So I went to Shakespeare in the Park over the weekend and saw 12th night. I've been thinking about the popularly quoted lines

Dost thou think, because thou art
virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?

What would cakes of Shakespeare's time be like? Would the flour be refined? Entirely wheat or also barley? Sweetened with honey? Fruit? It may seem trivial but could also affect how indulgent and luxurious I view the contrast with "virtue".

Is there a line from a specific play or sonnet that you actually find yourself using in your daily life?

Also, tell me which play it's from and who says it.

Do you guys read Shakespeare for the poetry or for the story?
I have a physical copy, but it’s in the original language rather than a modern translation. I can understand a lot of it, but there are still plenty of lines where I stop and think, “What does this mean?”
Now I’m not sure which version I should read. Should I stick with the original and enjoy Shakespeare’s poetry, even if I don’t fully understand everything? Or should I read a modernized version online so I can follow the story more easily, even if I miss out on the original language and style?

So I binge read the eight history plays beginning with Richard II through Richard III. Good stuff! Then I read King Lear, which sort of blew me away. I was actually choked up at the end, even though i knew what was coming. And now I've started King John, and I'm struggling at the very beginning. The Bastard, the King, and Eleanor are talking about who is whose father and mother, and pronoun references are abundant and confusing. Can someone tell me the parentage of the Bastard and his brother Robert? Did they have the same dad or the same mom? One of them had the senior Falconbridge as a dad, or maybe they both did. Was Richard Lionheart father to one of them? Eleanor has just invited the Bastard to come to France with her, then they all leave but the Bastard, who stays on stage and loses me again with a long monologue. I'm reading an annotated New Cambridge Shakespeare edited by L. A. Beaurline. Plenty of footnotes but no scene by scene summary. Can someone clarify who is descended from whom? Thanks!​

For the past little while I've been on a project to watch each Shakespeare play, preferably stage recordings, but films have been fine if I can't find one. At the beginning I decided I would save Hamlet for last, both because it's the magnum opus and because I've already seen several Hamlets, and now it's all that remains. Very fun little campaign, but anyway, as I decide which one to watch I figured the people here might have some opinions. I'm not a fan of big cuts from the text, though I'm sympathetic to the fact that a fully uncut Hamlet is very long; as far as I know the Branagh Hamlet (which I've seen) is the only filmed Hamlet to use the entire text, for instance. If possible, I'd also prefer one that does not wholly excise Fortinbras, as I feel the text loses something if he's gone. though I know that's a very common editorial choice. Acknowledging that fully uncut might not be realistic and that there's surely a ton of good Hamlets out there in the streaming world, which versions do you folks especially like? Especially for capping off "I have watched every single Shakespeare play as a deliberate project"? Stage recordings preferred but films fine, as said; I have Marquee TV, National Theatre at Home, Digital Theatre, and a Shakespeare's Globe account. Thanks for your time.

not that its totally necessary to enjoy it or its the only classical reference being interrogated, but like I mostly see the play discussed on reddit as about civilization and barbarism being more similar then they appear. Which is present! But I feel like the major theme of the play is putting romanticized classical virtues, that are taught in myths grounded in well ordered worlds, into the 'real' world, where justice has left the building.

Aeneas choosing duty over Dido feels virtuous, and her death is self-inflicted and made distant from him. Titus is made to stab his own son for duty, and then have to see the empire become unworthy of that sacrifice. Also shades of the greek judge taking out his own son's eye.

I think there's something really interesting to the fact that the victorians, who were all over the kind of broad sweeping virtues being satirized (the glorious empire, purity, duty), really didn't gel with the play. And that post-WW2, the play often gets staged with those motifs because fascism is all about the romanticization of violence and death. I feel like there's the opportunity for a really cool contemporary staging grappling with contemporary issues of branding oneself.

I will say does this make Titus the first gritty superhero movie? Is this just Shakespeares watchmen?

Anyway, If anyone else wants to yap about this or has a hot take, I'm currently obsessed!

Hi everyone! I want to show you my Hamlet cosplay—it was incredibly fun to put together. I sewed the entire costume myself (except for the shirt, though I did replace the buttons and sew on some lace—lol).
I’d love to hear what you guys think! :)

I'm 25 plays deep, just interested to see what y'all prefer:)

Hello everyone, I’m booking tickets for a play at the globe and was wondering which sections are best to see the stage from? And does it matter if I’m in the upper, middle or lower section? Thank you

In the span of 2 years, we had 5 movies based around Hamlet, such as Hamnet, Riz Ahmed's adaptation, Grand Theft Hamlet, Scarlet, and an upcoming Andrew Scott movie about a man playing the role before his death. Not to even mention a recent play about the making of the Richard Burton adaptation.

Outside of The Odyssey, I can't imagine any other work that's as influential as this. What makes it the most lauded work of Shakespeare, if not of the English language in general?

I honestly didn't care for his works in high school but I'm wanting to get into them now that I'm an adult. Is there a good order to read them and any tips on really getting into them and enjoying them?

From Act IV, Scene 1.

Yeah, I know. The devil. Edgar (as Poor Tom) says those words when he sees his father. The latter is remembered of Edgar, as he tells us later; the former says: "The Prince Of Darkness is a gentleman. Modo is called, and Mahu"

But retrospectively he also seems to be, or have been, Gloucester.

