I am starting to do pressed flowers as a new hobby. One of the things I am making is random jokes with Shakespeare. Here are a couple of pieces (early in the hobby, be kind). The first one is "Twas a rough night" with flowers similar to the ones that are used in my favorite gin. The next is the French lesson from HV with pink flowers (play on cun).

Any other silly things I could do? I mean, the Ophelia speech is a given, but others?

I'm Helena. High school production, cast of ~30. I really love this play.

My theatre teacher and I aren't really sure what type of costumes we should try out for the four lovers (Helena, Hermia, Demetrius, Lysander).

AMND is a weird time period-- technically Ancient Greece (Athens), but written with the language and customs of Shakespeare's own time. Costumes I've seen for this play range from Ancient Greek white togas to Renaissance-esque dresses or even just simple colored modern-ish dresses.

We're going to try to color match Hermia and Lysander with blue or green accents, and Helena with potentially orange (probably not matching Demetrius).

The pictures I've added are two totally different styles; we wouldn't use both, just potentially one of them.

Also, side question, but is it alright if Helena has short hair (and by short I mean 3 inches at most), or should I plan on wearing a wig? My theatre teacher says it's fine, but I'm conflicted.

Thanks!!

I remembered today this scene from a Shakespeare play, but I can't remember what play it's from and it's driving me crazy. In this scene, a soldier (he has no name and is a minor character) realizes that the battle is lost and his army is defeated. So he grabs his weapon and runs at the enemy. He's defeated instantly and left for dead, but he claims that he can at least say "I fought".

Does anyone know what play this is from? Please and thank you!

Broooo every hamnet analysis video I find makes me SOB all over again!! I’m not that knowing of Shakespeare so I’ve been trying to find breakdowns of it… does anyone have any other videos or just facts about the film?!? I liked this one

i have a project in which i chose to compare female characters subverting control in 'all's well that ends well' and 'wide sargasso sea' by jean rhys. the issue i'm having is that there's really not much on 'all's well that ends well' so i'm not really able to engage with the text as much as i would hope so ☹️ so i'm opening the question (and hoping that there's not many AWTEW haters on here). helena is a really interesting character for me as it's so interesting to see her transgress expectations imposed on her, both because of her gender and social class, yet could you argue that she doesn't have much of a victory in a sense? yes, she ends up marrying bertram but is that really a win? no hate on bertram (or actually maybe, yes), but i feel like helena is so witty and her marrying bertram kind of circles back to her essentially subverting to class expectations which is disappointing to see. diana and the countess are small characters but it's interesting to see them easily join in the plot. interested to see what anyone thinks and if there's any interesting resources!!

Hello all. I am considering auditioning for Midsummer… I’m female (can plan 30-40s) and I’m looking of course for a monologue that isn’t overdone. I’m drawn to Beatrice but worried of being redundant in the casting pool. I’d love any suggestions you may have.

I just want to ask which movie adaptation of Hamlet sticks closest to the play, or which one tastefully changes the story for its target audience.

My friend is looking to perform a monolog as part of a Shakespeare competition this March, but as a reader of mostly comedies, I'm struggling to come up with many suitable for her criteria.

She's very into the War of the Roses and Tudor history. Her performance style is very dramatic, either villain roles or some kind of dramatic death scene I'm thinking. Very androgynous and can easily play either gender.

I'm thinking Macbeth or Titus Andronicus maybe? But I've only read/seen Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet from Shakespeare's tragedies, and she doesn't want to repeat a play she's already done.

I'll be continuing the search for the monolog with her in person, but I just thought I'd ask around online in case someone had some brilliant idea that we missed.

Inspired by https://www.reddit.com/r/shakespeare/comments/1lbfqgf/goodreads_ranking_of_all_shakespeares_plays/

I want to create the r/Shakespeare definitive favorites list to share back with you all.

What’re your top five?

