Nullifidian > Recent Status Updates

Finished Richard III. Now Henry VIII is the only remaining Folio history, though I'll also be reading Sir Thomas More by Anthony Munday et al. on the side.

Finished the essay on Richard III, which tried my patience with all the nonsense that Bloom affirms in it.

Finished Henry VI, Part 3 and I'm now just about to read Shakespeare's first masterpiece, IMO, Richard III.

Finished Henry VI, Part 2. Next up is Henry VI, Part 3.

Read Henry VI, Part One. Next up is Henry VI, Part Two, natch.

Read the essay on Henry VI. Since the essay covers all three parts, the next essay will be the one on Richard III.

Finished Henry V, which was brilliant. Still my favorite history play. Next up is Henry VI, Part One.

Finished the chapter on Henry V. Next up is the Henry VI trilogy, which Bloom covers together in one eight-page chapter.

Read Henry VI, Part 2, Next up is Henry V, my favorite history play.

Finished Henry IV, Part One. Next up is Henry IV, Part Two, of course, and then my favorite of the histories, Henry V.

Up to Chapter 4, "Natural Selection".

Well, that was boring! 44 entire pages on Henry IV and the only thing Bloom would ever talk about was Falstaff! It's not a proper analysis of the plays at all. I'm not one of those people who hates Falstaff, but I've never been more tempted than reading Bloom droning on and on about him.

Finished King Lear and now onto the final play, Macbeth.

Up to Lecture IX on Macbeth. Finished both lectures on King Lear, which I will now read. I've also read the thematically related Gorboduc by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville (in Two Tudor Tragedies edited by William Tydeman) and The Chronicle History of King Leir by Anonymous, which was Shakespeare's main dramatic (as opposed to prose) source.

Finished Richard II. Next up is Henry IV, Part 1.

Finished Gorboduc by Sir Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, later Baton Buckhurst and the 1st Earl of Dorset. It was a pretty good play. I've definitely read worse from this era. I think it might be successfully performed with sympathetic direction and an audience that understands the historical importance of the work. It's certainly worth a staged reading at least.

Finished the chapter on Richard II.

Finished Othello, the Moor of Venice and next up is King Lear.

Up to Chapter 3: "The Struggle for Existence".

Read Lectures V and VI on Othello. Next up, King Lear.

Finished Hamlet and the appendices. Next up is Othello and I'm looking forward to it after the disappointing National Theatre Live production. I was reading A. C. Bradley's Shakespearean Tragedy and I couldn't help but laugh with recognition when I read him talk about miscast Iagos as "a person whom everyone in the theatre knows for a scoundrel at the first glance". That was the NT's Iago.

Finished listening to King John, a play I'm growing rather to enjoy.

I embarked on the histories with King John and finished it. Next up in the Folio is Richard II, but first I'm going to read Edward III because that's the next Shakespearean play according to the historical chronology.

Read the chapter on King John. Now I'm going to embark on the ten history plays in the First Folio, plus I'll sneak in Edward III and Sir Thomas More at the chronologically appropriate points.

Listened to The Two Noble Kinsmen.

Listened to Pericles, Prince of Tyre.

Listened to The Winter's Tale.

Finished the chapters on Pericles and The Two Noble Kinsmen.

Finished Twelfth Night. It was delightful.

Finished The Winter's Tale and with it the comedies in the First Folio. I'll be listening to the Arkangel Shakespeare recordings of Pericles and The Two Noble Kinsmen, which were not included in the First Folio, but after that I'll get started on the histories with King John.