We Love Shakespeare Week: The Tag

Okay okay, I know it's technically the last day of Hamlette's We Love Shakespeare Week, but I was so busy with midterms and school and all that stuff that I had nearly no time to make any comments on other people's posts (for which I apologize...I wish I had had time...), but I am DETERMINED to finish the tag before the day is out! 

And so, here it is: 


1. When and how did you first encounter Shakespeare's plays?

I started reading them in high school, actually as a part of my homeschool curriculum. I didn't understand them super well, but over the past school year I took a college class (basically "Shakespeare level one") and my professor was really great at helping us understand the plays, so that's how I came to really enjoy and like them.

2.  What are your favorite Shakespeare plays?  (Go ahead and list as many as you like!)

Oooh...definitely Macbeth, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew (which I know is a controversial one but I thought it was somewhat hilarious in certain parts), Midsummer Night's Dream...they're all good.

3.  Who are some of your favorite characters in his plays?  (Again, list however many suits you.)

Well I kind of have to include Iago in this list, not because of his "goodness," but because of the complexity and interesting-ness of his character...

I also love Banquo. He is most likely my very favorite Shakespeare character ever. 

4.  Have you seen any of his plays performed, whether live or on film?

Sadly I have not seen any performed live, though I would love to. In my college class, we watched bits and pieces of many various film adaptations and such, but never the entire production of anything. The two that I remember best are a newer production of Macbeth, with Patrick Stewart. It was set in a kind of weird, horrific place, and it had me tense and nervous throughout the whole thing--super well done, but a little terrifying. We also watched the film of a live production of Taming of the Shrew done by Shakespeare's Globe, which was GREAT, aside from the dirty jokes that unfortunately are sprinkled throughout the Bard's comedies. And then we watched part of a 2018 version of King Lear with Anthony Hopkins as Lear and Emma Thompson as Goneril. It looked really good from what I saw, but I haven't watched the whole thing, soooo...I don't know.

5.  Have you read any of his plays?

Yes!!! I have read maybe ten-ish. I can't remember the exact number. 

6.  Share a dream cast for one of your favorite Shakespeare plays.

Oh dear...boy, I don't know. I guess I have never really thought of that, as shocking as that is. I'm sure that as soon as I finish this post and hit publish, I'll think of something. 

7.  What draws you to Shakespeare's plays?  (Language, themes, characters, the fact that they're famous, whatever!)

I love the characters and the clever language! (Plus, being able to interpret and read the Shakespearean language is a great skill to have.)

8.  Do you have any cool Shakespeare-themed merchandise, like t-shirts or mugs or bookmarks, etc?  Share pictures if you can!

*sighs* Unfortunately, I do not. 

9.  How do you go about understanding his language?  (Do you prefer copies with translation notes, look things up online, or just read so much stuff written in Elizabethan English that you totally know what everyone's saying?)

For my college class, we were required to get the Folger editions of all of our plays, which are really cheap (I got most of mine used for like $5), and they all have really good notes in them. Other than that, I used the Oxford English Dictionary to understand words I didn't know or that are no longer used in our modern English. But as far as understanding the language itself, I think that the best way to do so is just to practice. Now that I've read so much of it, I have gotten used to the language and am able to understand most of it without any help or notes.

10.  What are some of your favorite lines from Shakespeare?  (Maybe limit yourself to like ten, okay?)

"If I be waspish, best beware my sting." 

-Taming of the Shrew, II.i.223

"Know thou this: that men are as the time is: 

to be tender-minded does not become a sword." 

-King Lear, V.iii.35-37

"I'll tarry no longer with you. Farewell, good Signior Love." 

"I am glad of your departure. Adieu, good Monsieur Melancholy." 

-As You Like It, III.ii. 295-297

"I dare do all that may become a man. 

Who dares do more is none." 

-Macbeth, I.vii.51-52

"Let this pernicious hour stand aye accursed in the calendar!" 

-Macbeth, IV.i.148-149

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

that struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 

Signifying nothing." 

-Macbeth, V.v.22-30

"Why, thou silly gentleman!" 

-Othello, I.iii.349

"Thou know'st we work by wit and not by witchcraft, 

and wit depends on dilatory time." 

-Othello, II.iii.393-394

"The general so likes your music that he desires you, 

for love's sake, to make no more noise with it." 

-Othello, III.i.13-14

And of course, in addition to all those, all the ones that I quoted in my previous post about Iago....

Well, that was quite fun! Thanks again, Hamlette! :D