Your favourite Shakespeare

[BAYLOR]

Julius Ceasar

 

[paranoid marvin]

Well, he instilled a biased view on the public which persevered - I guess that is changing people's perspective. As a king, Richard III was never in danger of being forgotten though. His reputation was doubtless ruined in a moral sense by the Tudors, but history is written by the winners, right? In this case, by Shakespeare on behalf of the winners... Had he not had the play written about him, he'd be remembered in the general consciousness as a much better king, I expect.

Bottom line - Shakespeare isn't history, a lot of it was propaganda and reflected simply what was politic at the time.

This true, but there had to me more than an element of truth to make it authentic. Richard was no doubt made to be more villainous than he was, but he was obviously regarded as a evil man. Interestingly Shakespeare also shows Richard to be charismatic and brave with a wicked sense of humour, whereas the great 'hero' Tudor of the play is hardly in it at all.

 

[paranoid marvin]

I voted Henry V, just cause I always liked this:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

It's old war-mongering stuff, but powerful nonetheless.

A great speech. The fact that it is still as relevant and usable today speaks volumes for the far-sightedness of his (their?) work. There was a film version made in 1944 to coincide withe the Allied invasion of Europe.

 

[Extollager]

When I taught a Shakespeare course, I tried to give some sense of his variety, to meet the needs of prospective high school teachers, and to lead students to want to read more, etc. In 2017 the assigned plays were

Merchant of Venice

Romeo and Juliet

Julius Caesar

Twelfth Night

Macbeth

King Lear

Othello

The Winter’s Tale

I regret the absence of Henry IV Part 1.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Who would we say are favourite primary and secondary characters? For me they would have to be Richard III and Falstaff.