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“If music be the food of love, play on..

Give me excess of it…”

goes one of the Shakespeare’s plays…(can you guess which one? :))

I am sure all of us have heard of William Shakespeare(1564 – 1616) and his wonderful plays. Some of us might even had the opportunity to study the original plays in school/college. Here are Shakespeare’s most memorable plays according to their genre:

Tragedy: Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and more

Comedies: Twelfth night, All’s well that ends well, As you like it, Comedy of errors

History: King John, Richard II and more

Romance: The Tempest, The Winter’s tale and more

While I have studied the original ‘Twelfth Night’ in school (and it is stuck to my memory forever!), I have read most of the other Shakespeare plays as a story and enjoyed them thoroughly too!

Twelfth Night:

The story of ‘Twelfth night’ is a case of mistaken identity of a brother and sister, a Duke and a Lady. They have the perfect love triangle and the characters of Orsino, Olivia, Caesario are etched in my memory forever! 🙂

It is a funny and amusing story and I have a feeling that most modern Indian movies picked their plot from Shakespeare! 🙂 Most of the plays are written in Elizbethan English and it is difficult for us to understand it today. But it is still amazing to read such awesome work from those days with their plots and quirks and twists! Many modern books have translated the original English to understandable English of today!

Popular quotes of Shakespeare:

Here are a few of my favorite quotes by Shakespeare:

  1. “To be or not to be: that is the question”
  2. “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them”
  3. “What’s in a name? A rose by any name would smell as sweet”
  4. “‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”
  5. ” ‘All the world‘s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts”

Have you read any plays by Shakespeare? Which one did you like? And did you like any Shakespeare quotes too?

The previous post can be found here.

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14 thoughts on “Shakespearean delights!”

  1. Simply loved this! We had studied Twelfth Night in school and I have read many of his plays. What more coincidence, I have shared ‘Stratford-Upon-Avon’ as my travel destination in today’s blog post. Couldn’t help but drop by here and get a glimpse of the work of this great poet and playwright. Thank you for providing such a refreshing recap on his work and famous quotes from them. Lovely!

    Reply

  2. Shakespear is no doubt much loved and celebrated author from English Literature. And I am a fan of his plays. The plots and twists in his plays are simply amazing! Couple that with the most flowery yet hard hitting choice of words that he adopts with elan.
    My favourite play by Shakespear is The Merchant of Venice.
    Your post was crisp and short yet encompassed good amount of details, not letting the reader leave till end!

    Reply

  4. I typed my comment once, but somehow it didn’t get posted I guess.

    I read The Merchant Of Venice, The Tempest, and The Seven Ages, all in abridged form in school. Can’t remember which other works I have.

    Speaking of Indian movies taking inspiration from the Bard, Vishal Bhardwaj has 3-4 (more?) movies that are excellent adaptations of his plays.

    Thanks for the post, and for the quotes. 🙂

    Reply

  6. Read a lot of Shakespeare in school (class 7-10) story format as well as plays. Very difficult to choose a favourite but I loved Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night and Julius Ceaser( Beware the Ides of March). Your post brought back a lot of wonderful memories from school.

    Reply

  7. Read a lot of Shakespeare in school (class 7-10) story format as well as plays. Very difficult to choose a favourite but I loved Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night and Julius Ceaser( Beware the Ides of March). Your post brought back a lot of wonderful memories from school.

    Reply

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