Your Favourite Shakespeare

[FredSnerd]

What’s your favourite Shakespeare. Doesn't have to be a play. Can be a poem etc. Mine is Macbeth. As an aside someone once told me they didn’t like Hamlet because it was full of clichés

[PCH]

Without a moment's hesitation, Henry V ...

"Once more unto the breach etc ..."

A more rousing and motivating speech would be hard to imagine.

[JimmyH155]

beauty is truth and truth beauty. This is all ye know on Earth and all ye need to know.
Magic:D His 14th sonnet, I believe:)

[Enchilada]

There is no other favourite of Shakespeare than "The Taming of the Shrew". There are far to many to quote, but one is a stunner;

  PETRUCHIO. Come on, a God's name; once more toward our father's.
    Good Lord, how bright and goodly shines the moon!
  KATHERINA. The moon? The sun! It is not moonlight now.
  PETRUCHIO. I say it is the moon that shines so bright.
  KATHERINA. I know it is the sun that shines so bright.
  PETRUCHIO. Now by my mother's son, and that's myself,
    It shall be moon, or star, or what I list,
    Or ere I journey to your father's house.
    Go on and fetch our horses back again.
    Evermore cross'd and cross'd; nothing but cross'd!
  HORTENSIO. Say as he says, or we shall never go.
  KATHERINA. Forward, I pray, since we have come so far,
    And be it moon, or sun, or what you please;
    And if you please to call it a rush-candle,
    Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.
  PETRUCHIO. I say it is the moon.
  KATHERINA. I know it is the moon.
  PETRUCHIO. Nay, then you lie; it is the blessed sun.
  KATHERINA. Then, God be bless'd, it is the blessed sun;
    But sun it is not, when you say it is not;
    And the moon changes even as your mind.
    What you will have it nam'd, even that it is,
    And so it shall be so for Katherine.

[Enchilada]

or… when Vincentio, a Merchant of Pisa, says'

"What stars do spangle heaven with such beauty
  As those two eyes become that heavenly face?"

A magnificent pick-up line!!

[Peter Ward]

Humm a toughie....but given my distain for our legal system I rather always liked Henry VI.... :)

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". - (Act IV, Scene II).

[dugnsuz]

Probably the "Ugly Stick"

[dpastern]

Macbeth.

Did I mention I have a 12 volume, 1885 set of Shakespeare's works :P

Dave

[Omaroo]

Forbidden Planet.... :thumbsup:

[Darth Wader]

:lol:

My favourites are The Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night.

[Enchilada]

Exactly. This is certainly based on Shakespeare and brilliant in its insight… especially of the power of the id.
Sci-fi it might be, but is all but a shadow of Shakespeare's insight…

Pity most reject Shakespeare as basically "old hat"…

Good one!!! :thumbsup: :thanx:

[jjjnettie]

Othello

[FredSnerd]

My Favourite bit from Macbeth

Macbeth
Thou losest labour .....
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield,
To one of woman born.

Macduff
Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'd.

Macbeth
Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath cow'd my better part of man!
And be these juggling fiends no more believed,
That palter with us in a double sense;
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.
................................... .....
Hey Enchilada,

“But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!’

Now that’s a pick up line!
................................... ........
“Monsters John, Monsters from the Id”
Forbidden Planet

[FredSnerd]

Very interesting, It's always the men who like Taming of the Shrew (in your dreams)

[FredSnerd]

Wow Dave. How did you come by this?

[dpastern]

EBay my friend. Got it pretty cheap as well. Only in average condition though (binding is tearing in ILFC [inner left front cover], sorry book collectible speak lol), with foxing too. Still, happy to have it in my collection.

Dave

[jjjnettie]

We have an itsy bitsy mini edition of Macbeth, bought at Cawdor Castle.
:lol: There've been having tourists visit the Castle ever since the play was published.
To quote the 5th Earl of Cawdor: "I wish the Bard had never written his damned play!"
But he did and I'm glad I've had the chance to see the Castle.
http://www.cawdorcastle.com/index.cfm

On the same trip I visited all the sights I could in relation to the TV series "All Creatures Great and Small". I must say I had a ball.

