Timon of Athens is an undiscovered gem that makes this whole project worthwhile

I just finished Timon of Athens and I absolutely loved it. I didn't expect to like it, considering it takes place in ancient Greece (not a fan of Shakespeare's ancient Greek and Roman plays in general) and it's one of his least known plays. But it was absolutely hilarious! Granted, it's technically a tragedy so I'm not sure if I was supposed to find it so funny, but that's beside the point.

I'll write more about it once I've reached my goal (only a month left and still 10 plays to go), but for now I'll just say this: If I hadn't set this goal of reading ALL the plays, there would still be some plays that I probably would have read eventually, like King Lear or The Taming of the Shrew, but there's no way I would have read Timon of Athens. I mean, why would I have? Who would have recommended it to me? Has anyone ever recommended it to you? So if for no other reason than I got to discover this delightful gem, I am very thankful I set this task for myself. Well worth it.

Okay, more about this and the rest of the plays later. For now, I have some reading to do!

Day 105: What I Learned: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, or Goddammit! This play has rape in it too? I'm so freaking sick of this!

Luigi Schiavonetti, “Valentine, Proteus, Silvia and Julia”
from “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (1852)

Oh come on, Shakespeare! Can't a just read a play that doesn't condone rape? Apparently not this month, I can't. After the horror that was Titus Andronicus, I was looking forward to a light comedy in the form of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. 

Be careful what you wish for because Shakespeare's "light" comedies usually involve something horrific.

What would it be this time? Racism? Anti-Semitism? Physical violence? Well, yes, to an extent. All of the above. Oh and rape.

One of the "gentlemen," Proteus, is "in love" with Silvia (he's "in love" with all the female characters at one point or another, not that there are very many of them) and if she doesn't feel the same way, why he'll just "woo you like a soldier, at arms' end, and love you 'gainst the nature of love,--force ye...I'll force thee yield to my desire." Charming.

But never fear! Valentine is here! He "saves" Silvia. I say he "saves" her in that he stops the rape, but then Proteus apologizes--more to Valentine than to Silvia--and how does Valentine respond? He basically says, "Aw shucks. That's okay. As long as WE'RE still friends." And then he gives Silvia to Proteus as a sign of their friendship! 

Oh and did I mention that Julia, another woman that Proteus has claimed to be in love with, sees this and freaks out because she wanted Proteus to herself? HOLY SHIT.

You know, plays like Macbeth and King Lear and Othello make me appreciate just how wonderful and timeless Shakespeare's words can be. But honestly, if he were only famous for plays like Titus Andronicus and Love's Labour's Lost and The Two Gentlemen of Verona...well I doubt he'd be famous at all. 

If you're looking to read ALL of Shakespeare's plays because, like me, you're on some sort of personal Shakespeare-based mission, then yes, you'll have to read these ones. But if you're just looking to get better acquainted with the bard to find out why he's still talked about and studied over 400 years later, then move on. These are not the plays you are looking for. 

Go back to the ones that are really, really famous. Turns out people like those ones best for a reason.

Day 56: What I Learned: King Lear

image from ow-myeye.com

Well first of all I learned that if you are squeamish about bad things happening to people's eyes, you are NOT going to like parts of King Lear. At all. And NEVER audition for the role of Gloucester in a cinéma vérité production of the play. That's all I'm going to say about that. (BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO HIS EYES!)

The second thing I learned is that there are a LOT of words and phrases in King Lear that we still use today, but not as many direct quotes. Most of them are paraphrased or else rarely attributed to Shakespeare. Well, either that or they ARE commonly quoted AND often attributed to Shakespeare and I just didn't know that because I wasn't paying attention and need to improve my Shakespearean education. Which is what this whole year is about, so get off my back.

Anyway, here are just a few of the words and phrases that jumped out at me in the play:

"Flibbertigibbet" 
Except it was used as a proper noun to reference a specific demon...who talked a lot about stupid random stuff, I'm guessing.

"Fie, foh and fum
I smell the blood of a British man"
What the what? How old IS that phrase? And what did it even mean before the Jack and the Beanstalk story made it famous? Wikipedia wasn't sure and I stopped looking after that. Sorry.

