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Brilliant video. Thanks Nicole. Looking forward to part 2 😊

This play reminds me of fairy tales too. Having an evil stepmother and a servant unable to follow the order to kill a princess.

7:41 Thank you for explaining that. So confusing.

4:02 Romeo being exciled!

This is fun. I’ve never used the time stamp. 2:24 Egeus didn’t want Hermia to marry the man she loved. Oh Cornelia! Yes that’s a good match.

Glad you posted when you did! Just started Cymbelne after reading Titus Andronicus. I guess Cymbeline is a mix, a "best of Shakespeare" play. The plot appears to have three lines at once, which seems to get wrapped up somehow. I am interested in seeing how Will pulls this one out of his hat!! And also how it compares to The Tempest.

I read this for the first time (I think) this month as an audiobook, but I really felt like I knew it already because there are so many similarities to other plays as you say - I wasn't quick enough to do all the time-stamped comments but we made a lot of the same connections. I feel like with it being a late play, perhaps he just shook up a cocktail of successful tropes from previous plays (rebellious daughters, cross dressing, people thought to be dead that aren't, evil murderous step-parents, jealous lovers...) and Cymbeline was what came out. Had no idea about the Jacobean plays and the link to referring to Britain over England - that's subtle and fascinating. Thanks for a very interesting video.

The scene in the chamber is very creepy. It seems to feature in a lot of illustrations. 17:13

I love your game of “what does it remind you of”! 😂 There are definitely similarities with King Lear. And Romeo and Juliet and Othello…. The king manipulated by his wife reminded me of Macbeth. Though not a king, Macbeth’s ambition is largly the result of his wife’s prompting.

I got a copy of Cymbeline for Shaketember and I've read the first three acts thus far. Imogen is great! Love your comparative approach to talking about this play relative to other Shakespeare plays. It's reminiscent of Marjorie Garber's approach in her Shakespeare After All.

Incredible analysis like always

I just watched this year! And quite enjoyed it

Thank you, Nicole. You always help me see the plays more clearly. I looked forward to your next video.

Great review! I'm translating the book right now into portugueses for my internship in a publishing house. You have a very interesting view of the story and themes of the book. Good job!

Shaketember sounds fun. I have only read Macbeth of the six plays, but I did see a performance of Cymbeline during my Uni years (40 years ago!). I'm not sure what I'll choose from those on offer, Twelfth Night and The Tempest are the most appealing to me.

Very excited about Shaketember... Cymbeline is a definite to watch (x3) and read

Love your book choices, Nicolle, as well as your discussions of them. The Oresteia is fantastic.

Looking forward to Shaketember discussions. I'll be reading Cymbeline and maybe I'll reread King Lear. Good excuse to do that. Thanks for hosting this Nicolle

Shakespeare is fun for me too (not homework). I look forward to participating. Of the plays you and your co-hosts have chosen, there’s only one I have not yet seen performed-Cymbeline-although I did participate in a readalong of the play a few years ago. I’m excited that I will see Cymbeline performed in Stratford Ontario in September. The week that I am at the festival, I will also see Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night. The Twelfth Night production will have a gender-swapped Malvolio, which was also a choice made by the director in a Twelfth Night show that I attended in Vancouver earlier this month. I saw a horror clown rendition of Titus Andronicus a few years ago. Polythene sheets were laid over the laps of people in the front row to protect them from the gore. And a memorable performance of The Tempest at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton was created with one third of the cast being Deaf and using sign language. I wanted to see it a second time but all of the shows were sold out. Thanks for co-hosting this event!

I love this bookshop! When I lived near Edinburgh I used to visit regularly, the staff are so friendly :)

Yay Shaketamber! And very excited to hear that you’re heading to the Sam Wanamaker playhouse soon-it’s the most magical venue!

This is really helpful. Thanks!

Thank you. 🎉 Can you also talk about "To All The Virtuous Ladies in General"😊

What a brilliant review… so touching. I feel a lot of sympathy for Hedda, she is horrid, but also she feels so lost. I know she has it in her to be better but she just feels caught up in a world that gives her no way to find her soul. I think the play is incredible and one I think about often.

I must read and then watch immediately!

Hi Nicole. A very relevant and deep analysis of Hedda Gabler. A job well done, Applause, Applause! We read this play at Ben’s Hardcore Literature Book Club last year. What can I say Nicole. You are getting better and better at your analysis. Indeed, you are gifted. Best wishes🌹🌹🌹

Thanks for this, very enjoyable, I love Elizabethan poetry - all those perfectly wrought urns so rich in literary/classical allusion & discursive/imagist language. Really appreciated your spotlight on one of my favourites.

Really looking forward to this spotlight on wonderment. Thanks for hosting.

