Shaksper

In my continued determination to write briefly after some computer troubles this month, I head this post with one of the shortest of the Bard’s signature spellings.

I don’t remember what made me add 3 Henry VI to my reading list this year, but I’m glad I did. This one is slow and tediously expositional at first. But once Richard of York (the future Richard III) gets involved, it becomes good and almost essential as a prequel to the really good play. And, yeah, Richard III is really good. This is one of the ones I plan to read every few years. I sometimes wonder ahead of time if it’s really worth the time to revisit some old dusty drama yet again. But Richard III never disappoints. Was the real Richard this evil? Did he really order the deaths of the two princes in the Tower? I don’t know. Let’s just say the play is not about the historical personage but is about the character that Shakespeare made out of the historical personage. However near or far the two lie in relation to one another, Shakespeare’s Richard is horrifyingly fascinating.

Hamlet never disappoints, either. The poor prince berates himself so much through the first four acts for trying to accomplish his deadly mission of revenge through nothing more than clever talk and “mad” wordplay. Then at the end of Act IV, after he sees Fortinbras head off to Poland ready to kill, he shouts, “O, from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!” The reader might think the line shows that Hamlet is now truly determined to obey his ghostly father’s commands. And yet he still does nothing until he finds that he has been stabbed with a poisoned dagger and has only a few minutes to live. Anyone who believes faith is dead without works and yet lives with unwilling flesh can’t help but find awe in the mirror Hamlet holds up.