http://www.aslshakespeare.com Ok, that’s pretty cool.  Shakespeare in sign language.  Why not?  The site is actually more than that, it’s an educational site with character sheets, scene synopsis(es?) and so on.  The only play that seems covered is Twelfth Night.  But there is most definitely video showing people acting out Shakespeare and signing at the same time.  Impressive!

Ok, my regular readers I think are following this story.  I’ve taken to singing Sonnet 18 to my girls, 5 and 3, as a lullaby.  They seem to dig it, and the other day my 5yr old even said, “Daddy I’m not remembering the words because we don’t sing it enough.”  Fair enough! So tonight I’m putting them to bed, I sing them the song, and in she starts with the questions.  “Why did Shakespeare write this?” “Well, he was writing it for someone who he thought was just the most perfect angel he had ever seen, you see, and he was trying to think of something that he could write about that was as beautiful as this person.” “Because he loved her.” “Absolutely, he loved her more than you can imagine.” (It is worth noting here, for the curious, that my 3yr old decided to lick my arm.  “Why are you doing that?” I ask her.  “You don’t lick people, you give people kisses.” “I’m a llama!” she said. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were being a llama.  Do llama’s lick people?” “Yes!” “Got it.  Continue.”) “What was her name?” asked my 5yr old, more on topic. “It’s a mystery, nobody knows!  He never says her name in the poem, so we don’t know what her name was.” “What’s it about?” “Well, you know how sunny summer days are just the most awesome, happy thing in the whole world?  He thinks, hmmm, maybe I should compare her to a summer day.  But then he thinks, well you know, sometimes it’s cloudy outside, and that’s no fun, and sometimes even when the sun is out sometimes it’s too too hot, and that’s no fun either, so maybe comparing her to a summer day isn’t such a good idea after all, because she’s better than that.” “Maybe he could compare her to a flower?” Pause. “You know, that’s a very good question.  He actually wrote a lot of these poems, you know.  This is just one.  He wrote over a hundred and fifty of them.  And I’ll bet that in one of them he compared her to a flower.  I’ll find out, ok?” “Ok.” “I’m serious.” “I know you are, Daddy.” And, here we are.  My 5 yr old has put the question to me, did Shakespeare write any sonnets comparing his beloved to a flower?  I’m not versed enough in all 154 to know the answer off the top of my head.  Help? (To truly appreciate these stories, oh new readers, you have to dig the scene.  We’re in the bedroom of my 3yr old.  Who is named Elizabeth, who I tend to call Elizabethan because I think it’s cool.  For her first birthday I actually wrote her her own sonnet, which is framed and hanging on her wall.  She has no idea what it is, which I’m cool with.  Right now she’s pretending to be a llama.  But one day she’ll understand this whole Shakespeare / sonnet thing, and I’ll point it out to her and she’ll be able to say, “I have my own?“)  

Continuing on the theme of our friend who considers it a lifetime milestone to read the complete works of you know who, let me ask you this:  If not all, then which would you skip?  Which plays are you going to recommend that your friend not even bother with?  After all, we’re not kidding ourselves to think that every play is another Hamlet or Lear, are we? I’m gonna throw “King John” out.  If it’s not a Henry or a Richard, I don’t hear anybody quoting it and I don’t see anybody performing it.  So other than getting the “big picture” of the histories as a whole, what else does this one bring to the reader?  The casual reader is interested in getting some value out of Shakespeare’s particular contribution, not a history lesson that they could have gotten from any text book.

I was thinking recently about people who put “Read all of Shakespeare’s Works” on their life’s to-do list.  I’ve done it (for a piece of educational software that never saw the light of day).  Well, not counting Two Noble Kinsmen.  I didn’t even know that one existed, at the time.Do I remember all of them?  Nah, not really.  Just the big ones.    So here’s my question.  Someone you know is about to embark on this personal challenge, and expects it take quite awhile. So she asks you, “What order should I read them in?”  Of course there’s something to be said for reading them chronologically, but let’s assume that your friend isn’t interested in the academic exercise.  She wants to get right to the good stuff and see what this Shakespeare character is all about.  It’s your opinion about what to read first that will determine your friend’s introduction to the world of Shakespeare. Go for it.  Which are your top three, and why?  You going with entertainment value, or depth?  Midsummer, or King Lear?  Popularity or esoterica, Romeo and Juliet or Cymbeline? Here’s my list:

1. Hamlet, for obvious reasons, but also for personal ones.  Hamlet’s the one that “broke the code” for me, and opened up the door to Shakespeare’s works in the first place.  I don’t claim to be an expert, nor do I think it’s a piece of literature written by the hand of god.  I happen to think that much of the second half is pretty boring, saved only by performances from Claudius and Ophelia. 
2. The Tempest.  I pick this one because many people will otherwise miss it, and it’s really one of the best family-oriented stories that still has some depth to it (unlike a light comedy).  It’s a fairy tale with a happy ending, it’s a story of princesses and weddings, shipwrecks and wizards and fairies and monsters.  It’s revenge, and redemption.  It’s father and child.  Nobody dies, everybody wins.  My kids will know this story before they hit grade school.
3. Macbeth.  I think of the “great tragedies” that Macbeth might be the best for entertainment value.  Murder.  Ghosts.  Crazy people.  There’s not as much complexity in Macbeth as there is in, say, King Lear.  I think that audiences can understand Macbeth better.  Everybody understands ambition.  Everybody understands having that devilish voice whisper in your ear to go ahead and do it, nobody will ever know.  I love the entire last act of Macbeth, how he basically goes complete insane with his immortality complex, and then how he comes crashing back to reality in his final scene and yet still manages one of the great hero’s endings.  Give me “Lay on, Macduff” over “The rest is silence” any day.

  Next?

This morning while doing the breakfast dishes, the morning news was on in the other room.  Out of the corner of my eye I caught a story about the “Friar Laurence Building.”  Naturally I ran into the room, Tivo’d back a minute…to discover that there was, in fact, a “Fire in Four Lawrence Buildings.” What can I say, it’s a slow holiday weekend.  Have a nice Labor Day everybody!