Rank the shakespeare plays you've read gogogo

tempest > hamlet > twelfth night > othello > antony and cleopatra > macbeth > as you like it > king lear > midsummers night dream > cymbeline > merchant of venice > romeo and juliet > measure for measure > julius caesar > titus andronicus

i kinda can't split the first three, they are all perfect for what they are!

How good was Antony and Cleopatra tho

He puts Titus last and tempest FIRST!.

right? it's the highest ranked one i've only read once. i really love it's feverish qualities - the way the really short scenes stack up and how the reality of the play seems to warp around a&c and their relationship. idk, i expect it to jump in front of othello with a rereading, which is so high because iago is my favourite character.

i actually really enjoyed reading titus, more than a fair few on the list. aron is amazing and i loved how absurdly the violence was and watching titus unravel! i just didn't derive much pleasure from the verse like i do with pretty much everything else.

what's wrong with the tempest first tho?

Personally I think its somewhere around the middle, I really hate the character of Caliban, seems like he is meant to be kind of intimidating but you just can't take him seriously.

Coriolanus is probably one of my favourites hamlet is pretty great, Julius Caesar somewhat underrated imo. Assuming you have read them a list that doesn't have Timon or two gentlemen last is objectively wrong.

I am not a huge fan of the comedies and prefer the more serious ones and histories but that's just personal opinion.

Macbeth

Caliban is definitely not meant to be intimidating in my opinion. He's more of a victim than anything. Look to his scenes with Stephano and Trinculo - he's ridiculed, and subjugates himself into slavery due to their booze. It's comedic.

The only way he can be seen as intimidating is in the mentioning of his attempted rape of Miranda and threats towards Prospero and Miranda. Yet, to me his threats (including rape threat) is simply bitterness and anger at his slavery. He is in no position of power, thus cannot be intimidating.

I've yet to read any of the romances, Henry V, Coriolanus, or a few others, which I will have read in about a month.

King Lear
Hamlet
Henry IV 1 and 2
Taming of the Shrew
Macbeth
Much Ado About Nothing
Richard III
Othello (best TRAGEDY wise, as Bradley puts it)
As You Like It
Merchant of Venice
A Midsummer Night's Dream (only read once, probably would be higher otherwise)
Romeo and Juliet
Twelfth Night (only read once, elsewise otherwise)
Antony and Cleopatra (only read once, again)
Julius Caesar
Titus Andronicus (read many times)
Richard II (once)
Henry VI part 3>2>1 (all read once)

Hamlet
Henry IV
Macbeth
King Lear
Julius Caesar
Coriolanus
Much Ado About Nothing
Richard III
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Henry V
Antony and Cleopatra
Othello
The Tempest
Richard II
Romeo and Juliet
The Merchant of Venice
Titus Andronicus
Twelfth Night
As You Like It
Henry VI
Measure for Measure
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
The Two Noble Kinsmen
The Winter's Tale
All's Well That Ends Well
Cymbeline
Love's Labour's Lost
The Comedy of Errors
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Henry VIII
King John
The Taming of the Shrew
Timon of Athens
Troilus and Cressida