When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her name, And Rosaline they call her

So far, Love's Labour's Lost is wonderful.  Oh, and it scores a point on the ol' "Shakespeare invented the world" board.  The castle guards from Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail have a bit of Costard in them.

From Love's Labour's Lost: Act III, Scene I.
BIRON: Stay, slave; I must employ thee:
As thou wilt win my favour, good my knave,
Do one thing for me that I shall entreat.
COSTARD: When would you have it done, sir?
BIRON: This afternoon.
COSTARD: Well, I will do it, sir: fare you well.
BIRON: Thou knowest not what it is.
COSTARD: I shall know, sir, when I have done it.
BIRON: Why, villain, thou must know first.
COSTARD: I will come to your worship to-morrow morning.
BIRON: It must be done this afternoon!

Cut me to pieces, Volsces; men and lads, Stain all your edges on me.

A quick, vulgar version of Coriolanus.  Part III.

Act IV, Scene IV.
Antium (that's a Volscian city).  A hall in Aufidius' house.

(Enter CORIOLANUS)
First Servant: Who the fuck are you?
Coriolanus: Servants?  Fuck you guys.
Second Servant: He wants to see the boss. (exits)
(Enter AUFIDIUS)
Aufidius: Who the fuck are you?
Coriolanus: The ear!  I...
Aufidius: Dude!  You look like shit.  Trouble in paradise?
Coriolanus: Romans.  Fuck those guys.
Aufidius: You tried to get into politics, didn't you.  Dumbass.
Coriolanus: Yeah.
Aufidius: Want to get back at 'em?  You could, say, lead my army with me, raze Rome to the ground and kill everyone who's ever done you wrong?
Coriolanus: Yeah!!

Act IV, Scene VI.
Rome.  A public place.  Again.

(Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS)
Brutus: So.  Coriolanus is at the gates and is going to kill the fuck out of us and destroy Rome.
Sicinius: Dude. This totally backfired.
Brutus: Yeah.  We're pretty much fucked.

Act V
The Volscian camp outside Rome.

(CORIOLANUS sits with AUFIDIUS and a SHIT TON OF VOLSCIAN SOLDIERS)
(Enter EVERYONE CORIOLANUS HAS EVER KNOWN)
Menenius: Please don't kill us?
Coriolanus: Everyone I've ever known?  Fuck you guys.
Aufidius: Yeah!  He's mine now!
Volumnia: Even me, Coriolanus?
Coriolanus: Mommy?
Aufidius: What?  Come on.  Seriously?
Coriolanus: Aufidius?  Fuck you.  In the ear.
(Exit EVERYONE CORIOLANUS HAS EVER KNOWN)
Aufidius: You've got to be fucking kidding me.
Coriolanus: Nope.
Aufidius: Fine.  Fuck you then.
(AUFIDIUS stabs the hell out of CORIOLANUS, who dies.  AUFIDIUS dances on his corpse.  BRUTUS and SICINIUS twirl mustaches)

Upon their ancient malice will forget With the least cause these his new honours

A quick, vulgar version of Coriolanus.  Part II.

Act II, Scene I.
Rome.  A public place.

(Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS, twirling their mustaches)
Sicinius: It's good to be evil!
Brutus: It is!  And to be a tribune of Rome!
Sicinius: Yes!  Haha!  It is good to be an evil tribune!
(Enter MENENIUS)
Menenius: Hey guys.  We're gonna make Coriolanus a consul.  Wanna come watch?
Brutus: What?  But we hate him!!!
Menenius: Yeah, whatever.  (Exits)
Sicinius: That blows.  Hey!  Wanna see if we can get him killed?
Brutus: Great idea!  Yippee!
(Exeunt)

Act II, Scene II/III.
Rome.  The Forum.

(Enter MENENIUS, MARCIUS and SOME SENATORS)
Menenius: Guys, Coriolanus is awesome.  I would gargle his ba...
First Senator: None of that now, Menenius!  What do you think this is, Ancient Rome?
Second Senator: No, let's just make him a tribune.
Menenius: Okay.  Now, Coriolanus, there's some citizens outside.  You don't have to suck up, just be a little nice.  Then they'll elect you.
Coriolanus: Okay.
(Coriolanus goes outside, where SOME CITIZENS have gathered to elect him)
First Citizen: Dude!  We heard you're awesome!
Second Citizen: Yeah!  We want to elect you!
Coriolanus: What?  Citizens?!?  Fuck you guys!!! (exits)
First Citizen: Oh.  What a dick.
Third Citizen: Yeah.  I guess... we'll... elect him anyway?
(Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS)
Second Citizen: Hey!  Just what we need, some tribunes! We elect Coriolanus.
Sicinius: Really?  But... he's kind of a dick.
First Citizen: Got a better plan?
Brutus: Yep.  Lynch mob.
Second Citizen: Lynch mob?
Third Citizen: Lynch mob!!!
(Citizens exeunt, while SICINIUS and BRUTUS twirl mustaches)

Act III, Scene I.
Rome.  I don't know, somewhere in Rome.  MENENIUS and CORIOLANUS are hanging out with SOME SENATORS.

