I've been working on a free daily Shakespeare puzzle and thought this would be the appropriate place to find out whether I've made it way too easy.

It's a 3x3 grid where each square requires a Shakespeare play that satisfies the row and column categories.

The idea is basically to reward knowing more than just the handful of plays everyone remembers from school.

You can play it here:

https://gridofminds.com

I'd genuinely be interested in hearing what categories Shakespeare fans would want to see in future grids.

I’ll go first:

NURSE: Jesu, what haste? Do you not see that I am out of breath?
JULIET: How art thou out of breath, when thou hast breath to say to me that thou art out of breath?

(from Romeo and Juliet)

I saw an incredible production of Othello reimagined through the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion during World War II. And I myself have done a production of Midsummers set at a teenage slumber party.

I also adore Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet in a Youth Facility, though that is more an adaptation than a version.

What are some other clever recontextualised versions you’ve seen? Where the text remains mostly the same but the environment is played with? And perhaps too, have you seen any failed ones?

Is there any double entrendre intended in this phrase?

I'm thinking about how sonnet 135 seems to use the word "will" to mean, well, "junk" in a gender neutral sort of way.

When Benedick says to Beatrice "I love thee against my will" is there any chance it has a similar meaning to "If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?"

Moreover when Beatrice says "Against my will, I am sent to bid you come to dinner", Benedick remarks "There's a double meaning in that", but might there be a way for Benedick to be misinterpreting "will" specifically in a saucy way there?

I was reading a philosophical book and came across Baroque era, which implied Shakespeare writing his plays with one foot in Renaissance and another in Baroque. Moreover, the book quoted an excerpt from his literature which captivated me, "We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep."

I've been meaning to get into Shakespeare's literature since the beginning of time, yet somehow always got caught up in some other stuff. And being an individual for whom English is the 3rd language, I felt it'll be quite a struggle to comprehend his archaic writing style.

Considering my proficiency now, and prolonged curtailed curiosity from delving into Shakespeare's literature, I need a recommendation regarding where to start. Something that'll be considered a good read and won't result in a reading slump.

Bro does not resemble his father or grandfather in the slightest but is basically his granddad's cousin all over again. His romanticising monologue about being a shepherd is easily something Richard would have said.

Just hilarious. He sits there like brooding like some sort of Jacques.

Hello! I'm trying out for a production of the Scottish play soon-ish, and I need to decide on a monologue. I'm on the younger side, so I'm hoping for Malcom or even a witch.

The two that I was looking at before were Helena's "how happy some o'er other some can be" or Hamlet's "O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt", but they're both pretty overdone and Helena doesn't exactly seem like a match for the material :/ suggestions welcome + appreciated!

I swear I remember a character in Hamlet named Rosilio. I read the original play first about eight years ago and we did the original text and there was a guy named Rosilio. He was an ostarcized, disgraced nobleman who sometimes appeared in the royal court scenes and he would always complain about his neighbors but Claudius ignored him and Polonius would say he talked too much (ironic). Does anyone else remember him?

Another update for my project.

Two new plays are now live on memorizeshakespeare.com.

As always, i'm open to suggestions on what play to add next.

Any interesting thoughts, notes or general comments to William Shakespeares late romance/tragedy/comedy/…what you will…?

So, this is genuinely something that's always interested me about the Montague's and Capulet's... Their ANCIENT feud has always puzzled me. I know the great man himself deliberately left this open but have you ever stopped to ask yourself, why?

Does ancient mean old or just in recent memory?

What started it all?

Lol I don't have the answers but It is fun to think about 😂

Hello! I have a callback to play the role of Ophelia in Hamlet, a side I have to read is between Ophelia and Polonius discussing Hamlet. I am having trouble understanding this scene, specifically understanding how Ophelia is feeling when talking with Polonius about Hamlet. Does anyone have any insight? Thank you!

I have an affinity for Shakespeare quotes and morals.. but have never read anything (wasn’t even introduced in high school). Can y’all please recommend where to start? Thank you!

Just started reading Henry VI part 3, having read most of the other histories. It was a bit insipid to start off with but then people began to get into the lore of the previous Henrys, and you see how predicted problems about rebellion have indeed come to fruition over the generations. Then someone brings up Richard II (hurrah!), and you get another deposition scene. Cos you've watched the later seasons you keep an eye on R3, lurking around looking for trouble, and then to cap it all enter one of Shakespeare's greatest villains-but-not-exactly, Queen Margaret (hurrah!) and starts one of her classic rants.

So if everything goes right, I'll (hopefully) get a chance to direct a production of Henry V (very exiting! It'd be a small production but the first time the play would be put on in my language).

