So I am resolved to finish the works of Shakespeare this year, which means reading 17 plays and most of the poetry. That, my friends, is a lot of Shakespeare. You will probably not be surprised to hear that I have a Plan.
This month I am aiming to read six plays, one act per day. An act a day is a great pace for me -- it feels like headway without actually taking too much time. I started with Titus Andronicus, to get it out of the way, and I have moved on to the Henry VI trilogy. I expected to be counting down the lines until the end, but I was surprised to find I really enjoyed the first act -- so much so that I made my husband stop reading his own stuff so I could read my favorite bits aloud to him.
After the Henry VI trilogy I will probably read Pericles and Timon of Athens, in order to get the most dreaded plays out of the way. That will leave me with 11 plays, or one for each remaining month. That should leave me plenty of time to cover the poetry, right?
Here's my list:
| Titus Andronicus 1/5/11 | Coriolanus 12/4/11 |
| Henry VI Part I 1/10/11 |
Two Gentlemen of Verona 7/4/11 |
| Henry VI Part II 1/15/11 | King John 5/30/11 |
| Henry VI Part III 1/20/11 |
Twelfth Night 1/7/12 |
| The Winter's Tale 4/3/11 |
Measure for Measure 7/18/11 |
| Troilus & Cressida 1/1/12 |
Venus & Adonis 12/11/11 |
| All's Well That Ends Well 1/4/12 |
The Rape of Lucrece 1/6/12 |
| Richard III 1/25/11 |
The Passionate Pilgrim 12/2/11 |
| Timon of Athens 12/21/11 |
The Phoenix and the Turtle 1/30/11 |
| Pericles 1/29/11 |
A Lover's Complaint 4/17/11 |
| Cymbeline 4/11/11 |
Sonnets 5/29/2011 |
| Henry VIII 12/28/11 |
I'm feeling optimistic -- even if I bail in July, I'll read more Shakespeare than I would have otherwise. If I were a Shakespeare scholar, or even a less distracted googler, I would end with a suitable Shakespeare quote. Maybe by this time next year I'll have found one that's exactly right. Watch this space!
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