/lit/ - Literature

What is the best edition of Shakespeare's complete works?

London was already /lit/ when most of these other cities were little villages clinging to a river

Why is there virtually no Biblical influence in his work?

What is his masterpiece?

No bullshit.

"To be, or not to be, that is the question—
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die, to sleep—
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes Calamity of so long life:
For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time,
The Oppressor's wrong, the proud man's Contumely,
The pangs of despised Love, the Law’s delay,
The insolence of Office, and the Spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his Quietus make
With a bare Bodkin? Who would these Fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered Country, from whose bourn
No Traveler returns, Puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of.
Thus Conscience does make Cowards of us all,
And thus the Native hue of Resolution
Is sicklied o'er, with the pale cast of Thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment,
With this regard their Currents turn awry,
And lose the name of Action. Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia. Nymph, in all thy Orisons
Be thou all my sins remembered."

Beautiful.

Do you actually like this man's work or are you just pretending to fit in?

1. Plays are inferior forms of communicating a story. It's like a bad movie.

2. The language is archaic to the point that you are essentially going to be doing one of two things. Glossing over the 'meanings' of most lines of dialogue and simply taking in the plot, or close reading the dialogue at a snail's pace.

3. Close reading the dialogue is less intellectually fulfilling and stimulating than entry-level philosophy, physics, popular science, etc.

4. What was salacious in the 1500's is pretty boring now. If we are to assume that his 'gimmick' was being crude, it doesn't translate to the modern era

I'm at a point in my life where I'm probably going to be teaching these works to younger students soon and it's pretty hard to do that when you don't find any value in the time being spent. It feels more elitist an institution than anything else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPlpphT7n9s#t=141

Discuss.