Menenius: Dude, you're going to love being a consul.
Coriolanus: Okay.
(enter SOME CITIZENS, BRUTUS and SICINIUS)
First Citizen: Coriolanus!  We're going to hang your ass!
Coriolanus: Citizens?  Fuck you guys!
Menenius: Yeah!  He's a consul now.
Second Citizen: Nuh uh!  We unelected him!
Menenius: Wait, what?
Brutus: Yep!  We can do that because we're tribunes.
Coriolanus: Tribunes?  Fuck you guys!
(SICINIUS gives CORIOLANUS the finger)
Citizens (chanting): Hang him!  Hang him!
First Senator:  Nope.  We're just gonna banish him.  You know why?  'Cause senator outranks both citizen and tribune.
Coriolanus: Senators!
Second Senator: Fuck us guys?
Coriolanus: Yup.  (exits)
(BRUTUS and SICINIUS twirl mustaches)

The gates are ope: now prove good seconds: 'Tis for the followers fortune widens them, Not for the fliers: mark me

A quick, vulgar version of Coriolanus.  Part I.

Act I, Scene I.
Rome.  A street.

(Enter MENENIUS, MARCIUS and SOME CITIZENS)
Citizens:  We hate Marcius!  He's a jerk!
Menenius Agrippa: No, no!  He's pretty cool.
Caius Marcius: Citizens?  Fuck you guys.
(enter MESSENGER)
Messenger: The Volscians are in the field!  With an army!
Marcius: Volscians!  Fuck those guys!
Messenger: Led by Tullus Aufidius.
Marcius: Aufidius!!!  Fuck that guy!  In the ear!!!
(exit MARCIUS)

Act I, Scene IV.
Before Corioli

(Enter MARCIUS and SOME DUDES)
First Dude: Whew!  Fighting is hard.
Second Dude: Look!  The Volscians retreat within the walls of their city!
First Dude: To follow would mean certain death!
Marcius: Psh!
(MARCIUS chases the WHOLE VOLSCIAN ARMY within their walls.  The gates are shut behind him.)
Third Dude: Woah.
Second Dude: Welp!  He's fucked.  Might as well go home.
(The gates are opened.  MARCIUS stands there, alone, covered in blood and juggling the heads of the WHOLE VOLSCIAN ARMY.)
Third Dude: Woah.


Act I, Scene IX.
The Roman camp.

(Enter COMINIUS, MARCIUS, SOME DUDES and CHEWBACCA)
Cominius: Dude, that was awesome.
Marcius: Psh.
(COMINIUS gives MARCIUS a medal)
Chewbacca: Raaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrr!
Cominius: From now on I'm gonna call you "Coriolanus".
First Dude (aside): Heh.
Second Dude (aside): Does that mean "the asshole of Corioli".
Third Dude: Won't that confuse the audience?
Cominius: It's the name of the play, dickweed!  They're just going to have to work for it.  Now, Coriolanus...
Marcius: ...
Cominius: Coriolanus, come on, let's go.
Marcius: ...
Cominius: MARCIUS!
Marcius: Huh?
Cominius: You're Coriolanus now.  Got it?  Good.  Let's go.
(Exeunt)

O, a kiss, Long as my exile, sweet as my revenge!

I've completed the first tetrology and moved on.  Coriolanus was the next pick.  Not through any urgency to hear it, but I wanted something both tragic and unfamiliar after the hard trek that was four histories in a row.

So, Coriolanus, the tale of a roman general who, after winning a great victory for Rome, gets involved in politics, is backstabbed, exiled, turns on his former home, turns on his new allies, and is ultimately murdered.  Yep, that sounds like Shakespearean tragedy!

