me and my coworkers were talking and it made me curious

my previous poll had plenty of suggestions, so I decided to do one specifically for our favourite theatre kid. I have all his works and will use this poll as an order in which to read them. I’ve already read Romeo and Juliet & The Taming of the Shrew for school, Richard III for an essay I wanted to write and Macbeth just for funsies.

Ok consider for me

Jack Stede Ed Izzy

Lysander Dimitri Hermia Helena a midsummer nights dream

The part of the play where Puck completely loses control of the situation and nobody knows who they're supposed to be in love with

I don't know that one 😭😭😭 I'm a fake fan!! I only know Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Much Ado About Nothing. And I know a bit about Taming of the Shrew.

ok I read a synopsis. christ this play is confusing. so confusing I made three charts.

ok so the red chart is for the start of the play, the green chart is for the middle, and the blue chart is for the end. I get your jacked endgame idea here but that leaves us with stizzy endgame also and no gentlebeard!!

Other (NOT: Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, Midsummer Night's Dream, or Romeo and Juliet because I've read those)

I want to expand my Shakespeare knowledge. Tell me what I should read.

shakespeare's entire canon max% speedrun

im giving myself 50 days, starting may 3rd, to read the whole fucking canon. because i want to get tattoos for every play but i haven't read all of them so i need to trawl for imagery. also i should probably read all these plays. in addition i'm adding Gallathea by John Lyly to this list for Optional Bonus Points (because I want to read it).

i'm putting more details under the cut but if you don't wanna see me post about this then block the tag #shakespeare's canon speedrun

current progress: 13/38

next up: the Henry IV’s

the rules:

i will read every shakespeare play by june 21st

i am not obliged to read them in any order, but i will try and read the histories in story order for my own sanity and the rest in roughly chronological order

i have to have read at least 50% of the histories before june otherwise i will want to die

if i read gallathea also i get mental bonus points :)

i'm putting my list below, colour-coded - green if i've previously read it, blue if i've seen it, pink if both.

when i finish reading them for this speedrun, i'll make the name purple.

King John

Richard II

Henry IV, part 1

Henry IV, part 2

Henry V

Henry VI, part I

Henry VI, part II

Henry VI, part III

Richard III

Henry VIII

Comedy of Errors

Titus Andronicus

Taming of the Shrew (i think i've read this but i don't fully remember)

Two Gentlemen of Verona

Love’s Labour’s Lost

Romeo and Juliet

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Merchant of Venice

Much Ado About Nothing

Julius Caesar

As You Like It

Twelfth Night

Hamlet

Merry Wives of Windsor

Troilus and Cressida

All’s Well That Ends Well

Measure for Measure

Othello

King Lear

Macbeth

Antony and Cleopatra

Coriolanus

Timon of Athens

Pericles

Cymbeline

Winter’s Tale

Tempest

Two Noble Kinsmen

BONUS: Gallathea

Your url is butchhamlet so i trust you with my life. Which Shakespeare plays you think Must Be Read?

my honest answer is that i don't think any of them Must Be Read; i think it's perfectly all right to take no interest in shakespeare at all! that said, for people who do want to get into him, this is entirely my opinion:

romeo and juliet and a midsummer night's dream are good starting plays, imo! the language is... well, shakespearean, but relatively less complex than in some of the other plays, and they're classic (and really good) stories!

you gotta read hamlet, man. if you're getting into shakespeare you've gotta read hamlet. you don't even have to like it; you just have to read it because it's, like, one of the best plays of all time.

i ALSO think you should read lear for similar reasons (one of the best plays of all time), but hamlet is The Famous One You Should Know.

the other Particularly Famous ones, as far as i'm aware, are macbeth, much ado about nothing, twelfth night, othello, and the tempest. all of which i think are worth reading, but if i had to pick a few to recommend: twelfth night is my favorite comedy and intertwines comedy with tragedy in fascinating ways; much ado is fucking hysterical; the tempest is hard to describe and rather unique among shakespeare's plays (it's a Romance Play, ooooh).

i guess comedy of errors & the taming of the shrew are also relatively famous, but i personally didn't care for either; i found them both boring and taming specifically incredibly misogynistic. i think you can safely skip those.

i also think richard iii is famous and worth reading, but i also think it hits best with the leadup of its predecessors, and the rest of the rose tetralogy is... questionable at times.

