Status Updates From Shakespeare After All

Read 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' essay.

'The child of the union of Theseus and Hippolyta, according to Plutarch, was the fanatically chaste young man Hippolytus, whose tragic death comes as a result of his stepmother Phaedra's lust for him [...]
The "happy ending" of this play of romantic love is in the theatre almost completely satisfying. But with Oberon's caution about progeny... cont.

Read Hamlet Essay

...one never does encounter Hamlet "for the first time." Instead the play provides a resonant cultural echo, both forming and reflecting concepts—turns of speech, types of character, philosophical ideas—that seem to preexist any single experience of the play, and at the same time to be disseminated from it.

'Modern quoters cite "Shakespeare" at their peril when they're actually, and recognizably, quoting Shakespearean characters carefully crafted to be at variance with their own language. One of this playwrights most substantial achievements is that, whenever he cites truisms or platitudes, he puts them in the mouths of suspect speakers, [...cont]

Three plays left!

In it for the long haul. The plan for 2026 is all of Shakespeare's plays, minus the "Histories" (John, Richard, Henry - reserved for 2027 or 2028).

Is this a side-effect of watching Hamnet?

update: macbeth