My ranking of every Shakespeare play • Hacker News Board

Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play

#71

Post by kevinmchugh » Fri, Jun 23, 2023, 12:09 AM UTC

muffinman26 wrote: post #49

as_bntd wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with the stage is that it is much harder to stay on top of the plot. Especially when you aren't used to the language.

If you have good enough performers, unfamiliarity with the language won't get in the way. It might seem a bold assertion, but there's a reason that classically-trained Shakespearian actors are often cast in sci-fi shows (Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen as perhaps the most famous examples). They're trained to convey more information through intonation and gesture so that you don't need to know the words they're sayin…

I tend to agree (Alec Guinness being another great example), though I think it is also about how big a deal live Shakespeare was in Britain in the eras those actors came up. A lot of good British actors were in Hamlet because they were talented and of age.

It'd be extra convincing if there were more non-Brits with Shakespeare backgrounds that became big Sci Fi actors to point to. There are American Shakespeare companies or performances, but it's a much smaller deal.

ETA: another source of great sci-fi actors was Hammer Films, which produced Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Great American sci-fi actors come from more backgrounds because there's more acting jobs in America.

Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play

#72

Post by SeenNotHeard » Fri, Jun 23, 2023, 12:12 AM UTC

paulsutter wrote: post #22

Not trying to start any debate here with Shakespeare fans, just intend this as a supportive word for those of us who just don’t enjoy Shakespeare - Voltaire declared Hamlet a ‘vulgar and barbarous play’ and that ‘one would take this work to be the fruit of the inspiration of a drunken savage’ - George Bernard Shaw: ’. “There is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I despise so entirely as I despise Shak…

Dr. Johnson said Shakespeare's output could be obscene, shoddy, lack cohesion and moral instruction, and ignore the classical unities, but that "Shakespeare is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirrour of manners and of life."

Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play

#73

Post by dbtc » Fri, Jun 23, 2023, 12:15 AM UTC

FrustratedMonky wrote: post #17

Loved this. But would like numbers next to the plays. Since it is a ranking.

Ok.

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  for(let i = titles.length; i > 0; i--) { 
      titles[i-1].textContent = i + ' ' + titles[i-1].textContent 
  }

Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play

#74

Post by voz_ » Fri, Jun 23, 2023, 12:18 AM UTC

Shakespeare is food for the soul. I never tire of it. Every time I go back and re-read it, there is something new to discover.

Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play

#75

Post by brewdad » Fri, Jun 23, 2023, 12:20 AM UTC

muffinman26 wrote: post #49

as_bntd wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with the stage is that it is much harder to stay on top of the plot. Especially when you aren't used to the language.

If you have good enough performers, unfamiliarity with the language won't get in the way. It might seem a bold assertion, but there's a reason that classically-trained Shakespearian actors are often cast in sci-fi shows (Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen as perhaps the most famous examples). They're trained to convey more information through intonation and gesture so that you don't need to know the words they're sayin…

David Tennant (THE Doctor) is performing Macbeth at Donmar Warehouse in London this winter. One show basically ticks three boxes (actor, play, and theatre) for my wife and her Shakespeare fandom. So it's a 10 hour flight for us in December.

Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play

#76

Post by smitty1e » Fri, Jun 23, 2023, 12:24 AM UTC

I watched Stacy Keach as Lear, which features a line to the blinded Gloucester fit for the ages:

"Get thee glass eyes,

And like a scurvy politician, seem

To see the things thou dost not."

Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play

#77

Post by pizzafeelsright » Fri, Jun 23, 2023, 12:25 AM UTC

Shakespeare may be the closest writing to the Bible that I have read.

There's a bunch of great depth in history in commentary.

I've read half of his works. I would not know how to rank them. I have done textual analysis of them.

I would venture to say that if you do not like reading them, they are actually plays, and they should be seen on the stage. It feels in a lot of the gaps.

I did my best to quote Shakespeare or his idioms in every corporate meeting. People have begun to catch on.

Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play

#78

Post by johncessna » Fri, Jun 23, 2023, 12:29 AM UTC

ojbyrne wrote: post #3

That was fun to read, even though I would disagree with much of the article. I generally like the comedies least, the OP likes them most, but it's nice to see people talk about Shakespeare in an article linked here. A couple of comments I would make: * "People will think I’m crazy, but yes, I’m placing Henry IV above Henry V." I doubt many people would think you're crazy, the Henry IVs are generally considered better…

Agreed, the comedies are the least enjoyable. Like today, much of the comedy needs a context and without it, it doesn't hit as hard.

Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play

#79

Post by bombcar » Fri, Jun 23, 2023, 12:55 AM UTC

adamgordonbell wrote: post #54

As a kid having to read Shakespeare what was lost on me, because of the language, was the language. Will worked hard to turn a phrase. "Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once." "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." "It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." "The very substance of the amb…

Shakespeare has such influence that’s it’s almost more correct to say he wrote English than that he wrote in English.

Re: My ranking of every Shakespeare play

#80

Post by bombcar » Fri, Jun 23, 2023, 12:58 AM UTC

bradleyjg wrote: post #60

ojbyrne wrote: post #3

That was fun to read, even though I would disagree with much of the article. I generally like the comedies least, the OP likes them most, but it's nice to see people talk about Shakespeare in an article linked here. A couple of comments I would make: * "People will think I’m crazy, but yes, I’m placing Henry IV above Henry V." I doubt many people would think you're crazy, the Henry IVs are generally considered better…

He’s just wrong about Titus Andronicus. It’s far and away the worst.

I mean it has this very modern sounding dialogue:

CHIRON

Thou hast undone our mother.

AARON

Villain, I have done thy mother.