"The dark and vicious place where thee he got/cost him his eyes". That place is female genitalia. And in the play we have Lear saying 'there's hell, there's darkness'. That's what female genitalia is in this play.

Edgar, as Poor Tom, says:

[I am] a serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled

my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of

my mistress' heart, and did the act of darkness with

her[...]

Just as Gloucester is right without knowing it when seeing Poor Tom he's remembered of Edgar, maybe Edgar, seeing his father, speaks the truth about him or about who he had been as a young man, also without knowing it.

True, the Prince of Darkness is evil, a villain, and Gloucester is not. (Edgar was not the wretched Poor Tom either, but he was wretched enough)

But far as lust and brothels are concerned, though, the Duke/Prince Of Darkness overlap is notable - and the mere fact of sexual division, of sex, is tragic enough in this play, as it relates to the ideas of Nature and to 'conception' (a shakespearean pun, and the Mother/Hysterica Passio it's related to this too)

Maybe these two Dukes were somewhat similar (and Vincentio is repeatedly called prince in the play)

LUCIO

Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the rebellion of a codpiece to take away the life of a man! Would the duke that is absent have done this? Ere he would have hanged a man for the getting a hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing a thousand: he had some feeling of the sport: he knew the service, and that instructed him to mercy.

GLOUCESTER

But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account: though this knave came something saucily into the world before he was sent for, yet was his mother fair; there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged.

I've been coming across a lot of lovely quotes from this play- in scholarship, this subreddit, etc.- and decided to try reading it for the first time. I was blown away.

The writing is consistently gorgeous- such richness and suppleness of imagery and elegant turns of phrase. It more than makes up for the lack of structural soundness or striking tableaux. A lot of the insults and laments read like proto-Richard III, or occasionally King Lear. [Edit: I've just learnt that R3 was probably written before KJ? That's bizarre given how KJ often seems a diluted version of R3).

Anyway, it's still funny and moving by turns, and always interesting. It's a great play for when you just want to read some excellent 'writing for the sake of writing,' and sort of (not entirely) wave aside structure.

'Good advice' is a very interesting theme.

• A pre-translated corpus of Shakespeare's greatest works. Every speech instantly available in both Original, and Modern English.
• multiple languages including french, german, hindi , instant translation
• Chat bot queries ok

King Philip:

You are as fond of grief as of your child.

Constance:

Grief fills the room up of my absent child,

Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,

Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,

Remembers me of all his gracious parts,

Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form;

Then, have I reason to be fond of grief?

Fare you well: had you such a loss as I,

I could give better comfort than you do.

I will not keep this form upon my head,

When there is such disorder in my wit.

O Lord! my boy, my Arthur, my fair son!

My life, my joy, my food, my all the world!

My widow-comfort, and my sorrows' cure!

King John - Act 3, scene 4 in King Philip's tent.

I’m taking my almost 11yo daughter to see MND at the Stratford Festival in about a month. This will be her first introduction to Shakespeare (unless you count Broadway’s “& Juliet”). I think she’ll (understandably) have trouble with the language and approximately 9,000 characters if we don’t do some prep ahead of time. So I’m looking for a book that does a condensed, modernish-English adaptation that would be appropriate for an 11yo.

I’ve found Leon Garfield’s “Shakespeare Stories”, and Jeanette Vigon’s “Shakespeare for Kids” version. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
(Please don’t suggest that I start with the original text. I’m sure that’s how you got into Shakespeare and you were an exceptionally brilliant 8yo, but I know my kid and that won’t work out well.)

Well, that's one way of doing it

Okay, so we all know about 'thou' and 'you', with the former being informal singular (similar to 'tu' in French) and the latter being formal singular/plural ('vous'). But how about 'ye'?

I read that 'ye' was the nominative pronoun for 'you', as well as the plural form of 'thou'. But we read in A&C:

'I never loved you much; but I ha' praised ye'

Effectively, can 'ye' to express a level of informality between 'you' (formal or plural) and 'thou' (informal) due to its use as a plural form of thou? Is Enobarbus here deliberately being less formal (note the abbreviated 'ha')? And - in class-conscious Early Modern England - was it becoming more frequently used, in order to avoid the power dynamics of 'you/thou'? (Does this explain Fletcher's famously heavy use of it, wanting to sound more modern?)

Just as an interesting footnote, Quakers started using 'thou' in the 1650s to equalise language (we see elements of this in the frequency of 'thou' from both puritans and gallants on the Jacobean stage, both of whom want to blur social boundaries), and people reacted against it, adopting the formal 'you' instead! We actually see the opposite happening in places like France, where young people are moving away from 'vous'. It's fascinating to think that if it hadn't been for the poor Quakers, we might be mostly using 'thou' today - or for that matter, 'ye'...

I've gone through a few threads with this question, and the answers are IMO too verbose. I don't much care for any "vibe" or theme. If you had one minute to recommend a list of the works of Shakespeare, what would you jot down? Put a damsel out of distress.

Edit: just finished Much Ado About Nothing and very much enjoyed it! Will pick up a tragedy now lol

Saw this link to a Shakespeare PowerPoint on societal pressures which kept woman from walking the boards in Elizabethan England.