Caius Marcius (later Coriolanus) is the author of his own downfall.  Dude never should have gotten into politics and his unbending pride should have kept him from office.  Supposedly, Marcius is more difficult to understand than his fellow tragic heroes.  He doesn't explain himself at great length, like, say Hamlet, rambling on about his feelings.  Rather, he is certain and absolute in every action and reaction.  His motivation is to serve Rome (with, perhaps, a helping of bloodthirst on the side), and when Rome spurns him, his pride and soldierly acumen send him down a vengeful road.  He's so angry that he goes to his archnemesis (yeah, it's like that!) Tullus Aufidius, the Volscian general, and agrees to help him lead their army against Rome.

Eventually he backs down, talked out of razing Rome by his mother.  For this betrayal, Aufidius quickly arranges a conspiracy and there is a good, old fashioned group stabbing.  In fact, this is a fun and delicate bit, pentametrically speaking. 

Coriolanus: Act V, Scene VI, Line 154:
CONSPIRATORS: Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill him!
(The Conspirators draw, and kill CORIOLANUS: AUFIDIUS stands on his body)
LORDS: Hold, hold, hold, hold!

Six beats to kill him, four to hold and the man dead by line 155.

Also, take a look at that stage direction.  It's a far cry from (Exeunt) or (He strikes), isn't it?  According to wikipedia, the in-depth directions in Coriolanus suggest that the text we have is descended from a version (the First Folio) that was typeset from the "prompt book", not just a text with all of the lines but all of the stage directions, cues, blocking and all.  Pretty neat, huh?

So shall I do To the freshest things now reigning and make stale The glistering of this present

Hey folks!  I'm still going, just haven't have a lot of time of late for blogging.

Henry IV Part I is quite good, so far my favorite of the histories, but I don't find myself having a lot to say about it at this point.  Henry IV Part II is... well, more of the same, but not as well done.  I did love the conversation between Henry IV and Hal on Henry's death bed.  May be able to muster a post about that.  Or I may just roll it into a big tetrology wrapup after I finish Henry V.

As always, questions, comments, suggestions, jeers, and what have you are welcome!

And lay the summer's dust with showers of blood Rain'd from the wounds of slaughter'd Englishmen

A contrast of kings in the face of rebellion.  Richard II says "please don't kill me, you can be king", while Henry IV says "if all you little pissants go home right now I won't spank the living fuck out of you".

Or, if you prefer, the quotes:

(After sending a reasonably manly message of "I'm your king, and I banished you, so quit with the treason already" to Bolingbroke with Northumberland, awaiting the reply.)

AUMERLE:

Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke.

RICHARD:

What must the king do now? must he submit?
The king shall do it: must he be deposed?
The king shall be contented: must he lose
The name of king? o' God's name, let it go

*snip* (He's goes on a bit here)

Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland,
What says King Bolingbroke? will his majesty
Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?

Notice that?  Richard himself, without even hearing Bolingbroke's reply, just folds like a cheap card table.  And, what's more, at the end of his little speech he just flat out names Henry king.  "Fuck this guys, I quit."

Now, for that self same man - Bolingbroke, now King Henry IV - addressing the Earl of Worcester, who represents the rebels (himself, Henry Percy (Hotspur) and the Earl of Douglas).


KING HENRY IV:
And, will they take the offer of our grace,
Both he and they and you, every man
Shall be my friend again and I'll be his:
So tell your cousin, and bring me word
What he will do: but if he will not yield,
Rebuke and dread correction wait on us
And they shall do their office. So, be gone;
We will not now be troubled with reply:
We offer fair; take it advisedly.

 Unsurprisingly, Henry's words result in a battle and Richard's do not.  Also, he keeps his crown and Richard does not.

Also, just for the sake of completeness, it should be noted that Worcester is a fucker.  He knows if he delivers the message straight that the Percys might back down, so:

WORCESTER:
I told him gently of our grievances,
Of his oath-breaking; which he mended thus,
By now forswearing that he is forsworn:
He calls us rebels, traitors; and will scourge
With haughty arms this hateful name in us.

To his credit, they'd have been screwed had they shown Henry their throats too, but still.  What a dick. 

'Tis a commodity will lose the gloss with Lying; the longer kept, the less worth: off with't While 'tis vendible

After finishing Winter's Tale and being quite disenchanted, I thought a rip roaring comedy would do me well.  Thus, All's Well That Ends Well, which proved a very good time.  It's fun to see the woman as the pursuer in a tale such as this.  Helena performs a wide range of herculean acts to nab Bertram (ranging from saving the King's life to rape-by-fraud), who is really not worth her attention to begin with.  Once again, the Bard's ladies far outclass his gentlemen.

