# Shakespeare (1 Viewer)



## gigi (Oct 8, 2006)

I would just like to give props to W.S.

In having written some sonnets, I have to say - the guy must have been writing nonstop, day in and out his whole life, to produce the volumes of work he did.  And in such a style!

Incredible.


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## Ilan Bouchard (Oct 8, 2006)

Shakespeare _sucks_, man.


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## gigi (Oct 9, 2006)

no YOU suck!


oh god i'm such a cut-up.


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## Ilan Bouchard (Oct 9, 2006)

Seriously though, the man was genius.  His sonnets were written over the course of his lifetime, so actually there aren't that many, but being able to write such plays in such periods of time is amazing.


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## Hodge (Oct 9, 2006)

Well, he was constantly revising his plays as he went along. And some theorize that they were being revised well after his death until they were finally written down on something more permanent. Still, he was definitely a genius, even if his plays were only half as brilliant as he wrote them.


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## Ilan Bouchard (Oct 9, 2006)

At that time the plays were performed, the audience members often interjected with the characters' monologues and speeches, so much of the plays involved ad-lib and improvisation.  So the plays often strayed from or paraphrased the scripts, so I don't know how much it actually mattered (at the time, at least).


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## strangedaze (Oct 9, 2006)

dont even get me started on willy. for the next week im comparing galleys from a new edition of troilus and cressida to its first quarto edition. my eyes bleed.


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## David Siudzinski (Nov 22, 2006)

Shakespere IS a genius. Look at any of his plays and not only do you see compelling stories which we can relate to today, but you'll also see a greater overarching theme for each story (i.e.-Macbeth-the Fantastical world of witches and goblins, The Merchant of Venice-man's greed). 

He's definatley worth reading.


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## Mike C (Nov 23, 2006)

He's worth reading, but better watched - plays come alive when performed.


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## Fakespeare (Nov 27, 2006)

I can officially call my self a Shakespeare fan (hence the nickname). I've read at least 10 plays, been in one (love's labours lost), and I own (and never take off) a bracelet with sonnet 116 on it.  

The bard is a genius.  His comedy, his plots, his wonderful dialogue.... *sighs in wonder*

Anyone who disrespects the bard deserves an Elizabethan punishment, if you ask me.  Until you have a full and complete understanding of something, don't judge it negatively.  Unless it's cauliflower. In that case, judge away.


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## Ilan Bouchard (Nov 27, 2006)

I love you already.


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## Fakespeare (Nov 27, 2006)

Anyone who has a refrence to shakespeare in their title deserves to be idolized.  And a Bard avatar?  [-o< *worships* (By the way, are you really a lucid dreamer, as your profile suggusts? 'cause I am.)

So, what's everyone's favorite play?

I'm pretty keen on Much Ado, myself.  Although, I still love Love's Labours Lost, having seen/heard/read/rehearsed it so freaking many times.  It's a classic.


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## Dooga Aetrus Blackrazor (Nov 27, 2006)

I've only read 6 of his plays. You've read 10. I'm just not cool anymore.


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## Fakespeare (Nov 27, 2006)

Don't worry about it. Not everyone's as nerdilicous as me.  Not everyone's trying to get a Shakespeare club started up at their school. Not everyone takes classes with the Atlanta Shakepeare Festival. 

Only supernerds like me!

Which ones have ya read?


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## Ilan Bouchard (Nov 27, 2006)

> So, what's everyone's favorite play?


I'm quite a fan of Othello.  I love and relate to every character and it's full of clever wordplay.  And it's one of Shakespeare's few plays that actually has a semi-believable plot.


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## Fakespeare (Nov 28, 2006)

Ah. That's one of the one's I haven't read yet. 

I do know the Reduced Shakespeare Company's version, though.

(If you aren't familiar with the RSC, you're missing out. I suggust you google them.)

Here's the story of a brother named of Othello
(He likes white women and he likes green Jell-O)
And a punk named Iago who made himself a menace
cause he didn't like Othello, the Moor of Venice.
Now Othello got married to Desdemona.
But he went off to the wars and he left her alona.
It was a mona--
A groana--
He left her alona.
He didn't write a letter and didn't telefona.
Othello loved Desi like Adonis loved Venus.
And Desi loved Othello --
'Cuz he had a big ....sword.
Now, Desdemona she was faithful, she was chastity-tight.
She was the daughter of the Duke. Yeah, she was totally white.
But Iago had a plan that was crafty and slick.
he was clever. 
He was sly.
He was sort of a dick.
He said, 'I'm gonna shaft the Moor.'
(How're you gonna do it? Tell us.)
'Well, I know his tragic flaw is that he's too damn jealous.
I need a dupe, I need a dope, I need a kind of a schmo.'
So he found a chump sucka by the name of Cassio
and he plants on him Desdemona's handkerchief.
So Othello starts to wondering just maybe if
while he's been out fighting, Commanding an army
are Desi and Cass playing hide the salami?
s-s-s-s-salam-Salami!
So he come back home and stuck a pillow on her face.
Kills her and soliloquizes 'bout his disgrace.
But there's Amelia at the door 
who we met in Act IV.
Who say, "You big dummy. She weren't no whore.
She was pure, clean, virginal too.
So why'd you have to go and make her face turn blue?
It's true.
It's you.
Now what you gonna do?"
And Othello says, yo, this is getting pretty scary.
So he pulled out his blade and committed hari-kari.
Iago got caught but he probably copped a plea.
Loaded up his bags
And moved to Beverly.
Hills, that is.


