I'm a sucker for the tragedies, could take or leave the comedies, and am intrigued by the problem plays.
As for the apocrypha...
I'm a sucker for the tragedies, could take or leave the comedies, and am intrigued by the problem plays.
As for the apocrypha...
I love the 'tragedies' the very best; however, several of the 'histories' are a close second; my favorites being the Henry IV and V plays and Richard III.
"It's so mysterious, the land of tears."
Chapter 7, The Little Prince ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
I'd easily plump for tragedy - I love his comedies, but they just don't have the same emotive ability with me. I like the histories too.
"I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance. And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of gravity- through him all things fall. Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity!" - Nietzsche
Actually I love them all, but I have to admit the trajedies transcend.
LET THERE BE LIGHT
"Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena
My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/
The tragedies, definitely. Macbeth the most.
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine...
I'm going to have to side with the majority as well, the tragedies.
Although, I like Hamlet more than Macbeth.
I love Shakespeare's so called problem plays or the plays which defy their genre of which I like to include Romeo & Juliet for starting out just like a comedy but changing direction half way through. I also have a healthy appreciation for some of the apocrypha and an uncommon interest in the histories.
X
He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher... or, as his wife would have it, an idiot. ~ Douglas Adams
Yes, R and J does start out a bit like a comedy. Hamlet may be a tragedy but it has a lot of comedy in (most tragedies just have comic relief).
I like Measure for Measure![]()
I really like his later Romance plays - The Tempest, The Winter's Tale. They have a mellowness and serenity which I enjoy very much.![]()
"It's so mysterious, the land of tears."
Chapter 7, The Little Prince ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Those tragedies are so majestic it's hard not to vote for them, but I do find a quality in his comedies that's utterly delightful and perhaps equally profound but in a very different way to his tragedies. Those late Romances are irresistible too, and I have a lot of respect for the greatness of the problem plays. The Histories are hit and miss for me, really. I just wouldn't to be without his great tragedies and comedies. I'll vote for the tragedies, but if I was in a different mood I could easily take a few of his best comedies over anything else.
"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