there is always one that does not sit well within our literary comfort
so which would you say is your least popular and why?
there is always one that does not sit well within our literary comfort
so which would you say is your least popular and why?
it may never try
but when it does it sigh
it is just that
good
it fly
Measure for Measure - I don't know why, I just can't find much love for it.
'So - this is where we stand. Win all, lose all,
we have come to this: the crisis of our lives'
Contrast Two Gents with Midsummer’s Night Dream. In both case we have two pairs of young lovers where at one point both boys fancy the same girl. In neither case is there deep personal psychology at work.
But in Two Gentsit is a comic formula (and rather uncomfortable and unconvincing) whereas in Midsummer’s Night it is, well, magic….
Previously JonathanB
The more I read, the more I shall covet to read. Robert Burton The Anatomy of Melancholy Partion3, Section 1, Member 1, Subsection 1
it may never try
but when it does it sigh
it is just that
good
it fly
Formula is indeed the correct word. The formula is there, too, in A Midsummer's Night Dream, but the Ovid-esque, Apuleius-esque, and Elizabethan/Shakespearian myth and magic keep it from becoming trite and conventional. But beyond even that, A Midsummer's Dream captures and preserves something unique in the human experience. The four lovers are mawkish children when they enter the brightly haunted and utterly confusing woods of their teenage years--where even the spirits don't really know what they're doing. They emerge adults (and is it me or were they more likable as mixed-up kids?) There is a wonderful and usually ignored moment near the story's end, in which Hippolyta catches sight of the young people from a distance, after they have emerged from the forest, and comments on what she sees them doing. It is a multiply layered but utterly effortless verse; one that comments on the dramatic action, the play itself, and the experience of youth: "It is," she says, "a sweet story." This is genius, you see--the other, mere convention.
Last edited by Pompey Bum; 07-09-2015 at 12:49 PM.
I read them all and Cymbeline, Winter's Tale, and Henry VIII were pretty horrible.
"So-Crates: The only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing." "That's us, dude!"- Bill and Ted
"This ain't over."- Charles Bronson
Feed the Hungry!
I know the late plays are a bit weird, but Winter’s Tale has given me a lump in my throat (Thou looks’t on things adying, I on things new born) and Cymbeline has its moments (Fear no more the heat of the sun.)
I don’t care for Henry VIII, but that is in large part my catholic sympathies. I can’t really regard a husband dumping his faithful wife as sympathetic.
I was reading through Shakespeare’s plays, and I’ve got stuck at the prospect of having to read Love’s Labour’s Lost and Comedy of Errors but you never know I might enjoy them. At any rate they have individuality which is more than I can say for Henry VI, part 1. (2 & 3 have their moments.)
But the play which is much admired and on consideration I could happily do without is Richard III.
Hemyngs and Condell's least favourite was The Two Noble Kinsmen.
Last edited by Jackson Richardson; 07-09-2015 at 10:44 AM.
Previously JonathanB
The more I read, the more I shall covet to read. Robert Burton The Anatomy of Melancholy Partion3, Section 1, Member 1, Subsection 1
how do you write that in today's English?
I am surprised at that. religion rakes marriage seriously we dont.I don’t care for Henry VIII, but that is in large part my catholic sympathies. I can’t really regard a husband dumping his faithful wife as sympathetic.
i have feelings for neither but it better to be released then cooped up sympathies or not.
how do you meant by 'stuck'?I was reading through Shakespeare’s plays, and I’ve got stuck at the prospect of having to read Love’s Labour’s Lost and Comedy of Errors but you never know I might enjoy them. At any rate they have individuality which is more than I can say for Henry VI, part 1. (2 & 3 have their moments.)
that the king in the car park?But the play which is much admired and on consideration I could happily do without is Richard III.
Hemyngs and Condell's least favourite was The Two Noble Kinsmen.
it may never try
but when it does it sigh
it is just that
good
it fly
I have not got on and read those two comedies yet. I am reluctant to do so. That's what I meant.
Richard III was indeed the king in the car park at Leicester.
There are two quite seperate reasons why I don't warm to Henry VIII. A It is protestant propaganda. B It shows Henry humiliating Katherine. I wouldn't warm to that even if I was a paid up member of the Richard Dawkins fan club.
Previously JonathanB
The more I read, the more I shall covet to read. Robert Burton The Anatomy of Melancholy Partion3, Section 1, Member 1, Subsection 1
Well, some rise by sin and some by virtue fall. Some people seem to get ahead in life by awful means, crime, drugs ect, and some people who try to do good in this world get nothing but trouble and pain for their hard work. In short, life is cruel and random, and sometimes the bad guys win.
'So - this is where we stand. Win all, lose all,
we have come to this: the crisis of our lives'
I think all of these are bad-to-mediocre:
Taming of the Shrew
Henry VIII
Two Noble Kinsmen
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Comedy of Errors
Pericles
III Henry VI
I Henry VI
All's Well that Ends Well
Titus Andronicus
Merry Wives of Windsor
King John
WHAAAA?! That's in my Top 10 Shakespeare! Perhaps his most beautiful play outside The Tempest and Antony and Cleopatra.
"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being." --Carl Gustav Jung
"To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due." --Neil Gaiman; The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists
"I'm on my way, from misery to happiness today. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh" --The Proclaimers