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## MrTamborineMan (Nov 28, 2006)

As much as I appreciate and enjoy Shakespeare, I've got to admit that twelfth grade English sucked all the fun out of The Tempest for me.  I could probably tell you everything about it, including all of the levels that Shakespeare wrote it on, how he utilized language in order to express his message, and how the play served as Shakespeare's farewell note to the stage, but considering how much we analyzed this play I can't stand it anymore.


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## Crazy_dude6662 (Nov 28, 2006)

i so wish i had know about them last year, i probably could have convinced my english teacher to buy the dvd of one of their preformances (or a trip to one lol)


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## Fakespeare (Nov 28, 2006)

They are absofreakinglutely hilarious. I've got the dvd and the script. My best friend and I rap othello for random passersby.


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## Mike C (Nov 30, 2006)

MrTamborineMan said:
			
		

> considering how much we analyzed this play I can't stand it anymore.



That's the sad thing about shakespeare in schools. He never wrote to be analysed, he wrote to be enjoyed. Over-analysis can suck the joy out of anything. Imagine reducing sex down to a series of mechanical and biological actions.


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## Fakespeare (Nov 30, 2006)

Oh, see. I like analysis. It makes it more exciting.  I annotate in my free time, that's how bad I have it.  I think the deeper levels make the work seem so much more satisfying and less shallow, you know?Although, I agree it's still important to enjoy the story and writing above all else.


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## MrTamborineMan (Nov 30, 2006)

Mike C said:
			
		

> That's the sad thing about shakespeare in schools. He never wrote to be analysed, he wrote to be enjoyed. Over-analysis can suck the joy out of anything. Imagine reducing sex down to a series of mechanical and biological actions.



Exactly!  I doubt Shakespeare really wrote with the depth that people suggest.


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## Hodge (Nov 30, 2006)

Of course he did. For one, much of that depth comes about from subconscious processes. Word choice, use of metaphors, character traits -- all of it is influenced by things you don't consciously deal with. 

And anyway, a lot of the depth is apparent. What made Shakespeare so famous was that he wrote for the common person and the nobility at the same time -- that's quite a bit of depth right for all his metaphors, plots, characters, settings, and ideas to make two very different groups of people 
think the play is for them.

A lot of analysis is about adding your own depth to someone's work, but just as much is about scouring the depths that are already there.


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## Scarecrow (Nov 30, 2006)

In Romeo and Juilet, considered to be the greatest love story of all time, the characters meet and _automatically_ fall in love (just like real life!)

That alone is enough to make me dislike Shakespeare.


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## MrTamborineMan (Dec 1, 2006)

Scarecrow said:
			
		

> In Romeo and Juilet, considered to be the greatest love story of all time, the characters meet and _automatically_ fall in love (just like real life!)
> 
> That alone is enough to make me dislike Shakespeare.



Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's earlier works.  My English teacher called it "a piece of utter shit."


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## Fakespeare (Dec 1, 2006)

Yes, but the work is, for the most part, criticizing that.  It shows how immature the two lovers are, particularly Romeo, who had, right before falling in love with Juliet, been in love with Rosalind.


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## slayerofangels (Dec 1, 2006)

Meh, I was more annoyed with Hamlet as a character rather than as a play really.... Some things about Shakespeare annoyed me but they were small things really...


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## Mike C (Dec 1, 2006)

Scarecrow said:
			
		

> In Romeo and Juilet, considered to be the greatest love story of all time, the characters meet and _automatically_ fall in love (just like real life!)
> 
> That alone is enough to make me dislike Shakespeare.



You've never walked into a party and instantly got the hots for someone?


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## Swift84 (Dec 1, 2006)

Scarecrow said:
			
		

> In Romeo and Juilet, considered to be the greatest love story of all time, the characters meet and _automatically_ fall in love (just like real life!)
> 
> That alone is enough to make me dislike Shakespeare.



Good job basing your opinion on one of his shittiest works.


