Stop what you're doing now and read Shakespeare

кёк

>being ironic, passive-agressive
kek, you must be really hurt that Tolstoy died thinking Shakespeare was shit, kek.

Why won't he ever see Harold again? I think he just wanted to hang out with them...

i guess Tolstoy did succeed in his dreams of becoming a pleb after all

>tfw only ever read Macbeth for school and that I skimmed
>considered well read by peers and as that 'intellectual guy'
and there's nothing you can do about it

Shakespeare's comedies were better than his tragedies.
His best comedy was The Merchant of Venice.
His best tragedy was Othello.
His historical plays are barely worth mentioning.

I'm reading Japanese literature. i just need something to sound smart about. I'm tired of being stupid

kek dude, Tolstoy was also a soyboy beta. I'm a vegetarian but I think he was an absolute pussy. "Anarcho-pacifism" sounds like babby's first political philosophy, boi.

i'll stick to my farts

underrated

also OP is right. there was homer, and then there was shakespeare. a third will appear in 3800 AD.

ok

Nevermore.

1/4, but your latter three opinions aren't entirely misguided. Anyone who claims the tragedies are better has unfortunately not critically read Midsummer's, AYLI, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest, the latter three I'd say are better than MoV (though MoV is damn good). Othello is good, and the best structurally, but Hamlet and Macbeth and Lear are better. I would say something to back up your histories comment but I'm afraid I'm not as well versed as I should be. Richard III, Henry IV, and Henry V are fucking amazing though.

actually picking one over the other and not vibing with Stephen's wish in Scylla and Charybdis for a girl to come take his life over like Anne did with Shakespeare.

>underrated

It's not underrated: this comment was originally made on another thread a few months ago and was a great success.

>also OP is right. there was homer, and then there was shakespeare.

I agree. I can't see Dante in the same league as those 2.

>a third will appear in 3800 AD.

I am he. I am not joking.

>I am he. I am not joking.
you must have a time machine then, in which case stop futzing around and go look for the lost homeric epics in the library of alexandria

>I would say something to back up your histories comment but I'm afraid I'm not as well versed as I should be. Richard III, Henry IV, and Henry V are fucking amazing though.

bud anyone who poopoos the history plays like that scrub did is either dumb or hasn't read them. if bill had only written the history plays he would still be strong contender for #1 GOAT

>Othello
>Spending time on some cucked miscegnation propaganda
No thanks loser. Eternal anglo at it again

>homeric epics
homeric is shorthand for homoerotic yeah?>His historical plays are barely worth mentioning.

the fuck

>homeric is shorthand for homoerotic yeah?

i'll tell you the answer after you bathe my rippling chad-bod in olive oil

Have any of you listened to the "William Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies" great courses audiobook?

I had credits about to expire and it sounded interesting so I picked it up. I'm an uber pleb so the contextual benefits are what I got it for, looking forward to listening to it in three years desu

>reading Shakespeare
You need to watch it guy

I am pleb as fuck and find his stuff really hard to work through. All I've read is Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Julius Caesar. What should I read next?

but youre supposed to watch shakespeare

Watch his plays (or at least listen to audio performances, like the Arkangel performances) before reading. Ideally watch/listen to more than one performance. With the possible exception of a few of his later plays, they're going to be much more rewarding when you only attempt to read them after experiencing a performance of them, and even for those few later plays, experiencing a performance first isn't going to be detrimental to your experience.

I'm teaching Macbeth to my students right now and we're acting it out (these are honors kids who all read well) and I play the part of Lady Macbeth who has the best lines

I don't know english

Macbeth.

use good editions (like Arden) that give maximum # of glosses on difficult words and passages. this is helpful in any event but especially if you're unused to Shakespearian English

keep in mind that there's a certain darkness inherent in some of his writing, particularly the verse. there's stuff in Hamlet that no-one can conclusively "understand" - so don't let that intimidate you

I'd rather read Marlowe. Goodbye!

I personally really don't like the way the Ardens do page layout for glosses, and I think it's disruptive for a new reader. I think the facing-page layout the Folgers (and I think a few others, but I'm not 100% sure) do is much better, especially for a first time reader. But that's just like, my opinion.

pasta joke
Tolstoy is fucking overrated.

Not to be

Stop reading Shakespeare and read some Goethe

>Henry V
>Not starting with Richard II and the Henry IV's
>Histories
>Shit
get a load of this pseud
>Kenneth's Hamlet

Read all of Shakespeare and then read some Schiller

*FTFY

>kek
>kek
>kek
Stop it you faggots, there isn't even anything that funny.

>reading a play when there's doubtless a solid production of it within driving distance