Zestful Blog Post #273
I often find myself, when talking to groups about writing, giving
a particular piece of advice, and I’d like to mention it here:
If you read and well digest nothing of Shakespeare but the
three main tragedies—Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth—you will have all you
really need of the Bard. This of course is arguable. There are Shakespeare scholars
who would consider what I just said blasphemy. Isn’t blasphemy a good old word?
Aye, ’tis.
[my college-days editions, with
crayoned prices…bastards always overcharged...]
You can argue for Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, and
the popular comedies like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night. You can
argue for any of his plays; I mean, the guy was a genius with words and
stories. Personally, I find his comedies to be kind of tiresome, with all the
mistaken identities and blind misunderstandings. They’re like lots of operas in
that way, but without the great songs.
I’m talking about a hack that will educate you pretty damn
well as to what Shakespeare was all about, and that will give you a solid
grounding in what are considered by many to be his top three plays—as in most
influential, most popular, most highly regarded by scholars and dramatists. So
many cultural references come from those three tragedies I couldn’t even begin
to do them justice. But off the top of my head:
“To be or not to be…” Hamlet
“Nothing will come of nothing…” Lear
“Out, damned spot! out, I say.” Macbeth
Ideally, you’ll read and study these plays via annotated
versions, which will tell you things like what the hell a ‘chameleon’s dish’ is
and what it’s supposed to mean. Right, that’s from Hamlet. Chameleons were thought
to live on air, and thus there might be a pun on ‘heir’, involving a possible
implication by Hamlet that he might not be entirely satisfied with the promise
of succession to the throne. But others differ. You can start to see why
Shakespeare is as heavily studied and interpreted and argued over as the Talmud,
which makes it an endless source of interest. You can read and reread these
plays and notice and learn new things every time. Then you can go to a
Shakespeare festival and have the time of your life. Apart from that personal
enrichment, whenever you’re in company talking about literature and the Bard
comes up, you’ll have a good grounding and be able to contribute.
Part of my admiration for Shakespeare is his economy. He packs
so much plot, character arc, and action into so few pages! My annotated copy of
Hamlet is only 172 pages long! Lear is even shorter at 147! Macbeth shorter
still at 100!
Now, I call this a fast hack, which is a relative term.
Compared with skimming a couple of copies of People in the dentist’s waiting
room, reading three Shakespeare plays is slow. But compared with reading all or
most of his plays, reading these three is fast.
And there ya go. Are you a Shakespeare devotee? Tell us
about your experiences with the work of the great Bard. To post, click below
where it says, 'No Comments,' or '2 Comments,' or whatever.
Before I go, I want to give a shout-out to pal and Zestful
Blog follower and commenter Ona Marae, whose debut novel, Gum for Gracie, is available!
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in. [Photo by ES]