Speaking of class, however, Parolles, is a good time; though he be a coward and a knave.  In his first appearance he puts up some pretty convincing arguments for the undesirability of maintaining one's chastity (young lads, take note!):

Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be
blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with
the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It
is not politic in the commonwealth of nature to
preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational
increase and there was never virgin got till
virginity was first lost.

But more importantly, the dude learns.  He is exposed and disreputed; forced to change, and he himself knows immediately that he will be a better man for't.  Parolles knows better than anybody that this is the only way he'll ever be a decent person.

Captain I'll be no more;
But I will eat and drink, and sleep as soft
As captain shall: simply the thing I am
Shall make me live. Who knows himself a braggart,
Let him fear this, for it will come to pass
That every braggart shall be found an ass.
Rust, sword? cool, blushes! and, Parolles, live 
Safest in shame!

It was myself, my brother and his son, That brought you home

I get it now.  Richard II is The Phantom Menace of Shakespearean histories.

The men are not yet cold under water, nor The bear half dined on the gentleman

The Winter's Tale includes a peculiar and oft-quoted stage direction.  (Exit, pursued by a bear).  It's a sort of bizarre non sequitur; no bear is present in the scene up to that point.  For context, Antigonus finishes a lengthy soliloquy lamenting that the task has fallen to him to abandon Leontes baby (yeah, that guy) whom he has rejected.  At this point in the writing of the play, one can only assume that Shakespeare asked himself "Well, fuck.  Now that Leontes has realized that he's totally wrong, why would he not interrogate Antigonus upon his return to Sicily, and go reclaim the girl?  Welp, guess I gotta kill him!"

And so the Bard expediently does so.  That's a thing, I think.  Expedience.  In The Winter's Tale, he throws a bear at Antigonus and drowns his entire crew with a aboardship.  Then he dusts off his hands and proceeds on with his play.

You see, the plot as it stands requires that Perdita be raised by a poor shepherd so that she can grow up and fall in love with Florizel, the son of Polixines.  The play takes a turn toward the lighter end of Shakespeare after this scene.  The madness and attempted infantcide are all out of the way, and it's time to get on with the mistaken identities, disguises, clever thieves and other madcap adventures one might expect in a Shakespearian comedy.  With just one problem... there are only two acts remaining.

It's really like two mini-plays.  Here's a quick tragedy; wherein Leontes fucks everything up, drives off his friend, has his daughter abandoned, and is responsible for the death of his wife and son; and now here's a little comedy that takes everything and makes it all right (sort of - Mamillius and Antigonus are still dead, after all).

But, I digress.  This is about expedience.  Antigonus death (and Mamillius's, his is even more offhand) are written in quickly in order to fill the playwright's need.  No words or time are wasted, nothing to see, just move along, we've got a story to tell.

Frequently, this is where Shakespeare brings in the supernatural:  the Ghost of King Hamlet isn't needed to draw Hamlet's suspicions, but his nature makes it possible for Shakespeare to say, absolutely, "this is so, let's move on".

Fear you his tyrannous passion more, alas, Than the queen's life?

I've finished The Winter's Tale.  Man, Leontes is a dick.  I now have a least favorite Shakespeare character.  See below:

 London.  The GLOBE theatre.
(Enter LEONTES, HERMIONE, POLIXINES, various OTHERS)

Leontes:  I'm a whiny little baby.  Please don't go, Polixines, you're my best friend and I don't know what I would do without you, even though my wife is awesome, gorgeous and fertile and I'm a king.
Polixines: Nah.  I'm leaving.  Nice to see you though.
Leontes: Really, really pregnant wife, please make him stay!
Hermione: Polixines, if you don't stay, I'll throw you in jail.  Which I can do because I'm the Queen.
Polixines: Ummm... Okay.  I guess.
Leontes: What?!  You guys are fucking, aren't you!  I'll kill you Polixines!
(Exit POLIXINES, fleeing)
Leontes: Cheating bitch!  I'll throw you in jail!
Various Others:  Dude, chill!  You've flipped your lid, she's faithful and he's your best friend.  Also, she's hella pregnant!
Leontes: Fuck all a'y'all!  Anybody who disagrees will be executed.  I can do this because I'm the king!
Various Others: Ummm.  Okay.  I guess.  But you're nuts.

