DISCUSS: Favorite work by William Shakespeare

[LynneSin]

I've always loved Julius Caesar. It was the first Shakespeare I had ever read and I've always loved theme of betrayal - which is the stronghold of so many movies today. But I've always enjoyed "Midsummer Night Dream" because it was so refreshing and whimsical.

What's your favorite work (play/sonnet/etc) by Shakespeare?

Here's some trivia for you about Shakespeare: Some people believe that Shakespeare helped to write the King James Version of the Bible. If you go to the 46th Psalm, the 46 word from the beginning of the Psalm and the 46 word from the end are Shake and Spear.

1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

2Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

3Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

4There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

5God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.

6The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

7The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

8Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth.

9He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.

10Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

11The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=23&chapter=46&version=9

Coincidence?

[rogerashton]

1. While that is a tough call, Othello, probably, ...

although I may have been influenced by the operatic version as well.

[terrya]

2. Macbeth

[fertilizeonarbusto]

4. same here

Best play about politics ever.

[CornField]

10. My vote too

"Out, out damn spot!"

[Blue_In_AK]

26. Me, too ... Macbeth

Fie, my Lord, fie...a soldier and afear'd?

[Brewman_Jax]

3. Which category?

For comedy, I found Taming of the Shrew hilarious. Twelfth Night is also very good. For sheer pettiness and villany, there's Othello.

So many good works! :dilemma:

[On the Road]

5. I Love the Sonnets

but it's hard to pick just one. Maybe #73, which contains lines like:

"Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang."

[Jack Rabbit]

6. King Lear

This tragedy should become more relevant in the coming years. It will come to reflect our age.

It is the story of Lear, a negligent King who leaves his realm to be governed by his tyrant daughters, with a parallel plot involving Gloucester, a foolish nobleman who cast aside his loyal son for his conniving bastard son.

All at once, the old King goes mad, the kingdom is plunged into war and heavens break out into a terrible storm.

The kingdom comes to ruin before order is restored, as usual by a far-signted, sensible young man.

[deutsey]

7. King Lear is my favorite

One of the most amazing, demanding texts ever written.

It basically underscores for me how evil isn't really defeated...it implodes on itself. The Good is left to pick up the pieces and tend to the wounded.

[Ivan Sputnik]

8. Lear

Shakespeare's greatest play (though not necessarily the most entertaining) and often cited as the greatest work in the English language.

[JimmyJazz]

9. My favorite is Taming of the Shrew.

I love the bawdiness of the work and I think it's enlightening to know what was acceptable language and behavior during that time in history. :hi:

[Zuni]

11. not much of a shakespeare fan, but MacBeth

is the one I enjoyed the most

[Lavender Brown]

12. Much Ado About Nothing

[thestatusquo]

24. Amen to that!

[tjwmason]

13. Midsummer Night's Dream

I know it's over-done blah blah blah, but it's just too much good fun - the play within a play can be ridiculous to the point of sublime with a good Bottom.

[entanglement]

14. Julius Caesar. The speeches in Act III alone

place Caesar above the rest.

[onager]

15. Richard III

One of the most complex and entertaining characters ever created. It takes some talent to make an audience sympathetic toward a character who kills a man, then seduces his grieving widow. And later, kills two young children, then tries to marry their sister!

And that wonderful leering dialogue!

Plain, simple Clarence. I do love thee so, that I will shortly send thy soul to Heaven. If Heaven will take the present at our hands.

(I'm approaching the play strictly as entertainment. As everybody here probably knows, Shakespeare based his play on pro-Tudor propaganda cranked out by Thomas More and other Gannons of the era.)

[kodi]

28. mine too. the heart of evil revealed and reviled

i have heard that it is the most performed play of shakespeare.

[Misunderestimator]

16. Othello

[El Fuego]

17. If I'm going to be honest, it's Twelfth Night

Pure unadulterated entertainment for any era. I've seen it several times on the stage. My runner-up choice is Hamlet.

[Jack Rabbit]

18. Kick

Tatsuya Nakadai and Peter from the motion picture Ran (1985) by Akira Kurosawa
from Jim's Film Reviews

[Left Is Write]

19. "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

20. A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I'm reading Hamlet right now... I really liked the beginning acts but am not really getting into the ending as much. Which is odd.

[sundog]

23. Seconded

It's light, it's fun, it's about love... but most importantly it has lots of magic :)

[Reverend_Smitty]

21. Othello

I think the story is still very relevant in today's society. I just fell in love with the story the first time I read it. Now all I need to do is see it done live

[tjdee]

22. Hamlet--Love Shakespeare, though.

Shakespeare so very honestly kicks the ass of most, if not all writers. Even though he didn't come up with ideas from scratch (for a number of his plays).

Maybe because I was in a production of Hamlet (a small part), and I basically lived it for a few weeks, it's my favorite. I got to know the characters and the play so well.

I very much enjoy most of Billy's work though. A very close second would be Much Ado about Nothing. Then Romeo and Juliet or Othello.

[Jack Rabbit]

25. Another kick

The Weird Sisters from the motion picture Macbeth (1971) by Roman Polanski
from Bardolatry

[tammywammy]

27. Hamlet and a close second is Othello

I'm an English major, so I've read quite a bit of Shakespeare.

I like Hamlet the best. How do I make this simple...I like the tragedy offset with humor (esp the gravediggers). I like the did Hamlet make Ophelia crazy or the other way. I just think it's a great story. And it's timeless.

Edited to add, when I was in England a few years ago, we went to the house he grew up in. We were too late to see the grave, but it was still awesome. I had my picture taken in his back yard.

[catzies]

29. I read the Sonnets while on jury duty once. Made the day bearable.

I love the Sonnets.

[zann725]

30. "Shakespeare in Love" by Tom Stoppard

Sorry, but although I know (all too well) that Shakespeare is well-studied in schools, I really think that a "Shakespeare"-within-a Shakepeare play (especially by Tom Stoppard) preserves the poetics of the Bard's work, as well as insight into his life...in a lot more updated, less burdensome way.

[pres2032]

31. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

so funny, yet so profoundly deep. ok, so shakspeare didn't technically write it, but it's basically Hamlet through the eyes of two minor characters.

[Jack Rabbit]

32. A last kick

Imogen Stubbs as Viola/Cesario and Helena Bonham-Carter as the Countess in the motion picture Twelfth Night (1996) by Trevor Nunn
from Encyclopaedia Britannica