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Category Archives: William Shakespeare
Thoughts on the Silliness of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors and the Pleasures of Seeing It Anyway
Back in grad school I was part of a short-lived Shakespeare reading group. Four or five of us met on weekend mornings to read all or part of a Shakespeare play. We started working through the plays in alphabetical order, … Continue reading
Thoughts on Act I of The Merchant of Venice
The next play being “covered” by a contemporary author in the Hogarth Shakespeare series is The Merchant of Venice. Howard Jacobson’s adaptation, called Shylock is My Name, was released last week, and I’m looking forward to reading it soon. And … Continue reading
That Time Shakespeare Woke Up One Morning and Invented Modern Narrative: Final Thoughts on The Winter’s Tale
I feel a little silly for wondering why Shakespeare titled this play The Winter’s Tale, especially since I used to devote a week or so in 10th-grade English to the way seasons are used metaphorically in poetry, including Shakespeare’s – … Continue reading
Thoughts on Acts I and II of The Winter’s Tale
It occurred to me the other day that I can’t remember the last time I read a Shakespeare play that I had never read before. There’s one exception – I did read As You Like It for the first time … Continue reading
Yarn Along
I haven’t been doing much knitting lately. I do still care about this project, but I’ve been reading more than usual and also working on another craft – beadmaking – that sucks me into its web once a decade or … Continue reading
Posted in Hogarth Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, Yarn Along
Tagged Hogarth Shakespeare
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The Elephant in the (Class)Room: Straight Talk About Act Five of Macbeth (by Bethany)
The first four acts of Macbeth come close to being the best play Shakespeare ever wrote. They don’t quite live up to Hamlet, but they’re better than Othello, better than Lear, better than Richard III any day. The banquet scene. … Continue reading
Posted in Authors, Drama, Reviews by Bethany, Teaching, William Shakespeare
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Take that, Shakespeare! Jill’s haphazard thoughts on Much Ado About Nothing
Yeah, so I read this play in like July, and apparently into August. What the hell was I doing last summer that it took me six weeks to read a Shakespeare play? I have no idea. And I’ll probably never … Continue reading
Enter Bastard: Final Thoughts on Much Ado About Nothing (by Bethany)
I think the bottom line is that I just don’t like Shakespeare’s comedies very much. I do generally understand where they are coming from in a philosophical sense: all of Shakespeare’s comedies on some level are devoted to exploring the … Continue reading
Postcards From Purgatory 