As always with Shakespeare, you need to cut down the play, and this production would be even more cut down than usual.

I'm struggling a bit with "once more unto the breach". It's obviously a very iconic speech, and it's extremely effective as a standalone, but I can't help but feeling it's just a watered down version of St Crispin's Day.

I keep coming back to feeling like I don't need to big battle speeches, but I've never seen a production cut it-

Is that just because it's very iconic or am I missing something?

The only thing I can come up with is that it might help endear Hal to the audience, since if you don't come to this play from H4, he might be hard to like until later in the play. But I feel like that could be achieved in other ways?

Would love your opinions and advice!

Most people will say Iago. And the guy is absolutely one helluva piece of work.

But l still think Edmund (from Lear) just edges him out in terms of both deviousness AND design.

What was the significance of what the player king was saying?

I know the idea of Hamlet wanted the actors to do that play so he could see his uncle's reaction.

This is a clip from the Branagh version:

Hamlet scene

Dear Shakespeare subreddit,
I am but a humble french translator, working for a kind author. His art is revolutionary, using a wonderful tool to share his work, it is called… Webtoon. Ok let’s drop the bad pompous french act here.
One character has a PoeticDarkSasuke moment and while I can easily translate it, I thought « let’s add one more layer to the joke » and wished to create a elizabethan, « Shakespeare style » english translation. Sadly, I’m incapable of doing this and I don’t know anyone able to. Do you have any idea on how I can work on this?

I’ll add that I tried to search for a good english translation website from modern to elizabethan english. But I only found AI-powered websites or websites where I can’t be entirely sure they don’t use AI. (As you can guess, I’m fiercely against AI)

If anyone can help here are the sentences : « Forever etched in memory, O you! Unforgettable beauty of mine. »
« How could you take another unfortunate soul? You can't end their quest for love. »
Thank you folks!

I know, it sounds like a stupid question, but Hamlet is a complete masterpiece that I think just touches so many foundations of art and philosophy. But from my readings, Shakespeare was (during his era) just a provincial entertainer who was trying to entertain the masses. So, did he know what he was writing was as magnificent and amazing as it turned out - or was his thought process kind of 'this will entertain people'?

I guess I am just asking: given how ambitious and thematic it is, do we know if he sat down to write a magnum opus or was his intention to just churn out a good play?

Ganymede, Celia, and I stood in the Forest of Arden. I was playing Oliver, telling them how my brother Orlando had saved me from a lioness. We’d rehearsed this scene a dozen times without a single slip. So nothing could have prepared me for what came out of Ganymede’s mouth. Her line was supposed to be: “Did Orlando leave him there, food to the hungry lioness?” She asked: “Did Orlando leave him there… to be f\*\*\*ed by the hungry lioness?” I burst out laughing. Then the nerves hit. Her slip had knocked my next line clean out of my head. But the scene couldn’t just stop, so I started pacing, hand over my mouth, doing my best impression of a man in deep thought. The audience, already giggling at her flub, leaned in—as if a simple yes-or-no question now demanded some profound answer. Every second felt much longer from the stage than it probably did from the seats. They thought Oliver was wrestling with a moral dilemma. In reality, I was desperately trying to remember one sentence. Here’s the trouble: Shakespeare doesn’t work like ordinary speech. It has a rhythm, almost a melody. Losing your line isn’t like forgetting a fact—it’s like trying to remember the next lyric of a song. You can’t just reason your way to it; you have to find the rhythm first, and then the words follow. Mine had vanished. Finally, somewhere between panic and false confidence, I gave up on speaking Shakespeare altogether and said, in plain modern English: “No, brave Orlando prevented the lioness from doing that.” The audience lost it completely. I stood there riding out the laughter, and when it finally died down, my next line came back to me as though it had never left. I slipped straight back into Shakespearean English, and we finished the scene as if nothing had happened. For one line, As You Like It became Improvise It, and the show went on.

Despite being a Catholic writing plays in Christian culture for a Christian audience—stories also set in a Christian society and that explored Christian themes—it is fair to say that Shakespeare was not a religious apologist. Christianity is a major theme in his plays, but so are philosophy, psychology, and art itself.

Shakespeare was not secular or irreligious, far from it, but he was also not like Dante or Milton.

That said, is there any play or poem in which religion is such a major theme that it is essentially a religious work? I think Measure for Measure and The Merchant of Venice are strong contenders for that. I heard someone say Macbeth, but I don't think so.

Thoughts?

Saw this pop up and it seems relevant for this sub so here ya go!

Happy weekend, y’all :)