Posting yesterday, I forgot of course the one Shakespeare speech we have written in his own hand, from Sir Thomas More, never performed in his lifetime. We are in London in 1517; anti-immigrant riots are about to break out; Thomas More, the sheriff of London, succeeds where his aristocratic superiors fail and quells the mob, shaming them into ( Read more... )

Looking back on my posts so far, I realised that of the plays I know well I have yet to post about Julius Caesar. Fortunately this question is a jolly good excuse to turn to that play: Mark Antony's funeral oration for Caesar, turning an initially unsympathetic crowd against the conspirators, is a masterpiece of oratory. Friends, Romans, countrymen ( Read more... )

I reported in an earlier entry that it was Hamlet, but on reflection that was wrong; it was a school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1979 when I was 12. My friend Padraig played the little Indian boy, in blackface. Those were different times.

( The 30 days )

Romeo and Juliet, taught in my English class in Belfast, the year I turned 12. Oddly enough I am back in Belfast this evening. We performed Act 3 scene 1, and I won a prize for acting Mercutio.

( The 30 days )

It's a close run between this and the play I'm going to talk about tomorrow, but I think the end of Macbeth has it. It combines a strong dramatic closure to the violence of Macbeth's story with the punchline about Macduff. It's also the root of the Ngaio Marsh novel, Light Thickens, which I mentioned earlier.

Macbeth: Of all men else I have ( Read more... )

It's a skeevy play in some ways, but I do like the end of Much Ado About Nothing:

Benedick: Which is Beatrice?
Beatrice: [Unmasking] I answer to that name. What is your will?
Benedick: Do not you love me?
Beatrice: Why, no; no more than reason.
Benedick: Why, then your uncle and the prince and Claudio
Have been deceived; they swore you did.
( Read more... )

Pericles, Act 4 Scene 5, in its entirety.

Mytilene: a street before the brothel.

Enter, from the brothel, two Gentlemen

First Gentleman: Did you ever hear the like?
Second Gentleman: No, nor never shall do in such a place as this, she being once gone.
First Gentleman: But to have divinity preached there! did you ever dream of such a thing?
( Read more... )

No difficulty in choosing here: The Taming of the Shrew. The basic storyline is simply too unpleasant: Katherina, obviously a very unhappy person, is intimidated into submission by a bloke called Petruchio who appears out of nowhere and for no apparent reason decides to marry her. There is lots of beating of servants; how hilarious ( Read more... )

Just for reference, the tragedies are generally considered to include:

Titus Andronicus
Romeo and Juliet
Julius Caesar
Hamlet
Troilus and Cressida
Othello
King Lear
Macbeth
Timon of Athens
Antony and Cleopatra
Coriolanus
The Tempest

I've already written of my love for Hamlet and Macbeth as plays; but I retain a deep affection for Romeo and Juliet ( Read more... )

A birthday treat for me, writing on a happy subject. Just for reference, the comedies are generally considered to include:

All's Well That Ends Well ( Read more... )