brush up your shakespeare 2025: check in no. 2!!
i’ve been adding one (or two) quotes from each play into my archer & olive 8x8” “cute ghost” notebook i bought last year and couldn’t decide what to do with… i think we totally made the right decision! ;D i’ll sketch the quote on the dot grid first, then fill in with a variety of black ink pens (micron 10s & 12s have been my recent faves), then if i’m adding colour, it’s with sakura gelly roll moonlight pens in all the colours. ;)
we need to pick up the pace. i’ve only read NINE of the THIRTY-EIGHT (42? i keep counting differently! there’s a LOT!) works (plays, longform poems, collection of sonnets) attributed to shakespeare… i did a good job collecting a COPY of them all so far in 2025 … but we need to read & illuminate favourite quotes a wee bit faster… ;)
alas: i’m not being graded. this is for funzies. and it is. funzies, that is.
but it’d still be fun to do it in a year. (“if only they’d stop publishing shiny new books, i’d read the ones i have,” she says, knowlingly lying to herself.) ;)
so since our first check in (blog post here), i’ve read five more. so pics of the books and the quotes i drew (and the ones that made the top five or six) below! enJOY!!
your shakespearean enthusiast/devoted heatre ghost,
*hallie :)
coriolanus
it was my first time reading CORIOLANUS, and it did NOT become my fave shakespeare play!!
i drew a lot of crazy spiral squiggly eye faces in the margins…
the plot:
battle battle battle... politician campaigning for votes from the “garlic eaters” (commoners) with lies... the counsel turns against him... banishes him... he won’t stop talking... his mom goes and “apologizes” and the narcissist boogie-head comes back to town swearing he won’t lead a rebellion again... and is assasinated.
(i assume that was the plot? i kept getting mad and rolling my eyes. also v. similar roman names and titles that keep switching? as if.)
anyhow: here are some (mostly) NON-POliTiCAL CORIOLANUS quotes out of context to enjoy….
“and were i anything but what i am,
i would wish me only he.”
~ martius, act I, scene 1
“he’s a lamb indeed, that baas like a bear.”
~brutus, II.1.
“you are a pair of strange ones.”
~menenius, II.1.“peace, peace! be not so loud.”
~menenius, IV.2.“good news, good news! the ladies have prevailed.”
~second messenger, V.4.
cymbeline
things i learned reading this play for the first time: CYMBELINE is the king. i thought it was a lady. alas. (also, there are a lot of terrible people in this play. but it has a happy ending if you’re not a villain.)
the plot:
honestly, not entirely sure anymore. but it was full of dreams and ghosts and mistaken identiies and bad guys lying about sleeping with his bestie’s wife and lost siblings found and sleeping poisons and kind peasants with swords (& bonus: ding-dong the queen and her wicked son are dead.)
here were some of my fave out-of-context quotes:
“i will write.”
~imogen, act I. scene 6. line 242.
“o, for a horse with wings!”
~imogen, III.2.51.
“there’s no more to say.”
~imogen, III.3.86.
“safe mayst thou wander, safe return again!”
~pisanio, III.5.129.
“the dream’s here still.”
~imogen, IV.2.379.
“what fairies haunt this ground? a book?”
~posthumus, V.4.137.
hamlet
my fAVE shakespeare, though? at least in the tragedies. it’s GottA be the existential ghost story that is HAMLET.
i tried to pick some of the quotes you didn’t necessarily already know by heart. (& then of course had to draw two of them, because it’s just ALL so good!)
“my fate cries out.”
~hamlet, act I. scene 5. line 91.
“it is an honest ghost.”
~hamlet, I.5.154.
“i love thee best, o most best, believe it. adieu.”
~polonius reading hamlet’s letter to ophelia, II.2. 119-120.
“what is this quintessence of dust?”
~hamlet, II.2.333.
“i am but mad north-north-west.”
~hamlet, II.2.402.
“we know what we are but know not what we may be.”
~ophelia, IV.5.48-49.
julius caesar
because the alphabetical list i’m going by lists all the henrys as KING henry, JULIUS CAESAR came after my hamlet re*read.
and golly: i don’t think i’d read it more than once or twice since middle school, but it was AMAZING. a perfect intro to shakespeare. even skipping over the roman names and titles, you can get a REALLY clear sense of the plot. and to shakespeare’s point: just how powerful language is to sway people. in either director. and basically instantaneously.
so not only is the plot easy to follow, the majority (95%!) is in verse, so the reading (hearing) rhythm is great. and it’s an intriguing study of persuasion which, like all shakespeare plays, gives no side more power than the other. the audience gets to discuss and decide who (if anyone) was in the “right.”
(i also watched the 1953 film version with marlon brando and the perfection that is james mason and i’m obsessed. the composition of the sets; the black and white contrast of lighting, and the acting was spectacular. i think it’s a great watch— again: easy-to-follow the plot even if shakespeare is “new” to one’s ear. here’s the imdb page.)
here are just a few of my many favourite lines from this one:
“till then, think of the world.”
~ cassius, act I, scene 2, line 319“your wisdom is consumed in confidence.”
~calphurnia, II.2.53“the skies are painted with unnumbered sparks”
~ caesar, II.1.69“mischief, thou art afoot”
~ antony, III.3.275“here’s the book i sought for so.”
~brutus, IV.3.293“night hangs upon mine eyes”
~brutus, V.5.45
here’s a literal pic i took of my tv while watching the 1953 movie version… look at that set! the contrast! it feels theatrical, right?
king henry IV part 1
i can’t believe i scored a kinuko kraft cover of (KING) HENRY IV PART 1 at my local used book store! yay me! (am i sad folger library stopped printing them and went to a generic color for each one? obviously. but i guess no faces makes them even more inclusive & interpretable… but i do love a kinuko piece!)
anyway, as i mentioned several times as i was (slowly, slowly… because life!) reading this one: all of the take-down smack talk in this one was AMaZINg and hilarious…. i, as usual, didn’t really care about the politics or the coup or the battles… i’m just here for the banter!
so read it for that.
here were just a sampling of some fave quotes outta this one:
“o monstrous!”
~ prince hal (i.e. the future henry V!), act II, scene 4“what, shall we be merry? shall we have a play extempore?”
~ falstaff, act II, scene 4“o, he is as tedious as a tired horse...
i had rather live with cheese and garlic in a windmill, far,
than feed on cates and have him talk to me...”
~ hotspur, act III, scene 1
(“cates” is another word for “delicacies”)“go, you giddy goose.”
~ lady percy, act III, scene 1“i must go write again to other friends.”
~ archbishop, act IV, scene 4
n’kay. that’s it for now! time to pick up the pace and make that 2025 goal!!
next i’ll be reading KING HENRY IV PART 2!* (& then the classic HENRY V for which i’m only there for the romance.)
still dreaming of TWELFTH NIGHT in central park (any ideas for me yet??),
xo,
*hallie :)
*after i read next week’s book club pick so i can lead that convo!
can we imagine a dreamier cast?? :D