It was always the Histories which previously put me off reading the complete works. But this time I intend to gird my loins and persevere. Plus, although reading them in order, I'm not going to attempt them back to back. There is after all only so many times you can hear of Worcester going to Gloucester, Surrey to Salisbury, and Westmerland to Northumberland before it starts to sound like some kind of Dr Seuss Sat-Nav!
I was actually in two minds about starting with Richard II and instead reading Edward III first. And so began the whole turmoil about which plays did Shakespeare actually write, which did he partially write and even "Who is this Shakespeare person anyway?". The debate is far too highbrow for me. I just let the scholars fight it out with their pipes and folios, waiting for the dust and cobwebs to settle.
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| Arden Shakespeare |
I have at home a single volume 'Complete Works' but it's far too cumbersome to carry around. In fact if I were to fall asleep while reading it in bed there is a danger of crushing my rib cage! Instead I've decided that as most of the copies I currently own as single plays come from the
Arden Shakespeare collection I would take their version of the complete works as my yard stick. So 38 plays in total and those which didn't make it to boot- camp include aforementioned 'Eddie 3', 'Double Falsehood' and 'Ophelia's Dot-to-Dotty Book of Flower Fun'!
This also means that while I'm reading the things I can supplement another great passion of mine - buying second-hand books! At present I have ten Arden editions and I will see what else I can pick up as the year progresses.
Final thought - John of Gaunt's rousing "This royal throne of kings" speech carries on after "this England" and ends up essentially saying that the country was great once but now it's all gone a bit shit...
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