It's true, though - Shakespeare was an absolute genius with the English language - no one person has ever been responsible for adding more words and phrases to English. (The only comparable contribution comes from the first edition of the Bible in English - but that was written by a committee.)
See, Macbeth is one of my faves (did it for GCSEs), although it took three goes to see a decent theatrical version. For the record, 'Bubbles' from Ab Fab does not a good Lady M make. However Samantha Bond does, with added bonus of Sean Bean as Macbeth.
Other fave is Taming of the Shrew, which our very cool English Lit teacher managed to squeeze in just to read and not have to study).
My hate (of the ones I've read so far) - King Lear. Did it for A levels, and it's so depressing....
Richard III and Much Ado, here. I've seen some corking Midsummers, though.
Have you ever watched the Simpsons? MacBeth might seem a little less freaky if you can find a copy of MacHomer, the 1-man show of Maccers done in the voices of the Simpsons. (Although, the Simpsons themselves have done a pretty decent knockoff!)
Yesterday was weird, but I was about and this was such a lovely post to read, so thanks for cross-posting it, too.
I am beginning to feel the need to return to my epic attempt to watch all the Shakespeare again. I don't know perhps yet what all my favourites are, but I love Henry V very much, Much Ado About Nothing and from the BBC versions, I have really loved Julius Caesar, Measure for Measure, and Richard III, Cymbeline and As You Like It (but mainly for Richard Pasco being unexpectedly great as Jacques, but also for Helen Mirren and James Bolam.)
And this time last year all I could have said was that I liked Henry and Much Ado and must see some more, so there is a slight compensation for being ill, after all. I don't know about Macbeth, either. I heard it was Scary, too. :lol: And now I have somehow seen so many abridged/alternative version of it along the way, I feel as if I have seen it anyway.
I don't know how one person gets to be quite so awesome, but I'm glad that it happened.
I utterly and totally refuse to watch or read Richard III. No WAY will I accept that he killed the two Princes in the Tower. That was just backstairs gossip and hearsay. Ugh!
(Sorry, done ranting now!)
Macbeth certainly scared me - though I don't, now, remember why. I really OUGHT to watch the DVD I've got - it stars Dame Judi, for goodness sakes!
Heh. No, I understand. I used to get quite upset about the accusations against him (somewhere along the road I have apparently decided I don't care v much any more, but at least I know he wasn't a hunchback, and is a bit of a mystery among English Kings. My hist. dictionaries have amusingly bizarre entries on him: Richard III, too good to be true. So he must have done it, because otherwise he'd be a saint among Plantagenets. Me: Okay, nice logic peoples...) But then I also think Henry V was probably a cruel and ruthless bastard and, yet I love that play and everything Shakespeare did with the character as he wanted to present him. So even though it was definitely not top of my list to see, I was prepared to cope with a fictional Richard, as opposed to the historical
( ... )
LOL I will go and see David Collings playing Clarence with you - how could I possibly miss that chance?
I will have to see if the library has that Richard III then - and I've never seen Henry V either, so maybe I'll watch them both and just keep telling myself that the real Richard wasn't anything like that!
I will see if I can talk myself into watching Macbeth soon, then - it's ridiculous to go on ignoring it when I love Shakespeare so much!
And hooray for sensible (and amusing) thoughts about literary things!
I didn't know that about you and Macbeth. I'm about to watch production with Patrick Steward. I listened to most of the Macbeth audiobook and the witches freaked me out a bit. Never listen to these things at night in the dark.
LOL at the school not being able top teach you to be young lady:D You go girl!
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It's true, though - Shakespeare was an absolute genius with the English language - no one person has ever been responsible for adding more words and phrases to English. (The only comparable contribution comes from the first edition of the Bible in English - but that was written by a committee.)
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(But we can assume he didn't)
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I think I'll read Macbeth. I read it the first time as a school assignment and they drained most of the fun out of it.
Maybe I'll relisten to Time of the Daleks again too :)
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Other fave is Taming of the Shrew, which our very cool English Lit teacher managed to squeeze in just to read and not have to study).
My hate (of the ones I've read so far) - King Lear. Did it for A levels, and it's so depressing....
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My faves are Hamlet (love, love, love it!), Richard II, and Much Ado About Nothing.
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Have you ever watched the Simpsons? MacBeth might seem a little less freaky if you can find a copy of MacHomer, the 1-man show of Maccers done in the voices of the Simpsons. (Although, the Simpsons themselves have done a pretty decent knockoff!)
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I've never seen an entire Simpsons episode - they never seem to have come my way...
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Yesterday was weird, but I was about and this was such a lovely post to read, so thanks for cross-posting it, too.
I am beginning to feel the need to return to my epic attempt to watch all the Shakespeare again. I don't know perhps yet what all my favourites are, but I love Henry V very much, Much Ado About Nothing and from the BBC versions, I have really loved Julius Caesar, Measure for Measure, and Richard III, Cymbeline and As You Like It (but mainly for Richard Pasco being unexpectedly great as Jacques, but also for Helen Mirren and James Bolam.)
And this time last year all I could have said was that I liked Henry and Much Ado and must see some more, so there is a slight compensation for being ill, after all. I don't know about Macbeth, either. I heard it was Scary, too. :lol: And now I have somehow seen so many abridged/alternative version of it along the way, I feel as if I have seen it anyway.
I don't know how one person gets to be quite so awesome, but I'm glad that it happened.
Reply
I utterly and totally refuse to watch or read Richard III. No WAY will I accept that he killed the two Princes in the Tower. That was just backstairs gossip and hearsay. Ugh!
(Sorry, done ranting now!)
Macbeth certainly scared me - though I don't, now, remember why. I really OUGHT to watch the DVD I've got - it stars Dame Judi, for goodness sakes!
I'm glad too!
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Heh. No, I understand. I used to get quite upset about the accusations against him (somewhere along the road I have apparently decided I don't care v much any more, but at least I know he wasn't a hunchback, and is a bit of a mystery among English Kings. My hist. dictionaries have amusingly bizarre entries on him: Richard III, too good to be true. So he must have done it, because otherwise he'd be a saint among Plantagenets. Me: Okay, nice logic peoples...) But then I also think Henry V was probably a cruel and ruthless bastard and, yet I love that play and everything Shakespeare did with the character as he wanted to present him. So even though it was definitely not top of my list to see, I was prepared to cope with a fictional Richard, as opposed to the historical ( ... )
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I will have to see if the library has that Richard III then - and I've never seen Henry V either, so maybe I'll watch them both and just keep telling myself that the real Richard wasn't anything like that!
I will see if I can talk myself into watching Macbeth soon, then - it's ridiculous to go on ignoring it when I love Shakespeare so much!
And hooray for sensible (and amusing) thoughts about literary things!
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LOL at the school not being able top teach you to be young lady:D You go girl!
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Yep, epic fail on the part of the school in turning me into a young lady.
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lol It worked out for the best IMO:D
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Heh, thanks!
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