Five and Twenty
The Shakespeare Geek has posted his top five favorite Shakespeare plays, based on another blogger’s post listing his top five favorite Shakespeare plays.
Man, how can you do that? I tried it myself, but the list got a little out of hand. My top five list turns out to have twenty-five plays in it. Bear with me. Here they are, in the ascending order of my preference today. If I made the same list tomorrow, it might be different.
25. The Tempest – Critics deny this is Shakespeare’s farewell to the theatre, but read it and decide for yourself. Prospero, Ariel, Caliban, and Miranda are unique in Shakespeare, strange for so late a play.
24. Much Ado About Nothing – There is a lot in this play to recommend, but Beatrice and Benedick are the most fun. I’m also a fan of Dogberry the Constable and, in his own way, Don John.
23. The Winter’s Tale – I like this play… not as much as other people may like it, but I like it well enough. There are some great speeches in the play, and more than a few moments that kill on stage.
22. Henry the Sixth, Part Three – The paper crown scene alone should bring this play some recognition. I also enjoy the early character development of Richard Gloucester, the future King Richard III.
21. Henry the Fourth, Part Two – Vibrant tavern scenes, darkly comic scenes, frenetic battle scenes, and one intense standoff between King Henry and his son Hal. Don’t miss the last five minutes.
20. The Comedy of Errors – This play can be a lot of fun if you accept it on its own terms. The scene where Antipholus of Ephesus is locked out of his house is reason enough to make the list.
19. Cymbeline – This is a hidden treasure, filled with great scenes and powerful moments. It has a beautiful fairy-tale quality, strong characters, passionate poetry, and a satisfying ending. More here.
18. The Taming of the Shrew – The first scene between Kate and Petruchio is an all-time classic, and the piece as a whole is a wonderful bit of inspired silliness. The taming can be a bit jarring, though.
17. Romeo and Juliet – I think it would be hard for anyone to make a Top Five and Twenty list of favorite Shakespeare plays and not include Romeo & Juliet. The poetic language is beautiful.
16. Twelfth Night – There’s a lot going on in this play, and it all works on stage. Don’t let the slapstick elements fool you into thinking this is an unsophisticated play. It isn’t.
15. The Merchant of Venice – This is another play with a rich complexity that seems to burst out of its fairy-tale frame, which is what allows the darker elements of the play finally to surface.
14. Henry the Fourth, Part One – Who could resist the irrepressible Falstaff, and his relationship with the young Prince Hal? This play has my favorite tavern scene, and lets not forget Hotspur either.
13. King John – Shakespeare wrote this play just after the death of his eleven-year-old son, and the influence of that event on this play is breathtaking. Also, the Bastard is a character well worth knowing.
12. Richard the Second – For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground and talk about the richly complex symbolism and beautiful flowing poetry in this play. Go and fetch me a looking glass.
11. Antony and Cleopatra – It’s a love story. It’s a war epic. It’s a geopolitical thriller. It’s the greatest story in history told by history’s greatest storyteller. This is not your high school Romeo and Juliet.
10. Henry the Fifth – This is a tight, passionate, stirring play. It’s also a Rorschach test for how you feel about war. Each scene is a mini-masterpiece, and the use of language is extraordinary.
9. Julius Caesar – This powerful tale of politics, rhetoric, and betrayal in Ancient Rome may be a schoolhouse classic, but it’s a better read as an adult. I find myself coming back again and again.
8. Measure for Measure – Darker and more overtly sexual than most of Shakespeare’s other comedies, this play explores both the depths of depravity and the better angels of human nature.
7. As You Like It – This Shakespearean fairy tale is filled with laughs, love, and music. Shakespeare knew what audiences liked, and he gave it to them in this aptly named comedy.
6. A Midsummer Night’s Dream – One can only imagine what the effect must have been of having fairies and nobles and workmen wrapped up in the same story on stage. One for the ages.
5. Othello – This is a true masterpiece: in characterization, plot structure, emotion, pacing, poetic language, potency, and thematic cohesion. This is how to write a play, my friends.
4. Macbeth – I’ve always found this play extremely riveting from beginning to end. The witches prophesy Macbeth will be King, setting a chain of events irrevocably in motion. Spellbinding.
3. Hamlet – Never before or since has there been such an intimately detailed character study. Was he mad? My father once said, “if you took that close a look at any of our minds, we’d all seem mad.”
2. King Lear – I make new discoveries every time I read this play, and not just discoveries about the play. This may be the greatest thing ever written in the English language. I may never fully grasp it.
1. Richard the Third – My personal favorite, and a guilty pleasure at that. Somehow, Shakespeare makes us root for the bad guy. Is there a secret evil genius within us that he speaks to? I’ll never admit to it.
So those are my top five favorite Shakespeare plays. Feel free to post your top five favorite Shakespeare plays in the comments, however many there may happen to be.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Notice that I said the same thing, it’s not about “favorites”. I just liked making lists. I wish I knew more about Cymbeline and Winter’s Tale, but having never seen them and only read them years ago it’s hard to put them on a favorites list. Everything on my list ends up being stuff that I’ve seen and studied multiple times.
You realize 4 out of your top 5 are all the Great Tragedies?
April 4th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
I did realize that, but I decided to stay true to my preferences rather than trying to mix it up. I guess I prefer the tragedies because of the intensity of emotion and higher stakes. They also tend to be more sophisticated and multi-layered.
And I have no problem making a list of favorites, just as long as they are looked at as personal preferences and not an argument about better vs. worse. I had trouble sticking to five, though, because then a lot of great plays wouldn’t have made “the list” and they deserve to. Also, as you point out, 4 out of my top 5 would have been the Great Tragedies, and what fun is that?
So I had to expand the list. First to ten. Then twenty. But then 2H4 got pushed off the list, and I had to expand to 25.
And yeah, I also like making lists. This list was fun because I got to take a personal inventory of what I like about Shakespeare.
April 5th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
I did, but I didn’t want to look like a dork by posting them all.
I guess that ship has pretty much sailed.
36. The Merry Wives of Windsor
35. Titus Andronicus
34. Henry the Eighth
33. Timon of Athens
32. All’s Well that Ends Well
31. Pericles
30. Love’s Labour’s Lost
29. Henry the Sixth, Part Two
28. The Two Gentlemen of Verona
27. Troilus and Cressida
26. Henry the Sixth, Part One
And now my big confession…
I have never read Coriolanus.
I’m hoping to remedy that at our June reading.
April 5th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Hey – why didn’t you just rank them all? There’s only 12 more…. Now I’m curious…
April 5th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
It’s interesting to me that you don’t like Titus. And dorks are my favorite kind of fellows so GO GEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 5th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Titus is an absolutely dreadful play, and I despise it with gusto. But the fact that it provokes any reaction at all is enough for me to place it above Merry Wives, which is a waste of perfectly good parchment.
Henry VIII is just okay. And I actually kind of like Timon of Athens and All’s Well, so that should give you a pretty good sense of where I stand on the canon.
So who’s in your five?
April 9th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Hey, this is a really cool list! (Yeah, and I like dorks too.)
It’s fun to see that people have actually read my blogs. :-)
August 12th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Hi, this list was really useful thanks for publishing :) Recently I’ve started to try remedy my shocking lack of shakespeare within my reading repertoire and haven’t really had much of an idea where to start. I’ve just read Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth I did a little Tempest and Twelfth night at school I think I might have a go at Hamlet or Midsummer next :)