Twelfth Night is among the plays which are performed most frequently. It is often seen in theaters along with As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, The Tempest, and Romeo and Juliet.  These plays are popular and it is understandable why theaters need them to sell tickets. But there are the theaters that specialize in Shakespeare such as the one in Stratford in Canada, which offer the rest of the Shakespeare canon.  Many people have only seen the popular plays in a live performance, but seeing any of them is a good way to introduce Shakespeare to the public.

There are a lot quotable lines from Shakespeare.

"O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!"

Macbeth is going insane! It's like scorpions were driving him mad! Lady Macbeth is the one who influenced him to kill King Duncan and become King of Scotland. Later on, Lady Macbeth goes insane, and sleeps walk to her death.

"How sharper than a serpent's tooth is to have a thankless child!"

King Lear is old. His two oldest daughters, Regan and Goneril flattered him. The youngest, Cordelia, is the only one who doesn't. It's saying how having a child who is not grateful is a lot more painful than a snake's bite. King Lear is overcome by grief for Cordelia's tragic death, because he favor her.

To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

O beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meet it feeds on.

What do you say to people who say they don’t like Shakespeare? I usually tell them that I like the poetic language, and I enjoy seeing the plays well acted. Appreciating Shakespeare is something that you learn from thought and experience, and it is much like learning to love classical music. It’s using your senses along with your mind.

But there are the theaters that specialize in Shakespeare such as the one in Stratford in Canada, which offer the rest of the Shakespeare canon.

I saw 12th Night here! There's also an annual Shakespeare festival in Vancouver BC at which I saw Othello for the first time. My regret is that with COVID I can't get to see any more.

Christopher Marlowe’s play Dr. Faustus is not seen so often in live performance even though it is considered to be one of the world’s great tragedies. It was made into a movie back in 1967 starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Since then it has not been very often performed in film or on stage. The Globe Shakespeare also had a rare version of the play, but that was one of the few times it was publicly performed. The 1967 film was quite faithful to the play even though it did not do so well with the critics. I thought it was quite enjoyable although dark and haunting. It had a very tragic feeling and Burton played the scholar’s role very well. If Marlowe had lived longer he probably would have written more tragedies similar to Shakespeare’s. I remember that Dr. Faustus was always assigned in my world literature class in college. Evidently reading the play was considered as important for college students as Hamlet.

@narnian78 I think Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were also in Antony and Cleopatra. They were real people from the past, and Shakespeare wrote a tragedy about them. 

@jasminetarkheena Cleopatra was a famous Queen of Egypt back 2000 years. Antony was a contemporary of Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar.

I thought I'd write about some of C. S. Lewis's literary criticism on Shakespeare since that's something people here would be interested but probably not a lot of other people would be. In his essay, Hamlet: The Prince and the Poem, Lewis wrote that he was always his attracted to Shakespeare's tragedies but found his comedies to be an acquired taste. (So basically, the opposite of me.) Looking at his preface to Milton's Paradise Lost, I think we can make an educated guess as to why.

There he describes Shakespeare (not totally wrongly) as a poet who celebrates order and hierarchy, and this was presumably something that drew him to his writing. However, the comedies really don't fit this interpretation very well. The main one Lewis uses as evidence is The Taming of the Shrew.

"A failure to accept his notion of natural authority makes nonsense, for example, of The Taming of the Shrew. It drives the Poet Laureate into describing Katharina's speech of submission as 'melancholy clap-trap'. It drives modern producers into making Katharina give the audience to understand that her submission is tactical or ironical. There is not a hint of this in the lines Shakespeare has given her. If we ask what Katharina's submission forebodes, I think Shakespeare has given us his answer through the lips of Petruchio : 'Marry, peace it bodes, and loveand quiet life, An awful rule and right supremacy, And, to be short, what not, that's sweet and happy ?' The words, thus taken at their face value, are very startling to a modern audience ; but those who cannot face such startling should not read old books. If the poet had not meant us to rejoice in the correction of Katharina he would have made her a more amiable character. He certainly would not have gone out of his way to show us, beneath the mask of her pretended hatred of men, her jealous bullying of her sister."