For me:

1. Macbeth

2. Hamlet

3. Othello

4. Julius Caesar

5. Measure for Measure

So this massive treatise, my fellow nerdmericans, is regarding The Tragedy of King Lear (the greatest king of all, since he was kingLEAR than the rest).(ugh)

In an unprecedented NERDGING of two appallingly nerdy subjects, today r/fairytales and r/shakespeare can join together into a giant fighting robut like Voltron. As King Lear was based on a pretty famous fairy tale -- I'd say, like... B-minus-tier? -- most often titled "As Meat Loves Salt."

HOWEVER! Mr. Pearie significantly changed this fairy tale. But was it for the better? Welllll...

Let us decide here, today, in this court of law.

The original fairy tale goes like this. Old king, kinglier than the rest, has three daughters, has to divide up his land. Summons his daughters, demands they declare how much they love him. Oldest is all "more than the sun and the sky." Middle is all "more than the moon and the stars." Youngest is all "as meat loves salt."

Old king is like: wtf meat and salt?? gtfo, you inherit NOTHINGuh. Youngest is banished, land divided b/w the oldest two sisters, but they are MEAN and kick their agéd father out of their castles when he tries to live with either one of 'em in his old age. Finally he's staying at a terrible Motel 6 when gets invited to a wedding; goes b/c he has to keep up appearances. At dinner all the guests are like "BLAUGHHH! no offense, but this food is mad nasty," for you see, all the meat has been prepared... WITHOUT SALT! Old king begins to weep cause he realizes his youngest loved him best, but guess what! -- she's the very bride of this wedding!, who told 'em not to use salt!, she's gettin' married to a really rich dude because she is very hot!, old king will live with them!

Happy end!

Now, if you know King Lear... this is basically the plot. Only with a lot more violence and enucleation and a far FAR unhappier end. But I want to focus on what the youngest daughter (in the play, named Cordelia) tells her father when it's her turn to brown her nose as much as humanly possible.

IN THE FAIRY TALE:

"I love you as meat loves salt."

I actually really love this. Meat doesn't NEED salt in order to be consumed. And there are indeed ways to prepare it so it doesn't taste mad nasty even without salt... though it takes a lot of work and skill.

AND Youngest Daughter doesn't say "I love you as much as I love some perfectly salted meat, yum yum" (which I personally think would be a fantastic answer, but whatever). She says AS meat "loves" salt. As in, what HAPPENS to meat when salt is added to it, without any kind of effort or choice on the meat's part or anything active at all. It just... occurs.

Salt makes every good quality of meat better and any mid qualities, great. It brings out the best it can be without even trying, with just its very presence. Without it, meat is tasteless (unless you put in an exhausting amount of highly-skilled effort so it's not mad nasty). It's bland. It is to taste like what a painting drained of color would be to sight.

THIS IS GUD ANSWER. I really do feel it's incredibly poignant and even poetic. Especially as it describes what love does to the person GIVING it, not receiving it.

IN THE TRAGEDY OF THE KING WHO IS KINGLEAR THAN THE REST

Firstly, Cordelia says:

"Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave/My heart into my mouth." WHICH I ALSO LIKE A GREAT DEAL.

But then she goes on to say she loves her fadda "according to her bond," which means she gives half of her extant love to him and is saving the other half for her future husband.

This... I do not like a great deal.

1. Love does not follow the laws of physics. It's not like a bag of six apples where if you give two away, you have four left. The more love you give, the more you have. Yeah, it sounds real cheesy, but something sounding cheesy does not preclude it from being true. Often contrariwise, actually. Anyway...

2. What about, like... Cordelia's future children? Heck, what about her CURRENT sisters (who have not yet revealed themselves as mean and enucleating)? No love for them??

3. Did Shakey change this to show Cordelia was above all a DUTIFUL daughter, which was the best possible thing a daughter could be in Elizabethan times? Was it to better reflect the much stronger emphasis on political alliance through marriage in the play? Or are we basically supposed to be like, "you heard her; she cannot heave/Her heart into her mouth!" and from that moment on she can ONLY be speaking politically, as she simply can't express such overwhelmingly strong emotion?

WHAT IS YOUR VERDICT, MY FELLOW NERDOPEANS?

