Reviews for New Illustrations of the Life, Studies, and Writings of Shakespeare

The average rating for New Illustrations of the Life, Studies, and Writings of Shakespeare based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-05-30 00:00:00 E.h. Koch Julius Caesar 12/2 Twelfth Night 1/3-4 Troilus and Cressida 1/9 All's Well That Ends Well 1/14 Measure for Measure 1/18-19 Othello 1/23-24 Troilus and Cressida - Having read The Iliad last year, I was a bit more familiar with the background on this reading. Thersites was a kind of Dick Deadeye character in Homer: he stated obvious truths but because of his physical unattractiveness, other characters reacted to his statements like they were radically subversive. In Shakespeare the character becomes a satirical focal point, whose angry and cynical humor I found very much to my liking ("I would thou didst itch from head to foot, and I had the scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab in Greece.") Most surprising to me was the death of Hector, treated here as nothing more than a cowardly murder by Achilles' thuggish Myrmidons, nothing like the epic heroic duel of Homer. I haven't read any other accounts of Hector's death anything like this. Does anyone know if there is a precedent for the way Shakespeare portrays it? All's Well That Ends Well - Though there's no record of it before the time of the First Folio (1623), experts seem to agree that this play is from the first years of the 17th century. I would have found a date of a decade earlier more believable; it reminded me of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, not least in the psychologically unconvincing about-face of its hero in the final scene. It has none of the easy wit and naturalness of As You Like It or Twelfth Night. Othello - Reading Othello this time, it hit me that the first, Venetian act, was almost like the last act of a comedy - true lovers are united despite the objections and precautions of the lady's father. I have a problem accepting the tragedy in Othello - I just don't believe that the character of Othello established in the first act would fall for the jealousy plot set up by Iago, at least to the extent of murder. The "imaginary cuckold" is a theme that occurs in several of the plays, comically in The Merry Wives, skirting on but avoiding tragedy in Cymbeline and The Winter's Tale. I've seen a number of comments on the lack of motivation for Leontes' jealousy in the latter, but, since his character is barely introduced before he become suspicious of his wife, I found it easier to accept than in Othello, where the title character's nobility and deep love are established before he begins to imagine his wife as being unfaithful.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-09-18 00:00:00 Karl Yu Vagamente interessante Re Lear (perlomeno la storia in sé), il MacBeth così così. Noia il resto, da non amante del teatro. Ci sarebbe da fare un ragionamento su come il teatro sia il film al cinema dei giorni nostri, ma sono troppo pigro per provarci.