All this is true as far as it goes, but it's rather remote from the actual experience of watching, or even just reading the play. You see Katharina's bullying of her sister (no saint herself) is supposed to be enjoyed. And so is her abuse of her sister's suitors. (I'm tempted to say C. S. Lewis was doing the same thing as the modern producers by stating that her hatred of men is pretended.) We're supposed to be laughing at (and even occasionally with) her, not clucking our tongues in horror. Her correction is also supposed to be enjoyed. But not because Petruchio is fulfilling a proper role. Rather because of how hilariously inappropriate his behavior is. (Coercing her into marrying him against her will, showing up to his wedding in raggedy clothes, refusing to give her proper food and clothing.) The play revels in disorder and anarchy and the same thing could be said of most Shakespearean comedy. (The other example from a comedy Lewis uses is Theseus's early line from A Midsummer Night's Dream that a daughter is but a form in wax imprinted by her father, which is really a howler. Anyone remotely familiar with the play or the scene knows Shakespeare wasn't endorsing the sentiment. )

That doesn't mean Shakespeare's comedies couldn't be described as celebrations of order. Their main bodies are full of servants disguised as master, women disguised as men, rules being broken and vows being betrayed, but they all end with everything restored to normal and Jack having Jill. (The best point of comparison I can think of for modern Americans, like myself, is The Cat in the Hat.) They could be described as celebrations of order and disorder.

@col-klink Interesting. I haven't thought of it. While I kind of find myself liking the tragedies more (maybe because my favorite genre is drama, though I do like comedies), I think even the comedies play as as superb.

I think another Shakespeare play is Measure For Measure, which is kind of both a comedy and a tragedy. It's about a man named Angelo, who takes over as a judge while the Friar is away. A woman named Isabella goes to Angelo, pleading for her brother's life. He says he will if she somehow submits to him. It's a very complex plot. Not saying that Shakespeare is going after the church, but it touches on heavy themes.

@jasmine_tarkheena

I remember the old BBC TV series of Shakespeare plays broadcast during the 1980’s.  I think Measure for Measure was one of the plays.  It was described as a “dark comedy”. These lesser known plays are not often performed, but I think the BBC series broadcast the entire Shakespeare canon.  There was no other program that showed all of the plays, which made that one unique.  It wasn’t a high budget series, but it achieved something that had never been done before.

Posted by: @narnian78

@jasmine_tarkheena

I remember the old BBC TV series of Shakespeare plays broadcast during the 1980’s.  I think Measure for Measure was one of the plays.  It was described as a “dark comedy”. These lesser known plays are not often performed, but I think the BBC series broadcast the entire Shakespeare canon.  There was no other program that showed all of the plays, which made that one unique.  It wasn’t a high budget series, but it achieved something that had never been done before.

It is super rare to have a "dark comedy".  I don't think Shakespeare was going after the church, but one of the characters claims to be a righteous man but turns out to be a hypocrite when he says to a girl that he will spare her brother's life if she will be his. That's pretty extreme there.

@jasmine_tarkheena a comedy in classical literature is not necessarily entertaining and funny.

Shakespeare's comedies are defined by outcomes, the good characters ending well and the bad ones ending with punishment or sadness. There may also be couples brought together, family reunions, and the younger generation taking over from the older.(new life idea)

Dark comedy or black comedy became a subgenre in the 20th century  but it's not my favourite. 

His tragedies do not end happily, and nor do some of his history plays. They often end in the deaths of the older or main characters. 

His Great Tragedies are marked by a tragic hero who has a flaw, which brings him down to a tragic ending. 

(Yes, English was my major)

@coracle

Maybe that's why I tend to like the tragedies more than than the comedies. I think that's what real life is like. We're not without flaws.

There a lot of issues to talk about in Shakespeare tragedies. Hamlet- depression and suicide, Othello- lust, manipulation and jealousy, Macbeth- manipulation as well, King Lear- thanklessness, Measure for Measure- lust, justice, and mercy.

@coracle 

English was also my major in college.  I remember taking two Shakespeare courses.  One was on Macbeth and the other covered all of his major plays. It was many years ago, but I never forgot how interesting the courses were and how unique the dramas were during the Elizabethan period in England. 🙂