SOME TIME EARLY this year I made a major departure from my usual menu of books when I found this little gem of a book entitled Creative Lives series: William Shakespeare by Haydn Middleton (Heinemann Library).
I have not read any of Shakespeare’s work yet, ever. Some people may find this revelation shocking (say that with an English accent, please), but that is the truth. What do you expect? I am a proud product of the Philippine public school system, and as far as literature is concerned I know Juan Tamad, Biag ni Lam-Ang, Florante at Laura, Asyong Aksaya, Pugad Baboy, and the likes a lot better than I know Romeo and Juliet and its ilk. I know the Romeo and Juliet story, of course, and I may have already seen several versions of it in the movies and on stage, including amateurish ìre-enactmentsî by grade school and high school students.
I’ve seen Baz Luhrmann‘s 1996 high-octane and modern-day portrayal of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy, courtesy of Hollywood, of course, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the lead roles. BTW, did you know that the movie managed to fetch an Oscar nomination? I’ll make another confession: I slept halfway through the movie, thanks to the director’s genius idea of setting the scene on the hip modern suburb of Verona while retaining the play’s original and archaic English dialogue.
I enjoyed Shakespeare In Love a lot more although in hindsight I might not have watched it if I wasn’t dragged into it by my ex-girlfriend (who was then still my to-be-girlfriend).
Now it is quite clear to me. I am more interested on Shakespeare’s biography than his works. And that’s the long explanation on why I, all of a sudden, got interested on Shakespeare when I saw the Creative Lives Series book. A very interesting fellow, this Shakespeare. He lived during a very interesting time, too, and that may be secret of his genius. †I immensely enjoyed the book.
Nevertheless, I know that what I know about Shakespeare’s life will not earn me any ìpogiî points among the ìlearnedî and the sophisticated. They will be more interested on what I know about his works. So I made it a point to take away as much info about Shakespeare’s work from the book. You’ll never know when these will come handy especially during hifalutin’ conversations. I can now at least ìconî my way into any discussions with Shakespeare as the main topic. That remains to be seen, actually.
According to the book, there is much dispute about when and in what order Shakespeare wrote his plays. Below are the plays included in the First Folio of 1623. It excluded Pericles and The Two Noble Kinsmen, which may have been co-written. Histories
- King John
- Richard II
- Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2)
- Henry V
- Henry VI (Parts 1 and 2)
- Richard III
- Henry VIII
Comedies
- Troilus and Cressida
- The Tempest
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- Measure for Measure
- The Comedy of Errors
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Love’s Labours Lost
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- The Merchant of Venice
- As You Like It
- The Taming of the Shrew
- All’s Well That Ends Well
- Twelfth Night
- The Winter’s Tale
Tragedies
- Coriolanus
- Titus Adronicus
- Romeo and Juliet
- Timon of Athens
- Julius Caesar
- Macbeth
- Hamlet
- King Lear
- Othello
- Anthony and Cleopatra
- Cymbeline
They can be found, along with the poetry, in William Shakespeare: The Complete Works, edited by Gary Taylor and Stanley Wells (Oxford University Press, 1986). Editions of individual plays are available in the New Penguin Shakespeare series. #