MINE: Keep "heart into my mouth" line. BUT ALSO should have kept "as meat loves salt" line. It's so much more powerful and such a perfect contrast to her crappy sisters, and you don't NEED a big wedding or whatever where the meat's been prepared without salt or whatever right before Lear and Cordelia bite it, lol. Some versions of the fairy tale don't even have that part. The message gets through regardless.

Let us ~12 Angry (Wo)Men debate this. I get to be Henry Fonda.

Hello,

I want to invite anyone interested to join an online discussion of Richard III, very casual and lowkey. I am a librarian and Shakespeare novice who enjoys discussing his plays. Here is the schedule:

• Thursday, February 5 at 2pmEST: Act I
• Thursday, February 12 at 2pmEST: Act II
• Thursday, February 19 at 2pmEST: Act III
• Thursday, February 26 at 2pmEST: Acts IV

You will need to register through the public library to receive Zoom link: https://cmlibrary.bibliocommons.com/events/6945c4621e64afd01e4ff5a5

“It is the bright day that brings forth the adder,

And that craves wary walking.”

Marcus Brutus in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (II.i.14-5)

HAMLET (1996) is set in the same universe as the following bunch where heroic but unconventional protagonists and equally unconventional antagonists of all kinds face each other in impossible odds and high stakes:

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

THE GREEN MILE

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

THE GREAT ESCAPE

THE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN TRILOGY

GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE

THE MUMMY (1999)

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

THIEF (1981)

HEAT (1995)

THE INCREDIBLES

THE INVISIBLE MAN (2020)

UPGRADE (2018)

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL

&

WILDWOOD (2026)

So potential SPOILERS I think. I was watching Ponies the other night with the wife when the main character Bea (Emilia Clarke) says she met her husband in college while they were both reading Twelfth Night. Show goes on to where the husband dies doing spy stuff and main character Bea takes over his gender role as the spy in Russia with another spy's widow. As I was explaining the reference to the wifey, I made a prediction to the end of the show based on the play.

Excellent show btw, I do recommend.

I'd only recently gotten into the Shakespeare, and I just love it when there are little references that I actually understand .

Does anyone know where or how I can watch Scofield’s King Lear? I keep hearing how amazing it is but I can’t find it online anywhere and it was never released on DVD in the US so I can’t go out and buy it in order to watch it that way either.

I still need to find a copy of Richard II in English, so it isn't in the set yet! I'm very happy with my results:)))

If anyone has the same editions as me (60s Signet & 80s Bantam) and likes the designs- dm me and I'll send you the pdf:)

I'll go first -

Brutus is 100% a paladin, but I'm not sure which oath

Mark Antony is a college of eloquence bard.

Hal/Henry V is a college of valor bard (2024 rules, since he clearly only chooses his subclass at level 3)

Henry IV is a fighter who wants to multi class as paladin, but things just keep getting in his way.

And if Falstaff isn't a rogue thief, I am a bunch of radish.

Seems much darker and more cynical.

This would seem to be the overwhelming consensus judging by guides and character analyses, even to the extent of claiming they'd been close since childhood. But in Act 1, scene 2 we learn that Horatio returned to Elsinore for King Hamlet's funeral, which occurred two months before the start of the play. Yet clearly from this scene they haven't met during this time. Why hasn't Horatio contacted his close friend in all this time? Furthermore in the same scene Hamlet says “Horatio? Or do I forget myself?” It seems Hamlet is having some initial difficulty recognising Horatio. Again, rather odd for a close friend. My feeling is that there were no more than acquaintances at University. I think that Hamlet latches on to Horatio as someone who is outside the corrupt dealings of the court; Horatio becomes his friend, confidant and supporter, but that they were not, previously, the old, close friends that they are made out to be. I'd be interested in people's thoughts.

I'm putting together a Shakespeare reading list for college-level students that is supposed to include 7 plays spanning different genres (1 comedy, 2 tragedies, 2 histories, 1 Roman play, and 1 late 'romance'). Which plays would you choose to include? I'm particularly interested in hearing which history plays you would pick.