Ranking All the Shakespeare Plays I've Read |

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[@1024div]

I can get on board with this list.

[@booksimnotreading]

I bought a copy of the Henry VI plays at the end of Shaketember last year, but I still haven’t read them. I definitely understand wanting to see Shakespeare performed, but living in a cultural desert where it’s impossible. I also can’t believe you read King Lear in 8th grade! That is crazy! That play is, I think, very challenging. I read after my hair started going gray and I still didn’t really know what I was reading! Great video! 💛🎭

[@elizabethaliteraryprincess]

An absolutely wild choice for a group of 13 year olds! I'm not sure why the teacher decided on Lear. It's so difficult! I feel like Macbeth would have been a better choice. I hope you enjoy the Henry VI plays when you get to them!

[@faithbooks7906]

I enjoyed this! I get what you say about each play. I did really enjoy Richard 2. I found him sympathetic whereas Richard 3, which I just read, was good but didn’t touch my heart strings like R2. I saw a production of Pericles about 12 years ago and remember nothing! I am the only person in the world who finds Falstaff too annoying. It was a relief to me when he passed in Henry 5! Lol. I hope you get to see lots of wonderfully done Shakespeare plays!

[@elizabethaliteraryprincess]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed! I can see where R2 would be sympathetic, especially his death scene. If I reread it now, I might feel differently. 19 year old me just had no time for his bad decisions. 😆

[@Diana-mu7pc]

I love the Henry VI plays too! My favorite histories for sure. Sooooo underrated. The development of Richard as Duke of Gloucester starting in P2 of H6 is indispensable, in my opinion, to enjoying Richard III!

[@elizabethaliteraryprincess]

Yes, thank you! You can't have Richard III without the Henry VI cycle. There's so much necessary context! I'm glad to find another fan of them. I've had Shakespeare scholars call me nuts for liking them so much. 😂

[@Diana-mu7pc]

@@elizabethaliteraryprincess I'm currently reading my 37th of the 38 plays-I'm not a Shakespearean scholar, just a huge fan, in fact I'm not even a college graduate, and I up until this month was taking a gap in my education for both health and financial reasons, and if it weren't for that almost-2-year period I'd still be probably around only 20 plays or so. I read the H6 plays about 5, geez almost 6 years ago now. They were my first history plays and I read them partly because I just wanted to get them out of the way but also because I had an online friend who was a history major and had a special interest in the Wars of the Roses. So I was like, mmm, well, alright... I LOOOOVED them straight away. They are so underrated. Some of the best female characters too, especially for the history genre! Even the ones that aren't as impactful as Margaret of Anjou, like Joan of Arc and the Duchess of Gloucester who we only see briefly on the stage, are so charismatic! They're great roles for capable actresses, I think, and they deserve to be more famous. I'm currently in the process of coming up with a Shakespeare-related paper for an undergraduate seminar in the spring of next year, and I'm having just a hard time narrowing down what topic I'd like to cover, because there are so many! But hearing you say you did a project on the Henry VI plays is kind of inspiring LOL like I would love to do something to bring more attention to them. Side note, have you ever seen Jane Howell's adaptations of the tetralogy for the BBC Television Shakespeare in 1983? She did all 4 parts, and cut basically nothing, which is SUCH a rarity. And I think her casting and direction was MARVELOUS. They're probably my favorite filmed version of any Shakespeare play. They are such a treasure. I feel like they were made for me personally, LOL. All this to say, yeah, even though I've come a long way with Shakespeare, the Wars of the Roses (and not just Richard III but the three parts of Henry VI just as much) is still just, like, my obsession.

[@elizabethaliteraryprincess]

@@Diana-mu7pc WOW! So what' the one play you haven't read? I haven't see the Jane Howell adaptations. I'll have to look into them! Thanks for the rec. Completely agree that H6 has amazing female characters. I actually became interested in Margaret of Anjou before I'd ever seen the plays. She's a really fascinating historical figure in her own right who doesn't get talked about enough. Good luck with your seminar paper! Let me know if you do end up writing it on H6!

[@Diana-mu7pc]

@@elizabethaliteraryprincess the one play I've saved for last is Two Noble Kinsmen. I had that idea for awhile now, because I love the romances and I love Chaucer's the Knight's Tale that it's based on, and also it being the last play Shakespeare wrote (probably) is intriguing... up until I read the other one he cowrote with Fletcher near the end, Henry VIII, and realized that Fletcher doesn't seem to be the strongest... lol. Hopefully the story is better though. I will definitely have to update you on the seminar paper. :^) Anyone who loves the H6 plays like I do is basically a sister to me.

[@Maeve_Ever_Books]

My top 3 Shakespeare plays: Twelfth Night Much Ado About Nothing As You Like It I also used to love Taming of the Shrew but, as you said, spousal abuse isn’t actually funny. 😅

[@elizabethaliteraryprincess]

I need to get to As You Like It! Maybe next year.

[@Maeve_Ever_Books]

@@elizabethaliteraryprincess I’d love to hear your thoughts on it in the future!