Nullifidian > Recent Status Updates

Finished The Merry Wives of Windsor, and in good time, because I'll be seeing the upcoming Metropolitan Opera production of Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi in a week. I also recorded the Public Theatre production of the play in New York so I'll watch it tonight.

Next up is Measure for Measure, one of my favorite "problem plays" along with Troilus and Cressida.

Read the chapter on The Merry Wives of Windsor. I like the play considerably more than Harold Bloom does, partly because of Verdi and Nicolai, but also possibly because it's taken me ages to warm up to the Falstaff of the Henry IV plays.

Finished The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Next up is The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Listened to The Tempest.

Read the opening sections and the chapters on The Tempest and The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Read the introduction by J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, "To the Reader", the Epistle Dedicatory, "To the Great Variety of Readers", the commendatory verses, the list of principal actors, and the first play, The Tempest. It was again as moving as I've always found it.

I'm going to try to read the plays in the genre order of the book, so next up is Shakespeare's first play, The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Finished the introduction and will be starting the play proper later this evening.

Finished The Mystery of Angelina Frood. Now up to "5A King's Bench Walk", an essay by P. M. Stone that is my primary reason for reading this collection.

Finished "Meet. Dr. Thorndyke", The Eye of Osiris, "The Art of the Detective Story", and now I'm up to Chapter 3 of The Mystery of Angelina Frood.

Finished Much Ado About Nothing one day ahead of the screening. Next up is Antony and Cleopatra, though I don't know who I'm leaving these notes for since nobody can read them, and I can barely find them myself. Fuck Amazon for wrecking Goodreads.

Just finished Othello. It bowled me over as a text and it's absolutely shattering in this audiobook version. Fortunately, I'm not going to follow it up with another tragedy. Instead, I'll listen to Much Ado About Nothing, which is another play about misled witnesses to supposed adultery. I might wait until next week to listen to it, because on Wednesday I plan to see the National Theatre Live screening.

Up to "The Real" by Parmenides.

Finished Julius Caesar last night and forgot to note that until now. Next up, if I go in order, is Othello.

Finished The Merry Wives of Windsor, which was very funny and warm-hearted. I know a lot of critics don't like it, but I think it's an excellent play. It's Shakespeare venturing into farce and writing that well is actually quite hard to do. Besides, it was the inspiration for my favorite comic opera, Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi.

Next up is Julius Caesar.

Up to A Notable Discovery of Cozenage by Robert Greene (of "sublime Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay" fame, if any of my Goodreads friends have seen Upstart Crow).

Finished The Tempest. Next is The Imaginary Invalid by Molière.

Finished Measure for Measure. Next up is The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Up to Chapter 6.

Finished The Comedy of Errors. Next up, if I go in order, is Measure for Measure.

Forgot to mention that I had listened to As You Like It several days ago. Next up is The Comedy of Errors if I go strictly by the order of the plays I've read, but I've been tempted to skip ahead.

Up to chapter 3.

Up to A Caveat for Common Cursitors by Thomas Harman.

Read Gilbert Walker's A Manifest Detection of Dice-Play and now up to John Awdeley's The Fraternity of Vagabonds.

Finished listening to Coriolanus. It's one of the most brilliant things Shakespeare ever wrote. Next up is my second-favorite Shakespeare comedy, As You Like It.

I forgot to mention my finishing Timon of Athens about a week ago. It's a difficult play to love, but I'm finding greater strengths in it every time I read or listen to it.

Up to Chapter 5.

Finished Epicœne; or, The Silent Woman, and now I'm onto the last play in the collection, the English version of Every Man in his Humour. I'm tempted to listen to Richard Strauss' Die schweigsame Frau, which is an operatic adaptation of Jonson's play, a play that was either directly adapted or inspired four other operas. Strange for a play that is now so little-performed and little-known.

Finished The Jew of Malta. Next up, Edward II.

Listened to Richard III and next up, since I already listened to A Midsummer Night's Dream, is Timon of Athens.

Finished A Mad World, My Masters by Thomas Middleton, which was quite amusing. Next up is The Devil is an Ass by Ben Jonson, apparently from the introduction something in the nature of a parody of Doctor Faustus, so I made sure I read that first.