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## Hodge (Dec 1, 2006)

Scarecrow said:
			
		

> In Romeo and Juilet, considered to be the greatest love story of all time, the characters meet and _automatically_ fall in love (just like real life!)
> 
> That alone is enough to make me dislike Shakespeare.



Until you deconstruct it and realize that them falling for each other so stupidly is what got them both killed.


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## Fakespeare (Dec 1, 2006)

Hodge said:
			
		

> Until you deconstruct it and realize that them falling for each other so stupidly is what got them both killed.


Exactly.And really, I'm not too fond of that play, either.  Read Much Ado About Nothing, or else Twelfth Night. Those are awesome.


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## Swift84 (Dec 1, 2006)

Much Ado is truly excellent. Deserves more attention than Romeo and Juliet.


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## Jolly McJollyson (Dec 1, 2006)

I'm fond of Twelfth Night and Titus Andronicus, myself.


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## CandieK (Dec 2, 2006)

"Be thou assured, if words be made of breath, 
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe 
What thou hast said to me." --Hamlet

There is so much I love about his plays. On my 'list' of things to do in my life, I want to appreciate Shakespeare and his works. But that number will go unchecked, because it will take my whole life.


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## Carrie (Dec 2, 2006)

"...and since I am dead,
I can take off my head!
to recite Shakespearian quotations!"

Sorry...all this talk about Shakespeare reminded me of a random verse from "The Nightmare Before Christmas".
*^_^*


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## mvr_moorthy (Dec 3, 2006)

Fakespeare said:
			
		

> I can officially call my self a Shakespeare fan (hence the nickname). I've read at least 10 plays, been in one (love's labours lost), and I own (and never take off) a bracelet with sonnet 116 on it.
> 
> The bard is a genius.  His comedy, his plots, his wonderful dialogue.... *sighs in wonder*
> 
> Anyone who disrespects the bard deserves an Elizabethan punishment, if you ask me.  Until you have a full and complete understanding of something, don't judge it negatively.  Unless it's cauliflower. In that case, judge away.



  Yes! Sonnet116 is great-- I used to like it . But what about this one?
Since you love to analyse language --- just look at the following lines from sonnet 30: "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
               I summon up remembrance of things past,
               I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
              And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste.
              Then can I drown an eye,unus'd to flow,
              For precious friends hid in death's dateless night...."
    Yes- this is the line that overwhelmed me with its profoundness.


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## Fakespeare (Dec 4, 2006)

Ooh! That's beautiful!Man. Isn't he frighteningly brilliant? I wonder if he ever had writers block.


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## Fakespeare (Dec 4, 2006)

Ooh! That's beautiful!Man. Isn't he frighteningly brilliant? I wonder if he ever had writers block.


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## Jolly McJollyson (Dec 4, 2006)

Fakespeare said:
			
		

> Ooh! That's beautiful!Man. Isn't he frighteningly brilliant? I wonder if he ever had writers block.


He did once.  It's called Sonnet 46.

Mine eye and heart are at mortal war,
How to divide the conquest of thy sight.
Mine eye my heart thy picture's sight would bar,
My heart, mine eye the freedom of that right.

My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,
A closet never pierced with crystal eyes;
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And says in him they fair appearance lies.

To 'cide this title is empanelled
A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart,
And by their verdict is determined
The clear eye's moiety and the dear heart's part,

As thus: mine eye's due is thy outward part,
And my heart's right thy inward love of heart.

Oooooohhhh I wish that I had JESSIE'S GIRRRRL!

Where can I FIND a woman like THAT?
Like Jessie's GIIIIRL!

Just cheesy.


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## mvr_moorthy (Dec 6, 2006)

Fakespeare said:
			
		

> Ooh! That's beautiful!Man. Isn't he frighteningly brilliant? I wonder if he ever had writers block.


 Thanks. Now writer's block is not a bad idea. I started searching for poems that have a similar lilt,and a flighty start and the same slender sadness too deep and dear for tears.Well you may read a few of the following sonnets and check whether they have that magical block!! I am giving the first lines of the sonnets....
 18. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?......
 30. When to the sessions of sweet silent thought......
 55. Not marble , nor the gilded monuments.....
 65. Since brass, nor stone,nor earth, nor boundless sea........
 73. That time of the year thou mayst in me behold.....
 91. Some glory in thy birth....
 106. When in the chronicles of wasted time...
 116. Let me  not to   the marriage of true minds......
 130. My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun.......
  132. Thine eyes I love, and they,as pitying me ......
  138. When my love swears that she is made of truth.....
 144.Two loves I have of comfort and despair.....
 Look for the three dimensions I have mentioned in these poems.


