Happy New Year!
The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time steals...
All's Well That Ends Well, 5.3.50
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time...
Macbeth, 5.5.19-21
Welcome to What Shall Shakespeare Say Today and Happy New Year! 2011 is going to be different from all the other years of my life that have come before, because this year I'm using my time differently. This will be...MY YEAR WITH SHAKESPEARE! It's going to be wonderful. But first...
What means this lady?
I LOVE Shakespeare. I've always loved Shakespeare. Branagh's Henry V is one of my very earliest movie memories; I started reading the plays for fun when I was around eleven; I was notorious with my roommates at college for coming up with a quotation from Hamlet to fit every social situation. Then I grew up and
BECAME AN ENGLISH MAJOR.
The problem? I'm about to graduate, supposedly educated in the field of literature, and...CONFESS, CONFESS...I still have not read all of Shakespeare's plays. It's terrible! I haven't read Timon of Athens! Coriolanus! Troilus and Cressida! I haven't even cracked the cover of King Lear!
What is worse...I waste time reading things I don't care about. Like The Daily Mail. Remember "The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time!" STOP READING THE DAILY MAIL, SHAKESPEARE GIRL!
Recap: I love and want to read more Shakespeare. Yet I spend more time on I know not what!
How shall this fadge?
It must and shall be remedied by means of my Shakespeare reading plan!
Every week I'll read a play by Shakespeare, following (somewhat arbitrarily) the chronology of the Penguin Shakespeare. Some plays, like Hamlet, I'll probably spend a couple of weeks on, and will finish up the year with the Sonnets. I'll post favorite quotes, critical opinions and historical views of the plays, my own readings, and reviews of film versions and any live productions I see. I'm also planning to pick a passage from each play to memorize!
Sounds like fun? Join me!
On to The Two Gentlemen of Verona tomorrow!
A endeavor of a worthy goal. Though I'm sad to admit that I have neglected the cultural greatness that is Shakespeare. My hope is to remedy this situation. May happenstance this is the start, Shakespeare has always had as to describe it in my mind a healthy interest. Well looking forward to a year of pleasant surprises!
ReplyDeletejust found this blog while googling Shakespeare, it looks interesting! I'll get back to you when I've had time to read some more.
ReplyDelete