LATER
(Enter LEONTES, PAULINA)
Paulina: Hey, asshole.  Here's your daughter.  Your wife died giving birth to her in a filthy jail cell.
Leontes: Good!  Cheating bitch.  Get rid of that thing.
Paulina: Notice how she looks just like you?
Leontes: Whatever.  Burn it.  Or like, hit it with a hammer or something.  Just get rid of it.
Paulina: I ummm... guess I'll take it away now.
Leontes: God, but it's good to be king!

STILL LATER
Leontes: Oh, hey!  The prophecy I sent for arrived!  This'll show everyone I'm right!
Officer: The prophecy says (reading) Leontes is wrong, and also an asshole.  If he doesn't believe me, his son will die right away to prove that I'm a real prophecy.
Leontes: I don't believe it.  I'm still right.
(Enter SERVANT)
Servant: Hey, asshole.  Your son just died.
Leontes: What?  You mean the prophecy is right and everyone else is right and I am wrong?  Oh woe!
Everyone: Fuck you.

The treasure of her honour. No more. To what end?

London.  The GLOBE theatre.
(Enter IACHIMO and POSTHUMUS)

Iachimo: Sup?
Posthumus: What? You? I hate you.
Iachimo: Yeah. Bet I can bang your old lady.
Posthumus: What? No.
Iachimo: Totally! And if I win, let’s be friends.
Posthumus: Yeah, okay. But if you lose, I’ll kill you.

LATER
Iachimo: Sup?
Posthumus: What? You?
Iachimo: Yeah. I totally banged your old lady.
Posthumus: What? No.
...Iachimo: Totally! The beast with two backs, you know?
Posthumus: Seriously?
Iachimo: Yep! 

(Shows “proof”)
Posthumus: Crap. Here’s your money.
Iachimo: Yep! Now we can be friends!
Posthumus: Yeah. I guess. Well, I suppose I’ll have her murdered then.
(Exit IACHIMO)
Posthumus: (To audience) Man. Bitches, am I right?
Audience: WTF?

Trouble him not, his wits are gone.

Oh man.  King Lear, Act III, Scene VI is so much better when you can see it.  The lines are all delivered by that holy trinity of crazy, Lear, his fool and Edgar/Tom O'Bedlam, but it's their near-silent witness who makes the scene.  Kent stands by helpless; as his lord shows him just how far gone he is.  In audio, the scene mostly just demonstrates this fact to the audience.  When you can see Kent's look of sadness and just... the dude's heart is breaking.  It's pretty amazing, especially contrasted with the three men cavorting around him.

I need, need, need to explore the characters and write a post comparing Iago and Kent.  Oh yes.

And know not now what name to call myself

A quick note on the current status before I get into today’s play.  Since the starting point described in the introductory post I’ve listened to audiorecordings of King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cymbeline, Hamlet and now Richard II.  I’ll be posting about them in catch up entries periodically.

Now on to Richard II, which I just finished up.

This was my first foray into the Histories and it really wasn’t terribly exciting.  The tale of Richard II is comparatively simple, no mistaken identities, no secret brothers, no ghosts, no clever bets as to the fidelity of anyone’s wife.  Richard banishes a dude (Henry Bolingbroke), and annexes his father’s lands upon his death.  Bolingbroke returns, musters a PO’d gentry against Richard and… Richard just sort of rolls over for them, is imprisoned and, eventually murdered.  Pretty straight story.

Honestly, a little disappointing.  It’s probably that I’m simply not understanding the play very deeply – that’s pretty characteristic, but whatever – there is a body of criticism and analysis on this play just like all the others.  There are a few good turns of the phrase, my favorite is this, spoken by Richard to his usurper, Henry IV (Bolingbroke): 

…I am greater than a king:
For when I was a king, my flatterers
Were then but subjects; being now a subject,
I have a king here to my flatterer.

While Richard himself is something of a whiner, his Queen has a good bit of backbone.  I’m starting to notice that that’s a thing.  Queens, wives, fiancés, those who are true in their love are given strength thereby.  I’ll be studying this pattern as I go, now that I’ve identified it.  For contrast, consider Burgundy from King Lear, who’s like “What’s that?  Cordelia has no dowry?  Maybe I could get one of those Russian mail-order brides…”

Last observation for the wrapup – Names.  Oh man, I hope all the histories aren’t like this.  Bolingbroke, Hereford, Henry IV… it’s hard to keep these guys all straight.  Oh, wait, those are all the same guy!  In England in 1595, they were, no doubt, more accustomed to referring to noblemen with various titles, but it’s pretty hard to track for a commoner here in the colonies in 2011.  Especially since I'm doing this without visual cues and have to match the name to the voice the first time a character is introduced or be forever confounded.  Ah well.

