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Shakespeare read-along


KEV67

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How about starting a Shakespeare read-along in August? Who is in? I know lunababymoonchild is. Which play do you fancy or not fancy?

Personally, I do not want to read Macbeth (did it for O level), Richard II, Othello, Midsummer Night's Dream (read them in the last three years) or Hamlet (want to save that for later).

I am open to all the others.

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Guest Scribbla

Excuse my ignorance, but how does a "read-along" work? :smile:

 

Or is that the dumbest question ever asked on this forum? 

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5 hours ago, Scribbla said:

Excuse my ignorance, but how does a "read-along" work? :smile:

 

Or is that the dumbest question ever asked on this forum? 


No such thing as a dumb question on this forum, so don't be afraid to ask. A read-along is where a few/group of people decide to read the same thing at the same time. We create a thread for this and post on it as we go. Everybody is welcome to join in at any time they like.

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Guest Scribbla

Thanks, Luna. That sounds like fun. 

 

I've never read Cymbeline, so this is a good opportunity to catch up with my Shakespeare. 

 

Let me know when you're (we're) going to do Julius Caesar. I recently found the 1953 movie online and I'm very keen to watch it again. We had it to study back in high school, many moons ago, and they suggested we go to see the film which was then showing. Very fond memory, that. 

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I have bought my copy of Cymbeline. It looks like quite a long play. My copy is from the Arden series. I often like the introductions in that series more than the actual plays. I think if I can finish Sagittarius Rising soon, I will start reading the intro.

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2 hours ago, KEV67 said:

I have bought my copy of Cymbeline. It looks like quite a long play. My copy is from the Arden series. I often like the introductions in that series more than the actual plays. I think if I can finish Sagittarius Rising soon, I will start reading the intro.

Excellent. I have a couple of copies on e-book and a copy on paper in a complete works that looks like it's unwieldy, so I'll choose one and stick to it. I'm sure that I'll be ready.

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I have started reading the introduction, although I won't get very far into the introduction before it is time to start reading the play. It has a fairly modest score on Goodreads, only 3.57. One of the reviewers said it was one of the easiest Shakespeare plays to read.

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18 hours ago, KEV67 said:

One of the reviewers said it was one of the easiest Shakespeare plays to read.

Well that's comforting :lol:

 

Will we have a weekly goal for this? I think Cymbeline has 5 acts in total, which is annoyingly uneven, but acts 2 and 4 only have four scenes each. 

 

What if we did:

Week one: Act 1

Week 2: Act 2

Week 3: Act 3 

Week 4: Act 4 and 5?

 

Then we will be finished by the end of August :) 

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50 minutes ago, Hayley said:

Well that's comforting :lol:

 

Will we have a weekly goal for this? I think Cymbeline has 5 acts in total, which is annoyingly uneven, but acts 2 and 4 only have four scenes each. 

 

What if we did:

Week one: Act 1

Week 2: Act 2

Week 3: Act 3 

Week 4: Act 4 and 5?

 

Then we will be finished by the end of August :) 

Suits me.

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I did not find the opening scene particularly easy to follow. I gather the king is annoyed because his only daughter married a commoner rather than his stepson. I would have thought that was a dangerous thing for a commoner to do. I am surprised he could find a priest prepared to conduct the ceremony.

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On 02/08/2022 at 12:14 AM, KEV67 said:

I would have thought that was a dangerous thing for a commoner to do. I am surprised he could find a priest prepared to conduct the ceremony.

Yes, definitely! Maybe a Romeo and Juliet style situation - they found someone who was sympathetic to their love for each other?

 

Also suspicious that the King's two sons just went missing/ were stolen as babies! I feel like they are bound to make a surprise appearance at some point. 

 

And very risky for the Queen to arrange a final secret meeting between her daughter and the 'commoner' husband.

 

(If everyone is finding this one too frustrating to read by the way, I'd be up for switching to Anthony and Cleopatra, as we're only 3 days in anyway)

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