The Status

(This is one of the three spreadsheets that I'm currently using to keep track of my progress. I'm crazy like that.)

At present, to the best of my understanding, there are thirty-eight surviving plays that are widely accepted to be – whether as significant part of a collaboration or as a whole – the work of William Shakespeare. If you count thirty-six in your ultra-rare first printing of Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies from 1623 (a.k.a. The First Folio), then take note of Pericles, Prince of Tyre and The Two Noble Kinsmen to bring yourself up to that current total.

My goal is to read them all, along with the 154 sonnets and other poems he definitely wrote, not to mention the smattering of works which he may or may not have had anything to do with – just to be safe.

In any case, my main focus to start with has been the plays. Again, counting only from Julius Caesar last spring, not the half-dozen plays I was assigned in high school or college, my completion stats at the moment are:

12 of 16 Comedies (Still to go: Love’s Labor’s Lost, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, All’s Well That Ends Well, and The Two Noble Kinsmen)

8 of 10 Histories (Still to go: Richard III, and King John)

2 of 12 Tragedies (Still to go: everything except Julius Caesar and Macbeth)

22 of 38 Total

Now, before you start e-mailing me with things like “What do you mean you never read Hamlet?” or “Hey, I taught you Romeo and Juliet!” please know that while I could make a good case for having read those and three other tragedies at least once, the fact is that I encountered those plays too long ago to claim any credit for the purpose of this mission.

Most recently I have been making my way through the histories, and I’m getting really into them! More on that next post. For now, I will say that I’m currently reading Richard III. Although I’m only one act in, – SPOILER ALERT – the word on the street is that he is a bad, bad man.

Very much unlike yourself, who is awesome for reading this blog (along with other great awesomeness credentials, I’m sure).

Shawn