Drat - hope we can fix typos in opening posts in WC2

reading some of his works gives me such a high, like when i read someone like Heinlein, Spider Robinson, Tom Robbins...such marvelous humanity & love of story...

i've come to cherish certain people's interpretations on shakespeare's works...like 'Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead', 'Forbidden Planet' (a riff on Tempest...), Neil Gaiman's having Dream commisson William Shakespeare to write a play aboot Dream, seeing Shakespeare make it into Star Trek canon, Dead Poet`s Society`s `Midsummer Night`s Dream`, and Puck`s interpretation of Mickey Rooney ;3

"Two Gentlemen of Verona" is my all-time favourite play, followed by "Taming of the Shrew." I studied Shakespeare in university and wished they had more courses on him as we barely scratched the surface of his works.

oh, and i think this is one of my favourite speeches:

Prospero, at the end of the Tempest

``Now my charms are all overthrown,
And what strength I have's mine own,
Which is most faint: now, 'tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got
And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands (10)
With the help of your good hands:
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardon'd be, (20)
Let your indulgence set me free.``

loreena mckennitt does a brilliant cover of this

oh, and al pacino`s ``looking for richard`` is awesome if yer a lover of shakespeare

Pfffft. Noah was twice as old when he died.

When shall we three meet again?

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

When hurly-burly's done,

When the battle's lost and won.

No, it's not chansen, pinga, and I planning a meeting. It's a hint as to my favorite Shakespeare. "Scottish Play" is another.

Mendalla

"Othello" is probably my favourite.  Also like "The Tempest", "Twelfth Night", and "Taming of the Shrew".  "Romeo and Juliet" is timeless.  "King Lear" has a relevant story-line but kind of gets dragged on too much.  Also liked "Julius Caesar"...."Et tu, Brute"....

And Wayne and Shuster's parody on, "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears."    "What's in the bag?  Oh, it's a bag of ears....."

"Julie....I told him, Julie, don't go..."

Not really a Macbeth fan, but these are probably my most favourite lines from all his plays.  Macbeth utters these grief-filled words after his wife's death.  Not exactly uplifting, but they do convey a realistic view of life in all its complexities, futility and disappointments.

She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing. — Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)

and......

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!
The Tempest (V, i)

Loved studying Shakespeare in university, and have read all the plays at one time or another.  Also enjoyed teaching them.  Don't know if high school students study Shakespeare much these days.

Honestly? Too sappy for my tastes. It proves my basic contention that if Shakespeare were alive today, he would be working in Hollywood. Hits all the right beats in all the right places.

Love Lear. Even seen Ran, Kurosawa's Japanese riff on the story? Colm Feore is doing Lear at Stratford this year so I know what I'm seeing if get to the Festival this summer.

Better than some straight productions of the story.

Which is part of why I like MacBeth. There's some complexity there in its story of overweening ambition ruining lives. Hamlet is good that way, too.

Little M is in grade 9 and doesn't seem to be doing any yet, but there's still a couple months left in the school year. We did Shakespeare in 9 (Merchant of Venice), 10 (Twelfth Night), and 12 (MacBeth). 13 depended on which English course you took at my school, one had Hamlet, the other was more focussed on film studies and Canlit so didn't have any Shakespeare.

Mendalla

Wonder if today's teen-aged boys or mature men would understand this quote.....

If thou dost break her virgin-knot before
All sanctimonious ceremonies may
With full and holy rite be minister'd,
No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall
The Tempest (IV, i)

Hated (I mean hated) Shakespeare in high school. Did not take any English courses in university and have often wondered what I missed. 

I hear this over and over from people and I don't get it. Must be something weird about me, I guess. I came out of high school in love with the Bard (well, with his plays and writing, anyway ). The language and the storytelling just won me over from the get-go.

Mendalla

Me too, Mendalla.   My favourite part of English study.   

Haven't been to Stratford for awhile, but might have to get there is Colm Feore is doing King Lear.  Great actor.

450 years odd?

Freudian slip, eh?

SONNET LXXVIII

So oft have I invoked thee for my muse,

Ad found such fair assistance in my verse,

That every alien pen hath got my use,

And under thee their poesy disperse.

Thine eyes, that taught the dumb on high to sing,

And heavy ignorance aloft to fly,

Have added feathers to the learned's wing,

And given grace a double majesty.

Yet be most proud of that which I compile,

Whose influence is thine, and born of thee:

In other's works thou dost but mend the style,

And arts with thy sweet graces graced be;

  But thou art all my art, and dost advance

  As high as learning my rude ignorance.

tis goodly that there are people like you who haven't been put under the spell of shakespeare...

life would be so boring if we all loved and hated the same things

vive la difference!