i also personally think everyone in the world should read julius caesar. this is my problem. you don't even have to like ancient rome, though! i promise! i promise i promise i promise come back why are you running

List of Shakespeare characters that want to get pegged (or are getting pegged already)

Bottom …duh (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing)

Hamlet if he wasn’t a coward (Hamlet)

Macbeth (Macbeth)

Sebastian (Twelfth Night)

Antony (Julius Caesar)

Orlando (As You Like It)

Orsino (Twelfth Night)

Antipholus of Ephesus (Comedy of Errors)

Petruchio (Taming of the Shrew)*

Brutus (Julius Caesar)

Pericles (Pericles, Prince of Tyre)

Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet)

Hotspur (Henry IV Part 1)

*…at the end of the play. In my reading of it. I like to believe that he and Katerina are allied at the end and she plays a role to help Petruchio win the bet. I have to believe this or I would burn it out of every Complete Works I have

This is a working list and we will add things to it. Hit us with your hottest takes!

Slowly making my way through the works of Shakespeare. I've already read Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, Julius Caesar and, earlier this year, Twelfth Night and Antony and Cleopatra.

I made a mental count of all the live productions of Shakespeare plays I’ve seen. Some of them were even good!

(I didn’t bother typing out all those Henry plays. Just know Cinci Shakespeare did them in order and I hopped on board starting with Henry V.)

Macbeth: 6 (+1 if you count the opera, +1 if you count Drunk Shakespeare)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: 5

Hamlet: 5

Romeo and Juliet: 3

Julius Caesar: 3

The Taming of the Shrew: 3

Twelfth Night: 3

The Winter’s Tale: 3

Pericles: 2

Othello: 2

The Merchant of Venice: 2

As You Like It: 2

The Tempest: 2

Titus Andronicus: 1

King Lear: 1

All’s Well That End’s Well: 1

The Comedy of Errors: 1

Henry V through Henry VI Part 3: 1 each

Richard III: 1

Much Ado About Nothing: 1 (as a private staged reading recorded for the purpose of a podcast)

Measure For Measure: 1/2 (heavily abridged version at a fringe festival)

Have you read Shakespeare? Your takes on peoples character remind me so much of his/her works.

Ohhhh yes! I’m a Shakespeare slut actually, maybe that’s a bit overzealous since I haven’t read them all. I did theatre in high school and our director sat on the board for a Shakespearean specific acting troupe. Their whole schtick is that Shakespeare wrote plays to be performed outside so they would perform them outside. But we would get to work with them on brief little scenes we would perform before the show.

Taming of the shrew is my favorite but I’m pretty familiar with his works—as you like it, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, a midsummers night dream, much a do about nothing— probably forgetting a few!

This isn't a brag or anything I'm genuinely sitting here like why did we read so much Shakespeare? ???

Those are the ones I'm Certain I read. I think I'm missing some - like I can't remember if we read excerpts or something and not the full play or if I just really remember what the study guide books looked like for some reason 😂

Did I read merchant of Venice?? I feel like I did. But it's possible I didn't. I often didn't read very intently lmao.

More accurately: I remember vague plots of 6 of these decently enough: (Othello, Romeo & Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Much Ado About Nothing.) I am shaky on the details of Twelfth Night, Tempest, and Midsummer Night's Dream mostly because honestly if you read a lot of Shakespeare you're like "yeah the one with the fake death(s), and the cross dressing romance and/or espionage, and maybe the fairies or witches? That one."

1-7 Shakespeare asks?

1. which plays have you read?

Romeo and Juliet, Othello, The Taming of The Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV, Henry V, Richard II, Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Merchant of Venice

2. which shows have you seen/watched performed or filmed?

I've seen filmed versions of King Lear, 1&2 Henry IV, Henry V, Othello, and part of Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing

3. favorite play overall

1 Henry IV. I'll save my specific thoughts on the play for question 6, but here I'll say that I think the histories are quite underrated! There's a lot to unpack with all the different characters and their relationships, but that's part of the fun of reading & analyzing Shakespeare for me! (I have literally used a bulletin board and yarn to trace out relationships in some of the histories. It helps.

4. favorite comedy?

Much Ado About Nothing. I adore Beatrice, and I think she & Benedick deserve more focus than Hero and Claudio (I have nothing against Hero except her taste in men. Jesus.) Of the plays that I've watched, this one actually doesn't make it into my top 5, but that's because I tend to prefer histories and tragedies to comedies. (If you're curious, my top 5 in order are 1 Henry IV, King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, and Henry V)

5. favorite tragedy?