"Kill thy physician"
Mike says he hadn't heard this phrase, but I know I have. I just didn't know it came from this play.


"Fathers that wear rags
Do make their children blind.
But fathers that bear bags
Shall see their children kind."
Not a famous phrase, but totally should be.

"Now, gods, stand up for bastards!"
Another great line that should be famous but probably isn't.

"Unfriended"

Okay, I know he didn't mean it in the Facebook sense, but it made me smile.

"Nothing will come of nothing"
Which caused me to have this song in my head on a near-constant loop:

Day 55: Hey! Summerset Abbey is like King Lear in reverse!

So I recently read and reviewed this book, Summerset Abbey, by T.J. Brown. It was okay, but I read it because it was recommended for "fans of Downton Abbey" (which I am) and I didn't feel it quite lived up to that recommendation. If, however, it had been marketed to "fans of King Lear" well, that might have been another story.

It wasn't until I started reading King Lear this week that noticed how much the book is influenced by the play. I mean, it's about three sisters (sort of) and it has themes of inheritance and illegitimacy (feel free to stop reading this if you don't want to know too much about the book...or the play, for that matter) but the more I think about it, the more I realize it's King Lear in reverse.

Day 54: Whoops! I forgot

So last week I had a bit of time off--Shakespeare-wise--because I was reading Romeo & Juliet. Since I'd already read that one multiple times, I breezed through it in a day and was blissfully Shakespeare-free for over a week. Actually, it wasn't blissful. I rather missed reading Shakespeare but I had a lot of other reading to do for my other blogs, so I figured I'd take the time rather than getting a jump on the next play.

Then Tuesday rolled around and I realized it was time to start King Lear. Easy! Let's do it, I thought. And so far it's a great play. The only problem is that I'd spent over a week not reading any of the plays that I think I got out of practice. I kept forgetting to read it. And then yesterday I forgot to blog about it. What would I have blogged about anyway? I haven't gotten very far in King Lear and I'm supposed to be almost done by now.

The problem is that I already had a "Day 54" blog post scheduled to be published today, whether I had written anything or not. It was sort of a doomsday device for myself that I HAD to blog every day or else the post would be published whether I was ready or not, blank if need be. Of course with any doomsday device, it's only as good as the person's ability to remember that it exists.

Which I didn't.

So now I'm editing my previously-blank "Day 54" post. On the bright side, now I have something to blog about!

Tomorrow: What I Learned From King Lear

(Later Today: Reading King Lear)

Day 53: Are you near Oregon? IT'S KING LEAR TIME FOR YOU!

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is putting on a production of King Lear from February 21 - November 3, 2013. THAT'S RIGHT NOW! If you are anywhere near Ashland & Rogue Valley (wherever the hell that is), or will be before November, you should definitely check it out! (then leave a message on this blog to tell me how it was!)

Find out all the details at their website:
osfashland.org

Day 52: King Lear: Some Facts

Sir Ian McKellan as King Lear (via)

• The Tragedy of King Lear is thought to have been written sometime around 1605. 
• It takes place in the 8th century B.C.
• Its (very) sad ending was frequently performed differently--as a happy ending--during the late 17th, most of the 18th, and even part of the 19th centuries. 
• Some modern phrases appear--albeit slightly differently--in King Lear: "forgive and forget," "last but not least," "come full circle," and "every inch a king."
• Laurence Olivier played King Lear in a TV adaptation in 1983, his last Shakespearean performance before he died. Orson Welles was in talks with a French production company to direct and star in a film version of the play before his death in 1985.
• Sir Ian McKellan (above) played King Lear on stage in 2007 in a Royal Shakespeare Company production.

Day 51: King Lear Word Cloud

What's a new play without a new wordle? Is it just me, or does this one look like a rocket ship? Probably just me.

Day 50: New Play Tuesday! King Lear

King Lear! Ooh I know this one! It's the one with the daughters and it was the basis of that movie A Thousand Acres (which I didn't see) based on the book by Jane Smiley (which I didn't read, but I read her other book Moo). Hmm...okay maybe I don't actually know that much about King Lear.