That I really enjoy reading Shakespeare. It’s a little known fact that this awesome blogger has a small obsession with Big S. True story. We go way back.
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In my freshmen English class in high school I was that obnoxious student. The teacher made me sit up by her desk because she didn’t want me fiddling around with things in my backpack or giggling with the person next to me. I don’t know why I was such a goof in the class. I was extremely shy and quiet everywhere else.
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One day she announced we would be reading Romeo & Juliet. Not only would we read it, but we would act it out. She thought she was teaching me a lesson by assigning me the part Romeo. Perhaps it was because we were in an all-girls school and everyone wanted to be Juliet. Or maybe it was because she wanted to hear me butcher one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies. I’ll never know for sure. What I do know is I was the best female Romeo my school has ever seen the likes of! I even cut a sword out of cardboard for a dramatic effect. I don’t know why.
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At one point, Miss Juliet was sucking all of the beauty out of the balcony scene and she let me play both Romeo and Juliet. That was awkward, yet entertaining as I would run up on a desk as Juliet and jump down as Romeo. It would continue throughout the scene. She never gave me a cool part after that. Either she loved it so much she didn’t want to ruin the memories that would be etched in her mind forever or she hated it and wanted me to stop torturing people. Either way, I enjoyed it.
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I haven’t read Shakespeare since high school. Last night at the library (Free books!) I picked up Hamlet, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. I should have gotten something I haven’t read yet like As You Like it or The Twelfth Night, but these are classics and I enjoyed them so much the first time around. I figured I might appreciate them more now. Plus, I kind of want to have a “moment” with my mirror as I belt out Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech. Yeah. I’m that kind of girl.
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Shakespeare: Yay or Nay? If Yay, which comedy or tragedy do you like the best? If Nay, what the eff is wrong with you? No. I kid.
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I bid you adieu!
{ 50 comments… read them below or add one }
King Lear and Much Ado.
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I love Shakespeare. He does rock just a tad. Have you read Bill Bryson’s recent book on him?
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Nuttycow -
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He rocketh the socketh. I haven’t read Bill Bryson’s book. Would you recommend it?
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The Merchant of Venice was my first intro to Shakespeare and that remains one of my favorites. A Midsummer’s Night Dream is also amazing.
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Or, you know, A Midsummer Night’s Dream…
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It’s early, okay?
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I played Romeo in my freshman English class too! What are the odds? Anyway, I love Shakespeare. My favorites are R&J and Hamlet. Why don’t more people read that stuff for fun?
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Twelfth Night are my favorites. They are kind of similar, with the whole love traingle thing going on. I’ve seen them both on stage which is probably why they out rank Romeo and Julie, MacBeth, and Hamlet, which we only read in high school.
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Midsummer Night’s Dream. . . it’s just so damn dramatic and well, kinda weird too. Though, I just can’t seem to get Stanley Tucci as Puck out of my head.
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The only part I got to read in high school was the role of Nora in A Doll’s House. That wasn’t as fun.
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Umm, that’s amazing!
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My fave would have to be Hamlet, which I haven’t read since HS. I loved it then, and have no doubt that I will love it now.
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I’ve not yet been able to really get into Shakespeare.
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Maybe some day?
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I’m a big fan of Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado About Nothing. Both are fab.
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I HATED reading Shakespeare in high school. But, my aunt works for the Shakespeare Theater here in Chicago (just got a Tony, by the way!) and I began going to see Shakespeare the way it was meant. On stage. With professional actors. And I loved it. I was a subscriber for a number of seasons. They do really great stuff. If you love Shakespeare, you must go see some of their shows. And here’s a bit of advice for the poor student with little spending money … volunteer as an usher and you see the shows for free!
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That play you did in school sounds fun. I’m sure that teacher talks about it to this day!
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I’m down with Shakespeare. I think I’ve only read Othello, and I remember enjoying that.
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you can come visit and we can put on plays! omg, it would be so much fun.
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A huge yay! I took two semesters of Shakespeare in college and would have taken more if it had been possible. My favorites are Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear. I prefer the tragedies over the comedies for whatever reason. I also love his sonnets and if you haven’t gotten to read any of them before, you might want to check them out. Also, someone recommended seeing them in a theater, and I think that really makes them come alive too.
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I dont mind Shakespeare, but it does remind me of being in high school and being forced to read. I hate being forced to do anything, especially reading. I feel like it should be for enjoyment, not a forced thing.
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I heart Midsummer Night’s Dream as clich\’e9 and mainstream as it is. The Taming of the Shrew is also quite lovely.
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In Halifax there’s a troupe that performs Shakespeare in the park by the ocean during the summer’s with minimal props and no set but the landscape. It’s SO fun.
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yes on all the comments recommending a midsummer night’s dream! i played puck when i was in elementary school! they glued big ears to me!
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Oh man, I HATED Shakespeare. But whatever floats your boat, right?
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I read Macbeth. It was not awful, but I still am not a Shakespeare fan. I think it’s because I’m lazy.
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LOVE ME some shakespeare. i went to a weird elementary school where they started us YOUNG on shakespeare – our 6th grade class play was Julius Caeser, no joke; i was Cassius – and we read a play every year from then on. our 8th grade play was Much Ado About Nothing. then of course we had to read a ton in hs – LOVED it all. i also took a perverse glee in being one of the only people who could pronounce the words properly.
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hm…this is tough. nobody beats Big Willie. whoever the person is who wrote this stuff (because along with Big Willie I love the conspiracies and theories surrounding who really wrote the stuff) was a genius and had a far reaching vision to write with such latent potential for change and adaptation.
