reading shakespeare

Last month I had the idea to read Shakespeare this year. Like most people, I have read some of his plays at different times, some by choice, some for school. I have seen a few more acted out at Shakespeare festivals or during summer time productions. It has been several years since I have read or seen anything by Shakespeare and there are still so many of his plays and sonnets, etc. that I have not read. Why not read them now when nothing else seems to be appealing to the reader in me? It's true, I haven't been reading very much lately. Nothing really steady for the last few months. It is one of those periods of time when I start several books and nothing seems to take. The books remain half read by the side of my bed or are promptly returned to the library. All good books of course, their timing in my life is just not what it could be. And to be honest, there are some books whose time never comes. I put the Shakespeare idea on hold for a few weeks, maybe a month and wasn't sure if I was going to pick it back up. It's good to have ideas that you can follow through with and others that you can let go. There is no shortage of ideas and I don't like to censor that part of me lest I find myself completely without inspiration some day. I prefer to let the ideas flow and flow where they may.

Last night I watched Shakespeare in Love and decided to pick up my Shakespeare idea again. At the very least I am going to read Romeo and Juliet. It seems like one I must have read in 12th grade English but I can't remember anymore. That year was really so overtaken with Thomas Hardy (who, by the way, I have also revisited in the last several years and who I really really enjoyed, contrary to my first experience with him which I remember as being excessively dry. Jude the Obscure is fabulous. My seventeen year old self would probably cringe to hear me say that, I realize, and Mr. Cauldwell would be thrilled. It was his favorite. That reminds me. I have been meaning to read Far From the Madding Crowd, one of Hardy's that I also have never read. I love how inspiration leads to inspiration!) that I remember very little else.

So Romeo and Juliet and then on to Twelfth Night because that was at the very end of the movie and I know I have not read it. I am thinking of rereading my favorite Midsummer Night's Dream. I also still have a copy from many years ago of The Merchant of Venice, where, as legend has it, Shakespeare created my name, Jessica. I bought it so many years ago in a small independent book store in Virginia when I was visiting my aunt for a week during the summer.

OK- the memories are flowing along with the inspiration. I am feeling up to it, excited, and wondering if I could even handle one of the drier histories that I have dutifully avoided all these years. One of the Henry's, perhaps. Or a Richard. Who knows where this could lead me- reading Shakespeare in the garden in the spring sunshine, flowers blooming around me? How's that for inserting a little poetry into your life? All's well that ends well, and all that, you know...