Top Three
>Hamlet
>Henry IV
>Midsummer Night's
Antony and Cleopatra
Much Ado About Nothing
Romeo and Juliet
>Hamlet
>Macbeth
>TITUS ANDRONICUS
>I
>T
>U
>S
>A
>N
>D
>R
>O
>N
>I
>C
>U
>S
>>7388785
How many have you read? I've only read Othello, Hamlet and Macbeth. If Henry IV and A Midsummer Night's Dream beat both Othello and Macbeth, I'm going to have to look into those as the next ones. Othello in particular I would have thought among the very best.
>Hamlet
>Lear
>Much Ado
>>7388785
>Storm of Swords
>Breakfast at Tiffanies
>Hamelt
jajajaja
>>7388785
Fuck Hamlet.
>>7388785
>>7389415
This is now a kill/fuck/marry thread.
>Kill Macbeth
>Fuck Hamlet
>Marry a Midsummer Night's
I hate Hamlet with a passion.
a midsummer night's dream
measure for measure
romeo and juliet
>>7389554
Why?
The edgy tragedy trilogy is my fav
>King Lear
>Macbeth
>Hamlet
>>7388785
Corolianus
MacBeth
Much Ado About Nothing
>>7389586
Not that guy, but we had to analyse it for fucking months back in high school. The play has much merit to it (although I was one of the only ones in my class that liked it), but we just spent waaay too much time on it. We went over every act, every scene. I think we spent about two weeks' worth of classes on the soliloquy alone. Picture it: every metaphor, every archaic word, every 16-17th century nuance that the teacher felt we wouldn't get. I can ramble off parts of it to this day.
If his English teacher was anything like mine, that's why.
Mine would be
>Titus Andronicus
>Timon of Athens
>Romeo and Juliet (fuck off it's great)
>Lear
>Dream
>Hamlet
Macbeth just barely edged out.
>>7391252
>Picture it: every metaphor, every archaic word, every 16-17th century nuance that the teacher felt we wouldn't get. I can ramble off parts of it to this day.
Getting a boner just thinking about it.
all's well that ends well
merchant of venice
midsummer night's dream
Be honest now, is there anyone in this thread who has read +7 of his plays?
>>7391285
has anyone acted in one of his plays? real question im curious to hear
i was puck in a midsummer night's dream
>>7391285
Shakespeare is definitely my most read writer. I'll list what I've read from him:
All's Well That Ends Well
As You Like It
Measure for Measure
Merchant of Venice
Midsummer Night's Dream
Much Ado about Nothing
Taming of the Shrew
Tempest
Twelfth Night
Henry IV, Part I
Henry IV, Part II
Henry V
Henry VI, Part I
Henry VI, Part II
Henry VI, Part III
Henry VIII
King John
Pericles
Richard II
Richard III
Antony and Cleopatra
Hamlet
Julius Caesar
King Lear
Macbeth
Othello
Romeo and Juliet
Titus Andronicus
I love Hamlet the most.
>>7391288
I was banquo in a children's production of Macbeth
>>7391288
I also was Puck for Midsummer Night's Dream for a school thing and I was Hamlet for our in-class reading of it.
>>7391285
Why 7? That's not that many. I've read probably 15+, and seen the same amount performed, but still haven't read some of his most famous plays. I have never read Othello, for example, or either of the Richards. Seven just seems arbitrary.
>>7391299
Interesting. Which ones would take place 2 and 3 according to you?
>>7391359
Titus would be 2 and Lear 3. Macbeth and Othello thereafter.
if you're gonna comment please tell us how many you've read
i find it difficult to believe some of these rankings unless they're by people who are very underexposed to shakespeare
Read the Henriads and the usual undergrad stuff.
Richard III
Hamlet
Lear
>>7391285
I've read:
King Lear
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Macbeth
Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet
Othello
The Tempest
The Merchant of Venice
I have watched all of them on YT afterwards. I have only seen The Tempest at Stratford (David Farr)
>>7391533
Oh and I'd rank them so:
1. King Lear
2. A Midsummer Night's Dream
3. The Tempest
4. Macbeth
5. Othello
6. Romeo and Juliet
7. Hamlet
8. The Merchant of Venice
>>7388785
My most recent work is my favourite, I believe it truly sums up everything my previous works were going for. It is life. It is art. It is the two inextricably linked
>>7391285
Read 5 completely right now...
>Romeo and Juliet
>A Midsummer Night's Dream
>The Taming of the Shrew
>The Tempest
>Othello
>parts of Julius Caesar but will return later
Currently reading Hamlet right now, and hoping to read Shakespeare's complete works before I die.
>tfw too little time to read all of Shakespeare and see all of his plays performed.
>>7391887
The fuck, nigga?
Shakey wrote plays and poems, you can easily read all of them in your lifetime.
