James Badger’s Reviews > The Oxford Shakespeare: Complete Works > Status Update

A surprising number of the sonnets are written in an attempt to encourage beautiful women to have babies. Shakespeare held the opinion that beauty was lost if it wasn't passed on to the next generation.

It's been too long since I updated, so I'll give letter grades to the plays I've read.
1 Henry IV - B
Merry Wives of Windsor - A
2 Henry IV - B+
Much Ado About Nothing - A+
Henry V - A
Julius Caesar - B+
As You Like It - B
Hamlet - A+
Twelfth Night - A
Troilus and Cressida - C+

I have a great deal of trouble with the character of Shylock in this play. He does have the great "prick us, do we not bleed" line, but is otherwise an embodiment of every bad Jewish stereotype imaginable.

Regarding The Life and Death of King John, I'll simply quote the well-known song: "Too late to be known as John the first, he'll surely be known as John the worst."

After reading the Henry VI quadrilogy, as well as Richard II, it is clear that Shakespeare had no love for kings whose given name is Richard.

I don't know where Romeo and Juliet got the reputation of being a great love story. It is nothing of the sort. In any other context, Romeo and Juliet's immediate love would be absolutely unbelievable. This is not a love story. It's a warning about hate, and tribalism. Romeo and Juliet's love story, thin and underdeveloped as it is, is a side plot.

A Midsummer Night's Dream has always been a favorite. It's too bad I will never be able to read it again without seeing in my mind the glazed-over eyes of my students who hated every single moment they spent reading this play.

Love's Labours Lost begins with a sort of silly premise that you know will fall apart by the end of the play (the title alone is evidence of this). This is not to say that the play wasn't satisfying, because it absolutely was.

In the 1990's, my older sister saw The Comedy of Errors at a Shakespeare festival, and her description of it ignited my initial interest in Shakespeare. Funny that it's taken me so long to read this play.

The Rape of Lucrece is the second of two narrative poems in the Shakespearean canon. It is an improvement over Venus and Adonis in every measurable way. It is more interesting, more expertly written, and generally more empathetic than Venus and Adonis.