# Your Opinions on Shakespearean Plays **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 2, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227 "2003-02-02T03:11:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227/41 "2003-02-04T14:26:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DrFidelius \* > \*\*How about **King John**? > > No one has ever read this one. \*\* Heh, I have. And I’m quite fond of _I Henry VI_; as far as I’m concerned, Shakespeare’s take on Joan of Arc is a big plus. (Goody-goody saints are _boring_.) I’ve never read _Timon of Athens_, except for the [cartoon dachshund version](http://www.chill.org/csss/eng/dach), so if you’re looking for _really_ obscure, that’s the way to go. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227/42 "2003-02-04T17:05:53Z")
For a really good guide, try _Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare_. It’s a wonderful in-depth study and it’s ASIMOV! You really can’t go wrong! ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227/43 "2003-02-04T19:07:12Z")
Come on, folks, surely I’m not the world’s only fan of _Troilus and Cressida_? The OP is “more interested in comedies and tragedies”; here you’ve got both in one! I can’t think of a funnier play that ends with a character wishing syphilis upon the audience. Plus it’s got that wild structure in Act V that would be sure to get some good classroom discussion going. ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227/44 "2003-02-04T19:11:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fretful Porpentine \* > \*\*Heh, I have. And I’m quite fond of _I Henry VI_; as far as I’m concerned, Shakespeare’s take on Joan of Arc is a big plus. (Goody-goody saints are _boring_.) > \*\* And, in any case, what else would one expect from a sixteenth-century Englishman? 😉 BTW, best quote of this thread: > [@](#): > > I can’t think of a funnier play that ends with a character wishing syphilis upon the audience. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![rmbnxs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9e5f3/32.png) [@rmbnxs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rmbnxs)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227/45 "2003-02-04T20:16:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MachineHead \* > \*\*I hate shakepseare, I’d enjoy something more modern. Even when they ‘update’ the language it’s still the same. > I prefer Stepehn King, he’s easier to understand… \*\* > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by glee \* > \*\*He’s not a bad writer, but: > > - his language is pretty out of date (prithee, Sire) > > - he uses a lot of cliches > > - he makes no allowance for the teenage American audience > No, I don’t know much about him. Why? \*\* I regret my lack of propriety in saying this, but these are easily two of the dumbest posts I’ve ever read on SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227/46 "2003-02-04T20:20:09Z")
**rmbnxs** , see above. **Glee** was being facetious. You took him seriously. ---
**Author:** ![dwmacg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwmacg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwmacg)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227/47 "2003-02-04T20:26:20Z")
What? no votes for Coriolanus? Shakespeare’s take on time travel… ---
**Author:** ![rmbnxs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9e5f3/32.png) [@rmbnxs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rmbnxs)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227/48 "2003-02-04T21:08:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Walloon \* > \*\ ***rmbnxs** , see above. **Glee** was being facetious. You took him seriously. \*\* My bad. I suppose that, if I can live by the ironic sword, I can die by it as well. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Amok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@Amok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amok)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227/49 "2003-02-04T22:20:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bup \* > _Merchant_ is an interesting play, but, of course, you have to get past the anti-Jewish prejudice. An easy way to do that is to read Marlowe’s _Jew of Venice_, and you appreciate just how rich, human, and sympathizable Shakespeare really made Shylock. I know this is really nitpicky of me, but I can’t resist correcting you. It’s actually [The Jew of Malta](http://www2.prestel.co.uk/rey/jew.htm). And it’s a good play, but I agree that the characterization of Barabas can be hard to take in places. ---
**Author:** ![Giselle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Giselle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giselle)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227/50 "2003-02-04T22:20:29Z")
Don’t feel bad, **rmbnxs**. I screwed that one up, too. Oops. :X ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227/51 "2003-02-04T22:48:24Z")
My Shakespearean guilty pleasure is Cymbeline. It’s like what you’d get if you put all of Shakespeare’s other plays in a blender and turned it on high. Three weddings _and_ a severed head! How can you go wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Mothchunks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a587f6/32.png) [@Mothchunks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mothchunks)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227/52 "2003-02-05T03:16:30Z")
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS Is there no way for men to be but women Must be half-workers? We are all bastards; And that most venerable man which I Did call my father, was I know not where When I was stamp’d; some coiner with his tools Made me a counterfeit: yet my mother seem’d The Dian of that time so doth my wife The nonpareil of this. O, vengeance, vengeance! Me of my lawful pleasure she restrain’d And pray’d me oft forbearance; did it with A pudency so rosy the sweet view on’t Might well have warm’d old Saturn; that I thought her As chaste as unsunn’d snow. O, all the devils! This yellow Iachimo, in an hour,–wast not?-- Or less,–at first?–perchance he spoke not, but, Like a full-acorn’d boar, a German one, Cried ‘O!’ and mounted; found no opposition But what he look’d for should oppose and she Should from encounter guard. Could I find out The woman’s part in me! For there’s no motion That tends to vice in man, but I affirm It is the woman’s part: be it lying, note it, The woman’s; flattering, hers; deceiving, hers; Lust and rank thoughts, hers, hers; revenges, hers; Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain, Nice longing, slanders, mutability, All faults that may be named, nay, that hell knows, Why, hers, in part or all; but rather, all; For even to vice They are not constant but are changing still One vice, but of a minute old, for one Not half so old as that. I’ll write against them, Detest them, curse them: yet 'tis greater skill In a true hate, to pray they have their will: The very devils cannot plague them better. [Exit]😕 :eek: :mad: ---
**Author:** ![dwmacg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwmacg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwmacg)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227/53 "2003-02-05T03:17:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dwmacg \* > \*\*What? no votes for Coriolanus? Shakespeare’s take on time travel… \*\* :smack: :smack: I meant Cymbaline, of course. From ancient Britain to Renaissance England and back again. ---
**Author:** ![G.Cornelius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@G.Cornelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.Cornelius)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227/54 "2003-02-05T09:14:05Z")
I thought that Hamlet was a low point for Shakespeare. He just took a load of well know quotes and strung them together. Anybody could do that! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-on-shakespearean-plays/152227.md?page=2)