David Miller’s Reviews > Shakespeare: The Complete Works > Status Update

Beatrice is certainly one of the best women that Shakespeare has written thus far, and Much Ado About Nothing is overall a delight.

The Henry IV plays are definitely my favorite so far of the English history set. I look forward to Henry V, as this character is by far the most interesting royal character thus far. I will probably enjoy the Merry Wives of Windsor even more, as Falstaff is even better.

The Merchant of Venice is a very disturbing play, even though it is very interesting and occasionally very funny. Shylock is clearly more than just a bloodthirsty monster, but the narrative treats him little better than one. It is a tangled text, and I'm not sure I would even want to see it performed except out of morbid curiosity.

Most of my favorite parts of The Life and Death of King John were in Act I. Somehow, the endless speeches of noblemen accusing one another of treachery, and then committing treachery, do not rise above the jokes about bastardry.

It's amazing the varieties of stories Shakespeare told in his plays. Up to A Midsummer Night's Dream all the plays had been more or less realistic, but now there are fairies switching people's heads with donkeys', and otherwise traipsing about causing mischief no earthly power can hold them accountable for. I would guess this was, for Shakespeare, one of the most fun to write.

The hip cliche is that Romeo and Juliet are a couple of dumb kids who make rash decisions and die. They do make rash decisions and they do die, but while they're overdramatic in the way of teenagers, they're not nearly as foolish as nearly everybody else.

As in many Shakespeare plays, noblemen accusing one another of being liars, traitors, etc. is a defining feature of Richard II, and for the most part they are all correct; nearly every character is guilty of something grave under the terms of their own code of ethics. It's kind of hard when you're this devoted to monarchy, but you believe this particular monarch sucks.

Love's Labors Lost is the weirdest of the plays so far, the first comedy to not only lean on a strange premise but to resolve it in the strangest way possible. I also think it's one of the best.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona—what after all is a little scheming and betrayal between friends?

There are some very funny bits in The Taming of the Shrew, but the last two acts will make you feel like a bad person if you keep laughing.