Saturday, April 14, 2012

Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare

6/10

I decided to crank this fun little Shakespeare play out over President's Day weekend. It was good times.

It is one of Shakespeare's comedies. I have only read two of his comedies and they were good but not as good as his other stuff. But I liked this one better than the other two that I had read. Some serious trickery is involved. There's these two people, Benedick and Beatrice, (Steve Holt of Arrested Development played this role masterfully) who are always sparring wits and openly insult each other. A plot is involved where Benedick is told that Beatrice is in love with him and Beatrice is told that Benedick is in love with her. They then start reading into everything and ultimately come to the realization that they love the other as well. There is also another plot that matches Claudio and Hero and a later plot where Claudio is told that Hero is unfaithful to him. This leads to an epic wedding alter scene and yet another plot to get Claudio to again love Hero. It was fun stuff and classic Shakespeare. Now only if I could see this play directed by the vision of Tobias. Ha-zaa!

Quotes:

"How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!"

"Time goes on crutches till love have all his rites."

"O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily do, not knowing what they do!"

"What we have we prize not to the worth Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost, Why, then we rack the value, then we find The virtue that possession would not show us Whiles it was ours."

"There's not one wise man among twenty that will praise himself."