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## heatherlouise (Dec 18, 2006)

i have only read one Shakespear play (The Tempest) and we are doing it in school now for our exams.  but it is so boring.  when i first read it i thought it was really good, but then when i actually started to understand it, it seemed so much less fun.  i really would like to read a couple more and enjoy them more, because the guy was so amazing and i feel cheeky not liking his work, but the Tempest is boring, lol.  
heather


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## knglerxt (Dec 26, 2006)

MrTamborineMan said:
			
		

> Exactly!  I doubt Shakespeare really wrote with the depth that people suggest.




  I've thought this myself.  I mean you go to any library or bookstore and there are tons of books on dissecting his works.  Even books that contain his plays are over half full of analyses.  It just seems like too much depth to me.


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## knglerxt (Dec 26, 2006)

This is my favorite quote.  It's in a book by Anthony Robbins (a famous motivational speaker) called Unlimited Power.  

  "Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt." 
                             William Shakespeare


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## coral (Jan 31, 2007)

I did a whole year of Shakespeare when I was in Uni. I think I read pretty much every play he wrote. He is amazing

What is cool about Shakespeare is that there are still so many phrases, metaphors and the like that we even use today, that he first introduced in his sommets and plays. (Please don't ask me to name a few, I can't remember of hand - but if I have time I will look it up)


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## Shawn (Jan 31, 2007)

In the old reference books for English we have in our Library, there's one section for common phrases, one section for Shakespeare, and one section for the rest.

I'm really interested in Iambic Pentameter, though. It's really cool how some famous lines are in pentameter. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" From the Declaration of Independence is in pentameter, and it is a brilliant sentence.


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## Arin (Feb 20, 2007)

I'm a Shakespeare nut as well.    I think my favorites would have to be Macbeth, Henry V, and Much Ado about Nothing. And Twelfth Night. It's hard to choose. :joker:  I'm in a Shakespeare company for kids (not school affiliated) so I've been in (or helped out with) around ten productions. I've seen quite a few on stage, as well as read them in school. But the great thing about the director of my company is that she allows us to analyze the text ourselves while teaching it to us, as well as directing. We may not hit on everything a school teacher would, but we gain a profound understanding of the plays through that analysis. I think the _method_ of breaking down Shakespeare's works is what makes it or breaks it. Yes, by analyzing you can reduce it to bland, mechanical writing techniques or you can uncover the intricacies of his work and therefore the magnitude of his genius.


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## G. Palmer (Feb 27, 2007)

Shakespeare is a love hate relationship for me, I like it but I dislike the incredible workload that comes with it - I wrote about three pages doing little more than analysis of a single soliquary the other day - and that was only half of the exercise.


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## Evangelina (Mar 12, 2007)

I don't know why, but absolutely detest Shakespear the poet and love Shakespear the playwrite


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## Shawn (Mar 13, 2007)

Evangelina said:
			
		

> I don't know why, but absolutely detest Shakespeare the poet and love Shakespeare the playwright



They are one in the same. Shakespeare writes in iambic pentameter regardless of the form. Except when using "commoner" speech. Then he writes in prose.


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## Dexter67 (Mar 21, 2007)

I really liked Much Ado.
Didn't like Romeo and Juliet so much, however.

Those are the only two I've read. I've seen MacBeth, R&J, and Much Ado performed before.

Someday I'll read more Shakespeare. Maybe over summer when I'm not busy with Honors Lit and the three novels I have to read over the course of the next two months,


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## VeryShyGuy (Mar 21, 2007)

I too am a Shakespeare fan. In high school when the teacher went through _King Lear_ and _Macbeth_ I was hooked. Later I went out and bought an anthology of Shakespeare's plays, lo and behold I couldn't understand a word of it! If I could understand them, I would reread King Lear and Macbeth. I might add Hamlet and Julius Caesar to the reading list also.


Well, thats my 2 cents. For now, farewell......parting is such sweet sorrow.


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## LadyPenelope (Apr 22, 2007)

I love Shakespeare. His sonnets are so beautiful and the plays, wow! Although I don't always understand what is being said, but I always enjoy the rhythm of his work. The plays should always be watched, not read and I also believe Shakespeare shouldn't be taught in schools. It's awful studying Shakespeare at high school and that's the best way to kill someone's love of the bard is to have some idiot English teacher stuff meanings down their throats. His work was meant for enjoyment. I'm enjoying it at college though. My fave is probably Romeo and Juliet, even though Romeo is a bit of a muppet at times. The language is exquisite. Beatrice from Much Ado is probably my favourite character, but I hate and despise Hero. Grow a backbone girl!


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## novu (Apr 30, 2007)

My favourite Shakespeare play has to be Antony and Cleopatra, it is faultless. 

'Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay.'


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## CFFTB (Jun 8, 2012)

Fascinating.

Original Shakespeare theatre found.


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