Favourite & Least Favourite Shakespeare Plays

[Slawbug]

I was too lazy to enter in 38 names by hand twice -- sorry. Refer to the following list:

 

COMEDIES

1 — All's Well That Ends Well

2 — As You Like It

3 — The Comedy of Errors

4 — Love's Labour's Lost

5 — Measure for Measure

6 — The Merchant of Venice

7 — The Merry Wives of Windsor

8 — A Midsummer Night's Dream

9 — Much Ado About Nothing

10 — Pericles, Prince of Tyre

11 — The Taming of the Shrew

12 — The Tempest

13 — Twelfth Night

14 — The Two Gentlemen of Verona

15 — The Two Noble Kinsmen

16 — The Winter's Tale

 

HISTORIES

17 — King John

18 — Richard II

19 — Henry IV, part 1

20 — Henry IV, part 2

21 — Henry V

22 — Henry VI, part 1

23 — Henry VI, part 2

24 — Henry VI, part 3

25 — Richard III

26 — Henry VIII

 

TRAGEDIES

27 — Romeo and Juliet

28 — Coriolanus

29 — Titus Andronicus

30 — Timon of Athens

31 — Julius Caesar

32 — Macbeth

33 — Hamlet

34 — Troilus and Cressida

35 — King Lear

36 — Othello

37 — Antony and Cleopatra

38 — Cymbeline

[Actaeon]

Three choices? I dislike being made to choose between Julius Caesar and Richard III.

 

Anyway, I continue to assert that Romeo and Juliet, if viewed as a tragedy and not as a modern romance, is an underrated play. With youth and blind love as a tragic flaw, several interesting side characters, and some great soliloquies, it doesn't deserve the rap it sometimes gets.

 

Other tragedies don't manage to sell me on the protagonist. I know several people who love Othello, but I'm afraid I spent the whole time wondering how the man could be so easily mislead. It's essentially the same ruse as "Much Ado About Nothing", but without the happy ending or the snarky secondary characters.

 

All that being said, I've only read a baker's dozen of his plays, and seen less, so my opinions may be ill informed and inherantly meaningless.

[Slawbug]

So I was going to link to the climactic moment in this debate since it's now been perilously close to our conversation twice... but apparently the last four pages of that topic are lost. Of all the things...

[Callie]

I have read Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, and Romeo and Juliet (Required reading in school). The only one I somewhat liked was King Lear, and I can't decide which one I liked the least.

 

I am curious: does anyone else here not like Shakespeare?

[Slawbug]

I don't think I can call you Shelley Long anymore. :-(

[Callie]

Heh, I had forgotten about you calling me that. (I tried finding the thread from which that originated but PPP seems to be a bit broken.)

[Alorael at Large]

I find a number of the comedies generally weak, and I think my favorites would come from the standard laundry list of Shakespearean triumphs. My one real addition is Richard II: the play seems consistently overlooked, but I think it's one of the best. It stands up much better in performance than in reading, though.

 

—Alorael, who appreciates the range in possible portrayal and character growth of the eponymous character. And unlike Macbeth, he doesn't leap gleefully into blood-spattered evil.

[Slawbug]

http://pied-piper.ermarian.net/topic/1/4228

 

Happily, the JPGs haven't moved either.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Means and Ends Committee

I find a number of the comedies generally weak, and I think my favorites would come from the standard laundry list of Shakespearean triumphs. My one real addition is Richard II: the play seems consistently overlooked, but I think it's one of the best. It stands up much better in performance than in reading, though.

we studied that in high school literature class. each of us took a character and read out their lines. i got to ham it up as bolingbroke. small lit classes with hippie teachers own

also you mean "titular", not "eponymous"

[Enraged Slith]

Is it bad that I can barely understand something that was written for uneducated country bumpkins?

[nikki.]

The only one of my favourites that isn't one of the immediately obvious ones is "The Taming of the Shrew". It gets bonus points for the awesome movie with Richard Burton.

[Student of Trinity]

I dislike R & J because the plot could have been resolved by giving either of the titular characters a darn good shaking.

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: Enraged Slith

Is it bad that I can barely understand something that was written for uneducated country bumpkins?

Queen Elizabeth was a uneducated country bumpkin? Hey, you might have something to that theory!

My favorites were Richard III, Julius Caesar, and Macbeth. The onyl one I don't like is R&J, but only because it's sooooo overdone.

[Actaeon]

Originally Posted By: Shadowcat

The only one of my favourites that isn't one of the immediately obvious ones is "The Taming of the Shrew". It gets bonus points for the awesome movie with Richard Burton.

It's a good one. And "Ten Things I Hate About You" isn't half bad, either. I didn't select it, myself, because I thought going and naming my cat Katherine was enough.

[Triumph]

My favorite is Macbeth; I just find it fun. Some of the dialogue ("Geese, villian?") is hilarious.

[Alorael at Large]

Originally Posted By: Lilith

also you mean "titular", not "eponymous"

I don't think I do. Titular and eponymous can both be used to refer the to person whose name appears in the item described.

—Alorael, who thinks Romeo and Juliet is a fine play about teenage love. Yes, the problems could be solved with a dose of common sense, but there's a character there to fruitlessly deliver it. Teenagers!

[Slawbug]

Well, eponymous more specifically implies that the other thing (i.e., the play) gets its name from the character. Which, in the case of a title character, it almost always does. This might be a harder sell for _Antony and Cleopatra_ because the title does not come just from Antony's name, for example.

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: Means and Ends Committee

—Alorael, who thinks Romeo and Juliet is a fine play about teenage love. Yes, the problems could be solved with a dose of common sense, but there's a character there to fruitlessly deliver it. Teenagers!

[Alorael at Large]

And I'd argue that Troilus and Cressida are both eponymous. It makes more sense than neither.

 

—Alorael, who hadn't noticed the Cure Light Wounds in the background of that OotS before. He is amused.