If you want to see the plays which aren't preformed in any nearby theaters you can get movies and recordings.
>>7391285
king lear, hamlet, macbeth, othello, antony and cleopatra, twelfth night, julius caesar, henry iv part I and II, richard ii, measure for measure much ado about nothing.
i would have read richard the 3rd but i got bored.
>>7391288
I was Macbeth in high school.
>>7391288
I was Francis Flute in Midsummer Night's Dream in my freshman year
>>7391288
I played Hamlet as a 12 year old for a school play. I insisted on doing unabridged versions of all the soliloquies. One mother was in tears.
My favourite is Lear.
>>7394388
why midsummer over something like tempest or as you lik eit?
>"reading" Shakespeare
Lmao
>hamlet
>lear
>antony and cleopatra
>>7388785
I'll have a go.
Hamlet and King Lear are the ones that attract by far the most critical material and are seen as the most philosophically intense and serious. With good reason. I'll add The Tempest to that list because it's Shakespeare's last sole-authored play, compresses most of his major themes into one play, and has some really fantastic, virtuosic language.
This shit has changed a lot over time. Titus Andronicus was never on lists like this until the past three decades and especially after Jonathan Bate's groundbreaking Arden edition that makes a fantastic case for the literary qualities of the play.
Shakespeare specialist here, so AMA while I'm killing time and digesting turkey.
>>7391285
I've taught every single one of them. Ask me weird-ass questions about the Henry VI plays, or about The Two Noble Kinsmen, or the fucked-up erotic response to Ovid in Venus and Adonis.
>>7394672
i want to study shakespeare. i'm getting my undergrad soon. what should i get a masters in? i'm mainly interested in 19th century/20th century fiction but i fear if I try to go deeper into shakespeare in my way up academia I'll have to start seriously studying the rest of the 16th century playwrights etc.
>>7391285
Why would you read Shakespeare when you can watch him?
>>7394584
Not quite as retarded as reading Death of a Salesman
>>7389368
>not good / 10
I liked Titus and its good compared to some plays, but its lowtier Shakespeare imo.
Top 3 for me:
>Macbeth
>Othello
>Romeo and Juliet
The last mostly for its prestige. Macbeth because I've seen some great interpretations of it, and I love the level of foreboding and bloodiness, and Othello because -edgy or not- I like Iago a hell of a lot, and some of my favorite lines of Shakespeare of all time are in it.
>>7394687
Don't decide your MA interests until at least two years into a BA. Your tastes and interests will change; you can't plan that far ahead. If you're wanting to study literature seriously, it's a good idea to get to know Shakespeare's main plays pretty well, especially since so many other authors expect a fair amount of familiarity with Shakespeare (e.g. you can't understand T.S. Eliot if you don't get Shakespeare).
Pic a field that you're passionate about. That's the most important. Then deal with the job and practical consequences afterwards. That's how everyone I know has done it successfully in academia.
Don't worry about getting too deep into the drama of Shakespeare's contemporaries. There's no harm done at all if you read a bunch of plays by Kyd, Marlowe, Jonson, Middleton, and Webster (and those ones are the main authors to know). My top four would be Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, and Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy.
>>7394696
Because most film adaptations include about a third of the lines Shakespeare wrote and replace other stuff with visual material. Means that you're not getting the whole play -- only a short summary of it. Do both! Read the original, then see what a film director does with it in adaptation. Then compare to what another film director has done (since every Shakespeare play has been filmed at least twice).
>>7391288
I was in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream when I was a kid. I was a fairy king or something. Haven't read it since. I should tho
>>7394708
I didn't mean watch a film, I meant watch the play, or at least a video of the play
>>7394713
Ahhh... I get it now. Weirdly, people usually say that they "see a play" or "go to a play" and usually use "watch" for films. I'm strongly behind seeing Shakespeare in performance (all of it works on stage) and also reading the plays as literary works (I'm persuaded by much of the argument in Lukas Erne's influential book Shakespeare as Literary Dramatist).
>>7391299
You haven't read Coriolanus? It's excellent
>>7394696
I live in a city where, as far as I know, only three Shakespeare plays are preformed at the moment (and one them is a radical modernization while an another one is shit).
I'll read Shakey, sorry.
>>7391285
I've read 12.
My top 3:
Henry IV
Othello
Dream
Lear just missed the cut
Bottom three:
Twelfth Night
Taming of the Shrew
Macbeth
>>7394930
FFS are you 12??
Haven't read much Shakespeare, but my 3 favourites:
Richard II
The Tempest
Romeo & Juliet
>>7394709
you must have been puck
>>7394987
Oberon is the fairy king in that play. Puck is merely a sprite or a Robin Goodfellow.
>>7391252
This is what English classes should be.
Hamlet
Antony and Cleopatra
Julius caesar