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that said, i really like taming of the shrew, 12th night, and the tempest for comedies. tragedies – Titus and Julius Caesar. Not so much in only reading them, but in the compliment of different movies and plays I’ve seen of these two, which made the words then come alive so much for me.
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this does not mean i also don’t heart the classics of which everyone has read (Macie, Hamie, and Romes & Jules) but they are just givens.
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ps. i played a fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in college. It was awesome – futuristic and set to techno music…picture that!
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YAY to Shakespeare! The Winter’s Tale is my favorite. In HS we had a Shakespeare competition and I did Hermione’s Monologue, from The Winter’s Tale. I LOVE one but I also enjoy Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and more.
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In high school we read Othello and Macbeth (and a couple of his sonnets). Of those two, I think I liked Othello more. Plus, there was the movie O with Julia Styles and Josh Hartnett. Shakespeare’s not too bad in my book. Are you one of the conspiracy theorists, though, that think he didn’t write all of his works?
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I totally recommend the Bryson book. I wrote a post about it a few months ago.
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I have a poster of the full text of R&J at work, but it keeps falling off my wall.
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I love As You Like it. I think it’s my favorite.
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While I don’t share your love of Shakespeare – I definitely enjoy reading books multiple times. If I spent half as much time reading new books as I did re-reading books I would actually have a respectable library instead of one Garfield book (I kid).
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I’ve never been a massive Shakespeare fan, but I did like “The Merchant of Venice”.
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I’m a biggg Shakespeare fan and have read almost all of it. I know, dork, right? I read a bunch in high school and then took a class in college and had to buy the complete works.
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My faves are Twelfth Night, Merchants of Venice, and Julius Caesar!
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i loved reading shakespeare in high school too. i think macbeth may be my favorite one thought or othello, both are pretty crazy.
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I looove Macbeth and the Tempest. Hopefully you get to see some Shakespheare in the Park this summer. It’s the best
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Oh god, I would have loved you as a student. My kids HATED Shakespeare.
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Hamlet is my favorite, as well as Merchant of Venice. I’m not sure why I like the tragedies, but I really do. Midsummer Nights Dream is really good as well. I’m not a Taming of the Shrew fan because, frankly, I find it depressing that they “tame” the girl (however, admittedly, I really liked “Ten Things I Hate About You!”
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In high school we read “The Importance of Being Earnest,” which I LOVE. There were three of us from the theatre dept in that english class and while reading it aloud, we added the accents and actions. Best class ever.
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So, because of that, I love the fact that you were your school’s best Romeo.
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I was always a lover of Hamlet…the day of the junior prom, we went on a field trip to see the movie version, after reading it!
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He’s kind of a big deal.
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BTw…I tagged you for a meme.
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HERE
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I love, love, love Macbeth.
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One of my favourite things ever written.
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And this post reminded me that it has been too long since I’ve read it. So, you know, thanks.
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King Lear is my favourite play.
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I can totally relate to the highschool thing too. I was also THAT student – giggling at the innuendo at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet while most of my classmates looked at me like I was nuts.
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I love teaching that play too – what could be better to teach a bunch of hormonal 13 and 14 year olds than a play about hormonal teenagers?
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There’s a reason I tote my gigantic The Complete Works of Shakespeare with me whenever I move.
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King Lear is my favorite. Hands down.
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And the sonnets. The Dark Lady sonnets.
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And Midsummer Night’s Dream.
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Favorite tradegy: Macbeth. Favorite comedys: The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing.
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I like Shakespeare too. I’ll never forget how a kid in 8th grade gave me this book with his ENTIRE works in it, just because I said I liked the plays. Granted, at 13, I didn’t get very far reading them, but its the thought.
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Yay. I like Much Ado About Nothing, personally.
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Absolutely love Shakespeare. Beautiful writing, classic stories, he’s wonderful.
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I love shakespeare! I think Romeo and Juliet is my favourite. I love watching Shakespeare in Love and then reading the R&J after.
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I’ve also read Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and King Lear, but didn’t really like them all that much. Well actually I liked Macbeth too, but eh about the others.
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Ooh now that’s a question…i love Merchant of Venice, and The Scottish Play, and Romeo and Juliet, and Richard III, and Henry V, and Midsummer Night’s Dream, and As you Like It, and Othello, and King Lear, and The Tempest and Twelfth Night.
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They’re my favourite ones…but really i love them all.
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I only enjoy shakespere when in movie form… like 10 things i hate about you or the weird version of romeo and juliet that has rapping in it.
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That is a big ole hell yeah for Billy S. My personal favorite is The Taming of the Shrew.
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Much Ado About Nothing is my favorite comedy.
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Titus Andronicus and Othello are my favorite tragedies.
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I HEART Shakespeare.
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But not Hamlet, I appreciate it for its themes and writing, but if Hamlet were a real person, I would tell him to grow a pair and stop listening to Bright Eyes.
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I loved when we did Shakespeare in high school. Macbeth seriously blew my mind. I liked it so much more than R&J and Hamlet. The jealousy bit really intrigued me.
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I used to love Shakespeare until I took a class on it and needed to write a paper for everything we read. Reading I love, writing not so much.
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I have to say my favorites are probably the histories, specifically Richard III. He was the focus of my senior history seminar thesis after all.
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I also have a fond memory of King Lear and Taming of the Shrew.
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Much Ado About Nothing is fanfreakintastic! I used a monologue from it when I competed in our local Shakespeare contest in high school. And when you’re done reading it, watch the movie — Michael Keaton steals the show.
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Taming of the Shrew is great too. I guess I’m more of a comedies gal.
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It’s great to read about everyone’s favourites – mine is Twelfth Night.
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