There will likely be one more post on Richard II, about John of Gaunt’s death bed scene.  Look forward!

That way lies madness

One thing that had me thinking about Shakesepeare was an analogy that I'd made a while back.  A year or two ago, I got into the Delta Blues (if you want the story of that, here's an abbreviated version: White Stripes - It Might Get Loud - Son House - Blues).  The first major purchase I made was a copy of the complete recordings of Robert Johnson, to which I listened carefully.  I had to listen carefully.  That stuff isn't as accessible as... well, most anything else you might find yourself listening to.  So, my analogy, "This stuff is like Shakespeare.  It takes a lot of work to understand and enjoy, but once you do you realize that it is really amazing."

As mentioned in the comments previously, I slept through my viewing of King Lear.  It was a class trip and I had foolishly stayed up pretty much the whole night before doing whatever foolish high schoolers do on these trips.  The result was that I dozed off repeatedly during King Lear the next night, despite that I was rapt while I was awake.

A project I was working on (in which I've since mostly lost interest) had me thinking about King Lear and how much I liked it.  That, coupled with an enjoyable viewing of Much Ado About Nothing a month or so earlier, convinced me that I should dig up a copy.  Thus, I wanted to start with King Lear.

We've got a copy of the Complete Works; a big hardbound monster of a book.  Not terribly practical and, given my schedule with the little one and such, I didn't feel like reading was the best course of action for this.  I tracked down a public domain audiorecording of King Lear at www.librivox.org (which has become my go-to site) and set to't.  Listening to Lear, and with that analogy rattling about my head, really that was what birthed the whole project.

Introduction

A quick intro for you.  Circumstances recently have convinced me that it’s time to experience more Shakespeare.  I’m pretty much just interested in the plays and not the poetry, so I’m seeking to read, watch or listen to each and every one of them.  And, of course, I’m blogging about it because it’s 2011 and this is the internet.

Here’s the official list from Wikipedia.  I've annotated it to give us a starting point:

Comedies

• All's Well That Ends Well  -  No knowledge
• As You Like It  -  No knowledge
• The Comedy of Errors  -  Performed in as Antipholus of Syracuse.
• Love's Labour's Lost  -  No knowledge
• Measure for Measure  -  No knowledge
• The Merchant of Venice  -  Saw a performance at Stratford, Ontario.  So good.
• The Merry Wives of Windsor  -  No knowledge
• A Midsummer Night's Dream  -  No knowledge
• Much Ado About Nothing  -  Have seen the movie.  Yeah, with Keanu Reeves.
• Pericles, Prince of Tyre  -  Never even heard of it!
• The Taming of the Shrew  -  I’m pretty sure I watched a movie in class, but will have to revisit.
• The Tempest  -  No knowledge
• Twelfth Night  -  Perfomed in as “Officer”.
• The Two Gentlemen of Verona  -  No knowledge
• The Two Noble Kinsmen  -  No knowledge
• The Winter's Tale  -  Never even heard of it!

Histories  -  Lets make this easy.  I’ve no knowledge of any of the histories except I watched Looking for Richard

• King John
• Richard II
• Henry IV, Part 1
• Henry IV, Part 2
• Henry V
• Henry VI, Part 1
• Henry VI, Part 2
• Henry VI, Part 3
• Richard III
• Henry VIII

Tragedies

• Romeo and Juliet  -  Saw the Baz Luhrmann movie.  Yeah, I know.
• Coriolanus  -  Never heard of it
• Titus Andronicus  -  No knowledge
• Timon of Athens  -  Never heard of it
• Julius Caesar  -  Listened to an audiorecording in class.  Need to revisit.
• Macbeth  -  Read
• Hamlet  -  No knowledge, aside from knowing half of the play as figures of speech.
• Troilus and Cressida  -  No knowledge
• King Lear  -  Saw a performance at Stratford Ontario.  The great William Hutt was Lear.
• Othello  -  Read and watched the movie.  Yeah, the one with Lawrence Fishburn.
• Antony and Cleopatra  -  No knowledge
• Cymbeline  -  Never heard of it

So that’s where I am going into this.  I’m actually a bit into the project, but this is an “as of the beginning” post, so I’ll catch up as I go.  There’s a lot of work to do, 30 plays.  Yikes!

This post is pretty much an infodump.  I'll try to get a bit more interesting next time.  Feel free to ignore or use as reference point or whatever.