All the ado about Shakespeare

[Horace]

I've just started my Shakespeare journey, which may or may not continue. Watching the Hollow Crown from the BBC, circa 2013.

Ok, so, even for the day, this must be completely stylized, or to put a slightly negative context to it, affected. The language is affected. We're told that Shakespeare was the greatest of writers. But nobody can possibly compete with that caricature of language. They'd be laughed at. It was a caricature even in his day. Of course he'll invent a bunch of shit. He was a language cartoonist.

I'm sorry to disappoint the Shakespeare fans among us.

[Doctor Phibes]

Avaunt, troll! Thou knowest not the substance of thy tongue, thou witless fool! Thy words do fly like scattered chaff before the wind, lacking all root, all sense, all worthy aim. Dost thou mistake the babbling brook for the deep and rolling ocean? Henceforth, hold thy peace, lest thou expose thy hollow skull to the scorn of all discerning minds.

[Horace]

ChatGPT, I know thee.

[Horace]

I admit that he got the human condition. I'm pretty sure if his poetry was his only opus, he would not have been remembered. His cartoon language in his plays is why he's apparently the greatest writer ever. Probably no chance whatsoever that a Shakespeare born 50 years ago would have produced anything memorable.

But some think he basically invented humanity, which, actually, might have some merit.

[AndyD]

I've read only a handful of his plays in full (Tempest, Macbeth, a couple of Henrys)and like most folk have seen quite a few of his other works on the screen.
They're bloody hard work to read, I found none enjoyable, certainly not the way Jane Austen is (and who I far prefer over both Shakeyspeare and Dickens).

Our lascivious bisexual poet may best first be approached through the BBC comedy series,
Upstart Crow.
Written brilliantly by Ben Elton, on DVD for £20. I feel no need to read more...