Has anyone never read Shakespeare?

Never got it in school once in any form. Only through movies like Throne Of Blood, Ran and that modern Romeo And Juliet gangster film where Leonardo DiCaprio wears a terrible shirt.

Did most of you not get any Shakespeare at school or read any of them? If so, what was it?

Pretty much everyone I know had to read at least some Shakespeare in middle and high school. Doesn't mean I can remember much, but I know I read at least Macbeth, A Midsummer's Night Dream, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet.

I never hated Shakespeare like a lot of my friends did, but I was never really into it either.

Julies Cesar in high school. I still use quotes from Marc Anthony's funeral speech.

If you weren't taught about Shakespeare in school, then public schooling has cheated you. We studied and re-enacted at least 4 or 5 plays over a few years. I can only imagine the thousands of references that would go over someone's head due to their ignorance of Shakespeare.

I always liked Shakespeare, I also like Rudyard Kipling. You should read The Female of The Species.

Well, at least Roman Polanski's movie rendition of Macbeth culminated in a fairly well-choreographed and suitably gory fight scene.

Oh, uh, lest I fall foul of the ToS, I should probably issue a SPOILER ALERT. After all, I guess there may be some people on the forum who don't know how Macbeth ends. :-P

And I must admit that Shakespeare sounds pretty good when it comes from Kenneth Branagh's mouth ...

Nope. Also not a fan of that funky language

We had to read Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet at school. Wasn't a fan to be honest.

We had to take it in HS and college. I'm sure Euros had to as well. I hope they did.

I think we had to read 6 stories that he wrote. Didn't like any of them though. Maybe except "taming the shrew".

@Stesilaus: TBH when they say that stuff out loud it comes across as off putting.

In Ran and Throne Blood it has normal English translation.

Not even William Shakespeare's Star Wars?

Seriously though I know I at least read Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth, I think Macbeth was my favorite. Oh and Hamlet I think for drama class. And maybe some smaller works here and there for various English classes in college.

Never

Never had to read it.

Read some in high school, even had to perform in front of the whole class. That was over 15 years ago so obviously I don't remember squat about it.

In high school.

Yes, we did Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth in High school. Read A Midsummer Night's Dream in college

Only Romeo and Juliet I think...

Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet and As You Like It.

Going to read War of Roses at some point.

I've read Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, and Julius Caesar.

I can always appreciate masterful puns and wordplay, even if they are written in archaic English. Also, I love metered speech, I think it's the coolest thing.

Et tu, Brute? Of course, had to read a few of them for school. Liked what I read, but never bothered to go back and read the rest of his works.

It was a requirement in high school for me.

Not a huge fan of poetry or funky playwright with language I cannot understand unless it's comedian.

Never, have not even read a word from them. Must be an Australian school thing, we're too busy riding kangaroos at lunch times instead.

Yes, seems like it is almost mandatory to read at least one Shakespeare book. And *groans* Steinbeck, as well. Seems like my school favored Steinbeck; I had to read The Pearl, The Grapes of Wrath, and Death of a Salesman. That was a sad, sad year for me.

It's funny; your English teachers stress proper grammar and punctuation and all that stuff, but then the examples of "great literature" contain none of that stuff.

Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, some sonnets and Hamlet in high school. Basically one per year, with some extras senior year.

Othello twice, Macbeth (again), and King Lear in college.

Those were the assigned readings.

I think most people have at least read one of his plays. I personally only have read his Hamlet because my native language has enough stuff to keep me busy to be honest.

But a better question would be, has anyone read any of his poems?

I got to read Fight Club in high school haha.

As far as reading is concerned, I enjoy his poems more than his plays. The language of his plays is much easier to overcome from the stage.

I warmed to him after leaving school. I think the formal teaching of his work is too rigid, it's something to be experienced, not analysed. You spend more time trying to figure out what one word means and why you should care than you do delving into the content. It's the same problem that I have with most productions of the plays. So many actors just adopt the Olivier accent and add volume.

If any of you are in school and studying Hamlet, forget the Kenneth Branagh version (if anyone brings up the Mel Gibson version I'll stab you with a ladel. Don't ask how, but I will). Find the David Tennant version, it's a BBC thing so it shouldn't be hard to find.

Kenneth Branagh's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUfG2ozXbAM

David Tennant's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyB4ktn7AIE

I'd read most of them at age 6.

@lamprey263: Palpitine is more or less the Weird Sisters. In Macbeth they compliment and suggest as a means of influence, disregard Banque (leave him) , promise him power and status laying a path that is really self destruction. He also remarks to the Sith arts as "unnatural"which is integral to Macbeth's themes.

It ends the same as well "You are lesser than Macbeth but also greater", with Obi-One winning via his (but not really his) offspring.

It seems unlike Macbeth who is proded by the witches and his misses, Anakin is a child murderering serial killer from the go. With a 129 minute sword fight.

Still, at least he didn't just copy paste A New Hope, that would have just been lazy. Lucas 2deep4 prequel haters.

I've read most of them. King Lear is my favorite. I'm not as big a fan of Shakespeare as most of the people in my English graduate school cohort though.

I've read several works of his during my time in school.

I like his historic tragedies. Hell, my avy is from a film version of my favorite, Coriolanus. One of my favorite quotes is from that play as well:

And here remain with your uncertainty! Let every feeble rumor shake your hearts! Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes, fan you into despair! Have the power still to banish your defenders; till at length your ignorance, which finds not till it feels, making but reservation of yourselves, still your own foes, deliver you, as most abated captives to some nation that won you without blows!

@bmanva: Was wondering what your avatar was from...

no one has the keys to understand shakespears writings ... chances are he wasnt even real as a person ... juliet and romeo for instance is awesome, not as a romance but as a tale about principles ...