Dale, you've just pretty much figured out EXACTLY my thoughts on Shakespeare and Shakespearean dilettantes -- the ones who annoy me the most are those who read a sonnet (any sonnet, of any sonnet form, not just the English) and say such idiotic things as, "Shakespeare would be proud of this", as if using poor dead Bill the Bard's name imbues them with some irreproachable authority. Though it is true that among the seventy two thousand sonnets of exactly the same form and pretty much the same subject matter (ok, 154, but close enough) there are indeed some gems, I do not consider him to be nearly the brilliant sonneteer that the easily impressed but short on knowledge hold him up to be. Having said that, I put his plays in an entirely different category, one almost entirely unparalleled in the history of the English language. (I quite like Hamlet, but it's not particularly profound and I did want to punch Ophelia... not to mention wishing the death scene over many "I'm deads" before it actually happens.) My favourite varies depending on mood, but always hovers between "The Tempest", "As You Like It", "The Taming of the Shrew", "Twelfth Night" and the most beloved "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
NB. This does not mean I consider Shakespeare's sonnets worthless, just that they are only part of a vast body of sonnets that has been contributed to over the centuries by some bloody impressive poets.
NB. This does not mean I consider Shakespeare's sonnets worthless, just that they are only part of a vast body of sonnets that has been contributed to over the centuries by some bloody impressive poets.
It could be worse