[FredSnerd]

Hey Jeanette, I didnt know that castle existed. Thats definately on my to do list if I ever make it to scotland again

[Jen]

Shakespheare :screwy::screwy::screwy:
I wouldnt know any if it was sitting in front of me :lol::lol::lol:
:scared3:

:ashamed::ashamed:

[sjastro]

You're not in lone company.

Also there has always been doubt whether William Shakespeare was a real person.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_authorship_question

Steven

[jjjnettie]

Some say that Shakespeare's sister wrote the plays.
But, conspiracy theories abound.

[jjjnettie]

:lol: Written by Queen Elizabeth with help from Shakespeare (he wrote the title.)
A farewell to Lord Blackadder who was setting sail for the Cape of Good Hope.

EDMUND
When the night is dark
And the dogs go bark
When the clouds are black
And the ducks go quack
When the sky is blue
And the cows go moo
Think of lovely Queeny
She'll be thinking of you.

"Blackadder 2" episode 3 "Potato".

[TrevorW]

Me "the Merchant of Venice"

[Jen]

Phew well thats comforting to know :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: (jen sits next to Steven) :lol: I thought i was going to be canned for this one haha :P

[Rainingstar]

Too many to choose from but I would have to say my favourite is "Merchant of Venice".

[Ian Robinson]

Developed a taste for the Bard's plays when I was in year 11 and 12 ,
liked Chaucer's and Dunn's stuff too. The language took a bit of getting used to (in the old english) ....

Fav play .... that's a toughy .... probably "the Scottish one" or the one about Danish prince who's uncle knocked off his brother to marry his sister in law and become king is a good one too..

ABC1 shows old b/w movie versions of the Shakespear plays in the wee hours on a regular basis .

[renormalised]

The smartest thing any ruler has ever said!!!:D:D

[lacad01]

My favs would be Henry V, Macbeth, Hamlet & Much Ado About Nothing.

[sjastro]

I remember going to a Melbourne University Shakepearean play when I was a teenager. I can't remember which play it was but my lasting memory was one of the "actors" seemed to do nothing but spit at the audience. Being near the front made it an unpleasant experience and almost led me to jump onto the stage.....

Anyway it put me off Shakespeare for life.

Steven

[renormalised]

My favourites....Macbeth, Hamlet.

[GrahamL]

Merchant of Venice.. only because we studied it in year 11
in high school..AND.. much later in life I did visit a dentist
by the name of Shylock (almost that name :) ) anyway .. who I swear every time I left his surgery He didith take a pound of flesh nearith the heart ...from the bank account at least.

[mithrandir]

But they still haven't put it into practice. (With apologies to a few friends who are solicitors, barristers, and a judge.)

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Hank t' IV,
The bit were 'ee urges his troops to give the fr****** a d**n good kicking - and they do! They took the switch out of the closet and thrashed 'em sensless!
Rooo-oool Britannnya!
Engerland, Engerland, Engerlaaaaand!;)

[DavidU]

Ah, Billy Wobble Dagger.:D

[thunderchildobs]

"You can't appreciate Shakespeare until you've read him in the original Klingon." -- General Chang (Star Trek VI)

http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/shakespeare/star.trek.html

[seanliddelow]

Do you might your thumb at me sir? :P

[seeker372011]

friends, romans and countrymen.... undoubtedly, it has to be Julius Caeser
for me

[Ric]

Haven't read any since college but Macbeth is always one of the classics.

Cheers

[Robh]

Difficult to select a favourite but I've always had a liking for the monologue from As You Like It
that begins-

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
...

Regards, Rob

[kustard]

Tragedies: Macbeth & Othello (Hamlet as well but it gets a bit emo for me)
Comedies: Twelfth Night & The Tempest