King Lear. I learned that the fool and Cordelia are often played by the same actor when I was 17 and I've been insufferable ever since. King Lear, more than any of the other tragedies I've read, really forced be to consider the idea that sometimes the tragedy is that we can't fix our mistakes. I truly believe that Lear was doomed from the first scene, which is something you could say about most tragedies, but I would argue that Lear is particularly evocative of.

6. favorite history?

1 Henry IV. I have a lot to say about the entire second tetrology but there are some really specific things that I love about this piece of it. First thing: Falstaff is my least favorite character in the play. I find his scenes obnoxious. The one exception is his battlefield scene, which... I still don't like him but he is an excellent mouthpiece for that *particular* train of thought. Second thing: Hotspur's last words, and Prince Hal's response to them. I have written multiple papers on this section of that scene and you can pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

7. play(s) you didn’t like?

The Taming of the Shrew. I hate this play so much. I love Katherine with all my heart and I am absolutely enraged that it ended the way it did. I know this isn't how Shakespeare classification works, but it is a tragedy. I also have pretty mixed feelings about Twelfth Night because I enjoyed reading it and I really like Viola, I don't think I would read it again because I can hardly stand Orsino.

Halloween shakespeer

He put words together and used them in ways that hadn't been used before. His manipulation of English grammar allowed the poet to invent more than 1,700 words, including "addiction," "amazement," "courtship," and more. Shakespeare's influence has had an impressive impact on English grammar and language. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.These were published in 1609 in Shakespeare's Sonnets. Shakespeare is also known for writing a collection of 154 sonnets. His later plays included tragedies such as Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Timon of Athens, and Macbeth. He also wrote several comedies during this early period, including Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. His early works included histories such as Henry VI, Henry V, and Richard II. The Bard wrote 37 plays from the 1590s to 1612. Biography: William Shakespeare, 1564-1616.William Shakespeare: April 23, 1564, to April 23, 1616.William Shakespeare: The Life and Legacy of England's Bard.It is believed that the date of his death was April 23, but there is no record other than April 25, the date he was buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. In 1603, the company became the King's Men when King James I awarded them the royal patent, which allowed them to perform under royal patronage. Also during the 1590s, he became a partner in the acting company the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Little is known about his life during that time however, in 1592, Shakespeare was documented as a playwright and an actor in London. Following the birth of his twins, the last of his three children, he disappeared from records for roughly seven years. In 1582, he married the then-pregnant Anne Hathaway, with whom he would have three children. This lack of an educational record has since caused some to doubt whether Shakespeare actually had the skill to author the works with which he is credited. It is speculated that he attended King's New School, probably until the age of 15, where he learned not only the classics but also reading and writing. Little is known about his educational history, either. Researchers and scholars believe that his official date of birth was April 23 however, there is no record of the actual date. He was the third of eight children and a son of merchant and borough council member John Shakespeare and his wife Mary. In 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare was born. Learning the known and documented details regarding the playwright and his work will help to develop a better overall image of his life and successes. Despite his fame, Shakespeare is also very much a mystery, with gaps in his history that leave portions of his life incomplete or unknown. He has become such a well-known figure that one can even dress up as the Bard for a Halloween costume. While most people recognize his works courtesy of popular plays such as Romeo and Juliet, his accomplishments are many. William Shakespeare, known as the Bard of Avon or "the Bard," is one of the most influential and popular poets and playwrights of all time. Costumes, Prose, and More: All About William Shakespeare

just to let you guys know, ive finally gotten around to starting my Shakespeare blog @queerhamlet if you guys want to follow that!

i just wanna say that on your aes blog, im so in love with shakespeare that i knew the quote in ur bio right away. i wasnt an english major but when everyone rolled their eyes when we had to read hamlet or any of works of his, i was giddy lol his works can be confusing to read but how can one simple sentence pack such a punch??? shit my heart lol

AAAAAAH IM SO HAPPY!!!!! ME TOO I LOVE HIM SOOOOOOO MUCH literally so much i wrote shakespeare fanfiction which i guess is really just an adaptation at this point LMAO

hamlet is my favourite out of all his works!!!! i could go on for HOURS about how incredible of a character hamlet is. he endlessly inspires me in my own work aaaah and you’re so RIGHT i literally live by that line it’s incredible

need some friends who wanna hang out and read Shakespeare