go!
I concur with Lev! We fell to Shakespeare tourism, alas, and visited Stratford. It was special to see the house where he was born. The town was a bit touristy but the historicity of the place for literature lovers made up!
Loved visiting the Globe. I enjoyed bringing the wonderful story of Wannamaker in my recent ish blog on the poetic and the brutal in London. Also picked up “Will
Contested”—yet to read it, but looking forward to it!
Love this series of justifiable reasons to keep Shakespeare around and to keep him FRESH. I like how you dive into weirdness and details; for me, this is the reward.
I’ve found that much can be learned from teens asked to make something new with Shakespeare as their guide (pastiche, screenplay, diaries…) or simply to ask them to act out the lines. It proves to me over and over just how relevant and fresh his works still are.
Thank you, Kate! To adapt the lines from King Lear, Freshness is all... I really like your teaching ideas.
Hey, I dig your point re Shakespeare’s understanding and celebration of weirdness and Jeffrey’s use of it; I just replied to him below re the whole detail thing.
I gain such inspiration and courage from the weird in Shakespeare and from his humanity in celebrating it, and in dramatising it in a way that is, just as you put it, rewarding and creative rather than repressive and unhelpful. And, just as Jeffrey puts it, all in such sublime language…but that is the whole thing isn’t it, in lesser hands the weird would remain just that, it is the wonder of the language that opens the eyes and hearts to the wonder and drama of weirdness.
And, a final thought, I don’t think this would be effective as it is if it didn’t stand alongside the more mainstream of life in his work. It’s about the interplay and communication and illumination between the two concepts/realities/modes of experience in his work that is so dramatic and powerful.
I read Shakespeare in Chinese, when I was in middle school, right after China opened open, and the first “play” I saw was the movie Hamlet by Sir. Lawrence Olivier … Someday, I would love to read his work on English, and then see the drama on stage, as it should be.
Thanks, Jeffrey, for letting me read Shakespeare through your experience.
Thank you, Yi Xue! Certainly, live performances bring it all to life. I remember seeing The Taming of the Shrew in Shanghai, performed in Polish with Chinese surtitles. There was a beautiful confusion in my mind, with my brain engaging with a play I knew (but not by heart), a language I didn't speak a word of (Polish) echoing in my ears, and a language I read imperfectly and slowly (Chinese) dancing before my eyes. I loved it!
Jeffrey, I read all of Shakespeare's works last year as part of a book club I belonged to. It was a great experience and I am glad I took part. Some of this stuff I enjoyed a great deal. Other stuff was not as good. The process of reading all his works in the order they were written (or a best guess) was very informative. You could observe his progression as a writer. However, Will revised endlessly, so some of his earlier works have likely come down to us in a revised state. I believe my biggest takeaway was understanding how impactful his work has been in literature throughout the ages since his time. He is everywhere, and having read his works gives me a greater appreciation of that. Thanks for this great essay.
Thank you, Matthew and great to hear about your experience of reading through the collected works. The only play I couldn't enjoy was Troilus and Cressida. It pales besides Chaucer's wonderful version of the same story. But the other plays were a joy and I also enjoyed his poem Venus and Adonis.
I've always had a soft spot for The Bard. Have you ever watched "Upstart Crow", the series broadcasted by the BBC in 2016, written by Ben Elton, with David Mitchell as Shakespeare? I really love it. Your essay is a delight, Jeffrey, as expected. I thank thee kindly, sir!
Thank you, Portia. I'm aware of the programme but haven't watched it. I'll look out for it. Thank you for the recommendation!
How refreshing to see an erudite reader home in on passages no one talks about. With Shakespeare there is no such thing as “minor.” Doesn’t he also need saving from the persistent argument that he didn’t exist?
Thank you, Rona. Personally, I don't pay much attention to the doubts about his identity. But in any case, it would take a much better scholar than me to make the case against his alleged non existence.
What a delight to read this. Thank you Jeffrey
Thank you, Jackie!
To me it feels as if there’s a very beautiful contradiction, which is profoundly pleasurable, watching and reading (maybe particularly accurate when watching…) Shakespeare. The language is not modern but the feel, the sense is entirely immediate (I think that might be what you mean in this piece, Jeffrey). There is something magical about being immersed in a cloud of language that one’s ear doesn’t immediately get despite the familiarity of the words, and from within that immersion suddenly understanding everything and at the same time being taken into the world of the story.
There is so much in your piece that I loved reading. However, time presses…I hope come back here and reply further.
Thank you, Nicolas. Yes, I think that having these compelling thoughts expressed in beautiful but sometimes less than accessible language is part of the draw I feel towards Shakespeare's drama. The sound allures and the meaning follows, as it were.
I think you express the allure and hold of Shakespeare brilliantly when you talk of “the grit in the oyster covered in a coating is sublime language and wondrous theatricality”. Not only does that seem, to me, to be a great example of the rule of three, it also gets the value of the detail and its incredible power and value in creating something wonderful when it is joined with language and theatre. Every one of the three is a gift to writers, to readers, but when all three are involved to such an intense degree in Shakespeare, the result is to show us ourselves in such a powerful, and I think, unique way.