A very thoughtful analysis, as usual! I hadn't considered that Aunt Julia serves as a contrast to Hedda in embodying the theme of beauty in the context of death ... but you're right, she is a more direct foil than Thea in that sense. As to Tesman, in the production I saw, the actor made an interesting choice to play Tesman as more clued-in than he seems in the text. At certain moments he clearly saw her true nature and how things stood between her and Judge Brack, yet willfully turned a blind eye (as you said), either because he was too intimidated by her or just wanted to cling to his fantasy of her. I actually *do* find Hedda likable. She's neither kind nor totally stable, but I sympathize with her feeling of being trapped. She is so afraid of scandal and desperate for respectability, and somehow those forces are just strong enough inside (and outside) of her to suppress her desire for beauty and power and meaning -- until the moment when she sees no way to achieve either of those ends. Plus, she's just ... fun. What did you think of the part when she burns Lovborg's and Thea's "idea baby"? That part gave me chills. In a lecture I attended, one professor pointed out that, to a writer, burning a manuscript is not a trivial plot device. We should view it as carrying enormous significance for her characterization, which I thought was a great point.

Hedda is Iago's Scandinavian cousin!

I really enjoyed your July wrap up, I did have a little chuckle when you mentioned who wrote A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig!! I would definitely like to read Cider with Rosie, I've been wanting too for a while!! Thank you for a lovely video and a lovely wrap up!! Have a great weekend!!xx

Thank you once again Nivole, the only thing I have read from Ibsen is the Doll’s house, which I found extremely good, movingly disturbing, with the theme of woman’s freedom and happiness in this world so brillantly dealt with. I am going to read Hedda Gabler❤

This looks great. A bit spoiled for choice. Leah is in my opinion the greatest play. Have seen in 4 times (including at Stratford). Tempted by Cymbeline -a play I don’t know Saw the tempest in July Twelfth night is a favoirite I’m tempted by

Ibsen is fantastic!

Hi.. how was the stephanie mccarter's translation? Were you able to complete it? Because I'm just interested in buying that book very soon...

This will be my first ever Shaketember...I'm thinking MacBeth, as I already own it and Twelfth Night 😊 looking forward to this!!

Ooohhhhhhh how exciting all this is. I am super interested in the Jonathon Bate books you mention and might have to read those too. I really want to read Faust too… so much to read!! I am reading the Faerie Queene right now. I read one canto each evening and listen to the audible read by David Timson. He is excellent reading it and I follow along in my book. Like you I don’t like the cover at it could have been much more inventive. Some of the book is a bit tedious but then some is really very very excellent. I am currently much enjoying book three and have half an hour of laughing every evening.. it can be very funny. I liked the first half of the Aeneid and found it tailed off at the half way point and LOVED the Oresteia and Hedda Gabler..these are all fairly recent reads so I think we are similar reading trajectories… I am also on a Keats journey and loving that. He was much influenced by Edmund Spenser and Shakespeare Ps hamlet is at the RSC in the new year

I am hoping to start The Faerie Queene soon as well and wanted to mention a book I have found: The Faerie Queene: A Reader's Guide by Elizabeth Heale. I have a used copy on order. It looks like it will be very helpful in reading the book.

I'm reading Hedda Gabler now after seeing an adaptation at the Stratford Festival in Canada. Hedda is a fascinating character. I'd love to hear your thoughts! I've also been trying to catch up on Greek drama, so you are motivating me to go back to Sophocles and Aeschylus. You can definitely trace the influence on Shakespeare and early modern drama.

Early Ibsen is fun, try Brand which is a meditation on true faith and what it can lead to. Ibsen became a realist and then became Ibsen. And he started by writing plays about Vikings, popular at the time in Norway. I'd love to see one!

So many interesting works you mention - I need to get started on Shakespeare but following up Arthurian legend sounds exciting for later in the autumn

Why a French author wrote about the Arthurian legends? England has had a notable French cultural influence vis-a-vis the Normans since 1066 (French Vikings) For a long time, the lingua franca at the court was French. Hope this helps🧐

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on Shakespeare’s contemporaries. I’ve been meaning to try Marlowe for ages, but never got around to it.

I'm planning to start The Faerie Queene this autumn too and go into 2025. I'm looking forward to King Lear and Cymbeline in September!

The Oresteia is wonderful, it deals with many interesting themes, such as justice, revenge, law etc. Paradise Lost is one of my favourite poems and I also loved the first part of Faust, but the second part I absolutely didn't understand at all, even after a reread. I'd recommend The Doll House by Henrik Ibsen. Hope you enjoy all the books you chose! 😊

Sorry Nicole, you will forgive my spelling mistake: I meant PORE over😮not POUR.....milk or tea... or any of my erratic spelling!😅

Thank you for this video! And once again, I do love all the books from Jonathan bate, so...I am going to pour over the book you mentioned! 😊

Such a great video!