Thank you for your eloquent comment, Nicolas. I think you put the case for Shakespeare's unique appeal very well yourself.
Oh, I want to be part of the Shakespeare appreciation society! I was in high school (and college) theatre, so this is where my appreciation for the Bard truly begins. My friends and I saw many Shakespeare performances around the island of Oahu, where I grew up. Everyone loved The Tempest and Much Ado About Nothing, but I was riveted by King Lear. And can I say how proud I am that such excellent performances were done in my small home State?
We performed Romeo and Juliet, but first, we read the entire thing critically because we had to whittle it down to an evening performance that Moms and Dads would sit through. I was the Nurse's assistant and had a funny line, which pretty much sums up me and acting. And because I was supposed to be a boy, I cut my hair, too. (such commitment!) Actually, one of the most famous lines from my h.s. drama teacher is, "We don't do high school theatre!" meaning, we do serious work. But there was more sexual tension between Mercutio and Juliet than with Juliet's beloved, Romeo. Ahhh, those were the days!
When I went away to Colorado for college, I was excited to see that Shakespeare was a class! And I managed to get in, even though the class was supposed to be for upperclassmen. In any case, we had to buy the complete works of William Shakespeare, and we read a many a play that trimester! My proudest moment was when my professor returned my Shakespeare paper on The Winter's Tale (my choice) and said, "This is one of the finest papers I've read on Shakespeare in many years." A+
Thanks, Jeffrey for taking me down memory lane. And for your love of Shakespeare!
Thank you for sharing those lovely memories, Lani. I really enjoyed reading them. And I'm very impressed by the feedback on your essay on The Winter's Tale. Such a beautiful play, too.
That was a delightful read. I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever read an entire Shakespeare play, (I had a massive brain injury in 2016; I’ve lost huge chunks of memory,) but it’s possible.
Thank you for reading and commenting, Carly!
And I'm so sorry to hear about your injury and memory loss.
It’s a wild situation. (I’m sorry, too.) But. I read a LOT, and I really enjoyed your article.
I’m currently reading 4 books, 2 fiction & 2 nonfiction. (My librarian friend was impressed by my Little Free Library book stack.) (I have regular library books, too.)
Two months after my father died, I sat through a semester of undergraduate Shakespeare. The play? Hamlet. I felt like an expert.
I'm sorry for your loss. And I think I know what you mean, the way life and literature can feed into each other. Thank you for reading.
I’m sure! (But. So sorry for your loss.)
Wow, 4 at the same time. I rarely manage more than one.
I don’t necessarily read any one on any particular night. One night I might want to be inspired, or educated, or scared, or whatever. (I still get screen time, obviously. 🤦🏻♀️.)
Just a joy to read this. I’m thinking, Shakespeare’s birthday? How did I miss . . . And then I remember it was 2016. So many distractions, here in the U.S.
Your erudition, and enthusiasm, are marvelous. I’ve seen some plays, read most of them, and all of the sonnets. But never studied him much in school, probably because I wasn’t an undergraduate English major. Now that I have time, I can go back and fill that gap.
Thank you for sharing these stories, and for defending the strange.
Thank you, Mary! I'm really pleased and honoured that you liked the essay.
I confess that when I studied English at university, I didn't read all the plays then (I'm not sure many classmates did). But the attachment I feel to his work goes deep for me.
Thank you for this interesting post, shedding more light on the Bard's work. I have incidentally started a very similar task against a goal: Read every Shakespeare play, but watch it as well (possibly online) and write a post about the play and provide trivia etc. (see https://leventskaleidoscope.substack.com/p/1-alls-well-that-ends-well)
Thank you for reading and for sharing your own Shakespeare project, which I look forward to seeing.
I can see this as part of a larger project, Jeffrey - with you as our Virgil leading us through the circles of Shakespeare's plays... :)
Thank you, Troy. It's very kind of you to say so, but I feel as lost in the forest (of Arden) as anyone else 😊 What's been great about the comments on this post has been the sense that so many people are passionate about Shakespeare and are interested to continue to explore.
Shakespeare read along maybe?
Wow, Shakespeare in the shadows of the pyramids of Giza, Jeffrey, what a trip! How amazing. And that your project was really a way of saving yourself from taking his extraordinary work for granted is such a beautiful reflection. I always feel as though there’s a very particular and interesting current which runs through Shakespeares words, and it is all to easily missed, but when you manage to catch it it’s like getting a fleeting glimpse across all directions of time. Thank you so much for the reminder of how precious his body of work truly is.
How beautifully you put it, Chloe, getting a glimpse across all directions of time. Thank you for this lovely comment.
What a great project this was. I just saw a clip of Richard Burton reeling off a quote from Hamlet yesterday and it made me think I need to read that again. Certain actors, I heard Judi Dench quote something as well, make you really hear those words.
Yes, those actors could bring out the best in his verse.